Caden's friends

I have SO many blog ideas going through my mind, like our time with Mike's sister Maria (in March), Easter, Earth Day, etc. Well, instead of playing catch-up and trying to blog in chronological order, I am starting FRESH hoping that I can just add in those other posts as time permits.

Anyway, what I really want to write about today is my sweet, precious Caden. He is such a big boy these days (not with potty-training yet) and just a joy to be around. He loves, loves, loves his big brothers and always wants me to "hold you" (for me to hold him) especially after nap times and bath times.

Well, on Saturday, I was wrapped up in a blanket sitting on the couch because I was very feverish.

Little man walked up to me and said, "Mommy, I want to go outside and play with my friends."

A little confused because it's not like I just let my 2-year-old (or actually any of my kids) go wander the streets with the neighborhood kids, I said, "What friends?"

In the sweetest voice ever he replied, "Nate and Kyle and Ian."

Oh my goodness!!! How sweet is that!! They were all outside helping Mike wash the cars in the 50 mph wind!!

My "brainwashing" is WORKING!! I tell my boys often that they are BEST FRIENDS!! Well, I think my 2-year-old gets it!!



Oh, and I am totally aware that he needs a haircut! That's in NEXT month's budget!!

cheering up

Okay, so is my blog a total downer or what? I think I always am writing about how hard life is. I need to just get over it! God blesses me and blesses me and blesses me! That's what I need to be writing about!!

Take this for instance. I walked into my living room last week where Caden was sitting with his ankles crossed on the couch playing a Leapster game...well, maybe he was just pretending to play and pushing buttons. Tears filled my eyes. I love this little guy so much! What a blessing he is!! I immediately grabbed my camera...


Then, check out this picture! These are two of my closest friends, Steph and Lisette. God has totally used these two ladies to bless my life! My life is richer because of friends like these, both here and afar!

Also, since moving to Oklahoma, my mom and dad ("Mema" & "Papaw" to the kids) have become a huge part of our lives. I am SO blessed by her and my dad! They were both here this week. Here is Memaw playing cards with the boys...

I am blessed!!! Praise God for all my blessings! And, please, I give you permission to remind me when I start being all downer-like again!!!

Happy Monday!

Real fast, I just have to write a follow-up to my last sappy blog post! (okay, it turned LONG, sorry)

Even though, I have left such amazing, awesome friends each time I have moved, I don't regret it.

You see, if I had never left Oklahoma to go to Idaho, I would have missed out on so many blessings that God has planned for my life. I would have never met my husband! I would have never been part of a student ministry there and an awesome church that led me to some of the coolest people ever! I never would have made friends with Kecia or with Julie...two people that God has used to spur me on numerous times and who will continue to be a part of my life...now, from a distance.

Then, if Mike and I hadn't moved from Idaho to Maine, I would have missed out again on SO many blessings and friendships. God grew me, stretched me, and challenged me in my time in Maine. I probably never would have started playing the keyboard "because there was no one else to do it" and never would have started leading worship. Those times of sitting at the keyboard preparing for each Sunday were some of my most awesome, precious times with my heavenly Father. My faith grew there! And, as I wrote in my last post, I had friends who were my family there. Awesome, Christ-like people who I do miss, for sure.

Finally, if Mike and I hadn't moved from Maine to Oklahoma, I would be missing out on the life that God has for us here. My parents would still be 2000 miles away instead of 2 hours away. I would never have reconnected with friends from my growing-up and college years. I wouldn't be a part of the incredible, Holy Spirit-led, Christ-seeking, faith-building church that we are a part of here. I would never have been a part of an awesome mid-week bible study. I would never have met my sweet friends here. I may not be homeschooling, which is something that Mike and I know that God has called us to do and blessing us through.

So, you see, even though I miss all those who were once such an active part of my every day life, it makes me sad also to think of all I would have missed out on if I hadn't ever moved. If I hadn't followed God's prompting and had always just stayed put, my life would be less full and less rich. And even though I won't ever have those times back, I will always have those people close in my heart (sounds so cheesy, but true)! Also, through such things as Facebook and my blog, I can stay connected! In some ways, friendships, such as with my friend Hattie, have grown and blossomed since moving. I think Hattie has been my most loyal blog-follower, from the very beginning!! Her comments have been such an encouragement to me!

From Oklahoma, to Idaho, to Maine, to Oklahoma...God has blessed my life richly and I wouldn't change any of it! I've met some cool people and seen lots of God's awesome creation! I wonder where God will take me next...if anywhere!

