Summer 2011

I haven't been on my blog to update in 7 months...wow!! I almost forgot I had a blog!!

Let's see if I can update in a quick sort of way...Christen graduated from the 8th grade at Justus-Tiawah. It was rather an emotional time for me. I know she's ready for the next phase of her life as a high school student: a ZEBRA!! It was mighty fun planning and organizing the after party for graduation. I enjoyed all of her friends...and their parents. We are so blessed that our kids have wonderful friends with such supportive and caring parents. We enjoyed her 8th grade trip to Branson. Mr. Garroutte always makes it so special and fun for the kids.

Since school has been out...I've been tackling projects that got ignored when we moved in. I have been working on our front flowerbed. It's rather big...so not only does it take a ton of time...it's has taken quite a toll on my summer allowance. Another project that desperately needed my attention was our formal dining room. I've never had a formal dining room before...not sure that we should have devoted that space for dining...but whatever. That's exactly how it's furnished now. I finally have things on the walls in there...bought a rug to go under the furniture we bought when we moved in and got a baker's rack too. And the final thing that I am still in the process of doing is hanging pictures on the walls in our halls.

My sister-in-law and her kids were down this past week. We spent alot of time playing and spending time with them. Had a ton of fun!! It's always sad when they leave. But, we always look forward to the next visit!!

Now, it's time to get Ryan and Christen ready for Falls Creek. They are looking forward to having a vacation from Mom and Dad and sister!! I miss them like crazy when they are gone...but Kaylyn and I have fun doing little things during the days!!

Oh...the last piece of news....Ryan has a drivers license. That is huge news for him. We are a teeny bit scared and nervous. We need to buy another car. I am excited about that...cause it's a car for me!! Not excited about the wad of $$ it's going to cost to buy...but I like new stuff!! Well, it won't be brand new...we don't do "new"....

I'm teaching summer school the last 2 weeks of July!! I'm looking forward to that. We have a new leader...sad to see our last one leave. Change is a little hard for me...but I know it's just the way it's suppose to be.

I'm 3.8 pounds from making it to my lifetime weight goal with weight watchers. I've never been this close and I'm looking forward to getting there...it's just difficult with summer here and tons of food in my pantry/frig!! Lack of routine lunch times and sleeping in doesn't help either. OH WELL!!!!

Updates

Well, it's been a while since I've updated my blog!! I kinda forget that I have a blog sometimes!! So, here are my latest updates:

*I started having some wierd things going on with me about 6 weeks ago. Things like tingling in my left arm and some chest discomfort. I put off going to the doctor...cause I hate going to the doctor. I went to my ob/gyn for starters and he freaked me out. He gave me a script for anxiety medication and I left in tears. Oh, and he also referred me to a cardiologist.
*So, I go to the cardiologist and she totally has been an answer to my prayers. Very knowledgeable and very sensitive. She had me go to the hospital for a complete heart exam...nuclear stress test, echocardiogram and heart scans. That was very stressful for me. But I wasn't finished til I had to wear a "Holter" monitor for 2 days. (The waiting thing is the hardest for me.)
*After a bunch of waiting around and lots of praying...I finally got to visit with my dr. for results to the tests....and here's the diagnosis.....I don't know how to spell it, so I'll do my phonetic way: bigeminy. Yep, that's it!!! It means I have a funky heartbeat and I have to take a little tiny pill every night. Plus, I have to drink V8 juice everyday, go for a daily walk, and get a good 8 hours of sleep every night!!!! How easy it that???

I'm so very relieved....but I'm also so very blessed for this news. My family and closest friends knew how very concerned I was...and I so appreciate their prayers and constant encouragement!!

I'm also so very grateful for the season of Thanksgiving. It seems that every year, God reminds me of His constant provision...not just in the way of food, shelter and clothing...but how He provides situations that make me rely on Him totally for His provision. I think my heart issue is a prime example. He has total control over my body!! I have lots to be thankful for every single day.

I'm looking forward to spending lots of time with our families in a couple of weeks. My sweet hubby has been working 60-70 hour weeks since the middle part of October and he so needs a break. I've been missing my sister-in-law in Indiana and can't wait for her to come down. My brother recently returned from a trip to the Holy Lands and he has a wonderful video presentation I can't wait to see. God is so good to give me all of these special blessings!!

My kiddos are so excited to decorate for Christmas...we always do this the day after Thanksgiving!! And I am too!! I'm looking forward to making some new memories in our new home for the holidays. I'd like to have some friends over for cookie baking time. We're having a progressive dinner for our SS class and I'm hosting one of the courses. It's such a beautiful sweet time of the year....and I'm making a commitment to not stress or get anxious for NOTHING!!!! I'm putting that old stuff aside and concentrating on loving the people that God has put in my life!!!!!

