The Ice Cream Adventure

The other evening, I think it might have been on our way home from church, Matt had this bright idea to stop at McDonald's and get the kids each a kiddy cone to enjoy on our way home. We wondered why they charged us a dollar for each of these and then we got up to the window they handed us full sized cones for our kids! AAAHHH! We were expecting the little tiny ones that were only a couple of inches long that an adult could eat in 2 bites. Anyway, I was worried about what a disaster this would make of my already messy van; but what could we do? We gave them their cones and they enjoyed them. The mess they made actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. After awhile I noticed Garrison had turned his cone upside down and had taken a couple good sized bites out of the bottom of his cone! I thought it was pretty funny; so I got my camera out and took a couple of pictures.

I couldn't get a good shot of Christian. They sure appreciated their daddy that night!

The Brave Little Squirrel

The other day I took the kids to the park to play. As they were playing I noticed this little squirrel who was going around the play area scavenging for food. I was really amazed at how close to the kids he would go. Of course I whipped my camera out and found some old pieces of food from our van. (It was horribly messy, but yesterday it got a total detail job done thanks to my wonderful husband!!) Anyway, I threw these treasures out to him and I tried to get the kids to sit quietly to see how close he would come to us. Maybe if I hadn't had the kids with me I could have gotten him to eat out of my hand; but the kids couldn't sit quite still enough for that. They did pretty well and he got within a foot or two of us. Here are some pictures I took. It made our little excursion to the park that much more special.

A Great Day

Today was a really good day.

We had a very good meeting. Bro. Marshal & Sis. Connie were visiting and after church we all went to a nearby park and had a picnic. We all visited and ate while the kids played. It was a really good time. I kept thinking in my mind "this is what it's all about". The fellowship of the brethren is wonderful.

Here are a few of the points in meeting that really came to me. I even stood up and asked the brethren to pray for me that I could actually take it home and improve my life with what I heard today. So many times I think what a great meeting, but it seems like it's not very often that I go home and really try to put what I heard to good use. Anyway here's what I heard...

We heard about building your house on the solid rock. I remembered a prophesy I got once that told me to build my house on the solid rock. When looking at my life I can see where I've let that rock become sand and I need to get back to the strength of the rock. Close to the beginning of meeting Matt had a song book open to "Honey in the Rock". I was reading the words, but didn't feel to start it; and he never started it either; but as I was reading the words it really got me to thinking about how the Rock of God is not some horrible set of rules that we have to follow to make our lives hard and boring, but there is such sweetness that comes when your house is truly built on the rock. I would like to partake of that sweetness again. It seems like I've let so many things muddy the waters I guess you might say that I don't have the peace, joy, comfort etc. that I should have.

Bro. Rusty got up and read the 12th Chapter of Romans. I was actually out with my baby, but there were some things that he said that really jumped out at me; so I found the scripture later and read it to myself.

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

I would like to renew my mind that I through my life can prove the perfect will of God.

"Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
Not slothful in business; fervent in the Spirit; serving the Lord:
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality."

There's so much in there that I need to work on. I've really been slothful and not fervent in the spirit. I need to rejoice in the hope that God gives us and patient with my little trials (which aren't much of anything really) I need to pray more. It needs to be something that I do instantly without even thinking about it. I need to look more to the needs of my brethren and invite them over more and visit them more.

"Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
If it be possible, as much as lieth within you, live peaceably with all men."

There's so many times that I wonder if people that know I'm a Christian look at my life and see the ways where I'm not doing things like I should and think I'm a hypocrite.

Anyway, I was very glad for the day we had today; and I really, really want to act on the instruction that I received today.

Also, there's been a scripture that a read a while back that I've thought about a lot. It's the 9th and 10th verse of the 12th chapter of 2nd Corinthians:

"And he said unto me, "my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."

Sometimes when I reach my weakest points, where I see what a failure I've become; it's easy to be even more discouraged and down on myself; but I feel like this scripture is telling me that when we are weak it makes us realize our need for God's strength more. If I was never weak it would be easy for me to become puffed up and think I'm really something, but the times that I'm weak makes me realize that the only strength I have is from the Lord. Because when I'm left to my own devices I can really mess things up.

