Spring has sprung....

It has been almost 3 months since I last blogged so I will try and catch you up.....busy/lazy.  Well that should do it.........
 
I have been busy.  My coworker had surgery so I worked to pick up her part on top of mine (which they overlap a lot being we are both Medical Assistants) but I do more front office stuff on top of the back office so it was a bit stressful but looking back it was good for me and I liked the challenge.  Glad she is doing better and back to work.

I say spring is here but we never really did have a winter here in our neck of the woods.  I like it that way but know it will not always be that way.  The only bad thing.....allergies!!  With no deep freeze we have a lot of people with major allergy issues.

I would love to report that I am enjoying my Joy devotional but the truth is....I stopped doing it when I started working more.  I can always pick it back up.  I still have JOY!! and that is more important than making sure I do that devotional everyday.  

I am exercising and loving it.  Love going for walks with my wonderful hubby, doing Pilate's and a few different things.  Just want to stay active. 

I love spending time with my kids (which now I have 5....my oldest son got married!!).  Very blessed with a wonderful, beautiful daughter-in-law.

My husband and I are now in a place to really have time for each other.  We have so much fun together.  We have to work to make time for each other but that is part of being intentional with our time.  It is like being newlyweds (except we had 2 babies when we got married) but with the life experience that comes with age.  So for me I think it is way better than the newlywed phase.....Just my opinion.

I am learning Japanese.  My daughter-in-law is Japanese and we hope to take a trip to Japan sometime in the near future.  I am older so this is a challenge but fun.  Good for the brain.  Japanese is not easy and I am not that great with English which is the only language I know.....for now!! 

So busy...yes, but not to busy to blog (which I have not done), email (which I do if it is personal...don't really mess with forwards) or take time for family & friends (well work schedule can dictate some of that).  Lazy in the fact that I get home from work and just want to do nothing but watch TV or take a nap.  I am working on that now that my hours are back to normal.

There is always going to be things to take up our time and energy but I am learning that it is important to stop and look at what is taking that time and energy.  Is is productive?  Does it help others?  Is it to much to the point of taking away from what really is important in our lives?

I want to be the woman God wants me to be and that is my prayer for myself.  I am in a new season of my life and I am very young to be in this place but I have found that it is a good place.  A blessed place.  A place I am enjoying and want to keep enjoying everyday.

Hopefully it won't be another 3 months until my next blog.......

Home from Haiti

I am home from Haiti and already miss being there.  It is good to be home and especially be with my husband but the time in Haiti was amazing.  I did well flying...most of the time.  I had a great team and they were all a big help to make sure I had a window seat and that someone from the team was next to me.  I was thankful to God for putting a remarkable team together and so very thankful that He chose me to be a part of that team.

There were 8 of us from our church and we went out in 2 teams.  One went to work on helping the Haitians build houses and the other (which I was with) went out to be with the kids and do VBS stuff with them.

We rode in what was called a Tap-Tap.  A truck with benches in the back.  Our driver was awesome with all the traffic.

This one is loaded with our stuff for the day.  We then added about 6 people--it got crowded but it was fun.

The first day we were near the guys building but we were at a tent church and had over 100 kids--it was so much fun.  It was very hot in that tent but loving those kids was so very easy.  Some tried to teach me Creole which is their language.  I have a hard enough time with English so this was more laughing than anything.  I really enjoyed it.

The electricity was spotty and it was hard to regulate the temp. at night so the first night us 3 ladies froze.  We shared a really nice room.  I think we all felt a bit spoiled where we were.  Having someone cook for us all week was wonderful.  The food was great but I didn't always know what I was eating.  On Monday I ate a bit too much and ended up sick during the night.  This was not fun but I still thanked God for getting me through it and for sending me to Haiti.  I had to stay back as my team headed out on Tues. and that was hard but I had to get my energy back and rest up.  With no TV or Internet it was a great time of resting and prayer.  I spent the day with God and that is something I don't do here.  I have many distractions so it is easy to do other things but when I was in the compound with no one that spoke English it was a time for me to just be with God.  He has a plan for everything and maybe that was something He wanted from me--to trust, surrender and just spend a day with Him.

