Big Shoes to Fill

Well, boots, to be more accurate. What boy doesn't want to wear his dad's boots? Sorry the pictures are so dark and fuzzy. Our camera has been through a war zone, literally.

Happy Birthday!

Rachel is 1 year old today! It's hard to believe a whole year has already gone by. Here are some pictures of our birthday celebration we had today at lunch. She got a popper vacuum cleaner and some necklaces that we are hoping will replace her current fascination with the USB cord and unplugged computer mouse. She'd walk around all day with those around her neck if we let her. It's quite cute. She got to eat her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich yesterday. Strawberry, for those of you wondering. And most of her cupcake ended up either on her face or in her high chair. She reminded me a lot of Jaxson when he turned one because all of a sudden she was highly motivated to sign "more."

We took the kids to Mr. Gatti's in Abilene on Sunday night. For those of you not familiar with the establishment it's like Chuck-e Cheese. On a side note, while we were there I mentioned to Shawn that I think I've been at the ranch too long because being around all those people was a bit overwhelming. He agreed with me.
Anyway, Jaxson won a little plastic piggy bank with his tickets and was of course very excited to put some change in it. I asked him what he was saving his money for and he said he was going to take it to Heaven. Just when I was going to have that whole "You can't take it with you" conversation with him, he said, "I'm going to give it to Jesus." I just kept my mouth shut.

For those of you who don't know, we like to keep the kids with us during church. It is sometimes difficult up here because most of the children here go to the nursery. I'm always concerned about the kids being too loud or too much of a distraction. I have to add that no one has ever asked us to keep them in the nursery, and the older folks are always very encouraging about the kids' "participation" in the service.
Yesterday the pastor was preaching on praising God in all things and Psalms 150 that states, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord." He then asked who should praise the Lord. Well Jaxson doesn't understand the concept of rhetorical questions yet and he replied rather emphatically, "Everything!" My first instinct was to tell him to be quiet, but God quickly stopped me. He then reminded me that this is why we keep the kids with us during church. Even when we think Jaxson's not listening or learning, he is. It turned out to be an encouragement, and a little humorous.

The First Thanksgiving

Jaxson and I have been talking about the first Thanksgiving lately. One day last week while playing with Playdough I was quizzing him about the parties involved. I asked him who came to America and he appropriately answered with the Pilgrims. I asked him why they came and said it was because the king wouldn't let them say their Bible verses. Then I asked him who they met when they came to America and he said, "John McCain!"

We closed on the house last week, and what a relief! We are so glad to be finished with it. It was a wonderful house and a wonderful place to live. We will always remember it fondly, but we are also grateful to God for where He has us now.
Needless to say selling our first home was a big learning opportunity. That's Pollyanna for we didn't know what we were getting into. The short story is that we ended up with very unexpected closing costs, to the tune of about $2900. Yikes! Well the week before God provided us with two checks. One from the insurance company due to some damage caused by Hurricane Ike and the other was a refund from the IRS due to a tax error. We were told that the check from the IRS would be arriving sometime in August, but government bureaucracy isn't exactly keen on being punctual. Long story short, the two checks totaled out to $2800. Imagine that! God's timing and provision is perfect. Only He could turn IRS red tape and snail's pace into a good thing!