February Extra Long Week-end

I was loading pictures from my camera onto the computer yesterday and realized that I haven’t blogged about the little trip we took in February.  We were given a gift certificate for a 2-night stay in a 2-room suite at a hotel in a city a few hours away, so on the February long week-end, we had a little getaway!  My Mom generously took Haley for the week-end and we left at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning with Kiera + Blake.  We went out for breakfast before we hit the road.

Although winter is my least favorite season and the cold often takes my breath away, that morning, the beauty of the hoar frost also took my breath away.

I could not stop taking pictures of the trees

Possibly my favorite one

Driving through the mountains this past summer I saw powerful beauty that made me want to shout and this February morning I saw a quiet beauty that made me want to get down on my knees in worship of the Creator.

Haley is usually the queen of faces in our family, but Kiera is not far behind!

Our room: this couch had a hide-a-bed, which I slept on the first night because Kiera kept rolling into me and elbowing me.  I slept on it for part of the 2nd night when Blake didn’t want to sleep on it anymore, so he went and slept with Jared and I took the hide-a-bed again.

The lobby of our hotel could have been a bit bigger and more spacious but the kids still had room to run around, ha ha!

We had the most amazing brunch buffet at the restaurant in our hotel.  We had sausage + egg frittata, waffles with strawberry sauce, cake, fruit parfait, bacon (which is all Blake wanted all week-end), fresh fruit, danishes, breakfast sausages and probably some other things that I’m forgetting.  It was also a lunch buffet, so hence the cake.  I skipped the spaghetti since we were having breakfast.  I like how everything on the table was curved.

We spent a ton of time at the pool.  They provided life jackets so we didn’t have to worry about the kids falling into one of the pools and they really enjoyed the waterslide.  The hot tub was on the far right.

There was some sort of big wrestling match going on in the city that week-end, so finding a restaurant to eat at on Saturday for supper was WAY more problematic than we had thought it would be.  The first restaurant we went to, there was a 45 min. wait.  The next restaurant we tried, there was a 60 min. wait.  The next restaurant there was an 80 min. wait.  The next restaurant we tried there was a 90 min. wait.  We drove around for an hour, looking for a place to eat.  Ya, we could have just stayed at the first restaurant for the amount of time it took us to find a place.  We found Famous Dave’s and they told us it would be a 25 min. wait, so we decided to stay there.  It ended up being closer to 45 min.  Oh well.  We order the feast for 2-3 people and it was AMAZING!  SOOOO much food!  The feast for 2-3 includes a half slab of ribs, half a roasted chicken, 1/4 lb. of chopped pork, coleslaw (which we substituted and got mac + cheese), beans (which we also substituted and got broccoli), 3 corn on the cobs and 2 corn muffins.  I asked God to provide and He sure did!!  We ended up eating supper past the kids’ bedtime, probably around 8:30, so they were super tired by the end and so were we. 

On Sunday, we went clothes shopping.  I found a new purse for under $20:

We spent more time at the pool that day, too.  In the evening we had no trouble finding a good restaurant that we wanted to eat at.  I had a coupon for a free appetizer and for some reason, they gave us the kids meals for free, too!  I’ve gained 5 pounds in the past month.  Half of it was probably from that week-end and the other half was probably from the lady’s retreat I just went on.  I LOVE good food! 

On Monday, we were intending on coming back home, but the weather changed our plans.  A big snowstorm blew in.  We managed to drive what was supposed to be an hour to another city and ended up being a 2-hour drive.  The kids were tired.

We got stuck there for the night.  Thankfully, we had booked a hotel room before we started driving because every room in every hotel in that city got booked up!  They had to put up 200 people at the arena.  We booked the governor’s suite at a cheap motel.

Our friend said, “If the governor came to that city, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t stay in that cheap motel.”  Ha ha!  It wasn’t anything fancy but it was big with 2 king beds. 

We had leftover pizza for an early supper and then went out for ice cream in the snowstorm later on. 

The next morning, we woke up at 5 a.m. to try to make it home before our first house showing at 10 a.m.

We found an alternate route to take, since the main highway back home was still closed.  This is what it looked like at 8:00 a.m.

I saw sun dogs for a long time which was really cool!

We didn’t actually make it home before our first house showing, but thankfully we had left it in a neat + tidy state and it ended up selling that day!  By Tuesday, we were all more than ready to come back home and see Haley again, as it was our longest amount of time away from her.  We had a great extended week-end away and enjoyed some quality family time!

