David Arrived!

Praise be to God; my brother, David, arrived safely at Camp Pendleton, San Diego in the wee hours of Tuesday morning after a very long day! My parents finally received his phone call after 3:00 am when all the recruits are allowed a very short, scripted phone call. Mom answered her cell phone and could barely even hear David or what he was saying over all the other recruits yelling in the background but she knew it was him. Mom said it sounded like the other recruits were yelling "eat dirt" but my Dad assured her it was probably more like "we're here". :) So the intense 13 week journey to become a Marine begins for David. We know he will come home mentally stronger, physically stronger, but Oh for the grace of God, our greatest prayer is for him to grow in spiritual strength and stature! Please pray for my brother over these next 3 months, pray for my parents, and pray that with all joy we will go out to San Diego in a few months and see a man dressed in blues, that I'm so proud to call, brother! It will be a while before we receive any correspondence but I will keep posting through the blog what we hear. Blessings!

**Please watch the video to the left if you want to see a small sampling of what David will be going through to reach his final goal.

Summer 2010

Parent's Moving Day; David and I helping Mom & Dad move out of the

house they've lived in for 26 years

Look at those happy faces, still in love after 31 years!

Abbey's 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Johnson... what a blessing!

Abbey's Spring Soccer awards lunch, GO TIGERS!

Go for it Abbey!

Gotta love the victory tunnel!

Cole's 4th Birthday at the Science Museum... completely awesome!!!

Did you see that? Wow!!

Big birthday smiles! In case you couldn't guess, Cole loves dinosaurs!!

Look everyone, dinosaur poop! Love the little grin on his face!

Cole even got to hold a snake! Mom had to pass on that one!

I will admit right off the bat, that I feel very ADD about blogging; I love to blog but always feel pulled in SO many other directions and it overwhelms me to play catch up over such large gaps! But here it goes because someday I'm vowing to print all these off for our family; has anyone done that by the way?!

As summer started it wrapped up a lot of our Spring activities like Abbey's soccer league, school and all the year-end school parties, Cole's Little Gym sports class, Girl Scouts, and lots of car pool, car pool, car pool lines (woo hoo)! We've had a great month of June filled with LOTS of swimming intensives and maintenance classes; they are doing so great, mommy is SO proud of their efforts! Abbey is learning more advance skills like freestyle, breaststroke, and racing dives where Cole is finally happy to do his "row-row" arms and turn back- front and visa versa while swimming with face in water, YAY! Abbey is doing a summer gymnastics class weekly that she loves and precious Cole has started t-ball. It is a HOOT to watch him, I've got to post video of it soon; he does a little booty shake while waiting to pitch... hilarious! Abbey LOVES to read and I'm so glad that this has spurred such excitement ( I did not like to read for fun as a kid). We have been heading to the library about once a week to pile up and Cole always likes searching for that next awesome dinosaur book. :)

Chad is working his tail off in his job (literally, he's lost 5 pounds) but we are so thankful amid the unemployment everywhere that he truly enjoys his work. He's been playing volleyball and taking the kiddos up to the church with him weekly since they love to watch daddy... nice for mommy too! I've been doing a Monday night Bible study, Esther by Beth Moore, and OH WOW! I'm loving it and God is opening my eyes to much! I've been trying to get back into the workout regimen again but it's been a sluggish start after enduring 2 months of house renovations and not a single visit to the gym (ahhhhhh)! Thankfully we're not taking any beach vacations this year; I'd hate to scare the tourists. O.k. I know that comment sounds ummm, insecure, and that is SUCH a work in progress right now!

Just about the time I was getting myself immersed in Beth Moore's book "So Long Insecurity", I randomly started the Bible Study "Esther" also by Beth Moore and as you can imagine, with anything the Lord is trying to teach you, He WILL use repetition. It's been a funny, painful at times, and eye opening journey and I've just been thrilled to discover new truths about this topic and nail down the ones that satan has tried to block my growth path with for so long. As women, we can be insecure just about anything, and it can go way beyond the obvious physical stuff. I am really asking God to break down these barriers because the last thing I want to do is pass down this insecurity garbage to my precious daughter!! I would love to hear your stories as I'm on this journey; what recently made you feel insecure and how did you handle it? "The LORD gives His people strength; the LORD grants his people security." Psalm 29:11

Oh, oh, and I almost forgot to mention the HUGE life changes that have happened already this summer besides the 2 month house renovation: my parent's moved out of my childhood home (tissues please), my kiddos finished up at the school that Abbey has been at since 2 (I'm homeschooling Abbey next year and Cole will be at new school), and my brother left for the Marines, TODAY! It has been a very emotional month but God brings growth through changes and they are all for the better, so onward and upward we go!! More to come about David entering the Marines!