Menu Plan Monday

I'm a little late with this post but hey...it's still Monday!

Monday - Speghetti (We didn't have it last week)
Tuesday - Pancakes (It's National Pancake Day)
Wednesday - Burgers, real ones this time :)
Thursday - Beef Stew
Friday - Pizza
Saturday - Tortilla Soup
Sunday - Roast

Five Star Fridays

#1 Jammin In Your Jammies - We had "Jammin" this week and it was a lot of fun. I wish Aiva got into it a little more but I think she's getting to the age where she's a little too old for this kind of event. Everyone got to come in their jammies, have breakfast, and "jam" with Chip from Lakeside.
#2 - My mother in law sent this adorable card this week to the kids. The girls LOVED it. She had a dog names Barkley and of course we have Bozeman. They get along like brothers. Boz is looking forward to seeing Barkley this summer!

#3 We got the CRV back! We just picked it up tonight. I hope this is the last time that we're separated for a LONG time! The best part is that they didn't even charge us for "part 2"!

#4 I got our Montana trip booked! We got everything for less than $2000! That's a miracle! Now all we have to do is wait til November! This is the scene will be enjoying for 5 days!

#5 Our church is using a new program to send emails. It's taken me all week to get it figured out and ready and tonight I sent the first email. I was so excited! Here's to more good stuff coming from the church!

Thankful Thursdays

My intent was to start out my first Thankful Thursday with some one I'm thankful for. Last night I knew it was going to take a turn into some thing that I'm thankful for. Today I'm so thankful for our trusty Buick Regal. Our CRV has been in and out of the shop and the Buick is always there for us. We just got back our Honda the day before yesterday and we were so excited to have her back! Nate got in it to go to the store last night and she wouldn't start. I was so upset. We (us and the insurance company) just spent all this money and it STILL doesn't work! I am so thankful that we have another car to fall back on! Most people don't have this luxury. Even though she's a little rough looking good ole' Betty keeps us going. That's if for Thankful Thursday! Make it a great one!

Word-filled Wednesday

The "Word" for the day is found in Proverbs 16:9 which says, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."

Sound familiar? I think this is the story of my life. I'm such a planner so I have everything plotted out - finances, time, coupons, clothes for the girls. I guess this is just a good reminder that no matter how much "planning" you do, God is the one who allows the chips to fall as they may. We need to make sure that we're wise in our planning and not be glued to our plans. It's OK to have plans and an agenda but we need to learn how to react when things don't go as we've planned. Have more faith and trust more. This is your "Word" for the day. Make it a good one!

Tip for Tuesday

My Tip for Tuesday has to do with permanent markers. If you have kids then you probably have an example of something that they wrote on in permanent marker. My first time came when Aiva was young and she scribbled on our kitchen tile with a black permanent marker. YIKES! I about pulled my hair out! Before I did, I googled it and found that I should use toothpaste to take the marks out. Sure enough it did the trick. I took a dry washcloth put a dab of toothpaste on it and started making small circles on the marks. Within minutes the marks were gone. I rinsed the washcloth and wiped the tile clean. It didn't ruin the finish of the tile either. Worked great! I've used this plenty of times since and it works every time. So, here's your Tip for Tuesday! Make it a great day!

Blogging

Monday - Menu Plan Monday: I'll be listing what the Jacobus Fam is going to be having for dinner this week. This is more accountability for me, if anything. If you can get some ideas, well great!

Tuesday - Tuesday's Tips: I'll be listing a tip, whether it's something that I've tried or wish to try. I'm always up for doing things easier, quicker, or more efficient!

Wednesday - Word-filled Wednesday: This will be a post about a verse that I've read today or something that I've read recently where I felt God speaking to me.

Thursday - Thankful Thursday: This will be a post about something or someone for who I am thankful. So many times we forget to be thankful or have a thankful heart. We live in a gimee gimee world that when we finally get something we forget to thank the one who gave it to us.

Friday - Five Star Fridays: I'll be blogging about 5 highlights that happened this week. Wheather it has to do with work, family, or friends I'll list it here.

