She's home. And Certified. Very proud of her. (Her friend took this pic for me )

Yesterday Jordan comes home from dive camp excitedly telling me of all the ways she can die and I kind of just put it out of my mind. She's happy, she's gonna be ok.
Today she comes home from diving in the lake and begins to tell me how she almost died. They were doing an exercise where they have to take off their gear and put it back on at 28 feet under. (except for their air of course)
So in the middle of the exercise Jordan's regulator breaks and her mouth is flooded with water. Since her pack is off she can't find her back up air supply and begins to panic. Since she didn't know her air was about to be cut off she had not taken a big breath or anything, so she is literally out of air. As she is frantically searching the water and is running out of oxygen because she has none coming in, the instructor notices something is wrong and immediately identifies that she's not breathing and shoves his extra regulator in her mouth and yanks her to the surface. When he found her gear that had floated away he saw her regulator with a piece completely broken off. He was in shock because he says that NEVER happens. She thanks him for saving her life and they Go Back DOWN!
AND SHE's DOING IT AGAIN TOMORROW!
Jesus thank you for being there today and everyday of her long career. Please give me peace!
Sent from my iPhone

( a few hours later ) - ok, I'm calm now. I promise. It's all good. I asked God, what's up with this? He says he's just teaching her. Makes sense, it's a safe environment, well... comparatively I guess, considering there is one instructor for every 2 students.
..breathing deeply..
I have always told my kids to not be afraid. If it's your time to go be with Jesus, you're gonna go, doesn't matter what you're doing. Now I get to practice what I preach.

I want a set of these bowls from Anthropologie. One or two of each color. Soo if someone was wanting to buy me something, here ya go.    :)

This morning I had a dialogue with myself about the fact that I may never have a future in missions, and that I may never do anything extraordinary, and that perhaps maybe my life will be ordinary after all. And I was really ok with that. After all, I put myself here, not God. I had my chance and blew it. A life of ordinary, I decided, was gonna be ok.
So I get to church and Pastor Mel (africa campus pastor- this is his last sunday visiting in the usa, they're going back to africa)he walked by as he was getting to his seat as service was starting and he stopped and leaned over and said to me as the music was starting.. "last time I saw you I noticed something different about you. I talked to Pastor Karen and she absolutely agreed. So I wanted to tell you, you are welcome in Africa anytime. "
I think I hugged him for like 5 minutes, fighting back tears. He hugged me back equally as hard and with as much emotion.
Why do we underestimate God and His grace? Or His impeccable timing?

Sent from my iPhone

We made Josh some Fathers day photos while he was gone. We decided he needed a pic for his new office at work. So we gave him a few choices. It was so good to see him when he walked down those stairs at the airport last night. Even though we got to bed around 2 am, he was up at 7 something and has done all the yard work, checked and refilled the air pressure on all three cars tires, and is now driving Jordans around to try and diagnose the noise J says it's making. He said it's nice to not be in a conference room.
It is so nice for me, to not be the one in charge anymore. Such a huge weight lifted. I feel safe again.

have I mentioned how much I love Skype? And HIM?

34 more hours..

For those who don't live here, we have been in a severe drought all spring and summer, so this radar is seriously exciting!!

I LOVE these products. They make your legs shine and smell like vacation.

I took the kids (+Michael) to the Hillsong United concert tonight, courtesy of Rene's suite. A great time was had by all. Turns out the more seasoned members of the Celebration video crew were running all the cameras! They were requested! So excited to be part of that team! Maybe I'll get that gig next year. But for now, I gotta get some sleep, we have a 7am call time for my 7 hour camera shift tomorrow. GN

randomness

Tonight we went to Becky's bday party (friend from Thailand) and I realized I really might be becoming an introvert.



Things tend to go wrong when Josh is gone. It's like our protection is gone. Our covering. Since he left - I got laid off, Jordans car is acting up, Hannah fainted last night, and we're both feeling sick today.
Jesus come, dwell in this home.

Since giving back my android work phone yesterday, I have missed it. I think I'm making the switch when Josh gets back. My iphone is just too dog slow these days, and I know it will be an ongoing problem with apple. Each phone they release is obsolete in a year.

I MISS MY HUSBAND!!!!

Skype rocks. It is so nice chatting with him every day and seeing his face. He's leaving France right now and headed to Israel.  Just one more week. I can do this.