It seems like we hear a lot about rejoicing in tribulation so that we can become stronger, but what I noticed in this piece of scripture is the word necessities. I guess when trials come our way we know that we need to be strong to get through them with God's help; but I think what gets me down the most often is the necessities of life. The boring day to day stuff that can really grind on you. I need to take pleasure in the dirty diapers, the whiny kids, dirty dishes, laundry and all that other stuff that I'm sure you all know about. I can remember when I did take pleasure in these things because I was so happy that God blessed me with a husband and a home and then children to take care of. I'm still happy that God has blessed me, but I don't take pleasure in these things like I should.

Anyway, I've kind of went on and on and I have laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc to do...

So, onward I go, trying to take pleasure in these necessities!

Rascal Flatts Concert!!

Last night Matt and I went to a Rascal Flatts concert. I had never been to a real concert before so it was a new experience for me! It was really great! It had been awhile since Matt and I had went out by ourselves. It was a very nice evening. Sis. Marisela's girls stayed with out munchkins while we were gone.

Taylor Swift opened the concert. She was really good. I like her songs and admire how good she does at such a young age. The crowd LOVED her! She really interacted with everyone good and got us all pumped. Since I had never been to a concert I didn't realize that the greatness of Taylor Swift's part of the concert was just a small taste of the main act.

I want to rewind for a minute. When we bought our tickets I'm pretty sure the ad on Craigslist said that the seats were on row 214. In this Colosseum there is the floor (where the basketball would be in a ball game) and then there's the 100 row, then 200, then 300. So we thought the 200 row wouldn't be too bad. When we got to the concert and the people were helping us find our seats our tickets said section 114, row D! So our seats were on the bottom row (not counting the floor) only the 4th row back. So we ended up having way better seats than we thought we did! The stage was on one end of the floor, and we were close to the other end, but we could see pretty good. Right in front of us in the middle of the floor though was what looked like a small round stage, but it was not connected to the other stage.

When Rascal Flatts started there was of course some awesome effects, smoke, firework type things and all kinds of lighting effects. Their band was on the stage with a huge screen behind them that showed music videos and other effects throughout the whole show. Anyway, Rascal Flatts rose up out of that round stage that was right in front of us! It was so cool! When they were ready to go to the main stage there was a bridge type thing that came down and connected to the main stage. They spent about half of the concert on that stage right in front of us; so that was really awesome!

The reason I wanted to go to a Rascal Flatts concert is because I love how they sound, but they seem like good people. Their songs are, for the most part, morally good and true. The way society is these days it's nice when a group like this comes along who can hold to good values and not be afraid to sing about God and whats good and right. And they're still very popular! Of course I don't know them personally, so they might be horrible people in real life, but I like their songs! I really liked the way the talked to the audience like they were normal people just like us.

Here were some highlights of the evening:

* Matt and I road the Max to and from the concert so we wouldn't have to deal with parking and traffic. We've lived here for almost a year and hadn't rode it yet. It was a neat experience. It was nice to just be able to relax instead of dealing with traffic. Now we definitely want to take the kids sometime. They would love the train ride!

* When Taylor Swift was on stage she did this drumming battle type thing with a woman band member. The really cool thing is they were playing on metal trash cans!

* During the break in between concerts we watched these guys climb up these cloth ladder things up to the lights hanging from the ceiling. They sat up there throughout the show working the lights. It seemed like there wasn't much between them and falling to the floor. Matt and I discussed how much they must get paid to do that. Matt said he thought maybe $30 an hour. I think it would need to be more than that. I'm thinking I might be too much of a scaredy cat even if they paid me lots of money!

* During one song the lead singer of Rascal Flatts picked up a little girl out of the crowd and brought her on stage with him for awhile. I was imagining what a wonderful moment he made for her!

* One of the last songs they sang was "He Ain't the Leavin' Kind", which is about how God doesn't leave us. During the song he had some men from the Marine Corp standing on stage fully decked out in their uniforms standing to attention. I'm not really into the military, but I thought it was a nice patriotic thing to do.

* Another cool thing is there was a few songs they sang which weren't country songs at all, like "I Feel Good" and "American Woman."

* Also during Taylor Swift's concert she introduced each band members and they each played a solo for us. They were very good. During Rascal Flatts concert their guitar player and fiddle player each played a really awesome solo. It was really cool.

I know I've kind of went on and on, and there's probably even more I can tell you, but the bottom line is I really, really, really enjoyed my evening out!

The next concert I want to go to: Josh Turner, because he has an awesome voice; and he seems like he has good moral values also.

