My birthday.

This is maybe a little more personal than I usually get, but it was such a sweet and significant day for me personally and in my heart.  So, here it is...

My birthday.  I love how God always gives us what we need and knows us so well that he knows exactly what that is.  We don't deserve it, but he gives it anyway.

The girls (Canela and Kristen) kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday and I kept saying,  I just want a Starbucks...to be able to sit and drink a Starbucks. 

But really--I think I wanted/needed so much more than that.  For me birthdays are always big days in my heart...not in the way of parties or big events but in the reflective way.  I have this expectation that it will be a time of introspection, that it will embody all the siginificant parts/people in my life, that I'll be able to look back and look forward at life, that it will be the end of some things and the beginning of others.  If you know me, you're laughing because this is so me (and really a little ridiculous to have that kind of expectation).

What made my birthday so sweet:

I'll start with the night before...

**Having a fun dinner and walk around old town Scottsdale with Travis...
just the two of us.

**Coming home that night to my two older girls singing me Happy Birthday--
every word in such sweet little voices.

**Putting the kids to bed and then coming back out into the kitchen to singing, again.  Only this time it was our team singing and there was a DELICIOUS chocolate cake.
(made by Emily, our resident cake boss)

Do you see an angel in the picture?  (it's Adam)

**Opening a purse/bag from Canela, Lacey, and Shelly that I have been needing really badly (my old one was from Canal St two years ago).  I LOVE the new one!
It's huge...just what I needed!

**Receiving another very special gift...one that brought tears.
The gift was much needed and above what I could have ever asked for
and the card--well, that's where the tears started flowing!
the gift?
brand new pots and pans
(mine have seen better days to say the least!).
the card?
names of so many old (and a few new!) friends.
It was as if they were all there with me. 
I'm crying now as I'm writing this and thinking about it.
I love friends being around for big events like birthdays...and this was a taste of that.
Wow.  Thank you Emily for organizing it and thank you to every sweet friend that gave.
I don't know what I needed more, the pots and pans, or to be blessed by friends. 

The day of...

**Meeting Travis at Starbucks at the end of my morning run.  Drink already ordered and asiago cheese bagel in hand.  I mean, perfect.  My dream morning!

**Meeting two new friends in my group at Bible Study Fellowship that the kids and I went to.

**Receiving texts and phone calls...
hearing the voices of sweet friends and family thousands of miles away.

**Meeting up with Travis at Chick-fil-a for lunch...
and then a little of my favorite Baskin Robbins ice cream after!
(peanut butter and chocolate...free birthday scoop!)

 

 

 

 

**Coming home to read more sweet emails and cards
and a really meaningful blog post by my sister...

**Being delivered my favorite fountain drink
(again, by Travis...he pulls out all the
stops for birthdays!)

**Having 30+ people at our house for a cookout.  A team is in from All People's Church in San Diego doing outreach with us this week...so they were all over.  They have been awesome
and SUCH a blessing to us.  So--I loved having them here.  And I love hosting so
naturally, I loved doing that on my birthday.  (especially because a sweet girl
named Jeanne did ALL of my dishes
and cleaned my kitchen!!)

**Having them all worshipping in our "church room" and my kids worshipping right
along side of them.

**Holding Emily and sitting by Gracie while she went potty (yes, she's potty trained...more
on that soon) and watching her face when she heard Adam start playing 10,000 Reasons
(a Matt Redman song...love it!)...and hearing her go "O my soul!  O my soul!"
(part of the lyrics in the song).

**Watching Emily start to wave for the first time as everyone left.  Then she did it the rest of the night with our encouragement!  So sweet...she was so proud of herself.

**Hearing my girls sing (again) happy birthday and blowing out candles (again) before
they went to bed because they were so excited about Mommy's birthday.

**Hearing Gracie over and over again telling me Happy Birthday except when she said it,
she actually sang the first line to the Birthday song.  She'd say,
"Mommy!...Happy Birthday to you!"
 
**Going to bed with a full cup.

I love walking with God.
I love walking in sweet community...
with my family,
with my friends around the corner,
and my friends far away.

a daddy that plays.

We are starting a church.  So "days off" haven't really existed since we "kicked off".  

I have been so proud of how Travis has run so hard and so tirelessly during these first 6 weeks.

And I have to say that we, his family...have not suffered as a result.  

Why?  Because he loves to play!  He could have a one or two hour break between a long day and an evening appointment and he's going to have everyone in the pool, playing crazy games, making everyone laugh, drawing our family and our kids in to one another.

