Relaxation ... or not

There are days where my shower becomes an oasis of relaxation for me - its the only place in the house where I can be totally alone. What a concept! Normally, I have the quick in, quick out routine mastered. However, today I wanted to take a long shower. So I put Pace down for his nap and set Ryan up with his cars ... hours of entertainment there I tell you. I began my shower. I'm here to tell you I didn't even get shampoo in my hair before I hear the pitter patter of feet come into my bathroom ... "Mom I got to go potty". OK folks he has mastered the potty ... he CAN go by himself. WHY at this moment does he need my help? I was looking oh so forward to a nice long steamy shower ... This was not to be had at my house today. Did I tell you that the last time I wanted to take a long, relaxing shower I was interrupted by ... THUNDER AND LIGHTENING? I guess it's just not meant for me to have long showers! :) enough with the silly post ... the boys and I have some errands to run ....

Video of his first steps ... (well, almost first)

Here is a video of Pace's first second steps. We failed to get the actual first ones on video. However, they were not as fun as these ... Enjoy.



PS .. IF you are wondering why he is so mad in the video ... it's because he was 'reading' the Bible until we tried to get him to show off for the camera ... I know the nerve of us to take away THE WORD from our child ...

First steps

Pace took his first steps today. Well, actually, he took 2 steps last week BUT today he took FIVE!! I'll try to get video when daddy is home from work!

For the girls ...

We Played with 'the sisters' again today! Ryan loves spending time with them. If he's not kissing one he's bringing the other a flower ... They had a great time playing, dancing, and watching Elmo together. The mommies had fun as well!

Win a new Blog Design

Smitten

My Boys are smitten with these two sisters!

Good Morning

Hope y'all are having a great morning so far. Yesterday, my little 2 1/2 year old made my day when his nap was over! I went to go get him up from his nap and he was just laying there so sweet so I began to rub his back ... he looked up at me and said ... "don't stop mommy that's my favorite when you rub my back." Oh be still my beating heart ...

The Red Sea Rules

The Red Sea Rules ... the same God who led you in will lead you out

Robert J. Morgan

This has been a great book for us to read. Right after things went south here for us, a few friends from our small group back home sent us a book whose title is above. It's a great book and we have really heard God speaking to us through it. Here are the 'rules' ...

RED SEA RULE #1 ... Realize that God means for you to be where you are.

RED SEA RULE #2 ... Be more concerned for God's glory than for your relief.

RED SEA RULE #3 ... Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord.

RED SEA RULE #4 ... Pray!

RED SEA RULE #5 ... Stay calm and confident, and give God time to speak.

RED SEA RULE #6 ... When unsure, just take the next logical step by faith.

RED SEA RULE #7 ... Envision God's enveloping presence.

RED SEA RULE #8 ... Trust God to deliver in His own unique way.

RED SEA RULE #9 ... View your current crisis as a faith builder for the future.

RED SEA RULE #10 .. Don't forget to praise Him.

One quote in this book keeps coming back to me lately ... "Worry is putting question marks where God has put periods. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen Called worry 'a form of atheism, for it betrays a lack of faith and trust in God'."

OK SLAP me in the face ... I tend to worry, especially where our family is concerned and the future is unsure. I definitely do not want to put a question mark where God has put a period in our life's story. We know the place we are in life has not caught God by surprise and did not shock him off the throne because it happened to us. (Shocker I know)

A few weeks ago a pastor at our church spoke on Moses' life. He spoke of his first 40 years and the royalty that went along with that. Then because of murder that he committed he left and lived the next 40 years doing a lowly job - at least a job in the previous 40 years he would have considered lowly. Then God in his infinite wisdom called him to go to Pharaoh and ask him to "let My people go." The next 40 years Moses led God's people through the wilderness and he would not have been able to lead those people had it not been for the previous 40 years and the lessons he learned on living on the land.

So that resonated with me ... Right now I feel like we are in the middle ... I wonder what God is preparing us for? I can't wait to find out what that is and how HE will be glorified through our current situation.

Wordless Wednesday

For more WW go Here

Monk & Neagle

Last week I was able to sign up to receive a FREE CD! I mean who doesn't want free music? And especially when it's GREAT music! Well yesterday I got the CD!!!! YAY!

