Lindsay - 5 Things I'm Fearful of

Ok, so the phrase "...but mommy I'm scared of _____." was a phrase I used a lot as a kid! However, as I grew up I learned that I didn't need to be afraid because Jesus was always with me. (Right now you should look up Isaiah 41:10 and read it for yourself. I love you). I've found, even though I'm only 26, that what you're afraid of changes throughout your life, yet follows the same theme or pattern. So I'm going to break it down into categories and maybe go into some detail of different times in my life when that specific fear was more prevalent.

1. FEAR OF LOSS
This is by far my biggest and most selfish fear. When I was living at home, my biggest fear was losing my parents. I'm sure that may be one of your fears too. If I lost them, who would take care of me? When I got married, I was afraid of losing your dad to some type of accident at work or when he was driving to and from faraway jobs. Family means so much, that to lose people you love with all your heart is something that would break mine into a million-gabillion pieces!

2. FEAR OF LOVED ONES NOT BEING SAVED, AND SPENDING ETERNITY IN HELL
As I grow up, this one is more and more realistic because I can grasp a little more each day how real eternity is. My prayer for you is that you would love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Your dad and I will do our best to raise you in the ways of the Lord so that your eternity will be one that is spent with your heavenly Father.

3. FEAR OF FAILING
I'm a perfectionist, as I'm sure you've figured out, and you may have inherited a little bit of perfectionism from your dad as well. Sorry guys! This lovely character trait may get the best of you at times, but know that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, and we're all sinking in an ocean of grace and mercy!

4. FEAR OF LOVED ONES BEING HURT
This one is pretty self explanatory. No one likes to be hurt or see other get hurt, especially if you love them. So use your words carefully, and know that your actions speak loudly. "Hurting people hurt people." I hope that you know you are loved so that you can only love others. Let your lights shine!

5. FEAR OF ACCEPTANCE
This will be a big deal when you enter the school arena. We all want to be accepted. It's just in our human nature. The problem is, we should really only concern ourselves with pleasing the Lord and doing what is favorable in his sight. But, the world gets the best of us, and we end up doing stupid things to gain the acceptance of people. In the end, the only thing that will matter is if you lived a Godly life. I'll talk to you about the stupid choices I made when you get to your teenage and high school years. I hope you won't have to deal with this fear, and that you may be a confident child of God who knows that your identity is in Christ alone!

6. FEAR OF STINK BUG ATTACK/PLAGUE
Yes, these stinky creatures have invaded our lives. Hopefully the razorbacks will be extinct by the time you're old enough to read this. I would hold you in my arms and run around screaming as the bugs dive-bombed and helicoptered around our heads. The only way to kill them...toilet death. One, sometimes two, flushes is all it takes, and they're gone - into the deep dark deathly sewer where they belong.

I know these are pretty deep and heavy things...well except fear #6. I'm a super, deep thinker. Believe me, I wish I could say I was really afraid of spiders or something like that. Oh, I did forget one, SNAKES! UGH! The grossest creatures on earth! And don't try to be funny and hide a fake one in my bed like your uncles did when they were younger! I love you forever.

CARRIE- Tell about your house growing up. what was your favorite part and least fav part

hi kiddos.
i told myself i would let fate decide what question i would answer each week.
but then fate was being all deep and thoughtful and was trying to ask me questions like
"what are your three worst qualities?" or "what do people think of you when they first meet you?"
so yea.
sorry fate. i think i would like to start with a question that has a bit more fluff if you don't mind.
so houses it is!
i grew up in a few houses.
no, i grew up in ALOT of houses.
my parents divorced when i was 2 or 3 and neither of them seemed to like to stay put.
one time i sat down and figured out that my sister and i had lived in 18 different houses/apartments/rooms at a friends house/trailer (thats right, a trailer).
but my dad did settle into a house when i was in junior high and is still there to this day.
i love this house.
i loved the house even when we first walked through it.
even though it had been abandoned for years leaving the pool covered in slime and dead leaves, and the grass as tall as my shoulders. even though it smelled foul and had carpet that i think was beige at one time, but was so covered in dirt and stains i could have been totally off on that.
it had 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms, and that fabulous green swampy pool.
it was the first house that felt like a home.
we cleaned the place up and moved in.
our house was the place to hang out. we had more bbq's with friends and family then i can even remember.
my favorite part of the house was the pool and spa.
your auntie kellie and i spend many a summer day (and many a school day) in that pool with our friends.
your grandpa paly was quite the softy for his girls, and we pretty much did whatever we wanted.
well, within reason.
he had rules for us, but he always treated us like adults as well. as long as we kept our grades up and did well in school, he saw nothing wrong with us taking days off to swim and be with our friends.
he is a great dad.
and hes a great grandpa paly too.
my other favorite thing about our house growing up was the smell of the orange blossoms.
we had a few orange trees growing on the side of our house and when the flowers would bloom it would give off the most amazing smell.
whenever i would be away from a trip i would always look forward to coming to my house. every time i stepped onto my front porch i would say to my dad "smells like home."
my parents remodeled the house a few years ago,
and in doing so had to tear out the orange trees.
he knew how much i loved the smell of them,
the smell of home,
and he looked into trying to have one of them replanted but it was way too spendy.
but i love him for trying.
i cant really say i have a least favorite part of that house.
im so glad my parents still live there and that i can come home to that familiar place where i grew up and where so many memories are stored.

