Happy Birthday Ashlee

Ashlee then Ashlee now

Wow I can not believe it but my baby girl is 17 today. Time goes by so fast. I just can not believe that my little girl was born 17 years ago today. So to celebrate her birthday this year her and my niece Tami and myself went to MOA to meet my sister in law Nancy and my other niece Nikki.

We got there earlier then Nancy and Nikki so we took Ashlee to Hooters for deep fried pickles. Those are sooooo good. I could not believe how good they are.

When we told them it was Ashlee's birthday they made her stand on a stool in while they sang happy birthday to her. It was great she was so embarrassed.

From there we went walking around for a little while until it was time to meet up with Nancy and Nikki. When we were at Hooters they gave her a balloon and so just before we met Nancy and Nikki we went to the bathroom and there was a mom in there with her child and we gave the child the balloon with the mothers permission of course.

Finally it was time to meet up with Nancy and Nikki and they had a gift for Ashlee.

Ashlee opening her gift
Of course we made her wear her gift all day at the mall. She is putting on clip earrings in this picture and complaining that they hurt. But she was a good sport and did it.

Ashlee and her cousin Nikki getting ready for Ashlee to get her ears pierced. She is squeezing Nikki's hand.

Then we did some more shopping and then for supper we went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and of course had them sing her happy birthday to her also.

Ashlee trying on Forest's shoes outside Bubba Gump Shrimp.

Me and Ash with our cool light up glasses. She had a strawberry smoothie and I had a mango lemonade or something like that.

See how cool they are when they are lit up. We just had to get them.

Here is the five of us at the restaurant. We had so much fun. They are so great to spend time with the day flew by.

I don't know but I've been told. Ashlee sure is getting old. At least that is what they are saying. It was cute

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They gave her a dessert and it looked good but she was so full from the great food there that she couldn't eat it all.

The cousins at the end of our day at the mall. We had so much fun that we have decided that we are getting together and doing this again in September only that time we are going to do the fun things at MOA like rides, massages and whatever else we find there that looks fun to us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

What an amazing couple days

Ok so for those who do know this past Friday and Saturday was the womens retreat at my church. It was amazing. I was a little nervous because I am on the women's ministry board at my church and I found the speaker. It was scarier to be the one to have found the speaker then planning any other part of the event. See I had not actually heard her speak before but she works where I work and she has spoken at a few meetings there before and I heard how great she was. So when I knew the theme of our retreat I thought she would be perfect. So we asked her and she said yes. She was amazing. I think people really enjoyed her and she was very funny. Our theme for the retreat was survivor.

I have got to say that I did not realize that the women of our church were so competitive. It was great we had some rather risky games I thought. Our ice breaker game was litterally an ice breaker, they had to pick up marbles with there toes from a tub filled with ice and water!!!! They did great and there was a lot of laughs for it. The best part was they knew that the losing team was getting kitchen duty and the team that ended up with it did a great job and were good sports about it.

Then as the speaker ended the real scary part of the retreat came up for me. I was giving my testimony on how I survived divorce. See like I said the theme was survivor and so I wanted to let every one know how I had survived my divorce with God by my side all the way. I feared doing this for weeks and procrastinated writing anything until like the Wednesday before the retreat. I finally finished typing something on the day of the retreat by the time I was done I has six typed pages can you believe it and then when I got up there I did not look at the papers even once. The best part was after a lot of people came up and told me how much they loved my testimony. I was so thankful and I know it was only because God was there and their hearts were open to hear me.

Anyway the retreat was great and I am so glad we did it. We even had one of the church members say that it was the best retreat they had ever been at in our church. Thank you God for the wonderful retreat.

Can you believe it

Ok so this weekend is a very big weekend for me. I am on our women's ministry board and we are having our big retreat this weekend and yesterday I started to feel a scratch in my throat and of course as the night went on I started to get a sore throat. I am getting sick!!!!!!!

Of course it would have to happen this week of all weeks. I have been around my friends off and on all winter and they have all been sick it seems when I have been around them and I did not get sick once. But now that all of them seem to be in the recovery stage I am starting to feel it. But isn't that how it always happens. I mean really. At least for me it seems like that is when it happens and of course when I have things planned that I can not and will not back out of. It can't happen at a time when I really do not want to do anything it has to happen when I am finally looking forward to doing something.

But I am not going to let this virus when, oh no!!!!!!!!! I went to the store got myself some juice, tea, soup, medicine, cough drops and of course the most important thing of all chocolate ice cream. I will not go down without a fight I will beat this. I am determined.

I just thought it was a little ironic and funny and wanted to share it with you.

What a weekend

Hi Everyone,
I know it has been a while since I have wrote anything. I have been very busy with my new grandson. He has been over almost every day which has been great. He is so adorable and I could just love him up. He is three weeks old today.

