"Your greatest contribution to the Kingdom of God may not be something you do, but someone you raise." ~Andy Stanley

October 30, 2010

A new season for old friends

Every couple of months it seems like I've been blessed to see my best friend lately...

Well, I'm about to have the immense blessing of having her live in the same state and almost the same county and I can hardly believe it.

We've been praying for God to direct them in this next season of their lives and although we've often hoped they would end up here, it has never worked out. But this time the Lord has sent them our way and as I said, I can hardly believe it.

But, it is true and she will be here soon after driving all the way across the country. (her hubby will follow in about a month)

She's had a few delays and my kids are about to drive me crazy if they don't see hers in the next hour or so, because they've been hoping to see for the last 24 hrs. Thankfully, my hubby has loaded them up and taken them out for slurpees. I guess this makes the kids and I even, because I've driven THEM crazy with all the cleaning, since she and her kids are staying here while they relocate. I can't offer them a big spacious house, at least I can offer a cozy, CLEAN one, right?



Can't wait to see what great things the Lord has in store for these precious servants of the Lord. And for the first time, my hubby and I will have a close up view! : ) Hooray!

~Becky

Blessed

Oh, how I love this man!!!! : )



~Becky

October 26, 2010

All sorts of randomness

I think I have a blog design I can live with for now even though the blog is still being held captive by the Blogger's Template Designer and won't let me go back to anything else...Rats!
-And speaking of those, ours hasn't been caught yet! Boo-hoo! It is causing me all manner of stress!!!

On to happier subjects...

~There are exciting things brewing but we aren't a liberty to talk about them yet. But when I can, I will. : )
~The youth retreat was incredible! I am still hearing stories about lives changed for eternity! Thank the Lord!
~Andrew is going to be in his first spelling bee in a couple weeks and Zac is going to take the SAT for the first time next week.
~I made some chocolate chip pumpkin bread because Becky at keystothecottage mentioned it several times and I couldn't get it out of my head. : ) Thanks Becky!
I LOVE to bake. I told my hubby that it is therapeutic. He thinks football is therapeutic. Our 'therapies' should probably unite for a yummy football party some time soon.
~The kids' church band got started again and since its former leader is a dad of a traveling soccer player, my hubby was asked to lead it. He and Andrew are really excited about it and I think the other middle schoolers in the band are too.
~Life is pretty much about music around here, unless you are Joy and then it is about soccer! Zac and Nate are still in the youth worship band and work really hard practicing for the youth service every week. God is doing awesome things and changing lives in that group!
I wish I had more to blog about, but this is all I've got for now. : )

~Becky

October 22, 2010

Oh rats!

I so wish the above title were not an actual fact around here.
There is actually a rat living under our oven! UGH! And apparantly it is a pack rat!
And it is really packs!!!!!! yewww!

It has 'packed' dog food, (left over from Max's visit)
a flaming Cheeto, (Nate's favorite snack food)
a roach bait trap,
a new dish cloth
and a paper airplane. (Andrew has been perfecting his design the last couple of days)
Can you believe how weird that is?!

It is also unaffected by rat poison and just walks right by it.

So, it was off to the Home Depot for me today for a rat trap.
I got in on a rat trap setting lesson being given by an employee, what luck!
(although I had no intention of setting it because Zac is getting paid to do that!) ; )
The other customer and I shared rat stories and wished each other luck...

Setting the trap made us all think about what we will do IF and LORD WILLING, we actually catch it.... Because what if my hubby isn't home when it happens?
As I was thinking of how much I would need to pay someone to dispose of a dead rat with a broken neck (EWWWWW!!!) I found I had two boys begging me to be the one to dispose of it for FREE no less!!! Wow!
How funny! I love boys!

~Becky

October 14, 2010

Weekend excitment

There is a youth retreat this weekend!!! whoo-hoo!
All my guys are attending. (including my hubby who is one of the adult leaders) It is going to be a really powerful weekend and all the youth leaders attending have been fasting for the past four days and praying. How awesome is that?! Cant wait to hear about what God does and about the changed lives when everyone gets back.

We also have some of our best friends visiting this weekend, (hooray!)
so it has been one exciting time. Today, we have been hunting down sleeping bags and backpacks, doing laundry, packing and even headed to the mall and Wal*Mart for last minute things. I think all these kids are all finally ready to go. We even fit in some school. Glory, glory!

Once 5:00 comes, Joy and my BFF and I will probably not know what to do with ourselves, it will be so quiet around here. It will be a fun girly weekend, all except for one male who is one his way over now.
MAX !!!




