Had an "ah ha" moment

I have always had an issue with some conflict with my faith and my job. I realize this is mainly my issue. I know and believe God's word to be true but it was my perception that when some christian people talk about sin and people sinning to me it comes across is very condemning and not so much of understanding. I not saying this to justify sin but because of my line of work I know that people have some tough situations that a lot of us can't imagine. The things they have gone through and maybe that has led to addictions or other sin in their life as a way to cope. Not justifying it. It is what it is. I believe more Christians should have more empathy and be less condemning of sin. It isn't for us to judge but for God and it is only by the grace of God that we are not in similar situations. A lot of us just choose to sin because we want to not because something horrific has happened.
I have been doing the Beth Moore Study of Esther. I really like Beth Moore. She is very personable and down to earth. In one of her previous studies, she made the a comment about sin. She is open about her being sexually abused as a child and then as an adult or teenager her making some poor decision and giving into sin. She said that sin breads more sin (or something like that and that makes a lot of sense). Sin is sin but because she was sexually abused she tried to escape her pain and deal with things in a unhealthy and sinful way. It wasn't until she gave her life to God and surrendered herself completely that she was able to break free from some of her problems but only with God's help. She relies heavily on God's word to help her get through and grow as a Christian.
I have a client that if you name it it happened to them from birth until adulthood. Actually I have several of clients like that. They would give Job a good run for his money. As we were talking, the person was telling me horrific stories of several things that happened and I felt this evil presence in the room. I don't really get into different spirits and all that but I know there is spiritual warfare all around us. I don't experience this all the time so this was really disturbing to me. I had to pray to myself over and over until it lifted. This client is just wounded through and through. The person was not that I know of engaging in active sinning like I was telling you about Beth Moore's story but yet I felt an evil presence and it dawned on me the destructive power of sin. The Bible says that the devil comes to kill, steal, and destroy but that Jesus came so that we may have life and have it to the full. So, even though this person wasn't actively sinning. The sin of others greatly affected this person's life. I think God has a special place in his heart for people like that. He gives all humans the freewill to choose what we do but man do our choices really affect us and those around us and sometimes through generations unless the cycle is broken.
Okay. This post may not make any sense to any of the people that read it but it really spoke to me today. How God's word and his plan for our lives is there for a reason. He wants the best for us. Sin is so dangerous to us and others. I know I don't understand it all and never will. Just feel like I got a little glimpse today. I still have a lot of unanswered questions. Some I may never get answered and some I feel like my come to me over time but I have faith in God and know that he does have all the answers and that I don't have to have them just to put my trust and faith in him. The Bible says the least of those on Earth will be first in heaven and I believe that it is talking about those that in Earth had such a hard way to go that in heaven God will make it right. I think his heart breaks for those people who suffer due to man's sin just like mine does and more.
Wow! Sorry (not really) for the deep post. It was just on my heart today.

Christmas Pictures

We had a fabulous Christmas. Nash got way too much. It is overwhelming but fun. So, I decided to just post some of my favorite pictures from this Christmas.
Nash with his cousins playing the organ.
Nash's Rocking Chair.
Our family pic Christmas day.
Nash loves his ball popper thing.
Christmas morning.
What Nash saw Christmas morning. When he saw it he said "truck" (he calls all vehicles truck right now. he's on a big truck kick). Then he said "balls" and went crazy. We had balls everywhere.
Nash sitting in daddy's lap while he reads the Christmas Story.
Nash listening to Memaw read "The Night Before Christmas" with his cousins.

Nash's "choo choo" that Mr. Dave made him. He was saying "choo choo" and had bed head in this picture.
Nash helping me make snicker doodles.

A special "shout out" to DJ. Thanks so much for helping us get our computer up and running. You have been a life saver several times with our various computer issues through the years. Also, DJ is going to be a daddy again in August. Congrats to you and Cristi!