im glad that you all get to enjoy it as much as i did growing up.

here are you girls with your cousins levi and tytus on the porch of the house i grew up in.

and here you guys are enjoying the pool :)

Danielle - Describe your 1st REAL date

Tell about your first "real" date. Who was it with? Where did you go? How old were you?

January 6, 2011

My first "real" date was with your dad. We started "going out" (at least that is what we called it when we were in high school) in October 1997 which was our Sophomore year of High School. My parents would not let me go out on a date until I turned 16 (which was May 1998) so we had to do group dates or hang out at our houses in order to spend time together. At that time, I thought it was awful that my parents would not let me go out on a date and counted down the days until I would turn 16. Now I realize why they had that rule and I hate to tell you but the same will be for you! (Maybe even older!!)

The Saturday after my 16th birthday was when we went on our first "real" date and your dad planned it all. I could hardly wait. It seems like forever ago now but at the time it felt like it couldn't come soon enough. I was finally allowed to go out on a date without parents or friends driving us around. Your dad picked me up at my house in his parent's light blue '91 Grand Prix similar to the one below. This was a big deal since part of his driving agreement was his parents was that he couldn't drive anyone in his car alone until after school was out for the summer.

Why didn't he pick me up in his car? Well your dad had a '86 Grand Am similar to the next picture. I wouldn't say that your dad had an awesome car but it did get him from place to place. I think your grandparents wanted to make our date special and didn't want your dad to worry about his car potentially breaking down along the way.

 

The first stop on our date was to the Hagerstown Park for a picnic lunch. We got to sit and talk on a beautiful May day. Later that day we went to the theaters to see the movie, "Deep Impact." Not a good movie at all but that didn't matter since it was our 1st date. Another fun thing about our first date was that we had the same "1st date" when your dad asked me out to see if we could get back together after breaking up for 6 months. (I am sure there will be more about this at a later time.)

I realize that usually someone has a first date with one of many boys that come and go through high school and college and that my story is not the typical story. I am happy that my first date was with your dad and it is something that we both shared together. Please don't expect this to be the same for you (even though it is possible). My hope for you is that your 1st date will be a special time with a sweet significant other. Choose wisely kids because your heart is something precious!

Meghan: What did I Want To Be Growing Up

As a child, what did you most want to be when you grew up? Did you end up doing this? Why or why not?
January 5th, 2011


My obsession growing up was animals, more specifically, dolphins and whales. I loved being outside, nature, animals and all the fun things you could explore and do outside. But by late elementary school I constantly talked about dolphins and whales, to the point that one Christmas I remember getting just books upon books on these amazing creatures! I would sit, read and look at pictures for hours. Eventually I got the idea in my head that one day when I grew up I wanted desperately to be a dolphin trainer. My favorite place to go was the Baltimore aquarium and watch the trainers interact with the dolphins. Even after graduating high school, my parents took Dwayne and I on a trip to Florida in which one of our days was spent at Sea World. I ,of course, only wanted to go to see the Shamu show, but convincing Dwayne was another story. He would only go if I went on the roller coaster which consisted of several loops. If you know me, I'm not much of a ride kind of gal because I get horrible headaches after they are over. This day was no different and I remember going on the roller coaster and having the worst headache afterwards(especially since the temperature that day was around 95 degrees) but I didn't care. In my mind, I'd earned the right to watch the Shamu show!

I obviously, living in Lancaster, Pa, am not a dolphin trainer. I think one of the biggest drawbacks was always that there was nowhere close by to pursue this dream of mine. I am a homebody and couldn't imagine moving away. Still to this day I do love these animals. As a graduation present to one of best friends Lindsay I asked her if on our travels to Florida if she would go to Discovery Cove with me to swim with the dolphins. She of course said yes and so we did! The experience was one I will always treasure and I would swim again with them in a heartbeat if given the chance.

Lindsay - Siblings and Growing Up

"Talk about your siblings and growing up. Were you friends, enemies? Did you have any special games or activities you shared together?"

