We made it!

I wanted to share just a few thoughts to express how incredibly thankful that today, my hubby and I celebrate 12 years as husband and wife. I must admit that there were many times during those years that I wondered if we would make it. Often in our marriage, I wondered if we would join the very unfortunate statistics of divorce within the church. Neither of us, ever had biblical reason for divorce..... Apathy, self-reliance and selfishness are choices, yet for many years we had a marriage that could be labeled "Failure to Thrive". Reason being might be summed up in a inability to accept and apply these WISE quotes.

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.
Robert Quillen

I don't believe couples fall out of love - they fall out of repentance.
Gary Thomas

Forgiveness is the only way to break the cycle of blame--and pain--in a relationship...It does not settle all questions of blame and justice and fairness...But it does allow relationships to start over. In that way, said Solzhenitsyn, we differ from all animals. It is not our capacity to think that makes us different, but our capacity to repent, and to forgive.
Philip Yancey

Looking back on those years of wasted co-existence, I realized one rather disheartening fact:
During those years of 'doing time' in my marriage, Satan spent more time/effort trying to sabatoge my marriage than I spent fighting for it and investing in it.

When it came down to the "Last stand" so to speak, we made an appointment to see our pastor. As we went on to explained how both of us are tired of being hurt, both fed up with the other, each pointing fingers, spewing hurtful words and proclaiming in all the ugliness of pride and unforgiveness "I do not deserve THIS!" Our pastor stopped us short and without us even realizing at the time, shared with us the secret to a happy marriage. While the dream of a happy marriage died alongside our ability to forgive quite a while back, here was someone sitting in front of us that was not going to allow Satan to steal kill and destroy one more marriage. Someone willing to fight harder for our marriage's weakened and thready pulse, that either of us were. He did so by simply asking one very LOADED question.
"Given the fact that ALL you have been entrusted with is because of God and the very fact that you are breathing right now, is a result of God sending His son to die on a cross for you, WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU DESERVE?"
Both of us, with heads hanging low and eyes fixed on the floor in shame, answered much like a child..... "Nu-thing"
It didn't end there though..... further explaination chewing-out was necessary to turn our shame & self-sorrow into God-centered repentance.
"The penalty for sin is death and both of you are deciding to live in sin due to a lack of repentance! What you deserve is death, so everything on top of DEATH is a cake walk....... a gift from the Lord. In order for a person to really LIVE, the flesh MUST die. Stay where you are in your stench of pride, self-will and arrogance and this will be the legacy of your failed marriage that you will pass on to your children..... OR you can make a choice today to crucify your flesh and breath NEW life into your marriage!"

The proof that you love someone is not that you have warm affectionate feelings toward them. The proof is in your actions, your words and your sacrifice, your willingness to give the best of yourself and your willingness to get nothing in return.
Katherine Walden

Praise God for people who have the courage to hiold you accountable to God's word! For people who will fight fervently & prayerfully on your behalf when you are too foolish to do so yourself! So thus began a new chapter in our marriage. No more co-existing together but clinging to each other while choosing death so that we may grow and have an abundant marriage. While we are in no way perfect, our relationship only grows deeper and gets better with time. When we both have our eyes fixed on the Lord, everything else falls into place! We are learning together, year after year, how to better die as individuals.

The difficulty with marriage is that we fall in love with a personality, but we must live with a character.
Peter Devries

Many of you who know my hubby can laugh at this as he is quite the character. I thought he was a one of a kind till I met Sarah. Now that I see Sarah's 'twin' (Abby) develop more of his personality, I am almost out-numbered! So glad that the Lord is able to use characters like us to point others to the Lord.

Eve was not taken out of Adam's head to top him, neither out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected by him, and near his heart to be loved by him.
Matthew Henry

This last quote is very poinant to me. John has never been an overbearing man even though he married a fairly head strong woman. Once God allowed me to see the protection provided me through submission, it is a much easier road. Although my flesh likes to tempt me to be equal or above him, the result is acheiving such a status, is loneliness. It is a pursuit of individualism rather than a partnership of cohesion. God has genuinely given me a man that has stood the test of time. I thank the Lord that He has seen us through these past 12 years. I pray that if the Lord tarries, we have many more years of growing more in love with one another as we actively seek to pursue all that the Lord has in store for us! Many Blessings & Hugs my friends!

When the Lord speaks...

God has been really working with me to let Him lead my day rather than being a slave to my 'schedule'...........