MPM

Monday - Chicken N Noodles in the Crockpot
Tuesday - Taco Salad
Wednesday - Bocca Burgers
Thursday - Spaghetti
Friday - Pizza
Saturday - Go Out for Dinner
Sunday - Beef Tips N Noodles

Survivor

Survivor is not just a reality show on Thursday nights. It's not about being dropped off to a deserted island and trying to survive on your award winnings. Survivor is what I am. Survivors are what we are. Nate and I got married on November 11, 2000 and it was a great day. One of the best in my book. The story (short one, compared to the book we're writing) I'm about to tell is one of life or death. It's not a tall tale. It's not non-fiction. It's all real.

Last night we saw a story on 20/20 - The James and Kati Kim Story . It was so real to Nate and I because we lived it. Maybe not to the extent that the family on 20/20 did but we know how they felt. While we were in Bozeman, Montana for our honeymoon we got stranded in the Beartooth Mountains.

It started out as a perfect vacation. We were in a fanatasyland ever since our wedding on that Saturday on 11/11. Bozeman was everything we had hoped for. We had even talked about how great it would be to live there. To our surprise, Montana had gotten more snow than what they typically did for this time of year. Yellowstone had closed their gates so we were constantly staying tuned to their news reports to find out when we could go in to explore good ole' Yellowstone. We got the good news on Wednesday that they were opening the North (Gardiner)and Northeast (Cooke City) Gate of Yellowstone. We planned to enter the north gate and exit the northeast gate and head back to Bozeman. We headed out early that day and had a few snacks in our Jeep Cherokee. The north gate is about an hour and a half from Bozeman so we knew we were going to be in the car for awhile that day. We got to Yellowstone and had a great time exploring Mammoth Hot Springs that day...that is until we discovered that Nate lost his wedding band. You'll have to wait til the book to hear the detailed story of that part. Let's just say it involved a coyote that was pretty gnarly! It was about 3PM and we knew we had to start heading back to Bozeman. It gets dark early out west and we wanted to get on the highway before the sun set. We exited out the northeast gate and it started to snow. The plan was to head on Rt. 212 to 90 and head west to get back to Bozeman. We were going way out of our way but that's what the map said. The thing we failed to find out was that Rt 212 (Beartooth Highway) is actually closed from 10/16-5/30. As we proceeded, the snow really started coming down and it was really hard to see. Actually, it was so hard to see that we passed a sign that was partially covered stating that Rt. 212 was closed ahead. See, what they do in Montana is when the snow gets so high and the roads are too difficult to travel they have these massive gates that go clear across the road to stop traffic. We continued on and the snow was getting deeper and deeper and we could feel the car losing momentum. We decided to turn around to see if we missed an exit. As Nate started to back up, he got stuck. At this point we weren't worried but kept trying. Back and forth, back and forth. No use. Nate and I both got out and tried to dig around the tires and it was no use. GREAT! Now what? We decided to wait until someone came along that could help us out. After all, it was almost 5PM and people were heading home from work, right? No such luck. We waited til about 7PM and we started to wonder what was next. We weren't quite sure what the next step would be. We had about a half a tank of gas and so we kept turning the car off and on to help conserve gas. About 9PM, we started to get a little nervous about where we were headed (no pun intended). We weren't headed anywhere although we sure wish were were. We knew we were in for the long hull and we had to spend the night in the car. We had no clue where we were and the temperatures were dropping at a rapid rate. The temperature gage in the car read 3 degrees at 11PM that night. Later we found out that we were in Red Lodge, WY. At one point Nate talked about getting out and trying to walk to find help. No way, was I going to let him do that. I may not have been