The Tao Kwon Do Kids!!

Gabriel and Annalina have started up TKD and are really enjoying it!! We'll see how it goes! They are in the class with their friend Austin. Annalina can now "Tao Kwon Do Gabriel".

Just love this picture!!

Psalm 4

Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer . . . . 

(vrs.3)But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him.

 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

 

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord. 

There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the ligh o they countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.

 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.

I don't need to rehash the circumstances of late but just state God's goodness in carrying me through and my families support when I felt like fainting. It has been an intense 24 hours but the Lord has been so good. Last night things came to a head , and it was difficult to bear. IN devotions I read Psalm 4 and it was just perfect. The chapter is just great but verse 5 was sent from God for this time. "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord." I loved this because I told people yes we do have to "trust the Lord" and sometimes that is a passive thing we wait and trust but that was not my position I had to be making very important decisions and be active. This verse was just great if basically said do the right thing that which is honoring to God and put your trust in God. I just love it. Well, it seems today to come together! Funny, how that happens! LORD WILLING this should basically be over tomorrow morning! God's ways aren't mine and this has taken some wierd turns but it really looks like it is coming to an end.

I am leaving town on Thursday to spend Mommy/kid time with my amazing children. Just me and them no houses, difficult people, unending work. We are gong to swim in the hotel/motel pool and hang out till Brian flies in. We don'tknow when that is but if it is late we will head up to Tahoe and wait for him there. I can't wait to drive out of town with the kids and with the brownies we are going to make before we leave!

During this vacation may the "Lord, lift up thou countenance upon us (especially me!) . . . .and put "gladness in my heart!" Also, out of Psalm 4.  In an email to family and friends I asked them to pray this over me for the next week and a half.

Fort Lysne

Since torturing the dog was not allowed Gabriel and Annalina moved on to Fort building this afternoon. This is their fort. They are having a "party" in it. The teddy bears are the GUARDS!! Menacing, huh? Maybe not but very cute!! Has God blessed me with a Beautiful Girl or what?!!!!

Ross the Budding Artist

Last night Ross closed himself into the kids' bathroom with Annalina's paint and paintbrushes and also a kichen glass and ladel. I was on the phone with my friend Florence who was on her way to come visit. Annalina came and told me Ross had painted the bathroom. When I went in there he hd definitely painted especially the toilet but also the side of the tub, walls, door AND there was toilet water SOPPING the floor in front of the toilet. I couldn't figure out how he got that much water out until I saw the ladel and cup both having paint on them!!! Nice. It was wasn't pretty . . . well, maybe it was to Ross. His work might be appreciated in England since they like decorated toilet seats but not here.

Sunday in July

Today at church I heard an excellent message out of Mark 10:46-52 titled "How to get something from Jesus". 

I ran into Gabriel's Sunday School teacher and there was confusion about our move and she thought we were moving away and she started to tear up and get emotional. She was VERY relieved when I told her we were not moving away for a year. She did not what Gabriel to leave her now she said she needed 9 or 10 more like him. She said he was so good and really listened to what she was saying. I saw her give him a hug when he came to Sunday school. She is an older lady and she looks A LOT like Paula Dean on the Food Network!!! It was a blessing to me to see her joy in Gabriel.

On our way to church today my mind was consumed with all that has been going on which is a lot lately and out of nowhere Annalina said "God has us in His hands, but we can't see Him." Out of the mouths of Babes! That was good to be reminded of! The other day she told me "I love you Mommy but I love God more." I told her that was a correct thing! 

Tonight our neighbors came over and invited us to come eat leftover birthday cake. She served us the cake and Annalina said "We need to pray" the lady said "we would appreciate that". Annalina very nicely prayed and thanked God for the food. The daughter of our neighbor leaned over and whispered to Annalina "good job" and gave her a thumbs up. Annalina smiled not used to getting thumbs up for praying! The other night at the BBQ Gabriel said to the hostess that we needed to pray and she just made an excuss that Gabriel didn't have all his food yet so it was to soon! Gabriel and Annalina prayed together on their own!!!

As for Ross he made it through church today. I asked him if he was going to be good at church and he said "No or nope", then I had to insist on him saying "yes, maam". I asked him after church if he was good and he said Yes and he has told me no before! After church we were at my friend Kristin's house and Ross wanted to play with my keys and I told him he couldn't because when it was time to go I would say where is my keys and Ross said "a wost (lost)". He obviously was listening to my explanation and got the picture!!! The other day Ross said "Ahaho, fun". I thought that was cute he was telling me that "Tahoe" was "fun". Pretty cute.

Babe had a super busy day on the boat but he said it was going well. That is good to hear.

Moving pictures

Everything is moved out of our other house. The walk through is next Thursday. It will be great to be done. It will take awhile to get completely organized but it is getting there. I need to use my time wisely that is for sure.

The pictures with other kids in them is a friends kids I was babysitting at the time. They had a great time playing in the mattress fort and playing hide and seek with empty cabinets, etc. I scared the kids pretty good when I came rising out of a pile of comforters on the floor!!