I had never heard of Monk & Neagle until BooMama talked about them on her Blog. I followed the link and fell in love with their music. It seemed like a cross between Bebo and John Mayer. I absolutely LOVE Bebo and so it was no coincidence that I liked their music.

The song that really stands out to me is The Twenty-first Time. Here is a line or two from the song ...

He may be a drifter who's grown old and gray

What if it’s Jesus and I walk away

I say I’m the body and drink of the wine

But I pretend not to see him for the Twenty-First Time

This song makes me stop and really think about the people I encounter on a daily basis. It reminds me of Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."I don't know about your Bible but in mine Red letters represent the words of Jesus himself. This song made me think about the "least of these" in my life. Do I represent Jesus well to them or do I walk away? Something for me to ponder ... will you do the same?

Head on over HERE to check out their music. There are several songs on there you can listen to on their page until you can RUN (or pre-order and get it in the mail) to the store and buy their CD on September 18!

Update on Pace

For those of you wondering ... Pace is doing great this morning. He slept through the night (we did go check on him during the night) and you would never know by his attitude or actions that anything abnormal happened last night. We are so thankful that he is OK!

If you are wondering what in the world I am talking about go Here

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Happy 31st birthday to the best man around! We all love you!

SCARE!

Tonight we had a scare as Pace fell down a flight of steps here at our home. He's OK ... mom and dad are a little frazzled but he's fine. We landed at the ER after he started vomiting (TMI?) and after a CT scan and a check by a DR he is doing fine. He has a HUGE knot and some broken skin on the side of his head but he's good to go.

Thanks to Heather (yes there are 3 of us in our small group here) for coming to sit with Ryan so Jeremy could join me at the ER.Thankful for you as you had MUCH going on this week and you dropped it to come help us out! YOU ROCK!!!

I guess this is just one of the many scares we will have being parents to all boys! thank you Jesus for taking care of my child! YOU ROCK TOO - We love you Lord!

Grass or Green Beans?

The boys and I were playing outside in our backyard this morning and Pace was sitting down 'playing' with the grass ... or so I thought. As you can see from the abrubt end to the video below ... he was EATING the grass.

Pool fun

We landed at the pool last night with some friends ... Had a blast! Enjoy the photos

This is how we roll ...

Tuxedos

Today we went to get Jeremy fitted for his cousin Casie's upcoming wedding. Jeremy and the boys were having breakfast and Jeremy was explaining to Ryan what a tux was then he was reminding him who Casie was. Ryan goes .... "Oh right dad cousin Casie-dee-ah" ... can you tell what he likes to eat?

Not all moments around our house are struggles. Some are quite fun!

Struggles

We are having struggles with our stubborn strong willed child. When 'big boy' underwear hit his bottom it was like a whole new child was birthed and my little boy left our home. It is SO fun, SO fun to watch him learn and grow but it seems we are butting heads more often than not these days as he pushes the limits of what he can and cannot do.

He is also set in his ways. Since I spend the majority of the time with him and we have just done things a certain way for so long ... far be it for Jeremy to do it differently. Lord knows the flood waters will come if he does! His poor pre-school teacher this fall ... Pray for her! Just kidding he's much better with other people than he is with us ... and why may I ask is that?

Y'all I just have to tell you he's in a funky mood ... love him YES no strings attached ... funky mood can't stand! He's learning and growing and for that I'm thankful. It is these war of the wills that are taking me to my hair pulling out stage. And I don't have a lot of hair left to pull out :) One day I will be very happy for him to have this strong independent will. I feel it will serve him well when he is older ... but for now it is the molding of this will that is keeping me(us) on my (our) knees in prayer and my(our) nose in every parenting book I (we) can find for advice.

For the next 2 hours the little ones are napping and it's a peaceful time at our house!

Can you BELIEVE this???

**UPDATED**
I am watching Good Morning America this morning before I go to get my boys up for the day and am SHOCKED at what I just heard. One of the candidates was on the campaign trail yesterday and is in FAVOR of sex-ed for our children as early as KINDERGARTEN! I cannot believe that they want to give 5 year olds "age appropriate" sex-ed. We may be home-schooling after all or bending over backwards 5 times to afford Private christian school. I'm appalled. When my kids need to learn about this (and it won't be at 5 years old) WE as a couple will tell them about it.

