another great day
One of these pictures is Rob opening an important letter. Or should I say - Reverend Rob!!! Yep, the district has approved him, now it just is a matter of the national office approving it. But the letter was addressed "Reverend Rob Thoreson" so that's pretty exciting!
We went to Eckert's Orchard up in Grafton today. Very cool. It was extremely commercialized, but the hayrack ride was fun and they had this awesome play place for the kids. I think it will have to become our new family tradition. As much as I love going to Iowa with the kids, it's just getting really hard to break away from everything here. Anyhoo, we took some great pictures, but I nearly cried because our new camera got a little dusty. (like a mother hen, I know) Sarah adored the goats. She was so funny, she wanted to let them eat out of her hand, but lacked the guts to do it, so she'd put a pellet right up next the goat's mouth and he'd start to go for it and she'd scream and pitch it on the ground just behind the goat. It was hilarious!
Eli got to mini-golf, so he was pretty much beside himself. There was a corn maze too, but the kids were pretty tired and the apples were getting heavy so we skipped it. Plus, we are taking the youth group to a corn maze here a in a few weeks.
The drive up River Road was beautiful. The whole time we were out I kept thinking how much Kim would enjoy the experience, it was very much a 'state-fair' feel to it. I guess that's good leverage to get her to come visit. (wink, wink)
So we stopped at JITB for a late lunch and Sarah told me she had to use the potty. We'd been out since ten and it was now after two. I hadn't taken her once because (since france) I just can't bring myself to use a port-a-potty. I take her in to the "ladies room" (that's her adorable thing right now - 'I'm a lady, I use the ladies room') and she has a dry diaper. I was dumbfounded to say the least. I guess potty training is going better than I realized. :)
So we stuff ourselves with curly fries and come home. Sarah and I crashed while the boys played video games. I slept like a dead body, seriously awoke in the exact same position I crashed in. Could have slept longer, but there was too much to do. Got the bulletin board up at church, finished 3 loads of laundry, bathed both kids and Rob got out the door in time for the missions service. I just couldn't keep the kids up tonight, it's too hard on Saturdays for them to get going on (with good attitudes) on Sunday morning. So now the little people are asleep and I'm a few pages from being done with my lesson for the am and my studio is screaming at me. I think I'm actually rested enough to attempt to appease it!! Can't wait.
Oh, and I just wanted to say how much I love this time of year. It's so fresh and crsip and lovely outside. We spent 75% of daylight hours just enjoying it today. hmmm. felt good.

today i felt like a survey
I AM: ready to get going.
I WANT: to have a fun day with my family and get a few things done (ss lesson, bulletin board at church)
I HAVE: a positive attitude.
I HATE: wasting time.
I MISS: Lori and Kim.
I HEAR: my son and husband playing Crash Bandicoot.
I REGRET: nothing new lately, I've come to terms with the decisions I've made.
I LOVE: all the crazy things my kids say. Sarah just came out of the bathroom with a cabbage patch kid - wiping it's butt with a wet wipe - saying "She got the poopies" emphatically. ha ha.
I DANCE: when the mood strikes me. Usually in my studio with the music up loud - when I feel creative I have a tendency to dance about it!
I SING: in the car - like a madwoman. In my studio. And it's really sad because I don't really know the words to any songs, so it's always.. "mmm.. hmm. she walked away. mmm. blah blah." drives my hubby bonkers.
I SHOULD: get more sleep. I might actually get over this creeping crud then.

[YES OR NO, YOU]

1. KEEP A DIARY: Nope.
2. KEEP A JOURNAL: I blog. But I'm always sad that I can't REALLY say what I think. Part of being a christian and a mom and a sister and a daughter and a pastor's wife is NEVER saying what you really think.
3. SET YOUR WATCHES A FEW MINUTES AHEAD: I used to, but then I would just waste time doing the math so now I'm just a little late for everything. :)
4. BITE YOUR FINGERNAILS: No. Rob does and it drives me bonkers.
5. BELIEVE IN LOVE?: always. It's what gets me up in the morning.

