The New, Gorgeous, March Flexi-Clip...

Just a short post to let you all know that the Lilla Rose Flexi-Clip for the month of March, will be available at midnight tonight!  It is colorful, so I'm sure it will sell out fast! If you like it you might want to order it quickly before it is gone.

I think that it very beautiful, and would look absolutely gorgeous in any color hair.
Being a consultant has it's perks, so I already ordered mine (actually, in 2 different sizes - this one is going to look so nice with my renaissance costume!).   :)
http://www.lillarose.biz/medievalmaidenhairwear/?id=Ws2uzbo5&mv_pc=5

Hanging out

For the past week and a half we have been at the Orlando Thousand Trails RV park, hanging out with some of the other fulltime families!
One of the things that some of us big kids like to do every morning is to play volleyball.

The schedule for Jr. volleyball is from 11am to 1pm; it's right before Senior volleyball, which is from 1pm to 3pm.

It's a little chilly in the morning but that didn't stop us!  We had a great time playing with other kids our age, and working on our VB skills :)

 

We did play VB on the regular sand court too, but we have more fun in the water :)

 

 

I guess Stass didn't feel like playing, so the little kids buried him instead LOL!

 

Besides playing VB, we like to do a lot of  other things together; like us girls having a hair night.

We did hair for over two hours!  Mom and Dad had gone to a Tim Hawkins concert with another fulltime family.  Some of my friends came over, and I showed them the Flexi-Clip and they loved it! We tried a lot of different styles in each others hair...

The girls loved trying new styles, and I has glad to have others to practice on!

We got quite creative and did some very pretty ones...

Here is all of us after we were done messing around.  We had a blast - just the girls hanging out, and Eli even made us cookies! What an awesome brother :)  (I think Shae was a little squished in this pic)

 

We had such a ball the first time that we did it again!

A couple of nights ago, we had 3 other families over for ice cream,

and while the Moms and Dads talked and had ice cream, us girls played with hair some more.

(we had ice cream and toppings afterwards, of course)

Becky, our wonderful hair stylest, curled our hair with a straightener! Ya, it was amazing :)  She just curled the hair around the straightener and pulled it out like you do with curling ribbon!

It looked better than when I do it with a curler. 

Again we had a total blast! It got kind of crowded upstairs once the little girls found out what we were doing.  :D

 

Afterwards we had an awesome game of Apples to Apples.

 

It was a bit crowded with almost all the kids in the back of the RV,

but it was so much fun anyway.

 

I'm sad that we are leaving soon :(
But hopefully we can meet up with our friends some time in the near future and do it all again!!!

Disaster Relief with Samaritan's Purse in Calhoun, GA...

2 weeks ago, we received an e-mail from Samaritan's Purse saying that they were in need of volunteers to help on a Disaster Relief Team in Calhoun GA. Calhoun had experienced an E-3 tornado, with winds of over 100 mph, that went through and destroyed over 100 homes on Jan. 31. We talked and prayed about it, and believed that God really wanted us to go up and help. So we signed up, then Dad, Eli, Jake, and myself, packed up the truck on Saturday night, left early Sunday morning and drove 11 hours to Calhoun GA; we were in Wauchula FL at the time, about 10 hours south.

We arrived at the host church about 7:00pm that night, had dinner, met the staff, unpacked, and got settled in.

The church that we were staying at let SP use their activity center for whatever they wanted! SP had bunk rooms for over 2 dozen volunteers, and use of a large kitchen and dining room, and a big parking lot for the DR (disaster relief) unit, shower trailer, SP trucks and personal vehicles.

 

The next morning after breakfast (6:30) we got our work and team assignments and headed out to the worksites. Each day, we would spend anywhere from half an hour to three hours at each home site, helping clear garbage and debris, cutting trees, clearing limbs, and tarping roofs. 

 

                     This home was built and lived in for less than a year before it was destroyed!
                                           The homeowners had saved for years to build it.

 

 

At about 4:00pm each afternoon we would pack-up the trucks and head back to the church, clean and put tools away, shower and change into clean clothes, and get ready for dinner at 6:00. During dinner we got to meet the the other volunteers; there were people from New Mexico, Idaho, Ohio, and many other states that came to help. It is amazing to see how many people are willing to travel hundreds of miles, just to help someone they don't even know!!! Many of the team did not even go home after we were done on Wednesday, but went straight to Hattiesburg MS to help out there! (a tornado went through there the second day we were in GA.)

We were supposed to stay through Sunday, but we got all our clean-up projects finished Wednesday afternoon! After we finished, we went back to the church, washed tools and the SP trucks, and started packing up. 

 

This is the Disaster Relief Unit. (I should have gotten pic's of the inside, but I didn't think of it at the time, sorry...)

When we were back in Tuscalossa, we got to work with a couple of the guys pictured on the side of this trailer...

 

 

While it was great to have gotten so much work done so quickly, I was a little disappointed that we finished early. I loved every second we were there! I loved meeting the staff and other volunteers, hearing the homeowners' stories, praying with them, and hopefully exhibiting Christ's love with everyone we met. 

 

One of my favorite things we did after we got done with each site, was when all the volunteers on that team would sign a Samaritan's Purse Bible and present it to the homeowners! The homeowners enjoyed sharing their stories of were they were when it hit, and what it felt and sounded like. We got to see before and after pictures of places that had been totally destroyed. I can't imagine being in their shoes and going through what they went through; it was life changing for me. 

The homeowners say we are such a blessing to them, but we are getting just as big a blessing by being able to serve them, as they are in receiving our help.

 

We left Thursday morning and drove back to Wauchula, FL.

Working with SP has truly been the highlight of our trips south the last couple of years (in my opinion). I love being able to go and help someone that is really hurting, by cleaning up their property days after a tornado, or building a new home (free!) for someone years after a tornado! It is such a wonderful feeling knowing that together we are being the hands and feet of Jesus, and bringing hope to people who have lost so much. It is hard to explain the feeling if you have not had a chance to do it yourself... it is pure joy.

 

I would like to go to New Jersey or New York next and help out there (if we can convince Mom to go that far north :) )

 

If you ever get the opportunity to help with Samaritan's Purse, whether it is Disaster Relief, a Re-Build project, or maybe going over seas to help in Haiti or somewhere like that, I encourage you to take it! It will change you, and you won't regret it.

John 13: 35

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

Acts 20:35

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive'.

 

Philippians 2:12-16

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

 

1 Peter 4:10

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Lipizzaners...

A few weeks ago we were able to go and see the Herrman Lipizzaner stallions! Their winter home is about 30 miles from where we were staying at the time. The ranch has days were you can go and watch them practice.

                                         I am a horse lover so I love watching stuff like this.

                                                    This is one of my favorite pictures.

                                  The show was only about an hour, but I loved every minute of it.

         This horse was my personal favorite; his name is Storm I loved his dark mane.  They told us that these horses are born brown and/or black!  It takes almost 10 years for their coat and mane to turn white.

                                               

 

He is SO gorgeous!!!!!

 

                              

Thankfully we got seats in the shade - it was so hot.

We had watched a group of Lipizzaner stallions perform once before, a couple years ago back in MT, but they were the professional Vienna tour group. These ones were not quite as up-scale as the ones we had seen before, but still a lot of fun to watch.