Sorry...

I haven't been to consistent on posting lately. Dan has had 4 nights off in a row! (if you count his Saturday and Sunday) What a treat! We have been busy taking full advantage of some wonderful family time.

Dan is back to work tonight to a VERY busy and crazy night at UPS, I fear! Volume should be astronomical tonight since they were closed for 2 extra days! Please pray for him this week!

We had a great Sunday. I had another large Sunday school class of 14 girls, I think; and the program is over! God is good! Several of the visitors from the program have been coming back consistently.

One of our faithful young men, who graduated from our teen dept. 2 years ago, has since become a faithful and active adult member of our church. He has been praying hard for some of his family to be saved. He has invited his niece, who is a teenage young lady, to church several times. She came yesterday and I had the privilege of leading her to the Lord during the invitation!! I just LOVE IT when God gives me such opportunities and special soul-winning experiences! It challenges me and stirs me up to be a more zealous witness.

Please be in prayer for our Darren man. I believe he is starting with the nasty stomach flu that his poor cousin Faith started with the day before Thanksgiving. Uuuuggh! I am not looking forward to that! If I end up dealing with a stomach flu I may not be back here for a few days. Anyways, here is a picture of him tonight. He is just a cutie!

A WONDERUL Family Day!

What a fun day!! I LOVE Thanksgiving, but I think the day after Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite days of the year ever since I was little! Dan and I LOVE carrying on the Shepherd family tradition of going to the tree farm to cut down a Christmas tree.

We had a yummy mid-morning breakfast at home and then off to Half Moon Bay to Santa's Tree Farm (our new favorite by the way!). It was a BEAUTIFUL drive! We got our tree, ate at McDonald's and then headed home. After a naptime for Darren, we decorated the tree this evening. What a fun day! I LOVE spending time with my 2 men, Dan and little Darren man!

Enjoy a few pictures...

Dan and Helen...


Daddy and Darren ready to cut down the tree. Darren insisted upon bringing his saw to help Daddy out!...

Mommy and The Darren Man...

With Mrs. Claus. Darren just couldn't quite get brave enough to go see Santa!...


The scenic little "Gumdrop Bridge" you drive over to see the Noble Fir lot...


The BEAUTIFUL view on our way back...

Into the Christmas spirit as we unpack all our Christmas decorations...

I am SO Thankful...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I am so thankful to God for the many blessings he has bestowed upon our family this year. I am far away from my family this holiday season and missing all the Shepherd clan "hubub," but thankful to God for a second Christian family to be a part of! Dan's family is so wonderful!

We ate at Dave and Angie's house (Dan's brother). Mom Callaghan, Angie and I split up the cooking. We had a FEAST with plenty of yummy leftovers. We set some aside for Sunday dinner and split up the rest. We enjoyed time to sit around and chat, watched a few funny videos then headed home. I had the JOY of cleaning up and putting away food when I got home, but it sure is rewarding to be sitting here looking at a CLEAN KITCHEN! Aaaahhhh!

We watched "Pluto's Christmas Tree" an wonderful old Mickey Mouse cartoon, enjoyed a nice cozy fire together and a snack. Then Darren was off to bed. I think "family" and "home" are 2 of my very favorite words!

Tomorrow...one of my FAVORITE days of the year! We are going to cut down our Christmas tree, then come home and pull out all the Christmas decorations! Darren is pumped! So am I! We love carrying on the Shepherd family tradition!

Here is a picture of our cozy fire. We are thankful for all our friends and family and hope your day was special too!!

Update...

We had a great weekend!!! Saturday was normal schedule except we had our quarterly mission's meeting. It was a Christmas theme as we were collecting a love offering to send to our missionaries. We had a good turn-out with 25 or 26 people there. We enjoyed a nice spaghetti dinner, played one short game, collected an offering, prayed for our missionaries and dismissed. I always enjoy getting together with others in our church!

Sunday was the last day of the fall program. We had a big push for visitors and, as is our custom, gave away a free turkey to all bus parents who came and any visiting adults. We had LOTS of visitors! We had 7 visitors in the teen department alone, and about 19 adult visitors! WOW! Great to see God's house packed out on a Sunday morning! I had 17 ladies in my teen class! AWESOME! 5 of these were visitors. Dan had I believe 13 guys in his class as well! Our teens worked SO hard to bring visitors this program. We are SUPER proud of our kids for their hard work and also in going out of their way to be friendly to all the new teens.