[DO YOU]

1. HAVE A/ANY CRUSH(ES): Yeah, there's this cute guy named Rob in my sunday school class. I think he's a pastor or something.
2. THINK YOU'VE BEEN IN LOVE: every day for the past ten years.
3. HAVE TATTOOS: not on your life. I don't want them trying to wipe it off in the nursing home someday, thinking it's poo. Plus, I change my mind to much, it would annoy me after two weeks probably.
4. HAVE PIERCINGS: ears, but I never wear earrings. They are too itchy.

[WHEN YOU SEE THIS NAME YOU THINK OF...]

RYAN: A guy I liked in highschool. Cornflower blue eyes. I have never met anyone with eyes like that since.
DOUG: Wasn't there a cartoon about Doug back in the day? And Rob's dad too.
STEVEN: irwin. One of Eli's playmates at school.
JOHN: basically all the boys in my family. Seriously, shout "John" at a family reunion and half of them will come running.
SCOTT: Scott Zeilenga. Craziest guy I know. Heart of gold though.
KEN: Barbie's dream date, duh!!!

[IN THE LAST 48 HOURS, HAVE YOU..]

CRIED?: Nope, not a big crier. Have to be hurting pretty bad to break out the tears.
HELPED SOMEONE?: Heck, in the past 48 seconds. Sarah and Eli each just brought me a granola bar that needed opening. Helping people is the life of a mom, unfortunately it makes it easy to get burnt out.
BOUGHT SOMETHING?: Yesterday, my routine walmart run - shaving cream, toothpaste (superman for eli), shredded cheese (for my potluck dish on sunday), a photo cd binder and the wrong sleeves - got to take 'em back. Oh, and diapers, always diapers.
GOTTEN SICK?: not like recycling sick - just still struggling with this cold thing. Going to the dr on tuesday.
GONE TO THE MOVIES?: nope. But we rented "beyond the sea" last night. eh.
GONE OUT FOR DINNER?: I brought home McDonald's for lunch on Thursday because Sarah had shots and she was cranky!!!
SAID "I LOVE YOU"?: probably on the hour. I believe in telling my kids and hubby that a lot.
WRITTEN A REAL LETTER?: No. but I do from time to time.
TALKED TO AN EX?: why would I do that?
WRITTEN IN A JOURNAL?: no, but I've blogged.
MISSED SOMEONE?: Kim, Lori. My mom and dad.
HUGGED SOMEONE?: I am blessed with an abundance of hugs every day. Rob and I especially enjoy our 30 second hugs.
FOUGHT WITH YOUR PARENTS?: I don't think I've fought with my parents since I moved out.
FOUGHT WITH A FRIEND?: Nope. Try not to let that happen.

[WOULD YOU EVER..]

1. EAT A BUG?: not on purpose. Accidently ate mealworms in highschool - in my cereal. I promptly chucked.
2. BUNGEE JUMP?: Once my kids were grown? Sure, it looks like fun. But I wouldn't take a risk like that until my responsibilities were a little lighter. Too many people count on me.
3. HANG GLIDE?: probably not, but maybe if I was in a risky mood. Somedays I'm willing to try anything once. (like the Superman at Six Flags)
4. KILL SOMEONE?: No. The only possibility would be in a hostage situation if they were harming my kids. Mother's instincts tend to override my christianity in moments of crisis.
5. HAVE SEX WITH SOMEONE YOU DON'T LOVE?: No way, I would never do anything to jeopardise the relationship Rob and I have.
6. PARACHUTE FROM A PLANE?: again, depends on the day you asked me.
7. WALK ON HOT COALS?: No, I have pretty sensitive feet.
8. GO OUT TO EAT WITH A COMPLETE STRANGER: no way.
9. GO OUT WITH SOMEONE FOR THEIR REPUTATION?: nope. I only go out with Rob. :)
10. BE A VEGETARIAN?: I tried it in high school. It was too much work.
12. PURPOSELY HURT SOMEONE?: Unfortunately it's a part of our sinful nature. I try hard to be more obedient than that.
13. SING KAROKE?: I actually had a machine in high school. But no, I don't think I'd ever do it in public.
14. RUN A RED LIGHT?: Nope, only yellow and I try really hard to never let that happen because one time I let myself and got in a bad accident.
15. DYE YOUR HAIR BLUE?: No. I have too much self-respect. :)
16. BE ON SURVIVOR?: No. That show just looks miserable. First of all you are starving. And if you survive all the horrible challenges you then have to survive all the social backstabbing. I'd never make it, I'm not mean enough. I'd go home crying on the second day and dive into a bag of oreos or something.
17. MAKE SOMEONE CRY?: I'm afraid that's part of life. People hurt people. You just learn from it and try not to in the future.
18. KICK A BABY?: Are you kidding? Why would anyone do that???
19. STAY UP ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT: Not since my kids were infants, thank the Lord!

