i got boots y'all

okay, I have NO idea where my love of shoes came from. Growing up I didn't really care if I had "fancy" shoes. But as I have grown, so has my crazy passion for a good lookin' pair of shoes. I do know where my crazy NEED for a good pair of brown boots came from. It all started with a brown dress I found at Ross. It's cute, it's stylish, it would go perfect with a good pair of brown boots. So began the hunt. I was okay taking my time, wanted to wait for sales. Then those durn little girls on the Gap commercial got me. Up sparked the hunt for boots! Still wanting a good sale I stayed away from the $75 "me precious" boots. Today was the day. :) I found some adorable boots at Wal Mart AND they were at a price that agreed with my passion. I'm so excited! I now have the full outfit and I can NOT wait to wear it :) Better still is that these pretties will go with jeans, crops, heck they'll go with just about anything :) I might even wear them with my pj's I love them so much :) Here's a pic of the darlings that are now resting on the middle shelf of my packed up closet. The look good there. As if they were made just for that shelf in my closet. :) I love them.

life takes it's toll

There are some days when I feel like the heaviness of life is sitting on my shoulders. I have felt that for the past several months. Carrying what we've carried, silently giving it up to God, waiting for His response, it's heavy. It's taken it's toll emotionally. We've dealth with things we never expected to. It's draining. I'm tired. There are days I think I could just spend the whole day napping. But, in all of that the way was made clear. We know what God wants us to do and it hurts. But when has God moved us without tugging our heartstrings? It happens. We've got spiritual "stretch marks". God is doing a new work, moving us in a new way, and pulling us from our comfort zone. It happens. We've no choice but to jump on and follow Him. Not to do so would put us outside of His will and that's a place we don't want to be. So yes, while I sit feeling the weight of life sitting heavily, I know that God is taking that weight little by little and moving it. How can I not be happy and excited when I know who is at the helm? We've news to share (possibly, when it's not too shocking to write), but for now we ask that you pray for us. I've dealt with more of the "stuff" because I'm home and can, but it weighs just as heavily on Scott as it does me. Possibly more because he's seeing it's effect on me. We will come out better on the other side. God will carry us through. I have no doubt. For now we hang onto that and ask you to pray for us. God has chosen this time in our lives to move, and while it's uncomfortable, it's also exciting. I may not write again before Christmas so for all that read this before then I want to wish you a Merry Christmas! I hope your holiday is filled with family, fun, and lots of love and smiles. I hope Santa leaves you something special under your tree!

getting ready for the move

And oh my how God is moving! Good grief He has us caught up in a whirl wind of MOVE. We are moving physically in about three weeks, emotionally all month long, and spiritually like crazy! God is teaching me so much. Not only through school but through life. Wowzers. While I can't share everything with you right now, I can share our thoughts on the physical move. I don't think we've found greater friends than we have in the LeBouf's and the Hernandez's. And both families are moving this month. :( I am more sad because of that than I have ever been. Tomorrow the LeBouf's pull out of town, after Christmas the Hernandez's. The blessing in this is that they are following God's will for their lives and because of this God has blessed them, and us. We are moving into the Hernandez's house. God used all of our situations to bless us all. Now how cool is that? I will not miss this apartment. We've had some really great times here. We've been here for three years now and it seems like it's flown by. David learned to ride his bike here. Dano learned to ride his scooter and make more noise to annoy our neighbors than I thought was humanly possible :) . Scott and I learned that we need storage space. Lots of storage space. At first I thought I might miss the memories we've had here. But they are just memories and we take them with us. We will not miss it here because #1 - we know it's time to move on to something bigger, #2 - our boys need a home with a yard, our halls can't take much more scooter riding, and #3 - we need a safe environment for our family. Crime has increasingly gone up over here, at one point the managers stopped running the background checks and people got in that shouldn't have. It's not a safe place for our kids to play outside, and well - boys just need a yard to run in. What I will miss are the kiddos we're moving away from. I've always loved living so close to kids from our church. We're here to play, listen, and pray with and for them whenever they need it. They know they can knock on our door any time. They also know they can yell from the lawn to our patio any time they just want to say hello. This is the method chosen by most because they like to see me stumble out onto the patio to see who's down there. They are so sweet. And so special to us. I love those kids. But as I said, it's time for us to move on. God's taking us in a new direction and using us to bless our friends. He's using them to bless our socks off! I cannot wait to move into our new home. It is beautiful. We have grand plans which include some paint, flooring, and such. But our biggest plan is to make it our home. Something that is ours. Something that our boys can grow up in. Something that, if we ever had to leave it, I would miss like crazy. God's timing in all of this has been incredible. I know I said it before but I'll say it again - God is just too cool for words. Why He's chosen a crazy girl like me to bless so incredibly, I cannot understand. I do not deserve to be blessed like this. I do find it odd that at this sad time while my two closest friends are preparing to leave I still have reason to smile. God is good to me. :) We have a much bigger bit of news that is just out of our reach right now so I can't share that, but wow. You wanna talk about God blessing you beyond anything you could possibly measure.... yeah, that's what He's doing. His ways are not our ways, and oh how I love that they are not. Had we gone on our own without His guidance we would be in deep loss. Praise God for His still small whisper that leads us each day! Not sure what more to say :)

