Random Pics...

In the Fellowship Hall. 

I find pictures like these on my camera ALL the time!

Below, you will see Elijah "easy baking" with Hannah.

Something got stuck here.

Off we go!

My curly haired girls.

Momma holding her baby boy.

Sunday

Last Sunday was our United Divine Service Sunday.  It is our Youth Sunday when the Troops get awarded all their badges, sing special music, recite their pledges, and do the entire church service.   We had over 25 youth participate.  I had lots of pictures of them, but should only share my own children....

Only when I downloaded this picture did I realize...

Hannah has no shoes on! 

Anywhoooo...

here are Hannah and Ann among the other Moonbeams

singing the Call ToWorship, "This Little Light of Mine".

David gave the first part of the Sermon. 

Three other faithful children followed him.

They all did so well and I could tell they really practiced,

including our Scripture Reader,  *A*!

Elijah did the Welcome and Announcements. 

It was SO funny...  background:  afterwards the church all met up at Spooky's afterward, a tradition for the first Sunday in November.  On the Bulletin, I put "no-host" lunch big and bold.  Elijah must've overheard me talking to Paul about my strict policy of... you pay for yourself at Spooky's or don't go... because we've had problems with "confustion" on this in the past.  I had wanted to be real clear on this with our people, but NICELY so I called it "NO-HOST".

So anyways... Elijah, my Mister blunt-untactful-speak-your-mind child who is STILL in the process of learning appropriateness... is giving the announcements, tells the congregation excitedly about lunch at Spooky's after church.  Then he stops dead, stares down the congregation and firmly says  "BRING  YOUR OWN MONEY AND PAY FOR YOURSELF!"     Oh my goodness!  gasp and gulp!  Thankfully, all I heard from our people was giggling!  Thank God! 
Now, it's just plain FUNNY!  And yes, for all the hyper-parents out there.....  I did have a talk with Elijah about this especially because as diligent as Paul and I are to either not speak about Corps(church)  issues or just speak real vaguely, he still needs to have some judgement about what gets repeated and what doesn't!

All in all, it was a great Sunday.  Great Church Service, Fun and great Fellowship at Spooky's (have I mentioned what a great church body we have?!?), we went to Elijah's last soccer game,  and then the kids and I watched a documentary on the underground, persecuted church in Vietnam.

Now THAT's alot of children!!

Click HERE  to see some good pics from the other day on my friend Stacie's blog.
She did such a great job capturing the moment!
I didn't even know she tooks pics of messy caramel faces, I must've been busy with my jabberjaws ;). 
We always have a wonderful time together. 
Like I say, when we're with the Brown's, there is always someone for everyone. 
Together, we have 11 children under the age of 11. 
They always do so well with each other. 
Us grown-ups behave ourselves too!

Our Halloween

Hannah -   Ballerina Princess

Mary-  Duck

This costume is tradition. 

Each one of our babies has worn this costume on their first Halloween. 

It still quacks when you squeeze the tummy.

Two years ago when Hannah wore it,

she was photographed in Daddy's arms

during the downtown trick-or-treat

and put on the front page of the newspaper. 

Ann-  Bride

Me-  What happens when you eat to much candy Lady

Paul-  Invisible Man

Elijah-  Jawa

David-  X Wing Fighter Pilot

It was VERY windy on Halloween. 

We had a terrible time keeping the pumpkins lit, so we finally just gave up.

I'm still wondering how we ended up with 10 pumpkins when there are only 7 of us?.

We've done this everywhere we live.  We both like to take the kids out trick-or-treating so we leave a big bowl of candy with a sign to take 2.  It always works out so well! 

Then when we get home, the kids rush to the door every time a trick-or-treater comes. 

They LOVE to pass out candy! 

(It was really hard this year for me, not hearing Buster go crazy

over the door bell every 10 minutes. 

He is still so missed.)

We trick-or-treated the day before Halloween in our downtown area too.

Our first stop is always the Corps and Thrift Store so the kids can "show-off"

their costumes to their second family... staff and church folks.

Paul and I love going around downtown because its like a great big costume party!

We just love looking at all the different costumes!

Class Harvest Party and Coat Distribution

Elijah's class Harvest Party was Thursday afternoon.

Alot of the kids brought in treats such as cookies and candies.

I ran the games!

Party!! Party!!

First we played "Wrap the Mummy" game using double rolls of toilet paper.  The kids had a blast.  I've posted the pictures of Elijah doing it and a couple of the kids who aren't identifiable because they're wrapped head to toe in toilet paper!!  Haaa! Haaaa!

