A Spiritual Journey this week

This has been a busy and crazy week! I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already. Time just keeps slipping away from me. A few times I have got on here and sat and stared at the blank page and think "what should I write?" I come up with so many ideas throughout the day and then when it comes time to put it out here, I go blank! It drives me insane. Maybe that's because I am not a "true" writer? I don't know?

Alot has been weighing on my heart this past week. So many thoughts and ideas going through my head and it seems I am always thinking about something. Where does God want me? What am I doing to please God? I am constantly questioning myself. This can be a good thing because it motivates me to always do better and always try to be pleasing to God, but it can be bad too when you are always questioning yourself.

This week I have been questioning- "Am I doing the right thing opening my preschool?" It just seems like I have had to jump through hurdles and hoops to get to this point, the point of just needing a signature on my license, and now here I am waiting again. It just seems to be dragging and not going at my pace and finishing on MY time. Does this mean that this isn't what God wants me to do? I think not. This is just the devil trying to work me down. Yes, down. The more I connect with God and do things pleasing to Him, the harder the Devil is going to work on me. I use to think this was kind of odd, the devil and God battling it out over people, but it is true. I can see the devil working on me this past week. It can be as simple as sneaking negative thoughts into my head, or having me think that I shouldn't open my preschool cause it's not opening on MY time. I am just so thankful that I know better and can see when the devil is trying to get me down. He doesn't just do this to me though, he does this with everyone. He is a sneaky devil and sometimes when we are caught up in the moment we fail to see him at his best, getting us down.

So today I am standing firm and holding my ground against the devil. How do I do this you might ask? Thank you for asking! I read my Bible as much as possible, do my devotions daily, but most importantly.....I PRAY! Yesterday was a rough morning and as I was wiping the table, I just started praying and telling the devil to GET OFF MY BACK!! There was a dumb song going through my head and it was a bad one too. I had heard it on TV somehow and it just kept going through my head. So I just stood and prayed. I didn't hear that song the rest of the day! Thank you Jesus!

I know this sounds a little off the wall for me and if you had known me about 12 years ago, you would never had heard these words coming out of my mouth, or written on a blog, but I am here to tell you that we need to be more BOLD in our Faith and speak out more often. We need to become stronger and bolder in Faith and learn to be prayer warriors.

So I hope you join me on my Spiritual Journey and read your Bible, do your devotions, and pray cause I can tell you right now you will feel a renewal in your Faith and Spiritual life. I don't claim to be perfect or to know everything. I am by FAR the furthest thing from being perfect, but I am at least trying. Trying to do my best at being a parent,being the best wife possible to my husband, being good to my family members, and being pleasing to God, but I can't do a single one of these things without God in my life. I learned that many years ago and sadly, I am still learning this today.

"God does not expect us to question or change or compromise His commands; He expects us to simply trust Him and obey Him. That's the way to find spiritual blessing and happiness"
- Part of my devotions this morning- "My Time with God"

Back to School Day!!

Today was back to school day here!! Yeah! I was so happy for the kids to head back to school. They both were looking forward to seeing all their friends again. Tyler came home today and told me that he wants to go to school "everyday"! I hope he continues his joy for school into his Jr.High and High School years.
Here are some pictures. I am off to bed right now, so I won't be blogging much. I am so pooped from today and am ready to crash. I will blog more later....

This look on Chelsea's face says it all...
My boy has to be the most handsome boy!!

Chelsea wasn't thrilled with the pictures I wanted to take cause we were in the front yard. I am sure she was embarrassed by her crazy mother!
I caught Jaelyn playing peek a boo with me.

Some pictures from the other day...

This was me on Sunday, holding a NEWBORN all afternoon during our Bible study. I wasn't paying attention very well at all. It was so awesome to hold a new baby in my arms again cause it has been so long. I must say, Vanessa you make beautiful babies!! This is one of the twins (I won't put their names on here cause I haven't asked permission) that I am holding and she is so tiny.

"The Silent Ranks"

This poem was shared with me on my message boards this morning and I HAD to share. I hope you all appreciate it as much as I did.

