Happy Birthday to Me!!!!

37 years - WOW! I remember thinking when I was in my teens, how far away the late 30's were. Now, I am here in the midst of it.

I have to admit I was kinda bummed about my birthday this year which I never am -- I love birthdays!! I think they are so special and worth being celebrated. This year was different because I would be missing a very special person here with me on that day. *Dave*

But....

God has blessed me with the 2 most amazing children anyone could ask for (yes, I know all mom's believe that about their children and rightfully so!!) - Andrew and Kira -

They had asked to take off school (for those of you that may not know, they homeschool). I told them "no" because we had something planned the next day that they needed to take off for. They were disappointed but said "ok". Well, unbeknownst to me, they set it upon themselves and woke up at 3am without me knowing about it, did school, decorated the house, and planned some wonderful surprises for me (I'll get to them in a minute). Yes, I was in shock and completely cried!

At 8:00am, I was awakened by 2 very happy and excited children exclaiming "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" and told me they had been up, finished school, and made some special things for my birthday. I was told to close my eyes and they led me down the hall to the playroom and I found this (there is a black "M" in the connect 4 game for mom - lol :))....

After that, they took me downstairs and I found this :)

I was then given some beautiful homemade cards with some very special things written in them :). After reading (and crying) the beautiful cards, I was told to go upstairs and take a nice hot bath and come down in my robe (they did tell me to make sure I had clothes underneath it - LOL). I came downstairs and was told once again to close my eyes. I was led into the living room where a "SPA" was all set up for me. They sat me down in a chair and Kira had a large bowl set up where she washed my feet, put lotion on them, and then painted my toenails (the most beautiful electric blue color that they both chose together). -- Ummm, wow!! As I sat in the chair, I was brought a glass of mango green tea by Andrew and given a shoulder rub as well by him. Kira then led me upstairs where she proceeded to have me kneel by the tub and wash my hair for me. I could not believe all of this. It was so incredibly sweet.

I came downstairs to a very yummy breakfast of eggs, sausage, and apples made wonderfully by Chef Andrew :).

After finishing the yummy breakfast, we sat down to watch a movie. As we were watching the movie, the doorbell rang and I opened to find a box from a flower company. It was filled with 2 dozen of the most gorgeous red roses ever and had the sweetest note from the most amazing husband anyone could ask for! WOW, all this and it was only 10:30am.

We went to sit back down and relax but got a call that someone wanted to see our house today. About 5 minutes later, we got another call that someone else wanted to see the house the next day. So needless to say, we did not relax and kicked into high gear to make this house perfect to show a few hours later.

After the showing, we came back to the house and got ready for a wonderful dinner at Wasabi. It was the kids first time at a hibachi restaurant and they loved it. We had such a great time!

After dinner, we were all so stuffed that we did not even do cake - we just had a true relaxing time together enjoying the last part of one of the best birthday's I had ever had.

The only way for it to have been truly the BEST birthday ever was to have Dave here. We finished the night by skyping together and praying together. Yes, just about the most perfect birthday!

Disappointment and Encouragement

I have really been struggling this week in a lot of things. I am really missing Dave and feeling as if I am just not functioning right without him here. I have felt as if I am failing as the only parent. The kids seem to be arguing all the time and I just get so frustrated. I certainly have not shown the fruits of the spirit at all. I am bummed that our house has not sold yet and that we still have to live separately from Dave.

In our family, Dave is the head and I believe God has designed it that way (1 Corinthians 11:3 - But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God and Ephesians 5:25 - Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.) When we follow God's design for marriage, it results in a beautiful relationship but I digress...

Anyway, this week has been tough and I just was feeling really bummed. I received a call yesterday from our realtor that she was bringing a caravan of realtors to our home. A caravan of realtors means that a large group of realtors come to your home and give you tips that you can use to help sell your home. They also let you know what you can do to sell it easier. Of course after feeling bummed all week, this was not what I wanted to do - prepare the house for all these people so they could tell me all the bad things about our home. Even my sweet husband was praying for me that I would not be discouraged at all that they said about our home.