Today Darren and I got to go grocery shopping for all our Thanksgiving food supplies. Our cupboards are bursting with holiday goodies waiting to be baked! Can't wait to start baking all my pies and goodies!! Aahhh...I LOVE Thanksgiving and the coming holiday season! What a wonderful thing to have a day dedicated to giving thanks and enjoying the fellowship of family...and food!! We all have SO much to be thankful for!

By the way, if you read my blog and have an extra 30 seconds, please post me a note in the box to the right. I LOVE knowing what people visit my blog and stay up-to-date with our family! It is just as simple as sending a text...type your name...a few words...and your done! (You do not have to enter your email if you do not wish to.) Hope you enjoy reading; I LOVE hearing from you!

A Nice Normal Week...

Sorry I haven't posted much this week. We have a bit of an Internet connection problem, but Dan has showed me how to reset it when it cuts off.

We have had a pretty routine week. Great Wednesday out teen soul-winning! I didn't get to go with the teens this Wednesday because I didn't have a babysitter. There were 17 teens out soul-winning and 16 saved, though! Hooray! I love the zeal our teens have for souls.

Darren has had a rather "2-year-old" week, but we still have lots of fun. Here are a few of his "funnies" from the week. Being a mommy is never ending entertainment!

Daddy leaves for bus route early every Sunday morning, so Darren and I have a special treat for breakfast...we have cinnamon toast instead of toast with honey! A little thing, I know, but we enjoy making the little things fun. I want him to learn in every possible way to look forward to Sundays. I LOVE Sundays!

Anyways, Monday morning rolled around and we had our "regular toast." While we were sitting at the table eating breakfast he said, "Mommy, can we please have "SIN" toast?!" OH, how I LAUGHED over that one!! He thought we were having "SIN" toast on Sundays! How ironic is that??!

Also, while driving in the car this week. We were talking about eating dinner. I asked Darren what he liked to eat. He thought for a moment and said..."Sgabetti!" Which, I believe interpreted would be...spaghetti! Hee Hee!

And the last Darren funny...I love keeping whole nuts in the shell around the holidays. We enjoy cracking and eating them whenever we are sitting down to watch something or just relaxing in the evenings. (Plus I don't eat as many when I have to crack open the shell first!) Tuesday evening Dan, Darren and I were just relaxing after dinner and Darren began asking for some notes? He kept asking and asking..."Mommy, can we have notes? Mommy, can we have notes?" I was quite puzzled till I asked him to show Mommy. He promptly walked to the glass jar filled with hazelnuts and said..."Notes, Mommy!"

Here are a few pictures of our cute man from this week. Enjoy!

Darren "the cool dude" Callaghan.

Darren LOVES to help build a fire...

A nice normal week!

Sorry I haven't posted much this week. We have a bit of an Internet connection problem, but Dan has showed me how to reset it when it cuts off.

We have had a pretty routine week. Great Wednesday out teen soul-winning! I didn't get to go with the teens this Wednesday because I didn't have a babysitter. There were 17 teens out soul-winning and 16 saved, though! Hooray! I love the zeal our teens have for souls.

Darren has had a rather "2-year-old" week, but we still have lots of fun. Here are a few of his "funnies" from the week. Being a mommy is never ending entertainment!

Daddy leaves for bus route early every Sunday morning, so Darren and I have a special treat for breakfast...we have cinnamon toast instead of toast with honey! A little thing, I know, but we enjoy making the little things fun. I want him to learn in every possible way to look forward to Sundays. I LOVE Sundays!

Anyways, Monday morning rolled around and we had our "regular toast." While we were sitting at the table eating breakfast he said, "Mommy, can we please have "SIN" toast?!" OH, how I LAUGHED over that one!! He thought we were having "SIN" toast on Sundays! How ironic is that??!

Also, while driving in the car this week. We were talking about eating dinner. I asked Darren what he liked to eat. He thought for a moment and said..."Sgabetti!" Which, I believe interpreted would be...spaghetti! Hee Hee!

