It's amazing to look back at where the Lord has lead us and is still leading us. I think it's the only reason I even attempt this whole blogging whatnot.
This time last year Jeff had accepted a position at the block plant where he had worked since he was a kid when his dad owned it. It was a great opportunity to slowly move up the ladder to a great paying position. About a week after he accepted that position, the opportunity out in Tyler came up. It was a similar position, but with more than double the starting pay, so we prayed and decided we couldn't pass it up. I wrote about it on this blog in fact, in this entry: The Move Is On. Well now, after a year of bliss here in Tyler (we've been so incredibly spoiled... more on that to come), Jeff has been offered the same position at the block plant, but with the same salary he's making at the Tyler job. So.... he got the job he wanted all along, for the pay we need. How cool is that?!
Today the Lord led me to Psalm 27. The entire psalm is about the Lord protecting us during hard times or when our enemies are attacking us. Verses 4-6:
The one thing I ask of the LORD— the thing I seek most— is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, delighting in the LORD's perfections and meditating in his Temple. For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock. Then I will hold my head high above my enemies who surround me. At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, singing and praising the LORD with music.
I believe with all my heart that the Lord moved us out of Weatherford precisely to get us away from the whole church fiasco my parents and sisters had to go through. It was so crushing to my dad, I wouldn't be surprised if he never goes back to church again.
"He will place me out of reach on a high rock." I feel like Jeff and the kids and I have been on a "high rock" for the past year, watching the devastation all around us. When we moved to Tyler, we accidentally picked a house that was in the best elementary district in the city. Out of 18 schools, we accidentally picked the best. When we moved, Jeff and I were so burnt out from working too much with the church that we made a conscious decision not to sign up for ANYTHING for at least a year, and we haven't! The Lord led us to the church where he wanted us and that wasn't going to push us into service. It's such a great feeling on Sunday mornings knowing I don't have to work in the nursery! I know that sounds so trivial, but it's been such a huge part of my life for almost 20 years. Did I mention that we've had a house keeper and lawn service!
Anyway, has someone been a tad bit spoiled? Yes. We've been so totally blessed, which is why I'm ok with moving back. I know that even when we're under attack from the enemy, we're totally and utterly protected. What an amazing way to live...
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Happy 7 Months, Hattie!
Have I mentioned lately that I have the most beautiful little girl on the face of the earth???
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Life...
Life is weird. It seems unending at times, and like it's flashing before your eyes at others. I have to remind myself constantly that I only have a limited amount of time with my babies, but that I don't need to rush them bc they have the rest of their lives to figure things out. It's very strange.
When we moved to Tyler, Jeff and I had talked about how we thought it might be temporary. Just a feeling, but we have LOVED it and would have been happy to finish raising our children here in this simply beautiful area. The trees are just awesome. And the foliage is so green and gorgeous! Apparently we're in a drought, but you'd never know it. The Lord also led us to an amazing church where we have met some of the best people who welcomed us into their "family" and we have felt right at home.
And now we're moving. Again.
I have such mixed emotions. I'm so sad to be leaving our church. My kids LOVE it. Ben wakes up on Sundays running around squealing in delight about going to "play with my frinds!" Three of our new friends are expecting babies, and I'm not going to be here to see them and make them meals :( It makes me so sad. There are trails here, beautiful, clean trails that we have literally spent hundreds of hours walking in the past 9 months we've been here. Hattie had her first walk on the trials at only about a week old. Not to mention the fact that we just moved into a bigger house with a great backyard for the kids, only to turn around and move out of it 3 months later...
On the other hand... I feel like we're going "home." Our family and lifelong friends are all there. The boys' still call their friends from W'ford their "BFF's." I know the area like the back of my hand, and have so many memories from there. We have the possibility of buying my parent's old house, the house I grew up in, the house I moved out of when I went to college. It's almost in foreclosure which has made both of my parent's devastated... they put so much work into that house. It would be amazing if we could keep it in the family.
Another bittersweet issue is church. The church I grew up in has changed and isn't where we are supposed to be anymore. How do we go "home" without going back to our "home church?" It's going to be hard going to other churches in such a small city, less than 50,000. Everyone knows everyone... there will be people we know at every church, and they will ask questions, questions I don't feel like answering over and over. I have faith that the Lord knows right where we need to be and that we'll get there sooner or later :) Hopefully sooner rather than later!
Reason for the move: I won't go into all of it bc I'm still rather angry and don't want to hurt anyone (this is a public blog with our real names, and even though I've never "advertised" it, anyone can easily find it), but the plan when we moved out here was to either buy the company or for Jeff and his dad to start their own. The current owners of the company are running it into the ground. They are still making their ridiculous salaries, but the guys actually doing the work have had their checks bounce, twice. It's infuriating for Jeff. These are his guys, and they have families they're trying to feed, and Jeff can't promise they'll be paid week to week, so he and his dad decided it was time to act. Well... to make the story short, because of divorce issues and people who still have unforgiveness and bitterness in their hearts, we weren't able to use the money they were planning on using, so Jeff's old company has offered him a job with similar salary/benefits, and the position is one where he will be moving up to the top. It's really a great opportunity.
