Birthday Week

So Monday was my Birthday. I turned 28. Crazy to even think that, because I definitely don't feel "that old"! I had a great day that day, under the circumstances. I did recieve some pretty Roses from Derreck! I'm telling you this man is GOOD! He always makes me feel so special on my birthday, even if he is hundreds of miles away! Thank you Derreck, and I love you!

 

(This isn't the greatest picture, it was taken with my phone. They are so much prettier in person!)



My friends dad passed away early Sunday morning, so I was getting food for the family and helping out as needed.

The truck ended up getting stuck in our yard, but not because of anything that I did (just so you know!) We have been blessed lately with some rain, and I guess others just aren't use to mushy grounds and big trucks.

I also let my purse (with money in it) in a neighboring town that is about 40 minutes from our house. Swell right. Didn't realize it until we pulled up and I was instructing kids on getting everything out of the truck.

So I had to go back to get my purse the next day. I also found out that one of our friend's house burned the night before. She has four small kids with the oldest being four. Did I mention they are all small kids! They pretty much lost everything that they owned. To say that they need prayers is an understatement. (They also need to come to know the Lord personally!)

So the funeral was Wednesday and the burial site was about 25 minutes away from where the services were held. I attended both, and was on my way home when I received a call from my friend who just buried her dad. A tree has fallen in front of their car as they were driving down the road and they couldn't avoid it. So their car is possibly totaled. They need prayers also of course!

It has been a crazy week...

You never know when your time is going to be up...

You never know...

Only God does...

So we should strive to walk daily in His path of righteousness!

Flat Stanley & Our Thanksgiving Trip (Day 6)

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Dear Tyler,

       We headed home today. But instead of driving across all of them states again we decided to FLY! Yep Flat Stanley got on a plane.

       We left the Scranton, Wilkes-Barre airport around 3:50 p.m. We then arrived in Atlanta, Georgia a little before six. We left Georgia about 8:00 p.m. While we were flying to Louisiana from Georgia we hit some turbulence and Flat Stanley’s stomach didn’t really like it! But we got to see lots of Christmas light from the sky!

       We arrived in Louisiana and then drove home. Today Flat Stanley leaves on another road trip with Cassie! I think he is really excited to see you!

       We have really enjoyed our time with Flat Stanley, and I hope that one day you can see the things that he saw. Maybe one day you can come visit and we can all go on a trip together! Wouldn’t that be fun? Like I said, “The more kids you have, the more fun!”

                                                       God Bless,

                                                       Aunt Gin-Gin

Flat Stanley & Our Thanksgiving Trip (Day 5)

Friday, November 25, 2011

Dear Tyler,

       Today we went to Hershey’s Chocolate World! It was sooo Sweet! First we got to make our very own chocolate bar. You could pick what you wanted in it! Then you got to see how it was made. You even got to design your own wrapper for you bar! Since it was a real factory, we didn’t get to take any pictures of Flat Stanley and he couldn’t make his own. He was a little upset, but I promised him that the rest would be really fun for him!

       After we finished that, we went to the taste testing room. We learned all about how, chocolate was made and the different tastes of the chocolates that they make. Flat Stanley really liked the Hot Chocolate that they served!

       Once we were done with the taste testing, we went to watch a 3D movie. This movie was AWESOME! It was about how the Hershey’s Chocolate Factory started. It had real smells, real bubbles, and real SNOW! REAL SNOW fell from the ceiling! Our seats also moved and made noises that went with the movie.

       After the movie, we went on a ride on the fake chocolate river boats, to tour the factory and see how things were done. We had cows singing to us, and got to see all the different steps in the process of making chocolate from some beans!

       Once we finished, it was time to head back to the hotel to do some laundry and get ready to head home tomorrow! I will write tomorrow about Stanley’s adventures in flying!

                                                       God Bless,

                                                       Aunt Gin-Gin

And this makes my 100th post!!!!!

Flat Stanley & Our Thanksgiving Trip (Day 4)

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Dear Tyler,

       HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! We really didn’t do too much today beside drive some more. But we did get to see the Amish communities in Pennsylvania.

       The Amish are people that dress in plain Black and White clothes. They might were different color shirts, but not anything crazy. The girls all wear dress, and the boys all wear pants and hats. They don’t believe in taking pictures, so we couldn’t get any picture of them.

       We took a buggy tour of their town and got to see a real Diary Farm. The Amish people all work really hard. They also don’t have any electricity in their houses. That means no T.V., or lights, or video games! While on the tour we got to talk to a six year old Amish boy, and he was so fun!

       We also learned that the kids in Amish communities start school when they are 6 years old and finish school and start working after their 8^th grade year. It was really neat to see how different they live than what the rest of America lives.

       I have some really exciting news! Before we left on our buggy tour, Flat Stanley found a girlfriend! Her name is Flat Olivia and she was from California! Isn’t that funny… even a flat guy can find him a girl!

       While driving in Pennsylvania, we got to drive through tunnels that went through the mountains! Flat Stanley really enjoyed this. It reminded him of going in the caves the other day! We finished the day off by driving a little more. I will continue tomorrow with a sweet adventure!

