Changes...

Most of you probably know (although I'm not sure if there are any of "you" any more! :) But our life has had lots of changes lately. Blogging has not been part of my routine much, but I've taken lots of pictures, so today I thought I'd try to catch up a little. And it helps to put it in writing too!

My grandma broke her hip in August. Since losing my job in March, I've loved being at home with Madi, but it has been a huge change too, and I'd been praying about something more to do to be a blessing. Not exactly the "job" I was thinking of but God has worked it out for me to help my grandma right now. She has had 2 surgeries and over a months worth of nights at the hospital, so we have kept plenty busy. We have decided to put our house up for rent, and move in temporarily with Grandma. Ever since Grandpa passed away, my parents have had their living quarters in her full sized basement, to help keep an eye on her, but right now she needs full time companionship. She has a huge house, so Seth, Madi and I have moved in upstairs with her. WOW! 4 generations all stirring around in the same house has made for lots of fun! I DO feel very blessed right now. I'm happy to have this close time with my family and am thankful to get to know grandma better. We have definitely had our ups and downs emotionally, dealing with pain, some memory loss, loss of sleep, loss of independence, on and on. But I'm very contented and thankful. I've loved being in the country in a beautiful farm home, with acres and acres of farmland around me....Here's where we have been spending our time!...

The view from grandma's front window...

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Purse-onality!

Last weekend was "Ladies Day" at our church.
Our theme was "Purse-onality" which was a fun one for decorating! :)

We decided to use a very pink girly theme in the church where the sessions were held and then different styles of bags on the tables in the fellowship hall.

Here are a few pictures.

...a little closer

Wedding Planner Bag

Medical Bag

Music Bag

Red Bag

Safari Bag

Baby Bag

Aqua and Black Sophisticated Bag

Pink and Green Fun Bag

Updates will have to wait till later...

This is an unusual week for us.

Mom and Dad are vacationing with Anthony and Adrian so we agreed to come up to their house and stay with my grandma while they are away.

We slept in this morning (after a VERY busy weekend) and then Madi and I took grandma to a doctor's appointment today, made a trip to Wal-Mart and then to the Elementary Program to see some of "grandma's great" perform.

PLENTY I need to be doing around my house this week, but am going to try to just relax and enjoy our time here with grandma (she is a wonderful saint!) and maybe help her with some projects she needs to do.

FINALLY...an update!

I've considered merging my two blogs, but for now, I like having Madi Moments for Madi, especially since I haven't kept up a Baby Book!

Soo... this will be where I ramble! :)

I hope to start a "Simple Woman's Daybook" on this blog soon. :) I thought today would be a good day to start, but soon realized that all my entries would end up being about the mouse I saw in my kitchen this morning! :)

AAHHH!!!

From my kitchen - In shambles trying to keep the mouse out of the drawers!

I am thinking - About how to catch the mouse!
I am hoping - To catch the mouse!
You get the picture!

Today was a very rainy day. I took a few pictures from our driveway.

Above: Looking across our road up our neighbor's long driveway.

Above: Looking at the other end of our U-shaped drive. This creek usually runs under the road, but today it's running over!

Below: Random truck passing on the road.

I love being able to be at home with Madi. Right now I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. When you work a 40 hour week, that dictates so much of your time and you just cram all the other necessities of life into the little time that is left over. I have so much time now that I am struggling with how to organize it and make the most of it.

I'm asking God to help me. I want to be in the center of His will. I want to be a Godly wife and mother and a "Keeper at Home". But more than just having the laundry done and the floors mopped, I don't want to forget that there is a whole world out there that needs to know Him.

This is a busy week for us. I'm filling in for the Children's Church Director on Wednesday.

Jerry Hay will be here for a FREE concert on Friday! 7:00 PM at the William Inge Theater on the Independence Community College Campus by the way!

Saturday is LADIES DAY at our church. The theme is PURSE-ONALITY. And we are looking forward to a really good day. Mom, Maria and I are doing the decorations, so that is going to keep me busy between now and then. I've had a great time finding some cute purses to decorate with! Hopefully pictures later.

CAFE de PARIS ~ Fall Dinner 2008

Just a little disclaimer here! Blogger seems to be messing with this blog! :) Does anyone else see blue "F's" everywhere and "this picture is unavailable" all over the pictures?

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The Student Council at our Bible School asked me to help with with decorations for the Fall Dinner this year. It is a dinner put on (in the Fall :) for the students, staff, faculty and board.

Each year they turn the chapel of the high school building into a banquet room with a special theme for this formal dinner.

Here was the invitation:

The theme they wanted was a "street side cafe in Paris, at night"! :)

Unfortunately, I have never been to Paris, so we did lots of looking online to find out what a street side might look like.

We decided to create these 5 shops:

CAFE de Paris - our cafe

(with "2nd story" apartment/billboard above the cafe)

La Roseraie - a flower shop

COLETTE - dress shop

TEA & TATTERED PAGES - bookstore/tea room

PAPABUBBLE - candy store

We had fun researching online for the names of our shops. Some (if not all) of them are names of actual shops in Paris. I did alot of cutting & pasting from different images online and came up with the below for a plan... not necessarily this color scheme, but this general idea (pardon the scrunched up picture, I did this in excel, which does not talk to blogger too well!!
This was our plan for the layout of the chapel

After hours of shopping, planning, discussing, changing, and changing again! :)Here are a few pictures of what we came up with.

The chapel has a tall dome ceiling that we completely covered with black plastic and hung silver stars from to create a nighttime feel.

