The power of Prayer...before and after the fact

Something happened this weekend that made me realize how powerful a prayer can be. Most people pray. Whether to God or some other being that your faith has you believe in. You pray for people who are sick or having a hard time. Sometimes you might pray for someone to change their life and open their heart. My Mother prays. She is a woman very strong in her faith and life has thrown a lot at her to build up her faith and make it stronger than she could possibly ever imagine. She has several prayer groups/circles online and in person and tons of people she has never met and continues to pray for. I guess now I see how much prayer can help someone before they even need it.

My brother was in an accident this weekend. He was hit by a trash truck. The entire passenger side of his truck was ripped off along with the roof of the cab. His truck is surely totalled and the only part of the truck not smashed and ripped apart is the drivers seat area where he was sitting. There was no passenger with him physically but there were definitely some angels holding him tight when that truck hit him. My brother doesn't go to church with us and I really don't even know if he prays at all...but my Mom prays for him.

So keep praying for the ones you love, the people on the news, the people you walk past everyday...everyone could use an extra prayer. You never know when it'll come in handy.

Da Wii...

So Logan's birthday party went off without a hitch and lots of fun was had by all. Logan got his Wii from me, Mike, Mom and Dad. And it seemed like almost everyone else got him Wii stuff or money to buy more Wii stuff. So as of now our Wii arsenal includes two remotes, two nunchuks, two wheels and a guitar. We've got Mario Kart, Playground, Super Mario Galaxy and Guitar Hero III to have fun with. And boy have we been having fun. I think Logan's been to bed later than usual everyday this week and then after he goes to bed Mike and I stay up practically all night playing games against each other. It's sooo much fun. Pretty amazing how far technology has come since our days of 2D, pixelated Mario characters.

Since Logan got so much money I didn't think he needed to spend it all, it's kind of ridiculous. So I talked to him about opening a savings account to put his money into. He thought it was a great idea so now my baby has a savings account and is saving for a car. (His words, not mine, I am so not ready for that.) He said he wants a Mini car like Tracey's, he thinks it costs about $200. I guess he still has a lot to learn about the value of money. We are working on that still...lol

Long time no see...

I say I'm going to do better but who knows.

Today I won't talk about Best Buy and my camera debockle because I don't want to get mad again.

How about Logan's upcoming 7th birthday!? I can't believe my baby is going to be 7. I don't think I'm old enough to have a 7 year old! Anyway, I finally talked him into having a Mario themed party so it would all tie into his surprise present...wanna know what it is? I guess you'll have to stay tuned, I'll post some pictures of us playing with it soon. Well, at least if I ever get my camera back. I've been collaberating with a friend at work who is the ultimate Mario/Nintendo guru and she's been a HUGE help in finding pics and ideas that I need for the cake and decorations. Considering how popular Mario and friends are lately, with the introduction of the new Wii you would think that Mario party stuff would be fairly easy to find. No such luck. The only place I've found any party supplies is on ebay and it was soooo outrageous for some paper plates and hats they must be crazy. So I've got lots of graphics and photos of the characters that I'll be playing with in PrintMaster this weekend to print some banners and other decorations. The cake y'all, in my mind it's going to be AWESOME AND AMAZING. We'll see if I can bring it to life to my specifications without tearing all my hair out.

Speaking of cakes, I've got three to make, possibly four in the next two weeks. My kitchen is going to hate me.

More later, thanks for stopping by...

Naomi

Okay...

Let's try this again. If my mom can start a blog and stay up to date then I should be able to also right!? Check out my mom's blog, it's a family blog for our crazy, fun family...

http://johnsontattler.blogspot.com

I've been off work for a few days so let me get caught up then I'll be back to post about our weekend in the country.

A fresh start

Okay, I'm gonna try this blogging thing again. Sometimes I just feel like no one cares what's going on in my little neck of the woods. Anyway. I'm gonna try to come up with a cute name and I'll start posting pics of my crafty things on here too. I've been reading/stalking a bunch of other blogs of paper crafters. Stampers, scrapbookers, etc. So I'll be posting some of that stuff I've done and maybe some of my cakes. So basically everything. Who knows, in a few days I might just forget all about this again for another few months!

Sleepy Logan

Two in one day! I've got to catch up somehow...

Every weekday morning I get up before the boys, take a shower, get dressed/ready for work, make lunches and then I carpool to work and my friend, Tracey, comes to pick me up. I usually wake Mike and the boys up sometime around making lunches and walking out the door. This morning I woke everyone up then I was just sitting on the couch cause I knew Tracey would be there any second. Logan comes staggering into the living room still half asleep and I asked him what he was doing (i.e., why he wasn't getting dressed or brushing his teeth). He says, "I just wanted to spend some time with you."

Oh my. I'm really lucky to have kids like I do.

