As long as I'm at it---

I beg you to watch this. These are the candidates in their own words.

Value Voters USA

Please visit Value Voters USA. Share this with your families, friends, churches, and pastors.

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

Thank you for encouraging me!

I want to thank whoever it was that nominated me for a Divine Caroline award! You are too kind! When I got the notification, I thought, "oh no, I don't want to put a badge up and go against some of the other great gals that are in the running with their adoption blogs." I was so relieved when I saw that my blog is in the style category for photography.

I can not tell you all what an encouragement this is to me. I am still learning and still have lots to learn...but to have people think that my pics are great, well, I can't tell you how much I needed that. :) I get really, really hard on myself with my photos...I nitpick them apart. When someone says they like a photo...I can tell them all the things wrong with it. It's part of growing as a photographer. So to whoever believed that my pictures are beautiful...you've blessed me immensely! I am incredibly grateful for this boost!

If you would like to vote for me...click on the link and take a moment to register yourself so you can vote. I have a chance at winning a $250 gift card. and WOW...that would be AMAZING!

you're never going to believe this...

I'm part of Clickin' Moms photography forums. Love it! Anyway...we were playing a game where we had to post a pic of ourselves on there. I had my dd take a quick pic of me this morning. I posted it on the boards, and within a couple of minutes here is the first response I got--"I think you look a lot like Sarah Palin...and coming from me, you can be sure that it's a compliment!"

She has no idea that I got Sarah Palin's back on my blog! :) You all know I took that as a compliment!

A word about Sarah Palin from Lou Engle

A Word About Sarah Palin--

45 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. subpoenaed the conscience of America and drove the injustice of segregation like a wedge into the soul of the nation. The wedge has been driven again. When Senator John McCain courageously chose Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate, he drove family values back into the conscience of America.

The liberal media played into the hands of a Higher Wisdom when they injected former Vice President Dan Quayle into the debate by comparing Governor Palin to Dan Quayle. Now, everyone is beginning to realize that this election is not about a man’s charisma or his nebulous notion of change. No. This election is a battle for family values and to the victor goes the soul of this nation.Governor Palin is more than just a brilliant choice for Vice President. She and her family stand as a sign and a wonder for life and for children. They are a living parable parading in blazing Technicolor before the eyes of the whole nation. This goes way beyond elections. This is about us healing our families, regaining moral responsibility, and exhibiting forgiveness.

Palin boldly stood by her conviction that all life is sacred and chose to have her Down Syndrome child while leading her state. Senator Barack Obama, on the other hand, declared that the first thing he will do as President is pass the Freedom of Choice Act, which will remove every restriction from all abortion procedures, including many restrictions that most Americans agree with, By doing this, he will open up the doors to promote deviant sex education to kindergarteners and exclude even parents from their right to know of their underage daughter’s potential abortion.

When the pregnancy of her 17-year-old daughter became an insensitive liberal media circus, we were given a rare view into love and support as Governor Palin embraced her grandchild in her daughter’s womb as a blessing. Again, on the other hand, Obama was once quoted as saying that if his two daughters made a “mistake” and became pregnant, he would not want them to be “punished” with babies. What a stark contrast of the value of human life! The ideological beast of Obama’s worldview has been drawn out of its lair and now stands naked and exposed by Palin’s compassion and conviction. The beast is not just Quayle hunting. It is hunting our children, our nation’s destiny, and us. The rage of the media against Palin simply further exposes the moral bankruptcy, bigotry, and lack of compassion of liberalism. The media, Obama’s court prophets, have become Selma’s new sheriffs of the South beating the new heirs of the civil rights movement – the millions of unborn children attacked in the womb and countless women hurt by abortion – with their journalistic Billy Clubs and loud hectoring.

With his choice of Governor Palin as his running mate, John McCain has once again gone to war. However, this time, not in the distant lands of Vietnam and Iraq, but he has gone to war for America, for our families, and for our children. And this war, we cannot afford to lose.

www.LouEngle.com



This was too profound for me to not share with you all. The very foundation of our country is at stake. The future for our children is being defined in this coming election. The media wants to define who our president will be...but I believe we have a God more Powerful than any billion dollar network. We must stay strong in prayer, crying out to God to preserve the morality of this country.

Praise Jesus for Eternal Life through Him Alone!

My heart has been overflowing with God's Goodness in answering prayer! On Monday morning, I picked up my book Praying the Bible for Your Children by David and Heather Kopp. I've started a new Bible study and haven't read any prayers out of there for awhile. But on this morning, I was lead to open it up to the page where I had last left the bookmark. Here is what I read...

