loooooong post

SO much has happened in the last 3 days. Or week. Whatever.

Let me start with the way God is overwhelming us with support for our China trip. When we started talking about this mission trip, I didn't think about the financial part. I thought about how neat it would be to see the Chinese culture and share the Word and be away from "Mama world" for 14 days (I love them, but vacations are welcome too). Then we sent out the letters. The letters that go against everything in me because it is so awkward to ask people for money. Once I dropped them in the mailbox, I experienced anxiety that was most uncomfortable. $6000 is a LOT of money. And it would be impossible to raise in just 6 weeks. Then we got our first couple of donations, or whatever you want to call them. With only 8 people sending money, we have raised half of what we need (beware you friends...letter #2 is being sent shortly)!! I am in awe of how great our God is. Oh me of little faith...

Second, we have not found a church home. You read a little about that experience not too long ago. Well, there is an office on campus that filters church positions and resumes and all that for its students. Cam sent in his resume to this office last last Friday and the following Wednesday (a week ago today) he got a call from a church who is looking for a worship pastor, letting him know that they have narrowed down the resumes from 25+ to 2. Him and another guy. Umm...wow. We didn't even know they were looking at his resume. He met with them last Saturday and we went to church there Sunday. It is everything that we were looking for in a church. So now we are excited and our hopes are up, and we are praying fervently that this is the home God has for us. I will keep you posted. Cam leads worship Sunday and it should go quickly after that...But to think that I had all but given up wondering why God wasn't giving us a "green light" at any of the churches we visited. Oh me of little faith. Again.

Thirdly, just now, I heard dripping. And I didn't think a lot about it. Then it got louder. So I was about to get up from writing you guys this little post, when Faith walked in and said "umm...the bathroom. upstairs. come look". Oh dear. I took off at full speed. I got upstairs and the bathroom was flooded. I mean, they filled the sink with toliet paper so it couldn't drain then turned the water on. The vanity was floating in water, the rugs were drenched. So I started drying, ran a load of super wet things downstairs to the washer only to find that the downstairs hallway was now receiving water from the ceiling. The hallway was soaked. So I ran back upstairs to dry some more, opened the vanity and saw that the bottom had an INCH of water in it. The fan is on, the floor is as dry as I can get it, and the hallway is still dripping. But I do NOT want to have to tell the SWBTS workers. Because those poor guys have been right outside my house all day trying to fix a clogged sewage drain. And I don't want to be the one to tell them that my little beauties clogged a different drain...

At Last

I didn't ask her to jump. I asked them to stand together for a picture. But this is what the little monkeys do. They don't do still.

I finished the dresses. They turned out okay as long as no one looks too closely at the stitches and as long as no one looks inside them. lol Gracie's is a little big, but seriously. This is the first clothing item I have ever sewn. Really only the third or fourth thing I have ever sewn period. So, in light of that, yay me!!

Project BIG

So I got all ready to sew the girls "costumes" today. I cleaned the kitchen and mopped it so I didn't have to worry about the fabric touching the floor. Then I got my sewing basket thing out and the fabric, and...the sewing machine was no where to be found. Then I remembered...it is in the storage. UGH. Maybe tomorrow...

Churches

We are desperately searching for a church to call home. It seems as though nothing "fits". We are willing to go wherever God wants us to, even if it isn't the place we would choose, but there has not been a feeling of "this is it" at any of the churches we have visited. The one we have gone to most, we want to go to really bad. So we keep going back, hoping that God will give us a green light. And I don't think He is going to.

As a side note: It is a most heartbreaking thing when people fail to make the awkwardness of being a visitor more bearable. This morning not one person spoke to me until the preacher said to greet a friend. We were there early. I dropped kids off in classes and the teachers pretty much just looked at me. I didn't know where to take one of my children, and the class I thought was hers seemed to already be in session...It was very uncomfortable, and my personality wanted to run away. Now, don't read between the lines here. I don't think by any means that people were TRYING to be unfriendly. I honestly believe that it is simply an oversight. That they aren't reminded by their leader to be sure they greet new faces (and I say this because our last preacher--my dad--was always telling us all that we needed to say to hello. to be friendly, so I kind of expect it and perhaps I shouldn't). But let me tell you, it makes a big big big difference when you don't really know anybody.

So, we need a church home. Badly. Pray for that for us okay? And also pray for support to come in for our trip to China. We have had some great support come in that brought me to tears due to its extravagance, but it isn't enough. We need more. So if any of you phantom readers would like to help us go to China to spread the Love of Jesus to a part of the country who hasn't heard, let me know. I would love to have you be a part of this ministry!

Lazy Day

Surprise!!

My Mama is here! Just until lunch tomorrow. But she is here!! :)

Pictures from last week...

Last week was my birthday (I am 28!), we went to a Pioneer Day at some little village, we went to the pumpkin patch, and the zoo. Then we drove to San Angelo. Here are some random snapshots so you can pretend you were here with us :)

Early on my birthday morning. Thus the lack of clothing and the wet hair. My love gave me a super pink iPod that is engraved with I love you and Happy Birthday! Yes, we laugh at him, but how cute is he?!! It warms my heart and makes me smile everytime I see Happy Birthday now. Because now it can be my birthday every single day :) And do you see where Ellie's hand is headed? She needs help. Maybe Dr. Jen can fix that...

