Wonderful Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving that actually started on Wednesday evening when we went out to celebrate our 21st anniversary.  It was good.  I just adore spending time with Brian.  He is not only my husband and best friend, but I actually like him!!

Thanksgiving brought all the children plus their spouse/girlfriends plus Grandma plus Kylene plus Joey.  It was good to have all the children together - and they all were getting along!!  Perhaps not seeing each other as much does that.....

Brian and I were up early for shopping on Friday - 4:50am we were standing in front of a store....  just in case one of our nosy children is trying to figure out what we bought - we are keeping all locations secret!!  We ended up at four different stores in a matter of four hours!!  The last one was ToysRUs, shopping was so much easier when they were small.  Cool thing - we are pretty much done, now we can enjoy the holidays and celebrate Jesus' birth.

Friday evening we randomly hooked up with my Mom to walk through Glendale Glitters - it was beautiful and fun.  The only challenge - Brian and my Mom ganged up on me to get mini-donuts.  There are times I wonder if Brian goes to these things just to eat the food!!

Back to work - will be a long week but we are both blessed to have solid jobs.  God is good.

Holidays

So hard to believe the holidays are upon us.  This is going to be a different year.  Thanksgiving will be at our home and ALL three children will be here with their spouse/girlfriend.  It will be good.

Christmas, on the other hand, is going to be amazingly fun.  Thus far, we have four different family holiday times planned.  Add to that parties we are invited to, celebrations are the office and some of the special stuff we want to do just the two of us...... 

Through all of this the most important thing we will keep in mind - this is the celebration of Jesus' birth.  Logically we know it was sometime in the spring but since this is when it is celebrated - we will rejoice that the Creator of the Universe loves us so much that He chose to be born in human form, die on a cross and then rise from the dead. 

God is so good.

Wonderful Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend - topped off by David coming home!!  

While we staying in Laughlin (free!) we tried to see the Mitchell Caverns but their generator was broken so we didn't get to see them though we hiked out there and peeked through the bars.  We will go back. 

We drove over the new bridge over the Colorado River by the Hoover Dam - you couldn't see much but we can say we did it.

We also went to Chloride.  These murals are about two miles out of town.  We met some other folks - which is always great for pictures!!   We wandered through the cemetary too.  Such amazing history.

We do think we may have found our perfect home - just needs a few touch ups.....

God is so good to us.  Can't wait to see where He will lead us next.

Changes

God has been so good to us. Over the past few months, I/Brian has been looking into changing careers back to insurance. Back in August I had been talking with another officer at work and as the small world would have it, his wife was the Catastrophe Manager for a local insurance company that I did work for during the hurricanes. This company has always been good to me and I enjoyed the interaction of the adjusters at this company.

During my conversation the officer called his wife and asked if she remembered the name to which she replied "yes" he worked as a contract adjuster, sure wish he was doing claims now. Well I forwarded my resume and indicated that should anything develop that fits my qualifications or knowledge, I would investigate the possibility. Well Monday evening I received an email indicating she had forwarded my resume to the recruiter for an interview with a current opening. Today I interviewed and although the questions were tough, I felt all in the entire interview went quite well.

The hours would be better and the salary is slightly higher than what I am currently making. Just last week I passed up a job that would have involved a pay cut and felt that it was pushing where God wanted me to be. So after continued prayer I got the special call for a better position. Now we just wait and pray God's will on the situation.

Vicki and I are going to visit Mitchell Caverns and spend time together for our 21st anniversary. God has blessed me with an awesome woman of God and one who has stood by me through the poor decisions I have made over time. I pray God will continue to bless us with LOTS more years and we can enjoy each others company even more as the days pass.  I love you Vicki thanks for always being there.

Running

This afternoon I (Vicki) had an interesting conversation with one of our children.  One who continues to run away from God rather than into His arms. 

As I listened, it was interesting to see all the excuses he came up with for his life (of sin).  The funny thing - I wasn't asking questions nor was I saying much.  One thing I have learned is to be still and listen.  The longer the conversation went - the more agitated he became.  So, I prayed silently.  As he wound down - I reminded him of how amazing he is (Psalm 139) and how much his Dad and I love him.

Walking in the door I saw our child who is running straight into the arms of God.  He is so excited about how God is going to use him.  He is so pumped to serve.

Perhaps that is one of the choices we make in life - do we run away from God or do we run straight into His arms of love?