all stuffed up......

I've had a cold, cough, stuffy head for I don't know how long now.  My main problem is my ears are closed.
it really makes me nuts not to be able to here well.  Yesterday I didn't even hear my alarm go off.  Now that's unusual for me.  At the advice from a co-worker I am taking Claritin D.  Third day on it not much change.  I keep waiting to here those crackly noises in your ear when things start opening up.  I'm scheduled to sing on Sunday not sure if I will be able to.  But I'm not ready to call in the reinforcements just yet.  Track meets will be starting next week for Bri.  And Bella is already having softball scrimmages.  Looking forward to watching them both.  Edwin found a car for Noah.  Noah's car is not worth fixing anymore so it was time for another one.  He has a nice smaller med. size car now. It's an Olds Alero burgundy color.  He'll have to get the sticker off that's on the back window though.  It says Carolina girl.  Hehe!  Rico is turned into the hugging maniac.  If you thought he hugged a lot before it's so much more now.  He hugs me long.  It's a nice hug though although most times I have to say okay Rico that's enough.  Next hug I'm going to let him hug me as long as he wants and time it.  My sweet Rico.  

Christ Is Risen By Matt Maher with lyrics

a little r&r

Just got back from a little time away at a ladies only care group retreat.  Our care group (the sensenigs) and the Minich care group got together Friday to Saturday at a beautiful cabin in the mountains.  We played games, made candles, had an extended quiet time, and ate.  A big thank you to Sue and Karla for taking such good care of us while we were there.  It was so good to connect with ladies I haven't got to talk with for a while and also to meet two wonderful ladies Krista and Kate.  It did my heart good to have some time away with a great group of ladies.  As we shared around the dinner table what God had spoke to us or what had been a highlight for each lady while there it was so good to hear of God's great grace revealed to each woman there.  I wish I had pictures to share but I forgot my camera. 

Eagles Wild Card Game

Beach 2010

Ocean City MD. 2010

We finally made it to the beach this year.  We went for 3 days.  It was so nice being able to see and hear the ocean from our room.  Edwin worked hard at a side job to make this trip happen.  God bless him.

Bri's baptism

A few words.......

Getting ready............

Old person gone........

New life in Christ........

I wish these pictures were clearer. Watching Bri get baptized was so wonderful. She was so excited and it was so neat to see her excitement as she was getting baptised. Praise God for the work he is doing in her life.

Zinnia's

Nothing like a bouquet to brighten your home.













I have had this glass flower holder or whatever you want to call it for a long time and never used it.
Finally remembered and got it out and used it.
I love it.

Elijah's first lost tooth

The g-kids have been with us since Monday and they will be going home today. Right before they came Elijah lost his first tooth. =)

My garden......

My birdhouse

I am so excited to have my birdhouse up.  My Mom had bought it for me quite a while ago and it's been sitting in my dining room.  Mom hooked me up and got her Amish friend to come put it up for me.  I really really enjoy looking out my window and seeing it.  Hopefully the birdies will come and enjoy it too.  The birds sitting on it are not real Purple Marlins.  Mom got me them for me to it's supposed to draw them in but I hear it's very hard to get them to come to your bird house. I'll have to read up on that.  I know the Amish love them. I think it's because of the amount of bugs they eat.

Soon to be fixed

Sorry once again for the problem with the pictures.  The problem is not with your PC.  I thought I had my picture problem fixed but NO.  But it's almost fixed and pictures should start showing up by tomorrow some time.  Yeah!  So yesterday I went out for lunch with Carol L.  We went to Cafe 2400 at Double Tree.  What a very nice place. It's fun to pretend you are traveling some where when I go to a place like that.  We sat in the cafe for about 3 hours Ha! Then sat out in the lobby for a bit more.  Then sat in my driveway for a bit more. =)
Anyway the cafe is so nice and the food was great.  I think they have a coupon Edwin said in the clipper for dinner for two there.  You can see there menus online just put the name in the search bar and you will find it.
The prices are a bit higher then your average cafe but it's a cool place.  Average lunch 8 to 11 bucks.  I had a  great grilled turkey sandwich with fries and coffee for 10 bucks. Carol had a quasedilla with fries and coffee for a buck more.  The portions were big.  Coffee was really good and they served it in a beautiful silver pitcher type thing. And left it on the table for us.  It's the little things that make life fun.  =)

