God is QUICK!

And then...minutes after I finished my last post, I hear this song. Sometimes God just SCREAMS at me! Good thing I've started listening again. Enjoy.

One of those days.

Do you ever have "just one of those days" when you don't know if you are PMS'ing, going crazy or just being shown by God with full force how lucky and blessed you are? I mean, some days it is just SO APPARENT and all I want to do is fall to my knees weeping and thank God! I suppose today is one of those days. I'm super emotional today, both good and bad. Waking up groggy from a great dream I didn't want to lose, irritated with Mark cuz he wasn't feeling well enough to go to chruch (I know, I know!), crying in church because it was such an AMAZING message, getting ticked at Mom for something dumb, getting excited about a new project and crying while talking about how cool it could be, crying at the internet, yelling at the kids to STAY OUTSIDE...I mean seriously, how many ups and downs can one woman have in a two hour period?

Have you ever met someone and felt a kinship almost immediately? That's happened three times to me in my life. First with my niece, Abbey. Since the day she was born she and I have had this connection. I can't explain it other than it was God given. I love that child and even though she lives literally across the country, I know that we will always have that bond. The second was with a woman I have yet to meet face to face although we have had more deep conversations than I've had with any other one person this year (except Mom and Mark of course). She was with me through the cancer, I was there for her with the death of her beloved grandmother. There is something about her that I am just drawn to. I know that she will be a lifetime friend. We are so much alike on so many levels; same thought process, same faith, same family dedication...she's amazing and I am privileged to call her friend. The third is a woman I barely know. Yet everytime I am around her I think to myself "Oh, I want to be her friend!" She is absolutely beautiful, inside and out, and everything about her oozes goodness. She's quick with a smile and a hug, she's helpful and mindful, her faith is humbling and motivating. She makes me want to get involved and be a stronger Christian, and better person.

I decided a couple of years ago that this life is a short one. I want to surround myself with people that enrich me, challenge me, make me strive for better and never give up on what's really important...to keep a strong hold on what's important and let go of all the fluff. So far I think I've done a good job at weeding out the negativity in my life. Hopefully I've done that without stepping on too many toes and without hurting anyone unnecessarily. It's been a rough road for me in my 30's. I'm just figuring out who I am. I want to be better. I want to be an example for others, I want to be a vessel for God's word and God's work. I want to be everything He made me to be. I can't do it on my own. Letting go of "the world revolves around Becky" has been a huge struggle for me. Getting married helped, having kids was an enormous shift changing experience, but these last two years have been the most life changing ones I've had yet. I feel so much stronger now, so much healthier, I'm happy to be me, happy to be here, happy to just BE.

Ugh...it is definitely "one of those days" for me. I think I need more coffee....

Baby's First Doctor Visit

Baby's First Doctor Visit
This made me laugh out loud. I hope it will give you a smile!

A woman and a baby were in the doctor's examining room, waiting for the doctor to come in for the baby's first exam.
The doctor arrived, and examined the baby, checked his weight, saw it was a little low, and being a little concerned, asked if the baby was breast-fed or bottle-fed.
'Breast-fed,' she replied.
'Well, strip down to your waist,' the doctor ordered. She did. He pinched her nipples, pressed, kneaded, and rubbed both breasts for a while in a very professional and detailed examination.
Motioning to her to get dressed, the doctor said, 'No wonder this baby is underweight. You don't have any milk.'
'I know,' she said, I'm his Grandma, but I'm glad I came'

End of this road, beginning of the next.

This year has been hard, eventful, fast, full of lessons, full of growth, amazing and devastating. Mark and I have learned so much about each other, our family, our faith, our passions and what's really important at the end of the day. We needed this year. We needed all the pain and worry, all the time we spent together both conscious and not, the eye opening experience of cancer. We are different people than we were last year at this time. We are better friends, better parents, better partners. We are each other's best friend, confidante and love and never before has that been more apparent than it is today. I don't know that we would have ever figured out how important we are to each other without the hardships and blessings we faced this year.

Yesterday marked the end of cancer for Mark. Yes, there is a 65% chance that it "could come back" over the next 5 years, and then there's more statistics that will be thrown in our face time and time again. But WE know, as we know that we have received more blessings than battles this last year, that it is over. We received final word from Dr. Caton yesterday afternoon that Mark's bone marrow test came back completely cancer free. He is in complete remission.

