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!

Tear Soup: A book about grief

Here it is. What you've all been waiting for (besides that Taco Soup recipe). (You might want to grab a tissue.)

Tear Soup is a story of a woman named Grandy who faced a loss by setting out to make her own tear soup. Most people these days went straight for "soup in a can" but Grandy had tasted someone else's tear soup after a great loss and decided that quicker wasn't always better.

She new she needed a large pot. One that had room for all the memories, all the misgivings, all the feelings and all the tears needed to stew in the pot over time. She put her apron on because she new it would get messy. People feel misunderstood, feelings get hurt and wrong assumptions are made all over the place. The hard thing is grief always takes longer to cook than anyone wants it to.

First Grandy would cry, then sob, then sometimes weep quietly. Even some wailing if no one was around. Unfortunately Grandy new that she would have to make most of the soup alone. Most people just wouldn't be comfortable with how many tears the recipe called for this time. She wold just look into her pot of memories knowing she would repeat this task many times during the next few months.

She made many trips to the pot to stir in precious memories and not so precious ones until, eventually, she ran out of things to add. There were no words to describe her pain. She would look out the window and see the world moving on around her. So many would try to comfort her with different things but all she needed was a hug. Sometimes she would have folks hurry past pretending not to notice she had tear soup brewing. Most could only handle a little sample of her tear soup. The giant bowls, where she could repeatedly share her sadness, were left for a few willing friends.

Grandy did find some comforting things. There was a friend that was willing to stay around through it all and just listen. Sometimes she added some comfort foods to her pot just to get past the lump in her throat.

Even thought Grandy was mad at God, she trusted God. sometimes she would yell at him and ask questions like "why?" but she kept reminding herself to be thankful for all her emotions.

Grandy and her husband did not make their soup the same way. Grandy thought his should be a little sweeter but he disagreed. He often ate his soup alone.

Some were impatient about Grandy finishing her soup. Some of Grandy's friends had not tended to their pots of soup and they boiled over and scorched. It took them a long time to clean up their messes and start over and some of their houses still smell a little like burnt soup.

Sometimes Grandy would take a break from her soup making. She found new friends who were making their own pot and they became a comfort to Grandy. One of the hardest parts was deciding that she might be able to eat something other than tear soup all the time. Eventually the hardest part of making tear soup ended and she was able to stick it in the freezer and pull it out from time to time to have a little taste.

Grandy learned that, just like soup, grief changes the longer it simmers and the more things you put into it. She also learned that there is something down deep within all of us ready to help us survive the things we think we can't survive.


This book has even more good morsels in it that can only come from reading it. You can find it on Amazon but it is a little expensive... It gave me so much insight into the grief process that I am going through and so many people around me. I am grateful for my parents who gave us this book. It's always good to feel loved and thought about!


Tear Soup is written by Pat Schwiebert and Chuck DeKlyen

Check out my Slide Show!

Single Tear

Let me start by saying I've noticed that I am a bit more emotional at the moment but this evening my children brought forth deep emotions in me at the dinner table.

We visited the Langfords this weekend and got to see baby Noah. He is adorable and looks like his big brother. When I think of the Langfords, I almost immediately think of Taco Soup! So yesterday I was determined to make Taco soup even though it's not as fun for me to make good dinners when Ben isn't home.

I don't give my children meal options. If they want their stomachs filled they will have to fill it with whatever I choose to make! Guess what they got last night! We always hear the same questions. "Are there onions in this?" "Are there tomatoes in this?" "What's the green stuff?" And there's more... So, Aiden says,"Are there tomatoes in this?" I say, "Nope!" (There are!) They say,"This looks like a tomato." I say,"It's called Rotel." Emma says,"It 's a kind of vegetable, Aiden." Sounds good to me!

So we put cheese on top and we stir in some sour cream and smash chips over it and I say,"Eat up!" With no complaining, they take their first bite which is an accomplishment in itself! They take more bites. Aiden, my slow and lazy eater, takes a bite after bite after bite. And in between bites he's saying, "Who made this?" (They ask that every meal.) and "This is so good!" and "Mom, I love this!" and "Mom, you should make this for every meal!" and you know what? I was so overwhelmed by there appreciation that I cried. Tears welled up in my eyes and a single tear came down my cheek. It was touching... Maybe if you come over, I'll make you some Taco Soup, too!

A treasury of sayings...

