5K Race in Atlanta

This past weekend, I completed the 5K race I'd been training for in Atlanta. My friend, Melinda, and I ran in the pouring down rain, along with thunder and lightening starting around the first mile of the race. We stayed together running through most of the race, and both finished with a time of 38:40. That was a bit slower than my previous race time of 38:09 last June, but I am not complaining! It felt like we had an extra 5 lbs of water weight on us with how hard it was raining, so I was just proud that we didn't slip or fall any!!! Of course, because of the weather, we didn't have much chance for pictures and didn't take any with our own cameras. Maybe I can link a picture from some of the race photography when those get published. I'm sure we look LOVELY anyway, with our soaking clothes, hair, and everything!!! Maybe I can run the same race next year in good weather!

Interviews

Scott got two calls for interviews yesterday. We are very excited, as both of these potential employers are hiring for jobs that Scott is very interested in. Please continue to pray that everything will work out. Specifically pray for the timing of everything to work according to God's plan. Both jobs have positives and negatives, so we are trusting God to work out the best one for Scott. We really, really hope and pray that one of these jobs will be the right job for him. It is hard for me to let go of control of the situation in my head, not that I had or have control anyway. But please be in prayer for me too, that I'll be able to support Scott in the way that I need to, and not let my emotions get the best of me.

Waiting

The waiting continues . . . I am not very good at waiting and having patience for things. But God is teaching me a lot during this time that Scott is unemployed. We are nearing the end of the third week since Scott was let go from his job. In one way, it seems like it just happened, and in another way it seems like it has been quite a while since it happened. It is getting a bit discouraging to not have any more phone calls for interviews so far, considering the tons of jobs he has applied for. But we continue to try to wait in great expectation for what the Lord has planned. Every time I start to feel a little scared and ask questions and start to worry, I try to stop and remember that God is in control. I know He is watching out for us, and has provided in so many unexpected ways already.

Like just today, I had to take the boys for their follow-up eye appointments to check to see how their eyes were doing since wearing the patch for the last 4 weeks. Caleb is definitely using his right eye more evenly with his left eye, so he can reduce his patch wearing time down to 2 hours per day instead of 6. Ethan has gone from having 20/70 vision to 20/40, so he is also improving. Ethan will still have to wear his patch for 6 hours a day for another 2 months though, as the doctor says that he may still be able to improve to using his right eye up to 20/20 vision possibly. She doesn't want him to reduce his time until he has shown her that he can't improve his vision anymore. So, that was good news from the appointment in itself! But also since we don't have insurance anymore at this time since we were all under Scott's health insurance, we were expecting to have to pay in full for both eye appointments, which would've been $160. When I checked out, the person checking me out said only $40 was due. I had told her when we arrived that we no longer had insurance at this time due to my husband's job loss. So, that was a very nice discounted price that they gave me that they didn't have to. Every little bit helps, so we are thankful for these blessings, none of which are small to us.

Another prayer request . . . please pray that God would continue to keep us all safe health wise. We have until the beginning of May to decide if we want to opt for Cobra health insurance, and it can be retroactive should anything happen to require using insurance between now and then. But we are hopeful that we won't have to pay for this expensive health insurance in the time between jobs. If nothing happens requiring insurance between now and then and there is no insurance with any job position by then, we can opt for cheaper temporary insurance at that time. We appreciate your prayers for God's protection over our health.

March 2009

Please continue to lift us up

I am writing again to ask for continued prayers for Scott as he searches for jobs. I know this may be a long process and you may get tired of receiving updates from us. But I really believe in the power of prayer, and the more people that are praying for us specifically, the better. So, if you do pray for us, we appreciate it and ask you to keep on praying. That is the best thing you can do for us right now, to lift us up when you think of us. We are humbled everyday, knowing that our job loss situation is small in comparison to what so many people are going through in much harder and devastating situations. We know everyone has their own battles to fight, so please let us know how we can be remembering your family in prayer as well.

Baltimore Weekend Visit

We had a fun, relaxing weekend getting to visit in Baltimore at my sister, Megan, and brother-in-law, Mike's house. My mom and dad, and Stacy and Wendy got to come visit too. (We missed you Zach!) Enjoy our pictures at the park, playing tennis, playing Wii, and just hanging out! Thanks Cox's for a nice weekend!

September 2008 - North Myrtle Beach

September 2008 - North Myrtle Beach

September 11, 2008

September 2008 - Bubbles

August 2008

Enjoying Spring . . . Finally!

It's amazing to think that at the beginning of last week we had snow, and then at the end of the week we had 78 degree weather! Despite the news of Scott losing his job at the beginning of the weekend, we had a very nice weekend enjoying the Spring weather. We took a family trip to the park and the boys got to get out their bikes and ride for the first time in a long time! What a neat place we live in that can have such extremes in weather conditions!

Mommy & Caleb riding the alligator

Daddy, Caleb, & Ethan riding the alligator

Ethan climbing the bars

Caleb and his spiky static hair

Caleb & Ethan having races on the slide

Ethan on his bike

Caleb on his bike

Prayer Request

Please keep us in your prayers . . . Scott was let go from his job on Friday. Some of you know more about how his work situation had been going for the past several months than others, but things had not been looking good in the building materials industry for quite a while now. Just like in many jobs in our economy today, they had already been trying to put two or three people's workloads on one person, and expect the same amount of work to be produced. Scott had been working 50 - 55 hour weeks minimum for the past several months, and was becoming quite weary. Still, it is never good news or expected news to be let go.

We are trying to have faith that God will provide a new opportunity for Scott that is better than the last. If any of you know of any openings or leads, please let us know. His experience for the past 8 years has been inside sales in the building materials industry. He is open to trying new things though, as we are most concerned about being able to continue to pay our bills each month and provide for our family.

Most of all, we just ask you to pray that God's will be done in this situation. We are thankful that we have been applying the principals from Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey for the past year to our lives, but as some of you know the steps in that program, we are still on the step of paying off debt, so do not have a large emergency fund for instances with no pay. We are hopeful that Scott will be able to get set up on a part time job through his old "2nd job" of working nights at Papa Johns Pizza to help tide us over in the meantime until more permanent work comes along.

Thank you so much for your prayers in advance.

Kindergarten Registration

Is it really possible that this is the face of a soon to be kindergartener? I can't believe it was time for me to register Ethan for kindergarten today. It doesn't seem possible that he can be old enough to go to real school already! It is hitting me more now than I thought it would. At least we still have about 6 months until it starts for me to somewhat adjust. I'm still getting used to saying that I have a 5 year old!

Below are some more pictures of my cutie pies from around the house tonight!

March Snow

The first day of March started off with a lot of snow coming down, starting around 6 pm. Then our power went out around 10:30 pm for about 3 hours. It is nice to have a snow day at home . . . Scott's work was closed along with all the school districts in the area, and I decided to take the day off and work from home. I didn't want to drive in this snowy mess! Scott, Ethan, and Caleb went out to enjoy some of the snowy fun earlier this morning. I was being a homebody and not wanting to venture out in the cold . . . hence no pictures of Scott with the boys, because he was the one taking the pictures! Sorry, Scott! :-( The snow is really beautiful, but it would be great if this was the last winter weather we had. I seem to get the "winter blues" a lot more now when it stays cold out for so long. I am really ready for warmer, spring like weather. Here are some pictures of the fun the boys had out in the snow!