 

Our sweet Oscar prefers fresh water

my sweet girls, who I absolutely adore

So I got laid off today. Last year it was 2 days notice. This year? 4 hours. Yup. No time to finish the current city I was in, just did the best I could this afternoon. And the really upsetting part? I don't even get to take it up north for my final road trip in it like I was told. Instead they have one guy here driving each of them up one at a time. So there goes that bonus pay I was counting on. I'm pretty ticked off at Google. They screwed us last year right before Christmas, so I don't know why I would expect anything less. I guess I was just hoping that was a fluke.
Oh well, time to move on. It was an interesting job, one that I will never forget.
Here are some last 'on the job' pics from today..more for my memory than anything else..

Couldn't decide whether to post todays photo, so I think I won't. It was a picture of a run down apartment/home in a very run down neighborhood. This is nothing unusual for the town I'm mapping, they seem to be everywhere there. But why did this one in particular break my heart? Because it was the home of one of our soldiers. I saw him walk in with his army uniform. This is a tragedy. These men, and women, deserve our best. They deserve the nice homes the politicians live in. They are the ones with their lives on the line, defending us. Defending freedom. It totally kicked me in the gut today. I was so upset. Instead of giving them the pay they deserve my tax money is being spent on an idiot artist somewhere who sucks so bad he can't sell his "art" to anyone, so the government subsidizes him. One of 3 billion examples of wasteful spending. When those who have earned it, don't have it.  Lord help us to elect a president that has his head screwed on straight.

I was just watching the republican debate, and this guy seems to be the underdog, but I like him. I liked him the first time I heard him a few months ago. Maybe because he's not a politician..

A friend posted this. This is just Not cool. Not cool at all. Literally! Hahaha, I crack myself up. What sucks even more? Josh gets the low 70's with rain. Have I mentioned how jealous I am?

I'm gonna miss this view at night. He's about to be overseas for 2 weeks. People around here are starting to get pretty sad. Today the guitar player posse came over and they all took a bunch of pedals apart and did mods to them, then I made them all dinner and we watched the rock band classic, Spinal Tap. It was a great day.
I love those boys, especially the one laying next to me right now.  2 weeks apart is a long time..
:(

Just booked our July vacation to Puerto Rico!!!!


so excited..


:)



:)

I don't know why but this place in downtown Killeen made me smile as I drove by. I half wanted to go in, just to see what they looked like..

I left the house this morning, went and worked 5 hours at the travel agency, then picked up my G  car from the shop, and headed out of town for a 4 hour mapping job, then rushed back to the house to change clothes and pick up the kids to head to church where I ran camera 1, getting there with only 10 minutes to prep before service starts, then the lighting was broken, so with one hand I had to control the iris, leaving one hand to keep my subjects in the frame, (good times),  then took all 4 kids to dinner at 9:30 then took 1 home, and am now falling into bed utterly exhausted at 11:30.
Umm, so yeah, there's no picture today..

Annual airport reunion.. Erin's home for the summer :)

My view from 7am - 2pm

2 books I bought today. Jordan is done with the SAT's and is now taking the ACT next weekend. And we're thinking of going to Puerto Rico next month for vacation. Also saw the new Xmen prequel movie today with Josh, great movie. We had to come home and watch Xmen 1 again.. 
Girls hung out with Michael most of the afternoon and night, as usual.
Aren't you so glad you stopped by my blog today? The excitement here for the daily photo is almost unbearable! (NOT)
I promise I'll try and get more interesting shots as we progress, and when I actually remember my assignment when its not bedtime ..
: /

I know it's not a real picture, but I forgot to take one today. This is all I saw today. All day. Swimsuit shopping with my girls is always an adventure. But we found success in the end. For them at least..

Music theory class, night 1. Several are missing this week, but will pick it up next week. Josh loves to teach.

 

I found 3 very memorable items in cleaning today. A key from a hotel on our honeymoon in California. Thus began our life of thievery. (lol, kidding) Then there's my name badge from our first church (amazing memories there), and then our first family car key. Man, we loved that car. It was a blue volkswagon jetta with a sunroof. It was a really nice car. But one day we were in a horrible accident just after dropping baby Jordan off with my mom so we could go on a date. A man had just exited IH35 at around 65 mph, and hit us while we were turning onto the access road. It spun us around and knocked us into a ditch. Completely totaled the car, but not a scratch on us. That was a great car.
Wow, what a year that was. And to find these tokens is priceless. Gonna put them all in the safe..