A New Season In Life

Family Update

Taylor

Jordan

Landon

Our wonderful new son in law Matt and Alexia

Me and my honey

The girls . . .Alexia, Sierra and me :-)

My poor blog has been has not been updated for awhile as many of you know.  I have been trying to get back here but my life is a whirlwind right now and it's hard to find time to get back here.

What's new in our home?  Well, we are in a new season of life.  We currently have 4 of our 5 blessings in Kansas City at the International House of Prayer.  www.ihop.org.    Jordan will be starting his third year at their Forerunner School of Ministry and he continues to play keys in their 24/7 Global 24/7 Prayer Room on our son in laws worship team.   He has at least two more years in KC and then we pray he comes back to home and back to Orlando House of Prayer where we are contending for 24/7 prayer and worship. 

Alexia as you know got married to Matt on May 16th.  They had a wonderful honeymoon and they are now back in Kansas City where Matt is on staff at IHOP and is one of the worship leaders there.  Alexia will be taking audit classes at IHOP this coming year.  She needs to keep her time available so she can travel with Matt on ministry trips.  They also just got a new puppy named Jerry :-)

Taylor and Landon has been in Kansas City since June.  Landon has been doing their ATC  (Awaken Teen Camp) and also did their leadership track.   He will be home some time this month.  Taylor decided to spend the summer there and is also applying to do one of their internships.  We will know what happens with his future in a week or so.

Sierra actually was in Kansas City too this summer.  She went for a few weeks with Carlos and then decided to stay another 10 days with the kids.  So, at one time we had all five kids in KC and Carlos and I back here in Orlando. . . . boy that felt weird :-)

As many of you know Carlos and I are the Executive Director's of IHOP Orlando - the Orlando House of Prayer - OHOP.   We are a missions base that is contending for 24/7 prayer and worship.  The heart of OHOP is our prayer room where we are 70 hours away from being 24/7.

We have about 19 full and part time intercessory missionaries at OHOP.   They spend about 20 hours in the prayer room a week and the other 20 hours doing service and admin. hours on the missions base or in one of our arteries such as the Compassion Center.

I also volunteer about 20 hours at   the Compassion Center.    www.cflcompassioncenter.com   We feed and clothe about 300 homeless and low income families and individuals a week.  I am in the process of organizing the clothing and also reach out to the community to bring in food drives.

For the first time in about 21 years Carlos and I have been working "together" in ministry.  I have always supported him but when the kids were small and I was homeschooling all five of them I could not be of much help so I supported him.  Now that the kids are older and some have left the nest it has allowed me to partner with him in ministry!  We are having a great time and we have an amazing team at OHOP.  

I am going to try to keep the blog updated with "life" details.  I probably will not be posting many pictures because it takes too long but if you have a FACEBOOK I post almost everything over there.  You can find me at Emily Katsanis Sarmiento.   I also added the Orlando House of Prayer page box to the right side of my blog.  If you have a FACEBOOK I invite you to become a fan and you can see all what we are doing down in Orlando.

I have received so many nice notes and comments from you all saying you have missed my posts.  I will try hard to pop in here and keep you all updated!  

 

Playing Catch Up

I got a little behind in blogging so I think I am now pretty caught up except for Monday and Tuesday. Monday was pretty quiet for the most part. I stayed home during the day and then that night I went to the prayer room to play keys for Carlos's 6-8 pm intercession prayer set. Sierra started VBS with Kaitlyn and Christian that night at Ken's parents church. She was so excited to go!

Today I was gone most of the day . I had a hair appointment and then had to run about five errands. I was virtually gone all day. I got home around dinner time and then I had to hurry and make dinner because Sierra had to leave an hour later for VBS. Landon has his good friend Keith over for the night so they have been busy playing. Taylor went to my inlaws for the evening. and we are watching the NBA Basketball Championship and just plain relaxing! I hope you all had a great day too!

Busy Busy Busy

As you may have noticed I haven't been blogging much this week. I have been so busy that I haven't had a chance. Monday was the last day of the kids spring break so we got things ready to start school the next day. Taylor needed a haircut so we went and had that done.

Tuesday I stayed home all day and worked on things around the house. Plus, I had to practice piano to get ready for two prayer sets. I played keys for a prayer set Tuesday night for the Global Bridal Fast that is happening this week. My friend Edwin was the worship leader for that watch so I practiced the songs he wanted to do. I also had to put together a song list for the prayer set that I did today. I spent half the day yesterday getting songs ready.

