Sunny Days and Blessings

How have you guys been? Our scholarship application for the Y finally got looked at. Unfortunately they didn't approve us for the level of scholarship we were hoping, but they did give us a little off each month, which was good. What was great was that my dad decided to have my mom go ahead and pay for 6 whole months for us, including Nick! 

I mentioned that Nick has a membership to a little gym near his work that only costs us $15 a month. We're going to keep that for now, mainly because he goes on his lunch break to work out, and the closest Y to his work is too far away to make that an option. But he's gone to the Y with me a number of times already, and he really likes it. Yesterday evening we took the kids to the pool there, which we all really enjoyed.

Other than Sunday and today, I've not missed a day. Today I missed because Morgan had a soccer game this morning during the time I usually go (they won 6-0!), and afterwards we went and got lunch, then took the kids hiking on a trail in a state park near us. We did about 3 miles, which is a little more than I would have probably done at the Y, so I still got my exercise in, and we really needed a family day together. It was gorgeous weather, and other than the $5 or so worth of gas we used, it was completely free!

Monday Morgan and I have our fitness evaluations so that we can get in the system for a routine, and Nick's evaluation is a week after that. I've been trying to make healthier choices at home as well. The biggest thing I have to conquer is cutting out sweet tea. Here in the South it's truly a staple, and I generally make a pitcher every day. Besides being just plain cheap to make, every last one of us really loves it, but I know it will do us all good to cut it out. My main problem is that well, I hate plain water! Nick says nobody can hate water because it doesn't taste like anything, but that's just not true! I have to have some sort of flavor, or I just don't like to drink it. I've bought a couple of different sugar free, calorie free "water add-ins", but I've not really been happy with the taste of those either, so we'll have to see. I'd really prefer something with no calories, so I don't really want to go the Gatorade route. I guess maybe it will just have to be something I acquire a taste for.

God has really been blessing us lately. Money is crazy tight, but He's been providing day by day. Nick was able to sell some scrap metal today, which gave us enough extra gas money to drive us to the hiking trail as well as get lunch. And I got a small mending job from a lady at church that will yield a few dollars. And at the end of the month I'll be shooting a wedding for a couple at church, which will really help with bills. I won't make as much as I would if I were doing it for anyone else, but I was just glad they committed to hiring me because they're really on a budget, and even the discounted rate I quoted was kind of a stretch for them.

I'd really appreciate your prayers for the upcoming week. I've got a couple of bills that are due before Nick gets paid again, one of which is our water bill. I know God has it in His power to send the money for both, and I'm praying He does just that!

Life Changing

Gosh, it has been BUSY around here! Morgan has started soccer, which is taking up some of our time. She has practice on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and games on Saturdays. This past Saturday was her first game, and she did great! They won 4-1, which is a nice change from the last season she played. This time around her team is older and more experienced, and it shows.

I've also had some sewing to do. Daisy's birthday is coming up on October 5th, and she has requested a special birthday skirt. I finished it today, and I'm kind of in love with it. The main part of the skirt is made from this sweet pink nursery rhyme toile, and the bottom band is a coordinating solid pink. I plan on getting her a plain white t-shirt and embellishing it with some of the toile, maybe a rosette or two.

Here in a few minutes I need to sew up a skirt for an Etsy order. And guys, Christmas is only 15 weeks away! I should have started on Christmas gifts last month! I've already been forewarned that I'm not to turn our house into Santa's workshop again this year, and  I've promised to try not to.

But the biggest thing that has been taking up my time is my (early) birthday gift from my mom. This is seriously the best thing she's ever given me (besides you know, life). She's paying for me and the kids to have a membership to our local YMCA for a few months! We're waiting on the Y to review our application for scholarship to see if maybe we can get the membership at a discount (I'd really appreciate you're prayers on this!), so that maybe they can pay for it long enough for us to get our income tax back and pay for a year up front. 

This has been life changing for me, just in the week since I've been going. I'll be really honest here, I've known for a while now that I really needed to do something to get in shape and lose weight. Diabetes runs in my family, and it hit my mom when she was just a little older than I am now. I think that's the main reason she's doing this for me. Nick has been working out and losing weight for the last year and 1/2, and it's made a huge difference in his life. 

My biggest problem was just not having an opportunity to work out on a consistent basis, which made it seem like it wasn't worth doing really at all. There for a while I tried walking around our neighborhood with Daisy and Jack in the stroller, but then it was too hot, then it was too rainy, then it was too cold, then they got to where they just fussed and tried to climb out the whole time, and it just wasn't worth it. But the Y has child care, and they will watch the kids for up to two hours a day, included with my membership. 

The kids LOVE it there. They have this big plastic playhouse shaped randomly enough like a tomato. Daisy calls it "the bamato house" and I just want to freeze time every time she says it. She's getting old enough now that she doesn't have very many childish mispronunciations anymore, and I cherish them all. 

Right now we're going on a free pass because they're still reviewing my application. The free pass counts for everyone in our household, so that means Nick has gotten to join us a few times. He has his own gym membership at a gym close to where he works, but it was really great having him come show me how all the machines work. Once the membership is active Morgan and I will get to meet with a personal trainer to do a fitness test and get set up on a routine. Then every time we come in we'll log into a computer system that will give us a tailored workout plan for the day. For now I've just been doing the treadmill and some weight room routines Nick showed me. 

It's been hard, but so very good to have the chance to push myself, and I've lost 7 pounds so far. :) Anyway, that's what I've been up to, how about you guys?

A Friendly Reminder

So how are you guys doing? I'm doing well. Money is tight this week, but God has been blessing us. I should get paid tomorrow for a group of toddler skirts I made for a lady at church, and I have orders for a couple more from people I went to high school with. And my parents stopped by today with a HUGE load of groceries, which was AWESOME. 

Also in the awesome category (well, not so awesome at the time, but in the long run - and yeah, kind of awesome even at the time), I got spanked on Monday night. I wasn't expecting it. Nick went up to take a shower, and I went up with my laptop with the intention of showing him something funny I'd found when he got out. I was lying across the bed on my stomach when he came out, and he smacked my bottom hard with both hands. I squealed, and he pulled me back onto my feet and pulled down my jeans and panties. To be honest, I was expecting things to go in a different direction, so I was a bit surprised when he started spanking me, rather hard, with his hand. And then he started lecturing me on slacking off a little with some of the housework. And he asked me what happens when I do that. And that's where I made my mistake. 

See, during an actual, serious discipline spanking I have a very hard time with articulating just what's happening. During sex, it's a huge turn-on, but during a punishment not so much. It's embarrassing, and it also pushes hard on that little core of rebellion inside of me, and he knows this. When Morgan is defiant with me, I sometimes make her do jumping jacks. Not like a bunch of them, usually something like 10-15, certainly less than the average public school gym teacher demands in P.E. It doesn't hurt her, it doesn't impose a physical strain on her, but it brings home to her that she is the child and I am the parent, and at the end of the day, I'm in charge and she has to do what I say. And she HATES it, but it gets the message across, and it generally brings her back in line pretty quickly.

