This blog is a record of my family, our adventures, and life as we know it. I named it after the movie "It's a Wonderful Life", because no matter what happens, good or bad, up or down, our life may not always be wonderful (or perfect), but it will always be a "Lacy Life", and that's wonderful to us!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!!!


                                                 HAPPY RESURRECTION SUNDAY!!!!

  Just a quick post to wish everyone out there a Happy Resurrection Day (Easter) from our family to yours!  What a glorious day it was out today, and what a glorious occasion we have the privilege to celebrate!  That's all the words I have but I have some pictures to share with you!

Celebrating the Resurrection with joy and appreciation for all that God's done for us,
It's a Lacy Life


Love from home!

  For quite a while now, Mr. Lacy Life has been having a tough time at work, mostly due to the fact that there just seems to be a complete lack of integrity, lack of respect, and lack of work ethic with certain employees on his job.  One person in particular went out for a job/promotion, which just happens to be the same  job/promotion that Mr. Lacy Life was seeking.  Well, I am disappointed to report that this other employee got the job instead.  Honestly, if it would have been ANYONE else, we could have seen the logic of it.  But because of this co-workers track record, lack of integrity, lack of respect, and lack of a strong work ethic, it really boggles the mind of a thinking person!  

  It is tough enough to go to work for 11-12 hours a day, and be away from your family for all of that time, but when you see things like this go on in the work place, it tends to wear down your resolve.  Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly obvious that there are office politics and selfish ambitions that precede and over ride integrity, respect, a strong work ethic, a strong commitment, and a solid track record on his job.

  My dear husband is such a hard worker, such a great provider, and such a wonderful and dedicated father and husband that he deserves SO much!  Not to mention the fact that he is such a good, hard worker with such an unbelievable track record of integrity that he deserves to have any and every promotion and more!  And, well, since I can't give him the respect, the promotions, or the accolades in the work place that he SO obviously deserves, the kiddos and I do what we can do to make his days at work more tolerable by showing him much love and appreciation when he gets home from a long day! 
  So today, when we got wind of the sad news that not only did he NOT get the job/promotion, but that another, undeserving co-worker did, we decided to surprise my dear husband with some L-O-V-E from home!!!  I rallied our "troops" (our brood of 4 children and myself) and told them that we were going to make daddy a special dinner and show him how much we love and appreciate him with a special night! 
  We treated him to his Favorite meal, which is meatloaf, mashed potatoes  with gravy, and veggies for this meat-n'-patada's man!  The kiddos and I also surprised him with a balloon, a banner, cards, and lots of love and hugs from our hearts for all that he does for this family!  We ate together, talked, relaxed and just basically tried to take his mind off of the unfortunate set of circumstances that he has to wake up and go face again tomorrow!
  Thank God that this job is not our source, and that the one who is, our God, can bring us through any and all circumstances that we face in this life.  He is able, He gives us the strength, and the grace to bring us through when things get tough.  Praise God that His mercies are new every morning, and when my dear husband has to go face this situation again tomorrow, I can have comfort and be assured that he is not alone, but our God will be with him!  :)
Here's hoping that you are appreciating one another today, too,
It's a Lacy Life

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting, and Finally...SNOW!!!

  Okay, so just so you know, this is a post that I originally began back in February.  This is not what things looked like here today in Minnesota!

  I don't know what the weather has been like in your neck of the woods, but around these parts, it has been an unseasonably warm winter with little to no snow!  Really!  I know when people think of Minnesota they automatically think of cold weather with LOTS and LOTS of snow.  Like- you can't even leave your house amount of snow!  Well, even those of us that live here would have to admit that it's not quite THAT bad, even though it does get kind of old day after week after month of it!  Ugh!  However, we usually do live up to that reputation of LOTS of snow and really cold weather in the winter time, but this year has been quite different, indeed.  So different that I have never, ever seen the likes of this kind of winter in all my thirty-(ah-hem)-some years!  :)
 
  We have gotten some snow in the past few months, it's just that every time we've gotten a little snow, it has been melting almost right away due to our warm temperatures.  So, with all that being said, the children have been hoping, and praying, and...well...really BEGGING God for some snow to play in!!!  All except for one particular child who realizes that with all that snow comes the work of shoveling all of that snow!  :)

  Although we have gotten some small amounts of snow, up until now there have been no snowmen guarding our front yard, no snowball fights, and very little snow playing, because of this lack of a good snowfall.  So the other day God graciously blessed them with a little bit of the "white stuff", as we so "affectionately" call it here.  After the kiddos did all of the shoveling, they played, and they played, and then they played some more!  They were so thankful for the snow to play in, and even that child I mentioned earlier had a blast playing in all that beautiful snow!  :)

Enjoying the "white stuff" on THIS day,
It's a Lacy Life

No Cabin Fever here!