I remember a time when I was chatting with a friend from church when we lived back in WA. She came up to me so excited. She said "Guess what?" Seeing the excitement in her eyes I though what she had to say was gonna be BIG! With great enthusiasm she shared that she found some drapes. This excitement was not just about drapes so keep reading. You see, when she was having her quiet time with the Lord that morning, He told her to go to Goodwill today. He gave her no explaination of why but just to go. When she walked in the front door of the Goodwill, there were the drapes that she had wanted! She had been wanting some drapes for a while but couldn't find ones at a good price. She was so tickled NOT because they were these awesome drapes but because God is just so sweet. HE knew that she wanted these and even though this probably wasn't even a 'high priority' on God's To Do list, He cared about the little things enough to tell her about this neat find! The fact is she could have said she was too tired and second guessed herself, but she was obedient. Funny how the Lord cares enough to send you somewhere with no explanation and then just BLESS YOUR SOCKS OFF with the reason why. That He knows us so well and is always looking for ways to show us His love! Sometimes we are just too busy going about our day to yield to His blessings!

God reminded me of this story the other day when I too had one of these moments. We have a pretty good scedule going in the morning for our routine. My middle child, Abby is usually my first one at the breakfast table with all her chores done. She tends to wake up with a bit more spring in her step than everyone else. However, this morning she doddled a little longer than usual. After everyone finishes breakfast we all come out to the living room for morning devotions, but Abby was still not done with breakfast. Usually I wouldn't begin without her but I knew she would be a while so the Lord told me to go on without her. I didn't wait for her and we continued with devotions. Abby got done with breakfast about the same time we were done with devotions so I asked Michaela and Ben to begin with their schoolwork so I could talk with Abby. I asked if she would like to do devotions in her room this morning since she missed out and she said yes.

After about 20 minutes passed Abby came running into the room all excited. Her face was so radiant with joy. She explained "Guess what mom, I heard Jesus's voice! I was just reading my bible for a while and praying asking Him to help me with my day and I HEARD HIM! He said "Do good and I will help you!" I asked her what she thought that meant. Without skipping a beat, she explained that "When I get frustrated with my school work the Lord wants me to ask Him for help!"

Generally I do not like it when we get off schedule....... however, for some reason that morning even before knowing what the Lord was doing, the schedule wasn't a big deal. TOTALLY GOD! Just the fact that God did this in my heart, was very cool. God made an appointment with my daughter to hear his voice!

God has a plan daily for our lives. I know there are possibly many times in which I have thwarted the Lord's plan to do awesome things because I was too wrapped up in my daily TO DO lists. In this day and age, there are so many distractions available to drown out the voice of God and His daily plans for us that we slip into cruise control rather than asking Him. We know that His plans are so much greater, so much more rewarding, with our best interest at heart, but my flesh seems to grip onto 'business as usual' when I am unaware. If we chose to embrace it, this abundant life that only comes from the Lord, can't help but spill onto those around us. Just as my Abby's radiance was contagious when she heard His voice, a day planned by the Lord is just as contagious. A day such as this radiates with an earthly glimpse of the eternal. A reality check to what is really important.

The enemy has enough ammunition/distractions to keep the Lord from speaking purpose & direction into our days. God is a gentlemen and will not go where He is not wanted. If your schedule is too jam packed to allow God to have his way with your schedule/plan/day, I ask you to reconsider your commitments. Even a bunch of 'good things', even some that are God-centered, can be a distraction from allowing God to weave together a masterpiece of appointments for His Glory. It is so easy to slip into cruise control doing what we have always done, sacrificing the God-opportunities He has in store. Where man focuses on getting through the day and the successes of this frail life, God focuses on the eternity he has placed in our hearts.

There is just so much more that the Lord has been speaking to me about as of late but since these ladies did such a wonderful job explaining than I could just read here:
What we really need by Amy's Finer Things
Courtney at Women Living Well reminds us moms of what is really important by challenging us to examine the question What Do your children think of you
Kristen shares some pretty humbling statistics over at We Are That Family that you just can't read without it affecting the next time you spend a dollar.


Many Blessings!

Christmas picture fun!

Well, got the Christmas cards in the mail the other day! I was lazy used a picture that turned out real well from our visit to Washington this past summer! Gotta love the beautiful mountain backdrop for a nice picture!

However, last year on clearance, I bought Santa hats. I had ANTICIPATING a tad bit of BRAGGING. Yes, I was going to do CUTE Pictures of us in co-ordinating shorts and T's at the beach in santa hats! I suppose God didn't want me to brag since we never really made it to the beach together! SO, when the santa hats were out of the Christmas boxes we headed for the park in whatever we were wearing!

While I didn't get pics done in time for Christmas cards, I really enjoy doing those collage Calendars for those far away family members that have most everything. Since 'winter pictures' are not really possible, we have to create our own kind! Gotta put some kind of winter feel to the pictures for the month of December! Here are the ones that made the cut!

