Summer!

Well, it's been awhile and that's because I've been busy. That and...ummmm...I keep forgetting to update on here. :) I don't know if anyone reads this anymore anyway, so I'm not thinking it really matters, but...I suppose I'll update my summer for whoever may happen to still check here for updates. (sorry 'bout that!)

Once the boys got out of school we started running...no, not literally, but figuratively...but we are working on the literally. Actually, the boys attended an awesome VBS at a friend's church here in Vancouver. The theme was "Power Lab" and it was all science-y stuff so the boys had a BLAST! It was nice for me because it was held at night so every night I dropped them off and then headed out to have some time off. Scott ended up being gone most of the week, so it was extra nice to have a bit of a break as I got used to having the boys around all day again. (boy, does school spoil me or what? I'm already counting down the days to September 3rd....) The other thing I really enjoyed about it was the opportunity to see how a Kid's "worship team" looks at another church. I wasn't involved in our kid's programs at any other church I've attended (except Youth Choir in Norfolk, but that was Middle and High School aged, not elementary), and when we moved here the only church we visited was where we ended up ~ New Heights. We knew this was where God wanted us, and we love our church family and the challenges they lay out before us. However, because we never visited any other churches I don't know anyone from other churches involved in Children's Ministry. Sometimes that can be nice...sometimes it's a detriment. I believe, in my case in leading Rock Solid worship at our church, it's a detriment. I need ideas. I need to see what's possible...and then I can take it, run with it, and make it our own. But I need to see it live and in person, so to speak, to see what we could do to make RS worship more exciting, more real, more PASSIONATE for the kids involved. Watching the team from our friend's church was very idea-invoking, and very much an encouraging/discouragine event. Maybe I'll write about that sometime, but back to summer....

After VBS we went camping with our friends, Darin and Michelle, and their kids over the 4th of July weekend. I look forward to our annual camping trip. Each year we usually have 4 to 6 couples who camp together, but this year it was just the two families since one family was moving to Nashville (boo!!!!), another family had a baby (yea!!!) and I don't know why the others didn't make it...........but it was fun. There is a drawback about camping over the 4th, though. We usually go to Oregon, and Oregon is BOREgon when it comes to celebrating the 4th!! So, in the campground we were in, there were no fireworks allowed...and the tree-cover (blasted trees! kidding!) was so thick we couldn't see any fireworks from the local show. Given the fact that I LOVE the 4th of July (it's one of few times I have an excuse to let out my innner pyro) camping in BOREgon is just that...B-O-R-I-N-G!!!! (sidenote trivia: there really is a town called Boring, OR)

We returned from our camping trip long enough for me to do laundry, unpack the camper, unpack our suitcases, re-pack our suitcases, pack up my car and head back out on Wednesday morning. FUN!! The boys and I took off (yes, alone) for South Dakota via an old fashioned road trip. Well, as old-fashioned as you can get with a backseat full of gadgets and gizmos to help the trip go easier. Actually, there wasn't that much electronic gadgetry in the car save for the portable DVD player, the CD players, and the leapster. This being said, the DVD player was unavailable until we had been on the road for 3 hours...the CD players were there to play "Adventure in Odyssey" and other specifically chosen CD's and the leapster had to be shared between the two with no fighting or it disappeared. SO, cars were played with, songs were sung, sights were pointed out, and fun was had with very few occurances of, "Mom, how much longer?"

We ended up staying in one of the last 3 rooms available in Missoula, MT the first night. Rapid City, SD was "home" the second night, and we arrived at the Mom & Dad's Bed & Breakfast in Sioux Falls early Friday evening. Funny little stories will follow...