"The Silent Ranks"

I wear no uniforms, no blues or greens.But, I am in the military, in the ranks rarely seen.
I have no rank upon my shoulders. Salutes I do not give.But in the military world is where I live and am rarely seen.
I am not in the chain of command, orders I do not give or get.But my husband is the one who does, this I can not forget.
I am not the one who fires a weapon, Who puts his life on the line.But my job is just as tough, Iʼm the one who is always left behind.
My husband is a patriot, a brave and pride filled man.And the call to serve his country not all can understand.
Behind the lines, I see things needed to keep this country free.My husband makes the sacrifice, but so do my kids and me.
I love the man I married. The military is his life.So I pledge to support my hero and stand among the silent ranks known as THE MILITARY WIFE.

"Smelly house, smelly house, when will you smell better????"

Friends anyone....smelly cat? Yes, I am a complete Friend's fan! Steve and I started watching the show back in England and haven't stopped yet. Yes, we still watch the re-runs too. I can't believe they ever ended that show. Anyway.....

We are alive and well here! The fire didn't make it to our house, but it was pretty darn close. I am so thankful that we were protected by our fabulous firefighters. I didn't get much sleep on Saturday, due to all the noise outside my bedroom window. All night long, I heard sirens and helicopters flying around. It was pretty hectic, along with Mr. Loudspeaker too. The fire burned down 125 houses. Praise the Lord, they were vacant and due for demolition sometime soon. It just amazes me how quickly a fire can get out of control and so easily here. The fire probably started due to someone throwing a cigarette out the window. The dry conditions around here just make it so easy for something so small to start a HUGE fire. The fire was so close, I could see flames from my bedroom window. My house smells horrible too, did I mention that? It smells like stinky smoke and I am not sure how I can get that smell out. The smell also lingers outside too, so opening the windows and doors isn't an option right now.

Today was a great day with my kids! We packed backpacks and got all their supplies sorted and ready for school. Some supplies stay at home and some go to school. I don't know what it is with my kids, but they always always lose our pencil sharpeners! Every night last year, I was asked where the pencil sharpener was located. This year I stocked up on those bad boys! I have a reserve supply for when the sharpener does it's disappearing act.

Today is also Tootsie's birthday! Happy birthday Tootsie! She is one year old today. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. I just wish she acted her age, it's almost like she is stuck in puppy mode. I just don't understand it.

This day has been full of alot of "why"questions from myself. Something like this:

*Why can't my children learn to turn off the lights in the house?
*Why can't Tootsie stop using the restroom in her kennel?
* Why is my face breaking out like I am a teenager again???
* Why do I try so hard to keep our house nice and clean, just to fail?
* Why is my 13 year old daughter growing up so fast?
* Why can't I find time to sit and read like I want?
* Why do I stay up so late knowing I will be tired in the morning?

So you get my drift. This is my verbiage in my head all day long....WHY? It keeps me thinking and on my toes. I guess when you are limited with your adult conversation, you turn to the next best thing....yourself!

I hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of summer. Ours has pretty much ended this week. I can't wait for Fall. It is my most favorite time of year. Today was a pretty cool day around here and it seems to be getting darker sooner....hooray!

What did you say, loud speaker?

Go into shelter? Is THAT what you said? Do you see this pole here, well it is right behind our fence in our backyard. We here this thing EVERY Friday when they play music at noon and it is VERY LOUD. It also goes off when there is an exercise going on and it tells us what to do, but we don't have to listen when it is just an exercise. The first time I heard it go off it said "Danger! Danger! Imminent Danger, take shelter immediately!" Well this freaked me out just a little cause I wasn't sure where I was suppose to go. I called my husband to find out what was going on and he informed me that it was just an exercise. Whew. Close call on that one! Well, today we had to listen to the loudspeaker, this was NOT an exercise.
It started off normal, we had busy day and evening planned around here. The kids and I woke up and headed out this afternoon to finish up some school shopping. Since we were already out, I stopped by the Church to get some work done. While were there my cellphone rang, it was my neighbor letting me know that there was a HUGE fire on base and that we were told to stay inside and shut all windows and doors, and to shut off our AC. I wasn't worried at first, but then started thinking about my dogs locked in our house. She informed me that it wasn't too far from our house, so I decided to head back to the base.

