No Greater Joy

As a parent our children bring us joy all the time. Simply watching them play brings me joy. One of my new favorite things is to see Lily snuggling with Bill or laughing & loving on Gabe...such joy. Gabe has been going to VBS this week at First United Methodist Church which has an amazing campus I might add....very beautiful...but also very confusing to get around. He came home from the first day of VBS and told me the entire story of Paul in prison which is found in Acts 16....not just that they talked about a guy in jail. He told me the details of them singing songs, their handcuffs falling off, the earth shaking...he really got the story. Today it was Noah and he told me all about it. It has brought about such great "car talk." We went through the whole holy trinity today...several times! My heart overflowed with joy. My almost 5 year old is grasping God's word. I beg God that Gabe would come to know Him at an early age. I plead for Lily's heart to be captured by our One True Love and that God would protect her from the enemy. For now my heart is over-joyed with Gabe's knowledge of His word & listening to the melodies he sings to our King even though he doesn't fully grasp the love of God. Praise Him!!!

Wednesday & Thursday Dallas Adventures

Wednesday

We took off early in the morning to go out shopping. We headed out on I-30 to see what was around and we ventured out to the Goodwill and scored some great things. We decided to drive down I-30 to see what was around to find our self getting closer to the city so we turned around and then headed back towards River Rd. We detoured off Motley Dr. and somehow got our self twisted around and we headed back to Fair Park for a second time. Ugh! I drove in pouring down rain, on the interstate, with traffic! We made a quick stop to Sports Authority to see if I could find a swim vest for Gabe but we had no luck. So, we kept on going...I think we spent half the day driving and the other half of the day shopping. After much driving & looking we finally found The Children's Place where we found some great deals on kids clothes. I sure wish Midland had one. You can't beat 3.75 for shorts! It is one of my favorite stores for kids. We grabbed a late lunch at Steak 'N' Shake and got 1/2 price shakes. It was so yummy! I ventured outside by box and got the BBQ Burger & it was delish! I also had a carmel turtle shake...yummy! After lunch we found TJ Maxx....wish we had one of those too.

Then we went back to the William's house and my mom and I went to Firewall to top off the night with a little more shopping. We went to World Market! So much fun! We could of shopped their all day but we just stayed a little while, grabbed some popcorn and headed home.

Thursday

We hit up McDonalds for breakfast on our way to the Dallas Zoo. We ventured through the zoo all morning into the early afternoon. Gabe was kind of clumsy there today. He fell 3 times and once before we left the house and he dropped 2 souvenir cups and blew out the bottoms to them. Thank goodness they were kind enough to replace them for us both times. They were such a great deal because we could get free refills all day with them. I think my favorite part was the baby chimpanzee. It was just so cute and it tumbled and rolled all over the place...adorable! We got to explore everythng! It was a lot of fun but it was super humid which made it tiring by the afternoon. So we came home, had some lunch, relaxed a bit and then played in the pool for 1.5 hours! Lily is fearless when it comes to the pool! She doesn't want any help and would do it all by herself if her legs were just long enough! Gabe is like a fish...when we gets a vest on he is just swimming all over the place! I am so glad my kids love the water!

Over all we had a great day! Getting ready to relax and hang out for the evening before our long drive home in the morning.

Tuesday Dallas Adventures

I kicked off my morning with Day 1 of my Beth Moore bible study that I will be journeying through this summer with a group of ladies from Stonegate. I am super excited about it and what God is going to teach me through it.

I came downstairs from my shower to find that Gabe already had some milk, cinnamon rolls were made, Gage had pancakes, Lily some lucky charms and Gabe's cinnamon sugar toast was being buttered as I walked through the kitchen. All by an 11 year old girl! I need to get me one of them, lol! It was so nice. Not only did she take time to get all the kids breakfast but she then cleaned up from it too. I was impressed.

We then all got ready, loaded everyone up in the car, including Autumn and took off to the Dallas Children's Museum of Nature & Science It was so much fun! We got to meet up with Lacy's sister-in-law Jen and her sweet little kids. It was so nice to finally meet her. We got to explore everything from the earth and the human body to digging for dinosaur bones and splashing around on the water table. It was so much fun! I can't wait to get home and upload all of our pictures from it.

We then came home to have some lunch and take a little break. We got a little rested up, threw on our swimsuits and took off to Surf & Swim Gabe & Gage swam so much. It was a blast! They had a great little splash area for Lily with these little jumpers like you would hang in a door way but they were in the water...how fun! They also had lots of things that squirted water, shot water, sprayed water...fun fun fun! I think she loved the little toys she could climb on and rock back & fourth and then she would slide back down like it was a slide. She did that like 25 times before someone came along and stole it from her, lol. Gabe was so brave swimming in the deep end with his life vest on. Gage too. I was shocked. They would of gone all the way except that I couldn't reach...I was holding their little adventure back, ha! It was so much fun.