And it's with the same reasoning that Nick sometimes makes me admit out loud that I've done something wrong and I'm getting spanked for it. And I hate it just as much as Morgan hates those jumping jacks. So when he asked me what happens when I don't do my chores, my answer was a very noncommittal "Mmmm..." A couple more very hard swats and the question repeated prompted me to say "That!" To which he answered, "I can see that you're not taking me seriously. This was supposed to be a friendly reminder, but I can see that's not working."

By that point he was rummaging in the toy chest, and I was starting to panic. He pulled out the Cane-iac Jr. with holes, and I went into full on begging and apology mode. To no avail, though, because he bent me right back over the bed and began to paddle me. I'll admit that it wasn't a very hard paddling, but, and I think most of you know what I mean, slick, hard maple, especially with holes in it is very painful on a bare bottom at any force, just for the stinging alone. 

Before long I couldn't hold still at all, and I asked if I could please lay on the bed. He let me do so, and the paddling continued for a bit. When he asked me again what happens when I don't do my chores I wasted no time at all in answering loudly enough for him to hear, "I get spanked!" He gave me a few more swats, then put down the paddle and held me. 

It wasn't very long before I was eager to show him just how sweet and submissive I could be, and we moved on to the awesome part of the evening, which is best left in my memories. :)

Busy days

Coming back from vacation I always feel like there's so much catching up to do. That's not actually the truth in this case, even if it feels that way. Almost all of our vacation laundry was done before we left Texas, and we unloaded the car as soon as we got home, so it was just a matter of putting it all away. The dishes were done and the trash taken off before we left, and even most of the laundry that didn't go with us was clean (although maybe not folded).

But here it is less than 2 weeks later and the laundry is piled up (despite the fact that I do it constantly), the sink is full (also doing the dishes all the time), and the bedrooms are in chaos (despite the fact that I've worked on ours all week).

Part of it has to do with the fact that Jack has been crazy clingy since we got back, and Daisy has been an unusual handful. I think she picked up some attitude from Maddox, because she has definitely not been her usual sweet and compliant self since we got back. The other night she pitched an honest to goodness temper tantrum, something that has only happened once before in her life, and that was when she was about 20 months old.

The last couple of weeks have been full of errands, between back to school shopping, dentist appointments, a birthday party, a wedding, an order for a skirt for a lady at church, signing Morgan up for soccer, paying bills, taking the dog for a rabies vaccine, mailing back Morgan's old ipad, and getting the new one to log onto our wifi, a process that turned out to be a ridiculous hassle.

My mom called me yesterday to tell me kind of a crazy story. All my life my parents have loved to sit on the front porch during a thunderstorm. (No lectures please). They have two porch swings and several rockers, and my mom has a big fluffy recliner out there. So when a storm blew up that afternoon they sat out on the porch to enjoy the show. Then it started to get pretty bad, so they decided to go inside.

About two minutes later my mom was looking out the window at the deluge when suddenly lightning struck one of the trees in the front yard their hammock hangs from. The hammock is secured with a thick chain, and the lightning jumped from the chain to a shrub at the corner of the porch. The whole house shook, and the blast hurt their ears even with them inside. My mom had a ceramic frog shaped planter at the base of the tree that was struck, and it was blown apart. The surge fried their whole phone system, one of their TVs, the wiring to their cable and internet, and their well pump.

Once they got their nerves settled and the storm died down, they went out to check the damage. All of the bark on the tree had been blown off in long thick strips, and the recliner where my mom was sitting just a couple of minutes before the strike was filled with bark and sharp shards of shrapnel from the broken planter. If they had still been on the porch when it happened they would have doubtless been injured, quite probably seriously so. Thank God they had gone in!

They were without water until today when they were able to get the well pump replaced, but it will be another week or so before they get their phone and internet back.

We also got some family news last night - Grant and Kelly are (quite unexpectedly) expecting again! They're happy, but also more than a little scared, because Logan is only 10 1/2 months old. When the new baby comes he'll be just a little younger than Jack is now. All day today I tried to imagine bringing a newborn home right now and trying to juggle him/her and Jack. Honestly, Kelly struggled quite a bit with postpartum depression, so we're praying that she handles it well.

We are looking a bit forward to watching the new parent smugness fall away, lol. It's just within the last week that Logan has started to even army crawl, so they've not had to do any baby proofing as of yet, and they always seemed a bit exasperated with us and with Kate when Daisy, Jack, or Maddox got into something at their house. We knew that as soon as Logan started getting into everything they would understand, but now it looks like they're going to really be baptized into it with fire.

They've also had plenty of date nights, something that comes very rarely for me and Nick, simply because they have one (immobile) grandchild to watch, where we have 3 very active ones. Nick said several weeks ago that he had the feeling that once Logan was up and into everything that the baby sitting offers would dry up pretty quickly.

Kelly called me today to talk to me about getting the same maternity coverage I had with Jack since their policy doesn't have maternity benefits. I think they should qualify, which would be great, so she can keep her same doctor. Dr. E delivered all three of mine, as well as Logan, and she will deliver Faith's baby in November, our friend Melanie's in December, and Kate used to see her when she lived here. She also was Faith's doctor during her pregnancy last year that ended in miscarriage. She's really an awesome OBGYN, and I was a little sad when I went back for my six week visit after Jack was born because I knew she'd seen me through my last pregnancy.

I've been doing a bit of crafting lately, which is always good for me. I made Daisy nine little skirts to take to Texas with us, and a 10th one a couple of days ago. Then yesterday I made the one for the lady at church. It's actually for her granddaughter who lives out  of state. Her family will be coming in for a visit this weekend, and she'll try it on her then to see if the fit needs to be adjusted, and then she wants four more. My mother-in-law's birthday was last week, and I made her a necklace, bracelet, and earring set, as well as a couple of leather brooches. I also made a taggie blanket for my friend Elizabeth's neighbor, and I had a pillow cover order last week. My friend Denise just started an Etsy shop selling handmade earrings, and her birthday is coming up, so I've made her a bunch of earring cards in zebra print (her shop theme) to mail off to her. And Elizabeth's birthday was this week, and she's requested a couple of hair accessories, so that's next.

I'm missing Nick a lot. It seems like it's been ages since we've had any alone time, and if I'm honest I'm feeling the need to feel some boundaries. I'm at that too familiar place where I think the best thing for me would be a hard spanking, but I don't really have a way to make that happen short of purposefully doing something to make him mad, and I'm not willing to do that. There are surely things he could pick to deal with me about, but he's been really busy himself, and I'm trying to stay aware of that.

Anyway, it's time for me to head to bed, so I'll say goodnight.

Vacation

You guys, we had SUCH a great vacation! 

The original plan was to leave early Friday morning and take turns driving straight through to Texas. It's easily 15+ hours of driving, with the inevitable stops for meals and potty breaks, but we'd done it before. Then it turned out that we wouldn't be able to leave as early as we'd hoped. Morgan started 7th grade yesterday, and she had to have a couple of immunizations before she could start. I'd tried several different offices of the pediatric practice we use, but the only appointment available before we left was at 8:45 Friday morning. 

