Places to Visit

Monday, June 27, 2011

You Know You Are From A Large Family If....

I ran across these and they were so funny and true that I had to post them.

As she said,  I know it is long, but it is worth it.  I have bolded the ones that rang the closest to home for me!

You know you're from a big family if:
-There are pictures of your family in matching outfits
-You write your name on the bottom of your socks
-You go to the bathroom just to get some "alone time"
-You never say "I'm bored"
-You have valuble negotiating skills and have honed them from a very young age
-You know that just because someone says your sibling's name, it doesn't mean they're not talking to you
-You find creative ways to hide things you want to keep for yourself
-You've seen your mother walking laps around your property so she can get a few minutes of peace & quiet
-You shake your head in disbelief when you hear someone say they've never changed a diaper
-One sibling is getting on your nerves it's okay because you can just go hang out with a different one
-Strangers think that big sister is actually mom
-If you want some ice cream, you don't wait around to get some, because tomorrow it will be gone
-You wouldn't trade the fact that you have the opportunity to make a bunch of best friends that are stuck with you for life!
-You can make a pb & j sandwich in 10 seconds flat
-You go somewhere with another family, and people think it's a youth group - Note: or if you go anywhere period!
-Whenever your family goes out to eat the waiters always have to put tables together for you and when they do it is always in the back corner of the restaurant so as to keep your stereotypically rude family away from their other customers
-People continually comment that you could have a whole basketball team, or even better a baseball team
-Your mom is trying to say someone's name and she's already gone through 6 sibs' names, she probably is trying tor remember yours
-You don’t have a picture of your whole family because every time you get one taken another kid shows up
-You run out of the room when your parents look at you and say someone elses name becuase you know it means you will have to do a job when they remember your name
-You are proficient in cleaning up broken glass and ceramic and you can tell from the sound it made when it crashed whether the item dropped is fine, cracked, or broken
-You can hear a cry and tell whether the child is hurt, angry, sad or throwing a temper tantrum within 3 seconds
-You're walking around a store with little siblings and people assume they're your kids
-People compliment your parents on "how well behaved their children are...just didn't expect that with such a large group"
-You know what the "thirty second rule" is and it's importance
-You can't eat at McDonalds without breaking a fifty dollar bill
-Your family can't fit in a mini-van
-Instead of learning from your own mistakes, you learn from your siblings'
-You are the shyist person in the world, but the loudest in your family
-Other people "don't understand how your mom does it"
-Your family has paid enough overdue fines to fund the building of a new library
-Picky eaters are not tolerated because mom simply does not have the time to prepare different foods for one child
-You go looking to purchase a new appliance and the capacity is the only feature that really matters Note: for us it is the automatic ice maker!
-Everything under the sun is discussed for an hour straight around the dinner table because everyone has to put their two bits in
-You go off to college prepared to savor your independence and get so lonely for your siblings that you have to come home Note: This happens at the grocery store too!
-Your brother leans over your shoulder and corrects your grammar and spelling while you type on this site. (grrr!)
-You smile when people ask how many kids you have because you know when you answer they will repeat the number even more loudly to help themselves hear it
-You can proudly declare you are doing your part to curb human depopulation
-You go to get your picture made and the first thing the photographer says is "no, seriously"
-The invention of the wide-angled lense made your family portrait possible.
-Your mom at one point purchased different colored hangers so she could easily sort the hang-up laundy but eventually had to stop because Wal-Mart only had seven different colors to choose from
-Getting from one side of your living room to the other requires skillfully making it through an obstacle course of toys, coloring books (plus the spilled crayons), school books, extra chairs dragged in from other rooms, and small children
-You've been asked over and over if you're Mormon, Catholic or homeschooled
-You take your driver's license test in a 15 passenger van
-You move away from home, and every time you cook a meal it takes you a week to finish the leftovers
-People are constantly asking you if you are a daycare provider
-You think it is normal to grocery shop at Sam's Club
-It takes a full day to change everyones wardrobe from one season to the next and process all of the hand-me-downs
-You have your own "reserved" pew at church every Sunday
-You shared a room with no less than three people for most of your childhood
-Massive lego wars were an unforgettable part of growing up
-You don't have to go online to get a good six-man table of poker going
-You have to squeeze four people in a row of seats in your van that was only designed to hold three
-You have brothers on four different sports teams at the same time
-Your dad won't buy a snowblower because he knows he has an unlimited supply of expendable labor to shovel the driveway instead
-You're 28 and you still have a few siblings under 6th grade
-You're closer in age to your mother than you are to your youngest brother

Enjoy!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Attitude is Everything


There once was  a woman who woke up one morning,
looked in  the mirror,
and noticed she had only three  hairs on her head.
'Well,' she said, 'I  think I'll braid my hair today.'
So she did and she  had a wonderful day.

The next day she  woke up,
looked in the mirror
and saw that  she had only two hairs on her head.
'H-M-M,'  she said,
'I think I'll part my hair down  the middle today.'
So she did and she had a  grand day.

