Daddy's Princess

In April, Mike took Charlotte to a daddy/daughter dance hosted by our church. Charlotte talked of nothing else all week long and was beyond excited once the day arrived. She chose to wear her red velvet Christmas dress, and I put her hair up in a bun in the back. She was thrilled to have her hair done fancy, but totally blown away when I lent her one of my necklaces to wear with her dress.

At the dance they had their picture taken by the photographer, and all the daughters received a necklace and a carnation. Lots of punch, desserts and dancing followed! She had the time of her life!!! Since I can't decide which one I like best, I posted all three of the ones I thought turned out good. :-)










He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers..." (Malachi 4:6a)

That Freaks Me Out

While on our trip up north, Mike had the luxury of spending some one-on-one time with each kid. He took Eric on a little hike into the woods near Lake Superior. Both of them loved their little adventure!

Charlotte had wanted no part of going out on the boat fishing with the boys, her Daddy and Uncle so she stayed on shore and played Barbies. However, Mike had promised her he'd take her out on the lake just the two of them. Finding time alone with each one of your children is such a challenge, so I'm glad Mike got an opportunity to do that over Labor Day weekend! Here are a few photos of Charlotte and her Daddy.

Charlotte gets into the boat and is looking a little unsure about this whole rowboat QT with Dad.

And they're off!

Every time the boat rocked a little bit, she'd say, "That freaks me out!" Ahhhh, nothing like some quality time with Daddy! :-)

Words You Don't Want To Be Greeted With When You Answer The Door

For example, "Hello, is Mike home?" Guy flips up his badge. "I'm from the Attorney General's office." Thud.

If you're on Facebook, you already know the situation about the ticket on the van. Let me rehash in case you didn't catch it. Mike parks his van in the driveway at night. It was over 30' off the street. A couple weeks ago the police left a ticket on his windshield at 2:55 a.m. for not having a village sticker displayed in the window. The following morning he went over to the police department to explain that he had bought the village sticker back in February, but just hadn't put it on the window. The police officer didn't care. Mike questioned why there were on private property at that hour, and the officer basically said that "in a court of law" it would stand up that policemen can see that far in the dark, and so that gave them reason to come onto our property. Nevermind that it was a 2" x 3" sticker this officer supposedly could see. In the dark. From 31' away. So Mike went to the Mayor to complain. The Mayor was quite sympathetic and helpful, actually, and within a couple of hours, someone from the Mayor's office called to say the ticket had been dismissed. Woohoo for the little guy!

So back to the guy from the Attorney General's office standing on my front porch. Mike did happen to be home that day and to make a long story short, it appears Mike unwittingly got caught up in some small town scandal, for crying out loud. The Mayor handled the dismissal of the ticket illegally, along with a slew of other things (nothing we're involved in, just want to make that clear.) The Mayor is in some serious hot water and under investigation. I suppose that would explain why he didn't run for office for more than one term. So the Attorney General guy came to our house three times to talk with Mike about this ticket, how it all went down, who said what, and it just seemed a bit ridiculous over a stupid ticket for a village sticker that we already owned. Doesn't it just seem wrong that on the one hand you have the police doing their job (albeit a bit shifty in my opinion) but they're legal about it. And then you have the Mayor who takes the time to listen to a problem and try to solve it, and it's illegal. I guess it's true what they say: No good deed goes unpunished.

How To Pray For My Husband

This was sent to me over the summer, and I found it in my drafts. Thought I'd finally share!

How To Pray For My Husband
Head To Toe!


His Head –That he will look to You as Lord of his life. (1 Corinthians 11:13)

His Mind - That he will have the mind of Christ and think as the Holy Spirit would lead him and not the flesh. (1 Corinthians 2:16)

His Eyes –That You will keep his eyes from temptation and that he will turn his eyes from sin. (Matthew 6:13, Mark 9:47)

His Ears - That he will hear Your still small voice instructing him. (1 Kings 19:12, Psalm 32:8)

His Mouth – That his words will be pleasing to You. (Proverbs 19:14)

His Neck –That he will humble himself before You and be strong, courageous, and careful to do everything written in Your Word so that he will be prosperous and successful. (James 4:10, Joshua 1:8-9)

His Heart-That he will love and trust You with his whole heart. (Deuteronomy 6;5, Proverbs 3:5)

His Arms-That You will be his strength. (Psalm 73:26)

His Hands-That he will enjoy the work of his hands and see it as a gift from You. (Ecclesiastes 3:13, 5:19)

His feet – That You will order his steps and that he will walk in Your truth. (Proverbs 4:25, Psalm 26:3)

Perfect Timing

Yesterday was an awesome day! Everything went so well with our trip to the Orthopedic Doctor. We're very relieved and thankful it's not more serious than it is! Thank you everyone for your prayers and kind thoughts!

