Happy Sweet 16 Libs! Your mom loves you!!

My Dearest sweetest Libby,

One of the greatest honors of my lifetime is being your mom. Who would have known that 22 years ago, the doctors would have told me that I had a 2% chance of ever having a baby.... 6 years before you born, your daddy and I tried and tried, prayed and prayed, but no answer came from God.... not for 6 long years....But we had faith...we believed that God would answer our prayers...and He did....Elizabeth Faith Neu was born to 2 of the happiest people on this earth 16 years ago.... I think of all the days in my life, giving birth to you was one of the most memorable. I remember asking your daddy if you really came out of me! I could not believe that God had really answered our prayers! Tears still come to my eyes when I remember God's kindness to us on that day and every day since then ......

Your name means consecrated to God and I can attest as your mother that I have seen this walked out in your life. Libby, you are the greatest example I know of a godly woman. I don't think I will ever stop learning from you. I want to take some time to honor you tonite....

You excel at all these areas: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,goodness, gentleness and self control. All of these areas are walked out in your daily life. You are so kind, quick to forgive, always believing the best about others, quick to bring your sin to light...seek God every morning, you take great joy in your relationships, you are very self controlled, always striving to be more godly....You honor your father and mother...you are such an encouragement....always telling us things that we do right....I often think - I wish I could be more like you! You Libby, are my hero!

I love it when you seek me out to share a struggle that you are having. You so want to please God in your thoughts and actions....You will never know how much I admire you and am so humbled to be your mother...I know that there is no credit to be had...You are a true gift from God....One that I know I could never deserve...but that I am extremely grateful for.....

Thank-you for your diligence to be a godly young woman, for your desire to be a blessing to your parents, for your sweet spirit to be a peacemaker, for your humility to share your sin and confess it quickly, for your humility in all areas of yor life...for denying your flesh when, at your age, self wants to rule...Thank-you for fighting for righteousness..

I love you and am soooooo grateful that God blessed me and your daddy 16 years ago and gave us you! Happy Birthday sweet Libby Lu!

love,

your mommy.....

Happy 16th Birthday Libby!!!! A message from your dad....

A tribute to my little girl who is growing up so fast.
It seemed like just yesterday when you first learned to walk and talk and ride a bike and now you are learning to drive a car. Yikes.
Where have all the years gone? It has been my utter pleasure and priviledge to watch you grow into one of the most godly people I know. It makes my heart glad every time I walk past your room and you are listening to a book on cd like the Elsie Dinsmore series, or the Narnia series, or the Bible on cd, or a teaching message by men like CJ, Mike Bulmore, John Piper, etc. God has been so gracious to us to allow us the opportunity to pour into your life early on and now you encourage me and bless me and humble me with your love for your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You have been blessed with such a creative imagination. Such a passion for the Lord. Such a willingness to serve in any way you can.
some of my most memorable times with you have been playing games with you throughout the years...
pretty pretty princess, herd your horses, battleship, chess, backgammon, and endless card games...
its been great watching you grow into a fine young lady learning english country dancing, singing lessons,
guitar lessons, now driving lessons. We've had a blast playing soccer together, wrestling around the house,
and geo-caching together.
It doesn't really matter what we do together, I just thoroughly enjoy every minute with my wonderful precious
daughter. I never thought that after trying for 6 years to have children that God would bless us with such a
one as Libby. I couldn't have asked for anyone better. She is so much like her mother in so many ways. Thats a wonderful thing.
I just want to end by saying that Libby, I am so proud of you and the godly young woman you are. You are light years ahead of me when I was 16. I can't imagine what my life would have been like without you being a part of it.
Thank you for loving God ahead of everything. You are truly an inspiration to me.
I Love You!!!
Your Daddy

A blog award :)

Thanks Heidi! I have never had a blog award before! Heidi is a gifted writer and I love checking our her blog. She is definately the one who deserves this award that was graciously bestowed upon her!

Heidi you are a sweet friend, one that I would love to get to know more!