Funny story #1: On Tuesday as I was getting stuff together Scott comes to my office door and says, "Can you let me in on your plan?" I responded with, "What plan?" To which he responded, "Um, your plan for this trip."
"I have a plan? Am I supposed to have a plan? I guess my plan is this: leave Vancouver Wednesday morning, arrive in Sioux Falls Friday night. Is that good enough?"
"Ummmmmmm...no."
"oh. What more do you need?"
"Well, how about where you plan on stopping each night? Where do you plan on staying?"
"oh! Well, I suppose I'll stop someplace in Montana the first night, and probably Rapid City the second night. Is that good?"
"Ummmmmmm...no."
"oh. more?"
"yeah."
"like what?"
"where do you plan on staying?"
"in a hotel...I'm not worried about it."
"Okay. Well, that's not really a plan, Trac."
"Sure it is...I know when I'm leaving, I know when I'm supposed to arrive, and I know there are towns with hotels between the two. That's a pretty good plan."
"Trac. You're leaving with my two sons...and my wife...and that's not a plan."
"Scott, We'll be safe...and that's how I like to travel. This trip is my way of showing the boys there are other ways to travel other than 'drive and arrive.' We'll be fine...."
"*sigh* All right."

Funny Story #1, part 2:
setting: Lolo, MT (20 minutes outside of Missoula) and into Missoula
time: 11:10 PM
(the phone rings and Scott answers) "hello?"
"hey, there! We just came through the National Forest in Idaho, and it was A-May-Zing! How was your night?"
"good...where are you?"
"Lolo, MT"
"uh, O-kaaaaaaaay."
"It's outside of Missoula."
"Oh."
"So I was going to the Holiday Inn in Missoula...okay?"
"Sure."
(fast forward through conversation you don't really care to hear....Trayc and the boys are arriving at the Holiday Inn Express in Missoula, MT. The time is 11:30 PM)
Trayc says to Scott on the phone, "Hold on a sec, I'm going to check in..."
(man who raced ahead of a woman with her children so HE could be first says to clerk behind the counter) "Do you have any rooms?"
Clerk answers, "No, sir, we don't, and the only room I know that is available is a single queen bed at the **** hotel."
Trayc says to Scott: "um, hon? there are no rooms available. Now what do I do?"
Scott says, "I'll hop online and see what I can find...check the GPS and start calling from there."
"Okey-dokey"
(a short while later Scott calls with news)
"Hey, Trac, I found you a single queen non-smoking at the Quality Inn. He's holding it for you now, and you need to get there in the next 15 minutes or it's gone."
"Alrighty...give me the address......"
(Trayc and the boys start driving to the hotel. Scott is still on the phone...)
"Um, Trayc?"
"Yeah?"
"Where are you planning on being tomorrow night?"
"I told you ~ somewhere around Rapid City."
"do you have a reservation somewhere?"
"Scott. Do you THINK I have a reservation somewhere?" (smiling and chuckling)
"That's what I thought...okay. Sleep well. Call me when you get there."
"Okay."
(the great adventurers check into the Quality Inn hotel and get settled. Trayc calls Scott to let him know they made it.)
"We're in."
"okay. I've got a reservation for you tomorrow night in Rapid."
"You're the best! What if I don't want to stop?"
*biggggggg sigh* "You have until 6:00 to cancel the res."
"Okay. Thanks for doing that. I'm tired. Love you...good night."
"Love you, too. Good night."

Ah, what I wouldn't do without my super-planner husband! Actually, I probably would have driven to Butte, MT where there MIGHT have been a room...2 hours down the road and I would have been absolutely exhausted because according to my body it was only 2 hours later, but according to the clock it was 3 hours later. UGH!

We did arrive in Rapid City for Thursday, and, yes, we did also arrive in Sioux Falls Friday evening....exactly as planned! :)

I'll continue summer updates later, but now I have to go get some stuff done... ta-ta!

God's Plans vs. Our Dreams

Exodus 13: 17 (NIV)

17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt."


I will confess that I wonder at times what my life would be like if my path had taken me someplace else. Would I have the same sex and age of children? Would there be other similarities in my life? How would life really be different if (fill in the blank) had (or hadn't) happened? Well, this verse tells me I can wonder all I want but ultimately I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. How? "For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt."" God knew the Israelites better than the Israelites knew the Israelites. This says to me what Garth Brooks says oh so eloquently..."Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers." He truly knows the path of least resistance...and He knows how to get us where He wants us to go. Our job is to follow Him and trust His hand implicitly.