You could see the smoke before we even got near the base, that's how bad it was. Unfortunately the winds are kicked into high gear and is not helping the fire at all. So far the fire has consumed about 24 houses, which luckily were empty and about to be demolished. I guess this is speeding up that process. When we got home we were getting out of our van to go into our house and a cop was driving by and talking on his loudspeaker telling us all to get inside, so we all ran into the house. No time to be giving the cops any trouble! I turned on the news right away and discovered that it turned into a 8 alarm fire. That's pretty bad right? I would think so since it has consumed so many houses.

They are still working on the fire as we speak and now some of base housing has lost power too. They came across the loudspeaker and informed everyone that it is NOT scheduled to come back on tonight and are not sure when it is due to come back on. They have now opened up a shelter here on base for those people. We have been very fortunate so far and still have power. I do know that the fire is near some gas lines and that could be why they shut down the power to some houses.

I don't plan on evacuating unless they make me at this point. It is pretty tough to find a place that will take four kids and two dogs. Our Pastor called to check on us and offered his house as a place to go to if we need to get out. I am so grateful for our Church family at times like this. I am just praying that they contain the fire and get everything squared away soon. I know they have called in Firefighters from all over Solano county to help out. If it makes it through the vacant houses, it could very well hit our house next. We are right by the fire and if it spreads anymore, it could get very bad. I have noticed tons of fire trucks and cops cruising up and down our street to make sure it doesn't hop over here. With the winds so strong, it very well could happen.

Please pray for the safety of those men and women over there putting their lives on the line to keep our houses safe. From the mouth of Tyler- "those guys are brave." They sure are and I am thankful for that.

I will keep everyone posted tomorrow about how things turned out here. I am sure it will all be fine after they get the fire under control. Here are some pictures (with my new camera of course) to show you what things looked like around here. The pictures don't really get how bad it is around here. There are huge chunks of black ash flying all over my house. You can't even go outside without gagging. It is so bad you can smell it all in the house too.

This was taken in my driveway looking down my street.

Out my back yard...you can see how thick the smoke is.

The hazy sun

Trying to keep up!

Tyler cooling down on our hot day.
Jaelyn loves the heat though....like her mommy.
Heading home, can't take the heat anymore....

I think we might have a model on our hands here. She loves getting her picture taken.
This is not her bike that she rides. We still have this for when little kids come over and she still likes to ride it.

Chelsea rollerblading out front. It had cooled down one evening and we sat outside and enjoyed the nice cool weather.
My other model here. She doesn't like to get her picture taken, but she is so photogenic.

Me practicing taking my own picture with my new camera. I had to crop this picture because Jaelyn decided to moon the camera just behind me. She had just got out of the bath and decided to get her picture too! She is such an Ousley!

My handsome boy just hanging out in the AC.
My other handsome boy! I love this dog so much. He has the best personality EVER!
This picture is my favorite of Jaelyn.

With pictures, laundry, e-mails, and Church! It seems like I can't catch my breath some days, but then when I don't have anything to do (which is hardly ever) I don't know what to do with myself.

So back to this week, the twins came back to our house on Monday. The kids were so excited to be back together again. It was total craziness, but so much fun. No matter how late I let them stay up, they would get up bright and early. I learned early on to put them to bed at a decent time, so I could have some time to myself and get up early with them all. Having the twins here made me really anxious to open my preschool. More on that later. So basically we hung out here all week and just played and enjoyed our last few days before school starts.

This weekend we are finishing up with school shopping. Tonight we are going to the movies here on base and seeing Wall-E. I can't wait. I am not sure who is more excited, me or the kids. Jaelyn keeps asking me what time is it and when are we leaving. Too bad it's only 3 in the afternoon. We still have a couple more hours until we leave. I think I will wear the kids out and walk to the movie theater! Then we can come home and crash!

I have been on the hunt looking for a new book to read. I just can't seem to find anything I like or will hold my interest. I started a sad book, but really don't want to read depressing stuff right now. Not with my emotional state...ha ha. I came across a suggestion- "The Time Travelers Wife" Has anyone read this? Did they find it very interesting or kind of out there? Please leave any feedback. If you have any book suggestions, I will take those too. I love anything with romance, love, Christian authors, and kids. So let me know what you have read!

