25 Random Things

1. WHAT CITY AND STATE WERE YOU BORN IN?Kennewick, WA
2. CATS OR DOGS?Definitely not cats!!!
3. HOW MANY CHILDREN DO YOU HAVE?three
4, YOU PLAYED WHAT SPORT IN HIGH SCHOOL?Volleyball, swimming (2 weeks until I got to sick to swim, cold air wet hair and I do not agree), track, and in desperation cross country.
5. YOUR COLLEGE ROOM MATE DROVE YOU NUTS BECAUSE...I never had a college roommate.
6. DO YOU EAT MUSHROOM SOUP?No, but I would
7. IF MARRIED, WHERE WERE YOU MARRIED?My hometown, Kennewick, WA
8. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE PICTURES YOU TAKE?We stockpile them in the computer until we print the. I am quitting the scrapping though and doing photobooks after I finish 2007
9. FAVORITE FLOWER?orchid
10. HOW MANY BROKEN BONES IN YOUR LIFE?none
11. SPOUSES OR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS NAME?Chris
12. FAVORITE BOOKS OF ALL TIME?The Bible, The Schack, anything Janet Evanovich in the Stephanie Plum series
13. SURGERY???Eye....too many to list
14. HEELS OR FLATS?generally flats, but if Chris is lucky....heels, lol
15. PARTIES OR QUIET NIGHTS ALONE?I used to say parties, but my house always sounds like a big party. So, now it's a night alone.
16. FAVORITE PART OF CHURCH?Worship (music), small group
17. HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU FAIL YOUR DRIVERS TEST?None, I only missed two points baby. I didnt have to parallel park b/c it was so windy it kept blowing the cones over. Yeah for the tri
18. DO YOU HAVE ANY ALLERGIES?Why yes I do. Dust mites, cat, a few trees, bees
19. YOU DRIVE A...05 Kia Sedona
20. HOW MANY CAR SEATS ARE IN YOUR CAR?Four, yikes!
21. FAVORITE PIZZA TOPPINGS?Sausage, black olives, onion, mushrooms, green pepper, etc...the cowboy pizza from papa murphys
22. FAVORITE JEANS?Route 66, K Marche
23. A PAID VACATION, YOU CHOOSE TO GO WHERE?Kauai, do you need to even ask?
24. HOW OFTEN DO YOU EXERCISE? WHAT DO YOU DO?Once a week, hula. Lame I know I need to do more, too cold and too cheap
25. YOUR FIRST CAR WAS A...69 slug bug, pink

Mark 12:30-31

The NIV says:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all you strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.

We have been using these verses in partenting a lot lately because we are faced with the questions of : "why do I have to be nice, they werent nice to me", "why cant I say that her breath stinks, it does?," "why do I have to include her?" Stuff like that. The girls are constantly challenging us and this is one of the many key verses in our church. We have been trying to emphasize the importance of this and it has really spoken to the heart of Alli. Here was a conversation between her and I last night: (A=Alli, M=me)

A-Why does God want us to love each other?
M- (summary of the above verses and general conversation)
A- Why cant we call someone stupid?
M- B/c we wouldn't be loving our neighbor as ourself would we? That would be hurtful.
A- (violent crying) I dont want to tell you somehting I need to tell you...(more shrieking)
M- Calm down, I cant understand you. Just tell me what is wrong.
A- I dont want to say.....(pause and cry) I called someone stupid (sobbing)
M- Calm down, just tell me who you called stupid. You are not going to get in trouble, but we are going to talk about it.
A- (barely able to understand) I sometimes call Daddy stupid after I get in trouble...(more crying)
****Translation, After disipline she goes to her room and secretly slams Chris. I laugh on the inside a little and cry at the same time. I laugh b/c part of me thinks, "Is there no where this child can express her anger?" I cry b/c she was so distruaght with the sin she had committed that she needed to reconcile. It was physically difficult to admit her sin and possibly accept a punishment. But, that was far more important for her than to remain quiet. She wanted reconciliation with her father. What an amazing picture of us struggling through our flesh and "coming clean" with our Heavenly father.*****
M- I am not going to punish you for this, but you will have to tell your father what you did. We dont call people stupid because it would hurt them and then we would not be loving them.
A- Will you stand with me when I tell him?
****Jesus is our intercessor, our person standing with us submitting to our father. The amazing thing is that Jesus covers us so that all God sees is made clean. I thank God for this application of salvation in our everyday life****

