The Journey Continues...

I think when I started this blog I had good intentions of making it all about my kids and the funny things that happen to us throughout a typical day.  To my surprise, this blog morphed into something more like a faith journey...my faith journey.  I hope you take so much more away from this than you would have from a blog about our kiddos.

It's hard to believe, but this picture was taken one year ago today.  Every time I look at it it stirs up one of the most precious memories to me ever.  I think if you took off those big old sunglasses (which just so happen to be my favorite), you would definitely see some tear streaked cheeks.  I think this particular Sunday will be forever engrained as one of the most powerful days of my adult life thus far. 

I know several of you have read about my trip to California, and how I felt God literally swept me up and changed the direction of my life, so I won't waste your time rewriting that story.  Besides, you can just go back to the old blogs and read about it.  : )  What I do want to share is one particular detail of that day.  It was just the fact that I walked into that church not really knowing what to expect, and I was completely taken over.  If you are a music person like myself, you never forget what song was playing when _____ (fill in the blank).  Ya know what I mean?  I remember walking into church and the song Forever Reign was being performed.  When I say the word performed, I really mean it.  It wasn't just a song sung because.  It was a worship team playing this song with every ounce of their being.  It was a song that was performed for Jesus.  If you have never heard it, you need to.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au3EGgISYMc&feature=player_detailpage  Isn't that just one of the most powerful songs ever?  When I wrote about the tear streaked cheeks, this song would be what started that.  It was a good thing.  It was the beginning of a powerful journey that I am so thankful to be on.

The one year anniversary of that day found itself being celebrated with the opportunity to play worship music myself.  Doesn't God have the funniest sense of humor?  I had no clue what I would be doing today, but He did.  When that revelation came to me that I would be playing on that very same day, I was so overcome with emotion.  I was literally getting ready for work, trying to put my make-up on, but that wasn't gonna happen because my eyes literally filled with tears.  I know, I'm such a sap, but I couldn't help it because to me that was God's way of showing me how much He loved me.  He knows exactly what brings me the greatest joy. 

I know this particular story was mine, but really, it applies to everyone.  When we pick up our cross and follow Him, so many things that we thought were impossible become possible.  So many dreams that we thought were lost become reality. 

I pray that this Sunday was a blessing to you, that wherever you choose to worship you feel nourished, that the music and message would just permeate your soul.

This is one of the last pictures that I took while I was in California.  It reminds me of something I read once that made so much sense...

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.  -C.S. Lewis

2011 Reviewed

Well, another year has come and gone.  I can't believe it!  I am not sure if time really flies when you get older, or if it just flies during the period that your kids are little.  Four is certainly a doosy!  Sometimes I feel like I spend my days holding my breath hoping that no one breaks a bone, that those boo boos won't leave any permanent marks, and that no one will come to my door when one of my kids is still in their undies.  Usually someone does come to the door when one is in their undies, and if you are one of the "ones", I am so sorry.  They just don't like wearing clothes.

Well, the year started out with us having a five month old...

a two year old...

a four year old...

and an eleven year old...

I think for those of you who know us well, you would probably say that these pictures are an accurate representation of our kiddos.  Let me tell ya, these kids are something else.  They are always good for comedic relief.  By the end of 2011 our kids morphed into something more like this...



Nevermind the person wearing the crazy glasses in this picture.  I was trying to show you a newer picture of Isaac.  I don't even know who that weirdo is anyway!

 

Our children certainly grew over the last twelve months, huh?  Actually, I think we all had our own period of growth over the last year.  Experts will tell you that a human being learns the most between birth and five years of age.  I think I may be a rare exception to that statement.  I think 2011 was a year of learning for me.  I learned some great lessons in some strange ways.  I think God can use anything He wants to communicate with us.  I learned great things through teachings at church, music, other people, even fortune cookies believe it or not!  I would like to share with you the best things I learned in 2011.

