Faith's Mom's Blog

At the end of the year, I usually do a "Year in Review." This year, however, I decided to do something a little bit different.  After poring over photos for the annual Lawlar family calendar and also the one I do for Rob's parents and sister, I've realized there have been some great photos taken in the year 2015. I tried hard to narrow it down to ten of my favorites! Me with my parents cheering on the NDSU Bison as they beat Illinois state by 2 points for their 4th consecutive National Championship! Photo taken by Deone Lawlar       Faith, Rob and I celebrating my birthday at our downtown office. Photo taken by Andy Hill Faith was so excited to have a party for her dad on his birthday! Photo taken by me. Fun with family (me with my aunt Gail, mom Deone, niece Justine and sister-in-law Barbara) at the annual JOY Breakfast! Photo taken by Alicia Green Rob and Faith are always sure to bless me on Mother's Day! Photo taken by Robert Bousfield Fa

To continue with our little Thanksgiving tradition, I asked Faith to list all of the things she is especially thankful for this year. Once again, as I looked over her list, I realized it's mostly the people in her life for which she is the most grateful.  Since she is such a homebody, she especially loves it when people come to our place to visit. However, the three of us did venture to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving Dinner where she had a blast! Here are some of the people she is most thankful for, along with a few other activities she enjoys doing.     "My Whole Family" - One time when I spoke at New Life's Redefinition Cafe service, her grandma, grandpa, uncle and aunt showed up. Afterwards she commented, "I can't believe the whole family came to church." So, when she says her whole family, she is talking about her extended family. She especially loves having visits with Grandma and calling Grandmother, Grandfather, and Auntie Joh on

For the past couple of weeks, I've been asking Faith what she has wanted to do for her birthday. The only two things she has requested is a cake with dinosaurs and a party with family only. When I asked if she was sure she didn't want cupcakes, she said, "I want a cake with Buddy, Tiny, and Shiny on it." (Characters from the show Dinosaur Train ).  The only way I could get those particular characters was to order an edible image from Amazon. Because this was like five days before her birthday, I had to get expedited shipping. I prayed it would arrive in time. In keeping with the train theme, I thought it would be neat to have her party at the zoo so we could ride the train on her birthday. It took some coaxing, but I did manage to talk her into the zoo idea. Unfortunately, the forecast looked a little chilly, so I decided to try to reserve a space at the zoo's Discovery Center so we could be indoors for the actual party. If it ended up being nice enough, we coul

To me, the cooler months of fall seem more like a season of newness than do the cold winter months of January. Maybe it's because that's when school, Bible studies, and small groups all start up again and we transition from lax summer schedules to busier days filled with a flurry of activities. (I also realize that part of the busyness is that we have so much to get in before the snow flies). Another reason fall is a great time to get a fresh start is because according to God's calendar, the New Year actually takes place in either September or October during the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah . Whether it's on purpose or not, it seems as though our family always experiences major transitions in the fall, and this year is no exception. Spending a perfect fall day at the park Burning documents - it's much faster than shredding plus this way we get S'mores! Hanging out in our crowded apartment/office We kicked off September by moving our office

It's almost the last day of August and I think pretty much everyone I know is asking, "What in the world happened to summer?" It seems like summer whizzes by faster and faster every year. At the end of every summer, I find myself feeling sad about not doing the things I had wanted to do once the warmer weather approached. But now as I think about it, there were some very hot days that I was content to stay inside! I think our hottest day was 106 degrees. Meanwhile, as summer passes us by and my favorite season quickly approaches, here are some fun things we did over the short summer.  We kicked off the summer celebrating my niece Justine's graduation from high school We saw an unusual number of rainbows this summer after some very crazy storms While we didn't go on the Riverboat this year, we at least made it to the river to enjoy the scenery! Faith was so happy to go to the 4th of July parade this year in Mandan with Grandpa! Having fun wi

