More of Roger's Cakes!!

(This is frosting...by the way...real cheese would just be too nasty on a cake, dontcha think?)

Tonight after church we are having a "get together/fund raiser for two seniors who are in the tiny Christian school that our church has. They are trying to go to New York for their Senior Trip and the church is trying to help them out by having a basketball game with church members and teens playing against each other. They are also having concessions and a bake auction. The pictures above are our donations for the bake sale. Since the Colts lost, we are out of the Super Bowl. HOWEVER, our pastor is from Pennsylvania and is a HUGE Steelers fan! So Roger thought he would be politically correct and make a "Cheeseheads" cake as well as a Steelers cake for the auction! Silly Roger!

Tomorrow is the "inspection" day for "the little blue house in the country. I am so excited! I can't wait to get back into the house again! We have only been in it one time...way back in the first part of November! I hope someone has gotten rid of the dead mouse in the kitchen drawer...

Well...it's almost time to leave for church! Have a lovely day!

Blessings,

Beth

Busy Saturday!

Today my husband and I delivered a birthday cake we made. (I baked and made the frosting and he decorated it!) WOW did he decorate it!! He is amazing! I joked and told him that I wanted one like that for MY birthday! JUST TEASING Roger!!! I know that bragging is not an attractive thing to do but I think he did such an incredible job that I just HAD to show you! The little teapot on top is a little cake that he baked (because I forgot to...what a terrible wife! He called me at work Friday night and asked me where the little cake was and I failed to bake it for him!! He forgave me!) His favorite part on the cake is the little fondant "napkin" under the teapot! I think he is incredibly talented and he was taught as a young boy by his late mother! He is the official "cake decorator" in our family and I get to bake them and make the frosting. I think it is kind of sad, though, that he makes all these gorgeous cakes for everyone and when it is HIS birthday, he gets the ugliest cake possible...because I try to decorate it! OH well, he is very nice about it!!

Praise the Lord!! Friday night was my last night on my job! My coworker gave me a gift...a complete surprise! She handed me a gift bag and inside it was a wrapped gift. Inside THAT was a nice little cloth bag with a verse on it and inside THAT was.......an Archaeological Bible! I could NOT believe it!! Months ago I mentioned how much I wanted one since I love history, maps, studying old customs, etc. I couldn't believe that she remembered and that she cared enough to buy it for me! It was one of the sweetest things anyone besides my own family has ever done for me and I will treasure it forever!

Today after we delivered the cake, we went to a store and I was able to get some really incredible bargains for my daughter, Marci, for Christmas next year. I know, Christmas is sooo far away but I got her some of her favorite cookbooks for just a tiny bit of money! She is gonna LOVE them! (They're the "LOVE FOOD" series!)

After that, we went out to lunch and had Mexican food! Yummy! Then I went to "Once Upon a Child" resale store. A few of them here in Indianapolis had a sale today that allowed you to buy a bag for $15 and then you could stuff as much clearance clothes in it that it could hold! Wow did I stuff!! I got $116 worth of things for $15! I bought our "little girl we don't have yet" Gymboree, Baby Gap, The Children's Place, etc. sweaters, dresses, more dresses, more sweaters, more dresses....you get the idea. I also got two pairs of pajamas! (AS if she needs anymore stuff...we have soooo much already and we don't even know what size she will be when we get a referral! Silly me! But it keeps me encouraged...as if she is a real part of my life...because she is! I will probably donate or Ebay what she can't wear.)

The "little blue house in the country" gets inspected on Monday! I am praying that it all goes well! I plan to post pictures of it soon! Then we should be able to close on it next week! I can't wait for you to see the "cavelike" kitchen. It is completely panelled with Knotty Pine, ceiling, too!.I think we will probably paint it AND paint the cabinets. The cabinets are old old old, but sturdy sturdy sturdy! I DO NOT want to get rid of the cabinets! I'm so tired of the cabinets that are made of pressed wood and glued together until they fall apart. I like the old ones so much better even though they aren't "attractive" yet. Paint will do wonders! We just have to decide on what color we want to paint the walls, ceilings and cabinets. There is also an adorable little corner cabinet in the kitchen that my teapots or china will look so cute in!

Well, it's time to go to bed, the dog is scratching at the door and poor Roger thinks I have forgotten that he has already "hit the hay!"

