ahh... fall

Oh, fall, how I love thee!!!!! I am sitting outside, having gotten away from the office a little early today so that Tony could dodge out early to a meeting and am thrilled to be able to sit outside on my front porch while Chip Sharp is enjoying being a pure boy! He has gone from pulling leaves off the bushes to sliding down his slide, to digging dirt and now he is in the garage pulling out more toys..... here comes the tri-cycle! I love the cool weather and being able to let him be outside and 'just be'! What a blessing, thank you Lord, that he is able to be outside this fall. Last year we were under such attack with his allergies, letting him out to play was tough, but now, we are loving it! Things have not, in fact, slowed down here since September hit. We ended up having to have kitchen work done, chip got an ear infection, tony has had tons of school work, the Dystance4Dystonia 5k is this weekend, and then September will be over! Whew! What a start to the fall - but how beautiful to be a family that loves the Lord together, enjoys being together, and prays for each others' challenges, struggles and difficulties. We are looking forward to Laynie's big 3rd birthday in a few weeks and getting some vacation time over there with them! It seems like time has flown by so fast and that they have grown up so fast. What incredible milestones they hit in these early years and how incredible it is how fast they learn! anything, from songs to colors, to their alphabet and scripture, how they retain it at such an early age!

We have had some great times and are getting ready to go in and fix dinner, so for now, i am going to dodge. Be blessed and look around for a few minutes and realize how beautiful the world is, how fleeting the moments are, and how vivid the colors of the world are! Don't miss it! Take a day off early to sit on your front porch and be blessed, too! This has been good for my soul!

<><
Rebecca

September, how nice of you to be here!

So gosh we are all, as a family, so grateful that September is here! Yes, we got tons of rain this weekend and it was grey skies for this holiday weekend but how sweet it is to be able to spend the entire weekend with just the 3 of us as a family! September is beginning to fill up already as we are planning our 2nd annual Dystance4Dystonia run in a few weeks and the numbers are shaping up quite nicely! We are almost at $7,000 raised if my 'ish-numbers' are correct and how excited we are to be able to say that! I am so blessed that people are stepping up and are joining the fight for a cure and awareness of Dystonia! The year 2012 will be a fun new year in our lives as i have a couple of 'missions' that i have my mind set on for Awareness and we will see how, if at all, all of those ideas pan out. We hope that you will decide to join us for this amazing run/walk, even if it is for just the raffles we have! There will be gift cards, awesome gifts, great prizes and tons of opportunities to learn. If you can't join us to run or walk, please make your way over to http://www.dmrfevents.org/event.php?455233 and make a difference and help find a cure! Also, encourage your friends and family to do the same! It is totally tax deductable and the best part is that all of the 'new money' we raise, will be matched penny for penny up until December 1 so your $25 will really be $50! How amazing that your monies are really doubled! God be with you and bless you this week!!!

<><
Rebecca

P.S. Congrats to Deanna and Scott who got engaged this weekend in New York! Love you both!

CHOOSE victory!

So i've not gotten a clear message if i'm blessed because of all the poo-poo things that seem to be going on, if i will be blessed for surviving them, or none of the above, so i'm just going to choose to be blessed and share with you all about it! This August has been one of quite honestly, organized chaos in our lives. We have been out of town and apart as a family more than we have been together! I am so glad that on Monday, we had our first cooked meal that we sat down as a family and ate in the entire month of August! All of our experiences that we have had in August have been beyond amazing and excilting. we are overflowing with knowledge and love for others as we have had 'mountain top experiences' that have helped give us a vision of people and situations through God-lenses, and what an incredible way to view the world! Of course, though, with all good things, they must come to an end and with all God things, they must come with spiritual warfare, so i should have been a little more mentally prepared than i was for the drama to come! We got home and ended up filing an insurance claim for a 'bow in the floor' of our kitchen which turned out to be caused from our dishwasher. The claim is for approximately $3500 worth of repairs to be done to the kitchen - replacing the floor, laminate, removing the cabinets, resetting them, blah blah blah. The house will be a construction zone for a few days, for sure! Then yesterday morning as we were going out the door to go to work, the back driver's side tire was flat, and i mean FLAT! As i walked closer, there was a screw that was just as pretty as you can please in the tire! Well..... here, we go, get the spare, put it on and go to Scott Stevens Tires! They fixed it for us for FREE (praise the Lord) and we were still able to get to work by 9:00! Next, we came home last night from a meeting only to find our AC is broken. We thought it was just 'frozen up', as there was definitely ice on the outside of it, but i don't believe that ice has anything to do with the fan spinning! LOL..... so yet, again, Murphy's law won the battle, but our God will win the war, i promise! The spirit of our family is not broken! we slept with the windows open last night, which was actually refreshing, and our attitudes are that of laughter through this! What else can you do? well, actually, there is a lot of things we could have done - argued, cried, acted in anger, gotten discouraged, felt defeated, etc etc etc. But we choose the victory that we are promised in Jesus! Thank you Lord, for the situations in life that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are in control and that you have the final victory! We hope that YOU have a great day and that the little things in life, instead of frustrate you, remind you of the final victory that Jesus has! XOXO - Rebecca