OK. I'm not even going to try to give you a deep update.... Christian just turned 7, Nemo is 4 and will be going to school in August, and Zekie Wekie Pumpkin Pie is 3. We've been in IL now for 8 months. I can't believe it. We actually moved out of the state of Arizona. I'd been wanting to leave AZ for quite some time but never really thought we actually would, much less, when we did but alas here I am in my office telling you this. ((adjusting to a more ergonomic position)) Ok. Better. Speaking of egronomic...I just got these this weekend. 
I am quite happy about them. They help hold your wrist in a more stable position as you cut. Nifty! I've wanted some for quite some time now. Now, where was I?? Illinois... Is flat out beautiful. The city I'm in is quite wooded. We have all sorts of woodland creatures around here. The Des Plains River runs through and I certainly know I'm not in Arizona any longer. Brandon's working for Allstate and I'm still working for the same company I have been for the past few years, and I also work for my father in law at the store. I'm going to be at the store for a little while longer until we sell it but and I start back at cosmo school next month...go me. We have found a church!! Wahoo!!! We really like it. We've been attending since January and have dug right in. Brandon plays with the praise team and is leading a community group bible study weekly. He's teaching VBS this summer as well. I'm on praise team and I'm teaching K-2 grade Sunday School. God is GOOD. I had fear leaving AZ where I believed for a while that leaving would mean that I was walking outside of or away where God had us or that I was abandoning what God had called me to do ..through finding our new church and seeing what God has done with us, I've learned a very important lesson, God is faithful and so very capable of doing IN you and WITH you what he wills. When God calls you to do something...he will provide avenues and open doors that I did not know previously existed. All I have to do is know and trust that he is faithful to continue whatever thing he has started in me and his faithfulness will carry me through season after season of my life. Hope I was able to get that out the way I feel in my heart about it.....anywho.. They have welcomed into their family with wide stretched arms and we are excited to grow and serve there. He's brought restoration to us. That is so comforting, he is truly omnipresent. I've also been learning about relationships.....some things have happened that you could not have paid me to believe amongst some of my relationships. Devastating things.... that have shaken me to my core, led me to question my faith ( maybe faith should be elaborated... question my faith in people and the way I engage in relationships with them), and left me in a heap of tears of despair. What I've learned and what I know to be true is this: God is. He is everything I could have ever wanted or needed in my life and He is the only thing that's constant. He alone is worthy of all the trust I can give. He has my best interest at heart and His comfort can overshadow the deepest of pains. People are only human and therefore are subject to act non-perfect and in ways never before imaginable, that's the truth and while shocking at times, is manageable when looked at in the proper perspective. The blood of Jesus covers a multitude of sins. I'm grateful for the lessons learned and am now excited to build new relationships with this new knowledge especially being aware of the boundaries that do and should exist in interpersonal relationships. All in all, although the lesson was painful, I'm eternally grateful for that was wrought in my relationship in Christ through the trials and tribulation of my human interactions. I'll be 27 soon. That's scary. I'm so much not the person I want to be and I feel like I am running out of time. Right now today, I hope I become the person( daughter of the King, wife, mother, sister, relative, friend
) that God is calling me to be before it's too late...before the kids are grown, before the other relationships are damaged beyond repair.... There is so much pressure, both real and imagined that I feel in this area of my life and I just want to believe what is true....and in that...it's only God. I'm finding it hard to keep my thoughts in balance when it comes to this. I just realized this paragraph probably only makes sense to me...so I'll stop there. Tomorrow is Memorial Day...yeah!!!! I'll be working...but I go in an hour late and get out about an hour earlier so that's great! Have a few invites and I don't know as of yet which one if any we will be taking up. Here's a not so detailed picture of the boys laying out on the grass  in front of our house enjoying some brotherly time and conversation...I'll get some actual faces up soon. 
Oh my word, it's 845 and I've been on longer than I had liked. And here is my little Zekie... "Mommy can you hold me...hold on let me get my blanket...Ok NOW are are you ready to hold me?" Parenting Calls!!! It's been vivid....I'll be around. Love you, mean it. ME!!!! | 
