mOrE ChRiStMaS!! :)

sNoW dAy!!! :)

OUR VIEW TO THE WEST

OUR VIEW TO THE EAST!! :)
AND OUR TRAIL TO GRAMMA & PAPA'S! :)

. . . . so i haven't bLoGgEd in awhile . . . .

. . . but, this guy (and the deer!) deserved a post all their own! :)

yep, 10 points!

you can't REALLY tell, but RICK was pretty eXcItEd!! :)

hhhmmmm . . . i think we are going to need an addition to our house! :)

because, i CANNOT imagine NOT getting this BIG BUCK mounted! :)

let the insanity begin! :)
school started last tuesday and we are hit the ground RUNNING! :)
(and haven't stopped for a breath yet!)
it's all good though!
work has been CRAZY!
there are some "bumps" in the road, but overall, it's all good!
i really missed the kids and it's good to be back!
cross country is in full swing and tessa and taya had GREAT races saturday! sunday school started back up this week
and my girls class celebrated with a sleepover
in the "remodeled" youth room at the parsonage! :)
the weather has been the nicest we've had all summer,
so the little girls took advantage of that on the trampoline! :)

1st cc meet & a packer game!

happy birthday RICKEY!

why do i bLoG???

A blogger friend of mine, JESS asked that question on her blog today, and below is a portion of the answer I posted to HER blog! :)

Well my "friend", why do I blog? It started as a way to keep in touch with out of town relatives and friends - a way to share photos and what's happening in our day to day lives. Quicker than an e-mail to everyone, and easier and more fun to add pictures! I'd love to scrapbook, but would go BROKE doing it, so blogging it was! I entered the world of blogging when led to a CaringBridge site of a young girl who eventually lost her battle with leukemia :( not FUN reading, but real life. Then I found nitty.gritty jody whose story was compelling and I was HOOKED! :) In the past 6 months or so, blogging has brought me on a CRAZY journey. The journey that brought many friends my way! :) Friends who I may never meet this side of ETERNITY, but FRIENDS in CHRIST all the same! There's you and Jen, Raechel and Heaven, Liz and Lorri, Aimee and Hilary to name a few - ALL of you beautiful ladies brought TO me THROUGH the wonderful world wide web! And as CRAZY as the last 6 months have proven to be in the "blog-sphere", I wouldn't change it for the world. God has brought some wonderful ladies into my life. "Girlfriends in God" who I can't wait to meet someday - either here or on the other side of glory! :) I've gained a new respect for TRUTH as I've seen the "ugly" side of blogging, though even through that, GOD has been faithful . . . HE does not put any situation before me that HE hasn't first ordained, and I will continue to pray for those situations that have appeared in the world's eyes to be "mistakes" - because MY GOD doesn't make mistakes! :)

So, in a nutshell, that is WHY I blog! I enjoy it, it's relaxing to me, it's a stress reliever, and did I mention, I ENJOY IT! :) I don't enjoy some of the drama that I've seen over the past couple of months, but, still, I enjoy it (oh, I've already said that?)! :) And as Jess said on her blog, if you find a blog you don't like, that's easy, DON'T READ IT!! :)

I LOVE MY AUNTIE TESSA ♥

the "during" :)

new hair from the BACK

new hair from the FRONT!

talking to the BIRD at Jenny's (the hair salon!)

a day at the zoo!

SURPRISE! Nick & fam came for a visit! YEAH! Big girls had a tiring couple days @ Running Camp! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Colleen!!! :). 25 again, right?!? :)

wordless wednesday/fav kid photos! :)

sometimes life gets cRaZy, but GOD is always in control!

