A Holy Home

I am reading a book called Finding Your Purpose as a Mom. I realize this won't apply to all you readers as many of you are male, and well,,, you just won't ever be a mommy. The author included a quote found in The Anglican Digest from a passage called The Landisfarne. I read it and reread it whenever I open the book.

We are not citizens of this world trying to make our way to heaven; we are citizens of heaven trying to make our way through this world; we live as those who are on a journey home; a home we know will have the lights on, and the door open, and our Father waiting for us when we arrive. That means in all adversity our worship of God is joyful, our life is hopeful, our future is secure. There is nothing we can lose on earth that can rob us of the treasures God has given us and will give us.

This makes me think of all the things I am supposed to be doing in this life. This book has challenged me to make the most of the very short time I have with my babies. It also makes me feel a renewed sense of peace over the babies I lost. Seeing my friend go through the same thing so recently always stirs some sad emotions. I day dream a little and I even wondered if those three little babies will be waiting for me when I get to heaven. Will they be handed to me in a little bundle as my first gift when I get to heaven. Will they greet me with Sam's perfectly goofy, full of happiness smile? I don't know, but I believe this passage is right. There really is nothing on earth that I can lose that will rob me of the treasures God has given me and will continue to give me.

Sorry no pics

But, we had a great Christmas. We were home, just the seven of us, snuggled in our living room. We played and opened presents. We laughed and took pictures. We made a list of all the movies we want to get with our winnings from the Wheel. We stayed in our jammies until late afternoon when the boys went hunting and the girls snestled in for a movie. The kids all helped in making dinner of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green salad. oh yummo! Considering Isabelle woke me up at 4:20 in the morning to open presents, I was a little sleepy, so it was early to bed for everyone. Even Mike and I made it into bed by ten! Just amazing.
We all got fun stuff as well. The kids usually get one present from Santa and the rest from us a the families that love us so. Isabelle got a guitar, Elijah got a real bow and arrow (hence the hunting trip), Layla got a bike, Addison got her very first Cabbage Patch Kid, and Sam I am got a glow worm. I don't have nearly enough blog space for the list of everything else we got, but it was all great. So to all of you who blessed us this year, thank you. And to all of you who think YOU are present enough..you are right. :) GOd bless.

No Pressure

My newest class is COMM110, also known as Public Speaking. My assignment this week is to analyze a public speaker and write about him or her. With permission from my professor, I chose our pastor. I am posting this so late on Sunday so Louie (not Louise) will feel no pressure. But, you better not screw up. HAHA!

King Josiah

I have been reading through 2 Kings and I am regularly struck with questions. I really need to take a class on all of this, or, now that I am done focusing on the Wheel and have one whole week off from school(HA!) I will have a minute to read a book or two on the matter. Here are a few questions/observations that reacently popped into my mind.Again, sorry about the format, my blog won't allow me to use the return key @@. 1- It is interesting how many times the mothers are mentioned. I wonder if it is for historical reference or another reason. I can't help but think God allowed the mothers to be named so that we could be proud of the ones who raised their children according to His will and put a name to those who seriously screwed up. 2-Josiah became king when he was eight years old. That is Isabelle's age. Just amazing. From the beginning he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He grew up to be a mighty king. God told him he was going to die and THEN he went out and obeyed God. He didn't spend his time depressed, closed up in his room, looking for a remedy. He spent (I am not sure how long) his time destroying anything that glorified someone or something other than God! 3- God showed him mercy in a strange way. God didn't deliver Josiah or his people from death or from the separation between the people and God. He just promised Josiah he wouldn't live to see what was coming to them. Sad. When I finished reading this, I felt overwhelmed. It was sad to see such a determined king die, only to be followed by his wayward son. Jehoahaz was 23 when he became king. He was imprisoned three months later, but he managed to squeeze in enough rottenness against God for the author of 2Kings to make a note of it. Regularly I pray for my children to follow after God. But, after reading passages like these I can't help but make a mental list of all the things I am forgetting. God's grace is a great gift, but I want my kids to grow up saying the greatest gift they got from me was teaching them about God. I am able to say that about my own mother, and though her shoes are really tiny (little girls size 4s) they are huge to fill.

