What were you doing?!!

So, I had to share this with all of you. A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching my older kids Social Studies and I had Elijah and Kalin playing with blocks in Elijah and Ian's room. Well, then about 15 min. later I realize their being really good and almost to quiet [yea, you know what your thinking], so right when I decide to go see what their doing Elijah brings me my camera, my brand new digital camera. And then he says to me, "Mommy, i took pictures!" I'm thinking, Oh no, did he break my camera, so I start scrolling through the pictures and what do I find.......... KALIN PLAYING WITH SCISSORS!! Woa, what were you two doing. He took all kinds of pictures of her trying to figure out how to use the scissors. Granted they were safety scissors but it still freaked me out. Whats next Kalin playing with a butcher knife! HA!HA! Anyways, so here are the pictures I found that day. O, by the way it is a mystery to me how my kids keep ended up with the scissors, if you remember this is not my first story on here that involved scissors. anyhow... enjoy they will make you laugh!

My long lost friend

When I was 12 I met my friend Amanda. She was crazy and a lot of fun to be around. I'll never forgot we were hanging out at youth group at she says to me you wanna be my best friend or something?! I said sure, why not, and here begins our story. We talked on the phone for hours everyday we were always together. She had a really hard life things I will not share, that is her story. Anyway when we were 15 she ran away from home. So from that point to this point, we have always found eachother. Her brother passed away in 2002, he was my husbands best friend, so I grieved heavily for both of them. Her first born son was born at 20 weeks and could not survive. That was a horrible day. She was so heartbroken, she disappeared out of all of our lives. It has been 3 years since I had heard from her or seen her. In May of last year I got a phone call and sure enough it was her!!! She had another baby, born to early but survived and has no complications. She named her Madison. She just turned 2 yesterday. So. we drove way out there and got to spend a couple of hours together. We could not stop hugging eachother, I swear every 5 minutes one of us was grabbing the other one. I love that girl, and probably worry about her way to much. I hope that all her dreams come true, and she has a life full of love and joy from here on out.

The Shack

I read the book the Shack, and absolutely loved it. Probably one of the best books I've ever read. It opened my eyes and my heart a little more, okay a lot more. I almost felt like I gould relax and enjoy this life I've been given with my creator. So today, I looked up the author to find out a little more about him. This little journey led me to youtube, which led me to a ton of preachers totally hating this book. I was in shock. Every one of them took certain things in the book out of context. Not on them saw the beauty and freedom in this book. First , everyone of them threw a fit with God appearing as an Afircan American woman. First of all God is neither male nor female and in the book God tells him, I'm appearing to you in this way to basically get you out of your religious box and see me for me not for who you think I am. I totally loved that. God is our everything. He is at that time what we need him to be. To the fatherless their father, to the motherless their Mother, to the widow their Husband, he's our friend, our Lord, our shelter, our Love. Much later in the book God appears as a Father figure because thats what he will need. They forgot to mention that. These preachers remind me of the pharisies in the bible, when God shook up their world they didn't like, and sought to destroy Jesus. This book brought a breath of fresh air. It reminded me its all about Him, all about relationship with him and others around us. It breaks my heart that these people couldn't see that and felt the need to attack this man. It makes me wonder what kind of relationship these pastors have with God. Are they just about controlling their congregation so they do what they think is right. I pray God opens their eyes to see Him in a more loving more awsome picture, than we thought possible. God wants to share our daily lives with us, all day, He doesn't want to just be at the top of our to do list. Lets let Him in, and get to know His heart.

Our yard is on fire!!!

Spring is arriving! I love this time of year. I love when everything comes back to life, and everything is beautiful yet again. So, Saturday we decided to go to the Garden Center and get mulch and some flowers and come home and fix up our front yard. So we did, we came home and worked really hard on our front yard, it took hours. We raked the yard, bagged up all 10-12 bags of leaves, [I can't remember exactly how many now], and planted some new flowers. Sunday morning about 7:00 or 7:30, I faintly hear someone banging on my door. I jump up and go to see whats going on. When I opened the door it was a fireman, and smoke was everywhere in my front yard!! My first thought was, my house is on fire, and thier getting us out, and then I realized it was more towards the street. The bags of leaves were on fire! Apparently a neighbor called the fire department. The fireman begins asking me if we bagged up anything that could have caught fire, I said no just leaves, so they put it down as undetermined. I'm geussing someone diving by threw out a cigerette our something like that. Oh, and the fire apparently got very close to Mario's car. Yea, there's always excitement at the Quintanilla house. So, Mario made another trip to the garden center now that we had big black burn spot at the front of our yard. He brought some grass so all of our work didn't feel in vain. Well, there you have it another fun filled day!

Fight at our house, its a free show

I am absolutely fed up with fights. Everyday there seems to be a reason they have to get into it.If they're not yelling at one another, they're beating the crap out of eachother. Seriously. Maya gets really smartie pants with Emily. They literally get nose to nose and scream out their issues. Elijah gets so angry he gets red all over and will scream something like this,"You stupid idiot!" or "freak!" He learned all these wonderful words from his cousin. So he'll scream and scream, and if things aren't going his way, he resorts to kicking the crap out of them. Ian is physical, he starts swinging when he's mad our his feelings are hurt. Mario is a little bit of both, but overall he's a little more tame. So, it seems that everyday their is some kind of issue and I'm standing there watching and screaming, "what is going on?" Then you have to seperate them , figure out how it got started and deal with it. So, my question now is at what age do I let them duke it out. My brother said he was like 12 him and his cousin would get into it, and his cousin's parents would draw a circle in the dirt and tell them work it out. So, they would get in the "ring" and "work it out" and then afterwards have a beer. Wait he was 12 , yea, he was already drinking beer, anyway he says, you have to let them resolve it on their own minus the beer. I know one thing for sure I'm tired of being everybody's referee. Obviously my little ones have to be guided when they are upset, but my older I may just draw a ring in the dirt. Mario is always telling that this will never stop, I hope he is wrong. I hope I get a little more sanity the older they get.

Happy Birthday Elijah!

Today is Elijah's 4th birthday! He is getting to be such a big boy. He out of all of our kids has had the hardest time letting go of being a baby. Just recently he decided 4 is big so he has started to act bigger. He is such a cutie. He loves to hang with all the adults and be a part of the conversation. Especially at home group, he always has so much to tell everybody. He is pretty convinced he will be a T-Rex when he is grown up, or a speedracer! HA!HA! I love kids at this age. Funny thing I dreamt last night that i got to do his pregnancy all over again. I had him at 40 weeks and he was over 7 lbs. and healthy. The truth is in real life I had him at 37 weeks and he was a little over 5 lbs, and very sick. We didn't get to bring him home for 3 weeks. I geuss a part of me still harbors guilt. Anyway, he is quite alright now. He keeps you running. I am excited to watch him grow and become the man God wants him to be.