I slept in this morning and when I got up, she had already come clean to Chris without me. Come to find out (this makes it a little worse), she actually calls him stupid when going over her prayer cards at night. I assume she only does this when she has been in trouble that day, but who knows. Using her prayer card as a little voodoo doll is what Chris and I picture. Morbid I know. Oh, children.

Blessed

I went out with my hula sisters last weekend for lunch at Shanghai Restaurant. It was fabulous. They gave us so much food that I took it home and had another meal out of it. Anyways, I love being with these women. They are so much fun. The lady that looks like she could be my hawaiian mother I call mom. All in attendance were Bonnie, Judy, Lani, Me and Trudy. We stopped for lunch before going to a fellow sisters baby shower. Amy is having a girl later this month or early next month.

In other news, we are getting ready to redo our flooring. We feel really blessed that we have the financial means to do such a project. Chris has never done flooring before and is doing it alone (so far) the end of this month so you could send up some prayers for that if you think about it.

I am loving my week this week. I have stayed home with Leilani. The term stay at home mom is relative. We are constantly on the go, but a couple days this week we literally stayed home and I loved it. I scrapped, she watched movies or I cleaned and she played "kitchen". She is so cute and I am loving this phase. Thank you God for my family!

Black Eyed Mary

So, this little gem was left in our bathroom a week ago after a game night with some of our friends. She is called black eyed mary because she is from the dollar store and some of the paint around her eye is too low, hence looking like Joesph gave her a black eye. I have also heard her referred to as domestic violence Mary. So funny. Anyways, this figurine gets passed around from person to person in our church. When she is left in your home you have to proudly display it for two weeks and then pass it on to the next family. Last night a couple in our group said they would not be inviting us over until we have passed it on. Oh, it was also attached with the Bible verse Leviticus 18:23. I am not going to post that, I will let you look it up for your reading enjoyment. I love my friends!

New Toy

So, for those of you who know Chris and I, you know that we dont live on the extravagant. Not to toot our own horn, but we are pretty frugal for the most part. Saving for the next big thing. Well, we had some Christmas money burning a hole in our pocket yesterday and so we went out and bought our first game system in years....a playstation and Rockband. We love it! I forsee hours of fun playing with the girls. Anyways it is going to be fun times at the Littrell house.

These Boots were made for walkin'

I went to a white elphant exchange and won these orange boots. I love them and Chris evidently does too. He does not have winter boots and used mine to shovel the drive way during the winter flurries.

Sleepy Pirate

Earlier this month, our family (minus me) went to a birthday party at the Crawmers. They truly went all out. It was a combined birthday party for their sons Morgan and Jack Jack. There was a costume theme. Amanda was Dot from Mad TV, her husband Andy was a mad scientist, complete with sideburns. Dan was a baseball player and Julie was a teacher. Morgan and Jack were decked out in kilts, braveheart style. The Pasmas were all Bombers fans, one of them (we wont say who) wore shorts that should not be worn by men. (yikes!) And my family consisted of a hippie, a pink pirate, Sharpei from HSM, and Garbriella from HSM. They had a blast! I was at my annual (it was only my second year) cookie exchange. It took me years to get into this group. I remember my aunt going to the exchange when I was a little girl and thinking, "oh I hope I get invited to that when I am older." Basically someone has to die or be miss a year for there to be an opening in the group. A few years back I asked my aunt if there were any weak links in the group so that I could get my foot in. Well, no one died, but I got an invite and felt so pleased to go. So I am in until death keeps me from it. I love going. We play six rounds of bunko and eat all afternoon. The hostess of the party makes an amazing cranberry tea each year and I looked forward to it for that long. It was worth the wait. Hope you enjoy!