Hope in a bottle.

We started a new series a church today called "Message In a Bottle." It's about hope.

So a few minutes ago, I found this website called "Oceangram - Message In a Bottle". Basically you click on a bottle, type a message, then it throws the bottle out to sea and you can track it as it travels to different people in cyberspace. A fun time-waster. Anyway, the first message in a bottle I received said this:

"Whatever might be wrong in your life, don't give up. Never. As long as you're alive, there's hope."

I just thought it was neat :-)

Cinderella

Today during Father's Day service at church, Zoe got to dance during a really sweet song called Cinderella. Isn't she cute?

Who painted it?

Sunday night has become hang-out-Christie’s-house night every week. People from church truck it all the way down south to my home to have loads of fun. Sometimes we do karaoke, sometimes we play a game, and sometimes....we paint! Below is a picture of some of our paintings, and I want you to try and guess who painted each painting. I know some of you blog readers don’t know these people, but feel free to guess anway.

The artists are Christa, Jaimee, Lisa, Mandy, and me.

Everyone Overcome!

Here are some pics from our Easter presentation, "Overcome." I didn't get to take very many because there were no breaks where I could leave the stage. So some of them are from rehearsal.

The Nightmare Before Easter

It's 3:33 am. I have barely had any sleep. I went to bed at 11, expecting to sleep until 4:30. Then I was going to wake up, get ready for church, and be at rehearsal by 7.

So I went to bed, all nice and tired, and all I heard for a half hour was the neighbor's dog barking. For crying out loud. If you're going to own a dog, don't keep it outside at night and let it bark. It barked non-stop. After beeping my car horn with the keys a few times, and even yelling out the window at it, I gave up and turned our bathroom fan on, hoping to shut out the noise. It worked, and I fell asleep. Whew!

Then the dreams started. Now, usually on Saturday nights before church, I have church dreams. Since I sing on the worship team, they're usually about stuff going wrong during service, or just weird stuff happening. Sometimes they're funny :-) But not tonight. Tonight were evil nightmares that I've never had before. I kept dreaming about just evil. I can't explain it, really. And then after a few minutes, I would see this very bright, blue flash of light and then I'd wake up in a panice, feeling like I have to puke.

This happened several times. Then Craig texted me at 1am to tell me that he was stranded at his wedding in Taylor. His car was dead. The weird thing about that is I have my phone on silent while I sleep, but as soon as he texted me, I sat up in another panic and looked at my phone and it was lit up. So I called him and he reassured me that friends were on the way to help, and that he would be home soon.

I went back to sleep. The nightmares still happened, but now some of them were about Craig being stranded, bad things happening to him, and him doing bad things. Just evil crap.

He just got home, and now I'm sitting here, not wanting to even go back to sleep for that last hour. So I'm blogging until it's time to jump in the shower. Craig and the kids will have to go to church with me at 7 and sit through all 3 services now, because his car is dead.

I'm exausted, and creeped out, but I will Overcome, right ;-)

Love

Here is a picture of the new stage set we worked on last week. This is mainly for Kelly, who requested to see a picture when we were done. Hope you're reading, Kelly!

You can't tell from the picture, but the hearts are all glittery and cute. We're doing a series about Love.

Speaking of love, you know your kid loves you when he wants to dress just like you, and do everything you do, at the same time you do it.

This is a common scene in our house. Xavier loves his daddy.

Flame!

This past Sunday was Daphne's first time on the kids' worship team at church. She did so well and had so much fun. I'm so proud of her :-)

A Christmas spirit blog.

There really is no point to this blog, I guess, except to express some of my Christmas joy.

This year, I finally have the Christmas spirit. Usually at this time, I'm either sick, or poor, or stressed about something. I always stress about gift giving....who to buy for, who not to buy for, what to buy? Is it good enough? Did I spend enough? Or, why can't a get myself to bake a million cookies like most people do? I've always felt guilty about that. Blah. Oh, and the fact that I never remember to get the kids' Christmas pictures "professionally done" in time to send out with the cards. I've finally accepted that I can take pics for free and although they're not as good, they are sufficient in recording memories that I'll cherish when I'm old and they're all grown up. I'm glad I've stopped upsetting myself over the little things. That stuff isn't what Christmas is all about.

My kids are sooo excited. Every morning we get asked "Can we open ONE present today? Pleeeease?" It reminds me of being a kid again. How exciting when a new gift for me appeared under the tree! I remember constantly touching the presents, rearranging them every day. Guess who does that now? Daphne, my mini-me. It's so fun.

Although they're all excited about getting gifts, it amazes me how much they want to give, as well. They keep wrapping things up in toilet paper and garland and putting it under the tree. The other night Mandy was here, and Xavier wrapped up one of his toy cars and gave it to her. I asked him if he was sure he wanted to do that, and he was very serious about giving it to her. Then she left it here and he had a fit. Bad Mandy!

I will be sad when it's all over. You'll probably see my Christmas tree 'n stuff up until the end of January. Deal with it ;-)

Now, for a few random things.

Yesterday I was sitting here and Xavier walked up behind me and asks "Mom, is my blankie handsome?" I turned around and saw this:

For some reason I thought it was hilarious. Put a tie on, and you're immediately handsome.

This is Zoe's favorite way to watch TV, now.

I forgot to share this picture of the twinpeas singing at church before the play.

Little stinker managed to untuck his shirt before coming out on the stage. I guess untucked dress shirts are "in" with the pre-school kids.