Gone Again

Man, we've spent a lot of time on the road this summer! It's well worth the time spent with family and friends, though. And we're getting ready to head out again tomorrow (well, technically today!). Aaron's annual half marathon with my uncle is this weekend in Colorado! We're looking forward to seeing lots of family and having fun. We're stopping off to see our "other" parents in NW Kansas on the way. It's county fair time and Anna LOVES the fair! :) I think Jacob will really like it this year, too. I better pack my running shoes, though. I have a feeling he's going to be all over the place!

Jacob gets thrown sky-high! He loves this game and it gives a pretty good arm workout, doesn't it Papa?? :)

A big ol' storm rolling in.
*I didn't edit these pics, so I might repost them when I do:)*

We're praising God for providing for us...Aaron is only unemployed until Monday :) It was a test in trusting and believing He would provide, that's for sure! Because honestly, the phrase "When it rains, it pours" has never been truer in our lives!! It's just been one thing after another for the last several months. One very small example: We were waiting to hear back about this job and I ran to the pharmacy to refill Anna's allergy medicine (evidently it's made of gold). I knew how much it was, so I just took that amount of cash with me. When our wonderful pharmacist rang it up, his eyes bulged and he gulped. He asked if we got reimbursed 80/20. I laughed and said that we had to first meet a deductible and THEN it was 50/50. And just to add insult to injury, the drug company hiked the price almost $10!!!!! Granted $10 isn't much, but when it's pouring, $10 feels like $100. I'm just thankful God has guided us down the path we're on right now (by using Mom & Dad and Dave Ramsey!) financially so that we can make it through these tough times.
Enough about that...I better hit the hay so I can get up before 9am tomorrow!

Tough Choice

If you recall my post (and I'm too lazy to go find it and link to it!!) about a big decision--buying a house--we were facing...we've decided. It's been so hard, mostly because our heads and our hearts were warring with each other. Our hearts were in the right place. The extra (and I mean extra!) room would have been perfect for our family's calling to minister to college kids, etc. But it's just not the right time, financially, for us to take on a bigger house and all the bills that come with it. There were too many "if-then's" that were out of our control. So, we had a little pity party tonight ;) We ate at the newly opened Quizno's in town and went over and got some DQ. haha (that was Aaron's idea by the way...the pity party). We sat up last night for a long time (again) talking. We kinda agreed, without actually saying it out loud, that we shouldn't do it. When we finally went to bed, I just said "God, make me feel it in my bones that this is what we should do." I emailed my parents (since they never actually out-right said what they thought we should do) and begged them to just tell me what to do! And I about fell out of my chair when Dad emailed back and actually told me what he thought! But seriously, it really did help. And I promise we won't hold it against you Dad...except when you come stay with us and have to sleep on the living room floor!!! haha God used that email to hit it home...I felt it in my bones. And Aaron very sadly agreed. We're sad because it seems like this was a one-shot chance, but we know without a doubt that we're doing the right thing. We are going to make so much progress financially staying in this house longer. And God can do anything and we're confident that in the future, when we're financially ready to buy another house, He will provide the perfect one for our family! The interest rates probably won't be at 4% anymore, but that's okay! :) So, thank you for praying for us. It was hard!

Now, for some pictures!!! :)

The weather has been absolutely beautiful! 50s!! The snow is melting pretty quickly, but there's still a lot left! Our little snow man is almost gone, though. Anna kept checking on him today! This is my garden...or what you can see of it! And the little turtle sandbox is somewhere under all that snow! :)

Our driveway was really bad b/c the snow drifted. Aaron & I (okay, okay...I spent an hour!) spent all day Sunday shoveling. He had to be able to get out and go to work today!

A nice path to the carport...it comes up to mid-shin on me. Today, the path is completely free of snow.

Aaron working hard! The snow was very wet, so it was so so heavy to shovel! Made for good snowman-making, though!

So strange to look up from all that snow and see green buds on the trees!

I'm like my Dad...when I start a project, I like to get it finished quickly. Painting cabinets with 2 kids at home all day....doesn't equal finishing quickly!!! I finally got half of the upper cabinets completely done (minus the inside...haven't decided if I'm doing that or not). Having the window painted white makes a HUGE difference...makes it so much brighter. That's going to take about 10 coats b/c the primer was in the shed, which was snowed under (well, the path to it is anyway!). So I've come to realize that this project is going to take a long time...I mostly get the painting done on the weekends when Daddy is home to keep the kids out of the way. I can't get much done after they're in bed b/c I have to do my computer work then. It looks great, though. And will look really good when I finish and get the trim painted and put up (after Aaron gets it for me, of course!).

This is her new favorite thing to do...draw on her chore chart! Shows how much we use that! Whoops. She has to keep the chair moved away from there when she's done, though b/c Jacob likes to climb up and eat the magnets (eww!).

He really loves playing in the sink. He stood up there for a good 30 minutes or more the other day. Just playing with a medicine dropper and maybe the brush. No water running.

People always comment on how blonde his hair is getting. It's true...in most lights he looks like he's lost the red. But I keep telling people it's still there. Here's a picture to prove it! I did nothing but make the picture black & white except for his hair. Don't tell me that doesn't still have red in it! :) And this is how he tends to watch TV. RIGHT UP CLOSE...wonder where he gets that???? I had to remove the Lego box from the room, because he'd climb up on it and push the buttons on the satellite and DVD player (he, of course, figured out how to open the DVD player). He was not happy when I did that!

He's so ornery (and yes, there were several days that he just stayed in pj's all day!). At his 18 month check up last week, the doctor said "He likes his yellow vegetables, I see" HA! I've been noticing that his nose is always orange-ish in the pics....not such a bad thing, I suppose. He should have super eyes from all the beta carotene (??) he eats! :)

Well, now. That was a wordy post! Good grief. Night!

God's Love

I haven't posted much about the Bible study I'm currently in. Not because I'm not learning a TON. I guess I just haven't taken the time to sit down and write a post about it. And since both kids were asleep before 8pm tonight (yahoo!!)... :)

We're going through Jerry Bridges' "Trusting God". Tonight I was reading about God's love. Matthew Henry observed (after reading Zephaniah 3:17) this:

"The great God not only loves His saints, He loves to love them."

The psalmist David writes of the greatness of God's love in Psalm 103. God's love is higher than the heavens are from the earth. Just as His ways are high above our ways, God's love is more than we can ever comprehend. Bridges points out that

"(God's love) is not only perfect in its effect, it is infinite in its extent."

It's so hard to wrap my finite, human mind around a love like that. When I'm going through an adversity, a hardship, or just something that's not my idea of good, it's easy to forget that. Bridges reminds us to remember who we are. When we start to think that God doesn't care, that if He really loved us why would He be putting me through this...remember what He did for ME. He sacrificed His one and only Son. For me. Jesus willingly died a horrific death, suffered much...for me. I don't deserve His love. I don't deserve heaven. I deserve hell. A speaker once said

"Anything this side of hell is pure grace."

How true that is. May we all remember and humbly seek the cross and the Savior.