Good ol' Calgary weather!!!

Unbelievable! The last few days were all +20. Beautifully sunny. We spent the majority of the days outside basking in the sun. Then what do I wake up to today...SNOW!!! Thankfully it's not staying on the ground, it's melting right away, but it's been snowing since early this morning. Jon called me and told me that it was pretty much a blizzard in Calgary. He said that it was snowing really heavily and the wind was blowing. CRAZY!!!! Okotoks wasn't/isn't that bad. It's snowing but it almost looks more like rain than anything else. The snow flakes were pretty big at one point, but they're back to rain size flakes again. Calgary weather is totally crazy.

Beautiful Day!!!

It's an absolutely beautiful day outside today. It's supposed to be just as nice out tomorrow too. According to the weather station it went up to +20 today!

We went into Calgary so I could run a quick errand, and we visited Jon at the job site. (Yes, the crazy man is back at work! He only took the Thursday off after having a 1500lb wall fall on his back. I'm glad to say that he's planning on taking next week off though, he really needs the time to heal).

After saying hi to Jon and Adam at work we headed back into Okotoks and went to the campground park (which is a big park that the kids LOVE to play at, and it's right beside the river). They played for a while and then we ate a picnic lunch at the park. SUMMER IS ARRIVING!!! I love being able to spend the entire day outside with the kids. It makes the day go by a lot faster for one thing. It's also nice to get the fresh air and have the warm sun beating down on you. I hope you're all enjoying the warm weather as much as I am.

I'm thinking about planting a garden in the "front yard" of my condo/house. O.k. those of you that know me really well can STOP LAUGHING!!! I really DO want to have a garden. I don't know what makes me think that I'll be able to keep it alive, since I can barely keep my indoor cactus alive, but I DO want to have a pretty garden to take care of. We'll see if I actually do it though. I'm going to need some help since I have no idea where to start, or what would look nice, or what kind of flowers would grow where I want to plant them, etc. Obviously I have NO SIGNS of a green thumb, but we'll be working on that this spring/summer. I'll keep you updated on how it's going.

God is ALWAYS listening

This is going to be a bit of a 2 part thing. Don't worry, I'll post both parts now. But I'm going to tell my experience first. You'll see what I mean...just read on.

Part 1

I started a new bible study last week. It's one by Beth Moore, called "Believing God". I'm really enjoying it. She's taking me through the bible on the topic of Faith. Yesterday while I was doing my study she gave an assignment. I was to write a letter to God asking him to test my faith, to strengthen it and to alter it where necessary. So I went about the assignment, praying the whole time I was writing that God would test my faith, that he would give me MORE faith, and that he would change what faith I did have to be the way he wants it to be.

1 HOUR LATER...

As I'm preparing supper, the kids are happily playing upstairs in Micah's bedroom. I had called Jon a little while ago and asked him if he'd possibly be able to come home a little earlier than he had planned. There was an aerobics thing at curves that I wanted to do and it started at 5:30. The phone rang at around 4:00/4:30, I glanced at the caller ID and saw Jon's cell phone number. So I clicked the on button and cheerfully said "Hello" assuming that he was on his way home from work already. When I heard his voice as he said "Hey babe" my heart dropped. I knew something was terribly wrong. "What's the matter?" I asked him. His reply was "Don't freak out" (not exactly what I wanted to hear) "I've been hurt at work. We're on the way to the hospital for x-rays. I think my back might be broken." I could hear his voice dripping with fear and pain. He asked me to pray. To ask God to heal his back, and to call his parents to do the same. I hung up the phone and started praying. I prayed for about 2 minutes then grabbed the phone to call his parents.... *break*

Have you ever read a christian book where the characters "hear" God? It's usually in bold or italic type and they describe it as a whisper across their heart. Sometimes they say it was audible and they call out "God? Was that you?". Well I experienced something like that!

*back to the story*

As I grabbed for the phone I "heard" God. It wasn't audible, but it was definitely God. The exact words that he whispered across my heart were "Do you have faith in Me?" I broke down. I thanked God for taking care of Jon, and said "YES Lord, of course I have faith in you."
What a lesson! God hears us!!! I prayed that he would test my faith, stretch it and alter it where needed and that's exactly what he did...1 hour after I prayed for him to do so.
Our prayers aren't always answered this fast, but God always answers our prayers, and gives us what we ask for if it's according to his will! Aren't you glad our God is SO GOOD!!!

OK I know you're dying to know what happened to Jon...

