A little bit of catch up...

So, Black Friday was a huge success. It all started with the alarm going off at 3:45 am and I picked Trisha, my sister, up at 4:20. We were off to WalMart where we arrived at 4:40 and met our sister-in-law, Tanya, who had already been to Kohl's by 4:00. From WalMart, we headed to Target and arrived there just after 6:00. After Target, we grabbed a little breakfast from McDonalds and took it to Starbucks for a coffee break. After coffee, we hit the mall again. We were able to get everything on our list and we shopped until we dropped! I was home by 1:30 pm.

We spent the Friday evening doing some more decorating and tried to finish today but the cold and rain stopped us from getting the garland up on the front porch. Hopefully, we will be able to get that up tomorrow after church and then we can put all of these bins and boxes away. I'm ready for the clutter to be gone!

This afternoon, we went to the Silves Photo Studio for a family photo shoot. Tanya does such a great job with pictures. She has become quite the photographer. It almost felt like we were in the Sears Photo Studio. I have attached just a few photos. Of course, I'm not attaching the photo for our Christmas card. I will wait to do that until after the Christmas cards have been mailed out.

Thanksgiving Day...and shopping craziness

This morning started at 5:45 am. I was up, dressed and out the door by 6:10. Met my dear Thanksgiving Day shopping partner (that would be my sister-in-law, Tanya) at Hinotes Corner and off to Bellingham we went. We were at Starbucks by 6:30, grabbed a table to make our last minute shopping plans and then to KMart. They were open at 7:00. We found some great stuff and in the end our combined savings were $280! Now there's something to be thankful for.

No seriously, we have so many things to be thankful for! God has really blessed our family this year and in times when we didn't know how we would financially survive a given month, He has always provided everything we have needed.

I have an amazing husband, Jason! He is always such an encouragement to me. With a job schedule change for me this year, he has had to take on the homework task and preparing dinner 4 nights a week. And, he has done it with an amazing attitude! Never once has he complained of the added tasks that have been put on his plate.

We have been blessed with three wonderful children. Yes, there are times that are tough and we often feel outnumbered, which we are, but we enjoy each of our children. They all have their unique personalities and quirks.

We have an amazing church family. We come home every Sunday challenged and blessed. We are so thankful for our amazing pastors and all they give to our body of believers. We absolutely cherish our Christ Group. It's just another family that we have. Each couple brings a little something different to the group and we look forward to meeting with all of them on Sunday evenings.

We are thankful for our family and friends who have rallied around this year through our challenges and who have been such an encouragement to us as we announced the possibility of full time ministry and what that might look like for our family.

We are excited for what God is doing in our lives and look forward to what he has planned for us in the months ahead.

From our family to yours...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

(For those of you wondering, yes, I am shopping tomorrow and will be up at 3:45, pick up my sister and be at WalMart before 5 am...call us crazy, but we save lots of $$ and get a lot of Christmas shopping accomplished!)

The rain has stopped

So, my wonderful husband, who attempted to get the christmas lights up on the house this morning but had to stop midway because of the rain, just took a look outside to see if it had stopped raining... Guess what?! It stopped! He is back out on the roof finishing up the christmas light project. Folks, the Scheibs will have Christmas lights on tonight! I just love having the house lit up. Now, if only I could get the lights up in the windows...not sure that will be happening today as I have to leave in about 30 minutes for work. Hmmm...maybe tomorrow morning's project. Wonder if they will all work?

Let the decorating begin

So, I realize that I said there would be no way Jason would pull down the decorations before Thanksgiving but my wonderful husband surprised me this morning. (If I haven't already mentioned it, he has this whole week off!!) For the longest time he was "missing". I started looking for him in the house and decided he was no where to be found. So, I decided to check the garage. There he was, pulling the many bins and trees down from the attic. He brought it all in and then headed out and started to put up the Christmas lights. I say started because he got about half way finished when the rain started coming down and coming down hard. So, the lights will be completed hopefully tomorrow.

