My summer is over. Finished. Done.

Amy’s gone, Kyra’s been in school for a week, Chris’ classes start tomorrow, and I have to be at school at eight in the morning for some mandatory freshman experience thing. It’s really kind of irritating, since I have already attended two semesters there. Oh, well. My classes start on Monday. I have a psychology class on Monday nights and Comp II on Thursday nights. Plus, three web classes. I’m really looking forward to school, but, for once, I’m kind of sad to see the summer end. When I was a kid, I was always ready for school to start. Call me a nerd, but I loved school. I still do, when we’re not talking about math. I do have another math class this semester. Hopefully, it won’t be as stressful as the last one.

I’m looking forward to what this semester is going to bring. I’m looking forward to meeting new people. I am looking forward to the classes themselves. I am taking three classes that I’m really excited about, and one more that will probably be interesting. And then there’s the math class…but I’m not going to dwell on that. All in all, though, I’m excited about what the next few months hold for me, and terribly expectant. I expect the Lord to do big things in my life. How could I not? He’s been doing crazy cool stuff for me lately.

Excited and expectant…what a way to start the semester!

People have been wondering why I’ve not been blogging so much. To be honest, I’m having too much fun to sit still and blog.

Right now, we are having a talent show in my living room. Jeremiah, Kyra, Sarah, and Elijah are taking turns climbing up on a table and singing songs. We just got through with an awesome song and dance routine by Jeremiah doing “Trading My Sorrows”. Amy was dancing around my kitchen holding Sarah, and Owen is just walking around in his sleeper “singing” along with everyone else, smiling from ear to ear.

Who has time to blog when I’ve only got a few days left? I’m having too much fun!

I know it’s been forever and a day since I last blogged. Well, at least since August 7, as Amy just pointed out to me. I don’t mean to neglect posting. I should have told you guys more about our vacation and added more pictures. I think I’ll just skip that, though. The trip was great. It made it even better to have my mother-in-law and Amy and her kids with us. It was a really awesome trip. An actual restful vacation. It was gorgeous there, and I couldn’t have had a better time.

Kyra started kindergarten on Monday. She’s enjoying it so far. My classes don’t start till the 27th, but I believe Chris’ start a week before mine. I’m enjoying my last few days of relative calm. It’s going to get really hectic before too long.

Amy and her kids are still here with me. She thought about leaving tomorrow, but neither of us wanted her to. It stinks not knowing when we may see each other again, so we have to get the most out of this visit. So, I’ve been spending my days hanging out with her. Read about our trip to Frozen Head at Amy’s blog. Our kids are alternately having fun playing together sweet as can be and flipping out on each other and running to tell on each other. It’s great. Too great for her to leave tomorrow, so she’s going to stay till Monday. Several people at church were asking how long they were staying with us. Sarah put it best when she answered someone’s question of how long they were staying with, “Till I’m done.” That about sums it up. We’re not done yet. Still having lots of fun.

I’ve got some posts brewing. Stay tuned.

Today was fun. I woke up right after the sunrise on the lounge chair out on the balcony. My back was stiff and sore. Amy and I had been out there talking for forever the night before, and I just stayed out there. Besides the fact that Chris, Elijah, and Owen were all asleep in my bed and there was no room for me, I was just really into laying there on the balcony watching the stars and waves and listening to them crash on the beach. It’s hypnotic.
So, I drug myself to the bed when Owen woke up some time early this morning, and then got up for good around eight. We lounged around for an hour or two, eating breakfast burritos, listening to music, and posting pictures for you guys. Then, we all got into our swimsuits, gathered up a bajillion shovels, pails, floats, swim rings, towels, and other beach paraphernalia, packed up some stuff for lunch, gathered our five small children, and hit the road. We went to this really awesome state park. I regret to tell you all that I didn’t take a lot of pictures of this place, but it was because we were too busy actually doing things. This place was shielded from the big waves by a rock jetty, and it was really shallow with just enough small waves to make in interesting. There was plenty of wet sand for playing in, and dry sand up on the beach to stick your umbrella in. We played and played. The kids all had a blast. We built a really awesome sand castle. Amy and I and all of the kids contributed to our sandy work of art, and we were quite proud of the end result. Chris, Velvet, and I went snorkeling, which was cool. Chris really, really enjoyed that. I had more of a hard time, due to my sinus infection (which is much better than when I came, in case you are wondering). I kept coughing into my snorkel. It was fun while I did it, though. There were fish swimming around all over the place.
After we finally drug ourselves out of the water and across the beach with our five little children, our bajillion shovels, pails, floats, swim rings, towels, and other beach paraphernalia, we made some sandwiches and had a picnic. We were starved after being in the water and playing in the sand for several hours. We played around for a while, and then went to Alligator Lake, where we actually got to see some alligators.
Once we got back to the condo, we went down to the swimming pool and the hot tub. It was fun, but we were exhausted by the time we made it back to our room. We had a late dinner, and all of the kids were soon asleep. They all played hard today, and were so exhausted.
Right now, I’m the only one up, waiting on a load of laundry to finish, so we can have clean swimsuits and towels for tomorrow. It’s so cool to have such a fun day and know that you’re just going to get up and do it all again tomorrow.

