Friday, Sat, and Sunday---- Busy, busy, busy!

Okay, so everything is backwards starting from Sunday to Friday, but I've run out of blog time! Time to do my bible study! :) 1 Peter 5: 7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (A wonderful scripture that I've been referring to more this week!)

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On Sunday, we celebrated my mother-in-law's b-day at Texas Land and Cattle. She was so happy to see her family twice in one weekend! :)

Yaya reading her card that Rachel had decorated for her!

Me, Rachel and Ben

J.J. and Heather

Rachel and Uncle J.J. playing games on his phone.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww- Papa Richard and Yaya
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On Saturday, we had our family come to celebrate Uncle Lee visiting from Norfolk, VA. He and his gf, Jen are going to be deploying on Sunday the 7th for 7-8 months. We are so happy that they were able to come to see us before they left! :)

Jen, Rachel and Uncle Lee

The girls and Lee(top left- Coco, Aunt Gloria, Aunt Gloria, Mom, Jen, Lee, Tia Paz, Aunt Grace, Michelle, and Tia Lilia; bottow row- Me and Rachel being carried by Uncle Lee)

Me and Ben- He was so sweet to bring Rachel to church while I brought my brother and Jen. He then took care of her for the evening so that I could stay a bit longer and hang out with the family! He's so wonderful!

The guys- Uncle John, Uncle Rick, Lonny, and Uncle Robert
More guys- Uncle Rene, Uncle Ashley, and Uncle Virgil Rachel, Papa, and Uncle Lee

Best Friends Forever! ;) Kelly and Melo
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Friday night, we had a blast celebrating Uncle J.J.'s 30th birthday at Stonewerks. It was a surprise b-day given to him by his lovely wife Heather and our wonderful mother-in-law, Yolanda. Here's Rachel showing off her pretty party dress. :)
Mommy & Rachel :)

Uncle J.J. and Rachel

Aunt Heather and Uncle J.J.

(Don't you just love the cake... it was a hard hat shaped cake! Yummy! BTW, I should have never told Rachel we were having cake b/c as soon as we go there at 6:20, she was asking when we were going to have cake, which was about 9:45!) ;)

More pics from the last month.

Rachel wearing my old driving glasses! She looks like a little scholar! ;)Drinking her morning warm milk and watching the workers mowing the grass outside of our window.

Daddy and Rachel acting silly after we saw the movie, "Space Chimps".

Rachel playing on the computer! She loves playing with my Gigglebytes software! :)
Ben and I before going to his cousin's wedding in July.
Flip-Flops-

finally my baby started to wear flip flops! She just didn't want to wear them because of the thong between the toes. But in mid-July, she tried her Little Mermaid flip flops and found that she could handle wearing them. :)
Rachel showing off her flip-flops.


Rachel is just so funny. She has such a good sense of humor. She makes us laugh so much each day! Like today, she was playing with Ben, while I was working on a project on the computer. She was asking him to sing the "Lola" song. He sings to her when he's giving her a bath. The artists that he chooses range from The Cranberries to Barry Manilow. Today, she wanted him to sing "Copa Cabana". She was pleading with him to sing the song, but Ben kept singing the wrong song on purpose. She finally said, "No, not that one, this one... Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl..." We were both shocked that she new the first part of the lyrics! ;)
We laughed so hard at the cuteness of our daughter.

Devotional for today.... I really needed to read these words!

August 21, 2008 The Mother I Want to Be by: Glynnis Whitwer

“Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.”

Ecclesiastes 7:9 (NIV)

Devotion:

I should have responded better. Patience and kindness would have been a more appropriate response than the unjustified annoyance that laced my tone of voice. In a regrettable moment of anger, I spoke words that left my son sad, and me wishing I could press the rewind button and keep my mouth zipped.

Unfortunately, I often respond better to the bigger challenges of parenting than the everyday frustrations. If you were a fly on my kitchen wall for a one day, you would wonder why a minor event sparked an annoyed response on my part. If your house is like mine, the answer is because that minor event actually happens frequently. Hence, I fall into the “If-I’ve-told-you-once-I’ve-told-you-a-thousand-times” trap of thinking, which doesn’t lend itself to much mercy.

When my patience wears thin, I find myself strikingly similar to the person spoken about in Ecclesiastes 7:9: a fool with a lap of anger. Unfortunately, when that lap is full, it only takes the slightest spark for frustration and anger to spill over onto some unsuspecting victims.

I know God is calling me to deal with this anger in a healthy and godly way. When my spirit is provoked, my first response should be to hold my tongue. While that doesn’t deal with the heart issue, it does keep me from speaking hurtful words that can never be withdrawn. But I can’t leave it there. I must address ongoing parental frustration as a spiritual issue and bring my concerns to God in prayer. I find that as I honestly confess my sin, the door is opened for God to bring His healing peace into my heart.

Anger over injustice is good. Anger over childish behavior isn’t. When I don’t confess my inappropriate anger to God, it just starts building up, making me a fool with a full lap. I’m so glad God offers me forgiveness when I mess up, and puts me back on the path of developing a sweet spirit of patience and gentleness within me. That’s the kind of mother I want to be.

Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me in spite of my weaknesses. Thank You for providing a way for me to deal with anger, and to become the kind and gentle woman we both want me to be. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.




These words by Glynnis just spoke to me, b/c I've been dealing with those feelings and situations too. I am so quick to snap at Rachel and Ben on some days. It's not fair to them for me to just "lose" it. I am praying for God to help me to hold my tongue and really look at the problem that I have inside. I am learning more and more about the fruits of the spirit (Gal 5:22), patience, kindness and goodness, etc... to my loved ones especially. I ususally tend to be "all that" with those that I don't see often (friends and family).



BTW, I am sorry for not blogging more. We did lose our external hard drive and all that was on there. I was quite frustrated that we lost our pics for 2008 (Ben had backed-up the others, thank GOD). So I have not been uploading pics b/c we're looking for another external hard drive to put the new pics on. I did upload some pics today, so here goes! :)

Daddy & Rachel eating at their favorite restaraunt "Emmy's". :) This was taken before we took Daddy to the airport. He had a staff development in Orlando, FL. :)

Papa & Rachel playing "pirates"! My dad takes it to a whole new level! ;)

Rachel had her hair in braids when she went to bed and when she woke up, she had wavy hair! ;)

Daddy back home from Florida (or Flordida as Rachel called it). She just loved her princess hat, t-shirt and postcard from Daddy! ;)