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They say you will know when you meet "the one."

Oh! He's what they're talking about.

They say marriage is work.
A few weeks ago Brian comes to me as his bags are sitting by the door for a TDY and says "We need to talk."
Great, that's what they're talking about.

They say all the pain, throwing up, stretch marks, and labor will be worth it.
Yes, that's what they're talking about.

They say sometimes bad things happen to good people.

LUBBOCK, TX-A 9 year-old girl who was tragically shot in a hunting accident will be laid to rest Tuesday. Almost 500 people are expected to attend a private funeral for Soren Dahlstrom. The Hockley County Sheriff's department says more details have surfaced in the tragic accident. Chief Deputy Paul Scarborough says the grandfather was hunting for rabbits right outside of the truck
door and the window was down. That's when Soren popped her head out of the window and into the line of fire. Three other kids were in the truck at the time."

PIEDMONT, OK-
"Family members joined emergency responders Wednesday in the search for Ryan Hamil, a 3 year old boy missing after a tornado demolished his home, killed his brother, and injured his mother and sister. They were all apparently trying to seek shelter in a bathtup when the twister hit Tuesday. Ryan's 15 month old brother, Cole, died in the hospital. The mother Catherine, 36 and five months pregnant was listed in fair condition awaiting surgery to repair a broken hip on Wednesday. Her 5 year old dauther, Cathleen, was hospitalized with tramatic head injuries and listed in critical condition. Catherine's husband Hank Hamil operates a custom harvesting business and was not at home when the tornado hit. Piedmont Mayor Valerie Thomerson said searchers listened over night for any signs of a child in distress. "

This must be what they're talking about.

They say it's ok to be angry with God.
Job 7:11
"Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul."
Psalm 22:1
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?"

This is what I'm talking about.

Y'all I have been so heartbroken over the last few days. First the sad story out of Lubbock, then the unimaginable story from a few towns away. I have been so mad at God I don't even know what to pray. I start to pray for the little babies, then I think "No, you shouldn't have let this happen to them Lord." I start to pray for the mother, then I think "No Lord, you should have heard her cries."
What good can come of this? One mother trying to save four precious lives and her children are ripped right out of her arms. She did everything she could, but as a mother in her situation would you not spend the rest of your life thinking of a million things you could have done different? The part that scares me the most is that if God can take away her babies, He can take away mine. For all the smack I talked while pregnant, Chase has absolutely become the center of my universe (you don't like that Lord you shouldn't have made him so cute. just saying.)

I find in times like these I have become so comfortable in my little air conditioned earth bubble surrounded by my family and friends that I forget this world is not our home. In times like these I remember that this world is temporary and filled with pain beyond our reasoning. In times like these all I can do is surrender my own understanding and worship a God whose love is beyond all reason, even if we're not on speaking terms right now.

Revelation 21:4
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

Hebrews 13:8
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."

Good Dog

I have an insane fear of spiders. I truly believe their only purpose in life is to kill me. When I was in the third grade I watched a show about spiders and it told a story of a man bit by a black widow in his bed. I didn't sleep with sheets for a week. I've had nightmares about spiders ever since, including one about a spider bitting my toe off. My dad stepped on a spider one time and billions of little bitty baby spiders scattered all over the porch as I was trying to crawl out of my skin. At Brian's family's lake house I was trimming bushes when I came across banana spiders aka the spawn of satan. When I saw three of these suckers the shears went flying, I went running, and Brian and his male family members heard me screaming from the street but instead of coming to my aid and carrying me to safety, they laughed at me. Our friends found a black widow on their porch in Florida, and if it was me I would have called the landlord to tell him I was in the process of moving out. Let's just say if I ever see one of those camel spiders I'll just start having a seizure.

Story Number 1:

Some of you might have heard this story recently.

While we were at church one night Ranger got sick in the house, very unusual but we had just bought him new food so we thought that was it. Next day I had a friend over with a baby so I put Ranger in our room where he got sick out of both ends. I knew something was wrong so we loaded up and went to the vet where we spent $300 dollars (yay). Then we headed over to Home Depot to buy a $200 dollar carpet cleaner (yay). So while Brian is cleaning our carpets I go to give Chase a bath. Everything was business as usual until I went to get the washcloth I had used the night before. As I open it to pour on some soap a spider crawls out onto my arm.

@)*F&#G(H%*VM!(&!!!!!!

I immediately start freaking out and try to fling this spider off my arm, luckily he's gone pretty quick. Chase is pretty freaked out at this point so I look over to start calming him down.

I had flung the damn spider on Chase and it is making it's way up his chest to his face.

@)*F&#G(H%*VM!(&!!!!!!

As Chase is screaming for his life I am hitting this poor child and as soon as I see the spider is gone off to who knows where I grab this wet, screaming and now shivering baby and run across the house to Brian. (Ok maybe we were both wet and screaming at this point) "WHY DIDN'T YOU COME SAVE US??" Busy cleaning the carpets he had no idea of the fiasco taking place on the other side of the house. And Brian looks at me like I'm the crazy one?

Story 2;

Brian is gone so of course all the spiders come out because they know I am weak prey. As I am letting Ranger in the house a big black eight legged jerk decides he wants to come in the house as well. I just don't have the heart to even attempt to kill this sucker so I look to Ranger to be the man of the house. After some coaxing, pleading, and begging I convince Ranger that this spider is interesting and can be eaten. After a few sniffs, a huge paw, and one lick the nightmare is over. I seriously thought about cooking that dog some ribeye that night. Good dog.

Kolache Festival

We went up to Prague, OK (pronounced Preg) for the Kolache Festival. We didn't really know what we were getting into but we had a blast. We did make an interesting discovery, we had fully expected to find a multitude of sausages rolled in sweet flaky pastry but instead found these...

Coma inducing sugary-fruit filled pastries in every flavor imaginable! Brian tried Apricot and Apple while I had Poppy Seed and Cherry.
We found people dressed like this...
These dresses were all handmade and absolutely stunning up close. I want one.

They held a big ceremony and crowned the Kolache Queen, isn't that a title you would love to have? I know I would. It was so funny sitting in the stands with all the locals, I learned more about every candidate AND their mom AND their grandparents than I ever wanted to know. I have to say it made me a little sad that Chase won't have the experience of growing up in one place, especially the experience of growing up in a small town.
We did find some sausage buried underneath a pile of sauerkraut...
And I know this won't be impressive to you non-Oklahoma dwellers but we found a park with trees! It was impressive for us, needless to say we are looking forward to our next PCS.

And we polka'd!! The town shut off the street and covered it in sawdust while a live band played. Chase and I had to take a spin out there, but do I have a picture of this memorable first mother - son dance? Of course not my husband had the camera. I'm thinking of hiring someone to follow us around to capture moments like that. But to top off the night they handed out free bags of kolaches when we left. I think we ate them all by the next day. Needless to say we will be back next year!