After reading the above paragraph, my husbands Aunt and therefore, my Aunt Cathy e-mailed me to tell me this is nothing new. She did tell me that it was around when her kids were in school ... One of her kids is getting married in 3 weeks and the other is a Junior in HS. So ... she had some wisdom ... you can opt out!

Just for fun ... this Aunt Cathy is great! I remember the first time I met her. She and one of my husbands other Aunts therefore, my Aunt Patty sat on either side of me on a little love seat and proceeded to play 20 questions with me ... good times!

Monk & Neagle

Thanks to Boo Mama I was able to sign up for a GREAT CD from Monk & Neagle. A few weeks ago on her blog she linked to their my space page and I was blown away. I have listened to their songs on their myspace and have fallen in love with their music. I can't wait to get the CD in the mail and start jammin with my boys to their music. They have a great sound and they love the Lord!

To find out more about them go Here or click on the box below. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Moments

We have been having 'moments' around our house ... some good and some well, not so good! My oldest is growing and learning and asserting more and more stubborn will independence. He has begun to tell us NO more often leading to the not so good moments and leading him to more and more time outs. Thus our noses stay in the parenting books more and more as we learn how to bring up these kids in the way that they should go, so that when they are old they will not depart from it. Some days parenting is a bigger challenge than most.

In addition to those parenting moments we are having our own moments trying to figure out where do we go from here. Knocking on Heavens door and waiting patiently on God to send us some clarity for our future. Each day there seems to be more questions than answers. However, at the end of the day as our heads hit our pillows we know God is in control. However, at times in the day to day grind of all we have to ponder we wonder what he is up to. Our prayer is that we would follow him ... right now He is being ever so quiet and the questions are shouting loudly into our ears. Pray that we would be able to hear HIM through the noise and that we would have a peace about our next steps ... whatever they may be.

Wordless Wednesday

"Oh Brother"

Hosted By: 5 Minutes for Mom

Fun Days ...

The boys and I had a silly day today. We just sat around in the play room doing goofy and silly things. Enjoy the photos ...

Out of Ryan's mouth ...

"mommy you went potty? Way to go! I'm So proud of you! Good job!"

Can you tell we have been working on potty training?

What's In a Name?

Ryan = Little King

William = Determined Protector (William is Pace's first name - couldn't find a meaning for Pace)

Jeremy = Exalted by God

Heather = Flowering Plant

OK ... so my 3 boys have awesome meanings behind their names and I'm a flowering plant!

We are Thirsty!

Once again a great devotional from Ransomed Heart ... John Eldridge's group ... Here is today's. Jeremy and I are banging on heaven's door for a particular need in our life. We are hungry and thirsty! These scriptures are not falling on deaf ears in our home as we are asking, seeking, and knocking on heavens door ... Would you ask, seek and knock with us? The Lord knows our need ...

Are You Thirsty?07/16/2007

In the gospel of John, Jesus extends the offer to anyone who realizes that his life just isn’t touching his deep desire: “If you are thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within” (John 7:37–38 NLT). His message wasn’t something new, but it confounded the religious leaders of the day. Surely, those scripturally learned Jews must have recalled God’s long-standing invitation to them, spoken seven hundred years earlier through the prophet Isaiah,

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. (55:1–2)

Somehow, the message had gotten lost by the time Jesus showed up on the scene. The Jews of his day were practicing a very soul-killing spirituality, a lifeless religion of duty and obligation. Desire was out of the question. No wonder they feared Jesus. He came along and started appealing to desire. To the weary, Jesus speaks of rest. To the lost, he speaks of finding your way. Again and again and again, Jesus takes people back to their desires. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). These are outrageous words, provocative words. Ask, seek, knock—these words invite and arouse desire. What is it that you want? They fall on deaf ears if there is nothing you want, nothing you’re looking for, nothing you’re hungry enough to bang on a door over.

If you want to get these daily readings delivered to your inbox go HERE

Time Away...

Our family spent a few days away. We went back to ATL where we once lived. It was GREAT, GREAT, GREAT to be able to catch up and hang out with some loved ones and cherished ones. Catching up and sitting face to face with people who we did life with together was awesome. Something we both really needed. Thanks everyone who included us in your weekend. It was crazy busy, and crazy short but we loved every minute of it.

