Happy Birthday Sarah (and Happy Thanksgiving) !!

This Thanksgiving we are also celebrating Sarah's 13th birthday. It's hard to believe we are parents of a teenager. How did that happen so fast? Since her birthday is on Thanksgiving day this year, she had a party with her friends a few weeks ago. She invited 3 friends over for a night at the movies and a sleepover. We went to see Madagascar 2 (at 8:30, thank goodness, not too late). Before leaving they ate cake, opened presents, and just hung out in Sarah's room for a while. They actually all were asleep by midnight. Not quite the party animals like Katie and her friends.

My Mom took Sarah last Saturday for a beauty day out. She had her hair cut and styled and then had a lesson in makeup application. I can't believe she's interested in makeup. But for now I'm sure it will only be for special occasions. Sarah has it down to exactly the last possible minute she can sleep and still make it to school on time. So I don't see hair and makeup happening on school mornings yet. I went with my mom and Sarah and we enjoyed our day together. My mom wanted to take Sarah for a nice lunch, but she just wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A (still the little girl in her). Then we tried to go shopping, but she saw nothing she liked, and just shrugged her shoulders. She did find some new earrings that look quite cute on her. It feels like we've been celebrating her birthday for weeks now, so I'm looking forward to the "real" day on Thursday and then moving on into the Christmas season.

I thought I would add some thoughts to our life with a new teenager. For those of you who have gone before me, hope this makes you smile. I did try to keep it positive since we are celebrating Thanksgiving.....so Sarah, there's no mention of the eye rolling and door slamming :)

TOP TEN REASONS TO BE THANKFUL FOR HAVING A
TEENAGER IN THE HOUSE

10) having a “babysitter” for my 10 year old
9) being able to have “mature” conversations (even if they make me blush)
8) sharing shoes since she is now my size (wish we could share jeans)
7) the moments when she comes out of her room to participate in family game/movie night
6) she still likes to hang out at our house with her friends
5) we share more of the same tastes in movies (no longer just Disney animation)
4) she likes my radio station (94.9 KLTY, Christian music)
3) she doesn’t need as much help with homework and school projects
2) having someone else in the house who can understand PMS (yes Don, it’s real)
1) she still gives me hugs at bedtime and says “I love you too”

Katie's birthday weekend

This entry is a little late, but since I just started this blog I have an excuse. But I did want to write about Katie's 10th birthday that was on October 26. Boy, was it a busy weekend. She had a party on Friday night the 24th. Three of her friends came over at 4:30. We then went to the school's fall carnival after eating pizza. We got home around 7 and opened presents and had cake and ice cream (notice the movie party theme). Then we left home around 9:00 to attend the 10:00 opening night movie of "High School Musical 3". Since Katie was turning 10, she wanted to go to a 10:00 movie. I was the lucky one to go and shut the theater down at 12:30 am. They finally went to sleep at 4 am and then were up at 7 am on Saturday morning. It wouldn't have been so bad, but we had to be at church at 3:00 Saturday to work our annual mission outreach project. We stayed there until 8 pm. Sunday morning was Katie's birthday and she was baptized in the worship service. So we were really celebrating 2 birthdays!!! Then that afternoon we worked at the church's trunk-or-treat from 3-6 pm while Sarah performed in the black light puppet show. Could we have possibly done anything else during the weekend?? It was busy, and we were so tired, but a wonderful celebration for Katie. I just can't believe my baby is 10!

Why the title of my blog?????

As I was setting up this blog site, I had trouble thinking of a name. I wanted something to play off our family name. I've always heard the phrase "living the life of Riley", but wasn't sure of the full meaning. So, of course you can find anything on the web, so I did a little research, and here's what I found. There was a radio comedy series in the 1940's and then a TV show in the 50's called "The Life of Riley". But the phrase "living the life of Riley" means you have an ideal life of prosperity and contentment. So, I had to wonder, does this really apply to the crazy life of my family. The answer is "yes", but only because of our dependence on Jesus Christ. Because of what He has done for me and my family, we truly are prosperous and do have internal contentment when the world around us seems so out of control. I have been thinking about this as Thanksgiving approaches, because so many families are struggling. We may have a tight budget, but God always provides for our needs and we really don't have it so bad. So, this season, I'm thankful that because of Christ, our family is truly "living the life of Riley".

P.S. here are a few pictures from our October vacation to San Francisco.

Let's try blogging

Well, I've been looking at other people's blog and find it really fun. So, I guess I will give it a try. Hopefully it will be a way to let our out of town families keep up with our crazy life. I'll try and post often, but don't know how this will go.