Photo Perspective

My family rarely ever lived nearby relatives growing up. Even still, my grandparents live in Minnesota and California. I even have one aunt I have never met. But growing up we always filled that void with church family, and when we married and moved to the midwest, Pete and I also developed precious relationships with the Christians around us who substituted for family. God has led us home for the time being, and we are very blessed to be closer in distance than we have ever been to both of our immediate families.

We are ever grateful for them, but God has multiplied this blessing in unimaginable ways by also giving us F.O.C.U.S. Our church is large, and partially in order to keep the small church feel, they organized Adult Bible Fellowships. FOCUS is the group that we fit into based on our children's ages and our years of marriage, and over the last four years, this group has encouraged, supported, prayed for, and generally walked beside us through thick and thin. FOCUS is full of prayer warriors. They have prayed us through terrible sickness, high-risk pregnancy, Meister's recent adoption, and many other things. We thank the Lord for these families.

After just returning from a Focus ladies' weekend retreat, I'm reminded that the ladies of FOCUS are priceless. I value their friendships, and look forward to every time I get a chance to chat, laugh, or cry with any of them. Thanks for a great weekend girls! I'm already looking forward to next year . . .

Today's Role-playing broadcast is a comedy starring K as a Greek princess and V as a Greek hero. The princess requests the hero to find the mysterious monster that has taken her puppy. The Greek hero finds the monster and is able to place a tracking collar on it in order to see where it goes. He is careful not to hurt the monster and lets him loose in a safe place away from humans and puppies. If you've ever watched the Crocodile Hunter and read Greek myths you can imagine the stories possible when you morph the two together.

I've become a digital scrapbooking freebie junkie. But having all those bits and pieces in a large variety of colors and styles is getting old. I find now that when I'm looking for backgrounds and elements to match a set of pictures, I look for a kit first. Some of the best freebie kits are sites that offer a new freebie kit each month. Here is the list of freebie kits I've found for the month of March.

Sweet Digi Creations
Shabby Shoppe
ScrapKitchen
Oscraps - one of my favorite designers (Leah Riordan) put up a new freebie this month
Peppermint Creative - this designer is incredibly generous. She gives away a huge kit every month and they are lots of fun.

These aren't monthly freebie kits, but somehow I missed them when I was searching for freebies before. There are quite a few coordinated samplers at www.digichick.com. You have to register to download them, but the quality and variety are worth it in my mind. The freebies here are called "Designer Samplers." Also, there are quite a few freebie kits at www.scrapartist.com.

Have fun and don't be afraid to leave a comment if you find any new freebie kits I don't have linked here.

Both K and S are getting their upper right teeth just now. K has a terrible time getting her baby teeth out in order to let the permanent teeth have their proper place, so this is the second snaggle tooth we've had to look at for weeks on end. In the past we've had to bribe her BIGTIME in order to let us help her get those baby teeth out - as in all the ice pops she wants for an entire day or staying up an hour later than bedtime to watch the second hour of Extreme Makeovers: Home Edition. So far the dentist has taken out two, and mom and dad have each pulled one with pliers. Anyone have any great tips for getting these snaggle teeth out of unwilling mouths without traumatizing a poor girl emotionally? {Hint: look for "# Comments" at the end of this post and click - you will find yourself at another page where you can leave a comment or suggestion.}