Thankful Thinking

I'm laying here on an air mattress in my in laws house at 12:32 in the morning so today is now Thanksgiving! I have so much to thank God for! He is more giving then He should be! I'll do a top 5!
1) my salvation and life in Christ! He protects me and guides me through so many things, some I can see but other I can't.
2) my Brandon! He is the ketchup to my hot dog! The ranch to my salad! The sloppy to my joe's! The sugar to my lemon aid!
3) my Jaxen! There was a phase in our life where we didn't think we could get pregnant, and wondered if God would let's be parents some day, but then came my Jaxen! He rocks my world!
4) church family! God has placed us at the exact place with the exact people He wants us to be with right now in Coleman!
5) my family! I'm blessed to have a Christian family that supports us and loves us unconditionally!

Rosie my Love

In the realm of life I know things mean nothing, I know that items and materials do not make it to heaven. But...if there were items in heaven my Rosie would be there! Rosie, my love! She's my red Kitchenaid mixer!! I've saved up crafting money here and there over the past couple years and was able to purchase my beautiful new love! A major part of my excitement is the pricing of my new mixer! Here is the low down:
I wanted red.
Walmart has white only for $199.
Target had red for $209 on Black Friday.
Alco (store here in Coleman) ran an add for $229+$30 store gift card.
Alco advertises they match prices.
Took Walmart add in, got RED for $199+$30 store gift card.
So it's as if I purchased my mixer for $169!!!!!!!!
God is good and cares about our little things!

Oh to Vote!

This morning after getting around we walk to our voting station, which happens to be our church across the street, on the way I tell Jaxen, "Momma gets to go vote!" Oh course this means nothing to him in his 3 yr old world! But he still looks at me excited bc he knows momma is excited!
I'm not big into politics nor making people feel dumb for not voting the same way I did. I think that's bc I vote to make my voice heard then I leave it up to the One that I know is in control! Don't get me wrong, I think it's our right as Christians to stand up for the unborn and the Bible, but I don't stress about the election. I know that the person that takes office will be whom God has purposed for the job.
That being said: I can't stand it when people don't think voting is a big deal. Or when self proclaimed Christians don't care to vote morals! If Christians don't stand for the unborn babies then who will? It's no wonder we don't have a cure to cancer and other deadly diseases, we've killed millions of future doctors, scientists, and leaders that could have done something about it!

My Lil' Miracle!

My sugar baby turned 3 in the middle of Sept. Last week we borrowed a friends camera and decided we were going to snap Jaxen's picture in hopes we could do him justice and call them "His 3 year Pictures!" Not only b/c we are cheap, but b/c he doesn't sit still!  And when we say, "say cheese Jaxen" he chooses to look at us like a weird winking gnome that is constipated!  So we we're forced to snap action shots.  Praise the heavens they turned out fantastic!  We snapped over 130 pictures and I'm pleased with 80% of them! We have friends that do photography so we emailed our top pics and they edited and enhanced what we captured!  We will not be entering the photography world by any means, however I really enjoyed snapping my sons pictures and capturing him as he plays and explores the world from his stand point!  God has blessed us with so much more then we could imagine! Here are a few of my favorites!

Go God!

Last Wednesday night I had the opportunity to introduce a 14 year old girl to Jesus and help her discover she can have eternal life through Him! The week before Brandon got to lead another student to Christ! We're so blessed to be serving where God has placed is here in the heart of central Texas! Each of these students got saved because at school they're friends began witnessing to them. Our students get it! They understand that school is their mission field right now! We can see the students passion and desire to grow and witness but for visitor students to stand in front of big church and proclaim to the adults what happened to them is incredible! It helps our church family catch the vision and encourages them that the students are actually "getting it" they're not just showing up to church for fun and food! So excited to see more growth!

Money, Money, Money

So on TLC there's a show about extreme cheapskates. Some of them are pretty odd! But on the other hand some of them make good sense. By influence of the show I think we will start having a "no spend paycheck" once every 6 weeks or so. We will pay tithe then not spend another dime that entire week. Simply eat what food we already have in the house, whether that's pancakes for dinner or odds and ends. Just think of the money we could put towards our car payment. Other ideas on the show we will NOT be implementing are eating goat heads, eating out of a dumpster, and using reusable cloth toilet paper!

Wardrobe replacement

Ever since Jaxen was born we've attended these massive kids clothing resale weekends. They typically have them 2 times a year, fall and spring. Therefore you purchase enough items at the fall sale to last all winter and then in the spring sale you purchase summer clothes. When he was younger it was easier to find cute clothes still in great shape since they don't wear them as long and aren't as rough on their clothes. Now that my big man is in 3T the clothes are more worn and its harder to find "good" ones.
Yesterday we went to one of these sales and thankfully it was a huge success! We limited ourselves to getting items he needed! Not just bc something was cute! For instance we narrowed down our items to 10 long sleeve shirts, 6 church shirts, 2 zip up hoodies, etc. We still spent more then we came with but were so happy it was a success! We found him some Buzz Lightyear light up shoes for $4 and some cowboy boots for $5!
Last night after we cut the tags off and cleaned the shoes and threw the clothes in the wash machine I looked at Brandon and said, "when he's a freshman or sophomore and we have to spend $300 for back to school clothes to only get him 3 jeans, 6 shirts, and 2 pairs of shoes not counting the football gear, baseball cleats, and everything else in between we will be missing these days of dropping$120 twice a year for his wardrobe!"
It's so hard for me to clean out his closet twice a year with things that are too small to wear! I don't like packing away my favorites! Makes this momma sad!!