Photo Fun

I took the boys out to the park to
get some pictures of them because
Drew just lost his 2 front teeth
and he is getting the other two
next to them pulled tomorrow so
the adult teeth can fit. He's
going to have a hole in his mouth
so I thought I'd try to get a few
pictures for the holidays a little
early.

Of course I had to bribe them with
ice cream to get them to smile.

I noticed they were squinting since
the sun was so strong so I decided
to go another day and take some
more.

So I bribed them with toys and
went again, but this time it was
earlier in the day so they weren't
so tired and grumpy!

I know I'm not a photographer, but it
was fun trying. . .when they cooperated!

Just thoughts

Another great turnout (400 softball players) for
the Jennie Finch Softball Camp in Binghamton, NY.
It's been fun joining this crew this year and
getting to meet so many new faces across the
country that play softball. I'll post a few
pictures soon!

I just was thinking that I know sometimes I
look at what other people do and think, "How
do they do all that?" or "How do they find
the time to be so creative?" or "I wish I
was a more "cool" mom like her." I started
thinking, people probably see that I travel
and I'm always posting pictures of my boys
and I smiling or camping or something else
fun.

The reality is, those are the moments that
make us smile. Many days it's a struggle
to get everything accomplished that I want
to, and I'm constantly having to tell Jake
to focus when we're homeschooling, and
I'm always having to stop the boys for
fighting over something! Anyone who talks
to me on the phone knows this too well.
You can't talk to me for longer than 5
minutes without hearing somebody scream in
the background.

That is life. We have plenty of things
pulling at us and siblings argue (they
have since the day of Cain and Abel!).
There is never enough time for me to get
all the laundry done, the house all picked
up, the schoolwork all finished exactly how
I would like it, the meals balanced and
eaten by each of the boys (that's a whole
other post!), groceries bought, Bible study
done, time with my husband, and every other
thing that needs to be done that I haven't
mentioned yet. This is the life of a mom.

It all comes down to perspective. I try
to get through the frustrations and look at
what I did accomplish (Facebok doesn't count,
but I would get a lot of points for that one!).
I try to think about the times when the boys
are playing together (like right now they are
playing hide and seek) and getting along. I
am thankful for our health, and for our home
and for the fact that we can help others in
need. I am thankful for relationships because
in the end, that is all that will really matter.
The most important thing is if we have a
relationship with Jesus Christ! (One of the
kids just came in saying, "He hurt me"). See,
I knew it wouldn't last.

Just for those who would want to know, my
house does get messy, my kids fight, I
constantly have whining from my 3 yr old.
I feel like I should be doing more and
then I try to remember the grace God offers
all of us.

Let's just do what we can to the best of
our abilities and honor God through it all,
yes, even through the chaos! Welcome to a
small part of my world :)

Praising God for healing Brielle

I have been following Brielle's story
for a couple years now, ever since I
was directed to her website. I had
tears reading this post. Praise You
God that you have healed her, that You
have spoken through Your Holy Word to
this family, over and over again. May
we all have this strength no matter what
we go through. God, You are bigger and
greater than we could ever imagine. You
deserve ALL honor and glory!

New Shows on More Than Conquerors

This past weekend we taped more shows for
More Than Conquerors. It's been
awhile since our last taping and it's always
fun to see everyone on the set. This
taping was different because we had
4 on-air guests and also had a live Skype
interview. Here are some of the
people/sports you can expect to see on
the show in the near future.

Baseball:
Ben Zobrist (Devil Rays)- I'm a new fan!
He is solid and his wife is a recording
artist too!
Rex Hudler: Live interview and talk about
encouraging: this guy is the ultimate
optimist (ex-Angels announcer)! You won't
want to miss this show (I even have his
book now!)
Andre Thornton: on tragedy and how to
turn it into triumph

Football:
Brodie Croyle: Great family story! (Kansas
City Chiefs)
Jay Richardson (Seattle Seahawks)- giving
back to his community
Robert Walker: (Sports Agent and Publisher
of Sports Spectrum Magazine (I love this
magazing that features current athletes
and their faith): Live skype interview.
We also talked about his book: "Drive
Thru Success"- a book I want to read now!

Fishing: (yes, watch our show and you will
see that it is a real sport!)