[THE LAST PERSON WHO..]

1. SLEPT IN THE SAME BED WITH YOU? Rob, if you want to call it sleeping. :) Just kidding, we are both sick and tired so we died last night.
2. SAW YOU CRY?: Rob.
4. WENT TO THE MOVIES WITH?: Rob. We saw the Lakehouse. Time to go again.
5. WENT TO DINNER/LUNCH WITH: Nae, on Tuesday. mmmmm. chinese.
6. YOU TALKED ON THE PHONE WITH?: Kyndal. She called for her mom last night.
7. MADE YOU LAUGH: Sarah made me laugh with the wipe your butt thing. All those crazy illinois thoreson's make me laugh.

[DO YOU PREFER]

1. FLOWERS OR CANDY? flowers. Preferably not picked from my own plant, ROB.
2. GREY OR BLACK?: black. Always go with slimming. :)
3. COLOR OR BLACK & WHITE PHOTOS?: photos.
4. PINK OR PURPLE?: pink. purple is so.... egh.
5. SUNRISE OR SUNSET?: I am very rarely up for sunrise and I'm not ever awake enough to appreciate it so I'll go with sunset.
6. STAYING UP LATE OR WAKING UP EARLY?: I love staying up late and sleeping in. And by sleeping in I mean like 8.

(also added some pics from yesterday - have a great saturday!)

Random thoughts from the past few days.
first
I just have to say how blessed I am to have my kids as my kids. Sounds dumb, I know, but when you spend time with someone else's children you realize how wonderful yours are. Eli had a friend over earlier this week. I became acutely aware of the fact that my children have good manners, they are attentive (as much as they can be for 5 and 2), they are relatively neat and intelligent..
You know that scene in Daddy Daycare where the dad walks in the bathroom after this kid uses it? He looks down and makes a gross face, then looks around and eventually looks at the ceiling - totally grossed out? Yeah, that happened to me.
I love my kids.
Second
This new camera. Oh my camera!!! I love it. I'm in awe of what all I can do with it - and I'm sure I've barely scraped the surface. We did the park yesterday afternoon, it's like a spy camera - the zoom is so awesome. I took some amazing pictures from crazy distances. But I didn't get a lot of good photos of Eli, so I'm going to take him out this afternoon for a photo shoot I think. Don't worry, I'll post them!!
thirdly
I think I may have forgotten to mention my recent Relient K addiction. Wow. So funky, guitar-driven, right-to-your-heart words. Very good. I think I have their Mmhmm cd memorized from cover to cover. I love the song "Which to bury, us or the hatchet". Talks about trying to make it right with people who would rather hold their grudge then your hand. I know all about that!
I'm going to stop with the silly first, seconds....
We have a jam-packed weekend with missions convention, but a lull in the storm tomorrow during the day. I'm looking forward to a lazy day with the fam - thinking of the zoo or the Cahokia Mounds. Maybe we'll just watch cartoons all day. Doesn't matter, just looking forward to down time with them.
Almost went to mom and dad's this weekend. Kim is going and she invited me with, but Sarah was up most of the night and I just wasn't up for it. Too hard to do the single parent thing. Plus, I'm always scared to go too far in our car, it's just not that spry and young anymore. (I know the feeling!)
Well, I think the brea is sleeping now. I'm trying to weigh out the decison between a much needed nap and maybe even more needed studio time. I think the art in me is winning. Have a happy friday. -a