Friday was a good day

(This post was intended to have pics to go along with but due to having a virus on the main computer that I use with my pics and it being too difficult to do it another way I decided to do this post picture less)

The main reason Friday was a good day was I found my wedding ring (imagine a picture of my wedding band on my fineger inserted here) that had been missing for a week. I hadn't told many people that I was missing my ring because I was/am embarrassed about the reason I was "missing" it. Long story short, I vacuumed up my ring. Yep. That's right. To make it worse we have a central vac system in our house which means we plug our vacuum hose into these hose outlet things in our house and the dirt goes through all these pipes in our walls and then goes to a bucket in our coat closet.
It was last Friday when it dawn on me what I had done. We had a play date with Nate and Kat at Chuck E. Cheese and I disclosed to her what I had done because she too was "missing" her rings not too long ago partly due to her little one which mine was also partly to due to Nash. I thought that it had to be in the dirt container thing so when I went home I dug through this which was no easy chore. The container had not been emptied since we moved in to the house well over a year and a half ago. I dug through dirt, dog hair, and other various things that all together smelt like vomit several times without any luck. Then the horrifying thought set in that the ring had to be in the pipes in my wall. Theses pipes are not just straight the go up and around various things in the wall. I was beginning to think that I was not going get my ring out of the wall.
I prayed, cried, obsessed over my ring all week. My father in law installed our vacuum system so I thought I needed to tell my in-laws in case there was some magic trick or something you could do to get the ring out of the pipes. They weren't optimistic about it due the kind of pipes I had in the wall and how it was installed. So, we called the maker of the system to see if they had any ideas. I got a hold of this man who said he could come look at it and give it a shot. He didn't make any promises and said that it was $95 service charge just for coming out. Then he charged for whatever labor had to be done still without a guarantee that the ring would come out of the pipes.
Kat and Nate had come over this Friday for another play date at the house. The guy called on my cell phone and was telling me his charges and procedure and all of that. I had the fleeting thought and image in my head (don't ask me why I had not thought of this before) to look in the outlet. So, I went and picked up the cover and there sat my ring in a bunch of dirt and dog hair!!! I was amazed, shocked, and supa dupa excited! (I think Kat and I actually hugged and squealed like school girls).
I personally believe it was a God thing. Yes, I know that ring was sitting there all week but really how likely is that that it would just sit there and not be sucked up when that night that I heard the cling clang and something going through the vacuum hose that I thought was something completely different that Nash gets a hold of from time to time (not my ring that he had been playing with because it was hooked onto my watch and somehow came unhooked and landed in the carpet) and I proceeded to keep vacuuming the rest of my house which gave plenty more time for my ring to be sucked up into the pipes. If nothing else, I was saved a $95 service call for the man just to eventually look in the same place and say "is this your ring?".

Yeah, I feel like and idiot for several reasons. One, for even vacuuming up my ring in the first place. Two, for not stopping right when I heard the cling clang to figure out what it was. Three, for digging through tons of dirt several times before looking in the outlet. Four, for keeping the dirt just in case it was in there and I overlooked it the first few times. Five, (and this in the big one) for not looking into the outlet first.

Also, have some super cute pics of besties (Nash and Nate) playing basketball outside at the end of our road on the BIG goal. I swear those two can't get any cuter if they tried. May have to actually insert those pictures later on the ol blog once everything is up and running normally.

feeding himself (with utensils)

Yes we are working on it. The next mile stone. (I guess)

"now if I can just set it on my fork"

"...and make it stay"

"Victory is mine!!!"

No, he really can do it the regular way. It is so funny to watch him. You can see the wheels turning about how to hold the fork, how exactly to get the food on the fork, and then once the fork is to the mouth how exactly do I get the food off. He's learning and doing good. He actually prefers using the fork. It's a challenge.

my boy is 18 months old

Nash is 18 months today. He has his check up tomorrow for both his 18 and 15 month so I will have all the stats then. His 15 month had to be rescheduled because the doctor being out so now he will get even more shots. Not looking forward to that. He is also getting 18 month pics done this weekend and I am looking forward to that. I have been trying to think about what to say about him at his 18 month mark. The main thing that he is doing and getting better and better at is talking. I can't list all the words he is saying because that would be a very long and ridiculous post but I thought I would say some of them that I adore.

