California here we come!

The biggest thing going on here, besides the kitchen, of course, is the trip to California.
Here's the post that says how God made that possible in such an awesome way.

We are so excited!!! ~And so are my sweet parents who want to know what brand of peanut butter we eat and what kind of tea we like. : )
Aren't they the best? -Letting all 6 of us invade their condo for a week!

Since are flying stand by, we are going to bring small amounts of luggage and carry it on. Which means that I am not going to be able to use my 'gift.'
Which is over packing. I'm really good at that!
So, I may have luggage withdrawals but it's better this way.... I don't want my PJ's in some other state once I finally reach CA. (I had that happen on our last trip out there)

We are going to do some fun sight seeing and get to see some wonderful people.
I'm going to get to spend some time with my sister, who I love dearly.
My aunt is coming from AZ to see us!!! I haven't seen her in 13 yrs. What a treat, that will be!
My hubby's brother will just happen to be there on business that week, which was an unexpected blessing.
We'll see my step brother, sister-in-law and their sweet children. Our kids had a blast with them the last time we were out there.

Of course, I can't wait to see my parents. I haven't seen my mom in 3 years. She was caring for her dying mother all that time and could never come and visit us with my dad, who comes to spend a week with us every February. He wasn't able to make it this year, which caused one of the kids to say that "February isn't February without Granddaddy Don."

Here is another neat thing that will happen: our kids will get to meet and thank the man who shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with their dad back when he was 20! How blessed we all are today because of it!

~Becky

Strange dates

We've learned that when you are remodeling,
weird things sound like fun dates.

Two weeks ago it was a 'hot date to Famous Tate' to look at refrigerators. ; )

This weekend it was a night out at Home Depot, (whoo hoo) but we threw in a trip to Star Bucks to make it seem more like a date...

(scary, huh?)

And on the way home, we decided to watch a movie after the kiddos went to bed. My hubby suggested Sleepless in Seattle.
As I was getting ready to get cozy on the couch, I noticed that it wasn't Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks on our TV screen....
Something was wrong with the picture!
-It was a bunch of men running up and down on a football field....

Then my cute hubby said
"I'm sorry. Pre-season football must be from the devil." (my thoughts exactly!!!)
"It's going to have to be Sleepless in Miami tonight instead."
I laughed and laughed.
Good thing there is a much better date in store for us in the near future, that's for sure!

And it's a special one...
to celebrate 16 yrs. of marriage! One that doesn't include looking at trim or discussing paint colors or touchdowns...yahoo!

~Becky

Congrats!

Congratulations to Zachary and Andrew!
They each earned 'Ranger of the Year' for our outpost! : )

~Becky

Carlos and the kitchen

"Get 'er done" is the motto around here.

My hubby's best friend has given us an incredible gift of a kitchen remodel, as I have mentioned before. This is the 10th week that we've been at it. It is what our lives have been all wrapped up in this summer. He's been at our house almost 7 days a week.... Some late nights and some early mornings and then there were some major interruptions...

So far, he has:

made the kitchen 42" bigger (what a difference!)

reused our existing cabinets

put travertine on the floor

made granite counter tops

put in a couple of new windows

put in a new sink

and made a bar (counter) for sitting at

It's really amazing.

And there were some interesting things that have happened that have made us see the hand of God and decide that it was all really about more than me getting my socks blessed off by having a better kitchen.

First off, the house was sagging and we didn't know it. It took alot of work to fix it and no one will ever fall through the floor now. yahoo! I felt so sorry for him though. It was sure more work than he bargained for!

Secondly, Carlos' health has been an issue. He knew that he was ill before he started this project but he kept putting off going to the doctor for months.

When he finally decided to go, Nathan said that he wanted to go and be "his prayer support." (how sweet was that?) Then Andrew didn't want to be left out ...and so all 5 of us went with our dear friend to the doctor. (I had the fun of beating my boys in the one and only video game that I ever will-Ms. Pac Man! Our dr. office has two old arcade games in the waiting room.)

He found out, that he has type two diabetes. His number was off the chart. That was a scary time and the kitchen work slowed way down, not that we cared.

Then things got even worse. His eyesight got so bad and at such a fast rate that there was a day when he said that he didn't think he could finish the kitchen because he was going blind. And what he was most upset about wasn't loosing his eyesight, but that he would not be able to finish what he started in our kitchen. And that just blew me away. Isn't that incredible?

When I looked up his symptoms it appeared that he had one of two diseases where diabetes damages retinas and causes blindness. It was very scary.

Then a trip to the eye doctor brought glorious news....

