Feeling Thankful

Lately I have been feeling immensely grateful for the many blessings we have been given. There have been several events that have occurred that clearly prove to me that after the trial of our faith, the blessings will come. We have sometimes struggled in our faith but a few months ago we decided to put aside our doubts and truly have faith in the Lord. I will tell you that we have been greatly blessed since then, and our faith has been strengthened.

One such blessing is that we are moving back to our house in Kyle at the end of the year. This is something we have been eagerly anticipating, and expected to happen next May. It turns out that our renters will be moving out sooner so we get to move back to our home either in December or January - Hooray!! And while we have come to love Round Rock and the people up here, we have been missing our friends and family and look forward to being close again.

Another blessing that I am feeling especially thankful for right now is modern medical science and technology. We have several close family members that are in the hospital right now. Fortunately, their condition isn't too serious but they do need to be monitored for several days before going home. And as I thought about my family and how much they mean to me I realized that if we were living several hundred years ago these ailments that we don't consider life-threatening very well could be. And I thought about how I would've probably died when I was 17 with my appendicitis if not for the surgery I had - a surgery that is considered fairly simple today. I never would have gotten married or had my three beautiful children, and if I had then would I have made it through childbirth 3 times? Or even seen my children grow to the ages they are now? And if we survived all of that, I could have been widowed at 24 when Dan had his appendicitis. I'm not trying to be morbid, but I can't help but feel so grateful for our health insurance and the medical care we've recieved over our lives that has allowed us to live and be healthly. And it brings me so much comfort to know that our dear family members are recieving this care right now, in addition to our prayers and the blessings of the Lord.

I could go on and on about all that I am thankful for, but these are the thoughts that are foremost on my mind and I felt like sharing.

A Final Tribute to Summer

We went to the Town Lake Sprinkler Park with my friend Jennifer and her kids, Allie & Jack. It was our first time and we loved it! I told the kids this would be the last time they got to wear their swimsuits this year. So we made the most of the sunny weather before it starts to get cold - gotta love the long Texas summers!

Allie, Natalie, & Jack

The girls loved running through the water
Nathan was a bit timid going into the water
Trying to make up his mind...
The park is downtown - what a view!

The fun wouldn't be complete without rolling down the hill!

After the kids had their fill of playing in the sprinklers, we went to a local burger stand "Sandy's" for some burgers, root beer, and custard - YUM!! It was definitely a proper farewell to summer, what a great day!

Picture Tag

This is really fun!

The rules:
Go to your picture files.
Pick the 4th file, and the 4th picture in it.
Tell a little about the picture.
Tag 4 friends.

This is a picture of Natalie at 6 months, snuggling in our bed. Isn't she adorable?!

I'm tagging: Michelle, Karin, Emmy, & Jennifer!

Excuses

I am always coming up with excuses for why the laundry isn't folded. They're all pretty lame since it's usually "I just didn't feel like it!" But the other day I actually had what I thought was a reasonable excuse for not folding the laundry that was piled up on our bed....

Doesn't Peggy look so sweet there? I just had to take her picture! Peggy absolutely loves laundry, whether clean or dirty, especially when it's warm out of the dryer - she will burrow down into it and sleep under the laundry. What a funny dog!

That was also my excuse for not making the bed that day.