Awana Awards Night 2010

Our kids and I have been involved with Awana about ten years now. We just finished another year two weeks ago.

This year's theme was "Run the race". You know, "Pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philipians 3:14?

It's been a fun year and I'm looking forward to next year. I enjoy being the secretary for the T & T group, ages 8 to 11. I actually finished the first book this year. The book is full of scripture to memorize, sections to get a kid into the Bible, all of the books of the Bible are memorized during this book as well. This year I can say I really have the books of the Bible memorized. Before, I always had to stop and think before I could recite them. Now I feel confident I know them.

The background decorations on the stage are long sheets of paper that all of the kids and leaders footprints are on. Yes, we put paint on our feet and took 4 steps. It turned out pretty neat I thought. Also there are about 200 hundred balloons on the stage.I only blew up & tied about ten.

First up we have a picture of my son and his friend because they helped Ms Nan (in red on the left) from momstheword with the SPARKS group, ages five to seven.

These guys got together and sang acapella for the parents and others attending the ceremony. The two on the left are none other than Nan's sons. Boy do these guys sound good together for just starting to practice together earlier that day. God given talent at it's best. Thanks guys.

These are our middle schoolers called TREK. A lot of these clubbers will be going to camp this summer so we are raising funds for that now.

My daughter is in this group on the far right.

Here's H after receiving her certificate.

Well, farewell for now. I pray that all these kids and then some will return to Awana next September with hearts ready for God's Word to come in. Pray for kids everywhere to find their place in God's Kingdom. There's room for everyone!!

Award from Christie Rose November 2009

I just found this in my drafts and I want to thank Christie Rose for giving it to me. So many of you add sunshine to my day and I thank you all for being a part of my blog world.

Feel free to grab this award for you. If you are reading and commenting you deserve it. Have a sunshiney kind of day.

I Was Blessed Today

I went to work today and there was an assembly to honor veterans.

I had the next two hours free so I entered the school gym to attend this event.



Being a veteran I am just a little patriotic so I love these kinds of things.


Seated at the front with the school choir were men (I assumed to be veterans) and their children who attended our school. I call it our school because I've been subbing there for about eight weeks now.

I found a seat in the back with the parents. After the posting of the colors and a very sweet rendition of the Star Spangled Banner (I almost cried) by all of us (the school choir helped tremendously) we were seated and the principal began his greetings.

He asked if there were any veterans in the audience. I jumped to my feet thinking there would be several others. Nope...just me. The principal said, "Mrs. Johnson, come on up here." So I joyously walked to the front thinking he was going to ask me a few quick questions and I'd be back in my seat soon. Nope again...he said," "Can someone bring a chair up here for Mrs. Johnson?" I was thrilled and embarrassed at the same time. I had no idea this would happen.

No one knew I had been in the Navy so there were a lot of surprised and smiling faces. The principal was quite surprised. Who would have thought that a few years in the Navy, almost twenty years ago, would have me being honored with others who have served our country in an elementary school today?

I appreciated it so much and I felt so honored even though I served in peace time. Some of the other veterans served during wars and gave our country many years. One soldier was still serving and has two sweet little girls at our school. He plans to retire soon.

The principal had each of us share what service we were in and how long and where we served. Some shared more which was nice. The kids seemed to be very interested. We were each given a handmade card by some of the students and a red rose with the American Flag attached. It was so nice.

The school choir sang two more songs and one Army veteran, currently Boy Scout leader, gave a fun speech full of audience participation. It was a pleasant and much appreciated assembly.

One Army veteran was a Filipino who came to the U.S. to get an education. He joined the army so he could go to college on the GI Bill. He loves his country, the USA, and served for many years. He shook my hand as did others as they thanked me for my service.

I have mentioned in earlier posts that I spent three years in the Philippines and I became a Christian and was baptized there. The Philippines and the people there have a place in my heart forever.

At the recesses throughout the day several students came to me and asked me about my military service. Some thanked me and others were just plain surprised. Teachers and office workers thanked me and shared their stories of being dependents of someone in the military or working on a base. It was quite a day for me at Rainier View Elementary School.

I love America and all that it has stood for over the years. I pray that our country will maintain it's freedom and liberty for all.

HAPPY VETERANS' DAY !!




ANCHOR'S AWAY!!

Loyal Friend And Visitor Award

My very sweet friend, Hope over at My Hope Is In The Lord has passed this award along to me. I found Hope through Nan or Erica (I can't remember) when I first started blogging. Maybe Hope found me. Either way she's loyal.

Hope has visited me regularly for the three months I've been blogging. She always leaves encouraging words for me and she laughs at my humor. What more could I ask for?

