Birthdays!

This past week while the kiddos were gone, my birthday passed by without much to-do (which I'm totally fine with). However, I did get a nice surprise. My mother-in-law sent me...

...an Edible Creation! I have always thought these looked so neat. It was very good.

These balloons were connected to the fruit bouquet but flew to the ceiling when we were trying to unwrap it.

The kiddos came home just in time to celebrate my nephew's first birthday! It was just a small party but it was great.

The kids seemed to have a good time. I'm not sure what was with the quality of the pictures. I couldn't seem to get clear pictures for anything. I'm not good with techie things like that though and WB was busy running the camera for my sister-in-law so I didn't ask him. I'm glad that we are blessed to have my brother and his family so near. I have really enjoyed spending time with my brother again.

We also had a trapper come remove the alligator from the pond before the kids returned home. It had lost it's wariness of humans and I didn't want my youngest to become alligator food.

I'm hoping that life will slow down a bit but I'm not counting on it. I feel like I have very little free time anymore. I hardly have time to read any blogs let alone write a post. I will try to get better about it....

Updating...it's been quite some time!

It has been quite some time since I have updated here. The kids are out of school now and we have been incredibly busy. If I'm not working, we are hanging out with the kids or trying to make a decision on a long term place for us to stay. Our rental is not working out well and we are ready to move on as soon as we are able. We are seeking God's guidance and trusting that God has a home for us. The kids have been enjoying their time off from school. The kids are up with grandparents for the next 10 days! Our entire day yesterday was spent driving to meet my mom halfway and then we turned around and drove home....kid free! It made for a long day. Can you tell?

 

We enjoyed driving through the mountains though! That is my favorite stretch of the drive.

 Isn't it gorgeous?!

 So now we are going to fill our days with serious discussions about where to go from here and what to do about our not so friendly neighborhood alligator.

This guy has been coming and going for the past month or so. Well, the past few days he has decided to stick around. Not only that, he swims towards you if you are out by the pond. We can't always see him in there because he has learned to hide well. The HOA is aware of the gator and still does not wish to have it removed so I will be doing my own research to look into getting it relocated.

We are enjoying being kid free for now but I sure do miss their sweet faces and the silly things they do...

They are a long way from home and 10 days is the longest they have been away from us. I know they will do great but it's also hard knowing that I can't just pop over to get them if needed. Love my boys and just trying to enjoy this kid free time. I know they are in good hands.

Books and then....

I love to read. I read just about anything I can get my hands on. I read a variety of books. I read magazines. I read blogs. I love to read and thankfully, so far, my children love to read. That said, I'm struggling to get through "The Girl Who Played with Fire". I struggled with the first book in this trilogy and then didn't pick up the 2nd until months later. I'm reading it only because I craved to read something and this is what I had on hand. I can't figure out if it's the style of writing, the crudeness/crassness, the immorality, the harshness, the crazy in depth detail of everything in the book that I feel detracts from the story, or if it's just simply the story not grabbing my attention. Either way, it's a struggle. I likely will continue to read it because it's a book, but I think it's time I pick up the Left Behind series again. My new friend has the entire series and has offered to let me borrow the books. I'm excited to read it. I started reading it a long time ago and then just stopped one day. I don't recall why but I want to get through the whole series this time. Then I want to get into a bible study that talks about the end times because I want to see what the Bible says about the end times vs just a fiction book series. What books do you enjoy? Any recommendations?

Remember I mentioned that I like reading blogs? I read this blog just before starting this post. It is incredibly moving and I think everyone should read it. In the end, it's not about how much money you have to help, it's not about what you have or don't have, it's about Jesus and recognizing how blessed we are. It's about prayer. If you can do nothing else, you can pray and pray fervently with your whole heart.

Just a sneak peak courtesy of Shaun Groves.