Rio Lento!

Our summer would not have been the same this year without our membership at one of the waterparks in the area- Rio Lento.  (yes, I agree that this is an odd name for a water park in a Middle Eastern country, and no, I have no idea why it is called that...  I do know that the owner is from Atlanta, GA so go figure...)  Anyway, we first started going to this waterpark several years ago and it quickly became a family favorite.  Nestled in a beautiful valley, surrounded by mountains, away from the concrete jungle that is Beirut, it truly is a wonderful escape.  If you know me well, you know how I need my wide open spaces, and this park has been perfect for our family.  I didn't do the best job of taking my camera so the pictures are kind of random, and you might have to use your imagination a little bit.  As a mom, I love the layout of the park.  The wave pool and kiddie pool are right in the middle, with the lazy river going all the way around the edge.  It makes it possible to choose a spot somewhat in the middle and pretty much have an idea of where everyone is all the time.  There are various slides scattered around the park- several great innertube slides that empty into the lazy river, one pretty straight down slide called the Kamikaze, one called the sidewinder that is a pretty steep drop and is like a massive skateboard ramp except you do it on innertubes, and one that my girls have dubbed, "the toilet bowl" (you'll see why).   Above picture is the wave pool with the sidewinder (skateboard ramp like slide) in the background.  They have all sorts of snack stands set up when you walk in- some normal, some not so much...

Notice the sign above for SnoBiz (and also cotton candy which you can't see), right alongside the stand for "Healthy Corn".  Strangely, this is a popular thing here.  Basically it's a big vat of canned corn that the season and serve in little cups.  Of course, you are not allowed to bring food into the waterpark as they want you to buy their stuff.  On days we're staying awhile, we pack a picnic in the cooler and go out and eat it in the car and come back in.  

Maddie and Naomi like to eat picnic style.  Abbey and Jason (when he's able to join us), enjoy sitting in the cool car. (I'm usually eating on the go..)

Here's the kiddie pool.  Every toddler's dream!

I love how we're surrounded by green at this park!

The yellow and blue striped tube slide that you see in the background is what the girls call the "toilet bowl".  As Abbey explains, you go flying down the tube until you get to the circular part at the bottom where you spin around and around until it flushes you out...

(sadly no pictures of this slide in action because it's not always open but it's a madhouse when it is.  The people getting "flushed" out the bottom always come out looking a little dazed.  No, I have not tried this slide.  

Here are some action shots.  The wave pool is by far the favorite thing.  Naomi is all about "riding the waves" with Daddy and no one else will quite do.  She is always thrilled when he is able to go with us...

(and yes, swim caps are required in almost all pools here- isn't it cute??)

Naomi riding the waves alone while the big girls are in the deep end .  The child is fearless...

AJ and Maddie getting in on the fun too...

The sidewinder quickly became a favorite of Maddie.  She will fly down with hands waving in the air.  Abbey has tried it once, and it was not for her.  Personally, I agree with Abbey...  I'll try anything, but in my opinion this one is just not fun.  Maybe I'm too old for a tummy drop like that, I don't know but it was just not that fun to me...   Naomi on the other hand has been begging to go down and when the girls came and told me that other small kids were doing it, we thought, why not?  So up we climbed to the very top (yes, I sacrificed to ride the thing with Naomi on her first time down, but that was it for me- she goes with Maddie now).  Anyway, up we climbed to the very top only to my told by the teenage lifeguard that Naomi was too small.  At which point Naomi went into hysterics as I carried her back down the steps.  Fortunately as we got to the bottom of the steps, one of the lifeguards who we have known for at least 3 years now asked what was wrong.  When I told him they wouldn't let her go, he immediately said, "that's not true" and picked her up and we headed back to the top.  To ride on the double float, Naomi kind of has to sit right behind the person in the front instead of down in the hole of the float but she still absolutely loves it...

Here are Maddie and Naomi climbing up to the top...