Get ready folks. This is great material! Kids say the funniest, cutest and most random things. This first bit is what he wanted to write to his teacher who moved away last week.
"I love you. Please have a good day moving. And I'll send you a love card. And I hope you like our present we have for you and I hope you'll love me, too. Love, Aiden"

The next series of quotes is within a ten minute time frame two nights ago. My children were sitting at the table having homemade choc. chip cookies and milk. Izzy had water. Aiden and Emma had been dipping their cookies and eating them when Aiden appears overwhelmed and says,"I gotta take a drink! I get teared out! It means I need to eat lunch..."

Random but it's so true I wrote it down to preserve it!

The next begins with Izzy.
Izzy:Mom, take my lid off. I want to dip my cookie, too!
Aiden:You can't dip your cookie in water, Izzy. It will melt!
Izzy:It will melt in your milk, too!
Aiden:See, Izzy, the milk gets it's power from the chocolate chip and the cookie...
Emma:It's nice that you think that, Aiden, but it's not really true. That was neat, but it's not true...

Then we head directly to the bathroom to brush teeth before bed and I catch Aiden trying to get a drink in the bathroom with his hands. He does not need one more thing to drink before bedtime! So I say,"Son! You don't need more to drink!"
And he yells,"It helps me to concentrate!"

I don't believe I can sum life up any better than that...

What to eat, what to eat...

So, my family and I have started trying to eat healthier. A lot healthier than I've ever tried to eat! This info is just a snipit of the vast amount of information I have ascertained to this point. We call it Traffic Light Eating which is taken from a book called Eat Healthy Feel Great by Dr. William Sears. These are easy guidelines to help our kids know what kinds of food help our body and what kinds don't!

Green-Light Foods are as follows:
Fruits and vegetables
vegetable oils(olive and flax)
legumes/beans
nuts and seeds
whole grains and sprouted grains
pasta
fish or meat and poultry(no nitrates)
homemade soups
soy products, tofu(Non-GMO)
eggs (cage-free/no hormones)
organic dairy products
healthy treats(not hydrogenated)
*These foods are okay any time.

Yellow-Light Foods are okay to eat on occasion. They are as follows:
(*Without harmful additives!)
*pies and cakes
*white bread
*candy
*cookies, pastries
*frozen yogurt
*fruit drinks
*canned soups
*sodas
butter
fast foods(some!)

Red-Light Foods have no nutritional value and are not good for your health. Take heed:
hot dogs(most)
nitrate-containing meats and cold cuts
packaged foods w/ hydrogenated oils
pre-packaged foods(lunchables)
marshmallows
punches and drinks with added colorings
fast foods fried in hydrogenated oils
cotton candy
doughnuts
crushed ice drinks and diet sodas

If you can hang on just a bit longer I have some generic guidelines for choosing good foods.
Read labels. If you can't actually purchase some of the things in that ingredient list, don't buy it.
If you can make it, don't buy it.
Smart words:whole wheat/grains, unrefined, no hormones, organic, free range, residue free, and the American Heart Association, Smart Choices and Olympic Labels
Low fat usually means more sugar.
Think nutrient rich, not calorie dense.
Cokes, sugar, and processed foods need to be a "treat" not a habit.
Stay away from enriched flour. All the nutritional value has been stripped.
Stay away from partially hydrogenated oils or shortening, otherwise known as transfats.
The less processing, the better for you.
White flour, white sugar have been processed and bleached to become white.
Use real maple syrup and unsweetened honey instead of processed alternatives.
Instead of fruits and vegetables loaded and covered with chemicals and additives look for organic fruits and vegetables

You can find organic, whole grain, and transfat free foods at Walmart and other regular grocery stores. I could go on and on. Sorry it's so freaking long but hopefully it didn't take too long to read.


Did you know that cancer feeds on sugar? We don't know why everyone's getting it but we can eat differently to slow down what seems inevitable...

18 to 36 months

So, I have to admit that there is an age that is my favorite age. Not a favorite age for me personally but in my children and others'. It's from about18 months to about 3 yrs old. It's during that time that they're learning so much verbally and they end up saying the cutest, most unexpected things and I just want to eat them up.

It's all about to end. In one month my 2 yr old turns three. Don't get me wrong, all of my children are very cute and they still say cute things but it's during that particular time that they learn all those words that at the age of 7 they still say wrong. Emma still says "bemember" and Aiden still says "renember" and it's all from being 2 yrs old. I love hearing Izzy's scratchy little voice say, "Yer da best, mom!" It was at two that Emma still said, "I wanna fatch(watch) a mooee(movie)." She also said,"Mommy, fwah" all the time and it took me forever to realize that it meant, "Mommy, look" or "Mommy, watch"... It was also at two that Aiden did his well known "funny man" which means he holds his hands out, fingers spread, teeth showing and shakes, on purpose. He would do it on command. He also loved food and even though he really wanted candy he found that grandma would be more inclined to deliver if he simply asked for a snack... "Just one," he'd say. How can you resist that? Just one, that's all! Then it transformed to, "Just two." One was definitely not enough! It's at that age that they say, "I wanna hold you." They don't really want to hold ME, I'm sure! It's also at the age of two that they like watching the same movie over and over and over for an entire month! (Or at least an entire week!)