John was not too thrilled with this idea. His face screams TAKE THE PICTURE AND GET THIS OVER WITH! :o)

A Posing picture! Notice the shorts and blue sky!

A candid while playing a little bit of Santa tag!

One of the problems with the bright blue sky was that it was hard to tell if everyone was looking at the camera after the shot! Bummer!

One final jolly pose!

Hope you are all having a Merry Christmas and enjoying the preparations for remebering why we celebrate! Love to ya all!

Noteable accomplishments

Last Friday the girls recieved their yellow belts in Karate. They were actually set to recieve their yellow belts before we went on vacation, however, our plane left before they could attend the 'moving up' ceremony. Getting them to smile was quite a challenge!

They test every 5 weeks and if they have worked hard and put forth effort at home and at the studio, they recieve a stripe on their belt. I debated on posting pictures everytime they recieved a stripe and figured it was a bigger deal when they actually have more the share! The instructor offered to give them their new belts right when we got back, but we all agreed that it would be more fun to be apart of the ceremony.

It is also great for the kids to see the other people, young and old, who have worked hard to their accomplishments. Here are some pictures of their ceremony/class!

Some new family members

We told the kids that once we returned from our trip to WA, we would look at getting another dog. This was not a new idea because the kids were told that once we got to Florida we would look at getting another dog, however, knowing that we were going to be gone for a month and not really finding what we were looking for before now, put that on hold.
They had been asking for another dog for 2 reasons: 1) to give Hershey someone to play with and 2)So my younger ones will be able to snuggle with a dog. Abby and Ben are both allergic to dogs but, thankfully they are not so allergic that they can't take an allergy med. for it. I know that sounds horrible to put your kid on medications so they can have a pet, but I can't describe how relentless my kids are. For some crazy reason they got on the "I want a dog kick" a couple years ago, then got my hubby on board and despite my best arguements to say no (even threatening allergy shots) they agreed to whatever it took to get a dog in the house. Especially since where we used to live it seemed like those hypo-allergenic dogs would be very spendy! We prayed about Hershey before getting her and I am so glad that God just knew she wouldn't be hard on their allergies!
We did know that if we were to ADD to our family with animals they were going to HAVE to be a hypo-allergenic breed. I don't have the money to pay a puppy mill for a dog, nor do I care to keep them in business by buying a non-mut dog from a pet store that keeps these puppy mills in business. Since the economy is still not very good here, there are tons of animals that get surrendered for no other reason than they can no longer afford to feed them. I figured it might take a couple weeks to find what we were looking for. However, we visited all the shelters in town on Thursday and at the last one we saw these 2 sweet girls. Granted I only wanted ONE more dog, however, since this was a mom and daughter pair, the refuge didn't want to separate them. I guess their surrender was a very sad situation so they thought separating them would not go well for either of them unless they went with each other. They seemed a little scared on the first day so we went out with Hershey the next day to introduce them and see of they might click. They were a bit friendlier that day which was very neat.

Meet Curly Sue (on the bottom), she is the momma, and Permy (on the top), she is the daughter. They seem to be adjusting well, however it might take them some time to get adjusted to dog food. When they came into the shelter the people were having a hard time getting them to eat anything, so one of the employess brought some of the 'dog food' she cooks for her animals at home. This was consistent of greens, whole wheat pasta and ground beef so they got pretty used to this diet. Still not sold yet that I will cook for them so I am praying they will begin eating kibble soon?

Going home again

I know I have been silent for a while and it has been due to a mixture of reasons. In July, I was finishing up school with the kids, getting yearly evaluations done, (state requirement for homeschoolers in Florida) and getting other things in place. I was also making preparations to come back to our family’s home city & state, to rest for a while.

We got to visit family members & close friends that we miss dearly. I have lived in that area since the age of 11 and the kids were all born there, so it is still considered ‘home’ to me. It was just the kids and I that got to go back and my hubby had to stay here in Florida and work since he didn’t have the vacation time available. Even the kids, when faced with the decision to do something fun like Disney World or come back and see family/friends, chose to come visit our former home. We planned to be away for the entire month of August to catch up with and spend quality time with the folks that have meant so much to us and are still a great encouragement. What an amazing blessing! It was so refreshing to see/hear the familiarity of cousins playing together, sharing family stories and old friends sharing their hearts about what the Lord is doing in their lives. It was very relaxing to be in our home church that holds fast to the boldness of the word. Where folks are encouraged to ask for prayer from the whole body, share praises of how God is working in their lives OR get answers from our pastor about where they are reading in the bible that isn’t making sense…….. It is one of the ways our very large church still gets that sense of community with one another as we share in each other’s questions, burdens and victories! Where if someone shares something they are going through, someone else who recently went through something similar can then come to them and share how God brought them through it.