Blessings!

Beth

WE GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy dance....happy dance...happy dance!!!!!!
Yep, it's true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The bank has accepted the offer we gave for the "little blue house in the country!" I just found out about an hour ago!!
Monday we are having it inspected and then we close on it NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOHOO!!!!

Pictures will follow in another post...you all are gonna think, "WHY IS SHE SO EXCITED??" It is a pretty normal, nothing special kind of house....but it will be OURS!!! Mine and Roger's house together and it will not have a mortgage on it. (And I love it...!!!! It looks like a "happy" house!)

WOW...living mortgage free is something I just simply can't imagine!!

PRAISE OUR WONDERFUL LORD FOR HIS PROVISION!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, LORD!!

I have tears running down my chubby face just thinking of His amazing provision for us!

And I'm gonna start looking for chickens AND a clothes line!! No more of this "city" living for me!

And even better than that, as soon as we actually get into the house, we can move forward with our adoption!
THANK YOU, LORD!!

Ok....I've calmed down a little bit....kind of.

We (especially my husband) had all but given up on it but wow, I'm sooooo excited! We have a LOT of work to do in the next few weeks and then we have to get this big monster of a house on the market to sell! Hopefully someone will want a six bedroom house! (oh, this is NOT a "mini-mansion" type of a house...it's much more modest than that. We just added on when we combined families.) Anyone know of a "quiver-full movement" family in central Indiana who might want this house???? If I had it to do all over again, I'd have had MORE kids myself! But there's always adoption, isn't there? (which for many reasons is the healthier choice for me...I almost died delivering many of my babies.)

Well, it's off to the bank, then off to sign my "I QUIT" paper at work, and then to have lunch with my honey!

Have a lovely day!!
Blessings!
Beth

I'M BACK!!! Sort of.....

Goodness! I didn't realize that it had been soooo long since I've blogged until my bloggy friend Marie emailed me!! Thank you my dear, you were an encouragement to me!
So, anyway, I decided to post some pictures of what has been going on around here lately! This is actually Christmas! Son Danny, wife Erin, and precious baby boy Liam with a present we bought him. Liam looks so much like his daddy except that he has blond hair and not red!!

Grandchildren Seraphina and Dylan with their "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake Roger and I made. We tried to focus more on Jesus this year! That's what Christmas is about, after all!

This is MY BUDDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Little Brody just turned 1 year old this January. He always has a huge huge smile on his face...unless you take away his food..... I love to take care of him a few days a week...I was blessed to take care of Dylan sometimes when he was little (usually on my day off of work) and I have kept Seraphina since she was born for a few days a week and I enjoy little Brody when he is with me two days a week! Now...if I can just get ERIN and DANNY to move closer so that I can steal little Liam from THEM more often!!

TODAY IS DYLAN'S SEVENTH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy birthday buddy!! Grammy Beth took him sledding on a local hill a few weeks ago and we had a great time!!

Yeah, I know....I forgot to turn the picture before uploading it to blogger......however, this is the biggest news we've had for a while!!! Little Gabriel was born yesterday (Jan. 24th) to Sam and Abi!! He is the 5th of our grand babies! I look a little dazed, don't I???? This is probably the only picture that I have had in years that I am not wearing a dress! I'm actually wearing a culotte but it looks like pants in this picture. (99.9% of the time I wear dresses or skirts.)

Believe it or not....we STILL haven't heard if we are getting the little blue house in the country. That is one reason I haven't blogged for a while. I have no news about the house and I was hoping that I could suddenly say "WE GOT IT!!!" Who knows....maybe that will happen anyway???????? Our offer runs out his week, I think, so something needs to happen and I don't really want to redo the offer without any idea of when the bank will decide on it.

Therefore, our adoption plans are also on hold. I know that I shouldn't get weary of waiting but I think I am. I really hate the fact that a child's future (and ours as well) depends on money. Selling our larger house may be a necessity to us being able to afford to do this.

You are going to think we are crazy for buying this little blue ranch house...if indeed we are able to do so...and selling our big "city" house!! The little house is usually what people try to move from into a big house like we currently have! However, this has never really felt like home to me and since we will be much much much better off financially if we can make this work, moving seems to be the logical thing to do, not to mention that we both feel this is "God led".

