Conformed or Transformed?

It's been a while since my last post. It seems life has been pretty crazy. Olivia was in the hospital for a few days with a kidney infection. Brian was out of town and some friends of ours were out of town and we were watching their 3 girls. I wasn't sure how I was going to take her in to the hospital at 9pm and manage to get kids off to school and such in the morning. I am so blessed to have good neighbors. Andrew was ok to spend the night here and "hold the fort down" and my neighbor took the girls and my brother was able to take the big kids to the highschool. A big hearty THANK YOU to all who helped make things easier. I couldn't have done it without you. Olivia has been on antibiotics since the visit and is doing well. It took us a week to get back in the groove of things, but praise God she is back on her feet! How quickly we can take our physical health for granted. I have a friend who has to go to the hospital all the time for her three children...

We spent a great week at Family Camp. It was so much fun seeing friends who we don't get to visit with often. I had 5 kids with me, so I didn't get to visit as much as I wanted to, but we did get to share a potluck on Sunday with our Midland friends and then the Schloemann's generously make a pancake breakfast for the Midland group (the sausage balls are the best!) We had numerous campfires with smores and cherry pies and whatever else kind of pie the kids could come up with.....smore pie, pizza pie, and grilled cheese. One friend made snowcones for all the kids in the area and I made a bit of homemade icecream. Let's not forget the endless trips to the beach. My niece, Cassandra, for the first time jumped off the blob (a tall platform that you jump off on to a big inflatable, which sends the person at the other end of the blog flying up into the air and into the water) Andrew had his friend, Brad, stay with us for the week, and they had fun pulling pranks on peopl...

Last night as I was doing some cooking in the kitchen, the smoke alarms went off in the house. Now, some of you who know me, wouldn't really be suprised by this and are laughing at me right now, but I wasn't burning anything.....this time! We had company visiting, and I looked at them and said "Wow, that shouldn't be happening, I'm not doing anything worthy of that!" I decided to head down the hallway to fan the alarm, realizing that small children were sleeping and I needed to get them off (especially, since all the alarms in the house are connected and it was not only going off in the hallway, but in each of the bedrooms too!) As I walked down the hallway, I smelled smoke. I knew it was more than my cooking that set the alarms off. I ran into my bedroom, where my daughter was sitting on the bed crying and next to her was a burned kleenex from the candle burning in my bedroom. I made sure all the pieces were blown out and got the alarms off. I discussed with ...

Since last Friday we have been getting dumped on as far as the snow goes. I have been procrastinating putting new tires on my car. They are the low profile summer tires that do absolutely nothing for you but slide all over on the winter roads. Now, don't forget, I live in Northern Michigan. I know how to drive in snow, so getting stuck this early in the game shouldn't happen......especially in your own driveway! AHHHH!!!! This morning I was backing up and hit the brakes and the car spun around almost hitting two trees. We have about a 4-5 inch drop off the edge of our driveway, because we only poured the cement and haven't put the yard in yet, so my car slid off the edge and plowed through the pile of snow from the snowblower. Of course, I was in a hurry because we were late for school....NOW....we're really late. I called my neighbor and asked her to come take Olivia to school for me. She gracious obliged. I figured I would come in and call Brian and have him come home...