The initial drop off (this is what always gets me...)

(Maddie in front, Naomi in back)

You can't really tell by Naomi's face that she's enjoying herself, but she always gets off saying, "again, again!"

Here it looks like she collapsed back once the initial shock was over...

Worn out!

It's been a great summer!

Tea Party

It shouldn't shock you to know that with three little girls in the house, we love tea parties, especially Maddie, my little chef.  We did this several years ago when Papa and Nana were visiting, and Maddie was determined not to let Annie and Da get away without having a tea party with them as well.  She planned it, and with a little help from Annie and me, carried it out. 

Maddie found a recipe for "easy petit fours" in her cupcake cookbook.  It called for melting the store bought cans of icing in the microwave and dipping the tops of cupcakes into the icing and it was then supposed to harden to look like fondant petit four icing.  First problem- no store bought icing- we had to make our own.  Apparently the point of melting the store bought icing is that all the chemicals in it make it somehow work for this recipe.  Obviously no chemicals in my homemade icing.  We ended up just icing the cupcakes, which all the girls were of course happy about.  I'm still not convinced that there exists a simple recipe for petit fours- anyone?

This tea party served as our lunch for the day, and with men in the house we had to have something a little substantial- but it could still be pretty!  Here's Maddie cutting bread into heart shapes for our tuna sandwiches...

I have to comment on the differences of attire of my girls for our tea party.  When Abbey heard tea party, she immediately wanted to borrow one of my dresses and get all fancy (no, this is not something we let her go out of the house in- it was dress up...).  Naomi, on the other hand decided to wear her ballerina outfit... because that's perfect for a tea party, right?  Maddie was taking her role of serving very seriously so she opted for the plain white tea shirt with her apron that Memommy made covering her skirt...

Our spread including heart-shaped tuna sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, tortilla roll ups, cupcakes, and of course tea.  Below Maddie is giving directions for the meal...

Naomi enjoying her cucumber sandwich...

Fun in Dubai

Ok, so the title of this post may be a little deceiving since, in my opinion, it's kind of hard to have fun in a place that is so incredibly hot.  As you will see from the below pictures, that is totally MY opinion as our kids managed to have a blast.  Me, I tend to have the most fun in the great outdoors, and lets face it, the outdoors are not so great when it's 110 degrees- and we weren't even there in the hottest part of the summer!  However, I will say that the Emirates have truly mastered the art of indoor entertainment, and I don't think we even saw half of it!  We begin our trip to Dubai with lunch in the largest mall in the world followed by ice skating.  Yep, I said ice skating.  Kind of made me flash back to my childhood and the Mall of Memphis.  Anyway, the girls were SOOO excited and Abbey and Maddie had a blast...

Naomi thought she was going to have a blast...

but that quickly changed...

She wasn't too excited about letting go of the wall..

Abbey caught on quick

as did Maddie...

Thankfully our next Dubai adventure was more up Naomi's alley...

The next day we headed to the Children's Museum (can't actually remember what it was called), and, like I said, it was much more to Naomi's liking...

Life sized bubble making..

Driving your own car..

Video games with Dad (this was very educational, people... )

And what Middle Eastern children's museum would be complete without simulated camel rides??...

and magic carpet rides...

AJ and Maddie had fun too.  Maddie quickly found a rope swing that was right up her alley.. (I'm telling you this was an educational place, it's just that the non-educational stuff is so much more fun to take pictures of...)

And Abbey entertained herself with this life-sized... (what do you call these things, anyway?)

For our last evening in Dubai, we just couldn't resist the ferris wheel. (spell check is not happy about that- how do you spell ferris wheel anyway? I'm trying to do better for all of you who can't help but edit while you read...).   Anyway, check out this ferris wheel...

For one thing, it was massive which thrilled the girls...

Pretty high up there...

But what Jason and I marveled at, was the fact that each individual compartment had AC!

only in Dubai...

If these walls could speak...