                                                       God Bless,

                                                       Aunt Gin-Gin

I had a few more pictures, but the kids were in them, so I couldn't post them!

Flat Stanley & Our Thanksgiving Trip (Day 3)

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Dear Tyler,

       Today we continue our adventures! We planned on going to the Creation Museum, but we had to wait for it to open. Since we were so close to some other state lines we drove into Ohio, and Indiana! We were right by all three states, so why not!

       Now back to the Creation Museum…It’s really neat. This museum is all based on what the Bible says has happened. Everything…including how the world was made. We got to see a Planetarium show, where you see lots of stars on the roof and it explained about our Universe and all the galaxies that surround it. It was really neat to see how little Earth is compared to stars. And God made it all!

       We then went through the museum part and saw all the life like people from the Bible. We saw Adam and Eve. Flat Stanley took a picture with them and with the Tree of Life! We also saw Methuselah, who was the oldest man in the Bible, he was 969 years old when he died! That is really old!

       We also saw Noah building the ark with his sons. They are building a real Noah’s Ark somewhere around the museum, but since they aren’t done; we didn’t get to see that!

       After we finished the tour, we got back to DRIVING!! We headed towards the Amish communities in Pennsylvania. While driving there we crossed into West Virginia and on into Pennsylvania! But soon after we started to get tired, so we pulled over to get some rest. I will write more tomorrow after we explore the Amish!

                                                God Bless,

                                                Aunt Gin-Gin

Flat Stanley & Our Thanksgiving Trip (Day 2)

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Dear Tyler,

       Our adventures continued again today! They first began with guess what….

MORE DRIVING!!! We drove through Tennessee and on into Kentucky.

       Our first stop of the day wasn’t planned, but who can pass up a HUGE dinosaur on the side of the road! We ended up at Dinosaur World in Cave City, Kentucky. They had tons of life like dinosaurs to look at, and take pictures with! We even got to dig for fossils. Guess what Flat Stanley found…. A real shark’s tooth! He was so excited.

       Flat Stanley was also caught joking around today. When we went to go into the bathroom at Dinosaur World, we found Flat Stanley acting like the bathroom man that you see before you go into the restroom. You know the one that tells you if you are going into the boys or girls room! At least he didn’t act like he was the girl!

       After we finished with the dinosaurs we drove a little bit more to go spelunking, which is cave exploring! It was really neat to go inside a mountain, yep a REAL mountain! Flat Stanley was really hard to take pictures of underground. But I think we got a few good ones! The cave guide even recognized Flat Stanley! How neat is that! Flat Stanley also took a picture with a deer!

       After we finished with the cave we drove some more, so that we would be closer to what we want to do tomorrow! We got a hotel room and got some much needed rest! I will continue our adventures tomorrow.

                                                God Bless,

                                                Aunt Gin-Gin

Flat Stanley & Our Thanksgiving Trip

Flat Stanley & Our Thanksgiving Trip



I would like for everyone to meet Flat Stanley. He was sent to my sister from her friends little boy, whose name is Tyler. They live in Texas. Tyler's class read a book about Flat Stanley and how a billboard fell on Stanley and made him flat. They then had to color their own Stanley and send him to someone that they know. The person that they send him (or her) to had to record the things that they did with Stanley for a month. Since we were going to Pennsylvania during the Thanksgiving week, we thought it would be fun to bring Stanley along and record the things that we got to do. After we got back, I sat down and typed up a letter for each day that we were gone, telling Tyler the things that we got to do. This was a lot of fun!

So here is the first letter that I wrote for Tyler:

Monday, November 21, 2011

Dear Tyler,

My name is Ginger. I am Cassie’s older sister. Everyone calls me Aunt Gin-Gin though! The rest of my family are: Derreck, my husband, D (I), S, and M, our kids that we will be adopting soon! That’s us! We love to take trips, and since we were taking one while Cassie had flat Stanley we thought it would be fun to take him along with us! (The more kids you have the more fun you have!)

       Today we started out trip off in Louisiana. We will be heading to Pennsylvania! That’s one LONG road trip! Flat Stanley is going to get to see a lot of things along the way. He will learn even more though!

       We didn’t really do much today except for drive! (We were late…) We crossed into Arkansas. Enjoyed some Starbucks! Drove some more and then crossed into Tennessee. We had planned on going to the Memphis Zoo, but since it was raining and we were so late, we didn’t get to. But if you are ever around that area, I hear they have a real Panda! (Send me a picture please!)

       Once we were in Memphis we decided to eat, watch a movie and play putt-putt golf. Since it was raining kind of hard we had to leave flat Stanley in the car. 9we didn’t want his colors to run together just yet! We watched “Puss in Boots” and it is sooooo funny. Just like all the other Shrek movies!

       We then called it a night and got some rest! I will write more about our adventures tomorrow!

                                         God Bless,

                                         Aunt Gin-Gin

And I actually took some pictures along the way!

BBBut of course I can't figure out how to black the kids faces out on this computer, and we have to get ready for church here in a bit. So I can't post them all, but I did give Tyler all the pictures that went with his letters.