smart to find out about the gate being closed but I was smart enough to not let him get out of the car to leave me for help. The only thing left was that we had to survive the night. Again, more details are in the book but it was a rough night, to say the least. Neither Nate or I were dressed for the elements and it was very difficult. In the morning, once we realized that no one was leaving to go to work that morning where we were, we knew had to get out and walk. We left about 9AM and started walking. To where, we didn't know...we just wanted to find something...someone. Keep in mind, the snow was almost to my knees and it was freezing cold...literally. We walked about three miles and I couldn't do it anymore. Nate walked in front of me and I followed in his footsteps. I kept singing the Twila Paris song "God is in control" to myself and kept telling myself that this was not how it was going to end. Long story short, we found a back to a semi (tractor trailer type thing) that was up on a hill. We trudged along, broke in, and found some essential items to get us warm and out of the cold. By this time it was about noon. After catching a breather we knew we had to go back out and look for help. We knew we had to leave on Friday and I was not going to miss our flight back. After a lot of praying and a lot of tears (that froze to my cheeks), we left the comforts of the "Warming Hut". As we proceeded down the hill back to the road, I thought I saw someone off in the distance. Nate thought I was hallucinating. It took him awhile for him to see what I saw and then he finally started running to get their attention. They were about as surprised to see us as we were to see them. They were snowmobilers who had just got stuck and were from a city in Powell, WY. They said they would take us to where they were from and we could rent a car from there and head back to Bozeman in the morning. Again, long story short but the WY Highway Patrol had spotted our car with his helicopter and they were actually searching for us. They stopped our lumberjack of a guy rescuer and asked if he had seen some people who were stranded. He laughed when he said that we were in the truck. He dropped us off at a Super 8 and we called our parents to let them know we were OK. The conversation went something like this, "Dad, we're in Powell, WY and I just want to let you know were OK." There were lots of tears and nothing can really describe how we felt after our experience. Once we called our parents and the Bed & Breakfast where we were staying, Nate laughed and said..."Let's get a pizza!" Funny enough, there was a Pizza Hut next to the hotel and after everything we had been through, he couldn't have been happier! I called my parents in the AM to find out what kind of plan we had and again we saw God's handiwork in our rescue. We were just miles away from Cody, WY - a city we had just been the summer before. Frank, our cab driver, came to pick us up and take us to the airport so we can get a car to drive back to Bozeman. He heard about our predicament in the Beartooth Mountains and we told him that we needed to find a way to get our Jeep off the mountain. The sheriff told us that we needed to get it off by Friday or else it had to stay til spring. Montana was expecting another few feet of snow and the car would be completely covered if we didn't take action. Frank, our angel, took on the mission of rescuing our Jeep. Long story short (again), we got back to Bozeman, told our story once again to the B&B people, and turned in to bed so we could leave first thing in the morning to go back to Columbus. When we got back, our family was there to welcome us home...I couldn't do anything but cry. It was such an emotional time and we came very close to never seeing our family again. We got back home and my dad got a call from Frank. To our surprise, and his as well, he and his team were able to get our car off the mountain! A few days later, after we caught our breath, Nate and I tried to contact Frank and our lumberjack rescuer to thank them. There's no listing for either of them...Frank's number was no longer Frank's and the Lumberjack guy's license plate number doesn't even exist. They were truly our angels...God's fingerprints.

