Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thankful

*Disclaimer: This post is a bit delayed. Ooops.

This Thanksgiving holiday I am reminded of so many things to be thankful for. God has blessed us with an amazing family that is incredible supportive. They are our rock and they love Chris, Ethan and I so much. I am so grateful for the job that I have. Although I do complain sometimes, I truly love what I do. I love working with children, counseling them, testing them to help them find a way to be successful in school. It is great. I am also thankful for Chris' job. The economy is not so hot and being in business for yourself can be stressful at times, but God has truly provided for us with keeping Chris busy. I won't lie, his business has felt the economic crunch but God has provided jobs and clients right when we needed them. We are so fortunate. I am also thankful for Chris, he is a great dad and a great husband. I am so thankful for Ethan. He has brought so much joy to our lives that we can not even put into words. We learn so much from him, and hope we are instilling God's love and grace in him. I am thankful that I have a roof over my head. Yes I do complain about that at times, too, but I am reminded that right now too many people are losing the roof over their head. I am grateful I have a roof. We are also thankful for our church family, who has walked beside Chris and I, and later Ethan, over the last few years in the trials we have experienced. Those trials have taught us a lot and have created so many bonds and friendships that we never would have had.
There are numerous things to be thankful for. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and got to relax a bit.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

A WEEK OFF!!!!!

I am pretty excited to have this next week off work. So what will I do to fill the time:
1. Take Ethan to his 1, 2 and you gym class at the Y
2. Bake the desserts for Thanksgiving dinner
3. Black Friday shop with friends while Christopher goes fishing with said friends spouses
4. Hold one work related meeting (I am too nice)
5. Finish my 25 days of Christmas scrapbook (so excited!)
6. Organize my house
7. Clean out Ethan's toys and hand some down to his cousin Madison
8. Sleep
9. Workout (we shall see if I actually accomplish this)
10. Blog
11. PLAY with Ethan and hang out with Chris.

I love breaks it gives me time to hangout with my boys and do the fun stuff I love to do. I'll have to do a few blog post about my above mentioned activities. Should be a busy entertaining week!
I hope you all enjoy this holiday!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Random Thoughts Making a Quick Apperance in My Mind

1. God is amazing (don't believe me check out this blog about this little guys amazing medical journey)

2. Sammy Sosa looks way lighter than he did playing baseball, what is up with that? Is he okay medically? Did the steroids make him look darker? hum....

3. Why won't Ethan sleep with a blanket in his crib? Instead he freaks out until I remove it.

4. When do single parents, or parents whose spouse is on deployment, take a shower? Currently taking that at night. Little afraid of what sort of trouble he could get in if I took it when he was awake...

5. How will the newly passed government health plan affect Ethan and his current medical treatment plan? I like the current set-up; nervous about this change.


**Told you it was random, this is what happens when I don't have much grown-up conversation (except for work). Have you had any random thoughts lately?

Friday, November 6, 2009

A Quiet Night

Tonight it is quiet in my house. Chris is WAY down in Mexico and Ethan just went to bed. So my house is probably the the quietest it has been in a very long time. So I am just thinking about my boys and looking at photos. I thought I would share a few you tonight.

Ethan in his Charlie Brown Costume


Our little Family

Ethan enjoying his first sucker; he thought it was awesome!

One of my favorite pictures; Ethan giving his cousin Madison a kiss.
Ethan-Charlie Brown and Madison-The Ladybug

Monday, November 2, 2009

Life's Journey

About a month ago I had an opportunity to go to a pastor's wives retreat with my pastor's wife. I was excited and gladly accepted the invitation, however I did not feel like I exactly fit the definition of a pastor's wife. For those who don't know, Chris and I been leading the youth group at our church for a while now along with another couple. We have had this attitude, of gratitude to be able to be working with these great per-teens and teens, but we just thought of this as something that fell into our lap; we were not really recognizing a calling on our life.

Life is a great journey and there are things that seem as if we control and make them happen, and other times there are thing that it seems just fell into our lap. The reality is, at least in my opinion, that God is always in control and nothing just happens for not, or just because. While at the retreat I had a lot of opportunities to examine my heart, my family, the roles we have been playing in each other lives and in others. I came to the conclusion that I have, we have, been in denial about the calling God has placed on our lives. I have always had this picture in my mind of what a pastor and a pastor's wife looked like, what they did, how they carried themselves and I do not fit the mold. They don't get frustrated with their husband and children, raise their voice when they are upset, they always know the right answer to every question, they have the whole bible memorized...you get the idea, the basic stereotypical picture, they are perfect. I am not worthy, at times I feel I am just not worthy of God's love, I am severely flawed, but I am striving to be who God wants me to be.

As I look back over my life's journey in the last 5 years, I see that God has had a strong hand on my life, and used the good, the bad and the ugly for his glory and to bring me to this place where I am now. Those events that I thought were just circumstantial, or just happened with no meaning where in fact used by God to shape who I am today. I am not perfect, I still struggle to have daily devotionals, struggle to give it all to God, but I am striving and trying to answer the calling he has placed on our families life. We firmly feel God has called our family to be in ministry in some way, and at this point in our life it is in ministry with the youth group. At a time in our life, when Chris and I were really searching for and needing the support of a church body, we were brought to our current church (thanks Silla and Jacob). We have made a commitment to follow God and to actively seek his will for our life everyday and I am so grateful for the blessings he has given us and excited that we are open to his calling. And I...I am a continual work in progress trying to become who God wants me to be and I hope as a mother I can convey that to my child.