Thursday, May 30, 2013

God is Good! His Love Endures Forever!

This past weekend, Tanner and I made the trip up to Ohio to spend time with his family and to go up to Michigan to hear Ray Vander Laan speak at Gull Lake Ministries! We went up Wednesday night and got back home Tuesday night. I would love to say that we had a wonderful flight and lots of time to spend with his family because we flew; sadly, I can not. We were unable to board the plane to get up to Ohio, so we drove. 16 weary hours. What is worse is that we left after our plane was supposed to leave. Yes. We drove all night. From 6:40pm to 12pm the next day. I think I got about 1 and 1/2 hours of sleep... maybe. Tanner only got about 1 or 2 hours. I will never do that again. Ever.

So, we got there, rested for maybe 10 minutes and then kept on going. My mother-in-law threw a Scentsy party for me and Tanner got to spend some time with his best friend! It was pretty fun. His whole family (well, most of it) was there and the guys talked while us girls talked Scentsy.

Friday, we went up to Michigan and met my parents and sister at Gull Lake Ministries. My family and I went two years ago (which is crazy since it is so close to where Tanner lived.. small world!) and loved it, so I was super excited for this year! There we listened to Ray Vander Laan speak for 8 sessions! He spoke that night, Saturday morning, twice in the afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Monday morning! Listening to him is like standing in front of a fire hose! There is so much to learn from him! He studied under a Jewish Rabbi for a while and has taught High School Bible for 37 years! He takes tours over to Israel! And I'm sure that is just a portion of all that he has done! (Check him out at www.followtherabbi.com!) My sister and I both bought brand new notebooks to take notes in, and she filled hers half way up! I didn't write as much, but that is because I am a terrible note taker and I can only write down so much that will be coherent later. As you can assume, this was a terrible burden in High School. Ha ha!

Anyway, a short thing that I learned this time around was that the green pastures is not what we think. What it would mean to an easterner is a lot of  green tufts of grass growing up in the desert (because that is where the shepherds have their sheep since there is limited farm land) from in between rocks where the water had pooled from the rare rain. So it's not that God plops us belly deep into alfalfa; He gives us enough for today and will provide for later. This really took root in me! Especially with the new house and all it's payments and bills. Like today, I realized that Tanner had spent more than I thought he did getting my oil changed and washing my car and getting a few needed groceries, because that is the wonderful husband that he is, and we didn't have enough to pay what bills we needed to pay before Tanner gets his next paycheck. After digging up all the change and cash I could and putting in the back and we still didn't have enough, I just looked to the sky and said, "God, I trust you wholly." Tanner then texted me later saying that his boss gave him an amount of money for the some scrap metal. With that added, we had enough for the bills and some groceries to last us until next paycheck. I almost cried, saying, "God is good! His love endures forever! He makes me lie down in green pastures! Thank you, God!" It was an awesome experience.

After parting with my parents and shoving all our belongings into the car, we drove back to Ohio to spend the rest of Monday with Tanner's family. When we woke up the next morning, planning to leave at 7:30am, his dad made blueberry pancakes and thick, wonderful bacon! Then we started loading the car. This is when Tanner realized that he had left his door open all night. Normally, that would have been fine, but it had rained all night. His seat was soaked, the back was soaked, my camera bag was wet (thankfully my camera and everything in it was fine), my purse was wet (again, thankfully nothing inside was too wet), the mirror that my mom had bought was wet... It totally ruined the morning. We dried everything off as best we could, though his Monte Carlo has fabric seats and not leather seats.. but that could be a good and bad thing when it comes to water, and put a tarp and towel on the seat to keep the water from getting on us as we drove. After we carefully loaded everything in the car, met Emily's, my sister-in-law, new goat, and said our goodbyes, we drove off home bound. We got in at about midnight and unloaded only the necessities, rolling the windows down and keeping the sunroof open so the car could dry out over night and the next day in the garage, and went straight to bed. The back of the car is still wet and Tanner is working on ways to dry it out as I type. This includes kitty litter and a probably a whole roll of paper towels. This should be interesting.. ha ha! I trust him. :)

All in all, it was a very eventful extended weekend! Now to figure out what to do about the flight credit we have... :P

Keep on keeping on!

~ Elisabeth

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Just Another Update on the Happenings of My Life.

We are all moved in! Well, not completely unpacked.. almost! The tv is still sitting on the floor, there are still boxes chilling out on our bedroom floor and in the office. It's a work in progress. We are still debating on blinds, so there is still cardboard in the windows upstairs, but it's all good.

I went to get my driver's license switched over and changed today. It was a lot faster than I expected! One thing I didn't know is that, here in Louisiana, they don't have temporary licenses! They just print up your license right there! I was so excited because then I didn't have to worry about bringing anything else to the airport tomorrow! Woo! The unfortunate thing is, they had to keep my out of state license. :( So, now all I have is the black and white version of it. I was very sad. It was a good picture too! In this one I dressed up and was all pretty, ready to have my picture taken.. double chin. UGH! T.T I'm so upset! Now I have to wait like four years to get a new picture taken and hope that I have lost weight! Ah well.. :/

Ah yes! Plane! Tomorrow we are heading out to Ohio to see Tanner's family! We are so excited! We haven't seen them in almost 9 months! Tanner has been really missing them and his best friends. Tanner's mom is also hosting a Scentsy party! Yay! I am excited about that. :D We will be leaving for the weekend though. On Friday we will be heading up to Gull Lake, MI to hear Ray Vander Laan! I wrote a blog on the last (and first) time I heard him talk two years ago. I can't believe it's been that long! O.o Anyway, my parents and sister will be there for that. After Ray Vander Lann's last session Monday morning, Tanner and I will head back down to Ohio and spend the rest of the day there and leave Tuesday afternoon. We are trying to squeeze in as much family time (and friend time) as possible! It may not be a super relaxing weekend, but it will be fun and we are looking forward to it.

Hopefully, when we get back, we can get the house into shape and then I can take some pictures! :D A girl can hope. :P Definitely before my birthday! ... Oh my goodness.. I'm turning 21 in 25 days! BAH!! Time flies so fast!! Tanner and I will have been married for a year in 4 months and 10 days! Oh wow.. Next thing I know it will have been 5 years and I'll be pregnant! O.o Why time.. why do you have to go by so fast?! *Sigh* :P

Keep on keeping on!