happy pictures
We are scratching the surface here people - the surface of what this camera can do. Rob and I are so excited over the potential. He took three pictures today and stitched it together to get this wide-angle shot. (yes, I know my living room is a disaster, but it's still a cool photo!)
We went to the Lewis and Clark Center today, that was pretty cool. We learned a lot. Eli was disappointed that it wasn't the park, but maybe another day.
I'm not feeling the best, hoping I'm doing better by the morning. Tomorrow is MOPs. Woohoo.

It CAME!!!!

It's here! I nearly hugged my US Postal worker this morning. Seriously - I heard her on the porch and opened the door and squealed! She says "I know!!". Like she knew what I was waiting for! I would have thought she would have thought I was nuts, but she was excited for me!!
Well, I've taken some shots, but haven't really played with it yet. As soon as Eli comes home from school we have a date with the park and the camera. I can't wait!!
I do have some pictures from yesterday to share. We met my mom at the airport, hadn't seen her since March so it was very nice to catch up. The kids have grown tremendously since then!! :) Well, Sarah's upstairs not sleeping, so I'd better go deal with that. Check back in for super photos later!! -a

Last night went awesome - here are my notes. Oh, and I included some pictures - they were well received!

Fatal Friendships


I.) Intro:
A.) How many of you have friends?
1) I’ve had many friendships.
(kindergarten, grade school, jr. high, high school, college, young adult
life)
B.) Some good. Some bad. How do you tell the difference?
C.) Friendships come in different forms. (not as simple as good and bad influences)
D.) Two basic kinds of friendships – horizontal and vertical.
1.) Vertical – same place in life. (can be good or bad.)
2.) Horizontal – someone is pulling someone. (up or down – works both ways.)

C.) Did you know friendships can be fatal? Yes. In several ways.
a. Fatal friendships will leave you stressed and not blessed.
1. You will be worn out from the experience. (physically, emotionally, spiritually)
b. Fatal friendships distract you from real friends and significant relationships. (easily made jealous)
c. Fatal friends encourage you towards self-destruction to appease their own sin and guilt. (drinking, stealing, lying, self-mutilation, drugs or promiscuity)
d. Fatal friendships make it awkward and eventually impossible to have an intimate relationship with God.
e. Fatal friends are in it for what they can get out of you and will eventually betray you for their own needs. (Judas in the garden with Jesus)
f. Fatal friends will bail on you when you are at the bottom. (Judas couldn’t stay to see the result of his betrayal)

CI.) How do I know if my friendship is fatal? (warning signs)
a. Are you compromising a value to be with them?
b. Do you feel guilty after you spend time with them?
c. Are you too busy with your friends to spend time with God?
d. Do your friends distract you from worship or even church activities?
e. Are you comfortable talking about God with them?
f. All of these are warning signs. Some friendships just take tweaking.

IV.) Characteristics of a healthy friendship
1) Healthy friendships upbuild you or even challenge you. (three men in the furnace - Daniel) Positive vertical or at least horizontal.
2) Healthy friends are there for you in a bind. (Proverbs 18:24)
3) A true friend delights in your growth and isn’t intimidated by it. (Deserae – after my rededication)
4) A true friend will stand the test of time.
5) Should honor God (especially in what you do together)

V.) It’s ok to have different friends.
a) they fill different roles in your life (most of you don’t need to abandon people)
1) some will be vertical – you pulling them up or them pulling you up
2) some will be horizontal – you equally bless each other
b) Just be sure you are spending the most time with the most healthy people in your life.
1) These are the people who will be pouring into your life the most.
i. Realize your time and energy is a limited resource.
2) These people are who you will begin to look like. (look at Rob and I!)
i. Look for people you look up to and want to be more like. (Loralie)
ii. Get refreshed and recharged with these people and then go minister to others.

