Thankfulness of the year past

Top 5 Things I am Thankful For this New Year:
1) My Salvation and the love of my Saviour
2) My husband, who is one of the most genuine Christians I have ever met and a loving husband.
3) My children, who although not perfect just as their parents aren't, desire to honor their parents and right in the sight of God. Of course, this is a daily choice that they and everyone must choose each day.
4) I am not a hero person but I must say I hold very high my parents and our last church family who are much a like, probably because they came from the same generation. These people are rare and few any more, this I know. I so want my children to reflect their grandparents generation.
5) My pastor, whose preaching of the Scriptures is always done in love with truth. His messages have been such a huge source of encouragement.

Truth Spoken in Love

 My hubby has been greatly encouraged and influenced by the ministry of Jack Hibbs. His ministry has been very instumental in my hubby's life. If I could I would take some days away with just my hubby and fly to Los Angeles and go to visit the church that he pastors but right now that is not possible . . . something to dream about! Anyway, I listened to this message the other day and it is just packed with fantastic truth.

Click on Unstoppable Christmas-Part 2
http://www.calvarycch.org/media_center.php#

My Hubby is in Love!

My hubby frequently has to travel to Europe. A few days ago he sent me a text with this picture and said "I am in love." While he is in Europe his rental car is the one above and I guess it has a lot of power and very fun to drive.  He wanted me to show the picture to "J" because "J" LOVES cool cars! J enjoyed seeing the car daddy was driving.

Yesterday I was driving home in the rain and dark from another town and my GPS took me the back roads home. CRAZY!!! I am a fairly adventurous driver but this road had no shoulder and the cars were often hugging the center line and my 15 passenger van is wide. It was NOT fun driving. J heard me talking and said "Daddy will help with car" "Daddy will help with car". He said it many times which I thought was very cute and sweet. I told him daddy would help but he is in Germany and that we should pray for God to help us. When we finally arrived home I heard little J say "God helped us." AMEN, I say to that.

I told a friend of our later and they said "Elbow Rd?" I said "Yes!" they knew exactly what I was talking about and said that road can flood over during rain. Yes, it is named Elbow Rd. because it has a lot of turns in it. Maybe fun during the day without rain:-) Oh, so the funny part . . . J was telling Daddy about our drive as we were face timing him and he told daddy that the "cars were hugging Mommy and that it was bad." Too funny! He heard me say the cars were hugging the line:-)

Gross Them Out

"Be Great Parents. Gross Your Kids Out."

-Sheila Gregoire

My kids know Daddy and Mommy are in love. The other day my 2 year old said to Daddy as he was kissing me "stop kissing her" and then "stop hugging her". My 8 year old really hates the whole seeing us kiss thing but has gotten better since we started teasing him with it and now he plays it more cool. 

At Thanksgiving time when we were going to go around the room and saying what we are thankful for when it came time for my hubby my oldest daughter started pointing at me like "I know what he is thankful for!" Our kids know that their Mommy and Daddy are in love and that we highly value our time together. I loved it that G made our Christmas ornament with a couple holding hands. 

There are a lot of things as parents we mess up on but one thing we are thankful we can show our kids is what it is like to be in love with the one we're married to. 
So glad to be married to my best friend.

This is Me and My Love

Today Daddy Comes back home!!!!

 Today Daddy comes home! I am hoping for a fast day which it should be. Need to drop G off at school then go near his new school building location and drop off the applesauce spice cake I made for his school Thanksgiving lunch . . . get schooling done here and a little party for us at lunch. Meet up with G before swim practice to get his stuff and then pick him up at 5pm and immediately go to the airport to get DADDY!!!! Ah, a good day it will be!!!!

Daddy/Daughter Birthday Date

Daddy and "A" enjoy going out for steak eating dates. Last night in celebration of her 11th birthday they went out for steak but as an added treat she also got octopus which she thought was just great. She was especially happy with the fact that she ate a suction cup off the octopus.:-/ They had a great time as usual!!

A Good Egg

A few posts back I did a little song dedication to my sweetheart so to show what a sweetheart he is I have a story. Babe left recently for a business trip and he left earlier morning. Each day Babe boils me 2 eggs and leaves them in the pot for me for when I get to them in the morning. It is so busy to try to eat earlier on in the morning. Anyway, Saturday he had gotten up to leave and fly out. When I came down I thought I wonder if he boiled the eggs ( NOT expecting that he would) but sure enough there in the pan were 2 boiled eggs ready for me to eat because that is my hubby always watching out for me. The sight of those boiled eggs made my heart happy NOT because I had food ready to eat but because he cares so much that he takes his time to do things like that.

