HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Here are our little Trick or Treaters! Brett was Mike Wakouski... not sure if I spelled that right. It's from Monsters Incorporated. Emily dressed up in my old dance uniform from when I was a little girl! I even put makeup on her which she loved! I'm scared to death at how old it made her look! But she loved it. And of course our Logan is the Red Ranger! He was lovin' it. Brett was so cute all night. He was just overjoyed that people were giving him CANDY. He clutched his little bag and even when it got to weighing a lot he wouldn't let it out of his reach. He just drug it with him everywhere. Logan and Emily were nervous over the people dressed up in scary costumes but Brett didn't worry about it at all. As long as they were giving him candy and he knew Daddy was right behind him he was goin' in for the Candy. It was so cute!

We went to the Open House at Logans preschool last night. It was so cute to watch him run around and show us around. Chris's mom and dad came with us and got to see him in action. He just kept dragging us from one thing to the next he was so proud we came to see his school. We got his school pictures back too!!! They are beyond CUTE!!! I came in the day they were taking pictures to help the kids dress in the clothes they have because these are old time photo's. It's a good thing I volunteered too cause I got Logans pictures for half price!!! It pays to be helpful :) I just love these pictures. I posted Emily's school picture too so as not to leave her out.

Another Football Game!!! Emily got a little distracted at this one again with the dirt... What is so fascinating about the dirt??? She loves cheerleading but she is so easily distracted. This last week at practice I had to go up and interrupt the cheerleader teaching Emily's group so I could take Emily in the hallway and have "a little talk" about her behavior. She wasn't paying attention and was just laying around and jumping all over the place... I know that she really likes cheerleading cause she is so excited before each practice and each game and afterwards that is all she talks about. She can say all her cheers and she enjoys doing them and cartwheels and jumps are her favorite. I just wish she could focus a little better. I guess that comes as you get older. Here are some pictures of her and some of her buddies ;)

Best Buds ;)

Something wonderful happened today! We had a great morning getting ready for church we were on time and everything :) It's a very rare occasion for a Sunday morning for us. When we got to church someone didn't show up to teach the class Emily was in so it fell to me... Of course I despise it when this happens because I miss out on my Sunday school lesson and I have to teach without any preparation what so ever. Well this Sunday was a bit different. I had five kids in the class and we talked about being saved all morning. They wanted to know all sorts of things and it was really enjoyable.

Emily has been asking lots of questions about being saved lately. When we told her believing in Jesus isn't the same as being saved I think a light bulb went off in her brain. All of a sudden she felt vulnerable I think because she realized that she needed to be saved. The other night Chris and I were answering questions for her and she was just really wanting to understand how to get saved. So Chris and I explained to her the basics. For anyone who doesn't know, the basics are that you have to recognize and acknowledge that you are a sinner and deserve hell. We will never be equal to God or good enough on our own to stand in his presence. Knowing this we then need to realize that we indeed need a savior. We need to realize that Jesus is that savior. He is the one and only savior who came to this world to die for us all. And finally the very last thing is we need to put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. We need to trust and know that what he did was sufficient to save us and wash us clean. When we believe this we are saved :)

So Chris and I explained that to Emily and each time she said "I believe that," but when we would ask her at the end if she was saved she would always say she didn't know. So we just asked her to keep praying until God told her in her heart the time was right. I think this conversation took place on Wednesday night. She has been praying and we have been really praying hard for her because she is really under such strong conviction.

Then it happened... Today at church I went to the alter to pray and I have done this before often and Emily has seen me... but today was the first time she followed. I knelt down to pray and a few moments later I felt Emily kneel down and hug me. Chris and his Mom followed after a few moments. I could tell Emily was really nervous because a lot of people were coming forward to pray with her and I was so worried I didn't want her to feel pressured. I wanted her to know she was saved because God said it was time, not because she felt pressured. I whispered to her and told her to pray and we would pray with her and she was finally able to answer yes to the very last question. When the preacher asked her if she was saved... she said Yes :) I've never felt so happy.

After church she was just so excited and telling everyone she seen. She said she can't wait to get to school to tell her teacher and her friends. She wants to call Grandma in Hawaii but we didn't get to today so if you read this first mom be expecting her phone call ;)

My Little Cheerleader :)

Logan had a real great time for his birthday. He loved blowing out the candles as you can see...

He even got out the candles out on the second blow ;)
This was his favorite toy... The Giant Power Ranger
This was his second favorite... Or actually Bretts favorite... The Spiderman couch!!!

