Too Much!

To begin... these kids are TOO MUCH, aren't they?!
I can't help how cute they are - that's just the way they are!
And yes, we absolutely have 1 of each (1 lance and 1 carol) - it's really funny!

And now for the blogging,

There's just too much. I mean, what did I expect after taking a 5 month blogging hiatus?! Well, here's the thing. I get so much joy and conviction and wisdom and insight and pleasure from reading other people's blogs. I'm not going to claim to be able to provide any of that for the 2 people reading this (whoever you - my mom and sister most likely), but I just want to be obedient to God impressing upon my heart to be more real, to be open about who I am and my walk with Him. I have several 'friends' who inspire me when I see their lives lived out on their blog or facebook or whatever, to be more of who God wants me to be. So, here it goes.

Well, since I last blogged:

- we've moved out to Montgomery, TX (about 10 minutes from where we lived in Conroe, TX)

- I've become a cheer coach and part-time PE Teacher at a Christian School

- I've quit my job as a PE Teacher! (more about that in a bit)

- I've traveled to the Rose Parade in Pasadena with a dear friend, her mother-in-law, and Mr. Boston

- I've probably gained about 10 pounds (not a good thing for someone trying to sell herself as a trainer!)

- Lance has gone full-time at the Church

- I'm sure there is a ton more, but that's a bit of it anyway!

Here's what God is teaching me now --

In August, I started teaching PE at a Christian School, after already taking a job as their Varsity Cheer Coach. I was reluctant to do the PE as well, but it was very part time and they needed someone, so I agreed. It did not take long at all for me to realize that it was a career choice that I could definitely see myself enjoying but not right now. I still needed to be home with my kids! Financially speaking, it was not/is not easy to give up a paycheck to stay at home with your kids for free! But, it was very clear to me that it was where I needed to be. I do not doubt, however, that God uses our circumstances to teach us things. As I stay home full time once again, I am more THANKFUL to be here, to be the one loving on and teaching my kids; I don't long to be somewhere else. Does that make sense?

In November, my family lost a cousin, DPS Trooper Jonathan McDonald, who was in a car accident on his way to a call. He has a young wife and 6 month old baby at home. It was incredibly humbling and gut-wrenching to think of how their life is changed forever. Being there for the grieving with my family and funeral and burial, seeing how hundreds were coming to honor my cousin, it caused me to wonder what exactly people would have to say about me if I were to die tomorrow. Am I loving at all costs? Am I giving and serving and selfless? Do people see Jesus in me, without question?! What needs to change in my life in order for Him to be glorified?!

In December, a friend from college died in a car accident, leaving 2 small children, a husband, and a newborn they had to deliver via c-section before she died! My friend http://walkingfree.blogspot.com/ (Melissa) is keeping everyone updated on the status and you can find links to more info there. But, God is just opening my eyes as I follow this story, convicting me of how much time and energy I waste on things that are of absolutely no importance. I have precious time to invest in the lives of my children, to invest in the lives of those around me, to invest in my own relationship with the Lord, to be about seeing Him glorified in all that I do and say, and I choose to be lazy or selfish instead! Brie was doing all of those things, being the woman God called her to be and now her children and husband will live the rest of their lives without her. She didn't waste the time that she had. I've been really convicted lately to do the same. My friend, Melissa, who was very close friends with Brie, is loving on Brie's family, serving them, and being a prayer warrior 24/7. She's inspired me to be that kind of friend, to be that kind of person, to raise my children to trust in the Lord like that.

January -- here we are, 2011! I pray for my position as a Cheer Coach, as a Gymnastics Teacher, as a Personal Trainer - to be who God wants me to be to the people I encoutner in those positions. I pray fervently for my children. I want them to know Jesus so intimately. I want them to glorify Him with their lives. I pray that I can be the mother that they need to be that will show them the love of Christ. I pray for my church and where it's headed and my place in it. I pray for my friends, old ones, new ones, close ones, distant ones, that God would work miracles in their lives, that they would see His love clearly. I pray for the students in our ministry, that we could lead thim into a deep, intimate relationship with Christ, that we could show them what that looks like, that they would fall in love with Him! I pray for my extended family, their families, their witness, their circustamnces, and my relationship with them. I pray for my marriage, that it would bring glory to Him, that we would daily partner together to be whoever He wants us to be, wherever He wants us to be.

