Mommys Proud Moment

Ok, so I had a very proud moment of my son today. And let's just be real, those seem to be few and far between lately, so it just made it even that more special. I know, it's sad. But all his um, not-so-good-vices seem to outweigh his good or cute moments sometimes. Just being honest!

So let me start at the beginning, and paraphrase (otherwise this could be a very lengthy post)! :)

Today was THE day at our church. The day our church has waited on......like forever, it seems like. It was the Grand Opening of our new addition to our current church building. did that make sense? And lemme tell you..........it looks AMAZING! I will definately be taking pictures and posting them later. It looks incredible. Our sanctuary is good size, seats over 1,000, but our christian adult education and kids' class rooms were definately bulging at the seams. So we added 7 adult education classes, a new fellowship hall, a huge kitchen, a coffee shop/bistro, a new kids check in area, a game room, 10 kids' classrooms and a new kids church room. Anywho, back to my proud moment. ( I tend to get off track....) :)

So to make a long story short, today was the big day of the grand opening, when we all have access to the new rooms. So the service this morning was of course, all dedicated to that. Pastor Jason had a great sermon, that brought many of us back down memory lane as he revisited the journey Evangel Temple took the past 2+ years.

At the end of the sermon, there was a special song, by our worship team and our music pastor, Pastor Ryan. During that time, we had what is known as "cardboard testimony". If any of you have never heard of that, it is where one by one, certain people walk across the stage, holding a sign........it could say, I was a sinner.........I was an alcoholic.........Did not want to go to church.......Abandoned........Lost..........you get the idea. They would hold it up for a couple seconds, then flip the sign over, and on the other side it would say something like .....now I am found........Found Jesus!..........Back in church.........and so forth. It is a very powerful time, as many people go up there and flip their sign over, showing their life before, and their life with Christ now. Well my family had the priveledge and opportunity to be the last ones today at church to flip their signs over.

It all started with Grandpa Haines (Jer's Grandpa). His sign said........"No time for God". Then Jerry came out (Jeremy's dad) and stood next to Grandpa and his sign said, "Raised in church", then Jer came out and his sign also said "Raised in church", then out came Isaiah and his sign said "That's my Great Grandpa, Grandpa, Dad". Then, all 4 of them flipped their signs over and here's what they said..........

Grandpas: Accepted Christ in 1955

Jerrys: Still in Love with God

Jeremys: Still in Love with God

Isaiahs: The Legacy Continues

It was very powerful and very emotional. I don't think there was a dry eye on my pew! (my sister and parents were sitting next to me). I was so proud of Isaiah......he walked right out there on the platform and flipped his sign and stood out there so good. I was a very proud mommy! Now for pictures......:)

Sonya helping Isaiah with his sign and helping him flip it over :)

Standing next to Grandpa

Isaiah got preoccupied with the musicians after a while when Pastor Jason started talking... :)




And of course, I was so focused on getting a clear picture of Isaiah, I didn't think to get one of all 4 of them holding their signs, until they turned around to walk off the stage.

to the far left is Jeremy, then his Grandpa, then his dad :)

What an awesome, amazing legacy the Haines family has. My children are blessed. As are we.

Show Us Where You live Friday

Welcome to another "show us where you live Friday" edition!! Check out Kellys Korners blog, to see this weeks room.....the kids' rooms!

Now first off, I must say, that our kids' rooms are always a work-in-progress. I got Lilly's room (finally) the way I like it. For the moment. I am only beginning on Isaiah's room though. So keep that in mind as you enter our kids' rooms.........

Welcome to Lillian's room!

This is what you see as you walk down the hall past her room. Hardly ever her and Isaiah laying in her bed so still though. That was a very rare moment.

And she does have a day bed, with a trunnel underneath to sleep someone else (often her cousins when they sleep over). The day bed actually used to be mine when I lived with my parents, before I was married. It's white and has girly little flowers on the corner posts.

The photo below, is a realistic photo that I often see as I pass by my daughters room. She is a climber. She climbs on her shelves, toy boxes, art easel.....anything, to reach something up high. Here she is, caught in the act.

