My Little Girl Turned 10 Today / Urgent Prayer for my cousin

***Prayer Request, please pray for my cousin Hugh, he was in a serious motorcycle accient today. It's also his birthday, he's in the hospital having emergency surgery they are trying to save his leg. He also has a broken arm, and broken ribs. Thankfully his head seems to be free from injury and no internal bleeding was found. He and his wife Michelle just got married, please pray strength for her as well****

Today was my sweet Brinn's bithday. Yes 10 years ago I was blessed by God with the gift of a beautiful baby girl. Have I ever told you that Brinn's name has the meaning of Salvation. I picked it out before I even knew the Lord, but God knew. He also knew that my love for my baby girl would bring me to love and finally understand the great gift He sent to us in His son Jesus.

So here she is a newborn (sorry about the photo quality the first few pictures are scrapbook pages, and Brinn was born before I had a digital camera) She weighed in at 8lbs even and 21.5 inches long. Eighteen hours of hard labor, and then an emergency C-Section. She was face up and the cord around her neck, but she came out screaming and then peed on the nurse. (One of Brinn's favorite stories.)

She's about 4 months old in the picture above.

Brinn going to the pool at about 13 months old.

And those everyday moments from about the age of 2.

Then we move on to the age of about 5. Brinn loves the beach.

Brinns many stages of loosing those baby teeth.
So just a few blast from the past with Brinn now to todays event. I picked up Brinn from VBS at church at 12. Brinn was super excited, because she new we were going to take her to lunch, and she'd finally get to open her presents. We've been telling her that we hoped she likes the socks and underwear we got her. She kept saying "you did not get me socks and underwear." (hehe)

This is Brett and Brinn and the Peninsula Creamery in Palo Alto. It's been around since 1928, and as a side not it is not a Weight Watcher friendly menu. So much for my extra points this week. Below is the 3 of us. Brinn just started in on her presents.
Brinn's favorite color is green. She loves it and wants everything in Green. She's been asking for a Nintendo DS for about a year, and finally convinced me that she would actually play it. The part she didn't like was that they don't come in green. Silver, black, red, blue, and pink but no green. So around April sometime Brett and I were in Target (love that place), and low and behold Nintendo brought out a limited addition Green (the exact neon green she loves) DS, and it came with a case and a cooking game. So we bought it and shoved it in our secret hiding place, and waited for her birthday. So the first gifts she opened were her DS, and the two other games we got her. She was so excited, and had it out of the box and playing it before the food arrived.

So here is the next part of the story. On Easter break Brinn decided that she wanted to save up money for an ipod nano. So she started working on filing and different things in my office, when she's been at work with me. She'd saved up $60.00, plus had about another $25.00 or so she'd saved up for. Then she started getting birthday money, and she'd figured out pretty quick that she'd save enough for her ipod. So here is the kicker, Brett had a really big side job, and decided that she'd done a good job saving, so we bought her the green (of course and yes she's spoiled) ipod nano. Brett for the last 2 weeks has been sneaking her CD's in the house and uploading them to her ipod, and then adding some digital copies of movies for it.

So since she was so sure she wasn't getting socks and undies for her birthday, guess what I ran out and got today. Yep socks and undies. So after we ate we asked Brinn is she wanted to open the rest of her presents, she said yes. We usually get her small things like CD's, toys, you know the usuall. But this was her reaction when she opended the first present on the top of the bag.

As Brinn would say "Oh no you didn't" Oh yes I did undies, she was really not happy but, I said look honey they are wedgie proof. .
So the next present was a couple of little cami bras and a tank top. She wasn't quite as upset as she was about the undies. I reminded her that we must be greatful for all things large, small and especially the everyday things we are blessed to have.

Then she opened her next gift which was a S.F. Giants hat girl style. Which she loved. Brinn loves hats, I think she got that from my brother. The hat I wrapped in a dog food box, she looked a bit confused when she saw that. So there was one gift left, I asked her if she liked the hat, "oh yeah mom it's cool, and thankfully it's not socks, I hate socks". This is true, she's never liked them not even as a baby. Brinn would wear flip flops in the rain, she only wears socks, because I make her wear them with her tennies, which she'll only wear if required.

So we pull out the next and last gift. She feels it it's soft and squishy. She says "it's clothes". Well she was half right, then she opened it and found yep socks. "Socks!", then the socks fell open. I had shoved the iPod between the two pairs of socks. She was super excited, sadly my camera froze at the moment, but this one is still a good shot. (see the socks on the table)

So here she is with her new hat, and her iPod, getting ready to watch Phineas and Ferb.

Totaly zoned in walking to the car watching her show.

So what you may ask did she buy with her money. Well she bought a case to protect her iPod and keep it from getting scratched, she bought the new Jonas Brother's CD, and of course what every non girly-girl, buys a second Castle Legos battleship. She still has money left and a couple of gift cards. So we'll see.