She has a really fun blog with a variety of interesting stuff on it, like old photo's and magazine pictures from Life, her personal cartoons (very cute), her drawings and how she has learned to draw, stories and scripture and encouragement. It's a fun blog to follow. Thanks, Hope for being a Loyal Friend and Visitor to me.

I enjoy seeing comments on my blog when I open it each day. There are a few friends who are loyal and come by almost every day. I know that some of you have many followers and you try to visit your followers as often as possible and that is why I call you Loyal Friends and Visitors.

There are also new bloggers looking for new bloggie friends and some of you have become my Loyal Friends and Visitors. You always lift me up and encourage me with your words.

I also found out that there are some who "lurk" and don't leave comments. If they had a blog I would give them this award too. It's fun knowing that friends are reading even if they don't leave a comment. They will tell me in person or send me an e-mail and that makes this blogging thing even more interesting.

I sure appreciate each and every one of you. You have made blogging fun for me. I like knowing there are people with similar interests reading my blog. I like meeting new christian women and reading about their lives.

Here are the rules: (1) Post the award on your blog. (2) Acknowledge the giver. (3) Pass the award on to who you think who is/are deserving to as many as you want. (4) Leave a message telling them.


Since you give me a lift each day or at least once a week I want to pass the award along to these friends in blog land:

Mimi at He & Me + 3

Nan at Momstheword

Andrea at Arise 2 Write

Kat at Art's Chili

Laura at Goose Hill Farm

Amy at In Search of Normal

Stacey at McCrakensX4

Mich at "Mich"

Erica at Scottsville

Christy Rose at The Secret Life of an American Wife & Mom

Christine at Vista Woman

Renee at GLOW Academy

The True Heart Award

My friend Kat over at Art's Chili has given me the True Heart Award. I am glad she sees the qualities in my blog that are written below.

I don't feel like I have earned it, but if my friend, Kat thinks that I do, I will not question her thoughts and beliefs. I will accept and pass along this really special award. Thanks Kat, you are so sweet and sincere in your blog.

"Those who receive this award are of the sweetest nature. They are kind, friendly, funny, loving, eager to share their love for Jesus with others, and brave in their efforts to reflect Him to this darkened world. They are the kind of folks you're blessed to know, even if it's only in the bloggy-sphere."

I'm not sure if there is a specific number of people that the award is suppose to be sent to so I just started selecting and came up with ten.

There are so many I would choose and so many that have already received this award that I would send it to, but I'm going to send it to some special people in my blog world that may not have received it yet. I won't be surprised if they have though.

Ladies, please accept this True Heart Award because your words and pictures have inspired me and made me think about my life as a Christian woman. You are all sincere women with sweet spirits, yet each of you is unique and special to me.

Maryleigh at Blue Cotton Memory

Laura at Goose Hill Farm

Beth at I'm Heading Towards My Destiny

Darcy Lee at In This Season

Mich at "Mich"

Alicia at More Than Words

Amber at Raising Rascals

Sarah Dawn at Splashin Glory

Pilar at The Stark Family

Christine at Vista Woman

These ladies have also encouraged me and shown me by their lives how to be nearer to God my Lord and Savior. Thanks ladies. Have a True Heart kind of a day.

Kreativ Blogger Award 2009

It seems that Hope over at My Hope is in the Lord has selected me to receive the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thank you, sweet Hope. It is an honor to get this award from someone who is so creative. It is also an honor to be selected along with these other very creative bloggers.

This award is given to bloggers whose blogs are interesting and have a lot of creativity. Thank you Hope!

It has been fun blogging these past three months. I never knew that I would enjoy it so much. The creativity has actually been awakened from years of slumber. Reading all of your blogs inspires me and gives me ideas. I feel like I can be creative or go and do creative things again.

I think I put myself on hold to be the boss-mom. I set aside things because they weren't convenient or controllable. I felt I couldn't complete anything so I just wouldn't start anything. Call me crazy, but I guess that is how I cope.

Now that my kids are older I feel like we can go do crazy, fun things. Many mom's don't miss a beat when they have kids. They take their kids everywhere and do everything. I am not so adventurous and I like control and order (oh there's that word again).

So now I will get started on fulfilling the award expectations. I am going to tell seven things about myself that most of you do not know. I did this once with another award, but I think I can come up with seven more thanks to Kat at Art's Chili. She thought she was fresh out of things to tell about herself, but her creative mind helped her to come up with an idea. Her love for coffee helped her out.

1) My love for gardening, as limited as it may be, came from the last job I had at
a nursing home as an Activity Assistant. My Director gave me the job to begin a
raised garden program for the residents in their courtyard. I learned a lot and
have enjoyed planting and tending small gardens ever since. There is much, much
more to learn.

