A Thing I Heart...

Do you ever hear a song and you just keep hitting repeat, repeat, repeat?

The first time you hear it you say, "MAN!! That's a good song!" Then the second time you hear it, "MAN! That song is really good!" as a tear wells up in your eye. Then the third time, "Speak to me Lord!" as the tears accumulate and you don't blink because they will fall to the floor. Then the fourth time you just have to pause for a moment and take it all in; the smells, the hurt, the laughter, the memories, the feeling, the people, the beauty, the heart leaping from your chest feelings.

This happens to me when I find a song- usually a 'sad/motivating/moving' song. What song is it for me right now? "In Better Hands" by Natalie Grant. I heard this song a while back- when the music video was released. I watched the video, cried like a baby then watched it again.

Now I'm listening to it over and over and over until I begin to feel I sound like Natalie. (Not possible)

For you 'music people' out there, I think you're feeling me now.

I once heard a preacher say, "There are 7 pathways to God. Each one of us has a different path that we take to feel God."

This was a life changing sermon. I am going to do my best to remember all 7.
-Music (Yes)
-Nature/Outdoors (Yes)
-Sermons (Yes)
-Reading Scripture

I can't remember the others. Sorry. I remembered the two I was and the two I am not-at the time. I have now been able to let God meet me on the path of sermons-thanks to Craig.

I have this God given ability to hear a song and let it move me. I can to travel back in time to the moment a certain song impacting me. I can remember smells, people, feelings, what I was doing, what I was thinking. I can even remember songs that I wasn't listening to but that my Dad was listening to and the moments comes back to me.

I heart music.

Everyone Has a Story

Chloe's at Mother's Day Out or Parent's Day Out to be politically correct. When she's there I try to do things that I wouldn't normally be able to do with both kids IE. post office, grocery store, shopping, Starbucks, sit and do nothing.

This morning, I took Cooper to get his 5 month shots. (We are doing the Alternative Schedule by Dr. Sears.)

While I was there a young girl walked in carrying a car seat with a while blanket over it. I began to think, "I wonder how old her baby is? Boy or girl? Hmmm, well pink diaper bag, must be girl. Huh, she's feeding it a bottle, I wonder if she pumps or just does formula. She's all alone. I wonder if she's a single mom."

The baby poops, so she gets it out. This whole time I have not been able to see the baby. Once the baby is out of the car seat my mind begins to wonder again, "Ohh, my gosh, that baby is so tiny. I wonder how much she weighs? Oh no, she had an explosive poop. Oh, she can't find another diaper. That stinks. She looks like she really loves that little baby. I hope all goes well with them."

I wonder what her story truly is.

Then on the way home I drive by a house that I probably drive by hundreds of times. There were balloons decorating their carport and the cars. As I am approaching, I can see they have painted the windows in the front of the house. "WELCOME HOME ALEXIS!!!"

I begin to think, again, "I wonder where Alexis has been? Has she been in countries of war, starvation, poverty or just on vacation or maybe in Europe as an Au Pair? Maybe she's been no where and they are being silly. I wonder?"

I just think sometimes how everybody has a story. Whether it's good, bad, sad, funny or just mediocre, it's still their life. The people next door lost their home to foreclosure. They have a story. It's mind boggling to think of all the people in the world. ALL of these story lines being written and God can keep up with every single one of them and it's nothing. Weird to think while I drink my Starbucks Carmel Macchiato extra Carmel, there are people dieing, crying, laughing, playing, pushing, mourning, celebrating, sitting, drinking, smoking, wishing, working, thinking about the same things I am and maybe worshipping in places that could get them killed.

Everyone has a story.

Take A Child Fishing

I believe a child's life can be changed by one thing.

Fishing.

Growing up, I can remember my dad taking me fishing on our boat one time. It was so much fun. He never took me again.


It took another man to get me fishing again.

I married him.
Before we had kids, we would talk about taking them fishing, hunting, camping and anything outdoors. I would tell the story about my Dad to Matt and we would both agree to replace that boundary stone for our children. What an honor we have.
He looks good with Chloe's princess pole.


So while at the lake, we (the family) took all the kids fishing.

Levi caught the first fish. I am on the other side of the pond using my new zoom lens to take pictures of the family. This is what I heard when Levi caught his, I believe, first fish. "I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT!" It was so cute, he conquered the world by catching that 3.5" perch.
There's a fish on the line!!

This is Nathan's first fish. Uncle Matt threw the line out and Nathan did the rest all by himself.

Tiffany and her Dad fishing together. Memories for both.

After Nathan caught his fish, Chloe thought she'd try with Dad.

SUCCESS!! They caught a fish!! Do you see Chloe grabbing Matt's hand? She was trying to high tail it out of there. She wanted nothing to do with that slimy fish. We're going to have to work on that.

But Micah was interested.

Then Chloe thought, "Well, maybe I'll look at it, but only from afar."

Tyler got the award for "Biggest Catch." He caught a big ol' nasty catfish.

Tim's son, Nathan, caught a fish so Tim thought, "Hmm, even though I dislike the outdoors and seed tics, I think I can handle this fishing thing with a girly pole thing."

Nathan has the stance down. See how his left foot is slightly higher than the right. That is proper 'fishing form.' If you fish you know what I mean. One legs ALWAYS has to be higher than the other.

So Chloe when a dragonfly lands on your arm and you freak out...

Remember, there's always 'rogs' to catch with daddy.