Well it seems that God knows what we need when we need it (funny how I know that but always seem to forget :P). Well, within a matter of about 30 minutes, there was about 20 realtors that came through our home and you know what...

We got rave reviews!! They loved our home, said it was very neat and clean, and that they couldn't believe the price we have it listed for. But that was not the most amazing part...

One of the gentleman saw Andrew's Bible Scholar award that we have hanging on his wall and encouraged Andrew to continue reading it for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7). Another gentleman saw Kira's list of things to do which right after brushing her teeth and getting dressed was reading her Bible - he actually took a picture of it to show to his kids because he was just sharing with them the importance of time with God and making lists for remembering things you need to do. This was such an encouragement to the kids and I but what even blessed me more is that another gentleman as we were all standing around the table heard about what God had called us to and we all held hands and he prayed for our family and that this home would sell quickly. WOW - I was blessed beyond words and was so grateful for these gentleman who took a stand and shared Christ with us!!

Yes, God knew that I needed to be encouraged today and He did it in the most wonderful way!

2012!!

I love the start of a new year. It is exciting to think that each new year can bring a fresh start, a new focus, and an exciting anticipation of what lies ahead. I don't make New Year's resolutions. Probably the most significant reason is that I never can keep them. I may have wonderful intentions of keeping them but don't.

My only desire for this year is to grow closer to my Savior --

• To know Him and love Him more deeply (You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might - Deuteronomy 6:5)
• To memorize scripture more (For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. - Hebrews 4:12)
• To have a character that displays the fruits of the spirit ( But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23),
• To strive to be more of a Proverbs 31 woman (Proverbs 31:10-31), and
• To remember my body is a temple of God (Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

This is my desire for this year - for I know that without the grace and love of Jesus Christ, I am nothing!!

Merry CHRISTmas!!!

What a wonderful time Christmas is!! A time for reflecting on our Savior's birth and how He came as a baby, lived as a man, and died for our sins so that we may have eternal life!! There is no greater gift than that!

We had a very special Christmas this year as once again. The highlight was Dave being able to come home from Texas and celebrate with us. It was an even shorter visit than at Thanksgiving but we were thrilled none the less.

The best gift was that we got happened on the Friday before Christmas. Dave was not supposed to get in until late Friday night but he found out at the last minute that GFA was closing the office early on Friday. So after morning prayer, he called Delta to see if there was any way he could switch his flight. This was at 10am - they said they had a flight scheduled to leave at 11am and they could get him on that flight meaning he would arrive 7-1/2 hours earlier than scheduled!! Now this was all God because GFA is over 20 minutes away from the airport and he still had to have our friend Jeff drive him there, go through security, get his new boarding pass, and get on the flight all within an hour. He made it and we got the most wonderful surprise of all this Christmas by having him here for longer than we had thought. Yes, Samson has missed Dave too! (don't ya just love his Christmas "bone" tie??)

He arrived just in time for dinner and we had a good southern BBQ dinner at a local homemade BBQ place near our house - Kelly's. It was super yummy. After that we came home to relax. We got in our PJ's and just hung out watching movies and spending time together!!

Christmas Eve was a wonderful day. We got up and had a yummy breakfast and just enjoyed some time together!

Dave decided he wanted us to open the gifts that he had gotten us from Texas. Of course, there were no complaints about that! Kira got a true Stetson Cowboy hat,

Andrew was thrilled to get an Angry birds shirt and "Animal" shirt,

and I was in love with the special boots he got me as well as a wonderful new book written by one of our friends at GFA.

There was also one more gift we had wanted the kids to open before Christmas that they could use on Christmas day! It was their brand new Bibles!!

They were thrilled. They both had been asking for a new Bible for a while now. They read it every morning and Kira had grown out of her kids Bible. They both also wanted the same version that Dave and I had so when we would read together as a family, they could follow along easier. They both got the new ESV Student study Bible and love it. It has great little notes and as Dave and I were looking through it, we had even learned some new things too.

