In Between Status Updates...

Oh my goodness. What a crazy season of life. Wow. I'm not even sure where I last left off with you all, it's just been insanity at the Thoreson household as far back as I can remember! I just checked and it's seriously been one full month since I blogged. my goodness, that's terrible. Swiss cheese holes in our history book simply won't do.

The big things... Well, I started working out. I know, that's huge. I got a lot of flack from both Lori and Kim over 'not being a person who works out', but I've been doing it almost daily for about three weeks now. It's been life changing. I'm super excited about it. My main goals are increased energy and less spongy abs, and thus far I can feel a big difference in both departments.

I'm continuing my course for credentialing with the A/G. I'm almost finished with this first course. I've got three of the four units complete and am well into the fourth unit. My goal is to finish by Friday, since on Friday I leave for Houston for the weekend to take another class. I'm excited to work with a group of people and have opportunity for discussion. I am excited to see the Tindols. I am not looking forward to the drive at all, since I just...

Drove across this great country of ours. Not exagerating. Two fridays ago I flew to Bemidji, MN for my grandmother's memorial service. It was bittersweet, complicated, and good closure over all. Lots of tears, lots of long heart-felt talks with God and extensive planning/goal setting to do things different in the future. Bemidji was, well, Bemidji is always stunning. The beauty of the lake was a soothing balm to my wounded soul. I had some amazing quiet times on the dock, just basking in God's glory. And one night I laid out on the deck for a good 3o minutes, soaking up the greatness of the stars. Wow. Amazing. What a gift in and amongst such heartache. God is so good, even when we are not.

One of the hardest but most meaningful moments in Bemidji was getting to scatter my grandfather's ashes in their most beloved lake just as the sun set. My aunt spread my grandma's and we did so simultaneously. Incredible.

It was also wonderful to see my family, especially all my siblings in one place. It had been three years since we were all together. I am so thankful for the time we had.

I spent Sunday just chilling with my mom. We attempted to go to church. We went to lunch together. Did a little shopping. Went to see 'Eat Pray Love'. Just slowed down to enjoy one another's company. It was great. I hadn't seen my mom since her annual snowbird trip last January. That is one of the hardest things about living all the way in Texas, it's just so far from my family and friends. gulp.

Rob and I recieved a gift of my grandmother's car. What an incredible blessing! We have not been a two car family for years! It's not your typical 85 year old's car. It's a 2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible, so it's been a definite joy to own thus far. I've decided that I may have a permanent case of convertible hair. LOL. I think of my grandma every time I ride with the top down, which is often!

Monday morning I was up and on my way with the sunrise. I clocked just under 500 miles and arrived in Ft. Dodge about 3pm.

It was so good to see Lori and meet precious baby Chloe. I had lots of baby-holding time and diaper changes. It's good to get a re-up every once in a while, keeps that baby desire in check, if you know what I mean. :) We did family photos, and Chloe photos. We scrapbooked, we shopped. Man, did we shop. We hit an 85% off sale at Younkers and I found 6 pairs of shoes for $58 including tax! I think Lori got 4 pairs for under $40. It was awesome. We had steak and corn on the cob and brie. It was so good to catch up and just sit together and be.

Wednesday I drove another 600 miles and landed in Oklahoma City. I spent the evening with my Aunt Char and Uncle Gary and my cousin Rob and his new fiance, Christy. What a delight that was! They went all out on an amazing dinner of steak and salad and sweet potato fries. mmmm. It was a wondeful time. (I accidently forgot my camera at the house, so pretend that their is a really cute photo of a very excited couple here!)

Thursday I beat the sun and drove the 500 miles home to San Antonio. I was so excited to see my family again. I got in about 2pm. We spent the evening together and then the next day Rob left for PK retreat. He got home super late last night, so I am greatly anticipating him coming home here shortly. It will be so nice to spend the evening as a family.

I do need to get the kids ready for school tomorrow. Which, I missed their first day. Actually their first week. And Rob had too much on his mind, so he forgot photos, but I did them on Friday. Love that my kids cooperated.

