A Prayer for a Closed Door

Where is the line between letting your brain work and letting your faith work? I could say “I have faith that if I walk off this cliff God will save me”, but obviously, unless called to do so, this is an unwise decision.

But where is that line? How do you know?!

I have an interview tomorrow for an apartment whose range for rent is affordable – unrealistic. It’s the “-“ that I’m worried about. Where is the balance? There is a price that is unaffordable, logically ::Pulls Out Logic Box for Lynne:: but this could be the step of faith God is asking for. This could be God telling us, YOU can’t afford that, but I can. I will need to rely on HIM. But where is that line. I don’t think I have any real reservations about stepping out in faith, but what if I am misinterpreting faith for stupidity.

My prayer is that if it is not God’s will he SLAMS the door. I do not want to be tempted. I do not want to have doubts. At this point I’m thinking if they say I can do, I’ll take it; EVEN if it’s out of my “comfortable” price range. If God has other plans, please Jesus, Slam that door right in my face.

Please pray, an odd prayer, that God closes this door so his will can be done. Right now the door is open so I think we’re just going to go for it. And this is why I’m asking for the door to close. If the door closes in the next 24 hrs I will know this “leap of faith” is actually a “jump off a bridge”

AND if the door doesn't close, pray that we somehow make an extra $200-$300 a month (this is where the faith comes in)!

Thank you all for your prayers! I’ll let you know what happens.

The Dog Behind The Fence

This last Sunday we packed up the kiddos and headed to LINK and Scott’s house for a chance to hang out and let all of our kids meet. Rob and LINK were also there so we had ONE 4 year old, THREE 2 year olds, and THREE less then 1 year olds. Although he probably didn’t realize it, I’m sure Elijah LOVED having some boys around for a change :)

Somehow it ended up that all the women headed outside to talk and watch the kids run around together while the boys settled down with a video game (not sure which one). After being outside for awhile ALL the kids gravitated toward the fence where a little dark barked excitedly on the other side. This eventually turned into a game. The kids would run across the yard then back to the fence and call the dog. Once it barked they’d all squeal and laugh, waving their hands in the air and jumping up down. It was SUPER cute.

After all the play time for Men and the kids we headed inside for some awesome grub (thanks Rachel)! Followed by a fun game and I can’t remember the name! But I NEED to get it for us :)

Overall, we had a great time and so did the kids. Taylor already keeps asking to see her new friends again. Hopefully since we live fairly close we can do this more often.

The Inner Workings of My Purse

As I was digging through my purse today I thought… this is a REALLY weird combination of items. So, of course, I had to share it. I’m sure you other moms can relate:


Wallet
Check Book
Chap Stick
Cough Drops
Bandaids
Mints
Deoderant
Phone
Candy
Pens
Shot Records
Birthday Party Invitations
Car Registration
Size 2 Cinderella Underwear
A plastic bag – in case above underwear are needed…
Ipod
Headband
Clips
Baby socks
Pacifier
Nail clippers
Stamps
A letter to Shanda
Tylenol
And Spare Keys

My purse isn’t THAT big?! How does it fit?

My Drama Queen

Yesterday Taylor turned 4! It’s hard to believe four years ago my first baby was born.

We started the morning with her 4 year old physical (I know bad idea, but the ONLY day I could get off work to take her). The visit went well…then came the shots. Not sure if it’s a good idea or not, but I always try to warn her ahead of time so she is prepared. She had to get 3 (reduced from 5 per doctor recommendation to wait until kindergarten for the other 2).

If she knew what cussing was she would have been cussing the nurse out. First one came tears…second one came screaming…third one was “Leave me alone! You go away! I said stop right now!”

All this followed by an Icee of course and she got to pick a new dress because the 2 she owns are getting worn every other day almost. Her Birthday Outfit is included below :)

We kept with tradition and after nap she got to make her own birthday cake. She picked the type of cake and frosting; she mixed it, frosted it, and put a TON of sprinkles. So many sprinkles she sort of collapsed the middle of the cake. She only licked the spatula a few times while spreading the frosting and surprisingly most of the sprinkles made it on the cake opposed to in her mouth. She stuck the candles on the cake (all in the same place).

After the cake we played board games until bed time and she got to fall asleep with mommy in my bed.

Taylor’s Stats:
She is the 95th Percentile for Height
She is the 40th Percentile for Weight (Tall and skinny…not so shocking LOL)
Her speech and motor skills are great.
Her eyesight is great.
She may have some hearing problems in her right ear OR she just was bored with the hearing test by the time they got to the right ear.

Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Animal: Monkey
Favorite Book: Anything Llama Llama related
Favorite Activity: Board games or painting

She tells elaborate stories and works through problems in her own version of logic in which she ends up with the correct answer half the time.

Happy Birthday Baby!!

A Prayer for Life

I work(ed) with a man that was diagnosed with Cancer. His story is heart wrenching for so many reasons… he’s young, he’s married, but the hardest part he has two boys. Two very young boys. I read his journal (linked above) pretty regularly and every time I do I pray for him and pray for my family. I look at the faces of those little boys and think; they will be living life without a daddy.