well, sometimes life can get a little CRAZY!
and around here, CRAZY it has been since our cute little puppy came into our lives! :)
seems kaci's first mommy has had a bit of history in not always telling the whole truth . . . (that's putting it mildly!)
since we met her in person, i TRIED to be supportive of her, even when i found out that her "baby" APRIL ROSE never existed and was found to actually be a DOLL! ...
anyway, since we got Kaci, we've been waiting for the paperwork for her . . . finally a week and 1/2 ago, BECCAH called to tell me it was on the way. in the meantime, another blogger in another state contacted me, and presented me with the poster that follows . . . . i made a QUICK phone call to the police in Beccah's hometown, they visited the pet store and verified the purchase of the puppy. all of that was legitimate. so . . . LONG part of an even LONGER story made SHORT here is that BECCAH HERSELF created the poster below . . .
below the poster is a statement that i made on another blog regarding my "involvement" with beccah and her "scam".
if you don't know what i'm talking about, just ignore this post . . . if you do, maybe this will explain SOME of the drama! :)

my comments on LORRI STEER's blog:

I am the infamous "Chick with the Dog". I thought maybe it would clear some things up if I created my own timeline. This outlines my interaction with Beccah from April 2009 through today (July 24, 2009).

• I don't know how I found Beccah's blog, but I read it almost from the first post.
• Mid April 2009: I responded to a "tweet" from Beccah looking for a home for her puppy.
• Corresponded via e-mail through early May regarding the puppy. During this time she e-mailed me pictures of the puppy that she was looking to find a home for.
• During this correspondence, I voiced to Beccah my hesitation to believe everything I read on the Internet. She thought that was funny and provided me with her “personal art site”(See Through Me Studios) to put my mind at ease that she did indeed exist.
• Made plans to meet Beccah to pick up puppy on May 9 near her home outside of Chicago. (At this point, she was 38 weeks “pregnant”)
• May 9: Met Beccah in a small Chicago suburb in a [Fast food restaurant] parking lot. At the time of our meeting she had the puppy in her arms that she had sent photos of. At that point, I had no reason to doubt her story. She was there, in person, with the puppy she'd sent photos of. Her belly was small, but she had blogged about that. Nothing struck me as extremely “out of the ordinary” during this meeting. When we initially met, we hugged and laughed – she commented that I was shorter than she’d imagined, she was taller than I’d imagined! I never “touched” her belly, nor, did my children who were with me ever touch her belly to “feel April kicking”. We chatted for about an hour and she went her way, and we went ours with our new puppy. (I did give Beccah money for the puppy. It was less than she had paid for the puppy - this HAS been verified by the pet store.) I also verified with the store that the ACA paperwork for the puppy was not yet ready, and that when it was, they could only release it to the original purchaser - it was up to Beccah to forward the paperwork to me. During this time of waiting for the “official” paperwork, I did have the pup’s microchip number and shots verified through the paperwork from the store that Beccah had provided.
• June 7, 8 . . . news breaks that the April Rose blog is a fake.
• During that week I attempted many times to make contact with Beccah. Finally I was successful and we maintained contact via phone/text/email for a little over a month. Please keep in mind I had met her in person. At the time of my initial contact, her other "scams" were not known publicly. I am almost old enough to be Beccah's mom. I felt the desire to maybe help her, to love her and offer her support through Christ in this journey she was walking.
• July 15: Beccah contacts me to let me know the paperwork for the puppy has been put in the mail and I should receive it in the next day or so.
• July 16: EJSaddler from the My Thoughts on April Rose blog contacts me saying that she has "damning evidence" that the puppy is stolen and forwards me the stolen puppy flier.
• July 16 & 17: I enlist the assistance of the Oak Lawn Police Department to either confirm or deny the report of the stolen puppy. The Officer who took the case confirmed with the pet store that the puppy was indeed sold directly to Beccah from the store.
• July 18 & 19: I'm away from home and away from my computer and begin to piece the story together, realizing that Beccah was really the only person who could have made the lost puppy flier. In the flier, the puppy was wearing the same collar as she was in the photos Beccah had sent me.
• The photo in the stolen puppy flier looked vaguely familiar, and appeared to have been taken at about the same time (based on puppy's size) as the pictures I had been given.. I would later realize that the photo looked familiar because I had spent much time going through the “See Through Me Studios” website which is where the photo had previously been posted. I begin to have my doubts that anyone other than Beccah could have made the poster.
  