thanksgiving

How much do you love Thanksgiving? Take that and multiply it by 20. That's me. I love love LOVE Thanksgiving. It is my favorite time of year. I love all the cooking, I love all the colors, and I love all the family time. When I was growing up we'd always have Thanksgiving at my Dad's Aunt Gerneva's. Oh wow it was fun. All of my cousins would come (I'm sure there were some adults there somewhere) and we had our own table and everything. Back when the "kids table" was cool. We always had the big spread of food - so big in fact that Aunt Gerneva would have to cover her kitchen sink with a giant board to make more room for the food. Moms potatoe salad was (and still is) a big hit, there were always at least 3 pumpkin pies, Beau always made a cherry cheesecake, the rolls always burnt :). It was Thanksgiving and I loved it. I'm trying to instill that same sense of family togetherness and love in my boys. We make sure to spend Thanksgiving together as a family and with our families. We spend lunch with my mom and dad and then it's off to Scott's brother Allen's house for dinner. Both meals are unique, but I love them both. Our families couldn't be more different, but I think that is what makes them so special. I couldn't imagine our Thanksgiving being any different. I get excited just thinking about it! I can't wait! We may have lots of turkey and dressing but it's all good :), we love lots of turkey and dressing. It may not be like it used to be but our Thanksgiving is still full of family, fun, and LOADS of good food. (we've even managed not to burn the rolls the last several years!)

So what about you? How do you celebrate Thanksgiving? What traditions have you added/changed over the years?

update

Well I've just realized it's been almost a month since I've updated y'all. Here's what's been going on in our lives lately:

*We are loving homeschooling. It's a blast. We have the freedom to do it our way and we're loving learning about all types of different things while keeping to a schedule that still allows me time to study. Love that :)

*Friday School is awesome. I've met some great women and the kids are so much fun! I've signed up to teach 3 classes next term, Scrapbooking, Spanish, and Reading Comprehension. I'm really excited about that!

*Sunday School is going great! Scott and I love those kids to pieces. I still can't believe the LET us have this much fun! :) I think we get the biggest blessing by getting to spend Sunday mornings with those awesome kids!

*Liberty is going well too. My A term classes really stressed me OUT. Everything suffered because of that, but my D term classes look to be less of a load so that's really good. God got me through History with, of all things, a B! I couldn't believe it. Totally knocked my socks off!

*Spent the weekend with Mom and Dad a few weeks ago and got all, yes ALL, of my Christmas cards done. Everyone will be getting handmade Christmas cards this year that are just fabulous, I must say. :)

Other than that, let's see.... David caught the flu this week which means no Friday School, no Fall Festivals, and possibly no Trick or Treating. Scott and I have almost decided to just buy candy and put it in their buckets when they're sleeping. Still waiting to see if the fever hangs around or not. Awana is about the funnest thing in the world right now. Again, can't believe I get to lead those crazy/awesome girls! I can't believe about 4 years ago I said I'd never work with kids, that's not where God wanted me... what a challenge to God's will! Now not only do I work with kids 24/7 I LOVE doing it! They never fail to amaze me. I swear I must know the world's smartest, funniest, most amazing kids. It's such a priveledge to work with them.