I am so excited!!! I started a new home based business and unlike some of the others I've done I think this one is actually going to work and I'm going to enjoy it. I'm a stay at home mom for anyone who doesn't know and any other stay at home moms out there know that it's pretty hard living on one income and staying home all the time can become monotonous. I have tried numerous things like selling PartyLite and Home Interior and Country Bunny and I never enjoyed doing that and it always seemed so hard to get people to host home shows and I hated the thought of people feeling obligated to buy something when they attended.

Check out my beautipage click here

I've signed up to be a BeautiControl consultant. I love this company because it was very affordable to sign up and they don't have all the strict rules the other companies have. I can sell this stuff on ebay and not be breaking the rules and if I don't want to host home shows or as they call it "spa's" I don't have to. I only have to order $100 worth of stuff every 4 months to remain a consultant. The great thing about it is I love the products so I will order that much for myself alone :p.

I had never heard of BeautiControl skin care products before going to a home spa so I was mainly going to help a friend of a friend who had started selling and she needed a practice group. I'm so excited about doing the in home spa treatment thing because it is so much fun. I don't have to sell stuff either cause I'm not a salesperson I suck at sales. This is just fun cause you go and give a group of three or four women a relaxing spa treatment and if they enjoy the products they can purchase them and they're so cheap. I have been buying Oil of Olay stuff at Wal-Mart and spending twice as much.

All you mom's out there have to check out my Beauti page. It isn't anything like the other home based businesses and if you love make up and skin care products you'll love BeautiControl. They have a microderm abrasion system that is just awesome if you have skin acne issues. I am going to start an extra blog just for my BeautiControl business and I'll post pictures and stuff of different spa's I do. I'm so excited!!! Did I say that already? Oh Well I can't help it I AM!

My son Brett loves to dance. This isn't a great quality video cause I took it with my phone but it sure is funny...

Sure has been a while since I've bloged. Life gets so hectic. I've been working hard selling a ton of stuff on ebay for Chris's dad. I take about five packages a day to the post office so it's been going pretty well. It keeps me pretty busy. Logan started preschool and he just loves riding the school bus. He's still adjusting to a new routine and is a little frightened when he gets dropped off in the morning but he's getting better.

Emily is loving cheerleading. They got to perform at their first game last week. It was cute as could be. I took some pictures and also video taped it so if I get it edited sometime soon maybe I can get it uploaded here. For now here are some pictures I took.

Our kitty died today. His name was Moochie and he was such a cool cat. Chris had him for six years before he met me and we've been together eight years now, so Moochie was about 14 years old. That's pretty old for a cat. He used to be an indoor kitty but our second boy Logan is allergic to cats and his face swells up and he has asthma attacks when cats are in the house. We had to make Moochie live outside for the past three years because of this. I tried to find homes for him because he was such a good cat and I hated to see him living outside. He was declawed and neutered so he didn't have a chance against some of the neighborhood mongrels we have running around. He got beat up a lot and I tried to just keep him on the porch but cats wander.

It was really sad to see Chris crying because of his kitty dieing. He really loved that cat and Chris hates cats, if that makes any sense. Emily is also pretty sad. She understands though that Moochie was really old and people and animals don't live forever. Poor kitty I'll miss him.

Haven't been keeping up with my posting and I've been writing songs!!! I'm so excited I am actually playing my guitar and writing real songs. :) Here are some cute pictures to hold you over till I'm tired of singing... :p

Brett cheesing it up and sporting a black eye... Poor kid always has a bruise somewhere...

Logan probably gave Brett the black eye when he was trying to steal his chocolate ice cream :p

I'm so excited for Emily!!! Tonight was the signup night for Junior Cheerleaders. She ran around with all the other girls practicing Cartwheels and handstands. It was so cute. Then the cheerleaders performed and you could just see Emily's eyes light up. She is so excited and she just loves watching the cheerleaders. Allison is one of the cheerleaders from last year and Emily just adores her. She used to date our friends son Travis but they broke up :( That's sad but it's so cute how much Emily likes her. We even got her picture taken with her. Here's the pics I took.

Ok lets see if I can get this to work...

I recorded a song... really fast using a downloadable audio recorder, so the song quality is very bad. I just learned this song also and yea I need to work on hitting the high notes but I'm tired and I just wanna post it already so lets see if I can figure this out.