I wrote the portion above for my other blog: http://tbds.blogspot.com The thoughts have always ravaged me about how vastly different God's ways are than ours. How it seems He takes our dreams...the expectations of what we "know" we'll end up doing in our lives...and He switches them around to the opposite. For example, my best friend growing up knew ~ she KNEW ~ she'd graduate high school, maybe go to cosmetology school, get married and have a gaggle of kids. She absolutely had no doubts about it. I, on the other hand, knew that wherever I went in life it did NOT include a man or kids. Not that I didn't like men ~ ummmm, quite the opposite ~ but I never planned and dreamed of being a wife, and the idea of being a Mom as a career choice? Ludicrous! Sooooooooooooo, guess what God does? Hmmmmm....my friend will be 39 in August. She's never been married and has no kids. She's an upper management career gal with a large jewelry chain store. Yup. Me? I'm a wife and a mom. Give me a G! G! Give me an O! O! Give me a D! D! GOOOOOOO GOD!!! yeah, right.

Sorry, I don't mean to sound so cynical ~ I'm truly, honestly not. To meet my children you'd understand why I love being a Mom! To see my husband and I together, however, you may wonder why I didn't stick with my original plan...let's say we're working on that "dying to self" thing. *grin* Seriously, though, I can see God's crazy mixed up way of doing things. If we always had the easy way of life ~ always getting to do what we think we're good at and never having to learn a different way of life ~ why would we need Him? You see, I realized just this afternoon that God bound me to my husband in an answer to my prayer, "Lord, whatever You do, and wherever You take me...if You have a man in store or not...just never let me get too comfortable in my life that I don't need You." (or something very similar to that...I think it went more like, "when I meet the man You have chosen for me may he only make me want to know more of You in knowing him.") DUH!! Really?! What was I thinking!? It's like the prayers we pray for patience...knowing He will immediately put us in every situation we need to be in to PRACTICE patience! Or the prayers we pray saying "do whatever You need to do to get me fully in Your will...." and that night we end up pregnant because He knows we need to be slapped up alongside the head to get fully into His will. (okay, some of you may not end up pregnant...but I did.)

Tell me God doesn't know what He's doing when He gives us His Opposite Plan instead of our "But, Lord, You said You'd give me the desires of my heart" (whine...whine...snivel...snivel...gag) Plan! He puts us where He needs us to be ~ sometimes it's on the easy path because if we meet soldiers we'll turn back and run away from Him. Then there are the times when He knows we'll need some extra training for the future...or a little dose of compassion and understanding for those who don't think/act like we do...and BAM! We're on His opposite plan. Gotta love a God who never fails to suprise us...yeah, we really gotta.

**side note to those grammatical-nazi types who may read this...I truly wish to apoligize for the use of "....'s" and "gotta." I have had many a job as a proof-reader, and I know the immediate groans that fill my throat when I see such poor grammar. However, in my own personal blog that is not meant for publication, or even proper reading, I lay aside the grammar-busting red pencil and let it flow as it comes to my mind. Please accept my apologies for the number of times you have had to swallow hard to keep reading. Thank you.

Okay, So Jenny "tagged" me a LONG time ago...

Well, as the title says, Jenny, our wonderful first baby-sitter and Sr. High-er extraordinaire, tagged me on her blog a while ago and I just now found out. So here goes...

Four jobs I've had:
-Soda Jerk (Ice cream guru @ B&G Milky Way)
-Radio Disc Jockey (twice - Country station in College ~KGIM~ and Christian station when I met Scott ~KPNO~)
-Music Teacher/9th & 10th Grade Dorm Mom @ St. Scholastica Academy (Private International, College-Prep All-girl's school)
-MOMMY

Four movies I've watched more than once:
-Top Gun (can't count the number of times I've watched that one!)
-Facing the Giants
-Just Write
-GiGi

Four places I've lived:
-Redding, CA
-Walnut, CA (LA Area)
-Canon City, CO
-Sioux Falls, SD

Four places I've been:
-Hawaii
-Colorado
-New York City
-Washington, DC

Four TV shows I watch:
-Army Wives (recent fave)
-American Idol
-Bones
-Battle 360

