So one of the activities on Allison summer list was to host a picnic with her friends. Allison made the invitations to her picnic on the computer. She delivered them to her friends. Allison also made a menu and a grocery list. I took her to the commissary and she bought all the items on her list. Allison bought everything she needed using her own money (we put the girls weekly allowance on their individual debit cards). Since Allison was buying everything with her money, she really paid extra attention to the prices (she never does that when I'm buying). We compared prices and quantities. Joslyn decided to make Honey Snow Balls for Allison's picnic. Honey Snow Balls is a dessert that Joslyn invented herself!
The girls checked the weather reports online. Joslyn and Allison planned the picnic for Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday was reported to be partly cloudy. The picnic was going to be outside at the tables in the BBQ area behind our building. Well it rained on Wednesday :( The picnic was moved into our house. They girls had a great time with their friends. After the indoor picnic all the girls went to another friends house to play!

Now Joslyn is in the process of planning her 11th birthday party next weekend! She will have a sleepover, wants to roast marshmallows (hopefully it won't rain so we can use the pit in the back). Joslyn also wants to go swimming at the pool. After the girls swim we might go to the movies to see Ramona and Beezus!

Thank you!

It was hard for me to share the struggle in my marriage last week. I thought a lot about blogging about Philip and his struggle with alcohol. I am so thankful that I made the decision to publish the post!!
Thank you to every one who is praying for my husband and our marriage! Last week I was so depressed and so anxious about the weekend. I was worried that Philip was going to come home from work with a bottle of beer and some liquor. I did not want the weekend to come. I was sick to my stomach just thinking about the weekend. I was sure Philip would come home with some sort of alcohol. I am so happy to announce that Philip did NOT drink the entire weekend!! On Saturday our family was invited to eat dinner at a neighbor's house. Philip turned down the invitation because he did not want to be around the alcohol. My goodness! My heart overflowed with thankfulness and praises to God! I went to my friend's house for dinner. While I was down the street at the neighbors, Philip walked Joslyn to her friend's house for a sleep-over. He helped Allison pick out new school shoes online. Philip also gave the baby a bath and put her to bed! Sunday Philip gave me a "day off". He took care of Moriah and her needs all day long! God is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!! Please, please continue to pray for Philip and our marriage. Thank you all so, so very much for your encouraging words, good advice, friendship and your prayers! I am so thankful to Deborah, Kela, Sarah, and Julie, my Mom and of course GOD!!! Please continue to pray for Philip and our marriage. Thank you!!
Your sister in Christ,
Denise

Sometimes It's Hard to Pray

It's Marriage Monday

Well this past week hasn't been so sweet in my marriage. Philip has taken a HUGE step backwards. I was so very proud of Philip for all he gave up once he came home from Iraq last November. He stopped drinking and smoking. Philip was a new man when he came home from Iraq. He was EVERYTHING I prayed so hard for. I was amazed at how God answered my prayers and it was so awesome to see the answer to my prayers walking around me, hugging me, talking and walking with me every day! I was on "cloud nine". I was bursting with happiness! I could not contain my happiness to just my household. I had to share with the world- or at least my extended family and friends. I wanted to shout from the mountain tops how proud I was of MY man! However since I'm in no shape to climb to the top of a mountain, and even if I did get to the top of the mountain no one would hear my proclamation of love for my "new" man. So I did the next best thing... I emailed EVERYONE, I called EVERYONE, I instant messaged EVERYONE, I talked to EVERYONE I crossed paths with while around my neighborhood!! I experienced amazing feelings while Philip was sober and smoke-free. It was an awesome feeling to witness his priorities. They were straight and narrow. He was happy, proud, full of joy, encouraging, supportive, loving and caring. He was a great communicator. He talked with me about everything!
Well while we were on our vacation Philip began taking steps backwards. He had a drink. when he said to me, "I am going to go get a drink", I felt like a HUGE sword just stabbed me in my stomach. I felt sick. I knew this drink would push the door WIDE OPEN!
And so it did. Philip is drinking again. It truly breaks my heart. It hurts to even type those words. Every time I see him bring a drink up to his lips it feels like he is drinking away our marriage, our kids happiness, my joy. When he drinks he is refilling his cup or opening another bottle of selfishness, hate, hurtfulness, carelessness, and lays one more brick to the wall in my heart.
I prayed, I supported, I encouraged, I comforted, I followed, I stood in his corner while the world around him was biting at his ankles, I forgave and for some months I reaped what I had prayed so hard for.
He stays out all night and the sun always beats him into my home. I lay in my bed all night not able to sleep. My mind goes and spins. I try to imagine God's whisper in my ear, "I LOVE YOU". I try to imagine God's whisper, "I AM HERE". I try to feel God's arms around me. The next day I try with all I have to put on a smile and hope the girls did not notice that he was not home the night before. I pray they did not hear his slurred speech and swearing. I hope they did not peer around the corner to see him stumble or fall.

