A life well lived

It is with a very heavy heart that I write this post today. Yesterday, around 3:30 my friend Karmen Stuart whom I've mentioned before - who has struggled for almost 2 years now with pancreatic cancer - has gone to be with her Lord and Savior. When I turned on the radio this morning, it was a very pleasant and unexpected surprise to hear Christmas music playing. The radio station's reasoning is to have a positive message of life to be playing on a day that symbolizes death to so many.

But, I know different.

They are playing these uplifting songs of new life - found in Christ - and the celebration of that in memory of Karmen. I can't help but think of her as the radio plays songs talking about "fallling on our knees - oh hear the angel's sing" and how Karmen is surrounded by nothing but that this day. But more importantly she has no more pain, no more sorrow, and is in the arms of her savior.

That doesn't mean it isn't hard, for her husband Scott, & their three kids Payton, Blaine and Kendall, who are no doubt missing their momma. Please be in prayer for this precious family.

What an example of a life well lived, especially in showing true joy through hard circumstances. We love you Karmen!
Karmen and daughter Kendall at Disney World this past summer

1st Annual Redneck BBQ

So today marked another year on my mother's calendar - as it was her birthday - so we decided to spice it up a bit...

Redneck BBQ Style!

Can I get a WOOP WOOP? That's right, we all came in our finest attire - mollet wigs, bushy mustaches, and wild and crazy clothes. My husband has been growing his mustache for about a month and a half all for this night of laughs! Best costume award was a close one with my brother Scott as the big winner, and my mom coming in close second.

We held the BBQ at Scott and Corine's, and boy did they deliver! We arrived to their house to see tires in the yard, Christmas lights up, lawnmower parts all over, and empty beer bottles in the planter bed. I wish I could say this looked different than normal.......Just kiddin :D

Anyways, thought I'd share some of our evening with ya'll! Happy Birthday Mom!
Redneck Family Portrait
Mom blowing out her candles w/peanut's help
The Haverfield Jr.'s
The Parents
The Kinney Clan Bringing it Back!
The Grandparents
The guys showing off their farmer's tans
The girls showing off their duds
Yes, this is me combing my husband's HUGE and really gross mostache!

Surprise Party!

Birthday party, eh? Just imagine in your minds a very strong Canadian accent with this post, ok? That is what we had the pleasure of experiencing yesterday with the boys and about 35 other people, a surprise birthday party for our Canadian friends the Muirs. Brian and Tina along with Bryson and Cole drove all the way here from Alberta and are staying the week here, visiting old friends. Tina planned all by herself to have this be a complete surprise trip for the boys for Brian's 40th birthday party. So up until the day they left they had no idea that they were all coming here for the week! Brian was my husband's baseball coach in college - and Brian and Tina went to our church and are just an all around awesome couple. Brian is especially known for initiating all of the "ultimate challenges" that would end our bible study group time, and were usually things like getting dared to eat a worm/rotten egg/or a spoonful of salt (YUCK!!)

Anyways, the party was a fun time - but also a very tiring time for husband and I because we were on the constant lookout for our kiddos with the river being so close to the house. We're excited for the days ahead where the boys are more self dependent and less needy of us during outings like this one. We still love them in their dependency, though!

Well, enjoy the pics, eh!

Baseball buddies
Muir cutting the HUGE cake!
Our little peanut holding hands with Trav, trying to play volleyball with the big kids!
Peanut trying out Chan as his playing partner
In the action!
Muir's boy Bryson, and our Big Boy chillin
Big boy
The most beautiful sunset!

Star gazing & midnight rude-awakenings

The infamous "glowstick"

Well,
The other night when we celebrated my hubby's 34th birthday - the boys ended up with some pretty sweet gifts from Grandma laurie and Papa. They are these crazy little light sticks that have brought endless hours of enjoyment and even mass hysteria when one is lost and we have to learn to "share" all over again :D (I'm talking about the kids! Of course husband and I share things no problem...)

Anyways, another thing the boys have been wanting to do more lately is star & moon gazing. Whenever we've been out for the night and we get home after it gets dark we always have to go out and find the moon and the stars. On the night of husband's birthday, the guys thought it would be so much fun to test out their new glow sticks AND look for the moon/stars at the same time!! Needless to say, we agreed, but only after bundling up with like 7 layer of clothing/hats, extra socks, etc because we've all but lost our warm summer nights.

On another note, our Big Boy has started a weird new phase of toddlerhood that has driven husband and I bonkers the last week or so. First off, he screams bloody-murder when we put him to bed, saying things like "you forgot to take my toothbrush" or "leave the light on in the hall" or "I need a band aid"...So, once he's finally worn out all possibilities of going to bed - and falls asleep, we are then startled awake by the noisy clanging coming from the living room, anytime between the hours of 3 -6 am. This morning was quite classic, in that he decided to come downstairs around 6-ish, husband and I are in a zombie-like trance from many nights of inconsistent sleep.