January 4th, 2011

This question could be an entire blog! I have so many memories of games I played with my siblings, your uncles and aunt. We grew up on a farm, and that made a huge difference in our childhood. We had a lot of room to roam and would often create imaginary kingdoms. At my grandparents' farm, Uncle Chad and I created Quicksand Land. It was by a creek, and we literally lost shoes in the sand surrounding the creek. We would jump from rock to rock, pretending a horrible creature was following us. Once we got to the "bridge" we were safe! We spent a ton of time in Quicksand Land!

Uncle Chad

Aunt Maddie

Uncle Ev

Let me introduce you to your aunt and uncles as I know them: Uncle Chad is currently 20 and works for a landscaping business, Uncle Evan, 18 is in HS, and Aunt Maddie, 16 is soon going to get her license. For the most part, we were friends, but there was an occasional sibling rivalry that would occur. One time, Uncle Chad thought it would be funny to trip me when I was roller-blading down our walkway. Well, he ended up falling and breaking his arm! Maybe he was trying to pay me back for the time my mom walked out of the room for two minutes and I accidentally let Uncle Chad roll off the couch as an infant. Oops! Of course when Gigi walked back in the room I asked her, "Can a baby have brain damage if they roll off the couch?" I never was too good at hiding things from my parents. Uncle Chad and Uncle Ev were known to chase me around with large toads in their hands, and spent a lot of time catching and playing with frogs in the feed trough. When Uncle Evan was born, I went into the hospital room to meet my new sibling, found out it was a boy, and stomped right back out into the hallway where I continued to cry. I wanted a sister so bad and a baby brother just would not do! So, when my sister surprisingly appeared in our family, I was given the privilege to name her, Madison Jenae. Aunt Maddie is the polar opposite of me. She's outgoing, fearless, lives life to the fullest, and is a gorgeous little Blondie. I remember taking her to see the band Zoegirl for her birthday one year. We had so much fun getting as close to the stage as possible. She was so tiny, I didn't want to lose her! Her little blond ponytail was how I always kept track of her. She was like Pebbles from the Flinstones. She cracked me up, and still does!

Farm kids tend to have more opportunities to get into trouble than most kids. We would race wagons down the paved driveway (not too smart), jump up and down on the 2x4 as Dad drove the tobacco wagon, play in the hay mound, build forts and houses using hay bails, ride our bikes up and down the barn as Paw-Paw and Great- Grandpa Shertzer milked the cows, and of course have a Hershey's chocolate milk box (do they still make these) to end our day. We loved catching lightning bugs at night and playing freeze tag with our parents. During the winter we'd sleep over at Great - Grandma and Grandpa Martin's house and play Marbles, Uno or Old Maid accompanied by an ice cream party of course! It's hard for me to remember anything negative about my brothers and sister. The only bad times were the many runs to the emergency room for one of us getting hurt, and that was usually guess who, Uncle Chad.

Thankfully, we're all still very close and I think I'm safe to say that any of us would do anything for each other. When one of us is hurting, so are the other three. When one of us accomplishes something, we're all happy for them. I look forward to all the memories we'll make in the years to come. I hope that you, as siblings, can enjoy the same friendship with each other that I did with your Aunt and Uncles. Love you forever!

HOLLY - Difference between my childhood and my daughters.

“What is the biggest difference between your life as a child and your kids’ lives now growing up?”

January 4th, 2011

I think this is one of those ironic questions. I mean when I think about my life as a child, and then looks at my daughters’ lives now- everything seems different, and yet, everything seems the same too. The most obvious difference between our childhoods would definitely be the advancement of technology. I don’t even know if there were computers when I was 3 and 5, and if there were, they certainly weren’t in people’s homes to be played with. I don’t remember ever having any sort of contact with a computer until I was in 5th grade (so about 10 years old), now my girls daily play with our computers (much to my husband Anthony’s dismay). Of course, along with the whole computer thing comes the internet as well. I think I was probably a junior in high school before I even started playing around on the internet and using things like instant messenger, and now, the whole world is on the internet, and it is almost an unavoidable part of daily life. My girls know how to get on the internet, go to the favorites and pull up the websites that my husband and I allow them to play on. They know how to work iPhones, and CD players, and mp3 players without really giving it much thought. It is a definite that technology will certainly play a much larger part of my girls’ lives growing up than it did in mine. They won’t pass notes in the hallway, they will text. They won’t have pen pals, they will email or skype. They won’t lug around huge photo albums (like their mama did) to school each week to display new photos, they will upload them to facebook (or something similar). They won’t wait around sitting by the radio waiting for their favorite song to come on so they could record it onto a tape (they don’t even know what tapes are, and have never seen one to my knowledge)- they will purchase it from iTunes or Amazon and listen to it instantly on their little mp3 players. There is no doubt that technology has made life so much simpler, but not necessarily safer. I do, in fact, dread to think about what my girls will be facing once they get to middle and high school.

