CRASH

My computer crashed last week so thats why I have not been able to get on here and write. I finaly got my camera back and then my computer started acting up. I didnt realize how much I do on the computer. I'm headed out of town tuesday and I'm hoping they will be finished fixing by the time we get back. We are headed to my moms, to see Lacey, and to visit with my friend. I will hopefuly be able to tell you all about it when we get back. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Long time

I know its been awhile since I have had a chance to write. I hate not having my camera to capture everything we have done. (Our car is in the shop from our accident and the charger is in it)

It was a great week! Joel was off and we ran the roads as usual. Now I'm home, missin him and trying to catch up on everything. :) This will be a good long task. I enjoy having him home though.

I hope to get my car back some time this weekend and I will try to do better about keeping up. I have a ton I want to share with you but I want to show you. Pray they are able to fix our van without having to do to much.

Have a good weekend!!

Sad and fulfilling

I wish I had pictures to capture what we got to do today. The church has set up a distribution center for things needed for the hurricane victims and churches in several different states have sent money and supplies for us to hand out. There was everything from food to cleaning supplies. We had about 30 families come through in four hours. It as so hard to hear there stories. Some have lost their house for the second time. It was so hard to not be able to do more.

Everyone of them asked us to pray. Please take the time to pray for these families.

I'm sitting here just thinking how blessed we are to get to come home and have what we have. We take it for granted the fact that we have a toothbrush. One guy asked me if I had a bible becuase his was lost in the storm.

As I left I felt so guilty that it made me feel so good to help them. They have to go back to a hotel and wait and wonder how long its going to take them to get a home. I hope and pray we were able to bless them today.

Busy week

Its been so busy this past week. I have had a birth then worked at the church to help all the disaster relief people that are coming this weekend. In all that, I'm trying to fit in school. Friday was a wonderful break from it all though. We had a picnic at the park after bible study and just sat and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was so much fun just sitting and visiting. Here are a few pics from the day.

Pocket Treasures

I found these things in the dryer after washing a load of Ethans clothes. It just makes me smile!

New outfit

Ethan took a picture of me in my new outfit and I put it on here so my sisters could see it and tell me if it looks good. I thought it was a funny story so I've decided to leave it up. I was talking to Lacey when he took the picture. I miss my sisters so bad. : ( Thanks for your help girls!

Poor Addy

At two this morning as I was sitting up with my sweet baby, I was brought back to those sleepless nights. Poor thing was throwing up every 10 minutes. I hate it when my kids are sick but I have to admit it was so nice holding her while she slept. I rocked her for hours just watching her. She is so beautiful. I thank God for that time I had to pray over her. God has blessed us so much!

Birthday Girl

Our sweet Addy is three! I cant believe its been three years. She fills our house with joy and laughter. (most of the the time) She has gotten so big and grown up.

We had a great weekend celebrating! We took her and some friends to a pajama party with Miss Patty Cake on Saturday and Pawpaw took her to lunch on Sunday at Casa. She felt so big when Miss Patty Cake sang to her and then at Casa a whole group of them. They brought her a little cake with a princess on top that I had brought them. She felt very special! Unfortunately she got sick Sunday evening with some kind of bug. She was much better Monday though and had fun playing with all her new toys. Lets just all pray that she makes to her four year old birthday. : )

Getting away

Today we decided to get out of this crazy place and head somewhere without major stress. We borrowed a boat and went to the river. It was SO pretty outside. The kids had a blast and I got some much needed fresh air. We got to see all kinds of neat stuff and some damage from the storms. They saw tons of turtles and even an alligator. It was decided at that point, to stay in the boat. :) God is so good, and now that we all feel refreshed, its time for an afternoon nap.

Very blessed

We were so very blessed to have safe places to go during both storms. We had so much fun at my moms for Gustav and just a week later we spent a few days with a family about three hours from here. They are members of the church there that took us in for Rita. They were so happy to see the kids after three years and see how much they have grown. They took really good care of us and we are so grateful to them. We love you Leon and Elaine!!