And the last Darren funny...I love keeping whole nuts in the shell around the holidays. We enjoy cracking and eating them whenever we are sitting down to watch something or just relaxing in the evenings. (Plus I don't eat as many when I have to crack open the shell first!) Tuesday evening Dan, Darren and I were just relaxing after dinner and Darren began asking for some notes? He kept asking and asking..."Mommy, can we have notes? Mommy, can we have notes?" I was quite puzzled till I asked him to show Mommy. He promptly walked to the glass jar filled with hazelnuts and said..."Notes, Mommy!"

Here are a few pictures of our cute man from this week. Enjoy!

Darren "the cool dude" Callaghan.

He LOVES helping Daddy build a fire!

Thanks, God!!

I just had to pause and thank God for a wonderful Christian home! What a privilege!!

We had such a wonderful happy family night. A warm yummy pot of homemade soup at the kitchen table...the sounds of a "Daddy and Darren" basketball game while I cleaned the kitchen...a few rousing games of "Hungry Hippo"...a few good "oldie" cartoons, 1937 Mickey Mouse and another old Chip and Dale...tucking my sweet Darren man into bed...enjoying a fire in the fireplace and a hot cup of tea with my Babe...The hardest working husband around heading off to work to provide for our family...and now the last bit of our nice fire with the end of an old faithful Hallmark movie and another bit of hot tea!

Ahhhh, why wouldn't ANYONE want to invite God into their homes?! We are so privileged to follow the sweet and happy will of God! What a wonderful, wonderful place to be! During every moment of our lives, good or bad, home with Christ as the center is a sweet haven!

Sunday...

We had a great service with many adult visitors again his week! We have one more week of our program left. We had 2 saved and 1 baptized in the morning service, which is always exciting!

Also, our nursery superintendent asked Pastor a few weeks ago if she could honor Mrs. Callaghan at Thanksgiving time for all she does for our church. She wanted to make it a surprise and mom was surprised, which is amazing! During the morning service she honored Mrs. Callaghan with a few special things, a gift and a short picture slide-show. Then Angie, Karen, Jezzel and I sang "Thank You for Giving to the Lord." Our Nursery superintendent also payed for a nice meal reception for the entire church after the service in the Fellowship Hall! Wow! What a treat! We had a nice time and were glad for the chance to honor a well-deserving Pastor's wife!

Here are those who fit in the Fellowship Hall! Had a good crowd so some were eating elsewhere.



A few pictures...

Mom and Dad Callaghan, nice smile, Dad!





Our nursery superintendent on the left who made this possible!



Mom's beautiful cake!




Everyone "digging-in" to the yummy Filipino food!




Darren sitting in his chair serenading everyone on Anthony's guitar! Notice his bright blue band-aid! He got an "owie" in the nursery and was SO proud of his big blue band-aid!

Saturday...

We had an exciting weekend!

Saturday first...
We had a Pizza and Game night at the church with the teens. We had several that were unable to make it but still had 15, which is a good group! We ate then played some wild and wacky games.

One of the games we played was human Foosball (the players stand lined up just like a Foosball table and cannot move off of their taped line. They have to kick the SOFT kids soccer ball into their goal past the goalie!) Lots of fun! We played some other crazy games too.

The kids had a lot of fun and so did Dan and I! We always enjoy spending time with our teenagers!

Here's a little 30 second human Foosball video...

Here is a "Darren Funny"...

I am was teaching Darren to ask to be excused from the table. I gave him a little jelly belly candy when he remembered to ask. He had finished his lunch and started saying, "Please have some 'scuse, Mommy? Please have some 'scuse?!"

I said, "Good! Yes, you can be excused!" But he kept saying, "Please have some, Mommy? Please have some 'scuse?" He proceeded to explain that he thought this "excused" stuff is something he should get after he ate...like a dessert!

I had a good laugh over that one! Now we have established that it isn't something to eat, it means "get down;" we are making better progress! Hee Hee!

Me and my cute lil' man. This is his new "smile?!" Ha!

Cheesecake Factory! Mmmm....

Tonight Dan and I took four teens, who brought visitors on our big day a few weeks ago, to the Cheesecake Factory in SF for dessert. We had a lot of fun and the cheesecake was AMAZING! Dan got Snickers Chunk cheesecake and I got Red Velvet Cheesecake! (Layers of Red Velvet cake and cheesecake. WOW!) Our winners were a brother and sister and two other young ladies; they all brought visitors with them on Friend Day. Nice night with some great teens and a handsome hubby! ALWAYS love a trip to the City! San Francisco is beautiful at night!

