Finally found it!

Seriously, I think I would loose my head if it weren't attached! So I finally found the cord to the camera after putting it in a "safe place" and not being able to find it for the life of me!!! So enjoy some of these adventures....

Here's a picture of only the most amazing man in the world!!!



Some crazy shananigans!



If you look real close, you can start to see the "Third Eye" making it's appearance!!!



They didn't last too long with this craziness going on!!!



What a happy boy!



Well, gotta figure out a better way to upload videos...

Having a crazy day in the Tundra!

Love, Sarah

PS. Tune in next time, live and unplugged from the East Coast!!!

Tubing Adventure

Darn - Since my camera is back from the Jr. High Minneapolis Mission Trip, I got some great photo's of our tubing adventure yesterday and thought I had my cord here, but I don't - so tune in tomorrow for some pictures...

Dolly Parton rocks the house!!!

The Imagination Library is this awesome program that Dolly Parton set up for preschoolers to encourage literacy. I won't go into it, because she explains it so much better than I do - but if you have tots, ages newborn to 5 - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE check this out and see if it is available in your area!!! Let me just say FREE - FREE - FREE BOOKS! And who doesn't love something FREE! And books, at that - children's books! I have no idea why I haven't posted about this so far because the email has just been sitting in my inbox waiting for my little guy to be born and get a name and birthdate before he gets signed up! But I know there are a few out there with preschoolers, so CHECK IT OUT!

Other than that, my man is home again and all is better with the world. It's been a rough weekend to be sure. I've had a lot more heart-aching things going on this summer than funny ones! (Much to my dismay!) The most recent - I've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I was devastated. I just found out on Monday... I've met with a Dietitian and hopefully we can get everything worked out. I was told that it wasn't necessarily anything I could have done, some people are just more prone and it could run in the family and just not know it, etc. There are so many different reasons. I think a lot of it comes from our hectic schedule that really doesn't allow me to eat at regular intervals. It's been an opportunity to trust the Lord in ways I've never had to before. I was so completely discouraged, but the doctor assures me they treat this quite a bit more aggressively than a lot of other dr.s so that no harm comes to my baby. I find comfort in that. I also find comfort in knowing that God is in control and that He knows what's going on and He loves me so much. This is an email I just wrote to my brother this morning actually regarding it - and it just sums up what the Lord has been showing me these last couple of days.

Hey - thanks for your call yesterday - I was just about to go into the Dr.'s office when you called and then I never had a chance to give you a call back. Plus, it's all very emotional to me - even still! :P (which is EXTREMELY annoying to me! especially when I'm work and can't get the waterworks to stop.) I have been getting some pretty amazing emails from folks who don't even have a clue and they are so encouraging to me... But today God is telling me VERY CLEARLY that He is in control and the He loves me no matter what and that nothing is going on without Him knowing about it and holding me through the very midst of it. So while it's all very discouraging and disheartening - I'm remembering that God is bigger than my problems and He's got to be my Lord even through the dark times, reminding me to maintain my positive and cheerful attitude. No lie, that sentence just came through my daily devotional with David Wilkerson, the email I read right before I looked at yours. So see, God is taking care of me. And talking to me so plainly, He might as well be using neon signs!

So you can see - God uses these awful things to draw us unto Himself. And even though this is an "adventure" that I don't want to experience - just like my mom's cancer is an "adventure" that none of us want to experience - if God uses it to bring me closer to Him, so be it. It's really very difficult for me to come to that conclusion - it's not one that I settle on lightly, but I don't want to fight. I just want to be closer to my Jesus. I've learned in my short life that it's so much better to walk with Jesus and not away from Him. There are a lot of kids especially out there who think they need to experience things for themselves and make their own mistakes (I know, because I work with a bunch of them!), and I'll give them that, but honestly - I hope beyond hope that they learn sooner than later that it's so much better to choose Jesus than our own way. We are so much happier and more content and isn't that what we're looking for? Isn't that what everyone wants out of life - the American Dream - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? It's in Jesus. All of it is in Jesus.

Well, I've probably waxed pretty serious at this point, hopefully you don't walk away feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders. The day is beautiful here. We are heading out to Lake Nelson - I should rename it "Third eyeball Lake" because there is a nuclear power plant right there that keeps the water nice and toasty and I always tease the boys that if they spend too much time in it, they WILL grow a third eyeball - probably right in their forehead (But secretly, I think they like that idea! Boys....sheesh...) Anyway, tubing for them, boat rides for me. And enjoying the man of my dreams for a few more days before we are separated for 10 days while he's in Guatemala and I'm in VA! :*( (Boo hoo) I'm so excited to see my family - I'm excited that he gets to go to Guatemala - but I wish he could come with me to see my family and I could go with him to Guatemala!!! I hate being apart! And there has been too much of it this summer! Hope you have a fantastic day!

3 years, nine months and the honeymoon isn't over yet in the Tundra,

Sarah

Correction....

My dad's rolling stop ticket was actually $91 and not $70. So put that in your pipe! Can you believe that? Oh the injustices of this world?