This Father's Day weekend here in North Dakota started off a little rough with a major storm that swept across the state on Friday night. Faith and I were home alone when it reached Bismarck around 9:00 p.m. Rob was still at the office working and I was on the computer finishing up a few articles. I decided to check Facebook and the first thing I saw was a picture my aunt in Arnegard (8 miles west of Watford City) had posted. Her garage had just gotten demolished in a storm that had passed through. The storm was quickly heading east towards Bismarck. One weather warning I saw stated a possibility of wind gusts up to 80 mph. This tree went down a block from our office in downtown Bismarck It's hard to see but this is a traffic light that also went down I figured Rob wasn't paying attention to the weather, so I called him at the office to warn him. I'm thankful he didn't try to come home because the storm hit very quickly. One minute it was still light ou

Since they moved to Bismarck three years ago, Faith has gotten to spend more time than ever with her grandparents and has especially enjoyed the times she gets to spend with her grandma. She loves her grandpa too, but he can be a little unpredictable with his sudden sneezes or coughs. Plus, he tends to talk a little loudly due to his slight loss of hearing from being around so many trucks and machinery throughout the years!  Faith with one of her favorite people in the world - Grandma! Faith really likes having Grandma over on Saturday afternoons to hang out with us. Usually, Grandma brings pizza and we have lunch (although Faith has already said this weekend when we see Grandma she wants to go to Perkins instead). After that, we hop into the van and take Grandma to the library with us, followed by a trip to Target or the grocery store. Once, Grandma even stayed with Faith for about 20 minutes while I went to get Rob at the office.  Faith likes the comfort of being in her

Normally around this time of year, North Dakotans are nearly dying for spring to come. This was the case early last week when the temperature dipped to six degrees below zero. But then a small miracle took place - temperatures soared to over 70 degrees!  My only complaint was that our apartment, which is warm anyway, became a heat box. There was even one day I came home, and Rob had turned on the air conditioner - in March! The nice weather was the answer to many prayers though, as many ladies involved in JOY International had been praying for weeks that the weather would cooperate for their annual event, the JOY Breakfast. Jennifer Beckham This year's speaker, Jennifer Beckham had come to Bismarck from her home in Jacksonville, Florida. She said she had been amazed to find when flying into Bismarck there was absolutely no snow on the ground. She wondered if the two states had swapped climates because when she left Florida it was only 30 degrees. Seriously, this is the

Faith was so excited last weekend when I told her they were having wheelchair soccer again. Her first question was, "Can Adam push me again?"  I told her I had no idea if he even went to school at the University of Mary anymore. When we got out there, she was disappointed to learn he had another obligation that day. Everyone assured us Adam would be there the next time. She still had fun with a few other guys from the college soccer team who pushed her around to help her play. In wheelchair soccer, they don't actually use a soccer ball, instead it's more like a beach ball. Normally, the soccer players who push the kids around throw the ball to each other and then help the kid they are pushing hold onto it as they try to get into the net. She had so much fun and the faster they pushed her, the bigger the smile on her face. Ramsey helps Faith with the ball Faith making friends Faith having fun with Garrett the goalie This weekend, despite the fact s

Taking Faith to church on Sunday mornings is my favorite activity of the week but something else I love are our Saturday outings. We normally go to the library and sometimes go shopping at Target (her favorite store).  One Saturday we even went to the pet store because she wanted to look at the hamsters. She has made it known that she would like to have a hamster but since I'm not much of a rodent person I'm not too excited about it. Rob and I wondered if we could talk her into a guinea pig instead. For some reason a guinea pig seems less "rodenty"! Faith is bundled up and ready to roll! Yesterday, even though the temperature was only in the single digits, she wanted to go to the Big Event Carnival. It's held every year at the Bismarck Civic Center and is hosted by the area Child Evangelism Fellowship . We have never gone before because I was never sure if Faith would be able to tolerate so many noisy, crazy kids under one roof. Also, one of the main attra