Monday, December 31, 2007

Out with the Old.....In with the New

Goodbye 2007! I will not miss you. In reflection of the past year I will not be sorry to say goodbye and hope that 2008 brings more happiness and joy to the Rohr family. This has been a tough year. I won't elaborate on the negative things that happened but can tell you that I have a short list of events that made my year eventful in a good way! So here's my short list.....

In no particular order of importance.....


Trey graduated!!!


**Don & I went on an 8nt Caribbean Cruise with Royal Caribbean. One of our favorite vacations!


**We bought a Jeep this summer. The kids love it!


We took the girls to their first Cubs game!


**Bailey joined our family in March. (our great dog!!)


My small group of 8th grade girls is awesome!!! (not all pictured but they're still awesome!)
That's it for 2007! Here's to a new beginning in 2008! Happy New Year everyone!!!















Wednesday, December 26, 2007

The Aftermath.....



Well we made it through another holiday! The presents are all unwrapped and everyone needs a stomach pump for all the junk food that they consumed! My house looks like an atomic bomb went off. It's probably going to take another week to sort through all the "old" to find a place for the "new".


Besides all the food and presents it was genuinely nice to spend some quality time with all our relatives. Everyone is so busy anymore you just don't get these moments very often. We played games and watched movies, laughed, and just really enjoyed being with each other. What a nice change of pace!


This was our first Christmas with our dog Bailey and she was so funny to watch around the tree and the presents! We had some things wrapped up for her and she actually unwrapped them herself! Don cheated a bit by opening the bag of treats and leaving one between the wrapping paper and the bag so that she could smell it. After getting the first one open though she knew what she was supposed to do and she got all her snacks and toys unwrapped herself! It was pretty impressive.

The biggest "hit" with our family this year was the Wii system that we bought for the kids. Even the adults couldn't stop playing it yesterday. My favorite game (of course!) was tennis, Don liked the golf, Keri is a pro at bowling, and Katie pretty much likes them all! Trey was fun to watch when he did the boxing and he even smashed me at tennis! (He got lucky!!!) I think I must have played for at least 4 hours yesterday. Last night my arm hurt so bad that I could hardly sleep. I'm not kidding! I am really sore!!! I guess it is a pretty good workout!

So here ends another chapter, another year, another Christmas. Thank you God for all your blessings and all my family! Although I am now "poor" in the pocketbook, I am "rich" in love with such great family and friends!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Bah Humbug!!!


I am not in the Christmas spirit. Usually by this time I enjoy listening to the Christmas songs on the radio and look forward to shopping for my friends and family......I just can't get in the spirit this year! What I'd really like to do is take a long nap and someone can just wake me up when it's all over! The kids are at an age where everything they ask for is really expensive so they won't have many gifts to open and I can't seem to find gifts for those "hard to buy for" people in my life......I'm just about ready to buy gift certificates and say "forget it"! I'm being a real scrooge so I'm going to pray for my mood to change. If that doesn't work then someone needs to just give me a good kick in the butt!!!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Goofballs!


Ok...keeping up with the spirit of blogging once a month...here's another one! I really don't know how you people do it everyday!!!
This was one of the rare occasions that my girls were actually getting along. Seems like lately all they do is pick on each other and fight. I keep telling them that one day they will realize how much they love each other! I get the same reply everytime...."Gross!" How do you teach your children to appreciate each other? Someone needs to give me the secret formula!
My youngest, Keri, has shown me recently how big her heart is. We have been praying together at night and she is really starting to open up and is not afraid to really ask God for his help. She has been struggling with her fear of sleeping in her own room at night and praying "out loud" has really been helping her. She's also been praying for safety for our family. It's so cute to hear her ask for safety and protection while we all sleep and for her brother to return home safely (since he's not usually home when she goes to bed). I cherish her vulnerability to open up with me at night. If I asked her to do that during the day when someone else might hear her she would never do it. I'm glad that she has found a safety net in God.
Katie has started Junior High this year and it's been a real transition. I feel great pangs in my heart while I watch her interact with her peers. She has gone through some major changes in her friendships this year and I can see her struggle sometimes trying to figure out where she fits in. It's in these moments that the protector comes out in me and I just want to run interference for her! I know that would only isolate her more so I stay back and watch. That can be so hard...girls can be so cruel. She's more reserved than Keri so praying together is not something that she is comfortable with. I pray for her every night that she will stay strong in her beliefs and not give in to the temptations of trying to "fit in" with the right crowd.....which is actually the wrong crowd. I'm really proud of her for how she's handled herself in front of these peers. I need to tell her that. Actually, I need to share my favorite scripture with her!
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
Over and over I've taken comfort in that verse. Life doesn't always deal me the hand that I want but to know that God has a purpose for everything that I go through....that gives me hope. This is what I want to pass on to my kids!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

On a roll.....