VI.) JESUS should be your first true friend.
1) He has loved you from the beginning of time – before you were even created. (Isaiah 44:2)
2) He will never forsake you. (Hebrews 14:5b-6)
3) He cares about your life. Give him your issues. (1 Peter 5:7)

Invitation:
1) Have you asked Jesus to be your friend?
2) Do you have some fatal friendships in your life that you need to give up?
I.) (think about what God gave up to be your friend. He could give you back that friendship too)
3) Do you have friendships that need prayer?

field trip
let me start with I'm so tired it's just ridiculous that I'm not in bed already.
details, right??
Awesome day. One of the best days ever. Love days like today - accomplishing a lot, relationally and realistically. Makes it hard to give it up and go to bed.
I've got some uber-fun pictures for you today. We took the youth group to the zoo, the science center AND the Lewis and Clark Memorial Tower (or whatever it's called). Super cool. I've wanted to go up that tower since we moved here. It was worth the wait. Very fun. The zoo was pretty awesome too. But the company was the best. I just love our group. Our kids are so real. And they just want love. Hey, I can do that!! Very psyched for tomorrow. Probably need to go to bed and call it a day. Tomorrow is sunday and it's the beginning of a super busy ten day stretch. I can do it!!! :)

cranky.
Sometimes I just wake up that way. I feel bad for my family - it's been the past three days or so. And NO, I have no legitimate reason to be cranky, I just am. Tired of being sick and I guess it's starting to really wear on me. I should be excited for the weekend, but I'm still just cranky. Guess I need to wash it out of my hair or something. Or sleep on the other side of our bed and see if that helps. Hope so. :) Off to a hotdog roast - should be fun as long as my munchkins behave.

thursday is must-see tv again
And I'm loving it. We watch Smallville at 7pm, Grey's at 8pm, and ER at 9pm. What a line up. I could take or leave Smallville, but Rob's way into it. Grey's was phenomenal tonight - so much backstory. Wow. And ER was extremely depressing and hard to watch Abby with her emergency c-section. When she and Lucas were there, watching and waiting for their baby to breathe - wow - I remember that moment. I remember some time passing and then suddenly thinking - wait, she hasn't cried yet! There was a lot of scurrying of doctors and nurses and hushed whispers. Sarah never did make a lot of noise while she was in the operating room with us, and I guess it was touch and go for the first 6 hours or so - but she came around. I was just trying to hold it together enough to keep from puking before they had me stitched up.
Well, that was random. Anyhoo, here's to good tv.
I've been useless all day. Haven't done a thing. Watched too much tv and ate half a bag of carmel corn with Rob (mmmmm). Laid around and coughed all day. Still can't kick this thing. Oh, and we took the kids to the dam and locks system just outside of Alton. That was cool. I didn't realize they had a museum there, the kids loved it. They are so easily entertained! :)
Also wanted to post this picture of Sarah in her princess costume we found at Once Upon a Child for $6.50 - which was really free because I sold some clothes there. Pretty cool. She loves it.

One last post for you.
Totally need to be in bed, but I almost forgot to share this picture. Thanks for taking it, Lori!