One thing I have always admired about our pastor is his ability to keep it simple while challenging the more mature Christians to dig deeper and make sure he is right on. He is the first one to correct us when we think to highly of Him and gives all the glory to where it is due! You never even have to guess his sin areas as he is the first to point them out to show us he is no different than any of us. He is the first one to ask people to call him Steve rather than ‘pastor’. He says people get weird if you have to be called pastor and can’t be approached as a fellow believer. The title of a pastor is a grand responsibility but doesn’t make him better than anyone else who also loves Jesus and desires to be used by the Lord is less visible ways. Being humble enough to admit his failings puts everyone at ease knowing that no matter how much you grow as a Christian, there is always further growth to be attained! That we are all sinners saved by grace, no one more holy than anyone else! My hubby and I are so fortunate to have served under his leadership to get a great foundation in our own relationships with the Lord. (He would be pretty embarrassed to know I was blogging and telling the world about how awesome he is since not only is he pretty modest but he also knows that it is God that has accomplished these things through him. However this still doesn’t change the fact that I appreciate him so much that I think he may forgive me for expressing this appreciation? Maybe?) If you don’t have this kind of teaching at your home church, but want experience what I am ranting over, you can always listen to him at this site: http://www.calvary-tricities.org/studies.html and download his studies in MP3 format for free!

Anywho, back to our visit........... We were able to see my family and the many people we hold near and dear to us here in the Tri-cities. It wasn’t just blood family members that we looked so forward to visiting with, but many of our church friends that have adopted us and we consider to be family members. Many of these sweet folks were responsible for spiritually parenting me in my late teens and early to late 20’s. The days when I was ‘Too wise in my own eyes’ to listen to my parents. They were faithful to rebuke me when I needed it and show me the truth regardless of if I liked it at the time. In their wisdom, they knew that the truth was a far greater gift than making sure I felt good about what I heard.

I got to see some very special brothers in Christ, who came alongside a man that had no clue of his need for Jesus. However, once he was told of God’s great love for him by these faithful men, had a thirst for Him that was unquenchable! They put up with his un ending questions, hung out with him as he struggled to figure out what this new life in Christ meant, discipled him when he was faced with temptations. In doing so, they played a huge part in making him the man that I later married!

Saying goodbye to all the folks that we love so much was pretty painful and filled with tears for the kids and I. Cousins, adopted ones from church and related were really hard to let go of! However, it was a great reminder that no matter how many miles separate us from those wonderful people, the bonds that Jesus forms together will never be lost, regardless of time or distance! This was proven when relationships just picked up where they left off! For this reason, I am in AWE of how much we are so amazingly blessed by this fact!

There are many things about this place that are so near and dear to my heart, however, at the same time I know it is no longer my ‘home’. Don’t get me wrong, if God said we could move back, there would be NO hesitation! We would find our niches, re-join in all the places we were active and even find some new places to minister where God could stretch us. However, while I will never forget the people, the teaching we grew so fervently under and the standards through which God grew a body from 30 people to 3000, it was a chapter in our lives that is no longer what God has in store for us. While we are still uncertain of the reason why we continue to be in Florida I do know for a fact that we are suppose to be there. Comfort has never been a word used to describe this journey, however, God’s plans rarely have anything to do with our comfort. They mostly entail further purification and dying to self. While speaking with one of my friends back there I was trying to describe this strange place we find ourselves in. The best way I could describe what God was doing with us here was to tell her that this journey is basically much like a 1000 piece puzzle. Eventhough we only have maybe 10 pieces to the puzzle, there is still so much that God, in His divine wisdom, just has not revealed to us quite yet. So our task at hand is to be in His word, prayed up and seeking Him continually. If we are diligently doing this, we will be able to receive the next pieces of the puzzle to His will for us!
Instead of spilling the beans on what we do know and try filling in the blanks with possibilities of how these pieces fit into the grand plan, it is better just to remain silently steadfast in prayer to ask for direction. Some interesting things are on the horizon, that are both exciting, yet scary as we continue to seek the Lord and desire to be used by Him to accomplish His will and not our own. I thank the Lord every day that it is HIS burden to carry the WHY’s, WHEN’s and HOW’s, so that all we really need to do is rest in Him.

My big girl turns 10

It seems the time has flown by so fast that we are now into the double digits with Michaela. She is growing and changing on a daily basis which is exciting and scarey as a parent. Not wanting her to be too big for mom and dad but yet wanting her to grow in the Lord and become the awesome young woman God is calling her to be. Instead of enjoying getting into the double digits, like most kids her age, she sees this age as one more stepping stone towards the teen years and all the things beyond her immagination at this point in time. We celebrated her special day by going to Chuck E Cheese with the family and bringing Cake to church to share with all our friends.