I had a good weekend. I'm afraid the plants are dying - just the ones I haven't planted yet. But what is a girl to do? We're running out of space to plant. Seriously. It's starting to thunder now. It's kind of matching my whatever kind of mood! I feel like there are tons of things to do, but I just don't know where to start. I reckon I should make a list.

Trying to get motivated in the Tundra,

Sarah

New Adventures!

Well, for the first time ever, Sam went out Spear fishing last night - "Where in the world can you go spear fishing in the Tundra?" you ask? (I know that's what you were thinking because #1 - sounds crazy to me and #2 - that's what my mom asked when she found out!!! Wherein my dad promptly answered - in his pond! HA!) Anyway, Lake Sakakawea. Get this the spell check came up saying that I spelled that wrong, and maybe I did, but that's seriously how they pronounce it here - and I reckon she was actually from here, so that's her name now, not Sacajawea. That must be the southern version. But for a quick history lesson - her name is properly pronounced Sakakawea. Man, I digress... Anyway, yes, Sam and a friend headed up to the murky lake to do some spear fishing and Sam was very proud that on his first shot, he got a big ole' carp! Now we've just got to get him in the ocean to do some REAL spear fishing!!! :) If you have a bit of time, you should click the link to the Lake, it's really very interesting! You'll be surprised to find such a large body of water in the Tundra! And yes, it does freeze over in the winter and tons of people haul their little shacks up there to ice fish. I know, it's a whole new concept for most of you - but people really do have to get outside in the winter around here - or else they'd be a heck of a lot crazier than they are now! :)

Well, this has been about the most beautiful summer ever! In fact, we are still planting annual pots. I don't exactly know why when Fall is right around the corner. Shhhh, don't tell anyone I said that. I'd probably get tarred and feathered! But all the flower stands went out of business before the 4th and we had a bunch of plants that we'd gotten for a really good deal and they are just sitting around. I'll have to get some pictures of our yard - it's insane how beautiful it is right now. In fact, our neighbor girl came over the other day and asked Sam if he thought he had too many flowers in his yard! HA! Now I ask you - how can anyone have TOO many flowers?? Just because it looks like a rainbow exploded in our yard, I don't really know what she's talking about! Do you remember back in the day when the theologians would have these huge long arguments about how many angels could fit on the head of pin? Well, now they can argue about how many plants the Coleman's can fit into their postage stamp size yard! HA! What can I say, we like variety, and color, and excessiveness....

The painting of our nursery is coming right along. I can't really reach the top, but it's just about done. Now we just need to go around and start collecting furniture. I also have some sewing to do. I just got some material to cover our rocking chair and make a valence for the window - so it's coming together.

Oh, I just remembered, I was going to tell you about Curly and Moe. Well, due to the time lapse, my mushy brain that can't remember details anymore and some other extenuating circumstances, I'm not actually going to go into the details like before - but I did want to make a big announcement - Sam's little brother, Curly - or was it Moe, anyway, we just call him Johnny - asked the love of his life to marry him! That's right - our whittle tiny Johnny is gwowing up! Can you believe that??? I still can't! Haven't even seen him since the big question got popped. I guess they are too busy planning their next July wedding. Let me see if I can rustle up a picture....



Aren't they about the cutest things? Anyway - that gigantic sand castle behind them, that's what Johnny built and Sam helped with in the popping of the big question - isn't that a gigantic sand castle? So we're very excited for them!

In the famous last words....Well, I suppose..... (that means it's time to go.)

Living the dream in the Tundra,

Sarah

Guess what?!

That's right folks - That's a picture of me - taking a picture....with my brand spankin' new birthday present!!! True, it's not an SLR - but here's the deal... Sambo got me a digital Canon Rebel for my birthday - tangibly held it in my hands and everything. But when I took it all out of the box, turns out they changed the look of the battery. So before we go and start buying all new accessories - we decided to take it back and do a bit more research. We already have two canon batteries, why do we want a totally different one? We are all about being able to inter-change. So after thinking about it long and hard, this is what we decided to do. Take it back. That's right, after all this time, I wanted to take back my beautiful birthday present! But in the meantime - isn't it nice to have a point and shoot. Especially for your purse, especially for "gotta-capture-this-moment-right-now,-not-look-for-my-bulky-camera-and-switch-the-lense-and-get-the-settings-right", especially for UNDERWATER - yeah, ya heard me!, especially for your husband who goes through cameras like most people go through underwear, especially one that's crushproof for up to 220 lbs., yeah, especially one that's shockproof for up to 6.6 feet - that's right - you can drop this baby - sit on it - leave it in your pocket while you are swimming (only to 30 feet though!) - it's practically indestructible! When I saw it - I thought - this is the camera for us! Especially with Sam getting ready for a trip to Guatemala - gasp, he couldn't go without a camera, we are way to limited in our finances to have him use film - can't afford to develop all that film! and there is no way in you know where I would let him take his good camera! So this is the perfect solution to our dilemma!