Vacation Day 2

Matt and I had a one bedroom cabin that can sleep four. A couch/bed and a bedroom. Chloe slept in a pack'n'play in the bedroom. Matt and I had the luxurious couch that turned into a hospital bed. Did I say hospital bed? A hospital bed is more comfortable than what we slept on. Anyways, Cooper was in another pack'n'play in the living area with us. He usually wakes up and poops around 7:00am. I could hear him grunting, squirming and kicking so I opted to get up. I changed him, grabbed my camera and headed out the door and around the park.

That is the lake in the middle of the trees. It was covered in fog, but just about everything was. It was really pretty.
The big yellow dot on the left is the sun. I was trying to play with it, but it sure does rise fast when you want it to go slow.
More fog.
This is my nephew, Nathan. He and the other kids, brought their bikes with them. I think they rode those bikes every minute of the day. This picture of him was taken at 7:55am. He was hiding.
Matt's sister and the brother just under him went for a run. I really wanted to go, but I'm still working on normalcy in the middle/upper region of my body.

This is Tiffany, she is the second oldest grandchild and the oldest niece in the family. I watched Chloe interact with her and Chloe loves her to death. I could tell Tiff loved her too. It was cute.

So the kids are up, most by 6:00am and the gopher thought he'd get a little house work done. I have never seen a live gopher before!! Growing up, they were all dead, killed by the trap my dad would set. This one here had no fear. Have you ever seen a live gopher?

This is Micah, Nathan's little brother. He's just a few weeks younger than Chloe. He loves dirt, especially the mounds created by our little gopher friends.
Here's five of the nine grandkids. This is all of the boys minus Coop. The tallest boy is Tyler. He's Tiffany's brother and the oldest of the grandchildren. All of the boys look up to him, literally and metaphorically.

No one worry, Mama has arrived. She gave all the boys a little magnifying thingy. She comes prepared when there are going to be kids; she's a Grandma.

This is Tim, Matt's youngest brother. He's the father of Nathan and Micah.

This is my babies daddy.

This is our baby, one of them. The lighting on these two pictures is bad. I'm still learning about sun location. Anyways, Coop's bald head was getting some sun, so we grabbed the nearest hat which just happened to be Tiff's princess hat. Wouldn't he make a beautiful girl? HAH, I just realized I have one of those already, but Coop would make a cute girl, pink would be his color.

Where's Chloe? She got up a little after 8:00am and at 9:00am she asked Matt if she could go "nigh, nigh." She slept for 3.5 hours and then wanted to go to bed that night around 8:00pm. She had been napless for almost 3 days and was exhausted. She slept so well, I was a proud momma.

That pretty much sums up the morning. After all the adults had their morning coffee everyone was ready to go. It's basically zone defense all weekend, but each parent is in man on man mode unless you have three children then it's back to zone D.

We're BAAACK!

What a great weekend I had with the family. Last year wasn't that great for me. I was pregnant with Cooper and things were still uncertain. He also caused me to have morning, afternoon and night sickness. So this year, I was looking forward to walking, playing and taking pictures with my new lens.

We arrived at Keystone State Park on Thursday afternoon.

We rent out two one bedroom cabins and a three bedroom. It's perfect. If the family continues to grow we are going to have to expand our rentals.

Papa was able to get lots of Cooper lovin'. Cooper was able to share his cuddly, smiley and sleep on anyone side with whom ever held him.

This is Matt's mom, otherwise known to Chloe as Mama. The first thing Chloe would say in the morning, "Mama, Papa arrrre you? Arrrrre you Mama, Papa?" She wouldn't eat or drink anything until we left our cabin to find them.
Once everyone has arrived, we take family pictures.

Matt's brother is in the far background and his youngest brother and sister are holding the cameras.

They are attempting to get a picture of all the grandkids with Mama and Papa. This is usually the breaking point for the kids. It was for Chloe. She refused to let go of her silky. But in her defense she was napless and had just hit her head on the concrete.

After the pictures were taken and every child was good and angry, we started dinner. The kids played and the adults maintained their safety.

The first morning is next.... stay tuned.

Vacation

We are off to the lake for a little R&R.

It's the Knox Family Reunion, so I will be out of the 'loop' for a few days. I'm really looking forward to spending some time with the whole family and with Matt.

On our way out to the lake, I will be picking up a new lens for my camera!! WAhoo!! I think I'm almost more excited about that than I am about anything else. ;)

Last year, I was pregnant with Cooper and wasn't feeling very well, so this year will be much better. I only have to deal with abnormally large rock hard boobs. It's better than nausea I guess.

This is what Chloe looked like this time last year.

Our New 'Lifestyle'

When you accept Jesus to come into your life and be the leader, it's a life changing moment; hopefully. You go from living one life to living another, in a sense. You walk differently, talk differently and act differently. People will wonder, "What is different about him/her?"

I accepted Christ in high school at FCA camp, so since I have tried to live a Christ-centered life the best I can.

It's a whole new life.

The day was Saturday, September 13, 2008 at approximately 5:00pm cst....

She came into our lives and changed it forever. Yes folks, we are mini-van owners. (dramatic drumming, gasping, passing out, weeping, gnashing of teeth)

I'm not going to excuse our decision, I'm not going to explain in detail as to why we chose this vehicle over others that have crossed our path and purred at us.

I am only going to say, "I love my mini. You don't have to pray for me. I promise I still have Jesus in my heart."