Love my handsome man!

Our contest winners...

With some of my girls!

A Thanksgiving Funny...

Here is a little laugh for you all.

Things NOT to say at the Thanksgiving Table…

- Turn to your mom and say, “See, I told you they wouldn’t

notice that the turkey was past the expiration date!”
- “Did you cook this yourself or did you just thaw it out?”
- “My, aren’t you full yet?”
- “Did we ever figure out which of you stole Grandma’s jewelry?”
- “Why didn’t you try some of Aunt Martha’s pecan surprise jello?”

This isn't Thanksgiving, but it IS funny! If you don't get it, you probably shouldn't apply at a school for the gifted!...

Monday update...

We had a nice relaxing Monday morning since there was no school for teacher's work day. Dan was able to sleep in and we ate a nice breakfast together this morning. What a treat! Here are a couple pictures from today. Nothing spectacular, just our very cute little Darren man and Belle, our little dog.

Darren and Belle...Don't her eyes look evil?!


Darren enjoying his animal crackers...

Daddy and Darren playing with "snakes!"

I also have a GREAT report to post about our Sunday! One of our teen girls has been praying for, I think, about 2 years for her mom to come to church and to be saved. She and her cousins convinced her mom to come with some family yesterday to church for the first time! We were SO excited.

During invitation time I slipped to the back of the auditorium where she was sitting and asked her if I could show her some verses from the Bible to help her in her life. She agreed and sat down with me there in the back (She has been rather hesitant about church and God, etc, so I thought asking her to come to the altar might be a mistake).

I was able to open the Word of God and show her the only way to Heaven. She listened, bowed her head, and sweetly asked the Lord to take her to Heaven. I was moved to tears as we prayed thinking that God would use ME to do such an amazing work in someone's life! WOW! Serving the Lord is an awesome thing to do with your life! The Lord's work is the greatest work in the world! Thank you, God, for working through ME!

We also had a great number of teens there on Sunday morning, about 26, I think!

Darren vs. the iPhone...

How can a two-year-old figure out an iPhone? We have never showed Darren how to work anything on Dan's iPhone, but somehow from just watching Dan he has figured out how to do almost anything! It seems he certainly has an aptitude for picking up the operations of ANYTHING digital?! Whiz kid!

Here is a 30 second video clip we took tonight as Dan let him play with his phone for 5 minutes. He has figured out how to slide to open...select the icon of the weapon game (if you don't know what this is, you can select a weapon, sword, whip, etc. And then swing the iPhone like that weapon and it makes the noise!)...and change from one weapon to another?!! Exceptionally smart child, of course! Enjoy...

Fun Afternoon with the Teens...

Had a great day out Teen Soul-winning today. 17 teens in attendance and 7 people saved! Very good in view of the fact that we have very little time now that daylight savings is over. It is practically dark as soon as we start! We don't like for the kids to stay out too long so we only had about half an hour. I was going to take some more pictures, but I forgot I had my camera till the last group of kids was getting off the bus! Anyways, here are a couple of our kids; we have such a GREAT group...

3 of our guys...Totally PUMPED...or something like that?!...

2 of our young ladies ready to go win some souls! However, they went with Dan and I; and, I am afraid to say, we picked the GRUMPY Street! A bunch of people who thought they didn't need God! Oh well, can't say we didn't try today!

Great Weekend...

Our Sunday school crowds have been up this program. We had 23 teens there Sunday morning and one visitor! We have had a teen visitor in Sunday school every week of the program! One of them has come back for every Sunday morning and Sunday evening service since the first week! God is good. We also saw 2 saved and one baptized in the morning service.

Sunday night I had the privilege of playing the piano for one of our teen young men to sing a solo. He did such a GREAT job and it is so rewarding to see your young people choose to live their lives for God. I tell my teen girls often that I don't want to MAKE them become good Christians. I want them to have their own desire and make the choice.

I LOVE church, and I am SO glad my son is already excited about going to church every week! Every Sunday morning on the way to church we sing..."Every Sunday I Love to Go to Sunday School" and "This is the Day That the Lord Hath Made." Then we talk about who will see when we get there. By the time we arrive he is ready to run in the door! (Well, MOST Sundays!! Ha!) Being a mommy is a great privilege.