One Sunday morning, I flipped on the tv in the basement so that we could try to watch basketball while we played tennis down there. I found no basketball at 8:30am, just Joel Osteen. He intrigues me, him and his gigantic church, his flashy, sly smile. I've caught Pastor Joel before. He's got some messages I can relate to without being to preachy. His sermon that Sunday was about blessings and burdens. He argued that we pray for things, like a bigger house, and along with those bigger things, come burdens, like cleaning all those rooms. Or with a raise comes higher taxes or more travel time away from family. He caught me. This is exactly where I am right now in my life with Mike's promotion and trying to find a new house in TX. Tennis would have to wait a minute; I was hooked.
I thought about the things he said in his sermon. The most glaring example of blessings and burdens come from my kids.
Ryan is so independent already. This is a blessing because he plays by himself and brushes his own teeth, but the flip side is that he climbs chairs and jumps off of them unannounced and that he wanders out into the road after a ball instead of being cautious.
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| Got himself into and out of this garbage can |
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| Mosied on up to this random kid curbside at the airport minutes after we arrived at DFW |
Thomas is in a state of independence. Right before Mike left to drive to Texas with his belongings, we caught Thomas trying to microwave pizza in an aluminum foil wrapper. Overall, Thomas' independence is a little less dangerous than Ryan's though. He is adamant about doing things his way (wonder where he got that?).
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| Scooting is a favorite past time |
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| Styled his hair to match cousin Elizabeth |
We are all very excited about the adventures that Texas has for us. In our less than a week here, we've enjoyed the warmer (hot) weather, the scooter-friendly apartment complex we're staying in, some delivered to your door pizza and frequenting a nice little park just down the block.
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| Playing outside of our temporary digs at the apartment |
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| Dad's new office |
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| Note the TX flag in the background |
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| Monday Pizza at the Gate |
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| Getting pizza with Nana Honey |
The burden, however, it means leaving good friends like our neighbor Bob.
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| An outstanding neighbor and his buddies |
We are blessed in many ways, so it's only natural that there will be many burdens along the way. May our burdens always be as minor as they are now....and let us be blessed on my househunting trip today!