2) As a child, my dream was to grow up, get married and have five kids. Well I
didn't follow that dream. It was a good dream, but I chose to do things without
God's help. Thank God He patiently watched and protected me as I made my way.
I got married to a guy who wanted to wait. Then I had a miscarriage, then I got
divorced. At age 34 I was introduced to the real husband. We got married. At
that age two kids sounded more sensible. I'd like one boy and then one girl. I
wasn't asking for much. At age 37 I had a boy and twenty months later I had
a girl. Isn't God creative and loving and smart? I know He is.

3) I always thought my kids would be athletes. I have one techy and one actress/
artist/ singer. God knows best.

4) I played basketball for about two years. I lacked the confidence to "go to the
hoop" as a forward which drove my coach nuts. She wanted me to try and do well,
but I gave up and quit. I'm still kicking myself. I loved watching our boys
basketball team play in high school. It helped that they were state champions
or vying for it all three years of high school.

5) I used to love water skiing and jet skiing. As a matter of fact I got pretty good
at both. Can't afford it now and my back couldn't take it either.

6) I learned to scuba dive in October when the bay water was only 40 to 45 degrees.
Now that was invigorating. I thought my heart would stop when I let the water
into my wet suit. WHEW!

7) I actually like doing laundry. I do it everyday as long as I'm home. It's a
mindless time filler while waiting for a Doctor's office to call, kids to finish
homework, a reason to get out of a room or off my behind.

I did laundry for my SIL while we visited them for two weeks last summer. She
had a pile of dirty clothes in the master bedroom that was three feet wide and
up to my thighs.

She was taking summer school working on her Masters in nursing. I knew I could
be of help and I would feel like I was contributing something to their household
while we loafed around at their house for two weeks eating their food, etc.

So there they are, seven things you may not have known about me. Now I have to choose seven bloggers who I would like to give the award to and why.

First will be Barbara at Barbara's Bakin N Bits. She is creative in many ways, but her recipes are awesome. You've got to go over and look at the pictures of the food she prepares. You'll know what I mean. (Sorry I'm having trouble linking to Barbara)Be sure to go over and visit her blog.

Next I'll choose Christine at Vista Woman. Christine wrote a post that caught my attention. It was very creatively written and it made me want to know her more. Go over and read What Hat Are You Wearing? You'll love it. She also gives me advice for getting a job with a school district. Thanks Christine.

Third, I'm awarding Mich, over at Mich the Kreativ Blogger award because Mich is creatively honest about her life and her family. She doesn't pretend to be something she isn't. I love how she shares her stories and thoughts.

FourthI'm choosing my daughter over at Hannah's Faves because she is using her blog to share art in a way I never thought she would. She is a good story teller, but she is writing stories in another venue where she gets immediate feedback from others who are chatting. You go Hannah!!

Fifthis Heather at Want What You Have. Heather is frugal and creative about it. She and her husband have a very cool story about getting out of debt, that we all can learn from. She is a sensible, down to earth mother of some gorgeous kids.

SixthI'm awarding Renee at Glow Academy because she has all kinds of ideas for kids and moms. She also changes her blog look a lot so you can always be surprised and creatively blessed with her creativity.

And seventhwill be Lauren at Walking By Faith. Lauren is a creative writer. She shares God's love and His work in her life so creatively. And she and her husband have a very creative engagement story. So sweet, you have to meet Lauren.

My Daughter Was in a Play

This past week my daughter spent everyday rehearsing for a play, King Arthur's Quest. The parks department partners with the Missoula Children's Theatre (MCT) every year to put on a play with the local kids as the characters. You may have heard of the MCT coming to your town. They travel all over the USA and some other countries as well.

This year my daughter went to the audition. There were 65 kids and they all got parts. There were kids ages five up to 18. They were all there to do some serious acting. And they did a great job in just one week.

Two directors got these kids acting within moments of organizing them by height. I was amazed! By the end of that first day (about two hours) they had all of the actors selected and scripts were handed out.

By the second day most of the kids had most of their lines memorized. H enjoyed an easier role this year. She has been in our church musical theatre for the last four or five years. Last year she had a lot of lines and it was stressful, but she did a fantastic job. She sang and danced by herself too.

Here she is (in the pink) on the second day getting ready for rehearsal in the gym. As you can see she dresses with a little bit more flair than me. I never had the confidence to dress with flair or act in a play when I was her age.

My dad and mom came to the matinee. Mom brought a beautiful bouquet to give to H after the play.

They gave us a photo op after each performance because no flash photography was allowed. So here are the Damsels In Distress. H is the one on the right in dark blue. She loves blue so she was happy.

