KFC Hires New Employee!

I cannot believe I am actually writing this post! But...here I am...feeling old, and wondering where time has gone. I am literally dumbfounded that our son is old enough to join the world of the employed.




Today was Jared's first day of work at Kentucky Fried Chicken. It went very well. He swept and mopped floors, cleaned tables and windows and bathrooms, and learned how to make "snackers". At this point in his retelling of all he had done, John and I both asked all at once, "did you wash your hands between cleaning the bathroom and making snackers??" LOL! He then informed us that he had washed his hands at least 30 times in the 5 hours he was there tonight. That was good news to us.

Jared also got his first on the job injury as well. He poked a piece of glass in his finger while apparently trying to pull said piece of glass out of his shoe. I'm not sure where the glass came from because I had too many other questions to ask him about his first day. I'm not completely sure I want to know anyways.




Before Jared headed up to take a shower and attempt to remove the smell of chicken, I was just sitting and looking at him, trying to take it all in and comprehend what was happening. He looks at me and says, "Mom, what's wrong with you?" John pipes in and tells Jared that I am just trying to grasp how our little boy got so big and that I was getting old. Here is Jared's response to that (and genuine attempt to make me feel better): "Mom, remember way back when you used to work at Wendy's? Well, that's where I am now....uh...I guess that doesn't help you, does it?"

I simply cannot wrap my mind around the fact that Jared is 16 instead of 6, that he is about to get his drivers license, that he started his first job today, and opened his first checking/savings account yesterday. Today, I am understanding a little better about the scripture that talks about our life being a vapor, just a breath. I feel like I have barely blinked and my sweet baby boy is nearly grown.

Easter Celebrations!

We had a very busy and fun Easter weekend. Here is a small taste of all we did. I also added a picture of John and girls going to the Daddy Daughter Dance since I never wound up getting a post up about that.

Jenna and her friend, Emma, making butterflies at the children's Easter celebration at our church.

Joy's team ready for the AmazingRace! It was so much fun driving back and forth all over Prosper in search of clues and hearing the Easter story throughout the journey.

Me and my sweet girls ready for church on Easter morning! (If you look really closely, you'll see that I am only wearing ONE earring...I didn't discover that until Sunday NIGHT!!)

Joy and Jenna heading out the door for the crazy HUGE Holland family Easter egg hunt. We always have a crazy amount of eggs for eight grandkids to hunt. This year, we hid 366 eggs! Every year, we think we are going to cut back on the amount of eggs, but it just seems to get bigger instead!! We always have a blast, though!

Jacob hunting for eggs...hoping to find the money eggs!!

Jared also looking for eggs with money in them! The boys never seem to get too old to hunt eggs at the Holland family egg hunt!

One of the most favorite Holland family Easter traditions is decorating and eating egg shaped cakes. Each grandkid gets their own cake to decorate however they want. When the decorating is done, they get forks and dig in!!

This is my two year old niece, Makenzie, singing "Clementine"

Hard Truth

After praying and journaling this morning, I really felt the need to put my journaling here. So the following is today's journal entry.

After hearing news last night from John that negotiations on his deal had gone badly and that it was over and all the work and hours he's been putting in and taxing our family, all with nothing left to show for it, I've been feeling a little discouraged. Okay, maybe a lot discouraged. John's being uncharacteristically positive, and I am struggling to see God's hand in this.

The realization I've come to is this: I've been putting more faith in the bonuses to carry us through than in God. God's ways are not my ways, and His thoughts are not my thoughts. God promises provision, and I have just assumed this would be the route He would choose - it seems logical to me. God defies logic - always does.

So this morning as I've been getting kids ready for school and all dropped off, I've been contemplating these thoughts. Driving alone in the car on the way home, I began to think about how being a Christian and following hard after God is...well...hard. Very hard. We tend to make it sound so easy with words like, "just confess with your mouth and believe in your heart..." and "pray a simple prayer inviting Jesus into your heart..." But really, it isn't simple or easy. It's hard. It's very hard. The cost is big and it demands a lot. (and apparantly, Jesus wants us to be fully aware of the cost before we sign up.)

When I got home, still discouraged and still just so unsure of a lot of things - still believing wholeheartedly that God moved us to Prosper and into THIS house, but at the same time in this economy with all the paycuts and so forth, how are we going to continue to afford to live here? I don't know. Remember, my faith had somehow been misplaced in a bonus instead of in God. I believe God is really trying to teach me a HUGE lesson here. And I pray to have the faith and the trust to allow Him to do it.

