The Explaination of Life

Heard this in church today and thought that it was very appropriate!!!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

On the first day God created the dog. God said, "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. I will give you a life span of twenty years."
 
The dog said, "That's too long to be barking. Give me ten years and I'll give you back the other ten." So God agreed.
 
On the second day God created the monkey. God said, "Entertain people, do monkey tricks, and make them laugh. I'll give you a twenty-year life span."
 
The monkey said, "How boring, monkey tricks for twenty years? I don't think so. Dog gave you back ten, so that's what I'll do too, okay?" And God agreed.

On the third day God created the cow. God said, "You must go to the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer. I will give you a life span of sixty years."
The cow said, "That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. Let me have twenty and I'll give back the other forty." And God agreed again.

On the fourth day God created man. God said, "Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. I'll give you twenty years."

Man said, "What? Only twenty years! Tell you what, I'll take my twenty, and the forty the cow gave back and the ten the monkey gave back and the ten the dog gave back, that makes eighty, okay?"
"Okay," said God, "You've got a deal."

So that is why the first twenty years we eat, sleep, play, and enjoy ourselves; for the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family; for the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren; and for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Doughboy!!

This is for you mom.

This is how you REALLY make a cake!

The Amazing Connection between Thoughts and Feelings

Please read this!! It's very insightful!


Meridian Magazine :: Articles : The Amazing Connection between Thoughts and Feelings

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For JoMax

I recently came across an interesting article by a self-proclaimed author Nichole Giles. I think everything is just about perceptions and believing in yourself. The article was titled as, "Who Decides What Makes an Author?" She says,

"When I was first getting started with writing—I mean, writing for real—I used to wonder at what point a writer became an author. Did I have to be published first? And what kind of “published” meant I was officially an author? Do magazine stories count? Or should I wait until I have a book published?

Then I wondered who gets to make those kinds of decisions. I could see it in my mind’s eye: Someone official and special (probably an editor or agent) would come to me, big published book in hand and say, “I hereby proclaim you, Nichole Giles, an author of the first degree, promoted forthwith from the title of lowly writer.”

Except guess what? That never happened. I’ve published numerous articles, blogs and other pieces of writing, and am working feverishly at several books—some which will be on shelves this year, and some next—but no one ever came to me and said, “Hey, you’ve been promoted.”

What’s the deal?

Okay, here’s the truth. It doesn’t matter what you write, or if or when you ever get published. Does not matter if you publish short stories, or articles or epic series novels, you can still be a real, live author. If you write, you’re an author. No one has the power to decide that for you. No one but you gets to decide what value you put on your writing. No group, or organization, or special agent, or super powered editor is going to sit you in a chair and interview you to determine if you are—in fact—worthy of the illustrious author title. No one can make that crucial decision except you."


JoMax, your family knows that you are an author. You're wordplay and ideas are brilliant. I hope that someday you will taste the success of being published, but for now know that we believe in your talent. We know that you are an author even if no one else in the world does...yet.

Friends

None of that 'Sis'-sy Stuff

Are you tired of those
sissy 'friendship' poems
that always sound good,
but never actually come close
to reality?

Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of
True Friendship.
You WON'T see
cutesy little smiley faces
on this -
Just the stone cold truth
of our great friendship.

1. When you are sad,
I will jump on the person
who made you sad
like a spider monkey
jacked up on Mountain Dew!!!

2. When you are blue,
I will try to dislodge
whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile,
I will know you are
plotting something
that I must be involved in.

4. When you're scared,
we will high tail it out of here.

5. When you are worried,
I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse
it could be until you
quit whining, ya big baby!!!!

6. When you are confused,
I will use little words.

7. When you are sick,
Stay away from me
until you are well again.
I don't want whatever you have.....

8. When you fall,
I'll pick you up
and dust you off--
After I laugh my rear off!!

9. This is my oath...
I pledge it to the end.
'Why?' you may ask;
-- because you are my FRIEND!

***********************

Friendship is like peeing in your pants,
everyone can see it,
but only YOU
can feel the
true warmth.
**********************

(Sent to me in an email from Jill)

I Want...Wednesday!

What do you wish you could adjust around YOUR schedule, instead of the other way around?


Weekends! I want longer ones! I can never get in enough playing time because I have to do all my chores. Bleh!

A couple of Friday Q's.

Q #1: If you could take a ride in a hot air balloon over any city, what city would you choose?

My answer: Gotta be Scotland. I'd love to see the rolling green hills and view castles from the sky. Well, that is if someone grabbed me and tied me to the side. There's no way I would go up otherwise. Too scary!



Q #2: If your life was made into a movie, what genre would the movie be (drama, action, romance, comedy, adventure, crime/gangster, horror, musical, science fiction, war, western, historical, family-friendly, etc.)?

My answer: Probably a family-friendly "dramedy". I'm all about my family but with that comes lots of drama with some hysterical moments mixed in.



Now it's your turn!!

Awwwwwww!!!

Mom already posted Pepper's pics on her blog but I thought I'd share mine too!

Little Pepper's baby cage.

Nummy, nummy in my tummy!
Not really. He was used to goats milk and now he's on powdered. He'll drink it if he gets hungry enough!

Collin got such horrible allergies after touching this guy!

Pepper smoochies!
It was so fun to see such an itty bitty baby deer.
Too cute!

Take 5 Tuesday

1. 5 things you’ve read recently.
2. 5 sites you’ve signed up for.
3. 5 shows you’ve watched lately.
4. 5 things you want right now.
5. 5 things on your grocery list.



