This week

This week is our last class(es) for this cluster!!! I can't wait for it to be over already. I am making hot wings for Pat to take with him to class tomorrow night to share. These people think they can handle hot wings, well they've never had MY hotwings. It's my great grandma's recipe, and although it's super simple, it's VERY hot! I told him he should take a box of tissues, too so they'll have something to use when they start sweating and their nose starts running. I have a presentation to give on Tuesday night and then a final to take on Wednesday. The nice thing about my final is that I have an A in that class right now and last class the professor told us what we needed to get on our final in order to get the grade we want in the class. Fortunately, to get an A in the class, I have to get a B on the final, but if I want a B in the class, I can get a D on the final and still be good! That's good news for me. I've averaged B's on all the tests I've taken in that class, so I'm optimistic!
This past week, I've had four people contact me about doing pictures for them. One is for senior pictures, one is for a one year old's easter pictures, and two are weddings. God has been blessing us continually even though Pat hasn't gotten a job yet! I was able to pick up more hours at work last week and then all these people are interested in getting pictures done. I am so glad that we trust in God, who is bigger than our problems, has bigger plans for us, and takes care of us always!
I also took some more pictures of the kids last week whenever it was warm outside...enjoy!

Photo Session

So I bribed the kids last night with candy, ring pops from grammy and papa Doug. I decided I wanted some new pictures of them for our living room so I told them if they were good and cooperated, they could have their heart shaped ring pops. It didn't start off very well, but it ended well. I am hoping that once it gets nice out and stops raining, I can get some good ones of them outside, those are my favorite!

News Blues

So we are all moved into our new place and we all like it. It's quiet, the kids can run around outside and it's so nice having a garage! The "blues" part is that Pat still hasn't found anything job wise yet and we're still waiting. I am trying to pick up as many hours as I can in the meantime, so if anyone knows of anywhere that's hiring, please let us know. We only have 3 more weeks in the current cluster we're in and thank goodness for that! So far, I have straight A's in all four classes, so we'll see how it turns out in the end. Other than that, we're just trying to get adjusted and get unpacked. Pretty soon we're going to have a "housewarming/come see our new place" kind of get together where we can grill some food, play some games and just have a good time! I can't wait for all of you to see it!

It's official

Well it's official. We got the house! I know to many of you, having a garage is not that exciting but we are STOKED! We, and by that I mean Pat, is SUPER excited about not having to carry groceries up 3 flights of stairs anymore. We can pull in the garage, get out without getting rained on and be able to carry groceries right into the kitchen...YEA!!! I am so amazed at what God still does for us everyday. Pat lost his job, we had to be out of our apartment by the 28th and weren't sure where we were going, but we knew one thing was for sure. God's hand was in this and He was taking care of us this entire time. The easy thing to do would have been to give up on the house, be discouraged with Pat losing his job and just giving up hope and try to do things our own way but we constantly prayed and continued to be faithful and believe that God would show us where he wanted us to move. I can't tell you how much my faith has grown in the past 5 years. Pat and I have seen our ups and seen our downs and I'm so grateful that through it all God was there. He was there pushing us, He was there holding our hand and at times he was carrying us through. We are moving into this house within the next week, unsure of what God has planned for a job for Pat, but we are SURE that he has something and in His timing, Pat will have something amazing! We did our part so that God can do His and I am so excited to see what God has in store for us next!

NEW

Check out my new website thanks to a marketing class that I had, a lot of time and hard work and of course Jonathan Robertson!

www.harmoniousportraits.com

For those of you that don't know

We decided to go to the science center yesterday and have a little fun. For those of you that don't know, Pat just lost his job, so he's now on the job hunt. However, we have hope and trust in God that He will continue to take care of us and do great things! I uploaded some pictures from the Science Center:

Jehovah-jireh

Being young, having two kids and trying to finish up on school is tough. We don't' make a lot of money, actually combined we make less than $30,000/year. However we make it work and even though we don't have all the things we would like to, we still feel very blessed! We have a place to live, two healthy children, a nice car, and we have the love of our friends and family. Everything else is just the details of life. Every once in a while I feel overwhelmed, wonder where the money will come from to pay some of our bills but then I stop and pray and remember that God is in charge and He always takes care of us. Thinking back, I can not think of a single time where we were desperate and God didn't come through. He always comes through and usually in a really big and unexpected way. This year's tax season was no different.
When Pat got his W2, I started worrying a little bit since he claims "4" and they only took out $55.00 in federal taxes last year. I, on the other hand, wasn't having any taxes taken out because I didn't make enough, so I had them with hold $50/paycheck just in case. I didn't want to owe anything at the end of the year and so when I saw Pat's W2, I started stressing. I made sure to calm myself, pray and trust that God was in control and he was going to take care of this. I just knew we were going to owe money to the IRS and on top of trying to move (which is expensive), and working less hours (Sam's is cutting hours) and Pat's company is soon going to move to a further location which means more gas money and so on. These are the things that started going through my head. Thank goodness we are children of God!
For the past 3 years we have taken our taxes to The Old Tax House in O'Fallon. Even though our taxes aren't that difficult to do, they do a good job and honestly it's not something I want to mess with. I would rather pay the money to have someone else do them. Anyway, they have a thing where you can drop them off and then when they're finished, they call. To my surprise, I dropped them off on Tuesday and received the phone call that they were finished on Thursday. We went and picked them up. I about fell on the floor when I realized not only do we NOT owe any money, but the refund we are going to get is phenomenal. It is so true that you can never outgive God!!!