Greater Impact a Joyous Ouch.

Greater Impact is the name of the GCC building campaign. Last night we had a commitment dinner. The food was great. :) But that's not what it was all about. The past couple of sermon series, have really been speaking to us. I think the best place to start would be the sermon on living with less. There are so many things we have that we don't need and could defiantly live without. Some of those things are debts that we don't need and if we got rid of them we could put that money to better use. I have always wanted to be able to bless people in different ways but have always felt held back because of budget reasons. So Jake and I have really been trying to get rid of the unnecessary things. We are right now in the process of getting rid of our van, oh how I hate to say that. I love our van, it is sooooo perfect for us. But you know it is an unnecessary debt. That we could live without. The money that we pay each month to out van note could go to a much better use.
Then we move on to the Greater Impact. Were we have been asked to make a 3 year commitment to give to the building fund. We have been challenged to pray and ask God what he would have us give. Big or small. I think the best way I have heard it put was from the speaker last night. He was talking about a campaign that they were asked to do for there church and how there were talking about there giving being a sacrifice. So said he was asking his 2 sons what the word sacrifice means to them in one word. His oldest, type "A" son he called him, said "Ouch". His youngest, type "Z", said "Joy". When he asked his type "Z" son why he said Joy he said because the sacrifice would be for Jesus and it would bring Joy to him. So he said they came to the conclusion that sacrifice was a Joyous Ouch. Which is so right. Giving the amount we would like to give or that God is telling us to give would defiantly stretch us and make us fully trust in god to provide for us. There is no way we could do it without putting our faith in him to provide. 3 years is a long time to make a financial commitment when you don't even know what the future is going to bring. But all we need to do is trust God that he knows what he is doing and that he will not let us go hungry or homeless.
I feel like I have done a bit or rambling, and it may not all make since to some of you. But then again I really hope it does and that it speaks to you.

A Greater Impact from Grace Capital Church on Vimeo.

Birthday Party Pics!!

About to dig it, but still not to sure what to do.

Every child need to take a pic with there birthday cake. Just ignore the spot that Jake messed up when he was taking the cover off. :)

LOL Major cake over load.

I lOVE this one. I made her her own cake from the leftover sides.

Peeking in.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLY!!!

Ok so we had a little birthday party for Ally this past Sunday. She will be 1 on Thursday. Wow the year has totally flown by. I knew it would go fast but come on give me some more time. :) So I took her outside after we got home from church and took a few pics. What I could by myself. She had a really good time. Eating cake, lol. She has been having a little runny nose and runny eyes since Thursday. I just thought it was a cold or allergies, since we all have them. So Monday Jake took her to the Dr. to get it checked out. Come to find out, she has a doubt ear infection. The Dr. said that she couldn't even believe that she was still sitting there smiling. I guess we have super tough girls. :) so hopefully she will be feeling alot better on her actual birthday and I can get some pics that don't have red puffy eyes. So here are some good ones that I took.

FALL

Some fall pics of our place!


Well Last week we finally found the right 4x4 vehicle. We got a 2000 Ford Explorer. Its nice and drives great. I still need to detail it but other than that its perfect. We are still praying about giving up our van so we can get out of debt. Jake is really wanting to be debt free and really our van is the only thing we have right now. We wanna give it up and save some money to buy another 4x4 family vehicle. So we just keep praying about!!

Matching Dresses

My mom had dresses made for the girls, in Patriot colors. Kyndal's is too short for her but maybe with some legging it will work. But still really cute!!

Kyndal Horseback Riding Pics!!

Health

Ok well since I haven't posted anything about the health issuse. Most of you have heard about already from my MySpace of FACEBOOK. I will start from the beginging for those who don't know what going on.
THE BEGINNING!!! :)
On 9/17/08 I had a reagular eye appt. The Dr took picture of the back of my eye and noticed that my optic nerve was swollen. Which, to back track a little, they found it to be swollen when I was about 7 months pregnant with Ally. My vision went cloudy for a day, which promped them to look. So after that appt., noticing that it was still swollen. the Dr. told me that it could be caused by a brain tumor or excess fluid in the brain, both putting pressure on the nerve. SO he refered me to a Neurologist.
On 9/24/08 I have my consult with Dr. Martino. I check a bunch of, what I would call silly things. But said that since I don't really have any side effect that everything was probably fine but because of my family back ground it would be best to do an MRI and MRV. If that came back fine another thing that they have found that could cause it is, I hate to admit it, but its weight. More specifically around the abdomin, which of coarse come when you are pregnant, so thats why the problem usually spikes then. So I may need to go on a diet, be there done that, not that painful. :)
On 9/30/08 I had my MRI and MRV (were they inject, LOL sorry its funny, a rare earth metal as they called it, into my veins so they can see my veins.)

Results came back on that the following Monday and they both came back normal. Praise GOD!!! So now I am just waiting it out until my next appt. I have an eye appt next Wednesday 10/15/08 to follow up on the appt I had earlier. The Neurologist also said that they would watch the visual field test that the eye Dr. does to make sure that its not getting worse.

So yeah thats about all of it!!! Thanks for all of your prayers. I will definatly keep everyone posted if something changes.