Four people who email me regularly (doesn’t include blogging comments):
-MOMS LBS Yahoo Group
-My Sister
-Chuck Swindoll (does it count that I have to subscribe to an e-mail friend?)
-Jenny

Four of my favorite foods:
-Smokehouse Almonds
-Salmon
-Haagen Daaz Vanilla Nut Ice Cream Bars
-Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate

Four places I would like to visit:
-Italy
-Australia
-Alaska (in the summer...on a cruise)
-the Czech Republic (I'd love to go with our church next summer)

Four things I'm looking forward to in the coming year:
-Watching my boys grow up
-Seeing Jenny Graduate from High School
-Seeing Sophie and the boys together or a visit again soon
-Seeing where God leads us as a family

(I'm adding this one...)
Four of my favorite Bible Verses:
- Colossians 1:17 (NIV)
- Psalm 26 (all of it)
- James 1: 2-6
- Micah 7: 18-19
(I could list so much more...maybe I should say
-the NIV,
-the NLT,
-the NASB,
-the Message
haha)

Four friends I'm tagging:
- My cousin, David
- My cousin, Dennis
- That's Italian (Amelia)
- 'Stina

So there ya go, Jenny! Enjoy!

Gone are the days...

Today I said goodbye to the times when I could fool myself into thinking I was going to be 24 forever. Today I said goodbye to the idea that I really never grow older...just more mature and wiser. Today I let go of the hope that maybe there's something more than motherhood for me. Well, maybe not all of these were fully-concrete departures, but I feel like they are right now. It's a very simple thing that has done it...my youngest son turned six today.

When I look at Micah I still remember the struggles of accepting that my hopes for my future were not the plans God had for my life. When I watch him running and playing I am reminded of the times I prayed he'd just stop moving for 10 minutes while still in-utero so I could get some rest. I see him with his friends ~ laughing and joking and making them all so happy just in being him ~ and I can feel the tears that ran down my face the day I found out I'd be having a boy...and I experience the deepest, most profound regret.

Micah is a God-send in my life. His laughter is infectious, his smile captivating. He can light up a room with a grin and shut it down with a whine. His hugs and kisses (of which, believe me, there are many) feed my soul on a spiritual level. No, he doesn't fill me up like my time with Jesus does, but having him in my life is a gift beyond measure. To think that I thought a Megan would be a better fit for me is like saying Orville Redenbacher would make a great US President (yes, it's that absurd!)! Micah is a joy-maker. He is stubborn as all get-out, and his decisions have to be HIS decisions, but he is joy incarnate most of the time.

So today I say goodbye to the foolish notions that I have a better idea of how my life should be worked out than the Very One who created me. If having Micah was all His idea ~ and obviously it would be ~ then I trust Him all the more because I couldn't imagine my life without Micah.

Thank You, Lord, for knowing me better than I'll ever know myself. amen.

PS: two really cool prayer moments from last night with the boys...
1) Micah praying and out of the blue saying, "...and I really hope we get to see Sophie again soon..."
2) Caleb praying and saying, "Lord, thank you for my parents because, really, Micah and me have great parents...REALLY GREEEEEAAAAT parents. So thanks for letting us have them as parents."
How can I be anything but thankful?

Memorial ~ to REMEMBER

Okay...I know it's a bit late, but I was away from home over Memorial Day and fighting with a stinky-cheese-man internet connection once I got home. (I HATE wireless networks that don't work!!)

However, I truly admire and am amazingly grateful for those who have fought for our freedoms. There are WAY too FEW bumper stickers to remind us that Freedom Isn't Free, and way too many that forget that very simple fact. So, in that light, and being a Navy Girl by birth...Happy Memorial Day to all of you, and THANK YOU to all of you who serve who might by some strange chance read this.



AND...the following one is cool, but if you don't like a good hard rock turn your speakers down...if you do...TURN IT UP! :)



AND FINALLY...because life's too short not to laugh...





Want more? click the title of this post and type in "US NAVY FUNNY" in the search window...then have fun!

Have a great weekend, everybodeeee!