On a side note ... It was CRAZY traveling with a newly trained 2 1/2 year old. The whole potty training experience has been overwhelmingly easy. I'm not naive enough to think that there will not be an accident at some point in our future, however, we have been at this thing for 10 days now and no accidents. He loves being in his big boy underwear ... so taking a long drive was a little tricky as when he is awake ... he does not want to wear pull-ups or diapers. On the drive down we stopped to go potty - at a time when we would have rather not heard "mom, i need to go potty" we did hear it - we were in the thick of ATL traffic at this point. So we stopped on the side of the road as there was no exit with easy access and let Ryan go potty - he was too thrilled with the passing cars to pass anything below so we buckled back up and finished our ride. Thinking we would have wet pants when we arrived at our destination (thanks Bill and Norma). He held it the rest of the way. The kid stayed dry all weekend with our crazy schedule visiting people all over each side of ATL. I was amazed at how quickly and easily this has gone. Our son was just ready.

Long weekend

We just got home from a long weekend away. I'll update more later ... for now enjoy the photos ....

Advice needed

And no it's not about the potty :) (By the way we are on day 5 and no daytime accidents! Go Ryan!)

OK ... On to the real reason for this post. We are thinking of getting a new camera. We have a camera that we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE - it's a cannon powershot and it's taken all the pictures you see here on the blog and many others I haven't put on the blog :) It's great but with my squirrely boys it doesn't take the picture as quickly sometimes as I need it to. I've missed several great shots because they move before the picture takes. And if you know me well --- you know I love to take pictures. I've been so bummed lately because of the shots I've missed. So here's where you come in handy ...

1. What Kind of Camera do you use?
2. Does it have a quick shutter speed?
3. What Camera do you recommend if not the one you have?

Thanks~!

101%

Congratulations Jeremy on a job well done. I'm very proud of you and love you tons! You are a great husband and father and I'm glad we are on the same team! Way to go on your first scorecard!

14 months old

Today Pace is 14 months old. It is amazing how quickly time flies. I remember the morning we arrived at the hospital to have him and it seems like yesterday. Yet it wasn't. He's growing so fast. I can't imagine our life without him or his brother Ryan.

Pace is trying to do everything at once. He loves to try to walk by holding on to anything and everything he can. He is also very vocal at times and has a few words ... momma, dadda, ni ni (night night) and a few others that We think are words but we will hold on broadcasting until we are for sure they are words :)

Hilarious video

A friend sent this video to me ... this has been a perfect picture of our weekend ... dancing, singing and all! How great! thanks Carrie...

Another good day ..

Ryan made it another day with no accidents. This of course does not include nap time. I tell you that kid peed so much before his nap I have no clue where the nap time pee came from. (the things you can talk about on a blog) I decided to go green (and save a few $$) ... we bought some Gerber plastic lined underpants for nap time and bed time thinking that they would absorb whatever came out ... well they didn't. When we got Ryan up from his nap and he was SOAKED. I couldn't believe that the pants didn't hold up ... that's what they are built for right? And on another note ... where did all the pee come from? The kid had sat on the potty and went about 14 times that morning and right before he went down ... crazy!

He received another car last night and was happy as a clam. We will try again today as we have no plans to leave the house. Jeremy stayed home from church with him yesterday morning so as not to interrupt our progress. (he was nice enough to let me go!)

One thing we did learn is that he does not like to have a seat sat on our toilet. He wants his little chair. Since we have a 2 story house we bought just a seat adaptor to go on the downstairs toilet and have his little chair upstairs in his bathroom. He didn't like it one bit ... he would sit on it but not for long and he never went. We think maybe b/c the one Jeremy's parents bought him sings and the one we bought ... well it's plain. So we figure we will get him good and used to going before we spring the big throne on him :)

I have also bought a seat for the car and also a seat for my diaper bag. They have these little seats at Babies R Us that fold up! They are made for either circle seat or oval seats and will work at restaurants (not that we eat out much) or any other public toilet. We will see what happens there. I tell you this is my fear ... going out in public with him now that he doesn't wear a diaper. Any of you other trained mommies with advice please send it my way and if you have any nap time or bedtime advice I'd love to hear that too. Seems we have day time down or close to no accidents yet ... he tells us now when he needs to go. (I'm not naive enough to think we will have no accidents) Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Am I dreaming?

