I just have to tell you this story, for anyone who might be reading and doubts that there is a God.  Let me just tell you how much this God cares for those who know and love Him. 

 My story in short version:

I have this friend.  She moved away.  We don't talk as often as I would like,  or even see each other as often as I would like but we are still good friends because we both understand how busy life can get when working and raising young children.  So when we don't talk or see each other- it's ok.  We are not the high maintence kind of friend that NEEDS to hang with their friends on a weekly basis.  We laugh about that fact and just enjoy each other's company when our busy schedules allow.  Well for about the past 6 weeks she has been coming to my mind.  When she does, I pray for her.  The wow part of my story is WHEN she comes into my mind.  Every time I iron my husbands clothes for work in the morning, she comes into my mind.  At first I didn't really think anything of it, other than to pray.  But it kept happening, every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday morning.  I was convinced God was trying to tell me something.  Lo and behold, I bump into this friend out of the blue.  I  tell her  that God is having me pray for you while I iron my husbands work clothes.  I ask her if this has any meaning for her why it is always when I iron my husband's clothes.   She breaks down in tears and tells me her husband and she seperated in late September.   We didn't get to talk but she knows the Lord and there are people standing in the gap praying for her and her family.  I tell you this story because God knew she needed help and He sent that help.  I didn't know that she had been going through this for the past 8 weeks, but God did.  I didn't know I was going to see her, but God arranged it.  I didn't know that my story and letting her know I was praying would touch her and let her know that God had not forsaken her and that he wanted her to know He loves her, but God did.  My dear friends, please join me in prayer for this family.  You do not know her , but God does!

How things work out some times is such a pain in the tush!  On Monday I got in the mail the ok from our insurance company to have more surgery on my still broken leg , I was so happy.  The key word is WAS.    Why was? 

Well...... last night Shannon brought home the paper work for the up coming year on our medical insurance.  Guess what ?  They changed insurance companies.     UUGGHHH.  I am glad we went back to our old insurance company, but did it have to start on 12-01-08???

Now we have to start all over with getting the insurance to approve for my new surgery.   I want this over and done with.  My leg has been broken for a year on the 27th of December. 

God Bless, mj

We went to Disneyland on the 2nd with the grand-babies.  We had so much fun with them.  We took them to carry on the annual tradition we have of going to see Santa.  We have done this with our girls and Marty.  It is the 1st time in 12 years that Marty is not in the picture.  That was very hard on us all, we miss him so much. 

So on the way home I ask Shayna if Jeffie is in a pull up or panties??  Jeffie told me he is" wearing underwear and he is keeping them safe in his pants" .  We all laughed so hard.  How cute he is!!

While we were taking pictures of things Shayna is taking pictures of her purse who is a stuffed lion (don't ask) .  Maddie said " no pictures of the bear take pictures of MEEE".  

They are so cute.  What a blessing they are to us.   I will post pictures of Disneyland with the grand-babies soon.

God Bless, mj

Ok, I managed to get out of bed. It's my upper body that's sore so I must've taken more of hte fall there than I thought. However I managed to mop and work out, which loosen things up. I had to help both boys w/math today, too!LOL I also paid *my* bills and got stamps ordered. Man, I love the post office sometimes....LOL Last week they sent out stamp order forms so I got my Christmas stamps ordered today and should get them tomorrow! All that's left on my list is to shower and compose the Christmas letter!;)

Ok, didn't get the letter done today. That's ok, as Clarice would say, "there's always tomorrow". But then it's not really a dream for me!LOL I'll get it done on MOnday.

Several weeks ago Mother Dear was finishing a review for a magazine, and put in the CD to one product called The Aleph Bet Story by Sarah And David. As you may have guessed or already know we get the name for our set of letters in English, the Alphabet, as a derivative from the name of the Hebrew set of letters: The Aleph Bet. I’ve also been just confused at how people learn different languages, but the confusion is lessening, I think. Within the last week especially we’ve really been looking into and listening to the Hebrew Aleph Bet, and it is quite fun.

Hebrew reads right to left where as English reads from left to right so that is something quite different, and also the letters have their own names, but different sounds. Like the letter for the sound B is Bet, and to make words with vowels like “back” you don’t add another letter for the A sound. Instead you add a sign beneath the B letter. Before you can even begin all that, though, you have to know which Hebrew letters go with the sounds and names…. that’s what I’m working on.

Here is one song we found on YouTube that has been really helpful in learning the sounds and signs of the letters. There are 22 letters main letters in the Aleph Bet, which this song will show you. It’s quick, but after listening to it 20x you should be able to sing-a-long and say the letters (haha, excuse the note at the end).

There are many other, perhaps less exciting and kiddish, videos on YouTube to listen to and many websites you can look at to help you learn the sounds, signs, and names of the Hebrew Aleph Bet.  We also found a few songs from the Prince of Egypt film in the original Hebrew, which was very interesting. It sounds beautiful! Mother Dear posted those on her blog.

There’s no J sound in the Hebrew Alphe Bet. Instead it’s a Y sound - like Jesus is Yeshua. Today I was looking around Facebook, and found how to translate my name into Hebrew. You can find yours here. Make sure you tell me what it is.

Jocelyn

Shalom

What a Thursday . . . .

My SIL is in labor. I’m so excited!!! I can’t wait to hear how things go for her! I want to call and pester her on the phone all the time . . . she’s in Florida and I’m in Kansas . . . . but that would bug me. Maybe not if my labors tended to move slower, but I don’t know what’s going on, so . . . I’m just trying to be respectful. But it’s sooooo hard!

In the wide world that centers around me, my goals look like this:

• Make it until Saturday morning
• Make it until December
• Make it until December 15^th
• Make it until December 21^st, my 27^th birthday
• Make it until the first of the year

And somewhere in there is:

• For Clare to have her baby first

Her due date was the 15^th of December, mine is Jan 20^th, so it makes sense, right? So far, I’ve made it half way!

The second half is the long distance portion, though!

So far, Sunday and Monday were good days. Few contractions. Tuesday was a bit scary simply because I had contractions all day long. Some were very hard, and one woke me up from a nap! I usually don’t wake up until they are 5 minutes apart – yes, I sleep like a rock. So I took Benadryl and went to our midwife’s appointment that night.

The baby has moved up!

Well, or technically I think I was in our Jacuzzi tub and playing around and manipulated the baby back up . . . but regardless of how it happened (and I’m pretty sure it was me playing around) God has really answered a prayer here!

My midwife said she was pleased with how "in-tune" I was with my body and that I have to keep paying attention. I like it that she takes me seriously - I feel less like a paranoid, jumping-at-shadows mommy. *smile*

That’s the good news. The bad news is that I still have what seems like a long, long ways to go. So I need to keep being careful.

But then it was followed by good news again as Wednesday and today have been really good, low contraction days. Surprising, the way things went Friday and Saturday right after the baby dropped. But very, very encouraging!

I really don’t want to be waited on hand and foot for the next ump-teen days. I don’t really care if my house falls apart around me at this point, if I can just be “mommy” and change diapers and re-heat food, that’s enough for me.

So, that’s my goal. To a function a tiny bit carefully, if possible.

Jonathan is going to observe me this weekend and pass his verdict. He is a hard jury to please, let me tell you. And ya'll thought *I* was the paranoid one?

Thank you for your prayers and for thinking of us!

~Ashley~

How many birds are there in the 12 days of Christmas song? (listing them only once)

Extra credit if you can tell me the total bird count for the whole song...