Treasures in a Box

One of my goals for 2011 is to "purge" my house. I have come to realize that we have way to much "stuff" around here. I have decided that I would like to make life as easy as possible when it comes to being around the house and get rid of the stuff that we do not use or want. This has been a long time in the coming. For example, my front hall closet was so full that I did not know what was living in there. It was so convenient to just open the closet and put things behind that door, especially if I didn't have a particular place for that item. I threw out two, yes, two trash bags of unneeded stuff.



In 2003, Kynn's parents moved in with us for a short while and then moved to an assistant living facility here in Columbia. This was an unplanned event and happened quickly. We went for a visit and realized that they were no longer able to live alone. Kynn's dad had cancer and his mom was battling Alzheimer's. We boxed all their belongings that we could and packed our van to the ceiling only leaving space for the four of us to sit. Floor to car ceiling, every space was filled.

When we arrived in Columbia, life was in full swing with 3 children and we were learning to live with two more people in our home. We set up our extra room for his parents and put their extrathings in any available space we could find. As I cleaned out our front closet the other day, I started going through a box and discovered the below treasures. I was thrilled beyond words. You will see why when you look at the pictures. This was one of the boxes that had been packed up and placed in the bottom of the closet. Baby Kynn
Baby Kynn and Baby Herb (and baby ducks.....little Floyds)
This was a family photo taken at a cousin's wedding. These sweet boys were the ring bearers.
Kynn fell asleep waiting on his dad to come home from work. (His mom has comments on the back of each of these pictures.)
Reading with Dad

Giving his puppies a ride in his police car.

He was a model in a style show. That is so funny to me. HA ( Kynn says, "I was LOOKIN" Good!)
Kynn made swings for his puppies out of his dad's handkerchiefs.
More puppies. They always had puppies and Kynn loved them.
School picture. (I see a whole lot of Jamie in this picture) :)
I have heard a lot about their pony, but had never seen a picture of it. I love this picture.
The pony's name was Trigger. Kynn said that they would hold a bottle of Coke up to his mouth and he would suck it down. "He liked Coca Cola!"
This dog was named Frisky. Betsy was the cow. Kynn said his mom and dad hated that cow. She would stick her foot in the milk bucket. Kynn's mom kick Betsy one day for ruining the milk and turned the front of her foot blue.
Christmas morning. A new BB pistol. He was just posing for the picture, not really shooting at his brother. (Do you remember the silver Christmas trees with the rotating color wheels?)

Baseball Team: The Tigers
Kynn's mom sewed tiger emblems on each jersey. She must have been "Team Mom"

This was Kynn's next dog. His name was King. He just told me , "Frisky had gotten run over and King wasn't long for this life either." One had to be tough to live on a farm. What a childhood. Awesome memories. I love hearing about all of them.

See post below Kynn's post for pictures of our Christmas Cruise.

A post from Kynn

I was thinking about the circumstances of Jeremiah 29:11 the other morning in my quiet time at the dining room table and they gave me such quiet conviction for this difficult economic period that I thought I would share this.

What thoughts would have been going through my mind if Jeremiah had personally spoke Chapter 29 to me while I was a slave living in circumstances that I didn’t like and didn’t see any improvement in the foreseeable future? Probably something like...

“Are my hopes and dreams dashed for good? How can I keep a “positive attitude” when these feelings of bewilderment, anger and despair keep knocking me off balance like waves in the surf zone.”

“Now, Jeremiah just told me that:
(1) this will last for a while [70 years], so I should
(2) settle in and live [buy houses, plant gardens, marry] with the assurance that
(3) God’s plan for my deliverance and the deliverance of my family is underway.”

“Live as normal a life as possible while I wait for God’s deliverance? Try to bloom where I’m planted? I would rather be transplanted!”

Father God, if Jeremiah 29 applies to me and my family in these uncertain times, help me to live out the perspective of my heroes in Daniel 3. The perspective that “There is no need to waste emotional talk on this. My God whom I serve is able to deliver me from Circumstance, but even if He does not, know this Mr. Circumstance...I will not kneel before you because My God is bigger than your circumstance and He is working His plan for my good welfare even now!

Christmas Cruise 2010

(Click on the arrow and the pictures will move at a faster pace) :)

Make your own picture slideshow

Several months before Christmas, our guys, (mainly Spencer) suggested that we not give presents for Christmas and spend our money on a Christmas family trip. I asked where they would like to go and the reply was "Hawaii." Well, we all smiled and laughed knowing that would not happen at this time.
Kynn and I talked about it and checked our Christmas savings account and came up with an amount of money that we could spend on a trip. Jamie and I made a trip to a travel agent to investigate and see if there were any cruises available for a family of 5 that was within our budget. Our agent looked at us and said, "let me check". She then presented us with our options and we began to smile. :)
We departed Columbia and Dec. 17th and spent the night in Tampa, Fl. We boarded our ship on the morning of the 18th and departed for the "blue water" at 4:30 PM. As soon as we stepped on the ship the eating began.

Our 5 day Western Caribbean Cruise

Sat. Depart
Sun. "Fun Day" at Sea
Mon. Grand Cayman
Tues. Cozumel
Wed. "Fun Day" at Sea
Thurs. Tampa

Our "Fun Day" at sea activities included, putt putt, eating, ping pong, eating, spa activities, eating, shows, eating, and a behind the scene tour of the ship. (3 hour tour) This tour was on our last day at sea and only 16 guest were allowed. It was very interesting to see the laundry, kitchen, freezers, control rooms, security, employee's lounges. At several points on the tour we had a security guard watching our every move. One very interesting fact is that on each Carnival Cruise, all new linens are used. (Sheets and towels) That, my friend, is A LOT of linens!

For our excursion at Grand Cayman, we booked a guide and headed to Sting Ray Island on Jet Skis. We headed out into the ocean for what seemed like a very long way to me. LOL Our guide was a young man, who had no reason to go slow. He said, "Let's go" and all I saw were a few small dots in front of me. It was great fun and beautiful. Seeing the sting rays was a "rush" to say the least. One should not swim with an animal that killed the Crocodile Hunter, if you know what I mean.

Cozumel was a day of 90 degree weather and four wheeling in the jungle. It was very dusty and bumpy. Oh my aching back. :) We had fun.

We are so thankful that we got to spend time with our guys. We really enjoy their company and always have a good time with them. It is amazing how much we missed them when the holidays were over and they had returned to school/work. 2010 gave us many family memories and for that we are thankful.

Graduation Day

On Dec. 13th, 2010, our son, Spencer graduated from USC with a Business degree. We are so proud of him. It really is hard to believe that he has completed his time in college and is now moving on to the next phase of life. He is very busy looking for a job. Spencer is such a hard worker and he has a double major in insurance and finance. If you know of any job opportunities or have a contact or two for him, please let us know. We know that God has a special plan for him and we can't wait to see how that plan unfolds for him.

(I have more pictures, but for some reason they are not on my computer. SIGH! Wonder where they went. I will need to download them again.)