Feeling Thankful

I have felt so grateful to God for so many things this past week. So, I thought I'd give testimony of them so God can get the glory from more people than just me!
I'm Thankful....
1. That I have a wonderful hubby that loves me even when I'm moaning through morning sickness and getting fatter...
2. For morning one on one snuggles in bed with whoever comes in my room first
3. For kids that love to read and leave their books all over the living room, dining room, bedrooms, basement, bathroom, but rarely near the bookcase....
4. For a hubby that I'm still madly head over heels in love with after (almost) twelve years
5. For the ability to have fresh water in our home and not have to go outside to get it
6. For good books to grow my faith
7. For "box dinners" when I can't cook
8. For simple traditions- like wrestling and driving around looking at Christmas lights
9. For the 12th week of pregnancy and the hope that I'll feel better soon
10. For the miracle of the growth of a baby inside a mother's womb
11. For daughters that throw whole cupfuls of water on their fathers when messing around
12. For fathers that know how to tickle little girls till they pee their pants
13. For pimples-cause they keep me humble
14. For maternity pants that don't have huge panels
15. For a hubby that loves buying me clothes- especially maternity clothes (hey, maybe that's why we keep having kids!)
16. For my little boys who run around outside barefooted in December even when I'm hollering to come inside because, for cryin' out loud, IT'S DECEMBER!
17. For kids who can do their own laundry, dishes, mopping, taking the trash out, wash windows, sweep, scrub bathrooms, BUT, physically CANNOT remember to clean their room
18. For God's gentle reminder of MY dependence on Him when I remind them, again, to keep their room clean.
19. For wonderful friends who hold me accountable to reading my Bible... it's such a good thing to have...
20. For having a blog where I can share all this rambling- otherwise I'd never remember to say it all to all of you!

Sorry!

Sorry everyone for the color explosion. I'm bored just sitting on the couch and thought my blog could use some Christmas color.....

It's OFF!

Yay! The cast is gone. He's had a bath. No more stink! He's lovin' life!

Shameless Hubby Brag

This is a completely shamless brag on my hubby. Even though his job is tough, he absolutely loves it- so this makes me happy. I love to see pictures of what he does so I thought I'd share it here. This past year his department obtained an $800,000 grant for equipment. This was an answer to prayer, but has also meant that Brent got tasked with researching, ordering, purchasing, etc every dollar of it! And, as you can imagine, the State of Md doesn't do anything simply. However, they have gotten some pretty "cool" stuff that enables them to do lots of "high-tech" tactical things. (I just barely understand what I'm talking about, so bear with me!)
Here's a pic of his team during a free-boarding training. (In my language- they drive a little blow up boat next to a really scary big ship with 50-70 foot sides and use a skinny ladder to climb up the side and take over the ship. All with carrying lots of gear and big nasty guns..... I just pray a lot.)

Brent is the second man on the boat's left side (right side of the picture)- the handsome one.




This was taken last week when Brent's team went down to the Middle East Peace Talks Conference in Annapolis. Their job was to be ready to assault and neutralize any threats (ie. make any bad guys dead) around the area of the Prime Minister of Israel and Secretary of State's landing zone.Disclaimer: This post in no way shows that I understand any kind of "police language". It is represented as best and as accurately as possible under the limited brain capacity of civilianhood. (Is that a word?)

Family Reading

Well, the left sidebar column of "Family Read Alouds" has been all too quiet for a while. Summer and fall have been so busy that we haven't been able to fit in any book reading. Getting in family devotions was about all we could manage and still get the kids to bed at least 5 minutes before us! BUT, the past few weeks, God has SLOWED us down drastically- due to morning sickness in the evenings! So, we've started a new series that Melanie suggested called The Sword, The Ring, and the Parchment- part of the Terrestria Series. It's an allegory along the lines of Pilgrim's Progress in modern language, but with the thrill of Narnia. So far we're loving it. We are taking a break only several chapters into it though, due to Christmas.
Last year we read the Christmas Advent story Jotham's Journey which I HIGHLY recommend. This year we are reading it's companion book, Bartholomew's Passage. These books are, at present, out of print and selling for ridiculous amounts of money on Ebay. However, they are supposed to be coming back in print. Yay!

Silly Sayings....

This morning as Quinn was laying in bed with me he said (out of the blue, as usual), "Mom, know what Daddad told me? He said that if we suck on our thumb we are really sucking our muscles! (pause) Nathan must have sucked out all the muscles of his thumb!" HA! HA! HA! Kimberly- I thought you'd find that funny!