Can you help?

Saturday morning Elle and I volunteered with our church at Open Door Mission. We were putting together Christmas toy bags and we finished early so our group got the very first tour of the new Lydia House.

WOW, WOW, WOW. It is... beautiful, amazing, wonderful... heartbreaking.

Seeing what ODM has built, hearing about what was donated, listening to how much more they can accomplish, how many more families they can help was just a.m.a.z.i.n.g. But it was also heartbreaking to acknowledge that the need is that great in our community.

At the end of our tour the godly woman (whose name escapes me) in charge told us about how the staff, their families, and the board of directors got together when the building was no more than a frame and prayed over it. They prayed and wrote scripture on the 2x4's and on the concrete. They prayed for the families they will serve. They prayed specifically for repeat families, that they might successfully complete their programs and not 'need' the new facility. They prayed.

There were many tears. Mine included. I needed that.

Our sermon two Sundays was about thriving this Christmas and not just surviving it. Boy did that speak right to me. I love Christmas. I love this season. I love, love, love it. But I am not feeling it this year. I am feeling stressed and anxious and dysfunctional and I am cranky that I can't put up decorations until we move. I feel like shouting 'humbug'. But not really. Whether I get decorations up and cards out and gifts sent or not, I will still get to celebrate the greatest gift of all, the birth of my savior. And it took bagging the only present those children will get this year to remind me.


Someone asked after our tour about what they need the most of for these toy bags. She said they need baby dolls, barbies, and soft/squishy bouncy balls for little kids the most. She told me they bag around 4600 gifts each year and that is what they always run out of. That lit a fire under me. My love language is gifts, I love to give gifts, and not just to my spouse. I felt God right then and there telling me to go get some dolls. He laid a specific dolar amount on my heart. I headed to Target and overspent that amount by $1.18. But I got enough dolls for 16 precious girls. Still, I felt God nudging me. I knew I couldn't spend money I don't have so I thought, now what?


Then I remembered my sad, neglected blog and the wonderful internet.

Maybe some other people out there can help.

Couldn't hurt to ask.

So can you help?

Can you donate a doll, or two, or five, or any other toy? Can you pray? For my blog friends are you willing to re-post this on your blogs and see if anyone else can help? I will gather and deliver if you can. I don't know when or how, (and I argued that point with God for about 5 seconds), but I know he has asked this of me and he will figure out a way. They will be bagging until the 22nd but I would like to get this stuff up there early next week.

Thank you in advance and Merry Christmas.



*I forgot to include the link to ODM www.opendoormission.org . You can see their work and there is a list of needs. They also need help bagging the toys. They bag M-S from like 9-8. You can sign up to help on thier website. One other thing the lady told me is that they will be bagging the teenage girl's gifts last, so look out for those needs if that is where your heat is. Thanks again.

Proctor & Gamble and Thanksgiving

I was at the commissary, my least favorite place, getting Thanksgiving dinner and some cereal before my kids revolt over the lack of breakfast options. It was actually a good trip for once. No meltdowns or crying or screaming, and Beks was pretty good too, hee hee. Anyway, I was checking my list and making sure I had found every coupon I could before getting in line when this vendor comes up and asks if I'm shopping for Thanksgiving. I looked at the 17 pound bird in the top of my cart and just smiled and said yes. Then he asks if I would like a turkey for free courtesy of P&G. Well, who wouldn't, but what do I have buy in order to get said bird?

Nothing.

Excuse me?

Nothing, we would just like to thank our military families. Uh, yes please. So he brings me a 15ish pound Butterball and wishes us a Happy Thanksgiving. I said thank you, while trying not to cry, and headed for the line.


WOW.


I'm not sure who or why, but I saw him heading over to another mom as I was heading to a cashier. All I know, is God is amazing. Ben and I are both a little stressed about this move. Not that we aren't excited, but Rising View flat out told us that we have to pay for December even though that was well beyond 30 days notice, so basically this month and next we are making 3 house payments each. Our mortgae in TX, rent for military housing, a down this month and the first month's rent next month. Added to tires for Ben's car, all three kid's birthdays, and Christmas- like I said stressed.


So last night, I couldn't sleep. I was trying not to worry but I was, I'm not going to lie. So I prayed. I didn't ask God for more or to make up the difference, I thanked Him for what we have. I thanked Him that we can make those payments, and celebrate birthdays, and still feed our children. I thanked Him that I am worrying because we have the choice between two houses, instead of worrying where our children will sleep tonight. I thanked HIM. Then I prayed that I would be more mindful of our blessings, because sometimes I lose sight of them. I prayed that I would be a bit more dsciplined with our income and careful with our gifts, becasue sometimes I'm not. I finally fell asleep after 2ish, and I went to sleep determind not to worry, but to be disciplined and frugal. And I was both at the commissary.

So I want to take this opportunity to put in a shameless plug for P&G, makers of Pampers, Swiffer, Dawn, Tide, Bounce, Always, Tampax, etc. and thank them for blessing this military family. And I want to thank God for reminding me to STOP worrying, he's got it all under control, and for showing me that he really does use anyone who is willing.


