livin' in the country

Living back home with the parents is an adjustment for sure!!! They live in the country and I'm quite the suburb girl! This showed itself to be REALLY true moments ago!

I just returned from a jog where I ran into 3 pit bulls. Okay...actually, I was running and they caught up with me REALLY quickly in a CHARGING SORTA WAY!!!

It's true what they say about holding your ground with MEAN dogs! These 3 were in attack mode and I actually stepped towards them yelling, "NO!!" and they eventually yielded!
YIKES!!!!

A bit down the road a SNAKE splashed into a drainage creek!

I think next time, I'll drive into a subdivision

(which I'm a bit more used to)

and start from there.

Might be a little safer! HA!!!

Funny thing is, I'm not even in BRAZIL yet!

Imagine the animals along the roadside there!?!

A Hard Day

I have had several people ask me to be MORE specific in prayer requests! I'm gonna get pretty specific with you today!

We arrived back from Denver on top of a mountain. Literally, I guess! ha! Friday was sorta catch-up day from all the craziness of the week. I had heaping LOADS of laundry to do and was evidently much more tired than I knew.

Let me start by saying living with your parents is such a blessing! My mom and dad took my family of five in after we sold our house without even a thought. They have been overly kind to us and even drove 15 hours to Denver with our children to see us be appointed. (The IMB flew us out there.) So, saying all that please don't hear the rest of this and think we're not WHOLE-HEARTEDLY grateful for all they are doing! CAUSE I AM!!!

BUT...I really began feeling depressed as the day and the laundry drug on! I knew I was tying up the washing machine with ALL of our families' laundry when my mom and dad's suitcases were sitting there full of their dirty laundry. Of course they let us do ours first because that is just how they are. (That doesn't mean I didn't begin to lay TONS of false guilt on myself!)

I began to LONG for my home, you know, the one I gave to God a few weeks ago. The one that has MY (I mean God's) washing machine and dryer in it! ;) I began to long for our closets to hang stuff back into. I'll just be completely transparent and tell you I just missed it all! You know that feeling you get when you come home from a trip and you feel like, I'm FINALLY home. You REALLY relax and breathe for the first time in awhile! I LONGED for that!!!

I guess all of the stress and tension led me straight into one of my INFAMOUS migraines that I haven't had in awhile. This one was a REALLY good one! If you get migraines, you know what I'm talking about! If you don't, you are a VERY blessed individual! Anyway, migraine led into vomiting and vomiting led into me sleeping for a couple of hours.

I REALLY do know all of this is an attack by the enemy!!! I ask that all of you that read this would pray for strength for me as we are just beginning this journey. IT IS JUST BEGINNING and we are so excited because we know that we are COMPLETELY in HIS will! Does that mean it will be easy?!? On the contrary! It will be hard...VERY hard. I hate being vulnerable. It isn't a trait that comes natural for me...but I know the power of prayer! I know that so many of you who read this WILL pray!

ǝpısdn uʍop

In honor of keeping things REAL, this is how my life sorta feels right now....

Everything is a little ǝpısdn uʍop. No wait, everything is A LOT upside down!!

BUT....God is still God and He hasn't changed a bit!! No matter what my circumstances are He remains steadfast in HIS promises. I can't wait to get busy telling people about His great big, never-ending, completely sufficient LOVE!!!

Happy Birthday Emily

I'm breaking a blog rule and posting this after the date but these pictures were so good and I wanted them to show up on May 10 even though they didn't get posted until May 18! SORRY but it is MY blog and I'm doing it anyway!!! lol

We celebrated my niece Emily's 15th birthday on Mother's Day! I cannot believe she is 15!

It just blows my mind. It also blows my mind that JohnMark is as tall as she is in these pictures! I'm going to have to have a talk with him about this growing thing! It has to slow down a bit!This is sweet cousin Kylie! She is absolutely BEAUTIFUL...Dontcha think?!?

Crating Day

On Wednesday we took some of our things to be crated. These are the things we won't be seeing until fall 2010. We used 300 cubic feet of our allowed 700 cubic feet. We'll be having to replace most of our things when we get there for many different reasons. The voltage/cycles will be different so none of our appliances could go with us. Furniture will need to be pretreated for termites and where we are going is so high in humidity that couches like we have here in the states ruin very quickly from mold. SO....we'll be starting from scratch for the most part. We did take our mattresses and other odds/ends.The boys decided to take their bikes for one last spin before we crated them. They rode them all through the warehouse while they waited on us to finish. Their bikes will be "a wonderful piece of home" for the boys when we open the crate next fall!

Moving Day

Today, a huge mountain has been moved and by mountain I mean packing, sorting, cleaning, throwing away, rushing and going without sleep! My home is empty and carries an echo sound everywhere you go from the lack of furniture. I am tired and my family is tired but God is SO good. He provides for every need and shows up in every situation. I am blessed beyond words tonight as I think about what HE has done for me. It makes getting rid of stuff and leaving the comforts of home seem just silly when you think of what HE gave for us! Here are some photos from our very BUSY day!

The Moving Van

Jackson helping dad out (with a light saber in hand) hmmmm.....

My dad was our Mr. Fix It!!! Thank you so much for all your hard work dad!

I love you so much!

the guys




My brother, Matt, helped load all day! Then he drove the truck four hours to Western Ky. on the dreaded Parkway to unload said truck again!!!
Matt ROCKS!!!




The living room in it's unlivable state!