Track/Olympics:
David Neville (and his wife Arial) were on
set with us. 2008 Olympian:
Gold in 4 X 400 Relay
Bronze in 200M
Going for the 2012 and hoping go to 2016
Olympics!

2008 UCI World Time Trial Champion:
Amber Neben: Live in Studio
(Bike racing for those of us who didn't
know what that was) and was in the 2008
Olympics in cycling.


Gambling in Sports:
Michael Franzese: Let me just write what
Wikepedia says about him:
Michael Franzese (born May 27, 1951), is
a former New York mobster with the Colombo
crime family who was heavily involved in
the gasoline tax rackets in the 1980s.
Since then, he has publicly renounced
organized crime, created a foundation
for helping youth and become a motivational
speaker.
He was live in studio and has such a crazy
testimony, but God is so good and he has
been helping others even with his life on
the line.
(sorry the pic came out blurry)


It was a great day! We even had a "bomb
threat" and the police had to come and
redirect traffic away from the studio,
but we weren't going to let
that stop us from sharing how good God is
through all these different stories. I
can't wait for these shows to come out.
If you want to find out when the show airs
on TBN, click on the link on the picture
at the top right of my blog page.

Calvary Chapel Pomona Valley Festival

Normally on Halloween we go to our church,
Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, and they have
a huge Harvest Family Festival. This year
they didn't have one since it fell on a
Sunday and there wasn't time to put it
all up that day, so we headed over to
Calvary Chapel Pomona Valley where my
brother's family attends and another
family that we are friends with. They
had some booths with games and a caramel
apple walk (my boys won 2 apples!). They
were happy to get candy, but their favorite
thing to do all night was to go down the
big slide! They had a blast.






Jake and Taylor, my neice

The two are best buds! Drew and
Micah

They had a booth to take pictures.
Can you see the goldfish in Drew's
hand? Poor little fish is already
in heaven! I tried my best, but
I guess the water was a little too
cold for him!

Camping @ Leo Carrillo State Park

Where is the time going? I can't believe it's
already November and Thanksgiving is in a
couple weeks! I have been traveling quite a
bit this year and have a few more trips
scheduled with Jennie Finch Softball Camps
and also I'm speaking in Northern CA in
a couple weeks with FCA and at a church
Father/Daughter Breakfast.

2 weekends ago we had some great family time
together. We went camping near Malibu at
Leo Carrillo State Park. We were thankful
to stay in a trailer with our friends,
The Menashe Family. There were also 4 other
families camping, including my brother's
family. The setting was awesome because
there were huge trees for the kids to climb
near our campsite and it was like
we were in the woods. A short walk away
was the beach with tide pools. The water
was cold but that didn't keep the kids
away. I am so grateful for good friends
and know that these memories will last a
long time for us and our kids.

The trip was less than 48 hours but it
was just enough time to: run, climb and
play for the kids; play inside the trailers;
go in the water; color pumpkins (Wibbens',
Luttrell's,Kunkle's) and carve pumpkins
(my brother and neice); make candy/caramel
apples (thanks Michele); have girlfriend
time at the beach (thanks to the hubbies);
see the sea creatures in the tide pools;
play cards; have a costume parade and
toy give-away for the kids! I have so
many pictures and they take way too long
to post, so here are a few from our trip:






These little lady bugs are the cutest
triplets ever! They are: Hannah,
Abigail and Julia Wibbens and we
call them "The Wibletts" :)










For more pictures, go to my friend, Kristi's
Blog!

Boys

My boys are always UP to something!

Luke came to me and said,

"The monkey is a bad boy &

he is in Time Out!"


I hope the monkey learned his
lesson :)

The Rich Man and Lazarus. . .

from Luke 16 in the Bible is a story
about a rich man who died and was being
tormented in Hades, and a beggar named
Lazarus who was full of sores and laid
at the rich man's gate just hoping to
eat some of the crumbs from the rich
man. When the beggar died, he was
carried to Abraham's bosom by angels.

It's a story about the difference
between heaven and hell. Read
Luke 16:19-31 to read the whole
story. This was the story Tommy
shared last night as he gave the
devotional after we served food to
the homeless in Pomona. Tommy is
not used to speaking like this but
God is so good. As Tommy stepped
out in faith and got out of his
comfort zone, God showed up in a
big way. The message was clear,
and God's truth was shared.