For her birthday, Michaela got a gift that just keeps on giving. This year we decided to give the kids all rollerblades for their birthday. Abby, the adventruous one, got them first on her birthday last month. We did this on purpose because Michaela is very afraid of anything new. We figured if we gave them to Abby first Michaela would get to watch how much fun Abby was having and would enjoy the thought of joining in the fun. Well, our plan worked and she went to the store to pick them out with Mom. Little did we know this birthday present would be the gift that keeps on giving and would make a great Mastercard commercial!

Roller blades $65

Trip to the Urgent care doctor, follow-up to the Pediatric Orthopedist approx $50 so far.

A beaming smile knowing how COOL it is to have our first fractured bone & purple cast for people to write on! PRICELESS! When her doctor told her she would get a cast her smile WAS SO HUGE! We can even decorate it with glitter so I think that might be a nice weekend craft project!

What happened? The girls were playing on their rollerblades in the driveway to get comfortable with the way the skates work, how they were different from the roller skates they had previously, practicing how to stop and also rolling into the grass as a way of getting use to them. Since our driveway is sloped this makes 'getting used to how they work' more of a challeng then just skating on a flat surface. So, I figured it might be fun to take them to a park on a level surface so they can have a more safe environment to learn. The park we went to has a cement sidewalk around the perimeter and Michaela was doing great! She took a couple laps around the park and then just started skating on the basket ball court. Her feet kind of locked up against one another and she fell backwards, putting all her weight on her left hand/wrist. She wasn't going very fast so she hardly even reacted. She was hurt a little and had a slight grimace of uncomfort but wasn't crying like I would have expected her to if anything was broken? We went home after that & iced it. She seemed to be Ok as long as she didn't twist her wrist suddenly. It was when Abby grabbed her hand (forgetting it was hurt) and Michaela cryed out that we knew for certain she would need to see someone. At the walk in clinic they gave her a temporary cast to immobilize the wrist and prevent further injury and made an appointment for the pediatric orthopedist. Come to find out he is a pretty popular Dr as many of the folks knew of him. For those of you interested in the logistics, she has a buckle fracture on one of her arm bones (sorry not sure which one) and the Growth plate in her wrist is a bit damaged. She will be in her cast till the 1st of July. Not too thrilled about HOW they will be taking it off but due to the fact that her Orthopedist is really sweet I think he may be able to alliviate her worries! She is still able to do Karate which is very neat, but is kind of a bummer when she has to sit out if the technique will not be something she can do. Anywho, this is what is going on that is pretty exciting in our corner of the world! I am working on some other blogs as well so keep your eyes peeled! Love y'all!

Pictures from our visit with Mom & Dad

All of these pictures were taken at the Naples Zoo on the Monkey Cruise attraction. They have pontoon boats that take you around some Islands on a man made lake. The monkeys do not like to swim so they stay on their own island without the need for bars, cages, ect.

John & Michaela

A lovely picture of Mom & I.

Grandpa & The kiddos at the beach. We packed a picnic lunch for this fun day. I thought we had quite a few more pictures of the kids standing on Grandpa's shoulders and diving in but they may have inadvertantly been erased. We all had fun that day at the beach and the last out of the water was Grandpa.

Here is a picture of the beach we were at. It is a very pretty place called Marcos Island where only Doctors and Lawyers can afford to live, but the beaches are public property and less crowded! We know to only go to the beach on week days, so we don't run into too many natives & foreigners that think clothing is optional! UGH!

It was such a nice time to get to visit with my folks. We all thought it went by way too quickly. We had a lovely mothers day celebration and just a nice time showing them all the sites. It was also very refreshing to get to chat with folks that keep you somewhat grounded to what is familiar, and who are bold enough to be transparent!

They did get to meet Sarah while they were here as well. Being the characters that they are John & Sarah put on quite a hysterical show of their wit and sarcasm! My mom said she hadn't laughed like that in a very long time! Once I find the missing picture I will share more!

Some Pictures

I told them to make their mean faces but Abby couldn't do it without giggling terribly! Ben and Michaela are barely holding it together since Abby is cracking up so bad!

Since arriving here in Florida we have wanted the kids to get involved in some kind of activities.

The kids were doing drama with just a couple other children from the homeschool group. This was great fun and they even got to perform at an old folks home around Christmas time. However, when it came time to memorize lines and doing plays they seemed to lose interest pretty quick. This meant it was more work for mom to remind them to memorize lines and such. Once something extra-curricular becomes a chore it is no longer something fun.