They have their moments when they drive me nuts and get in trouble but man can they make up for it.

And yesterday I was making Logan's lunch and decided to put a little "love" note in his cookie bag. When he got home he told me he really liked his note. And then this morning when I was making his lunch again I saw the little note in there still. He took the note out of his baggie and kept it when he threw away everything else. I didn't expect that, I just figured he throw it all away. That makes me feel like it really meant something to him. I'm gonna have to start doing that more often.

=)

Our Weekend.

Friday: I went out with Robyn and some other girls to this place called Howl at the Moon. It was a lot of fun. It's like a dueling piano bar type thing. Not really my sort of place but I trust Robyn's judgement and she said it was great. The singers/players were really fun and we had a good time...that is until our check came. The didn't have my "girl beer" when I first asked so I was drinking crown all night. $7.50 for a crown and diet. I think I really fell off my chair when I saw that. I'm poor and that is a crazy amount. Oh well, my own fault for letting her start a tab and not paying cash(which I had) to begin with. Lesson learned, although I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon just because of the price.

Saturday: Mike and I took Logan and his baseball friend Zach to the batting cages. We got all suited up and Logan hit a few rounds (well, he swung at them at least) but then Zach kind of got freaked out and thought the balls were going to hit him so he didn't want to bat. So Mike and I swung for a few rounds and then we all went to the game room and played video games and a round of putt putt golf. Logan and Zach are two of the sweetest kids. At the end, when the were cashing in their tickets (after walking around the display booth for probably 20 minutes repeatedly asking me "can I get that?") Logan used his tickets to buy two sets of vampire fangs. One for him and one for Zach. Then when he gave them to Zach, he gave Logan his bouncy ball. We are lucky to have such sweet kids and I can only hope that their friends stay as sweet also. (yea right, I know better...but a Mom can dream can't she?)

Saturday night the boys spent the night with my Mom and Dad. Mike and I were planning on going to a cookoff in Pasadena where some friends of ours have a team. About the time we started getting dressed/ready it started POURING rain. And then one of our friends called and said everyone was leaving. Soooo we spent our Saturday night with me falling asleep on the couch around 7:30p and Mike playing video games all night. We are party animals huh?!? lol Oh well. At least I caught up on some sleep...

It's been a while

I got all gung ho on this blog thing and then I haven't done anything in over a week! Sorry. There's been a lot going on in my life, mostly work drama on top of all the usual chaos. I work in a politically charged atmosphere and it really stinks reading about office stuff in the news media. Everyone has an opinion and they are not shy about sharing it. I work with a lot of good people and most of the time I love my job. I think some people have bad judgement but I'm pretty sure we are all guilty of that at some point in our life. I just hope everything works out in the end. Oh well, enough of the cryptic talk if you don't know anything about this...lol.

Robyn's taking me to some new hot spot in town tonight. Howl at the Moon. It's a dueling piano bar so we'll see how it is. Hopefully I'll have more interesting stuff to talk about soon!

Back to normal

Today was Logan's first day back to school. Since he's been out of school for the Christmas holidays our schedule has gotten so mixed up. The boys have been going to bed later and sleeping later (not always a bad thing). Which means that Jack's sleep schedule has been way off. The kid has never been a very good sleeper and I'm sure we haven't helped that by rocking him to sleep every night and bringing him to bed with us. Oh well, he'll get better one day and then we will miss him being little. I can't wait to hear how Logan's first day back was. He always has the most animated stories. We'll see!

A new year and a new outlook...

So of course now that a brand new year is upon us we have to deal with the ever present resolutions. It seems like every year they are always the same and every year they end up getting tossed by the wayside about April...if we're lucky. Hopefully, this year will be different and I'm posting my resolutions here so they are officially noted and I can't renig on them later.

Resolution #1: "Lose weight, get healthy."

This one is very important to me lately because my Dad was recently diagnosed with Diabetes. He is doing awesome (!!) with his diet and with getting healthier and he is getting better at knowing what he can and can't eat. Which is helping him feel better. Since I had Gestational Diabetes when I was pregnant with Jack I am now officially more likely to develop Diabetes as I get older. So I know now is the time for me to lose weight and stay healthy so that I don't develop diabetes and so that I can just generally be a better Mom and wife.

Resolution #2: "Pay off credit card debt and create and stay on a budget."

I bought a program for the computer to set up a budget and to help us stay on track. So I'll be checking in periodically to let you know how we are doing on that.

Resolution #3: "Spend more time with the family and less time watching TV."

During the summer when we were in our biggest money crunch ($50 more in daycare a week will do that) we cut off our cable and internet. During those months we spent more time together in the evening and actually did things together. Now we still don't have internet but we do have cable and we are always seperated and watching different shows.

Just a few things I want to try to work on in the new year...