Jesus Is Alive Day!

We celebrated a beautiful Easter this year! The weekend was too fast but was perfect! We spent the day Saturday morning relaxing at home with the kids, painting eggs and doing whatever they wanted. Those unhurried days are few and far between so we enjoyed the relaxed pace. We had planned to go to a few local and church events but decided just to "go with the flow" and not have a big planned out day. We went across town and used our Kohls coupon to get Bill some much needed Spring clothes for work and then came home to get ready for Easter Sunday. (Now yesterday I found 2 boxes of my things in the basement - summer clothes that are all ruined because the box didn't make it upstairs after we flooded to be washed......hopefully Kohls has another great sale soon! Mammas goona need some new summer clothes!)
I sang for both services so I was up at the crack of dawn. Bill dragged the kids out of their beds so I could see them open their baskets. We did the basket hunt - Ryan was adorable playing "hide and go seek" with the basket - and then I ran out the door. We had breakfast at the church and then stayed for 2nd service. God was present and both services were great with a lot of new faced there! After, we headed up to Bills moms in Whitehouse and spent the afternoon eating, egg hunting, and visiting with family. The weather was absolutely perfect and the kids got to romp around outside most of the day......it was wonderful!
Easter always makes me think that we, as Christans, could use another "symbol" in addition to the cross. Not to diminish His work of redemption at all but I've always thought that the empty tomb would be a beautiful thing to hang around our necks too. After all, many martyrs have given their lives but none have risen again! His resurrection is what gives us hope.....what sets us apart from all other beliefs.......what promises us that death has no sting! Jesus is risen! :)

Too Long

It's been way too long since I've posted and so much has been going on......let's see.....where to begin.......I started my part-time jewelry business in January and it has been going fantastically well. I did 14 home shows in March and I have 12 scheduled for this month. It's been a ton of fun and I'm making great money! :) Can't beat that!
The kids have been well. We've had some colds and Ryan's asthma acted up for a while. Bill had to have a root-canal, but other than that, no complaints!
Karissa started taking Zoomba once a week at a dance studio and she inspired me to give it a whirl. I saw a picture of myself the other day and thought, "Am I really that fat?!?!". Dang! I have got to do something. So this should be a fun way to get in some cardio. My sister Cherie is going to take with me which is good. I always need an accountability partner to make sure I stick with it.
We are very much ready for Spring! We had some beautiful weather this weekend and now today it is snowing like mad. Not funny, in my opinion! Hoping for nice weather this weekend for Easter. We're taking the kids to Monkey Jump on Friday and then hope to get over to see the amazing sand sculpture on Saturday and hit an egg hunt or 2!
We flooded again 3 weeks ago and now the insurance company has dropped our basement for coverage in the future. We have done literally everything physically possible to make sure it doesn't happen again......but I don't know if I will ever sleep well in this house when it's raining hard. We've been slow on the repairs because I've been doing Jewelry Shows 3-4 nights a week and the weekends have been jammed full too. Hopefully soon we'll get it all back together!