Another BIG piece of news is.......drum roll, please.......................................................................

I have quit my job.

Yep, I did it. Probably not a good financial decision but it is the best thing to do for my emotional health and for our "family" and "marriage" health. I had cut down my hours from 30 hours in two days to just working one 12 hour day a week. However, it has just been nearly impossible to do that since I am babysitting and homeschooling. I was also being asked to "sign" documents saying that I had been "trained" for certain medical situations for individuals I had been left alone with over night when I hadn't been! I did not sign them and just left at the end of my shift. I can't imagine one of my loved ones being in the care of someone who hadn't really been trained for things such as feeding tubes, catheters, and things that I don't care to mention.

If something had happened and I had signed those papers, oh my!!!!

So this Friday is my last day and I am going to shout "Hallelujah" all the way home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are now on a pretty tight budget but it's not something we can't handle. We have started with preparing our budget by writing down everyone and every gift giving occasion. It seems kind of sad and meager but we may just need to be more creative. For instance, I bought Christmas clearance M&M's, both plain and pretzel, and mixed them with regular "on sale" bags. I am putting them in small jars and adding a cute little topper for them. Then we can give them to the kids for Valentine's Day. Kinda cheap, but cute!!

It is my intention to put enough money in a savings account each month or week so that every time an holiday or birthday comes around, we will be prepared.

I am looking forward to having a HUGE HUGE garage sale as soon as weather permits here in central Indiana. I hope to be able to use that money to help with adopting. It will be a drop in the bucket but I think we need to learn to trust God. Perhaps that is why we have been waiting...to teach BETH some patience. Good Grief, I just wish I could hurry up and learn it....feeble laugh....

Daughter Marci has been busy making wedding plans for April of 2012. She's pretty excited and has picked out her wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses. She has booked a clubhouse to have the reception in and has also booked the very same gazebo where Roger asked me to marry him to have the ceremony. Turns out that Roger's daughter Abi was getting married at that same gazebo almost 5 years ago and Marci and Ben first met since they were both in the wedding! Later that fall, Roger led me to the gazebo and asked me to marry him! This past fall, Ben asked Marci to marry him at that same gazebo!! Kinda magical, dontcha think????? (We found out that it was going to be a small fortune to use the church she and her fiance' attends to have the ceremony AND we have to pay for a "wedding planner. We have a built in "Wedding Planner" in our family already! That is part of what Daughter in Love, Erin, went to school for, "Events Planning" among other things!) It was going to be over $1000 just to have the wedding at the church. Crazy, huh????

Well, I suppose I should get some house work done since that is now MY ONLY JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blessings to you all!

Beth

WOW...it's been a while since I posted, hasn't it? The holidays have been kinda crazy here, as it has been in most places.

WE'RE STILL WAITING ABOUT THE BLUE HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm NOT a patient person but I am learning through this house thing and our adoption of our little girl in Africa, that God has His hand on everything we do. It's not easy, though, and as a human, I WANT WHAT I WANT WHEN I WANT IT!! But then we don't value things as much as we do when we have YEARNED for them as we do. (As I yearn for a little girl to love and nurture...)

Christmas was pretty wonderful at our house...ALL our children and young grandchildren were at our house...so yeah, it was pretty full! I got a CRICKET!! (No, not one of those pesky summer insects that seem to invade our Indiana summers...) It's one of those really cool scrapbook thingies that cuts and prints words and other really neat stuff....
Ok...I admit it. It isn't even out of the box yet....BUT I REALLY LOVE IT!! I'm trying to organize my scrapbook stuff FIRST before I can reward myself with my new "toy" from my dear hubby!

We really tried to center our celebration MUCH MORE on Christ this year. We made a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake and had the two older grandkids blow out the candles after we sang happy birthday. It was soooo cute!

We're planning to spend a VERY quiet New Years Eve at home...most of the kids are spending the night with other relatives so it will just be a few of us at home! Kinda nice, doncha think?

Yawn. It's getting very late and my contacts are getting fuzzy.
We literally had 13,900 emails in our inbox. Isn't that amazing???? I've spent hours tonight going through them and getting rid of email junk. Whew. I'm TIRED!! That's alot of hard work....just sittin' there, ya know??