Next, we tried the girls in a Christian dance class for an 8 week intro course of ballet/lyrical. They liked it OK but not enough to LOVE it. When it came time to sign them up again they asked not to. When they started their dance class, we told Ben we would find a Karate class but never really inquired about many.

As I began looking around I had rather high standards knowing what the Takata's taught back home so this made my search a bit overwhelming. However, God lead me to just the right place! The atmosphere was not too intense or over-indulgent in the mysticism behind martial arts but it is not all fun and games either. There is a high standard to begin with and a good amount of respect required of them. I am hoping that Ben will be able to keep up with the older kids so that I can keep them all in one class. They are in a 'trial period' for 8 weeks that was very affordable to see if they would take to it. The first lesson was a private one with just the teacher and the 3 of them in order to get the basic positions down. It was fun for them to get that one on one time to meet the person that is teaching them and be able to not feel totally out of sorts on their first class. Today was their first lesson in the class with other students. At the end on the class they made a pretty big deal about getting their first belt. I was actually very surprised that they are smiling ear to ear and enjoying it so far. I am very shocked that Michaela seems to be picking it up pretty well without too much effort. Their teacher has a teenage girl that is a black belt and has been in his classes since she was about 5 years old. I would say that the girls are slightly in awe of the fact that she has acheived such a high rank which makes them a bit more motivated to get there as well!!

Pictures.....

Here is a cute little snake that made its home in the knot of a tree! Michaela spotted him in our walk through the Nature preserve.











This is a winter picture in Manatee park. I think it was a bit chilly around low 60's or so, hence the pants!






















Same tree just a little bit more hamming it up there!





























Here is a Christmas picture at church
























Another Christmas picture.





























We went to the beach yesterday and there was quite a bit of seaweed in the water. Ben was coming out of the water looking like the seamonster in the old scooby doo cartoons or better yet, like his uncle Dan!










































He thought he looked like Chewbacca from starwars, hence the big grin!










































The girls found it to be rather fun to put 'boots' on with sand!









































Michaela was pretty proud of her boots too!

Hope you all are well! We are enjoying the winter months here, however it is getting aweful crowded. Many others are comeing to enjoy our weather here as too so even on days you wouldn't think places would be crowded they are jammed packed like it is the weekend. That is all for now! Hope you all are not getting too much into the winter blues!

Learning opportunities & blessings this holiday season

Praise! This year, for Christmas I thought it would be much harder than it really was. I was actually dreading this season because friends and family are what seem to give more of a distinct meaning to these special dates that lie on the calendar. These ‘stationary figures’ trigger our desires to celebrate in certain ways that are familiar and become family traditions. Although we know somewhere in the back of our minds that these figures have nothing to do with the real meaning of Jesus’s birth, rarely do we have the opportunity to ‘prove’ that we understand it. Since I knew that these stationary figures in my life were no longer there to keep the ‘spirit of the Holiday’ the same as usual, this was hard to accept. This meant that my comfortable, stationary role, all planned out within this holiday chaos was about to become an unknown without any kind of familiarity. GREAT, many of you know how much I love to embrace change! UGH! This is probably why I get so many opportunities for a ‘do-over’? Try once AGAIN to embrace some sort of change, with a heart that is no longer bent on what I am used to. Re-occurring theme in my life! Instead of dread, I had to ask the Lord to change my focus so that I could embrace change with the attitude that these are new opportunities and exciting things that God wants for me and my family.
I guess you could say this year was different in the fact that I realized something pretty simple, but imperative. We had the opportunity to change head knowledge into heart application, due to our circumstances. Sometimes, due to all the hub-bub of familiarities and chaos during Christmas, the simplicity of gratefulness and celebration of our saviors birth can easily be lost. The obligations of family pictures, gatherings of friends and family, school plays, work parties, ect. can take the simplicity of the celebration and turn it into an overblown production of obligations. All Jesus cares about is the simplicity of a relationship with Him and remembering to celebration the gift of His son to us. With or without familiarities, Jesus’s birth is still the real meaning behind this date! Christmas is not about traditions or everybody in the family being present and accounted for, but a deeper reverence for what the Lord has done for us and our desire to grow closer to Him everyday. In being so out of my element this year, I also realized that I had to ask the Lord to make me “feel like” celebrating Christmas because there was such a huge temptation to let the Grinch take over! Since I wasn’t able to cling to traditions and familiarities, I instead had the opportunity to cling to the Lord instead. Can we all say DUH? As usual, God is faithful to meet us where we are at and then bless our socks off when we stop concentrating on what we do not have and shift our focus on the true blessing of having Him in our lives.