What blessed my heart tonight though was when she prayed. We always remind her that everything we have has been gifted to us by the Lord. So tonight she thanked God for her birthday presents, and that He made them in green for her, because He knew that she would like them that way, because you created me and you know everything about me. It was a special day for us, and for Brinn.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Love,

Carol

What's in Your Heart?

Monday night was my daughter's school awards night. I have mixed feelings about the whole awards night thing. I see the positive & negative in it.
Brinn has received different awards for different things most improved in math, most improved in handwriting, Bible Memory verse, but the one that thrills my heart is the fact that she cosistently gets Good Citezenship, in fact she has a stack of them.
That is the award she is holding up from Monday. Brinn however was disapointed because she didn't receive any Academic awards this time.
She said Mom " I always get this, I wanted most improved in social studies." As her mom I can understand and agree she works hard sometimes until 9pm on her homework and studying for tests. She gets A's & B's in most everything with 1 C that pops in just brining her shy of the Honor Roll, this frustrates her to no end. . So what's a mom to do? Every year I watch as Brinn she feels failure not motivation for not getting the academic recgonition she works so hard to get.
This past year Brinn has grown spiritually with the Lord in her understanding of how great God is. So I asked her right before I took this photo, what do you think God looks at? (She was so sad, it broke my heart.) Your knowledge of what year the French & Indian war was or that you respect your teacher, classmates and are known to be a friend to all? Her answer was " how I treat people." So I reminded her that it's not the knowledge we have in our head, but the Love we have in our heart for God and for others. I told her doing well in school is important, but loving others, that Is what is most important to God. Then she smiled and was happy about her award. So far my Brinn's excels in loving others. I'm so proud of her.

So this is what I've been up to lately.

Hi all my sweet friends. Let me say first that I've missed you all. I've missed reading your blogs, writting to you all, doing my online studies, and the encouragment I get from reading your thoughts and stories of how God is working in your lives. If you would have told me I'd be a part of the blogging world just 2 years ago, I would have laughed. Well God works in mysterious ways. So this post has a ton of pictures.

So we start with my friends the frogs. They came to me for a scrapbook circle journal of sorts. For those of you who are not into the scrapbook world and forums (my other virtual life) this is where you join a group and send albums and other items around and have people either scrap on a subject in your album, or like this one take the idea of a flat stanely and send frogs around the states and take pictures with them.

Meet Jumps and Hopps. They came to us just in time for Palm Sunday and Easter. They are also from a family of Christians so they were excited to spend Easter in worship. So they got to save their Palms from Palm Sunday.

Then of course they had to go with us to celebrate the Resurection and join our church family for our traditional pancake breakfast.

Then for a little vacation we went up to Cambridge Park, to visit my Father in Law, and we took Brinn gold panning. This man is one of the top Gold Panners in California, and he teaches kids to Gold Pan. He's been on several tv shows, and was super sweet. We are at Sutter's mill. Brinn did get some gold, but she also got a bunch of Garnets too.

This is myself, Brett's dad "Luecker", Brett and Brinn and the Gold panning store.

The store is right along the American River. Did I forget to mention that Hops and Jumps got to go Gold Panning too at the American River. They really love being near the water. For those of you who don't remember your California History. The American River and Sutter's Mill is the sight where John Marshall discovered Gold in California, and that started the Gold Rush, and opened up the Mill for logging.

So that was April, along with Brett's birthday and the event of moving the home theater which I blogged about previously. Then May ramped up with something it seems on a weekly basis. On May 4th my cousin Darcy came home for a visit from Florida. We grew up together 2 blocks away from each other for awhile, and went to school together from 2nd grade through 8th grade. The last time I saw her Brinn was about 3 months old.

We met up in Redwood City with our other cousins. The 4 of us in the picture were the 4 youngest grandkids. We hadn't all been together for easily 1991 at the same time. We use to all see each other pretty regularly as kids. So from left to right is me, my cousing Hugh, Darcy, and Deanna. Deanna and Hugh are brother and sister, and even though he's the biggest he's the youngest. Us 3 girls were all born in 1964, and Hugh in 1966.

This is a picture of some more cousins. Hugh's new wife Michelle, Hugh, me, Laura (Hugh and Deanna's sister) Darcy, my older brother Paul, Deanna who is holding her two younger daughter's and the little boy is her grandson. The girl next to Darcy is her daughter Natalie who just finished her 1st year of collage, and of course you all know my Brinn.

Oh yes to complitcate matters we decided that next day after the reunion, to repaint our living room. That was an all day Saturday event. So here are the before paint pictures, but after the theater was moved into the living room.

The room with the purple in it, that's my scraproom/craft room. Suppose to be a dinning room, but oh well.

Now the after. We now have dark brown ultra suede curtains up over the windows too.

