bad evening...Great Night.....HORRIBLE DAY!

Last wee we were at GEM camp...aka...GA Camp in Midland, Texas. We had a great time! Paul played the drums with Chad and the band and through a strange chain of events ended up being the camp pastor. ANYways...

We arrived home on Friday night and (of course) we have no food at home because we have been gone for a week sooooo we go to Pizza Hut. Where we have a lovely dinner and we leave. It's not until Monday morning that I realize that I left my purse at Pizza Hut! Why so long until I figure it out?.....Because I was VERY sick on Saturday...I did not leave the pull out couch the entire day! I was, as Paul would say, FOB (Flat On Back) all day long. Then Sunday I didn't need it because we didn't go anywhere mostly because I still wasn't doing so great...which brings us to Monday. To make a long story longer....we ended up finding out that one of the employees at Pizza Hut took it. I will not go into the details of the mess we are dealing with...just know it's a mess and it leads to a bigger frustration later!

Skip forward a few days to Wednesday night. We are putting the kids to bed and Jacob asks us to play the "Christmas" game. This is (not really) a game that tells the story of Christmas by opening up presents and the last one is "What God wants for Christmas". On the inside is a mirror because God wants "you" for Christmas. The book then goes into the salvation message. So Paul and I start going through the story with him, because as I have told you earlier, he was very close to accepting Jesus as his Savior. So the story starts with Gabriel and as we finish reading about Gabriel, Jacob asks if we can skip to the part about Jesus. Of course we do and I asked him why he wanted to skip to Jesus. He said because he wanted to ask Jesus to be his Savior! YEAH! Paul and I lead him through some questions and then he prayed to receive Jesus as his Savior. He did it all by himself too! So exciting! Paul and I were so grateful to be a part of this amazing time in Jacob's life! Here are some pics to commemerate this wonderful occasion.

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Well...Satan decided he would not be outdone by God which brings me to the "horrible day" part of the story. Remember the "frustration" I wrote of earlier in the blog...here goes.
So since my purse was stolen I have to get a new driver's license and social security card...well you basically cannot get one without the other...FANTASTIC. So I go to the SS office with my passport...Praise the Lord they give me a SS card after waiting only an hour...except first...Google tells me that there is an office in New Braufels...long story longer...that office has been closed for about 5 years! I drove around downtown New Braufels for almost an hour asking people where it was and no one knew. I finally found a sherrif who told me that the office was closed and I would have to go to Seguin...20 more miles north. So I finally make it to Seguin. I am now about an hour and a half away from home. Back to the SS office. I wait for an hour and got my SS card. I then make my way down the road to the DPS. Success! There is only one person in front of me! So I fill out the form and take my place in line...only to find out that the computers are down. I should have known. My place in line was way to easy. So I wait about 20 minutes and the computers come up...Yes...the finish line is in view. I step up to the counter and hand her my paperwork and the lady asks me for my $10. I reach into my purse and then the panic sets in...no checkbook. Of course my debit card was in my original wallet...and I have no cash...To which the lady replied we only take exact cash or check. So I have to leave my place in line and go find an ATM in a town I am unfamiliar with I cry the entire way there. It has just been one thing after the other. So I get money go back take my DL picture and then begin the trek home. I stop at an Olive Garden and I have lunch and, of course, dessert...because this day totally warrants dessert....and it was good...and now I'm at home. Finally. With a valid driver's license and SS card mind you.

So I got a new camera!!!!!

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ok ok ok ok....

I know the Bible says "thou shall not covet"...so try to control yourself! I got a new camera. I've been wanting one for a while now...not because I "needed" one...but because I wanted one! I'm not really very good at "waiting" for God to provide me things that I want...until this time...and my camera is worth every minute that I waited!

I've been looking around at different cameras and trying out friends cameras figuring out which features I wanted most and deciding what I liked and didn't like. So when God provided the funds, I walked in to Best Buy and I knew exactly what I wanted.....and I bought it! Thank you God so much for the little things!

We have gone through some really tough times (financially) over the course of our marriage and so to now be blessed financially and to be able to buy a new camera is a feeling like no other! I took 287 pictures the first time I got it out of the box...don't worry...I spared you the 287 and just put a few together in the slide show above. Enjoy!

VBS...yep...it's here...with FULL force!

So today was the first day of our VBS. We are using Power Lab by Group. It is really fun, so far. We had 276 today...which means we are probably going to have a few more tomorrow. At our church we run "2" VBS'. A preschool VBS and an elementary VBS. Our preschool VBS has about 70 kids plus workers...that's the one I'm in charge of. Can I just tell you how fun it is to have 70 birth to 5 year olds spread out all over our nursery singing and learning about Jesus?!?!?! I'm in charge of the games too, so I have about an hour of "down" time...(as "down" as you can get with 70 preschoolers in VBS) before the kids come to games.

So during this time this morning I was just listening here and there to all the goings on and this is what I heard:

From the Babies room: Two VERY sweet grandma's cooing and singing sweetly to 3 SCREAMING children! They handled it like any fantastic grandma would. So sweetly.

From the 2's: Let's go outside, line up everyone. YEEAAAAHH! Out! Out! This particular group LOVES going outside...that was all the teachers had to say and they were set for the day.

From the 3's: "Jesus gives us the power to be thankful!" Said over and over each time getting louder. What a wonderful truth to hear from 3 year olds!

From the 4.1's (One of our 4's and 5's classes): "One, Two, Three. Eyes on me." Over and over and over and over...this is a lively bunch of kiddos, but once they got to me at the games they learned "Thankful, thankful. I am thankful for...my...(fill in the blank)"

From the 4.2's while they were in Music: "There's power, there's power, there's wonder working power." and "I wanna be thankful, I wanna be Graaaaaaaateful"

So FUN! Of course as soon as we got home this afternoon we ALL took a nap. Praise the Lord for naps! We'll get up and do it again tomorrow. So much more fun to be had. I'll have some cute pics of my kids and the decorations later on this week.

"House"

This whole week I have been working in the afternoons on VBS decorations...pics to come later...and so the kids haven't been with me every afternoon...this makes for lovely mornings let me tell you...

So I have been trying to do special things in the mornings to spend better time with them.

Monday was coloring and we sorted and stripped the broken crayons so I can melt them into big round crayons.

Tuesday I told them that we would play whatever they wanted in the playroom...and they chose "House"...which eventually turned into "Life". House wasn't quite enough, they had to go to "HEB", "Home Depot", "Work", the "Doctor"...and of course I was the "all-time quarterback" if you will. I was the cashier, the "Home Depot guy"(as Caleb said) and I was also the doctor. And here's where you give a nod to my mom again for providing all of the play clothes that we used...thank you.

All in all we had a great time and you can read my commentary on the slide show I made below.(which is not perfect. There is a random baseball pic at the end that has nothing to do with the play time...but nevertheless when you get to the baseballs you know it's over...don't click to the end...it'll take forever.) The worst part was the end of the play time when Caleb knocked over my coffee...The best part...playing with my kids.

Enjoy!

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