"Final Mile"

Last night was the "Final Mile" for Marathon club that both of the girls have been participating in at school. Each day during lunch recess there is "track" set up. (Basically cones set up that the kids run around.) As the kids complete a lap, they get their cards punched. There are 20 punches on each card and in order to participate in the "Final Mile", the kids need to complete 5 cards. There was one little boy from our school that completed 17 cards...that's a lot of laps. Anyway, the final mile happens at the high school on the track and the kids run/walk 1.2 miles (5 laps). Once they complete their 5 laps, they get to stand on the "podium" (cheerleader blocks) and receive their medal of completion. It's an exciting time for the kids.

Now, understand that this event happens rain or shine and in the blustery wind. So, we load up and it's a little windy but not bad nothing to be concerned about. By the time we get to the high school, the wind is blowing so bad that the kids can hardly stand still. So, as they were running around the track and coming around the back turn, they were literally being blown around and were having a hard time actually running. At one point, I was running across the football field to take pictures and felt like I was literally being blown across the field. Ethan decided that he wanted to run on the track with the kids until he got to the last turn and the wind was blowing him so hard he could hardly stay standing. He ended up getting scared and in tears so Jason had to carry him back to the grandstands. Of course, Ethan thought he needed to get a medal with the girls because, after all, he ran on the track too. It was a very disappointing night for the little guy. There were 300+ kids from the three Lynden elementary schools that qualified to participate last night. That's not counting the kids who attempted to complete their 5 cards. WAY TO GO!!

I have included some pictures. You will be able to see by looking at them just how windy (and cold) it was. Good thing the girls wore their heavy jackets. They thought they might get too hot, guess mommy wasn't losing it after all when she insisted the jackets were to be worn while running.

Brenna running with friends from school...she is in the very center with her silver jacket.

Alyssa running with Eric Bode, a friend from her class.

Raedean VanWerven, a family friend, was marking the cards...Brenna has one lap to go...look at those red cheeks...she was getting so cold...at this point it was raining and windy.

Raedean marking Alyssa's card and sending her off for her last lap.

Up on the "podium" together to receive their medals. Of course, as I took the picture the wind picked up again and blew their hair into their faces...memories!!!

We tried to get one more picture of the girls once they got off the "podium" and the wind was blowing so hard they were laughing and could hardly stand still.

Just couldn't wait any longer...

Well, I just couldn't hold back any longer. I realize that Thanksgiving is next week but I just couldn't wait another 6 days for a Christmas themed background. I'm not sure what it is this year but I'm really excited for Christmas. I promise I won't pull out the Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. I can promise that because I need my wonderful husband to go up into the attic to help get it all out and I know that he won't do that until after Thanksgiving.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving...haven't seen some of the family for awhile and it will be good to see all of them again.

Remember to enjoy a good piece of pie the night before Thanksgiving because you know that you will be too full from all the wonderful food on Thanksgiving day to actually enjoy dessert. Oh how I miss Robert and Amy's "Thanksgiving Eve Dessert Social". Hmmm, may need to consider doing one of these events some time. She always made so many great pies. If my memory serves me right, I believe there were over 30 pies at this event. I think if I ever considered doing one of these events, I may need to recruit help in the kitchen! I'm not quite the baker that my dear friend Amy is.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and girls, get ready for "Black Friday". I've already started a list of items that I will be looking for good deals on.

Weekend to Remember

This weekend was amazing! Jason and I went to the FamilyLife Weekend to Remember conference. It was a great time to get away together and take a close look at our marriage. Some of you who know that we also went last year may be wondering why we would attend the conference two years consecutitvely. While the material itself is the same, each conference has different speakers and they all give different ideas for each area. It's a time for the kids to go and stay with friends and family and a time for us to go, stay out at Semiahmoo, relax, spend time praying together and talk about how our family and marriage are doing. Find the things that we need to work on and come up with a plan.