Oh, and before I forget (because I have been forgetting), Thanskgiving dinner will be served around 4 at our house. Please, please, please, if I haven't already contacted you (especially any deployed spouses), know that everyone is welcome. My brain has only partially recovered from school so I'm sure I have missed people, but come on over. I don't want to hear that anyone didn't have a place to go.

Memorial Day

This weekend was blah. A fellow deployed wife was feeling the same as me. We were doing okay with this deployment until this four day weekend happened. Not that I begrudge other wives time with their husbands, it is just hard to see sometimes. Especially over holidays. At least we are on the downswing of this rotation. I am trying to hold on to that. It feels like time has slowed down though.



So Memorial Day. I decided to have some other deployed wives over for a barbeque so we wouldn't all sit at home moping. What a day! Each women brought a different meat and we all shared, YUMM!!! We had hot dogs for the kids, potato salad, salad, fruit, veggies, mimosas, and, of course, smore's. The weather was perfect, not too hot or humid, nice breeze. The kids had fun, the moms had fun, no major meltdowns ensued. Good day. Thanks ladies for sharing the day with us.

Memorial Day pics

Naked season

Waiting for the fire

Bekah says, "chocy pease"

Fire!

Boys!

Smore's

I swear they were not posed! I walked up and they both looked at me like that.

Beks was not amused about having another kid in her bathtub.

Waiting, waiting...

Waiting 2 hours for your oil change...Grrr

Your Dr is running 45 minutes late...Sigh

Being forced to sit still and wait TWICE the week before Christmas...AAAHHHH

66 Christmas cards stuffed, sealed, labeled, stamped, and mailed...Priceless

Some things money can't buy.

For everything else...there is God figuring out for you when you are going to find time to get your cards out!

Merry Christmas

Yes, I know I'm a bit early. But since I am typing on our Christmas present, it is appropriate. Our old computer was about 7 years old, which in supermodel and electronic years is like, old. When we bought it, it was top of the line and it had a whole 20gb hard drive! Anyway, it was taking every ounce of memory just to run the operating systems and it was running them sloooowly. Being cheap, um I mean frugal, I would have happily kept it a few more years relying heavily on our external hard drive. In the end, Benjamin wore me down, and we are now the proud owners of a new desktop with, drumroll please, a 648gb hard drive! WOW! This computer doesn't even flinch when it opens my picture file with 11,662 pictures in it. Everything is so bright and shiny and moves quickly. I am still getting used to the new OS and trying to find where the buttons are, but it is not too bad. Thanks Mom for donating to our new toy, I kept the boxes so we can unwrap them at Christmas and act surprised. And now that Ben has re-loaded our programs and files, I will catch everyone up on some pictures.

Day 2, Part 3

Okay, part 3, are you ready for it? Ready, set, go!

After the cave, baby and I headed for the hotel to rest (haha). Ben took the kids horseback riding. After that we met with G&G and headed to the edge of town to the little 'mall'. There is an alpine slide that sounded like fun so Ben took the kids on that (it was expensive then totally lame, not recomended). After that, Grandpa decided that they really needed to take the helicopter tour of Mt. Rushmore so off they went. Then we got dinner at the cash only pizza place (? Isn't this the 21st century?) and ice cream at Dairy Queen. Whew! Deep breath.

I took 158 pictures this day. Here are the fav's.

My beautiful girl
My crazy boy
Enough said
Self-portrait
After all the, "please daddy, please, can we ride horses", we get this face. And a lot of, "we're scared, we changed our minds", after they were on the horses.

Settled in


They survived (Someone else got thrown off on the trail, that didn't really ease their fears)

And for those who care, my damaged foot. Some of these are the original bruises, some were left by my walking brace over these two days.

The ski lift up - with no restraints

Coming down


Getting briefed about the flight

Off goes my family on a helicopter, yikes!
The view on takeoff

Mt Rushmore Keystone, SD

Ben has declared he wants to fly these next

This really was a looong day

Day 2, Part 2

After a quick lunch and refuel for the cars we parted from grandma & grandpa and carried on with our action packed day. Somewhere in the heart of the Black Hills National Forest is Rushmore cave. It was dug out by prospectors looking for gold (there never was any), then re-discovered by teenagers as well as the rest of the small town. It was a thing in the 20's to go in and carve messages on the wall of this one room. Later, a geologist came and further explored resulting in the cave that is today. It is now a 1/2 mile guided hike down into the cave. This was fun. My second favorite part of the day. Jake loved it. Small, dark, confined spaces, right up his alley. If they would have let him, he would have gladly ventured through the lesser explored spaces and probably gotten lost. This would not have bothered him at all. I would like to note how much I LOVE my husband for carrying the baby through this cave.

Some of the 80 or so pictures

The drive and scenery were pretty
Entrance to the property
Going down into the cave
This man is wonderful.

The original entrance hole
Jake in his element


Near the top of the path, quite far up with not much for safety

Coming down
My Elle
A column ruined by human hands. It will not grow anymore.
'Ribbons'

The pig's face
Another unexplored hole

Climbing back out

This was really fun despite the sometimes steep stairs and super narrow paths. And for the record, clumbsy me didn't fall! I did, however, manage to hit my head on headache rock while looking behind me to tell people to be careful it was slippery. I love my husband. Even if he did laugh really hard at me.