DISCLAIMER #1:  This post is very long, I found myself with some extra time on my hands today so I rambled...  a lot... but it was therapeutic...  Proceed with caution... 

I'll be the first to confess that I can be pretty sappy at times, ok fine, downright cheesy, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.  I cry easily and I've learned to laugh at myself about it.  I cry in really goofy, stupid parts of movies (can't think of an example right now) that most of the free world probably wouldn't cry in, I cry when I'm reading books out loud to the girls, I cry when someone is telling me something special or exciting about to happen, I cry if I'm listening to a song that has a special meaning to me (or maybe just having a special meaning to someone will still cause it to make me cry), I cry when someone puts one of those stupid videos on their facebook page that are there for no other purpose than to make people like me cry like a baby,  and of course, I cry when I'm sad.  For me tears are therapeutic.  Who can blame me though?  I am a product of the 80's and 90's with songs like "Friends are Friends Forever", "Pray for Me", "Lean on Me", "People Need the Lord".  What is my point?  I do have one I promise...

I am a homebody at heart.  Yes, the Lord has brought our family half-way around the world and we are no longer physically close to what I grew up calling home.  We have moved a lot, and we have learned to teach our girls that home is wherever our family is together at a given time.  It has been a stretching process for me for sure.  I like to settle in.  I like to nest.  I like to get everything set up just so.  Perhaps this is because we have moved so much and I want new places to quickly feel like home.  Well, we're packing up again.  Our house is a mountain of cardboard, boxing tape, inventories and overflowing boxes.  Here we go yet again, and I'm feeling nostalgic, sappy, downright cheesy...    The words of an old Amy Grant song from the 80's have been running through my head like a broken record (I told you I had a point...). I'll share some bits with you...

If these old walls

If these old walls could speak

Of things that they remember well

Stories and faces dearly held

A couple in love

Livin'week to week

Rooms full of laughter

If these walls could speak

If these old fashioned window panes were eyes

I guess they would have seen it all

Each little tear and sigh and footfall

And every dream that we came to seek,

Or follow after

If these walls could speak

As I've reflected on these words (and, yes, cried over them), I've realized that because of our life choices, we are not going to have a home (a physical building) like the one referred to in this song.  My little girls' tears, and sighs, and footfalls have seen many a wall, some old, some new, some in the US, some around the world.  Thankfully, even though the walls may change, our homes over the years have still contained so many stories and faces dearly held.  We have laughed together until it hurts and we have cried buckets, all in various sets of walls.  And then it hit me!  We may not have walls that can speak to our journey over time, because the walls have changed oh so many times.  But we have stuff.  Don't get me wrong- I DO know that it is just stuff and that ultimately it contains nothing that will be my eternal treasure.  But the stuff that has come to mark our home, has, over the years, become so precious to our family.  As I began the packing process, inventorying, boxing things up, I realized how many precious things we have that remind us of the family in the states that we are physically separated from and also how many things we have that have simply come to define our home, wherever it ends up being.  It makes me sad that most of my family and friends in the states will never visit in our overseas home- that's no ones fault, it's just how life is.  So I wanted to give this little tour of our "special stuff" so you can see how you are remembered within the walls of our home. 

DISCLAIMER #2:  Every person that we love dearly is not represented here by an actual item, but let me assure you that had I remembered to take a picture before packing it up, you would have seen my picture table in our bedroom corner with pictures of all our family members- aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, grands and great-grands.  We love you all and I promise think of you daily!

Some of the things that make the walls of our home never change...

My Granddaddy will always hold one of the dearest places in my heart.  I still find it hard to believe that it's been over 8 years since he went to be with Jesus.  Among so many other things, He was THE most gifted craftsman I have ever known and I am so thankful to fill my living room with some of his beautiful work.

The coffee table, he designed and made as a wedding present.  The bookshelf (again his design) was a Christmas gift a few years later..

