Fun Pictureless Week

This week has been so much fun. We've been keeping pretty busy which is always a good thing. :-) Sadly though, our camera has been dead the whole week. But did I remember to put it on the charger? Nope. So, my apologies at our pictureless week. :-)

Saturday - Last Saturday we attended the Forestgate annual church picnic. We had amazing beautiful weather and met several new people. We are still praying to be able to find and get involved with a good small group that has young families.

Saturday pt 2. - After the picnic we headed over to Jonathan and SheriLynne's. We decided to go hiking along a beautiful trail. I was kicking myself the whole time for not having a camera! We walked along a stream (or river in KS terms) that had huge boulders in it. We got a little taste of scrambling as we climbed up a short incline that was over 45 degrees and consisted of loose rock and gravel (Jonathan was behind me and he said for every step I took, I kept falling back 3 steps lol). Then we went out and climbed the boulders in the middle of the stream. I couldn't make it all the way to the top because I have really bad traction in my shoes....and someone had to stay with Braxton (and I might have felt a little better if we had a rope or something to hang onto ;-)). But I did go up most of the way which was fun. :-)
After we were finished, we went back to our place to grill hamburgers and play Settlers of Catan. SheriLynne and Justin creamed us, but is that any surprise since they have Isaac blood in them?

Sunday - Church and Rest

Wednesday - Braxton and I went to Focus on the Family for the first time. It was so cool. We went with a friend of mine and her twin girls who are the same age as Braxton. Focus has a toddler play room and Braxton had so much fun crawling through the logs and climbing onto the turtle. I was really kicking myself that I didn't have a camera! Braxton, Hadley and Leila have to be the cutest little trio of toddlers there ever were (and they can devour animal crackers faster than you can imagine!).
Wednesday night we went back over to Jonathan and SheriLynne's to grill fajitas. Wednesday was a very hot day, but the evening was beautiful. SheriLynne cut Braxton's hair (4th haircut) and I told her to cut it short because I was so tired of him always needing a haircut. It's the shortest it's ever been but he looks so grown up and cute. It spikes in the back now just like Justin's. :-)

Thursday - Toddler Time. Braxton loves our Thursday morning trips to the library. They have a special story time just for toddlers where we sing songs, do poems with finger actions and of course read books. We picked up some videos (Barney and Bob the Builder) and even more books. Braxton is a book reading fanatic and he will sit contentedly on my lap for almost 30 minutes while I read to him.

So there's our pictureless week. Braxton still isn't walking or even standing on his own. I'm not worried about it, but it is becoming more of a challenge because he's gaining weight. He just finished a big growth spurt so it's getting harder to carry him everywhere. If you all think about it, you might pray that he begins to show some progress in those areas. He has done both standing and walking before, so I know he has the ability, just not the motivation (crawling is faster right now).

Ohhhhhh yeah!

I love shopping! Anyone that knows me, knows that! :-) But when it comes to buying kids clothes, I usually get really frustrated. Super cute clothes, that's for sure, but they are way over priced, especially considering they only wear them maybe 6 months (if you're lucky!)

Well, I heard a rumor that JCPenneys had all of their summer clothes on clearance. I love OshKosh brand and all of Braxton's clothes from there have held up really really well, so I decided it wouldn't hurt to check it out. Boy oh boy am I glad I did! I wound up getting most of Braxton's "play clothes" wardrobe for next summer for...are you ready for this...$16!!

Spoils of War!

This is my favorite outfit! I figured we had enough football stuff, so a little basketball wouldn't hurt anything! :-)

My receipt. lol! I'm a little excited, can't ya tell?
Spent $16.86
Saved $64.20
oooooohhhh yeaaah!

Dreams Really Do Come True

* Sigh * I have a baaaaaad feeling about this week. My shoulder decided to "go out" on me today. I know when my shoulder goes out it is no where near as bad as some people who deal with chronic pain, but I still don't like it! My poor baby keeps waking up whiney and crying from teething pain. Our house back in Wichita has no interested buyers and the market is not looking good. My family and friends went home. I have no wedding to help keep me busy anymore and I'm realizing that I have very few friends out here and now no activities to fill my time. I hate these spirals of depression and discontent that I find so easy to fall into.

My New Years "resolution" was to Choose Joy and I will admit I have been failing at it. I find it easier to wallow and complain about "the hardships" of my life than to choose joy and take comfort in the blessings my Savior gives me every day. Choosing joy is a state of mind. I have to constantly fight my sinful nature and all the pitiful thoughts that come with it. Why is this so hard? Because I am a sinner. My depressed spirit is a sinful response of unhappiness toward the life God has given me. My discontent spirit is a sinful response of jealousy and even anger toward toward the trials God has allowed in my life to help me grow in character. I cringe as I write those statements. How could I possibly be unhappy and even angry at the circumstances God allows to enter my life? Shouldn't I know that He will always work all things together for good? I should. That requires trust. And trust is hard. No Christian will tell you it's easy to be in a financial state you've never been in before. Or that it's easy to be in a new town where you know almost no one. But every Believer will tell you that trusting God through the hard times in life brings peace that cannot be compared to any "comfort" money or friends will give you.

