A Few Changes...

Change.
There are so many different views of that word. Some people love it, some people hate it. It's your choice.
It can be good, it can be bad. It's your choice.
No matter how you choose to view it, it will always be there. So why not choose to embrace it, go with it, be thankful for it?

The first change that we have experienced over the last two weeks is the change we made in the kids' schooling. We have decided that it would be a great change in our family's life to put our kids in the Academy at our church. We are very thankful for the option to do that. I work there so it has given me the opportunity to be very involved in their education, acedemically and spiritually.

Obviously, this was a welcome change...one that we have looked forward to for over a year now. The Lord is good.

The next big change in our lives is that our youth pastor and his wife have felt the call to move on from our church after 5 years of service. They are nothing but a huge blessing and the whole church will miss them terribly. How thankful we are that they are willing to go where the Lord wants them. What a privilege to be able to help them, as a church, through this exciting yet emotional time. Many tears were shed when they read their resignation letter and many more will be when they do leave. We are so blessed to belong to a church that bears one anothers burdens, prays faithfully for each other, and loves one another in Christ. We are losing 4, well almost 5, beautiful "family" members soon. How thankful we are for the friendship that we have been able to develop with them. We won't be saying "goodbye", but "see ya later".

We wanted to have them over one more time for pizza and games, so we made that happen on Sunday. We had so much fun laughing with (or maybe it was at) each other! :)

Our teens love Pastor Brian, I think you can understand why....

We had fun teaching them how to play Garbage.

I love this kid! I had so much fun watching him while his mommy gave piano lessons every Tuesday. He's a hoot and a half!

We are going to miss Rebekah's piano playing on Sunday mornings. To say she is a wonderful player would be an understatement.

We are so thankful for the memories that we have been able to make with this family. They will always be precious to us. I mean, how could you not love that? :D

The Best Deal in My 34 Years!

School will be starting for us on Monday, so this has been one busy week for us, er, me. My husband ALWAYS has busy weeks. I am fortunate enough to not have to have busy weeks all the time. What a blessing! :)

Anyway, I have been putting off getting my shoes for work (school) all summer. I knew that I needed some, but I just put it off. Mostly because I am too cheap to spend too much money on, well, ANYTHING!

Well, I decided last night was the night to go and accomplish this task. After all, I did have a $10.00 coupon from Pen.ney's, so I HAD to use it and thought I might as well use it on my shoes. I made my way to the clearance rack (of course) and found some cute, black, somewhat flat shoes. They had just enough heel to not be totally flat, but not so much that my toes are going to hate me by the end of the day. :) I looked at the price and they had been marked down from $50 to $9.97...great deal!
I looked around some more, and they had another pair in brown. I decided that I would get those, too. My total for both pairs would be about $10, after my coupon. I could handle that. :)
So I went to check out and the sales clerk rang up the first pair....$5.88! I asked, "Is that right?" To which she replied, "Um, yep. Great deal, huh?" My total was $12.10!
So after my coupon, I paid.....drum roll please......$2.10 for two pairs of shoes!!! That's 2 dollars and 10 cents!! Can you believe that?
I was so thankful for that because, truthfully, with school tuition and a possible India trip in my future (oh yeah, have I told you about that yet?), any amount of money that we don't have to spend is a blessing! :)

Hope everyone's back-to-school days are going well!