Hooray! Number 400!!!

Ladies and gentlemen.... this is the last post of the year 2007, and it is also my 400th post on the Northern Apostolic Mom blogsite! Woo hoo!

Yesterday, I attempted to post some pictures of my gorgeous niece Elana, who is now walking and talking and just generally being adorable, but Blogger.com was being eternally difficult about it , and the pictures just would NOT post... well... HERE THEY ARE!



How adorable is that little baby????

Also, I would like to tell you that my husband and my sons have testosterone galore, and the result is this amazing car rollercoaster in my living room, over 5 feet tall, and fully operational!


I took a short video of them running it for the first time (ar ar ar... Tim Allen grunt), and tried to upload it to you tube so my in-laws, who bought it for them, could see it for themselves. But for some reason, it won't upload. Just my luck. Oh well. The pictures will have to suffice!

That is all for now. Got to go make some amazing Rotel cheese dip for watch night service this evening... that stuff ROCKS!!!!!!! Love to all.. see you in 2008!

"Catch up" Christmas

Well! Now that we are back at home, we had some "catch-up" Christmas to accomplish with the rest of the family. We began last night (Sat.) at my brother's house. My mom and Ray were here from Florida, and she made an amazing turkey dinner last night! We made it a combination Christmas and birthday celebration, as my sweet niece Laura turns 9 on New Year's Day.



Tonight, we had Christmas with Grammie Julie and Grampa Jack. We had delicious lasagne, and a few presents to exchange. Here are a few pictures....

The most hilarious gift I received tonight was totally unexpected. You should read the end of this post in August to refresh your memory first. I opened my package and it was a LOON that makes that sleep shattering sound ALL NIGHT LONG when you're trying to sleep! Here is a picture of my reaction....

(Time passes... it's been at least an hour since the loon pictures.... )

ARGH!!!! I have been trying for well over an hour to upload pictures of my gorgeous niece Elana, who is walking and talking and just generally adorable.... BUT BLOGGER IS BEING TOTALLY FRUSTRATING! I cannot get them to upload... even one at a time. Grrrrrrr...... Perhaps another day. I'm too tired to argue with a computer tonight. Thank you for sharing a couple minutes of your day with me. God bless you all!

No place like home!

There's no place like home, there's no place like home.....
Our week in Maryland was nothing short of heavenly, but afer 11 hours in the car yesterday, it was even MORE heavenly to get out of the car and sleep in our own beds! I love visiting our fabulous family in MD, it's just the drive I could do without! LOL!

We unpacked the truck (with much added drama because Nick our drama king twisted his ankle and proceeded to make enough noise to be heard all the way in Maryland). Then Nick decided he wanted to build the K'nex rollercoaster thing they got for Christmas (which has 1, 118 pieces!)..... at 9 pm, after an 11 hour drive!!!! The answer was NO, the response was a temper tantrum. (pulling my hair out of my head....) I promptly put him to bed, where he belonged. I had a killer headache anyway... so I was ALL DONE with that atttitude before it even started!

Anyway, here is a picture of Dad helping to build it this morning (sorry... cell phone camera pics really aren't the greatest).
(picture removed at hubby's request)
This afternoon, we are going to my brother's house, because my mom and Ray are still here from Florida, and we are having a turkey dinner with them. I can't wait to see them!

Time for me to start unpacking.... we just crashed in bed last night and left the unpacking for today. At least all the laundry is clean... can just move it from the bags to the dressers. YAY! Talk to you all later!

Approaching landmark

So.... this is post number 396 on the Northern Apostolic Mom blog. Four more, and I will reach the landmark of

400 posts

(ooooo, she can do the math.....). I was thinking.... what in the world have I talked about in 400 posts that has been of benefit to the general reading public? I began with intentions of making this a very spiritual corner of the web. It has been sort of two-fold... some spiritual application, and more than some family news. I do seem to have strayed from my original intent a bit. But I am not upset about that. I like what I have posted here for the most part. Some of it is boring to anyone outside of family and friends that don't know us. But I have definitely posted some heavy spiritual material here as well. I have given Bible studies, linked to Bible studies, posed questions that make you consider what you really believe and why.... and even challenged myself a time or two. Have I made a difference? You be the judge. If ONE LIFE is changed for the better (i.e. pointed someone to Jesus Christ) because I have created this little (not so little anymore) blog, then it was totally worth it. How cool would it be to get to heaven and have someone from Canada come to me and say, "I read a Bible study on your blog, checked out some preaching you linked to, and visited a church because of it, and here I am in heaven, because of you!!!! (Not really... it's because of Jesus Christ and his mercy and grace). Really, that would be so cool! Moses would say, "What's a blog????" LOL!

