Family Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas from the Cash's Home to Yours!

Hello Friends and Family,

If you are reading this it is because curiosity got the best of you or someone dared you to read it.

Here I am days before Christmas dreading writing a sappy Christmas letter telling everyone about all the good things that happened through out the year and leaving out all the trials and errors that were made through out the year. I decided I would let people know where they could go to read the Christmas letter instead of having the letter and pictures fall out of their Christmas cards. I do hope many of you actually received your card before Christmas and I am sure many of you did not because I am not a Martha Stewart type person who always has her act together. In reality, I am far from her. Here is the happening of the Cash's journey through out 2009 in photo form.

I am going to begin with last year's big performance of The Christmas Carol with Colton playing Bob Crachit.

We really began our year off hosting High School girls in our home for D-Now.

February brought me turning the BIG 45! I often wonder what big surprises I will receive each year as I become a year older. I am not talking gift wise, I am talking health wise. The body is beginning to tell me my age. I have to remember I am not 21.

Notice the reading glasses!

I am not alone when having a birthday in February. (Cough, cough as I say this next sentence.) Colton turned 18 this year. We had a wonderful time celebrating his birthday.


( I am not sure what was being said here.)

Not sure why there isn't any candles on this cake, oh, I remember. It is made of ice cream.

This brings us to March. I don't think Awana had crazy hair night in March, but this is to let you know that we are still all very involved in our church's Awana club. Carley did my hair.

Through out the year, we, the Cash's get this crazy idea of having an After Glow in our home for the youth. What this means is having many, many youth in our home with lots of food and a mad game of Rock Band.

In May, we had a week of celebrating Colton graduating from High School.

We had grandparents and one of Colton very best friends come and help us celebrate this pivotal moment in time.


Angela and Colton at Fast Eddy's.

These two haven't changed a bit since they were 7 and 5.

The day of graduation we took a pontoon boat out. Bad mistake. I now understand what light choppy water means.

We always take visitors to Pensacola to Lamberts where the food is fantastic and endless.

With graduation, comes lots of gifts.

Also in May, Carley graduated from the Chosen Girls Bible study. Carley is here with her friend Courtney.

In June, David, Carley and I headed to the Maryland/Virgina area for nearly three weeks. The ultimate goal was to get Carley and David to Awana Camp in Pennsylvania. We stopped in North Carolina to visit family and I stayed in Maryland to visit with my friends in the area. Colton was not able to go with us due to his taking more college classes while the classes were still free.

We spent the 4th of July with this cutie pie eying Carley's ice cream.

We stopped in Virgina to visit the Neiman Family. We had to relive our Japanese days with fried cheese rolls, Inarizushi-no-moto rolls, and Yakisoba.

Carley, Angela, and I making cheese rolls

Making rice pockets.

Eating the fruits of our labor.

These pictures were taken while in North Carolina.

Late in the summer, David had the opportunity to go to Atlanta to take a job related class. Carley and I tagged along when went sightseeing. We spent the day at the Atlanta Aquarium.

Before it became to cold, we had a family picture taken at the beach.

Picture taken by Howard Chunn @http://howardchunnphoto.com )

As summer comes to an end, that means school begins. If you happen to have a weak stomach, scroll through these next few pictures. Carley is dissecting a perch.

When one works at the Rave Motion Pictures and it is Halloween night, I suppose it is absolutely necessary to dress up as some kind of scary creature.

Early November our church had a block party at a local park. The youth praise band, known as GNS , had the opportunity to jam.

David and I are not sure where our children got the musical talent. We both know how to push play on I-Pods and CD players. That is the extent of our music talent.

Every December we have a girls trip to Atlanta to work with Operation Christmas Child. This trip include my mom, sister, Carley and me. We usually try to see at least on attraction while in Atlanta. This year we went to the Coke Museum.

December really isn't complete in our home unless we celebrate another birthday. (Another cough here along with a deep breath.) Our baby girl turned 16 this year.

Here we are celebrating her birthday with youth at the youth Christmas party.

Notice the huge smile on her face. This is what she gets to drive to the Whirl Cup Coffee shop where she works, to praise band practice, youth group activities, babysitting jobs, and any other places she needs to go.

