David and Goliath moment

I am going through some of my stuff and copying and pasting stories I never want to lose that I hold close to my heart or are powerful to me. This story happened in August 2012. I will never forget this day with Austin.  Very moving.  Almost didn't seem real as I watched him on the field that day.

On our way to football practice Austin seemed so down and had been for few days. I asked what was wrong and he just was frustrated with football and he didnt quite understand the tackling and all the moves and motions to go with it, because too many people have given him advice and he was confused. So behind our car I looked at him and his worry was so thick I felt I could have picked it up and carried it. I said your dads not here so I'm gonna try and help ya out. He's like you? I said Yup and were gonna pray, so we did. I said that's the best way I can help you out. Than I sent him on the field and watched that boy take boys down twice his size!! After practice coach had everyone get together and called Austin up front and said, everyone needs to start playing like this boy right here. "He's one of the smallest boys on the team and he could take you all down. This boy worked hard, be like him." I told him it was a David and Goliath moment!! Nobody can take you down when Gods on your side:)

Phillipians 4:13 "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

Finding strength in tragedy

When I take the kids to school we make it a point to pray for our day. And everyday our last sentence is "be with our world today and everyone in it." And as we speak it I always think what will our world be like by night time? And sad thing is there is always something new and tragic on a daily basis. Our world is no longer "quiet" I guess you could say. Seems there is no peace and obviously not safe. Storm after storm and tragedy after tragedy its all taking our country apart. We are losing lives young and old. My heart aches and its filled with sadness as I see pictures upon pictures and new reports as the toll rises in Oklahoma. And I know, I know people get sick of me and my preaching but tonight I can't help KNOW how it talked about all this (storms and tragedy) in the end times. His return is soon and so close. I pray our hearts are ready. I have been told there's no such thing as His return. I smiled and said I totally TOTALLY respect that. But I said, "what IF it is true? What if there is a chance it will happen......" Tonight my prayers are all over the place I feel like a mess. My heart doesn't hurt anymore but it aches. "Lord, hold us extra tight tonight.

"Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Missing in action and Mothers Day!

Hey everyone! I have taken a huge break from blogging just wasnt feeling it but I really have missed it so I'm back and hopefully no long gaps in between:) Today is also a wonderful occasion it is Mothers Day!!! I am copy and pasting what I wrote on fb for my mom. She pretty much rocks and I would'nt be who I am today without her:) I pray all you Moms out there had a blessed day. And those who long to be a mom or you are not one yet my prayers are with you. You are SO loved!!!
I learned a lot from my mom: How to love and reach out to others, to respect your spouse and be there for their everything, how its ok to make messes because they clean up, to eat candy bars at night and when your husband finds the wrappers blame it on the dog lol. She prayed over me, loved me, and knew how to mend my heart when needed. She taught me to seek the Lord in everything and her actions lived louder than words. I dont know what I did in this lifetime to be blessed to have her as a mom. But its been an honor to be called her daughter. Happy Mothers Day Mom!!! Love you always! Proverbs 31:26-31 "She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many woman do noble things, but you surpass them all." Charm is deceptive , and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Thank you Jesus for the reminder!

Last couple nights my boy hasn't been able to sleep. Lastnight I went in his room at 10:30 and I about died when I saw him laying there wide awake(I put him to bed at 8.) I said, "Austin you have to get up at 6:30, your going to be so tired!" And sure enough he was. He woke up(after asking a few times) got dressed(slowly) and off to the start of his day. Tonight I put the kids to bed at 7:30, knowing they were just wore out. 8:00 Austin comes out and says, "mom I can't sleep again." I knew that since he voiced this to me, it's bothering him and I gave him a hug and told him, "I bet if you lay in bed and close your eyes and just relax you will fall asleep." Well, a little bit later he comes shuffling on out. I said, "what are you doing?" He said, "I'm just getting a kleenex." So he got a kleenex and went back to bed. As he walked off God spoke to my heart clear as day and said, "pray over your boy." And you would think I would have thought of that earlier but since we JUST said bedtime prayers it didn't register with me. So I went to Austin and said, "Austin, I know you've been having troubles sleeping last few nights. And I said, "you know what? were going to make that problem go away right now." I grabbed his hand and just as I was about to pray my husband sneezed and it made Austin giggle and he said, "I bet Jesus laughed at that dad." LOL. So I prayed over him with comfort and ease that God would help him fall asleep and that Jesus would just sit by his bedside and watch over him." After it ended I got him all settled back into bed and wouldn't you know it....he was out like a light within 5 minutes.
Jesus reminded me tonight, He loves us!! He loves to be apart of our EVERY need we have. May it be a problem that is huge and out of control where we feel we are spinning out of our minds and don't know what way to turn. Right down to the little things that we as parents think we can fix "on our own." Because tonight when Austin first voiced that he couldn't sleep, I thought of a million things that maybe I could do to help him sleep. Maybe it's too hot in the house, maybe it's too cold. Maybe he's eating something thats effecting him, maybe the house is too noisey with the tv. You name it I thought of it. But thats when God gently whispered to me to, pray for my boy. And just like that after going to Jesus with our problem He answered our need. Remember in those little moments not to forget about our Heavenly Father because He wants to help out anyway He can and if you call on Him, He will be there!

