Experiencing a New Normal

Earlier this year we had gone to a special event for Help a Heart.  At this event they had a silent auction  - and it was there that we bid and won a Kansas City package - complete with Zoo passes and Royals tickets!  It just so happened that the dates that were available for the Royals game and the dates free on our calender was Labor Day weekend!  So Friday we picked up the kids from school and headed to Kansas City.  We ran into some pretty good rain almost all the way down -so it wasn't any too early when we arrived. Saturday morning after breakfast in the hotel we headed to the Zoo.  I was pretty impressed with it!  There wasn't an animal exhibit we didn't see an animal - and it was a HOT day!  They had what they called "animal chat" - where there would be a zoo employee telling you more about that particular animal.  We just happen to be at a couple of those (not on purpose) - the leopard and the rhino - that made it a little more int...

I guess I've been avoiding this post for awhile and thought I should try to tackle it now.... TJ's 13th birthday.  I can hardly believe that I would have a teenager - there are days I feel like I'm still a teenager!  I had debated over and over what to do for his 13th birthday.  Do we celebrate just the five of us?  Invite the whole family?  Just our parents?  What do we do that is different?  And then it all became clear.  I saw that the Newsboys and Matthew West were going to be at the Iowa State Fair - just four days after TJ's birthday.  So we decided to invite the whole family to go (most of the family was able to go).  We thought it was the perfect way to honor TJ's 13th birthday with something he loved so much - music and Christ!  We all met at our campers before the concert for walking tacos and cookie cakes!  We had such an enjoyable evening.  We were even able to share TJ's story with the lady who sat in front of...

So, I have a few blogs that I like to read - some are friend's blogs, or people I know and then there are those blogs people have shared with me to encourage me along this road of grief.  Well the other day I was going thru some of them and this one struck me deep.  She spoke such truth - truth that I need to remember DAILY (sometimes even hourly)!  I've shared it with a few others, but thought it was very worthy of sharing it on here.  Instead of copying a link - I decided to copy and paste it right here for you all to read! Here it is: Does God Give Us More Than We Can Handle? I grew up using the phrase, "God doesn't give us more than we can handle," and it works great as an encouragement for us when times get rough. It helps us to believe that whatever is thrown our way we were made to handle. But what if that is all wrong? I mean, I thought this was scriptural, but when I looked it up in 1 Corinthians 10:3 it stated, "No temptation has overta...

The Run in the Sun has become one of those 5K's that is near and dear to my heart.  All the proceeds go to the Serenity House in Oskaloosa (where TJ and Don spent time at).  This year with other things going on I didn't get preregistered and just showed up the day of the event.  I was able to convince my good friend Kelly (whose grandfather-in-law spent time at the Serenity House too) to join me.  Kelly runs all the time, so I had told her I hadn't had time to train and would probably need to walk most of it and asked her if we should just do the one mile instead.  Her response - nah, let's do the 5K - it gives us more time to talk!!  So that was what we did!  We talked, walked and gave back to something that is so special to us! Running to the finish line!