Click here

I broke another window today! A month or so ago I was moving the bed in the kids room and I leaned up against one of the windows and broke it... Well today I was bringing groceries into the house and Brett locked me out! So I was banging on the door trying to get Logan to let me in and it just wasn't working. So I banged on the other bedroom window in the kids room cause I figured Logan was in there... Well the window broke and I wasn't even banging that hard! We live in an old house so I blame the old glass :p Anyway, Chris took the window out and had the glass replaced already but we didn't think to get the other window out that I broke first and get it replaced at the same time. We're both getting so absent minded I swear we'll both be senile in ten years.

I don't remember if I posted or talked about going to church camp but here are a few pics I took when we went to church camp :p Emily is in there and then there's all the kids from church :) Only the girls except Bryer in the background. He liked to hang out with the girls at camp :p Think he has a crush.

Today was Emily's first day of school! She is in 1st grade now and growing up entirely too fast. She was so cute this morning. Daddy helped her make her lunch which she packed all by herself. She was sleepy this morning because she woke up last night over a bad dream. I think we all woke up at some point last night. I had to give Brett a breathing treatment because he woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Every time him or Logan gets a cough their asthma gets pretty bad. So after I got Brett back to sleep Emily came in our room saying she had a bad dream, then along came Logan. I wasn't about to try to sleep with five people in my bed so I just turned the bathroom light on for the kids so they wouldn't be scared. I took pictures of Emily this morning on her way to school and then a few of her at school. She even got her picture taken with her teacher. She had a really good day.

I took some pictures of the kids playing around yesterday. They were posing for the camera while eating hot dog buns LOL. Yea I have some crazy kids but they sure are cute :)

Brett fell asleep in the middle of the floor today. He was probably tuckered out from getting a hair cut today. Him and Logan both got hair cuts today :) The next picture is one of Brett with his new hair cut. He's all sweaty cause he was riding around in the truck while we were working on the paintball field.

On to a whole different subject... For anyone who doesn't know my husband Chris and I teach a Bible Study class at our church for the teen kids on Wednesday nights. This was kind of something we got roped into doing and we aren't really qualified to teach. We do however enjoy the kids and we have developed great relationships with most of the kids in our class. I really do enjoy learning more about the Bible but I've only been a born again Christian for 6 years so I have so much to learn.

Well we just finished our summer vacation Bible school and are back to regular Bible study on Wednesday nights. Chris had to miss this week so I was basically on my own. I wanted to start something new so I could find out what the kids wanted to learn from the Bible and I really wanted us to focus on reading the Bible instead of just "doing" a lesson I copied off the internet. So I had all the kids write a subject on a piece of paper and pass them all to me this way no one else would know who chose what. Well the subject for this week was "The Cross." I was totally at a loss of what to read and one of the things I am trying to learn and pass along to the kids is how to study the Bible. So we looked in the back of our Bibles and picked the first listing for Cross in the glossary.

We ended up reading Matthew 16:22-28

22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

28 Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his Kingdom.

This was such a test for me because we read these scriptures and here I was expected to shed some light on what they meant and teach the kids something. I just prayed for God to please help me and this is what we gathered together from the scriptures we read.

Jesus had just told his closest disciples what would happen to him in the near future vs 21 and then in vs 22 Peter basically tries to deny that Jesus is going to die. I think Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to him and that he was going to suffer terribly and when Peter started denying it Jesus could easily have been comforted with that thought and thought to himself "surely there could be another way." But he didn't, he told Peter in vs 23 "Get thee behind me Satan" I think he said this because he didn't want to be tempted to think there could be another way.

Then Jesus began to tell his disciples more of what was to come. To follow Jesus is to sacrifice our own desires and wants in life, not everything but God might not always give us everything we want and life will probably not be as we always desire. But to follow Jesus and deny ourselves we are taking up our cross to follow him. As a Christian I find myself sometimes unable to share the gospel with people I know who don't believe in Christ. I am usually afraid of being ridiculed or I am afraid that the person will no longer wish to be my friend. Therefore a lot of times I find myself trying to hide the cross. Jesus was crucified on a hill on a cross for all to see. It wasn't done in a hidden dungeon it was out in the open and Jesus bore that cross for my sins. When we were talking about this in class I realized that I have been hiding my cross and not letting it be out in the open for everyone to see. Some of the kids in class realized this also and we talked about how we can make sure that we as Christians make visible the cross we bare for Christ.