Walking

Hey all.  I had my blood word done last week and then this past week I had my check up at the doc.  He was pleased with all my numbers for my cholesterol and I was too.  Total cholesterol is 180.  My good cholesterol is 53 which is up 13 points in to the good number now last time he wasn't pleased with that number and the only thing that I did different was I started taking Carlson's fish oil.  I stared taking it because my sister Janie's doctor told her to start taking it for her heart problems.  So I'm going to keep taking it.  My sugar is still climbing.  Blah!
That was my only bad report.  But it's a big one.  He was going to put me on more meds but I said can we hold off I said I wanted to start walking and see if that makes a difference.  So he said okay and I will go back in 3 months to have it checked again.  So I'm trying not to eat late at night and walk and see what that does and try to eat better doing the day. 
Rico got new glasses he looks very nice in them.  Found out for the last year his perscription for his glasses was all wrong.  Found this out cause I went to a new doctor.  I had a feeling something wasn't right so I initiated going somewhere else. Turns out I was right.  He has a bad stigmatision in his one eye.  So he has bifocals now.  Also in October he is scheduled to have an outpatient surgery to correct his eyes from turning in.  The doctor said that should help in a lot in normal life.  Right now only his one eye is focusing at a time they aren't working together.  I'm glad for my new doctor. 

7/16 Friday 94 degrees

Just finished my black raspberry icecream with pretzel sticks it was satisfying.
So I have widdled down my reader list to only 4 people so if you are reading this you guessed it you are part of the coffee time group and are one of the select few that is going to experience the Miranda Experience. I decided to do something a bit different with this blog for now. I am going to write some of my deeper thoughts. I hope I don't regret it. Lately when I have shared deeper thoughts I usually do regret it. And why is that I think it's probably my pride. Afraid of how it made me look or sometimes it's just that my thoughts change so quickly at times that I don't want people to think I still feel a certain way.
It's like this. There have been a lot of alter calls lately at church some lately about having faith and if you don't have it come get prayed for. Well, Sunday mornings I usually feel fine I'm not feeling without faith cause I'm able to worship and usually during worship I'm feeling just fine cause I'm focusing on God. But ask me any day during the week and you will here a different story most of the time. Why because I'm not focusing on God I am only looking at my circumstance and the circumstance looks so bleak. So yes I am struggling with faith here at home.
Next thing. I just finished reading Grace's post on the church blog and I feel discouraged. Why? Because when there is talk of how wonderful relations are between the pastors wives it makes me realize again how much I do not know them aside from you Cynthia. Here's the thing I think we are really missing something here with the pastors wives. We don't get to hear from them very often to experience the wisdom and faith building things they have to say. We used to have ladies meetings and I really benefited from them not to mention those teachings would help you to get to know your pastors wives but more then that it helped us get to know each other more especially ladies you may not get to know any other way. I know we cannot all know our pastors wives cause that would be spreading them to thin but through ladies meetings we could get a window into there lives. I have asked some of the pastors about ladies meetings but have gotten no answer. I don't know why? Time is just going by more and more it's been like 5 years already that nothing is happening with the ladies. I try to trust these men with making the right choices for what our church needs. But right now it feels like a man's world here at Crossway. Yes, I do pray about it. This feeling in my heart has been here for years and it's not going anywhere. So what do you do with that? Do you keep asking the pastors for what you want or do you just say let it go? I know my father in heaven knows what I need but I know to he uses each of us to spur one another on in good deeds.
Tell me your thoughts ladies.

much love
me

For you Cynthia.......=)

Still haven't figured out the pic situation but I can still write without them.
This past weekend I had the girls basketball games on Friday. Bella's team won. It's almost like they can't lose. When it looked like they would suffer there 3rd loss in 2 seasons they came from behind and won. Bri's team didn't fair so well they lost by a lot. Also Friday night was Parent Night at Bri's game. It's just a time where the varsity parents come out on the court to greet there daughter and she gives us a flower. And then there is a nice poem recited about all the work that is put into them playing. After the games I went to an overnighter with my Fab 5 friends. I had a late dinner with them and then chatted watched a little tv fell asleep woke up and went to bed. Talked more the next day and watched two movies. Went home around 4. It was fun.
Sunday night went to the Family Meeting. As I was sitting there I was running through my mind all the memories that were made there most of them good. One really bad one. Whenever we have a family meeting I prepare myself for the worse. I guess I associate these meetings with a Big oh no announcement. I sit there and think about all the possible bad things they could announce. Yep that's me always waiting for the other shoe to drop as they say. Anyway it's another week starting which means 5 basketball games to go to. I do like watching my girls. Alright enough for now.