Part 2

Jon and Adam are framers (which most of you know by now). They were at work and had to stand a 2 storey wall up. They asked a few other guys from another crew to come and give them a hand to lift this wall. The wall slipped as they were lifting it. Adam ducked into a window as it fell, the wall clipped his shoulder but he made it into the window. There was another guy that also was in a window. Unfortunately for Jon the wall hit him in the head and across the back of the shoulders slamming him into the floor of the house. His butt hit the floor first and his head hit the floor in between his legs, the floor had folded him in half. Jon said that it was at this point that he heard 2 cracks coming from his back. The wall bounced back up, Jon rolled onto his side and the wall came crashing down on top of him again, this time landing across his chest. By the grace of God, his head wasn't crushed, it was the only part of him that went through a window. The other guys all picked the wall up and Jon rolled out from under it. He walked to the car and that is when he called me.

When they arrived at the hospital Jon was in tremendous pain. They got him on a back board, put a neck brace on him and brought him into emergency. By the time I got there he was outside the x-ray room waiting to get in for x-rays (still on the back board and with a neck brace on). Adam was also waiting for x-rays of his shoulder. They did a number of x-rays and had decided that it was safe to take him off the back board and take the neck brace off. The doctor went over the x-rays and found no breaks. He forced Jon into a sitting position (which was VERY painful for Jon). Jon showed him exactly where it was hurting which was mainly his lower back. The Dr. sent Jon back to x-rays because the first ones that they took weren't quite that low. Thankfully the second set of x-rays showed nothing broken as well. Needless to say, we're now home. Jon's doing o.k. He's VERY stiff and sore, but nothings broken thanks to God.

Well...Jon is living proof that there are miracles today. God is watching over us. He IS our protector and our comforter. I'm so thankful that he chose to protect Jon and not to take him home quite yet!

Thank-you to all of you that prayed for us yesterday. Also, thank-you so much to my Mom and Jen who took care of Brie and Micah. Thank-you everyone for your love and support.

"I think you are underestimating my sneakiness"

Micah is one sneaky child. Lately, if I put him down on the floor in the living room and go up to the kitchen, by the time I get there he's into the movie cupboard under the t.v. I have yet to figure out how he gets there so quickly because he doesn't move if I'm in the room. The cupboard is usually around 6-8 feet away from him. He gets there in a matter of seconds. I think he's scooting on his bum, but I'm not positive about that one. It's his new favorite thing to do though. He gets to the cupboard, opens it up and pulls out ALL the DVDs. What a sneaky little kid.

I think he's smarter than he's letting on. He just wants us all to think that he can't crawl so that we'll keep fetching things for him. As soon as he shows any interest in a toy out of his reach, Brielle is there to put it in his lap for him. In his mind..."why should I let on that I could get it for myself?" What a brat. :)

I can't get over how different Brie and Micah are. It blows my mind more and more every day! They were/are both VERY content, and like myself, they enjoy sitting back and watching people. But when it comes to developmental things, Brielle has left Micah in the dust on that one. By 10 months (which is how old Micah is now), Brie was walking around the room. As long as she could SEE what she was walking to, she was off. She'd walk from chair to chair, or along the wall, etc. Micah (as far as I've seen) hasn't even gotten off his little bum yet. Very amusing. God created us ALL so differently. I know that as soon as he starts getting around I'll be thinking "why can't you just stay where I put you!" But I love watching my children learn new things, and for Micah I think crawling/walking is next on his list.

Lost Keys

Tuesday is the last day that I remember having my keys in my hand! I ran a few errands, went and worked out then I came home. Since then I haven't needed them so I didn't even notice that they were gone until yesterday.

Now, this is the THIRD time that I've lost my keys in the last year and a half. I was beginning to think that something was terribly wrong with me. Don't they call it "mommy brain"? Ever since I had kids, I'm constantly misplacing things. I also go running upstairs to do/get something forget why I was there, get half way down the stairs again and suddenly remember, only to forget again once I've reached the top. Am I alone in this craziness?

Anyways, back to the lost keys. I frantically searched my house for them, I looked in every toy box, under every bed, cushion, rug, coat, in shoes. I even checked in the freezer (you just never know when you have "mommy brain", I've put some pretty strange things in the fridge/freezer.) I even called all the places that went to on Tuesday AND Wednesday, not knowing which day they disappeared. All the while praying frantically that God would help me find my keys.

When Jon got home in the evening yesterday I grudging told him that I couldn't find my keys, AGAIN. Losing my keys is a $75 mistake. It costs $65 to replace the lock on our mailbox (I know because we've had to do it once already, and I had the only key on my key chain), and at least $10 in key cutting for a new set of keys. Jon, being the Brat that he is, told me that he'd give me a few days and then he was going to bug me to no end!! My thoughts...."Thanks for the support Hun!" After we ate supper and I sat at the table racking my brain for some memory of the last time I saw my keys, I decided to go search my room again. As Brielle and I were looking under the bed, etc. I picked up a pair of JON'S pants, and heard a jingling sound. My jaw dropped open as I rammed my hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out MY KEYS!!!!! The brat had them all along! He'd forgotten that he'd borrowed them to unlock my truck while his keys were in his truck.