Don't these kids look grown up? It's killling me.. I also have a few from Sarah's birthday, which we mostly spent with teenagers at Incredible Pizza, but also a little with the Tindols that evening. It was a special day and I still can't believe she's six, but I'll get over it before she turns seven. :)

Speaking of our teenagers, we are loving what is going on at Shift. Two of the past three weeks, we've had 45 on Wednesday night, so that is awesome! God is really doing a work and it's an incredible honor to be serving Him through it. We pray it continues and students lives are changed!

So you can see that we've been a little on the crazy side. That's not all, I'm sure, but you get the general gist of things.. The long and the short of it, we love this life, even though it's insane and wonderful and fast paced and more than we can imagine. At this rate, we'll definitely be spent for Jesus when He takes us home one day! ;)

A Weekend With the Tindols...

We had such a blast hanging out with these folks again this weekend. I was so blessed that they'd come so far and spend four days with us. It was Jen's birthday, so we celebrated in style with fettucini alfredo and strawberry salad and garlic rolls, topped off with earthquake cake. yum. And the major highlight of the weekend had to be Sarah's water baptism. It was so neat that Bart and Jen and Ethan and Grace could be there to share in the experience. What a precious time we all had.

Undone...

I haven't slowed to blog lately. God is still doing such wonders in my heart and mind, my heart continually overflows with His goodness and it's a shame to not share it with the world.

We returned from vacation and drove right to the church (before home even) to drop the kids at Kids Night Out. The welcome we recieved was wonderful, and the joy we felt, well, it was unmatched when we pulled into our garage later that evening. Our little condo is safe, clean, and comfortable, but it's truly not half the home that CT has been to us already. Leaving and returning to San Antonio just solidified that 'home' feeling I'd been missing. Doesn't God bless you like that sometimes?

We spent Saturday keeping house, doing laundry, and prepping for Sunday. Sunday, as we drove to church, our car began smoking. (maybe the 1800 mile trip had done it in?) Turns out, the air conditioning compressor had given out. It's the second time in just over two years. Further investigation realized that the repair was going to be $1852 plus tax. wow, right? So we'd just go without, it's not that hot... Nope, the thing runs on a serpantine belt, so it's all connected to the engine. The compressor will cease (I almost said freeze, but NO, it would never freeze here in South Texas, ha ha). In the midst of this storm, our sweet babysitter unknowingly threw the 'blind' lock on the front door, and our remote was in the car at the mechanic's, which was locked in a 6 foot barbed wire/chain link fence 10 minutes before we got there. So $200 to the locksmith later, we were in the house.

The beauty of this whole situation is that because of God and Dave Ramsey (not my brilliant financial planning) we had this money set aside in our emergency fund account. I was very not thrilled about spending it, but so thankful that it didn't have to go on a credit card. After tons of prayer and multiple phone calls to the Saturn repair center and the Saturn customer service center, they decided to fix it for the labor charge, and warranty the new compressor. So we squeaked away with a $360 repair, it never even touched our savings. Still an expensive week, but not at $2k week, and I'm in awe of God's hand in my life once again. Plus, we used it as an opportunity to share with our students. They prayed with us about the repair cost, and then rejoiced with us about God's provision. It was a really cool learning experience for all of us.

Also, I started working in the church office last week as a secretary. I can tell already that I'm absolutely going to love working there. We have a truly great staff and I'm so blessed to be a part of it.

On a more difficult note, my grandmother, Ann Marie, is slowly slipping into eternity. She's been diagnosed with brain cancer since April. The radiation treatments she did in May did not appear to fight it at all. My brave and strong mother has spent the last 3 months as her constant care giver. It's been so difficult to watch from a distance and feel so helpless. I've prayed and prayed and prayed some more. Sometimes I feel like I'm all prayed out. I know that God's will will ultimately be done. I just pray that my grandma knows Jesus the way I know Jesus. I feel a lot of regret about my less than relationship with her, and a lot of weak excuses like time and distant seem pretty trivial in the light of eternity. So I continue to pray for her, for my mom, for our family as we walk through this together. My grandma is 85, she's lived a long and happy life. I just pray that she truly knows the Lord, and that He would make her transition into the next life easy and painless. I pray that she knows how much I love her and that I wish we could have done things differently.

I'm continuing to work on my Berean Bible classes. I'm well over half finished with my first course, Synoptic Gospels. It's been so brain-expanding. I'm really in awe of all these areas of my life and the way God is circling them all together. I've experienced one other similar experience to this in my life; while I was in college, all my classes that semester seemed to flow into one another and I could literally feel my brain burgeoning to fit all the new information. I feel like that's once again doing in my life, using all these experiences, even the ebbing of my grandmother's life to teach me more about Him.