He made several of these serving tray stands (what would they be called?).  I am so thankful that I got one of them!  The top tray part comes off easily to serve with.  I've always had my Gail Pittman pottery (Grapevine pattern)on mine which definitely reminds me of our Clinton, MS days!

This is another of Granddaddy's creations.  It's a bookshelf that he made for Mom when she was a little girl.  I used it as a child, and mom let us bring it overseas when we moved.  I've had to touch up the paint several times, and last time I added the periwinkle background to match our kitchen.  It houses my cookbook collection which constantly reminds me of my Moms, my grandmothers, my aunts- all the special women in my life...

As I looked around my kitchen, I noticed my pitchers.  I love decorative things- especially pottery, and I realized that my collection of pitchers from different places kind of represents where we've been.

The cut glass one at the top is oh so Memphis.  I'm glad I kept it, because since I got married so young, I kind of went on a spree of exchanging wedding gifts (that I saw as pointless at the time) for credit. (yes, Mom, I now admit that there are many things I wish I hadn't exchanged)  But I just couldn't get rid of this beautiful pitcher.  The one in the middle is from a quaint village in the south of France called Moustier (pronounced with a snotty french accent- don't worry, I can't pronounce it right either).  We lived in south France for 4 months when Jason was getting his masters and then in Paris for a year - I love this  token of our time there.  The one on the bottom is again a Gail Pittman piece that I grew to love from my days in Mississippi.  There are a few other small ones on the bottom from our international travel.  

I am so thankful that I have always had such a special relationship with my aunts and uncles.  I love that even though we are physically separated, I have things in my home that remind me of them.  This beautiful crystal bowl (again so Memphis) was a wedding gift from Tom and Margaret.  It reminds me of Margaret's love for beauty and Tom's humor (because of his reaction when he was shown the gift, knowing how much he spent on it- don't worry Tom- we hold it dear!)

The antique plate on this shelf is from my Aunt Ginny.  She too taught me to have a love for beauty (and cats) and every day that I see this plate, I'm reminded of Ginny and her family.

the shelf above also has my collection of Lilliput lane cottages.  I confess I know nothing more about them except that they are collectible, they are adorable and they are from the UK.  Therefore, they remind me of Jeremy and Kimberly and their girls (who live outside London) every time I look at them and that makes me happy. 

Also on the shelf above is the old Scottish blessing (I think) that we used to sing in chapel every week in elementary school.  I wrote it out and had it framed for my dear friend Amy when she left for college.  Years later when we left to go overseas she re-gifted it to me and it is precious to me.  (sidenote:  I am sitting here all teary because I allowed myself to sing through the entire song)

Ok, ok, I'll share it with you (I don't like to cry alone)....

May the road rise to meet you

May the wind blow at your back

May the sun shine warmly on your face

May the rain fall softly on your fields

And until we meet again

May God hold you in the palm

of His hand.

Amen

Ok, moving on...

This next thing, I don't have a picture of because I don't actually have it in my possession.  But it is a wonderful thought, and I know that if I had it, it would remind me of my brother and his family... What is it?  It's the wonderful pictures that John took when he drove down to Clinton, MS several years ago and took pictures of my old stomping ground- our first house, nostalgic places on MC campus- the works.  John is a wonderful photographer and I hope that one day these pictures will actually be in my possession, and I will put them in a beautiful collage frame and they will hang on my wall and remind me of John and his family...  

(insert picture here)

These are my aprons.  They are precious to me because my Memommy is oh so precious to me.  These aprons represent so much to me beyond just that she made them- they represent the years of love she has poured into every member of our family through her gift of serving and creating beauty both in her kitchen and in her home.  I wish I could show you all the things in my home she has made for us but sadly they are packed up- quilts, Barbie clothes, American Girl doll clothes, countless recipes (yes, I have even called her from Lebanon simply to get cooking advice...)  She is my hero.  I love her dearly and I'm thankful that I have something to look at everyday that reminds me of what she challenges me to be.