Family Game Night!

A few night ago Philip downloaded Monopoly to his XBOX 360 (XBOX is a game system) We were all pretty excited about playing Monopoly on the TV! Every time we play on the XBOX we get to choose from 4 different Monopoly boards. The classic board, future board, sweets board and the world board. The girls and I picked the sweets board. My game piece was a gingerbread man, Joslyn was a cupcake, Allison was a wrapped candy and Philip was a donut.

We all had a super fun time playing the game! We played Monopoly until 1am. Philip came to a point in the game where he owed me $600 for landing on my property (I had 2 houses on my property) He was going to go bankrupt or had to sell ALL his property. All of a sudden he became "tired" and wanted to go to bed. All in fun though, that was okay. It was 1am and Philip did have to go to work in a few hours! Can't wait until our next family game night!!

Little Business Lady!

Last week Allison finally got one of her wishes. A lot of children had lemonade stands around our neighborhood. Allison wanted to sell something different than all the other kids. She thought of things that kids really like to eat. Allison came up with the idea to sell pickles and cookies. I took her to the commissary. Allison picked out a big jar of huge dill pickles and a package of chocolate chip cookies. Allison bought the pickles and cookies with her allowance. She also bought small ziplock bags. We came home and put one pickle in each ziplock bag. We also put 2 cookies into one ziplock bag. Together Allison and I did some math together. We figured if she sold every pickle in the jar for 50 cents each she would make a profit of $5. We also figured if she sold a bag of 2 cookies for 25 cents each she would make a profit of $3.
Philip drove around our neighborhood, looking for an old table. He also went to the recycling center. Philip found an old, small bookshelf. I filled a small cooler with ice from our freezer and we put the pickles in the cooler. Allison made a cute sign for her stand. She placed her pickle/cookie stand in the shade, and on the sidewalk of one of the busiest street in our neighborhood. Her stand was also across the street from the recycling center. Its all about location, location, location!

Allison did a pretty good job selling cookies and pickles. She came home with $4! She had a lot of fun! Now Allison would like to have a picnic outside with a few of her girlfriends. So we are working on the details of Allison's picnic!

Weekend Fun!

Our family was invited to help celebrate our little friend's 4th birthday on Saturday. It was a super cute party. The kids had fun jumping in the bounce house and playing on the playground. Everyone made dump trucks out of twinkies, mini oreos, frosting, and crushed gram crackers. Happy Birthday, Jackson!

Sunday evening Philip and I took Moriah to one of the many parks in our neighborhood. Allison came along (Joslyn was out playing with her friends).

Wonderful & Amazing Summer Vacation of 2010!

We just returned from a wonderful vacation aboard the Costa Fortuna Cruise ship! Our summer vacation began on Saturday June 26th when we left our home and drove to Frankfurt Hahn. We spent the night at a nice hotel in Frankfurt Hahn. Sunday morning (June 27th) we boarded our plane on Ryan Air (a European airline) and flew to Treviso Airport. Once we landed in Treviso, we collected our luggage and boarded a shuttle bus to Venice, Italy. Once in Venice we found the Bread and Breakfast where we would spend the night. Joslyn, Philip and Allison changed into fancy clothes and took a water taxi to the opera house, Teatro La Fenice to see Giro Di Vite in Italian. Moriah and I sat down at a restaurant along side one of the canals and shared a pizza. Once Philip, and the girls returned from the opera and shared their experience with me, we all went to have dinner, explore some of Venice and had ice cream. We had a nice night in our hotel and we all slept well.
Monday afternoon (June 28) we all went to a resturant in Venice to have lunch before we boarded the Costa Fortuna Cruise ship.

