BOY OH BOY!

Are things ever exciting around here! First of all... I must apologize for having to put the word verification feature on my blog. I really didn't want to, but a post about "transexual dating" left me no choice. BLECH!! What kind of creep goes around posting these things? Anyway... I hope that weeds out the undesirables, otherwise I'll have to utilize the comment approval feature and I'm not really wanting to have to do that and jump through hoops just to share with my friends and family in bloggerland! The only kind of "dating" I want mentioned on my blog is the kind of date where my sweetykins took me out on Valentine's Day. Here's a picture of us that Brandon took before our date. I doctored it up just a bit in the picnik program. Isn't my man handsome!!?? :)

So... Things have been interesting around here lately. Most importantly, Brandon has changed high schools. I know, I know!!! It's big, I told you. :) He has attended small town schools most of his life. This is his 5th year here. After all this time, he's still not found a place to fit in. With there being only 2 social groups (the jocks and the druggies) - he's had a really rough go of it. It's not that he DOESN'T get along with people, he just doesn't really have anyone that he spends time with outside of school. He's not playing sports and doesn't go to drinking parties, so mostly stays home with his amazing parents on the weekends - EVERY weekend. Unless it's school related, he doesn't have anything to do. He came home from school recently and said he "hated his life". RED FLAG! We had a good long discussion about it and I suggested he consider and pray about making a change. So we toured the new school which is about equal distance from our house as the old one, maybe a mile or 2 further - and he was really excited. It's the first time since I don't know when that I saw a sparkle in my boy's eyes. There is so much more going on there...their band has over 70 kids, the one at his old school has 12. There were 100 kids total in his old school, and I believe 780 in his new school - the awesome thing about that is... there are that many more kids for him to possibly become friends with. So he made a new friend on his first day of school - which was this last tuesday. The kid seems nice and invited Brandon to youth group last night. He went and had a blast. They're already making plans for the next 2 weekends to hang out together and with some other friends. The first day at his new school - he had 6 new facebook friends! Wow, I think this was really encouraging to him. It's no surprise to me, that not 1 kid from his old school has said anything to him about changing schools. The move was a good one - POINT IN CASE. So as a mom, I'm overjoyed that my son is smiling again. He is loving school instead of dreading it. God is just so darn good!!!! What an answer to prayer - I hope that as time goes on he'll love it even more.

Me and MICHE!

I began a new venture - selling MICHE BAGS. They are so awesome! If you haven't heard of them... they are a genius invention. It's a base purse (either brown or black - classic size or big) with earth magnets that hold on a variety of different "shells". The shells are magnetic and attach to the base purse in a matter of a few seconds. So you can change the look of your handbag as often as you like. GENIUS! I only wish I had thought of this! But I can still get a piece of the action as an independent sales representative. Here's a little video that demonstrates how the Miche Bag works:

I'm hosting a launch party at my house this Saturday and am really excited to show off my new fabulous designer handbags. It's so much fun! I am booking parties and will be doing them here in the area as well as in McPherson and Wichita - so if you're anywhere nearby and would like to have a Miche Bag party to earn yourself a free purse and some shells... just let me know! I'd love to Miche party with you. :) If you'd like more info or would like to see what we're currently offering, you can go to my distributor's website and take a look! http://www.michebagmidwest.com/   Oh, and here's the purse I'm currently carrying, I LOVE IT!! This is the "Jade" shell , but I've switched out these handles for the black chain handles.  I should really take my own photo with the chain handles so you can see how cool it looks.

I'd be most delighted to ship a Miche Bag to you if you're interested in joining the Miche fun! Feel free to email me any time with questions or an order, I'd love to hear from you and/or get you all set up!

Luke's work has been insane. Hire people, fire people - drive and fly all over the countryside. UGH. Man, this gets old, but as everyone well knows, the economy is such that you just keep trying to convince yourself that you're glad you have a job at all. If you've got room for one more on your prayer list - my husband could sure use some prayer. He's mentally and physically exhausted and there's no end in sight. He is an amazing man... I honestly have no idea how he does what he does. He must really love his family to subject himself to all this. So thankful for him!!

College girl is doin' alright. Keeping some long hours working for the campus newspaper, plus working her job on campus and going to class and staying on top of homework. She's doing well... made Dean's honor roll first semester! GO CIARA! We're so proud of her and her accomplishments. I think I mentioned that she's living on campus in the dorms, and will be moving to the newer campus apartments this summer and then stay there her sophomore year. She's excited about that!! To my surprise things are going well with her living on her own. I still see her a few times a week so... it's all good!

Shoogie is fantastic. What a sweet little puppy. Something kinda funny going on with her is that her "roots" seem to be coming out a caramel color. It's the funniest thing eve!. It looks like she had her hair colored and it grew out and the roots are about 2 inches grown out. ha ha. She gets prettier and sweeter by the day! I'll post a photo soon.

