Surrounded by 2 Huge fires

Please be praying for the fire fighters that are battling these HUGE fires that are burning out of control. We have 2 huge fires burning very close to us...we should be safe but there are so many of our friends who have been evacuated. There are over 100 homes that have already been destroyed. The winds are still blowing strong and hard. The smoke and ash is very thick.

These are pictures I took in our front yard!

UPDATE 9:00pm Saturday: Please continue to pray...the 2 major fires by our house are 0% contained and are 1/2mile away from combing into one HUGE fire. The winds are still blowing strong and typically kick up even more at night.

UPDATE 11:30pm Sunday: The winds have died down and the fire shifted north this morning. Thankfully many of our friends were recently allowed back into their homes. One of our friends came home to their backyard scorched but their house untouched...thank you, Jesus! Many are still evacuated and other cities are still in danger. If the winds pick up again, the fire could very easily shift back this way. Once those hot embers get in the air, they can nail houses miles away....this is what's been happening. Please continue to pray as this fire is massive and only 19% contained.

UPDATE Wednesday: Thank you guys for your prayers. We are all good and pretty much smoke free. The fires are fully contained and it appears that all of our friends houses were spared. What a crazy time. You can check one of our sweet friend's blog, Julee...she took these pictures as they were evacuating their house (this was hours before a mandatory evacuation was announced...can only imagine what it looked like then)

Shoes

Hello, this is Paul. As I was reading my lovely wife's post on '7 quirky things' I just had to respond to one of them in particular; her shoe problem - er 'quirk', right, quirk :P. (By the way, she was tagged 4 times, so don't let her get away with just 9 quirky things, she owes you guys 28!). You may not have noticed, but she devoted more words to the shoe quirk than any other; I'll see if I can help you to understand the magnitude of her quirk, lol.


Shortly after I first met her, she got a job at Patrini's shoe store. I should have known I was in trouble when I saw her spend 90% of each paycheck on shoes (and if I remember correctly, she got a store discount!). It's not clear to me if she had this 'quirk' before I met her or if she just quickly developed it while working at the shoe store, but it was very clear that she had it bad.


Do you guys remember Imelda Marcos? A while back she was in the news for having 1000's of pairs of shoes. I remember looking at Stacy and thinking Mrs. Marcos was crazy and before I could say anything she said with a big grin on her face, "Wow, that's so cool!" If you ask Stacy about the fight between Cinderella and her stepsisters I'm certain that she would tell you it was not about the prince at all, but about that incredible pair of shoes!


I was just commenting the other day on how many shoes we had in the house and she said it wasn't that bad and that she had just went thru and 'weeded out' the shoes we didn't need. After I finished laughing about it, I asked the kids if they thought we could fill our whole living room with our shoes. They didn't think so (oh no, I may have multiple family members with this quirk :S), so we just had to try it out and see. If I counted correctly, there are over 100 pairs of shoes in this picture!

"Mom"....

...."even if #8 doesn't pass, I'm still gonna marry a boy and T is still gonna marry a girl"...this from my 7yr. old daughter. Now, tell me they don't know what's going on!!

I am floored that these words are even coming out of my baby's mouth...completely floored!

PRAY..VOTE..PRAY..VOTE!!!!!!!

We are less than 24hours away from the most important election in history. I urge you to be on your knees praying for our nation as the election is coming to an end & get your hiney out to vote!!!! Lord, your will be done!!!!

CALIFORNIANS...Vote YES on Prop. 8 to secure the legal definition of marriage, as God designed, between a man & woman.

OUTSIDE of California...be Praying because the outcome of Prop. 8 WILL indeed effect your state.

Yesterday we had a peaceful church demonstration...we had over 400 people. It was sure exciting to have all the honks and thumbs-up of support...now to get them to the polls!!! We also had some not-so-nice gestures but I was proud that everyone continued to wave back and praise our Lord even when some were shouting nasty things. It's just a reminder of how fallen our world truly is...I still can't believe we are having to vote on this...it's unbelievable!!

Your vote DOES count...what are you going to do with it? Will the Lord be pleased with what you did with it?

I AM COUNTING ON MY GOD...no matter what He chooses to allow!!

Hallelujah Party

Our Halloween alternative...HALLELUJAH PARTY!!!

2 Very excited girls...1 VERY sick daddy & a happy little boy!! 'S' was a little excited about the candy :) I do have to explain the sucker picture...'C' gave 'S' her sucker while she drank water...when 'C' wasn't looking, 'S' started sucking on it...'C' tried to get her sucker back and 'S' was not giving it back for nothin'...needless to say 'C' was NOT a happy girl!

Tagged x4

Seriously, girls...thank you for including me in this!!! Erica, Teresa, Shanna, & Trina was going to tag me but saw I was tagged 3x...LOL.

7 quirky things about me...hmmm..."I'm not quirky...not one bit"...as my husband starts laughing at me...

1. I would have 20+ kiddos if Paul would let me...that's not weird at all!!

2. I LOVE, LOVE shoes...at one point I had over 100 pairs of shoes...for real :) Unfortunately, my shoe budget has shifted to 5 precious pairs of feet...they sure have some cute shoes :) My oldest keeps telling me he only needs one pair of shoes...SILLY BOY (he's just like his daddy...I have bought Paul so many shoes and he doesn't wear any of them...I just don't get it!!

3. I LOVE to run...have love it ever since high school. I ran 2 half marathon's in high school. Couldn't do that now...4 miles is my max :)

4. I thrive most when my life is very full and busy...go, go, go. I may complain that I'm going nuts but I can't stand being bored.

5. A fun evening to me is painting my house or re-organizing something or deep cleaning...like the garage. I LOVE to organize and change things around.

6. Paul says I'm weird because I will pull out the paint and touch up spots on the wall...doesn't everyone do that???? Unfortunately since my 2 whirlwinds started teaming up, I spend most my days scrubbing markers and crayons off the walls...ugghhh!!

7. I love being a wedding coordinator for our church. All the chaos and stress is a blast!

8. My sweet friend, Michelle, just reminded me of one more quirky thing. I have to iron EVERYTHING!! I'm talking everything...all the way down to the kids onsies :) Even if it doesn't look wrinkled, I still iron it!

9. Ooohhh, I thought of one more...I am an extremely visual person (hence the ironing problem). If something is crooked, doesn't match, or out of place it makes me absolutely CRAZY!! Ask my dh...with 5 kids everything is askew & it's all I can do not to commit myself to a looney-bin!

So, there you have it...I don't have anything quirky about me!! And look...I gave you 9 things...that's weird, too :)

Now, if I don't tag anyone, will I grow warts on my nose and my teeth fall out for breaking the 'tagging'? All of my friends have been tagged with this one :)

YIKES...Tagged....

Okay...so, I've been tagged and I was hoping to get out of it but I've just been tagged by the third person so I guess I can't avoid it any longer...LOL...I will try to get this done once the girls are down for their nap :)

So Cool!

You have to watch this....

http://www.childdrowningprevention.com/index.html

PRAY, PRAY, PRAY

I am so blown away by all that I am hearing and seeing. The state of our country...our world...is very fragile. Please continue to pray for our nation and the elections!

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Just a glimpse....

Just a glimpse of my big baby loving my little baby...PRICELESS!!