Thanks for this award and I would like to pass it on to Alyssa at Resolved2Worship....She also is a very gifted writer and a great photographer! I enjoy reading her blog regularly as well.... and I could give this to many more....but lots of you have got an award too which is so neat!


5 things I am addicted to are what I am to add....oh geesh! ok, well....let's see...

1. Growing in Godliness-I want to grow and change and I seem to be always working on something to do that. I think about it constantly and although in somethings change has not happened, by pursuing it regularly, I am at peace that God's timing is different than mine :)

2. Lists....I am constantly making lists and checking things off. I don't know what I would do without lists! I will never be without one and usually have 3 or 4 going at the same time...

3.Calendering...I have to have things wrote on the calendar. Buying a new calendar gives me immense pleasure! I actually get giddy! I love seeing my life in the days ahead and wonder what God has in store....yes....I am a dork.... but I love it!

4. Caffeine Free Diet Coke....I love it and sometimes drink a few in one day! I have had to cut so much out since I found out I am allergic to wheat and gluten, that this is a treat when many other things are off limits!

5. Recipes....I love them..I must have thousands...I have not cooked them all, but I love having them. This is an area that I plan on addressing in the new year...I am seeking to be paper-clutter free and my mission will be to reduce our paper load! but if you saw my recipe collection...look out!! It is scary!

ok, that's my sinful vices in a nutshell...... More blogging to come this week as my baby girl is turning 16 and I want to pay a tribute to her! I cant believe I will be a mom to a 16 year old!!! oh my gosh!!

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

Every year we try to do something special as a family around Christmas time. This year Ms. Dianne got to come with us! (since she is my adopted Aunt- smile with glee-).

Magic Kingdom was so beautifull! One of my highlights is they handed out complimentry hot chocolate and cookies, and they gave me and my Mom gluten free cookies! We were so excited and they tasted better then the sugar cookies! So every time we passed a place that we could get some, we asked for "four gluten free cookies please", so we came home with a lot of cookies that we could eat!

The Castle was so beautiful with all the lights on it changing colors. It was neat to see Tinkerbell zip down the line and she was real person! We got right on the rides and barely had to wait. It was a wonderful night to remember!

We will definately be doing this again as my whole family said what a great time it was!

Thank-you-Mom and Dad!

Care Group Christmas...Stir Crazy Style.....

Well...we had our Care Group Christmas Party last Sunday and it was a blast! We did a Stir Crazy Party where we had 3 teams and they competed against each other by cooking an appetizer, a side dish and a main dish...all without recipes! The dishes were all judged by everyone there and the winning team won a Prize. Team 1 won this competition by a very creative dish-filling bread with a rice and egg stir fry! It was so much fun and everyone participated and enjoyed eating all the creations for dinner! We ended with a white elephant and full tummies! What a wonderful evening! Next year, maybe we will try mexican crazy..... ~smile~

Thanks groupies for being team players and making the evening a night to remember! We love you guys!!

Can you say...Can?

And can is just what we did! some yummy stuff! Krista, Praise and I ventured into the domestic world and canned the old fashioned way! We had a blast and I must say, many hands made very light work.....
Our feet were tired, our backs were sore....but what a harvest we produced! Thanks girls for hanging out! Us younger women have to stick together you know!....Take a peek for yourselves......Next time though, I will peel 20 more cloves of garlic just to be safe ~wink~

Tag

I was tagged by Praise....Here is the 5th picture from the 5th folder in my picture file:

Kaylee girl!! I think you were in my class for co-op :)

I tag - Heidi Lorenzi, Meaghan Robertson, Lea Lockhart, Rhonda Reilly and Krista Vaughan.

The Rules: go to Your Pictures file go to the 5th folder open up the 5th picture and post it then tag 5 people when you are done.

Have fun!

Crafting at the Neus.....

Libby, who is uber creative wanted to make these really cool boxes from shoe boxes.... We went to thrift stores looking for leftover wallpaper rolls and asked friends for shoe boxes...we also found knobs at the thrift store, a whole bag for 50 cents! We went to Lowes and found this really cool leather looking wallpaper for $5.00 a roll. So, with our $7.00 investment, we took the challenge and made these really cool storage boxes for her closet! They turned out so cute! We had a lot of fun and the whole family got involved!



