Summer Time

Fresh Zuchini

Night View

Self Portrait(typical OK storm cellar)

Another self portrait

Twilight(I wish Edward & Jacob had been there!;))

Cool Pic

Big Dipper

dad

Choctaw Casino

Soccer Monster! :)

It's been a busy summer so far and we haven't even been out of school quite 2 weeks! I' and M went to CR for a couple of weeks. My dad was gravely ill, septic with Ecoli, and in the hospital for a week, then I found out my summer job was still open so I rushed back home to start summer school. Soon my m-in-law will be coming along with her mother! Time flies.
It has been an interesting past couple of weeks. Not ones that I would actually want to go through again,except for a few parts. I have been under intense spiritual warfare, and it has not been pleasant, AND, I almost lost my dad. The sunny side though is, I'm learning and I got to spend some time in my home town with the 'rents! Once out of the hospital, I enjoyed some nights of star gazing, picking veggies in the garden, going to the pond, and just messing around outside playing with the cats, dogs, and nature. I also enjoyed some of my favorite food: Romas, Taco Mayo, Salita's queso, and fried catfish at the casino. All in all, I had a great time, and was renewed and refreshed to come back and teach, and be excited about it!
I am also so thankful that God put the right people in the right places at the right time, and gave the ER doctor wisdom to treat my dad the right way or he wouldn't be here. I hope to not see my dad sick again for many, many, years, if ever. It was a terrible thing to watch him suffer.
I am also thankful for friends at the DPD for getting me to Durant from the airport to see my dad, when I wasn't able to find a ride with anyone else, and I didn't know who else to call. God put them in my head, plus I knew someone would be awake at 3:30am ;), and I knew I could count on them. Thanks again to everyone who helped us through this difficult time. Thank You Father for your mercy and grace and unending love that I cannot even fathom. Now, if only I could sleep................

A couple of recent funny videos from Jason, Lisa, and Mikey's visit. We are celebrating mom's birthday at our favorite restaurant. It was great to have them back down this way. We miss them very much!

Lately

Here are just a few more recent pics. We have a lot going on this week. Tests for Ivan, 2 TAKS tests for my students and taking M to a new doctor tomorrow. We hope she can help us figure out why M has had diarrhea for 3 weeks. We have been to the rotating not great doctors here in K-ville, but nothing has changed. Anyways, I think it will be a good week. Tough with a few late nights, but good.
About the pics: I'm still not able to write comments with each pic. There are some from our recent trip to the aquarium, in which M was not as scared of the fish this time, then we ate at Whatabuger by the bay, there is also a sailboat pic there for my dad. Oh, and the first picture, she did NOT want me to be taking her picture!!
Enjoy!!!

Just a quick post. I don't post many pics here because its easier to post pics on face book. Anyways, things are going well with us. I'm going to try to upload a funny video of M dancing this morning. She loves to dance, especially when she puts on a dress and her shiny shoes. Hope you all enjoy the video.

As always, it's been a while

Here we are busier than usual. It's almost February and time for the first TAKS test. It seems like that's most of what "my world" revolves around now. 4th grade and TAKS testing. I struggle day to day in this season of my life, trying to divide my time between work, family, God, and sleep. It's diffifult. Most of my days are consumed with work, then a little bit of time with M, then more work, then bed. It's an interesting season of life. It's like the real world, full force! I don't know what I would do without God. He is faithful to me always, and continually pursues Ivan and I, and doesn't let us go, even though our lives are mainly filled with work and school. He still continues to bless us,mostly through our beautiful daughter. Who is such a precious gift. God's princess, we call her! I try daily to remind myself that it's the eternal things that matter the most. Either way the daily struggle continues between my flesh and the Holy Spirit. Between acknowledging Him and doing things His way or my way. Some of the difficulty comes with a huge workload, and a stressfull job. However, I'm thankful (sometimes I have to remind myself) for the difficult times, for this is where I really learn to trust and rely on God, and not myself. I still have a lot to learn on that one though!!! In light of it all, I have an abundance of things to be thankful for: salvation, mercy/grace, husband, daughter, family, job, house, too many cats, food, and million more things that many people in this world do not have.
Wherever you are in your life, whether you know Jesus personally or not, He knows us, and loves us. Remember Psalm 139.
To wrap it up, I'll post some recent pics of God's little princess right now!
Just like before, I'm not able to label the pics for some reason. They just come up as words............

Still around!

As usual, it doesn't show the pics on this part so I can't label them! These are pics from August and September. We have just been beyond busy. We had a whirlwind summer in OK and Costa Rica, then we got back home and started school! My job is even more demanding this year and super stressful. Ivan is working and taking 15 hrs. Madeline is now 2! We try to spend any extra time hangin with her, so that doesn't leave much extra!!! Anyways, I hope anyone looking will enjoy the pics. They are just typical Maddie!

TAKS is over and just down hill from now. The summer is already planned out and gone! Here are some recent photos. For some reason I'm still not able to write comments on each of them. Anyways, they're mostly of Maddie!
I have finished the Twilight Saga. I really enjoyed them. I could read them again. Ivan is on the 3rd one, Eclipse. He also has finals coming up. There's really not much else going on that I can think of. The cat picture is of our two outside cats Whataburger and Sandy. And, there are some pictures of us having fun at the dinner table. We try to eat as a family most nights and it's always a lot of fun. Tonight we were trying to get her to make faces. She also always manages to get food all over her too! That's what baths are for though!!!