Today Ellie was entertaining the baby by making up songs on her guitar and singing them to her (wonder where she got that idea??)...and today the song went something like this:

I love our family.
I love our whole family.
I love Daddy the most.

I love Mommy the most.
I love Gracie the most.
I love Emmy the most.
I love our family.

The last three days in a row last week we had that "one hour time slot" that Travis made the most of.

It just so happens that it falls at the best time of day for picture taking...dusk?  So I got some great ones!  (I'm not really that good at photography but I so want to be!)

So there's more swimming pics...but that's just what we do around here.

You know you're kid's an Arizona pool girl when she gets sneezed on and she says, "Baby splashed me!"  (that was Gracie this morning)

What it looks like when Daddy plays:

I'm not sure what the deal was with the swimming cap...

Daddy and his girls.

E teaching SG how to hang on the diving board.

Gracie finally loving the diving board 

(and going off over and over and over again)

Some of my very favorites of the girls:

Our little Emmy.

I feel like I haven't gotten that many pics of her lately,

so I'm catching up!

She has such a spunky little personality and she LOVES her sisters.

They make her laugh more than any body else.

Those cheeks don't look like the 2nd percentile to me!

Another fun afternoon by the pool.

the story of today...

So, I realized yesterday when I was out that my wallet wasn't in my purse...it wasn't a major deal because I was on campus and so was Travis so he just found me and gave me money.  I figured one of the kids had pulled it out or something.

But, I couldn't find it last night when I got home either.  Yikes.

Now, this is not unfamiliar territory for me...I have misplaced my wallet before...maybe a few times?  But, only once was it never recovered, and that one time, it was stolen.

So, I may have a track record for losing it, but I also have one for finding it!  I began to retrace my steps and realized that the last place I remembered using it was at Costco last Saturday.

Ok--how I made it from Saturday to the following Friday morning without using my wallet or even realizing it was gone is an incredibly impressive and maybe a little scary. 

To show just how unshaken I was by the whole thing...I even got everyone ready to head out the door for a few errands this morning, shoes on, snacks ready, purse in hand, before I realized, Oh, I don't have my wallet still.

So what ensued was something I want to always remember.  We dropped all our stuff, I explained to the girls that Mommy didn't have her wallet and so we couldn't go to run our errands.  So for them, shoes came off and play continued.  But for me...I began to look everywhere.

The car, other bags, the bedroom, the car again, the double stroller, the backyard, the garage, and on and on.

I called Costco...feeling really silly...do you have a wallet in your lost and found that would have been left there almost a week ago??  Of course, they didn't have it.

Then I pulled the girls aside and said--ok, we have to wait on the Lord and ask him to help us find Mommy's wallet.  So we did,  we prayed and then we waited.  To be honest, I didn't get anything--

But Ellie did..."I felt like He said, OUTSIDE."

Ok.  So I went back outside.  Back to the car.  Back to the double stroller.  Back to the garage.

Halfheartedly looking at this point because I had already looked there--a lot!

Then I had the thought to text Kristen (who lives with us), who had been out of town since Sunday, but since I lost it Saturday I thought I'd ask if she'd seen it.  She said no, but she'd pray.

She texted back a couple of minutes later and said, "I felt like the Lord said...OUTSIDE."

So after that, I headed back outside with a little more conviction and determination...not to mention faith that yes, it was out there.  (I have to admit I was also thinking..."outside" could mean ANYWHERE, like in a parking lot, on the street somewhere.  But--I claimed that God is for me and was going to help me find it!

I go back to the car...then I look all around the front yard, back yard, side yard, around our trailer, back to the double stroller, and then my eye caught my single infant stroller that I hardly ever use...

But--I did use it at Costco.

I walk over to it, open it up...

And there sat my wallet in the folds of the top of the stroller.

I have to say that I was more ecstatic to go back inside and tell Ellie that SHE HEARD GOD than I was about finding my wallet.  When I got to her to tell her she kind of gave me this look like, "why are you so surprised, of course that's where it was, that's where God said it would be."

So today, she learned that YES she hears God.  (even though I think she already assumed that!)

But I also learned that...YES she hears God.

And I learned--I must have faith like a child.  To wait on God, expect Him to speak, and then believe with all my heart that His word is a promise.

And it's always true.  Praise God.

