Thought provoking

I heard a phrase at church on Sunday that has been bouncing around in my head. It's a very simple sentence, but when you really start to think about it, what it says is quite profound. The phrase is this: The same sun that melts the wax also hardens the clay. The meaning that I took from it (correctly, I believe) is this: if my heart is not being softened towards God through my daily experiences and activities, then it's being hardened. There is no middle ground or limbo; it's one or the other. It made me stop and think about my life, and whether or not I'm actively seeking God DAILY and letting my heart be shaped by Him through the joys and trials I go through. This is one area in which I seem to struggle. I read the Bible daily, but too often don't make any practical application to my life. I don't want to become hardened to God's prompting and nudges. I want my life to be as true a representation of His as possible. I can only pray that God will see fit through His mercy and grace to keep my heart soft and my attitude correct towards Him. In my own strength, I will surely fail.

Blast from the past

Check out this video and this one of Santa's Workshop...I used to watch this every Christmas growing up, and recently found out that it's only a Wichita, Kansas thing. I love Toy Boy and his zooooooming :) Ahhh, memories!

Attack of the pruning shears

We decided to get a real Christmas tree this year (yay!) and thought Allie might go nuts about the needles and real wood, etc. Little did we know, the true entertainment of the night would be the shears we used to trim the lowest branches! Allie decided they were dangerous or threatening or something, and spent the evening focused solely on them. It cracked us up:

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Round 4:

And the winner is....Allie, cause she's actually alive :)

Yippee!

For those of you who don't know, Tyler's union contract came up for renewal this past month and negotiations began between SPEEA (Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace) and Boeing management. They came up with a proposed contract which was voted on over the past two weeks by all the SPEEA members. We found out today that the contract was accepted by 79% of the members, which means...no stike for Tyler! We are good to go for another 4 years! God is good! :)

31 days...

'til we fly back to Kansas for Christmas!! But who's counting...

The day after the election

This was read in church on Sunday, and I thought it was worth sharing.

Have confidence in our God and His plans and purposes. All things ultimately are for His glory. GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL!!

1. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, Jesus will still be King.

2. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our responsibilities as Christians will not have changed one iota.

3. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the greatest agent for social change in America will still be winning the hearts and minds of men and women through the gospel, not legislation.

4. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my primary citizenship will still be in this order - (1) the Kingdom of God, (2) America, not vice-versa.

5. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the tomb will still be empty.

6. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the cross, not the government, will still be our salvation.

7. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our children will still be more concerned with whether or not we spend time with them than with who is President.

8. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my neighbor will still be my neighbor, and loving him/her will still be the second greatest commandment. (Do you know the first?

9. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see abortion ultimately overturned will still be winning men and women to a high view of life through the gospel of Christ.

10. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see gay marriage ultimately defeated will still be winning men and women to a biblical view of marriage through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

11. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my retirement will still not match my treasure in Heaven.

12. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, “Jesus Is Lord” will still be the greatest truth in the Universe.

13. The day after the election, regardless of who wins, we will still know that God is in control.

Catch up!

Well, once again, I've lost track of time! It's amazing how busy life can get. Over the last month, several things have taken place that are important to note. First off, our women's bible study started back up at church, so my job has picked up in intensity! We are still short about 4 ladies to have an ideal situation, but we're making it work. I have LOVED being back with my kids each week. They are precious and make all the stress worthwhile. Hearing their little voices telling me about some super-important issue (i.e. the plot of the movie Cars, wondering if it's windy outside, letting me know they have a sister, etc.) just melts my heart.





Tyler's job has changed a bit (again) and he's had a side project added to his normal work-load. All he can tell me about this particular project is that he's working on a ferring. Also with this project, he's getting put in for his Top Secret clearance, so he's pretty excited about that. It's not a for-sure thing at this point, but he's hoping it'll go through. He also got to volunteer for some flight testing, which is pretty cool. At this point, all he's done is fill out paperwork and get a physical done by an FAA certified doctor. Once the IAM stike is over and work resumes it's normal pace, he'll most likely be called upon to go up in the AWACS while they're testing all the new upgrades they're putting in. A great opportunity, but a little scary for me, knowing that it's untested! :)





In diving news, we were not able to continue our AOW (advanced open water) class after our deep dives because our instructor got into a bad situation and got DCS (decompression sickness) and had to spend 5 hours in a hyperbaric chamber. It is recommended that you not dive for a month after something like that happens, so we'll be picking up where we left off in about another week or so. A little scary to consider, but there are only about 3 incidents of the bends for every 10,000 dives, so it's unlikely that we will ever experience it.





Tyler's parents came to visit for a week this past week which was really fun! We spent the first weekend at Pacific Beach in a cabin owned by some friends from church. We had a great time relaxing and enjoying the beach. We spent the rest of their time here watching the Office Season 4, reading, and eating warm chocolate melting cake and Ethiopian food! It was a great week.

It's always sad to have life get back to "normal," but I have had enough to keep me busy. We are planning to go diving several times this week, before we have to give up Neil's tanks (he's been letting us use them since he had to be out of the water and wouldn't be needing them). It's been incredibly nice to 1) not rent tanks, and 2) use huge, high pressure steel tanks (119 cubic feet) as opposed to small, low pressure aluminum tanks (80 cubic feet). We have done several dives over 1 hour long with these tanks. It's been amazing, and we'll be buying our own steel tanks as soon as possible! :)