1. Sometimes one must step out and become uncomfortable to reach their greatest potential.
2. You must listen to that little voice.  I call it God, others may call it their conscience.  Either way, listen to it.  I've found that it is always pointing me in the right direction.
3. Whatever it is that you do, do it your best even if you don't feel like it.
4. People are starving for love.  Give it to them.
5. Give, give, give.  Whether that be your tithe, your talents, your time.  Whatever it may be, give.  You always get more in return.  I promise you that!
6. We Were Meant To Be Courageous!  (Thank you Casting Crowns and Courageous movie) If you haven't watched it.  DO IT!
7. There is no need to find significance in material things because God already gave you everything.
8. Women see the world through pink colored glasses, men through blue, but together they see the world in purple.  (Found in the book Love and Respect.  If you are married or plan to be and have not read it, do it.  Thank you dear Melissa for telling me about this.)
9. You will not be able to save every lost person you meet.  You won't be able to bring everyone from A to Z, but maybe you can accomplish A to F, and that's ok.  Something or someone else will bring them the rest of the way, but they will look back and remember that you planted the seed. 
10. If you want the rainbow, you have to tolerate the rain.  (Found in a fortune cookie, and the flip side of the cookie taught me how to say husband in Chinese.  Interpret this how you want.)

Dear ones, thank you so much for being part of our lives in 2011.  I really can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us.  Hopefully we'll learn even more, serve even more, pray even more, love even more, and maybe through all of this we will be able to change some lives in the way that we were changed.  Love to you all.





Dreams Do Come True

"God never abandons a dream.  The promise is still in you!  Look ahead in faith and begin to live out the dream He has for you."  -Joel Osteen

If I were to have come across that quote ten months ago, I probably would've said, "Yea, right!"  Now I say,"Yea, he's right!" 

Everybody that knows me knows that music is my thing.  It always has been.  I think the first time I sang in church was when I was three years old.  I remember my grandpa holding me up to the pulpit, and I remember singing He's Still Working On Me.  I still remember every word to that song.  When I was seven I started playing piano.  In fifth grade I started the French horn.  My life just always seemed to be filled with music.  The music I was interested in certainly changed over the years.  I look back and laugh at the stuff that I liked growing up.  Hanson, Britney Spears, N'Sync, Boys II Men, TLC, Nelly, those are just a few I remember.  Haha!  I'm seriously laughing looking at that list!  Now the list includes Jeremy Camp, Casting Crowns, David Crowder, anything Christian really.  Man how I've changed.  More like man, look how God changed me!

I graduated high school in the spring of 2001 thinking that in the fall of that year I would start my college journey out at Clarke in Dubuque.  Music Therapy was what I was gonna do.  Of course, the fall came and went, and I couldn't commit.  I still don't know why.  January 2002 started, and I enrolled at NICC.  Two years later I ended up graduating with a Marketing degree.  Marketing...Music...hmmmmm...obviously I still didn't know what I wanted.  This is probably a typical story.  One year later I was married, and a year after that I had a baby.  Music dream = gone!  At least that's what I thought anyway.  It's funny how God works everything out for our good.  I may have abandoned music, but not Him. 

For years, I played for myself, and occasionally for a Christmas pageant or wedding.  That all changed last February.  In February I flew to California to spend some time with one of my best friends in the world.  Her husband was actually deployed at the time, and I didn't want her to be on that journey alone.  My friend had been going to a Christian church and she knew that going there was definitely on the agenda during my stay with her.  So, Sunday morning came along, and off to church we went.  The moment I walked in that door, I was consumed with the Holy Spirit.  It was the music that hit me in the face.  Immediately I wept.  All barriers broke down, and Jesus literally took me over in a way that He knew I would respond best...through music.  After church, I went up and got prayer from their prayer team.  I totally needed that.  It is amazing what people can do when they put their hands on you and pray for you.  Did you know that we, as ordinary people, can be healers?  We can!  Then the most amazing thing happened to me!  I went into the bathroom to get a tissue, and one of the women that prayed for me said that God had given her a message to give to me.  She looked at me and said,"Music moves you."  She turned and walked away.  Then she turned back and said,"Worship music."  What!  This woman had never met me, and knew nothing about me, yet she knew everything. 

I came home seeking a different direction with Jesus.  I didn't want to just know who He was.  I wanted to be in a relationship with Him.  I needed Him more than ever.  What I didn't realize was that for nearly ten years I hadn't really had a relationship with Jesus.  I was in a "desert period" with Jesus and my music.  I needed a change.

Ya know, social networking can be really great when it comes to encouragement.  All I had to do was go on facebook, and find the most positive person that I knew.  One person in particular stuck out to me.  So, I decided to e-mail her and ask where she went to church.  She said,"Hope Church in Dubuque.  We'd love to have you come!"  I had nothing to lose!  Sunday morning I was there, and the Saturday after that, and the Sunday after that.  Amazingly enough, this church was a mirror image of the church that I had been to just weeks before in California!  Was this what God wanted for me? 