Well, hopefully things will get back to normal around here soon and I can get on the computer a little more often. I miss reading my favorite blogs!
Blessings to you all! Happy New Year!!
Beth

Snow Day!!!

Wow!! What a snowy blustery day it is here in central Indiana! No one has classes today, Gideon and Jennie go to public school and Becca is homeschooled with organized classes with other kids on Mondays...so we are all home!
Becca and Jennie are making pancakes, Gideon is playing the Wii and I am about to work on online adoption classes. I have 10 credit hours to get done! I think Roger does, too, so we had better get started!
No news yet about our house that we are trying to purchase. A few weeks ago we were told that the bank that is foreclosing on it has to do some inspections and that we have been assigned a mediator but we thought it should have been inspected by now. Waiting has never been an easy thing for me! However, it is allowing me to get other things done.

We are working on Christmas decorating and shopping. (I picked up the cutest little cloth horse for little Grace...when we get her. I just didn't think it was right to buy Christmas presents for all the other kids and not include her! I'm a strange person, I think. She might not even be born yet....) It is my prayer that we will have her by next Christmas but that may not happen either...

Well, I need to get my adoption classes started. Let's hope I can sign in. Last time I tried this, I didn't have success...however, I realized that I didn't have the correct sign in code...that will help, I think!!!!!

Happy almost birthday, Jesus!!!!

Blessings,
Beth

Just a Christmas Adoption Thought...

The snow had just finished fluttering to the ground, leaving a light white layer on the sidewalk, dampening my sneakers just enough to make me wish I had worn my boots. “Precious”, our German shepherd mixed breed dog was eagerly pulling on her leash, impatient to explore the sights, smells and sounds of the snowy “new world” she had just discovered outside our door.

The surrounding neighborhoods were just waking up to the Christmas spirit with the newly strung lights shining at almost every front yard as we walked into the early evening darkness. Wreaths decked most front doors and twinkling and flashing decorations adorned the houses we passed. Christmas trees, both inside and outside, graced nearly every front window we viewed.
One window especially caught my eye as the dog and I slowed down in front of the house.

There, inside the home, was a little girl whose smile was broad enough to be seen from the sidewalk. Her blond bobbed hair bounced with excitement as she helped her mother decorate their Christmas tree. Her little white sweater was trimmed in the red and white stripe of candy canes. Her father stood just behind with a cup of something hot in his hands, smiling at the two as they enjoyed their task of decorating the tree.

I realized that my “slow” walk had turned into “stop” and I looked around in embarrassment, hoping that no one saw me staring into this neighbor’s house. Precious was again tugging on her leash and I quickly, but reluctantly, looked away.

I walked on, suddenly feeling very lonely for something-someone-I had been yearning for for several years. This little girl I witnessed inside her house reminded me of the little girl waiting for us in far away Africa. Our adoption papers were almost completely filled out, our home study nearly done and somewhere our child waits.

As I continued the snowy stroll, my thoughts were completely encompassed by the little girl I did not even know. I had never seen a picture, I didn’t know her birthday, I didn’t even know her name but she was known to me alone as “Grace.”

My eyes filled with tears missing the little girl I didn’t even know. I worried about her. “Did anyone…except us…love her?” “Was she safe?” “Was she hungry?” “Who was caring for her?” “What was she doing RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT?” “Did she wish she had a Mommy?”

I thought about the plans I had for her. I already had bins and bins of clothes and toys for her in all different sizes and recently I had moved on to buying shoes.
“Shoes were harder to judge the sizes”…but then I thought, “Most likely she doesn’t even have shoes…” and the sadness returned.

I tried to shrug it off and reached down to pet the very patient and old dog and hoped that she would live long enough to see our little girl, knowing that the adoption process was an extremely long one. I thought once again about Christmas…NEXT Christmas, or the one after, and about the little girl who would be grinning from ear to ear in OUR front room window as she helped her Mommy decorate her first American Christmas tree.

I thought about the gift she will be to our whole large family and how God showed his Grace on us to even allow this child in our lives.

Then I thought about another child who was a gift to the world, the Savior, Christ the Lord. What an incredible Gift He was! Not only are all good and perfect gifts from Him…such as our little girl…but so is the gift of Eternal Life for all who believe!

I walked home, my heart lighter and more tender to the Season in which I was living, grateful to my Savior for all his unfathomable gifts.