Then we played "Eat the Donut from the string" game.  I ran the ribbon through each donut ahead of time and stored them in zippy bags so that when the time came, all I had to do was slide them on my big stick.  I was able to get 6 kids at a time to take a turn.  The big plus.... was that I used powdered, jelly filled!  The kids had powdered sugar and rasberry jelly all over their faces, hair, clothes.  What a great big fun mess!!

 (I brought baby wipes for the kids to clean up after)

Elijah piggin' out.

Coat Distribution.

Every year, we, The Salvation Army, does a big Coat Distribution day. It is a LOOOOOOT of work to get ready for. This year, we had over 600 coats donated and stored for the big day. Plus hats, gloves, scarves and even some snow suits.

I hung exactly 10.  Do you know why???  Because we have an incredible group of a few ladies who are worker bees!! *N* *K* *B* headed up the force and *C* *L* *R* weren't to far behind.  They started hanging on Monday and continued straight through Wednesday and then 2 of them stayed and helped run the show on Thursday.  What a blessing it is to have people that are so willing to help out and have great attitudes to boot!

I told the ladies they turned our Fellowship Hall into a Department Store!

This entire pile was hung, folded or nicely boxed up by Thursday.

This year, we even had a sock table.  *N* arranged every pair "just so".

I was nervous every time I walked by them that I'd mess them up!

In all we served over 100 families in about 7 hours. 

St. Vincent De Paul supplied many coats and some distribution day workers as well.  (Thanks!)

 We will continue to give out free coats and warm things throughout the winter through our Social Services.  We had such an abundance this year, that noone in The Dalles should be cold this season!

Thank you Lord for your provision!

Time with Grandma and Grandpa

We had such a great time visiting with my parents. 

Grandma and Grandpa both came, Grandpa stayed for a couple days, Grandma stayed for 2 weeks.   Mainly, my parents come to care for our children while Paul and I have to leave for Officers Councils. 

But it is always nice when they come before and stay after so that Paul and I can visit with them too. 

The kids put them to work right away playing.

The girls had Grandma cooking.

                                            

The boys had Grandpa looking at their Star Wars game.

                                                 

They played LOTS of card games too!

Mom came with us to the pumpkin patch and later helped carve pumpkins. 

Mainly, she helped Hannah (2yod) who was crazy afraid of the pumpkin guts. 

Good thing she had Grandma to help her!

My mom was enrolled as a Soldier the same day that my brother and I were enrolled as Jr. Soldiers,

over 25 years ago.

So that made all 3 of us first-generation Salvationists!

                                            

My Blogstimony

I love getting into other peoples lives.  I ask lots of questions and am a very curious person about others.  So naturally, blogs are something that I really enjoy reading. I wish I had the time to read them all!!    I had kicked the idea around for a while about doing my own, but mostly just liked reading others.  I find some really inspiring, thought provoking and many of them give ideas I had never thought of before, like over at Pink Slippers where I got the great  idea to take pictures of my kids in their Halloween costumes before the big day.  WAY less stressful!!


Then..... my good friend (afirefighterswife) started her own blog, and I was reading hers too.  Stacie's blog gave depth to my friendship with her because instead of just relying on conversations and experiences together, I could see her daily life, read encouraging things, get into her head and get other great ideas, like the paper boat food trays!
She had mentioned a couple times "you should do one". But what really got me was when one day we were talking and she said "I love blogging, especially because it forces me to look at the good things in my life". From there,  I was sold! 


How true it is that blogging forces me to look at the good things in my life! 
I have also benefited from the training that my brain receives
not to divulge things that I shouldn't,
not to type anything that I wouldn't say,
and not to nurse negative/unGodly attitudes. 


I have to admit though, that I do get a little embarrassed that people actually read this!  I originally intended to share with my family and friends who are so far away and who I want to stay connected too.  I also need to confess that I have never verbally told anyone that I keep a blog. In fact, at Women's Retreat, word got around that I kept a blog and I just never thought my own ladies would be into reading about "Captain Rachel's" life.  Who knew??   I just didn't want to self-promote and look all narcissistic (I've been studying narcissism waaaaaay to much! Now I need to study obsessive-ism, ha!ha!) and I kept thinking.... I really don't have much to offer on my blog, 
but my intention is
to glorify God by being as transparent as possible
and to hopefully give some insight (and hope!)  into what it's like to be a Salvation Army Officer,  Wife and Momma. That it can be challenging and demanding, sometimes frustrating too,   but VERY, VERY, GOOD!!! and I would recommend it to anyone called by God to preach, serve and love others (I think that's all Christians isn't it??)   Praise be to God!


I really enjoy putting up pictures too.  My children love looking through my blog to scope out pictures. And I feel less stress about doing mass mailings of photos to my friends and family.  I will post... but it is your job to come to the blog and look for yourself, please and thank-you, (he!he!).


Frankly, I wish everyone I knew kept a blog!