These weekends are great for marriages that are struggling and believe me, there are many couples that attend this conference as a "last chance" option and sometimes even have the divorce papers in hand. It's amazing to see the work that God does in these marriages during the weekend. The speakers are very sensitive to these couples and very encouraging. Let God work in you and your marriage.

These conferences are also great for marriages that are thriving...it's a time to focus on any tune-ups or tweaking that might be needed. There are couples who have been married for 50+ years that are attending these conferences. This year we had a couple married for the 55 years...they were the winners. Last year, I think the winning couple had been married around 60 years.

It's also neat to see the couples there that are wanting to start their marriages off with the tools given at these conferences and are only married for just a few short weeks before attending their first conference. In fact, this past weekend there was a couple who got married, they are currently on their honeymoon and attending the conference this coming weekend. (We met this couple's friends who were attending the conference we were at.)

The speakers use God's word as their foundation while going through the material and really help us focus on the fact that God's word is our every day tool and source for our marriages, parenting and just every day life.

FamilyLife has become very special to us as a couple and we are very excited about having one of the ministry couples in our home this Thursday for dinner. Tom and Laura Clifton are a couple that we met at the FamilyLife WTR conference last year and they currently live in Arkansas and are a part of the FamilyLife ministry team. We were thrilled to hear that they were going to be in town again and immediately set up a time to get together.

We want to encourage all of you to attend one of these conferences! It is an amazing time for you and your spouse. You can even use our group code (11306) for any of the conferences being held throughout the United States. This code will save you $80 per couple.

So many marriages are struggling. Won't you join us in praying for all of the marriages in the world.

(By the way, thank you to those of you who helped out with our children this last weekend!)

The "Christmas Itch"

So, ever since my visit to the grocery store and seeing all of the holiday stuff, I've started to get the "Christmas Itch". I'm still not ready for all of the hustle and bustle. I'm ready to pull out the decorations but will wait until after Thanksgiving to do that. Jason and I have, however, pulled out the Christmas music...hence the new music on the blog. We have so many Christmas CDs and never seem to get through them all. We have decided that if we start now, and keep a good rotation going in the CD player, we should be able to get through them all this year before it's too late. It's very hard to not change the layout on the blog to Christmas. There's something about Christmas that gives me that peaceful feeling. I just love the whole feeling of Christmas...celebrating Christ's birth, getting together with family, watching the kids open gifts, enjoying the baked goods that everyone else has worked so hard on :) (Okay, maybe this year I will attempt some baking of my own.), driving around and seeing all the lights, etc. Oh yeah, today I received my "invitation" to the Grandiflora Holiday Open House...HOLD ME BACK!!! So, anyone else have the "itch"?

Just back from the grocery store

Oh my! I walk into the grocery store and there it is...everything you need for your Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. Where has this year gone? I couldn't believe it. And, the aisles were packed with people. I think everyone is getting an early start on their holiday baking. In fact, two weeks ago when I was in the store, the checker asked me if I was starting my holiday baking because I had baking items as part of my purchase. I almost burst out laughing out loud. Me? Bake for holidays? Yeah right. I always have good intentions of doing so but that never happens. Thankfully, "Aunt" Janice has cookie baking day at her house that we attend so the kids get their cookie baking in there...I'm such a bad mommy. Oh yeah, then, right in the middle of the store, they have an aisle full of stockings, Christmas candy, and all other sorts of Christmas goodies. I'm not ready for all the holiday hustle and bustle. Are you?

Halloween....

We started our activities with two classroom parties and then off for a little trick-or-treating to the grandparents and great-grandmas and then to Noah Nite at our church. We ended our night trick-or-treating "Uncle" Randy and "Aunt" Janice...they give out FULL SIZE candy bars. The kids thought they struck gold! Those candy bars were the subject of conversation all the way home. Needless to say, the kids had tons of fun and there is enough candy in this house to last us a long time. Here are some of pictures of our day.

This is the look Ethan would give all night when trying to get a picture of him...it's his "tough guy" look. I guess football players are suppose to look "tough".