We also found out last Friday Allvac ATI will be keeping him on. Apparently there are many people that went to bat for his return. When he called to see what needed to be done to explain his situation to the powers that be, he was told it was done. No need to worry, no need to stress, his job is secure because there are people above him that care enough to take care of it. 'Don't worry about anything but getting better', was the response he got. Praise God. He will be returning to work on November 1, 2009 to his same job, with his same pay and benefits. We are humbled and so very grateful to everyone who took the time to make that possible. Thank you SO much!

As I watch my husband laugh again, watch him wrestle with our kids, mow the lawn, help me clean the house, smile at me from across the room with a rosy healthy glow in his cheeks I can't help but tear up. It was six months ago that, I can admit now, I almost lost him. I look back and I can say I was within days of losing him. I knew it then, but couldn't go there. I know it now and can just praise God that He let me keep Mark. There is so much I have left to learn from him, and he from me. There is so much for him left to do here. I know how blessed I am. I know how lucky I am.

I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all your prayers, your cards, your calls, your thoughts. Thank you for caring enough about us to keep up with this blog. We are blessed to have you in our lives and we know that! God bless you all!

Interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author

You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said: People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity... We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness. This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems: If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain. But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people. You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)? When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings. Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment, THANK GOD. If you do not pass it on, nothing will happen. But it will just be nice to pass it on to a friend....just like I have done. God's Blessings

HE ARRIVED THIS MORNING, WE HAD PRAYER; SPENT SOME TIME JUST TALKING, AND HE HELD ME FOR AWHILE BECAUSE I WAS HAVING A BAD MORNING. THEN, HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO YOUR PLACE.

Allie is TEN! wow.

It truly is so hard for me to phathom that I have a TEN year old! Wasn't it just a few months ago that I myself was 10? I remember it well...10 was when I started to feel older, grown up, mature! And now my own baby is feeling that very same way as I type this.

She has grown into a beautiful young lady. She is quiet and honest, knows right from wrong, loves the Lord and her family. She's polite and courteous, kind and generous, shy but friendly. She's slow to emotion, but quick to empathy. Strong willed yet not afraid to ask questions when she doesn't understand. Sharp as a tack, quick as a whip, and so very funny in a dry sort of way! She is so much her mother's daughter but every bit Daddy's Little Girl. I am so very blessed that God has guided me through raising this extraordinary person and I only pray I can continue to help her be the best person she can be. She has amazing goals and I know she can do anything she sets her mind to. For those of you that know her well, I'm sure there are so many more adjectives you can all think of to add here, for those that don't I hope someday you will get the chance.

She's simply amazing.

Happy birthday, Baby Girl. I love you. My cup runneth over.

Scissor Happy

So Mom has wanted to get her hair cut for literally YEARS now. She and Aunt Dee decided to take the plunge and did it together! Besides lack of split ends and frizziness Mom's doesn't look too much different, but she's planning on going shorter in the next few weeks. Baby steps. Aunt Dee's looks super cute but now she has to either blow dry or flat iron it and that bugs her. LOL!! Ah the price we pay to be women.

So the NEXT day, Sarah and I decided to get OUR hair chopped. I've had the same long, one length hair going on 15 years and it's long past time for a change. After looking through some books and looking at every person I passed to see if that was the cut I wanted, I decided on a dramatic change. Cut off about 15 inches (going to locks of love of course) and then the girl went to town with layering. I knew my hair had natural curl...but going short showed just how curly it is!!! Pretty cool. Sarah's is SO cute too!!! She had quite a bit cut off as well and she looks about 3 years older now! (everyone says my cut took 5-10 years OFF of me! yay!)




So THEN, Allie said, "I want mine done too, Mom!!" I looked at her and was like really??? She said she wanted it just like mine! (AWWW she DOES love me!) So we went home and I made my first attempt of cutting a girls hair besides just the basic straight across thing! Turned out pretty cute.
Love love LOVE the back! When it's dry she has kinda of this poof thing going on in the back and it flips on the bottom...she LOVES it! She also gained a couple years. New cut for my almost 10 year old. Man where did the time go?

Recent pics

Over the fourth of July weekend one of my very best friends in this world and her family came down from Washington to stay with us. She and I decided to start a new tradition of getting our pictures done with our kids! It was SO much fun to get together with them, the kids got along great, the hubby's got along great and of course my ShouldaBeenSister and I had a FABULOUS time! I just wish every weekend could be so amazing!

Here's the shots we had done. Amazingly enough all but one of these were the first try! It was an easy session! Of course we had to be patriotic and did the red, white and blue theme!