Today I wokeup extra early to go over things and then after the kids went to school I practiced for two hours before heading to the prayer room for the 12 - 2 set. I was a little apprehensive about doing this set by myself. There were no available singers or musicians so it was me . . myself and I. I started out a little shakey . . . .in fact I started making too many mistakes for my liking and I almost quit but I prayed and I could feel the Lord with me so I pressed through and just started all over. This time I took my time and just played for the Lord and not anyone else. By the second hour I could really feel God's presence . . . it felt so good to give back to the Lord.

Afterwards, I studied a few hours in the prayer room and then did some work for Ken for the food Pantry. I hope to be back taking pictures tomorrow . . .

Things Have Been Pretty Quiet

As you can tell from the blog things have been very quiet since I have came home from KC. Monday I stayed home all day and caught up on things around the house. Carlos and the kids kept the house pretty clean while I was gone so I just needed to catch up on laundry.

I want to say a big thank you to my mother in law and to Carlos' grandma because I was told they kept everyone fed while I was gone . . . :-)

Tuesday I stayed home all day until it was time to bring the kids home from school. Tuesday night I started my Prayer Apprenticeship class so I headed up there around 6 pm. When I got home that evening I watched American Idol with Carlos. I am really loving this season . . the talent is great this year.

Today I went up to the church office to do some work for Ken. For those of you who don't know. . . Ken is Lisa's husband. He is our church and pantry administrator. He asked me to help him out with some things for the pantry so I worked and finished everything by 1:45.

I then went to the prayer room and studied until 3:15. Lisa and KK arrived at the prayer room too. Since noone was there at that time she practiced some songs with me and I got some time on the keyboard too. It really helped me to have her sing and play the keys with me. Thanks Lisa!

I headed home around 5:30 and got dinner ready for the kids. Carlos, Lisa and I attended the funeral of a very dear friend . . .Maria. What an amazing sweet woman of God she was. She will always have a special place in our hearts! We will miss her greatly.

Things have been extra quiet this week because Alexia went on a cruise to Mexico with my sister, brother in law and my niece for her senior trip. I received an email from my sister Steph and she said they are having a great time.

Jordan flew up to Michigan to meet Jessica's parents. Her mom called me today and said they are all having a blast and they were so happy they are able to spend some time with Jordan this week.

I hope the rest of the week stay quiet. It's been kind of nice! I leave you all this evening with some pictures of Misty Edwards while at the Passion for Jesus Conference.

Our Wednesday

This morning Sierra was so excited to get ready for school today. She wanted to wear her new Hannah Montana t-shirt and some of the other goodies she received last night. I have to admit she looked adorable! I spent my day cleaning . . cleaning and more cleaning. I have been trying to workout around the cleaning . . it seems to give me more energy. I also had purchased another Aero Bed from QVC for our upcoming guests. I had one Aero-Bed but I knew we were going to need another one and thankfully it arrived today!



I made dinner and incredibly we all sat down for a family dinner except for Alexia who had dance practice . . . After dinner we watched American Idol and also last night's American Idol that we recorded. We also watched on the Live Web STream Jordan playing in the prayer room at IHOP. Every time we see him play in the main prayer room we sit there amazed that he is actually there and playing. Way to go Jordan . . .we are so proud of you!



Earlier this evening I spoke with Jessica to find out what kind of food, snacks and drinks I should get for everyone. She is going to check with the gang and then let me know. I have everything just about ready for their arrival. Tomorrow I clean all the bathrooms and mop the wood floors . . .that leaves the grocery and then we are ready to roll!



Well, I need to sign off because Jordan is getting ready to play a second set.

Girl's Day

Today the kids were suppose to spend the day with my brother in law Ray but he ended up getting sick so all the older kids found other things to do. That left Sierra . . .I decided to spend some time with her alone. We headed out and did some shopping. She still has Christmas money left so she had a small list of things she wanted. She also found a DVD that she ended up buying called "The Derby Stallion."

We got home later on this evening and took our showers and baths and then settled down for the evening to watch her new movie. She requested popcorn and apples with peanut butter so I made the snack and we watched the movie. This is a great family movie and if you love horses you will especially love it.
I really enjoyed spending some alone time with Sierra. She is so much fun and cracks me up most of the time :-) Now, my little buddy is watching the last two hour Bare Escentuals show on QVC with me . . .gotta love her!

