A Woodsie Wedding

Dustin and Amy's wedding

Today my family drove 4 hours to go to my cousin Dustin's wedding. Tara and Eric came from OKC (1 1/2 hours). We represented the Woods side of the family. We are so glad we were able to be there and we had a great day today. We surprised our kids and got them a car DVD player for the trip. I think this was the best trip of my life! I finished a book and looked out the window as bugs continuously splattered onto the windshield. It was delightful! Greg and Dottie and Dustin were very glad to have us there and we were able to take a Woods family picture all together. Greg also sent us home with some of Uncle Doug's fish from the rehearsal dinner! We weren't quite as eager to open our cooler for a refreshing drink though... Here are our pictures. We got there right at two and were too rushed to remember to grab the camera for the ceremony. Enjoy!

A little song...

Try not to think about what might have been... 'Cause that was then and we have taken different roads... We can't go back again... There's no use givin' in... There's no way to know what might have been...

Good bye birdies...

Stupid Cat!

"I'm gonna leave you in Sidney!"

So as I was waking up this morning I heard Aiden's feet walking in the hallway and then a loud noise on the outside of the house. I thought, "I wonder what that was?" We went on with our morning and after the kids got ready Ben decided to see if he could take a picture of the little nest on our front porch that has new baby birds in it. Do you know what that earlier sound was? It was the sound of our cat knocking that poor nest out of the corner of the porch! How evil! I was sad but then I realized Stripers still had something and it was flying/fluttering around in between catches. I thought maybe I could save it! I ran to get my shoes on and shot out the door. I yelled at the cat and she darted into the bushes. I searched quickly for any sign of life and then heard a kitty scary noise like, "I'm gonna eat you noise because I'm ferocious and scary!" I then realized she had it with her in the bushes. There was nothing more I could do...

Except maybe leave her to die in Sidney while I move to bird haven Washington... I haven't decided. But I might...

"The circle of Life..." was all Ben had to say.

Bellingham Update

Ben and I had a great time in Washington! Since you're looking at the picture, we did get to fly in a plane with one of the elders. The next picture is from up in the plane. I intended to take pictures of some of the families to show my kids and this represents the pictures I actually took...

We stayed with one of the elders and his wife who is also the children's minister/office manager, Rich and Diane Helke. Diane also happens to be a former roomate of my mothers at Columbia. (Side note: When someone has attended Columbia Christian College, there is no reason to say Cascade. It means something totally different. My mother never went to Cascade. It doesn't matter that it's the same place. I like to allow Columbia to have it's own identity!) Small world. We were thankful we stayed with them and were able to have lots of relationship-forming conversation.

The elders and their wives are fantastic. We really like the church as a whole. We had a good amount of time to spend with people in the congregation and we all seemed to like each other a lot. We also knew the Flory's, who went to Vancouver C of C way back in the day, and Ben knew a recruiter from Pepperdine that resides there with her family now.

We got to learn about the soup kitchen that goes on at the building twice a week and ate with some of the clients. We saw what an impact Soup's On makes in the community and the people of the Sterling Drive. It was way cool!
We looked at houses and different neighborhoods. We road on a ferry to get to the island that one of the elders lives on... We saw lots and lots of trees and had NO rain! We
drove on steep Mountainsides and looked inside houses way beyond our price range!

And after a long and exciting weekend we sat at the Helke's and watched a deer in their backyard for the first time ever, eating all their bird food.


The last picture is of Diane and I. On Sunday evening we invited the Helke's to go out to a movie with us. It was a great way to end our time!

We had such a great experience and I know we would be blessed to be a part of this congregation. We are excited about the possibiltiy of serving along side them and are trusting that God will bless us wherever we end up!

The blessings will come down as the prayers go up...

Tomorrow we head to Abilene to board a plane before dawn Thursday morning. We will be heading to Bellingham, WA for an interview at the Sterling Drive Church of Christ. Please send all the prayers you've got and ask for God's blessing on our weekend together. We are excited at the possibility of working together. They will be having one other guy come in the next weekend and will then make their choice. It is nice to have an interview at this point in a churches process. San Diego was not at this point...
We are going sans kids and the Neilsons have graciously offered to take care of them. We are definitely squeezing in a movie this weekend. Maybe even two! We will return home on Monday at dinner time.

He did it!