By the third weekend, I managed to drag my whole family along with me to see how wonderful this ministry was.  Then the best thing happened.  A man stood up and gave his testimony.  He talked about how he used to be in a band, and then he played for some churches, and then he found Hope Church and began playing for their music ministry.  After he was done, there was an announcement made.  They needed more people to be on their music teams.  Was this God handing it over to me? 

I went home that day and prayed and prayed and prayed about it.  I said, "God, give me a sign.  If I'm supposed to do this I need a sign."  On Wednesday of that same week, my son Isaac had a music banquet.  One of the speakers just happened to say,"If you have the gift of music, you shouldn't waste it."  Ok, that was enough of a sign for me.  I sent out an e-mail that very night.  Two weeks later, I played for the first time.

I want to show you a picture of this place because every time I walk through the doors, it changes me. 

It's not the building that changes me, it's the fact that Jesus is there.  Would've I have ended up going to this church had I pursued my education in music?  Probably not.  I would've already felt fulfilled.  Not with Jesus though, with myself.  God let's us have a "desert period" in our lives, to find out where we truly need to be.  He doesn't desert us though.  He does everything for our good.  Those ten years of spiritual emptiness were meant for my good.  And guess what, He's Still Working On Me.

Birthdays and More

Well, as most of you already know, we have a lot of birthdays right in a row at our house.  August 21, September 17, October 26, and November 10 to be exact.  Those events lead to our house being extra busy...as if it isn't busy enough already.

This year Caleb's birthday fell on a Saturday, so we were able to have his party on his actual birthday.  I always like when that happens.  Caleb had a Toy Story themed party.  That was a fun idea.  Here is a picture of the Toy Story cake I made Caleb.

We were going to buy Caleb Sheriff Woody, but instead I found the whole set of Toy Story characters at Target.  That was my inspiration for the cake.  We actually had all of the characters set up on the table.  You know what's funny?  They had Lotso Huggin' Bear in the set, but not Bullseye.  Who wants Lotso?  He's scary.  Anyway, that was my only complaint about the whole thing.  Oh, and Buzz doesn't have a helmet.  That's a problem too. 

It's really hard to believe that Caleb is five already and in school.  It seems like just yesterday he was born.  Here's a picture of the day our family went from three to four.

I love this picture.  This was such a sweet moment.  Isaac became a big brother that day!  Doesn't he look so proud in this picture?

Oddly enough, on Sunday, the day after Caleb's birthday party, I found an old appointment reminder card from Medical Associates.  It was in a maternity coat that I was pulling out to donate.  The funny thing is, the date on it was Sept. 15, 2006.  That was the very last appointment I had with my o.b. before I had Caleb.  Seeing that card kind of made me think about all of the lessons I have learned as a mother since his birth.  For me, the change from one child to two was much more difficult than from two to three and three to four.  Does that make sense?  I'd like to share with you some of the more important lessons that I learned those first couple years with just two children.

Don't cry over spilled milk!  For real!  I mean this literally too.  This is like a weekly occurrence in our house.  I used to get all worked up over this, and sometimes when I'm really busy I still do, but honestly, don't!  It's just an accident, and you can clean it up quickly and move on.  Yelling at your kids for the little messes that they make just makes them feel bad.  Nothing makes me feel worse than unintentionally breaking one of my kid's hearts. 

Pick your battles.  There is not enough time in a day to pick on every little thing that your child doesn't do perfectly.  I used to obsess over the towels being folded and put away in neat little piles.  I even used to refold towels that weren't up to my standard of towel folding.  Now, as long as the towels are put away that's good enough.  If you make your child think that everything that they do for you isn't up to par, they will stop wanting to help you.  In a family of six, you need all the help you can get.  Fix the things that really matter instead. 

Boys don't care if their rooms are clean.  This speaks for itself.  I'm sure most would agree too.  As long as it's presentable when company comes over, I'm happy. 

Don't force your child to respect you. It probably won't work.  They should respect you because they love you.  I think we struggle with this one at times.  Sometimes kids are emotional basketcases, and sometimes when they are like that all you want to do is ignore them.  Those are the times that you need to love on them the most.  More often than not, when we have a loving response to one of our kid's outbursts, it ends good.  The more we treat our kids with respect, the more they reciprocate.  Love, love, love them. 

