Sue is home! She came home from the hospital last Saturday and we are so thankful. We got to see her at the Baptism Picnic on Sunday. The kids were so excited to see her. I had to warn them several times not to knock her over. They were so sweet hugging her gently. We still pray for her daily and thank the Lord she can be home. She's home for another week or two before heading back to the Clinic for more treatment. Please don't stop Praying! God IS being glorified in her daily life!

We went on Saturday to the Carnation Days parade which was very fun. It was also very hot and very long though. :) After that we left to go to my mom's house to see great grandma & grandpa Cline, Aunt Toots, Uncle Steward, Lauren and Michaela. It was a fun day, but a long day. I was very happy we decided to come home and I could sleep in my own bed, though I know i'd have slept great in my mom's bed because she's got SUCH a nice one! This week we mostly ended up staying home. We've gone from "freaking hot" to "raining again?" in weather so it's been an inside-the-house kind of week. It's been nice though.

We found out last week about a house for sale in the area for a very reasonable price so we decided to check it out. We liked it but didn't love it and it's going up for auction next week. We felt like to make a quick descision we needed to look at some comparables so we looked at 3 more in addition to that one. Of course we found one we fell in love wiht, of course it's the biggest and the most expensive. We've been doing a lot of number crunching and don't think it's going to work out. The utilities are VERY high which means a new furnace on top of the fact that we don't know if we could even get them to accept an offer in our price range. It's priced above what we can afford. We're SO sad! The first house we're definately not getting because it's just not right for us at this time. It could be but we don't want to make a rush desision and the way this particular acution is set up, it poses too much risk for what we feel comfortable with. We certainly don't NEED a new house! The other two we saw were too small. If we move from here we don't want to pay more for the same space and more work. We'll see what the Lord brings along but for now we're back to practicing joy and contentment with where we are at.

This week I also have been mourning with a friend over the loss of her first baby. I"m just devistated for her and wish so much I could be there to hug her and cry with her. I cry with her here but it's not the same... it just breaks my heart. This is one of those things that shows me again how limited my human mind is. God is so much bigger than we can ever comprehend and his ways are also beyond what we can comprehend. The things I'm watching my friends go through just tear me apart inside but I see them all forge on, grasping onto nothing but blind faith and it reminds me what a mighty God we serve. We don't understand him and even dare question him, but his love and mercy are just as abundant as his justice. I need to learn that of God and work to be more like him in my mothering. Sometimes we get caught up in the "justice" and forget the "mercy" and "patience".

I also have a friend in the hospital right now with a blood clot in her brain. She has 4 kids. Why is trusting God and waiting on him sometimes so hard?

To end with a smile I wanted to share something cute. Tyler's memory verses right now are the fruits of the spirit. I got this idea from my friend Kathie. Each "fruit" is assigned a plastic fruit from our food bin and so when we recite the verse we use the fruits. Grace wants to be a part of everything and since she learned "Ba Ba Black Sheep" in one day when I was doing it with Tyler I decided to try to let her be there for the verse time and see what she could do. She's learning it just as well as him! The problem is though that she gets her words confused in play now. We had a picnic the other day and she gave me the carrot and said "Mommy, here a peace for you!" She's so stinking cute!