He's coming back to stay with us while his owners are at the retreat.
The grass, crock pot and speaker cable, weren't safe last time he was here but that's OK. He really is too lovable to mind.
Well, the mom taxi needs to start making more rounds!
Have a blessed weekend!
~Becky

October 9, 2010

The surprise was on me

So, Friday night I drove our oldest boys to a surprise party and guess what happened?
-You couldn't guess if you tried, because in this case, my reality seems to be better than fiction! ; )


The road to the house where the party was at turned out to be blocked for road work. (how come no one mentioned that on the invitation?!) And my GPS was showing that it was the ONLY road to this house. (which turned out not to be accurate, lucky for all the other guests) And the people throwing the party were to busy doing just that to text us back.

So, I parked and we decided to walk the rest of the way, which looked to be just around the corner, but it totally wasn't!
And then walking turned into jogging ...because we were late and the boys didn't want to walk in at the same time as the birthday girl and ruin the surprise.
And since jogging isn't something I do well in flip flops, we parted ways when there was an 8th of a mile left to go.
I headed back to the car and that is when it started to hit me that I didn't exactly (or even remotely) remember the name of the street I left my car on! UGH!
That meant the GPS in my hand was no longer of any help.
Then I found out that the cell phone in my purse was dead and no longer of any help.
So, there I was walking around a thankfully (or I may have panicked) very nice subdivision hunting for my car for awhile!!! And it was starting to get dark!
~Explaining to some neighborly people I borrowed a phone from, that I was not really lost, but that I had just lost my car was an interesting experience....
(and I'm hoping they don't think I was on drugs! lol)

After many prayers and more walking, I spied it behind a big bull-dozer and all was eventually well!
It was a good reminder that I'm never alone and that "He leads in paths of righteousness for His name's sake" -even if it does take awhile. : )

~Becky

OK time for a post

...despite the fact that I'm not happy with the blog's look at the moment it is time to get back to blogging! : )

Yesterday the youth group had a Mud Bowl. That is football played on land that has had 6000 gallons of water poured on it. Lots of mud and gooey fun!

Here is Joy and her team the Fig Newtons! Happy and muddy!

All the youth leaders were suppose to play so I'd been praying against injuries for those of us in the 40 + yrs. old crowd just in case. ; ) As it turned out, there were so many teens on the teams, that some of us adult leaders weren't needed to play. (God is good, People!) lol!

Joy and I have been knitting like crazy. We are teaching a class for moms and daughters in our home school group. It is tons of fun. We are going to make lots of sweater hats for the homeless this winter and at the moment, we are knitting 50 hats for missionaries in South Dakota who are going to do a Christmas outreach.
And so far, this is what we have:

We are dog sitting a small horse, I mean -German Shepherd! lol
And he is beyond HUGE but sweet as can be! Gorgeous dog. Good thing we are dog people. I was really surprised that he jumps on the furniture, on our beds and in the bath tub like he owns the place. Ahh! Max is crazy-hyper! He totally looks like he would tear you apart, but he has the sweetest disposition and he's been a lot of fun to have around. I think my hubby wants a German Shepherd now...

The weather here has been beyond gorgeous. Florida's weather in October can't be beat. : )
It has been so nice to play tennis in the morning and enjoy cool breezes instead of sweating buckets! Nathan and I are improving! The other day, we had the most amazing games. Imagine actually getting every crazy backhand hit you tried for AND hitting them in! That happened to both of us! It was some amazing tennis. Whoo-hoo! So much fun and so exhausting that I thought I might pass out. LOL!

After church we attended the wedding reception for a woman who was in the youth group we led back when she was only 12! It was great to rejoice with her today. Boy, does time fly!
~Becky

October 1, 2010

The reason for the new look

The blog got a new look completely by accident...that is how amazingly savvy I am. LOL

And I can't seem to undo it. And I've tried everything! I think Blogger's new template designer has hijacked my blog for good and it is really frustrating.

I no longer even have a page elements page. Isn't that crazy?!

Stuck with it for now... Unless you have any advice. I noticed that other people are asking the same thing on the blogger help page but no answer was given.

So, if I have 15 different blog designs in the next couple of days and they are all ugly you'll know why. LOL!
~Becky

Enough today for the whole weekend

What a fun day!

1. Joy and I taught a knitting class this morning. We are knitting sweater hats for the homeless in our city and for missionaries in South Dakota to use for an outreach! Yay!

2. Joy and I went to a class on Jewish Feasts. We learned about Sukkot, blew some shofars, did some Jewish dancing and all the kids made their own little sukkot with graham crackers and frosting and gum drops.

3. Took Joy to dance.

4. Ran an errand for my hubby

5. Picked Joy up from dance

6. Went home and fixed a quick dinner

7. Took oldest sons to the movies

8. Rolled paint on the walls of a small bedroom

9. Went to Barnes and Noble

10. Picked up boys

Home and ready to call it a day now. Or call it the whole weekend...except that it just got started. LOL!

Night, All!

~Becky