Givensmeabreak....

WOW! What a few weeks!!!  Busy!!!  I cant even begin to tell you what has been going on... Let's start with praising the Lord for what He has done.  Kraig and I have set out to take our youth kids to GoldRush 2014 in Atlanta, GA.  I have gone on this trip probably 3 times and every time I come away amazed and encouraged by the Lord.  I am so excited to take our kids.  But in order for this to happen we need to raise some money.  We put on another yard sale.  Last year, we had a yard sale and made right around $1,000.00.  Well, this year by our 2nd dropoff date, I was hoping for just $500.  I don't know why I short change the Lord.  So, on Friday (day before the sale), we went up to the church and began to set up and get everything organized.  Our kids showed up to work (and play and eat)...and our church family showed up!!!  They came out to help set up.  Such a blessing.  Over the past 2 years, I have so enj...

Last night, I got the opportunity to talk to our youth.  Usually, I just get the girls and sometimes put my little tidbits in every so often but Kraig has been super overwhelmed this week plus he is preparing for his sermon for Sunday....HE'S PREACHING!!!  So, he asked if I could handle the youth service.  I apprehensively said, "Sure...."  Whatever I can do to help....RIGHT!?!?! I already had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to talk about, it was just putting it together... I started with a video from the Skit Guys.  If you hadn't seen them, they are generally a funny duo that go around and tour with conferences and stuff like that.  This one is pretty serious.  I like how it shows that we are a work in progress and that God loves me enough to not leave me like I am.  I think the kids got the message. From there I talked about Job.  If you know anything about Job....HE HAD A ROUGH LIFE.  He had many trials and tough times ...

  Photo bomb!  Sorry for the way this looks, I'm not patient enough to figure out how the pictures should be placed.  :(  And sorry so long but we have some great pics of the last few weeks of our snow days!!!!  Hope you all enjoyed your snow/time off/rest time....it was a great time for us!                             These are from our snow a couple weeks ago.  He didn't like it.  However, we think due to a tooth breaking through, him just waking up from a nap and the lack of gloves, he just wasn't feeling it.  So, we didn't last long.  But it was a great few days with Kraig off work to be able to spend some extra time with us and a time for rest.                                 These are also from the last snow days....I gave Rett his first hair cut.   I didn't cry one t...

Yesterday, I got to go to the Chapel service at Kraig's school. It was a treat. A student that I have had the privilege knowing since she was in 6th grade (now a Senior) spoke.  I have been her small group leader for 5 years and have seen her transform into a wonderful and beautiful young lady. She is going places.  She is a talented athlete and great friend.  Loves Jesus and a new found desire to serve Him in all things.  She's not a speaker and will tell you that.  She's a bit shy but will be so loyal once you have the friendship with her.  But yesterday, even being as scared as she was to speak, the Lord was so gracious and gave her the exact words He wanted her to say. I couldn't help but be proud.  I know I didn't have a huge roll in her life but just being able to be a part of her life for the past 6-7 years and to see her faith and love for God grow is just....amazing.  As I listened, I couldn't help but be teary-eyed because of her...

We are going through the Old Testament with our youth in Sunday School. The Old Testament never gets old to me.  No matter how many times I read or hear different stories, I learn something new every time.  Or something new stands out to me.  It just never gets OLD.  I don't know why.  It's amazing to me how their faith blossomed, how they experienced God and how even through all the trials and hard times, they still BELIEVED God.  It blows my mind every time. So, let's get to Moses.  In Exodus 1 and 2, Moses was born, "adopted" by the Pharaoh, saw a fight and murdered an Egyptian, fled from Egypt, and then met/married his wife. Now, Moses knew about God and that He had made a covenant with His people (that He would take them to the Promised Land) but Moses had never heard from God until this point.  The Burning Bush.  God talked to Moses through a Burning Bush.  REALLY!  A BURNING BUSH!!!  HA!  THINK ABOUT THAT! hmmmm...

We have been crazy busy the past few weeks.   Kraig went back to work.  We so miss him when he works.  Rett loves his daddy!  That's all he talks about during the day.   We had a great doctor visit a couple weeks ago.  Rett grew an inch and a half.  Didn't gain any weight really but that's ok.  They weren't too concerned this time.  They gave us some things to work on for his next visit.   He has made stride in his speech too.  I haven't been to worried about it but he has started to say "foo-ball,"  "ba-ball," and "jui" and "blue" for blueberries.  It's been so fun.  We are working on our ABCs and numbers now.  We got some fun games for Christmas so we work on the alphabet every few days.  Just taking it a day at a time. We had a youth weekend a couple weeks ago.  It was super fast and super good.  The kids worked hard and played even harder.  They are so fun and I look forwa...

2013 has come and about to go.... 2013 has been a year full of blessings.  Today, I guess in leu of 2014 approaching I have been super reflective.  And as trying as 2013 may have been, it has been packed full of surprise blessings. Let's recap.             Here are some photos from the year.  Rett turned 1.  He traveled to New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida this year.  He was last year's New Year baby.  He learned so many things.  He learned to walk, sleep through the night, talk and make fish faces.  He was Batman for Halloween.  He went swimming this summer.  He loved the sand.  Rett had a good year. My dad retired this year.  It has been 3 years since he has lived at home here in GA.  It will be exciting to get to see him more and be able to share more memories with him with Rett. We got to visit with much of our family this year too.  We got to see our PA family m...