I can't believe it is going this easy. Incentives/rewards really work. Ryan really wanted one of those cars - actually he wants all three but our promise was ONE at the end of the day if you stay dry with no accidents. He did it. He went all day with no accidents and with sitting on the potty each and every time he had to go. His nap diaper was even more dry than normal. It is crazy to think this is the same child who one month ago would sit on the potty for 30 minutes and then go as soon as I got him up. We will see how today goes ... will he get another car at the end of the day? Tune in tomorrow to find out. (if you care to know)

Update on Potty Boot Camp

Hello faithful readers - all 4 or 5 of you :)

Potty Boot Camp is going crazy well. It's really unbelievable. I've had to pinch myself to really believe that it is happening. So far he has gone #1 6 times without having to be asked. We started by setting the kitchen timer to go off every 15 minutes and would ask him to sit. It started when he got up off the couch and walked over to the potty and went #1 all by himself. Then about 10 minutes later before the timer could go off again he got up and went #2! Holy smokes batman! He then proceeded to go sit down several more times resulting in 5 more #1's. How incredible! We filled him full of pretzels, popcorn and watered down apple juice - in fact he had about 6 cups full of water/juice before lunch - no wonder he had to go! We have had no accidents as he's marched right over to the potty. However, I must remind myself that we are only 4 1/2 hours into this boot camp. There's still lots of room for error!

We did put a diaper on him to go down for his nap. I hope that doesn't mess things up but I hated for him to be lying in #1 for 3 1/2 hours or even #2 should he choose to go. We made a big deal of him being a 'big boy' before putting him down for a nap and that the potty would be waiting on him when he woke up. He said confidently "I not go in my pack-n-play mommy". If anyone has nap time advice, I'd love to hear it.

So far so good ... It's amazing how he took over and just began going. We didn't even need to turn the timer on because he was going to sit on it at regular intervals. One thing we did do was just have him run around in only his t-shirt.

Here are a few Pictures of our time this morning ... We brought toys down to our breakfast area and moved the table out of the way ... this way puddles wouldn't be on the carpet. He's enjoying potty boot camp and so far it hasn't been a hassle. He wants the cars in the box really bad. We told him he had to make it all day without going in his pants - we will see if he makes it or not. He seems determined! (nap time is not included in the deal)

Sitting on his 'throne' first thing this morning - we hit the ground running
Daddy shows him the fine art of reading while sitting on the 'throne'
as you can see he sat his favorite toys all around him as he went potty

Potty, potty, potty time

***UPDATED FRIDAY EVENING***
The blog will be on a vacation for a few days as we spend our time in the bathroom. We tried to potty train before but it didn't go so hot. So we put it off thinking he just wasn't ready. I'm still not sure he's all that ready but 2 really bad diaper rashes later, I'm going to try a bit harder. Since Jer will be home Saturday and Sunday and can focus on Pace, we are going to 15 minute it all weekend long ... oh boy! I've had friends say it can be done in a weekend though Ryan rarely fits into a box with other children. He has his own time table for things :) I'll update next week with how this went. Maybe we will be closer to being trained or we will have pulled out all our hair and our carpet in the process :) Wagers anyone?

So tonight we went to target to buy the essentials for our 'Potty training boot camp'. We have ELMO underwear, Boxer/briefs (so cool they make these in size 2T!) - I mean what little boy 2 1/2 years old wouldn't want to wear ELMO underwear or blue boxers like daddy?

OK on to more important stuff ... Ryan is into the CARS movie. His favorite toy in the whole world is his Lightening McQueen race car so we got 3 more cars from the movie ... Sheriff, Doc Hudson and Sally. He will get these at the end of the day if he can stay dry ... so he probably wont get them ... I know, I know build them up! I will tomorrow but I'm not setting my hopes too high at this point. I'd love to tell you next week that he got the cars but I'd probably be lying, maybe not we will see.