This is at the Pioneer Day. They begged me to take their picture, but they wouldn't look at me. Silly girls. I really like it though...

Oops!! She fell off the top in between the bales of hay. Check out those squishy mooshy cheeks!

I am not sure at all why I like this picture so much, but I do. I think in this picture she reminds me of my cousin Amanda (what do think Manda?), and usually she reminds me of my aunt. And Amanda was that cousin that I followed around wanting to be just like.

This is Chasity's daughter. Isn't she beautiful?!! And their eyes...

The new lion cub was nursing! And it made me ache. For another nursing child. ahhhh

Playing in the hay.

Don't her lips look contorted?!! Like ape lips or something. Makes me laugh. lol

So there you go. My pretty little ones during our busy busy week.

Homemade Tennis

As I was talking up dinner to my children, trying to convince them that sweet potatoes are good, I decided I would put marshmallow cream on them after I mashed them and mixed in cinnamon and agave nectar and some butter. I know. I threw the nutritional value out the window. But they were GOOD. And homemade marshmallow cream is the bomb! And since the recipe made an ungodly amount of the sweet fluffy cream, I made a cake. The kind of chocolate cake that has pecans in it. And marshmallow cream under the choclate frosting. But I used all my powdered sugar while making the mallow cream, so I had to make powdered sugar. And for some reason, I couldn't get it as smooth as the store bought kind. Mine was grainy. But it is all good. I still get cake.

THEN, after the cake was made, but before we ate it, we decided to go play tennis. I have never before in my life played tennis. And it showed. My eye saw the ball (when I didn't close them), my brain told me what to do (duck and run!!), but then something happened and I just couldn't follow through. I couldn't hit that stupid yellow ball. I WANTED to. So badly I wanted to. But I just kept swinging and hitting air. I was sweaty and my shoulder hurt. And Cam laughed so much at me he will probably be sore tomorrow. LOL It was fun though. I think I should buy a racket...

Dr. Jen

This could be a long post. You are forewarned.

I went to see my cousin yesterday. She is a chiroprator and a wholistic doctor. It was very interesting...Me and my girls have been having issues. All sorts of issues. But I hesitate to go to md's for every little thing, but I know that something is off with us. I will explain the symptoms and then tell you her diagnosis/treatment.

Me: I can't stop crying. My "visitor" comes more than once a month and is irregular. I have had headaches SO often it isn't funny. I can't sleep.
Diagnosis: I have issues with my ovaries. Probably due to all of pregnancies and lactation. If we can fix the ovaries, the symptoms will go away. I simply have to take a supplement daily until I am all better and Dr. Jen tells me I can get off them. I also have a slight milk allergy (which I knew from when I was 6 yo but had forgotten about). But I REALLY like milk. So we wil have to discuss this next week when I go back ;)

Faith: she bleeds from the second unmentionable part. We have been to the pediatrician for this and he wants to send us to an internologist and have very invasive colon tests performed. I REALLY don't want to do that with my 3 year old...I will if I need to, but I don't want to.
Diagnosis: She has an infection. She needs to drink colloidal silver and take a probiotic

Gracie: She doesn't eat. She can't...you know...go.
Diagnosis: She has an allergy to milk and rice (slight, not life threatening) and has blood sugar issues. She needs more protein and absolutely no high fructose corn syrup (which is seriously in EVERYTHING)

Okay, now Jen, if I got all that wrong, let me know :) I don't listen well. LOL

Now folks, let me tell you. I am EXCITED. I am waiting to see how it all works out, but I have never ever ever been to a doctor that told me exactly what the problem was and how to fix it. Usually you get the vague "let's get on antibiotics and see if that helps..." And to top all that off, the treatment is totally natural.

So yay!! Go me. And my cousin. Her blog is over there. in the sidebar. You should read it :)

There's no place like home

I returned to my humble abode yesterday afternoon from the big city of San Angelo. I like it there. I like the slow pace, the great shopping deals (bc people there are just too cheap to buy things unless they are 75% off, so the clearance racks are out of this world!), the family. I just like it. I went to church with my brother. I want to bring that church home with me. It was refreshing. It was eye opening. It was good. A missionary spoke to us about, well, I'm not sure, but what I brought home with me was the urgency to fill in the gap. To pray for workers. To GO. And I saw some friends. I cried with one of them, because apparently I am NOT the only person who cries. lol I miss it. I miss being there. I missed out on establishing some very close friendships while I was there and I am just seeing it. I hate that. I hate regret. So I am going to live today like there is no tomorrow (cliche I know). I am going to throw off the fear and put myself out there!! woohoo!

I baked bread when I got home. 3 loaves. Chocolate chip, cinnamon cranberry, and cinnamon swirl. It came out of the oven around 9:30 last night and I had two pieces of it's yumminess then dreamt about it all night just waiting for morning so I could justify eating more.

I missed my husband. While I loved visiting "home", I love even more when my family is together in our own home. There is just a sweetness knowing we are all under the same roof. Being able to touch his face, kiss him, dog pile him with the girlies. See his wrinkled up laughter face. I just love him. So much. :)