5 stones...

So, as summer winds down I find that I'm looking forward to a lot of things.

-Fall; cooler weather; the leaves turning...
-Both kiddos in preschool - WHAT? (Actually I'm not sure if I'm ready for that one!)
-Anticipation as to what the end of this year will bring for our family - and what next year holds...
-My 20 week ultrasound in Oct. to find out if we're going to have a football team, or another player for the "girl's team..."
-Did I mention fall?

Anyways, you're probably wondering what my title means. Let's just say this past Sunday's sermon, mixed with an insightful Sunday school class led to some really good discussion between Hubs and I about where we're at.

Even though we have yet to see anything major happening in our lives in the areas of finance, and work for Cornerstone, we are
still facing each new day with the expectation of great things. But 2 + years of this can get weary. Lately, Hubs and his partner have been taking on a lot of remodeling jobs which have brought a lot of work - but a lot more stress - because we still have SO much debt.

We thought it would be easy.

Put the house up for sale, start getting creative with jobs, cut back on our budget...

We didn't expect things like: the market to be flooded in our area with close to 700 homes and bare land for sale
Oh, and getting pregnant...

But, in the midst of all of this - we had a light shine on our circumstance in the form of some wise council. A friend of ours asked Hubs what his "5 stones" were. Hubs started to correlate this analogy with one of his favorite Bible stories about David and Goliath and the 5 stones he gathered before facing the giant.

Our friend continued to elaborate on what he meant by his question, and proceeded to say that even though David had the courage and strength of the Lord on his side, and he knew God was going to be victorious, he still gathered 5 stones. In his mind he must have thought that there is no harm in being prepared. Maybe he even thought it could take all 5 stones to kill Goliath. But with and intense faith, he picked those stones and looked at this "giant" of a situation, and what did he do next?

He ran. Full speed. At the giant.

And God was victorious! And it only took one stone.

To wrap this all up for you - I just feel like no matter what our circumstances, God has called us to be obedient and to sometimes just wait on Him. But that doesn't mean that we can't be prepared when he calls us forward to face our giant to be able to reach into our pocket and feel the smoothness of those stones and to know that no matter what happens, we are the vessel and God will be victorious through our sufferings if we allow His hand to lead us.

What are your 5 stones?

Peanut turns 3!

Well, after a LONG, but good week of VBS (vacation bible school) at our church, we wrapped up the weekend with Peanut's 3rd birthday party! We've been talking for about the last month on what kind of cake he wanted to have, and all he would say was "fireman" or "firetruck"... So I opted for the firetruck cake - since it seemed a wee bit easier to me than trying to make a person out of a cake! Sheesh!

So, I must say, Peanut was a hoot. He reacted to opening his gifts and cards like you would hope any little kid would (but usually doesn't) in that every single thing held the same exact excitement in his mind and he LOVED everything! All of the grandmas and aunts had HUGE success with the cards they gave - in fact he could have been completely satisfied by the cards alone! He loved them!!

He's an easy-to-please kid right now and I love it!! It was so fun to watch him in the moment.

Let's just say the highs of yesterday's events took their toll today, in that we had a few too many meltdowns for no reason whatsoever. It was when we realized he wasn't getting his way today, like he did yesterday, that things started to turn ugly. We have an unsaid rule on birthdays that typically you can get away with a lot by just saying, "but it's my birthday" or in Peanut's case "it's mine and I don't want to share" and for one whole day we allowed it.

So really don't feel too bad for us! By allowing the "it's your birthday rule" -a.k.a. "you don't have to share with your brother," we unknowingly set ourselves up for a VERY emotional day today! AND it didn't help that my husband also called me "hormonal" today - but that's another story entirely...

Anywho - here's some pics from the big day!
Madagascar 2!
The cake...
Our b-day boy!
Blowing out the candles
Cake time!

Gone Fishin'

So we decided it would be a total blast to wake up early Saturday morning, before the intense heat of the day, and head over to our sub's fishing pond. The boys had been talking about catchin' a big fish all week, so we figured it was time.

Let's just say early morning must be best, because there was definitely no lack of bites! The boy's lines barely hit the water when I heard a giddy scream coming from Big Boy "I caught one! I've got a big fish - look, look!!" It was at this time that we had to remind Big Boy that in order to catch the fish, you couldn't drop your pole and dance around, you had to REEL IT IN!!

That's my boy.

It wasn't 2 seconds later that peanut had a similar reaction and reeled in his fish too.

Unfortunately, given the extreme excitement due to fish literally jumping on the bank - once the bites stopped, so did the attention spans. But we gave it a good go, and stayed for about an hour, testing every hole and secret spot there was.

Still, we only came home with 2 little guys.

Hubs went to filet the first fish to find that the meat would equal MAYBE one bite, and decided to give up and tossed the fishies in the trash.

In our 100 degree garage.

Let's just say my smeller's a little sensitive right now anyways, and I could've done without the rotting fish carcases in our 100 degree garage for, let's say, FOREVER!!!

Our garbagemen are going to love us tomorrow when they find the surprise! Bleh!

I also forgot to mention in previous posts, that Hubs had given Big Boy permission at one point (when I was gone for the day) to go potty outside - as long as it was next to a bush. Well, let's just say we have been caught off guard multiple times when Big boy decided to go potty out in our front yard next to the water feature while cars drove by... Well, this fabulous day was NO EXCEPTION in that 5 minutes after we arrived, we heard a sweet, innocent "mom, dad, can I go potty?"

And much to my dismay (because our sub's fishing pond is right out in the big wide open part of our sub) Big Boy goes over to the most indescreet spot, pulls his pants down and continues to go for about 5 minutes. Because at this point anything is more fun than not being able to catch anymore fish.

Well, let's just say you need to check out the last picture to get yourself a pretty good chuckle - as you'll see Hubs doing while trying to look like a professional fisherman.

Love this kid!
So grown up next to his daddy
My Men
Daddy showing Peanut how it's done
Hmmm... Just had to share! Gotta love boys :)