As we prayed with some of these
people that we served, my heart was
so happy to listen to them share
stories from the Bible that have
impacted them. One of these ladies,
Irma, said, "I like the food you
guys bring, but more than anything,
I come for the Word of God." That
was so amazing! How many people who
are not struggling even take time to
get into God's Word and how many times
do I take it for granted myself? I
love her heart- she doesn't have much
but she has Jesus and she wants more
of God's Word in her! She said she
wakes up every morning and reads her
Bible and she even reads it to her
friend who cannot read. Another
woman, Diane, was telling us that she
had gotten into a fight with her sister
because her sister was being so mean
and back-stabbing her. It really upset
her but as she was coming up to the dinner,
she said she asked God to forgive her
for how she acted. She wanted to respond
in a way that God wanted her to, and not
how she did.

Just like the story about the rich man
and Lazarus, it doesn't matter WHAT we
have or don't have, it matters WHO we
have or don't have. That WHO is JESUS
CHRIST and we need to make Him Lord of
our lives. These 2 women who don't have
homes are encouragements to me as I
hear how they are LIVING out the Word
of God, even under hard circumstances.

Radical by David Platt

This is the book I'm reading right now. When
I was in Lousiana a couple weeks ago, I heard
about it and saw it at the book store last week.
I picked it up and am glad I did. This book
is very convicting. I think when any books
talk about the Bible and how we are to live
it out according to the example of Jesus, it
will always be convicting. Conviction is
good because it should lead us to making a
change to be more like Jesus. The idea is
that we have so much in America and people
around the world are dying of starvation and
curable diseases because they don't have
anything. The biggest thing is that we
need to be aware of this and have a heart
to help others in need, whatever that looks
like. Ultimately, the Bible tells us that
people need Jesus in order to receive
eternal life and we need to keep that
focus. When it comes to the Bible, we
need to hear it (read it), believe
it, and obey it. Here is one little
quote from the book:

Page 48: "This is how God works. He puts
his people in positions where they are
desperate for his power, and then He
shows His power in ways that display
His greatness."

I love how David Platt reminds us that
life is all about bringing God glory.
Even when God works in us and through
us, it is always to point people to
Him and show how great God truly is!

Pumpkin Bread and More

OK, so it's Fall and that makes me think
of pumpkins

which makes me think of:

Pumpkin Bread!!!! (My favorite!)


I have been baking Pumpkin Bread for
Jake's school party (I still homeschool,
but he takes classes on Thursdays), for
our family, and for a friend's grandma
who recently fell and was in the hospital.
It is so good and very addicting! Here
is the recipe if you want to try it out:

Amazing Pumpkin Bread (my mom's recipe):
3 cups of sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 cup applesauce
2 cups pumpkin
3 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray tins
with cooking spray (I use mini loaf tins
and get 7 mini loaves from this recipe).
Cream sugar and vegetable oil together
w/hand beater until blended. Add eggs
(slightly beaten), applesauce and pumpkin.
Mix together dry ingredients and add to
this mixture until all blended. Bake
40 minutes or until toothpick comes out
clean.

OK, so here is the "More" part of this
post. Since I've been baking, it reminded
me of my baking BLUNDER a couple years
ago. So here's what happened:

We were having a get together with all
my girl friends. Everybody was bringing
a dish and I decided to try out a dessert
that my friend brought to my house one
night: Peanut Butter Pie. Well, with
pie involved, there is pie crust right?

I decided against the pie crust on the
shelf and also the refrigerated kind,
and went straight for the frozen one.
I had never used a frozen pie crust
before, and soon, everyone at the
party would know that! I thought
since the crust was hard (frozen),
it just needed to be thawed, not
realizing it needed to be thawed
and COOKED!!!! So we get to the
party and I think: it's a little
hard still, let's keep it out so
it can soften a little bit. It ended
up soft all right! The worst part
is, I knew it was mushy, but couldn't
figure out why. Finally, my friends
were talking to eacother about it,
and my friend, Kristi, kindly helps
me figure out what is going on!

Was I embarassed? YES! But seriously,
I thought it was so funny! Only I would
do something like that. We need to be
able to laugh at ourselves and even
writing this right now makes me laugh!

I can tell you one thing, I will ALWAYS
cook frozen pie crust from now on! :)