I have a few pics to share from the past few days. Nothing special, like I said we have just been hanging out here. We went to the park right behind our house yesterday, but only stayed about ten minutes. It was 102 degrees. No thanks, I will wait until Fall gets here!

A little about Steve- things are going great with him. I can't believe it's been 5 weeks already! Time just keeps flying by! He is doing great over there, half way around the world from us, and seems to have gotten into a routine. He works out about 5-6 times a week at the gym, since it's the only thing for him to do besides work. It seems to be the thing to do over there. I have been sending him 1-3 boxes a week. He loves getting mail from home and it makes his day. Today he received his Cleveland Brown's blanket and pillow case I sent him. He is thrilled cause he will actually get to watch the Brown's play (since it's on ESPN) on Monday night! I am so excited for him. I know he hates to miss football season and he is kind of at AFN's mercy with their football schedule. If you have ever been stationed overseas, you know all about AFN. In the Azores we had AFN and it made life simpler cause we only had 5 channels to chose from, one of them was ESPN. Anyway, one month down....FIVE more to go!

Check back soon! I have lots of interesting things about to happen in the next few weeks. I was told today I should have my license by next week for my Preschool, which means I will hopefully stay on schedule to open after Labor Day weekend! Hooray...I see the light at the end of the tunnel finally.

A Great Week!

What a great week this week! It was nice and relaxing, yet busy and fulfilling. Does that make any sense at all? I stayed very busy this week working at the Church. I am trying to get more organized with the preschool, so things run a little more smoothly. Summer is finally coming to an end and some of the teachers are slowly trickling back in from vacations. I always look forward to the Fall season, it is my favorite time of year. I can't wait for the leaves to start changing and the cooler weather to start rolling in.Usually leaves don't start changing until Oct/Nov for us in California. Although today did feel alot like Fall, so it might get here sooner rather than later. I think the high today was about 72 with winds 25-35 mph. That is a bit chilly for summer I must say, but I LOVE it!

We are getting ready for the kids to head back to school. Tyler and Chelsea are all done shopping for clothes. We just need to get school supplies, shoes, and undergarments. I am looking forward to school starting back up too. The kids are starting to get bored around here and when kids get bored, mom gets annoyed! Tyler can't wait to go to Second grade and Chelsea is thrilled about being in the 8th grade. It is so hard to believe that she will be in HIGH School next year. I don't think I am old enough to have a high schooler.....am I? Jaelyn and I went and checked out a daycare for her. She will be going to preschool here with me Mon-Thurs and then on Friday's she will be going to daycare. I have decided to go and work at the Church all day on Friday's to get more done around there. I am excited about having a break from Jaelyn a bit. Believe me, I will be looking forward to that break after Mon-Thurs with her. Don't get me wrong I will love teaching her, but we all know how it can be with our own child.

So this week I got an early birthday present from my hubby in the mail and I LOVE it! I couldn't believe that he thought of this all by himself. I had mentioned a while ago that I would love one, but didn't think anything about it again. The only reason I got it early was because I had told him that I wanted a laptop for myself for my birthday and he said he already had a gift picked out. Well after chatting a while, he finally told me what he was getting me so I could pick what I wanted. I picked his gift of course! He got me a great new camera and I have been having a blast with it!

I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I do. I have been taking all kinds of crazy pictures just to see what all my new camera can do.

Here is Jaelyn crying because the dogs took her stuffed animal away from her.
Tyler and Jaelyn checking out the frog.

If you look closely at this picture, you can see the frog sitting on Tootsie's back. I snapped the picture as she was turning around to get it off.
My handsome boy! Yes, I mean Samson! He is the best dog in the world.
Here is Tootsie and Samson in action. They are always fighting over some toy, even when there are 10 others lying around.
We named this picture "SuperDOG"

Doesn't this picture make you want a Lab? They have to be the best dogs in the entire world.

Tyler trying to let Jaelyn hold the frog, but he kept jumping away. Run froggy, run!
I love this picture of Tyler looking at the frog.

My Tootsie Roll....she can be such a pain, but I love her!

This is the norm around our house. This is also the stuffed animal Jaelyn is crying about in the first picture.

Chelsea growing up way too fast. I love this picture of her. She always gets so tan in the summer and has a glow about her.