The weekend before Christmas, John took some time off & Sarah offered to babysit the kiddos while we did our Christmas shopping. SO the kids had a fun day of playing with their big sister and we got all of the items on our shopping list taken care of.
Christmas day, John was working, but we were invited over to Chris & Donna’s house (pastor and his wife) for Christmas dinner. John did join us once he got off. We all had a nice time of fellowship, spending the day with friends and eating Christmas dinner with our church family. Unfortunately, due to our fun time of spending Christmas away from home, we missed out on family phone calls but because of the time difference we still got the opportunity to chat a small amount.
On the 26th, the kids woke us up at around 7am to celebrate Christmas. Tons of fun and grateful kiddos were so excited to see what was hiding under that tree. After inspecting their new toys and fun stuff we hooked up the newest family toy. The Wii. There were quite a few hours of play before getting ready for the family function later that afternoon. We were ever so fortunate to be invited to a holiday dinner at Sarah & Matt’s house in Naples. I guess it is a family tradition that both sides of their family’s come together for a combined dinner the day after Christmas at their home. We were privileged to get to be apart of this gathering and meet all the members of their families. (On Matt’s side: his parents, grandma, sister & friend of the family Lisa were there and on Sarah’s side: her parents, Aunt Julie and brother Jared were there). We were a bit nervous about being ‘the odd man out’ in the mix of both families; however, we were made to feel very welcomed and were warmly received by all. Even though our kids were the only ones there, they also seemed to have a lot of fun chatting with all the adults and pretty much talking everyone’s ears off who would listen. The kids were also terribly spoiled rotten by their sister & her parents. I was shocked that Sarah’s parents seemed pretty excited at the chance to Christmas shop for our kids and see their eyes light as they played with their new & unexpected gifts. After I got Ben’s Batman toys out of their package, John & Sarah’s brother, Jared couldn’t get outside fast enough to play with Ben and show him how his new toys worked. It was quite funny watching those big boys play with the toys and revert back to childhood! It was quite nice to feel as if God had taken the huge gap that was filled by our family & friends from back home and replaced it with HIS designed plan for us. God is very good! There were also a lot of pictures taken at Sarah’s, so once I get some sent to me I will post them for you all to see! Hope you all had a nice Christmas full of blessings and family memories!

Some holiday pictures.......

We visited a place called Sanibel Island today. We had heard it was a beautiful island with a $6 toll fee to get over the bridge. It really is quite a lovely place but much too rich for our blood. Still made some nice pictures though. Here is the litehouse all spiffied up for Christmas. John thinks they need a Calvary Chapel on that Island but this is the island that gets evacuated when the hurricanes come our way...... I enjoy being safe more inland and visiting the pretty places?























Here are the kiddos on some driftwood!
























Close-up!























Here they are with daddy!

Tried to make sand castles but with playing in the water as well and finding treasures like shells, sea urchins and sea sponges....... too many exciting things to do besides building a castle. A lot of digging and moving sand around though....

It's so bright it makes it hard to look at the camera with your eyes open!

Here is our neighbors dog. The neighbor is a single guy who works a lot of hours during the day in landscaping. Since his dog is very well trained, we asked if he could come over and play with the kids & our dog, instead of him being locked in a crate all day! I think it is a good situation for both of us since he gets to be around people who will give him lots of love and we get to have another dog that goes home at night! His name is picket........ I think the guy gave him that name due to the white stripe in between his eyes looks like a fence picket? IDK? He is a sweet doggie!

Merry Christmas all!

This one is for Sharon!

John's old boss asked us to post a picture of John when he gets to wrestle and alligator and since he didn't get the fish and wildlife job, this is the closest he will get! Looks a bit more like he is lovingly laying on the beast but really there are just TONS of fake alligator statues EVERYWHERE you go. Parks, libraries, ect. The real gators are behind the netting! While this one is a pretty nice size replica of a real one......

Here is a pretty big boy! Yes he is a real one and I think they feed him so much that he doesn't move very much! This was at a place in Bonita Springs where they have a natural wild life preserve.

Here he is from another angle!

Here is a sea otter. They do live in the wild here around the canals but we were warned, while they look very fun and playful, thier idea of playing is biting you and running off! SO when we do get to see one we just watch from afar!

Not much going on here. I leave tomorrow for our womens conference in a hotel in Boca Raton. Sounds kinda snobby but I am sure God speaks there too! He He! God Bless and Hugs to all! I will post more about it when I get home!

