Pearls & Peridots

So – as many of you already know – Dave has an issue with weddings. Well – jewelry in generally actually – but the wedding ring thing is an issue. He hates wearing rings but it bothers me a lot when he doesn’t. It’s actually something we’ve fought about a lot over the years.  He’ll feel bad so he’ll wear it and then after a few days he’ll take it off while he’s working in the shop or whatever and forget about it. We’ve gone through 4-5 rings already because he loses them lol.

Anyway – a while back we had been watching TV and there was a news story about some celebrity that had their wedding band tattooed on and I remember making a comment at the time about how you’d have to know you were seriously committed to do that cause you can’t ever take it off.

Sp anyway, last week Dave announced that he had an appointment with a tattoo artist on Saturday. When I asked him why he told me he had decided that since he was in this thing forever, he might as well show it so he wanted to get a ring tattoo.  He had a few design ideas based on a Celtic braid idea but while we were looking online I saw a couple who had each other’s initals tattooed on their ring fingers and commented that I thought that was cute. An hour later, he comes back with a new design the combined his Celtic braid with my initial. I just about bawled lol – I’m a mush like that.

So my man has been branded (his words lol). Forever.

Ariel has such an amazing heart for God. Logically I know this – she has most of her life – and yet sometimes it still astounds me! She is currently part of The Plunge – which is basically an “advanced sunday school” type of thing. What they’ve done is taken middle school kids who are ready to go deeper into God’s word and created a Wednesday night to do exactly that. It has been amazing to see her grow as she learns more about who God is, how to hear Him and so much more!

So last week Ariel had a dream. For those who know Ariel – she has powerful dreams. It’s one of her gifts. We’ve seen God do many things in her life through dreams. Anyway, we had just had a baptism weekend just before and she had a dream were she was on the stage during a baptism but she was making a huge mess because she had brought tons of bags of garbage with her. Then she was baptised and the garbage disappeared.

Wow right?

So she’s been doing listening prayer about it for the last few days and has decided she wants to get baptised. She understands what it means and what it symbolizes – I think more so then I did when I got baptised at 21! I am so unbelievable proud of her as she prepares to take this step.

And yes – I will post time and date when they are available.

As Ariel works through her decisions, I am struggling with one of my own. Watching her make this step with such seriousness, with so much prayer, is challenging for me. I was 21 when I got baptised and at the time I was involved in a extra-marital affair. My heart was desperate to prove to myself that I was not a bad person, that I still had good in my. My reason for getting baptised was not to show obedience to God but rather to prove to myself that I wasn’t all bad. The affair was ended shortly after because I believe that despite my wrong motives, the baptism still did away that “old man” and gave me a strong desire to put things right. But anyway – watching Ariel goes through this has made me think about my own baptism and my motives and wonder if I should consider going through the baptism process with the correct motives – out of obedience to God.

It is something I plan to pray about for a while yet. I don’t want to do it now because this is Ariel’s time and I want to cherish that moment with her first. But God is putting this heavy on my heart that I need to deal with this in the future.

2008 Family Lodge Pic:)

2007 Family Lodge Pic:)

We didn’t think to take one in 2006:(

Bonfires & Weiner Roasts:)

You can’t spend a week at the lodge without a few wiener roasts:) We ate more marshmallows this week then I have eaten in the last year, lol. Here are a few of my favorite pics once again:

Dave’s Birthday:)

Thursday was Dave’s birthday and I completely forgot to bring things to make a cake so we picked up a can of peaches, a white cake mix and a package of dream whip at the lodge. I made the cake using cut up peaches instead of oil and then topped it with more peaches and dream whip. It was amazing! Jordan came down for the day to fish with Dave, which was a nice treat for Dave. Of course, it was the only day of the week that we had rain but it was minor. We had about 2-3 spots of rain, none of which lasted more then a few minutes, and otherwise it was perfect fishing weather.

It appears that I have become a weekend blogger, lol. Probably because between work, baseball, the house and the kids there just isn’t blogging time during the week. But – you won’t hear much from me this weekend. On Wednesday night we had a thunderstorm and a bolt of lightning took out our router, so I am internet-less until they come fix it on Monday. Try not to miss me to much, lol.