Let's take Ella Metcalf as an example. At two it was, and maybe still is, the most meaningful thoughtful and caring thing to have one's tears wiped away. Whenever she was balling she would beg for a tissue to wipe away her tears. And to show how important it was to her, when Izzy would cry, Ella would run to the bathroom and come back with a tissue and wipe her tears. Isn't that what anyone would do? It was at that cute age that she called me "Gin" and Izzy's name went from "Eesee" to "Eesabeyel"(There's a Texan accent in there). It was also the same age that half way into watching a movie with the Metcalfs someone would notice that Ella was sitting quietly at the end of the hallway. She needed not make a peep, knowing she was still awake was sufficient for her.

Ya know, it's at two that they decide what they want to be when they grow up. They're filled with aspirations of the future. I remember when Aiden said he wanted to be a mermaid and a fire truck. And just last month Izzy decided that she wanted to be a snowman when she grew up.

I know so much lies ahead, but oh, what a time we had. Now we move on to the days of homework and bike rides and sleep overs. We work on saying "something" instead of "sumping." And they realize, "Maybe I don't want to be a snowman when I grow up."

The T.V. God

Life is great right now. Can anyone agree with me? I have at least one show to watch 5 out of 7 days of the week! Look at all these shows! And you'll have to agree with me when I say that Summers can be disappointing! Forced to think on my own and get off the couch. Hey, maybe THAT'S when I'll start exercising again! (By the way, I don't think I've ever spelled exercise correctly when adding an "ing". Figure that one out!I like more of an "excersize". See my problem?)

Anyways, what shows do you watch?

Another Tragedy

Yes, folks something else occured today that left us empty. Well, left our yard empty. Well, in one particular area, at least.

The wind was blowing hard. Real hard.

I was coming back into the safety of my home when my husband pointed out something very sad.

Our pool was heading for Comanche...

Here you can see the poor girl plastered against the fence off in the distance.

Maybe we can rescue her.

I hope we can get to her in time!

Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!

,m yyyyyyyyyy6 (typed by the cat that jumped onto the keyboard)

Let me talk about my cats for a moment. We have two now. One died a while ago. If I've said any of this before just pretend I didn't and act like it's all new and exciting! We have Stripers (grey and black and fluffy) and Suzie (black, not fluffy). When we got them each child had "their own" and Aiden desperately wanted Stripers to be a boy. "Can't we just pretend it's a boy?" he'd plead. Nevertheless, Stripers remained a girl. Suzie, on the other hand, not so much... Let me explain. When our neighbors gave us the cats he told us they were all girls. He was wrong. Emma had a friend over last month and her mother was over. She said," You know Suzie's a boy, right?" Of course I didn't know Suzie was a boy. Do you think I would have named Suzie Suzie if she didn't have Suzie parts? We were paranoid about a kitten population before that let alone actually having a male and a female! Veterinarian clinic, here I come! It's kind of tricky deciding whether or not to spend money on outdoor cats like this because who knows when they'll get run over or eaten by wild animals. It could be a real waste of money! But, the fact is that these cats our great. They're kind and fun and they play all over the yard, running up trees to the tip top and things of that nature. They like us and they try to hop in our car with us. They try to get in the house and they hang on the screen doors and windows looking in at us to say "hi". It's funny. We decided, they're worth it and so is not having to buy loads of cat food for a million kittens.

It's done. Their kitten makers have been removed or cut out or broken or whatever they do! The tricky thing is they're required to stay in the house for ten days. Are they going to climb up my shower curtain? Are they going to pee on my clean clothes like Ben's cats always did growing up? After talking to others around here I came to my own conclusion that they can go outside but for a minimal amount of time. They just have to stay clean and dry. The trick will come when it starts to rain. Will they use the litter box? Will they get stir crazy? I hate litter boxes. That's why I like outdoor cats!

So far we get clawed a bit more than we used to, not out of dislike, just a stretch here and there or a foot swipe underneath the dinner table. They lay around in the warm house absorbing the soft couch and the cozy beds. After I felt a swipe on my lip as I was falling asleep last night I decided to shut all our bedroom doors to prevent any problems or startling claws in the face. I still like our cats but I will be delighted when they can stay outside to their hearts content. I might even let them in the house once in a while... But I haven't talked to the husband about that yet, so...