the big move

we move tomorrow!!! more pictures to come. please pray everything goes well and as planned and that I dont go absolutly crazy!!

The land of Enchantment

So we went to New Mexico twice in the last month!!! None of these picture are in order, so I will just give you the info on them as we go. This one above is Catie J at my grandparents house in Farmington NM. She and Papa are just about to go to the apple orchard and pick some apples. Its was 26 degrees outside!!! You would think I should bundle her up more. But we just dont understand cold weather here in the dessert land.
This is where they went to get apples. A 93 year old man owns this orchard and the apples are yummy!
this is James getting the car ready to go home

Catie J and Granny and Papa up in Purgetory in Southern Colorado. It was beautiful to see all the colors up there
We went to a bee farm and got lots of honey to bring home with us
we watched the bees making honey
Catie j and papa hagin out on the front porch swing. She loved this swing. I think if it fit, we would have brought it home with us.

we sat in front of the fire and had hot chocolate!!

This is when we went to go see my mom and dad in Las Cruces, NM. We went to the NMSU vs UNM game. We lost but it was fun. This was Catherines first football game
Laying in bed with auntie jenna and uncle Joel. She was kinda mad at them
The beautiful aspens in southern colorado
Gorgeous mountains with SNOW!!! whats that!
the fam

Mom and Jenna at the Football game Me and my beautiful sister at the football game!! She gonna be a bride soon
My daddy, catherines daddy and Catie J goin to the game
Momma and catie j

I love my mom and dad, morning coffee and sunrise. I miss these times at home
Off to the farmers market
I love this man!!!
all ready for the game
We had sooo much fun going to the football game

My daddy and catie j, she loved sitting with him and being with him
here they are again
davy, davy charlie, king of the Bekken frontier!!!
Catie J and auntie Jenna
Mom and Dad trying to do the Wii. It was lots of fun watching them do it!!! They are great sports.

So theres the last month for ya! We are tired. We are also moving in 2 weeks, so the next couple of weeks may be psycho. I will post again as soon as I can. Love you all

busy busy

life is nuts!!!! Somedays I think we are gonna be fine and somedays I want to crawl up into the fetal position and never come out. 2 weeks ago James was let go from his job along with 2 other teachers, thank goodness we serve a God that knows all things and this did not suprise him. He was already preparing to be an online professor for Grand Canyon University. So we just did a little switch, but its been nuts learning how to depend on Christ when we just dont know what is going on. We knew we would not see the benefits financially from Grand Canyon until the end of November so like always......we worried and worried and worried. What are we gonna do? Where is the money gonna come from? all those fearful questions we ask when we are totally vulnerable and afraid of the unknown. Well about 4 days after James lost his job a family from our Church had heard and they paid our rent for us this month. Then James' boss from the job he got let go from ended up giving him severence when he had already said he wasnt going to. As always God provided and and always I was humbled. In the midst of all of this we are moving into a house. We are renting a cute little house about a mile from here. The guys is not charging much, he just wants a family to take care of his parents house, who recently passed away. He has been so helpful financially and waved the deposit if we help him clean and he also said he would cover utilities. Nuts!!!! So when I think about crawling up into a ball I just have to think of how much Jesus has blessed us and how much he continues to bless us. I know he loves me and I trust he cares but its so easy to try and find everyway possible to do other things than just soley depending on him. When I finally do depend on him things seem so much lighter. Not easier but lighter. I dont like being uncomfortable and wondering, but maybe thats where he needs me to be right now. Wrapped in his arms and trusting in his blessings and faithfulness. He has never been unfaithful, he has never been judgemental or mean, he has never turned me away or disowned me. He has always loved me, always held me, always pursued me, alway protected me, alway listened to me and has always covered me with his mercy and grace. My life is not dependant on me, its not dependant on a job, or money or kids or my husband. My life is dependant on the one who created me. If He did not send his son to the cross I would be nothing. If I believe things were dependant on anything but Him than his sacrifice would be nothing. So why after all he did wouldnt I accept this gift of forgivness and grace that he so easily poured out by sacrificing his son on the cross. This life is so much bigger than me and thank goodness I have a relationship with the one who created it. Thanks for reading.