Still loving my new Canon SX20 camera!! Here are a few pix I took with it recently, it was after one of our many snow/ice sessions here in Kansas - the couple is my cousin, Raleen and her fiance' Chris who will be married this summer- I did their engagement photos out in the snow - thought they turned out pretty awesome, if I say so myself. :) I really do enjoy photography, it's nice to have a hobby. :)

Did I mention that I LOVE LOVE LOVE how Blogger has changed the way you add photos? Suh-weet!!! :) Wishing you all a happy Thursday... one more day and the weekend begins, YES!

A Potpourri...

Shoogie had me up at 6:30 a.m. this morning, then I couldn't go back to sleep. So I laid there and thought about everything and after half an hour decided to just get up and get on with my day. I haven't been able to blog lately since things have been so wild around my house, but I've been thinking about you all and wondering what you've been up to! You probably thought I dropped off the face of the planet, but No... I'm still kickin'!! Here's what's been goin' on... it's a varitable potpourri!

April 4th the kids had Prom. They looked stunning! I was proud. :)



April 9th, Brandon is happy because he got a new 16 gb Zune for his 15th birthday. Goodness, my baby's growin' up... where does the time go?



Brandon had his cousin/best buddy Robbie stay the night for his birthday, they always have an awesome time together. They're a little crazy.



This is his handsome/distinguished look. ha ha. and the Strawberry cake he requested.




The next day... the boys saw Ciara doing yoga so they thought they'd give it a try. We nearly wet ourselves laughing at those two. What a couple of nuts!! As you can see they are highly entertaining.





A couple weeks later (April 21st) was my honey man's birthday. It was a fun day. He got a lot of nice gifts from me and the kids... but I think his favorite TOY was the Garmin GPS I got him. He travels a lot and is in new places all the time, so it just seemed like the thing to do. Of course we had to use it that night already and see if it worked. It's a woman's voice... Ciara and I named her Sha nay nay. ha ha. Don'tchya love it?





He really enjoyed his black cherry pie and vanilla ice cream too... as you can see.




After the festivities at home, Sha nay nay helped us find our way to the miniature golf course for a round. Here's daddy and the babies.

There were gorgeous trees in bloom, so Ciara and I stopped for a pic. :) It was an absolutely beautiful day. 88 degrees, then cooled down just enough in the evening. We really soaked it up!

And here we all are in the cave on the 18th hole. Someone always has to do something weird or out of the ordinary when we take pictures, most often it's Brandon.

I loved the reflections in the water at the minature golf course. It was a perfect evening and we all thoroughly enjoyed soakin' up some fresh air and sunshine.

Oh geesh, after minature golf we went to Wal-mart for a few things. I lost the boys, so I hunted them down and here's what I found! :D

The Wal-mart cowboys crossing swords. Too funny!

That night it rained, and into the next day. Then when it finally stopped I saw a rainbow out my bay window. I kinda felt like it was meant for me. Promise.

Does this look like a great spot for labor and delivery or what?! See the box under the counter, right behind the ladder? This is where Bonnie decided she would bring her new babies into the world. Looks like a good spot to me - a box full of shredded cardboard. :)

Whenever one of our Momma's has babies, all the other farm cats need to come by for a visit and check things out. Here is "VanHalen" (Brandon named him, haha) checkin' out the scene. :)

This is Bonnie, the new momma. Isn't she pretty? This is her second litter, she's a really good Mommy.

This is Bonnie's "sister", Calypso. Both girls came from my Grandpa's farm when we found ourselves without any females. Turns out she's a new mommy too, but we haven't found her babies yet. Funny thing... Calypso has babies that look like Bonnie and Bonnie has babies that look like Calypso. Weird.

Here are the precious children. Can't wait to find all the rest! Isn't life sweet? I love these little babies and can't wait to hold every one of them!!

It's been so busy around here, I barely have time to breath. Maybe the end of June I can relax. Upcoming we have Forensics night at school on Monday nite, then our anniversary on the 28th (Luke will be out of town on business), the weekend of May 2nd is state forensics in Wichita, then on May 9th is the kids' Railairres dinner theater at school, Ciara's graduation on the 16th and then on May 24th I will be training the new owner of Jinny Crickets Soap & Stuff. Yup... my business has been sold! It was a total God thing. I've been considering selling for a long time because I'm completely overwhelmed and not able to commit the amount of time and energy it would take to grow my business to its fullest potential, so I felt I should pass it on to someone who has the ambition and desire to do that. I basically emailed a friend and asked if she knew anyone that would be interested. Within a day she responded and said her sister was interested. Just 2 weeks later she came for a visit and signed an intent to purchase agreement. Isn't God amazing? So... transition happens the end of May and I'll be "free" from the stress of owning my own business before the end of the month. *sigh* It's bittersweet. This business has been kind of my baby. I grew it up and it's been an exciting ride, but I feel that this season is over for me. I'm looking forward to what's next and have already begun a new part time job. I am working for a Home repair/remodeling company from home 10-15 hours a week taking care of all the office stuff and building a website for the company. So far I love it! Even though life has been super hectic and I don't know if I'm coming or going most days lately... I am totally blessed and praise God for all he's doing! What a truly awesome God we serve. :)

Christmas Blessings!

with love...