So I got all of my and the kids stuff packed, along with the snacks for the road, and once Nick threw his stuff together late Thursday night I loaded it all up in the car. Nick usually packs the car, but I was anxious to get on the road ASAP, and I knew he was tired and would have a few things to do while I had Morgan at the doctor, so I went ahead and loaded up, and I did a great job if I do say so myself!

Early Friday morning I loaded Morgan and Jack up and headed to the doctor while Nick and Daisy took off the trash and straightened up a few last things around the house. Morgan and I hit Chick-Fil-A for breakfast for us all on the way home, and I walked in the door ready to leave. When I got home Nick was on the phone with Kate. It turned out that she and Will had decided to meet us halfway in New Orleans to spend the weekend. They had already made hotel reservations for us. 

We got to the hotel at about 10:15, where they valeted our car for us. This is something Kate had told us would be happening, but we got a little lost getting to the hotel, spotted it about 5 seconds before we had to turn in, and were completely unprepared for the flock of valets that descended on us as soon as Nick stopped the car. They were incredibly polite and helpful, but it was a little embarrassing to open the back hatch to get out the luggage. Morgan had spent the whole trip in the back by the bags and had shifted stuff around looking for things over the course of the drive, not to mention scattered various snack wrappers about, so we felt a little like the Beverly Hillbillies when various bags and debris tumbled out, lol. 

The first fun surprise came when they took us up to our room. Will and Kate had booked us a double room, but the hotel had somehow messed up and didn't have the reservation. They had Kate and Will's and Grant and Kelly's, but not ours. So to make up for it, they put us in the penthouse suite! It was on the 30th floor of the JW Marriott, and it had an AMAZING view of New Orleans! It was far and away the nicest hotel accommodations we've ever had, even nicer than the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu, although the cottage we stayed in last year at Sea Island probably had it beat (check out photos 7 and 8 of the link up there to see an example of our suite). But it was a two story suite, with a ginormous master bathroom (it even had a bidet, which tickled Morgan and Daisy lol), a gorgeous master bedroom, and equally gorgeous double bedroom with it's own very nice bathroom, and an area with a game table. That was just the upstairs. Downstairs was a living room, dining room, coffee bar area, desk area, and another bathroom. The suite even had a doorbell! Here are a few strategically blurred photos, but they were taken late at night with my phone, so please excuse the quality:

When we got there Will told us to just order room service on him for dinner since it was so late. Dinner was delicious, and we headed to bed since we had to get up early for a delicious breakfast and the swamp tour Will had booked for all of us! That was a blast, something we really enjoyed. It was a company in Slidell, and a very nice man took us out on a boat through the swamp. We got to hold a snake (er, everybody else got to hold a snake - I wanted no part of that!), and we got to see and feed tons of alligators! What was so funny was that they feed them marshmallows! Who would have thought?

Anyway, after the swamp tour, we headed back to New Orleans, where we freshened up, then Will took us all to lunch at Huck Finn's, where we all tried fried alligator. Not bad, but awfully chewy. After lunch we went to the New Orleans Aquarium, which was honestly kind of a let down. We've got a couple of aquariums in our state that are much nicer, and the huge crowds of people we had to fight through didn't help matters much. But it was Shark Week, and we got to see an IMAX 3D movie about them, so that was neat. And Nick got to add to his collection of souvenir golf balls. :)

After the aquarium we went back to the hotel and napped for a little while, then Kate watched all three of our kids while Nick and I went out to dinner with Grant, Kelly, and Logan to a little barbecue restaurant called The Joint.

Quick funny story about that huge tub up there: It had whirlpool jets, and after Nick and the kids went to sleep I decided I was going to soak for a bit. The control for the jets was up high on the wall to keep it out of the reach of children. So I ran hot water, sitting in it until it came up above the level of the jets, per the instruction. Then I got out to turn on the jets. Obviously when you get out of a tub the water level goes down, so getting out dropped it just below the top line of jets, but no big deal, I was going to just turn it on and hop back in real quick, right? So I set the automatic timer for 10 minutes and hit start. Well, for some reason, (probably Maddox and Daisy when they were taking their bath earlier), all of the jets were pointed UP, so as soon as they came on they shot hot water all over the bathroom! So, in a panic, I jump back in to get the water level back above the jets. And I can't get the jets to point back down, I'm staring at all this puddled water everywhere, not at all relaxed, and the water must have been too hot, because I start getting kind of weak and lightheaded. But I can't get back out till the timer stops, because if I do it will spray water everywhere for the rest of the time. Finally, I decide to risk it, and I jump out again, and the water goes everywhere, but the timer lets me turn it to zero, so I got it stopped. But I spent the next little while using almost all of our towels to mop up the bathroom. So much for a relaxing soak in the jacuzzi!

The next morning we had another terrific breakfast at the hotel, then Kate, Will, and Maddox had to leave. Kate's daughter Kit had spent the previous week out of state with her father and grandparents, and they had to pick her up at the airport. The rest of us checked out a few hours later and spent the afternoon visiting the French Market. That was okay, although the kids were hot and tired, and Jack had a completely out of character meltdown. Nothing would calm him down until we happened upon a fresh fruit vendor and got him some watermelon, which he loves. That did the trick, so I think he was maybe just needing water, but too hot and upset to be patient enough to drink it from his water bottle. He usually drinks from a baby bottle, but it had gone missing (we later found it in the car), so we had purchased a kid's sports bottle to fill with water, and he wasn't used to drinking from such a hard spout, so that may have been part of what was frustrating him.

After we had seen all we wanted to see of New Orleans we got on the road to Texas. It was a long drive, and we arrived a little after 1AM Monday morning. Monday we just kind of hung out at the house, and everybody played in the pool. Jack is not a big fan of being in the water, but he loved the water table they had there for him and Logan to play with. Now Maddox is four, and pretty mischievous, and we had to watch him around Jack. Not that he was malicious, but he was used to playing with bigger kids, and he could be a little rough. Anyway, I think it was either that day or the next that he pushed Jack into the pool. Kate and I were inside, but all of the other adults were out there either in or beside the pool (or none of the kids would have been out there in the first place), so Nick scooped him up just as soon as he hit the water, but it was still scary. Kelly grabbed Maddox and spanked him for it, and he got it again when Kate came out and found out what had happened, so hopefully he'll never do such a thing again!

Tuesday we went to the mall, where Kate took Morgan, Daisy, Maddox, and Kit to see the movie Turbo. We decided not to put Jack or Logan through the movie experience, so Nick, Kelly, Grant and I walked around the mall with the babies. I got Daisy a few pairs of sandals and a sweater, and Jack a couple of shirts. After the mall we headed back to the house to get ready for the Houston Astros game Will had gotten us all tickets for. It was the first time Nick, the kids and I had been to a MLB game, so it was really neat, even though we ended up leaving early because Will had to work early the next day and the little ones were getting restless.

