funny story from tonight

So, a bunch of us went out for Caela's birthday tonight--a bunch of our friends and tons of Nic's family! While we were sitting at the Blue Fox, the following conversation went down and I just had to share it:

Caela: Josh, are you excited to walk down the aisle with Melanie?!
(brief interruption: I am Caela's maid of honor, Josh is Nic's brother and he's the best man--Josh also happens to be like a big, tall dude--think 6'5 maybe??--and I, of course, am barely 5'2...just so you can picture this)
Josh: Yeah! It's gonna be like the circus
Caela: The circus???
Josh: Yeah..."now introducing....The Giant and The Midget!"


The sad/funny thing is...it will ACTUALLY look like that!

I trust Him

You know, I used to think believing in God and trusting in God were the same thing.

Turns out I was wrong.

I have believed in God my entire life. I love Him. I love being comforted by the fact that I will someday meet Him. I believe He has a plan for everyone and everything. I believe that God knows the ins and outs of our entire being. I believe He knows why I am where I am in my life right now. I believe He, in fact, put me in this exact place. I believe He knows what's next. I don't know but He knows—and He knew before I even existed on this Earth.

But the thing is—while I have always believed in God, I just could never fully trust Him. I digress. I couldn't trust myself—and because I couldn't trust myself, I couldn't allow myself to trust Him. Which is crazy, right? How can you believe in someone and not trust them? How can you believe that they have a plan for you but not trust in that very plan?

How could I?

The honest answer is 'I don't know'. I really don't. All I know now is that I do trust God. I trust Him completely and unabashedly. I trust in His plan for me. I trust that He is guiding me in the right direction. I trust my future in His hands. I trust Him with my life.

I've never been able to say that honestly before. You know, because back then I thought belief and trust were the same thing. Turns out I was wrong. But it's never felt so good to figure out the right.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and
the truth and the life.”
John 14:6

*song of the moment*

I *love* this song...

Natasha Bedingfield-Wild Horses

I feel these four walls closing in
Face up against the glass
I'm looking out, hmm
Is this my life I'm wondering
It happened so fast
How do I turn this thing around
Is this the bed I chose to make
There's greener pastures I'm thinking about
Hmm, wide open spaces far away

All I want is the wind in my hair
To face the fear but not feel scared

Wild horses, I wanna be like you
Throwing caution to the wind, I'll run free too
Wish I could recklessly love like I'm longing to
I wanna run with the wild horses
Run with the wild horses, oh

I see the girl I wanna be
Riding bare-back, care-free
Along the shore
If only that someone was me
Jumping head-first, head-long
Without a thought
To act and damn the consequence
How I wish it could be that easy
But fear surrounds me like a fence
I wanna break free

All I want is the wind in my hair
To face the fear but not feel scared

Ooh, wild horses I wanna be like you
Throwing caution to the wind, I'll run free too
Wish I could recklessly love like I'm longing to
I wanna run with the wild horses
Run with the wild horses, oh

I wanna run too

recklessly abandoning myself before you

I wanna open up my heart, tell him how I feel

Wild horses, I wanna be like you
Throwing caution to the wind
I'll run free too
Wish I could recklessly love, like I'm longing to
I wanna run with the wild horses,
run with the wild horses, run with the wild horses

I wanna run with the wild horses

Padre Ramblings

So I was reading through Stef's blog today about Cole's allergies when this conversation happened...

me: weird! did you know that the flu vaccine has egg in it??
padre: yeah
me: no you didn't
padre: sure I did
me: no you did not
padre: what did I know again?
me: that's what I thought

conversation of the week

me: Noah, do you want 5 chicken fingers and 2 fish sticks?
Noah: umm...no, I want 5 chicken fingers and 2 fish sticks please

Wordless Wednesday

the difference between moms and dads

So, I basically spent this whole past weekend babysitting--which, to be honest, is fine with me. I love that I get to paid to hang out with some pretty great kids--in fact, sometimes it seems unfair that I get paid to hang out with some pretty great kids.

I had Noah and Hanna on Saturday for about 12 hours--when I'm with them for that long, we usually end up going to play at Eagle's Nest and then they get McDonalds for dinner--they love it! So, on Saturday, off we went to play at Eagle's Nest...Noah just turned 6 so when we get there, he's usually off the whole time only periodically coming back to check and make sure Hanna is having fun. Hanna is almost 16 months so we stay in the little kid area--she is quite capable of playing by herself in there but I like to stay close just in case.

Anyways, while we were there, I noticed the difference between moms and dads. Now, I know that this is simply not true for all parents. In fact, I'm sure it's probably not even true for most parents--but, for these parents on this Saturday, it all rang true!

• Moms play, dads sit. It seemed like the dads brought their kids to Eagles Nest so they could entertain themselves and they could just play on their phone er, sit and watch. The moms on the other hand were more actively playing with their kids. Now, I do know that a lot of parents come to Eagles Nest because their kids can play by themselves (heck, when I take just Noah I even bring a book to read while he plays) but when you have a child that 12 months and can barely walk (if at all), you kind of need to interact with them a little...
• Onto the ball pit. In the younger kids section, there's a big ball pit for them to play in. But, for some of the even younger ones, they can't get in and out on their own. I noticed on Saturday (and the last time we were there), that if a child comes up to the ball pit and you're already there with your kid, moms have no fear of just picking up the kid that wants to play in the ball pit and dropping them in. But not dads! The dads look around--searching, I'm sure, for the parent that will come over and put their own child in the ball pit--or at least for the parent who says it's okay for them to put their child in the ball pit. And, once they can't find said parent, they feel very uneasy touching someone else's child--so they tend to just let that child sit outside the ball pit and watch all the other kids playing. It's actually kind of funny to watch.
• Moms will talk to anyone under the sun. They can strike up a conversation with any parent that's there. Dads tend to avoid eye contact and only speak when spoken to--they even seem to stay on their phones while their child is playing just so they don't have to talk to anyone else.
  

Alright, that's all I can think of for now. I noticed more but it's been a few days and 24 just came on so I can't focus!