The Way God Speaks

I love the way the Lord speaks to me! I never ceases to amaze me the people, places, words, book and especially His Word He'll use to comfort, encourage or teach me.

Such a moment happened this morning. I just happened to open up my "God's Promises for You" book by Max Lucado and this is the message I read. God's little "coincidences"!!  (we all know there is no such thing as a coincidence...just God in motion!)

Family Partings

In seems that good-bye is a word all too prevalent in the Christian's vocabulary.  Missionaries know it well. Those who send them know it, too. The doctor who leaves the city to work in the jungle hospital has said it. Those who feed the hungry, those who teach the lost, all know the word good-bye.

Airports. Luggage. Embraces. Taillights. "Wave to grandma." Tears. Bus terminals. Ship docks. "Good-bye, Daddy." Tight throats. Ticket counters. Misty eyes. "Write me!"

Question: What kind of God would give you families and then ask you to leave them? What kind of God would give you friends and then ask you to say good-bye?

Answer: A God who knows that we are only pilgrims and that eternity is so close that "Good-bye" is in reality a "See you tomorrow."

Matthew 8:20

Jesus said to him "The foxes have holes to live in, and the birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to rest his head."

Mark: 3:35

My true brother and sister and mother are those who do what God wants.

Matthew 19:29

All those who have left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children, or farms to follow me will get much more than they left, and they will have life forever.

Farmer's Market

Wednesday evening we headed out to a farmer's market a bit north of downtown that was supposed to be great. It was going to have a "good selection" of produce, a splash park, a band...a perfect outing with the family. Well....we at least ended up having fun....we had a few obstacles to hurdle first:

• Jeremy had woken up at 4:30am that morning to go fishing before work (really, to fish?!?!) so he was exhausted and in my opinion kind of grumpy (sorry, honey, but you were)
• I don't really know my way around town yet so I'm unsure of distances and how long it will take to get to places...oops!
• Mopac (hwy 1) is A.W.F.U.L. at rush hour! It was a stand still parking lot!
• the farmer's market was dinky and over priced - boooo!
• it ended up taking the kids and I to get from our house to Jeremy's work to then the farmer's market around 1.5 hours. Ummm no thanks! Not happening again.

But! Yes, there is a but! The kids had fun splashing around in the fountains (after 20 minutes of warming up to the idea). And there was a big field where some boys were playing soccer and dogs were running around and the kids wore themselves out running around and screaming. Besides the distance, time and a bit of food disappointment it was an Austin adventure. Crossing this thing off my "Austin bucket list."

Kids' Museum

Jeremy's cousin, Paul, and his family came down to Austin this past week to stay with Mike and Jan. He and his wife, Jenny, have a little girl, Malie, who is a year younger than Mackenzie. She's a doll! They were here for a week and go figure, the girls finally start playing together the last day! 

We took a trip together downtown to the children's museum. The kids had a great time!!

taking after her daddy flipping steaks on the grill

check out the FUNKY tattoos on this chicks legs. what in the world?!?! the lines start with hearts up by her butt cheeks. sorry, i had to take this picture and post it!

the one and only picture of the cousins together. couldn't get them to look at the camera though

upside down!!! (he loves doing this!)

i think gigi had as much fun as the kids:)

Who needs clothes....

.....when you've got these fancy new kicks to wear! 

Conner loves shoes. So does his daddy.  (it's true Jeremy, don't deny it!) So, yesterday when he got up from his nap, (talking about Conner now) he found his new Puma's and threw a fit until I put them on him. And no, he wanted nothing to do with his clothes. Just shoes for him, please! Gotta say, I love him in little sneakers! 

Mackenzie really wanted me to take a picture of her with the bear at Gigi and Papi's house. So here she is being silly! Love that smile!

Lazy Summer

As we're adjusting to our new life in Austin our "normal" routines have been thrown out. And to be honest, I kind of like it. Don't get me wrong, naptimes are always at the same time and they are a MUST. But we've pushed back bedtimes, changed up activities and everyday is a new adventure for us.

Although, with a new house comes the waiting on people such as the exterminator, guys to build our fence (yeah!), washer/dryer installation, a quote for this and a quote for that. So with the 2-4 hour time blocks that those lovely people give me, the kids and I are finding ways to pass the time and enjoy our new house.

One such day we decided to have popsicles at 10am. Why not? It was hot, they were hungry and I wanted them to be outside. 

I'm loving not having a schedule! It just play time in Austin!!

By the way, Conner is a horrible popsicle eater but he has to do everything sister does! He's not a huge fan of things cold so he really just likes to hold the popsicle and say "uh-oh" every time it drips on him while its melting. He ends up being a sticky mess that the mosquitos love!

Splash Park Fun

Well, it's not exactly a splash "park" like we had in Frisco and Allen, but it does the trick on these HOT summer days! Conner loves it! Mackenzie does too, it just takes her a little while to warm up to it...but that's with everything:)

pouting

craaaazy man!