Wednesday we went to the Houston Zoo, which was a lot of fun, but it was HOT! The kids got to feed the giraffes, which was really neat. :) That night we had dinner at Mooyah's.

The zoo kind of wore us out, so Thursday we just hung out at the house till Will got home from work, then we all went to Rudy's for barbecue. Rudy's is a Texas tradition for us, and Nick has been looking forward to it all year. :) Afterwards we stopped at Academy, and Will bought Morgan some stuff for soccer (cleats, shorts, socks).

Friday we just hung out by the pool again till Will got home, then he took us to dinner at this terrific Mexican restaurant, Pappasita's, I think it was. Afterwards we stopped by the man made lake their neighborhood is built around and did a quick photo shoot with all of the kids. Kate had bought matching outfits for Jack, Logan, and Maddox, and a coordinating dress for Daisy, and we wanted to get some shots to give the grandparents for Christmas. Then we stopped for frozen yogurt, then went back to the house.

Kelly, Grant, and Logan left early Saturday morning, but Nick and the kids and I stayed till about 1:30 that afternoon. After we said our goodbyes, we loaded up and hit the road, but I talked Nick into letting me visit both the Goodwill and Hobby Lobby before we left Houston. :) He thinks it's silly that I always want to do that on vacation, since we have both stores at home, but you get a better level of donated merchandise at the Goodwill in the rich part of Houston than you do where we live, and every Hobby Lobby has different stuff in their clearance aisle - my main interest! I got a few things at both places, and we were on our way.

The trip home went okay until we reached Louisiana. We were just a mile or two onto the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, which is 18.2 miles long, when traffic came to a standstill. At this point my parents' borrowed GPS unit was telling us we were still 10 1/2 hours from home. There was a wreck up ahead somewhere, and in 2 hours time we moved about half a mile. After about 15 minutes of us being stuck there, Jack got a piece of a fruit roll up stuck in his throat and started projectile vomiting, which seemed to go on for several minutes. I was driving (or sitting behind the wheel rather), so I couldn't do anything, but Nick was completely awesome. He made sure his airway was clear, and cleaned him up as best he could with baby wipes, even while he was still throwing up. Of course this all meant that both Jack and the car smelled super awesome for the next 12 hours, but what are you going to do?

It was seriously the slowest trip home ever. Even taking into account the traffic jam, it just seemed like we were making terrible time, despite the speed limit being 70 MPH most of the way, and us doing every bit of that. Sunday morning we rolled into Chattanooga, tired and hungry, and Nick declared that we were going to take the opportunity to have breakfast at Cracker Barrel and visit the Chattanooga Aquarium. Nick and I went to it once probably 15 years ago, and we were really impressed, so we wanted to take the kids. It was even better than I remembered. The trip really caught up with Nick about halfway through the exhibits though, so I got in the driver's seat when we finished up. I drove until I couldn't stay awake anymore, then we switched out.

By the time we got home it was 5:30 Sunday evening, about 30 hours after we left Will and Kate's house. We started unloading the car, and the heavens opened up on us. Within less than a minute it was pointless to try to stay dry, so we just gave into the rain, and by the time we were done we looked like drowned rats. Nick went and got us some pizza for dinner, and my parents stopped by after church to drop off our mail. Then we went to bed, and the next morning Nick went back to work and Morgan started school.

Just a few of the ways Kate and Will (and God through them!) blessed us on this trip:
*Paid for valet parking and awesome hotel accommodations in New Orleans
*Dinner twice in New Orleans
*Aquarium and movie in New Orleans
*Swamp tour in Slidell
*Watched the kids while Nick and I went out for dinner in New Orleans
*Had (all on their own) new pajamas for Jack and Daisy, swimmie diapers for Jack, diaper wipes, and lotion and body wash purchased specifically to treat Jack's excema waiting on us at their house.
*Purchased (without any input from us) sensitive teeth toothpaste for Daisy because Kate noticed she was showing sensitivity to cold drinks
*Purchased sandals and a dress for Daisy, and a swim suit for Morgan
*Tickets for a Houston Astros vs Boston Red Sox game
*Tickets to the Houston Zoo
*Paid for Morgan and Daisy to feed the giraffes.
*Will bought Daisy a Barbie doll and a Disney princess Play-Do castle, and some extra Play-Do
*Bought soccer cleats, socks, and shorts for Morgan
*Took us to a very nice dinner in Houston
*Stocked their house with all our favorite foods and sent us home with loads of snacks and cold drinks
*Paid for everybody's frozen yogurt
*Sent us home with some chalkboard paint and magnetic primer. Before we went on vacation, I had told Nick that I wanted to paint the bottom half of a short section of our hallway between doors with chalkboard paint. I've wanted to do this for a while, and had finally settled on the place I wanted it. When we got to Texas I noticed that the closet door in their playroom was chalkboard, and I complemented them on it and mentioned my plans for our hallway. Will immediately said that they had leftover paint that we could have, and the next day he got it out for me.
*Sent us home with an extra bottle of Rudy's barbecue sauce that they had because they knew how much Nick loves it.
*Paid to have Morgan's iPad (which they bought her) fixed. Several months ago she was getting out of the car and it slipped out of her hand. It was in its cover, but it landed face down, and the screen basically shattered. It still worked for a little while, but eventually the touch screen quit working at all, and we hadn't had the money to get it fixed. Will dropped and cracked his a couple of weeks ago, so he told her that he would take hers in with his to get it fixed. Hers was damaged badly enough that they just had to replace it (with us sending her old one back in), so they sent a new one to the house and it came today.
*Kate did almost all of our laundry all week. This was not my intention, and several times I went to the laundry room to do a load and found that she had already done it. The girl straight up loves to do laundry!
*Sent us home with a $1,000 check and several hundred dollars in cash.

That last one was really such a God thing. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Nick took out a loan from his 401K so that we could take this trip and pay off a few bills. There was a bit of a misunderstanding between us, because the amount I had mentioned us needing for bills was $1000, and he thought I had said $500. So when I paid $1000 worth of bills with it, he got pretty upset, which led to me getting upset, because I was only doing what I thought I was supposed to. Anyway, we still had enough left for the trip, but not as much as Nick thought we would have. So before we left, I prayed that God would somehow let us come home with money in our pocket. They obviously paid for a lot of stuff, but it was a lot of gas to get there, a lot of gas driving around Houston (not a small town!), not to mention meals on the road, and a few little souvenirs for the kids.

By Wednesday we were down to less than we needed to get home. That wasn't quite the panicky realization you might think, because I knew Nick would be getting paid Friday, and his vacation pay would make it a larger than normal check, so we could use that. Then Friday morning rolled around, and his check showed up in the bank - minus his vacation pay. This is maybe the 3rd or 4th time they've done this to us, and it makes me want to scream every time. Nick always does everything he's supposed to to insure that they turn his vacation in, but it never seems to help. In fact, they would have done it back in June when he took a week off for camp if he hadn't called from camp and had the guy double check that he had submitted it on his end. Worse news - they said they would make the correction on his next check - in two weeks!

