Well, my husband took me out last night for our 9th Anniversary and I had a wonderful time! It was the best date we've had in a long time! First of all, we went out in our new car and after we dropped the boys off he put a CD in that he had made and was labled "Anniversary." It had three songs on it by Monk and Neagle. (you can check out their myspace) Don't know if you've ever heard of them, but we recently discovered them. They're a christian band, but also have some love songs that they've written to their wives. I absolutely loved the songs! One was called, "Wonderful Angel." It was definetly my favorite! And would you believe that I actually started crying, then I started laughing! I was a mess! So, we went to "Cheddars" to eat! All I can say is "Yum, Yum and Yummy!" We ordered the famous chips and queso for an appetizer and our meals and then of course we topped the meal off with a cookie monster dessert! I was so stuffed! Then afterwards we went to see, "Vantage Point." Oh my word! Talk about an edge of your seat movie! It was very, very good! Everything about the night was perfect, the weather, the music, the food, the movie, and of course my date. Now some of you may think, "Big deal, dinner and a movie." Well, when you have young children and you don't get to go out very often, it's very special! I can't wait to see what we're going to do next year for the 10th year!
So, we do our best with what God has given us. We try to minister to the best of our abilities even when we don't feel like it's making a dent. We love and care for those who are in tough situations even if they don't want our love or show that they want it, truly deep down inside they may appreciate it. We give of our time and efforts to help win people to Jesus and show them what Christ is all about and what the church is truly about because the world and Satan has given everyone a distorted view of Christianity and the church. It's up to us to win those people to Christ and disciple them and ground them in His Word. No one said it would be easy. It never will be, in fact I believe that as time goes on, it will get harder and harder to win people to Jesus and to encourage them to stay strong and stand firm in their faith. So many nights I come home and wonder if the time and effort I just gave was for nothing, but I have to believe that God is using me even when I don't see it or realize it.
So, the boys were all dressed nice and cooperating for a picture before we left for church yesterday and I didn't charge my camera batteries, so NO PICTURES! Ugh! I was so mad at myself! Then I tried to take them after church with someone else's camera and then the boys would not cooperate, so they'll have to wear their Easter outfits again soon so I can take pictures! I did put some new pics under their Josiah and Josh - 2008 folder though if you want to take a look!
The weather was beautiful for Easter yesterday and we had a packed house at church! If we could get all those people to come to church every week that come on Easter!!! We're trying to get Josiah to understand that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that he rose from the dead on Easter. He says it, but I know he doesn't quite understand it. I was very moved yesterday by our Easter production and all I could think about while watching Jesus was, "My first born son, Jadon is with him. Jesus is taking care of my little boy." I'm so grateful to Jesus for all He's done for us and all He went through for each and every one of us.
My dad came through his procedure great. He was able to go home the next morning, but he just has to take it easy for a week. So, he's at home recovering and should be back to normal in not too long. Thanks to everyone who prayed!
The boys went to our church's Easter Egg Hunt this morning, but I didn't take my camera - bad mom! So, I just got some pics on my phone! I'm just excited to have some chocolate in the house!!
Hope everyone has a great Easter tomorrow!!
This Thursday my dad is having this procedure done to close the hole in his heart. It's called the Amplatzer PFO Occluder. THE AMPLATZER PFO OccluderThe PFO Occluder is delivered through a catheter. The Occluder expands to place a disc on either side of the defect, closing off the hole between the left and right atria. 
So, please be praying that this procedure goes well and that he recovers quickly. He won't be able to go back to work for a few days, which will be hard on him and he can't run for a few weeks, which is very hard for him too. Hopefully after he recovers from this then he'll lungs will receive all the oxygen they need for when he's exercising and running. Thanks for your prayers!
Yesterday turned out to be a better day than expected. We've had our truck up for sale for a couple weeks and sold it yesterday for more than we thought we'd be able to get out of it! It had 188,500 miles on it and Ronnie's had it for 11 years! He's always owned a truck since he started driving, so he's sad to see it go, but it's just not family-friendly! We had just bought a car from a private owner about a week ago, but hadn't been able to drive it yet until we sold the truck so we wouldn't have insurance on 3 vehicles, so Ronnie is really excited to be able to start driving his new car. It's been a while since we've had a car, so it'll be nice to have another vehicle we can all fit in! Plus, we love it! So, the van will still be what I drive all the time and Ronnie will be driving the car to work everyday. He really wanted to get a four door truck, but it would've been more expensive than the car and the gas mileage is so high and with the way gas is right now, we decided against that. God has really blessed us to be able to purchase a car without having to make payments again. (Thanks to Unlce Sam!)
And to top the day off I had found some outdoor patio furniture on craigslist.com (if you've never heard of it, it's like e-bay, but you don't bid). You can look just in your area and see what people are selling. Anyway, I found abrand new wicker furniture set that someone was selling in our area and that had only sat in it twice! It's from Target and they needed it sold this weekend b/c they were moving. We went and looked at it and got it for half of what it's selling for in the store right now and it's brand new! WOW! I've been wanting some seating in our screened in porch since we moved here, but haven't been able to purchase anything, so Ronnie was kind enough to allow me to use a little of his truck money to get it!
So, I'm feel very fortunate and blessed right now. God proves to be faithful to us and takes cares of our needs and also at times blesses us with some of our wants.
So many thoughts run through my head at night. Are they just crazy night thoughts or should they be given true and real consideration? Everything look different at night, why is that? It's more tragic, more serious, more confusing and harder to deal with. I feel so torn between God's voice and my own thoughts - I feel like they're all mixed together right now. I need the mix to be clearer and the feedback to go away. Ok, I'm talking like a musician I know, but you understand. God, please help me to understand, listen and obey your voice. I'm frustrated, tired, confused, let down, unsatisfied, hurt, jealous, angry, etc. I need You God. So, why am I here sitting at this dumb computer? God's waiting on me....
About a week ago I decided to start potty training Joshua. At first he was very resistant to the pull-ups and didn't want to put them on, after a few days, he got used to them and was fine. So, I went out and bought him some underwear to wear at home and the past 3 days he's been going on the potty and yesterday and today we haven't really had to ask him to go, he's started to learn when it's time and bends over and says, "I go potty!" and runs to the little potty. It's so cute! He's catching on a lot faster than Josiah did which I was told he would since he has an older sibling. So, here's some hope for all those who thought it took a while for their first to get potty trained, the second child is much easier! We're also doing the sticker chart, so that helps too! NO MORE DIAPERS!!! Hooray! Thank you Lord! And for all of you who may be wondering, "Will you have another one?" We haven't made that final decision yet......
In college I was so dedicated to get up early in the morning and run - it helped that I had a running parter, but we would run at like 5:30 AM before our 7:25 or 8:25 classe sabout every morning. So, I decided to try to run in the mornings again before Ronnie has to leave for work and before boys wake up. So, when my alarm went off this morning I laid there in the bed and though, "Do I really want to do this? No, but I'm awake, so I might as well get up." Plus I had to pee really bad! So, I got out there and I feel so good that I started my day with exercise. I remember how good I would feel when I used to do this everyday, so we'll see how long it lasts, but this will give me a lot more running time because I've just been running on the weekends b/c our weeks are filled up. It was nice and cool in the upper 50's which is my favorite temps for running and I can still wear shorts and a tank top! Isn't that crazy for winter? So, I only ran 3 miles this morning, but it' s a good start to my day! I wanted to start this early morning running routine anyway b/c once summer hits the humidity is here and early morning is the only time you want to run outside!