The wall with the screen is a dark choclate brown. We are really happy with the way it turned out. And as an added bonus it matches our dog.

The brown blends well with my purple walls, and I know have green curtains over the windows in my scrapbook room. That match the accent color in my room. It's my favorite color combo.

Then as a side note. The weekend before and the Sunday after we painted my niece Amy came over and we worked on her Senior Year scrapbook. It was the 3rd weekend we dedicated to it, and we still have more to go. It's turning out awesome and I get to live vicarously through her. We seem to get more creative between the hours of midnight at 2 am. We also have great talks. I told her I wouldn't put this picture on Facebook, but I didn't say anything about my blog. hehe.

Well let's not forget Mother's day. So this is mother's day. We drove up to San Ramon, and had chinese food with my mom, sister and her family, and my sister inlaw and brother. My other brother was with his mother in law. He saw mom in the morning.

This is mom with 3 of her 4 kids. Myself, my sister Phyllis, and my brother Paul. I should have photoshoped my brother Gary in.

Of course me and Brinn. And then one of the 3 of us. It's a mircle when I can get a picture of Brett outside without his sunglasses on.

For mother's day Brinn took me to build a bear. She made me a bear. It was so cute she kept saying things like "What bear do you want, think about an outfit for her mommy, and don't forget to pick her name"

So now my bear Honeypie is married to Brett's bear (she made him 3 father's day ago) Beary Bonds, and they sit in the living room by the theater equipment. Aren't they the cutest couple.

The next night, Brinn made dinner with Brett's help for me. They bbq'd chicken and made veggies and potatoes. Brinn made the center piece out of her monkey collection. This was a combo mother's day and act of service she was challenged to do by her teacher on Family Nights at church.

Saturday May 16th was mine and Brett's 6 year wedding anniversary. Brinn spent the day and night with our friends and we went t Monteray Bay for the day. Brett saw a guy with a big beast of a camera, and asked him to take a picture of the two of us. The guy gave me a mini lesson on setting my camera for being outside, and took this picture of us. His name was Eddie, such a nice guy.

We also took Nakita to the beach with us. It was her first time at the ocean. She decided that salt water is not very good when you are thirsty.

Nakita has issues when it comes to other dogs, so Brett just picks her up when she gets crazy, and she mellows out. She really is such an odd dog.

Oh yes and my new haircut. The other celebration for me that weekend was it was my 10 year rebirthday. On May 17th, 1999 I surrendered my all to God and have been completely in love with Jesus ever since. It was a special day. We actually celebrated communion at church that day (which is usually the first of Sunday of the month) because we are going through the book of Mark, and had come upon the section of the last supper. We had extra worship time, and it was like God planned it as a reminder for all He's brought me through, and all He rescued me from. It was an awesome time.

Now this lovely couple is my cousin Hugh and his wife Michelle. They were in the earlier reunion pictures. They had their wedding on May 23rd. So much fun and so beautiful. I sadly don't have the picture of them ridding off on his Harley together, but there is one of Brinn standing by it at the end. Hugh and Michelle actually got married in December when we found out that his mom, my Aunt Sylvia only had a couple of weeks to live. They had a private ceremony (which I was blessed to be apart of) so my Aunt could see her baby boy get married. Michelle is the proud wearer now of my Grandmother's wedding ring. We are so happy to have her as part of our family.

This is Brett and I at the wedding.

My cousin Deanna and I dancing. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding.

Of course the 3 of us at the wedding.

The cousins from my Mom, and my Aunt Sylvia. Just the first branch and not even all of them. We have a huge family, and it's growing and growing. Most of us still live in the area too. Sadly none of us have a house big enough to hold us all.

This is my big sister Phyllis.

This is my immediate family. Starting in the front my sister in law Jill who's married to my brother Gary, then you have my sister Phyllis across from her is my sister in law Janice, and then next is my brother in law Don and across from him my brother Paul.

And last but not least is Brinn standing in front of my cousins Harley, yes she rode it with her wedding dress on. I have to get a picture from them on this. Don't you love the helmet with the vail. So much fun.

So these are the highlights of the last couple months. We also had other things going on as well. Brett and I started taking a class at church called the "The Call" it's to help you find how God wants to use you and the things in your life to reach people and build the kingdom. It's been interesting, and time consuming.

We are also gearing up for summer, June comes with end of school, Brinn's birthday, this year my niece's HS Graduation, VBS, and Brinn getting ready to go off to summer camp for a week for the first time. (please keep her in your prayers as she knows no one who's going). This weekend it's off to San Ramon to watch my niece's senior class take over the church service at their church, and then lunch with my mom.

So I'll say good night for now, I'm off to a Women's Dessert for church. Been saving all my weight watchers points for tonight. YUMMY.

Be blessed my friends. I'm going to try and make the rounds to read and catch up with you all.

Love,

Carol