As far as I know Kate didn't know any of this when she handed Nick several hundred dollars on either Friday or Saturday. She just told him that she wanted to help us out with gas since Grant, Kelly, and Logan had ridden everywhere with her and Will while Nick and I had had to drive our own car since there wasn't room for us too.

Just before we left on Saturday she handed Nick an envelope and told him to open it after we left. When we did, there was a $1,000 check signed by Will inside. Until then I had no idea how we were going to get home and still pay the bills that needed to be paid before they got around to fixing his missing vacation pay. God is so very good to us, and he has blessed us so much with family who love us so much!

Quick Check In

This will probably be a quick post, but I wanted to check in. Kate and her kids came in last week, and it was a very nice time. She took us out to eat a couple of times, and Morgan spent the whole week with them, mostly at Nick's parents' house, but 2 days up at the lake cabin with Nick's grandmother. Daisy and Maddox were inseparable, and they can't wait to see each other again. 

Speaking of seeing each other again, we leave for Texas Friday morning. We ended up doing a loan from his 401K to pay off a few bills and make the trip. Everyone always says, "Oh - that's such a bad idea!" But the way it works with his company is that we pay it back via his paycheck and pay interest on it (to ourselves), so nothing is lost, and it goes right back into the 401K.

It will be a long trip, around 14 hours of driving, so we appreciate your prayers for safe travels and no potty training accidents. About potty training - Daisy has completely mastered it now (knock on wood). It was back and forth and really sporadic for a while, but spending so much time with Maddox has really seemed to have done the trick. She's not had an accident in days now!

Anyway, I'm off to bed - lots to do tomorrow! Good night!

The Joy of Role Play

Seven years ago I was a reviewer for a now defunct adult toy company called South Coast Pleasure. During that time I wrote a few articles for their blogger section, including one titled "The Joy of Role Play". I was searching for something completely unrelated in my email archives and was surprised to come across it. I had completely forgotten I ever wrote it, but I sure enjoyed reading it again (and remembering some of the things that inspired it), so I thought I'd post it here:

                   The Joy of Role Play

 

I looked anxiously over my shoulder at the man raising a paddle high above my upthrust bottom. I lay bent over the end of the bed, my white panties tugged down to my upper thighs and my short plaid skirt ruched up onto my back. I'd brought home a very disappointing note from school, and now I was facing a sound spanking. I arched my back as the paddle met it's target, whimpering as I took my punishment.

Ah, role play...

Nothing quite takes me to the edge like imagining myself a naughty schoolgirl...or a truculent cowgirl...or perhaps just a rebellious wife (which I sometimes really am!). Role play is the icing on the cake of spanko play, the theater in which I can be as bad as I wanna be without the damaging consequences such actions would have in real life.

It allows me to be a captured English lass on a pirate ship, the wicked captain (who in my mind always looks suspiciously like my husband) strapping me for my tart tongue. It takes me through a day as the secretary for a stern architect who graciously agrees to forgo firing me when I shred the wrong set of plans, blistering my lace-pantied bottom instead.

I imagine myself a driving a sexy little sports car at crazy speeds, only to be pulled over and caught without my license. I can almost feel the handcuffs click shut as I'm bent over the smooth hood and spanked until my cheeks match the cherry red of the car, the stern officer waiving the ticket for a more traditional form of correction. Some days I'm a naughty nurse, caught napping in an empty room. It's not too far into my fantasy that the angry resident storms in and pulls me over his knee for a thorough lesson on the virtues of hard work. Sometimes there's even a bit of humiliation to the punishment as he pulls on a rubber glove and probes that most forbidden aperture.

Other days I'm a sassy 18-year old, learning a civil tongue at the hand of my fiance, or a defiant 19th century school marm, learning her own lesson by the sheriff's razor strop. The best part of role play for me is that it allows me to experience my husband in many incarnations, ever new and yet always intimately familiar. So why not whip up a less than stellar report card and bring it home for inspection, or don a naughty French maid outfit and confess to neglecting the dusting? You can be anyone you like!

Sad News

I just wanted to let you guys know that mthc, a long time reader of and commenter on many of our blogs lost her dear husband Thursday evening. Please keep her and her family in your prayers during this difficult time.

A meme from Sunnygirl

You know I can't resist a meme, so I was tickled to come across this one on Sunny's blog!

1. What do you wear to bed?  Almost always a t-shirt and panties, although sometimes I skip the t-shirt.

2. What's your favorite pet name for your SO?  I have lots of them - Sugar, Baby, Honey, Sweetheart, Pumpkin, Sugar Pie

3. What's your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?  I love to read a good book or play online, although I really, really enjoy sitting down and crafting.

4. Your favorite snack food? Oh good grief, I couldn't narrow it down. But I definitely have a sweet tooth.

5. Do you cry at sad movies? Yep

6. What's your favorite implement to be spanked with? Hmm...I rarely get spanked for fun, so I'm not sure I have an answer for this. I guess I would have to say that if it IS for fun, wood paddles turn me on the most.

7. Is your hair long or short?  short right now.

8. What size is your bed?  King

9. Do you have sex with the lights on or off?  Almost always on.

10. What's your favorite 'around the house' outfit? tee shirt and jeans

11. How do you drink your coffee or tea? coffee with sugar and cream, a sweet ice tea.

12. Are you a bargain hunter?  Definitely

13. Do you think bald men are sexy? Some of them pull it off well.

14. Are you a good driver?  I think so, others may disagree.

15. In a 24 hour period, how many hours do you spend watching TV? Maybe 2-3

16. Name the last book you read? Victims by Jonathon Kellerman

17. Would you rather be hot or cold? Cold, because you can always put on more clothes, but you can only take off so many.

18. How many hours a day do you spend on the internet?  Probably 2-3, usually during the time Nick and I are watching TV.

19. Do you like facial hair on a man? If it's another man, not mine.

20. Are you a smoker? No, although I used to be.

Getting to bed on time.

So first of all, I brought the blog back public. I think it's been long enough for the nonsense to die down enough that it's likely that anyone who finds it via a search is doing so because they have a genuine interest in DD as opposed to a morbid curiosity.

Nick took notice of my increasingly lax attitude about my 2 AM bedtime and came down pretty hard on me Saturday night/Sunday morning. Saturday I was taking the kids to my friend Elizabeth's daughter's 5th birthday party. I made her an I Spy bag (that link is an example only and is in no way affiliated with me or this blog). It took longer than I thought it would, so I ended up working on it till about 3 AM Saturday morning. After I finished, I sat down on the couch to check my email for a minute, and pretty soon it was almost 4:00.

Nick had fallen asleep on the couch hours earlier, and he had to work Saturday, so I woke him up to get in bed, thinking I had a pretty good excuse for being up so late. Turns out he didn't think so. 

