Just a Pic

Happy Birthday and Other Happenings

Tomorrow (Thursday) we will celebrate Joseph's 40th birthday! Soooo...if you see him, you have my permission to give him a hard time about it. I remember very distinctly, and so does he, him saying several years ago (even before we had Samuel) that he did not want to be a 40 year old with a 2 year old running around. Well guess what? Tomorrow he is 40 and in June John Michael will be 2!! Funny how things work out! Basketball is well underway and Samuel is having a great time. He is on the same team with several of his good buddies from church and school so he loves that. He also loves the games and just has a great time. John Michael loves it too!!! So much so that we can't keep him off the court! Talk about keeping us busy!!! Since Joseph and I are both accountants, January is always a busy month for us and even more so this year. Back in December I was approached about doing some Audit and Tax work for a local CPA firm on a part time basis through tax season. Well, there goes my Tuesday and Thursdays at home. So we are just trying to stay afloat these days and my Mom has been a lifesaver by coming down a couple of days each week to stay at home with John Michael. She has been spending the night so Samuel has really enjoyed playing board games with her after John Michael has gone to bed. Joseph and I really appreciate her help (she always catches us up on laundry). John Michael loves staying with her and she enjoys the special time with both boys. I am actually enjoying the audit work more than I thought I would. I think I was kind of ready for a change of pace and it is nice knowing that it is only temporary. Come March/April I will be done, until next year. It is amazing how God gives you what you need just when you need it. He is giving me extra measures of patience at home and the energy and good health to keep this pace up and meet my obligations. We are looking forward to a little break soon and heading North to visit good friends and hopefully see some snow and even do a little snow skiing.

How quickly things can change

I just realized that my last post was just a couple of hours before we received a phone call from one of our very good friends who's husband was at the hospital and passed away around 10:30 that very night. It has been a very hard week and I would like to ask all of our out of town friends and family to be praying for this wonderful family. Her name is Karen and you will see a link to her blog below. She has two precious little boys, Phillip (7) and Evan (5). Brad was only 33 years old so this was very unexpected. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers over the next several weeks. As we were sitting at the hospital that night one of the girls mentioned how the things she was so concerned about earlier that evening, now were so unimportant. This has been a reminder to a lot of us to appreciate our husbands and children because we never know how quickly they might be taken away from us. I hope to be a little more appreciative and not take what God has given me for granted.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and the new year is off to a great start. We have been so busy I almost feel as if we haven't even had a break. Well, I do but you know what I mean. We are back to school tomorrow and I am starting a new career venture on Thursday which will run through March and will tie up my Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am excited and nervous about the whole thing but it will be good I think. It will be a rough three months but hopefully will be worth it. I will post some Christmas pictures later.