Ray's Wedding

My oldest brother tied the knot this weekend with the love of his life. Anjalesa is such a blessing to our family, and we all knew that she was the ONE as soon as we met her. Ray could not be happier with his new bride, and we are so very happy for them. We had a very busy Memorial Day weekend celebrating this blessed occasion with family from far and wide. It was just party after amazing party all weekend long. I am EXHAUSTED, but thought I would share a few photos, just for fun. For the record, this is just a small sampling...we have 8 million photos from this weekend.

(side note, I am super-far behind on my old bloggy, and plan to catch up asap, so stay tuned)

without further adieu, the photos...

My Momma and her Momma and sister, Holly.



Just catching up at the rehearsal dinner.



The main event! These two are what it's all about!

Look how happy they are! Happy bubbles.  This is right before I totally bit it down those stairs in front of all those people.  Unfortunately, my fall was not caught on camera.

You dont even want to know what they are laughing at. Let's just say I was making a fool out of myself to get my kids to laugh. It worked. Are you seeing a trend here? Emily is the town fool?

Me and my bubbas.

J-Dogg even danced with me (a little bit)

The gals.

We really had such a great time, and appreciate everyone who made the long trip here to Missouri! It was a beautiful, perfect wedding for a beautiful, perfect couple.  YAY for Love.

Goodnight, friends.

More Politics, Caesar?

Lots of talk on the interwebs about gay marriage with Barack Obama's statement today supporting it.

As i read through some comments on local news Facebook pages, it made me a little bit ashamed of evangelical Christians tonight. Whether gay marriage is "right" or "wrong" based on Biblical standards is not applicable in this situation.

There are plenty of straight weddings happening right now that defy particular "moral" standards, yet it is not our business to interfere. Let God be God. Trust Him to work it out, and keep Jesus out of politics. He showed us how when he was confronted with a political controversy similar to the present-day one in Luke 20:19-26. The super-religious of the day were trying to trick Jesus into making a political statement, so that his words would start some heavy debate (in his day, paying taxes was a hotly debated topic) his response was to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." If you are a Christian, that means give yourself to God, and love your neighbor as yourself. I further interpret Jesus' message here to say that we shouldn't get involved in these political debates, especially by presuming to know what Jesus' stance is on a particular political issue. The hate I have seen slung around is just heart-breaking. There has to be a more loving way to handle social issues than to use the Bible as a weapon.

Oh, and I'm not sure, but I think the government has some work to do on the economy and national defense, maybe even education and healthcare. I don't know, just seems like we have other stuff we could be working on to strengthen this country, rather that divide it.

So, am I voting for Obama in November? Maybe, maybe not. But I can assure you that whoever is in the white house is going to do and say many things I don't agree with, so I am going to continue to put my trust in the One who deserves my trust.

Balance

Well, turns out I am not so much of a blogger. Not sure why, as I update my Facebook status with fervor. It does take a little more time to sit down and write a blog post, and I am not so good with managing my time. I used to say that I “didn’t have time” to do this or that (exercise, read a book, clean my house, update the old bloggity) but I have recently realized that I have plenty of time. I am busy, obviously, but the way I spend my time definitely shows my priorities.

Anywho, I just dropped in to update the old blog about the recent happenings in my life. Not sure if anyone cares, or anyone reads this, but I probably will go back and read it someday, so maybe this is just for me.

For my entire life, at least the parts I can recall, I have been a bit of an overachieving, busy-busy, perfectionist who leaves pretty much no free time in her schedule to just “be.” This is a choice I have made (unknowingly, of course) and over the past year has started to really drive me crazy. This sort of goes along with my first paragraph in that I was filling my life with lots of stuff, but not leaving time for what I really love to do. Believe it or not, I love to run…like really love it. Do I run regularly? Um…nope. I love to read, but do I read many books that I don’t “have to” for a bible study, book club, womens group? Um…not as many as I would like (although, I have gotten much better about this since I realized it 6 months ago). Do I spend time with my awesome kiddos? Well, yes, but I will confess that I spend some of the time with my kids not actually “there” mentally. Even when I want to be, I “can’t” because I feel pulled to something else.

So, in a short phrase “my life is all out of balance.” I realized this, with absolute certainty, sometime around Christmas-ish. I knew I had to re-order my life. This began some soul-searching time to decide what I want my priorities to be, and how to align my life with these priorities. What did I come up with?

Oh, just an aside, I say “I came up with” this, and “I realized” that, but that is not entirely honest. Great friends/confidants/the Lord…those are the ones who helped to shed the light on this stuff.

Back to my “thing,” I have decided to reduce my work schedule, working part time for most of the year (3 days per week). This starts June 1. It was a very difficult decision for me, and a lot to ask of my employer. The particulars of how this decision was reached, and how it all worked out, are worth a whole ‘nother explanation (one I don’t plan to publish on the internet, but if you want to talk about it in-person, just ask me).

So, anyway…starting ONE MONTH from TODAY, I am going to have a schedule that is more in line with my priorities. Dropping off my kids at preschool and daycare has NEVER been easy for me. You know that first day when you drop your newborn off at the day care and you cry the whole way to work? (I think that is probably common, and occurs in 74.62% of new moms – I made up that statistic on the spot, nice, right?) Well, I have that reaction, still. My kids are 3 ½ and almost 2. I mean, I don’t cry…I’m actually not much of a crier anyway…but I do have that sinking feeling when I drop them off that I would much rather just stay with them at the daycare. This is NOT a reflection on my job, which I do LOVE, it is a reflection on the weird tugging I have had on my heart to re-align stuff. I will still be dropping them off 3 days per week, but with the remaining 4 spent with my kiddos, I think some balance will be possible. Maybe I will “have more time” to read, blog, run, sleep, cook healthier meals? Not sure exactly how it will go, but the one thing I know for sure is that I will be spending more time with my adorable/amazing kids, which will be good for my entire family!

So…the countdown begins.