My favorite part about her room is probably the doll house/bookshelf. I love it. Got it at Target a year or two ago. Now my daughter does have one distinct characteristic that is unlike me. She is a very messy house keeper. I tolerate mess to an extent, but not like Lilly. We had to work and work on her room to clean it up to make it "blog worthy" for this! Toys are usually scattered from one wall to the other in her room. Drives. Me. Crazy. I don't remember EVER being like that. I'm sure I was some, when I was little, but for the most part, I've always been fairly neat and clean. Not my daughter. Messes don't bother her one bit!

The photo below turned out kind of dark. This is Lilly's walk in closet. Enough clothes, shoes and dresses for a lifetime. :)

And this is a look at the same wall that the door is on. Her dresser (also used to be mine), her Dora calender, and the humidifier on her dresser, which we turn on every night, for noise.

And of course, her name :) I ordered this right after she was born, if I remember correctly, and it has been in her nursery and all (3) of her bedrooms.

A princess frame of our princess :)

I hardly remember when she was that little!!!

And a baby frame with her hand print. I know one of these days she won't want this "baby stuff" hanging on her wall, but until she begs me to take it down, I think I will leave it. :)

Now on to my sons room. Boys' rooms sure aren't as much fun to decorate as girls' rooms!

The dresser has been in his room since he was born- was also used as a changing table. Now is just a dresser. Love his toybox. That was a garage sale find a couple years ago. His bed used to be his crib, and has been converted to a toddler bed. I think he is probably about ready for a "big" bed, but we have just been lazy in getting him one. One of these days.

See what I mean, his room is a work in progress :) We have absolutely NO decor on his walls right now. How sad. Well, except for his name of course. I started out with the red wall and red stripes, thinking we would do a "Cars" theme in his room. Surprisingly, he seems to have gotten out of that phase. He was so obsessed with that, I just knew he would be a Cars fan forever. Now he seems more in to Spiderman and super heros. Which, lucky for me, the red wall would work for that as well!

The door in the picture below is the door to the California bathroom that him and Lilly share.

And of course the doors to his closet, with his name above it.

wow, his room is very plain. We'd better get workin' on that. ;)

Lillys last day

of preschool was today!!! Yay for summer! Of course I say this now. We have yet to have a full "official" day of summer boredom. Ask me again in a day or two, and see what I say. I'm sure the excitement of summer will wear off real quick. just a hunch.

In the meantime, today was her last day of her first year of preschool. And today was declared "messy/wet day" at her school, and she got permission to wear/bring swimsuits today. So she was sure psyched up about that. Never mind that it had rained last night, or was cloudy and a little cool this morning. Lilly had been waiting ALL weekend.....all 3 days... to wear her swimsuit to school today, and bygolly, she was gonna wear it!!! :)

She came home with her backpack stuffed of papers......some of her artwork dated all the way back from September. Where in the world has this been the past 8 months?

My mom and I picked her up from school today. I'm continuing on my moms tradition of taking the kids out to eat for lunch on their last day of school. I gave her 3 choices and let her pick where. She chose Long John Silvers. ha! She just likes their corn on the cob and corn dog nuggets. :)

Ok, so summer vacation has officially started in our house. I have got to start making some plans for this summer, and get some activities for the kids, or they will drive me absolutely bonkers! Suggestions?

Show Us Where You live Friday

Today is Dining Rooms! Check out where "Show Us Where You Live Friday" originated here.

I must say, I think our dining room is my favorite room in the house. It just shows 'me' and my heritage, and I love that.

Above: My dining room, as you look at it, when you walk through the front door to the left....

We bought that glass dining room table and chairs set when we were living in Michigan. Love it, but it's kind of a pain to clean off after you eat.....you have to get out the windex everytime!

Can you guess my heritage yet?

