Counting our Blessings!

This weekend has been full of many things but mostly full of blessings! Starting Friday afternoon, Kelly and the boys began preparing for their fall Contenders camp out. Kelly made his famous chili, the one where Rolaids are a must have for dessert! I am told that the camp out was very successful - the boys had fun collecting cow bones, falling into the lake, and riding 4-wheelers and go-carts through the pasture!

Campsite

Clay & Carson

I wasn't at home when they got back from the camp out, but my uncle saw them rolling in and gave me advantaged warning that they were covered from head to toe in mud or who knows what else-from the smell of it-I believe that more than mud was involved! Fortunately, they had already put clothes in the laundry, showered and all three of my boys were snoozing soundly! Let the counting of blessings begin. When Kelly woke up, he broke some very disturbing news to me. Parker apparently got on a 4-wheeler with 2 other boys as a passenger, let me add that Kelly had no idea that he was doing this!I am not sure exactly what happened, but they ran off into some type of gully and they were flipped off - all 3 of the them. One of the dads carried a pretty upset and shaken Parker back to the camp site to his daddy. I am pretty sure a real life lesson was taught from the accident! After Parker woke from his nap, I held him, loved on him, and had to ask "what in the world made you think that it was okay to get on a 4- wheeler with a child driver?" What did he answer, "well mom, everyone else was doing it!" How many of us have said those exact same words in our life times! Not the answer we as parents want to hear! I am so thankful and counting my blessings that Parker and the other boys were not seriously injured! Parker does have a bump on his head and a swollen jaw, and one of the other boys has a very swollen leg and will have an MRI tomorrow- praying that there isn't anything too serious. Anyway, back to the stinky, muddy clothes-my new washer with the "sanitize" cycle worked wonderfully! Avery and I spent the afternoon shopping with Lesley and John Ashford. Kelly gave me the go ahead on buying new running shoes! Yeah! I went to Trails and Treads and after trying on around 10 different pairs, I found one that felt great and doesn't look too bad either! I felt totally guilty spending that much on a pair of shoes, so that will be another incentive to keep running! I must get my moneys worth! We then went on to birthday shop at Toys R Us, and I did buy some Christmas gifts, too! I have a good jump start on Christmas- hopefully I will finish up in the next few weeks! Avery and I picked up Chick-Fil-A for supper and went home and had a little "girls nite in!" We had a fun, quite and relaxing evening. Saturday morning we went to Maddi's birthday at Chucky E. Cheese! I thought that since the party was a 10:30 it would be pretty vacant-boy was I wrong! They had 3 maybe 4 parties going at once, with 3-4 moving right in behind the 10:30 crew! The kids had a great time!!!



Saturday night we went to Bible study at our dear friends Scott and Barbara's house. The study was centered around our lives being like a vapor and raising our children to love the Lord and to be faithful to death. Scott prefaced the study telling us that his son, Jonathan, whom I might add is a wonderful example of what a young man should be, had been involved in a really bad car accident Friday afternoon. Scott said that the scene of the accident and the cars were horrible! They are not upset that Johnathan was in the accident or that his car is totaled- just counting their blessings that their son walked away with only a small scratch. Thanks to his seat belt, airbag, but most importantly God watching over and protecting him. How sweet life is, and how dear our children are. All the petty things don't matter-sometimes things like this give us all a must needed wake-up call! Moving on.... to a less somber note, how many ways can you use a leaf blower!? It depends on who you ask, I guess, but Kelly will tell you two. One the obvious, blowing leaves, dirt, etc... or two, trying to battle a swarm of bees! I think that the boys must have brought back the queen! There was literally a swarm of them in our garage near the bags that held aluminum cans that the boys are recycling. I will definitely be posting pictures of the "honey bee - leaf blower match! It was hysterical!


Today after worship services we went to Kelly's moms for a family reunion with the Wilson's. We saw many familiar faces, but more unfamiliar ones. It was a great time of meeting, catching up and filling in the blanks to our family tree. I told you that our weekend was full, sorry about jumping around so much, just have too many thoughts trying to get out! I am counting my blessings one by one - first for Jesus and what he did for me, second, for family and the love that we have for each other, third - for celebrations of another year of life- another day even, and last but not least, leaf blowers, honey bees, my husband all 3 combined for the blessing of laughter! I am going to bed now, and instead of sheep- I am going to continue counting my blessings!!! I encourage you to do the same!