Warm weather and missing friends

As I was checking the weather for tomorrow (Sunday), it occurred to me that I laid out jeans and long-sleeved shirts for church tomorrow for all the boys. Well, if we still lived in Maine and the low was 50 degrees (just in the morning and at night) and the high was 80 degrees, we would probably be wearing shorts, tank tops, and flip flops. Well, to church the boys would probably be wearing shorts, a nicer shirt, and flip flops. Crazy...seriously!

BTW, I've been thinking about Maine a lot in the last couple of days. I've been really missing my friends there and been all nostalgic...it started with buying paint Thursday night.

You see, I have some incredible friends in Maine who helped me get through some crazy times and helped me paint my house there. Buying the paint color that my friend Angela recommended (her house is decorated and accessorized and painted awesomely), made me miss her all over again. Then, after painting my entry way in my house here with my friend Lisette, who is truly like a sister to me, I got all weepy thinking that God truly, truly has us just where we are supposed to be! However, it really is hard leaving friends...I really miss Lisa, too. She was more than a friend; she was my sanity. I can't believe it's been so long since I've seen her.

And the Nerney family, I miss them tons.

Even though Mike and I knew that God was calling us to move, it's hard to leave such awesome people and such an awesome church. I am so grateful that God allowed my path to cross with those who still are in Maine.

Seriously, I have tears dripping down my face. I can't believe it has been 2 years since we found out we were moving. Wow. Right around this time 2 years ago, when Caden was just 3 weeks old, Mike flew here to Tulsa to interview. And then, just a couple of months later, I left.

Okay, this post was supposed to just be about the weather...what in the world happened???

Sweet Lisa, holding Caden

me with Jen, Lisa, and Shannon, my coffee friends

the huge moving truck in front of our house

It's crazy, I don't really have any pictures at the "end" with just me and Lisa or just me and Angela. I think that we just didn't want to say good-bye.

I have seen Angela again. She is originally from Texas, so I got to see her last Thanksgiving!!

Here we are at the Wiggles' Play Center in Frisco, TX...holding our "babies"

Seriously...I am such a cry baby!! I am just praying for God to lead the way for our paths to cross again...at least for a short time!

check out my friend Kecia's post

My dear friend Kecia, who I have written about before, wrote a great post today that I want all of my readers (I think there may be 10 of you!) to read...check it out here.

Busy week!

This week has been super busy! Nate has swim lessons at 9am, and Kyle and Ian have lessons at noon. Then, Nate and Kyle are going to a VBS in the evenings. And, as I write this Mike is still at work, it is 10:28pm, and he has been there since 5am this morning. Oh, I am really, really praying that something will change soon in the job department. I would appreciate some major prayer in this area. Go ahead, you can pause and pray right now.......Thanks blogger friends!

Today was also a very special day because my good friend Kecia came for a visit. I haven't seen her in 2 years and let me just tell you, that is entirely, entirely too long. We have been friends now for 9 years. Wow! What an awesome encouragement she is to me. Nate and Kyle took pictures for us, but the camera is in the van right now and I don't feel like going to get it. So, for today, I am posting a picture of us from a few years back. I am very sad to say that I just figured out that I don't have a picture of Kecia holding Nathanael as a baby. She was supposed to be "on a leg" -if you know what I mean- when I delivered Nathanael; she's that good of friend. But, after 30 hours of labor (Kecia was there about the last 26 hours of that...through the night with NO SLEEP...WHAT A FRIEND!!), Nate came by emergency c-section and only Mike could be in the operating room. She is, however, in a whole lot of video from the hospital. Anyway, here is a picture that was taken at her house in June of 2004. We had already lived in Maine for a year and went back to Idaho for vacation. Sitting on the couch is Ann, fellow blogger Jackie,, me holding Kyle, age 11 months, with baby #3 in my tummy but didn't know it, and Kecia, holding her daughter Rebecca.

I am hoping that we won't go another 2 years before we see each other! I love you Kecia!!

Our backyard

I finally downloaded all of the pictures from my camera onto the computer. There are SO many blogworthy moments, so I have decided to post pictures from the last month or so over the next week or so. That way, everything is mentioned!

To begin the catch-up time, I will start with many different pictures of many fun times on our swing set.

All the way back on May 9th, I watched my friend Lisette's boys Aiden and Nicholas while she and her husband Cory went to their baby doctor appointment. This is my friend who is now on bed rest in the hospital. The boys were all playing in the backyard. Here is a picture of Aiden, Nicholas, and Caden...they are so precious!!

And here is a video of us singing "The Little Light of Mine." Check out Caden holding up his "light."