On Friday I got him for the day so some friends of mine and I could take him shopping. That was very fun but funny also. See we range in age from mid-forties to 30 and none of us have had a little one for at least six years so here we are climbing in and out of the van. First my friend Cari would forget to open the van side door to let me and Kassie out with baby then when she finally would open the door it was a challenge to remember how to move the seat up so we could get out then finally get that figured out and one would take the diaper bag one would take baby in his car seat and I would get the fun job of my purse.

It was a great day though and my friends gave me a bassinet to use at my house when baby was there. It is so cute it is blue with snoopy on it. I just love it and so does baby. He sleeps in it very well. He is such a good baby.

Then the next day was a baby shower for baby and Jennifer (Mommy) at my sisters house. I do not have a place big enough. So I load up my niece Tami Jo's car( I don't have a running vehicle right now but that is for another day) and we head to my sisters to decorate and get ready.

The shower whent great I think there was just the right amount of people and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. She got a lot of cute clothes and my other niece Cara made her a diaper cake. If you have never seen one of those they are adorable. I love them. I wish I was talented enough to do that.

Then after the shower when I got home my son and his wife brought baby over and I got to babysit him. I love baby sitting him he is just so cute. I took him with me to do some more shopping with a friend of mine and that was hilarious again because my friend has this little GeoMetro and try and get an infant car seat in the back seat of one of those. That is a chore. Then the seat was behind me and so my seat would not go all the way up so I had to sit at an angle with baby in the back. After we got home from our shopping trip my son and his wife brought over more water and diapers and I got to keep baby over night.

When they first asked me to do that I was thinking of course how hard can it be I have had four children and survived all of them so I was excited to do it. Now baby was great he only woke up twice all night and I changed him and fed him and he went right back to sleep. I on the other hand hardly slept at all. I was so afraid I would not hear him I heard everything he did. Then the next morning I woke up got him ready for church and took him with there. I think that was the first time in a long time that I could have fallen asleep if it would not have been such a good church service. It was youth Sunday and that is when all the youth take over the service. They do the singing and our youth pastor does the service. It was great.

Then after all of that on Sunday night I went to a concert "Big Daddy Weave" it was amazing but by the time I got home I was definitely ready for sleep.

So that was my busy weekend. I would do the babysitting all over again though if asked. I loved babysitting him he is just so wonderful.

WOW only in Minnesota

OK I know people say it all the time how only in Minnesota can you have a snow storm one day and 50's the next. But really that is true. I mean come on we had blizzard warnings just three days ago and now today is gorgeous outside and the snow is melting.

Another one of my favorite things I like to hear people say is only in Minnesota would you see someone wearing a sweatshirt with shorts. Now that one I am not sure of because I think that happens more often than not all over the place. But one thing that I do think would only happen in Minnesota is seeing someone wearing short outside on a day that is only 20 degree's. The other thing I like and I think is a Minnesota thing is when people will think 30 degrees is warm. All of you know I am right on that one. In about mid-January when we finally get a day above zero and it hits the mid 20's to low 30's you hear all over the place it sure is warm out today and you see people without coats and wearing shorts. Then when Autumn comes around we get the opposite the first day that goes below 70 degrees we are pulling out the winter coats and complaining about how cold it is. Be honest now how many of you does this describe. I mean really how many of you today are wearing shorts and have your house windows open? I know it is great and this is why those of us who live in Minnesota love it. OK well I just felt like talking about something kind of random and this is what came to my mind. Enjoy reading.

Day two

Ok so this is day two of my blog and I was thinking this morning on my way to work if I were someone checking a new blog for the first time what would I want to know about the person writing the blog. Some of the things I thought of is how did they come up with the name and why do they want to write blogs. So I am going to try and answer these questions.

I named by blog moving forward and happily because I was married for over 17 years and then seperated and divorced my husband. This was not a decision I made lightly. With being a christian I had a really hard time divorcing because I know that is against God's will and I felt I had already disappointed him enough in my life that getting a divorce would just be another disappointment. I know that sounds silly because none of us are perfect but at the same time I really did not like the person I was and so I could not imaging how God could like me say nothing about love me. But over the past couple years with the help of my friends from church and the church I found I realize that God has always loved me and will always love me. So I have been able to move forward and at first it was not so happily but lately it has been. I love getting closer to God and see what he shows me everyday. I have found some amazing christian friends who I enjoy spending time with very much. I just wish sometimes we could do more things together but either way I am thankful to God for putting them in my life.
Now as to what I will blog about well that will probably vary depending on my mood or what is going on in my life. I am a mom of four kids two who are married so I am also a mother-in-law to two people and I have recently been blessed with being a grandma. Now being a mom is hard but I think being a mother-in-law is even harder only because you do not know what kind of life they had before they came into your life and so then you don't know if you are saying or doing things that might offend them. So I am trying to take the approach of treat them how I would want to be treated. I know that sounds very cliche but it seems to work.
Well that is about it for me today I will write again if I think of some things. I hope you will enjoy my blog and come back often