Wow!!! AZ bound?!

Fine Arts Districts results:

DRUM ROLLLLLL!!!!!!!

Zac's human video team made it!

Nathan's human video team made it!

Andrew's human video team made it!

And Andrew's worship team made it and took 3rd place in the state! Whoo-hoo!!!

1700 participants! Our church had 147 teens involved and 107 made it to Nationals!!! Really amazing! These kids worked SO hard! (we have some incredible vocalists)

Exciting weekend!

Hello, summer jobs!!?!? And fundraisers galore! -Lord help!

Proud of my guys!

~Becky

Fine Arts Weekend!

I've survived Fine Arts season! Yay!

It sure kept the mom-taxi busy! We were at practices almost every night of the week. Ugh!

Zac, Nate and Andrew were each in

a human video and they were in two worship bands and Zac was also in a funny small drama.

This weekend they are at the statewide competition in Ormond Beach with 17,000 other teens who are participating! It is a BIG deal!

We'll be streaming the celebration service here from home tomorrow where they announce those who've made it to Nationals. Those who make it are headed to Phoenix, AZ in August!

(let the fundraising begin!)

We had a dress rehearsal on Tuesday night, and Joy got these great pictures for us.

I always need a little help understanding what Bible stories the human videos are portraying.

Except for the crucifixion, of course. ; )

This is Zac's human video and his best friend Jon, who usually gets casts as Jesus. He's got great facials! (and is a wonderful guy)

Zac is one of the soldiers, whipping him.

Here's Nathan with Jesus carrying the cross in the background.

This is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and Nathan was Adam. His best friend is holding the serpent.

Andrew is apart of the great fish and this is Jonah, not looking too happy.

Here is Andrew and I didn't get a chance to ask him which story this is. I'll have to do that when he gets back.

And here he is as the lead guitarist in his worship band.

Love that smile!

Didn't get pictures of Zac and Nate in their band, but we are blessed to see/hear them play every Wednesday.

The worship bands competes tonight, so I'm praying for our boys to be at peace and play their best for Jesus and TRY to forget that there are any judges involved at all. : )

~Becky, a proud drama mama!

*Edited to say that figure was wrong. There were 1700 participants!

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

A certain awesome young man is turning 12 today and I can hardly believe it!

My baby! ; )

-Sorry Roo, but you will always be my baby!

Even though you are already taller than Joy and I.

He's on a bus headed to the Fine Arts Districts competition in Ormond Beach right this very minute, so we fit in some time in between a gazillion fine arts practices and Easter, to have a party on Saturday!

He's competing in a worship band, as the lead guitarist and he's also in a human video.

And speaking of guitars, here is the cake I made!!!!

-So glad that it turned out and it actually had the approval of at least 3 serious guitarists who were present. LOL : )

Andrew, being one of them!

Before dinner, Dad had a speech to make!

This alway includes all those present making a "covenant" to help the birthday person in their walk with the Lord, us being thankful for all God is doing in their lives and then a prayer of blessing!

-And in Andrew's case, we always mention his birth and how glad we are that he made into this world! Amen! ; )

We celebrated at a trampoline place which had trampolines on the floor and the WALLS!

Here are the girls, ready for some fun! LOL!

And it was fun until a bunch of

20 some-thing year old guys started taking their dodge ball WAY too seriously.

But being the athletic bunch that our guys are, they were more of a challenge than those guys anticipated. Our gang was thinking they needed to get a life -LOL

but my hubby reminded us that we should be glad those guys were here and not out drinking instead. -Spoken like a true youth leader! Love that man! They eventually left and things got more fun again.

-Except that Nathan turned his ankle. And this is fine arts week and he has to do stunts in a human video competition in a matter of days. Ahh!

Unfortunately, my ancient camera didn't capture their flips! Andrew is really good at those!

This next picture is going in my "Tease Zac Collection," to prove that he spent a good part of his teen years texting, no matter where

we were!

Ha ha! -But in all fairness, he just got done taking some pictures! ; )

Glad that my best friend and her kids are Floridians now and that my hubby's brother is here for a couple of months and all were able to join us for the fun!