The other thing I am thinking now is that this blog is very lengthy... but is a written (and pictoral) record of my life as a Christian mom. I would love to have this in book form. But the thought of how much printer ink and paper that would take is alarming! But how cool would it be???? Hey, folks at Blogger.com ....... is there any way to make that happen? Is there like, a function, on your site that we can click on to make this blog a physical reality, instead of a virtual one? Just wondering..... If you have nothing to do with your time (LOL!!!!), you can browse back through this blog all the way back to Nov. 2004 and see what my life has been about these past 3 years. It's like a little time warp! Enjoy!

hanging around

Today has been a very peaceful day. Matt, Brianna, and Raven are back in Texas safe and sound. Al and Winnie both took today off (yay!!!!!), so Al, Jason, and the boys are at the swimming pool at the South Germantown rec dept. Winnie and I had such a wonderful time together, laughing, getting ourselves into "situations" involving the brand new dryer, and talking about our wonderful, merciful, gracious Savior, Jesus Christ. I am getting the bulk of our laundry done here so I don't have to spend $10 in quarters to do it at home. This way I can go home, and unpack the clothes directly to the dresser drawers. THAT is SWEET! Tonight we will have a nice quiet dinner here at the house with Al and Win, and pack up the truck for the drive home tomorrow. I kind of hate to be leaving, but it has been a fantastic time with our family! Next year, with any luck, Al and Win will be coming to Vermont for Christmas.... we'll see what the Lord has in mind.

Also, I've been online looking at the prices of different digital cameras, as ours has apparently given up the ghost. Hmmmm.... not going to be cheap to replace.... but my blog is going to suffer terribly without the pictures! *sniff*. Yes, I'm whining. We'll see. For now you will get the occasional cell phone camera picture, but they are not that good, and kind of expensive to be emailing to my computer. So that will only be on rare exciting occasions. Perhaps this will force me to become a better writer! If I don't want people to stop visiting my blog, I must become a more powerful writer to make up for the lack of visuals. *sigh*

Time to fold more laundry. Goodbye to all until we get home to Vermont! HA! It is snowing in VT right now, and I am not there! YES!!!!!!!! NO SNOW IN MARYLAND!!!!! I'm not excited to go home to snow......

Day in DC

Ok, can I just tell you that I am exhausted? :-/ We spent the day in DC, walking around the Smithsonian. It was cold and wet. This time we went to the Native American museum (the boys were bored to death, but hey, we are trying to give them culture). My favorite part was seeing the bibles that have been translated into 75 indigenous languages. They make the most beautiful Bible covers out of beads and other materials like skins and such. Then we headed over to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The best part of the day for the boys???

THE METRO! LOL! (click to enlarge map... red line from shady grove to metro center... then switch to blue line to get to Smithsonian). However, I will tell you that they had second thoughts as we took the Metro OUT of DC at rush hour! Talk about cramped! Like I said, we're trying to give our children culture! LOL!

Now we are home, chillin', all by ourselves, as Dad, Win, Matt, Brianna, and Raven have gone to a friend's house for spaghetti dinner. We had leftovers (there were PLENTY of those)... it was like a gourmet meal all over again! Now we're just relaxing. Matt, Brianna, and Raven are flying back to Texas early tomorrow morning, so we will have to say our goodbyes tonight. :( How do you say goodbye to this beautiful face?????

Tomorrow, I think we will be going swimming at the Germantown Rec Center (the boys will, anyway... not me!) I'll be here doing laundry, most likely. Al and Win both go back to work tomorrow, so it will be a quiet day. I am looking forward to getting home to my own bed, my own space.... etc. Although I absolutely love coming down here to visit. But there's really no place like home. I'm sure Dad and Win will be THRILLED to have their house back in a routine, no kids or grandkids.... peace and quiet!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you... last night, we watched the movie called "The Nativity". Wow! Was it ever good! My boys really liked it. It made the whole story so very real. Now I have TWO movies I need to buy for our family... The Nativity and Facing the Giants. Both movies that glorify God and strengthen the faith of the Christian believer. Both excellent!

Fabulous messages from church

Merry Christmas to you all!! Well, I would love to be able to post some pictures of the Christmas morning festivities here, but as luck would have it, our camera BROKE this morning! AHHH!!! I borrowed Matt and Brianna's camera to take pictures, but do not have access to them at this time... gotta go to Wal-Mart tomorrow when they open.