We also got salty snacks ... popcorn and pretzels. We have Juice. We have fruit gushers. We have NEMO fishies. We have fruit loops - does it get any better? As you can see we set everything out on the counter tonight to show him what he was in for tomorrow ... all he wanted was the cars ... "Mommy can I go potty?" Who knows maybe it will work?!? MAYBE I'm speaking encouraging words over my child as he sleeps tonight :) haha

I'll try to take pictures during potty boot camp. Maybe we can update during nap time tomorrow. Oh and in case you didn't notice in the picture ... Jeremy bought Carpet cleaner as well ... only my husband! (those of you that know him will laugh at that and also sigh at the same time because you know it is true!)

Well this soon to be Sergeant is signing off for the evening. It is time to go say prayers and read bedtime stories with the boys. PRAY FOR US ....

Desires

I'm not sure if there is a rule about posting someone else's words on a blog but I'm going to do it. I'll give him full credit though so hopefully that will count for something ...

I get these daily readings from John Eldridge .. OK so they aren't specifically from him and they aren't specifically to me only, but from his staff who put together these daily readings for the thousands of people who sign up for them. Now that we have that out of the way ... here is today's

Should the King in Exile Pretend He Is Happy?07/06/2007

We use a phrase to try to console ourselves after what we think is an irrecoverable loss: “All good things come to an end.” I hate that phrase. It’s a lie. Even our troubles and our heartbreaks tell us something about our true destiny. The tragedies that strike us to the core and elicit the cry, “This isn’t the way it was supposed to be!” are also telling the truth—it isn’t the way it was supposed to be. Pascal writes,

Man is so great that his greatness appears even in knowing himself to be miserable. A tree has no sense of its misery. It is true that to know we are miserable is to be miserable; but to know we are miserable is also to be great. Thus all the miseries of man prove his grandeur; they are the miseries of a dignified personage, the miseries of a dethroned monarch . . . What can this incessant craving, and this impotence of attainment mean, unless there was once a happiness belonging to man, of which only the faintest traces remain, in that void which he attempts to fill with everything within his reach? (Pensées)

Should the king in exile pretend he is happy there? Should he not seek his own country? His miseries are his ally; they urge him on. And so let them grow, if need be. But do not forsake the secret of life; do not despise those kingly desires. We abandon the most important journey of our lives when we abandon desire. We leave our hearts by the side of the road and head off in the direction of fitting in, getting by, being productive, what have you. Whatever we might gain— money, position, the approval of others, or just absence of the discontent itself—it’s not worth it. “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Matt. 16:26). (The Journey of Desire , 12–13)

So this is one thing that Jer and I are struggling with right now .. DESIRES. Things still aren't quite where we need/want them to be. Life seems to still be alluding us or at least holding us in suspense as far as our future is concerned. We are leaning (sometimes lightly sometimes with all our weight) on God and waiting for him to point us to the next step. Sometimes that waiting can be hard - OK most of the time waiting is hard. However, it is where we are.

If I could be so vague as to ask you to pray ... vague in the sense that I'm not going to give you a specific situation to pray for. The Lord knows our situation and he knows our needs. Pray that we would see the next step and take it no matter where it is. OK that was something specific but not as specific as I could be right now :)

Thanks for hanging with us through this journey that we are on.

PS ... if you would like to get these daily readings you can Go Here

Fun Pictures

TRUST & FAITH

These two words sum up what we are living on these days. Many of you know that our rocky road began in November last year and honestly hasn't come to an end yet. I was spending some time reading in the Psalms last night and the word TRUST kept coming up. One thing I do is trust in the Lord ... however, it feels like there are times when my head and heart seem disconnected. My head KNOWS that God is faithful and trustworthy however, there seems to be a roller coaster of faith between my head connecting with my heart at times. Some days are easier than others to hold on to the fact that God will continue to carry us ... he's brought us this far why would he drop us on our heads now? It's the days where everything seems to hit the fan and the light at the end of the tunnel seems dim that the roller coaster seems to hit full speed. It is just that there are times in our humanness where our fists hit the air and we want to know when things will settle down and what the future looks like for us. But, God says to be still and wait. That's the word we heard when everything hit the fan here. So we wait, we trust and we have faith and we try hard to smooth the roller coaster to a straight line between our heads (mostly mine) and our hearts (again mostly mine). God is definitely making us stronger ... it's a good thing.

