Those are duplos covering my children's private areas, but I just had to share this very happy picture with you. They absolutely love taking a bath together. They scream and giggle and smile. It's really my joy watching them.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saved by the duplos
Those are duplos covering my children's private areas, but I just had to share this very happy picture with you. They absolutely love taking a bath together. They scream and giggle and smile. It's really my joy watching them.
Pics
Chase loved the aquarium. Sorry babe, not the greatest shot of you...that's not on purpose, just love the shot of our kid!!
I loved the flamingos..they get their color from the shrimp they eat..no joke!
Prayer for me
Please pray for me in the training up in righteousness of my oldest son. I want his passion to be for the Lord, not on pleasing me or himself. Thanks.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Chase at 8 months
Here's Chase at 8 months. He does that lip thing a lot and just is in love with his mouth right now. Look at all that drool and expression. I love it. He was totally talking to me in the above pic. I love how big his eyes are. Praise God for him.
Old man, eh??Here I am Lord!!
HOA stuff has had me examining my place here. I have just wanted to run away and at the same time shout at these people, "don't you know any better? why don't you think the way I do and want to do things the way we do it?" It's caused me to see a some things. One, that I really want to teach people into doing it my way and two, I'm really, really wanting to be the holy spirit. Not in a bad way, but I really feel deeply sorrowed by these peoples sin and want them to repent and I want to be a part of that. I know that's not all bad, but it really gets me wound up if they aren't on the path I want them to be or if they just continue hurting me and God's name. So, I did what I didn't want to do and I quit. I'm still helping Alan and I'm still kind to people, but I don't have a roll/position anymore. I also realized that I was straying from underneath my husband's umbrella of protection and that I needed to be ministry to others through our ministry as a couple. I don't think this always has to be the case, but especially important if it's working with a non-Christian group and at this intensity, in terms of attack from Satan and just plain poor decision making on their parts. So, that's where I'm at. I'm glad to finally be at peace with that and feel like I have more processing to do, but really do feel good. So, I've ramped up the cookie and meal delivery program, trying to give something to one neighbor a week. That's how I'll minister right now. And just trying to spend more time talking in the halls wiht people.
ON another note, I'm really discouraged with my weight training and exercise. Because the boys have had literally one week now, of being semi well (still coughing a lot) I haven't been able to go to the gym. For me, the walks in the park aren't enough. So, I've put on another 4 pounds. Just wish I could go to boot camp, lose the weight and then come back and continue being a momma. The weather hasn't been real condusive (except yesterday) to a lot of outside time, with the rain..I know it's a character thing too, but I'm failing miserably at it. We've been eating terrible too, and that makes me feel worse. So, this week I'm trying to get up early and study and then see if we can't spend some more time outside. Small steps. I'm also going to seriously look at going on slimfast for a meal. Or one of those protein shakes/replacement drinks. I just about skip meals in the morning and sometiems lunch, as it is taking care of these guys and I think I wouldn't even notice if I didn't eat real food. I just need to get to the gym tho. I cannot drop any weight unless I'm burning serious calories..just how I am.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Funny thing from Skye
O.k. so tonight as we were finishing up our spaghetti and meatballs Skye says,
"Momma, how come I had bumps from the woodchips?"
"Well, there's probably something in the woodchips that your skin didn't like"
"Like I'm allergic to them?"
"Well, maybe, yah"
"Don't forget momma, I'm also allergic to ants, dog poop, gasoline and fuel, like for the jets, and now woodchips."
"O.k. babe, I won't forget!!"
"Momma, how come I had bumps from the woodchips?"
"Well, there's probably something in the woodchips that your skin didn't like"
"Like I'm allergic to them?"
"Well, maybe, yah"
"Don't forget momma, I'm also allergic to ants, dog poop, gasoline and fuel, like for the jets, and now woodchips."
"O.k. babe, I won't forget!!"
