Whoppers coming out our ears.

Tuesday evenings from 4-8 pm is family night at the Burger King up the street from our house. This is a good thing and a bad thing. Good because we can get a quick and cheap meal for the family. Bad because we tend to take advantage of this convenience more often than we should. But that is neither here nor there.

Yesterday after I had spent the whole day on a search warrant of another hoarders house, (why is it so many criminal, I mean alleged criminal are hoarders, just throw it away. If it has mold on it, it is no good. If it is more than five years old and you haven't touched it in five years throw it away. That's my rant, I'm done.) and Dave had to study for a test, we agreed we would take advantage once again of Burger Kings $2.99 Whopper Value Meals, and $.99 kids meals. What a deal.

The only problem was we didn't agree on who would pick it up. So when I got home and saw Dave wasn't there I assumed he had gone to pick up the boys. So I went to Burger King and placed my order at the drive thru window. Raquel the Burger King drive up window worker had no sooner given me my receipt for the food when my cell phone rings. Dave was calling to ask where I was because "dinner" was on the table. So as I was handed the food I ordered and headed home I wondered what we were going to do with all those fries.

We ended up with 5 Whoppers with cheese, 5 medium fries, 5 Dr. Peppers, 4 cheese burgers, 4 small fries, 4 kids fruit punches and 4 Sponge Bob Square Pants watches. So much for a cheap dinner.

A thought for the day . . . Just what I needed, when I needed it.

"Let me have the courage to believe in myself, not only on the days when I'm doing great and nothing seems impossible, but on the days when the world looks lousy and I'm losing, and the road ahead seems too hard. When I wonder if i'm brave enough, smart enough, strong enough, and I must be crazy to try; don't let me quit."

My Poor Dad!!

There has been a lot of stress going around lately. We Vernieuw's don't handle this well. When it gets really bad we break out in Hives or Shingles. When I was in college I had the hives for years, all over my body. Sometimes on my lips and palms of my hands which was the worst because it was so painful. Several years ago my mom (while working two full times jobs) got the shingles. Now my sweet dad who is one hundred and somthing days from retiring has stressed himself into a shingles outbreak . . . in his eye and on the top of his head.

Poor dad!

Sure hope he feels better soon.

The Lord does hear me!

In March we fasted and prayed for all we were worth about Dave getting the position at UTSA and we told the Lord if it was right to please let it happen and if it wasn't what our family was suppossed to do to please help us deal with the rejection.

Since Dave got the official acceptance letter from UTSA lots of things have been going on around our place. We have completed ever single major and minor project we ever started as we try to sell the house. And we wait and wait for people to come and look at the house. So far no luck. It has only been two weeks on the market, but I am not known for my patience.

Additionally, I applied for a supervisors position in San Antonio. This is a super long shot for me to get this job as there is only one position and there is a lot of competition. But how much stress it would relieve if I did get the job. The announcement closed on the 29th of March, more than two weeks ago. And I still haven't heard anything. Again not really good on the patience front.

So we continue to pray for the Lords help and we work like crazy people to do all we can do and still nothing.

And not to be a doubting Thomas, but sometimes I wonder, if it is all in vain.

Well yesterday I was looking for a very important piece of equipment I use at work. I remembered having it on Friday, but even after dumping out my purse I couldn't find it. Not a good thing. I looked at work and in my car and still nothing. When I got home I looked in the clothes I had worn on Friday and still nothing. So I put it out of my mind as I spent time with the family and went to bed. The next morning in my prayers I asked the Lord to please help me find this important piece of equipment, as I really didn't want to report I had lost it. I continued with my morning ritual and got the boys in the car to take them to daycare when out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of the thing I was missing.

It's not a big thing and maybe I would have eventually found it on my own, but to me it was an affirmation that the Lord did hear and answer my fervent pray. And he does hear our prayers about the selling the house and the supervisors job and in time, his time, he will provide an answer and a way.