Home Sweet Home~

Well, we've been in our home a month now. Last weekend we finally got that last little load of junk out of storage and I hauled a bunch of it to Goodwill!! We moved in on the hottest weekend of the whole entire year. We had great help...and I felt so bad that we were moving in that heat!!

It's just amazing how everything happened. I'm still shocked that we sold our house in Verdigris!! I know by now that I should be "used" to the changes...and I'm sure I will at some point. I do enjoy that it takes 3 minutes to get to school. I do enjoy that we have more yard to take care of. I do enjoy living in this neighborhood. I do enjoy having a little more space to store stuff. And I do enjoy that the girls each have their own room!!

I need to buy a few more pieces of furniture and put some more stuff on the walls and I still have a few windows left to treat. I am not going to hurry doing all that stuff. It will happen!! I do need to find all my fall decorations and get them out!!

Oh, and on a last note...Ryan is completely happy that he can ride the bus home instead of walking to the library everyday!!

Getting Close!!

Well, 6 months ago seems like years ago!!! I almost can't remember what our house in Verdigris looked like...I really don't remember everything we have put into our mini storage unit....and I really really forgot what it was like to write a mortgage check every month!!!!! All of these things are soon going to come to an end.

In about 10 days all of these things will soon become a reality. Except for maybe still not totally able to remember our house in Verdigris. I loved that house so much!!!! But I am loving the thought of everyone having their own room, a pantry, and the ability to expand the upstairs whenever we feel like we need more space!! Oh, and I'm also loving the fact that I'm exactly 4 minutes from my driveway to school parking!! :)

I believe the kiddos are most excited!! They haven't had a normal summer with being to play with neighborhood kids, riding their bikes daily, and just all the stuff they were used to doing in Verdigris. They can't wait to get those scooters out...play some b-ball in the driveway....and spreading out a little.

I'm stressing just a tad just because of the timing of school starting and time we'll be needing to move. In a perfect world, we would already be moved in and settled....but not the case!! I know worrying and fretting isn't going to help matters at all....so I pray. Praying puts everything in perspective...God didn't bring us this far for nothing. His timing is perfect!!!!!

Blessings....

I am blessed beyond measure. Anyone that knows Jesus and has asked Him into their hearts is blessed for sure!!! I often look around my world and just have to wonder how exactly do people function daily without a relationship with God.

I am so thankful that God always has a plan. And that He unfolds that plan each time I ask for guidance and for help in this crazy life. I know in my life that God's plans for me are perfect. They may not always be what I like at the time or what is popular in the world...but resting in Him is always a comfort and makes me so content.

I am thankful for the man God placed in my life to be my husband. He's not perfect...but he's perfect for me. When Kevin has had health issues, God placed doctors, medicines and peace with us to help us overcome those things. Kevin has been blessed with working at a place that values him and compensates him well. We're not rich....but we certainly have more time together than we had at his previous job.

I am so thankful for my 3 kiddos!! They are reflections of God's amazing grace daily!! I look into their eyes and see how awesomely He put some of me and some of Kevin inside of them...raising them has been a joy!! I have thoroughly enjoyed the different stages my kids have gone through and am already praying for their futures!!

Even though this has been a summer that we'll likely never forget....I am thankful that we have had lots of time with my dad. He's been a gracious host!! We're very blessed that he opened his home to 5 of us and allowed us to live with him and impose on him for 4 months!! We are ready to move and it's likely that will finally happen in a couple of weeks. What a journey this has been. Again, it was God's perfect timing that brought us to this outcome. We are looking forward to hosting our friends and family in our home as we get settled.

I am so very thankful for my close friends. I don't tell them enough just how much they mean to me....but they priceless. Knowing that they will and do pray for me when I have "freak out" moments is HUGE!! Cause I sometimes have more than one of those episodes in a 24 hour time period!! I am thankful and blessed that they can tell me what I need to hear.

And finally I am so very thankful that God hears me when I pray. I feel His touch daily....just looking outside I can see Him....looking into my children's eyes, I can see Him; seeing miracles like healing I can see Him. Knowing that my husband is faithful to just me is seeing the mercies of God. Resting in the fact that only He can turn bad into good is HUGE for me. Perhaps Thanksgiving isn't just for the month of November!! Count your many blessings see what God hath done!! LOVE that hymn!!!!

Countdown....:)

Ok, the countdown can begin!! Our new house is withing a couple of weeks from being finished!! So, excitement is truly building around our household!! With the reality of our home being ready to move into...so is the reality of things like: landscaping? new furniture? arrangement of furniture? internet provider? (ATT doesn't service our new home!!) So, can you imagine how much stuff is rumbling through my head? My head is so "thick" with all the stuff rumbling around, that I've barely had enough room in it for school thoughts to enter. I've made myself work in my room this week and I'm happy to say that I plan to be finish with it by Friday!!