She ended up making it through the whole show and then she conked out!

Good night Little Angel!

Praying at the Capital

This morning Carlos left early to head out to Tallahassee. He and a bunch of our prayer leaders were all heading up to the Capital for a prayer meeting. He was going to be home late tonight. I wish he had a camera so he could of taken some pictures . . maybe someone else did.

I had a very busy day. I met a friend who referred me to a person who is going to help me with my piano and with my voice so I headed there first for my lesson but she was running behind so I then went to Sierra's school to volunteer in her class. When I was finished with all the things the teacher had for me I headed back for my lesson. It went really well and I learned a lot but the sad part is that I found out today she is moving in a month so at least I will get in a months worth of lessons before she leaves.

After my lesson I then headed to the gym and got in a workout and then it was to a few stores to run a few errands. When I got home I walked into the family room to find Molly all cuddled up on the couch . . .while I was running around . . .she was taking it easy :-) I had about 30 minutes before I had to pickup the kids from school so I rested and thankfully didn't fall asleep or I would of missed picking up the kids.

Please pray for my friend Leanna. This morning her horse Brandy started to colic . . .I found out tonight that she had to put her down. Please pray for Leanna and her daughter Morgan. They are very upset and hurting right now. Thanks in advance!

Well, I am so tired after this busy day. I am going to try to get to bed early!

Errand Day

Today was errand day for me. After getting the kids off to school I picked up everything and then got dressed for the gym. I went and worked out for an hour. I had the pleasure of meeting a new friend while I was there. After working out we both headed to Target. . .they were having 75% off a lot of clothes . . .we got some great deals. I then said good bye to Jennifer and then headed to the grocery. I forgot my list of things I needed for our dinners but as you can see I was still able to fill the cart without my list :-) On the way home from the grocery I stopped at Chick Fil A for lunch . . .I had a free coupon for FREE nuggets. . Then I went home and unloaded the groceries . . and got ready for the kids to come home. Now, that American Idol is back on TV we plan our Tuesday and Wednesday evenings around the show. Carlos had another meeting so he didn't get home until almost 9 and missed most of it. I am now very tired and calling it a night!

Piano Practice

This morning Sierra came to our bed. I noticed that she was fully dressed. I asked her what time did she get up . . .she said 6 am. That was so unusual because I usually have to wake her up every morning at 7:30 am. It's hard to believe she is only 8 years old. She picks out pretty well coordinated outfits. Here is what she picked out for today.

Getting ready to leave for school!

Our Little Angel
Back when I was in grade school and middle school my parents had me and my sisters take piano lessons. I believe I had lessons for about 7 years. I was taught music theory, how to read music and learned to play piano by learning to play classical music. I complained a lot those last few years. . . but my mom always told me . . ."Emily, someday you can use your talent for the Lord." Well, after my last lesson I never really did anything with it. My parents even gave us the piano that we grew up with but that didn't motivate me to play either. Well, this past summer I went to Missouri with Carlos, Ken and Lisa. While we were there the Lord impressed upon me to use the talent he gave me. I had intended to go back home and start practicing . . .but I didn't. While we were in Missouri over New Years the Lord spoke again and reminded me of what he impressed upon me last summer . .. this time I told myself I am going to start again as soon as I get back home. Today I started . . .I practiced for 2 hours this morning and 1 hour this afternoon. Thank goodness I still remember how to play. I am going to try to practice at least one hour day and then I will wait and see how the Lord wants to use me.

This evening we went out to dinner with Ken, Lisa, Ava and our friends Jack and Sharon. We went to Smokey Bones. I always get the Portabello Chicken . .. Yum!
Sharon and Me
Jack and Sharon
And our very precious Ava!

Back Home To The SunShine State

What's wrong with this picture? We arrived home to Florida to temperatures in the low 20's. We couldn't believe it . . . it was freezing here too. When we left Jordan's yesterday it was about 11 degrees and that doesn't include the windchill. As we started driving south you would of thought it would of started to warm up . . . NOT . . .it stayed in the teens all the way into northern Florida. We finally hit the low 20's as we ventured into Gainesville.

When we got to the house everyone was tired and cold. Alexia and Taylor went right to bed. Carlos unloaded the van and Sierra, Landon and I ran for the family room and started a fire in the fireplace. We all cuddled up with blankets and fell asleep with the help of the warmth of the fire. Poor Carlos had to unload it all by himself . .. sorry honey.