Click here to see pictures from Monday.

So we are in Florida. Florida! We are having a great time. I would say that we are too busy doing crazy cool things to be blogging, but, in all honesty, Amy and I are sitting here at the counter in the kitchen of the condo eating dry Froot Loops (Amy says they are not generic fruit loops but real Froot Loops. [We sent the man to the store. He apparently doesn’t know that buying real Froot Loops is insane.]) and planning a trip to Walmart. However, we spent several hours down on the beach with five little children. Five very happy little children. Five very soggy, sandy, happy little children. We are in recovery mode right now. Several Most of us are slightly sunburned, but not to the point of tears. We are right at this moment trying to decide if we want to get all sandy and have to take baths again. I think we probably do.

Stay tuned for pictures and video.

**Update: Most of us are moderately sunburned, and one of us has been pretty close to the point of tears. We’re still happy, though. Cause we’re in Florida!!!

This summer is shaping up to be the best summer ever. Yeah. It’s that cool.

So far this summer, I’ve got to visit my husband at Fort Jackson…twice. That included seeing him in his uniform. Uh…yeah. I am that shallow. What can I say? I think my husband is hot. I absolutely loved getting to hang out on an Army post. I am really looking forward to Army life, and it was very cool to get a small taste of what it will be like.
I got to meet Amy, and hang out with her for a week. I got to meet Heather and Laura. I got to meet Sara Horn. I got to meet a bunch of chaplains and chaplain candidates whose blogs I’ve read and enjoyed.
I took and passed the dreaded algebra class. Taking it was no fun, but the victory I felt in passing it…priceless.
It’s been good so far, and it’s not over yet. In two days, Amy is coming back to visit, and, this time, she’s bringing her two adorable kiddos with her. They are going with us to Florida, and I am so insanely excited about that. I mean, how crazy is this? This kind of stuff doesn’t happen to me. Except…apparently it does. What could be better than a family vacation shared with such a great friend? Not much, if you ask me. We are going to have so much fun. The kids are going to have a blast. Chris is hoping to finally get to go deep sea fishing. I’m so excited. I can’t explain to you how excited I am.

As great as all of that stuff is, I think the best part of this summer has been the way the Lord has been working in my heart. He’s doing big things for me. He’s changing who I am. It’s been a little painful at times. Parts of it are terribly uncomfortable, but I know it’s worth it. I’m learning, I’m growing, and I’m falling in love with Him.

Yeah. Pretty sure this is the best summer ever!

I’ve been blessed lately. Really blessed. Blessed with friends. Friendship is very important. The Bible is filled with verses talking about the importance of friends. It tells us how to make friends, how to keep friends, and how to treat friends. I think the point is that they are important. We need other people. So, lately, I’ve been blessed with the good friends the Lord has sent my way. And I’m thankful.

I was thinking about these things a little while ago, and I began to remember a story from the Bible. I’m sure most all of you have heard this story before. I remember learning about it for the first time in a flannel graph lesson in Sunday School when I was just a little girl.

On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.” Luke 5:17-26

This man was paralyzed. He couldn’t get to Jesus on his own. He needed to get to the Saviour, for he needed to be healed. His paralysis prevented him from getting to him, though. His friends…faithful friends who were convinced that their friend needed to get to Jesus…put him on a bed and carried this lame man to Jesus. When they got to where Jesus was, the crowd was so thick they couldn’t reach him. Most people would have gave up. They would have told him, “Maybe next time.” and took him home. These were faithful friends, though. They knew their friend needed to get to Jesus. They carried him up to the roof, tore the tiles away, and lowered their friend right to the feet of Jesus. In the verses above, it tells us when Jesus saw “their faith” He healed the lame man. Not when he saw the lame man’s faith, but the faith of his friends. I’m sure the lame man had faith that Jesus could heal him, but, regardless of his belief that Jesus could heal him, he didn’t have the ability to get to Him on his own.

What’s my point? Sometimes we struggle with things…hurts…fear…sin…and, regardless of our belief that Jesus can heal us and set us free, we just can’t get ourselves to Him. We need someone to take us to him. To carry us to Jesus. We need someone else’s faith to stand in the gap for us when we don’t have enough faith ourselves. If we could just get to Jesus, we could find our healing.

So, what about you? Do you have any friends who just can’t seem to get themselves to Jesus? Do you watch them stubbornly hold on to their sin? Does it hurt your heart to see them wrestle with things too big for them to handle? Do you feel helpless? You aren’t helpless. Carry them to Jesus. Get them to Him. Obviously, we can’t pick someone up and physically take them to His presence, but we can remind them of His love. We can pray for them and with them. We can carry their burden for a while, and let them rest.