He is a "good egg".

R's Early 8th Birthday Celebration Deep Sea Fishing in the Atlantic Ocean

This is my new Favorite picture of R. He is so passionate about life and his smile fills my heart. I love turning around somewhere and seeing R next to me with a BIG smile on his face. It really does warm my heart and make my heart sing.

R really was very very sick for almost the whole trip but that didn't stop him from 

trying to have some fun.

"A" and "R" on the dock before they embarked on their adventure.

"R" wanted to go deep sea fishing for his birthday instead of getting a present. The reason they went so early is because after Labor Day the cost to go deep sea fishing doubles and increases even more as the winter sets in. We wanted him to go when the cost was low. I think the fact that it was warm 

was probably nice too.

"A" absolutely LOVED LOVED this trip. She insisted on baiting her own hook and taking the fish off when she caught them. We found out she is a real fisherman!!!

Thankful for R's good attitude which allowed a hard experience not be just miserable for those with him . . . That's my R.
Love him . . . love all of my kiddos . . . so blessed with the children God gave us.

"A" with a small Sea Bass she caught.  She is one happy girl!

Two people on the same boat caught Bull Sharks and the kids were able to 

touch one of them which was cool!

Some Clips From R's, A's, and Daddy's Day Deep Sea Fishing

This trip ended up being quite the day for R! What started out as a fun early 8th birthday present turned into hours of sea sickness but he was a champ about it and Daddy said "R" DID NOT complain even though he was clearly MISERABLE. You can hear him in the clip above "don't worry about it":-) R dealt with it and between climbing the sides of the boat to vomit over the edge he did have some time to catch some fish:-) "A" on the other hand did not have to deal with the sea sickness and found she had sea legs.

Despite R's sickness, I think it was a day they will always remember for fun and in "R's" case fun at times! He enjoyed the fishing part it was just the sea part that messed with his stomach. "R" has always had a sensitive stomach since he was a wee little one a little over 8 years ago! Why I didn't think of that ahead of time I'm not sure! After his baby years, as a toddler he would get car sick but he quickly seemed to get over that when we moved to CO and had to drive up a twisty canyon to get home a lot of the time.

Something To Boast About

Psalm 44:8

In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.

 

I have nothing to boast about except my God. He is the giver of all good things and nothing that we do or have or experience that is good and right is apart from Him.

He does things for us 

beyond what we ask 

or think! 

 

In this recent move He has done so many INCREDIBLE things for us. I mentioned in the last post about giving us some of our desires through the home He provided. 

 

Babe came home yesterday and told us about his day and how God just worked in this one area. Babe thought what was done was cool but what he was REALLY excited to see was God working in his life even in the small stuff. I just love those days that God's hand and love are especially apparent!

God is so good!

Afternoon with Family

My brother Q, Me, and my cousin L.

This last Sunday our family went up to the church my younger brother pastors and spent the day there. After church we went to their home and they hosted a get to together with one of my cousins on my mom's side and us. Our family really enjoyed the day of fellowship with both my brother's family and my cousin and some of her family! The kids ran around and played and some enjoyed playing with Uncle Q's and Aunt T's chickens. We really did have a great time of fellowship and my sister in law was soooo careful to serve a meal I could eat without hesitation. I really appreciate her thoughtfulness.

Also this last Sunday morning Babe got off his last shift at NORAD! It was an exciting day knowing he was done with his shift work. Babe LOVED the job and loved the people he worked with but was so glad to be leaving the schedule. His crew threw an unofficial party for him. One lady baked a cake and wanted to make it look Navy so she frosted it blue and put a Captain Hook on it and a Blue Angel aircraft. Pretty funny and kind! I read the card that was given to him and he is going to be missed. His crew enjoyed having him as a boss. The Lord was so good to Babe throughout this job. The Lord gave him strength, patience, wisdom, focus, stamina, and excellent crew members throughout his time there. Now on to the next challenge . . . Babe found out this week that he has been accepted to the College of William and Mary to work on a MBA! Lord willing, he will start his studies part time this coming fall. He has worked on and prayed about the possibility of this for awhile and his military comrades have encouraged him toward it. I am excited for him and I must admit proud of him as well! I am thankful for how the Lord is working in his life. He loves academics and is preparing himself for what the future may hold. Never a dull moment in this house!