I love this boy with all my heart!! (And for the record no, he's not wearing a flower in his hair LOL.)

Army Life

Today I am linking up to http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/ with the show us your life on military life.



I am having to retype this as I've typed it up once and now it's disappeared???

I remember as a little girl I was looking at a country magazine of my parents and they did an article on NC. After reading this article I fell in love with NC. I always was fascinated by NC and kept it very close to my heart. My Senior year at Glacier Bible Camp(July 1999) I had a dream one night and I dreamt that I was getting married. The whole thing was a blur. I don't remember anything from that dream except for one thing. I remember clear as day standing in front of my church in my white wedding gown holding hands with my groom, and he happened to be wearing ACU's(which is the camoflauge uniforms our soldiers wear). I didn't take anything from that dream in all honesty. I just thought it was a weird dream but one that I never forgot. I never saw the grooms face or anything. In October of 1999 I met the love of my life. My word, his hotness was standing before me and I was love struck ha! And the cherry on top was his love for Jesus. Wonderful christian man who was hot!!! I hit the jack pot:)
 September 1, 2001 we married and bought a home in MT he was a banker and I worked in the school district. We had a little boy and life was grand. In 2007 he was offered a job in Boise, Idaho with the bank up there. He took the job and we moved to Idaho. He was from there and his family still lived there. We thought we'd live there for a very long time....boy was I wrong! Soon after moving there I started having visions, they weren't dreams, I knew they were visions. It happened the minute I would pull the comforter over me to cover up. My head barely had time to hit the pillow. I could see this man walking up a sidewalk. I could tell he was wearing the army dress up uniforms(class A's). I only saw him from the knees down. Basically, it was his feet. His shoes were so shiny and I even could see the sidewalk so perfectly and noticed all the little bumps and cracks in the sidewalk. He would walk up a sidewalk and go up a couple stairs and than he would open a door to a house. When the door opened I always saw my children on the livingroom floor and they would look up as the door opened and would get this HUGE smile from ear to ear across their face as though they are seeing someone they haven't seen in a very long time. Than I would be standing there and I would look over at this person whom just walked into our home and I too would just grin ear to ear. And than that was it, vision was over. I had this vision I bet 30x or more. It was the exact samething and very consistant. After a couple times of having them I told Pat about them. He really didn't have much to say about it. He said I was just dreaming about a man in uniform coming to the house hahahahaha. I said, "hon, you don't understand, I know it's you in this vision even though I never see you." He just never said anything more about it. But I continued having them. And also I want to back track just real quick. Back when we lived in MT I was out shopping and my daughter had to go to the bathroom. When I was in the stall with her there was a big poster in there on the door and it was all about the army. That evening I brought up the army to my husband and said, "would you ever want to be the army?" He said, "no, I just couldn't." I said why not? He said, "It's not for me. I just couldn't do it." (I bet God laughed when he said that).

 The last hug before daddy left for Afghanistan. It's never goodbye.....it's always see you soon!

So flash back forward. Early in 2008 I just really started praying about our life. I felt God really pulling at my heart about a change in our lives and I prayed about it. And the word Army was always in it and I just knew it. I would talk about it with Pat but I could tell I eventually started being annoying so I just stopped. Especially when the last time he said, "Come back and talk to me when something goes wrong with my job." Well we knew that wasn't going to happen, he was with them for 5 years and loved it. Well a month later he was told his department was closing and by the end of the month he was done working there. It happened SO fast!!! That same weekend we had some good friends of ours come stay with us that we haven't seen for so long and the husband was in the army for years and so he answered all my questions and Pats. Well one evening in April I was sitting on the couch and Pat walked up to me. And I remember that moment so well. He just overpowered me(I felt like time stood still for a minute, I really don't know why) and he said, "God is calling me into the army." And I just looked at him and said, " I know." Well things moved fast and the end of May 2008 my 27 year old husband(His nickname was grandpa in basic lol.) was off to basic training. In October we found out that it's for sure we were going to live in NC. And in the middle of December we moved to Ft. Bragg, NC and have been here for a little over 3 years now and we love it.