Well, I'm on a roll. One blog per month! I don't know how people do it blogging once a day or even a couple times a week! I'm just too busy!

So anyway, here's some trivial blogging! Everything that you didn't care to know about me!

**I love to play tennis! It is my all-time favorite sport to play. I am a total sports girl so I have lots of sports that interest me but tennis is something that I know I'll still be doing in my 60's and hopefully my 70's. I just love it, love it, love it!

**I am addicted to sweets. (if you know me this explains a lot I'm sure!) I need chocolate on a daily basis. I actually get headaches if I don't get my daily dose.

**I like to be right. Sometimes I'll fight to prove my point and then later find out that I was wrong. Serve me up a piece of "humble pie" please! I can be so sure of myself sometimes and then "BAM!" I'm wrong.... I just don't see it coming!

**I like to be in control. (just ask my kids) Whether it's a project at work or an event at church or my kids birthday party.....I have an opinion about how things should be done. Sometimes I just need to be quiet but it's not easy for me.

**I need to feel important. God help me the day that I don't feel like my children need me! It has been a real struggle letting go of my oldest son. He is technically an adult but I feel the need to tell him when I think he's doing the wrong thing or how to manage his time and money. I don't remember my parents being this way with me. I need a course in "letting go"!

**I hate to cook. I actually can cook but I really hate it, so I don't do it.....at least not very often. I know I am a big disappointment to my husband (who loves to eat!). If my family would offer to do the clean-up then maybe I would cook more. I don't know. It just seems like such a waste of time when I can buy something pre-made and frozen and just stick it in the oven. Anybody with me on this?

**I love to watch reality tv. There I admitted it! I have my DVR set to record almost every reality show that I can get my hands on. My favorites.....Biggest Loser, Project Runway, Top Chef, Survivor, The Bachelor, and on and on and on...

**I love to laugh! My best memories of my family or my time spent with Don always involves laughing. Of course living with Don is just one laugh after another! He is so funny! We pick on each other all the time. I have so many funny stories! One of my favorites is when he decided to pick on me one Sunday while I was getting ready for church. Here's what happened....we were down to one bathroom because we had a water leak in our bedroom shower so we were all attempting to get ready using just the hallway bathroom. I was to the point where I needed to curl my hair but the girls were ready so they were out of the way but Don still needed to jump in the shower. He usually locks everyone out when he goes into the bathroom so I told him to leave it unlocked because I was still getting ready. So he's in the shower and I'm curling my hair and from out of nowhere this "large" amount of water comes over the shower curtain right on top of my head! My first instinct was that I was mad because this was just going to slow down the process of getting ready.....then I thought "revenge". I think I yelled but I didn't really do anything in that moment, instead I waited for him to be finished with his shower. Once I heard him turn off the water I grabbed the shower curtain and flung it open! (Don is so modest that I knew this would really freak him out!) My plan worked! He freaked out and grabbed for the curtain.....before either of us knew what was happening he had pulled the shower curtain and rod down and had himself completely wrapped in it and to make it even funnier he had slipped in the tub and was laying on his side! We were both laughing so hard we were crying! I don't remember if we made it to church on time or not but we were still laughing about it during Connection!

Well I'm sure you're tired of reading about my worthless trivia so I'm going to stop! Until next month.......

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Mosaic....

Tomorrow is the big day! We are starting our new small church....Mosaic. I am hoping that we can pull in some of the people that are in Connection but don't attend a small church. We've had several meetings about what we want to achieve and if all goes well we should have a really strong group. I miss the connection that we had with our last small church. We made new friendships and Don and I brought our relationship with each other and with God to a new level. Everything seemed to be going really well and then it seemed like the wheels fell off. The Sangl's moved and then the Yoder's moved and we just started to fall apart. So we've been "fish out of water" for awhile now and I'm ready to get back on track! I have high expectations for this new adventure and I'm praying for God to bring us a good group of people that are ready to "share life and all of its challenges". I can feel that God is working in my life.....maybe Mosaic is my stepping stone.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Junior High's not so scary after all!!!

Well, I'm two weeks into the Junior High program and so far I've survived! I am really amazed by some of these students. I was approached about helping out on Wednesday night with the teen program and I really had my doubts about it. My first thought was that these kids don't necessarily "want" to be here at this age. Some of them come with their parents because they have to and some of them come only for social reasons......do I really want to deal with that after a long day at work? What I'm experiencing with these kids is really awesome!!! If anything they are "uplifting" at the end of my busy work day! I think that God lead me to this group for a reason and I'm really excited about being with my small group of 8th grade girls. I can tell that this is going to be a great learning experience for all of us and I'm praying that God will give me the right words to open up the minds and hearts of these girls. Pray for me as I seek His wisdom each week with my small group!