So that about completes my tour of the "walls" of each home that we live in.  Packing messed up the many other things I wanted to show you- my Polish pottery from my Mother-in-love, our red "You are Special" plate that reminds us of the traditions of Jason's childhood, my books, countless books from dear friends and family members.  If you are my family, I hope you see how special you are to us, and how even though we are physically separated, you are never far from our thoughts. 

The last thing I want to show you is not from a family member but something I made myself.  I love cross stitch.  I love that through cross stitch, I can create something beautiful completely  by copying someone else's design and therefore don't have to use up any of my very limited supply of creativity. I found these precious designs and had to make them for our girls' room.  Their middle names are Joy, Faith and Amal (which means "Hope" in Arabic).  We pray regularly that these characteristics will become part of the very fiber of their beings.  We are so thankful for their heritage and for the legacy of love that Jason and I both have in our families.  We pray that as we are preparing to spend 10 months in much closer proximity to so many of you, that there will be countless opportunities for them to see your joy, faith and hope in action.  

So we leave yet another set of walls behind in just over three weeks.  It's hard to believe really.  And sad.  I'm more sad to leave this home than I have been about many others.  But I'm also thankful.  Thankful for the memories we carry with us and prayerful that the pieces of our hearts that we leave behind will have an influence on this precious community for years to come.  As we enter this new chapter in our lives, I look forward to seeing what walls the Lord will lead us to next. 

Random, or maybe not so much

Hi there blogworld.  You've been on my mind a lot lately even though I rarely have time to post.  I've composed a lot of posts in my head, though- is that weird?  Never mind, don't answer.  I know it is.  If I'd had more time to post, it would mean that my world was not spinning wildly out of control right now and I would be thankful for that.  As it is, I have umpteen million things to do, but it's Sunday afternoon and I am trying to relax.  (which involves at the moment ignoring the mound of (thankfully) clean clothes on my bed waiting to be folded and ironed, trying to get over the fact that every room in my house has a garbage bag in it as we go through the process of packing, cleaning out etc., also trying to get over the house that everything is unorganized and in dis-array right now and I DON'T LIKE THAT!!).  Anyway, all that to say, I choose to relax today by blogging, so look out!  This post has the potential to be incredibly random and just as disorganized.  Those of you who are bothered by spelling and/or grammar errors might as well just stop reading here because it is not my goal today to be editorially correct.  I may even make up words (is editorially a word?  I guess it might be since spell check didn't grab it...).  Anyway, it is not my goal to please all you grammar nazi's - today is about me and my random thoughts and how I can be most relaxed in the process of writing them which means I am ignoring the little blue and pink squigglies appearing all over my page as I type...

Like I said, random.  I thought about making a list of all my random thoughts but that would take entirely too much organized thought and I am obviously not in that kind of mood.  Usually when I sit down to blog (yes, many posts at one time- sorry but that's all I got right now...) , I actually have an organized list of the topics I am hoping to make the blog on that particular day along with the pictures to go along with them.  That ain't happenin today (yes, I did just so ain't on my blog and you will be happy to know that spell check didn't yell at me about it).

See the picture at the top?  That's me and my habibi.  (Arabic for "my love, my dear, my friend, hey dude-" pretty much anything, but in this case, "my love").  Anyway, that's us on our 15 year anniversary date.  Yes, he is holding his arm out to take the picture- anybody else have a boatload of pics like that pre-kids?  Our kids are thankfully now old enough to take pics like that for us so we have less and less, but on this occasion they were at McD's with my parents (thus the date opportunity) so we were left to take it ourselves.  Anyhow, did you hear me say 15 years?  Yes, we have been married 15 years, which means we have been together 18 years which means I have officially known my husband half of my life since I just turned 36.  Wow.  I'm 36.  Which makes Jason 37 (37.5 acutally if we were still 9 and counted half years) which means we are officially in our late 30's.  How did that happen?  When I was younger (like I still think I am), people in their late 30's were OLD.  My crazy Latin cat-lady teacher in high school who was ancient, I have sadly just found out was only 34 at the time- good grief.  I'm older than "crazy cat lady Latin teacher".  Again, how did this happen?  Oh, and on the subject of age- I went to my doctor the other day, who is incidentally a young, vivacious, beautiful Lebanese woman and she referred to me during the process of my physical as "a woman of your age".  WHAT?  I'm not a "woman of your age"! I feel quite young thank you very much!