Our family life is better than ever. Homeschool has created the opportunity for the boys to get to spend more time with Scott and that has made ALL the difference. Scott's schedule is out of our control but we have the flexibility now to spend more family time. By following God's plan for our family, we're finding tremendous blessings! What more could a woman want? Now there are some amazing changes in our horizon and I just can't wait. Before I was afraid of God's will - not any more! Good gracious He's got us on a crazy ride! Friends, you get to a point in your faith where there's no time for fear or stalling. You just have to grab the rails and holler, "YEE-HAW!!!" cause He's going to get you there no matter what. You can either have faith and enjoy the ride, or fight Him tooth and nail. I'd rather jump in that front cart and go with God all the way! That's our current mood I think... Bring it on God, we can't wait!

here we go again...

Okie-dokie friends. I have held off blogging for a while because I've had news that wasn't mine to share. Blogging makes me feel share-ish and I don't want to spill beans. BUT I can now pass on some of the news and I'm ubber-excited to do so!

So here we go.... *drumroll please.....*

We are on the move. Again. Lol. Some awesome friends of ours are having to move. Hubby is going back to school and so they are leaving at the end of this year to persue God's dream for them. Scary stuff! I wish them all the best and we are going to M.I.S.S. them terribly! I hate losing friends :( . Here's where the move comes in.... we are going to rent their house! How cool is that??? We are both really excited about being able to help each other out. We need a good house with a nice yard for the boys and they will have honest good renters. It is really neat how God worked all of the details out for us! They will move in the last month of our lease! I think that is really neat. They are also open to us painting and all that so we're excited about that. It's bittersweet because for all of this to happen we have to say goodbye to our friends :( . But with God working so much of this out for us, we know it's His will that these moves take place. So there ya go. :) That's all the news I feel like I can share. In a few weeks I believe everyone will know who and where and the other details, but for now my lips are sealed :) We're letting the other couple tell their side of the news when they are ready.

So.... about the house... omg I'm SO excited :) It's a 3 bedroom house with two living room. One will be a sort of "formal" living room, the other a family/homeschool room. It's got a good sized kitchen, plenty of windows, and ... I may faint.... an actual LAUNDRY room!!! I can fit a folding table in there and all! Holy moley Jesus is good to me! :) To top it all off, the front and back yards are amazing! The backyard is big enough for the boys to go crazy in. Scott's planning on putting a little veggie garden in the back and we're going to have a gorgeous flower be in the front. :) So so excited here. :) Oh and, the oven in the kitchen is one of those "in the wall" type ovens, no more bending down and pulling hot heavy stuff out of the oven! Yay! :) It is really a nice house. I am so thankful that God put us on their hearts when they prayed about who would rent their house. We're hoping that within a year or so we'll be able to buy the house from them and make it our very own :) . I would more than love that. :)

So that's what's up with the no updates, lol. I didn't want to spill any beans until we knew this was all for sure and set. Pray for our friends. They are venturing out into the unknown world of God's calling. It is exciting and scary at the same time.

Anyone know of any good decorating ideas for not so much moolah?

no longer moving

For those of you who don't know yet, we are not moving anymore. Something came up that made it impossible for us to go ahead with our plans. We are dissapointed with how this has turned out, but know that God is in control. We already realize that He's saved us from making what could have a been a disasterous mistake. More to come when my heart is a bit lighter from all the guilt I am feeling. False guilt yes, but guilt none-the-less. I am feeling beat up. I am feeling emotionally "heavy". But I am also feeling a peace that can only come from God. We will move forward in our lives, and we will be better for it. God brought us this far, why question how much further He will take us now?