Pics of Ike

Thank you

Thank you to all of those who were praying about the most recent storms. Our house is fine but so many others were not so lucky. Allot of houses on our street were flooded along with 300,000 other houses in the TX, LA area. Its going to be a long time before everything around here is back to normal. Please continue to pray for all those still without a house and power. Here are a few pics of Lake Charles that Joel took while he was working last week. The two bottom ones are at the civic center. Its crazy how much water came into Lake Charles. They say it was way more than Rita.

Here we go agian

Well, here we go agian! Joel decided it would be best if I left for a few days just in case this storm comes here. The thing is no one is sure. We are not going far, just a few hours away. Better safe than sorry I guess.

Have a great weekend!!

Poor Ethan

Yesterday Ethan was playing in the backyard, with no shoes on, and he stepped on something still unknown. He says it felt like a needle but was not like a sting. It started swelling pretty bad so I took him to the doctor this morning. The doc was concerned becuase the redness was traveling up his leg. He put him on meds and we need to watch it for a couple days. Here is a picture of both of his feet. Its hard to see how swollen it is and how his little toes are getting purple. It looks so funny.

It had been a while since we have had any drama around here. ; )

Domino

For those of you who really know me you already know I'm crazy. : ) The kids were so sad and the dog even sadder. If you had seen it you would have done the same. Yesterday I ran by my vet and asked if they had any kittens. They didnt but they had this 6 month old. He is so so sweet and the kids love him. They named him Domino. He has cute little white and black dots on his feet. We are just in the getting used to it stage but so far its been fun. So what if we are crazy right?? : )

Gustav

Well, we are back after spending close to a week at my moms. God was good and faithful and we were spared to much damage in these parts. Here in Sulphur they say we didn't even get two inches of rain. Its kinda weird to come back into town and everything be closed or closing early. Everyone is still trying to get back and life is still trying to go on as usual.

For us, coming home was a little sad for the kids. Joel called us as we were on our way home and told us that the cat had eaten Ethan's pet snake. It was so sad but he was quick to make a plan as to what was going in that cage next. I'm hoping he will lean more towards the frog idea. : ) Unfortunately that was not the worst news. When we got home Joel pulled me aside and told me that just a few hours before we arrived that our sweet kitty had been hit by a car. Wow, my poor babies! They are so sad. Everyone around here seems to be moping, even the dog. He looks for her everywhere. I keep finding him by all of her hiding places. Sniff sniff!

I guess we will start planning for the next storm now. : ) I hope and pray all is well!!

Like Daddy

Boys will be boys!

A couple days ago Ethan comes into the house with a HUGE snake to show me. After trying to be as nice as possible so that he would not be disapionted, I asked him to return it to the yard. A few minutes later his daddy shows up with a little aqiarium and some worms. WOW! I dont think so!!!! Needless to say I did not win and Ethan now owns a snake. A SNAKE!! I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that I have a son and that these things are something I need to get used to. Joel assures me that it is not poisonous and it will not hurt anyone. I have to admit the little thing is growing on me. : )

I love my sweet little boys!!

p.S. I told you he was big!! ; )

Starting School

Wow, I cant believe my little ones are old enough to start school. Today we got up and tried our school sched for the first time in three months. I have to say it didn't quite go as planned but there is some hope it will get better. : ) I do think we are off to a good start and I'm looking forward to the year to come. (sometimes)

The pics are from Sat. My mother-n-law and I took the kids to CC for a back-to-school celebration. We had a blast watching the kids have fun. They ate gross pizza and played all the games they could with the tokens that we gave them. We were not able to stay to long because it was clear that everyone else in Lake Charles had the same idea. : )

Well, the kids are about to be done with their "wiggle time" and need something else to do. Its such a blessing to be a mom of three very precious children!

Love to all!!

It hot outside!

Today we had a blast at Tristan's birthday party. He is my friends little boy that turns one this month. They had it at a park that has a little water play area and the kids had so much fun. As you can see, we had red cake and the kids were enjoying it. : ) God has blessed me with such great friends.

Love to all!!

It hot outside!