Saturday night/Sunday morning we watched TV late, both of us also playing online. I looked up and noticed it was a little after 2:00, so I got up, put in a last load of laundry, and told Nick I was going upstairs to read. A short time later he came up too, and immediately opened up the chest at the end of the bed. When I peeked around the edge of my book, I saw that he had pulled out the Jokari paddle, something that hasn't seen any use in a couple of years. Once upon a time it was his go to paddle for punishments, and it's always been a serious implement, so I gulped a bit when I saw it there on the bed. He lectured me a bit, then made me turn over. He let me keep my jeans and panties up, mostly I think because I was on my period still, and I was grateful for the reprieve. He spanked harder than usual, and longer too, 50 rather slow, hard, measured swats, then 50 just as hard but much faster swats. Then he took another few minutes to reiterate why he was spanking me. He asked me what time it was, and I had to admit that it was 2:37, and that it had indeed been after 2:00 when I'd come up for the night, despite knowing that I was already getting punished for staying up late. He told me that I was getting 37 more. I stayed quite still for the whole thing, so I didn't earn any extra for moving. 

After he spanked me, he got up and took a shower, then came back to cuddle with me a bit. He asked me if I understood why he'd had to do it, and I assured him that I did. The thing is, if I had just woken him up at 2:00 that night and asked him if I could stay up late to finish my project, he would have absolutely said yes. It was only because I was trying the whole "get forgiveness later rather than permission now" thing that I got in trouble. The fact that I've been kind of slacking off about some of the chore lately didn't do me any good either though.

Sex was out because of my period, but I spent some time showing him what a very good girl I could be, and we both went to sleep quite happy.

Please be in prayer for our finances this week. I just straight up don't have the money for the electric bill. But we've certainly been in this position before, and God has always provided, so I know that He will make a way.

Today (or yesterday now) was the first day of VBS at our church, which went well. I always forget what a whirlwind it is to do crafts, and the night flew by. Tonight we did Shrinky Dinks (not an affiliate link) and glass stone magnets for the bigger kids, and caterpillar clothespins for the youngest class. Tomorrow we're going to attempt stamped washer necklaces and painting birdhouses. 

But right now it's 1:57 AM, and I'm going to bed!

Cranky Pants

A little personal information: historically, I've not had terribly long or intense monthly cycles. For years I was on Seasonale, which let me have just 4 periods a year, usually lasting 3-4 days, and sometimes I skipped even those (with my doctor's blessing). Then when we decided to start trying for Daisy (when Morgan was 5), I went off birth control entirely. That was 7 years ago, and I've not been back on it since. Around 5 years ago my Polycystic Ovary Syndrome kicked in, and my body would sometimes go 2-3 months between cycles, and when they did show up, they were short. Then I had Daisy, and it was like the pregnancy reset things, and suddenly I was super regular, and only lasting 2-3 days. 

After Jack though, I had a copper IUD put in. My doctor warned me that I might have heavier periods for a while with it. Look people, he's 18 months old (!!!) now, and my last period was TEN DAYS and really, really awful! All of this to say that I just started again, and I'm feeling all kinds of weepy and out of sorts, and I don't like it at all! I know many, many women have struggled for years with heavy flow and terrible cramps and all kinds of other things that are making Nick wish he didn't get auto-emailed my posts (stick with me, honey - I'm about to change the subject), but this is new ground for me, and I'm kind of unhappy about it! But whatever, I know this will (eventually) pass, so please excuse my whining.

Did everyone have a nice holiday weekend? Nick was off for four whole days, which was really nice. We spent the 4th at Grant and Kelly's house with the whole family (all in-state siblings and spouses, my parents and Nick's). It's done nothing but rain here for days now, so fireworks were out, but we still had fun visiting. 

My mom had her knee surgery this morning (well, I guess technically yesterday morning, since we're into Tuesday now). It was done arthroscopically, and it went well (thank you for your prayers). She had a large cartilage tear and a free floating piece, all of which had to be cut out (don't you need your knee cartilage? Will it grow back? No? Yes? I don't know.). There also turned out to be less arthritis in it than they had previously thought, so that's good news. Her doctor is optimistic that this will really improve things for her, although she's in tremendous pain post op, so please continue to pray for her pain management.

Next week is Vacation Bible School at our church. I'm in charge of the crafts this year, which I'm excited about. I usually assist my mom, but she'll be home recovering, so she turned the reins over to me. Kelly will be helping me out, along with a college girl from our church. We've got tons of stuff planned, and I'm supposed to go to Kelly's house tomorrow (today?) to help get it all organized and ready.

The week after VBS, Kate and the kids (and possibly Will? I'm not sure) are coming in for a few days. I'm excited to see them, especially since financially, our annual Texas trip is looking kind of iffy. That's certainly not to say that God can't provide. I know that He can and am praying that He does, but this is a want more than a need, and I'm trying to be prepared for the possibility that His answer may be no on this one. Either way, it will be great to spend some time with them while they're here. 

God has been providing what we need when we need it, and I know that He is good to us, all the time!

Anyway, I'm off to take my unreasonably teary and emotional self off to bed on time for once!

Bas

Today in Blogland we  received the sad news of Bas' passing. He was such a precious man, and I know his sweet wife Lisa is hurting. Please keep her and the rest of his family in your prayers.

Up on the Soapbox

It's a fact: there are ignorant people out there. More than a few. I know that there are only a few of you reading right now, because this blog has, temporarily, gone private. The reason for that is the ridiculous article making waves in mainstream media about "Christian Domestic Discipline." 

I told myself I was going to take the needed precautions with our privacy and just go on about life without giving the article another thought, because, no matter how many times I run up against it, that crap makes me MAD! So most of the time I ground myself from browsing the hate-filled comments, because there's nothing I can do to change anyone's mind and I might as well not make myself crazy over it.

But I just have to point out a few things. First of all, the article itself was a joke. I don't know Chelsea and Clint, and they're relatively new to the community, but just a quick look at their site will show you that the relationship portrayed in the piece is not the relationship they have. And they made clear to the reporter that what they practice is not "Christian Domestic Discipline", although you certainly would think differently from her reporting. But plenty of bloggers have dealt with that discrepancy, including Chelsea and Clint, so I'll move on. 

A couple of things really burn my biscuit here:

First of all, the way CDD, or more broadly, DD wives are portrayed. Let's just put aside for a moment the fact that this reporter and the more mainstream media (Huffington Post, Fox  News, The View, for example) are portraying the men we love and adore as abusers. Let's talk about how they make us wives out to be cowed, overly dependent, completely lacking in self esteem, and just plain stupid! 

The clips I saw of it being discussed on the air drew the same kind of hatred and vitriol as I would expect directed toward someone presenting an argument that children are fair game for predators. And not just toward the husbands, but toward the wives too!

Look, there are certainly situations where abusive men use DD or CDD as a vehicle for their rage and abuse. Those men should absolutely be locked up and their wives given help. And in nearly 10 years of the lifestyle, I've run across a few of those situations. But they were by far the exception and not the rule. The women I've met through TTWD are by and far the happiest, smartest, most well rounded, courageous, well put together, and cherished women I know. And I would venture to say that a good 75% of the DD wives I've had contact with were the ones to bring DD to the table. And most of them had to fight for it, myself included!