One is him saying his name. We ask him what his name is and he says "Naaash". We point to me and Chris and he will say "momma" "dada" and then point to him and he says "Naaash". When he sees a picture of himself or one time he saw a baby in a baby book and he says "Naash". It's really pretty adorable, clearly.

He also says "almost" a lot. The reason I like this is how it got started. When he was playing basketball in his room and would miss I would say "almost". He caught on and says it all the time now. He says "milk". He used to just say "juice" referring to all beverages and now he can differentiate between the two. He says "thank you" a lot which I love. I always say it to him so he has learned. Every morning when I give him his breakfast he says "thank you". He says "Mi E Mouse" when he sees his Mickey Mouse pj's, book, or sees him on tv. He says "there it is" when we do his Elmo book where we look for Elmo's blanket. Another thing I think is interesting. He says "balls" when he sees more than one ball like his blanket that has balls on it. He will say just "ball" when he is referring to one particular ball. His new thing he started saying this week is "I don't know". You ask him where something is and he says "I don't know" in a very cute upbeat way. There are tons more examples but you get the picture. His vocab is growing daily.

He has had quite the temper tantrums at times too. Normally when he is tired or if he wants something but does not have the words to tell you what he wants. Other times he get super emotional and his feelings get hurt for no particular reason and makes an awful face and a pitiful noise.

He is also so much fun most of the time. I enjoy playing with him. He is funny and makes me laugh a lot. He gets so excited over everything. I think the greatest part of being a mom so far is just being amazed by all the things they learn and they learn and grow so fast. It's is my pleasure and privilege to be able to be apart of that. It's the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I wouldn't trade it for anything. :)

The Collegiate Snuggie....

..just might be my favorite (unexpected) Christmas gift this year. This blanket was a magical gift of the Chinese Christmas at my mom's house. It's warm, long, cozy, and WONDERFUL.

I have secretly wanted a snuggie ever since they came out but was too embarrassed to really get one or for that matter too embarrassed to let any one know I really wanted one. (Chris knew but didn't take me seriously until tonight when I fell in love with it) I know they look ridiculous and cult like in the commercial but I am a grandma to the core. I am always cold and love blankets. The snuggie is the blanket to end all blankets.

(I secretly want to take it to work and wear it when it is so cold in my office. Most definitely could have and would have used it in the Christmas parade this past weekend)

The Jacksonville Christmas Parade

Nash rode in the Jacksonville parade today. His Mimi and Poppy and the Kinman's had the Santa float at the end of the parade. Nash got to "drive" the mule with his Poppy and LOVED it. He got excited saying "let's go" and squeled the whole time. It was freezing but we had a great time. Nash looked too adorable so of course I took a million pictures.

Nash with his aunt Jill. Her pre-k class was in the parade. He loves her and went to her right away.

Poppy, Nash, and Mimi

This was our ride. To mule raindeer and then the sleigh

me and my super cute boy

we had to trick nash to get his picture made with Santa in it. we know Santa so we had him just come up behind us. he liked Santa and would wave at him and say "santa" as long as he kept his distance

shifting gears and stiring

driving the mule with poppy during the parade. he really thought he was driving and would turn the wheel back and forth. he took his job very seriously.

nash waving at the crowd

bath time

Bath time has gotten crazy lately. Don't know if it is a stage he is going through or what. He has on and off liked his bath but lately he loves taking a bath. He gets everything in the tub with him; toys, cups, wash cloth, soap, whatever and throws it onto the bathroom floor. If I take everything out of the bath tub he still splashes like in the above pictures to the point there is water every where. The floor gets cleaned after every bath because all the water has to be wiped up. Sadie likes it because he likes licking the water off the floor. Even if there is no water in the bath tub he still plays in the bath tub and will lay face down with his booty in the air in the bottom of the tub.