Circus fun

Wednesday the circus was in town so we decided to take the kids. It was a huge tado but after an hour and a half of waiting, we got our tickets. It was well worth it though. It was SO much fun. We got there early so the kids were able to do some really fun things with the performers. They let Austyn walk on the tight rope, and she was so cute. They also put them all in a line and did juggling arround them. I was very nervous but the kids loved it. This was a great family outing. : )

Its been awhile

Sorry its been so long! These last three months have been extra extra full but I think its beginning to slow down. I thought I would do just a few of the highlights of what has been going on. To the right there is a slide show to kind of give you an idea. If you click on it, it will get bigger.

All of us had a great time going to four different VBS's and planning two of them. The planing took the whole week before the VBS actually started. : ) We had a blast though and learned some pretty awesome things that will stick with us forever.

One thing that they learned was to serve our community. The kids and some of their friends did a bake sale for a family that lost their house in a fire. It was really awesome to see the kids work so hard and raise so much money. It ended up being a huge thing that the news and paper came out for. I will try to post the link so if you want to see it. The pictures of the kids getting to see the house and some at the bake sale are included in the slide show. The family was so grateful and even came to church with us one Wednesday. What a blessing!!

These are the main things among many that we did this summer. I'm looking forward to it being slower and praying with school starting that we will have some calmer days. We were greatly blessed though and thank God for the great summer we had. I hope and pray all of you have had a great one one too.

Love to all!!

One day

Today is my one day that I did not have to be up at any certain time or be anywhere before 9am in two weeks. Its been so crazy around here.

We had a great VBS this week. The kids had so much fun. I cant get the stupid theme song out of my head though.: ) It was a blessing and I cant wait to do it again next year. (I will try to get pictures up soon)

Now on to VBS number two. Tomorrow we will be spending the whole day up at the church working on decorating and building a puppet stage. As we speak Joel and Brad are starting the building. They want it to be perfect. : )

Tonight my family is looking forward to a real home cooked meal with fresh bread. I figured I should make it big since we start right back up tomorrow. : ) Pray we make it through the week.

God bless ya'll!!

Kingdom work

"What's wrong with rocking and cuddling and answering 100+ questions, and wiping snotty noses, cleaning up throw-up, and playing blocks on the floor? This is kingdom work. And it's not just something to get through so you can get on to something bigger. This is big."


AMEN!!!!!


I got this quote from another blog I read and I just had to put it on here.

May God bless Ya'll!

Overwhelmed

Man, lately I have felt so overwhelmed. I have so much going on and so many people pulling me in every different direction. This summer I was planning on it being laid back but there has not even been one second of that. We have had some really fun times though. I have been wanting to blog everyday and I take pictures for it everywhere we go. Its just hard to do it at the end of the day. I'm hoping to do like one of my friends did and just put everything for may and June in at one time. We shall see. It might be May, June, and July. ; ) We have two VBS's coming up so planning for that is taking all of our time. Its going to be awesome though.

I've started planning for school!! Its so much fun! I have orderd and recieved almost everything that I need for Ethan. Still looking for those few last things. He is doing so good and he is getting excited. I'm enjoying watching him learn. I thank God for the blessing He has giving me in this.

Well, I guess since I have a million things to do I should go do them. For anyone that is reading this-- Thank you! : )

God bless!!!

"CHEESE"

Today the girls and I were just playing around with the camera. They both got new outfits and Austy wanted me to take a picture of them. I just think they are so cute. : )

Addy is feeling much better. After a blood test was taken they said it was a virus. I'm so glad she feels better. Thank you to all those who prayed fo her.

Pray

Addy has been crying since yesterday about being in pain. I took her to the doc but the test they did was clear. She is still crying and they want to see her back. Just please pray its nothing big and that she gets better soon.

Quote of the day

"We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey."
~Kenji Miyazawa

BIG

My four year old decided today she is big enough to dress herself. I just love how it came out. : ) She is so proud of herself.

7 Years

Wow, its been seven years already!! I am so blessed to have the greatest husband ever. Poor thing, he puts up with a lot from me. :) I'm not very good at writing all this stuff but I just wanted to say I love you Joely!! Thanks for being you. I'm looking forward to the many years to come.