So, that's that. Maybe I'll blog again in the next few weeks. I love to see God at work and I hope to be able to share some of that with you through this site.

Hot Lava Sorry

i thought this little story was blog worthy:
So, we've been helping out at our church's youth camp all week. It was an outdoor camp this year for the first time, which was really cool. A family in our church lives out on a big ranch about 25 minutes from town and hosted us for the week. The kids slept in big huge tents and everything was, well, outdoors! I had no other choice but to take my 2 sweet children out there with me each day if I wanted to take part in the camp. So, on Wednesday, Boston spent practically the entire day in the pool. He got in at about 10:30 am, got out for lunch, then right back in, then out for crafts, right back in, then out for dinner, right back in, and finally out for good around 7:30pm! No joke. Luckily, the pool was located in the center of 'camp' so someone always had a close eye on him, but he was in his swimsuit ALL DAY LONG! Naturally, he began to complain of some pain inbetween his legs where his wet suit had rubbed him a little bit raw. He fell asleep in the car on the way home (seeing as how it was 11pm - I'm a terrible mom, I know) but when we did arrive home, I decided to put some cream on his legs. He was half asleep standing in the middle of the bathroom. I have the cream on my finger, I move towards the affected area to apply the cream when all of a sudden, my sweet groggy little 4 year old boy tee-tees right in my face! I yell "NO!" He immediately perks up, realizes what he's done, and begins apologizing like this:
"Oh mom, I'm so sorry, real sorry, like Hot Lava sorry!"
How can you not laugh at that?! Needless to say, he did not get into trouble - we applied the cream and went to bed!
Hilarious.

Emerging, Emergent - Whatever.

Okay, so I've had a bad taste in my mouth for this whole movement of emerging or emergent churches. I can't remember if I've blogged about it before or not, so sorry if I have. Apparently I should not interchange the names emerging and emergent, because emerging simply describes a style or philosophy that a church can take on while emergent is actually a church that has joined some association called the Emergent Church. Whatever! This is a Carol Dockrey definition, but here's what it boils down to, in my opinion: an emerging/emergent church is a church or a group of christians doing all that they can to be "relevant" to the world around them so that they are attracted to Jesus Christ (i can feel the hate mail from those associated with this style or philosophy, explaining to me how wrong I am, but oh well). It's like they sort of go to the extreme to prove that they are not simply traditional religious folk, but that they have a relationship with Jesus Christ and can basically, live like the rest of the world, and then they hope that this type of life looks appealing to those who don't yet know Christ. That's my opinion of what it's all about anyway.
So, what happened to simply preaching the Word of God and allowing people to be attracted to that? What happened to simply living like Christ (loving unconditionally) and allowing Him to draw people unto Himself? IJS!
Here's the thing - I've recently seen an overall lack of "awe" (for lack of a better word) for God's Word among His children. What am I doing to cause this? How is my life not exuding the importance of knowing God more intimately through His Word? It grieves my soul! So, what am I gonna do about it?! I care absolutely nothing about being "relevant" if it means that God's Word takes a back seat. I don't think that God's Word calls us to live like the rest of the World. We've got to trust that He is powerful enough to draw people unto Himself when we are obedient to surrender to the leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit, NOT the leadership and guidance of this world and this evil culture!!!

----stepping off soap box now.

Warm Weather -- YESS!!!!

We got to go to the rodeo (thanks JimDad and Sherry), fly kites, and play in the sprinkler the last few days! During this time, Dash endured and recovered from a stomach bug that was not cool! Seems to be doing much better though, so all is well at the Dockrey house (especially since we can play outside finally!!).



A cool head shot of the Boss Man

Brothers playin' in the water -- it took Dash a while to warm up to water splashing on him from all directions

Let me at it...

Muscle Man

Cheese, sort of

I'm gonna play with the balls for a while

Riding the scooter through the sprinkler

funny pic

full of wonder

climbing up the play place at the park

weeeeee

brother climbs up like this, why can't i make it to the top?

cheese again

flying kites with dad

not a lotta wind, so we had to run a little to keep the kites in the air

sliding

more wonder

so funny

our champion mutton' buster!!! (a champion in our hearts anyway -- he actually fell off in about 2 seconds - ha)

chillin' indoors at the rodeo

We have pictures, people!