Monday, February 4, 2008
The real Life
Hey. Must be completely honest here and say I'm totally strugglin. Um, we've had a run for our money (well, in my little world) in terms of sharing the gospel. I'm going to look up some old dead guys (as juli says) and see how they did ministry in their neighborhood. MOst people I know just either pray for their neighbors and just say hi..all the while hoping that their neighbors won't bother them OR they are "fake" nice to their neighbors, not ruffling any feathers, so to speak. Sometimes there will be one oldguy in the neighborhood that couldn't really harm a fly and is a bit grumpy and opinionated and so you get into discussions with him. OR there's the lady that loves to talk all about her kids and so you let her and listen and add cliches OR there's the grumpy neighbor who smokes too much and wears too little or too out of style and has an office job and doesn't say much of anything worth while and so it's pretty easy to get along with them because you can just so "oh, sorry bud" and that cuts it. WELL THAT'S NOT THE KIND OF NEIGHBORS GOD GAVE US. Eh-hem..did I state that LOUD enough????
We want to be here. We want to get to know God better. We want to learn how to put our faith in action, but we feel so inadequate and like people are throwing our words at us as if they were tomatoes and we were a bad concert.
I want to see God come down and zap them. I want to see them burning in hell and wave at them and say "see!! I told you so, you lazy, proud, _______fill in the blankers". But then I look at why I want that and realize that it's because I'm inconvenienced. They don't understand truth. They just don't. They make up lies, convince themselves of things that aren't true and then twist and retwist our words until I'm not even sure how it all started. There is utter confusion, envy and greed. They want life. They see that we have it. I think that's what it is.
Today has been a new day of lies, emails and decisions that we would never put our names on, but because we're on this board, our name is there. I'm really big into having integrity. I try to be very responsible. Don't want to be left with a cobweb un swept, a "hello" never spoken..things like that.
This is a blurb from the emails that went back and forth today.
Jen, the president writing: "But I do believe that you are purposely being cantankerous and uncooperative at this point by calling out sections of the Davis Sterling code. If you were being more of a team player at this point, I would have expected you to send an email saying, "Hey Jen, I don't think that this meeting meets the legal requirements for an Executive Session. How about if we refer to it as an informal gathering instead?"
But that is clearly not the route that you are choosing to take here. It is very frustrating to me that you are actively seeking to make every Board item more complicated than it needs to be, as if to show us how hard it is to run all of these things without you in charge of every move. I do very much appreciate all of the help that you have provided to the Board, but this reaction is creating so much friction and extra work for me that it is just juvenile.One more thing: our contract with Allegis is up at the end of February. Grace just let me know that Mike Coor is considering either raising our rates or possibly not renewing the contract, just based on the amount of extra work and conflict that Allegis feels Alan is causing. The constant emails and phone calls to Grace have got to stop right now. From now on, I insist that all communication to the Property Management company goes through me, and only me. In the event that I am not available, I would prefer to see Tim as the contact for Allegis.
Alan, do you really want to/mean to cause this level of discontent and problems amongst the Board? Grace is doing a fantastic job as our Property Manager so far, and it would upset me greatly if we lose that contract because of your overbearing actions. The disrespect that you are displaying is now threatening to expand beyond your attitude to me and Tim, and is about to negatively impact all homeowners and residents if we have to change Property Management companies and set back all work we have in progress. Please stop to think about how your actions could negatively affect the entire HOA and adjust your attitude accordingly."
The sad thing is, she has "nicely" worded things so that it doesn't appear too negative, yet none of that actually happened and we're still not sure what phone calls have been made. Alan said he made one. Tim (our gay neighbor that we shared the gospel with that is who Jen is referring to) cannot by law take care of anything, but Tim has fed Jen so many thoughts and lies that she sees that as true. They are so mad too because Alan won't authorize a MULTI THOUSAND DOLLAR "excavation" dig without members knowing about it. They want to do it behind everyone's back and Alan won't stand for it. Grace, is the new/current property manager, who hasn't finished a single project, who came up here just a few days ago and told me a big lie that Alan had just told her such and such, and then used the fact that I helped her, against Alan. She's been at the job all of 3 weeks.
So, pray what you may, but I'm just done over here. God came to shed light onto darkness. God also told me that "He can handle it". So, please pray for me that I'll calm down inside, not be anxious, find a job for Alan in Austin TX (so I can live by my sis) and be able to move! heee. That's not really my prayer, but sort of.. either that, or all 4 of us get in a wreck so we can go be with Jesus as a fam.