Fall has arrived

It appears like 'fall' comes on Florida much like it comes into play in Wa. Warm one day and the next it only gets up to 65? Last night the weatherman was making a big deal about the fact that temperatures last night were only going to be in the low 40s and high 30's inland. This was a record low for the area I guess. Later on this week it is suppose to back into the 80's though so the temps are not really consistently cooler. Silly me, thought I had closed all the windows only to find that the one left open was in my room by my bed. Needless to say, I was awake at 4am freezing searching for where I put all my blankets!
This morning the kids woke up chilled a bit and asked me to put another blanket on their beds. Michaela was complaining yesterday that the high of 75 was COLD but yet still insisted on wearing shorts and a T-shirt? Today she is bundled up in sweats and not complaining one bit! Meanwhile I had all the windows and doors open and enjoying the nice cooler weather (with a sweatshirt & capri pants on) I think we have become acclimated a bit to the warmer temperatures. John is still wearing shorts and t-shirts claiming it is beautiful out even when the temp dips below 60. He thinks we are all just sissies! The rainy season is over so it is not wet on a daily basis anymore and it looks like hurricane season is also done too.

John has been working in the downtown jail for about 2 weeks now. They have him in with the violent high profile offenders right now, which is rather exhausting. Nothing he can't handle can't exactly let your guard down for a minute. The kinds of crimes that are committed here are much more frequent and haneous than back home just because people are sinful (no big surprise on that one) and the population is larger. He was told that this part of the jail was really 'hopping' and every day he would experience one kind of physical altercation or another but he doesn't seem to have that experience. The inmates seem to feel at ease with him so this makes his job much easier.

We are getting more traffic and the streets are now more congested with snowbirds that live here in the winter. This is good for the stuggling economy here so we don't mind the extra congestion if it means more jobs become available to those that are struggling. Our Costco is no longer a ghost town that it once was.

John got to go to a men's conference not too long ago. God encouraged him in many ways to stay on task and stay open to whatever the Lord has for us to do here. We are praying about permenancy; if God is calling us to stay in the area where we currently reside or somewhere else in Lee county or closer to Naples to be closer to his daughter? We would like to know where before we begin looking at buying, especially since there are A LOT of good deals out there. For those of you who know me, sometimes I can be swayed in the pursuit of a good deal that may seem too good to pass up. It is a good thing sometimes but it can easily become a 'flesh thing' as well. I just don't want to do this in my flesh and get stuck with the fact that I lost sight of God's plan of where HE wants us to be....... So if you could please pray for us to get confirmation on the WHERE question that would be wonderful! It appears that housing prices are not going up anytime soon and people are still giving up their homes to the bank........ It is really sad! Some of the great deals on forclosed homes come with thier own set of problems from the fact that the previous owners that were not too happy about having to give their houses back to the bank. There are yard sales going on constantly of people selling the entire contents of their homes, fixtures, appliances and all to get back at the bank for taking their home. This is why discernement on these great deals is so important! We have been told that eventhough we have till July till our lease is up we should begin looking now since sometimes the bank can take up to a year to decide to sell the home that is in forclosure. Chances are, this is a home we would be able to afford so I am sure God has just the right place out there for us!

Anyways, that is what is going on here in Florida! Hope you are all doing well!

Some pics as promised

Here is a picture Michalea drew for her friends back home! As you can tell she was a bit homesick and missing her friends!

This was our science lesson today. On the back lania above the screen there were 4 chrysallis formations waiting to be butterflies. We have tons of them fluttering around our house so I knew that if we looked hard enough we would figure out where they were resting. By later than afternoon only 2 were left! There were around 5 others around the house so the kids and I are going to watch them to see if/when they disappear. We got some oranges to slice up for them as well so they can eat & stick around for a bit! I am so wishing I had my butterfly garden in place for them!

Here is a butterfly that was kind enough to let me get close enough to him to get a picture!

There were quite a few fuzzy catepillars roaming around the house too so we will watch them to see when they form their chrysallis as well!

I know I know, whats with all the pictures of bugs. Well I have never seen bugs like this. This one is a dragonfly. They are also roaming everwhere and buzzing about but rarely do they sit still long enough for me to take a picture.

OK I have seen a bug like this before but it was at a zoo! This one was on my neighbors house and it was so cool I had to share!

Here is a cute little frog that came in from out of the rain to rest on the front of my house!

As promised, I said I would share a picture of the bald man himself. After my last post John's boss wrote back to us stating that he must have shaved his head to prevent him from pulling it all out! After being given the nickname Uncle Hester from the Adams family from the guys at work, I think he may have decided to keep the flat top when it grows back out!

Here are some pictures of the kiddos at a sprinkler park we found in Fort Myers. Kind of a neat idea as they have a main pool that the water drains into and where it is chlorinated and re-distributed......

This is a gorgeous park that rents paddleboats, canoes and all sorts of fun things to do as a family! They also have a historical train depot that the kids can climb in and tour for free!