Unfortunately the theme of aging seems to be emerging here- didn't mean for that to happen but so be it.  How did we go from this.....

and this...

TO THIS!?!?!?...

 

Don't get me wrong- I am so thankful for my girls, and I guess if I'm honest with myself I realized that the aging process would inevitably effect them too- I just didn't expect it to happen so stinkin fast!    Lord help us! That's all I can say about it at this point. And thankfully I know he will.   I've messed up plenty of times along the way, and I know I'll mess up plenty of times more.  Praise God for His grace and forgiveness and for our family relationship that extends each other the same grace.  I hope apologizing to your kids is not a bad parenting technique because I find myself doing it often. Every day is a new adventure and I know the next 10 years we'll be in for the ride of our lives with three teen/tween-agers. I think I"m going to have to devote an entire post to this subject (hopefully it will actually make it to the computer and won't be just in my head...)

Yeah, I know I left out one daughter in the pics above.  She wasn't in a very photographic mood that day and I came up with this...

Yes, very precious, and oh so very precocious, and thankfully still enough baby fat on those cheeks to pinch!  I'm very thankful that it didn't go along with the glamour shots photos of my big girls.  I'm barely handling two of those- three would probably push me over the edge!  

Another random thought on little girls- I know all you mothers of girls have probably had this thought and as we are getting ready to come to America, I want to know how to prepare for it- again, this will probably be a subject for another post (that hopefully doesn't just stay in my head).  Please tell me why in the world the children's clothing industry is insisting on making our little girls look like mini fashion models?  Never thought I would be the old fashioned one, but seriously people?  Come on!  What are you thinking with the way you are wanting little girls to dress???  Ok, I have to save this rant.  

We are late for dinner with friends.  Jason is giving me the "you're going to make us late" eye, and it is oh so annoying when he turns out to be right on that (yes, more times than not...).  So I'll close with this- I posted a while back about a battle not worth fighting  with Naomi- this was another one...   

Yes, this is a picture of Naomi sleeping in her closet.  She slept here the other night and was oh so happy about it.  In all honesty I intended to move her when she fell asleep, but oops, I fell asleep.  And she stayed there all night.  And she fell down when she tried to walk the next morning.  And she talked about her legs hurting.  But she was very happy.  

Ok, that's all for today.  We are now officially late and Jason was right- darn it!  I don't like to be wrong- have I ever mentioned that? 

I won, I won!

In case you didn't know, I'm a little competitive and get just a little bit excited about winning...  Especially when it's something I didn't even know I was trying to win.  Ok, so I guess won is not the right word- I was awarded- a blog award of all things.  I say of all things, because I am probably the world's worst blogger.  I've been told I go about it all wrong- posting a bunch of posts all at one time when I'm able to find the time to sit down (I truly don't know how you people that post every few days or even every day manage it...).  On top of that it takes me FOREVER to figure out how to do things on this crazy blog.  I will probably NEVER change my blog background- believe me, the fact that I have a background at all is saying something.  And I don't even want to think about the heartache of trying to change everything again- STRESS!  Oh, and add to that that it took me around 15 minutes to figure out how in the world to get the cute little picture that you see above on to my blog- and I couldn't tell you about the word without the cute picture! 