The Bible says:

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16

I think most things are overrated. Prayer, however, is not one of those things. Prayer is powerful. It changes things. It changes people.

Carry your friends to Jesus. Lay them at His feet, and ask for their healing. God may just heal your friend when he sees your faith.

I. Am. Finished.

My summer semester is in the books. No more algebra. Ever!

I feel as if I’ve had a heavy burden lifted off my shoulders. This semester was hard. Really hard. There were a few times that I didn’t think I was going to be able to get it all done. With Chris gone half the summer, it was almost too much to handle. I remember telling Amy one night, very upset, that I wished I could just quit. If it had of been possible to do without losing all the tuition I paid, I would have dropped the algebra class in a heartbeat. I couldn’t, though, so I carried on.

And, now…well, now I’m through. I passed with a decent grade, and I’m glad to have it behind me. Such a relief. Such a feeling of accomplishment.

Makes me wonder what other things in my life…things that push me to the point of despair…are just a little ways from being over. If I just carry on, there is freedom to be had. Sometimes, I think we should just take a deep breath and do what we have to do. It doesn’t make it less hard. It doesn’t make it less frustrating. The freedom that is waiting, though, is worth the headaches and heartaches.

Oh, freedom!

Hey, guys. I thought I would give you all a little “What’s up with Rachel?” update. My blogging has dropped drastically lately, I know. I blame it all on Amy. I used to spend my spare time blogging and stuff. Now, I spend it talking to her. So, it’s totally all her fault. Well, hers and school’s.

I am in the home stretch of the summer semester. I have to finish up both my classes this week. Which entails studying for and taking my last chapter test and studying for and taking my Final in algebra, and, in my computer class, I just have a lot of busy work to take care of. So, that gives me major homework guilt if I do anything other than study. I will be so happy when I get it done. Like, total crazy running through the sunshiny fields singing “The Hills are Alive” unabashed joy in life happy. (Yes, I do have a deep love for The Sound of Music. So?) Oh, the freedom I will enjoy for the one month between the summer and fall semesters!

In other news, the kids are all doing well. Kyra has a few weeks before school starts back, I think, and Elijah is just…well, he’s just Elijah. Owen is running around being his smiley, happy self most of the time. He is cutting a new tooth. Very cool for him, since he has this love of eating. Should make things a little easier. I took some cute pictures of them yesterday that I promise to post very soon. I’ll link you to it from my main blog when I do. My blog needs some help these days, but, hopefully, I’ll get to fixing that sometime soon.

Chris is doing well, too. He’s happy to be home, and a little less happy to be back a work. He really enjoyed doing the Army thing again, so it’s kind of a drag to have to go back to his regular job. He has a little break from school, until the Fall semester starts. He is taking more classes next semester than he did last semester, so that should be, oh, so much fun. He is also maybe going to take a module in a couple of weeks. So, we are both busy now, and fixing to get much busier in a few weeks.

So, I apologize for the boringness of my blog lately, but I have some good posts planned. Just as soon as I get the most pressing of homework matters taken care of, I am going to dazzle you with my blogging abilities. (Okay, in all honesty, I don’t know how ‘dazzled’ you will be, but I promise they will be better than this measly little ‘I’m alive’ update post.)

In the lineup, I’m planning on writing about:

Body Language: The Beauty of Reaching Out
The Proverbs 31 Paradox
Finding My Purpose

and

assorted other posts that I’ve thought of but not enough to give you a working title.

So, stay tuned. We can only go up from here, right?

My man is home. Finally. Six weeks of separation behind us, and no more looming in the near future. I know the Army will separate us again, but I don’t have to think about that right now. I will cross that bridge when I come to it. For now, I’m just happy that my husband is home. It’s so nice to have him back.

I’m sorry to all of you who have had trouble viewing my site. I saw some of y’all’s comments, but didn’t understand what you were talking about. I’ve been so busy lately, that I hadn’t looked into it. I realized today that it is messed up if you use Internet Explorer to view it. We use Firefox so we weren’t having any troubles. When Amy was here, I looked at it from her computer, and so thought it must have been a problem on the lady who commented about it’s end. Of course, Amy, being a computer geek (What? You know it’s true.), uses Firefox, too. So, anyway. I’m sorry. I didn’t think to check Explorer. You all really should be using Firefox. It’s too awesome not to use. I’m just sayin’. Anyway, Chris is home so I’ve got him working on the problem. I hope to have it taken care of real soon.

I know I’ve been beyond delinquent with my adventure posts, but I’ve just now reached recovery level from the sleep deprivation. Now that Chris is home, things may settle down a little. I hope so, at least. So, tomorrow, I’ll post about our trip to Fort Jackson.