I am so glad for the time I have spent blogging. Today I have enjoyed going back over my old ones and remembering... Life is always changing and it is wonderful to go back and read. One of the things I was giggling over today was back in 2007 when I resolved to do better about getting around in the mornings. Still one of my battles. Another one was when I looked into my future and saw empty, lonely days with Andy grown. God is so good! One of the comments I received on that one was from a sister who stated that she would have kids in the home until at least 2025. Well, now for me it will be at least 2026 and I couldn't be happier about it. It is hard to read comments from Trina, but so glad they are there. Gale I SO miss you! Hope we get some walks soon. Thankful that I have this to look back on with my dear friends adding to it along the way :)

Food for thought

Often children get upset because they don't get what they want. They throw a little fit and fall into a "poor me, life isn't fair" attitude. As a parent, I don't have a lot of patience or compassion for this line of thinking. I might start listing the good things in their life and have them take over the list, letting them know it is ridiculous and unacceptable to have this frame of mind. Lately I have started seeing much the same attitude in myself. Discontent and ungrateful. It wasn't as easy to recognize as it is when my kids want candy or toys, but I'm sure God sees it just the same. My big one has been not living where I want to live. Just the thought of how much heartache this has brought me makes me very ashamed. I know God had a huge purpose in sending us here. The most obvious is our girls. We would have never encountered their situation or been blessed with them if we hadn't been here. God has granted so many blessings since we've been here. We have had several strong families move into our little body of brethren. Last night as we pulled into the filled church parking lot, I remembered many night meetings of just 3 or 4 of us there. Another blessing since we've lived here is Dale's job. He has had it for over 3 years now, in construction and during this recession. Amazing. Ok so I do miss being around family, but in this day and age they are only a phone call away (another blessing!). God has truly blessed me and I want to be more than content but very thankful for all He has given.

I used to think we were busy...

Busy times here at our house. Dale is going back to college so for now that means he's gone from 6am till around 9pm three days a week, not to mention about 30 hours of home work per week and working full time. The girls and I are finding ways to stay busy too: swimming, yard saling, shopping, going to the zoo...lol But really, this means more work on me than I'm used to. I have started filling the big dumpster out front with all of our remodel trash. I now have all the yard work on my list of to do's, I'm trying to get things ready to have a yard sale, helping a neighbor 2 hours a day for 2 weeks, car shopping (3 days this week with 2 toddlers... yuck!), ect. I did find a new car though!! It is a ford focus hatchback and I love, love, love it! I can cross that off my to do list now, but I am still shopping for Dale a different vehicle. He doesn't have air conditioning and that is miserable here. And we used to think we were busy...Ha ha.

I have been searching high and low looking for a small container of paint (1/2 pint) that I started painting my window sill with a few months back. We have been remodeling in the meantime, and the closet that the paint used to be in has been torn out. Our paint supplies were all moved to under the basement stairs, and I have gone through that box several times... Maybe I should start by stating why this paint has so much importance. You see, back in January, when Dennis and Trina were here, we all went to our little ace hardware store and I picked just the right brown for what I wanted. She was very supportive and we came right home with the color and put a dab here and there to make sure it was the color I wanted. I love it, but life got busy and I haven't finished my painting. After I came home from Trina's last month, it was one of the first things I wanted to do in memory of her, but the paint was missing in action. I have searched all three levels of the house plus the garage. I kept going back to the paint box in the basement thinking it MUST be there only to be disappointed again. I have uttered many prayers about it and knew in my heart that it would be found. Well... Yesterday I went looking for our polyurethane and guess what I found? Yes, that's right, my chocolate brown paint, Trina Approved. It was right behind the box and I'm really not sure how I missed it. But God knows. Thank you Lord for hearing my prayers and answering in your time.

Today it is sweltering! I think it must be our hottest day this year. So, you can imagine that my girls were jumping up and down with excitement when I suggested that we should go get a new pool. Just the little kiddie pool with the built in slide but it was enough to get them super happy on this miserably hot day. I even took a little break and put my feet in the water at one point...Ahhh

Wow I just realized that it was 2 years ago today that God blessed us with our girls. Time really flies. They have grown so much. God is so good. I have so much to be thankful for!

We all have fears. Some are worse than others. One of my worst fears has always been city driving. I grew up in the Portland OR metro area and truly some of my worst nightmares are of driving through that crazy place with all of its tunnels and bridges. You see Portland has 2 large rivers flowing through it and many large hills so there are 3 level bridges and several tunnels. It makes you feel a little claustrophobic with all that concrete everywhere. Fast forward several years and now I am in the Denver area. I have really tried to work on my driving fears and can manage to drive through the city if I stay on major highways. Today I met up with some friends and went to the zoo. I picked up one of my friends on the way, in downtown, and then headed on to the zoo. I mapquested the exact directions for both legs of the trip and just figured that I would follow the directions backwards to get back home. No problems, right? Well, first of all, the time at the zoo went by all to quickly and soon I found myself on the far side of the zoo at 4:30 pm...Traffic time. Yikes! It took almost 30 minutes to get the kids back to the van and head out. Then, it seemed to have slipped my mind that downtown is full of one way streets and strange diagonal roads. It wasn't as simple as I had hoped, to follow the reverse directions, especially at 5:15 downtown. After a quick call to my honey he sent me down the right path to I-25, the parking lot of highways here in Denver. Amazingly, traffic wasn't backed up tonight, FRIDAY NIGHT, at 5:30 pm. It just moved right along and I was home by 6:00. Boy, do I feel good! I faced those fears and it all turned out good. Now, time to give credit where credit is due, Thank you Lord!

Wow it has been a while since my last post. So many changes have occurred in my life. Major life changes. God is good and He is in control. He has a plan that is beyond our understanding. That doesn't mean that we don't feel pain and sorrow when trials come, but we have comfort that He knows and gives us the strength to go on.

We have been looking into doing foster care for over a year now, and on Tuesday we finally got our first children. They are 2 sisters, Samantha and Krystyna. They are 1 and 2 (almost 2 and 3) They are adorable and I have thoroughly enjoyed them, even though I am tired and exhausted. Tomorrow is supposed to be 50's and rainy. Yuck. No going to garage sales:(

I am excited to share our experience with you.

We just got home from camping this Memorial Day weekend. We camped with Bro Mike and Sis Nicole. It was great. We went on walks, had a dog bite incident, enjoyed the hospitality of strangers at the camp next door, endured the major drama of another neighbor, made smore's (of course), had great visits including after church on Sunday whe we got visitors, and had a great time watching the guys try to start a fire without a match. They tried rubbing sticks together, they made a bow contraption that did a lot of smoking, and they even found some foil to attach to batteries; but after hours and hours and hours... they finally gave up to do more investigating before the next camping trip/fire convention. The park ranger also offered advice on the subject, but to no avail.

We had a great time! I was happy with how my meal planning turned out. I cooked breakfast and dinner. I used a new griddle that went across both burners of my camp stove and made cooking soooo much easier. Pancakes were at one end and bacon at the other. It also came in handy for the peppers and onions on our fajitas, our hamburgers, and even the impromptu trout cooking when Isaiah brought in a fish.

So now back to the real world...Hmmm I wonder what I should fix for dinner...