Our family hopes you enjoyed a tour of this past year with us. Life is never dull in the Cash home. You will normally find laughter and joy here. There is only reason that we have so much joy. Even though life can get really hard, we always have Jesus and he is the One who makes our joy complete. (John 15:11) If you don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior of your eternal soul, I challenge you to seek the greatest gift known to man. God said in Jeremiah 29:13, "If you seek me, you will find me."

If you would like to come back again to visit, I would suggest to visit at the end of each month. I am not the best blogger in the world. Please feel free to leave comments.

Once again, Have a very Merry Christmas!

The Right of Passage

I wrote this as I was riding down the road this past Thursday.


I am currently sitting in the backseat of my van while my daughter is driving and my beloved husband is directing her in traffic patterns. We are on our way to a much needed vacation with time to get away from the ordinary to embrace something new and see good friends who we have not seen in a year. I love visiting friends that in someway has become family to me. What is bothering me now is the fact I have left one child behind to hold the fort down. This is the right of passage. Who is it for? Is it for me who can leave a child behind knowing that he will take care of everything or him who gets to experience somewhat independent living? I say somewhat because I did take him to the grocery store and bought him the food he wanted. He doesn’t have to pay the bills that are associated with living on your own. This is huge for me. I have a zillion questions running through my head. As my sweet husband asks me constantly who am I trusting in, me or the Lord? If I am trusting in myself, heaven help all of us. I will take this time to relinquish the controls back where they belong…in the arms of the One who knows all, see all, and has all authority over heaven in earth. The One who gave His life for all. Lord…he is yours, take care of him.


Terrie

It is Official! Where the Cash Family Goes, Drama Will Follow

Ok, here is the deal. David, Carley and I went Atlanta for a little get-a-way. David went for a conference with work and Carley and I tagged along to enjoy the Atlanta Aquarium. The evening we arrived we asked the front desk if she could recommend a good Mexican restaurant. The lady recommended Pappasito’s Cantina. For my friends who may have never heard of this restaurant, this Mexican restaurant is out of Texas. You may have heard Beth Moore make reference to it.

We walk into Pappasito’s and notice instantly that it is more of a up scale Mexican restaurant than Monterrey’s or La Hacienda. These are two local Mexican restaurants that we dine at more than any other place in Pensacola. As we were seated I noticed that they use cloth napkins. That should have been a clue right there. We are not opposed to using cloth napkins, but that usually equals more money than what we want to pay for food that we didn’t cook. We received our chips and salsa which I can say were very good. The chips and salsa were not any better than what the local folks serve in Pensacola. Then the moment arrived, the menus were delivered and we opened them up to confirm what we already knew. This place was pricy. I could kick myself for not having my camera with me. As we look over the menu we see chicken fajitas priced as follow:

Chicken fajitas (serves 1-2)…..$14.95 medium (serves 2-3) 13.95 more

We ordered the medium fajitas thinking, this better be good for the money we are getting ready to pay. We had to pay a dollar more for cheese.

The food came out quicker than what I thought it would. I wish all of you could have seen our faces. The server placed down a small platter of chicken that was less than a half of a chicken breast over grilled onions along with a small bowl that had a cup of pinto beans with a cup of Spanish rice. Somewhere there was some chopped tomatoes and guacamole. We were shocked over the small portions for the food we received. We decided we would just chalk this up to not checking out the menu on line before we left and pay the price for not doing what we should have done. We filled up on chips and salsa. Believe it or not, we did get filled up.

After waiting for what seemed like a long time, we asked for the check. We knew this would be a painful experience for paying for really expensive food. David always looks over the check carefully to check for any mistakes that may have been made. This time there was a mistake, a HUGE mistake, but in our favor. Remember I said we ordered medium fajitas but the check said small fajitas. David told the server that we ordered a medium size and not a small size. The server began to apologize for not giving us what we asked for. It was his mistake. We were not paying an arm and leg for food, just an arm. Don’t get me wrong, I still think people are paying for atmosphere and not the food. We were laughing. The server then caught on why we were laughing. He even said he wondered why we would order a small order to share among three people. He went on to say we probably thought we were paying a lot for a little bit of food. We couldn’t lie, we said yes. He was quite appreciative of our attitude and laughed with us. No matter if we are in Pensacola or somewhere else, drama follows us.