The next day she  woke up,
looked in the mirror and noticed 
that she had only one hair on her head. 
'Well,' she said, 'today I'm going
to  wear my hair in a pony tail.'
So she did, and  she had a fun, fun day. 

The next day she  woke up,
looked in the mirror and noticed 
that there wasn't a single hair on her head. 
'YAY!' she exclaimed.
'I don't have to  fix my hair today!'

Attitude is  everything.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

To Be A Daddy



To be a Daddy, is to be a special man. A man set apart by God to raise children.

To raise sons to be men of God.
To raise daughters to be women of God.

To be an example to your sons on the proper care and love of a wife.
How to be a husband and father.

To pray for your children, even when they don't know you do.
To love your children, even though they don't always deserve it.
To guide your children, even when the road is hard and you can't see in front of you.

To bring laughter, hope, love, caring, and sensitivity into a house.

To love the woman who raises your children 24/7.

This is who a Daddy is. A man set apart by God.

I want to wish my Daddy Happy Father's Day today.

But, I also want to remember Mr. Lee who was a wonderful Godly Father as well.

Happy Father's Day!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Another fun day of filming!







Okay, Fine... We Faked It!!!!



Yes, Rachel looks really professional right now - filming her voice-over. The headset, the microphone, the script.

Not really.

We faked it!!!! Our sound is not A-OK if we use the microphone, so we use the camera. But we wanted to look like we know what we are doing... so we faked it!!!

Sorry! :)

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Monday, June 13, 2011

Filming with Three Sweet Girls


The Sweet Simplicity of Lemonade and Animal Crackers






Sunshine, Pools, Cool Water, Lemonade, Animal Crackers, Smiles, and Play Time


Monday, June 6, 2011

Real Men

Real Men are the ones that cry and do not hide their tears.

Real Men are the ones that dig a trapped family from the rubble and stay with them through hours of terror and pain.

Real Men are the ones that walked the dark road, trying, trying, and trying again to get to the families that mean so much to them.

Real Men are the ones that cut tree after tree after tree knowing that they had to reach the people in need.

Real Men are the Boys who became Men on that Wednesday night.

Real Men are the ones who lifted children from beneath a crushed house.

Real Men are the ones who used their bodies to shelter their families.

Real Men are the ones who lifted up prayers to the Lord - some as they took their last breath.

Real Men are the ones who never gave up... they had to get down the road.

Real Men are the ones who tried again and again to get into the valley.

Real Men are the ones that put aside their own wants and needs to slave in the sun and put treasures into boxes for a family in need.

Real Men are the ones who inspire their sons to be like them.

Real Men are the ones who inspire their daughters to marry Men like them.

The Film Festival


We are now accepting entries to the Plants and Pillars Film Festival of 2011!!!!

Prizes, Food, Fellowship, Awards for Everyone!!! If you enter before June 20th you save $5.00!!!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Overcoming the Fear of Serving




Overcoming the fear of serving? That seems like a strange title doesn't it? Who fears serving? I love to cook and held babies. Sure, maybe dishwashing and changing diapers isn’t my favorite thing to do, but I don’t fear it!!! Well, lately I have been challenged that I fear getting out of my comfort zone. I fear serving others that I don’t know, who are different from me, and getting into a situation that is hard and sad.

When you’re at home, comfortable and happy, it is hard to get excited about serving other people. Yeah sure, you’ll take a new mother a meal and you will serve your friends in countless other ways. But, it is hard to get excited about serving other people you don’t know. To go into a situation that you have been. To die to yourself and get out there.

I am sure many of you have heard of the Tom Lee family and the tornado that took their home and father. We love the Lee family. Emily is our piano teacher and we live about 20 minutes away from them. While we did not lose anything in the storm, their home collapsed on top of them and their father was killed. And the night of Wednesday April 29th 2011 will forever be engraved on my memory.

All I knew about tornados, I got from books and the internet. Pictures of houses flattened and trees down. Pictures of people searching through rubble. That was it. No emotional attachment. Just a thought, “those poor people”. No more.

But, when you have driven down the actual road, the road you used to drive on every Sunday, and you see the destruction. When you get lost because all the houses and familiar land marks are gone. When you see the countless crosses beside piles of rubble. When you know that that dark and rainy night, the smell of death and sadness; loss and despair; fear and confusion filled the air. When you know that your dad and many others struggled to get to people we couldn’t contact. When you watch your dad cry as he talks about moving a father’s body. When you wash their clothes and see the tears of friend’s faces. And when you walk the kitchen floor you loved to sit on, except now it has no walls and it covered with dirt.

Then, does the Lord truly open your hearts to the people suffering all over the world. Then do you see the people in the pictures with new understanding. You see families who are searching for a picture of their father. Or the set of dishes their mother loved. You see the children who just want their “softies”. And you know that the people in the photos have faces and lives.

The Lord helped me overcome some of my fear of the unknown in serving others. It is hard. It is sad. No one said it is easy. It is scary. Death, despair, and sadness are not happy things. But the Lord calls us to serve his people. To the ends of the earth. I personally don’t know how and when I will serve out of my comfort zone, but I welcome the opportunity to be challenged.