My 2 new favorite pictures...

We are tough!!
Thanks, Gabe, for the cool tats!!!

Hey Anita, can you use your magic and make these black and white with the tattoo in color? Or something cool like that for my scrapbooks? You Rock!

Too Good to be Through

After many hours of prayer and discussion, Josh and I have decided it is the appropriate time to close Too Good to be Through furniture consignment. Our oldest child is starting school and this means a new phase in our lives - a phase in which our girls will need more of me than I can give them while running our shop.

We have so enjoyed having the shop and meeting so many wonderful people. And we want to thank you for making this business such a success. We feel God has blessed us greatly through this endeavor, as well as through the people He has brought into our lives. And we also feel blessed with a new adventure. I am saddened to close the business, but am looking forward to school parties, family time after school, and having some one-on-one time with each of my girls.

Our last day will be July 26.
For the store of how this business began, click here.

Our family, by Brenna

Peek a boo

Horrible picture, but still funny!

Brenna's photo collection

Mom and Dad

Piper. She doesn't hold still long enough for B to get a good shot of her.

self portrait

Damma and Dampa, chatting on the computer. (sadly, D&D, this was the better of the three shots she took)

Restless night

Last night was a restless night at our house. After the wrap up of the Family Fun Night we attended last night, we got home around 11:15pm. B was thrilled to be up so late. She wanted to know if it is was midnight yet (a throw back to New Years Eve, I think). She was thrilled to find out it, in fact, was midnight - in Ohio. :)

The girls were too tired to sleep. Remember being that way? Anyway, Josh told P she could sleep in our bed for a while. I truly think this has happened less than 5 times in her whole life - including infancy. I felt bad for B and told her she could join us as well.

Even a king size bed isn't big enough when you have two girls who end up sleep perpendicular to us!!! I was awakened several times to a foot in the back or a fist in the face. At one point, P had an episode that only be described as imitating a death spiral done by crocodiles when they capture their pray. I had restless dreams and even wrote a blog about the night in my no-where-close-to-REM-sleep. It was quite witty and created a great picture. This morning, several hours later and clutching my LARGE cup of coffee, all wit has escaped me! Still I feel the need to post.

I have no idea how people function with a "family bed"!!! No judgment, just no comprehension!

Truth or not, this is hilarious!

I received this email today. Thanks, Keri, I needed that laugh.
Hope you all enjoy it, as well!

Clutching their Dillard's shopping bags, Ellen and Kay woefully gazed down at a dead cat in the mall parking lot. Obviously a recent hit --- no flies, no smell. What business could that poor kitty have had here?' murmured
Ellen.

'Come on, Ellen, let's just go . . '

But Ellen had already grabbed her shopping bag and was explaining, I'll just put my things in your bag, and then I'll take the tissue.'

She dumped her purchases into Kay's bag and then used the tissue paper to cradle and lower the former feline into her own Dillard's bag and cover it.

They continued the short trek to the car in silence, stashing their goods in the trunk. But it occurred to both of them that if they left Ellen's burial bag in the trunk, warmed by the TEXAS sunshine while they ate, Kay's Lumina would soon lose that new-car smell. They decided to leave the bag on top of the trunk, and they headed over to Luby's cafeteria.

After they cleared the serving line and sat down at a window table, they had a view of Kay's Chevy with the Dillard's bag still on the trunk.

BUT not for long!

As they ate, they noticed a black-haired woman in a red gingham shirt stroll by their car, look quickly this way and that, and then hooked her arm into the Dillard's bag without breaking stride. She quickly walked out of their line of vision. Kay and Ellen shot each other a wide-eyed look of amazement.

It all happened so fast that neither of them could think how to respond.

'Can you imagine?' finally sputtered Ellen. 'The nerve of that woman!'

Kay sympathized with Ellen, but inwardly a laugh was building as she thought about the grand surprise awaiting the red-gingham thief. Just when she thought she'd have to giggle into her napkin, she noticed
Ellen's eyes freeze in the direction of the serving line. Following her gaze, Kay recognized with a shock the black-haired woman with THE Dillard's bag, hanging from her arm, brazenly pushing her tray toward the cashier.