So, with all of these thoughts swirling around in my head, I picked up my bible and simply prayed, "God, I need a word." I randomly opened my bible and it happened to fall open to Luke 14:25-35. The title of this passage is "The Cost of Being a Disciple." Are you serious? This is where my bible falls open? "Okay God, speak to me, I'm listening."

The passage isn't all sweet and flowery and I don't have happy little chill bumps on my arms, but it is truth. Real truth. Hard truth. Follow Me truth. There is a cost truth. It might hurt a little bit truth. Pure and simple (but not easy) truth.

So today, I will lay it all down again and simply say, "yes, Lord." And I will choose to trust in HIS faithfulness ALONE.

A "Sideways" Glance at Jared's 16 Years...Happy Birthday, Son!!

NEWBORN!


ONE Year Old!


TWO Years Old!


THREE Years Old!


FOUR!


FIVE!


SIX!


SEVEN!


EIGHT!


NINE!


TEN Years Old!


ELEVEN!


TWELVE!


THIRTEEN!! A TEENAGER!


FOURTEEN!


FIFTEEN!


HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY, JARED!!

Not Me! Monday ~ Stellan Style

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.



However, this week, in honor of MckMama and Baby Stellan, we're doing "Not Me! Monday - Stellan Style!"

This week, it's our chance to HONOR MckMama and Stellan with our Not Me! Mondays.


This past Monday, I did not head over to MckMama's blog to get my usual Not Me! Monday giggle only to find that baby Stellan was in the hospital sick. And I have certainly not, since last Monday, been telling everyone I see, talk to, email, instant message, run into, etc. about baby Stellan and his MckMama needing our prayers.

I also did not spend two hours (I am not technology savvy...that's John's department...we only need one of those in our house!!) trying to figure out how to get the "Praying for Stellan" button in my facebook status before finally giving up.

I most definitely did NOT leave my entire family sitting in the car in the driveway waiting to go somewhere while I checked MckMama's blog ONE MORE TIME for an update post and/or twitter about baby Stellan before I could leave the house...seriously...we were already running late and that would just be crazy!

I do not have fingerprints all over my computer screen from trying to reach right through it to touch sweet Stellan's little face while praying over him many, many times. And I of course did not wish that I could reach through that same screen and wrap my arms around his wonderful MckMama.

I did not laugh hysterically at the SOOO CUTE picture of Small Fry in swim goggles and I did not claim that it was my favorite Small Fry pic of all time! I also did not giggle about MckNugget eating McNuggets.

Finally, I certainly have NOT been obsessed with watching MckMama's blog counter since about 4:00 last Monday afternoon when it was 5,040,335. The fact that as I sit here and type this at 10:48 on Monday morning it is 6,227,440, is certainly not a testament to how many others NOT like myself have also been checking in quite frequently to see how baby Stellan is doing. To know that at the VERY MINIMUM, Stellan has been prayed for 1,187,105 times in a week is not truly amazing...oh to see what the angels see!

Oh, I almost forgot!! I did NOT snap a picture of said blog counter at 6,000,012...just in case!



btw...as i sign off this post now, the blog count is not 6,231,978...just in case you were NOT wondering....

Gone Campin'

On Thursday, we went camping with the Kennedy's and the Berg's. We had so much fun with them. Here are some highlights of our trip:

Valinda and I getting the kitchen set up and ready



John shooting skeet...he's a pretty good shot!



Valinda also took a turn shooting skeet!



Emily trying SOOOO hard to throw the skeet, but it just wouldn't cooperate with her!



Khris taught the kids how to build an A-frame fire. They loved getting to build the campfire!



Valinda and Emily cooking our very yummy dinner!



Joy and Kensey having fun taking pictures of themselves!! They're so cute!!





The beautiful sunrise on Friday morning!



Jared and me trying to wake up and stay warm!



The kids had fun exploring around on the land. They even found a cow skeleton (and wanted to bring the head home, but they settled for just taking a picture of it.)

Locks of Love

Today, the girls and I went with our friends, the Kennedy's, to get haircuts...and I mean HAIRCUTS!! Neither of my girls have EVER had short hair since they've had hair. So today was rather historical for them, and they look SOOOO CUTE!!! They both had enough hair cut off (over 10 inches) that we are donating their hair to "Locks of Love". I am so proud of them (especially Joy because she made the decision herself) for doing such a selfless act. Both Joy and Jenna LOVE their new hair styles, and AGAIN, they are SOOOO CUTE!! I can't believe it! Joy's friend, Kensey, even got her hair cut to match Joy's. They really are two peas in a pod!! Here are the pictures from before, during and after!! (Oh ya! I got mine cut again, too! I really like it this time!)