Early Salvation

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come. ~Ecclesiastes 12:1

Loving Heavenly Father, Before dawn I pray for my children. See each one asleep, Lord, zipped snuggly into a flannel cocoon or swirling like a dancer in twisted sheets.

In so many ways they're still asleep in their childhood, yet I pray that at the youngest age possible they would see You and respond to You (Ps. 63:1). I ask specifically this morning that my children will receive slavation early in their lives--before troubles and distractions and ambitions get in the way (Eccles. 12:1-8).

Early, Lord, because my children even at their sweetest and most innocent--yes, even from birth--need a Savior. (Ps. 51:5).

Use the Scriptures planted in their hearts from infancy, as You did with Timothy, to draw them to You (2Tim. 3:15). May Your Holy Spirit break through any spiritual bariers that are keeping themfrom asking to be born into Your kingdom (John 3:5-6).

Yes, early, Lord, because You invited children to know You and love You. And because You have promised that everyone--ieven someone who sleeps inside zippered flannel--can receive the power to become a child of God (John 1:12).

I ask this in Jesus' powerful name. Amen.




I went on about my day. We had our ups and downs of the day. Supper time came and we sat down to eat. Matt and one of our girls were at basketball, so it was just me and four of the kiddos. Our youngest daugther out of the blue said, "Are we going to die?" I answered her a quick answer as the morning prayer started racing through my mind. I knew I was being given the opportunity to explain salvation in Jesus to her. I explained that yes we all will die at some point, but we can live forever with Jesus in heaven if we believe in Him. She wanted to know if we would still live in our house. I told her we would live heaven...and now she is convinced she will get to live in a rainbow house in heaven. As we carried on our conversation with her two sisters chiming in to tell her about Jesus, I asked her if she would like to pray to ask Jesus to come into her life forever. She said, "Sure!" We sat there holding hands, praying together and her sisters praying along with us. It was an amazing moment as her mom. After she said, "Amen." We all cheered and told her how excited we were that we were all going to be together in heaven someday now that she was a Christian. I looked into her face and told her just that morning I had prayed for her salvation. I was able to testify to our whole family how amazing God is in answering our prayers!!!!!

I don't know who all reads my blog. But my prayer is that if you have never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation that your heart would be drawn into a personal relationship with Him. If you have any questions or if you have recently begun a relationship with God, please email me-- yackity at gmail dot com.



Praise Jesus with me for the eternal life that has been given to our little girl this week!!!!!

lesson learned

i learned a valuable lesson. i need to increase my shutter speed when capturing a group of kiddos. we celebrated my father in law's birthday on saturday. we wanted to get a pic of grandma and grandpa with all of their grandkids. umm yeah, i didn't do such a hot job of capturing my nephew in action. ugh...what a bummer! not how i had hoped they would turn out...but i sure learned a lesson. :)

Yes---I admit it...I am a Mamarazzi

as you can see i have joined a new blog called "We Picture This". it is a photography blog and i will be contributing to it along with other moms. if you are interested in photography hop over there. we will be doing theme shots and i'd love for you to join along. let me know if you start doing the themes assignments and we can link to your blog to share your art.

Prayer is the most important thing you do...

"Begin to realize more and more that prayer is the most important thing you do. You can use your time to no better advantage than to pray whenever you have opportunity to do so, either alone and with others, while at work, while at rest or while walking down the street. Anywhere!" ~O. Hallesby (taken from When Families Pray-Cheri Fuller)

We are using this book in our devotional time. It is full of wonderful ideas on how to incorporate prayer into our family life. Today we made decisions to pray for our community as we go about our activities here. We will pray for the jail as we pass it, the courthouse and government leaders as we pass it. The schools, the college, our neighbors... As the kids go to soccer or to church, we will pray for the kids they will be with as we drive up to our destinations. We are praying for our presidential election each day. It is neat to see the kids get into the idea of praying for all things as we go about our day. Join us in praying ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE!

Superchick!