His retinas were fine. The blurriness was caused by the sugar in his eyes but that the retinas weren't damaged. That was great news. But it was hard to tell that that was the case because everyday he could still see less and less...

But, he just kept working away at the kitchen! He didn't want to stop even though he needed help reading tape measures and things... He used a magnifying glass and a pair of old glasses that he wore way back before he had laser surgery on his eyes years ago. He just kept plugging away at it.

Through all this, he's learned to take better care of his body. His sugar levels have greatly improved. They are so low now! It is really great!

After weeks and weeks of not being able to see properly, last week God gave him back his vision! 20/20 again! Glory, glory, glory!

Now, that was last week's good news.

This week's good news is that he is feeling better than he has felt in years!

The energy level he has now, is enough to make a 2o year old man jealous. It's like watching the Engerizer Bunny come and work at your house. He is non stop.

He has a daytime job now, doing remodels and he comes here to work at 4:00 for what he says is the 'fun stuff.' Which is still hard work. But he seems to really enjoy it.

Labor day will be a laborious day, but we think it might be the day when this kitchen is actually done!

~Thanks to an amazing man, who wanted to give an amazing gift and persevered through some huge trials to see it accomplished. It's been a very humbling experience.

And here are some pictures of what he's accomplished in spite of everything! He's amazing!

This is the night it all started: When he knocked out the kitchen wall above the bookcase.

It's so open now. We love it.
This is a granite bar where the bookcase was.

I'll post some more when it's all finished.

~Becky

Frugality and smelling like onions

Joy is still into Martha.
And here is what she's picked up on by watching her show:

Joy: "You know what Mom? Martha is not frugal!" (I got a kick out of that)


~ Frugality is what her mom is all about! Ask the tooth fairy! : )


Now, here is 'Good Thing' of hers that we are both pretty excited about...


Did you know that if your hands smell like onions or garlic, and you rub them on stainless steel the order will go away!? How cool is that?! Who knew? We can't wait to try it!

~Becky

JBQ and Joy's "Strong verse"

During our Junior Bible Quiz practice time the other morning, we learned this new 30 point question:

Quotation Question. What should be our prayer about our speech and thoughts? Psalm 19:14 "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

Joy knew the verse already but it really struck her this time. She said "Wow, I need to meditate on this one." (so do I Sister, so do I)

She loved "the Rock and my Redeemer" part! And then she ran off to find our friend Carlos, who is working on our kitchen and asked him if he wanted to hear "a strong memory verse." And he did. : )

Speaking of JBQ, my hubby and I were asked to coach Joy and Andrew's team this year. Our kiddos are really excited about it. We love JBQ and since we are at all the matches anyway, we might as well. My hubby said he planned on being a laid back coach. Then, just to tease me, he started quoting lines from the movie Kicking and Screaming. You know the part where the coach is all hyped up on coffee and only cares about winning...
I'll make sure he doesn't pray over a match and then tell the team to "break someone's clavicle." I promise! ; )
~Becky

Coconuts and Call it Courage

We have been reading this:
And today, we were suppose to eat what Mafutu ate on the island...and well, Publix doesn't have breadfruit, but they did have the coconuts and bananas.... After we picked out our coconuts, a certain somebody asked me if I was SURE that Mafatu didn't eat Hostess Ding Dongs on the island... No, sorry. Good try though!

Since we are still in the middle of a kitchen remodel, don't ask me why we were having trouble locating a hammer and a nail. But when we laid eyes on a drill or two, we thought we were home free!Carlos hadn't come to work on the kitchen yet, or he may have had something to say about us getting coconut goopies all over his drills and bits. : )

I thought cleaning those bits first was a good idea because they surely weren't sanitary...but nobody else was into that idea...

I'd forgotten the phrase in our book that said "put your hole in the soft spot of the coconut" and so even with a drill or two, it was nice and difficult! The kids eventually got a hole in it and not just the milk, but also little bits of the shell came out of it that made the coconut milk look rather unappetizing. A little sieve would have been nice but we didn't have one and one resourceful kiddo suggested we sift the milk through one of our window screens.... Which aren't by any means sanitary and so we didn't try that. : )

Someone else did a coconut milk verses cow milk taste test and the COW won!

We baked our coconut for an hour on 35o degrees and then tried it and it was well, PLAIN. After that, I had to have a bite of the yummy sweetened kind that comes in a lovely package from the fridge. : )

Joy had fun wearing the shells as hats and Honey thinks they are the best dog toy ever!

After all that, I was kind of wishing that Mafutu HAD eaten Ding Dongs on the island.

~Becky