Monday, September 04, 2006

Some time ago, when Mike was leaving for a Korean deployment, he gave me ½ a dozen roses and promised me the other ½ a dozen when he came home. This man is a romantic. I’m blessed.

Tonight he presented me with my deployment roses. I'll get the other 1/2 of the dozen when he returns. He also gave the older 3 girls each 2 roses and Stacia got 2 carnations (so there were no thorns). Is he good or what???? (Note that we are rain bedraggled…)

For the young boys he got a “deployment computer game” and the promise of another paint ball game for the older boys when he returns. He also bought a watermelon and so we joked about him getting them a deployment watermelon. {g}
AROUND OUR HOME:

Nolan met Jamin this a.m. with the comment, “Jamin – can we work out?” and Zander ran in and said….”Let’s Work OUT!!!” Then he said he needed “heavy” weights and went and got my purple 3 lb weights. LOL

Arielle has begun a new Boxcar Children book.

Mike did get everything packed…though this involved a couple of trips to the big box stores. Sometime during the day Office Max called. About a month ago Mike had surprised me with a 19 in flat screen monitor. It frees up a LOT of room on our desk – we have 3 computers, 2 printers and a copy machine on the desk. They had to order it in on a rain check. Today they called to tell us our monitor was in. We told them that we already HAD it but the insisted it was in our name. We talked about it and decided now was as good a time as any to add another flat screen to the desk….and really it was about 50% cheaper than the prices around town. LOL I love it when a store insists they haven’t messed up and it actually benefits us.

I have two books coming from PBS and that always makes me happy: *Wild Wacky Totally True Bible Stories - All About Fear CD* by Frank Peretti and *Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why America's Children Feel Good About Themselves but Can't Read, Write, or Add*. I added about six new books to my “wish list”.

We went out to Mike’s favorite spot for lunch: Schlotskys. We drove down to see if the rain had caused the river to flood…it had in spots. Mike made phone calls.

We found a great new park. It had a huge web-like rope climbing structure. The children had a great time climbing on it. Mike joined them. Then they had races to see who could reach the top first. I plan to go back in a few days and stage a picture of the children on it.

My hip is really acting up…who knows I may have to go back to the doctor and have them do some testing instead of guessing. :::snort::: Guess that’s it for the day.
In an IRONIC twist it is raining on Mike’s last day here in W TX for a bit of time. SmileyCentral.comWe’d hoped to go out to the lake but I don’t think we’ll attempt that today.

I’m wondering if the rain will stop when Mike leaves since he is sure it is request to see rain before he left for the Middle East that finally brought all the rain. He’s wondering if he can take the rain all the way over with him. :::snort::::
I stayed in bed an extra hour today so that I could cuddle with Mike. I woke up all night thinking “by this time tomorrow he’ll be at the airport”, “by this time tomorrow he’ll be gone”. And I cried.

Yes - I'm writing in my journal. No - I'm not going to share it all here. In keeping the blog I try to be sure 1. not to share personal things that would make my family uncomfortable and 2. to determine when sharing my personal thoughts if they could possibly be of help to someone else. Frankly - my journal thoughts at this time are intensely personal and I doubt that they would be of much help to anyone else....it would simply give you an inside peek into my heart...and I'm not sure that is needed or valuable. SmileyCentral.com

However - here's a little blurb from my journal today.

And still I believe “a person is safest in the center of God’s will”. I’ve done a lot of thinking about that phrase lately. I don’t believe it means you are SAFE as in “no physical danger or harm will befall you” if you are in God’s will.

I know that a local pastor used this line to explain that Dave Roever wouldn’t have been burned if he’d stayed in the center of God’s will. That stinks. Then I think of Bessie ten Boom comforting Corry ten Boom with the phrase in the MIDDLE OF A NAZI PRISON CAMP!!! Certainly the phrase wasn’t always thought to mean “personal fun and ease follow if you are in the center of God’s will”.

I think it means that we can rest knowing He has led and is with us in the midst of whatever we are experiencing if we have obediently followed Him to the spot we find ourselves in. Step by step…day by day. God is not as concerned with our personal safety as He is with what He can do with us in the center of His will. When our day to see Jesus face to face comes – it will come – regardless of our location. We may as well be about the Father’s business with confidence instead of fretting about personal comfort and safety.

Mike spoke last night in the student service on “Things worth Dying For”. Not a topic that many speak on but we are convinced that this generation wants something that is WORTH fighting for…something that is VALAUBLE enough to give themselves for and to.

Where are my wandering thoughts taking me….to the simple truth that the Shepherd leads and a passionate follower of Christ will follow. We can trust our Shepherd….not that we’ll always get the pleasant bennies but we can trust Him to be with us…to continue to LEAD…and we will continue to follow and in that is great security and peace. This is true not only for military members, but for all of us. And so I come full circle and say that in the center of God’s will WE ARE ‘safe’.