Really the whole morning was "wasted".  I didn't start my errands until noon (with peanut butter and honey sandwiches in hand and the promise of a celebration treat--popcorn!--at Target).

But I would chose to do it all over again.  I wouldn't have spent it any other way.

Thank you Lord for the way you work.  You always have our best in mind.  You are always training us, if we want it...even from the earliest age.

Ellie experienced first hand what it means to hear God's voice.

May it only get clearer and louder all her days.

The Diamondbacks Game

Last weekend we went to a Diamondbacks game.

It's crazy with all the kids but they loved it!

(and if you're wondering, no, Ellie is not playing soccer,
but yes, I did let her wear her uniform to the game.

Canela and Shelly...and can you tell how high up we are??

 

She's way into the game here!

Fun times routing for our new team (who happens to be in 1st place in their division!)
and hanging out with friends (new and old).

swimming, swimming, and more swimming

This is what we do A LOT of around here.  They really are fish.

Lauren had the most amazing underwater camera so she got these unbelievable pics.

Ellie:

Gracie:

 

Ellie and Gracie:

(no underwater pics of the baby...i mean, my kids swim early, 

but i'm not that into babies swimming underwater)

A pretty typical scene if you are around during the day with us:

I know everyone else is getting into fall routines and school and backpacks and lunch boxes...but us, we're still swimming!  And loving it!

Gracie's Haircut

(about a month ago...still playing catch up!)

She probably didn't need one...or if she did, I could probably have done it,

but she's watched Ellie get one and was really interested in it, and I 

had a coupon so we went for it.  It was a special little treat for her.  

She took it really seriously, sat really still, and I think felt really speeial

to get to be the one in the chair!

 

And it helps it grow better if you cut it, right?  And my kids need

all the help they can get in that department!

Thank you friends at Snipitz!

(and thank you, Lauren for helping me with the other ones while we were there)

The College Team!!

Four days after the Goode's team left, a team of 18 college students from Boston

came for 10 days.  It was so much fun having them come.  They don't ever start school til after Labor Day so they were able to come be here for the start of ASU's school year (which was in August).  And despite the SUPER hot weather (one of the hottest Augusts ever in Phoenix!) they did awesome!

They were such a blessing.  Meeting new people, manning the table we had on campus where students could find out information about our church, praying for people, etc, etc! 

Some of the students we had walked with for YEARS in Boston as their college pastors, so it was so fun for them to come here and help us start a new work. 

We really are living the dream. 

It's what we've talked about for so long...

and it's actually here...it's actually happening. 

And yet, we do miss Boston

so it was really fun to have some old friends

 and familiar faces here laboring with us for a little while!

On the first morning they were here, Trav took the team on a hike to the top of "A" mountain where you can see the whole valley.  He gave them vision for their trip and spoke about what we feel like God has put on our hearts to the city.

Some of the students hanging out in our living room

after worship and a teaching.  Loved having them

in our home again!!

So I cooked for/hosted college students in and out of our

home for almost 10 years when we lived in Boston...

And I don't know if they were tired of sack lunches since they

ate those all week or if the heat made them hungry or if they

just missed my cooking :)...

but they ate like crazy at our house.

For sure set a record with the queso...one whole recipe of it

along with a bag and a half of chips was GONE in 10 minutes!

(I am not exaggerating)

They were so great during our church service...it was totally

packed (thanks to all their inviting and outreach all week) with

no seats for them, so the team all stayed in a bedroom

and prayed the whole time.

A quick pic w/ E and SG before they left to play late night volleyball.

We LOVED seeing our friends!

Come on, Karen, SING!

Amy and the girls!

We also got really good time with June and her little Lily 

 who is 3 months younger than Gracie.  It was so sweet to

get extended time with her...I have walked with her for so long!

(I met her during her first week of her freshman year)

She is a treasured friend.  And she and Dave are doing an amazing

job at leading a move of God among college students in Boston.

 My girls LOVE to play with Lily.  They are great friends...

Coloring together!

Swimming...

One last dinner with the team at Macayos.

Notice sweet Emmy in the high chair on the left...

we had a little episode with her and Lily (one where Lily ended up

under the booth next to us and Emmy's high chair landed on top of her,

and Emmy ended up...well, in my arms...I caught her).

But--all was well...I'm a conscientious mom I promise!!

Thank you for coming Boston team!  We love you guys...hope it got you fired up for seeing God come in power in Boston.  (pretty sure it did...I heard about the Lighthouse last night...wow.  praise God.)