Last night I took our two oldest daughters to a Superchick Concert!!! I went with my friend who has two daugthers the same ages as my girls. It was CraZy FuN! We got there and it was a no chairs, no sit...just jump-around-have-fun concert. Only problem was we were in the back with two little girls that couldn't see a thing. Finally we found a couple seats open on the bleachers and went over and sat down. What we didn't know was that we had just entered the NO Fun Zone. We didn't realize that the bleachers were for the people that didn't want to clap, scream, jump up and down, wave their arms in the air...or even stand up for a song or two for that matter. I mean I understand bleachers are for sitting. Der. I'm just saying--We are good concert-goers, so when the performers say, "we want everyone on their feet for this one with your arms up"...my friend Monica and I do as they say. We also make sure our daughters do as they say. So yes, there we were jumping up and down, yelling, and waving our arms to the music. EVERYONE, I mean, EVERYONE around us was just sitting there. Not even toe tapping. No bobbing of their heads to the music. Yeah...we didn't care! We kept jumping...these two mamas were shaking the entire set of bleachers...but yeah again, we didn't care. (Ok, I kind of cared, because I didn't want them to not enjoy their concert experience...no matter how different of a concert attender they were.)

Finally after a few songs in...the little girls asked(yelled at the tops of their lungs) if we could go down to the floor. We explained that they wouldn't be able to see, but they didn't care. They wanted to express themselves with a little less restriction. We asked our jr. high daughters if they wanted to go there too. They did! We were laughing at how our jr. high girls were being so reserved at the beginning. We would lift their arms for them and stand behind them making them jump with us. They were having fun though. (If it would have been making her mad...I would have stopped--just to make that clear) It didn't take them long to warm up and they started jammin' just like everyone else. We got down to the floor where there were no chairs...just standing. It was roasting hot, but everyone was loving it! We got right in and enjoyed every minute we were there.

The girls got a CD and being the good homeschool moms that we are...we let them stand in line to get them signed. And of course we had to stop and get some ice cream and snacks on the way home...we didn't get home until after midnight. We had some incredibly giddy girls. I love that we got to have last night's concert experience together.

The presence of the Lord was powerful! And praising Him together was amazing! We already have plans to go again the next time they come. The girls slept in and we started school late...but we've had a great day so far.

P.S.--They can't listen to their CD until their work is done...there I go being all mean again! ;)

HaPpY 40th AnNiVeRsArY--MoM & DaD

Here are my parents...they just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary!!!! I took them out a couple weeks ago to do a shoot with them. My dad wasn't too keen on the idea at first...but he likes pictures, so we got him to work the lens. (Half of my pics have him making faces at me in them...he's a bit of a goofball--wonder where i get it?!?)

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for all your love and support. Thanks for modeling Christ's love to me as I grew up. A memory of my parents that I will forever have engraved in my mind is every morning when I woke up, my mom would be sitting in the living room in her recliner. She would still be in her jammies, holding a cup of coffee. Her Bible was opened on her lap and her head would be bowed in prayer. My dad was always sitting at the kitchen table with his Bible open and a cup of coffee nearly empty. He would have a yellow legal pad in front of him where he was taking notes from his studying of God's Word. He always used a red pen. I love these memories of my parents and never knew how much it meant until I became an adult.

Thank you for modeling a strong commitment to our Lord for me. And thank you, Mom and Dad, for all of the hours you spent and still spend praying for me.

Hit me with your best shot!

I need your help in naming this recipe or lack there of.

The other night I made up a recipe--a concoction of ingredients that I had on hand. I don't know what to call them nor do I know how much of anything I used in making these. Here's the deal...I don't really use measurements in cooking. I always add stuff and never measure. There-- you have an intimate detail of Laura...the depths of who I am and how I roll. Back to business, I'll tell you what I did and see if you have any creative ideas for naming this.

I diced up pepperoni and fryed it. I added diced ham to it, continued frying it. I then browned some hamburger...adding minced onion, basil, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning. I combined them all and added pizza sauce. Into the saucy combo I add Parmesan cheese...lots. Next I added shredded Italian cheese combo. (at this point you could also add mushrooms, black olives, green peppers, etc.--whatever your heart desires)

I stuffed the meaty goodness into sliced Bollilo rolls. I topped each roll with a slice of smoked Provolone cheese. (what, you don't usually have smoked Provolone on hand?) I stuck them in the oven to bask at about 400ish degrees (i don't really remember what temp it was...sorry) After awhile or so (didn't pay too close attention...just went by how they were lookin') I tapped on one of the rolls to test its "done-ness"...yes, it was toasted and flaky. To finish it all off, I turned the broiler on, getting my cheese into a bubbling frenzy...because that's how I like my cheese.

They were fan-tab-u-lous!!!!! Little salty, but I have low blood pressure...so I'm ok with that. ;)

Any ideas on what you would call these babies!?!?!?!?!?!