Tonight is your night bro

Today is the day! The Man is going in today at 1pm for his snip snip-aroo (sing this last part to the tune of chim-chim-charoo). Please pray for accuracy and success. It is a strange feeling to be past so many little stages. Don't worry, I am realistic in the fact that there is still a great chance I will get pregnant again. My prayer has always been that Mike would have this surgery when he felt ready and God was finished adding to our troop. Being the consistent pessimist I am, I am looking forward to A) Mike backing out at the last minute, or B) getting pregnant in six months. What do ya do?! I also have names picked out, and frankly a small part of me is a little sad I may never get to use them. And even stranger still, it is the girl name I like the most. But, The Man has instructed me that you shouldn't continue to have children just because you found a cool name lol. In actuality, God gave us the name Samuel when we were pregnant with Layla Grace, so it makes sense that we should end with him. It makes even more sense that we shouldn't have been surprised to get pregnant with Addison OR him considering we knew we were going to have a Samuel. Denial is a really big river. Along with all of this, my husband is incredibly nervous and could really use the prayers for peace. His dad went in when he was 39 for a routine surgery. He had not been to the doctors in years (pretty much his whole adult life) and was very against having surgery. When he went in for his pre-surgery check up, they found a lump under his arm that proved to be end stage cancer. He died six months later. Mike was only 20 and we had only been married 3months. In fact we moved our wedding up a good three years so his dad could be there for the wedding. His dad's death was all very devastating for Mike. Especially considering neither of them knew God. So pray pray pray. There are a lot of emotions stirring around here.

Hot Lips

I couldnt resist having the chance to include The Man in my Wheel experience and calling him Hot Lips just seemed the perfect way. It is a name I have called him since high school, even before we were dating. Goodtimes. The conversation went something like "Yes, Pat, I have been married for almost 11 years to my husband, Mike, who I like to call Hot Lips Hoolahan, but you may call him Mike." Pat happily answered he would certainly do so and then said those hot lips must be working because you have how many kids? HEE HEE I was also going to try to squeeze in my sister's name during the last puzzle. If I knew there was no hope of solving I was going to shout excitedly "Melissa rocks the Casbah." Instead I realized I did know the puzzle and at the very last second called "standard poodle." Even better times as there was a $1700 prize that came along with that guy! Let me just say that there were only two letters called when I solved this puzzle. It read something like

_T_ _D_ _D _ _ _ D _ _

Christmas cards

Mail time around here is never nearly as exciting as it is for Steve Burns on Blue's Clues. Usually we get bad news by way of bills, but today I almost broke into the Mailtime dance when we got presents and cards from friends and family we don't get to see much. Email is great, but there is just something sweet about getting a card in the mail, with hand written names especially. Even better? when Grandma sends you a Christmas present you weren't expecting. We now have enough money to buy Mike's tires for his Jeep. This means we can sell my car and get a little closer to living debt free. With my sweet winnings from the Wheel, we should be debt free AND own a new family vehicle by June. It is nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is still reeeeeeeeaally tiny.

I won! I won!

