Summer Fun!

Oh to be a kid again! The children got tired of the pool today so I hooked up the sprinkler for them and what fun they had running thru that. Colby and Keara especially! I have spent my day inside stuck in my kitchen baking. I have done 4 loaves of zucchini bread with 2 more ready to go into the oven and I am making zucchini lasagna for dinner tonight. I am wiped out and tired of my kitchen and baking. But it should be good (I hope anyway). Enjoy the pics of the kids!

Cathi









My sun birds!! How I remember spending my summer working on my tan! Now I could care less ;)


The look on that boy's face is priceless!!!!! :0)

She's back (PTL)!!

My baby came home from camp today! Let me tell you it has been one interesting week. I never realized all the things that Briana did for me during the day and how much of a help she is to me daily. I have realized also that I have taken my oldest for granted. Reflections and humbling to say the least. I will never take the things that she does for me for granted (okay I am going to try and not take her for granted). When I picked her up she gave all the highlights of the week and of course all the boys that she met while there. It was good to hear of the highlights and how much fun she had. She is already talking camp next year and all the girls claimed their bunks for next year before they left today. It is fun to listen to her. She is growing up so fast and it brings tears to my eyes. It has been an emotional week for me but like I told a friend in an email it has been a week from HELL!!!! And I think thats where alot of my emotions have come from also. But also in those emotional moments God has shown me that He is right there helping me to see Him in those dark times. His grace and love are sufficient for me and I need to rest in that daily. I am reading the book of Exodus (at the urging of another blog that I read daily) and I am learning much from the life of Moses. I want to have the kind of faith that he had. I love my Lord with all my heart and want to lead the kind of life that He expects from me but some days that is hard and the enemy has a way of playing with my mind and letting doubts in. I need to learn to not listen to those doubts and insecurities. I need to rest and be comforted by my Redeemer. Mikayla is having a birthday party tonight and then I am having coffee with some gals from church tomorrow and Sunday is a busy day for us so I will probably not post again until next week. Have a WONDERFUL weekend and keep Christ close daily! I love you all!

Cathi

Acronym for Christian Growth

I found this today (I have seen it before) and I wanted to post it here. I will have this up on my frig. It is a daily reminder of how I am to live my life for Christ. I have gotten back to the basics in my life and what a difference it has made. Back to the basics are: praying daily and opening God's word daily. WOW! The effects those two things alone can have on one's life and the changes that can occur. Amazing! But then again it never ceases to amaze me what God can do in my life and the lives of those around me. Strive daily to make Him first in all you do and the rest will fall into place!

G Go to God in prayer daily (John 15:7)

R Read God's word daily (Acts 17:11); begin with the Gospel of John

O Obey God moment by moment (John 14:21)

W Witness for Christ by your life and words (Matthew 4:19; John 15:8)

T Trust God for every detail of your life (1 Peter 5:7)

H Holy Spirit - allow Him to control and empower your daily life and witness (Galations 5:16,17; Acts 1:8)

Have a blessed Thursday and may God greatly bless you today!

Cathi

She's off!

***Written 7/21/08 posted 7/22/08******


And about 1/2 her bedroom with her. Whom am I talking about? Well Briana of course! She left for church camp yesterday and won't return home until Friday afternoon! She was very excited and had a hard time sleeping Saturday night. She has been looking forward to this since church camp got over with last year! I am excited for her as I never experienced church camp as a teenager! Here are a couple of pics we took before we dropped her off at a friends house to make the journey to Swan Lake down in Viborg. She wasn't the only one who packed her bedroom! It is going to be a quiet week around here but one that I think will be good for all of us! Please pray for Briana this week. Pray for safety, pray for God to bring her closer to Him but most of all pray that He will change her heart in profound ways. She has accepted Christ as her personal Savior but I am hoping that camp will change some of her attitudes that she doesn't seem to want to let go of. Have a great week!

Cathi

Double Elimination!

Briana had her fast pitch softball tournament this past weekend and even though it didn't work out for them to win the championship they still faired well winning 3 out of 5 games. Her fist game was Friday night at 6pm and they won that one by a landslide so they played again at 7:30 and lost that game (it was a tough team with alot of older players and their pitcher was amazing)! We finished up Friday night around 8:30 and then made the made dash home to sleep fast and be back in Luvurne MN by 7:30 the next morning! They played their fist game at 8:00am and won and played at 9:30 and won that one and played their last game at 11:15 but unfornately lost thay game to another good team! All the girls played their hearts out and I think walked away with a great experience. They had 2 young coaches (who are also cousins) so I think that helped a little bit! Next year Briana will move up to the A league which here in Garretson is the final league. She will only get to play 2 more years and then we will have to look into taking her back to Sioux Falls to join the leagues there. The pictures are from Friday night! Enjoy! and have a blessed week! I don't think I will be blogging much this week. There is alot going on in our lives right now and we are just trying to find our way. There is conflict in our church that is affecting our family so am hoping something will change in that department, we are suppose to have a meeting this Friday with our pastor so I am hoping something will change. I will not be able to attend that because we promised Mikayla weeks ago that she could have her birthday party this Friday so I will stay behind to man our house and a bunch of 8 year old girls (that could be interesting). Anyway....have a wonderful week!