All pics are courtesy of lance's iphone, which means they aren't the best quality, but they could be worse! Our camera just doesn't seem to be working much lately, which stinks because it's only a couple of years old, but what can ya do?!

So, we will begin with the Joint Birthday Party we had this last weekend! All year long (literally) Boston has been asking for a moonwalk jump castle for his birthday party, so that is what he got! He picked a Clifford the Big Red Dog one and we had an instant party theme! We celebrated both the boys birthday at the same time and had a blast!


Miss Madison

Dash chowing down on his cake - he loved it

Dash after the pinata candy fell

Julian got a sucker!

A mad dash for the candy

Dash's turn to swing the bat - he's a natural!

This is boston swinging on the rope through the bubbles!

The coloring table

Brinley having a blast bouncing

Dash loved jumping in Clifford

Brothers at their party!






Now, just some random pictures from the last few months:

Check out Dash's hair -- it's really getting long and he is really eating well!

self explanatory I think

My boys hanging out on the dock

Trying on Mr Kent's glasses - He's so intellectual

Boston with his fake stache

This is my tongue

A result of Boston dressing himself one day -- very color coordinated and SUPER cool!

This was around Christmastime, but I just like the pic












And drumroll please...... the only pic we have from the Austin Marathon! This was Lance's view from the start line (yes, he ran with his iphone). I started about 10 minutes behind him - ha! And we both finished in decent times (lance's a bit more decent than mine). He finished the full marathon (26.2 miles) in 3 hours and 55 minutes while I finished the half-marathon (13.1 miles) in 2 hours and 43 minutes. It was pretty cool and yes, we plan to do it again!

FREEDOM!!!

As I was writing that title, I was picturing Mel Gibson with his face painted blue running into battle - but that's not necessarily the direction I was hoping to go with this post.
So, we were in church yesterday singing. I could attempt to guess at the name of the song that we were singing, but I would most likely be wrong and that's got to be some sort of cardinal sin as the worship pastors wife, so I'll just leave it at -"we were singing." Has it ever happened to you where you're listening to scripture read that you've heard a million times or singing a song that you've sung/heard tons of times and something new just jumps out at you? It's the coolest thing - I love it when that happens. I know that it is the Holy Spirit at work, which is one of the reason's it's so cool when it happens. So, that happened to me yesterday while singing aforementioned song. The line was: Jesus, come make us a free generation spreading salvation, freedom is ours, we take it up... Here's what hit me: we're asking Jesus to come make us a free generation, and then the very next line is 'spreading salvation.' This is totally elementary, I realize, but that's why we're free -- in order to spread the good news. We're not free so we can just praise God that we're not going to hell. We're not free so that we won't be bound to sin anymore. We're not free so we can live at peace. We're free to speak up for him, live for him, love for him!!
So then when I got home, I looked up the definiton of freedom: the condition of being free, the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints! PRAISE GOD! That's why I plead with Jesus to make us a free generation. That's why freedom is ours and I proclaim that I'm gonna take it up!!! It's all about Him!!!

Dear Boston

Dear Boston,
Thank you so much for being the best big brother in the world.
You share you string cheese with me even when mom doesn't ask you to.
You let me watch Praise Baby before your DVD of choice everyday.
You're constantly telling me how much you love me and smiling at me and chatting with me.
Thank you for teaching me how to play cars with you - I love it!
Thanks for handing me stuff in the car that mom hands to you to hand to me so I'll be happy.
Basically, thanks for trying to make me happy all day long. You really are the best.
I'm sorry that sometimes I get in your way when you're playing MarioKart. I'm sorry that sometimes mom and dad are so tired from taking care of me that they don't play with you as much as they used to. I'm sorry that I poke you in the eye sometimes - I really don't mean to. Oh, and sorry for breaking your cool lego creations.
I love you,
Dash

I'm pretty sure that's what Dash would say to Boston if he knew how. Boston truly is a super big brother to Dash. I'm incredibly blessed, I know. Boston tells me daily how much he loves his baby brother!

I was trying to withhold on posting until I had some pictures to include, but God laid this on my heart tonight and I just wanted to write it down so I wouldn't forget it! (when I say "write it down," I really mean type it on my blog for the world to view)