There are so many other details to this story that you wouldn't even believe. The book is a work in progress but it's almost done. It's very emotional to sit and write about our experience. It takes a lot out of us to go back and recall all of the details. As we watched the 20/20 story last night, Nate and I just sobbed and sobbed because we knew our experience could have been so much worse. Thank God He had our back! So, that's the story. A lot of people know the story from church because my mother in law filled them in when we were found. Not many know the complete details. Not many people know that we could have died in the Beartooth Mountains. I'm so thankful our story ended the way that it did. We learned a ton from our experience. Many people ask if we would go back and yes we would, and yes we have. Actually, Nate and I went back the next summer with Nate's cousin Ryan Stumpf and his wife Lisa. We got pictures of the area where we were stuck and of the Warming Hut. It was great being back but very surreal to know that we made it. We have been back two times since then, and God willing, will go back again this November to celebrate 11 years of marriage on 11/11/11. To God be the glory, great things He had done! Stay tuned for the book!

Heart

Something happened this morning that just about ripped my heart out. Not literally of course. It started last night when I took the girls out to dinner. I had a heck of a day so I took the girls to Burger King for dinner and thought I'd let them play at the play land. That was a great idea until Ana let me know that her throat hurt...when we got there. Great, I thought. Here we go again. I told her that she could play games on my phone while Aiva played. She was so distraught over not being able to play. We don't do this much because I hate germs and hate my kids being sick so them actually being there was a huge feet in itself! Aiva played for a bit and then I told them it was time to head home. Surprisingly they both cooperated and we were home in minutes. I just knew Ana had strep throat. She just finished up meds two days before from strep throat two weeks ago and I knew it was back. My heart was so heavy for her that all I could stand to do was pray. Nate got in bed with me and we prayed over her little body and that we would all be able to sleep and get rest and that we were so thankful that we could go to the doctor in the morning to get meds so she can be better. First thing in the morning she wanted a cool bath. She knows that when they're sick I'll bath them and powder them and treat them like royalty. They both eat this up! I know she's sick when she wants a bath. Nate helped me out with getting the girls going and other than Ana being sick the morning went smooth. I got Aiva on the bus and then it was time to pile in the car so Nate could take me to work and Ana to the doctor. Ana then announced that she wanted me to go with her. I explained to her that I had to go to work since I was already late but that got her upset. It got me upset too. I'm her momma and I so much wanted to be with her. My heart ached to hold her and comfort her at the doctors but I knew that Nate would be with her and that she'd be in good hands. I asked her who else was going to be there with her and daddy and she answered, "Mamaw?"No...someone bigger. "God", she replied. God is always with us. I explained to her that I would be there with her too but that I was in her heart. Every time the girls are scared or lonely I always draw a little heart on their hand. I've done this for Aiva's first day of school for the past three years. When they're sick I do this and it helps calm them down and bring them some sort of comfort. (This of course is not Ana's hand) As I was drawing Ana's heart, my heart just broke that I couldn't be there with her. I had to keep reminding myself that our God is so much bigger and loves Ana so much more than I ever could. I thought to myself that maybe I should start drawing a heart on my hand to remind myself that God loves us and is always with us. God's heart would probably include a cross in it as well to remind us that God loves us so much more than anyone ever could and that he will always be with us in our heart and one day, soon I hope, we will be with Him.

Timeout

So it's been an exhausting day. I'm surprised I haven't already gone to bed. I needed to get the good ole' work out in and I couldn't get something off my mind so I thought I'd blog a little before I hit the hay. My car has been out of commission (and transmission) for the last three weeks. We've been down to one car and it hasn't been fun. I'll save you the details but we we were waiting for our tax refund check to pay for the work. We finally got the check and as soon as I received it I called the mechanic to give him the green light to fix the car. He called me yesterday and told me that the car would be done today and we could pick it up in the afternoon. The bad news came around 11AM today. I knew the news was going to be bad as soon as I realized he left a message without my phone ringing and then I couldn't get to my voicemail. I should have stopped and prayed then but I proceeded on. I finally got the message and he explained to me (long story short) that we have blew up the engine and instead of the $1000 that we were thinking we would have to pay it was going to be $4000-$5000. My heart sank. That was practically the rest of our refund check that was left over. What were we going to do? I couldn't even wrap my head around the thought of not going on our anniversary vacation in November. What about the money we were going to build back up our savings? Gone...that was the only thing that kept coming to mind...Gone. The only thing that Nate said was that he was glad we had the money to pay for the repair. What? What about the other stuff. I couldn't get past it. I made numerous calls, talked to all kinds of people, I was in a rut all day. It was awful. I talked to my parents and they advised me but the news was bad no matter how you looked at it. It was 4PM when a friend walked in my office and asked why I wasn't running it thru insurance. HELLO...wake up call! Why weren't we again? It originally started out that we didn't want Nate to have this on his record so we were just going to pay the $1000 out of pocket since the accident was his fault. It didn't even cross my mind to put it thru insurance with the price going so high. I called my insurance guy (who is amazing) and he told me we can certainly do this plus he told me that our deductible had decreased. Not only are we not going to have to loose all of our tax refund check but we only have to pay our $500 for the work. What a relief. What did I learn? I still have a problem with worry and trust. I feel like I can do things on my own and when I learn that things aren't going my way I worry about what's going to happen. This little interruption rocked my world today and it shouldn't have. It says in Matthew DO NOT worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own. Today I had trouble alright but I also have a great big God. He knows what my tomorrow is going to bring. He knows my desires, my needs, my shortcomings, everything. Pride is something else that got in the way. I didn't want to tell anyone at work about my bad news and it took my friend overhearing a conversation to figure out I was in trouble. If I would have gone to her sooner I might not have gone thru the valley for that short time. This was certainly a test and I didn't do so well. Hopefully next time I have an interruption I'll take time. That's just it...take time. Be quiet. It's so not in my nature to take time but that's where I get caught up. Lesson learned for today...take a timeout.