Here is the finished product:

Our Annual Christmas Shopping Trip.......

We went on our Mother-Daughter Shopping trip and invited another mother and daughter along! We started out at 9:30 and headed to the Mall of Millenia and then around 3:00,made our way to Ikea. We met up with the other girls.....and spent several hours there... and then made our way to HuHot by the Florida Mall...

We had a great dinner and then headed out to a few more stores and then back to the Hotel. We unloaded all our stuff and then headed out to the Pool deck for some munchies! We brought them back to the room and pigged out! The onion rings made me sick, but that was my fault, because I knew I shouldn't eat them and after my Libby's please of mercy to not eat them..I did it anyway! They looked sooo good!

and it was so not worth it..... but I took it in stride and plowed my way through Orlando the next day!

We had wonderful fellowship, and good memories were made....and Libby and I stayed up til 2:00 wrapping! Our cohorts were fast asleep while we worked late into the night!

We got up, had breakfast and headed to Old Time Pottery, The Florida Mall and then World Market, Michaels and at last...Whole Foods!! oh yeah! Where I bought lots of Gluten free snacks and Gluten free cupcakes! They were so good!

We got home about 5:30 and passed out! It was so much fun and we are 95% done Christmas shopping!

Starting to save in November of last year, for Christmas this year, was such a blessing to our family.... We have done that for many years and I encourage you to try it if you haven't!..... well...the holidays are upon us and now we get to slow down and enjoy them.... We invite you to come along with us as we share what we do for our Holidays...blog style...
keep checking in and we will keep posting.....

Happiest of Holidays to you....

Whats been going on...

Not a whole lot has been going on around the Neu house..Just the same old things that we do day in and day out.....

here is an update on the members of our fam:

Joe has been working hard at work...He has even had some overtime.He has been taking Libby driving and rescreened some screens so we could open the windows. Joe and Libby have enjoyed Geo-caching.... He has cut the grass, taken the trash out, surfed the web, considered playing soccer (oh no!) and I am sure alot more things have been happening too.....He celebrated his 44th birthday last month and Libby reminds him regularly that he is getting alot more gray....
Tammy (me) I have been cleaning the spare bedroom, got to work at Boutique for a week (how fun!) had a game night with some friends, Christmas shopped online, grocery shopped, got my hair done, went to Aldis which just opened, made phone calls, made appointments, did some reading, changed our diet, eating better....and because I went to my hair dresser today, I have no more gray showing (oh yeah!)

Just a friendly neighborhood reminder that if you missed the November sale, you're in luck, because they will be holding their next sale in February! The week of the 22nd! You don't want to miss it!

Libby-Libby's life is so much about school...she does school almost everyday, cleaned her room, groomed Emmy, did her chores, played guitar, made phone calls for Resolved, helped Praise with the twins, sewed lots of cushions, went yard saleing and got a wonderful mannequin that is wire...you unsnap it, put it on and it fits to your shape so that whatever you make will be the right size..sooooo cooool!

so there you have it...all the boring facts about what really goes on in the lives of normal boring people....

wish there was more to tell you...but theres not! Hey, atleast I remembered what we have done..although, I did have to think alot about it! Life is good, all is well, and we are blessed...

what more could we possibly need ;) God has been very good to us......

Wow! Is the first thing I can think of...

...Our weekend was so fun! Saturday Morning we headed out to visit with my Grandma Marie and spent the night in Orlando with her.

We ate Lunch at Rainforest Cafe and walked through Disney Village, just chillin in the little shops. We also went to the Gap...Thank you Grandma for my purse! I love it!

Then we road a rollercoaster, go-carts, and watched bungy jumping! We tried to convince my Dad to do it but, he wouldn't. Oh and we saw a neat looking licensce plate!

Thank-you Grandma for such a fun day! I love spending time with you! and I am so glad you invited us to come over!

