Do You LOVE it?

I love the look of my blog! I have my ever so talented friend Jessica to thank for that. I wanted a new look but don't have the time or talent lately so I asked if she would mind. I sent her a photo and a verse that God is using in my life right now and ta-da! She worked her magic. Isn't it so cute!!!!!! Thank you so much Jess for making my Blog scream,"This is Christy's blog whew-hew!!" Love it!!

Humility

This was a short paragraph in my bible study book this morning that lead me into my quiet time. I just thought it was worth sharing. Have a great day!

Humility is a requirement to be intimate with God. His greatness can be seen only by those who have none of their own. The less you see of yourself, the more you will see of God. it does not mean that you are not talented. It may be, in fact, that you are brilliant. What is does mean is that you are far more interested in looking at God than yourself. That is a sign of true humility.

Never gets old..........

I was standing on my patio the other night as the sun began to set and I was thinking about what a romantic God I serve, that each night he would take the time to paint a portrait for me even though most of the time I don't slow down long enough to take notice and give thanks. These two pictures were taken within a few minutes of each other and then I turned around to see a bright full moon coming up over the other side of our house.
This morning in church I was crying out to God asking him why so many things have to be hard right now for so many people that we care about. Why does marriage have to be so hard? Why do people have to get sick with disease that destroys? Why do we get so wrapped up in our wants as apposed to focusing on our basic needs? Then in only a way God can do he gently reminded me that he cares about all those things and wants us to lay them at his feet. It's not our job to carry the weight but to be his hands and feet.

By day and by night,

in life and in death,

may I ever be true to you,

O Lover of my soul,

my ceaseless friend,

My unchangeable Savior.

into your hands

I commit my soul.

F.B. Meyer

I've been tagged, Dan's gonna kill me

Ok, my friend Jess tagged me. The rules are you go to your sixth photo folder and then the sixth picture and post that picture. Then you give details about the photo. Dan's gonna love this if he sees it. Yikes! This was taken last October after the big fires in San Bernardino and Lake Arrowhead. Dan had just gotten home after a week+ and the girls just wanted to be near him. They didn't care if he slept all day they just wanted their daddy.

Ahhh, the life of a firefighters kid! :) I tag Christy P. and Eileen. Come on, don't let me down people! :)

You know it's cold when..........................

Yup' you know it's cold when you have to wrap your daughter and her friends up in blankets right before they race. If you don't they will freeze like little otter pops and sink to the bottom of the pool. Well not really but its painful to shiver for ten minutes before your race and then try to swim & look good doing it. :) So here is Leanna, Morgan and Katlyn all looking very serious. It almost felt like child abuse throwing them in the pool Saturday morning to warm up when the temp. outside was 39 here at our meet. I would just wait until the very last second, unwrap the blanket to a bunch of,"nooooooooo's" and shove them forward for their race. They all did great and stayed very positive. i just kept reminding them that 39 would feel warm here around Jan. and Feb. ;)
I know this picture is dark but to funny not to post. Morgan had to swim all weekend so after two days of getting up in the dark Ryanne found a warm lap in the sun and was falling asleep like a cat getting her back scratched. She was SOOOOO good and such a trooper.
Oh and just a side note; if you have been trying to call me, text me, send me any kind of photo or left a message anytime today I won't be getting it. I went to return a text this morning and my phone exploded when I opened it. ooppsss. I guess I will be going phone shopping on Wed. Bummer huh? Oh and if your wondering no I am not that girl who is going to die with no cell phone for three or four days. Its not the end of the world. I will not need therapy, I will not talk into my hand for comfort or pretend to text in my sleep. I should be OK. Now if my blog was down therapy would be required. Hey, I have my limits people. :)

Beauty From Ashes

This morning was a rare treat that I hope to take advantage more often now that it is cooling off and we are getting into a better routine with home schooling. Morgan & I set our alarms for 6:30 am and set off for a walk together. It was so quiet out and cold enough that we needed our sweatshirts. The smell of Fall was so clean and crisp in the air.

We we're walking up the hill back towards our house when Morgan stopped, bent over and said,"mom, look at this beautiful flower! It's growing out of a weed. It always amazes me to see such beauty come from a weed."

I started grinning from ear to ear and thought to myself I bet that lots of people will hear God say,"good job my faithful servant." When they get to heaven but when he sees me he might just say,"ah, good things do come from weeds!!" ;)

The Results Are In......................

