Christmas Time Blessings

Ok, starting with the best news of all DAN GOT A JOB!!!!!!! After 3 months of unemployment and job searching for 10-12 hours every day, and getting 2 phone call responses to the 1000's of resumes he sent out, Dan is now working as a internet salesman at Wesley Chapel Toyota. Though we really wanted to get out of the car business, this position came available and we felt we had no choice but to take it. We are extremely grateful and after only two days (and selling a car already) Dan says "This is the best car place I've ever worked at." Praise the Lord. If you're looking for a vehicle you can call him at 813-407-5970 or on his cell at 813-919-9144.


Our next Christmas Blessing it that our beautiful, but way too big for our apartment, Christmas Tree had a baby and it fits our home perfectly. Actually, we were able to store our Christmas Tree at our friends John & Tara's parents house when we moved, because it was too big to store in our apartment. When starting to think about the holidays, we realized that there just wasn't any space big enough to setup our tree. With life going as it was at the time, I really wasn't much into the Christmas Spirit anyway, so I figured we just wouldn't have a tree this year. Lo and behold, my bestest friend Tara called and said she had something for me to pick up at Youth Group. Well when I arrived, she pointed to the above tree and said, "Your tree had a baby!" It's this cute little fiber optic tree. Isn't that awesome! The tree has inspired me to remember that we are immensely blessed because Jesus came to earth as a baby in a manger, to live a pure sinless life and take our punishment on the cross, so that we can live with Him forever. Amen and Amen.

Let's see our holidays started out with several Thanksgiving Feasts. First was a wonderful feast at my work. Then we went to one at our homeschool group - a great photographer friend took this picture of us - Dan had just bought this suitcoat from another homeschool mom for $6!
Then our good friends Mike & Cindy invited us to their church's Thanksgiving Cantata, which was wonderful and was followed by a Thanksgiving Feast. On Sunday evening our church blessed us with all the fixings for a Thanksgiving Dinner and then on Tuesday our friend Carmen's church blessed us with another turkey and all the fixings (and in between Mike & Cindy wanted to bring us a Thanksgiving Dinner too). Well, needless to say we felt very blessed with all the love that was given to us and wanted to share it, so we cooked one of the turkey's and a pie and took it along with all the other fixings to our friends Nancy & Haley so they could be blessed too. What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had and we are so very grateful for all the love that was given to us by all the wonderful Christian friends we are so blessed to have in our lives.

Our next Christmas Blessing was my brother Steve bringing my Dad down from Michigan for the winter. It was so good to see them both. Steve stayed down a week and Dad is here until the Spring when by brother Joe flys down to drive him home. Dad lives in Palmetto at a Senior Mobile Home Park. It's very nice and they have alot of activities and he has alot of friends there. He comes to see me every other week so I can do his laundry (he doesn't have a washer or dryer). I love it because we get to spend time together and we usually manage a Walmart run while he's here. He'll be over for Christmas dinner next week and were're looking forward to that.



Suzzie has decided she wants to be a Baker. This was her first cake (from scratch). We don't have 2 cake pans that are the same size so we improvised with the square and round. She used some of her birthday money to buy a cake decorating kit and this was the first time she used it. Her cake was a big hit at the girl's Youth Group Christmas Party as was the gift Jonathan gave Angie - a stocking filled with coal!! It was just a joke, he really gave her a very nice gift.

And last but not least, The girls and I enjoyed an afternoon at Busch Gardens with our good friends the Bertic's. I got quality "Tara Time" and the kids had fun riding the rides together.

Well, its' been quite an interesting few months. Dan has been able to participate in homeschooling, the girls have had alot of quality time with Dad and we've all grown closer. Friends and people who don't even know us have blessed us in many ways. We've had faith and had doubts, but we always knew God was in control and that we needed to live in today and do our best with what came our way for Him. Living in our circumstances has inspired us to spend more time in the Word and in prayer and we've definitely grown in our spiritual walk. We've learned that we don't need alot to be happy and that nothing can take away our joy. My prayer is that we can remember these wonderful things we've learned and continue to walk this path no matter what comes our way.

We're grateful for all of your prayers and support. There have been many who have been there to listen to us when we just needed to get stuff out and when when we needed good advice. We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but we do know that we are very blessed.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU!!!!!

Just a quick update. Angie's ankle is completely healed (and has been for awhile - sorry I'm not very good at updating)! Suzzie turned 14 yesterday, whew she is now a full-fledged teenager (13 seemed like a trial run). We had a great day that included CiCI's, Bush Gardens, Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake and alot of fun family time.

Now, on a serious note, Dan lost his job and has been out of work for over a month. He spends each day on the computer applying for anything he might be able to do. Unfortunately he hasn't had any legitimate responses. He's tried going out to apply at companies and they all say he needs to apply online. Needless to say we are quite frustrated though we are trusting that our Lord has a plan for all this. As of right now, Dan is trying to collect unemployment, but we don't know what will happen with that. He has a job lined up as a Christmas Tree Lot Manager for the month of December (if you need a live tree - please buy it from him), but it would be great if he had a permanent full time job before then. Please keep us in your prayers and if you know of anyone hiring for anything, please email Dan at dnhrmn4@gmail.com or call him (813)919-9144. Thanks for your prayers and for being there for us.