Here's the second thing: Christian Domestic Discipline. Please don't get me wrong - I don't have a problem with the concept itself, at least not in its entirety, although it doesn't describe what we do in our marriage, and there are aspects of it that I do take issue with. What I have a problem with is the fact that the media and most of the responding readers are taking DD and Christianity and using them to each indict the other. I've read comments along the lines of "This is what's wrong with Christianity - they use God to justify abuse." Or "These people are just playing sex games, and they're trying to dress it up as something else to satisfy their Christian standards."

I want to be clear that I very strongly disagree with the main principle of Christian DD, which I understand to be that a discipline relationship is something that God commands for a marriage. I'm very outspoken about the fact that I'm a Christian. But I don't believe that spanking your wife is a God given right. Do I believe that God commands that the husband be head of the household? Absolutely. Do I believe that the wife should be submissive to the husband? Sure do. But I believe that unless it is something that the wife is on board with, physical discipline is not okay. 

What? Really? Yes, and here's why: God tells us to be submissive to our husbands, but He does not tell our husbands to chastise us, unlike the very clear verses that speak of chastising our children. I believe that God is the one who deals with disciplining both husband and wife for getting out of line. 

So why do I believe that DD is okay then? Because God's command to the husband is to love the wife, and for so very many of us, myself included, that is the very best way they can love us. (Also, if the wife is not consenting to it, then guess what  - that's not loving her as yourself!) Completely outside of DD, Nick is an amazing husband. He's funny and thoughtful and protective, he's a great provider, and a faithful lover. And all of that is awesome. But the fact that he is willing and able to reign me in and settle me down when I need it fills a part of me that I know from experience is empty and untethered without it. 

When I go too long without being spanked I tend to find myself drifting, unfocused and vaguely unsatisfied. This is a part of who I am. I spent a lot of years praying that God would change it about me, not because it was causing me to be "abused", but because I felt like it was a real hassle for Nick. Eventually when I realized that nothing was changing inside me, I began to pray that if God intended for me to have these needs, that He would please bring Nick to a place where it was something he was willing to meet in me. And guess what? He did.

Anyway, I think a lot of the perception problems people have with CDD is that the way it's presented, it takes the consent out of the hands of the one being spanked. And in some situations that's actually the case. And that tends to read as a little "culty". But truthfully, I think that in most CDD marriages, the wife is every bit as on board with it as the husband, if not more. And what it really comes down to is that DD is different for each of us, and we each have to do what works in our individual marriage. If you believe in your heart of hearts that God is commanding you to submit to spankings in your marriage, then you go and live your marriage according to your beliefs! Or if you believe only that God commands you to follow your husband's leading, but spanking adds a richness and dimension to that dynamic, then go forth without a moment's guilt! And if you feel like submitting should never, ever include consequences imposed by your husband, that's okay too. 

I hate having the blog private, and I do appreciate the handful of you out there who are still reading. I just think it's abominable that the reporter put out such a patently false piece, and the rest of the media took it at face value and brought their own torches and pitch forks. I do think that in a few weeks it will be like no one ever heard of this woman, the witch hunt will be over, and we can all come out of hiding.

Thanks for reading.

5479 days ago...

5479 days ago I married my best friend. When I finally stopped trying to run my own life and find the right guy on my own, God allowed me to see what was right in front of me. When I look at him I can see just how very much God must love me to have blessed me with someone so very amazing. He works so hard to provide for our family, and to allow me to be a stay at home mom to the crazy awesome kids he gave me. He is a strong leader, a faithful husband, and a caring father. All those little girl dreams of a someday husband never came close to imagining the man who would wait for me at the end of the aisle in that little country church 15 years ago. I love you, Nick, forever and ever. 

Going private (for a while)

Guys, for a little while, anyway, I'm going private. If you're getting this in your RSS feed, shoot me an email and I'll send you an invite. I really feel like all the uproar over the news articles will die down soon and we can all get back to normal. But for the time being I have no wish to share our personal choice with anyone who isn't already privy to them. 

Prayers for a precious little one.

Been praying for Christina and Jim's little girl, guys. I know they'd appreciate it if you would do the same.

Camp

You guys - camp was amazing! We had 51 kids there, and let me tell you, God showed up in a big way! We had 14 saved, and one called to preach. And about those 14 - number 13 was on Friday morning, and it was Morgan's best friend Lola, which was awesome. Now Morgan made a profession of faith a couple of years ago. That said, my girl has just not shown any evidence that it was real for her. I love her with my whole heart, but she's been a pretty tough to handle preteen attitude-wise, and she's shown less than no interest in church or anything spiritual. Nick and I (as well as her grandparents, aunts, and uncles) have been praying hard for her for a long time, just waiting for God to really get a hold of her.

Friday night after the service she came to me, just generally upset about things in her life that make her unhappy, not really anything specific, but I had an idea that God was working on her heart. She insisted that yes, she was saved, but she really seemed to be trying to convince herself as well as me. I told her that only she and God know her heart, and that if she said that was the case, then I would take her word for it. I spent some time just telling her how much God loves her, and that it seems like she had been running from Him. I told her that I don't know His will for her life, but I could promise that if she would just surrender to Him, He has so many amazing things in store for her. At that point she kind of eased her way out of the conversation, and I could just see the conviction in her. But it was not the time to push, so I let her walk away, and I just kept praying. 

About 4 hours later, all the campers were in bed, and Robert, Nick, Grant, and one of the other counselors were all hanging out with me in my cabin, discussing the week. Suddenly we heard someone outside, then we heard Faith say (through the screen window), "We have some good news!" A few seconds later she ushered Morgan and Lola into the cabin. Morgan was crying so hard she could barely talk, but she managed to tell me that she had asked the Lord to come into her heart and given her whole life to Him! Hallelujah and praise God! This child was broken in the Spirit, something that was very much missing two years ago, and my heart just soared! 

There could not have been a better end to the week, and I'm amazed at the change in her in just the few days since it happened! There were so many kids who met with Jesus while we were there, and time and time again our counselors walked up on impromptu prayer meetings - young people going to God because they wanted to, not because it was on the schedule! 

Sadly my friend Ann didn't get to spend the week with me after all, mostly due to some medical issues, but she did get to come up for the service a couple of times. Even without her though, I had a great time, and we're literally counting down the days till next year!

Busy weekend, busier week

You guys left me such sweet comments on my last post - it really lifted my heart! Thank you!

We did indeed go to the lake on Friday. We weren't sure we would get to as the weather forecast looked pretty rainy. But we had a really lovely few hours, and by the time it started turning cloudy the littles were ready to head home anyway. 

Friday night our church held an all night prayer meeting for the upcoming youth camp. They asked people to sign up to come and pray for 15 minute shifts. Nick and I hadn't signed up, mainly because we weren't sure what to do with the kids that late. But as the day wore on we really felt like we should try to go in and do our part. Nick texted Robert to ask what shifts were still open, and he texted back that they needed people for 4:45, 5:00, 5:15, 5:30, 5:45, 6:00, and 6:15. Sigh. But honestly, we're young and healthy, and there was really no good reason to skip it. Robert and Faith, along with Brandon and Melanie were there all night to fill in where there was no one signed up. So I asked Nick if I could stay up and edit pictures from the lake while he napped on the couch for a while. He agreed, and I woke him at 4:00 in the morning for his shift. 