• July 20: EJ posts her concerns regarding the validity of the poster without having contacting me. This verifies it for me – EJ has the same doubts I do, yet we have not discussed the situation with each other. Even before the EXIF documentation was verified (which is indisputable), I believed that Beccah alone produced that flier. (Note from Lorri: It is presumed that Beccah send the flier and false information to trick EJ Saddler into publishing a lie so that all the truth published on the My Thoughts on April Rose blog would loose credibility. It is presumed that Beccah hoped that [The lady with the puppy] would come to her defense with the real purchase papers thereby rending the My Thoughts blog unreliable.)

From that date on, I ceased communication with Beccah. I will continue to love her in Christ and I will definitely continue to pray for her. I cannot, however, trust her any longer or condone what she put our family through. It is nothing compared to what she did to the adoptive couple(s) or to [name with held by request], but she directly betrayed my trust when I was one of the few people who was actually stood by her after the April Rose blog "hoax" was uncovered. I believe Beccah needs help and that until she faces her demons, she will never move beyond the life she is currently living.

this one's for you . . . TAYA!!

taya complained that i haven't posted for a long time (seems SATURDAY is a LONG TIME ago in a 12 year old's world!) :)
we had a nice ride out to get the girls on saturday, then came home, unpacked them, and re-packed to go to hunting camp. (they were EXCITED about their room and LOVED it!) i don't think i'll be going back to camp anytime soon. i THOUGHT the bats were gone. (actually, i was TOLD the bats were GONE.) they.are.NOT! :(
good thing i didn't wake up to the one that was flying around camp, or i'd have been SLEEPING IN THE TRUCK! :) or packing up and going home, but i didn't have my car there, so probably sleeping in the truck would have won out!

but, seriously, is THIS what you want to wake up to circling your head??
YYYYIIIIKKKKKEEEEESSSSSSS!
seriously, they have to be my biggest phobia - them and heights! :)
today, kajsa had her first day at her "college" classes, history, science, art and theatre! she LOVED it and can't wait to go again tomorrow! :)
i gave blood at the local blood drive - i almost didn't get to - my iron was too low at first (11.8 and it has to be 12.5 - i asked them to check again and it was 12.8 - not sure how that works?) i didn't break any records for how quickly i donated - i was just over 5 minutes today - my record is just over 4 minutes - but i was busy taking "twitpics" http://twitpic.com/b12xm (yes, donna IF you saw the picture - i was IN THE PROCESS of donating when i took the picture and sent the "tweet") of the process and texting during the process, so that may have distracted me!! :) tonight the girls are off to cross country running and i am going to the school board meeting. rick & kajz will hang out at home with kaci and have some "bonding" time! :)

The little girls had so much fun @ LLBC! Kaci is a much happier puppy 2nite than last night (spayed :( !!). We're all TIRED tonight & enjoying a quiet evening!

while you were out . . . extreme bedroom makeover!

o.k. here it is! :)

sssshhhhhhh!!! it's a surprise! the girls don't know what we did!

turned out good - we even got rick in on it!

i didn't tackle cutting the beds apart (i thought rick might frown on THAT!)

i think they will be excited AND surprised! they had told tessa that the next time
we moved their room around, they wanted the beds seperated! :)
we will see on saturday! :)

two peas in a pod!
sleeping soundly the morning of going to BIBLE CAMP!!

good morning!!
waking up and realizing TODAY is the DAY!! :)

the closet . . . DURING!!

(hanging clothes have been taken out!)

the bedroom . . . BEFORE/DURING!!
(some of the things have been moved to the living room already!)

the living room . . . DURING!

the campers!

i love this picture!!
it's the one i took just as we were leaving yesterday!
they all look so HAPPY! :)
tess & i are still HARD AT WORK!
i'll put up some pictures later today! :)

birthday & more! :)

a few miscellaneous pictures and birthday pictures!

if you follow me on twitter (on my sidebar) you can find pictures of LIFEST

as well as our trip to LLBC today! :)

we are currently working on our

"WHILE YOU WERE OUT/EXTREME BEDROOM MAKEOVER-

BIBLE CAMP EDITION"!!

i'll try to update with pictures throughout the week! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TESSA JOY!

4th of jUlY weekend!