manic monday?
Quite a few fun pictures to share at one am. I guess it's technically Tuesday now. I have to laugh, I went to bed two hours ago. Rob and I talked for a bit and then started to settle down to sleep and suddenly my sermon ideas just started flowing.
I know, you are thinking, "Sermon?" but this week we are doing 'Bizzaro Night' at APEX. Rob is doing the game (and probably offering) and I am doing the sermon. I've had something on my heart to share with our teenagers since camp and I've just now go the guts to do it, I guess.
Anyhoo, back to my story. So I'm trying to snuggle in to sleep (with a terrible bad back pissue tonight from driving Jay's car) and all of the sudden sermon points started popping in my head like kernals in an air-popper. I just had to get up and scribble them down before they were gone. So I came out to the computer and an hour later I've got it written. Probably needs some fine-tuning - I'll read it to Rob (loose term - it's an outline and I'll expound as I go) in the am, but I'm way excited. The title is "Fatal Friendships".
So, that has nothing to do with my pictures. So, in no particular order, (because blogger never posts them in the order I upload them - it's a mystery to me) we have...
a) a fabulous picture of Rob and I. I took 80% of our park pictures in b&w today - just to do a little focus on light and dark. I'm really in the mood to play with my new camera, which should be on it's way any day here. Yippee!!! We took this one ourselves - camera turned.
b) Eli climbing the monkey bars. He was such a ham today. Loved every minute of it.
c) my new shelves - put them up a while ago but just got them filled with family photos. Love them. Totally Pottery Barn inspired. Still looking for a mirror maybe , and or an old window frame to add some height. The giant "T" was gaudy gold and I painted it white and distressed it. Rob - who is totally anti-large-letters, loves it now.
d) an uber-adorable picture of Sarah hanging out in her car on our daddy date this am. Loving this new day off tradition of a breakfast date with Rob. Makes us both feel super blessed.
e) and last but not least, a cool shot of us hanging with the kiddos on the swingsets. still loving the b&w.
Well, I should probably find my bed like the responsible grown up I pretend to be. 7am comes hard and fast. sweet dreams.

good morning, good evening and in case I don't see you, goodnight!
Another whirlwind weekend in the Thoreson household. We went to the EAWR football game last night. Ok, and I'm totally not a football fan, but I love a good game - when the air is crisp and the lights are bright and people of all ages are out to enjoy the game together. I love the popcorn and the bands and the cheerleaders and the old grandpa yelling at the refs. Football just feels good, even if I don't understand it. I really love going to games whenever we can.
Last night was good. It is always fun to watch our youth in their own element. The game was great, we kicked Roxanna all over the field. I can't even remember the end score, but it was bad.
Then we brought a bunch of the girls home for our sleepover. It was fun, we basically just laid around and talked and prank called PR (Rob) and ate ourselves silly. It had been a really long time since I'd done a sleepover. Trying to scare the thirty-five right out of me I think! We were up until 3am - yeah, I'm tired. And we got up with my kids at eight am and did breakfast, eggs and cinnamon rolls. We took everyone home and then I konked out after lunch for a couple brief hours before we flitted Eli off to a birthday party at Chucky Cheese's. Got home just in time to clean up the house and bathe and bed the kids before Lori and Jay showed up to spend the rest of the weekend with us. It's all good, I'm just tired out. Got my lesson for tomorrow prepared before I slept, I'm thankful that's ready. I really love teaching this class, but I never feel qualified, if you know what I mean.
Anyhoo, I'm tired and I'm probably not making any sense, but I really wanted to share a few pictures.

silly girl
so about 10 teenage girls are about to descend on my house for a sleepover, and what am I doing? Putzing around with my home decor! I'm just in such a creative mood - it's unreal!! Such a shame I can't be channeling into some scrapbook pages, but there's no time for that. No time to blog either, but I couldn't help myself. I wanted to share this picture, something I've been working on for a couple days. Totally a lift of some idea I saw somewhere, but I love it and it was super fun to do and cost $2.80. Can't beat that! Off to scrub the house and fold the laundry and then to party tonight like it's 1999! (which was a very good year, just for the record!)

Oh - and massively contributing to my creative blitz are the 200 pictures that Winkflash delivered to my door this morning!! woohoo!!

random photos from the day.
YES, PR is wearing Eli's Rainbows vest. YES, Eli was very upset. And the picture of Sarah and Eli - oh my goodness. She says "Let's go upstairs and play" and grabs his hand and up they go. Cutest thing ever.
Oh and I meant to tell you about last night at supper. I had poured Sarah white milk. She started to drink it - put the cup down and looked at me and clearly stated "I said chocolate". Oh my princess! We corrected her right away. Friday night is chocolate milk night at our house. I swear we don't spoil her, she just naturally thinks the world should fall at her feet.