However, I did say that everything seems to be the same, too, between our lives growing up. What I mean is that, every single day, at some point, my daughters use imaginative play. This means, no TV, no computer, no hand held video games or learning systems, just them and their little imaginations. Or, I should say BIG imaginations, because even I am impressed sometimes at what they come up with! I see myself in my daughters, especially Eden, when they start using their imaginations. I was VERY much a “make believer” when I was growing up. My absolute favorite things to play were restaurant and school. I would play these things for hours, by myself (as I grew up with a brother who wasn’t so much into imaginative play). I would be the teacher to a handful of stuffed animals, and give full out lectures and examples on my small chalkboard easel. I would listen for their made up responses in my mind, and then even reply! I was very good at talking to and with myself growing up, and I see Eden do this from time to time as well. They are very good at make believe, and even do some of the same things that I did as a kid. I love to see them make forts (even though it means destroying our sofa cushions) I love watching them have tea parties in the bath tub, making soup out of blocks and plastic containers. I love watching them dress up and pretend to be Taylor Swift and have concerts in their bedroom.

My daughters have this amazing wooden kitchen (which I would have died to have when I was growing up) so one day I said, “let’s play restaurant” and I showed them how I would have played when I was little. With them taking turns being the waitress and getting orders and making food. The problem with 2 of them is that of course they BOTH wanted to be the waitress, and had some trouble taking turns, whereas when I was playing by myself growing up, I didn’t have to worry about that. I was always the waitress. This would be another thing that is different between our childhoods. As I grew up with a younger brother (3 years difference), and although we played together sometimes, usually we were on our own, with our own activities we enjoyed. I am so thankful to have 2 girls who are fairly close in age that will have each other to rely on as they grow up. Now they have a constant playmate and friend, as they get older, I pray they will see each other as companions and confidants -someone to always talk to, or cry with, or pray with. I know they will not always see how fortunate they are to have each other, but someday they will realize what a blessing it was to have such a close sister and friend.

Even in today’s age where there are so many distractions, not just for kiddos, but for us adults as well, it is very refreshing to see my girls still choose to use their imaginations to have fun. I can only hope, and certainly pray, that as they get older, and there are more and more distractions thrown their way, and choices become more difficult to make,that they will choose to remain simple, and innocent and try to keep things as uncomplicated as possible.

Lauren: Favorite Game/Toy as a Child

What was your favorite game or toy as a child?
January 2, 2011

To fully disclose each and every one of my favorite toys and games of childhood would take lots of time and lots of writing space. As you will come to find out "favorite" is such a relative term. I don't have many favorites today (at 28 years old) that were also my favorites at two years old.

Apparently, there was a time during the baby food stage of my life that I enjoyed bananas. They are definitely not a favorite today. Not even a "like." The same can be said about my favorite childhood games and toys. Few were enduring and still remain as favorites today - but most were temporary preferences and so I had MANY of them. Still there are a few that come to mind.

GAMES:

SPIT - Spit is a two person card game. It is fast paced and fun. I spent at least two pre-teen summers completely addicted to that game. My siblings also loved to play which, of course, fueled the addiction.

MONOPOLY - This is still a favorite of mine TODAY. (Not that your Dad will ever play it with me. I beat him once and now he refuses to revisit the "scene of the crime.") I have always loved Monopoly. A tiny silver shoe, dice that always seem to be in my favor, $200 for taking a walk around the block, chance and community chest - what's not to love? When I was a kid Monopoly was played with paper money - now the bank is entirely electronic.



ANY WORD GAME - Boggle, Scattegories, etc. If it required words and a timer I was IN.

TOYS:

TALKGIRL - Talkgirl was this little handheld recorder/music player with an attached microphone. I loved that thing. Holly and I spent lots of time recording funny commentary over popular songs and playing them back while we peed our pants with laughter. I wish I still had some of those tapes. Our "greatest hits" included new renditions of Hotel California (by Eagles) and No Rain (by Blind Melon).


MR BEEPS - You know Mr. Beeps. Now he is your cute teddy bear with the beeping nose but at one time, he was mine. He looks so good for being so old, doesn't he?

MAGAZINES - Yes, I considered magazines a toy as a child - or more like a craft. I spent at least 60% of my childhood looking at magazine ads, photography and words, cutting things out, creating collages, and making art. Much of the art ended up on my bedroom wall and by the time that I graduated high school the wall could no longer be seen. My bedroom was one big collage.

ART SUPPLIES - I have always loved to paint, draw, color and create.