Cardboard Testimonies

I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to give a form of my testimony for our church's current sermon series. The series is called "transformed lives" - and I can honestly say, it is one of the best series I've ever been able to be a part of. The series started Easter Sunday, and let's just say - the bar was raised pretty high - I don't think there was a dry eye in the place.

So the Sunday service had a portion of it called "cardboard testimonies." Basically a group of very brave individuals walked across the main stage holding a piece of cardboard - with one side having a few words describing their past sin. One individual's read "alcoholic." He flipped his cardboard to read what he had been redeemed of - the flipped cardboard read "sober 6 years."

There were about 20 different testimonies like this. Everyone having a different story - and yet, you connected with each of them.

Testimony is one of our most powerful weapons in this life against the enemy. Once you experience someone's vulnerability, like the sharing of a testimony, you find that maybe you might be a little bit more willing to be open yourself.

Having been moved by the openness of the people who shared on Easter Sunday, I feel God prepared my heart to say "yes" when I was asked to give my testimony in the form of an interview of sorts that was video recorded.

Those of you that know me well, you would know that I am usually not that bold.

Ok - I don't really have a bold bone, muscle, fiber in my body - at least not yet. Maybe that is what God is working on in me right now.

Anyways, the original interview was 16 minutes - but they cut and pasted it together to be only about 2 minutes. So no worries, if you choose to watch it, it won't take all night!

I don't know where you are at right now in life. Maybe times are great, and you are feeling His abundant blessings, and life seems to be more full than ever. Or maybe you have never felt so stretched in your life, and you feel like you're holding on by a thread.

Or maybe you're somewhere in between.

No matter where you find yourself, I hope that you know you have a loving Father in heaven walking through each step of life with you.

He knows your name.

He knows your every thought.

He sees each tear that falls.

And He hears you when you call.

Click HERE to go to our church webpage that has all of the testimonies listed. Mine is the 3rd one.

Or you can watch it here, but it's a little slow...

Birthday Fun

Today marks four sweet years of having our first child. What a gift! Big boy is growing up so fast - I can hardly believe how much he's grown up in just this last year. So - as customary in our home on birthdays, Big Boy got to choose his birthday cake design......

"mom, I want a train cake - a blue and black one, with LOTS of trains." Makes sense, no?

So, I set out on an expedition to find the perfect train cake - on a budget :D

After a few good Google searches, I found the perfect recipe - and set my mind right on doing it. Then I got a silly notion that maybe I should do a little "step-by-step" tutorial on how to make the perfect train cake for a 4 year old.

WARNING***** many pictures to follow!

So - without further ado, Happy 4th Birthday to my Big Boy! We love you!!

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The Perfect Train Cake

What you'll need:
2 boxes of cake mix (I used Duncan Hines Yellow & Swiss Chocolate mix) & 2 loaf cake pans
2-3 containers of ready made frosting (I used cream cheese, coconut, and chocolate)
4 -5 different types of candy to decorate train (like gummy worms, licorice, reeces,
sour patch kids, oreos, choc covered raisins)
plastic ziplock baggies, or decorating icing tubes
candles
some sort of plate, or cardboard to cover with foil to use as your tray for the cake

Ok..... Here it goes!

Bake your 2 cakes each in a loaf pan - and then cool completely. When cooled, place these in the freezer for 20 -30 minutes
to harden the cake and make it easier to cut and frost.
Take a serrated knife and cut the top off of each cake as shown. I like to keep all the cake scraps and put them in a freezer bag for a different dessert recipe later on.
Next cut the loaf in half, and then in quarters.
For the engine car, cut the two sides (as shown).
Next cut the front so that the engine comes to a point.
Cut a little square notch out as shown reserving the cut out part
with a little frosting used as glue put the cut out part on top as shown to give dimension to the engine car.
Mix your frosting with whatever color choices you want, I did 2 shades of blue and then chocolate
Next, crumb coat the train cars so that our final coat will be nice and smooth.
here's what they look like after the crumb coat
And the engine car...You can definitely see the "crumbs!"
I like to stick the cars in the freezer to allow the frosting to harden to make the final coat easier to put on. While you wait for that to set up, you can fill your frosting decorating bags with the different colored frostings - and then we can assemble our base tray.
I cut the tip off of a ziplock bag to use for the train tracks that you can draw on the tray - this allows us to know where to place the train cars.
Here's what they look like finished. You can also write a saying in the middle with frosting. As you will see later - I didn't like how the words turned out, so I redid that part and did it a little differently. That's the bonus with frosting, it's very forgiving!
Now you can place your train cars on the tracks to get ready to decorate!
The final product! AND 2 very happy boys :D
the finished cake
Big Boy blowing out the candles!
My 2 precious boys
Peanut and Sophie awaiting their piece of cake!

Long time no see!

Yes, we are still here! It has turned into that crazy time of year (no it's not Christmas at our house!) and so that means blogging takes a back seat for awhile until we can settle ourselves for a few moments.... whew! Ok, let me take another moment - alright. I'm ready to begin my debriefing of our recent venture.

Hubs and I were able to go on a much needed vacation this past week - on a cruise, in fact.

No - it was not to Mexico, although tropical weather does sound nice right now!

It was from San Diego up the coast to Vancouver. What cruise-literate people like to call a "transitioning cruise". Basically because the very popular and beautiful Alaskan cruises start very soon, and so our cruise ship was making its way up to that side of town.

My very gracious in-laws came and stayed with our two rambunctious kiddos -and we finally caught up on some sleep (while Jerry and Judy gave up some of theirs! Thanks again!!)

It's amazing what 6 days of uninterrupted time to yourself and your spouse can do for you. You start to talk like a normal adult, instead of using sentences or words like "I need to use the potty" or "pumpkin" or "let's go night-night." But our children still hold places in our hearts that make us long and ache for seeing their bubbly faces and personalities, and allow us to feel normal as parents - even if we use silly words to express ourselves.

Hubs and I were also able to catch up with my younger brother Shawn and my SIL Marie, and their new baby Emory.

So Cute!!

She is only 2 weeks old - and so we were thrilled to get to see them all so soon after Emory's birth.

So - without further ado, here are some pics of our trip! Happy Mother's Day!
Our fancy dress up night on the cruise
Our cruise ship is on the far right of the picture
Getting to hold baby Emory! She's so little!
Precious little family
Baby Emory