The crazyest stories ever!

Hi, this is Angie and recently my language teacher sent me a link to this and I thought it was the coolest thing ever so I thought I'd tell everyone. http://www.nanowrimo.org/ Na no wri mo stands for national novel writing month, this on this website is where you pledge to try and write a novel in a month, if your over 13 your goal is 50,000 words, if your under 13 you can set realistic, challenging goals. Maybe it's the writer in me, but I thought it was the coolest thing ever. The best part is what you write can be the weirdest thing ever and it wouldn't matter, "it's not about quality it's about quantity" I could be anything you want it's a good way to learn or practice perseverance. anyway I hope you will check it out.
X's and O's Angie<3

Change is good!

Dan Having Family Fun

Suzzie's Great Spades Hand

As I write Dan is at work - Praise the Lord!!!! Two weeks ago yesterday, Dan (for very good reasons) parted employment with Ferman of New Port Richey. He received an offer of employment the very next day. We were soooo happy. Then on Friday, things began to change and though we never received a no, we kept being put off without any good explanations. We continued to pray for guidance and felt that we were being asked to wait. We enjoyed alot of family time and trusted that God was in control and if this was where Dan was supposed to work, then it would all work out in His time. Of course, being human (and living from paycheck to paycheck as we do) we decided to give them til Tuesday (Monday being Labor Day and all) and then call and see if we could get a straight answer. Dan called first thing Tuesday morning and was told they would be working on it and he should call back between 3 and 4. He patiently waited til 3:10 and called and was told that things were happening and he should have an answer shortly. He (again patiently) waited til 6:30 and called again and got voice mail. Ok patience was wearing thin. Then at 7pm he got the call that he needed to go in yesterday for a meeting at 10am. He went and was told he had the job and would be starting today at around 1:30-2:00 (they'd call and let him know). If you can believe it, he had been waiting with his phone by his side for two weeks for this call, but today his phone was in his box by the door, somehow set on silent! Of course his new boss called at 11am and wanted him to come in earlier but he never got the message til close to 1. Doesn't it just figure. Anyway, as I said he is at work right now and we are grateful to God for this opportunity (not to mention that he's way closer to home making for a much nicer commute time).

Angie is doing well - she is counting the days til September 15th when we return to the Doctor's and get her cast off. We're all looking forward to it, especially since lately she's gotten used to her crutches and doesn't pay as good of attention as she should and has put a crutch down on our toes a couple of times.

We also started back to school this week and my hours at work have been changed to 9-1. Lot of changes going on and we are all working at adapting and improving ourselves. Dan has even taken to waking to the alarm at 5:45 and running on the treadmill and studying the Bible before I even get up. I'm considering getting up earlier too, but so far am still adjusting to all the other changes.

Praise the Lord!

We are very happy to say that Angie has a cast on her ankle. When we went to the Ortho on Monday and he looked at the x-rays from Thursday he said, this type of fracture (she had a fracture on both the inside and outside of her ankle) usually requires surgery. He then took Angie for a new x-ray and came back and said that she was going to need to have a cast for 5 weeks. I asked what about "surgery" and he said that the bones had not moved at all since the x-rays taken on Thursday so he felt that surgery would not be necessary - Praise the Lord!!!!!!

Angie was planning to get an orange cast (not because it's her Mom's favorite color but because it's the hair color of her favorite anime boy - Ichigo), however her pediatric ortho only does the plain off white kind (go figure). It actually worked out quite well because her Youth Pastor, Mr. Elliot is a great artist, and as he has always called her gymnastics - ninja training - he drew this great ninja on her cast with a note that says "ninja school didn't work out". What a hoot!

Needless to say Suzzie is getting a little tired of Angie's new limitations (and so am I to be honest) and so is Angie (as she's really not one to lay around all day), but we're working together and getting through. Dan, Bless his heart, continues his attempts to "toughen her up" when he's at home (which unfortunatly is not that much).
Thank you all for your prayers and thank you Carmen for reminding me that I hadn't posted this yet. God Bless you all!

Beauty from Pain

On Thursday, 8/7, Angie was doing a round-off back handspring on the tumble track at her gym when she twisted her ankle while jumping off of her ankle. Miss Darla called and said that it was pretty swollen and they felt we should have it looked at. I picked her up and took her to the After Hours Pediatrics (Great Experience!) where they took an x-ray and discovered her ankle was fractured and that when she had stubbed her toe earlier in the day, she had chipped a piece of the bone off her baby toe of the same foot (could have caused the second accident??). Anyway, they splinted it up and decided that the fracture was very close to her growth plate and that we should take her to St. Joe's ER and have an Orthopedic Doctor take a look at it. Again, Praise the Lord, a very good experience (for an ER trip - we even had valet parking). They decided that the splint was fine and we need to have her keep it elevated for the next few days and see an Orthopedic Doctor this week. We have an appointment on Monday afternoon and my prayer is that the swelling will be down and they will be able to put a cast on it. Angie is going crazy being stuck on the couch - and we're getting a little weary of waiting on her hand and foot.