A Hard Day

Yesterday was a hard day for me.  It started off pretty good, pretty normal, until I checked Facebook and I saw my friend’s status: Please pray for the Friesen family today and in the coming days as they mourn the loss of their precious son.  I thought, “Oh no, oh no, oh no!”  I checked the Friesen’s page, where I have been following their posts as she has updated daily since they found out their 2-year-old son had a cancerous brain tumour.  I never met the little boy but I know who the Mom is.  Sure enough, she had posted that their son was healed yesterday morning as he went to heaven.  I fell to my knees and just sobbed.  It’s hard not to ask why when I had been praying + believing for a miracle.  It didn’t come how I wanted it to, but I said, “God, you are still good.”  What was I doing yesterday morning at 8:30 a.m.?  I was spending time with my kids, starting our day, while she was holding her son and saying good-bye as his life here on earth ended.  I can’t even imagine and I just cry every time I think about it.

A couple of my kids have been having behavior issues, but those problems seem so small compared to what they’re dealing with, because at least my kids are alive + well!  I was quite discouraged after hearing about another behavior problem yesterday, but after crying 4 times yesterday because of everything, I realize I have to count my blessings.  Today is a new day and a better day.  We went out for a play date and my kids had excellent behavior!  It was a miracle and a total answer to prayer!!  Yes, God is still good no matter what!

Great I Am

I shared this song recently on Facebook.  It's one that we played in church 2 week-ends ago and when I heard it for the first time, I wanted to cry and dance.  The first couple of lines really hit me:

"I wanna be close, close to your side
Where heaven is real and death is a lie"

It made me think, for those of us who love Jesus, death really is a lie.  We just simply transfer from one place to another, from earth to heaven.  The song continues:

"I wanna hear voices of angels above
Singing as one
Hallelujah, Holy Holy
God Almighty, Great I am"

It just made me think about what it says in Revelation 4:8 about the angels in heaven singing, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the One who was and is and is to come."  I just get SOOO EXCITED when I think about all of us singing with the angels forever, praising God endlessly.  Someone recently said that as good as we think our worship sounds here on earth at times, it pales in comparison to what God hears in heaven.  That blows my mind to think about that!!  This song is one I have included in my worship times at home as I sing, dance and kneel for my audience of One and soak in His presence.  We have been challenged at our Bible study (or community group as we call it) to think about, "What increases my passion for Jesus?"  For me, it's worshiping through music, so I have started doing that regularly and He is drawing me closer as I spend time with Him and it has become such a sweet time!

Our House Story

As most of you know from Facebook, we recently sold our house and we’re moving in just over 3 weeks.  I figured I would give more details about how that all went about.

We started looking for houses at the beginning of February.  Jared mentioned it to his boss and his boss immediately brought him a feature sheet of a house and said, “Here’s one for you.”  The list price was higher than what we wanted to pay but Jared’s boss figured the owners would come down on their price.  We went to look at it and we really liked it.  Jared’s boss talked to the owners and at that time, they were willing to come down $5000 on the price, which was still high for us.  I felt like I was supposed to submit to whatever Jared decided, since he is the one who manages the finances.  I really wanted the house but was willing to let it go if that is what God was saying.  So, Jared went away on a men’s retreat the 2nd week-end in February.  He came back saying that God said no.  It was just beyond what was comfortable financially for us.  I was really disappointed, especially since my Mom and I had spent the week-end doing touch-up painting throughout our house, thinking that we might be listing it soon.  So, I let it go and just trusted that God had something else in mind for us.  We arranged to look at 4 other houses that week.  Jared’s boss told the owners of this house that we were going to look at other houses and got the feel from them that they would be willing to accept a much lower offer.  We went to see the other houses but didn’t love any of them like we did that first house.  So, we put in an offer that was $15,000 less than their asking price and they accepted it!  It was a happy Valentine’s day!  That was a miracle!  We then had 2 weeks to sell our house and had to get a certain price for it in order for everything to go through.  I asked if it was realistic to sell our house that quickly and he said, “No, it usually takes about a month.”  I knew that God could sell it quickly if He wanted us to move and He isn’t limited by what is normal or “the usual.” 

We got the house all ready and then left for the week-end before the showings started.  We got stuck a couple of hours away from home on the day we wanted to come back due to a bad snowstorm and had to stay an extra night away, so thankfully our house was clean and tidy because we didn’t make it home before the first showing on Tuesday, February 19.  That day we had 3 showings and 3 competing offers.  Competing offers are very rare in our area.  All 3 offers were above our asking price, which again, almost never happens.  I could see God at work!  The highest offer was $7300 more than our asking price, so we got quite a bit more for our house than we were hoping for!  Another miracle! 

