a conversation of neighbors

This is what I believe must have played out last night with my new neighbors.......

Setting:
Schofield Barracks, 6 infantry soldiers returning home from 15 months in Iraq. around 8:30pm


"Hey Bob you know what sounds really good?, some grilled food."
"Good thinking Fred" " you know what would be really cool? grilling in the house!!"
"That is a great idea, we could stay nice and warm in the house"
"Let's set up the charcoal grills, and douse them with a lot of gas so they get some good flames going."
"Bob you are a genius" "wow those flames are getting pretty high, but we are nice and protected in our covered porch"
"Fred, do you think the smoke is getting very thick?"
"No Bob, it just means it is time to grill"
"Can you see the kitchen from here?"

At this time their neighbor Jennifer looks out her window, and says "Oh my God!! What idiots!!!"and calls the police.

"Bob do you hear something?"

"You mean the air rushing out my ears?"

"No, not that Bob, sounds like a firetruck"

"Well Fred it is probably just some idiot who is about ready to burn their house down, doing something stupid:

"Thank goodness we are not that stupid, we are infantry after all, not some stupid engineer, oh wait maybe that is the other way around?"

The last thing that is heard is the knock, knock at the door.

Should we be worried?

Should we be worried about what might be heading our way? Oh I could be speaking of many of things, the recession, end times, war in Iraq, but no, none of those things worry me as much as my little one year old girl who seems to be developing a shoe obsession. she has had a love for shoes since she was just a baby, she loved grabbing shoes, pointing at shoes, and her love for them have grown, she has to wear everyone's shoes throughout the day, goes into closets to try them on. Always yells out "shoes, shoes!!!" when we are getting ready to go. And if we go to a shoe store WATCH OUT!! She is wanting to try on everything within her grasp. And yesterday when we were getting ready to go, she put on her own shoes on the correct feet. Why the worry? She is not even two!!! Should we start saving for her college education, or her shoe collection?

Such an important thing to remember!!

“Continue praying, keeping alert, and always thanking God.”Colossians 4:2

Two words summarize Christ’s opinion of worry: irrelevant and irreverent.

“Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not” (Matt. 6:27 NLT).
Worry is irrelevant. It altars nothing.
When was the last time you solved a problem by worrying about it? Imagine someone saying, “I got behind in my bills, so I resolved to worry my way out of debt. And, you know, it worked! A few sleepless nights, a day of puking and hand wringing. I yelled at my kids and took some pills, and—glory to worry—money appeared on my desk.”
It doesn’t happen! Worry changes nothing. You don’t add one day to your life or one bit of life to your day by worrying. Your anxiety earns you heartburn, nothing more…
Ninety-two percent of our worries are needless! Not only is worry irrelevant doing nothing; worry is irreverent, distrusting God.

Betcha didnt know....

One of the main reasons I wanted to visit the DC area again was to go to the Arlington Cemetery. I kicked myself for not going there when we actually lived there. So this was probably the last chance I would get to go, since I have very little desire to visit DC again. If you are curious why I wanted to go to Arlington Cemetery it is because my grandfather is buried there. He was actually a Medal of Honor winner. ( Highest military award you can receive). I knew this growing up, but honestly didnt see what the big deal was, it wasnt until I was older and was around military people that it made me realize it kinda was a big deal. I always impressed guys with my super connections. :) He passed away in 2000. I never really got to know him that well, just what I was told, and I am not sure how accurate that was. I often wish he was still around so I could ask him to use his influence to help Derek out of deployments, or to get him a good job. (Which I dont even know if he could, but it would have been cool). So I got my wish and got to go to Arlington to visit his grave site. I am glad I got to do it, it was a nice experience.

My husband

I had a great weekend with my husband, it was so nice to get away just the two of us. We sure missed our kids though. And everything we went to we thought how great it would have bee if they were with us. I guess that is the paradox. When we have our kids we always think " It would be nice to just have it the two of us" and then when the kids are gone we think "Wish the kids were here too." I never realized before what Derek does while he is away from his family. I pictured him hamming it up with the guys and relaxing in the peace and quiet, but in truth he is pretty lonely. A family man at heart, who only wishes to be with his wife and kids. Last year Derek spent 250 days away. That is a lot of time being away, and he worries about what lies ahead as far asdeployments. He is stuck in a job where he is one of the best at what he does, but means he gets picked first to go because he is good and everyone likes him. He just wants a nice 9 to 5 job. I felt so sorry for him, and wished I could take him back home with me. i miss my babies so much and I was only gone a few days, I cant imagine months. Please keep us in your prayers that God will be able to comfort DErek and show him he is on the right path.

Wouldn't ya know it?

Well of course it would happen, I will be leaving for Virginia tonight for the next few days- my first trip by myself since having kids. And wouldnt ya know it- my three little ones are sitting on the couch sick!!!! Why oh Lord WHY??!!! I was already trying not to panic about leaving my babies in the middle of the ocean, but then to leave them sick, oh dear. :( Let me clarify the sickness, Matthias has a really bad chest cold, Laurelin has a cough, and Josiah has a small fever with a cough. I know it is not life threatening, but still, I will be close to 5,000 miles away!! So I am sitting here, freaking out, thinking the worst, when in truth by tomorrow they will be playing and having a great time, while I am panicing on the plane to Washington DC. Children, I swear they are doing this to me on purpose. :)

God knows

It amazes me sometimes to see how God directs us, and leads us when we have no clue why. Last week Derek kept calling and telling me I should fly out to Virginia for the weekend, just to get away and spend some time together. I said "no way, we have no money". Well I looked into our checking account and saw we had more money then I thought ( for the record I tend to not look into our account, in fear of what I might find :)) . And then I said " no I cant go because it wouldnt be very nice for my parents to come over and visit us, to have me take off. but when I talked to my mom she said I should go, and they would love to watch the kids. So now I was running out of excuses, so I looked online for flights and found one that I thought would be good, and I called Derek , but he said that time wouldnt work well for him because I would have to take a taxi to the airport, which I didnt want to do, so I thought it is just not meant to be. Well after I prayed some more, and more, i went back online and checked one more time, and what would you know : There was a flight that wasnt on there earlier, leaving at the time that would work!! So after that I figured God was telling me to do it, and I ran out of excuses. Well as stated earlier last week was a nightmare!!! Everything just blew up, and chaos ensued. And I realized God knew exactly what I needed before I even knew it!! I so need to get away and spend some time with Derek where I can re-group and repair from all the damage from this past week. I am amazed how God takes care of us, even when we have no clue.