Then, on May 24th, my super fun uncle from Washington was here visiting. When he was here, I told Mike how my Uncle Joe (my dad's brother) always has held a special place in my heart even though he always lived so far from us. (Mike and I actually lived about 7 hours from him when we lived in Idaho and got to see him several times.) For one thing, he and Aunt Cherie ALWAYS sent us Christmas presents when I was a child. The package always arrived at the very beginning of December, and it was like torture having to wait all the way until Christmas Eve to open the gifts. Also, he has bees so he ALWAYS brought us honey. He and my cousins hunt and fish, so we often got to enjoy deer jerky and grilled salmon. After thinking about my Uncle Joe, I decided that I need to make a concentrated effort at being a better "Aunt Margo" to my nephews Bryce and Josiah. Anyway, I was glad that my boys got to hang out with him for the evening. Of course, Uncle Joe had the joy of pushing all the boys on the swings! (I love the sky in this picture!)



A few days later, my parents and our nephew Bryce came to see us. My parents were babysitting Bryce for a week and came here to spend some time with us. The time they were here happened to fall on the Friday of the homeschool convention that I attended in Wichita, so my parents babysit all 5 of the boys that day. What super grandparents they are!! Here is a picture of all 5 of the boys on the swingset. (I have more pictures of them all, so I will post those later.)

Well, that concludes the first of many catch-up blogs!

I do have to also write about my recent "blond moment". Last Friday, I had invited several friends over to go swimming at our neighborhood pool. Well, of course it poured down rain that morning, so I said, "How about Monday?" We changed it to Monday. Yesterday, I decided to invite our homeschool coop and was emailing them all when I realized, "Monday?...the pool isn't open on Monday, never has been." The pool is closed every Monday for cleaning...I guess it's good we didn't show up and that I remembered ahead of time. Wow! Seriously, I wonder where my brain is sometimes. So, we all went to the fun new splash park in town instead (pictures to follow someday!)

one month

Okay, so I know that it has been one whole month since I have written anything. What can I say? NOTHING has been going on in our family and lives...I am SO kidding. We purposely got rid of our television about 6 0r 7 weeks ago, so that has drastically changed our household for the better! However, that does mean that I don't have as much free time. I am sad to say that I must have been using that television as a baby sitter more than I realized! My life is now filled to the max with playing, building forts, reading TONS of books to the boys, being read to by two of the boys, pushing kids on the swings, going on bike rides, swimming at the neighborhood pool and YMCA, working out at the YMCA (free child watch...my only ME time!), going to the library, playing UNO, playing Sorry, putting together puzzle after puzzle after puzzle, tickling boys, and laughing a whole lot....this OF COURSE, is in addition to all the laundry, dishes, finding pee smells, laundry, dishes, and other household mommy-type chores. This week was actually very much marked my an abundance of well, ummmm, how can I say this nicely???....ummm, fecal matter...yes POOP! I had a poopy week...literally!!! I won't go into any details except to tell you that Mike and I now have new pillows, pillow cases, and sheets. We probably need all new bedding but that won't happen for a while. Maybe next years tax return. Oh, I feel like I must clarify that the poop that was all over our bed did come from a child and not from an adult... in case you were wondering at all!!

We actually have been very busy. The last weekend of May I went to a homeschool convention in Wichita, KS, that was AWESOME. One of the keynote speakers, Ginger Plowman, was incredible and spoke about reaching the heart of your child. Seriously, God really used this woman to teach me some very practical ways to bring the Bible into every day situations in our house. It was also just a fun weekend away with some great ladies from my church and homeschool group.

I also had my super fun Uncle Joe visit from Washington. I took TONS of pictures with every intention to post them on this blog, but it never happened!

We also hosted my grandmother's 80th birthday party at my house. It was a surprise and it was a GREAT time! My brother Bill and nephew Bryce were able to come up from Houston. I hadn't seen my brother since October, so it was really great to see him! My other brother Keith and his wife Bridgette were here also as well as some extended family...it was truly a blessed weekend!

On a low note, my closest friend here in Oklahoma was put in the hospital on bed rest for some pregnancy complications. She has been there for 3 weeks now and is just now 27 weeks along. She has a long road ahead of her. I have been blessed with the opportunity to help out her family, which really is awesome. God always blessed me so much in Maine with friends who were like family and I am excited that I now have the chance to be family to her. It's a long story and I don't even know if that made any sense...let's just say my friend Lisette is like a sister to me, just like a few of my friends in Maine were (and still are) like sisters to me.

Okay, that's enough for now. I am going to try to write more often, even if it's just a sentence or two. God has been SO good to us lately and I just give Him all glory, praise, and honor for all that He has done for us and in us. What a mighty, holy, awesome, faithful, and amazing God we serve!!