We had some awesome artist do all the detail painting for our shops

(THANKS!! to Ryan J., Vicki C. & Chad C.)

Here is the "2nd story" apartment/billboard set above our Cafe.

The Cafe

Bookstore/Tearoom & Candy Shop

Looking thru the window of "Tea & Tattered Pages"

Up close of the candy shop...it wasn't quite complete in this picture, but it was fun to create.
The students cam up with the idea of having real candy out at this shop. It was a great touch, and everyone could "help themselves" during the course of the evening.

The Flower Shop
My very creative mother was the artist of this shop. She free handed the sign, researched all the French for the "Store Hours" sign on the front (including "Closed on Sundays"!! :) and overall did an excellent job of creating a romantic, welcoming feel to this outdoor flower shop display.

Dress Shop

The Tables

Denise M. (mom of one of the StuCo members) came up with the greatest idea for centerpieces.

She painted these candle holders black, then adorned them with grapes, grass and crab apples.

The picture below, does not show it, but right before the banquet she set apples on them with a tea light candle set in a small hole carved in the top of the apple.

They were perfect!! Then we also set basket of bread on the table as part of the decor/appetizer.

The Menu/Program

At the entry way to the chapel was a 17 foot cardboard structure of the Eiffel Tower. The guest entered under the tower, which was a neat effect. Not sure why I didn't get a picture of that! Remember, I am NOT a photographer! :) Because of the low lighting in the room, it was hard to get real clear pictures overall, but this is the idea!

I think the students and other guests had a great evening! The food was delicious, and the speaker was inspiring.

Here was our verse for the evening:

Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars...she hath also furnished her table. Proverbs 9:1-2

When we gave the speaker that verse, I thought "wow, that might be a difficult verse to build a message out of!". Later he said that someone had once told him that the Chapter in Proverbs that corresponds with the day of the month on which you were born is like your "life chapter". His birthday is on the 9th of the month, so he had practically memorized this chapter when he was younger. So he was very familiar with these verses and gave an excellent talk on wisdom.

Our week...

We have had a "busy but good" (as our friend Eric would say!) week.

I am HORRIBLE about toting my camera around, and now that I'm sitting here rethinking our week, I'm realizing all the great pictures I missed! Maybe next time!
Tyra gave me the most beautiful hanging candle this week...just because! I love it.
This picture does not do it justice, but it's the best this amature could do!

Our church is having a "Harvest Time" effort for the month of November. So last Sunday, we finished out Pastor Appreciation Month with a pounding for our Pastor and then a time of snacks and fellowship after church. Then we broke of into 3 teams to start planning for "Harvest". It was a fun time in the fellowship hall, but also a serious time, thinking about bringing souls to Christ. We have a "church school" and that tends to bring alot of different people into our services, but not the lost, and our church is really beginning to see the need of going out and winning souls for Christ. We have a little bit of friendly competition going on with the church being divided into 3 teams, but (hopefully!) it is all in good Christian fun!

We have started have"Taco Wednesday" with Derek and Tyra and mom and dad before church on Wednesday nights. Tyra keeps Madi for me till supper time and I make tacos and try to get prepared for our Wednesday night Children's Church service.

Thursday night was our Bible Study at our house. We have been having a study with some of the young couples in our church for the past couple months, with my dad as the leader. We have discussed alot of different topics, but this past week was on dress and modesty...so you know that was a lively discussion!!! :) We have felt God close many times during these sessions and I feel SO privileged to be a part with a devoted group of young people.

Along with the harvest effort, our team had a "fall block party" on Halloween night. Our team leaders graciously opened their home and their yard. They built a very welcoming fire in a metal pit and tables and chair for people to visit and eat. Lots of hot chili and other great food was served to their neighbors and anyone else passing by who cared to stop. They passed out tracks and candy as well. I was not able to stop by till late, but it was a great atmosphere with great people and a very pleasant evening. Seth had spent a good part of his day helping put a new roof on one of the building at the school, so he opted to stay at home with Madi as he was exhausted.

Adrian and Anthony came in to town for Hadlee's Birthday Party and stayed the weekend with us. Alexa thought it was really fun that Madi was walking and it was so cute to see her try to mimick her tottering around!

"The Girls", Tyra, Adrian, Taylar, and myself, got up on Saturday morning for coffee. We were able to spend about an hour together talking, laughing, drinking a "Sticky Bun" and eating Cranberry Scone and Blueberry Muffin...mmmm!! It was a beautiful fall day.

Adrian helped me run all around town, gathering up items for a fall display in the church foyer, and then they were off to the party. Later that afternoon, Adrian started making preparations for Sunday dinner...homemade rolls and the works. She is a great cook and enjoys doing it. I was contented to just follow her around with a wash rag and clean up the mess! :)

Saturday evening, we were invited over for games and fellowship with some of the young couples in the area and had a great time.

This morning I was PLEASANTLY surprised by the time change! I know I am so out of it, but seriously had not heard one person mention the change. But who doesn't need an extra hour on Sunday mornings!! We spent lunch today with my family and now we are off to another busy week.

This is my reminder to myself to stop and treasure what is important and enjoy the little things!

Have a great week!

My Little Name Sake...

Ok, so this is random, but my dear friend (clear back from the 2nd grade!), Cherita, named her little girl, Natalie! :) I'm not POSTIVE that I can say she named her after me, but I'd like to think so! I have only got to meet her a few times, but we got to spend some time together at camp this summer and she is a doll!

Cherita sent me this picture on my cell phone, so I could help but post it!!! Ain't she cute!?