What's going on?

We have been so very busy this last month. We had church camping at the beginning. That was fun, but the place we went was very cold, so that was not so fun. Camping at the beach here is cold and overcast and drizzly, it's not Hawaii, or even Southern CA for that matter. The kids didn't mind the cold one bit. The picture above is of them all playing in the freezing ocean. Brrr.

The following week we took a 4 day family vacation to Lake Tahoe. It was beautiful. We really needed a relaxing break, especially Adam. He's been working so hard. He's been building two bathrooms at our Pastors house, so he goes over there to work for 5/6 hours after he gets done at his regular job. We've missed him, and he missed us so this vacation was just what the Dr. ordered. (pics soon)

We did find out just before leaving for Tahoe that we will be moving. We were ready for this news. I'm so ready for this but I will miss our tiny house. We had our babies here and it's the only house we've lived in together. It will be sad leaving all of our wonderful neighbors. The kids are sad to leave all of the friends, it really is a fabulous little neighborhood. We're looking for a new house quickly. Most homes in the area we are looking are Short Sales, and those can take months to close escrow. We were hoping to find a foreclosure or a straight sale, but there aren't as many to choose from. We will most likely have to move twice, because we wont have a new house before we have to leave this house. Packing is ready to begin. I am looking forward to being able to have two bathrooms, hopefully an additional bedroom and a garage. Yay! God is so good to us. He always knows exactly what we need.

This brings me to update on my declutter mission. I have not forgot about it, it's just been put on hold because we were so busy. I have (I think) about 150 more pounds to go. This mission is going to change slightly to a declutter as I pack mission. This should motivate me more because I don't want to move  all this stuff. Now I've really got to get it in gear. We will be moving by the first of October so I only have about 4/5 weeks to pack. One of those weeks we will be gone. I'm going to be flying across the country to have surgery done. So, please pray for me. I don't like flying or surgery. My mom is going to come with me, because we can't have Adam miss all that work. My in laws are going to take care of our children. Lucky Opa gets to homeschool for a few days. Ha! They should have fun, I hope.

More later. God bless and have a wonderful day!

Homemade Anniversary/Wedding Gift Frame

I saw this darling wedding gift heart frame on Etsy for a sale price of $49 plus shipping. YIKES! It's very nice. I would like one for myself, but never would I pay $50 for it. She also had a larger one for $100. AS soon as I saw it I knew I could make it myself. So I did.....

Today is my Pastor and his wonderful wife's 19th anniversary. I bought a 10x10 white shadow box for $8.99. It had a black background so I covered it with white textured paper for scrap booking. I used a heart shaped paper punch and punched flowers in magazines. I printed each of their first initials and their wedding date and punched those out. The hearts are all folded in half and glued down on one side so that the other side sticks up. It was quite a bit of work to get them evenly in the center and even with each other, but otherwise it was a simple cheap gift and it's beautiful. I think I'll be making one of these for Adam and myself.

Mrs. Pastor LOVED it. I was too excited to wait to see them at church so I drove it over to her today.

Breast Cancer Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood

It's that time again, for all the pretty pink breast cancer items to flood store shelves. Little do most people know that millions of dollars raised by the Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer goes to Planned Parenthood. The same Planned Parenthood that daily slaughters the lives of thousands of innocent children.

The following link has a article about this .

Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood: Pro-Life People Should be Warned

New Dress Sewing Project

I was looking online the other day for fun dress sewing project ideas for the girls. I came across this tutorial to make a little girls dress from a man's button shirt. It don't know about you, but I thought this was super adorable. I found a cute women's button dress shirt at our churches rummage sale and thought it may be perfect for this project. I paid about 10 cents for the shirt.

I'm not going to write a tutorial on this, but I am posting progress photos. I did change a few things. I did my straps differently and I changed the top trim and bottom hem. It was a little bit of work, but I'm sure the next one will go a lot faster. And, I'll definitely have to make a second one because both of the little girls are deciding who is going to wear this one and which day's they'll wear it. They are so cute.

This was a woman size large shirt. It had a funny blue snap that had been added at the top. I'm assuming it was because the buttons didn't go high enough to make it modest, but the snap didn't match the other yellow buttons. So I was able to make my first button hole. It's not that great looking but it works. It was a pain trying to get that snap off.

Here are the pictures. I'm thinking the dress is about a size 4/5 ish.

The shirt

The shirt, cut up

Tracing and cutting dress shape

The back of the shirt is the front of the dress

You can sort of see the blue snap at the top. The front of the shirt is the back of the dress.

Button hole and button in place of the snap

Making the straps

Straps and trim on the front of the dress.

Bottom trim hem

Lovely lace to finish the bottom

Patiently waiting for her dress. Here is the finished front

And, the finished back.

Here she is. Emily with her cute dress.

I just love the back. It's so cute!

This was a fun project. I can't wait to make another one.

With Sadness and a Heavy Heart

What are you supposed to feel when you find out a woman you knew, spent time with, talked to several times while your kids played together at the park suddenly passed away in her sleep the other day? What are you supposed to feel when you know she wasn't saved and never got around to witnessing?

At church tonight during prayer requests, one of the ladies there asked for prayer for a family she knows who has two young children. The mother died mysteriously in her sleep Sunday. The woman from church said she had witnessed to her on several occasions but the woman kind of laughed it off. When she said her name, a deep rush of anxiety and sadness flooded my heart. I knew her. I've known her for years. I've sat and talked with her at the park over and over again talking about all sorts of things. Everything but....Jesus Christ.

I hope this is a lesson. I need to let go of my fears of telling people. My heart hurts with sadness for this poor woman's soul, it's hard to even explain this horrible feeling of grief. I am desperately trying to find her phone number and address so the lady from church and I can go take her husband and children food and hopefully win their souls.

Where is my faith? Pastor always says to us, "If you were sitting on the beach and knew there was a tidal wave coming soon, would you keep quiet about it pack up your stuff and not tell anyone it was coming?"