As promised… the pics

Here’s baby. (and do please note our immaculate green lawn in the background that he works very hard for!)

and Jen… see that little cover right behind his bum… that’s where I sit, there’s a seat under that cover!

He’s HAWT!

and just to make you smile… here’s a pic of our bear who just lost his two front teeth yesterday… they were both very loose and we knew they were comin any day now…he lost one eatin wings but was scared to pull the other for fear that he’d “look stupid”… so if you see the bear with no teeth… tell him how AWESOME he looks!

Jesus in my blood…

I tell everyone all the time how different I feel… since I became a believer.  I feel like the person I was before, died.  In fact, it’s strange to think that I used to be THAT person…to be the way I was and do the things I did.  In my memory, it feels like that was someone else.  And in a way, it was.  God’s grace IS amazing and until you’ve experienced it, you can never understand what I’m saying or when anyone else tries to explain it.  ’I don’t have time to maintain these regrets… when I think about… the way… He loves me’ – Jesus Culture.

So I was on my hands and knees cleaning my kitchen floor and my Addi says ‘oooh what happened to your arm?’  I had given blood a week prior at work and they blew up my vein.   It was a nasty bruise and for the most part I ignored it, but when I was explaining to Addi the whole story, she pointed out something that made me smile ear to ear…. take a look…

 

there is no editing in these photo’s folks.  The first is without flash the second with flash.  Again, this was a week after the needle lost it’s way in my arm… and I looked at that bruise on a daily basis to monitor it.  It didn’t look like that even that morning.  Talk about showing our children Jesus through us!  I always knew I had Jesus in my blood, now I have proof!  

Maybe I should list the photo on ebay and see how much it goes for!!!!  :)

Victory

so we spent the day together yesterday.  Our last available day alone before we had a house full of responsibility and joy!  We decided we were going to head to the witchita Mtns on the motorcycle.  We got up, headed to IHOP to share a Colorado Omelette and then decided we were going to run by our great friend Jim Anderson’s motorcycle shop to have the front pegs we ordered put on before we headed out.  well… we never left there… until after 5.  You see, trent fell in love with another… it was love at first site.  I’ll attach a picture of the newest addition to our family… it’s not the actual one, but you’ll get the idea… he won’t let me take a picture of him with her until we get her cleaned up.  Her name is Victory Hammer Austin.  Stay tuned for an actual picture of her and Trent together.

our Vic has mild ape bars and a different set of pipes… just like her daddy.  :)

yes.  we went in for pegs and came out with this beauty!  I’m sure you’ll see him on her this weekend if you look.

 

When I don’t desire God

If you’re returning, which I doubt anyone is… I found that part of my dry season is due to the lack of my writing.  My writing held me accountable to my reading.  And this entire blog came off of the first page, one paragraph.  Going forward, I’m treating this as more of a journal than an actual blog.  If your reading and enjoying, great… otherwise, it’s a great tool to pull out what’s in my head and communicate with my husband.  I communicate much better though my fingertips and most of the time when you ask me how I feel about something, I won’t be able to tell you, but if I sit down and start writing, it seems as though my feelings seem to pour.  So… on with my thoughts…

It’s been a VERY dry season for me.  I struggle with sustaining in most things.  Ie. Diets, blogging, creating worship videos, making memory albums.  I’m great out of the gate but lose the fire somewhere along the way.  I really kept feeling this happen in my walk with Christ in the last 6 months.  Although I still talked to Him, still worshiped Him, still felt His presence I felt the fire fading and I didn’t fan it.  I take complete responsibility.  And I know He wants me.  I know he hasn’t forgotten about me or left my side… in my minds eye, He’s just standing there waiting for me to ask.  Ask to know Him better.  So I opened our closet door yesterday and this book screamed at me.  When I Don’t Desire GOD How to Fight for Joy. Yeah, I grabbed it immediately.  I’ve had a hunger lately but I didn’t know how to feed it, until now.   

Here’s a true statement that hit me in the Foreword and prayer… “To be satisfied by the beauty of God does not come naturally to sinful people.  By nature we get more pleasure from God’s gifts than from himself.”  Sit in that for a minute.  I read that to say… to be fulfilled by the beauty of God does not come naturally to me… because by definition, we’re all sinful people.  It’s more natural for me to be happy from what he’s given me that just to be happy to know Him.  My One Prayer is to know Him better.