1. I've read Previously Engaged by Elodia Strain, Lemon Tart by Josi Kilpack, and the last three books from the chronicles of Narnia.

2. Hmmm...the prepared pantry, hungry-girl (cuz I'm hungry!), blogger (duh!), and I can't think of any more at the momentito.

3. Last night I watched the Bachelorette, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, The Nanny, the news, and this morning I watched some more news.

4. Chocolate, no coughing, to see my kiddos, a long vacation, and a nap.

5. Chocolate, stain fighter for the laundry (dang kids and their messy clothes!), gift for my cousin, cereal, and cough drops.

The Daily MEME: Friday 5

Hey there fam! I found a website that lists all sorts of MEME's called "The Daily MEME". Click on the keyboard pic on the sidebar to check it out. It has all sorts of daily questionnaire's that you can fill out and post on here. All you have to do it copy and paste. Simple right? Well I thought it might get us typing on here more often and testing our knowledge of one another. At any rate it could be fun right? Right?


Well today to start it off I found a MEME called "The Friday 5". Today's 5 q's are all about:

You guessed it...DAIRY!!
So, here goes.

1. What are your feelings about milk? Love it! Especially on cereal or in chocolate milk form.
   
2. What are your feelings about cheese? Ummmmm....cheeeeessssseeeee! Can't get enough. Neither can Carlee.
   
3. What are your feelings about yogurt? The kids and I eat it almost daily. I always have to have Yoplait Key Lime pie flavor on hand for Collin.
   
4. How do you feel about soy milk? Don't really like it on its own but it is awesome mixed into shakes. Man I miss my blender!!
   
5. How far are you from the nearest cow? Yeah, just look out any of my windows from the front of the house. You can always see them in the field just across the road.
   

So there you have it. Intellectually stimulating I must say. Will anyone else post one too? Only time will tell. You don't even have to do one every day (unless you want to) but hopefully you guys will fill one out once in awhile!

Yeeeeee haaaawwwwwww!!!!

Hand me down modeling.

Little miss Carlee had to try on a swimsuit that used to be Holly's (Ronnie's daughter). She had so much fun prancing around that I had to take some pics.

You should have seen some of the poses she was doing for Collin. So hilarious! I wish I would have got 'em with my camera. I think she is training to be a model already.

Easter Eggs!

Coloring eggs, always an Easter tradition. Collin, grandma and I set to work coloring water to dip the eggs in. Collin couldn't wait to get started.



He stirred the dye pellets in the mugs.



Where was Carlee during all of this? Catching some major Zzzzz's.



Look at this hambone smile!



He liked the face mama drew on her egg.



He thought he was going to drop the eggs so he was nervous to dip them.



Here's grannies pretty flower egg!



Droppin' in another one.



The finished product. Whose little hand is that?





Eric, these eggs are for you!



Carlee woke up and was a little sad she missed the fun.



Collin's favorite egg. Covered in stickers of course!

Happy Easter to my Family!!!

Awesome Stingrays!!

My friend Tresa sent me these pictures in an email and I thought they looks so awesome that I wanted to share them here. I'm sure you all have seen these before since they are all over the internet.

Here's a little of the write up about it:



Taken by an amateur photographer in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, these photos show the great migration of the Cow-nose Stingrays from the Yucatan Peninsula to western Florida. They travel in compact packs of up to 10,000 individuals, following the counter-clockwise current to their summer feeding grounds.

These bovine-looking stingrays have a poisonous stinger, similar to the one that killed animal-lover Steve Irwin, but this doesn’t make them less pleasant to look at, especially during their migration.

Satan's Meeting

Satan's Meeting

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said, "We can't keep Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their saviour. Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken."

"So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, but steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ."

"This is what I want you to do", said the devil:

"Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!" "How shall we do this?" his demons
shouted.

"Keep them busy in the non essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes
to occupy their minds," he answered.

"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow."

"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles."

"Keep them from spending time with their children. As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, Cd's and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards.Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes,and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products,services and false hopes."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husband swill believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night. Give them headaches too! If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere. That will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas. Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about his resurrection and power over sin and death."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted. Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events,plays, concerts, and movies instead. Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences."

"Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!"

It was quite a plan! The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get more busy and more rushed, going here and there. Having little time for their God or their families. Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives. I guess the question is, has the devil been successful at his scheme?

You be the judge!

Does "busy" mean:

B-eing

U-nder

S-atan's

Y-oke?


I saw this on our sacrament meeting bulletin today and wanted to share it.

Sleep With One Eye Open!!

Little miss Ann has a creepy way of sleeping. She looks possessed in this picture! Eric kept on trying to close her eyes but it did not work. They just started popping open further. Silly girl.

I don't know why but seeing her sleeping like this reminded me of a story when Ryan was younger. Maybe if he slept with one eye open terrible things wouldn't have happened! Being the youngest he was naturally a good target. We used to do all kinds of mischievous acts to him! We would pile things on him, put make-up on him,etc. I guess it serves him right for being such a sound sleeper. One of the worst (and funniest) is when the innocent child was snoozing gently on the sofa. I believe it was JoMax's idea to get the dog food and start putting it into his mouth. Am I right on that JoMax? Into his mouth went a few pieces while sweet Ryan slept. Suddenly he sat straight up and started chewing while we all stifled giggles. Then he peacefully laid back down and fell back asleep. To this day I'm sure he'll deny the fact to ever tasting dog food. He might not remember it but we sure do!

Perhaps if he had slept with some pinchers in his hand we would have been more leery in our amusements. Then again, maybe not!

Granny Wrestling