It has been a whirlwind and now we’ve been shopping for everything we need, since it’s a brand new, empty house.  We got all of our kitchen appliances on sale, found big bathroom mirrors we wanted at a good price, got a discount on the bar stool chairs we bought and I just see God’s provision over and over.  Our current house is 950 sq. ft. plus a 650 sq. ft. basement, so that’s a total of 1550 sq. ft.  Our new house is 1325 sq. ft. on both floors, so that’s a total of 2650 sq. ft.  We live on a fairly busy street and we’ve always wanted to live on a non-through street.  This house is on a street that ends in a cul-de-sac and our house is in the cul-de-sac, so again, God provided!  I’ve also always wanted to have a house that’s big enough to host Bible Study groups and have parties without feeling like everyone is tripping over each other, plus more space for our family since we have maxed out our current house and now we’ll be able to do that.  As exciting as all of this is, I am honestly more excited about my blood test results coming back all good.  After struggling with health issue after health issue since before Christmas, to have been given a clean bill of health means more to me than a house.  God is so merciful and so good and I just praise Him!  We don’t deserve any of these blessings, but He just pours them out because of His love and goodness! 

A Catch-Up Thankful Post

I’m still trying to catch up from last year and I don’t know if I will ever be caught up, but I can try!  Here are some things that I am thankful for:

Going shopping for Kiera + Blake with birthday money given to them

The hat that Blake got given by a kind elderly man while at a store

Another cute hat

Standing!

Painting nails

The ornaments that the kids were given to hang on the tree

Fun $1 cups

Silliness

Her first lost tooth!

Getting more pictures than ever from family and friends

A Budding Artist

Kiera has started drawing a lot more since she started school.  These make me smile.

Aren’t I attractive? ;)

Jared is lookin’ pretty hot, too!  I’m glad she likes us.  I like her, too!

Can you tell me what these last 4 are?  I had trouble with them and she had to tell me what they were.

Family Update

It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated specifically about what’s going on with each of my kids these days, so I figured I should do that.  I’ll start with Kiera.

She is really enjoying school just like her Mom used to.  She is starting to read and actually sound out words and recognize them, so that’s exciting for me!  It opens up a whole new world!  She is starting to spell words, too.  It’s mostly the 3-letter words that she gets right but she’s off to a great start.  She enjoys playing with the TinkerToys set that Blake got for Christmas and she makes things like these often with very little or no help:

I’ll update on Blake next

Blake is at an interesting stage.  He bugs his sisters a lot and has trouble listening, but he makes us laugh a lot and adds a lot to our family.  I find it very interesting how different he is from the girls.  I recently finished reading “Bringing Up Boys” by Dr. James Dobson because I was feeling like, “I don’t know what to do with this kid!”  He is a morning person and is often up around 7 a.m., which I know isn’t bad, but I am not a morning person and would prefer closer to 8 a.m.  He also wants me to climb into his bed and cuddle with him every time he goes down for a nap or at bedtime.  He always needs a hug, to give each other hard kisses on the cheeks and an eskimo kiss.  I try to cherish those sweet times.

And then we have Haley:

She will be 18 months old next week and still isn’t walking, ha ha!  She is taking after Kiera in the very late walking department.  She is walking when we hold her hands and she can even do it if we just hold one hand, so I know walking by herself isn’t very far off.  She is starting to climb more.  Yesterday, I watched her climb onto a kitchen chair and then up onto the table.  Yikes!  One of my favorite things is she’ll reach her arms toward us and say, “Ug!  Ug!”  which means she wants a hug.  So sweet!  She is talking more and more as she tries to repeat the things we say.  She says: Hi, ba-bye, na-night, Mama, Daddy, peese (please), tays (thanks), cheese and she’s constantly asking for muk (milk).  I know there are more words that I’m not remembering but those are her main ones.  She likes playing with the kids laptop we have, even though she doesn’t understand any of the games.  As soon as she hears music, she starts dancing.  My cousin said at Haley’s baby dedication that she will be a dancer, so we’ll see if that happens.  It definitely looks promising!  I can’t believe that my baby will be 2 years old this year.  I’ve never had a 2-year-old and not had another baby. 

So, that’s where my kids are at.  I’m still struggling with health stuff and waiting for another round of blood tests, as there were a couple of concerns with my last round.  I’ve been fighting a lot of fear with Scripture and worship.  Work is going pretty good for Jared and he will be taking a 4-week course this spring, plus getting flown across the country to attend a seminar, so that’s cool!  In spite of the trials I’m going through, God is still so good!