Of all the things of this world to leave behind my kids would be the hardest, especially now. What will happen to them never getting to ‘know’ their mom? Everything and everyone else would manage; I guess my kids will manage too, but they wouldn’t know me. They wouldn’t know what I sound like. They’d forget what I look like. They wouldn’t remember our stories times or play times. They would never know how much I adore them.

Bill, my coworker, just recently starting making videos for his boys. A way for them to get a glimpse of who he is(was). We are PRAYING that they will not need to see these videos and God will heal Bill so they get the chance to know their daddy.

I also pray that my children will get the chance to know me and the memories I make with them are of a Godly woman.

The Joy of Projects

I am a very project oriented person. I don’t mind the day to day things that need to be done, but I LOVE projects. I think this is part of what inspired me to want to teach…everyday is a new “project” a goal to teach kids something brand new, to create lesson plans to help reach that goal. I always figured I would teach, I thought that was my passion…

The longer I am out of “teaching” the more I am realizing it wasn’t teaching I loved, it was the challenge of the project and the fact I love kids and would be nice to put the two together.

With that said, I don’t know that I will ever teach. It’s great to think I wasted about $30,000 and 4 years getting a degree I wont use (sarcasm of course). However, the Lord has taken his time to mold me and teach me what I needed to know along the way and help me develop my passion of working on projects. So much of “me” just fits with a project driven goals.

Recently at work I began working with some people from our project/product team and LOVE it. My goal is to show them how capable I am and hopefully if a position opens I would be a top candidate. If you would have asked me last year if I saw myself working at bank for the rest of my life I would have quickly laughed it off. Now, I’m seeing that I could and would gladly do that if I was working on projects everyday. Maybe a position “up-stairs” will be the door God’s been waiting to open for me. Maybe, and what I’m praying for, is that a position on that team would open which would probably mean that would be the extra income we’ve been praying for so we can MOVE OUT! Yay! AND I’d be doing something I love love love (almost as much as my kids and probably more then my husband…JUST KIDDING)

Jordan Went to Bed!

I think I’ve blogged before about how difficult Jordan is to put to sleep. She’s a SCREAMer. Here’s our routine:

Dinner
Bath
Play Time
Story Time
Prayer
Potty
Hugs/Kisses
Turn Music On
Turn Lights Off (to see the stars on the ceiling)
Lay Down
SCREAM

She doesn’t just cry and whine, she practically hyperventilates every time the laying down part starts. We put her in bed and instantly she screams “let me out” “I want up” – both sayings she has learned from her older sister’s tantrums. I cannot figure her out. I don’t know what to do.

The worst part is her screaming wakes up Elijah half the time so then we have to put 2 kids down to bed (again).

Last night I added something to the mix. I laid her down and rubbed her back for “one song”. She got up once to hand me her empty cup (we let her have a couple ounces of water) and laid down on her own. I don’t know if it is a fluke, but I sure hope it sticks!

A Flop to the New Year

There are several things I will cover today because I forgot to blog this weekend :)

First, our New Year’s Eve was spent at Sam’s house! Every year we go, and it is always AMAZING! It’s impossible not to laugh until you cry (or close to cry) when that group gets together! I love our game-night friends!! Played some new games, and one had this crazy awesome timer (5 second rule). Anyway, I also found it really funny that some of my secular friends were slightly shocked that we had such an amazing night without alcohol. When I mentioned I had a great night the comment was “So you finally got drunk?!” haha :)

Part of that great night was THE most gracious, loving offer I’ve had in a VERY long time. A friend of ours offered to take ALL of our kids OVERNIGHT!!! Thank You Jessica and Rick!! She has 3 kids of her own, little like ours and they took them all overnight. It was incredible! Justin was upset I didn’t let him sleep in because I made him go get the girls around 9:30, but I didn’t want to abuse the gracious offer :)

The flop was the ball dropping entertainment. If you watched America’s Got Talent (AGT) you saw Defying Gravity, and they are way great! After the ball dropped they said they would have some band AND Defying Gravity…so we watch this LAME band attempt what they called a song and waited… and waited… only to get a 15 second show from them BEHIND the lame ‘musicians’. Very upsetting.

A cute story is next. The day after Christmas Justin was driving us to his mom’s boyfriend’s house for festivities. He was super tired so about half way there he pulled off the freeway so I could drive. This sparked Taylor’s interest enough for her to ask questions and apparently remember the answers. Yesterday while driving to the store Taylor randomly asked “Daddy, are you tired?” to which he replied, “Typically”. She turned to me and said, “You need to change seats!” I was confused as to why she wanted me to sit in her car seat until she said “Because daddy is tired, you need to change seats so you can drive”

Finally, the resolution. This year there were a ton of things I “want” to do. From having a daily picture blog (I failed already zero pictures in 3 days) to blogging frequent (I know I’ll fail that one). I finally settled on one that will be hard, but really good for us in the long run. Debt-free-edness. I have a strict budget already with very little ‘fun’ money. This year we will not eat out (unless an emergency) we will not buy ‘toys’, we will not spend carelessly. Every penny will have a purpose and any extra penny that does not go to a family necessity will not be spent on things, but will pay off debt. Hopefully this will help us get out of debt a little sooner (3 as opposed to 5 years) and will help us MOVE OUT!!

Happy New Year!