Tax season ends....

With a Bang!!! Pretty awesome, this is the first year this has happened. I've never been in the loop of the last minute filers because I just had my small set of clients and their stuff was long taken care of by this point. This year, because of my networking, I had a few business contact me to catch last years information up so taxes could be filed. And now that that is done I'll catch them up for this year so that the same thing doesn't happen again!
Honestly, I believe it is my Father's hand guiding this business. Some of the contacts and businesses I've picked up have been pretty spooky the way it's happened. Just pure happenstance that we were where we were at and the business came from it. I just need to keep doing my part because if I do then it will all work in the end, may not be what I envisioned necessarily but none the less it'll work. Just that it becomes pretty overwhelming at times! Networking, final year of raising a daughter, working, taking care of every day stuff, babysitting a absolutely adorable granddaughter. Time is at a premium! :)
Teagan is now pulling herself up to standing position where ever she can. She's a full 6 months now and heading into her 7th! Here's a few picture. :)  She was born April 12th.

8/11/12

9/22/12

 10/6/12

She is progressing so quickly!

Christina is enjoying her horse riding, although it's been a while since the horse is injured right now. :(

Bringing up to date

Tomorrow is my husbands birthday so I thought this would be a good update time! The last three months have been very very busy. Between work, having family visiting, babysitting my granddaughter and just general life the summer just flew by.  There were some awesome spiritual moments thrown in. That's still my main stay. I just love it when the feeling comes over me that it will truly be okay.

So I have to brag about that granddaughter! She's coming on 6 months soon. She's crawling everywhere and  is pulling herself up if you hold out your fingers. She'll hold on to them and stand up by herself, she's also starting to pull herself up onto furniture. She sits quite well by herself now. She can be a stinker though! That sleeping through the night... yep, not yet!!! And far from it! Poor Erika and Blake! (payback can be sweet! :)  )  JK..... maybe :)

Business has been going REALLY well. Especially this month. All that networking I've been doing this last year has really paid off and I'm starting to see the results. 3-5 events a week most weeks. It's tiring but the results are awesome! But on the other hand I really think that my Father has a lot to do with that as well. He's setting the opportunities there, it's up to me to follow through.

Do I miss Dave? You bet, but the sting is gone and life carries on. I often wonder what I'd do if he showed back up. I think that's something I need to leave in my Father's hands and if it ever happens, let Him lead my decision and words. I'm very thankful for what this last year and half plus has taken me through, it's shown me what and who is really important. I really wish it wasn't so hard for my kids or mother-in-law!

I'm thinking it's getting time to change the title of the blog and start posting some of those grandbaby pictures! Speaking of which!! :)  Here's one of my favorites. She was around 3 1/2 months here. Oh and it looks like she'll be a brown eyed red head! Grandpa's eye's and grandma's hair color. :)

Getting better!

Famous last words probably but I actually didn't have anxiety issues due to 4th of July until today. Much better then early last month when they showed up a couple of weeks before my birthday. I've been trying real hard to leave things in my Father's hands as well. It's so easy to just do/say what we want with no thought to how it affects others, or we have an idea of how it'll affect them but decide "I" am more important. I have very close and  personal experience with this and yet still find myself sometimes doing what I want with no thought as to what it might do to someone else. My tongue is actually what gets me in trouble the most!

We're still waiting for the divorce thing to go through. They ended up asking for more information. Information I'm pretty sure we've given them before. :(  But I just can't dwell on it because it cause that anxiety thing to build. Maybe by then end of the month???

We heard something today that's stuck with me. Having good soil isn't good enough, the good seed needs to be put into the soil for there to be fruit. There are many, many people that are truly good people but we also need to be righteous, be right with our Father. And the only way to truly be right with Him is to leave all in his hands and be obedient. And that typically means going against what our flesh would think is right, giving up our own will. It's so easy to sit here and type this but can be so hard to apply at times. But I've experienced that peace and comfort that comes with that willingness so why does the flesh still want to rule?  It's truly a daily and sometimes even minute by minute battle but oh so very worth it! I truly am one of the luckiest people! That rest and peace has been experienced, that feeling that comes over you all the sudden that despite all the chaos of life everything will indeed be all right. Love it!

Here's hoping the next post will be the next step!

