So after hanging out with friends 2 times in four days I am coming to the conclusion that one of the ways to love each other more/be less judgemental is to just BE with them.  Getting to know someone better, when they are sharing struggles or things that are meaningful to them, makes me want to show more love to them.  It makes me want to make sure that I'm not going around saying mean things or spreading gossip.  It makes me realize that they aren't all that different.  We all go through a lot of the same struggles sometime in our life.  When someone is sharing about something they are struggling with or something they used to struggle with and 75% of the people are nodding their heads and saying "uh-huh" we realize that.  The more we can relax and break down the walls 'protecting' us the more we feel love from other people.  That can be a lot easier said than done.  But when we are met with "uh-huh" instead of criticism I think one brick gets broken off the wall.  There is so much wisdom to be gained from friends - spiritually, as parents, as wives, friends, etc.  If I can just remember all that information when I need it. :)  So I think the moral of the story is that we have to spend lots of time with people.  (I won't argue with you there!  And if you know me at all you would already know that.)  But that is so true.  Kaitlyn even knows that people are the important thing.  (Like compared to trees, animals, etc.)  So here's to making sure even in the busyness of summer (if it ever gets here) the friends don't get put on the back burner.  And maybe by the end of summer there will be more bricks missing from my wall.

I am reading a book called If You Want to Walk on Water You Have to Get Out of the Boat.  I really like reading it.  It is an easy read.  For those kind of 'spiritual, challenging books' it has to be just the right caliber or they loose me a couple paragraphs in.  Anyways here is some thoughts from the book mixed up with some of my thoughts.

God calls us to different things.  If we think God is calling us to something and or thought is, "Ok, I'm fine with that.  I can handle it" it probably isn't God.  When God calls us to do something He calls us beyond our comfort zone.  When He calls us we are left thinking, "no way, Lord!  There's no way I can do this."  God calls us to do things that the only way we can do them is with His help.

We sometimes look at Peter sinking after his walk on he water and think of how he failed.  But what about the other 11?  They didn't try.  (Maybe they weren't called to.)  Before Peter got out of the boat to walk on the water he asked Jesus if he should come to Him.  When we think we should go out and do something big we need to make sure that it is what God wants us to do.

God gives all of us gifts.  They are different for each of us.  We may spend a majority of our lives trying to do a certain in our work, but not enjoying or being very good at it.  There was a story in there of a man who was in charge of a bunch of stuff (a little foggy on the details, can you tell?)  His son spent a majority of his life trying to do the same thing.  The problem was he wasn't gifted in the same area of his dad so he wasn't that good at it.  I'm always impressed/taken back when someone makes a comment like, "His gift is ____".  I don't THINK I'm in the minority in not knowing exactly what my gift is.  I would say it probably has something to do with talking.  Bet you never would have guessed that.  Or maybe you would have if you don't know me.  But how I am exactly supposed to use that gift???  Or do you say that isn't a gift?  What would you say your gift is?

There are so many other good thoughts in that book, but right now my mind if failing me.

Various other thoughts...

It's really hard to try to live your life by watching other people and how they do things.  You can take two families who it seems like they had the same upbringing.  But the one family's children will grow up doing everything they were taught.  The other children grow up and forsake a lot of the parents teaching.  And then we wonder why if they did everything the same.  Sometimes this kind of thing just happens.  Other times I wonder if there was something missing in the one family that people didn't know about - other than the chldren.  Like a lack of respect between the mom and dad, maybe disrespect to church authority, or maybe some other sin in their life that to the children it just screamed 'inconsistent.  not worth living that way.'  The children may have not counsiciously thought those thoughts but that may be something they picked up.  Back to the 1st sentence of the paragraph - I know there are a ton of things we can learn from other people.  And I love hearing advice and opinions from other people to help me on my way.  I just think sometimes you have to figure things out for yourself.  I also can read too much stuff, especially online, and then I start to doubt a lot of things that I think is right or wrong or how I think it should be done. 

Well, we should be catching up on our sleep.  Okay, so maybe not Kaitlyn.  Apparently she's not taking a nap today.  Yesterday evening we went on an airplane ride.  (Why is it that our children don't realize how nice they have it to be able to go flying?  They, especially Chad, don't appreciate it as much as they could.)  He was fussing so I gave him his nippy and 'bunny' and he was soon sleeping.  He woke up on the transfer to the truck, but was sleeping within the 3 miles to our house.  I put him to bed (short nap and lots of short nights on our trip.) when we got home at 6:30.  He woke up at 7:30 this morning to stay up.  Kaitlyn went to bed around 8:00 last night and slept till about the same time.  The results of getting together with Elvie's family - lots of late nights.  Chad usually went to bed earlier because I learned the hard way the first morning.  CRABBY BABY!!! 

Preston and Kara gave all the nieces and nephews a gift whether they had a part or not.  Smart people they are!  They must have been around children one too many times where there was fighting because so and so had something and they didn't have any.  Here are the girls with their umbrellas.

Kaitlyn

Tiffany

Lexi

Whenever we go on trips we go through Chicago.  Kaitlyn often sees the subway trains and this time she made a comment about wanting to ride one.  On the way home we decided to spend some time in Chicago. On Tues. we took the

 motel van to the airport

where we got on the subway train.

We took the subway to Grand and then took a bus to Navy Pier.  We didn't do a bunch there - a 2 and 4 year old kind of influence that.  It was a good low key family day.  We did do some kid stuff like ride the ferris wheel.

Chad just turned 2 and I did not take any 'portraits' of him.  (Portraits used real loosely here.)  So I decided to take a couple of him at Navy Pier.  He was busy climbing, running, etc.  So here are a couple.  Okay, skip that!  It's having issues and i don't feel like messing around with it anymore.