He went in and did his turn, and he got back about 5:45 and stayed with the kids so could go. I got there about 6:10, and my sweet parents were there at the alter, heads bowed. I went up and began to pray. I heard my dad get up about 6:15, but when I finished at 6:30, my mom was still praying. But she was near the back of the church, stopping at each pew to pray for by name the families who sat in each different pew every week. I'm so very blessed with my parents. We've not always gotten along (namely those years when I knew it all lol), but my heart just fills up with how much they love me and my little family.

Saturday we naturally slept late, and it was nice to snuggle up with my husband for longer than usual. After a while we got up and headed up to the cabin for the June birthday party. It's always a sweet time up there, although to be honest Jack was ALL OVER the place, which stressed Nick's grandmother out, which stressed Nick out, which stressed ME out. Plus Daisy was down on the dock fishing with Grant, and she fell in. Thank God Grant dove in after her and got her out in a flash! It was very scary though, and I was just about at the end of my rope.

Eventually I stuck Jack in the car and just took off for a little while. The cabin is close to a very quaint, very old town, so I drove around a bit until Jack fell asleep, then went back to the cabin. Once back, I took him to a spare bedroom to try to prolong the nap, and ended up falling asleep with him. By the time I woke up it was nearly time to leave, and I was ready to be home myself by them. 

Sunday morning I was exhausted, so I sent Nick to church without me. I skipped the evening service as well because I was still packing everything for camp. I don't like to miss church, but I'm about to head into a week of twice a day services, and I really did have to get everything put together. 

Camp starts in about 12 hours, and there's no internet service out there, even on my phone, so I'll be out of contact until Saturday evening. We covet your prayers this week as we work to minister to young hearts.

Love you guys!

God's blessings

This week is a real struggle for us financially. Nick and I are both stressing a bit, and I know that when that happens, the best thing for us to do is stop and pray, and praise God for His many blessings. We've already done the stop and pray part, so I just want to put it out here how very much God already has blessed us lately.

The biggest blessing was of course that Nick passed both of his ASE tests on Thursday. But it didn't end there - on Friday I got a text from Nick with some great news! That morning he went in to his immediate manager to give him the paperwork showing he passed the tests, then went back to his work area. A few minutes later his manager called him back in and told him that he had been looking back over the shops records and 1) Nick is always, always, always the workhorse of the team, consistently pulling in more hours than anyone else, and 2) that he (the manager) has been keeping a book of every car that came back because of a technician's mistake, and Nick has not had one single entry! Because of this, he is getting a 50¢/hour raise!

This is especially significant, because no one at the shop has had a raise in 5 years. Once upon a time passing each test netted you 25 cents on the hour, but that has not been the case for a very long time. In fact, several very good employees have gone and asked for raises several times over the last year, and they've all been turned down, so he wasn't expecting anything.

And almost more than the money, I appreciate the fact that they've acknowledged just how hard a worker and how valuable an employee he is to them! I know just how much he's worth, and a 50¢ raise doesn't begin to encompass it, but it's definitely high praise in this economy, and I'm so proud of him!

Another blessing was that my mom and dad brought by a few things today. They're forever showing up with a couple gallons of milk (the kids go through about a gallon a day) along with fruit, mac n cheese, bread, whatever they think we might need (this is something we never ask them to do btw). But today, along with the milk, they brought a new pair of capris for me (I never get new clothes - wheee!), two lovely dresses for Daisy, and a brand new Costco membership card for me!

We used to have a Sam's Club membership that we renewed when we could afford it. But it expired last year right around Christmas, and we just didn't have the extra. They built a Costco in our city sometime last year, and we were kind of considering going with them instead. In fact, Nick and I took a tour of the facility a few weeks ago, and we were impressed with what we saw. The main issue though was that the membership cost $100, as opposed to Sam's which cost $40, and we really couldn't afford either one.

A few weeks ago one of the daily deal sites offered Costco memberships for $50 each, and it came with $50 worth of fabulous coupons, several for completely free products. I knew we couldn't do it right then, even with the discounted price, but I called my mom to tell her about it, since she had shown some interest in maybe getting a membership herself. She called me the next day and told me that she had purchased a membership for each of us, and that the cards should be coming shortly! I'm so excited about it!

Let's see, what else? My parents have a pontoon boat they got for a good price from a friend a few years ago. It's been ages since we went out on it, a couple of years at least. Friday Nick is off and we're going to take the kids out on it and make a day of it - something we're really looking forward to! The next day is Nick's family's annual June birthday gathering at the cabin up at the lake. I actually thought it was this past Saturday and that we'd missed it, so I was relieved to find out it's this week.

I think this year's party will have a tinge of sadness to it. It's the first since Nick's papaw passed away, and he was always such a big part of it. The cabin actually belonged to him and Nick's grandmother, and he spent just about every warm day that wasn't a Sunday up there fishing. Nick's grandmother is also one of the ones celebrating a birthday this month, and it will be her first as a widow. And Nick's dad's birthday is the day after hers, so I think it will be a bit sad for him too to have it without his dad, not to mention the proximity to Father's Day.

Two days after the birthday gathering we will be leaving for church camp! We're really excited about this! We're bringing 13 kids just with us, and Morgan is really stoked to have so many of her friends there with her. And speaking of friends, my best friend Ann is going to stay the whole week with me! Her two boys are going as campers, and she decided to tag along and share a cabin with me, Daisy, and Jack. I can't even tell you how excited about this I am! It's been 15 years since we had a sleepover, and I could sure use the girl time!

Anyway, as you can see God has been so very good to us, and I have so much to praise Him for! I would really appreciate your prayers for my sweet husband (and for me!), because as obvious as God's provisions for us are, we're still quite human, and sometimes we let the stress get to us. Also, Nick's hands are still unimproved, so that's still something we're praying about as well.

Anyway, I'm off to bed - good night all!

Hooray!

You guys - he passed BOTH tests! And I can't even tell you what an obvious God thing this was. Not saying anything at all bad about Nick, but he just did NOT have as much time as he needed to study. At. All. In fact, he only got to crack the study book on the second test yesterday. And these tests are hard! Not only is the material complicated, but the questions are purposely confusing. Perhaps that's to make sure the test takers are really using their investigative skills, but I'm more inclined to think that it's because if you pass they refund ALL of your money. Yep - his whole $98 is coming back to him, which means he can use it to register for the next two tests!

Thank you so much to those of you who stopped to pray - it really helped! The kids and I stopped what we were doing every half hour and prayed for him during the testing, and he was sure praying all the way through!

God is so good!

*Edited to correct myself - I was confused on the refund issue. Nick just let me know he will get reimbursed, but it will come from work, not the testing company. 

Just a quick request...

I would really appreciate it if those of you who pray would send up a prayer for Nick today. He will be taking his ASE tests this evening, and he's really nervous about them. Thank you!