Next step almost here

This morning is definitely a morning I wouldn't want to wish on anyone! My friend who's helping me with legal stuff and I went before a judge this morning. I'm not sure what the problem was but probably had something to do with me not knowing as much about the case as the judge felt I should. (I didn't have my case number memorized?) As it turned out SHE had the information that she was asking me for and she boy did she hound me for that information and asked why I didn't have it etc.  She had me swear that Dave wasn't military, raise the hand and everything. And I could be wrong and misunderstood her but when she had me swear that it really sounded like she said "Do you swear that he's in the military" of which i responded he is NOT in the military and gave my reasons. I guess if you're in the military than a longer time period for contact is allowed after posting a notice. She wouldn't allow my friend to stand with me. Of course my friend KNEW she had the information because she'd mailed it to her herself but the judge wouldn't allow her to say that. Luckily that gave me a clue of where to go. The good news is in the end she said she'd sign the papers after reading through them and making sure it was all in order. But oh boy, sure wish it hadn't happened on my birthday! But on the other hand it worked because there's no way I could have done any work after this mornings fiasco and since I'm taking the day off it worked out well. Pretty much lost it on the way home though and it's actually been quite a while since that happened while driving!

This has been a very hard step for me because I don't believe in divorce but legally I can't do things like sell his pickup unless there is a divorce to put it in my name. I can't sell the house unless he's off the deed. etc. I'm just very very thankful that I have one that is always there for me! A Father that I can always count on to help me through days like today. To everything there is a purpose and once again I learned where my strength comes from! And it's not me!!

Now the really cool thing.... Erika and Bobbie painted my family room/office yesterday! It looks so much better! And I got to spend some extended time with Teagan! Yesterday was an awesome day!

Getting perspective

I've had some struggles with anxiety recently with so much going on that I really have no control over. Talking with one of my aunts yesterday I realized that there are a least 4 major emotional things going on and it was no wonder there was anxiety. This morning when I woke up I then realized the reason the anxiety was trying to build so high was because I was trying to handle most of it myself. I should know after this last year and half that that doesn't work but it is absolutely amazing how subtly it happens. Yes there's a lot going on and humanly speaking it's perfectly normal for the anxiety to get bad, but when I have a Father that is there to step in and help me through there's no reason for the anxiety to get to where it was at. I love the help that my Sunday morning meeting was. Each has their struggles but there is so much spiritual help there because of those struggles. The biggest thing that we heard about and I need to work on is simple submission. I think I've mentioned in previous post about not taking back what I've given to my Father to handle. Well apparently I needed that reminder because that's what's happened in the recent weeks.  That's not submission, that's deciding that I want to do it my way and I'm to impatient to wait for my Father's will to be done. Here's another thought I've enjoyed the last couple of days from some notes I read. Sometimes we are overcome with laziness spiritually, that laziness looks like unwillingness but in reality it's not enough love. If I really love my Father and his son then I will WANT to do what's needed because when you love somebody you're willing to do whatever  is needed.

Then to really bring everything into perspective my brother called today and one of his friends has a husband (soon to be ex) that is in jail, and yesterday her 16 year old son committed suicide. I can't begin to imagine what that lady must be going through and it makes everything that I'm going through seem so insignificant. More perspective that I needed. Just as you think you've got it bad you hear something that makes you realize that it could be so much worse. I can't imagine losing one of my kids to suicide.

We all have our battles to go through. Some of them will be big life altering battles. This last year and half has hopefully been the one big life altering battle I'll have. Others will be small battles, am I going to get up early enough to gather spiritual thoughts to pull me through the day? or will I chose to sleep a little longer? A small battle but you know, in the end that could also be a life altering battle depending on what happens that day. Each battle fought and won with eternity in mind will get us closer and closer to the goal. A thought my cousin shared last Sunday, our souls will CRAVE the things of our Father when we pass to eternity just as our body craves the things of this earth while we're yet alive. We deny the natural craving of earthly things and allow spiritual work to be done instead and our souls craving in eternity will be forever fulfilled. I guess I'd better leave it at this!  (Still no contact)

Awesome job Christina!

Christina is soooo excited! For the second year running she gets to go to nationals for SkillsUSA in June!! She was the only contestant in the Advertising Design but the judge told her up front that if he felt that she didn't produce national level work then he wouldn't be giving her the 1st place medal. He apparently really liked what she did because she's off to nationals!! And to prove that she really can win with competition she got 1st place with the state pin design. She competed with between 7 and 10 students with that one. The teacher judging even picked Christina's design over some of her own students! Now comes the job of fund raising and looking for sponsors!

Is so wonderful to see Christina growing this year. This last year has been horrendously hard for her in every which way and things like this definitely give you a boost!! And to make matters even better Auntie Nancy was at the awards ceremony too!

New Baby!

My older daughter had her baby this evening! What a cutie she is (actually her mom is pretty cute too!). She is 6 lbs 15 oz's and 18 1/2" long. Interestingly enough her mom was pretty much exactly the same when she was born.  Between a couple of school friends and family there was quite the cheering section!

It was a pretty emotional time when the baby came. It kind of hit hard, Dave not being there to enjoy the moment of the first grandbaby. I'm thankful to see my younger daughter allowing those emotions to flow. One lady that came in didn't know about the situation and asked her when her dad would be there. That was hard!

But now there is a baby to spoil and to give heaps of love to! So thankful for all that we can enjoy