Weakness

I just had a moment of weakness. I almost didn't blog about it but I wanted to let you know that I'm human :) I just plucked all the gray hairs I could find from my head. It started as I was putting makeup on. Isn't that where it always starts?!? I was not even thinking of "gray" and then it caught my eye. I saw the little sparkle and my heart sunk. "Another one", I thought. What in the world...where are these suckers coming from. I thought I just plucked one the other day from the same spot. As I was trying to position my tweezers just right so I wouldn't pluck more than one, I spotted another one. OK, is someone playing a trick on me? I know that hair wasn't gray about two seconds ago. After it was all said and done there was a total of four gray hairs staring at me from my bathroom sink. I could almost hear them taunting me. For today, I was triumphant and defeated the battle of the gray. Tomorrow, I'm not sure I'll be so successful but at least today I was victorious!

Singing

One thing that my girls love is singing. They will spin and sing for hours if we'd let them. Actually the thing that stops them is if one hits the other while spinning or one starts singing the others verse. I totally did the same thing when I was there age so I know where they got it! Like mother, like daughters :) For the past few weeks I've started singing bible songs with them before Nate goes in to tell them their daily bedtime story. Nate and I had talked and we agreed that they're not learning these great songs at church so we needed to start singing them at home and teaching them ourselves. Nate and I learned so many bible songs when we were younger that taught us the important bible stories. It's not like that these days. Times have changed and we decided to do something about it. Aiva is in first grade and before we know it she's going to be in middle school. Once this happens who knows what influences she's going to be around. We need to make sure that she's got the foundation that she needs when this time comes. Enough of my soap box and on to the singing. Every night I've taught them two songs and then they can each pick a song that they want to sing. Early on I taught them the song Jesus Loves Me - the part that they love is that it's not the traditional style. When Nate went to Jamaica in 1996 his team learned this new version of Jesus Loves Me and we have sung it ever since. So, when I started singing songs with the girls I knew one of the first songs that I taught them was Jesus Loves Me (Jamaica style). They loved it! LOVED IT! So, every night the one song that at least one of the girls picks is Jesus Loves Me. Aiva has got to the point to where she knows it all by herself. We decided to take the show on the road and go downstairs to perform for dad. They loved it and so did Nate. I let Aiva lead it and she was in heaven! It's so great to see my daughters learn bible stories and have fun doing it. I hope I'm leaving a legacy and imprinting something great on their hearts and minds. I guess it's not that I hope...it's that I am. Want to know the lyrics to Jesus Loves Me (Jamaica style)? Here ya go:

(Patting your legs/thighs)

Pat - Pat - Clap, Pat - Pat - Clap (thru the whole song)

Jesus Loves Me this I know

For the Bible tells me so

Little one who Him belong

They are weak but He is strong

Singing Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na (Hey!)

Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na (Ho!)

Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na (Hey!)

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

The Bible tells me so

Jesus loves me when I'm good

When I do the things I should

Jesus loves me when I'm bad

Even though it makes him sad

Singing, Na-na (Repeat Na verse and Yes, Jesus Loves Me Verse)

(Repeat two times)

Sing about his love

about his love sing about

Sing about his love

About his love sing

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

The Bible tells me so

Hopefully one of these days I can get it on youtube. It's a goodie!