The director kept giving them cues to pose accordingly. So there were lot's of opportunities for pictures. Of course I took several, but I'll spare you some of them.

Mom, Dad and H in front of our house after the first performance. She had to keep her make-up on for the second performance. It was hot and H doesn't like it hot. She was trying to be patient with my picture taking.

Here are the main characters. They were very good and funny.

These are the "minis", the miniature version of the main characters. When the giant comes out the minis replace the regular actors. It was so cute. These little kids were quite a hit with the crowd.

These are the Knights and their Squires. Each Knight had a specific behavior that they had to portray, such as depressed, afraid, sarcastic, etc. Their lines and their Squires' lines reflected these behaviors throughout the performance.

A funny pose of the Damsels. They were eating up the photo ops. They all seemed to have a great time this week.

My hubby, my son, my MIL and I all went to the evening performance. Sorry it's a dark picture. I really need to learn all of the great options my camera has. My son tries to show me, but I don't remember them when I need them.

I sure have enjoyed all of the plays my kids have been in. I am used to being a helper, but this year I didn't help. I watched and enjoyed the surprises that a performance brings to the stage.

Honest Scrap Award

I'd like to say thanks to Laura over at Goose Hill Farm for sending me the Honest Scrap Award.

I've been blogging about two and a half months and I think Laura has been following me and encouraging me for most of that time.

She's a very kind farm girl with lot's of great ideas and a love for her family and country and most of all her Lord.

I've enjoyed her blog for the last couple of months and you will too, so head over to Goose Hill Farm for a special treat every day.
She has a great blog page too, and she changes it so you don't get bored.

Here are the rules:

1) Say thank you to the presenter of the award and link back to them
2) Share 10 honest things about yourself
3) Present this award to 7 other people whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.
4) tell those 7 people that they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving it. (doing that now)

Here are the ten honest things about myself:

1) Jesus is my Lord and savior. I am a sinner and every day I go to the Lord with the details and sins of my life. He guides me and forgives me and cares about everything in my life. Thank you, Lord.

2) I love my family and I love being a SAHM and homeshooler, but will have to get a job soon and the kids are going to public school.

3) Which brings me to this one, "I don't really like change". I'm going to be experiencing a lot of change real soon.

4) Nan @ momstheword and I go to the same church. Her husband is my pastor.

5) I was in the U.S. Navy for six years. I had jobs as a police officer and a construction woman.

6) I was married once before for almost ten years.

7) I've had one miscarriage.

8) I got saved by American missionaries who were in the Philippines to serve the Americans in the military while they were in the P.I. The place we gathered was called The Overseas Christian Service men's Center located just off the base.

9) I've been married to my hubs for fifteen years. He likes serving so he is very helpful around the house which makes life wonderful for me. He's a dedicated and committed man to whatever cause he is working for.

10) Like Laura, I am familiar with hitch hiking. Only I was the hitch hiker. My friend and I would do this in tenth grade (not my good old buddy of 36 years). I was very afraid to get in cars with strangers, but I trusted her. I was so naive. In addition to that, my basketball coach/PE teacher from junior high school saw me and was very concerned telling me to stop doing it.


Here are the 7 bloggy buddies I'v selected though I'm sure most of them have already received this award. Also, there are more than 7 I would love to select so it was hard to choose. So many have great blogs and have been supportive of me.

1) Nan at Momstheword
2) Erica at Scottsville
3) Andrea at Arise 2 Write
4) Beth at I'm Heading Towards My Destiny
5) Kat at Art's Chili
6) Christy Rose at The Secret Life of an American Wife
7) Mikki at The View From My Beach Chair


I'm selecting one more bloggy buddy because one of our ladies has had the Honest Scrap Award already and she wanted to give someone else an opportunity.

I select Darcy Lee at In This Season.

Have a great week!! Love Mocha Momma

Milestones for Mocha Momma's Kids

I'm having a hard time thinking of something to write so I looked at some pictures and found this one.

This is my kids and me after the Awana awards ceremony. They both had a milestone year. My daughter finished her fourth Awana book earning the Timothy award. My son finished his sixth Awana book, earning the Meritorious Award.

Now to me this is a big deal. When my son got his award I stood up and cheered and said "we did it". Because it took a lot of hard work on my part to get him to study on his own and he has learned to time himself and study and complete this on his own.

My daughter is younger and I'm still in the hard work stage of motivating, nagging and threatening. I try not to threaten or nag, but I do.

More importantly is for our kids to claim a relationship of their own with the Lord. Not mine or Awana's or anyone elses. We've raised them to be christians, but it must be their choice to follow Him.

I'm glad they have memorized so much scripture, but now it's time for them to really put it to work in their lives. Good job kids! I'm proud of you.