So, I was taking the "preventative watch" of checking on our Big Boy every so often to make sure he was staying out of trouble while we tried to catch a few more winks... Well, as I walked out into the living room, one eye open the other glued shut I scanned the room for our little morning glory. It wasn't until the flashing of a shiny object channeled my direction to my youngster, and as I walked closer to my proud little guy, I had found what he had gotten himself into... The day before our children's paster had given both boys a sheet of shiny, metallic stickers. I was hoping to use these as incentive for Big Boy's potty chart, but he had another plan in mind all together! He had emptied the sheet of about 25 stickers, and had what looked like a protective coat of armor on his entire right arm :D Let's just say he wasn't having as much of a good time when we had to peel them off of his tender, baby soft skin :D

Our star gazing boys
what we see a lot more of these days...Peanut trying to fight back!
Chillin with my birthday boy and all our layers of warmth!
Our sticker arm model - such a lovely pose don't you think? He did the hand holding thing all by himself! We're thinking of entering him into some contests....

Happy Birthday Babe!

That's right, husband is a whoppin' 34 yrs old today! So, in honor of my sweet man, I thought I'd take you all down memory lane...Happy Birthday Babe! I love you more!!
Cutie Pie - at about 1 yrs old
Looks just like someone else I know...
I guess he was always a ladies man :D
Stoic football poise
The baseball buddies
Paragliding in Venezuela (I took this pic! This was before our dating days)
Wedding day with friends Oscar and his wife Auda
Proud Papa

13.1 miles = sore legs, & fun memories!

Well, today ended my 4 months of training for the "City of Trees" 1/2 marathon adventure. Man, I am SO GLAD it is over!! It's just one of those things that excites you a little bit because you can't believe you're crazy enough to do it (twice-I'm a glutton for punishment!) But mainly you know it's going to hurt and be the longest couple of hours of your life. Well, needless to say, it was a great day, the weather held out for us - and I had way more friends doing it this time than last year, and that makes it all the more fun! My brother Scott decided to kick some butt a little bit earlier in the race this time around, ditching me and my old college room mate Lys at around mile 3... Needless to say, he shaved 16 minutes off of his race time from last year! And he just had knee surgery earlier this year. Pretty amazing.

Yup, as for me - well, I was in no big hurry to beat my time from last year, but I did shave off 6 minutes, so that was pretty cool. I'm thinking that maybe a little knee surgery might improve my odds if I'm ever crazy enough to do this again! I will say, though, that seeing my awesome hubby, and 2 adorable boys cheering me on every few miles was the highlight of my race. They are so amazingly supportive, I don't know how I lucked out! Oh, and I forgot to mention that we did have quite the entourage of fans (3 cars to be exact!) between my parents, my hubby, and my SIL - we were definitely the spoiled runners of the bunch. Thanks guys!

My speedy brother and the amazing landscape we got to view as we ran
Lys and I cruising down the sidewalk (she is a stud!)
My faithful, and absolutely adorable fans!
Closeups
Getting the munchies :D

See this movie!

Hey Guys,

Ok, ok... So it's been awhile since I've checked in with you all - but sometimes the necessities of life come a calling and well, that is just my excuse! So here's the deal; tonight, husband and I, along with most of our "home group" of church friends decided to do a date night of sorts - kid free. After scarfing down Costa Vida's amazing sweet pork salad, husband and I and everyone else with their full tummies headed over to the Majestic to see the movie "Fire Proof."

I would love to tell you that the only reason I went was because Kirk Cameron from "Growing Pains" was starring in it, and I still had a crush from 6th grade on that guy - but I would probably only be telling you 90% truth there :D We all decided to go because we heard it was a compelling movie dealing with marriage. And from what I have learned in all of my almost 7 years of marriage, is that you can never get too much good advice, or wise counsel to make your marriage better. But even more than that, marriage is a huge commitment between oftentimes 2 very different people - which struggle to make the time necessary to invest what they should to make a marriage successful.

I'm not going to say that this movie competes with the "big time" movies out there with unlimited budgets to spend on outrageous cinematogrophy, but I will say that this movie was compelling to both husband and I and our group of friends in that it spoke truth in ways we don't see or hear anymore in society. And, to see a packed house was also very cool. I think my 9$ movie ticket (gulp!) was very well spent tonight in that I invested that much more in my marriage.

So - all that to say - I am challenging you to go see this movie. Invest a little in your spouse, your loved one, yourself... And in a way, you are standing up for better movies with good messages in the years to come by showing your support for a good flick!

That's all for tonight ya'll, I've got to mentally prepare for my 13.1 mile race in the morning (yikes!). More soon...

Now these three remain:
faith, hope, and love.
But the greatest of these is love
1 Corinthians 13:13