Jami and family

Yeah, this is how I roll...

So, I'm adding all the new Christmas products to my webpage at jinnycrickets.com. Just mindin' my own business, thinking about how I want to list the product descriptions and prices, etc. and along comes little Shoogie-Woogie-poo-kins. (That's for you, Morgan!) ha ha. Anyhoo... she is older now, almost 10 months and like any independent, stubborn "child" she has decided that she will let you know when SHE wants to be held, which is usually only when she is very tired. So she keeps wanting to be held and I can't resist the sweet, little fuzzy baby so I pick her up and start huggin' on her. She does this thing when she's tired where she crawls up on my shoulder and likes to lay across my whole chest and rest her head on my shoulder. It's actually really adorable, but that makes it pretty tough to work on the computer. Finally I put her down on my lap and got her settled in there and she was sleeping. I guess once she was zonked I didn't think much more about her being on my lap, I mean I felt her fuzzy face on my hand and her adjusting herself, but then I couldn't press the space bar. So then I figure out why...


Take a look at Shoogs!

Oh my goodness, too cute, and check out her little "wave-do" she has goin' on there with the bangs. :) I couldn't resist so I had to snap a few pix. She just kept sleeping.






What a little angel. Do you think she might possibly be part of my time management problem? Hmm.... Nah! :)

What a difference a year can make!!

November 3, 2007

November 3, 2008

Praise the Lord! After a gruelling year of recovery from his double broken leg, my husband is back up on his feet walking, running and once again doing all the things he enjoys doing. He pheasant hunted with my dad and brother this last weekend and last month played paintball with his brother Marshall, and some of my cousins. Besides a bit of swelling in the ankles and some achy-ness where the hardware is in his leg... he is doing great. Tonite the kids are at an MCL music competition for school, but we still celebrated with a candlelit flat iron steak dinner and a delicious bottle of sweet rose South African wine given to us by our dear ole friends, Dan and Kristi. (Thanks guys!! We loved it!) :)

"The prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up..." (James 5:15)

So we just wanted to share the joy with you all about Luke's recovery and thank you all for your prayers. Peace out. :)

Vikings and ladybugs and bunnies... OH MY!

So... the kids had their costume dance Friday nite at school and it was pretty fun gettin' all dressed up. Once Brandon and Ciara were ready, I got Shoogie dressed and we took some photos to commemorate the fun before heading next door to Grandma's to show off our costumes. The kids were vikings:


And Shoogie was a ladybug



Trixie even got in on the fun... she was a bunny




Here are a few more fun photos from the evening











My kids have always loved to dress up... Halloween is just a good excuse to take their "getups" out in public. :) Hope you gotta kick out of the pix.

Time Flies

Time really does fly. Seems like I just barely get a perscription filled and 3 months have flewn by and it's time to call in my next-rx order again. And what about school? Didn't the kids JUST get started? They've already been back to school for about 2 and a half months! The thing that really got me this last week is how long our German student has been gone. The other day Brandon was in the kitchen getting some breakfast and was wearing a sweatshirt he'd pulled out of the drawer that apparently hadn't been washed prior to packing it away for the winter. I saw him reach over to his arm and grab a blonde hair that was about 14-18" long. As you know... nobody in our house has long blonde hair, so it was quite apparently still "hangin' around" from when Tina was here. She left in June. I began counting and realized that she's been gone for nearly 5 months already!! Brandon's exclamation, "EWW GROSS!!!" Didn't exactly take me by surprise, he always harassed her about her hair being all over everything. Of course this made me think about our German girl. I wonder what she's up to and how she's doing. If she passed drivers ed and how she's liking school. I haven't heard from her since my birthday in August and so I can't help but wonder what is new with her and her family. Surprisingly, I haven't heard from her mother since Tina's back in Germany. We used to email one another all the time when Tina was here - but since she returned home, I haven't heard from her mom at all. Kinda strange, since we raised her daughter for nearly a year and made her part of our family. But all in all... what I realized is that what I have left of Tina (besides a few lingering blonde hairs - ha ha) are fond memories.













I'm pretty sure that she's happy to be back home, eating her mom's cooking, going to "zuh disco", shopping with her friends and hangin' out on "zuh beach"... and most of all being back with her family. Really, we're happy too, to have our family back to normal (whatever "normal" is)... but we'll always remember the fun times and the funny stuff most of all. You know, things she said like "man chicken" for rooster -"christmas man" for santa, etc. One time she actually screamed down the hall "Ciara, zehr is an animal in our room!". Turns out it was a moth. ha ha. She didn't know what to call it so she yelled about their being an "animal" in their bedroom. :) It was great. We laughed so hard. I had to remind her often that we weren't making fun of her, but just laughing because the things she says are so amusing. :) It's hard to believe that nearly half a year has gone by. Time really does fly... so in a nutshell... Tina's long hair reminded me to slow down and enjoy life before it passes me by.