I cannot even begin to express to you how grateful I am for His Spirit. I encourage you, if you have not recieved the gift of the Holy Spirit, don't give up. If you haven't asked for it, DO. I feel like my life has been set on fire since April and my initial infilling. I say initial because I exercise this gift on a near daily basis. I can't begin to explain the peace that it brings me, and the power for Christian living and witness I feel when I exercise it. It's not a gimmick, it's not a fake, it's not silly. It's truly the supernatural in me and I am continually grateful for it. I can feel the annointing on my life growing daily and I am in awe... absolutely in AWE of God's inifinite power and wisdom and self-emptying love. Don't wait another day to ask Him to fill you, and then press in and wait for it. Believe for it. The infilling of the Holy Spirit is the best gift ever.

(photo taken September 2007 at the family cabin in Bemidji, MN)

Family Reunions and Family Vacations

(written about 10 days ago on the way back from Kansas)

We are flying south, heading back to Texas and back to life as normal, whatever that may be. And I am wishing that I had taken time to write down all the precious moments that took place this week, so that I could store them up in my heart forever. My memory continually fails me, but I will try. Moments like...

Camping out as a family for the first time. We so loved the pop-up we rented. But were super impressed with Chris's RV set up too.

Watching seven cousins between the ages of 3 and 12 romp and play and laugh; delighted to discover that blood is thicker than water.

Witnessing three of the most fantastic sunsets known to man on Lake Milford, twice with rain sweeping across the lake.

Early morning coffee in camp chairs with my brother, his wife and Rob.

Watching my dad jump off the boat in the middle of the lake to swim with his grandkids.

Late night campfires and smores until we were too full to stuff another one in.

Adult conversations into the night after the kids were safely snuggled in bed, with the awkward realization that now we are the adults and we can stay up as late as we want.

Lots and lots of hugs and exclamations of "I'm so glad we did this" and "this was so worth the drive" and "let's plan another reunion next year".

So you can tell that it was a precious time. I feel like we seized an opportunity to share with our children a bit of the love we enjoyed with our family growing up and it excites me that we'll try again next year. It was so restorative and wonderful for all the relationships involved. It's neat to take the mantle of responsibility of connecting off the shoulders of the older generation in our family and begin to carry it ourselves. This is one responsibility I do not want to fail at.

It was a blessed time. Lots and lots of photos, but many more precious memories. We are heading home with full hearts.

a Week of Rob.

yep, that tells you all you need to know about this week. The kids were with Grammy and Papa, and as a result I got a ton of work done and enjoyed tons of quality time with my favorite youth pastor.

Next, we are enjoying the Independence Day picnic and then we are headed out to pick up our beautiful kids. Monday morning we make the rest of the trek (with a scheduled Taco John's and HyVee stop) to Milford, KS for our family reunion. I am so excited, it's going to be a wonderful week of family, sun, lake, and food. the best.

The Big Catch..

again, my life is jammed on the fast forward button, or so it seems. It's such a wild ride, but I am truly loving almost every minute of it. :)

Things are good. Very good. So good that I haven't paused to catch my breath or blog about it. Shame on me, I know. But here I am today, pushing aside my TWO PAGE to do list (for this week I've abandoned the daily list and am instead resorting to a 'for the week' list because most of the projects are simply too big to be contained in one day!) and pausing to prioritize a few moments with you, our little Thoreson family history blog.

Gosh, I've missed the quiet reflection of blogging lately. And it's really sad, God has been doing so much in our lives these past few months, it's a pity not to have a solid record of it. I'm trying to think where I last left off. Well, we've mostly been throwing ourselves into our work here at CT.

Last week we spent Father's Day at church. We gave Rob a healthy Starbucks gift card, a golfing towel with the CT logo on it, and some money towards golf shoes. (did I mention he's decided to be a golfer?) That evening we spend with a couple at church and we really hit it off. I can tell our families are going to be long term friends and that's pretty cool.

Monday we took 15 students to Six Flags for the entire day. We pretty much rode every rollercoaster in the park and exhausted ourselves completely. It was great, we bonded with a lot more of our students, especially the ones who hadn't made it to camp.