Yesterday Mike also received a long-awaited phone call. I'm not sure if you recall, but while we were on vacation last October Mike received a call from Randy about a job at a mostly commercial company. At the time, Mike had a job, so we really needed to pray on whether this was an opportunity he should take. However, Mike got laid off 1.5 weeks after we returned from vacation, so that pretty much decided that the commercial job was a definite possibility, lol.

Mike turned in a resume last November (highly unusual for carpentry work), and then nothing happened. He stayed in contact with Randy, who kept encouraging Mike to "hang in there". Then last week Mike was told to come in for an interview, because they were ready to hire one new carpenter. One! In an industry that has the highest rate of unemployment in the nation right now (15%), you can imagine the competition for one position. I really believe God went before Mike and cleared the way, though, because the interview went well and Mike made a good impression. Yesterday the supervisor called and offered Mike the job!! Doing a serious happy dance here, and very grateful to God!

As for that perfect timing? A couple weeks ago I asked Mike to call our insurance to find out when it expired. Our insurance is based off of hours worked. So the hours worked one quarter qualify you for insurance the next quarter. As it turned out, we had insurance through May 2009, but Mike needed to start working and banking hours by early February in order for our insurance to continue uninterrupted. I'd say the timing on this job couldn't be more perfect!

At The Bowling Alley

So Mike joined a bowling league. Not just any bowling league, mind you. This is a Wii bowling league that was jokingly formed on Saturday nights at the home of some friends who host a pot-luck most Saturday nights after church. They have a Wii, and some of the folks there are getting into the bowling thing. It's Mike's first real chance to play the game for longer than a couple of minutes. I knew he was going to get hooked. Just knew it. Sure enough before we left on vacation, and before his birthday rolled around, he said he wanted a Wii (if we could afford it.....and if one could be found.)

We still had some funds left over that weren't spent on vacation ('cause we fed our kids ice cream for meals instead of blowing the wad on $8 hot dogs), so we decided to go for the Wii. I was at Best Buy last week to get new speakers for my computer since the old ones blew themselves out.....certainly not from me jamming on them or anything. Anyway, at BestBuy they were sold out of Wiis. I wasn't thinking I'd find Mike his present after all......you know, it's getting to be Christmas Shopping season don't you know (eye roll.)

On a lark, I called Toys R Us last night and they actually had them in stock! Not delaying, I left Mike in charge of bathing children while I dashed off to the toy store. Mikey was one happy camper when I got home, and we had to bowl. This is my first time bowling on a Wii. And I kicked his butt. hehe. Maybe I'll join the Saturday night bowling league now. ;-)

What's an Appetiz'n?

As we walked across the parking lot towards the tent, Charlotte asked, "What's an appetiz'n?"

"Well, darlin', an appetiz'n is a baptiz'n......"

For those who don't know, Mike made a decision to be baptized Sunday! How amazing it is to see the changes God has brought about in his life! I pray that God would continue to work in and through Mike's life in a powerful way.

Nine Years Ago

It's hard to believe that 9 years ago today Mike and I got married! We've been through a lot both individually and as a couple in our nearly 14 years together, having our share of fabulous (and not so fabulous) moments. Most miraculously, we've managed to hang on to each other even when things weren't going so great. And I guess that's what makes a good and lasting marriage. Anyone can make a go of things when it's all lovely and "going according to plan"; it's when times are tough that builds the character....the endurance of a relationship. And while we're far from the perfect couple, I know that I look forward to the time we have ahead of us as being The Best Yet. And that's not too bad, considering we've had some great times already.

Our Wedding Day

A champagne girl married to a beer guy.
Some things haven't changed a bit.