The rest of the week went well.  I did lose about 3 lbs from being sick and then cautious about what I ate.  I felt good though.

We spent Wed. going to pick up 2 teachers from one of the orphanages and take them to buy books.  That was a lot of fun.  They were so excited and thankful to have books for the kids.

We all spent Thurs at the orphanage.  The construction team was building new, safe benches for the kids to sit on and we were playing and loving on the kids.  It was so easy to get attacked to them and I look at the pictures and miss them so much.  They loved to wear my hat and sunglasses.  Run their fingers up my veins on my arm and play with my hair.  I had my hair braided many times since it is to fine to hold the braid.  Oh and they loved to take pictures and have their picture taken.  They knew my camera was in my right pocket and would point and say "photo".  So about 50 of my around 400 pictures were taken by kids.

Friday 3 of the construction guys went back to work more on things at the orphanage while the rest of us took a trip up to the mountain.  We went to the Baptist Mission which was really neat to see.  We went to an overlook to see out over Port-au-Prince.  That was just amazing.  Haiti is a beautiful country with beautiful people.

I fell in love with the country and the people. I feel so blessed to have been called to go.

Saturday 3 of the guys helped with some things that needed done around the compound while the rest of us went to a school that had not had a mission team come in before.  We had about 60 kids and did skits and things with them.  It was so much fun and several came forward to receive Christ--that was amazing.  As we were leaving I was hugging one of the young boys and he asked me to pray for him.  He gave me his name and I have been since.  I don't know exactly his need but God does.

We also had a pizza party for the staff that evening.  They didn't have to cook for us and it was so much fun to see how excited there were to have pizza.

Well if you kept up with me this far--thanks.  It is so hard to put into words everything and how so very thankful and blessed I feel to have gotten this opportunity.  I do hope to get a chance to go back and next time take my husband.  I know he would love it.

God really took me way outside my comfort zone but I took comfort in trusting Him.  He stretched me way more than I have ever been stretched.  I look forward to see what He has in store for me next--very exciting!!

Valentine's Day!

I don't put much thought into Valentine's Day and I sure don't know how it all started but I do have a wonderful husband that does what he can to spoil me. 

The nice thing is he will do something for his (our) daughter on Valentine's Day.  When the kids were little he would make a big deal for her and I would do a little something for our boys.



For me seeing my man do something special for our daughter made me love him even more. 

I have been married over 2 decades and I am very blessed to have a man that loves me and likes to do special things for me whenever he can.  I like it when I get a card for no other reason than he was thinking of me and wanted to get me a card.  When he picks up a special treat from the store because he is thinking of me.  When I am having a bad day and he takes time to listen and hug me.

In saying all that I will say that on Saturday I was feeling a bit left out regarding Valentine's Day.  You see my husband has been very, very busy at work.  So much so I hardly seen him at all last week.  He didn't have time to really think about me and I was OK with that until Sat. evening.  For some reason it just hit me.  I had been missing him but seeing all the Valentine commercials (I was watching way to much TV) made me miss him even more.  By the time he got home late Sat. night I was in tears.  He was tired but still listened to me as I cried my way through my "rough" week.

It didn't end there.  He listened as I cried through part of Sunday.  It was nice to have him next to me in church but sad knowing that after church he was heading back to work.

With a week of little sleep and putting in 3 weeks of work into one he still vacuumed the hall for me and went to the store with me even though he could barely stand from being so tired.  I was so thankful and told him so.

I did get him a card and he got me some chocolates (I picked them out).  I do miss my Valentine on this day and everyday he is not with me.  I am spoiled and I am a big baby...I like having my man around.

I do hope your Valentine's Day is a good one and what you hope for.  For me I just hope my husband doesn't have to work late again tonight but if he does my heart & prayers will be with him.

Doing something special and letting the one you love know it is not reserved for one day a year.  So remember to let the ones you love know that you love them all throughout the year.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

July 4th....

...is Independence Day & the day I gave birth to my first child.  So as everyone has picnics & lights up the skies with fireworks I think back to the day my beautiful baby girl was born.  I am so thankful for our freedom in the USA and I am proud to be an American but the 4th of July will ALWAYS be my oldest baby's birthday.  I am very BLESSED & THANKFUL God allowed me to be her mom.