Back to Work!!!

Well, Matt got a call on Friday from the Union and he's supposed to start work on Monday!

He got called on a one day job a week and a half ago. The general foreman was really impressed with him and told him that if he had a full time laborer's position come up that he would ask for Matt. Anyway, it sounds like this is a full-time thing. The guy that called him from the Union said that Morgan (that's the company that Matt will be working for) has a lot of work lined up. So we are super excited! Matt will know more tomorrow when he goes to work, but I really think it's all going to work out.

Really he was only off for 3 weeks; which isn't bad at all, but since we didn't know how long it would be before he got called out it made it hard. It was kind of nice having him around all day, helping around the house and with the kids, but we are very glad that he's going back to work tomorrow!

God has really taken care of us. I'm so thankful. I'll have to post again and let you know how it's going.

My Young Shaver

We went to Brian & Michelle's house for Easter. After playing all day with his cousins Anthony was taking a bath with Garrison. When I went to check on them I noticed little bunches of hair floating in the water. Anthony had found some shavers and had done some art on his head. I didn't notice any damage done to Garrison. I was amazed and very thankful that neither one of them got hurt. I will have to remember to check for things like that before putting my kids in the bathtub. Later that night I did notice a spot on Garrison's head that was irritated and there was a little bit of hair missing, but it wasn't very noticeable. Here is a picture of the damage:

Today Matt took Anthony in the garage to fix the damage done. He came back in the house looking like this:

This haircut was inspired by Uncle Brian and Bro. Derick.

Thankfully Matt was not really done, but wanted to see my reaction. I don't have a picture of the real haircut, but it's basically buzzed all the way around; except that Matt left a Little tail in the back. I really don't like the tail, but it is better than the above picture. Maybe that was his whole purpose in showing me this haircut, so that the tail wouldn't seem so bad in comparison. Someday when Matt's not around maybe I'll cut the tail off, but I can put up with it for a little while. I might post pictures of the final job someday. I was thinking that Anthony was needing a haircut, but I wasn't thinking this drastic; just a little touch up.

Anyway, I'm thankful that my boys were OK and didn't get hurt. It's nice that God watches over my children when I'm busy elsewhere.

Traveling Memory

When we were traveling through the mountains yesterday we came upon an accident. It was a good thing there were flares set out or we probably would have hit the car. This car was on its side in our lane. We had to move into the passing lane to miss it. As I said in my last blog our trip took longer, but I'm glad we were far enough behind that were weren't in that accident, or come up on it before flares were set out. After passing the accident I was reminded of a trip I took when I was 12 with my Uncle Gene and Aunt Nadine.

They took me and my sisters with them and their 2 daughters that were our age on a trip through Washington. We went to quite a few different assemblies, and I know there were a lot of things on that trip that helped strengthen my belief in God and my Love for the Brethren; but there is one memory from that trips that really sticks out the most.

It's been a long time ago, but I think we were on our way to Prosser. We were driving on a kind of curvy mountain road when we decided to stop at a viewpoint and look around and read the sign. As we pulled off a van full of people went past us and around the next curve. After looking around for awhile we got back in our van and got back on the road. When we went around the next curve, there was the van that had passed us upside down on the road. Somehow they had lost control and ended up flipping. We stopped to see if they needed help, but they were all OK. As we continued on the road we all marveled at how God had kept us from being in that accident with them because someone would have been hurt for sure then.

The next meeting we sat in was in Spokane. I wasn't in the faith yet, but I know my sisters were and maybe even my cousins I don't remember. I remember thinking all through church about how someone should testify about our near miss, but they never did. I really wanted to tell people about it myself, but I knew I couldn't because I wasn't in the faith yet. I remember that some of my family got up in church, but never mentioned that incident.

After church Uncle Gene said that he thought there was something I wanted to tell everybody. I hadn't even told him how I wanted to tell the brethren about what had happened to us (or what hadn't happened to us). So God had revealed my desire to tell the story to my Uncle Gene and I was able to share with the brethren how God had protected us.

Now the reason I remember this story is not because God protected us on the roads. I know there's been a lot of times that God has protected me on the road and I don't remember it so vividly. What makes it such a wonderful memory for me is that God looked into the heart of a 12 year old and saw what I desired to do and revealed it to someone else. This is one of my many wonderful memories of God's goodness to me.