Married to a Pastor? I got your back!

For any of you that are pastor's wives or p.k's(pastor's kids) for that matter, you know all too well the feeling you get when you hear your husband start to tell a story about you for a sermon illustration. This one goes out to all my fellow pastor's wives (Inger, Lenore, Kir, Ing, Kathy, Suzanne, etc.) ............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY4khRpG8O8
(a parody on Carrie Underwood's 'Before He Cheats')

fresh mint+ sunshine= mojito time

I bought some mint the other day at the farmers market and just enjoyed my first mojito of the season on my deck tonight. It is a beautiful 70degree night here with the sun shining, the water glistening, and the mountains out. Very refreshing!

My Memorial Day Weekend Recap

1 campout in our basement

1 boat ride on the Nordic Dawg for ice cream

1 wiffle ball game

1 church kick ball game

1 family tennis match

1 farmers market

3 ultimate strength classes

2 fire pits with s'mores

1 baseball awards party

3 hamburgers

1 hot dog

1 chicken/apple dog ?

Lots of chips

5 BBQ's

Happy Memorial Day!

Viking Fest 2008

Lots of fun in Vikingland this weekend! Every year our town celebrates Norwegian Independece Day. It is a mixture of respectable traditions and an interesting traveling carnival. Of course, the kids love the carnival rides.

We had fun watching them for at least three hours of making themselves dizzy and running around with friends. The girls participated in a Fun Run, while Justus had a baseball game.

Greta also performed with the Norwegian dancers and she did such a great job there and at the parade the next day. As you can tell in the video, she was very hot after an hour of walking in 90degree weather. She was in heaven performing-it is a passion of hers, as all of you that know her can attest to.

Thanks for your prayers

Thanks for your prayers everyone! The testing on Thursday for Justus went well and he was such a tough guy with the bone scan and blood work. We just got a call from the doctor about an hour ago with the results and things look good. She was able to rule out Perthes disease, which they had thought it was. I am very glad it isn't that, because there would have been a lot of complications with the bone. It also looks like there is no tumor-thank you God! Basically, they were able to rule out things, but still not pin point what it is. His white and red blood counts are lower than normal and they are still waiting for more results to come in. The scan showed that his hip is inflamed though, so he is on some anti-inflammatory meds for the next 10 days and we will have another phone conference with her to mark what has been going on. At that time, she may refer us to another doctor depending on how Justus is doing and what the last blood tests reveal. Thanks for all your prayers and well wishes. It really helped me knowing all of you were thinking of us and praying. Justus also read some of them and I know it reassured him.

What's going on in our house these days....

Justus has been having pain in his leg for the last month and we have been going in and out of the doctor's office trying to figure this out. First we thought maybe he pulled a muscle in baseball, then growing pains, and then we found out that they thought one leg was longer than the other. Last week we went into Seattle to a pediatric orthopedic that told us that actually his legs looked the same length, but his hip was really tight. After another x-ray of the hip, she noticed it looked like blood wasn't getting to one of the hip bones. It could be a number of things still, but we are headed into Children's Hospital tomorrow for more blood tests and a bone scan. We would love any prayers we can get for Justus to feel at peace and be calm during the injection and scan, as well as the blood work. We would also prayer for quick answers, knowledgeable doctors, and of course healing! They are supposed to give us results next Monday, so we will let you know. Thanks in advance for your prayers for our our family!

Bedtime Rituals in the Jag home

Daron was putting the kids to bed recently and told them to go brush their teeth, put pj's on, and brush their bottoms. I don't know why he said the last part, but Justus laughed. I think it is guy humor. I gave him a weird look that probably involved some disrespectful eye rolling. A few minutes later we said we were ready to play a game if they hurried up. Ella proudly came in running to tell us that she did all three and she was the first one ready. I said, "What do you mean you did all three?!!!" She saw the horror and shock on my face and looked as though she was going to cry. Nervous about what this meant I very scaredly(new word) had her go and show me what she did. Yep, she followed directions all right! After she brushed her teeth, she brushed her bottom!!! With her toothbrush!!! I assured her I would buy a new toothbrush tomorrow and tossed it in the trash to her disbelief; it was brand new. Ella was still on the verge of tears and I could barely keep myself from falling over in my snorted laughter. I held it together though and gave her a hug and told her she was a good girl for following such awful directions from her father. I think we will have to wait on our sarcastic humor for awhile!

Interesting.........

So......Daron and I went out the other night. I was persuaded to dance. I acted like I didn't want to, but it was actually kind of fun. Our friends were playing that night; One Shot Molly, and I felt like a groupie. Unfortunately, someone took a picture of Daron and I that I wish was never taken. It was totally harmless, but now it is on the myspace for the band. Since the rest of the world is seeing it, I might as well invite my friends to check it out and see if you like how the camera distorts what was really happening. It is actually kind of funny embarrassing. And yes, to my brothers, it really was harmless and the camera manipulates reality(That's what she said). No, really, I promise! If you don't know what I am talking about, more power to you and ignore the entire post!

Any Amount Can Help...Be Part of the Equation!

Our agency that we are in the process of adopting from, Adoption Advocates International, is taking on an urgent project. An orphanage in Kasoa, Ghana that has referred children to our agency is in dire need. Their water is contaminated and the children are all getting sick with parasites from this contaminated water supply. The orphanage doesn't have much nutritious food left and we want to help take care of some of Ghana's orphaned children. It is so hard to hear of the kids being so sick and not being able to make meals because of contaminated water. Our agency sent their staff over today with $500 to buy groceries for the orphanage, but now they want to raise some money to drill a water borehole. If you can help in ANY way, it would make a difference. I would encourage you to pray about this and see if your family can give even $5 to this cause. How amazing would it be to see clean water be brought into this orphanage that has nothing!

If you decide to give, you can donate right on AAI's website. Click on the blue "Donate Now" button and where it asks what the money is specified for, and write in Ghana Water Borehole Project.

Thanks!

My Kind of Town!

I just got back from a great trip to the Windy City! I met up with some life-long girlfriends of mine(Heather, Lenore, Wilson), saw their hubbys and my great sister and brother in law (Kathy and Mark) and got to enjoy uninterrupted conversations without my kiddos(no offense Justus, Greta, and Ella). I did miss them terribly after a couple of days, but it was a trip that gave me lots of time for reflection, prayer, solitude, and fun! After a couple of days in the city, I headed out to my Grandma Eleanor's home and we got to have some special times together getting ready to bring her out to our area for the next month. Daron wins the best husband award for being a single parent for the last week! He had to be the shuttle all by himself while he brought the kids to school, baseball three times, ballet twice, Norwegian dancing, church, doctor appts......, I have the best husband!