Lately

We have been so busy! We had a blast a spring break visiting family. We went camping on our way home with my brother and his family. My parents are visiting Israel right now!! I am so excited for them to get to have this experience!! I think they will forever be changed! Can you imagine what it would be like to walk the same steps as Jesus?!!! Unbelieveable!! I can't wait to get a turn!

We are doing a campaign at church called "Generations". We are definitely in need of more classroom space. At the beginning of the month, the kids were given a "seed" bag with $5 in it. They were taught about the "parable of the Talents" in Matthew 27. If you have had the chance to read it, you should. Anyway, we took our seed money and bought water bottles and ice to sell at the local ballpark. I took the kids out the the ball field to sell their water. I am soooo proud of them!! They worked hard for 2 hours and made nearly $50!! We put that money back in their seed bag and they had the opportunity to lay their bag on the alter during church! I was amazing to watch as a parent! Great lesson to learn.

God is doing amazing things in our home and we are so excited! I will be a preschool teacher next school year at our church!! I am so excited!

Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's day and we have had a great day so far. Michael left me a rose and a box of chocolate and card before he left for work. He came home for lunch too! Tonight, we are having dinner with the kids. We don't really have a sitter so we will just celebrate with the kids. This is our 14th Valentine together and I am so thankful for that!

New Year!

I am horrible at this blogging thing! I just looked over the past entries and they are pathetic!

Anyway, I am not one for making New Year's Resolutions...mainly, I am not one for keeping them! But, I do have something weighing heavy on my heart right now and I believe God is calling me to work with Him in this area. I am going to strive this year to better a better wife/mom/daughter/sister/friend. That is alot!! I just know with all of our life circumstances, we can let things slide and go to the waste side. Here is a list of examples:
1. Love more
2. Read my Bible more
3. Pray with intention more
4. Be intentional with Michael
5. laugh with my kids more
6. Make a point to pray for one friend on FB per day
7. Give more this year than last at church
8. Bake more
9. Smile because I can more
10. Blog more

I pray that God will use me in a way this year that He never has before. My prayers as of late have not been answered in the way I was hoping, but I pray that God's will be done in my life regardless of how I thought it would go.

Christmas 2010

I can not tell you how blessed I feel today. We had the very best Christmas. Michael had to close on Christmas eve so we decided to stay home this year instead of going to my parent's house in Oklahoma. It was a hard decision but we could not drive and come home on the same day. On the 23rd, I was in the kitchen and heard carollers outside. I opened the door and it was Kristi and Danny and my brother and Allison!! It was the greatest surprise!! Then the next morning, I had a knock on the front door and it was my parents!!! LOVED it!! We were able to have lunch with Michael before work and my parents stayed the night and had Christmas with us! Such a blessing! It usually is not possible for any of my family to come here because there are too many of them and they have to work in their extended family too.

Tyler and Tanner got new bikes from Santa and Tatum got a princess jeep. Michael and I got a new camera. Santa brought Michael a new laptop computer which I am using now so hopefully, I can update this blog more often! Ha! Our friends Brett and Melissa came to eat dinner with us too.

The saddest part of today was taking all of the decorations down :( I will post pics soon

Tatum's school

Tatum started prek at CLC at our church this year. To say that she loves it is an understatement!! She loves Ms. Sarah. She gets up every single morning and asks if it is time to go to school even though she knows it isn't the right day! She loves to pick out her own clothes and help make her lunch...which is always the same because that is all she will eat!!!! Ugh!!!! She goes with her sweet friend Tate who has been with us since he was a tiny baby! She loves him!

One more thing has changed with Tatum this last week! She became a real Princess of our KING!! She accepted Christ into her heart on Wednesday evening at the dinner table. She and Tanner were carrying on their usual conversation about Heaven and Hell. Tanner was explaining again, about going there and what she would have to do to go too! Boy did she ever want to go with us!! She asked us to be quiet a minute and she said her own prayer...she did not want any help! She shouted, "I'm going to Heaven!!" It was precious! It is the best feeling a mother could have! We were a little nervous at first, because she is so young. But, our prayer is that God will reveal Himself more and more to her (and us!) and if she has anymore questions, she will just ask. Our church does this amazing class called "New Christian Class" for kids. It is exactly for this reason. They talk individually with each child making sure they understand everything. They show them the baptistry and the Lord's supper trays explaining what each thing means and why it is important for them to do it. I love it! And the best part is, parents participate too!

Prayer

Have you ever thought about prayer? There are so many things going on in my life right now that require prayer. I have never prayed harder in all my life. This has me thinking...I read a post about prayer and it went along with what I had been thinking. I always pray as if God doesn't know me. I explain what is going on, a specific need, how I would like Him to answer, and oh, a quick thank you for everything else I have already asked for. Why??? The God that made the universe, the same God that gave his only Son for me..knows me. He already knows my needs, my wants and desires, my heart. I was reading in Psalms last night and was completely blown away by God's mercy and grace and love. It was so freeing!! I don't have to bog down my prayer time with the Lord on things He already knows. Sometimes it is so nice to just say "Lord...I love you!" He knows the rest of my story. It is enough just to rest in God loving arms..doesn't that feel great?!! What I have learned is that I don't always have to know what to say and even though the words do not come out of my mouth exactly the way I waned them to..He still understands!!! What comfort!!

Resting in God's Grace

I am in the most difficult place I have ever been. My heart is so heavy. On Monday Michael had a skin biopsy done on a spot on his forehead. Yesterday, we got the news that confirmed my worst fear. It is cancer. It is not melenoma...Praise the Lord for that!!! It is slow growing and the dr is confident he can remove it all. It is one thing to say you have faith in God, but another thing entirely to actually "live" it. Everything I believe in, is being tested. That is a feeling I hope none of you will ever experience. But one thing I know for sure is true...we serve a mighty God. A God that is bigger than cancer! A God that is loving, forgiving, powerful, all knowing. A God in complete control. A God that knows the end, when we do not. A God that is soveren..loving, merciful. A God that has everything under control. A God that orchestrated all of this. And that is where I am resting...

Please pray for us. He goes in on the 24th to have the procedure done.

Happies :)

There are so many things on my mind right now. God has been showing me so many things lately. So, here is a list of things that I am so thankful for right now. There are so many things that we take for granted.

1. Salvation!!
2. My husband and kids
3. My parents
4. My family
5. God's Word
6. Our Amazing Church
7. Dances in the evening with Michael even though sometimes we don't have music
8. Rain
9. Sweet conversations with my kids
10. Family movie nights (which usually includes pizza)
11. My job
12. Michael's job
13. Time alone with God
14. Any Karen Kingsbury book
15. Our health
16. Fresh blooms
17. Evening walks
18. Teaching the kids new things and also learning a few new things from them
19. My 8th grade girl group from church
20. Laundry that smells like my mom's....Finally!!