Last, and by far the most important, pray for them.  Prayer is the best gift you can give your child.  We may be their earthly parents, but their Heavenly Father loves them more than we could ever imagine.  Sometimes, as parents, we don't have all of the answers.  That's ok because God does.  He wants us to seek Him for guidance.  I think sometimes we forget about that.  Especially when everything is going good.  We need to seek Him for guidance in the good times as well as the bad. 

Seriously, what smells?

So, when I started this blog, I really didn't think that I would have funny stories to share right away.  Boy was I wrong.  For the last several days, Casey and I have been smelling this strange smell in the fireplace room.  For those of you that have been to our house, the fireplace room, as we call it, is also our main toy room.  I seriously hate to sound gross, but this smell smelled like a dirty diaper.  Well, with one in diapers and one potty training that's not an unusual smell in our house.  Hahahaha!  It started out as a faint smell, but grew worse.  We were literally looking everywhere for the source.  We checked in the play kitchen, in the toy bins, under the desk, behind the toy boxes!  We checked everywhere.  We even bent down and sniffed the carpet!  It got to the point where we just laughed at each other and how crazy we looked smelling things.  Well, tonight Noah spilled a bucket of small action figures on the floor in that same room.  I rushed down to pick them up because I didn't want Stella to get ahold of them.  Low and behold, the smell where I was at was horrendous!  I thought it was Noah, but he was naked.  I know that sounds bad, but he just doesn't like clothes.  He runs around in just undies most of the day.  Well, I began my sniffing again, and sure enough a big, and I mean very big, bucket of duplos was definitely where the stench was coming from.  I decided it would be best to dump the bucket out and just go through all of the duplos to find what I assumed to be a diaper.  How the diaper would've got in there was beyond me, but with my children nothing is impossible.  It turns out that the smell was not a dirty diaper, but vomit!  Yes, you read that right!  Who was at fault???  Stella!  She always plays in the duplo bucket.  She loves to climb in it and sit in there.  The worst part about this is the fact that I found the vomit when I tipped over the bucket, so of course it all came out on top of the duplos when I did that.  Needless to say, now we have a sink with duplos soaking in soapy hot water.  I have come to the conclusion that all of my kids are going to go easy on me as teenagers because they insist on pulling these crazy stunts as little ones.  Seriously, does anybody else ever experience things like this?

What am I getting myself into?

Seriously, why am I writing a blog?  Well, people have been telling me to write a blog about my family for some time now.  Apparently my life, and the shenanigans that my children pull, are quite comical to those who don't live with us.  Well, here it goes.  I am new at this, so if you have any advice for me feel free to share. 

So a lot has been going on in the last five days.  Caleb's first day of pre-k and Isaac's first day of sixth grade was last Thursday.  Let me tell ya, I think I was more nervous than Caleb was on his first day of school.  Caleb is a child that doesn't like a whole lot of change.  He's a picky eater, and he gets nervous around large groups of people.  I thought to myself that if anything went wrong on that first day, I would probably end up home schooling the child.  Turns out, he did great!  I fretted the whole day...figures.  I think that is typical.  Here's what the first day of school at St. Rose looked like.



Yes, I am aware that Noah is wearing a bike helmet.  He had to wear it to school that morning too.  I am not sure why, but he's just a funny kid like that.



Caleb's a little nervous.  Can ya tell?

It turns out that the Saturday after school started was my ten year class reunion.  Ten years already!  WOW!  It doesn't seem possible.  About half of my classmates showed up for a dinner cruise on the American Lady.  Pretty neat.  It would've been better if it weren't so rainy.

BHS class of 2001

Yes, this is half of my graduating class, and NO, we didn't go to a private school.  This is what your graduating class looks like when you grow up in a town of 898 people.  I actually loved it.  These people will always be special to me.

After the dinner cruise, we all headed back to Benton to catch a "party bus" that was waiting for us.  Originally, I had no desire to go on the bus, but as the night progressed, I decided what the heck, I only see these people every five years.  Well, here's what a nearly thirty-year-old non-drinker looks like at the clubs.

I guess I needed that experience to realize that hard liquor and Joy do NOT mix!  Ok, I'll stick to wine.  Love you, Bri!  This is a great picture of you.  Bahahahaha!  Anywoo, Monday was Labor Day fun in good old Benton, and today was back to school.  Of course, as I was creating this blog Caleb yelled from the kitchen,"Mom, Noah painted his face!"  Shocker...not really.  Well, I better go clean up that mess before my husband gets home from work and wonders what I did all day.  Pics of painted face Noah to come next time around.