By the way, more stuff has transpired, but too boring to get into. Just when I thought I'd break, Juli called me today(we usually end up talking about every other week) and just said she had 5 minutes..so I just blurted out that I needed prayer. She prayed and I felt it. But now, again, I'm just needing hope that something we're doing is right..a teeny, weeny bit of hope.
We want to be here. We want to get to know God better. We want to learn how to put our faith in action, but we feel so inadequate and like people are throwing our words at us as if they were tomatoes and we were a bad concert.
I want to see God come down and zap them. I want to see them burning in hell and wave at them and say "see!! I told you so, you lazy, proud, _______fill in the blankers". But then I look at why I want that and realize that it's because I'm inconvenienced. They don't understand truth. They just don't. They make up lies, convince themselves of things that aren't true and then twist and retwist our words until I'm not even sure how it all started. There is utter confusion, envy and greed. They want life. They see that we have it. I think that's what it is.
Today has been a new day of lies, emails and decisions that we would never put our names on, but because we're on this board, our name is there. I'm really big into having integrity. I try to be very responsible. Don't want to be left with a cobweb un swept, a "hello" never spoken..things like that.
This is a blurb from the emails that went back and forth today.
Jen, the president writing: "But I do believe that you are purposely being cantankerous and uncooperative at this point by calling out sections of the Davis Sterling code. If you were being more of a team player at this point, I would have expected you to send an email saying, "Hey Jen, I don't think that this meeting meets the legal requirements for an Executive Session. How about if we refer to it as an informal gathering instead?"
But that is clearly not the route that you are choosing to take here. It is very frustrating to me that you are actively seeking to make every Board item more complicated than it needs to be, as if to show us how hard it is to run all of these things without you in charge of every move. I do very much appreciate all of the help that you have provided to the Board, but this reaction is creating so much friction and extra work for me that it is just juvenile.One more thing: our contract with Allegis is up at the end of February. Grace just let me know that Mike Coor is considering either raising our rates or possibly not renewing the contract, just based on the amount of extra work and conflict that Allegis feels Alan is causing. The constant emails and phone calls to Grace have got to stop right now. From now on, I insist that all communication to the Property Management company goes through me, and only me. In the event that I am not available, I would prefer to see Tim as the contact for Allegis.
Alan, do you really want to/mean to cause this level of discontent and problems amongst the Board? Grace is doing a fantastic job as our Property Manager so far, and it would upset me greatly if we lose that contract because of your overbearing actions. The disrespect that you are displaying is now threatening to expand beyond your attitude to me and Tim, and is about to negatively impact all homeowners and residents if we have to change Property Management companies and set back all work we have in progress. Please stop to think about how your actions could negatively affect the entire HOA and adjust your attitude accordingly."
The sad thing is, she has "nicely" worded things so that it doesn't appear too negative, yet none of that actually happened and we're still not sure what phone calls have been made. Alan said he made one. Tim (our gay neighbor that we shared the gospel with that is who Jen is referring to) cannot by law take care of anything, but Tim has fed Jen so many thoughts and lies that she sees that as true. They are so mad too because Alan won't authorize a MULTI THOUSAND DOLLAR "excavation" dig without members knowing about it. They want to do it behind everyone's back and Alan won't stand for it. Grace, is the new/current property manager, who hasn't finished a single project, who came up here just a few days ago and told me a big lie that Alan had just told her such and such, and then used the fact that I helped her, against Alan. She's been at the job all of 3 weeks.
So, pray what you may, but I'm just done over here. God came to shed light onto darkness. God also told me that "He can handle it". So, please pray for me that I'll calm down inside, not be anxious, find a job for Alan in Austin TX (so I can live by my sis) and be able to move! heee. That's not really my prayer, but sort of.. either that, or all 4 of us get in a wreck so we can go be with Jesus as a fam.
By the way, more stuff has transpired, but too boring to get into. Just when I thought I'd break, Juli called me today(we usually end up talking about every other week) and just said she had 5 minutes..so I just blurted out that I needed prayer. She prayed and I felt it. But now, again, I'm just needing hope that something we're doing is right..a teeny, weeny bit of hope.
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