So instead, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the teaching we heard this weekend at Alan and Winnie's church, the Church of the Redeemer, in Gaithersburg. Before we arrived, Pastor Dale began teaching a Christmas series called "Unwrapped". It approaches the Christmas story from several different points of view. #1 was from Mary's point of view, and was called The Gift of Courage. #2 was from Joseph's point of view and was called The Gift of Faith. #3 was from the shepherds' point of view, and was called The Gift of Significance. Then we arrived in MD to hear the 4th message on Sunday morning. It was told from the Wise Men's point of view, and was called The Gift of Purpose. I will give you a brief outline of that message, because it was excellent!

THE GIFT OF PURPOSE

To unwrap God's gift of purpose, we must:

1. Give God our full attention. We can't do that if we are:

-looking at the wrong things

-engaged in the wrong activities (too busy!!)

-Listening to the wrong voices

-living the wrong way

-filling our lives with superficial and temporal things.

2. Radically reorder our priorities.

3. Maintain our spiritual passion and persistence (commitment and continuance)

God's purpose is fulfilled in people who keep on asking, waiting, committing, looking, and working.

4. Give back to God the gifts He gives to us.

The wise men gave the gifts they had (gold, frankinscence, and myrrh... things that could be sold and used to sustain Jesus' family while in Egypt) and those gifts became central to advancing the Kingdom of God. What gifts do YOU have that you can surrender to Him, for the advancement of the Kingdom? God's purpose in your life is fulfilled when you surrender your gifts to Him.

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Isn't that powerful and thought-provoking? Now, here is the final message in the "Unwrapped" series, given on Christmas eve, and it is called "The Gift of the Name". You can guess whose perspective this is from......

THE GIFT OF THE NAME

Just as we (as parents) get to choose the name we give our children, God Almighty told Mary and Joseph that He had already chosen the name of His Son... the name was to be JESUS (the Lord saves).

Luke 1:31, Gabriel tells MARY the name.

Matthew 1:21, Gabriel tells JOSEPH the name.

The name of Jesus is like a total access pass to all that God has for you. Here are just seven things that the name of Jesus gives you access to ...

1. God's forgiveness (Acts 2:38) There is only ONE WAY to experience God's forgiveness, and that is through HIS NAME.

2. Heaven (Acts 4:12) I KNOW where I am going! I have the name applied to my life!

3. Healing (Acts 3:16) The man at the Gate Beautiful received his healing BY FAITH IN THE NAME of JESUS.

4. Deliverance from evil influences (Mark 16:17) In MY NAME they shall cast out devils.

5. Hope for our life/future (Matthew 12:21) His name will be the hope of all the world.

6. Answered prayer (John 14:13-14) Ask for anything in my name, and I will do it.

7. Expansion of life possibilities and release of life potential (Acts 2:21) Everyone who calls on the name of Jesus shall be saved.

So, are YOU under the authority of that name? Have you called on that name for yourself? Are you living based upon faith in that name? I'm not talking about - you've heard His name and you think it's good to believe in Him.... but I'm talking - you've laid claim to all that His name stands for, and you've truly made Him LORD over your life! Your life is no longer yours... no longer what it used to be, but you've started experiencing the benfits of the NAME of JESUS at work in your life. What better way to celebrate Christmas than to surrender your life to Him! Do it today! Don't save it for another day. Tomorrow is promised to no man. Today is the day of your salvation!

Christmas eve pictures

Christmas eve was spectacular! Here are some pictures of the evening. First, church service at 4pm... the picture is dark, but these three screens are mounted up over the pulpit area (which is huge!!!)

Isn't the tree lovely all lit up?

Winnie puts on a Christmas eve spread to rival Martha Stewart! She decorates gorgeously, and the food is amazing!

Winnie and Al's house was the only one on the street that was decorated with Christmas lights. It was beautiful!!!!! Nice job!!!!

This is Winnie with her sister Lynn, and their mom and dad. Their parents are fun and exciting people! I was so glad to have met them and spent many days with them!

Merry Christmas to all!

Arrival in Maryland

Well, we made it here with absolutely no difficulties... it was a very smooth, albeit long, trip. The boys sat and vegged in front of the brain drain (TV) for a few minutes when they got out of the truck.

But then they played with their cousin Raven, who is 4 years old now. They were so excited to see each other! Raven said, "THE COUSINS ARE HERE!!!!!"

This is Raven getting all dressed for church Sunday morning. She gets more beautiful every year!

Sunday evening, we went to a restaurant in Tyson's Corner, VA. This is the HUGE toy soldier in front of the restaurant.... the boys wanted their picture taken with it... in the dark.... you can hardly see them in this picture!! LOL!