On Christmas morning, we awoke to a beautiful day and got up and ready for church. We did let the kids open their stockings which to be honest I have never done before (we don't do the whole Santa thing, I understand that many do and that is ok but we have chosen not to). Sometime through the years we had all been given a stocking with our name on it (well mine's a hat but who cares ;)).

I filled it with the necessities that I knew they all needed plus a little treat - yes, everyone got new underwear and socks in their stockings but they loved it anyway :).

I must say that I don't remember ever going to church on Christmas because it's usually the Christmas Eve service that churches have but we were thrilled!! What an amazing way to start the day that we celebrate Jesus's birth!! Our service was beautiful and our praise band even did an amazing version on Trans Siberian Orchestra's "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" - it was awesome and if you know me, you know I love the Trans Siberian Orchestra and was the first to introduce my family to them many years ago :).

We came home and while the Christmas dinner was finishing up cooking, we opened the rest of the gifts from the grandparents and each other :). We always get leary of how many gifts the kids get and taking away from the true meaning of Christmas wasting money on toys that are thrown in the toy box just a week later. I was very proud of our kids this year. They asked for very minimal and I knew they would use everything they asked for -- still too much in my opinion but I was grateful.

Kira got some body spray -yes, she is growing up :(. She got a diary, some earrings, a worship CD, a scarf, a baby duck that you feen - no, it's not real-hehe, and some games.

Andrew is utterly still addicted to legos and K'nex and plays with them all the time so his big gifts this year were Bionicles or now known as Hero Factory as well as a Narnia movie, and some games.

Dave got some new PJ/lounge pants and a journal to write down the things God is teaching him!

The best part of the day was when we ordered from the GFA Christmas catalog together. It's amazing that the best part of Christmas is still the giving!!

After that , we settled down to a yummy homemade dinner complete with my first homemade apple pie. I have made fresh fruit pies before but never apple. If you can't tell from the picture, it was hard to wait until Christmas to have it so it's a half eaten pie that we enjoyed on Christmas Eve too :)

Samson was wiped from a wonderful Christmas but he wanted to me to wish you all a very Merry CHRISTmas and a very good night ;)

Christmas Happenings

Of course getting ready for Christmas is just as fun as the day itself! We decorated although no tree this year as we kinda needed a new one and I was thinking we would be in Texas this year and I would get one there but it didn't work out as I had thought. Oh well, we still loved our decorations!!

The church was the first Christmas decoration that Dave ever bought me!

Forgive the messy table in the background. We were cleaning and baking that day :P

One of our favorite things to do is to do our advent calendar which is quite unique. It is a beautiful Fontanini set and each day you hang a new piece on the nativity with the last piece being baby Jesus on Christmas Eve. Our kids get so excited to do this every year!

We also enjoyed some baking this year as well. Well, Kira and I enjoyed baking, Andrew just enjoyed licking the beaters :).

One of the most fun things that we were able to do this year was that Dave was able to Skype with us through his phone and allow us to be a part of the GFA staff Christmas party. We don't have any pictures but the memories remain as he carried his phone to just about every table and allowed us to say Hi and Merry Christmas to everyone. It was wonderful because I was having a really hard time that day not being there and just missing Dave. It truly made my night!!

And then there is Samson who just enjoyed lounging on the couch with the remote in his paw without a care in the world ;)

Christmas Photo Shoot

I love taking pictures of the kids and Christmas time is no exception. I love finding new places to take their Christmas pictures too :) Last year was the park and this year was the beach. I figured this was the last Christmas we would live close to a beach so it would be fun to capture some fun photos of the kids. They really have a hard time at first getting in the mood but by the end of the pictures, they are all into it and telling me to take a picture here or let's try here - they really are amazing children and I love them with all my heart!! So without any further anticipation, here is their 2011 Christmas photo shoot :)