~Becky

Our senior

One day your firstborn looks like this:

And then you blink

and he looks like this:

Then you thank God that you chose to home school and that you have 13 years worth of memories that you made together during his educational journey, which have made you two close at heart. I'm thankful for my sweet son, who is also one of my dearest friends.

For Zac's senior pictures, our photographer took us on a photo shoot in downtown at sunset.

Two hours and literally 700+ pictures later, we had some great shots!

His best smiles happened when I made goofy faces behind the photographer. ; )

Come to think of it, I was probably doing that very same thing in that baby picture.

This is my favorite picture!

This one reminds me that 'the sky's the limit' and that he 'can do all things through Christ who strengthens him.'

Quite a few girls like this one. lol

Here he is in during his short lived modeling career. lol

Our drummer for Jesus!

~Becky,

the blessed mom of a great guy and a soon-to-be-graduate!

While we were at the pond...

feeding the ducks and looking at the box turtles, this gave me a giggle:

Uncle Phil: "Who comes to get the alligators? (when they are reported in residential areas)

Andrew: "Probably the Department of Homeland Security."

; ) Too cute! lol

~Becky

Week One of the new adventure

So, this has been Week One of caring for a stroke patient and I've learned a few things, like:

1. That I have the most wonderful kids ever. (actually I already knew this before this week. LOL)

They are devoting tons time to doing physical therapy with their uncle with the sweetest of attitudes and cheering on his improvements.

2. Stroke patients have sweet tooth's (or at least ours does) and actually, talking about donuts, seems to appease him as much as actually eating them. So, we talk instead... LOL

3. Sometimes you just have to laugh.

4. When you tell someone that God can make all things work together for good and then He does, it is awesome!

5. Always check his pocket for his cell phone before doing laundry, if not you will spend a good amount of time, and money at the Verizon store! And then two days waiting to see if leaving it in a bowl of rice really works to soak up the water so that you can transfer an address book to the new phone.

6. It is great fun to share the stories of the Bible with someone who doesn't know them.

7. I've started to notice all those with physical difficulties around me every time I leave the house and wonder if they need help. A new sense of compassion has taken me captive.

8. It is impossible to hurry. There's nothing you can do but go at a slower pace.

9. Once in awhile you will be rewarded with a glimpse of the person he was, in the voice that almost sounds like it used to, using the mannerisms and inflections he used to use, and then... your joy abounds.

10. His dry wit is still there and it takes me by surprise.

11. Saying "please" and "thank you" go a long way and I can't even count the number of times in a day he says them. May the rest of us remember to do the same.

12. Stay upbeat because the 'joy of the Lord is your strength' and it can strengthen those around you.

13. When something is really funny, he slaps his leg a few times. May there be lots of leg slapping times in the weeks ahead. My hubby jokingly told him that sarcasm "is apart of therapy," to which I said, 'feel free to hit him with your cane.' ; )

14. I will never know all that my other brother-in-law and sister-in-law went through in taking him into their home, straight out of the hospital, to make him able to come to us in the condition he's in today...

They've worked tirelessly for 9 months helping to make him able to eat, walk and use the facilities all on his own. They are my heroes.

~I guess I've learned quite a bit this week.

Becky

Shoes on or off

Sunday I saw Andrew walking around in kids church after playing his guitar in the worship band without his shoes on.

(the youth group's guitarist plays barefooted so I know where he got the idea from)

After church, when we were ready to leave, he was still barefooted!

So, I said "Andrew, what are you doing going barefooted in God's house?!"

And because he's inherited a quick wit from his dad,

he said "Because I'm standing on holy ground, Mom." LOL

Too funny!

-Since I haven't seen any burning bushes in the church's landscaping, he's wearing shoes from now on though. ; )

~Becky

Wednesday in the Word

"If we undertake a work for God and get out of touch with Him, the sense of responsibility will be overwhelmingly crushing, but if we roll back on God, that which He has put upon us, He takes away the sense of responsibility by bringing in the realization of Himself." ~Oswald Chambers

"The Lord will give strength to His people. The Lord will bless His people with peace." Ps. 29:11

Yes, and amen! : )

~Becky

Easter Weekend

Friday I proctored a room full of kids taking the CAT5, which is more stressful than it looks, I'm telling you. : ) Somehow, two days of that, had me worn out.