Have You Been To Sonic Today?

One never knows what will happen when visiting Sonic. It seems most of the time we visit Sonic we come out with a story to tell. Is it Sonic or us? I am guessing it is more likely us and not the employees of Sonic even though they occasionally give us a good laugh or two.

This particular day was quite interesting for Colton, Carley and I. I like to surprise my children every now and then with a treat like getting an ice cream at Sonic for no apparent reason. This time I did have a reason, the ice cream cones were fifty cents a cone. What a bargain for cheap people like me. I usually go through the drive-thru at any fast food place, but this time I was getting ice cream so I nixed the idea of driving and eating an ice cream cone at the same time. I don't eat ice cream that often and I wanted to enjoy every tongue licking moment there was to enjoy. I chose to park under the large awnings they have for those who choose to park and order.

Every family has to have one person in the family that has to be difficult at some time or another when ordering food. We all share in this activity. I have one that won't eat nothing but plain hamburgers, and another one that has never really liked ice cream in a cone. We won't even list the difficulties of the parents. Here we are ready to order ice cream. I tell the nice young girl I would like two ice cream cones and one plain ice cream cone with no cone but place the ice cream in a cup. I am not sure how that got translated from the speaker I spoke into to her head piece but this is what we got. Two ice cream cones with ice cream and an ice cream cone with ice cream in a cup.

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in that Sonic to listen to how they came up with this brilliant idea of putting the ice cream cone in the cup. I hope the girl who brought us our ice cream didn't hear out hysterical laughs as she walked away. This is one of the many stories we have at Sonic. Do you have any to share? It doesn't have to be a Sonic story it can be any restaurant story including your own home.

Until next time.....

Is There a Difference Between Sea Salt and Table Salt and Other Easter Weekend Activities

After this past weekend, I am absolutely, without a doubt, positively for sure, know that I come from a long heritage of bizarre behavior from my family. What other family do you know that sits around the dinner table and does a taste test of sea salt versus table salt? Here we are doing just that, taste testing the differences in the two salts.

My mom is discussing if there really could be a difference between the two.

The conclusion, there isn't a difference in taste.

I am not sure what sparked the desire to have this little experiment, but we did. These little sudden outburst of strange behavior describes who we are. We love to laugh and live life a little on the edge....like having spur of the moment salt tasting test. Are we pitiful or what? I like to think we are the what, just a family having fun together. Isn't that is what life is about, being together?

On to other events this weekend and long gone the sappy stories that I can tell.

We were to be entertained this past Friday by dear friends, the Cumberlands. We have been friends with them for years and enjoy each others company dearly. We don't have to worry about offending the other and can be just who we are. I love friends like that. I have several of them and those are the ones I just LOVE being around. Earlier in the week Gary called and asked if we could change the date to Saturday which worked out well. I was not only able to hang with the adults, but also their grand babies, Colten and Wes. Here are some more pictures of our weekend.

Beth always makes beautiful salads. We had lamb (first time for me), roasted asparagus, sweet potato, bread, and to die for strawberry pie. This could explain the two pound gain at Weight Watchers this week.

This is Colten. Sara loved the name Colton, but didn't quite want to name her son after my son, so she changed the spelling a little bit. The boy is a blast to be around. He is three and could explain why I love being around him.

If you are wondering what these creatures could be, they are called Z-bots. I have no clue how they got their name. They were very hot item before 1995. Colten and I played with them as if they were the most current hottest toy today. His Z-bot always beat my Z-bot.

This is Carley with Wes. Wes is very laid back like his older brother. Wes can entertain himself for long periods of time. Everyone loves babies like Wes.


Not sure why Wes isn't the E-trade baby, but I think he is just as cute as the one they have doing the E-trade commercial.

How was your Easter weekend? Did you or your family do any thing crazy? Until I can tell another story on the Cash clan, laugh a lot and enjoy life. You only have one to live.