It is amazing the things that God will use to open your eyes or give you just what you need when you need it.

Lots of things are going on this week in our family. The future of my husband's job is unclear, and although I am really not worried about it because I know God is in control, I know that Jacob is worried and I am a little scared as to what the future holds for us. While reading my new book from Karen Kingsbury I came across a verse that is just what I needed to hear at the time. Isn't that amazing how awesome God is. The verse is "Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." I know that right now our family is going to be ok and God is just using this to teach us to have faith in Him and trust in Him everything. I am learning so much during these times about each of us in our family. All that we can do is lean on each other and trust God that He knows what is best for us. This verse is becoming my new favorite verse because I can't think of a time when we are not going through some sort of trial in our life and we just have to remember that God is using that to mold us into what he wants for us to be.

This week has been a great week so far. I have had to keep kids during Hannah's spring break, but all in all it has not been too bad. Hannah has helped out with the kids this week and they really love her. Tomorrow I don't have any kids except my own so we are going to be off to Sci Port Discovery Center. They love that place and I do too because it has so much to keep them occupied. Then we are going to head over to Minden to see my grandparents.

My grandmother is doing good at the new nursing home and I am so glad about that. I was really worried that she would not do good with the move but she has surprised me. She has actually been standing up in Physical Therapy, which is great. I am hoping that they can get her to at least be able to get up and down out of a chair so that she can come home to my parents house for the holidays. That would be the best present to be able to have her there.

My grandfather is having a little bit harder time adjusting. I think that it has to do with becoming dependent on my parents instead of being independent. He is also having a hard time seeing and he has a hard time hearing. I hope that my parents can encourage him to go and see a doctor about those two things.

I have been thinking a lot about the responsibility that my parents took on when they moved my grandparents down here. They just got all of the kids out of the house, and now they have my grandparents moved in. I think that they are two of the most unselfish people. They put the needs of others always above their own needs and I could not ask for a better example of selflessness for my kids to see. I just hope that some day I will be able to be the same example to my kids.

I would just ask that you guys continue to pray for my parents and my grandparents as they adjust to all of the changes that are happening. I know that this move was so important for my grandpa and I am glad that he decided to move without a fight. I hope that everyone has a great week.

Busy Weekend

This weekend is going to be great but busy. To start off we just got home from visiting my grandparents in Minden. They absolutely look better than they did on Tuesday. I am so glad because I was definitely worried that they were not going to get better.

My grandmother actually likes the food at this nursing home and so far the people that we have encountered there have been great to her. I am very glad about that. My grandfather is doing great also but having to adjust to alot of things. Especially having no drivers license and depending on my parents to go anywhere. The other day he told my mother that he would just walk to the nursing home to see my grandmother. That would not be good because he does not know his way around Minden and he can't see anything. Also he can't walk very far without his heart rate getting up too high. He definitely does not need to be walking anywhere but he has to get used to relying on my parents to help him out.

I am so glad that they are doing well because my grandparents mean the world to me. My goal is to go and visit them once a week, which seems like a lot but it is only 45 minutes from our house. That is the same distance as Bossier or Youree Dr. I hope that we can stick with that. It is really important for my kids to know my grandparents.

Tomorrow night is Hannah's slumber party and she is so excited. We are having about 10 girls come and it is going to be a blast. We are going to be making pillowcases and doing makeovers. We are also going to be having a HSM sing along on the Wii. I am sure to get lots of great pictures. I will be posting soon I hope. Even Preston is excited and got himself some new pajamas for the PJ Fashion Runway Show. It will be a blast except for on Sunday morning when we have to get them all ready for church. I know that we will make it, it will just be a stretch.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend.

Today we drove to Minden to visit my grandparents who have just moved here from San Antonio. My grandmother, who I would consider the most wonderful person in the world, is living in the nursing home in Minden. My grandfather is living with my parents. I know that people can not live forever, but I would love it if they could. It was very eye opening to me to see my grandmother and I had a hard time going home from the nursing home. I want to spend as much time with her as I can. She is getting worse slowly but surely and I hate to see her that way. My grandfather does not seem the same, but maybe that is because he is having to get used to his new surroundings and it is all a little surreal. It is breaking my heart to watch my grandparents getting older and I am having avery difficult time dealing with it. I will just ask everyone to keep me and my grandparents in your prayers. We definitely will need it.

Today has been a good day. I woke up around 4 this morning so that I could finish getting my kids clothes ready to sell at Reruns are Fun. I finally finished getting them done and woke up everyone in the house so that they could get dressed bright and early this morning for Hannah's last basketball game. It was great. After that we headed off to Minden for my nephew's 1st Birthday Party. Michael is so cute. Here are some pictures of him eating his cake. I wouldn't have missed that for anything.





Here is a picture of my nephew Kade playing with Michaels box that his toy came in. Why do they always love the boxes more than the toys??











Then it was off to Kiddie Mia's for another birthday party. The kids had a good time.



Finally time for an evening at home with the kids and hubby. We are watching "The Dark Knight" We have never seen it before. So far I really like it.

I did get a chance today to sort through Hannah's clothes and realized that we are so very blessed. I gave a lot of her clothes to Reruns and then I got a whole trash bag of clothes ready to give away and we still have drawers that are overflowing. I guess that I will not be buying her very many clothes at Reruns. This time it is all about Preston.

I guess that God lets us make small realizations all throughout our lives. I am so thankful for everything that we have. God is so awesome and amazing.

What a Weekend

So this weekend is going to be super busy. First of all Hannah wants to go and see Race to Witch Mountain tonight. I hope that we get to go but I doubt it. We have to go and get two birthday presents today for two different parties tomorrow. Jacob is supposed to be going mowing tomorrow morning but it has been raining so much I don't know if he will be able to. I know that he is hoping that he has time to go mowing because he is not looking forward to everything that we have to do tomorrow.