Tuesday I spent medicating my back pain for Monday's adventures. Also doing laundry and prepping for the weekend's insanity. Oh, and I participated in a study on the relationship with glossolalia (speaking in tongues - yeah, that was a new word to me too) believers and personality for a gal who is working on her doctoral thesis. It was a bit of a commitment, an IQ test, a personality test, and a survey about my experiences with the Holy Spirit. Sadly, I won't recieve the results of any of the tests, too bad, I really stressed over that IQ test.

Wednesday I took the kids to library story hour and then hosted a couple of students at our house watching HSM3. We wrapped up the day with an incredible youth service, then went with a few people to McDonald's for a late supper. Got home and pulled together a couple photo orders, while talking to students on FB, stayed up way to late.

The next morning we took the kids to New Braunfels to hang with the Hayes family while Rob and I spent the next 3 days in Rockport, TX at staff retreat. It was awesome and I am pinching myself to be a part of this staff and this church. God is doing some awesome stuff. Saturday we got home, got the kids, unpacked and repacked for their grandma adventure. The usual Sunday routine was great, spent a lot of quality time with a lot of quality people, had a great lesson on 'Posing Spiritually' and heard two great sermons. Monday am the kids and I were up early and headed to to McKinney, TX to make the drop with Grandma. 13 hours in the car yesterday and I rewarded myself today sleeping in till 9.

Now that I'm home I'm focusing this week on my first Berean class, Synoptic Gospels and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's really fun to discuss what I'm learning with Rob. I was hoping to complete this first course this week, but it looks like that may have to be an act of God... I've got a shoot this afternoon and that will put me two sessions behind in editing. I'm also trying to catch up on housekeeping and laundry. Need to get packing for next week's adventures too,. :)

So you can see why it's a big deal that I stopped to write all this down, right? :)

We've spent a good bit of time as a family too, the summer is slipping away far too quickly. Hard to believe that this weekend is July 4th already and summer is half way over. wow. We leave for our family vacation/reunion on Sunday, and I can't believe it's already here, but in another way it feels like we've been planning it forever. I am sad at how many people have had to drop out. I understand they all have valid reasons, but it bums me out that family togetherness has become so unimportant for so many of us. Me included often times. I am really excited to spend some quality time with my dad and brothers and cousins and aunts and uncles. It's going to be really special, we'll definitely create some priceless memories.

And then when we return, I start working at the church as a secretary. That will be an adjustment for all of us, for sure. I'll start 3 days a week, but I'm sure that will be a dramatic change in our household.

I've tried to pause and play with the kids with this in mind, library time, playgrounds, lots of family time at Six Flags. I'm a little in awe of going back to work so close to full-time after so many years mostly home, but Rob and I have really prayed about it and feel like this is the job and the time to do it, so we are trying it. :) Might be interesting fitting it around photography, Berean, and family, but God is my supplier and He hasn't failed me once yet.

A couple photos from our adventures...

Father's Day @ CT.

The youth group at Six Flags. They are such great kids. :)

The staff in front of Crab N, where we ate the first night. Fantastic shrimp, mmmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking of it.

A photo of Rob and I on the ferry as we crossed over to Port Aransas. It was such a beautiful night, I'll never forget it.

see what I mean? Unforgettable.

Of course, catching this giant flounder didn't hurt the unforgettability factor either! :)

feeling very blessed to be a part of this great team of people. :) And amazed that they feel that way about us, too!

Last but not least, check out these Thoreson cousins!! Gage reminds me so much of Rob's brother Matt, it just breaks my heart. Good to see him doing so well. I'm praying they are having a blast this week together. Praying for Grammy and Papa too, that they aren't too overwhelmed!

A Great Day...

So enjoyed my family today, they are amazing. We went to Landa Library, which is my new favorite SA location to shoot.. Came home for lunch (being wise financially after kicking Chase to the curb) and then after an afternoon of Star Wars and editing, we did a Lowes/Office Max/Target run for my Jesus printer and a desk lamp, and light bulbs and other misc. supplies. Found an amazing green adirondack chair, only it's vinyl, at Lowes. It's going to make a great prop for ATP, I'm sure!

Feeling very blessed to be a part of such a great family this evening.. Now if only Sarah would go to bed...