  Okay, okay, so I know that some of you that are closest to us are waiting for a "certain" blog post about our recent vacation, and I will get to that, but I really feel like I need to finish up on some older posts that I started months ago, to get everyone and my blog (for the sake of a family record of events as they actually happened, and for the sake of some sense of chronological order) caught up on things that have been happening and the order in which they actually happened.  :) 

  So with that being said, here is a blog post I began at the end of January about fun things we had been up to over the winter.  I hope you enjoy it even though it was a while ago!  :)

  As many of you know, winters here in Minnesota can get EXTREMELY LONG!!!  We are couped up for several months and we can begin to feel as if the walls are closing in on us!  Okay, for those of you out there that do not live in Minnesota, and those that buy into the idea that we really are "snowed-in" over the winter, I assure you that we are not!  We just generally spend much more time indoors, more than any other time of the year, and all the snow and cold can tend to make things a little tricky being and going outside.  But we ARE Minnesotans after all, and we don't cower under the pressure of wind-chills and blizzards (ha! ha!)!  No, we embrace it and play in it!  Uh...either that or we find warm indoor places to play while it's freezing outside!   

  We've been busy doing many fun things with our friends lately, and creating lots of great memories!  It has been absolutely wonderful, and I have been feeling very blessed by the great people we have in our lives!  I love and appreciate our friends so much, and it is great to spend time with them and have the opportunity to create these amazing memories with them!  
  One of the things that we did is go to a place called Sky Zone.  Basically this place has trampolines, trampolines, and more trampolines!  They have one area where you can play dodge-ball in a dodge-ball trampoline court, and this is where All Star Boy spent ALL of his time!  Then they had a regular jumping area where they had tons of trampolines lined up, I think there was about 5 or 6 deep and about 15 across.  There were also trampolines on the sides (walls).  They also had an area for younger kiddos and another area where you could run, and jump, jump, jump, and dive into a pit of brick-sized foam! 

  My children had a blast at Sky Zone!!!  Mr. Lacy Life had probably an equal amount of fun, and even I tried jumping!  It just wasn't my thing, with the motion-sickness issues I have and all!  Here are some pictures to give you a glimpse at the fun they had.  That big group picture is all of the children that were there with our group for the fun day-4 families in all and lots of smiling, bouncing children! 
                                               

Doesn't that look fun!!!

  Another thing we've been doing is going to the Minnesota Children's Museum.  Pretty much every year we get a yearly membership, and we have been going there for several years now.  It ends up paying for itself, because just for the 4 children and I to pay the admission to go one time is almost the same as buying a yearly membership.  And we can go as much as we want in that years time, so for us it's a great deal! 

  Our friends the "Taffy's" and us began going, I'm thinking about 8 years ago, and all these years later, we still enjoy going there together!  Even my oldest can find some fun things to do there.  I do realize that any day now he will decide it's no longer fun, but I will enjoy it and indulge it as long as I can!  I love doing things that make my children smile and happy!  :)
  Here are a few recent pictures of our visit to the Children's Museum.  

 
  Another fun thing that we did this winter was that we tried Broom ball with some friends for the first time.  Well, I should say, that Mr. Lacy Life and the children tried it, I chose to visit with a friend in the warming house and stay warm (and take pictures, of course)!  Everyone really seemed to enjoy it and although we have had, hands down, the warmest winter I have ever experienced in my lifetime here in Minnesota, I think it was the coldest day of the winter this year!  It was freezing, but that didn't stop us die-hard Minnesotans, and these excited children! 

  Here are a few pictures, but you may have a hard time recognizing anyone in them, as they were all bundled up for the cold day.  :)

   One thing that the boys and Mr. Lacy Life did was they went to something called Twinsfest.  They have always wanted to check it out, and thanks to a friend, who gave us 2 free tickets, they were able to go this year.  And, it just so happened, that when my dear husband went up to buy one more ticket, someone came up to him and offered him yet another free ticket!  So they all ended up getting in for free!  Twinsfest is an event put on by our local professional baseball team, the Minnesota Twins, where there are opportunities for people to be on the field, play on the field, possibly meet some of the players and/or other former Twins baseball players, they can get autographs, etc. 

  Here are a few pictures.

  Another memorable thing the boys did, is they went and did a service project for their Alert Cadets group, where they went and helped an elderly woman clear away some downed trees on her property.  They spent the day with their dads, their troop, and outside with God's glorious nature!  What a beautiful day it was, and to think this was in the middle of winter!  Look at the pictures and note the lack of snow on the ground!

  Okay, last but not least, I will mention here that Mr. Lacy Life and the kiddos have been attending a monthly breakfast at Mr. Lacy Life's mothers' senior apartment building.  This isn't really that big of a deal, but the noteworthy thing is that on one particular breakfast, one of the coordinators got wind of the fact that our children play the piano.  Well, they were invited to play for the seniors breakfast the very next month.  They ended up playing for them, and the seniors loved them!  They were really excited to bless these precious seniors this way, and the seniors really appreciated them, too.  So much so, that they actually started coming up to them and were insisting on giving them money and were praising their efforts and talking of how much they appreciated their beautiful music!  They have been invited back , and Mr. Lacy Life's mother keeps talking about all the people in her building that are coming up to her asking when they will play for them again.  What an honor to give these seniors the joy and beauty of music during this short time in their day.  Hopefully it works out next month so they can perform for them again.  I joked with the children that this is their first "official" paid musical "gig", and that all those lessons might start paying for themselves!  LOL!  Here's just a few pictures of that day.
  That's about all I have to share for now.  Of course we have been up to some more fun things, but these are the ones that I can think of right now.  We have been doing another really fun and exciting thing (for us), but I will do a blog post about that another time. 

Hoping that you are having fun fighting "cabin fever" in your family, too,
It's a Lacy Life