(hint- that is my kimono hanging on the wall that I wore when I was younger) :)

Ok, so if you guessed Japanese, you are correct! :) My dad brought back the kimono hanging on the wall, when he went back to Japan to visit family in the 1980's. I have a picture of me and my sister wearing our kimonos, along with our shoes he got us (I forgot the name of the shoes). I think the picture is in one of the albums at my moms house.....I'll have to dig it out and show it to ya sometime! :)

Below: the one un-oriental thing in my dining room. (basically because I didn't know where else to put it in the house). My mickey mouse coo-coo clock!

My shoes that my dad brought back from Japan :)

And my doll from Japan........

My kimono hanging proudly....

As you can tell, I've got lots of little Japanese knick-knacks spread out all over my dining room :)

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my favorite room :)

All tuckered out

As my hubby likes to say, I'm plum tuckered out!

Not near as "tuckered out" as he is though, I'm sure.

It's been a very late last couple nights for us. And by late, I mean 11pm for me. :) Stop rolling your eyes and laughing, yes, 11pm is late for me. I need my rest! :)

Anyways, as I said in my previous post, this past weekend, Jer and I got the 'bright' idea to repaint our house. Inside. And by inside our house, I mean just that......basically our whole inside of our house, or so it seems. (again, see previous post). We started last weekend, and so far we have repainted the living room, and kitchen. (actually Jer is putting the seond coat on in the kitchen as I type this). (I'm suppose to go help him......ssshhhh....I'm pretending to be "working" up here).

I think the house looks great so far, what we've painted. I'm very pleased with it. Now that I allready posted pics of my living room and kitchen, I'll have to post the "new and updated" version. :)

We are putting our painting on hold for a couple days though, as I am having my Prims girls at church over to my house for a sleepover on Friday night. So we are wrapping up the kitchen, and cleaning it up and will continue probably next week. I think Jer is getting tired all ready though. The other day he was figuring up how much overtime he would have to work, to be able to pay someone to finish! ha! I'll keep ya posted..... :)

In the meantime, tomorrow night is Lilly's end of the year preschool picnic party. :) Look for pics soon! :)

Thursdays Thoughts

~I started a new ladies bible study. We are going through a new Jennifer Rothschild book/video/workbook. I think it will be really good. Something I really need right now. The only downfall is it is the 2nd and 4th Thursday evening of the month, so it will take away time from my hubby, whereas my Tues morning bible study I did on "my" time, not 'family time'. However, I think I really really need this at this time in my life. Things have been pretty rough lately. Which brings me to my second point....

~"Shopping with the Kids" has officially moved into my list of "Top 5 things I despise". Not that I have a list, but if it did, it would be there. One trip to Wal Mart + 2 preschoolers never equals anything good. Not with MY two preschoolers that is.

~Isaiah had some blood work done today. (and this was AFTER the Wal Mart trip, so no, we can't blame the bad shopping experience on that!) His allergist is requesting he get blood work done once a year, to evaluate his peanut allergies, and they can tell better by that if it is getting worse/better or staying about the same.

~Our newest project in the Haines household.....painting. oh, the joys of painting. You know, it's one of those things that sounds like a good idea at the time, and you can just "picture it when its all done", but in the midst of it........you just have to think, "What was I thinking????" We have officially started painting the living room. And our house, as much as I love it, is set up, so all the rooms on the main level just kind of "run together", so if you want to paint the living room, of course, you have to paint the kitchen too, and the (2 story) entry way, plus the stairwell......and of course the hall upstairs! geez, it never ends. But oh! Think of all the money we're saving by doing it ourselves, and not hiring someone to do it! :/

~This is promising to be a loud and crazy weekend. We have 2 extra kids on Friday, and Friday night. My sisters boys. We are watching them Friday afternoon, evening and up until sometime on Saturday, when we doing the "hand off" and giving them to my parents, until Sunday after church when we will get them again. Gerald and Valerie are going to Branson for the weekend for their anniversary, so mom and I are tag teaming with the kiddos. Sure to be a fun time had by all :) Stay tuned!

~And on that note, I will probably skip tomorrow's "Show me where you live Friday", version of guest rooms. Why? Well, A- I will have 2 extra kids all day tomorrow......computer access will probably be slim to none, and B- We don't even have a guest bedroom- ha! So, the post would probably be pretty short, and boring. ;)

Ok, it's nearing midnight.....I have GOT to go to bed now. busy day ahead!