I know I want to trust in Christ and not be ashamed of the cross I bare to serve him. His cross was so much more to bare and for me to be embarrassed is just so horrible. Vs 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. Vs 26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? It shouldn't matter to me if I lose a friend, or if I am ridiculed and made fun of, or persecuted in any way for standing for Christ. He bore the burden of my sins! The least I can do is bare the burden of my cross and let it show in my life!

Just wanted to post these pics really fast before we head off to church. I've been slacking off on my blog lately but I'll try harder to post more often. These are some pictures of the kids after a day at the paintball field. They are too young to play paintball right now but as you can see there's plenty of dirt to play with LOL.

Yes here are more pictures of the Big Brother Will look alike... But again sweaty and playing paintball... It might be easier to get Will to be sweaty and play paintball than it would to get my look a like to clean up and not play paintball ;) I swear they act alike too! It really cracks me up.

Does anyone else watch Big Brother besides me??? I love that show!!! This year they are doing Big Brother All-Stars, where they bring back a bunch of previous season players. My favorite player of all time is Will... He is the best!!! Not because he's a liar or anything like that he's just entertaining to watch. Anyway this year I've been watching Big Brother and it really cracks me up but we play paintball with a guy who looks EXACTLY like Will. Please judge for yourself and vote for me whether you think they look alike. I think they're like TWINS...

This is Will from Big Brother



















Will from Big Brother on the Left
















Now this is the friend we play paintball with... Yea he's a little sweatier but give the guy a break he's been playing paintball all day! Oh yea he's the one on the left...















Ok so now you be the judge... Do you think they look alike or is it just me??? I'll be getting more pictures just to prove my point but this was the only one I had without a mask on ;)

Tonight I watched a news documentary on ABC about Andrea Yates. For anyone who doesn't know who she is here is some information on this woman.


Education and Achievements: Andrea (Kennedy) Yates was born on July 2, 1964 in Houston, Tex. She graduated from Milby High School in Houston in 1982. She was the class valedictorian, captain of the swim team and an officer in the National Honor Society. She completed a two-year pre-nursing program at the University of Houston and then graduated in 1986 from the University of Texas School of Nursing in Houston. She worked as a registered nurse at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from 1986 until 1994.

Andrea Meets Rusty Yates: Andrea and Rusty Yates, both 25, met at their apartment complex in Houston. Andrea, who was usually reserved, initiated the conversation. Andrea had never dated anyone until she turned 23 and prior to meeting Rusty she was healing from a broken relationship. They eventually moved in together and spent much of their time involved in religious study and prayer. They were married on April 17, 1993. They shared with their guests that they planned on having as many children as nature provided.

Andrea Called Herself "Fertile Myrtle": In their eight years of marriage, the Yates had five children; four boys and one girl. Andrea stopped jogging and swimming when she became pregnant with her second child. Friends say that she became reclusive. The decision to home-school the children seemed to feed her isolation.

The Yates Children:Feb. 26, 1994 – Noah Yates, Dec. 12, 1995 - John Yates, Sept. 13, 1997 - Paul Yates, Feb. 15, 1999 - Luke Yates, and on Nov. 30, 2000 - Mary Yates was the last child to be born.

Their Living Conditions: Rusty accepted work in Florida in 1996 and the family moved into a 38-foot travel trailer in Seminole, FL While in Florida, Andrea got pregnant, but miscarried. In 1997 they returned to Houston and lived in their trailer because Rusty wanted to "live light." The next year. Rusty decided to purchase a 350-square-foot, renovated bus which became their permanent home. Luke was born bringing the number of children to four. Living conditions were cramped and Andrea's insanity began to surface.

Michael Woroniecki: Michael Woroniecki was a traveling minister from whom Rusty purchased their bus and whose religious views had influenced both Rusty and Andrea. Rusty only agreed with some of Woroniecki's ideas but Andrea embraced the extremist sermons. He preached, "the role of women is derived from the sin of Eve and that bad mothers who are going to hell create bad children who will go to hell." Andrea was so totally captivated by Woroniecki that Rusty and Andrea's family grew concerned.

Andrea’s First Suicide Attempt : On June 16 1999, Andrea called Rusty and begged him to come home. He found her shaking involuntarily and chewing on her fingers. The next day, she was hospitalized after she tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of pills. She was transferred to the Methodist Hospital psychiatric unit and diagnosed with a major depressive disorder. The medical staff described Andrea as evasive in discussing her problems. However, on June 24 she was prescribed an antidepressant and released.

