Black Friday in the eyes of Adele

First, before you read this blog, you have to know that my husband is a Store Manager of Younkers a retail department store.

Adele: Daddy, do you know what Black Friday is?

Paul: Will you tell me?

Adele: It is when people get up really early before stores even open and stand outside and wait. When the doors open they rush in.

It is so cute because Paul left at 2:00 am to go to his store to ensure customers would get the best bang for their buck yet she didn't even realize daddy knew what Black Friday is! Even though whenever we visit the store, she is sure to point out the portrait of him in the entry way. She even tells people that are entering in the same time as us that this is her Daddy!

Paul - I love you so much and the impact of proudness you have instilled in our daughter. May she marry the man of integrity who has a focus for God and cherishes his wife as much as you do me!

Thanksgiving with Nana and Papa

My parents came on Wednesday Nov 26 and left this morning at 9:30. We had some wonderful times together. We went for Chinese food on Wed night.

Paul's only day off was Thanksgiving day so we had a wonderful relaxing day with him. He was up and at 'em at 1:00am to be at Younkers at 2:00am. Dad and I got up and left the house at 3:15 to be at Paul's store at 4:00am. We were greeters and handed out fliers. The store was busy and I haven't experienced the "Day After" in a very long, long, long time! It just reinforced my idea of staying home that day.

Friday, my dad pulled out the family recipe for Peppernuts. Peppernuts is a small German cookie that tastes like Gingerbread but kicked up a notch. (Brewed coffee with grinds and all is included in the very stiff batter). Adele had a lot of fun helping Papa make these traditional cookies of our heritage.

Thanks to God for providing food and protecting travelers who spent time with families. We had a very blessed Thanksgiving.

Nana and Papa also brought gifts for Christmas for Adele since we will not be able to spend time with them for Christmas. Adele was thrilled with her new Webkins and the Fairy! Thank you Nana and Papa!

Christmas decorations are now up!

Yeah! One thing crossed off the busy holiday list. We decorated our house for Christmas today! Adele has been asking us to do this for several days now and today was the day!
Adele was assigned the task to decorate all the small trees. I worked on unpacking and decorating around the house with items and Paul took on the task of decorating our 9' tall Christmas tree.

It was so much fun with the Christmas music playing. I didn't get my regular Sunday nap but this was so much more fun. Adele said, "Mommy I just feel so good. Decorating for Christmas makes me so happy."
I felt happy too but at the same time felt said because just the day before we delived Turkeys to some needy families and couldn't help but feel that they probably cannot afford to do this Christmas tradition we enjoy as a family. I just pray that somehow God will bless them on way or other this holiday season.

Our Day of Serving

This morning we got together with other members of Jordan Creek Family Church to assemble Turkey Dinner baskets. Many attended and we compiled around 67 dinners in under 23 minutes! Many needy families were blessed that did not have meals to eat. One family told me that they had nothing in their cupboards and were going to make the meal tomorrow!

Adele and I went to PetCo to sell Tree of Hope Ornaments for $1 for Raccoon Valley Animal Shelter. Adele would ask, "Would you like to save an animals life?" We had many people look at me and say, "Well, I can't tell you no can I?" It was so cute. We know how to work our children to find the tenderness in hearts!
Santa was there and she got photos with him! He was so good!!!! Santa had this giant sack of stuffed animals all looked to be teddy bears and around 12" (think Build a Bear size). Adele digs deep inside this sack and finds this teeny tiny black dog. I say teeny tiny because the thing couldn't be but maybe 3" and soooo little.
This just goes to prove her gifts with animals because she finds the one dog (they didn't have a cat she told me later) and "rescued him because the others were squishing him and he couldn't breathe." His name is Tiny.

JCFC providing warmwear for the city's homeless

On December 12, our church, Jordan Creek Family Church http://www.jordancreek.org/ will be wrapping scarves, mittens, gloves, blankets, hats, etc at our house. I am so excited for this gift to the community who needs it.

We will be dropping off these wrapped presents in the downtown skywalks where the public access areas are used by our homeless to take shelter.

We all hope and pray that we can bless our community in this way. We will also pray and bless this gifts that they may find the right recipients and come to know the Lord and ask His Son, Jesus Christ into their hearts.

Party at the May House

We invited the Cecil's over for dinner. Of course, I counted on Mandy bringing the best dessert ever! She came through with flying colors on this yummy oreo, whipped cream, bananas, chocolate concoction. (She even confided that it was a recipe but she didn't have the right ingredients so she improvised) Okay - that is her gift! I could never do that because it would not turn out right!