That's about it. It feels good to get it off my chest! I haven't really gotten to talk to anyone about it yet... waiting to finalize all the details, but Jeff gave his 2 weeks notice yesterday so there's no going back now!
On to another chapter of life...
When we moved to Tyler, Jeff and I had talked about how we thought it might be temporary. Just a feeling, but we have LOVED it and would have been happy to finish raising our children here in this simply beautiful area. The trees are just awesome. And the foliage is so green and gorgeous! Apparently we're in a drought, but you'd never know it. The Lord also led us to an amazing church where we have met some of the best people who welcomed us into their "family" and we have felt right at home.
And now we're moving. Again.
I have such mixed emotions. I'm so sad to be leaving our church. My kids LOVE it. Ben wakes up on Sundays running around squealing in delight about going to "play with my frinds!" Three of our new friends are expecting babies, and I'm not going to be here to see them and make them meals :( It makes me so sad. There are trails here, beautiful, clean trails that we have literally spent hundreds of hours walking in the past 9 months we've been here. Hattie had her first walk on the trials at only about a week old. Not to mention the fact that we just moved into a bigger house with a great backyard for the kids, only to turn around and move out of it 3 months later...
On the other hand... I feel like we're going "home." Our family and lifelong friends are all there. The boys' still call their friends from W'ford their "BFF's." I know the area like the back of my hand, and have so many memories from there. We have the possibility of buying my parent's old house, the house I grew up in, the house I moved out of when I went to college. It's almost in foreclosure which has made both of my parent's devastated... they put so much work into that house. It would be amazing if we could keep it in the family.
Another bittersweet issue is church. The church I grew up in has changed and isn't where we are supposed to be anymore. How do we go "home" without going back to our "home church?" It's going to be hard going to other churches in such a small city, less than 50,000. Everyone knows everyone... there will be people we know at every church, and they will ask questions, questions I don't feel like answering over and over. I have faith that the Lord knows right where we need to be and that we'll get there sooner or later :) Hopefully sooner rather than later!
Reason for the move: I won't go into all of it bc I'm still rather angry and don't want to hurt anyone (this is a public blog with our real names, and even though I've never "advertised" it, anyone can easily find it), but the plan when we moved out here was to either buy the company or for Jeff and his dad to start their own. The current owners of the company are running it into the ground. They are still making their ridiculous salaries, but the guys actually doing the work have had their checks bounce, twice. It's infuriating for Jeff. These are his guys, and they have families they're trying to feed, and Jeff can't promise they'll be paid week to week, so he and his dad decided it was time to act. Well... to make the story short, because of divorce issues and people who still have unforgiveness and bitterness in their hearts, we weren't able to use the money they were planning on using, so Jeff's old company has offered him a job with similar salary/benefits, and the position is one where he will be moving up to the top. It's really a great opportunity.
That's about it. It feels good to get it off my chest! I haven't really gotten to talk to anyone about it yet... waiting to finalize all the details, but Jeff gave his 2 weeks notice yesterday so there's no going back now!
On to another chapter of life...
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Super Sunday
This weekend didn't go as planned, but turned out to be pretty great anyway! We had Hattie dedicated at church this morning, so at the last minute Jeff's mom and my mom and sister came into town on Saturday. We all went over and looked at the new house (just the outside/yard, will pick the keys up in the morning) then went driving around the Azalea district looking at all the beautiful homes and their amazing yards beginning to bloom. Spring is so gorgeous! Then this morning we all went to church together. Hattie was by far the most beautiful baby there, and preformed wonderfully, i.e. no spitting up, screaming or crying. :)
After church we gave our moms a tour of the new Fresh store, followed by nap time! I LOVE SUNDAYS!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Here We Go Again!
We're moving!! Same town. Better house. Bigger house. Bigger yard. Lower payment. YAY!! Have I convinced you it's worth it? It's definitely worth it. We knew when we moved to Tyler and chose this house that it was temporary. A family with 4 kids can't live where there is no yard. And in a house with wall to wall carpet. It is maddening trying to keep the carpet clean. Who has ever heard of carpet in a dining room??
All that said, I'm going to miss my big closet terribly. And my big kitchen and garage. And we're going to miss Jack Elementary, although I hear Caldwell is a great school as well! Mixed emotions for sure, but when all is said and done, we're on the right track. We're where we are supposed to be and the Lord is blessing us abundantly because of it! Now I reeeally need to get off the computer and start packing while the boys are all at soccer practice and Hattie is snoozing!