We were so excited to board the Costa Fortuna Cruise ship and make it our home for the next 7 days!

After Philip, the girls and I settled into our room we went to explore a bit of the ship. We went out onto the deck and saw Venice from the ship. We took the girls swimming for a bit. Our Cabin Stewart gave us an itinerary of the evening events aboard the ship. We were also given information about the restaurant that we would eat at every night while on the ship. The restaurant we ate dinner at every night was The Michelangelo Restaurant. (The ceiling in the restaurant was a replica painting of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel)We would have the same waiter every night. We would also have the same assistant waiter every night. Our assistant waiter would bring our drinks to us.
Every night at around 10pm our Cabin Stewart would deliver a daily paper titled Today to our room. The Today paper was an itinerary of the daily events, hour by hour, that would happen on the ship the next day. The Today paper also gave us the weather and time expected to be at our next days' destination. We were also given the time that the ship would leave the port of the city we were to visit. I carried our daily Today paper every where.
Tuesday morning we woke up in Bari, Italy (June 29th). Our ship took us from Venice, Italy to the bottom of the "boot". We had breakfast in our room before we headed out to explore Bari. (every evening we also received a menu with breakfast items for the next morning. We checked the items we wanted and how many of that item we wanted and hung the order/ menu form on the outside of our cabin door.)
Wednesday (June 30th) we went to Olympia, Greece however Philip was not feeling well at all so we stayed on the ship. The girls and I spent most of the day at the pool.
Thursday (July 1st) we arrived in the bay of Santorini, Greece!

Santorini, Greece is so beautiful! I absolutely love Santorini. The people are so sweet and the food is delicious! After visiting Santorini I know my 3rd favorite place in the world! #1 is San Antonio of course. My family is there and that will ALWAYS be my home! California is #2. I love CA. I love the weather, the beaches, the cold lakes, rivers, (unlike TX the bodies of water are actually cold and will cool you off on a hot day) mountains and of course most of my extended family lives there! Now #3 is Santorini, Greece!
After we did some sight seeing in Santorini we had to be on the ship before 12pm. The ship was leaving Santorini at 12pm. We only had about 2 hours on the ship before our ship docked in Mykonos, Greece. Mykonos, Greece is a very beautiful city too. I think Mykonos is a more modern city than Santorini. We saw windmills and the beautiful beach in Mykonos! We also witnessed an amazing sunset while we were in Mykonos!

On Friday (July 2nd) we stopped in Rhodes, Greece. We walked to the "New City" of Rhodes and saw the place where it is believed that The Colossus of Rhodes stood (at the entrance of the harbor) It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

We also had a fun and educational experience as we walked through the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes which is in the medieval building of the Hospital of the Knights.

It was a great experience for the whole family!
Saturday (July 3rd) was our last stop. Our cruise ship took us took the country of Croatia. We visited a city called Dubrovnik. It was beautiful. We walked along the city wall of Dubrovnik. The view from the high city walls was amazing! The sea is so blue and so pretty!

Sunday (July 4th) we spent the entire day at sea which for our family meant an entire day at the pool! We had lunch poolside and Moriah had a nice long nap in the shade close to the pool. Our family was invited by some of the Costa Cruise staff to one of the party rooms on the ship. We celebrated the 4th of July with about 10 other American families on the ship. We were served glasses of champagne and the kids were served glasses of punch. We were also served delicious hors d'oeuvres. There was a cake as well!

Bright and early Monday (July 5th) morning we woke up back in the port of Venice, Italy! Our family along with the other guests disembarked the ship. Our vacation however was not over yet! We said good bye to what was our home for the last week and made our way to a beautiful in Venice!

We did a lot more exploring in Venice. We went to San Marco Square, Rialto Bridge,  and of course rode a Gondola down the canals of Venice and through the Grand Canal of Venice! We had delicious Italian pizza, and did a lot of souvenir shopping as well!

Tuesday night at 10pm (July 6) we flew out of Treviso Airport and said good bye to Venice, Italy. We arrived in Frankfurt Hahn aound midnight and drove to a small town a few miles from Hahn. We were exhausted! Early Wednesday morning (July 7th) we ate breakfast at the hotel and then drove back to our home in Schweinfurt! We all had a WONDERFUL summer vacation!!!