The week that felt like a month...

I had someone tell me the other day that March is considered the start of Texas spring. I about fell over...Really?? I have a hard time believing it, but the weather, and the flowers blooming tell me that spring is not that far away. Feel like my seasons are off...Is it sad to say I miss Mud season?

 I have been up to so much this past week that I hardly know where to start my adventures. 

Maybe a good place to start would be the church youth retreat called Reverb that Tyler and I both went to as leaders this last weekend. Our church hosts every year a youth weekend filled with speakers and group discussions and fun things to do. I have to say that it reminded me of the retreats that we did back home only we called them Snow Camp...there was no snow here, so it felt a little weird and out of place. What an awesome adventure it was though! Tyler lead a group of 8th grade boys with his friend, Joey. I'm not going to lie, they had a rough group. God, I think, really stretched Tyler's patience and ability to not get angry over the weekend. 

I lead a group of 9th grade girls with Bonnie and Abby. Bonnie and Abby have many of the girls in their week to week group, so for the group as a whole, everyone was pretty much comfortable with everyone else. So our group discussions were super good. I could really see how God was working in each of those girl's hearts over the weekend and I was encouraged.

Our speaker and pastor, Skeet, spoke a lot on the need of understanding our sin, God's holy anger against sin, our need to be saved, and our need to spread the word beyond just our selves. He was very specific in his examples and really hit home for most of these kids. I saw the girls in my group struggle with truth of what Skeet said. 

I feel so blessed to have been apart of the weekend. I have missed being apart of camping now since I left Camp Redcloud to plan my wedding. To be reminded that God is faithful to renew strength at 1:30 in the morning, to be reminded that He guides what we say, etc....It brought it all fresh in my mind of God's goodness to bring me exactly where He wanted me.

which one will be ours?

One of the hardest things about the weekend was knowing that my husband was leaving the day after the program ended to go on a four day business trip to Louisiana. I found myself having to lay yet again everything at my Lord's feet, because I knew if I let it get me down, I would miss chances to serve and minister.

So I guess that brings me to my second adventure.....Being alone in the apartment. Day one of Tyler leaving I was a wreck. I didn't really stop being a wreck until I realized that I had things to do. Than things got a little better. I found through out the week, if I focused on things I needed to do, then I wouldn't focus on missing my hubby. That worked fairly well, until it came about the time that Tyler would come home. 

Is it this one?

I first tried to bring Tyler's parents cat, Sadie, home with me. Not sure really what I was thinking. She immediately took to our apartment like it was her home. All seemed great until the following morning at 4 am she started talking. I am pretty sure she is part Siamese, because that breed often talks alot. My Father-in-law usually gets up at that time, so I can only imagine that was why she started making so much noise. Needless to say, She went back to their house that morning.  

Or this one?

Second evening, God was so good to give us a small group that I could go to. We ate dinner and talked and prayed together. I felt so at peace. Well that is until I got home. I hoped the garage door and low and behold staring back at me was a large cockroach. I am not sure why, but cockroaches freak me out and yet at the same time make me really mad. So I grab a shoe and I take off after it. A minute or so later I think I got it...by then however my adrenaline is going like crazy! I was so worked up about a bug. So then, I get up stairs and it was like, once your in hunt mode, every where you look, every shadow there is a big bug lurking. I definitely had to laugh at myself later...because...really...a cockroach is food for another animal in the food chain...

or this one?

There were many other things I tried to divert myself from missing my dear husband, but I finally realized day two or day three of him being gone, that I wasn't truly resting in God and trusting Him. Tyler had become my security blanket. Tyler being home had become my routine. I could call on him if I needed help with anything. I could cry, or talk, or laugh with him. I could hang out with him when I wanted to be near someone. I kept on thinking of all the things I relied on Tyler for...correction....still some times do now....and it amazed me. Those things I named and more were the things that God wants me to trust Him with. No human can hold up the weight of that kind of responsibility. Only God can! Now the true test of what I have learned will come when Tyler heads off shore for two weeks at a time in a month or so. But I am confident that God will be with both of us as we work through that.

Blaze is actually moving forward!

I think her smile speaks volumes!

 While Tyler was gone, I got a chance to go to Sandy Creek with my friend, Susanna again:) YAY!!! This time, we started from the beginning pushing Blaze. Last time I wrote, I had talked about how hard it had been for her and how discouraging. I decided to take the time and coach her through some tools to help her better ride Blaze. I can't explain what an amazing change I saw in both horse and rider! We worked on halt, walk, and trot transitions and just teaching her to anticipate when he was about to turn into the rail and when he was going to stop. She got him to do alot! We even got a couple good trot to canter transitions. The best part of it all was seeing her enjoy riding.

Or maybe one of these?

hummm....

My last and final word is a bit exciting.. We are getting our puppy this next weekend! We can't wait to bring our little guy home:) Its going to take a lot of work the first couple of months to get him potty trained, but we are excited to take on the adventure:)We find out this next weekend which pup we will bring home...Pray that we will get the right one!:) We are just so excited to bring this little addition home. I feel like we are bringing our first kid home:) Well it is a start...first comes the dog...than some day down the road a baby...with time....:)

Well I hope you are all well.

God bless

Jules