Anyway, we went there to celebrate James' birthday (he's 27). James is Jason's step brother.

We were also there to hear Winnie's sister Lynn sing Christmas carols with the group she sings with. I got a video of them singing Silent Night.... but in the low light, you can't see them at all... only hear them.

This is Raven at the restaurant "patiently" waiting for her food.

Here is Grampa and Adam horsing around waiting for dinner to arrive....

And this is a picture Raven took of Nick and I.

The message that Pastor Dale preached at Dad and Win's church on Sunday morning was EXCELLENT! I will make a separate post and type in my notes and thoughts on the message. And of course..... "SANTA" is coming tonight, so there will be plenty of pictures to come of the kiddos on Christmas morning! Hope you are all enjoying your special family time this Christmas. Talk to you again soon! Blessings!

Trumpeteer extraordinaire!!

Hello everyone! I'll type in red tonight to match the pictures! Tonight was Adam's band concert debut! He plays the trumpet. He looked so sharp!

The band played 4 songs, and then they had about 20 students do very short solos.... Adam was one of them! He played "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In"! He was awesome!

Mr. Reg (my nickname for him) was the band and orchestra conductor, and he did a fabulous job!! He should be very proud of himself!

Adam had lots of support at his first concert performance! Besides mom and dad and Nick, he also had Grammie, who brought cousin Meghan, and Uncle Peter, and of course, The Great Sandini! This is a little "post concert" interlude that Adam played just for us!

Well.... Adam is certainly trying things out in life, and getting a well rounded education! He's had his hand in baseball, soccer, cub scouts, children's choir, Moo Gong Do, trumpet/band, ...... what will he think of next? As long as he keeps his grades up in school and keeps his relationship with the Lord as a top priority, he's going to really go places in life! We're very proud of you, Adam! GREAT JOB at your concert!!!!!!! Love ya buddy!

School schedules

One of the things I like about my job is that when my children are off (vacations, snow days, etc) I am usually off, too. Not so today. My boys had a snow day today, but my school only had a 2 hour delay. Consequently, without a sitter, I had to take the day off and take care of my kiddos. It was actually a nice day! I did a little shoveling (little is the key word there...) and the boys and Elizabeth played out in the snow before and after our shopping excursion to Wal-Mart. Adam and Elizabeth are making their big debut in the 5th grade band concert this Wednesday, and the required dress is black pants/skirts, white top.... Santa hat optional! Adam had neither the pants or shirt required, so off to Wal-Mart we went! While there, we bought Raven (their cousin in Texas who will be in Maryland with us next week) a cute dancing singing Mickey Mouse. She will love it!

Adam is off to Moo Gong Do, so I bid you farewell for now. I will have band pictures for you Thursday!! And we're off to MD Saturday! Whee!!!

My three guys out in the snow

So... my boys (all three of them) love playing in the snow. The Marcottes officially opened their sledding hill in the back yard, and everyone (except me... I don't do snow) flocked to the hill for fun in the calm of the storm. Check these out...

Here's Nick riding piggyback on Heidi

I LOVE this picture of Nick! He's a kid through and through!

And this picture of Adam coming down the hill is awesome too!

Now this is my 4 year old nephew Michael...this picture is awesome! He looks like he is the ultimate snowboarding child... doesn't he??? But Jason informed me that this was just before he wiped out! LOL! It's still a way cool picture, though.

This is Adam giving his cousin Meghan a ride down the hill.

Wipeout!!!!!!!!!!!

Jason is a little boy in a grownup body... here he is catching snowflakes on his tongue.

Here he is... incognito in the tree...

And here he is attempting to take out the photographer! LOL! No worries... Ben is NOT easy to knock over... Hey Ben, these pictures are awesome... thanks for letting me post them here.


So, once they got home, Adam did not want to come in, so he played outside at our house for a while with Kevin and Elizabeth from next door.

Chris buried Adam in the snow to his neck... see the boot prints all over him???

KING OF THE HILL!

Whitewash!!

Here is Kevin shoveling snow ONTO the patio that Chris just cleared off!

Kevin going down the hill... on his butt!

Elizabeth zooming down our hill on her sled.

So.... there you have it. I highly doubt we'll be having a snow day from school tomorrow. Everyone had their fun today, and I'm sure the roads will be cleared and salted for the busses in the morning. Only 6 days until we head to Maryland for Christmas! YAY! I hope there is no snow down there!!!!! I know they are hoping for snow... but I rebuke it! LOL!