On another note....I've had to do some damage control. I will be the first to say that I enjoy facebook. I have really enjoyed re-connecting with lost classmates from high school and college. I've also enjoyed building on my friendships with colleagues, church friends, and my kids' friends' parents, etc. However with all of these connections comes a sort of "censoring" that I've had to impose on myself. I think it's very sad when people use facebook as a means of airing their dirty laundry and such. I'm not a fan of dirty words or initials of phrases that include dirty words. I'm also not a fan of naughty jokes or inuendos. So, tonight I had to delete some friends from my facebook account. I won't apologize for following my convictions... We live in such a grey sort of society with no real stance on what is wrong or unacceptable. So, I took a stand tonight to protect myself from having to see questionable content...and to also protect my friends from the ability to see the same.

That was a side bar of such.....

It's been a wonderful week so far. Looking forward to the weekend!! We're having a shin-dig at the Lane's on Saturday...hopefully the whole Lane clan will be attending along with many friends from the past. I love it when we're all together!! Next week is our VBS at church...(I'm not directing this year!! ) but I'm looking forward to seeing all the kiddos coming to learn more about Jesus!!

And how about this??? Kevin and I will be married for 19 whole years on Monday, August 2~!!
I love him much more now than I ever could imagine!! God has truly blessed our marriage in so many ways....and I'm so thankful that my mom introduced us 20 years ago at her house at a summer time bbq!! He's my soul mate!!!!!

Thinking...

I'm up and it's very quiet...so I'm thinking. I spent quite a bit time earlier praying. I've been praying quite a bit this week. Ryan and Christen are at Fall's Creek and it's their first time to go. I know I've heard alot about how Falls Creek has alot of faults now...more than it ever it used to...and that's probably why I was shy about sending Ryan a couple of years ago when he became old enough to go. But after seeing footage from there and being able to listen to the services each night online....other than the lights, sound and instruments....it's the same ole Falls Creek to me. Although it looks as if they have really added more activities for the kids to do!! Plus...and this is the biggie....the adults we had going with our youth are wonderful with the kids. I know (b/c we've known for a while) that Christen is going to come home and tell us that she has been called into missions. While I'm so proud of her for not being afraid of that call...I'm scared to death!! I know God protects those He calls....and I know He will have to do some major work in me so that I don't always this knot in my tummy when she actually goes to fulfill her call. Kevin seems to be handling it very well....but we'll see!!

As for Ryan...well....I had to force him to go. Kevin and I didn't see eye to eye on that...but I couldn't let up on him going. He has had a tough time feeling like he has a place in the youth group at church. He has friends there...but they aren't his close friends. He really likes his Sunday School teacher and enjoys his class...but outside of that, he doesn't involve himself in the fun stuff that goes on during the week. So, I thought if he would just go to Falls Creek, all the walls he has put up around him would come down. As I began to pack him up and pump him up that he was going to have an awesome time....I seriously started to wonder if I had made a mistake. As we watched him get on the bus, I started to crumble on the inside. I remember as a kid going to a sleepover and not wanting to be there and how I felt....and I began to think I'm doing this to him for a whole week!!!! After waiting a full 24 hours before calling any sponsor (b/c they couldn't take phones, ipods, etc)....I had enough and began to go down the list. Is it coincidence that nobody answered their phone? Or that only 1 phone went to voicemail? I did leave a message, however, it was one of Christen's sponsors. So, Christen calls me later on in the day and tells me she is having fun....but Ryan...well not so much. Praying again!! Long story short....I did get two text responses from Ryan's sponsors very late that night and one said "so far so good"....and the other that nearly brought tears to my eyes said "He says he wants to come back next year!!" Ryan never says things he doesn't mean....so, I think mission was accomplished. I knew that it has been no accident that my kids were at Falls Creek. I know I forced Ryan to go....but really...I gave him several opportunities to back out....and he didn't want to. So, I know that while God's plans for Ryan's future is probably in the form of public service...He is equipping him before my very eyes for that plan. I could be totally wrong....maybe he has been called to do something this week that's new, I don't know...but I can't wait to get them home to find out!!!!!!

So, today is their last day. I bet everyone there is feeling the affects of little sleep....and perhaps too much togetherness?? But I know the memories made this week will last a lifetime. I'm so looking forward to the Falls Creek service Sunday night!!

And crazy as I am....I'm actually looking forward to doing their stinky, smelly, gross laundry tomorrow!!!!