To remember

Grace: Mom, what year were you born in?
Me: 1978
Grace: No, I mean 2000 what?
Me: No, 1978.
Grace: You mean before the 2000's began?
Me: Yes.
Grace: Whoa!! That was a long time ago.

Perspective is everything!

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Last night, I was laying on the couch reading a book. All of a sudden, Ben came over to me, lifted his shirt and randomly says, "You can blow on my belly if you want to." HA! Such a crazy boy. He makes me laugh.

RANDOM PICTURES

Kerry's Graduation

My brother Kerry graduated from the top ranking private school in the south on Wednesday. He now has a Bachelor's of Science (Biology with a minor in Chemistry). He leaves in March for the US Army with plans of becoming a Green Beret (Special Forces). We are so very proud of you, Kerry. I love you!!!

Enjoy the slideshow!


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Ramble Ramble

Heather has requested that I update my blog. I really do need to get better about this. So much has gone on since my last post. Let's see what I can remember...

~Travis, my brother, turned 21 on Novemeber 1st. He leaves on Sunday for his two week ftx. Two weeks of sleeping in the woods, in the cold, probably raining, with only two MRE's to eat per day. When he gets back, he'll be coming home for two weeks for Christmas. I'm so excited for him to come home. I haven't seen him since July 4th. When he goes back, he has language school and then his final big test. After that, he will officially graduate as a Green Beret.

~Michael, my brother from another mother, announced that his wife, Gabby, is expecting a baby!! So exciting! She had a ultrasound this week and now has pictures. I can't wait to see! Michael also found out that the Army is sending him to Korea for a year...and that he will probably leave before the baby is born, so please keep them in your prayers. It's not the ideal set of circumstances, but God has them in His hands. Michael is also coming home for Christmas. It will be good to have the whole family here.

~Since I'm on the brother track, Kerry, graduates on December 13th with his BS from Ozarks. I'm so proud of him! He leaves in March to begin his journey to becoming a Green Beret as well.

~My grandpa had to go to the hospital this past Sunday. We ended up spending the entire day there...or so it seemed. They never did find what was wrong, but he seems to be all better. Thank you, Lord.

~George and I are taking a hiatus from church. It's not really worth getting into the why's, but I thought I'd mention it.

~Our house is completely decorated for Christmas. Well, at least the inside is. Maybe George can do the outside this weekend. I'll try to post pictures after we get them taken. Speaking of pictures, I need to get on top of things and get our Christmas picture taken.

~I'm still not pregnant yet. :( I've been on clomid again since July. My dr increased my dosage this past cycle to 100mg. Please say a prayer that this will be our month. I trust that God has it in His hands. I am just ready to meet our next child, should God bless us with another. It's a little dissapointing when each month, another negative answer comes. It's rough though, with my endometriosis. I have two-three days where it's hard to function. I shouldn't complain. I've already been blessed beyond belief with my two precious children. If I never have another child, they are beyond enough. It's just that George and I have always dreamed of having a large family together. And I know that God is able to give us that. It's just a matter of waiting.

~My friend Sonja finds out if she is carrying a boy or a girl on December 6. I'm so excited!!! She asked me to come with her, since Aaron will be out on the road. Yea!

~We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Grandpa Dopp came down and spent a few days at Mom's. He was good natured through all the teasing regarding Michigan's loss to the BUCKEYES!!!! He's a Michigan fan through and through and it couldn't have been easy to be in a house of true Buckeye fans. Kerry was my only brother home for the holiday, but it was good to spend time with him. Kerry and I are polar opposites. If we weren't related, we would never be friends. But I love him very much. I wish we were closer. Maybe that will come in time. Anyway, it was great to spend time with him. After we ate dinner at our house, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Shirley's. We played games and had fun visiting with extended family.

~December 15th, we are leaving for an overnight trip to see George's family for Christmas. I know they are excited about seeing the kids. :)

I know this post has been just a bunch of ramblings, but it's all I've got for now. I'm just drained!

Love to you all! God bless!!

PS...Heath and Spring...I saw your comment and thank you for the nice things you said!! Do you have an email address I can reach you at? You can email me at Tracie at Godchasers dot net and George's is George at Godchasers dot net.

PreHalloween/My 28th Birthday

So I decided to do a picture post. We've had a lot going on lately with Halloween activities. And then in the middle of it all, was my birthday "party". Enjoy the pictures!