I made lasagna and salad and everything was going just fine. You know how you are always nervous having other people over and you want dinner to taste great and turn out right? Well guess what! Next thing you know I turn around and I burnt the bread! HORROR! With company! I thought the smoke alarm was going to go off so Paul was fanning the smoke detector and I had the vent going above the stove. By the way, I am a regular at burning bread in our house! :-)

I was able to "save" by scraping some of the dark spots. They were very gracious and thankful guests and the kids ate well at their table while the adults enjoyed company at another.

Who would have known that a bag of beads was the entertainment of the evening!

The adults were playing Scene It. We all had such a great time that when Mandy had asked what time it was, I was shocked when I looked at my watch. It was 9:30 pm. Way past all kids bedtimes. I think they will all sleep very well tonight.

Thank you God for bringing such wonderful friends and fellowship into our lives!

Best Weekend Ever

Friday was Adele's day off from school because of Teacher-in-service day. It was great. We slept in a little. I say little because Adele woke up and said, "Mommy, I have never had breakfast in bed. I know someone who has though." Yes, that would be me for Mother's Day.

So I brought her some fruit, croissants, and juice for the breakfast in bed together. We read then got ready to run some errands and went to see High School Musical 3http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/highschoolmusical3/. Adele thought it was the worst day to go to the movie though because the weather so cold and it was snowing. I said that sometimes these days make the best days to go to movies. She didn't understand though because she got so cold going in and out of the car and buildings! :-)

Saturday we volunteered at Petco to save animals lives. We sold "ornaments" that get posted on the walls of the building for $1. So many takers! I was wondering how successful we would be in spite of the economy but she was a great salesperson (okay, so I was the speaker, she was the "poser") I say that because she had practiced her stance and asked me for critiquing.

The Raccoon Valley Sanctuary http://www.raccoonvalley.com/index.htmwas so proud of her - it was more than they had even expected us to sell. They are going to "feature" Adele as one of their best volunteers.

I am so glad that God has led me to get us both started in serving the community by also serving Him! It made us both feel good despite the fact we were in front of the doors where cold wind was blowing in at us.

We were so blessed to find this shelter and all in God's doing! That is another good story worthy of a whole other blog posting!

Adele's Day Off

We had parent/teacher conferences this week at Des Moines Christian School. Thursday we had a great conference with Adele's teacher, Mrs. Wilson! Wow! I am so glad that we prayed to have the teacher to suit Adele's needs. Her strengths: Reading - top 3! Her weekness: Social skills

What? Can we get her to stop talking at home and in the car? Adele is very quiet and shy around people she has not had the opportunity to know and likes to whisper in our ears. I do not know what to do with this issue as many parents probably cannot understand this. She is very shy and reserved in school. If anyone has any feedback or input - I would love any advice. (Amy Main can probably testify to the situation when Adele needed to spend the night at her house because of our schedule! Thanks again!)

On another note, she is one of the top readers in school. She is getting all Es (E=excellence) but Mrs. Wilson would like her to speak up and raise her hand more and volunteer answers.

I love DMCS! I am still thinking about what her spiritual gift and talent is and Mrs. Wilson has no idea. I know she has a special desire in her heart for animals and art. So maybe that is it. But will time will only tell!

Please God, Help us grow our child to serve you and know you better. May you use your talents to serve you, Lord!

Daisy's Horse 101

Today was an amazing day! Thank you Amy and Alicia for organizing the Daisy outing.


We had an amazing time. All the girls were able to feed horses and Mr. Shawn asked the girls, "Which food do you think horses like better: hay or carrots?" Clearly the carrots won! Mr. Shawn and Miss Terry taught the girls how to brush the horses and how to walk around them.


They also gave them some riding lessons around their inside horse arena. The beautiful Quarter horses were Ruby, Shorty, and Scout. They were the most calm and peaceful horses.


After riding lessons, we went on a fabulous hay rack ride courtesy of Shawn and the John Deer Tractor. We heard some screaming from girls but it was due to a spider that wanted to take a journey with us! Nothing to do with the driver! (By the way - all 3 dogs went too)

After the hay rack ride, we had a peaceful lunch outdoors. (All the girls were so hungry there wasn't much talking.)

We then roasted smores. How can you get more cooler than your choice of regular marshmallows vs. strawberry marshmallows! And to put it between 2 graham crackers and a piece of chocolate?! Talk about heaven!

Afterwards, we were lucky to pick fresh apples from their apple tree.


Thank you God for you have created animals that we can have fun with and play with. Thank you God for providing us fruit trees and the abundance that comes from it. Last but not least, Thank you God for giving us friends that we can praise you for Your Glory!