More Tahoe Pictures

Top picture is Gabriel's the "foolish man's house"! The picture of Gabriel and Annalina zonked out is on the way home but the one of Ross sleeping is from the way there! The one of the 3 kids on the log I like to label "Larry, Moe, and Curly"!

Back to the Weekend

Babe's parents were here visiting last week and on Saturday we went to Lake Tahoe and went about a mile down to Vikingsholm on Emerald Bay were there is a GREAT beach. The kids had a blast and Babe and I hung out on the beach. It was a wonderful day. We finially left when we were all getting very hungry and it started raining and thundering! We hiked some of the way up in the rain which was kinda fun!!! We found a really neat outdoor restaraunt called Izzy's which had WONDERFUL burgers and onion rings! The kids were exhausted after all that. Ross said recently this week "Ahoe FUN" meaning Tahoe FUN! We are going back for about a week for vacation in August! I am so excited!

Neighborhood BBQ

Our new neighbors threw a BBQ welcoming us to the neighborhood and kind of farewelling another too. We had a GREAT time. Babe is back on the boat now but the kids and I went. The kids played with the former Commander of Top Guns kids (our next door neighbors). It amazes me where God has put me. I never in my wildest dreams would have known I would raise my kids in this circle. They had a GREAT time running around in the dark catching bugs!! It reminded me of when I was little. I am thrilled with our new neighborhood. Annalina for awhile kept going home during the BBQ and changing clothes to be funny. She changed 3 or 4 times! What a goof ball. Gabriel spent time trying to teach the 3 year old how to ride a bike.

The other day we were at our neighbors house (wife of former CO Top Gun) and Ross looked around and said "a nice, a nice". She said "well, thank you Ross". It was nice. Ross is so funny. My mom got such a kick out of him on the phone the other day. The fighter jets were flying over head and mom could hear Ross emphatically saying "good  guys, good guys!" I LOVE being able to watch the planes fly right over us it is just great.

I heard from Babe on the ship and things seem to be going well. Ross is already calling other men Daddy. He was walking around yesterday saying "a boat, a boat" because Daddy is on the boat.

Annalina's 1st Date

Daddy and Annalina have been talking for a LONG time about going to "eat meat together". They both LOVE meat!! The other night they got dressed up and Daddy took her to a white linen tablecloth resteraunt and she had a New York Steak (U ork steak!) and Daddy had Porterhouse steak. The hostess told Annalina that she always gives coloring papers to princess' whenever they come in. She asked Annalina if she was a princess and Annalina replied "No, but I look like one!" That is a typical Annalina!! When Daddy asked her if she wanted a New York Steak she said "no, I want meat" Daddy explained it to her and when the hostess returned she asked for a "uork Steak". After their date she would say "I had a great time!" She thought it was GREAT that she was "treated me like princess".

Recent Gabriel stories

I have SOOOO much I should blog but with this unexpected move I won't have the time until later. I did want to put Gabriel stories in here before I forget them.

1) Gabriel and his Daddy were watching a documentary on the War of 1812. They were both just loving it. I heard Gabriel say to his daddy "Why are they fighting when the Bible says we should love our enemies?" Daddy explained that the Bible was talking about our personal lives not country against country! I was impressed that Gabriel was analyzing what he was watching in light of the Scriptures!!! SUPER!

2) Gabriel was laying on the futon on his back and I asked him what he was doing. He said "There on no fire alarms in the house the builders must have forgotten them". Then he mentioned how he learned on a DVD about firefighters that there should always be fire alarms. We finially found one in the hallway!! He is a thinker and observant!!

3)On Sunday Gabriel AGAIN got the good kid award during children's church. He frequently gets it and one of the leaders said "Gabriel is always good". Babe asked Annalina if she was good and she replied "I don't know" (We thought this was funny because it is her personality coming out). I asked Gabriel and he said that Annalina sat like he sat and was good too. He said maybe they just got us confused. Gabriel shared the large chocolate bar he was given with her. What a sweetie.

4) The other night Gabriel was just EXHAUSTED. We have been so busy with the move, company, etc. He was really acting out and being bad. We put him to bed and he came out to where we were. I took him back and asked what was wrong. He said he couldn't sleep because he kept thinking of the bad words (really more of an attitude) he had said. I asked him what he needed to do and he said "pray". He did and was fine and laid down in bed and slept right away.

5)We were up at Lake Tahoe the other day and at an outdoor resteraunt and Gabriel started questioning me "Did you and Daddy live in different places before you were married?" I told him we did and that was God's way. He wanted to know how he would know who he should marry and I told him the #1 in importance is that they love God. He said "How will I know that?"I did not want to get to deep about this he is only 6! I gave him an example that if the other person would rather go do other things than go to church that would be a clue. He reacted "Oh, no".  He also asked me if I had graduated from high school. I told him I had and I had also graduated from college. He asked me what school I was in now. Babe told me later I should have told him "the school of life"! Anyway, I told him when we move to Monterrey Daddy would go to master's school to study computers. He thought studying computers sounded quite strange!!

What a kid. He is a thinker.