technical problems

See I decide to start blogging again and then things set me back. Technical things. Picasa won't let me upload anymore pics for my blog cause they want me to BUY more storage space. Well, I ain't doing that so I have to find someone who can help me figure something else out with my pics. I'm bummed cause I have some really good ones to post for ya. So anyway on to my life.
Yesterday was my Mom's 80th birthday. I can't really believe she is 80 she doesn't seem like it. She's still working everyday and enjoying it. It keeps her young. Mom wanted to make us dinner. Doesn't seem right does it her making us dinner on her birthday but that's how she is. She enjoys cooking so we let her. =) She kept it simple. Made a few of our favorites. Pork tenderloin and chicken, mashed taters, green beans with cheese on them. Then we had another little party later as we waited for the Eagles game to start. Which the Eagles lost against the Cowboys. That can really get me mad. I hate losing to the Cowboys. Anyways......
Saturday we had Edwin's birthday dinner. Made him rice and beans and chicken. It turned out soooo good. Then we had icecream sundaes for dessert. We were all here including Erika and the g-kids. My goodness those kids are cute. We had them overnight and took them to church and then along with us to Mom's and then Erika came after work. I'm thinking it would be nice to start bringing the kids to church with us. They really like it. Maybe we should take advantage of that.
We'll see. Maybe not all the time but more regularly.

Rico

Here is the ever fashionable Rico. At the girls softball game I found him like this. He picked up one of the players glasses and tried them on. Not bad.
Rico started working Monday and Tuesdays at Goodwill. Last report he is doing very well with putting CD cases together. He seems to enjoy it. He has his own ID card now it looks just like a license and he also has his own access card to get into his job. Pretty professional he is.
He still really likes Barney although he likes other more grown up things as well. We had his senior pictures taken and we will be picking them up soon. He looks very handsome and so much older in the pics. He continues to be very socialable at school and sits all over the place with whoever he chooses at lunch at his school. So all in all Rico is doing well.

Chicken and Dumplings

 

Yesterday I was watching "Tyler's Ultimate". Tyler Florence is a chef on the "Food Network" channel. This time he made The Ultimate Chicken and Dumplings. I decided to give it a try. I printed out the recipe and got to work.
I had a fun time making this meal. Number one I was hungry for something soupy because of this rain. And number two we had no plans for the evening and knew I could take my time makeing this recipe. The meal turned out wonderfully and everyone liked it a lot. Now it's always fun when you make something new and everyone likes it that's no small thing around here pleasing everyone. We sat down to eat and I looked at my plate and thought I need to take a picture of this. The kids laughed at me. I said hey when you guys do something fab you like to take pics of it and it's the same with me. So here it is. And by the way did you miss me? I wonder how long it will take for someone to check my blog and see I actually update. Whoever stops by please leave me a note. =)

Freeman picnic........

Okay wow I got lost there for a long time so long that I almost forgot how to get on my Miranda Experience website. But no fears it all came back to me. Below is some pics of a great picnic we had with some great friends. I've been wanting to hang out with the Freeman's for a while I really wanted to use there brick outdoor barbecue but that didn't happen they need to do work on that. So we settled for a barbecue normal style. Enjoy the pics.

Basketball 09

From Basketball 09

The girls basketball season has come to a close. Bella's team went undefeated this year 16-0. Pretty cool. Bri's team came out pretty strong the first half but struggled the last half of the season. These pictures are of the last game of the season against Manheim Central. We've also been spending a lot of time watching the J.V. and Varsity High School girls play. The Varisty girls went undefeated as well in there divisional play. So they won there section title now it's on to the LL league playoffs. I know some of these pics won't be of interest to you but I just wanted to show you how we have been spending some of our time this past season.

Work outside the home?

So I've been thinking about something for awhile. It has to do with working outside of the home. Thinking back to when I was first married and Edwin and I started a family we decided that I would quit my job and be a stay at home mom. It would require sacrifices but it would be worth it. We were taught through many good teachings that staying at home and raising your family and caring for your home was a wonderful high calling. Of course I wanted that for my family. I wanted to be there for my children.
When my children were old enough I home schooled them. I home schooled our oldest daughter all the way through to graduation. Then I home schooled my son till 4th grade. But after a lot of counseling and talking things though with my husband and others we felt the timing was right to enroll our younger children in public school. We weren't the only ones to have our children enrolled in school there were others in our church who went that route too. Then you started to see more and more ladies getting jobs outside there homes at church. And then after 18 years of being at home my husband felt like I should get a job for financial reasons. I said it had to be the perfect job like a job where I can be at home when the kids are home from school. So I applied for a cafeteria job at my kids school and got the job. So now I work about 25 hours a week outside my home. It's a decent job the ladies are pleasant to work with and I have the added benefit of being around my son Rico who is in 11th grade and next year my daughter Bri will be in the high school as well. The money is helping us and it's a blessing. But I always have this thing in the back of my mind. Is this the best thing for our family. Are we walking in faith. What if we made the step of faith and said we aren't going to take the route of me working outside the home. God does promise to provide. But how does that look these days as opposed to Bible times. I must say there are many times I miss being at home many times I wish I could be at home taking care of my home daily. Anyway that's what I think about at times. What do you think about this issue? I'd love to here your thoughts no matter what they are.