Spiraling Downward: Once home, Andrea did not take the medication and as a result she began to self mutilate and refused to feed her children because she felt they were eating too much. She thought there were video cameras in the ceilings and said that the characters on television were talking to her and the children. She told Rusty about the hallucinations, yet neither of them informed Andrea's psychiatrist, Dr. Starbranch. On July 20, Andrea put a knife to her neck and begged her husband to let her die.

Warned About the Risks of Having More Babies : Andrea was again hospitalized and stayed in a catatonic state for 10 days. After being treated with an injection of different drugs that included Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug, her condition immediately improved. Rusty was optimistic about the drug therapy because Andrea appeared more like the person he first met. Dr. Starbranch warned the Yates that having another baby might bring on more episodes of psychotic behavior. Andrea was placed on out-patient care and prescribed Haldol.

New Hopes for the Future : Andrea's family urged Rusty to buy a home instead of returning Andrea to the cramped space of the bus. He purchased a nice home in a peaceful neighborhood. Once in her new home, Andrea's condition improved to the point that she returned to past activities like swimming, cooking and some socializing. She was also interacting well with her children. She expressed to Rusty that she had strong hopes for the future but still viewed her life on the bus as her failure.

The Tragic End: In March of 2000, Andrea, on Rusty's urging, became pregnant and stopped taking the Haldol. On November 30, 2000, Mary was born. Andrea was coping but on March 12, her father died and immediately her mental state digressed. She stopped talking, refused liquids, mutilated herself, and would not feed Mary. She also frantically read the Bible. By the end of March Andrea returned to a different hospital. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Mohammed Saeed, treated her briefly with Haldol but discontinued it, saying that she did not did not seem psychotic. Andrea was released only to return again in May. She was released in 10 days and in her last follow-up visit with Saeed, she was told to think positive thoughts and to see a psychologist. Two days later, Rusty left for work and before his mother arrived to help, Andrea began to put into action the thoughts that had consumed her for two years. Andrea filled the tub with water and beginning with Paul, she systematically drowned the three youngest boys, then placed them on her bed and covered them. Mary was left floating in the tub. The last child alive was the first born, seven-year-old Noah. He asked his mother what was wrong with Mary, then turned and ran away. Andrea caught up with him and as he screamed, she dragged him and forced him into the tub next to Mary's floating body. He fought desperately, coming up for air twice, but Andrea held him down until he was dead. Leaving Noah in the tub, she brought Mary to the bed and laid her in the arms of her brothers.
During Andrea's confession she explained her actions by saying that she wasn't a good mother and that the children were "not developing correctly" and she needed to be punished.
Her controversial trial lasted three weeks. The jury found Andrea guilty of capital murder, but rather then recommending the death penalty, they voted for life in prison. At the age of 77, in the year 2041, Andrea will be eligible for parole.
Information gathered from http://crime.about.com/od/current/p/andreayates.htm


When I first heard of this tragic story I was shocked and couldn't believe someone could do something so horrible. Now the story is back in the news because Andrea received a new trial and was found Not Guilty and sentenced to a mental institution. I always felt sorry for Andrea because in a way I can relate to what she did. The reason she gives for what she did is that she didn't want her childrend to go to hell and she felt that she was a bad mother and they were going to go to hell because of her. I'm not at all saying I would ever consider killing my children so please don't misunderstand what I am trying to say. I pray for my kids everyday that I will be able to teach them right and I know this can be taken wrong but I would rather God take my children as children rather than see them grow up and reject him. However I am well aware that this is Gods decision to make not my own. He chooses who he chooses and I would never think of trying to make that decision that is Gods alone.

This is the only way I can relate as a mother to what Andrea did to her children. I really don't believe that she as some people say was overwhelmed and just wanted to be free of her children. In her interviews that I have seen I don't see that in her at all. I do think she was mentally ill and the love she had for her children combined with her low self esteem of her mothering skills and her fear of them going to hell all influenced her actions.

It really breaks my heart seeing Andrea's interviews. She is sick and as she gets better through medications she is is only going to come to a realization of what she's done and live a life of pain and regret. I pray we can all learn something from this tragedy. We should pay attention to the people around us. Andrea needed help and those closest to her seemed to ignore that fact. We need to pay attention and recognize the needs of others. I would hope that if I was ever in such a situation as Andrea's my loved ones would be there to help me and not ignore the signs and then abandon me in the end. Poor Andrea seems to have been abandoned by all those who were closest to her. She did a horrible thing yes. She should not be beyond forgiveness though. She needs our prayers.