Around 5 we came home to dinner being all ready by Mr. James. We ate and hung out for the rest of the night. I did finally convince myself to get on the treadmill and get a run in before the night was over though! I am so glad I did.

Well, we are off to go shopping today. I am sure I wont have as much exciting stuff to share about this day tomorrow. :-) We shall see!

First Road Trip Details

I tossed and turned all night since Bill was already gone and I finally dragged myself out of bed at 6:15 to get my devotions in before we leave, have some coffee, and hopefully get the car ready to go before the kids get up. This is how it has gone down so far...

Gabe got up, had his milk & cartoon time, got dressed and was ready to go

Lily took a little longer, finally got up, got dressed and was ready to go

Gea showed up, Poppie checked my fluids

I programmed the TomTom in 2 minutes, then another 10 to put the mount back together & get it stuck on the window

First turn out of the driveway...I was already heading in the wrong direction.

Left at 7:45....hoping to be on the road by 7.

30 minutes in & Gabe was already asking if we were almost there yet.

Snacked on some fresh fruit Gea packed which was a big hit.

Stopped at Jack In The Box after 2 hours in to take a potty break, grab some coffee & a snack

Gabe came to the conclusion that Lily has curls in her hair because she ate curly fries

Had some candy...Lily begged for more.

We jammed out to some Latino music, dancing like no one was watching, and pointing, and

laughing. ;-)

Gabe asked some more if we were there yet. Lily begged for more candy!

Had a detour

I almost had a panic attack as to why my car wasn't working right....to come to the conclusion that my mom accidentally shifted my gears into neutral.

Drove next to K-rails, drove slow in the fast lane, hesitated to pass the big truckers...more than once.

Gabe asked some more if we were there yet. Lily begged for more candy!

Stopped once more for a quick potty break.

Drove in traffic.

Finally made it to Rockwall...then got a little lost on our way to Lacy's house...but we finally made it.

Keep It Together

Bill has officially left for camp today. I am so glad that we have plans to go visit some friends in Dallas otherwise I think we would sulk and be bored all day. It is kind of lonely packing by myself. Being responsible for all the "guy" duties before a trip along with all of my own duties kind of stinks. I am going to suck it up and actually pump my own gas for once and appreciate my sweet husband who always pumps it for me. I will clean out the car, vacuum it, and wipe everything down. I am going to humble myself and take out the trash. I am going to pack the car. I will use the GPS and drive all the way to Dallas...my first time driving long distance ever. (I once drive 1.5 hours to see my mom but that is the longest I have ever driven...I know I'm quite pathetic. ) I will be sure the dogs are settled and ready for Poppie to take care of them. Then I will start my duties of packing the suitcase, cleaning the house, changing the linens and remembering everything we need including DVD's and snacks...so we can survive the car ride. I will water my plants once more so they don't die then pass off the responsibilities to my Dad while we are gone. All while taking care of 2 kids. I am so glad God did not intend for us to be alone....I love my husband so much and appreciate all he does to keep me together.

Loving Me Some Jennie-O

Here is a recipe we are going to have for dinner tonight. We tried out the Jennie-O Italian turkey sausage a couple weeks ago and loved it. I am not a big sausage eater but I loved this one. So, tonight instead of the traditional sausage and peppers on a hoagie I am going to do kabobs. I saw the idea in a magazine recently but I am just going to keep it a little more simple.

1 Package of jennie-o turkey italian sausage

1 onion

1 red & green bell pepper

wooden or metal skewers

I slice the peppers & onions up and thread them onto the skewer alternating them with the meat. Throw them on the grill until they are done & voila...serve with a side dish and dinner is served!

I also tried the Jennie-O turkey burgers and they were amazing too. They were very flavorful...just don't over cook them because they aren't very good dry and they don't take long to cook.

Recent Projects

So along with everything else going on lately I have been working on some projects like refinishing a boring white cabinet we had, some curtains, and getting our garden up and running.

This is what the shell looks like. I am still working on the drawers and will post pics when I get them all done.

My Dad and I have been working hard on getting our garden up and growing. Since we had our house on the market we waited and waited to put in a raised bed at our house so we decided to just do it at their house. I started all the seeds at the house and then we brought them all over and planted them at his house. When we had that awful rain storm a few weeks ago it ruined some of my plants so we had to pretty much start over. Our goal of one raised bed has now turned into three. :-) Hopefully we will have lots of veggies to freeze! I am so excited about it. Here are some pictures of what we have so far.

I also have been sewing some curtains for my mom's dining room/kitchen as well as Lily's room but I only have pictures of the kitchen/dingin area.