If you didn't already read about our adventure this last weekend please see post below this one. :) The results are in and out of the 100+ (5 man teams) that competed we were #86. So our final time ended up being 39 minutes. So we weren't last! And I can still walk today. I had my treatment at the hospital yesterday and was telling my oncologist all about the race. He said,"ok so now what do I put in your IV to slow you down?" he,heeee! Nothing I hope! :) We decided next year we are going to enter as individuals and see how much everyone can beat there time by. Of course that will all depend on where my health is at that time since it can change so drastically. There is the Run Through Redlands coming up in May that I think Dan, Morgan and I are going to do. Even a little sprint for Ryanne and we all know how fast she is. ;)

Have a blessed day!

A furry friend, picnics, pumpkins and Marines

I guess this little fella' thought I needed some extra Halloween decorations as he made him self very comfortable in front of our house the other day. I was out front watering the flowers when I saw this huge hairy thing making his way across the front of our street towards my friends yard. I yelled for Dan that there was a REALLY BIG spider he needed to come get and of course my sweet fearful (ya' right) little girls come running barefoot to try and catch him. Me? I stood across the yard yelling at them that he was going to bite them. He did get mad and get really tall and start going after them at which point I threw Dan the camera and said,"quick, this is blogging material!" ;) I HATE spiders. Especially ones that have more hair than I do! ;) Thursday we made a lunch, hopped into the Jeep and headed to Oak Glen which is literally just minutes up the hill from us. We had a picnic and bought some yummy pumpkin pie mix for our bread maker then went and picked pumpkins. The girls had so much fun.
Here Dan is nice enough to pull the girls in the wagon out to the pumpkin patch since it was a long walk.
Last but hardly least Marines! Yup, you heard me right the United States Of America Marines.

About a month ago when I started really feeling better from the chemo and I was working out everyday I got the brilliant idea (that word is used loosely here) to join the boot camp challenge down in San-Diego and do my first race. So as not to leave anyone out I sucked four others onto our team of five and was really looking forward to it.

We decided to take a before picture in case one of us died. Above you see Ruth, Jason, Dan, me and my sister in law Suzanne. Basically what they do is open up the Marine training base in San Diego one day out of the year and you pay actual money to go run your butt off and go through there obstacle course all the while being screamed at by Marine drill instructor's. I seriously thought I was going to die. No lie. I am NOT a runner. I never have been and try as I may probably never will be. I look stupid running and am slow, slow, slow! But being screamed at so close and loud that spit is hitting you in the face has a way to keep you moving. I felt like I was going to throw up. I prayed for God to come back, offered to pay a Marine to carry me, tried faking a heart attack, I did it all and no such luck. After it was over everyone kept asking if it was fun and I don't know that "fun" would be the first word that comes to mind. I am proud of myself and would do it again next year. I mean I am just getting the feeling back in my legs as I type so it may take me that long to recover. :)

Here are the three of us girls right after the race. See how red my face is!

Ruth, Me & Suzanne I mostly wanted to prove to myself that I could do this. That this stupid disease was not going to get the best of me and that I could still push myself to physical limits. I did all of those things I think. Physically I am sore but I don't feel as bad as I thought I would. The funny thing is for whatever reason the Marines did NOT like me and kept ganging up on me. When my push ups weren't good enough or right I had to do more, when I winced in pain they screamed at me for smiling. When I was going over the wall one jumped on top and screamed to go faster and some of his spit hit me in the face and he started screaming,"YOU WANNA' WIPE THAT OFF?? WELL DO YOU!!!!!" Ummm yes, but that's ok I'll just leave it cause it was not worth more push ups. :) A little dialogue to give you an idea of what my day was like. Oh and my husband would stay back with me (cause I was the slowest) until the Marines would start closing in and then he'd say, "bye honey!"

Marines: "WHAT ARE YOU SMILING AT?"

ME: "NOTHING SIR!"

Marines: "YES YOU WERE! WHAT'S SO FUNNY? YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME?"

Me: "NO SIR! I WAS NOT SMILING I AM IN PAIN SIR!!!!"

MARINES: "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN PAIN YET!!"

Me: "OK, SIR!!! WAAAHHHHHH!!!"

All the while they were running on my heels. I even had a bloody foot when I got done. They better never let me find out who stepped on me. ;) He,heeee! I think I will start training for next year. WHO-YA!!!!!!