Pray for us and that we would continue to hold on with all our might to what God is doing in our lives. We desperately want what he wants for our family and we want to be where he wants us to be. Some days the bar we hold onto feels as though it is greased and we feel our grip slipping. Other days we feel as though nothing could pull us down. We do not want to get ahead of God and do things in our own might and outside of his will for us.

July 4th

Just a funny ...

Three years ago we were pregnant with Ryan and on a mission trip with our church to Scotland. One of our teammates who shall remain nameless, asked one of our new Scottish friends if they had the 4th of July in Scotland ... Without missing a beat this person said ... "nope our calendar goes straight from 3 July to 5 July."

GUESS WHAT??? WE ARE ...

... so glad that you stopped by (bet you thought I was going to say Pregnant didn't you - nope we aren't - just glad you are here)

I'd love to know that you are reading along with my musings and ramblings. I read last week on a blog that I popped into on blog land and she was asking to make it a two-way conversation. Let's do the same ... let me know you are here ... Say hello, introduce yourself if I don't know you, or fill me in on your world if I do .. I'd love to know you are out there. You are such great encourager's to us as we have moved so far from many of you faithful readers out there. God has brought us to a new place and at a new season in our life. It is a bumpy ride at times but so worth the effort as we walk with Him. We'll keep you up to date on our world - mostly the life of our kiddos and you let us know you were here ... go ahead hit that comment button ... I dare you ... double dare you :)

Picture this ...

It's 8pm on Friday night (last week) the in-laws are about 30 minutes away with my boy. Jeremy and I put down our little bubby with a giddiness about us that we just couldn't hide. We run down the stairs seeing who can beat the other and run to our front porch where we eagerly await the arrival of our first born son coming home. One would think that we had not seen our child in a year or more ... it was only 6 days some will say. However, to us, it was a LIFETIME.

We kept waiting and watching. It was like watching water boil ... it felt like it was taking forever for them to go the last few miles to our home ... And Finally ... they are here. Jeremy and I leap up and race to their car to see who can be the first one to open the door and see his little face .. by the way ... I WON!! He was just as excited to see us as we were to see him. "Mommy there you are you're home" I love the little things that come out of his mouth! We spent the next 30 or so minutes just sitting on the front porch bench learning all about his week ... things we already knew because we had spent 3 or 4 conversations on the phone with him each day as he was away. But, it was OH so good to see his face in person and hear him tell us all about his week with his grandparents. He had a BLAST.

Jeremy's parents have been here with us since Saturday ... hence the reason for not many blogs. We have been enjoying having grandparents and especially our boy back home. We visited the Museum, the mall, the backyard park, Jeremy and his dad went golfing ... it was a busy weekend.

The boys are sad that Poppa and Jojo are gone ... we will see them again soon as we venture to their home for a wedding! Enjoy the photos ...

Change?

One of My girls .... I call her My girl because she was in my group of youth girls at our past church ... She wrote a post on her blog this week you can read it here about change and how she was processing some things that had recently happened in her life.

Her post made me swell up inside with a righteous pride FOR her and what all God is doing in her life. Then I started thinking about something our pastor was speaking on this morning. He was talking about Hero's and today's topic was Daniel.

We all know what an amazing fellow Daniel was ... If you don't know ... that's OK too ... Try reading the book of Daniel by clicking here if you don't have a Bible close by. Amazing read! Daniel had courage that I wish I could have. The way he stood up to a king and made a positive impact on a nation and a future people he would never meet.

Our Pastor today was talking about being in the world but not of the world. Something I've heard a million and one times. But it was something else he said that made me stop and think and ask myself a few questions. He said to infiltrate the world but do not reflect it. I wonder how much infiltrating I'm doing? As a SAHM how many other moms am I able to relate to on a daily basis and impact in a positive way? Can I take a stand in a winsome and positive way in their lives?

Daniel found his non-negotiable, drew the line and God honored his life. Are we willing to do the same? Laura if you are reading this I'm proud of you for listening to God and walking in His ways! You make me proud but more importantly you make Him proud and He will honor your life if you continue to run hard after him. One foot in front of the other sweet girl, one foot in front of the other!


PS ... RYAN IS HOME!!! I'll post more about that later ...