After resting all afternoon we slowly started to unpack. We are only half done at this point but I will work on it more this evening. When we left the house two weeks ago we left the pantry and fridge with little food. I like to eat what we have and get rid of things before we leave to go on a trip. I had planned to go to the grocery today but I was too cold and too tired so we have been scraping all day today. We were blessed by my neighbor Sheila. She was kind enough to get our mail and feed Jeter while we were gone. When she brought the mail over she also brought us a homemade apple pie that just came right out of the oven. Hmmmm . . .it was so good. That was a wonderful surprise to receive! Thanks Sheila!

Well, I need to go find "something" to make for dinner. I hope I find something :-)

Catching Up Friday

Friday morning I wokeup so excited because my friend Leanna and I were going to go horseback riding. It had been awhile since we have gone due to the weather being so hot this past summer. So, I got the kids off to school, made a run to the post office to mail off some necklace orders and then headed over to the barn. When I got there I saw Leanna's dad Ben working on the trailer . .. I knew it didn't look good. I walked on over to the trailer and Leanna told me the brakes on the trailer kept locking up. We were both so bummed . . .her dad worked on it for about an hour or so and couldn't figure out why it kept locking up . . . so we had to cancel our plans to ride . . .maybe next week! I then headed home and decided to get some things done around the house. That afternoon Jordan, his friend Stephen (who sings with Misty Edwards at IHOP) and Corey Russell who is one of the main leaders at IHOP were all flying in for a conference that we were putting on at our church. Jordan and Stephen were helping out with praise and worship and Corey was the main speaker for the weekend. Jordan and Stephen were going to be staying with us and Corey at a hotel so I changed the bed linens in the boys room and cleaned the room and their bathroom.

That night we all headed to church for the first night of the conference. I didn't know that my camera battery was almost dead so I only was able to take a few pictures from the evening.
Because my battery died so fast I was not able to get any pictures of Corey speaking . .. just my husband starting out the service. :-)
It was an awesome service and many young people were truly touched by the message.

Our Friday and New Babies

Today I wokeup again not feeling my best. I needed to go out and run errands but I just couldn't motivate myself to get myself out the door. So, I stayed home all day and did some laundry and more online Christmas shopping.



When the kids got home from school I fed them a quick dinner and then we left to take the kids to youth and prayer. Carlos had an appt with a pastor so I went ahead and headed to ToyRUS to pick up a few presents and then headed to the mall to meet Carlos after his appt. We were going to see a movie but there was nothing playing that we wanted to see so we decided to do some Christmas shopping.



When we got back to the church to pickup the kids, our children's director walked out of the building with her new grandbaby. I rolled down the window to take a peak and she handed him right to me. Isn't he a cutie!!!!

Congratulations Leroy and Richelle!

I have another friend who just had a baby the end of last month. Here are a few pictures of her new baby and the proud mommy and daddy!

Genesis Jasmine Cabrera arrived on Sat. Oct.20th @6:23am after a long 17 hour labor she was an amazing 8lb. 6oz. 21 1/2 inches .

Congratulations Omi and Jenny

Fall Has Finally Arrived!

Tuesday was a quiet day. After the kids went to school I put the vegetable soup ingredients in the crockpot. I love meals that cook all day without any help. I was still drained from our trip so I stayed home all day and worked on my pictures. Since going "digital" I have not been very good at printing my pictures. I upload them to the computer and then do my blog but that's been about it since Valentine's. So, I got out my blank CD's and burned them on to discs. I then attempted to upload them to a website that prints pictures but it was taking forever so I left that for another day.
Throughout the day the temperatures began to drop. I was so glad I decided on the soup for dinner. By the time the kids got home from school the wind was blowing and it was really getting cold. Landon asked if we could start a fire in the fireplace. I went out to check the propane and it was empty so Carlos loaded the tanks in the van and I headed to the hardware store to get them filled. I am so glad we did because after dinner we watched the Country Music Awards and enjoyed a nice warm fire.