Anyway, yesterday turned out to be about one of the best birthdays ever! I came home after work to the most beautiful roses EVER!



And that's when I got to check out my new Rebel, even if for a short time! Then we headed off to Paradiso's, where you get a free meal on your birthday! So after that, we ran a few errands and took back Camera #1 for Camera #2!!! Then Sam says we had to get home pretty quick because some very important friends of ours were coming to see us! I asked him who and he said it was a surprise!

Well, we roll into our driveway and surprise, oh surprise - who's car was there - you might have seen it before.....



That's right - Erik!!!! So we went in and couldn't find those kids anywhere - they were hiding all the way in our basement (never mind that my house is a total mess!) Luckily kids don't care! We found them, Erik, Bridget, Brittany and Tiffany!!! How sweet is that???? They spend their morning making me a cake! (Bridget is quite the chef/baker extraordinaire!) And then they came over and surprised me for my birthday! How special am I that a bunch of Sr. High kids would give up their afternoon for me???!!! The only problem is that I don't have a picture of them, because we had to charge up the new little camera, but lucky for you - I have a picture of the cake!!!!



(For those of you who missed the earlier postings on the pictures of Sam's pond, here it is - forever imbued on my birthday cake!) That's right folks, there is the Love Pond, right there - in living icing!!! Isn't that amazing??? Can you believe these guys decorated this so perfectly for me??? How cute is that - there are even some fish in the pond! (Shhh....don't tell Sam, but they are probably bigger than any fish Sam will ever have in the pond! HA!) I crack myself up!

Then, we sat down and played some serious hands of Ultimate Solitaire! Erik was confident that the score keeper always won, just because I keep the score and I always win... But I proved him wrong - he took score this time, but I still won. I know, it's a hard life, but someone's got to live it! So maybe we aren't all pro's at blongo ball - but we've all got skills, right, Erik?

Anyway, then we had to had off to Childbirth Preparation Classes, or whatever the heck you want to call them! (Much to Sam's dismay.) But it went a lot faster than last week and I thought it was pretty fun - I mean, seriously, how often to get that much of Sam's complete attention completely uninterrupted? Ok, a lot, but that's besides the point. We got to practice relaxation - so I got lots of hand massages and back massages, that was fun!!! Ok, one more night, one more night, you can do it Sammy!!! We actually got out a little early and there were some pretty epic clouds, so we took off - storm chasing! Luckily Sam had his camera and so we took a little drive. It was really beautiful! Then to end the night - Ruth, Sam's aunts Barb and Jane all came over for some yummy ice cream cake from DQ and to visit - so you can see - how does a birthday get much better than that, I ask you? (I have yet to cut Bridget's cake because I wanted to take a picture of it and was planning on doing that last night before an ice cream cake came - unfortunately I have a glucose test today at the Dr. so hopefully I don't throw them over the edge with all my celebrating!) But I'm definitely looking forward to tasting a bit of the pond - Bridget's version, of course!!!

Ok, for Rhonda and the rest of you, just going to post a couple more pictures and then I'll be done for today, ok? This is taking way longer than I thought!!!

My hottie husband, as if I had to tell you - pshaw!


Yes, a very pregnant me....


And this is the crib set that my good friend, Lori gave us.... And the yellow fabric is another fabric I found to do some accents around the nursery - It's not the best picture, but I was anxious to show you!


Ok, well, that's all for now folks! But tune in next time...for some better pictures, once I figure out what I'm doing! :)

Loving the day after my birthday in the Tundra,

Sarah

Birthday musings....

Do you just love your birthday? I used to. I don't know what the turning tide was. When I was little, it was like the best holiday of the year, seriously! My mom did up birthdays big! I always woke up with a bouquet of fresh flowers from the garden on my bedside table - special breakfast, special dinner - usually swimming all day with some friends... Those were the simple days. Then you grow up. You realize, you never did anything really special - being born - it's more something you are subject to rather than accomplishing, don't ya think? Sam decided that birthdays were so depressing, we would start giving presents to other people instead of focusing on ourselves... I'm not too prepared this year. I guess it snuck (turns out that's not a word, but work with me!) up on me! Birthdays have always been depressing for him because his birthday is in January and he's never wanted to get older. I never really even thought about the older part - I just knew it was one of those things that was all about me! But birthdays, I have decided are what you make them out to be!!!! So even though I don't have presents for all my loved ones around me, I want to say to all those dear, precious friends and family who do so much to make me feel so special and loved and accepted despite my many faults, thank you. Thank you for investing in my life and blessing me beyond my wildest imagination! Thank you for keeping up with me even though I live in a land far, far away and you send me such beautiful emails, comments and facebook messages. I couldn't go on without you! And to my Lord and Savior - for without You, I wouldn't have the breath to carry on each moment. My heart overflows.

Soon, I hope to have some funny stories to pass along to you. For now, you'll just have to imagine a 7 foot sand castle - and digging out the 1 foot moat with an oar!!! (More adventures of Curly and Moe!) Until next time...

Celebrating a birthday in the Tundra,

Sarah