Happy 2nd Birthday, Carena!

Today I had the privilege of sharing Carena's 2nd birthday with Debbie, Julie, and Erika.

We went to lunch at El Maguey's and then visited the K4T office. El Maguey's is a Mexican restaurant that serves "authentic" Mexican style food. Because most of the staff at the restaurant are Mexican and speak Spanish we thought this was appropriate for Carena's birthday. The staff made a fuss over both girls...they just loved them. I asked if they would sing Happy Birthday to Carena in Spanish since she speaks both English and Spanish, and he said sure. He later came back and said that the ladies who do a good job singing the birthday song were on break and instead of singing they wanted to give Carena fried icecream that would be large enough for all of us to enjoy. Sure enough they showed up with a huge fried icecream sundie. So we sang Happy Birthday to Carena and had a great time.

Then we took Debbie and Carena over to the K4T office. Carena was so cute when she saw all the K4T books and said "I need a book." So...we gave her level 1 book A. She was so proud to have her own K4T TruthBook, and Debbie was thrilled to be able to start her in the K4T curriculum. Later, when we got back to Grandpa and Grandma's house I showed Debbie how to get lesson plans and coloring sheets to go along with Carena's TruthBook.

Happy Birthday, Carena. We praise the Lord that God has placed you in our family. May God richly bless you with understanding of His Word, and may you come to know Him early in life and serve Him with your life.

Castle Making

Andrew and I had a good time tonight building a castle. I thought you might enjoy seeing the project.

One of the assignments for 7th grade history class is to do a project. Peter choose to make a flan when he was in 7th grade, but Andrew choose to make this castle. Although the directions said to make the castle from cardboard, the teacher told Andrew he could use styrophome. So...of course, Although Andrew started the project a month ago...he never finished and we had it to do tonight...so he and I spent a quality time filled evening on the kitchen floor, cutting, hot gluing, and then finally he painted it on the front porch in the rain with Rusty.

All in all I think it turned out pretty good.

Travel with Care...see you in 2.5 weeks!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with all of our children (even Paul!); Dad & Mom Raymer; Dave & Jen and Crystal, Jarid, Lynnae, Craig; and Russell, Debbie, and Carena! It was great to eat, relax, play games, and just visit together on Thursday.

Friday, Paul, Timothy, and I along with Alyssa and Peter had our traditional "After Thanksgiving Shopping Trip." We hit the "techie" stores like Office Max and Circuit City...along with a camera shop, and several other stores. I heard it said several times and I agree the sales and specials were not as good as in years past...and thankfully, my checkbook agrees! as I didn't purchase much this year.

Saturday was a busy day...running errands, cleaning house, sorting old clothes, and working on wedding plans with Sarah and Bob. It was a good day with much accomplished.

Today was a normal Sunday with church services and family time.

Paul's ride decided to leave tonight instead of tomorrow morning, so we received a call around 10:00ish asking for Paul. He was out at a college/career SS class party and hurried home. They wanted to leave the church at 11:15 tonight instead of 6:15 tomorrow morning. Thankfully, I had told Paul to pack before church and he had done it with the exception of the last load of clothes in the dryer...so he had time to change and get things together and be up at the church by 11:15. They pulled out of the parking lot at 11:20!

So...if you think of it, please pray for the guys as the travel through the night and tomorrow. Wade says that he will definitely let others drive on the way back:-)

And...one last time...I will say thank you to both Paul and Wade for my special Thanksgiving Surprise gift. I loved being able to visit with Paul in person and to have our traditional Thanksgiving time together.

Thanksgiving Surprise!

I went to bed on Tuesday evening suffering from the start of a mild flu bug...I awoke on Wednesday still feeling ill and having suffered from a headache all night, and told Rusty he would need to get the kids off for school and promptly took 4 ibuprofrin and a migraine tablet and headed back to bed. As Rusty began getting up and ready I heard the front door open and wondered who was going outside...I heard the door again and decided to get up and check it out.

As I walked down the hall I saw Timothy say something to someone who ducked into the kitchen. Thinking that Jarid had dropped by after work (knowing he was to come over before noon I thought maybe he wanted to see Tim before school) I walked into the kitchen to say hello...and was greeted by PAUL!

Yes, Paul totally surprised us all by planning to come home for Thanksgiving. The only person in the family he told was Timothy...and that was to make sure he let him into the house and had his bed cleaned off!

It has been wonderful to enjoy talking with Paul and having him home for a few days. (well, 2 so far.) He returns to school on Monday, but it has been great to see him.

Oh yes, much to the disagreement of others...I will not believe that BJU food is as bad as it sounds....Paul seems to be picking up weight just fine on it! I think he has also grown taller by a couple inches!

Welcome Home Paul! Thank you for the great surprise! I will enjoy our traditional after thanksgiving shopping trip in the morning.

WOW! what a difference!

Here it is...

We still have a few details to finish like triming the roofline, lights, numbers, aweing, and sign...but the building looks totally different from what it did on Monday.

Dated to WOW!

It has been some time since I have updated you about Kids 4 Truth and my family. The main reason is because we have been extremely busy with the start of the curriculum year. We praise the Lord for the many new churches who have decided to begin using Kids 4 Truth.

The second reason...I have been helping Bob and Sarah with wedding plans:-) I really appreciate their allowing me to help. Read about their special engagement day at: http://www.kids4truth.com/bobsblog/A+Really+Really+Really+BIG+Personal+Announcement.aspx.

However, it is time to give you an update of what is going on around the K4T office. So, with great praise to the Lord we share how our building is going from dated to WOW! We are told that the refacing work will be completed tomorrow. After that we add the aweing, sign, address numbers, and mailbox. Praise the Lord for the way He has directed in not only giving us this new office building to rent, but also making it look so spectacular! Please rejoice and give praise to God with us. I will post another photo this weekend so you can see the completion of the refacing.