I want a life that models Christ as much as this sinner is able to. I want a heart that rests contently in the life He has given me, no matter what my circumstances are. I want a heart that chooses joy because no matter what my circumstances may be, I have received the greatest gift of all: Christ's mercy, grace, forgiveness and salvation. My prayer for this week is that God will use this time to shape and conform me to become more like Him by recognizing and rejoicing in the blessings He has given me. "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones."

So here I am. This evening I had a sad heart, achy bones and crying baby. The spiral was starting. But instead of letting myself take the plunge, I sent up a prayer for a change of heart, turned off the TV, brought along my heating pad for my shoulder, turned on my happy music, and decided I am going to share with you all about the very very happy week I had last week! I am going to focus on the blessing my God gave me in new friends, a fun week, a family reunion (of Paines and Isaacs) and the witness of a beautiful marriage.


*Warning - Prepare yourselves for a massive picture overload. :-) I apologize in advance if you have dial up.

Me with my sweet friend, SheriLynne outside of our cabin in Salida. All of the bridesmaids shared a cabin which equaled non stop side-splitting laughter and long talks until the wee hours of the morning! I have never been in a bridal party where all of the bridesmaids got along so well and were such good friends by the end of the wedding. What a blessing!!

SheriLynne and Selah (the flower girl). Check out their adorable matching flipflops. Jonathan's sisters made the whole bridal party flipflops. How sweet!

The Dress

Strapping her in!

Jewelry put on by the mama. We were all so amazed at how unstressed Gwen was for a mother-of-the-bride. She was completely relaxed and having a wonderful time! Good job Aunt Gwen!

At the ceremony site with my close friend Kayla. She was such a good matron of honor for SheriLynne, just like she was for me (only she was a maid then!)

Ceremony pics!
During the processional, our "aisle" consisted of a walk along a stream

The glowing bride being escorted by her father

Gorgeous ceremony location.
(side note: the bridesmaids hand fluffed those tissue paper flowers the day before the wedding. There were almost 600 of them!!)

Isaac family picture

Smile Braxton!

Family picture

Best friends

The other half of our table didn't show up, so we had a fun "double date" with Kayla and Seth.

First Dance

Father Daughter dance

The "Blue Girls"
Tara, Kayla, and me

Tossing of the bouquet

Sending the newlyweds off with sparklers
(this was almost a disaster!)

WEDDING WEEK!!

Wedding #2 of 2010!! My life-long best friend, SheriLynne is getting married on Friday!! I couldn't be happier or more excited for her and Jonathan. I am so grateful to God (and our moms) for giving me such an amazing friend! We've shared so many seasons of life together and now that we both have our Prince Charmings, we get to experience "wife-ing" together. :-)

I love my sweet friend for so many reasons. I love that she is always on the go and listening for the Spirit of God to show her where to go next. The Spirit is leading her and Jonathan to Africa in January and even though I am going to miss her so very much, I praise God that they are following Him into the ministry!

I love that SheriLynne has a heart to serve others. Young or old. Troubled or happy, SheriLynne is ready to help them with a smile on her face and joy in her heart. She jumped in and did SO much to help me with my wedding. By far the best maid of honor I could have asked for!!

I love that SheriLynne is compassionate. I can always call her and talk to her about whatever my problem at the moment may be and she is ready to listen and advise as I need. She tells me the tough things I need to hear ("chill! you're being a brat right now") and the tender things I need to hear ("I'm so glad God put you in my life").

I love that SheriLynne is patient. SheriLynne watched several of her friends fall in love and get married while she was still waiting for her Prince Charming. But never once did she openly groan or complain about it. She kept busy, serving the Lord, and in HIS perfect timing, He brought her the perfect one for her.

I love that SheriLynne is sassy (in the bright and lively kind of way ;-))! She always makes everything fun! A crazy dance move, hysterical laughter, a perfectly timed comment/joke, or us just being us...life is more fun with SheriLynne around!

I love that SheriLynne and I have been friends forever! We've shared so many tea parties, slumber parties, ballet lessons, and countless other memories. From little girls playing wedding to big girls planning their weddings and getting married, we've been right by each others side.

I love you, friend! I can't wait to watch you and Jonathan join your lives on Friday!