At the beginning of this school year my son started pre-school with a low self image regarding coloring drawing and being creative. He was never interested in coloring during church and when we were at home together he would say, "You do it for me. I can't do it." It was kind of sad but what can you do?
Now he has been in school for seven months and he has transformed into a creative and willing little soul. Not only did he take the time to color something but now he even knows how to stay inside the lines! I have been really proud of him.
So, our grocery store started passing out a page covered with different Easter eggs to color as a contest. Aiden got really excited. He started coloring his paper and about an hour into it Izzy scribbled on his. He was so sad and we told him we could pick him up a new one. The next day we picked it up after school and that boy colored, with no breaks, from the moment we got home until we forced him to get in bed. He might have been forced to eat dinner, too. We turned in all the kids' art and they displayed them until after Easter. Guess who got a call saying he won second place? He was so excited! We went to the store so he could pick up his prize and he got a huge blow up turtle for the swimming pool. We blew it up as soon as we got home and he slept on it that night. We finally deflated it and are saving it for an actual swim. I am so proud and happy for the little guy!

Nose Hairs!

Prepare yourselves!

So, Ben has always been bothered with his nose hairs. He doesn't want to be able to see them! I bought him a nose hair trimmer way back in the day but to no avail. Then some friend told him how to solve the problem.

WAX!




He ordered his wax online and when it came... the fun began!
You melt the wax, stick it up your nose, and jam Q-tips inside so you can rip it out when it's dry.










1-2-3 yank!



Problem solved.











And did it work?












Yes it did!

Easter and website excitement!

This is our family on Easter. I got the girls matching dresses for the first time and Aiden got his first shirt and tie. I wasn't sure if Emma would like her dress or if Aiden would dig the tie but they were a smashing hit! Aiden knew just how handsome he looked! He has wanted to wear the tie every day since... I am definitely taking nice pictures of the three of them in their cute clothes. In case anyone didn't know, we had snow all day on Saturday! It was wacky, crazy! We couldn't have our Easter egg hunt outside... I did take pictures of some eggs sitting out in the snow but I couldn't take the time to make them look all gorgie(short for gorgeous), it was too frickin' cold! Thankfully the snow was not on the roads by Sunday morning. What would Easter be without Sunday morning church? Tara and Eric came and spent the weekend with us. We had a great time except for the burning of fingers and hands and lips and stomachs by the killer jalapeno oil when we mistakenly decided to make some poppers! I. am. never. making. those. thing. again! I still haven't touched the griddle with jalapeno oil in it. I'm too scared!

Good news, everyone. I have a website! It's not anything exciting yet except for some information about "Jen's Photography" but you can look at it if you want. Eventually all my photos will be on there and it won't look the same or anything but I'm at least excited that I got the domain I wanted. (Meaning the web address I wanted and not something random or difficult.) It's gonna cost me money to get it up so it will be a while. Maybe people will just read about it and they'll be banging down my door! It's always good to be one step closer to something. Wish me luck!

Hear the Word of the Lord...

So often we hear the greatest words come out of the mouths of our children and find ourselves saying, "I will never forget that." And last night as we gathered to sing our songs and pray together before bedtime I heard these words and held back tears.

Me- Who wants to pray first?
Izzy- I do. Dear Dog, Thank you for Mommy, thank you for daddy, thank you for Emma, thank you for Aiden, thank you for Izzy. Amen
Dad- Thanks, Izzy. Aiden, your turn.
Aiden- Now when he saw the crowds he went up on a mountain side and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them saying, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed our those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Emma- Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

How touching to hear scriptures flow out of my children's mouths when they could have as easily chosen their own words. I don't want to forget those few moments. And what a great reminder to me of how I need to pray. I want to be a family who talks
about scripture when we sit at home and when we walk along
the road, when we lie down and when we get up. I want us to
write them on our door frames and on our gates.
How else will they live in truth?
Where else will they find truth?

Hear the Word of the Lord.

Aiden's 5 and Izzy's 3!

Go Home, Lassie!

This is Minesota! This dog showed up on our back porch last week. Where did it come from? If only I knew. I called it to come outside our fence and shut it and minutes later it's back on the porch! The dog is jumping over the fence! How am I suppose to get rid of this thing? We decided, after talking to some other folks, that we would keep it in the yard for a couple days just in case someone came looking for it. Then a friend comes over and says, "Oh, yah. I saw that dog miles from here!" Fabulous! So if it did have a home, it is no where near it!
Well, Ben took off back to Abilene for a couple days so it just hung out and ate all our cats' frikin' cat food! I even bought it dog food so it wouldn't starve and it still ate their cat food! The poor cats were hissing and running up the trees and climbing the ladder to the roof. We tried to put their food on a table and the dog jumped onto the table.
The kids really wanted to keep it, of course but then it ate a pair of Izzy's tennis shoes! It chewed up a little baseball glove! It chewed up a pair of Aiden's sandles. It chewed up a cover for the outside faucet. And finally it brought a skull into the yard and chewed off it's horns! Needless to say, Ben took it "away". It was a nice dog but... not good enough!