All that said, I'm going to miss my big closet terribly. And my big kitchen and garage. And we're going to miss Jack Elementary, although I hear Caldwell is a great school as well! Mixed emotions for sure, but when all is said and done, we're on the right track. We're where we are supposed to be and the Lord is blessing us abundantly because of it! Now I reeeally need to get off the computer and start packing while the boys are all at soccer practice and Hattie is snoozing!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Oh Sugar
Today was Fat Tuesday. Which means tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Which means tomorrow at sunset is the beginning of Lent. Which means I need to actually get my butt in gear, pray, and decide what I'm fasting. UGH. I'm not one of those "oh yay, I love the blessings the Lord bestows when I fast and seek His face" kind of fasters. I'm one of those "ugh I hate almost every second of this, I need some chocolate NOW" kind of fasters... Yes, that's a bit exaggerated, I don't really have that bad an attitude, and honestly the Lord does amazing things when we fast and pray, but man. It's not my favorite. Last year I fasted TV, and it actually wasn't too bad. I realized I don't watch that much anyway, and we always take Sunday's off (Biblically it was the day of feasts and celebrations, so they didn't fast on Sundays) so I would catch up on anything I actually did care about thru some DVR action. I was tempted to do the same thing this year, but you're really supposed to give up something you care about. Something that you are putting before your relationship with the Lord. Something that has a stronghold on you. SUGAR is my downfall. I reeeally like sugar. Mostly in the chocolate form, but I'll take it in the ice cream, fruit, cheesecake or cinnamon chip form as well.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Mommy Randomness
Ok, I'm not making this up...
This morning I was walking around the house picking up, when I came across a package of underwear we bought last night so Max could dress up as Captain Underpants in his school's parade of favorite book characters today. I put the underwear under my arm, grabbed a cup with my right hand and a plate with my left and took them to the sink. I noticed the dishwasher hadn't been emptied so I emptied it, filled it and started it. Then I heard the washing machine stop spinning. Right now there's something wrong w/ it, and when it drains, if I don't run in there and turn it on and off until it's empty it overflows. So I turn it on and off about 4 times till it has drained and then I hear Hattie crying. I go check on her, she's fine just bored so I put her in her jonny-jump-up and start picking up all the toys she was playing with. Then I noticed Ben had been quiet for a while, never good. I find him in the bathroom brushing his teeth! Pleasant surprise. I look in the mirror and realize I'm still carrying the underwear under my arm.
Seriously? I'm just thankful I didn't go out in public! Geeze.
Well, now on to the reason I sat down to blog... some pics of course :) Here are some of the happenings as of late...
Noah got the award for "Special Teams Co-Player of the Year" at their football banquet!!
And Max got his Super Bowl trophy!! #1 baby!
Ben used reverse psychology and somehow convinced me he didn't need his paci anymore, so he still has it.... I dunno, don't judge...
Hattie got to swing for the first time! Thumbs up for sure!
Noah came in 5th in his school spelling bee (he was the youngest in the whole competition!)
and Daddy bought Hattie her first Valentine's Day outfit :)
Meanwhile a couple things I have done: helped Noah with his solar system project, complete with a space satellite, solar flares, and a black hole (that was not a spot where little brother got ahold of red paint and made a big mess)...
braved the zoo with all 4 by myself,
and had lots of fun with my little girl :)
This morning I was walking around the house picking up, when I came across a package of underwear we bought last night so Max could dress up as Captain Underpants in his school's parade of favorite book characters today. I put the underwear under my arm, grabbed a cup with my right hand and a plate with my left and took them to the sink. I noticed the dishwasher hadn't been emptied so I emptied it, filled it and started it. Then I heard the washing machine stop spinning. Right now there's something wrong w/ it, and when it drains, if I don't run in there and turn it on and off until it's empty it overflows. So I turn it on and off about 4 times till it has drained and then I hear Hattie crying. I go check on her, she's fine just bored so I put her in her jonny-jump-up and start picking up all the toys she was playing with. Then I noticed Ben had been quiet for a while, never good. I find him in the bathroom brushing his teeth! Pleasant surprise. I look in the mirror and realize I'm still carrying the underwear under my arm.
Seriously? I'm just thankful I didn't go out in public! Geeze.
Well, now on to the reason I sat down to blog... some pics of course :) Here are some of the happenings as of late...
Noah got the award for "Special Teams Co-Player of the Year" at their football banquet!!
And Max got his Super Bowl trophy!! #1 baby!
Ben used reverse psychology and somehow convinced me he didn't need his paci anymore, so he still has it.... I dunno, don't judge...
Hattie got to swing for the first time! Thumbs up for sure!
Noah came in 5th in his school spelling bee (he was the youngest in the whole competition!)
and Daddy bought Hattie her first Valentine's Day outfit :)
Meanwhile a couple things I have done: helped Noah with his solar system project, complete with a space satellite, solar flares, and a black hole (that was not a spot where little brother got ahold of red paint and made a big mess)...
braved the zoo with all 4 by myself,
and had lots of fun with my little girl :)
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