Mawage...

"Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday... And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva..."

Confused? Perhaps it's time to watch "The Princess Bride" one more time - and then you might get that whole thing...

Anyways, today marked a wonderful day in the Kinney household, and that would be 7 blessed years of mawage, I mean marriage. :)

We woke up, got some breakfast with the kiddos, and then Hubs took the two boys with him on a "daddy work day" to leave me with a whole afternoon of "mommy time." It was a little slice of heaven.

Then we reunited right before dinner, with my boys safely placed in grandma and papa's care, and off we went to one of our favorites, Asiagos.

Then a movie.

Then dessert.

Then to a quiet house, and the knowledge that we get to sleep in a little in the morning! (our normal wake up time with the boys these days is around 5:45 - 6:03).

What a lucky girl I am on this fine day!

Hubs & I at the Cheesecake Factory for dessert! Yum!

Waiting room

So we've all been to one - and they can have some of the best people watching around... Sometimes they're a bit uncomfortable, especially if you have a squirmy little one wanting to explore around - when we all know that exploration out of our own chairs will draw attention - and then WE are the ones people are watching!

This all happens in the "waiting room."

So, though I've had my fair share of waiting rooms (you definitely rack up waiting room visits when you have kids or become prego!), this story is more a figurative story of the "waiting room" of life.

I feel like the last 2 years has been a season of waiting - relying - stretching - mourning - hurting - & blessed time altogether.

But it is easy to become weary in the waiting, and I must say - that has been my biggest struggle. You become dull to your circumstances and feel like no one REALLY wants to hear your sad sob story one more time, that it would be best if you just shuffled along - weary and burdened, but ready for change.

This last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday. This last week leading up to Pentecost Sunday was a week of Hubs and I praying for patience and wisdom during "the waiting".

Pastor's sermon on Sunday dealt with WAITING.

Is there a theme here?

Pastor spoke on the 120 people waiting, as Jesus told them to, in a room - which lasted for 10 days. Can you imagine being in a room with 120 people? Can you imagine the EXPECTATION of what Christ was going to do? I can't get over their faith. In today's culture to be asked to wait, we commonly reply "what, like 5 min?" And even that in our minds is too long.

Imagine being asked to wait for an undisclosed period of time. In this case 10 days. For many of us, we would have to quit our jobs, close up shop, find some pretty good babysitters..... You catch my drift.

Here is the really cool part.

It came like a "mighty wind" upon them... The Holy Spirit, that is.

How exciting is that? But yet how easy is it to be sitting there, staring at the same dusty walls for 10 days straight - it would be enough to make you want to lose your mind. They may have thought they were seeing things - as it says that "tongues of fire rested on each of them, causing them to speak different languages."

But you can see God's hand in motion as:

The apostles received the Holy Spirit and were miraculously enabled to go out into Jerusalem prophesying and speaking in languages that all the visitors to Jerusalem could understand as told further in Acts 2:5-6: "Many religious Jews from every country in the world were living in Jerusalem ... they were hearing everything in their own languages." The noise and activity attracted a huge crowd and the Apostle Peter preached a sermon to the crowd with some effectiveness, as Acts 2:41 reports: "On that day about three thousand believed his message and were baptized."

THREE THOUSAND were baptized! Can you imagine? What a mighty reward for waiting, in reality, such a short amount of time.

But to us 10 days would seem like a lifetime. Maybe even as bad as 2 years...

I sit here today, and find that my faith must be greater than my need, because without HIM, I am nothing but a nobody - staring at a dusty wall - "people watching" from my stiff waiting room chair.

I know that I can wait expectantly - but that I can't expect HIM to do what I think should happen. I should live in the expectance of knowing HIS will and way are best, no matter how long it takes to reveal itself.

He is my Rock and Fortress, He is all I need - and what better friend to wait with than the ruler of the universe? The one that holds time in his hands?

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

Garden Diaries - Entry 1

Hanging out
Loading up the dirt
Daddy's big helper
Mini wheel borrow
Tonka truck style dumping
Our plot
Yes, it is that time of year again... The earth is starting to thaw, my tulips are starting to push up through the dirt, and it's time to start thinking about our garden. Some of you may have heard that last year's garden attempt didn't go so well. We have really only had one successful attempt at a garden, and that was pre-kids, so forever ago! And even with that attempt, it pretty much was successful because we planted WAY too many tomato plants (unbeknownst to us we didn't realize you only really need 1-2 plants, not 6-8!). So instead of trees, we had HUGE tomato plants. To make matters worse, once it was time to start harvesting those puppies for some yummy salsa, we waited ONE day too long to get them in doors. Yup, it froze, and we were stuck with 8 buckets of tomatoes that pretty much looked good on the outside and had absolutely NO flavor on the inside!

So, here we are.

5 years later.

We don't know if this is our "forever house" or not, but we've come to the conclusion that we can't wait forever for a garden! In our almost 7 yrs of marriage, we've moved 6 times - so taking the time to make and take care of a legit garden plot has not sounded too appealing to me.

But this is the year Betsy - Oh yeah - this is the year!

Hubs and I decided to go for it - and if this old house of ours sells in the meantime, we'll request that they save us a few squash and tomatoes for fun...

Our boys couldn't get enough of digging in the dirt we had to get to fill our "plot" and helping hubs and I wheel borrow back and forth until the job was done. I've been getting some pretty good gardening tips, so my goal is to share these with you and have you track my progress with me of how successful this year's garden will actually be!

*Tip of the day:
Starbucks offers FREE coffee grounds just for your garden! I picked mine up, packaged and sealed all nicely, and ready to mix in with the dirt! Hubs found out that your dirt should have at least 25% compost added for best results! So, go treat yourself to a fancy cup of coffee from the "Bucks" and help enhance your gardening experience at the same time!

With a heavy heart

The words from the Natalie Grant song, "this is what it means to be held" are ringing in my head and in my heart the past few days. "How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life, and you survive" are such powerful words that express what so many of us never want to feel - the loss of a child.

We learned a few days ago, that a couple from our TLC bible study group, who were 7 months pregnant (due the end of May), had found out their baby had died in utero. They were in Montana visiting her family, and after awhile of not feeling the baby move - they went into the hospital to find out there was no heartbeat.

I am still trying to grasp the situation.

When I was pregnant with Big Boy, I started bleeding unexpectedly, and knew I was suffering a miscarriage. I'll never forget that feeling of helplessness, and dismay - thinking our little one was gone. When we made it into the ultrasound room, the nurse forgot to turn the heartbeat monitor on right away, so my first glimpse of our baby was motionless, soundless, and full of an intense grief that I know only slightly compares to this couple's grief.

Needless to say, the nurse finally turned on the heartbeat monitor - saying her apologies for forgetting, ( I believe it was when she saw my pool of tears that she had the light bulb turn on) We had only had a blood clot that had burst - mimicking a miscarriage - being of the lucky few to walk away with a healthy baby still protected and doing well. God definitely protected us.

This couple had to give birth to their little one - saying farewell to a life that they will only get to know further in heaven someday. I would covet your prayers for this precious family. They are newly married, and as you could probably imagine something like this could easily tear a couple apart.

They are having a memorial service for baby "Ella" in Montana tomorrow (Saturday). And come back home next week, without her.

God is a just and good God. This I know. I also know that He won't give us more than we can handle. But death, especially of a little one seems too hard for me to grasp at this moment. I look at my little ones and count them such blessings in a world full of hurt and brokenness. Even when we can't understand the pain, or the reason behind life's tragedies, we can hold firm to Him who's the anchor for the times in our life when we experience the "storm" and uncertainty.