Cathi

Colby

He is learning how to ride his bike now. He has been wanting to learn since we got back from camping. So Briana and I took his training wheels off this morning and him and Briana have been practicing. She taught Mikayla how to ride her bike, I know she can teach Colby how to ride. Here are some pics from this morning and them practicing. It is amazing how fast they grow up seems like just yesterday he was a baby! They are enjoying our pool today after a day at the local swimming pool yesterday. I didn't feel like driving into town today so I told them that they would have to settle for our little pool at home if they wanted to swim. Well they were okay with that if it meant they got to swim. My little fish! Anyway...here are the pictures, enjoy!

;-)

More pics from Mikayla's day!

Singing Happy Birthday! She loves the spotlight :)

Getting ready to have a fire and roast marshmallows! Her favorite thing to do!

Roasting her marshmallows for her SMORE! Our family loves SMORES!!!!

She looks a little mad in this picture and seems ready to poke me with her stick!

Still not very happy looking! Really not sure why! Maybe because her day was almost over with and it was close to bedtime! The dreaded bedtime!

Pictures

Here are the pictures that I promised. Enjoy!! :-)

Her new PureNRG CD (teen group that are Christian singers can't go wrong there)


Her new "pocket" bible that she has been asking for for about a year now. (I think it was a hit)!


Her new sandles for church (can you tell she LOVES them?)


Her #8 Precious Moment that she gets every year from her grandparents


The necklace that her grandparents gave her.


She really had a good day! She got to do pretty much everything that she wanted to except swim (she was too tired) and go for a 4 wheeler ride (we ran out of time), I will post another entry with more pics from her special day! As she said, she wishes that everyday was her birthday, I told her then it wouldn't be so special if it was everyday! She didn't care, she still wanted it everyday! Have a good day!

Cathi

God is GOOD!!!!

After calling around for an altenator this afternoon I was to the point of frustration because of the prices and their "warrenties" some 2 years and others 3 years. WHAT KIND OF WARRENTY IS THAT?????? So I called our local salvage yard, which thankfully is located approx. 2 miles from us on the same road as we live on (what can be better than that?) and they have several altenators. Their price is $60 with a LIFETIME warrenty! Now I know you are all thinking that we are crazy for going to a salvage yard for a part but with a lifetime warrenty what do we have to lose? And besides $60 is alot more affordable to us than $200. So my wonderful husband had already pulled the altenator from the van last night (which was unbeknowst to me) and is going to stop at Nordstrom's and get our altenator tonight! Which means that my van could be up and running by TONIGHT!!!!!!! CAN YOU FEEL MY EXCITEMENT???????? I just knew that if I left it up to God that He would provide! We knew that a different van was out of the question as money is very tight for us at this moment. So I am elated that I am going to get my van back up and running at a very reasonable price! WHOO-HOO!!!! ANYWAY.....I better get some stuff done we were gone all morning and since we have been home I have been on the phone calling different places. So I must go and get my groceries put away and get ready for Briana's softball practice at 5pm. I am going to the track and walk. I need to get into that more. It is very hot here today (and when I mean hot, I actually mean humid) so we are hanging out inside for the afternoon. Finally starting to feel like summer around here! Anyway...have a great Monday, it is a FABULOUS Monday around the Bottelberghe household! I will try and get some pics posted from Mikayla's bday soon! Until then take care!

Cathi

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

To my sweet little girl (although she is no longer so little) :-)! Mikayla is 8 today and she is wiped out from an evening of friends, food and fireworks (look at her hair)! She was up LATE last night so she is really not in a "party" mood! She is hoping for the wind to die down so she can have a camp fire tonight and enjoy the rest of her birthday! Mikayla have a wonderful birthday and know that I love you to heaven and back. Keep Christ in your heart (as I know you do daily) and follow His way and your life will be abundant! Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful 4th of July! We sure did! Have a great holiday weekend!

Cathi

****update on the van situation......Roger (Jason's dad) said that more than likely it is the altenator, so after van shopping today we are just going to fix our van for the time being and hope that this is the last major expense we have with it until our financial situation gets a little better! Thanks for the prayers!

Prayer Request

what better way than on my blog to get people to pray for us right now. We are having a minor (okay major) set back right now. The van quit running today when I was in Sioux Falls no less and at the gas station when I just finished filling up the tank. Needless to say I am up in arms and totally frustrated! This vehicle is our only mode of transportation when we are all together (Jason does have a company vehicle that will carry us all but we don't want to rely on that). I don't know what to do. We are not sure what is wrong with it or even how much it would cost to fix. Jason seems to think it is electrical. The van has 111,000 miles on it. When does the time come when you suck it up, throw your hands in the air and say fine it is time for a different vehicle! Money is so tight right now that our budget squeaks. But we HAVE to do something. So what I am asking of you all is for prayers. Blanket us in prayers. That God will give us the wisdom and the discernment on what we should do. I have cried a lot today and it is totally frustrating! So please pray for us. God will eventually lead us in the right direction. I just don't want to jump the gun quite yet. So if any of you know of a mechanic that could help us out and come look at the stupid thing that would be GREAT! It is at home only because we had it hauled home. So there you have it! I must end as I hear my oven beating at me. Better get off my computer before my 4th of July cupcakes burn! Enjoy the 4th tomorrow! I will keep you all posted!

Cathi