        Missing those important days and milestones in life without him there was always so hard.

  First day of school. He did so good. But I cried wishing Pat could see him.

God has really prepared me for this life since I was a little girl. And remember that dream I had at bible camp of me getting married? Well the part that sticks out the most is what the groom in that dream was wearing. He had on ACU's. But the ACU's he had on were the ones they wear today. These ACU's didn't come out till a few years AFTER I had that dream! So when I saw my husband for the very first time wearing that uniform, I bawled like a baby.

And when something so incredibly scary, due to illness with your child, and your husband is on the other side of the world is the hardest thing to go through.

I have made some wonderful friends in this chapter of our life. Friends that I couldn't imagine being without. I miss my family so much back in MT. But I know that this is what God wants for our lives right now. He knows our future and He will guide us if we obey. At first we may have to double think what we are about to do. But once you listen to what He wants and put it into action you will see why he did, what he did.

 This picture cracks me up. Poor girl, we were there waiting forever LOL. But it was for a good cause:)
  

Now don't get me wrong. Army life isn't daisy and roses. It has it's weeds and thorns along the way and it can be a very challenging lifestyle. Thats when I just have to look at all Gods brought us through and remember HE knows whats best! And to seek comfort in His rest.

 When that plane landed it's like I took the biggest sigh  that I was holding since the day he left. Every emotion hits you.

    Daddys hugs were so missed!!!

      Happiest when daddys home!!!

                                 

   Life was grand when he got his McDonalds cheeseburger and Starbucks frapp the night he came home LOL.

  I think the smiles show the joy of being back together.

                                 

I love my girl!!!

I wanted to document my time with Abby on Friday. We had such a great time! I knew my girl needed some one on one time and so that is what we were set out to do! First off she needed new shoes for church. We went to Payless and found her a pair and what made it better was the sale price I got them for WOOT WOOT!!! Afterwards I said, "what would you like to do?" She said, "Can we go to Target?" I was surprised by this answer LOL, but yet I was happy as I needed 2 curtain rods and advil. When we got there I asked if she would like a pizza and an icee....didn't have to ask her twice thats for sure. So I pushed her in the cart as she ate and chatted with me. We had so much fun going through the toy aisle playing and also looking at the dvd's. We were being crazy and silly and we didn't care who saw us ha!
After we left Target(but not before we stopped at Starbucks to get a hot chocolate for her and coffee for mommy) I looked at her  in the car and said, "Abby we totally forgot everything we were supposed to buy there." She thought that had to be the funniest thing. Because we kept saying throughout the store don't forget the advil or don't forget the curtain rods lol.

When we got home Pat and Austin were playing a game so I looked at Abby and said, "you wanna run to Walmart with me for the curtain rod and advil?"  She replied with a loud, "sure!" I couldn't believe she even had a voice left from all the talking she did. My girl had a lot to say, and I was happy to be there for her. We got our 3 items and left only to come home and the guys to say come on were taking you girls out to dinner. Abby yelled, "what? were leaving again?" LOL, she loved it. So we went out to dinner and than ran over to the mall and walked around. LOOOVED my day with my girl. I cannot tell you how many times throughout the day she said, " I love you mom." Or, "your the best mom." and the, "I love being with you." Many more of those will be had and I know that I look forward to our girl time more than she does!" I love my girl!!!

You can always count on me...I'll save you!

So today I was cleaning and I walked through the livingroom into the kitchen. As I walked in livingroom I looked down at Austin as he was playing on couch. I went in kitchen put a cup in sink turned around and went back in livingroom I didn't look at Austin this time, but I was walking towards Abby and out of nowhere I caught glimpse of movement of a human in the hall. I literally screamed, got my fist put up and froze.....it was Austin LOL. I said, "Austin how did you do that you were just on the couch, you scared me!!!" His reply(while laughing), "So is that ummm how you plan on saving us if someone ever does come in our house. I feel so safe." I laughed so hard. I love that boy and his sense of humor!