I bought this gingerbread house kit from Walmart. It was so easy and a fun project to do with Grace. She loved helping to decorate it with all the candy. And George loved to eat it all. :)

Here's Grace looking inside the pumpkin and then cleaning it out. When we first cut the lid off, she looked inside and said, "Ooohh, it's so spooky inside!" Too cute! I can't believe we didn't get a single picture of the finished jack-o-lanterns. You'll have to take my word for it...they were good!

And here are some pictures from my birthday gathering. (Party just doesn't sound right at my age.)

Here are some group shots. The "group" consists of Grandma and Grandpa Shirley, Mom, Dad, Aaron, Sonja, Rob, Brandie, Daphnie, Gabby, Tonya, Ryan, Kerry, Jenn, Jacqueline, and I hope I'm not forgetting anyone else. Oh wait. Scott came by later.

I had a wonderful day and appreciate everyone coming out and helping to make my day special. I wouldn't have changed a thing. My dad pulled us on a hayride down to Friar Bridge. Talk about spooky. Actually...talk about cold. But we all cuddled close and enjoyed the evening. I received lots of special gifts and I love all of them! But the best part was just being surrounded by a group of people who love and care about me.

Notice the kids close proximity to the cake.Here are Grandpa and Grandma sitting in the kids chairs. It was quite funny!! :)
Here's Gracie and I getting ready to blow out the candles on my cake.

Just a reminder...

I had to memorize this chapter back when I was in high school for church. It is full of great advice. It's something I needed to be reminded of.


Romans 12
Living Sacrifices 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his[b]faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Love 9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[c] Do not be conceited.
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"[d]says the Lord. 20On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."[e] 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

So this year has been tough on me. Lots of drama caused by others and I've hated every second of it. Too much backstabbing and gossip and not enough love and grace. I'm sick of it. I am going to make a concerted effort to get back to basics. And I think that this chapter of scripture gives us all an idea of what those basics are. Before I am any other role, I am a child of Christ. Then, I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend (and soon to be Aunt!). I want to get back to that. Everything else is just a distraction and I don't have time for it.

"I want to be like my Jesus." -Todd Agnew

Trick or Treat!!!

So yesterday was Halloween. I love this holiday. I don't care for the spooky, scary, gory side of it. I just remember that as a child I LOVED dressing up and trick or treating. It's so much fun for the kids. And our kids had a blast last night!

Grace dressed up as an Ohio State cheerleader. (GO BUCKEYES!!!) And Ben dressed up as an Ohio State football player. Too cute, if you ask me. It was so cold last night, that we had to layer our costumes. We added turtlenecks, tights (for Grace), and by the end of the night she had sweatpants on under her skirt and a jacket on top. It looked like they were dressed for winter rather than Halloween!

From 4 to 6:30pm the downtown businesses had what they call "Monsters on Main Street." Basically, trick or treating at businesses rather than homes. So we went to that. Who knew our town had so many kids!! Wow!

After that, we went out to eat at a little cafe here in town. All George wanted was a simple foot long hot dog. But that waitress kept getting it wrong. She was a sweethart, but couldn't get that hot dog right. She brought it out first on a soaking wet bun (yuck!), then brought out a sausage on a bun, and then brought out two small hotdogs, instead of the footlong. Geesh!

Then we went trick or treating in the neighborhoods. For those of you who don't know, we live in a very rural area. So we have to drive to town to go trick or treating. However, there were NO houses doing trick or treat. No one was answering their doors...seriously. Poor Grace was getting so disappointed that no one was answering. She kept saying...maybe the next house will answer...maybe the next house...and so on. Finally, we ran into some other trick or treaters that told us about a neighborhood that was definitely giving out candy. So we loaded back up and went there. There were maybe ten houses or so that were passing out candy. Now don't get me wrong. I really don't want all that candy in the house. It's just the principle of Trick or Treating. If you have your porch light on, you are fair game. ESPECIALLY, if you have decorated the outside of your house for Halloween. If you have no intention of passing out candy...don't decorate for the holiday and don't turn your porch light on.

Okay. Now that I just read back over what I've written, it sounds like it was a miserable night. But it wasn't!! We really had a lot of fun. It just seemed like there were lots of minor things getting in the way. Before we went to our house, we stopped at my mom's and let the kids trick or treat there. The kids had so much fun!

Here is Ryan in her shirt we made to go along with the kids costumes.

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!