As my husband and I were riding his motorcycle down the long country road staring at the beautiful moonlit trees and night sky… I just started thanking God for the simple things I take for granted… the cottonwood trees, the smell of the night air, the stars, the long never-ending fields…and then it took my A.D.D. mind to what the world looked like before we poured these asphalt roads and strung these electric cables across His land.  I was sitting behind the love of my life taking the biggest deepest breaths I could to take in all that God-made air that was fresher than anything they can put in a fabreeze or tide bottle.  I’d give my amazing partner a squeeze when I got overwhelmed with emotion in thinking about how sweet God was to give him to me.  And I just started imagining with my eyes wide open that we were riding through these moonlit fields in the days of Christ.  Stop and think about that feeling.  It feels like my heart doubles in size when I do.  Like it’s going to pop out of my chest.   No alarm clock to wake up to. No bumper to bumper traffic to sit in.  No cubicle to drag into.  In my mind, I’d wake up at the crack of dawn to feed my husband and children and then tend to the wash and water.  Watch my children play in the fields and with ropes and dirt rather than playstations and DVDs.  Sinful temptations aren’t haunting my home in the fashion of prime time TV.  I’m such a simple minded person, that simple living is so attractive to me.  Anyway, back to the motorcycle ride, I started thanking Him… for the simple things… ‘thank You, for the trees…for the dirt… for the stars… for the fields… for the mountains… for the waters… the things that when I stare at them are so overwhelming to me.  Even the creation of man overwhelms me.  Sometimes I think just how cool it is that there are SO FREAKIN MANY of us in this world and not a one of us the same.  Even identical twins have different personalities and such.  I think how amazing it is that it starts with one little cell that multiplies and those cells know to create an ear or a kidney and what goes on the inside or outside.  I think how incredible it is that our body can heal itself.  Why do our nails and hair continue to grow but our lips don’t… or how do our bodies know not to form knee caps until age 2 or 3?  It’s not magic… it’s God’s design.  Louie Giglio brought truth and light to this fact by introducing to most people the substance Laminin. (here’s a snipit on Youtube)  Now there are some of you that will call what I’m about to show you coincidence or wave it off like everything else in life but the rest of you will delight in it, just as I did.  Let me first tell you the simple definition of Laminin is a protein found in the human body. It has 3 short arms and 1 long one.  Laminin is vital to making sure overall body structures hold together, according to Wikipedia.  Look it up.  Now take a look at it’s shape. 

“VITAL to making sure we hold together.”  That’s no coincidence… That’s God.

How anyone could deny Christ is beyond me.  My very favorite lyrics to a song are Nichole Nordeman’s “What if”…

What if you’re right?
And he was just another nice guy
What if you’re right?
What if it’s true?
They say the cross will only make a fool of you
And what if it’s true?

What if he takes his place in history
With all the prophets and the kings
Who taught us love and came in peace
But then the story ends
What then?

But what if you’re wrong?

There’s more to the song… but that, in itself, says enough to me.  What if.

the end of Unsystematic

Now it’s time to say goodbye to Keri and all her blogs…

Thank you to all my good and faithful readers… all three of you.  If you’re still reaching Cindy’s blog through mine…now is the time to bookmark www.cindybeall.com

See you around!

Simple thoughts -> Attaction -> Flirting -> Innocent gatherings -> Cheating -> Affairs ->

I guess I’m pretty passionate about marriage because I know first hand what broken homes and blended families are about. 

If you think marriage is hard… try adding in ex’s, visitation, support, new wives, step mom for your children… the list goes on and on. 

I’ve been the daughter of a step mom and stepdad… I’ve been the mother of a son who had a stepmother… and I’m now a stepmother myself.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day asking her if she ever thought about how lucky she is that her parents are still married.  Not only are her parents still married but her husbands parents are still married and she’s working on her 8^th year of marriage herself… happy and healthy.  It’s just so rare these days.  Yet it’s the way God designed it to be. 

There was talk of a couple of coworkers up here at my work having an affair.  Which was shocking to me simply because I thought so much of this guy (who was married with child and one on the way).  Now note, that I still don’t know if it was/is true… but it disturbed me to no end none the less.  So much so that I wanted to leave him a note simply stating…

I know it’s none of my business… but I really feel led to tell you that right now, in this small moment of time, you are ONLY thinking of yourself.  You are thinking of how good this woman makes you feel superficially.  You are thinking of shallow happiness and self gratification.  What you are not thinking of is losing your wife.  Losing your children.  Being alone.  Not waking up with your kids, not tucking them into bed at night.  Your kids now being in public schools and daycare because their single mom is now forced to work.  You living in a crappy apartment or duplex.  You’re not thinking about what it’s going to feel like when she remarries and the first time your kids call someone else dad.  The thought of that man tucking your kids into bed and being there to play catch with your son and sit your daughter on his lap when she skins her knee.  And that’s if you’re lucky enough that she remarries well.  You’re not thinking about the possibility of a man that doesn’t have your morals and/or values or is a closet alcoholic or abusive being your children’s new father.  You’re not thinking of the mental damage you’re doing to the mother of your children and the effects that will have on them.  You’re not thinking of only the 4 days a month you’ll be allowed visitation.  Or the amount of Child Support, Medical Bills and Daycare you’ll be paying a month.  You’re not thinking of the damage you’re doing to your children… all for a simple pleasure from, ultimately, a strange woman.

It’s the same for us.  Think about sending your kid off to spend the night with your ex in some dumpy apartment or duplex… think about struggling to make it paycheck to paycheck… think about what floozy your husband thinks would be a great mom for your kids… think about what movies they’ll be allowed to watch or what they’ll be allowed to eat.. or 26 days a month doing it on your own.  Think about 6 weeks out of the summer not seeing your kids at all.  Think about the lack of attention to what tree they may be climbing or chasing a ball in the street when dad is on the phone.  Think about your ex not paying support on time or at all.  The court costs the on going arguments about the way two different homes have two different sets of rules.

I just think if people had a chance to prematurely feel those feelings listed above, the thought of ever remotely doing anything to split your family would never even enter their mind. 

Broken homes are horrible and damaging to everyone involved.  Blended families are hard work.

That’s all I have to say.

I’m proud

This is my side of the family.

This is my older brother Matt and his wife Jen

These are Matty and Jen’s kids… Jackson Eli and Megan Elizabeth

This is my younger brother Ben and his wife Teresa

this is Benny and Teresa’s son… Zachary (he wanted his picture taken on this big rock… it’s a boy thing)

and this is my daddy…

and finally here’s the handsome heart throbs….

like I said.  I’m proud. 

that’s it.