Ok, sorry, I digress.  I got the cherry on top blog award from my dear friend Kellie who can be found here.  We experience life together in a very different culture and because of that have a very special friendship.  I am SOO thankful for Kellie (even if she spells her name wrong).  She and her hubby have become parents in the past year and it has been so special watching them with Maya, their little angel.  Her honesty about truly all things is refreshing and she is one of the most creative people I know.  Her blog entries are down to earth, cut right to the heart and are always challenging.   At least 3 times in the past 24 hours my Maddie has told me to please "ask Aunt Kellie about this"- it's always a craft project.  Paper mache, homemade jewelry making (which I don't even know that Kellie has done but Maddie knows she would need to ask her- not me).  Poor Maddie, she's my crafty girl and got stuck with Mrs. Non-Creativity as a mom (that would be me) instead of an Aunt Kellie.  But thankfully, we have Aunt Kellie nearby.  (usually, she's in the states now and I miss her).  Maddie misses her too- she has asked me twice in the last day to text Aunt Kellie not understanding that I can't not being in the US with her.  Anyway! 

So, as the recipient of this reward, I'm supposed to do two things.  First, I'm supposed to tell you three things I like about myself and B, I'm supposed to pass this on to 5 blogging friends.   So, here you go...

1.  Apparently I am patient and I want to like that.  (oozing with confidence too...).  No, the reason I say it like that is because when my sweet friend Kellie gave me this reward she referred to my patience with my three girls and this is something I have been thinking about a lot.  I ALWAYS feel that I am struggling with patience.  Daily, I have to put this request before the Throne of grace because I just don't feel like I am as patient as I should be with the angels the Lord has been so good to entrust me with.  So, if others are noticing that I am patient with my girls, then I truly want to like that about me, and I am thankful that in some way the Lord is answering m daily pleas.

2.  I like my positivity.  In my mind, all things are almost always possible at least to some degree.  Notice I say, in my mind.  As I've gotten older, I've learned to recognize the realities of life, but I still love my tendency to see the glass as half full at all times.  I tease Jason that he is the pessimist and I'm the optimist, and he would be quick to jump in and say that he's the "realist".  Whatever.  Call it what you want, buddy- my glass is always fuller than yours and I'm betting that's how God planned it...

3.  I love, love, love my family.  God has blessed me with an incredible hubby (15 years of marriage now!) and I am now old enough to say that I"ve known him half of my life- crazy! I really feel like in so many ways that we've grown up together.   God has blessed us with three beautiful, awesome, fun, crazy daughters.  Our lives are never dull.  We have a terrific time together as a family and I am so thankful for the relationships we are building just between the five of us.  We have learned to define together "home is where the heart is"-12 different homes in 15 years will do that to ya!

Ok, enough about me- 5 blogging friends to give this award to become tough for me because a lot of the people that I wanted to award have private, invitation only blogs so I can't link them for you- boo!  So girls, you know who you are and you would be getting an award if I could give it to you.  The others go to...

First Cherry on Top award goes to my new friend, Tara- or Mrs. Yellow Hat.  I discovered her through a mutual friend in blogworld and as a fellow, overseas liver (and lover of Target when in the US), I have really enjoyed getting to know her family and reading about her overseas adventures.  We are in about the same phase of life and probably without even knowing it, she has been a real encouragement to me many times. 

Second Cherry goes to my friend Cassie.  She recently started a blog about her dieting struggles that I can so relate to.  She has frequent posts about what the Lord is teaching her on this topic and it has been a huge encouragement to me and also very challenging.

Last Cherry (sorry, I'm not doing 5 because of all the private bloggers out there but you know who you are...) goes to Ashley.  We were friends in collage and I haven't seen or heard from her in 15 years (are we that old???) until we reconnected on facebook a few weeks ago.  She has a fun, colorful blog, overflowing with the joy of the Lord.  She frequently gives away beautiful, fun, usually Scripture inspired art work to her followers. 

So that's that!  This was fun, but I'm already finding myself feeling guilty for spending like 45 minutes on a blog post that talked mostly about myself and did nothing to update anyone on the affairs of our family.  OH well- that will come later.  Stay tuned...