A photo from our honeymoon. If you look closely, you'll see evidence of our smokin' days. We're sitting in swings at the bar drinking one of our favorite vacation fru-fru drinks: a Miami Vice - a layered drink of strawberry daiquiri and pina colada. I want one now... ...well OK, now as in almost 9 p.m., as I put together this message, not now as in 6 a.m. when this message is scheduled to post on my blog.

And that's all the photos there are for now (aren't scanned photos awful??). If you want to hear the first song we danced to on our wedding day, turn on your speakers. :-D It's a pretty little song by John Berry.

Isn't an introduction in order?

If you already know me and we keep in touch regularly, then you can just skip right on by this post. I assure you, it'll be redundant information. But if you're catching up with me and it's been some time, or just stumbled upon this blog and are bored out of your mind, then an introduction is in order.

I'm Cheryl. It was an extremely popular name in the 60's when I was born (and that's as close to knowing my real age as you're going to get.) I've been married to Mike for almost 9 years (been together for......geez, 13.5 years?! Time flies when you're having fun.) We've got a little ranch house in a typical suburban neighborhood in a small Midwestern town. The only thing lacking is the picket fence and the dog in the back yard. I won't get a dog till we have a fence; winter lasts for about 8 months around here and there's no way I'm walking Fido to do his business when it's sub zero. So we have cats instead.
This photo is, unfortunately, over three years old. Since I'm the photographer in this family, I rarely get photographed since I'm always behind the camera, not in front of it. I haven't changed all that much in the past couple years.

I'm a stay-at-home-mom (or have been since my youngest was born). Overall I don't miss the stress of balancing a "career" and the demands of home life. Sure, there are days I question whether giving up the extra income is worth it - I think that's what I miss most about having a "real" job, but at the end of the day it always comes back to "Yeah, it's worth it." One day my kids won't need me as much. When that day arrives, then I'll go back to a tax-paying job. But for now, I have the best job in the world: Raising my kids and taking care of my family.


I volunteer at a no-kill animal shelter and it's sort of hard to not fall in love with all of them and want to take a few home with you (I dare you to try! ;-D). Mike drew the line after the second cat. We have two big-boy cats - Keats [white] and Milo [tabby] (14 and 12 lbs. respectively.) Keats was the name the shelter gave to him, and since it was an author I enjoyed reading in college, we chose to keep the name. My daughter was only 2 years old at the time and she thought he was a keats......not a cat, but a keats. It took a while to clarify with her that Keats was a Cat, not a keats. Follow? Milo should have been named Rascal. I don't think I need to elaborate further on that.

I have two children - a 7 year old boy and a 4.5 year old girl (who constantly tells me that she wants to be "all growed up and 6 years old".) Eric came into the world weighing a whopping 5 lbs. 3 oz. (yes, full term). It's just not fair when a woman gains 40 lbs. while pregnant and then has a 5 lb. baby.

And Charlotte didn't just come into the world; we're talking Talladega baby. At least she helped me redeem myself by weighing in at 5 lbs. 11 oz. [eye roll]. Yeah, another 40 lbs., another peanut baby. At least breastfeeding helped me lose all that excess weight [double eye roll.]

I finally quit smoking 1 year, 8 months, and 15 days ago, but who's counting? (Just to clarify, I didn't smoke while pregnant; heck I even took nearly two years off from 2000-2001. WHY did I start again?! It's an evil habit.) The amazing thing is that I don't feel like I'm going to die when I do aerobic kick-boxing, weights, and now that the weather is nice, bike riding. I've got two young kids to keep up with and stay healthy for, so that's reason enough for me to keep plugging away.

In reviewing my post, I realized I left out all the usual get-to-know you stuff, like how I love puffy clouds, the wagging tails of puppies, the giggles of my children, reading, photography, scrapbooking, a good clean joke, going to church, cats, a leisurely meal - especially if crab legs are involved, and a balanced checkbook. I love checking stuff off on my daily to-do list, getting an honest-to-goodness old-fashioned letter in the mail, and a great fitting pair of jeans. And that's just for starters! Maybe I'll do a whole post about everything I love! My one pet peeve, though, is bad drivers. One of the best bumper stickers I ever saw, and I want it for my own car, is:

YOU'RE DRIVING A CAR, NOT A PHONE BOOTH.

Isn't that great? Don't you want that bumper sticker too? :-)