Helplessly they watched the scene unfold: After clearing the register, the woman settled at a table across from theirs, put the bag on an empty chair and began to eat. After a few bites of baked whitefish and green beans, she casually lifted the bag into her lap to survey her treasure.

Looking from side to side, but not far enough to notice her rapt audience three tables over, she pulled out the tissue paper and peered into the bag. Her eyes widened, and she began to make a sort of gasping noise. The noise grew. The bag slid from her lap as she sank to the floor, wheezing and clutching her upper chest.

The beverage cart attendant quickly recognized a customer in trouble and sent the busboy to call 911, while she administered the Heimlich maneuver. A crowd quickly gathered that did not include Ellen and Kay, who remained riveted to their chairs for seven whole minutes until the ambulance arrived.

In a matter of minutes the curly-haired woman emerged from the crowd, still gasping, strapped securely on a gurney. Two well-trained EMS volunteers steered her to the waiting ambulance, while a third scooped up her belongings. The last they saw of the distressed cat-burglar, she disappeared behind the ambulance doors… the Dillard's bag perched on her stomach!!

I love poetic justice!! (Of course, I hope the woman is fine and learned an important lesson!)

Missions Effort

My parents left today for a week in Nicaragua. Their home congregation is heading a medical mission this year.

They have witnessed in Nicaragua for years now. I am so proud of them for making this such an important part of their lives. They have a great deal of investment in this effort; financially, spiritually,and emotionally. I believe their work there has not only helped bring souls to Christ in Central America, but their love of it spreads and affects people in the US. I wish that we could join them again this year. It was an enormous blessing to see them in action last year.

Please pray for them, Mike and Jo, this week. Pray that they are safe, their travels uneventful, but most importantly that their work is affective and productive.

Mom and Dad, if you are able to get an Internet connection and happen to read this...My heart is with you! I look forward to hearing all about it.

Love, Me

Rapid fire catch up...

Princess Tea Party

Brenna and her escort
At church, they do a father/daughter tea party. It clearly is a big hit with little girls. My guess is the dad's feel kind of silly, but at least they are all in it together.

playing "Princess and the Pea"

B and her buddy

If you are taking a pic of B, you gotta get one of P!

P was jumping on the couch when I took this picture. I thought it turned out cool.

Piper, proud Brenna lost her tooth.

Ok, this story was much funnier to witness so I will save you the details. Piper came back from a quiet stay in our bedroom looking like this. There are bronzed colored handprints on my wall to match her face. This is lipstick gone bad. Very, very bad!

Ta daaaaa!

After several attempts to pull it, Brenna lost her first tooth this evening.
Seriously, in the last 5 days we have tied string to it twice, tried ripping it out with a washcloth, eating an apple, and making (she was a willing party) her twist it round and round. I documented each attempt with still shots and video. I was going to be the stellar mom who capture the moment. HA.
Tonight at the park, Brenna bit into a Nacho flavored Dorito. She then turns to me and says "uh...Mom?" Her tooth is basically laying in her gumline. I get a napkin and pull it out the rest of the way, one lonely root. She was thrilled! I was disappointed that I didn't have my camera. In the end, it was better that we were able to wash her mouth out first anyway, it was pretty gross.

So now we wait for the toothfairy. Anyone know who much she pays these days?
I'm thinking a buck (if I can find one in my wallet!)

Brenna has a loose tooth!

I have noticed Brenna had a couple teeth that appeared to be shifting. It made me nervous since we haven't taken her a dentist yet. One day she told me her tooth hurt. I looked in her mouth and found she had a wiggly tooth. Right up front on the bottom! She was so proud.

Then about a week later, I looked again, and saw that her permanent tooth is already growing in. It is about 1/3 of the way in! And MUCH bigger than those baby teeth. I know that makes sense, but grown up teeth in a four year old mouth sure look big. I think the 'awkward phase' has begun! :)