After my hubby installed the fabulous, if-ever-used, new-to-me dishwasher, we headed to the beach for some family fun.

Even thought it was a very warm day, we found out that the Gulf has not warmed up yet! : ) Brrrr! We did see a lovely sunset.

And guess who is obviously as tall as I am now. Our youngest who is only 10. Boo hoo!

Our tradition is to always stop for slurpees on the way home, but we were a little too cold for those. I had an apple fritter because "I'm avoiding sugar." LOL

Saturday we went to a picnic with our church family for a massive Easter egg hunt. We were the jump houses monitors. It was fun....but HOT!

Sunday, we had an awesome church service. I was in the nursery for the first service, loving on the babies...Second service was awesome and the place was packed. They actually have to turn people away at our church on Easter, which is why they also have a Saturday night service for the homefolk. : ) (which we would've gone to if it wasn't my turn to work in the nursery) That way there is plenty of room for those who only come to church one day a year. It was awesome to see so many of those folks give their lives to Christ yesterday. That is what the resurrection is all about! Whoo-hoo! We love our church!

My little name-sake was there, and I got a cute, wet Easter kiss.

Then we drove home to get ready to have our next door neighbors over for lunch. We had a great time talking and eating way too much. We also did an egg hunt for all the kiddos in both of our front yards combined. (they decided they weren't too old for that!) : )

Today was spent doing lots of work for the homeschool group that I'm leading this year. Lots of fun end-of-the-year plans in the works.

Tomorrow we have a field trip to go to and some more cleaning to do.

Then on Wednesday, my dearest friend and her kids will be here to help us enjoy the rest of our spring break. We are headed to Daytona for some beach fun on the Atlantic side and I just hope it is warmer than the Gulf! Nathan bought an underwater case for his video camera for Christmas and he can't wait to use it! It has been hard to wait all winter to try it out.

Happy Spring Break!

~Becky

A new adventure

My hubby flew to CA to pick up his brother (who had a stroke last year). He is going to be staying with us for the next 8 weeks.

Yesterday, my hubby stayed home from work and the day was all about training us in caring for Phil. We learned all about his brain injury and about the exercises he needs help with so that he can regain movement on his left side. The brain is a fascinating thing.

He is certainly the most patient, patient there is! He's very polite and thankful and easy to serve.

It hit me last night what a gift from God it is to have this time to teach our kids that 'family comes first.' Since we've lived thousands of miles away from our relatives for almost 20 years, we've never had any opportunities to teach them to love and serve their extended family. (we've just had awesome times vacationing together) : )

I'm thankful for this new adventure and what our children will learn from it. -Not to mention it is also a great way to show them how I hope they'll treat me when I'm old. ; )

~Becky

Tornadoes

I'm a little last posting about this, but a week or so ago we had some severe weather in central Florida. Three tornadoes came through Tampa!

A house a few blocks from ours, had a gigantic oak tree fall down on their house! So awful.

Nathan took a video of the crazy weather happening outside our front door, which I'm not savvy enough to put on the blog. But it is safe to say that there was more water running down our street and in our back yard than any of the hurricanes in years gone by have caused.

The crazy thing for me was that I went to Walmart in calm weather and I came out in calm weather. This is what I missed:

Here's some pictures from the news:

We went two days without seeing the sun, but then it came back and gave us some glorious spring weather. And now, it is feeling a whole lot like summer.

~Becky

Wednesday in the Word

Here are some quotes that have been on my mind lately:

"When life squeezes you, what comes out?" The works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit?

Life has been squeezing me and well, I got some work to do. : )

"If someone were to pay you ten cents for each kind word you ever spoke about others and collect five cents for each unkind word, would you be rich or poor?" Ouch!

I think this verse sums it up:

"Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." Phil. 4:5

~Becky