YAY! The Wheel was fantastic and oh-so-kind. I was paired with two super competitors for my stint on Wheel of Fortune, Satara (who ended up being the big winner) and an incredibly tall man we deemed Big Ben. He stood at a smooth six feet eight inches. Yikes. Mike and I arrived late afternoon on Wednesday and spent the night being a married couple. For those of you who get to do this often, I envy you. For those of you who never take this time, please do so soon. My husband really is awesome..and hot, which is always helpful. We have not been on an airplane without children in nine years, so you can imagine our delight when we just got to sit and watch those people chasing their kids through the airport. It was a pleasant way to begin our trip. After taking the shuttle to our hotel, we focused our night on holding hands, stealing kisses and eating dinner at cozymel's..oh and reviewing the 5 pages of information our cabbie gave us concerning our certain damnation for the meat filled diet we consume and (this doesn't really apply) our overly effeminate/homosexual ways. The next morning was the Wheel. I woke up a million times in the night, which put a crimp in my plans to sleep like a nyquil commercial promises, and finally gave in at 4:11 in the AM. I was too giddy. I showered, read my Bible, and took my time getting dressed. It was still only 6 (the original setting on my alarm clock :/)I kissed the man goodbye and prayed extra that I wouldn't get raped on the way to the studio by a crazed cabbie. All was well. God loves me like that. I wasn't the first to arrive and I made friends with all the other drunk-on-happiness contestants. We were ushered in to a secured green room and entertained between briefings and practice rounds. I seriously felt like I was at Wheel bootcamp. Those people take their jobs reeeeaaly seriously! When it came time to tape my show, I was over the top with happiness. I won a toss up, called some really stupid letters, and still managed to leave winning a little over 8k and 1000 bucks in movies! HOW GREAT IS THAT!?! The two most memorable parts of my show were when I introduced my husband as Hot Lips Hoolahan, but gave Pat permission to just call him Mike, and teasing my competition who had just won a Mexican cruise...apparently to Mexico. The screen to the left of us displayed our winnings throughout the game. Because she won the cruise during a prize puzzle, her label read PP Mexican. You better believe I congratulated her on winning a PP Mexican about a hundred times in the following 15 minutes! Crack me right up. She ended up being the big winner, but I was incredibly grateful.. I was unable to solve the bonus puzzle and she was. She won 25,000 smackers in addition to her.... PP Mexican. The rest of our trip was equally as fantastic, sharing our time with my mom, sister, and close friend who all flew in to see me play. My husband bought me the greatest hat and we chatted it up over margaritas (virgin for me, the lightweight) and guacamole! Goodstuff. When we arrived home on Friday morning, our super great friends agreed to keep the kids a little longer so Hot Lips and I could go Christmas shopping. That was a perfect way to slide back into real life. I am so grateful for my time with The Man and God blessing us so incredibly through this show. I owe so many of you! Thanks ;)

Things to look forward to

It is December. If your life is anything like mine, I am sure you also have a million things on your list of things to do or upcoming events. Since moving to Reno, Mike and I have done a decent job of weeding out our "committments" to simply fall in line with what we feel God calling our family to. It is easy to say no to an invite when you recognize it isn't getting you closer to God's goal. Knowing our season will someday change, we feel right now that God is calling us to govern our children; we keep them close enough to guide them, but allow them enough room for God to move them and shape them. It is a tricky job for parents, this arms length love. But I am off track. Here is my list of things to look forward to in the month of December:

Flying on an airplane and experiencing the airport child-free with my husband.

A week night, kid free, no babysitter to pay, date with my husband.

Sleeping...all through the night for TWO nights in a row!Almost zero chance of getting pregnant on either of those two nights.

THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE!!

My Addison turns two. Just family, cake, and icecream.

Cooking dinners with the kids.

Baking with the kids.(The Man has already done some with them. He even shopped for the goods.)
Filling out Christmas cards and driving to Frenchmen's with the fam. Attempting to use the take a family pic using the timer on our camera. (serious entertainment)

Watching endless Christmas movies.

THE MAN'S VASECTOMY!

My friend's Kwanzaa party (or maybe it is chanukkah?)

Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning.

New Year's Eve.
Sorry about the format. For some reason my spacing feature doesn't work on this blog. Again, I seem to have broken it. sigh.

SQUEEEAAALL!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I can't seem to stop saying that.The Wheel called yesterday. I am flying to LA on Wednesday to be there for my taping scheduled Thursday, December 14th. PRAY PRAY PRAY! God has already been blessing us so much. Mostly with happiness. You can imagine how smiley we all are around here :D Please keep us in your prayers for safe travel, kids find a good spot to hang while we are gone, and oh yah- that I win a mad amount of money so I can buy that van from my previos post. lol

This is why we aren't at church....again!

Sigh. My brain hurts. My hair hurts. I am tired of waiting. This is what I would like to have for our family. I am frustrated that I can't even get my kids to church on Sundays if Mike has school that weekend. And he has another year to go. I am tired that our only working car won't start if it is too cold outside! I am going to go read my Bible now. Pray for our vehicle situation please.