On sunday we went to the most amazing Drivers Edge thing! It was so fun and educating!

At first when my mom wanted me to go, I thought to myself" this is going to be so boring, all they are going to do is give lectures, and show videos that I have already seen before", boy was I wrong! They did give a few lectures, but they actully let you drive and show you how to get out of dangerous situations.

The first thing I got to do there was learn how to get out of a skid. First the instructor (which was professional race car driver) drove us on the course and the car lost traction, skidded and jerked! Then he had me drive the car! It was a little scary at first! But if my car ever does lose traction, I was taught what to do. It definately boosted my confidence in driving on a highway.

The seconed thing they had us learn about was different things about the car. One thing that really helped me was "Wash Boats". Wash meaning Window washer fluid, B is brake fluid, O is oil, a is anti freeze, T is transmission fluid, and S is steering fluid.

Back out to a different corse they taught what ABS brakes are and let us test them, by flooring the gas and then the instructer would yell "NOW" then we would have to slam on the brakes! The next part in that course was road hazzards. I wasn't good at this part. We had to drive a long stretch and then swerve quickly at an object and pretend that it was a large object and try to avoid it. My instructer was so nice! He took me back out on the course and showed me what I was doing wrong and explained it to me, and had me keep doing it till I was able to do it without hitting any of the cones, he also gave me a trophy for being the most improved on that course that was really neat!

I have heard so many things to do and what not to when your car skids out of control and I was so confused I would of freaked out because I wouldn't of known what to do if my car ever did skid, or if I had to swerve around somthing going 60 MPH. but this really, really helped me!

If you ever have the chance to go I strongly encourage every teenager to do this! and It was all paid for by donations and by government funding so it was all free even the t-shirts, hats and jumper cable car kit and a bunch more things!

I could barely sleep last night because I was so excited!

...Libby...

Our Vacation has come to an end....life is back to normal....

Well....all good things must come to an end.....We pulled in about 10:00 last night. We were tired, but rested....We had a wonderful drive home and even ran into some celebration attenders at the gas station in Gainesville! aww...we were sad we missed it!
We slept in late, laid around, and had to return the rental car today....here are the last of our pictures from the trip....
Great memories...great times...great friends....and a heartful of thanks! God has been so good to us....We will reminisce about this trip for years to come....
A wonderful time to be had by all....

Vacation Post #2

We are having a great time, very relaxing. We are in town right now and I am sitting in a little cafe while the gang is out looking at books and little shops....We came into town through fog that was so thick, we couldn't see in front of us...I was so scared coming down that mountain! yikes!

We have been to the apple orchard, pumpkin patch and everywhere in between. We have seen the most beautiful scenery and ate so much food, I think I might pop!

We have had the best time and we hate to see it end....But we know that our beautiful life is at home and we hate to go, but we can't wait to be back at home, where our life and friends are...

Thank-you God for your kindness on our week and all the wonderful memories that we have made in the process....

We look forward to the time we can do it again! Thanks Rick and Patty for one of the best memories! We love you! and Justin and Krista, it was not the same without you here :( Krista, your dad has been eating donuts, I will try and save you some, but it will be hard ~smile~

We're here!

We left bright and early Monday morning and arrived early evening! What a beautiful ride up and what fun we are having so far!

We had a wonderful dinner at the cabin on Monday-roasted hotdogs and smores! We then spent Tuesday exploring and just resting. It was such a nice day. The weather was beautiful and we had some great times just reminiscing and enjoying each others company...The best part of the day was our outdoor movie on the porch! We pulled out the tv and dvd player and made an outdoor fire and watched "The Last Sin Eater" to the sounds of the nature all around us! Oh it was so nice...and I was a little scared that something would get us! Joe blocked off the porch entrances so nothing would get me....(I recommend that movie if you have not seen it! a great one!)

Today we are in Blue Ridge, Georgia. We had lunch here and shopped some stores and are now headed to eat lots of apples!

The apple eating mom, over and out...

oh...and if you see Rick, ask him about the food he ate while we were gone ~wink~