Fred and Barney

When I was a little girl, my parents bought a brand new 1977 Ford Courier. It was bright orange, just like a pumpkin. I remember the family going to the car lot to "look" at the trucks and the next thing you know we were driving it home. At that time my entire family could fit in the cab of the truck. Dad drove, Scott sat in the middle, mom was the passenger and I sat on her lap, I was about three at the time. For long trips up to Ogden to visit grandma and grandpa, there was a white shell on the back of the truck and my parents put an old carpet remnant in the back with blankets and such for Scott and I. I fell asleep many a nights in the back of the truck. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure your not allowed to do that with kids anymore.

As we got older (and bigger) the family didn't fit in the cab of the truck so nicely. My dad drove that truck day in and day out for many a years to work to school to numerous scout trips and several family vacations to Texas. In our neighborhood the orange courier with the white shell was synonymous with my dad.

I would almost stake my life on the fact that, that truck had a personality. It loved my dad and would start for him no matter what. But for anyone else it was much more particular and sometimes it wouldn't start at all. It didn't like my mom much and when I got around to driving it didn't like me either. We used to call the truck Fred and Barney, our reasoning was it sometimes felt like you had to peddle your feet to keep it going. Maybe that's why it didn't like me. Who knows?

As the truck got older it began to have some squeaks. . . okay a lot of squeaks, you could hear it coming down the road for blocks and blocks.

The reason I reminisce about Fred and Barney is I love sitting on my front porch in my rocking chairs and feeling the cool spring breezes. As I have been doing this recently there has been a new "older" vehicle in our neighborhood that drives by my house several times a day and if I close my eyes it sounds just like the squeaks Fred and Barney and takes me back to the times I would hear those squeaks coming down the road signaling the anticipated arrival of my dad. How I loved to hear those squeaks.

I love Tulips!

I do, I love tulips. They are one of my all time favorite flowers. Every year I say I am going to plant them in the fall and for some reason I never quite get around to it and then come spring everyone has tulips but me. But not this year, a friend of mine gave me some tulips bulbs last fall and I promptly went into my flower beds and planted them. And they grew, and they are so pretty. So this year I have beautiful tulips at my house. Thanks Josh for the bulbs.

I'm not so big on daffodils but they are okay and for some reason I got these very delicate little sprouts growing in my yard. Quite a mystery as I didn't plant them and all the dirt and mulch was brought in new. But I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and I'm just grateful for their presence in my garden.

Flowers and especially tulips one of many things I am grateful for this spring.

Easter

The Easter Bunny did not miss our house this year. I actually think I enjoy Easter with the egg hunt more than Christmas.The Easter bunny even brought an egg picker-upper, now how cool is that. I never got one of those.

The final haul, not to shabby.

Turner got into the egg hunt also, but lost interest really quickly.

But isn't he just the sweetest little guy?

These incredible boys, just one more reason I am so grateful for the fullness of the gospel in my life and the knowledge that because our Savior and brother Jesus Christ suffered in the garden of Gethsemane, died on a cross and was then resurrected we will live again. And if I continue to follow Christ's teachings we will live as an eternal family once again after this mortal life.

Blues vs. Stars

St. Louis is nothing if not a sports town. There are the Cardinals for baseball, the Rams for football and the Blues for Hockey. Dave and I really are not big sports fans ourselves, but we have attended a game or two with friends or family. Some of the people I work with are major fans and buy season tickets every year, definitely not for us. One of these people got transferred to Chicago and was selling off his Blues tickets, I figured they would be pretty good seats and the price was right so I bought a couple of his tickets for a Blues Hockey game as a special treat for Hayden. I originally anticipated Dave and Hayden would attend the game but as it worked out I got to go. And the seats were very good, thanks Rich. Hayden and I had a fabulous time.

I tried to get Hayden to take a nap earlier in the day, but he wouldn't and so he fell asleep on the drive to the game.
At the game he wouldn't let me take any pictures of him, but I did get in a quick one before his hand came up. He was so cute sitting in this seat with his little legs sticking straight out. We even put Gold spiking gel in his hair, but you can't really see it in the pictures.
I'm not sure how much of the game he understood, but it was fun to explain to him what was going on. He even caught a coupon for a free Dairy Queen blizzard when they fell from the blimp. Very exciting time.

On the ride home Hayden again fell asleep despite a mighty effort to stay awake. But he was quite happy holding the hockey puke we bought and with his free Blues poster on his lap.

I just love this little boy.