Week-end Wrap-up

We had a great weekend over here. It was filled with a trip to Worlds of Fun, shopping, eating out, lunch with mom, a birthday party, church, mothers day lunch with Jer's family, and minimal amount of rest. :)

Friday, my dad and Jeremy took Matthew (my nephew), Lilly and Isaiah to Worlds of Fun. And no, I did not go. And no, it is not one of my top places to go.....much less dragging 3 kids through it. I'm just not a big theme-park fan, what can I say? However, the kids all loved it. (Dad and Jer, I'm not so sure about however) :) Isaiah informed me when they returned that he wanted to go there again- that was fun! Well......right now, my track record is going to WOF about every 2 years or so, so we'll see when he gets to go again. ;)

Lilly did not like seeing Snoopy or Lucy. She's not a big fan of people dressed up in character costumes. (remember the Easter bunny, anyone?) So she stood back by dad while he took the picture.

Lilly and Matthew were both soooooo excited to go to Worlds of Fun. It's all Matthew talked about all week I think. And he was so excited his cousins were going with him. At first, Jonathan did not want to go........he would say 'I don't like worlds of fun'! (maybe he gets it from me?). But later, he had changed his mind, and said he liked it and wanted to go to. Maybe just because he found out his cousins were going, and he didn't want to get left out?! By that time though, it was too late to get another ticket. Maybe next time, Jonathan. :)

We had a great Mothers Day service on Sunday. And it was an honor to have my mom in church with us. :) I think they enjoyed the service. At the end of service, there was a quartet of 5 guys (my hubby included) to sing a Boyz II Men song, 'Letter for Mama'. They did a phenomenal job, if I do say so myself. I was so proud. :) (Jer is the one on far right) Nothin' like a little Boyz II Men to end our church service...... :)

After service, we took a few photos in our new foyer area. Here's me, my sister and our mom.

Here is us again and our mom, with all 4 of her grand-children.

And a photo of me and my 2 little ones.....

That's wraps up our weekend in a nutshell. How was yours?

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day out there, to all my mommy-friends!!!

Wanted to share this with you......

*

"Only One Childhood"


I stopped to watch my little girl
Busy playing in her room.
In one hand was a plastic phone;
In the other a toy broom.

I listened as she was speaking
To her make-believe little friend
And I'll never forget the words she said,
Even though it was pretend.

She said, "Suzie's in the corner
Cuz she's not been very good.
She didn't listen to a word I said
Or do the things she should."

In the corner I saw her baby doll
All dressed in lace and pink.
It was obvious she'd been put there
To sit alone and think

My daughter continued her "conversation,"
As I sat down on the floor.
She said, "I'm all fed up, I just don't know
What to do with her anymore.

"She whines whenever I have to work
And wants to play games, too;
And never lets me do the things
That I just have to do.

She tries to help me with the dishes,
But her arms just cannot reach
And she doesn't know how to fold the towels
And I don't have time to teach.

"I have a lot of work to do
And a big house to keep clean.
I don't have time to sit and play-
Don't you know what I mean?"

And that day I thought a lot about
Making some changes in my life;
As I listened to her innocent words
That cut me like a knife.

I hadn't been paying enough attention
To what I hold most dear.
I'd been caught up in responsibilities
That increased throughout the year.

But now my attitude has changed
Because, in my heart, I realize
I've seen the world in a different light
Through my little darling's eyes.

So, let the cobwebs have the corners
And the dust bunnies rule the floor,
I'm not going to worry about
Keeping up with them anymore.

I'm going to fill the house with memories
Of a child and her mother
For God grants us only ONE childhood,
And we will never get another.

*

Hope you have an awesome day!

Oh, and if you don't have anywhere to go for church tomorrow, come by Evangel Temple.....my hubby will be making his singing debut, with a quartet of 5 men, singing a Boyz II Men song. You won't wanna miss it! :)

Also, when you get a chance, check out my friend Deannas blog. GREAT Mothers day post :)