In the morning we are going to Hannah's last basketball game. Kinda sad and kinda exciting. That, by the way, is at 8 AM. Halfway through the game we have to leave and head over to Minden with Jacob's sister because she is going wedding dress shopping tomorrow. It takes about 45 minutes to get to Minden and I have to drop off my kids at my mom's house first. Somehow I got asked to be the wedding coordinator for my sis in laws wedding and it is alot to do. Good thing we have a year before the actual wedding.

The bridal shop opens at 10 so I will be there with my sis in law and mother in law and then I have to leave there at 11 to go to my nephews birthday. Good thing that it is in Minden. After my nephews birthday I am going to take my kids to a birthday party at Kiddie Mia's for one of my daycare kids parties. Hopefully after that we will be able to come home and do nothing.

Sunday morning we have to be at church at 8:30 and then when church is over I have to once again go and meet my sis in law at David's Bridal to go and try on more dresses. Then we have to be back at church at 5:00 for Ensemble and Awana's and then stay until 8 for choir practice. I will be glad when the Easter musical is over. These next 6 weeks for us are extremely busy and we have no time to rest.

Why is it that everytime the weather gets nice we have no time to enjoy it? Just once I would like to be able to say we have nothing to do. Maybe that day will come??? Not until my kids turn 18 or so I know but I am looking forward to that day, even if it is 11 years away.

I have a whole new respect for my husbands side job as a a yard man. I know that Jacob works hard but yesterday I got to experience it myself. I will fill you in on the interesting day that we had yesterday.

Jacob has been mowing yards since he was 7 years old with his dad. When his father passed away Jacob continued mowing yards and still does it to this day along with his regular job. He is a very hard worker and today I understand that so much more.

Yesterday afternoon I was playing outside with my daycare kids and waiting on them to get picked up when my phone rings and it is Jacob. He has had a blow out on the trailor that is carrying the sod he is going to lay. He says that he can still drive the trailor but he is late getting where he needs to and he can't even stop and get himself something to drink. He then asks me the million dollar question. Can you bring me something to drink??

Next time I will think about the answer to this question carefully before answering. I answered yes and the kids and I took off. I decided that since we were going we might as well stay and help and let the kids see what their daddy did on Saturday mornings. That was a dumb idea!!!

We stop at Wal-Mart first because we have to get drinks and if I am going to help Jacob I needed to get myself some gardening gloves. Ha Ha Ha. When we got to Mrs. Howards house Jacob still had over half the trailor full of sod and the back of his pick up truck full. We arrived at about 6 and we did not leave there until around 9:30 last night. I put sod into the wheelbarrow off of the trailor and then we went into the backyard and laid sod on the ground. I was in charge of straightening out the pieces when he laid them on the ground. I also got the priviledge of piecing together the bad pieces of sod and making them look good. This is much harder than you think especially at night.

By the time we finished last night the kids had gone to the suburban and put on a movie and I was knowing that I would be hurting in the morning. Our kids were troopers and I knew that they had to be starving because we had not eaten so we took them to Taco Bell on the way home and then we had to all come home and take showers before bed. I think that we finally got in bed around 11:30 last night. It was a long night and today I can barely move. We are up early for a basketball game that Hannah has and then we are supposed to come home and clean house, but I think I am going to take a nap and lay around. I hope that everyone gets out today and enjoys the beautiful weekend.

Today is going to be a great day. I am getting ready for a jam packed weekend. We have so much going on in the days and weeks ahead. I am super excited because one day in the near future my grandparents will be moving down to Minden to live with my parents. I can't wait for that to happen. I am extremely close to my grandmother and just to have her so close to my home will be wonderful, not to mention that all of my aunts and uncles will have to come and visit so we will also be seeing alot more of them I hope. My kids absolutely love spending time with my grandfather also so I hope that this will be good for him. Actually he is the one that will be living with my parents and my grandmother will be moving into a nursing home nearby. Not only that but we also have the end of basketball season for Hannah coming up, my niece Blake's birthday, my nephew Michael's birthday, Women of Faith conference in Shreveport, Sage girls conference in Tyler, Easter weekend and the Choir Easter musical, my mom's parents 50th wedding anniversary in San Antonio, and my mom's birthday coming up in the next 6 weeks. I don't know how we are going to fit it all in. It seems like this time of year it just gets busier and busier. We have no weekend available just to sit at home and do nothing. Oh well it is also alot of fun and I can't wait to get in the swing of things. I guess I better get the kids up and dressed.

Well this has been an interesting weekend. On Friday night we took Preston, Hannah and one of her friends, Chloe, to the Mudbugs hockey game. They had a great time and this was Chloe's first hockey game. We really enjoyed the game and I got to see a really good friend that I grew up with and I haven't seen in a long time. It was great to see her. I wanted to share some pictures with you guys. Chloe and Hannah had a great time running down the wheelchair ramp at the Century Tel Center. Then we came home and we had to watch High School Musical 3 again. I think that they went to bed around 11:30 or so. I had to get them up on Saturday morning at 7:15 so that we could go to Hannah's basketball game. It was a good game we had to go into overtime and we won 10-8. Today we went to church like normal and then Jacob decided to take the kids on a 4 wheeler ride. Jacob jumped off the 4 wheeler to get it unstuck and when he did Preston decided to also get off except that he grabbed the handles and pushed the gas. The 4 wheeler took off with Hannah and Preston still on. Jacob got there right before they both fell off of it and stopped it. They were both scared and came in crying. Preston came in and said momma I almost killed myself. I think that he is trying to be evil kneivel or something. So needless to say we had an exciting day. I hope that you all had a great weekend.