This morning we wokeup to COLD temps. It felt so good to feel this cool weather. I threw on the fireplace and made a nice pot of coffee.
I met Lisa at the mall around 10:15 and we got our pedicures. It was so nice to take an hour and pamper ourselves. We then headed downtown to meet Carlos and Ken for a luncheon that was being thrown by our friends Scott and Tammi for his ministry which feeds the poor and much more.
After the luncheon Lisa went to pick up Kaitlyn because she had an appt with a talent/modeling agency in town. (On a sidenote . . the agency loved her and signed her right away) I headed to the hospital to visit one of our church members who had congested heart failure and pneumonia. I ran into my mother in law and Carlos's grandmother while I was there. They were on their way to visit Maria too.
For dinner we had left over vegetable soup. I am now doing some more Christmas online shopping and then heading up to read. I have a slight headache and want to knock it out before it gets worse!

Back Home Again

Monday night we flew back into town around 6:15 pm. We had to head right to Bible School which started at 7:45. We were sooooooooooooo tired but we really needed to go. Carlos teaches the second year students and I am in year one and didn't want to get behind.




My friend Ruth lent me her shoulder. I did my best not to fall asleep! I was deliriously tired but I made it though the two hours!

As you can see we were all kind of wired that night LOL but even with all that we had two great lessons taught by Adam or should I say Professor Adam! :-)
I did finish Oceans Apart and Sunrise by Karen Kingsbury. Ocean's Apart is not part of a series it is a stand alone book. It is a great read. I was excited though to start the Sunrise series. I have missed the Baxter family and couldn't wait to see what was going on with their lives. I have now started Summer which will be the last book in the series I read until the next two come out next. That will be a sad day for me because that will be the end of the Baxter's because Karen Kingsbury has stated that this will conclude the series. She did leave the door open that in the future she might go back to the Baxter's. I hope she does!
This morning it was so hard for me to wakeup but I did and got the kids off to school. After I drove the kids to school my desire was to get changed and head to the gym. I decided to sit down and have a cup of tea and watch the news for a little bit . . .well two hours later . . . I jumped up and I looked at the clock and it was 11:30 . . .I couldn't believe I fell back asleep for 2 hours but I know I needed it.

I ended up getting dressed and then went to Hallmark to buy the kids their annual Christmas ornaments. In this bag hold this years ornaments . . .the contents can't be opened until our annual decorate the house for Christmas day which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Because I am a Gold Crown Member of Hallmark they send me money back dollars throughout the year and special coupons. I ended up getting $15.00 off my total purchase, a free ornament and this cute server and plate set for free. If you like Hallmark ornaments and products make sure you sign up to be a Gold Crown member . . .it's totally free and the benefits are great!

After Hallmark I went to the grocery to buy the items I needed to make my Tortilla Soup and Vegetable Soup. We had a cold front come in so it was perfect timing to make some big batches of soup. Here are the links to the recipes: http://emilys5blessings.blogspot.com/2007/03/tortilla-soup.html

http://emilys5blessings.blogspot.com/2007/01/missing-wallet.html

Alexia picked up Sierra for me so I finished my shopping and then headed home. I did a little Christmas shopping online and then headed to the gym and the library to return the books. I came home and made the Tortilla soup. It was a quiet dinner, just me, Landon and Sierra were at home tonight. Carlos was at a meeting with Ken and Alexia and Taylor were at a basketball game. When Taylor got home I headed over to Lisa's around 9 pm for coffee. I had not seen her since last Thursday so we had TONS to talk about. I was only going to stay an hour but ended up staying until midnight. About the time Ken and Carlos walked in the door so we hung out a little longer and then I headed home. I wanted to try to read some of Sunrise tonight but I think I am going to head to bed.

Sunday Church and Applying Makeup for the Girls

This morning the 80 or so kids who went to camp all wore to church the t-shirts that they received while at the kids mini camp this past weekend. The kids were so excited when they came into the service. The sang a song and had the whole church singing with them!
Even my sweet Ava was totally into it!
Midway through the service Lisa and I had to leave early to go apply makeup for the girls in Samantha's wedding party and on Samantha.
We set up the makeup in the kitchen and put two bar stools side by side and then Lisa and I got started.

The bride to be!Some of our finished looks!

We did around 10 -12 girls and then headed to meet Carlos and Ken for lunch. After lunch we had about an hour and a half to kill before the wedding so we headed to the office to hangout there.

Jordan has been giving Lisa piano lessons when he is in town so she decided to practice.

She had me come up to sing with her so she could concentrate on playing.Ava decided to join us.The my sweet Christian decided he wanted in on the action too!
I also did a little work on the computer and then it was off to the wedding.