So my keys weren't lost after all. You know, it's funny. I found my keys only a few hours after frantically praying that God would help me find them. He has quite the sense of humour too. He waited until AFTER I'd spilled my guts to Jon. Jon and I never would have playfully teased each other and laughed with one another about it last night if God had answered my prayer any sooner than he did. God is so good. He uses even the small things in life to speak to our hearts. He answered my prayer and not a moment to soon!

Jon and his brother are on their own!

Well, Jon and his brother have been framing on their own since Monday. They're really enjoying it! However, the weather hasn't really been agreeing with them. It's been a framers idea of the worst weather lately. It hasn't really stopped raining since Tuesday. Thankfully Jon has really good rain gear. Jon said that the rain is one of the worst things to work outside in because once you get wet there's not a lot that can be done about it. You're wet = You're cold! I certainly don't envy framers. I don't think I could work 10+ hours a day outside. They work through everything, the only things they don't work in are really strong winds, -40 weather, and POURING rain. Other than that....they're at work. The wind they'll even work in as long as their not sheeting a roof (because they might get some unplanned for flying lessons).

Anyways, Jon and Adam are enjoying being their own bosses. I don't think it's really all that different for Jon because he's been running a crew for Abe for a few years now, but it's going to be different for me. I'm the one that does all the paper work. So please pray for me, that I get it right. It's new to me, and I don't really know what's expected. So hopefully I don't forget anything.
Well, that's all that's new for us at the moment.

Jon's mom and dad are home for the week. Tonight Brielle AND Micah are going to go sleep over at their house, and they're planning on a day at the zoo tomorrow. I hope everything goes well. Micah hasn't been away from me for more than a few hours because I was nursing him. I took him to the doctors 2 weeks ago, and she told me that I have to give him formula. For you mom's out there....he's only in the 5th percentile for weight (50th is average). They weighed him a few times because they thought they did something wrong. He certainly doesn't look underweight, but apparently he is. So basically the doctor told me "Your milk sucks!" Which I found kinda funny. So my poor little Micah is no longer a "boob man" ha ha.

His little weight problem took us all by surprise....You should see this kid eat. It takes a LOT to fill him up. If he's underweight, and eating like this. I'm TERRIFIED for his teen years. We're going to be living in our truck just to feed this kid! Well, the Dr. also said that she's not at all worried about him, because other than the numbers on the scale he looks perfectly healthy. So that was good to hear. At least she didn't say "What were you thinking? Why didn't you give him formula months ago? Look at him! You could have killed him!". If she would have said anything along those lines I don't think I would have made it out of the Dr.'s office. What a horrible thought. My poor child!! It's MY fault that he's underweight. How's that for a horrible thing for a mom to hear.

Well, he's alive and well. In a way, it's nice that he's drinking formula now, it sure gives me a lot more freedom! He won't nurse anymore (for those of you thinking that I should still be nursing him and just supplementing with formula), the milk just doesn't come fast enough for him and he gets terribly mad. What can I say, he's lazy. Nursing takes work, the formula just flows freely. In his little mind, Why would he nurse? I'm just glad that he's happy and healthy despite his lightness.

Kara Schroeder

To Kara Schroeder.
I almost missed it!!!
I hope that you had a wonderful day!

SABC Ladies Retreat

Well, we're back from the retreat. We had an awesome time! The speaker was Dr. Jean Barsness (I think that's how you spell her name). She was VERY good, she had some pretty amazing stories about how God's been evident in her life. I really enjoyed her. PLUS she worked at Briercrest when my mom and dad went to school there. My mom used to babysit her kids.
We had a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

This one is Jen (my sister), my Mom, and Carey (a friend). I think we're waiting for lunch or something. It seems like they feed you every couple of hours. The food is always wonderful!!

This is what you see from the Lodge. Yes....everything is still brown here (for those of you from B.C. and south of us!), the Lake is still frozen too. It's was actually pretty nice out though. The mornings were a bit chilly, but by the afternoon it was quite nice. This picture was taken first thing in the morning.

Here's my Micah. He came with us (because I'm still nursing). He's an aspiring mountain climber. I can't wait until he can actually fit into a harness. It'll be fun to take the kids climbing.



Here's a picture of Micah and I. We climbed up the hill with a cross at the top to take a few pictures. Kelly carried Micah most of the way up the hill. I could hardly breath....I think I have my Dad's cold!

Here's the last picture that I'm going to post (for now). This is of me and my sisters standing at the bottom of the cross on the hill.

Okotoks E.F.C. is going to organize the Ladies Retreat for 2007, so you should ALL plan on coming. It's going to be GREAT fun. We already have a few ides, and I think it'll be good.

ALSO...

Happy Belated Birthday to Courtney Molyneux. She tuned 25 yesterday!!!!!