Dumpster Diving

So Catherine and myself walk to the park about 4-5 times a week. To do this we walk through an ally. There is a family who puts a lot of good stuff in the ally for garbage. So as I was walking the other day, I saw this beautiful wood. It was a headboard and a footboard for a bed and it was good, thick, chunky wood. I could bearly carry one by myself, so I had to get James to help with the really big one. Well the last day I have been thinking of what I want to do with them. So the smaller one, which is actually pretty big, I did this!!!! I have wanted someway to put scripture that means a lot to us, up at our house. So I did this, it was a great way of putting the scripture up in our home in a really artsy way. I love the rustic look of the wood and it matches well with all of the rest of our home decor. We like it and I guess thats what matters. I think with the bigger piece of wood we are going to get some help from a guy we know to help us make a coffee table. I love it! I am finally realizing this is what relaxes me and calms me down. I love art. Here are some pics of the sign I made, it needs to be cleaned up a bit but its a rough look too, so I dont want it to be so cleaned up. Enjoy!
the top of the sign
the middle of the sign
The bottom of the sign
My two favorite people off to the Ball Game!
I also sent James and Catie J off to the dbacks game tonight. They went with one of Catherines friends from Church and his dad. I dont know what to do with myself.....so I am blogging. Have a good night people!!!

This is the new alphabet painting I am working on! I think it would be fun with lots of colors.
The back of my new haircut!
And the side of my new haircut and a beautiful little girl!

The new 3D butterfly that I am wanting to sell at the farmers market.
Haircut from the front with my beautiful little girl!
Catherine and the elliptical
She is really workin it!
The alphabet board again

Another 3D painting. Catherine loved doing this one with me!
Here she is with it
this is a 3 part 3D painting of the metamorphisis cycle from caterpillar to butterfly
The caterpillar
and the cocoon.

Im still trying to figure out how to do this whole blogging thing, but I hope this works! Talk to you all soon!

Exercising, Haircut, Crafts and Update!!! Lots going on!

Here we are again! We have had a rollercoaster of a month. The big news lately is that James will be starting work as an Online Teacher for Grand Canyon University. He will be teaching classes for the Christian Studies department. So until May he will work 3 jobs. Nuts!!!! But the great thing about all 3 of them is that he gets to decide his own schedule. We will see how this pans out but it would be really nice catch up time if it worked. So with my job and his 3 we are definatly keeping busy and tired. But we are learning how to manage time, money and to communicate really well. Its really not as bad as it sounds. Its pretty ideal for our crazy, spontainious lifestyle anyways. The cool thing about James getting experience teaching online, is that he can eventually do that from overseas someday and it would help with supplemental support raising. We have a great plan in mind now as how the year will go, but we all also know how that goes. But we serve a God that knows us and our life better than we know ourselves and he LOVES us. Isnt that amazing.

Oh our Catherine is growing everyday! Yesterday she was playing computer games and a neighbor came over. We had her stop the games while the neighbor was there, because the games were loud and she needed lots of help. So she threw something down and stomped back to her room. James then went back to talk with her while I talk with our neighbor, and all the sudden I hear (really loudly) "can't you just tell her to go home!" My neighbor looks at me and I just apologize over and over and over again. I felt so bad. Oh my little girl. James and I laughed really hard about it when Catherine was in bed later on. We couldnt let her see that we thought it was funny or that would have started a really embarrassing trend. She also has started getting on my elliptical machine. And its scary, funny and she thinks shes pretty cool. She always says "I think Im just gonna exercise with the lliptical.

I am getting really interested in starting a booth at the famers market. I love crafts and I love knitting. So I have not stopped painting and knitting for a week or so now, so that I stock up to start that booth. I just need to get my State of AZ business license. I also chopped off my hair yesterday, its taking some time to get used to but I love it.

Here are some pics! Hope you all have a great day!

The Law

"As Christians we are not called to keep the law, we are called to fulfill the law. We fulfill the law by loving eachother, being available and becoming a living sacrifice." Romans 12:1
Bill Thrall (our pastor)

This is the message we talked about this last sunday at Church and James and I have been really learing and contemplating what this means and the reality of it in this life. Good stuff!