Prayer and Supplication

Well it has certainly been awhile since I was on here. There is not much to tell. I started a new job which I like. Its not the best job in the world, but it pays the bills. It has also been helping me establish a good sleep schedule. I have to be up at 5:30 and I go to bed at 10:00.
On another note, Michael and I started our second round of Clomid today. I am not thrilled. I never thought I would need to be on any kind of fertility drug. I dont understand it and I probably never will but what I am trying to learn is what God wants me to learn. I dont know what that is yet. I happen to be a member of a ladies forum and we were on a conversation thread on asking God for things. Is it selfish to ask God for a child or not? I did some searching, and what I found is in the book of Philipians chapter 4, verse 6:
Be careful for noghti; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shal keep your hears and minds through Christ Jesus.
This tells me that we CAN go to God with our requests. It also tells me in the beginning of verse 6 that we are not to worry: be careful-for what? for nothing! We are to not worry, but make our requests known to God. Continuing on in verse 8:
Finally, bretheren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatseever things are lovely, whatsoever things are aof good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Thos things, which ye have both learned, and received, andheard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
I have often wondered why these verses come one right after another. We are to make are requests known to God in prayer and then we are told to concentrate on these things as long as they are honest, just, pure, lovely, true, and of good report. And at the end? Peace.
In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 18 we see prayer and supplication again:
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
I looked up supplication in Easton's Illustrated dictonary and I found it to mean beseeching the Lord or pouring out the soul to God. Its not just a simple prayer. Its fervent! A quote from this dictionary says this about prayer:
prayer must also be offered in the faith that God is, and is the hearer and answerer of prayer, and that he will fulfil his word, " ask and ye shall receive" and in the name of Christ.
I hope that this helps to understand a little on how one must pray. I hope that I can start to pray more fervently and with more faith. I want a child so desperatly and like Hannah, I need to make my request known to God.

Contentment

I have often wondered about contentment. I know that true contentment comes from God himself but there are a few things that I find that make me feel quite content.

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to go to a friend's baby shower. She had her son, Riley, two months early. She had gone to the hospital because she had a migraine but just felt different! While at the hospital, she was tested for preclampsia, high blood pressure and stuff like that but nothing showed up on the specific test. It was while she was there, that she suddenly had a seizure. The baby's heartbeat wasnt found and she was rushed to emergency C-section. She miracle is that both she and the baby made it just fine and are both doing well. Riley only weighed 4 pounds and was in the hospital a week. He is home now and doing just fine.

Tonight my friend Jen and I got to go see her and the kids and we had a blast. Belynnda allowed us to take pictures (oh yes I got tons!) and post them on here, so here are a few of them.

While I was holding him, I got a sense of contentment and I allowed myself to wonder, just for a moment, if this was what it felt like to hold your own.

As you can see, Riley is absolutely adorable! He is at 4 lb 7 oz now and his tiny feet are about an inch and a quarter long. I certainly cant wait till God blesses me and Michael with a little miracle of our own!

Spot got a bath!

Well this evening Spot (our furbaby kitty) got a bath. Or should I say that the bath was more of an attempt. I had the wonderful opportunity to get this one on video. Enjoy!

Hiking Adventures

Yesterday I was looking for a tape measure and instead found something else that had been missing: my cd case with all of my picture cds in it. I found my pictures of Bangs Canyon in them. Yay! For those of you who have never really been to Colorado or who have but didnt know the secret hiding places, I am going to share these pictures with you. Bangs Canyon is a canyon (duh) is in the Grand Junction area. Its west of the city sort of in the National Monument, and you have to go up a back route to get there instead of going straight up the Monument.

Last April, me and my best friend, Jennifer, and her boyfriend Brandon, went up there. Of course we brought Trent and we had so much fun that we had to go back the next day. This time we brought Michael who has this natural tendency to dress like a tourist. Its pretty funny watching him. One of the interesting traits of Bangs canyon is the old Mica Mine. Its really neat to be in a half cave of Mica surrounding you. Oh to take some of it home! Unfortunately, taking some off the ground is considered illegal. It would figure I come home and find Trents pockets full of it! Boys will be boys.

Ok now for some pictures. Hope you enjoy them!
The first three are at the beginning of the canyon. Isnt it a gorgeous site?

In the third picture, you can see a little bit of red. This is the Indian Paintbrush that grows naturally up there.

One thing I love about hiking is the little streams and brooks. They truly do 'babble' to you as you are exploring! And then there are little boys who naturally have to be in them!

And there are also lizards! This one I shot a picture of while he was quite happy just sitting there.

Here is Trent again. Notice where he is standing: little boy + water = mud. Yes, he did get a bath as soon as he got home!! After the barbecue of course.

Hi Jen!!

Jennifer doesnt really like to smile for pictures. Occasionally I can get her to do it.

Oh look! Its two boys in the water. The bigger little boy is Brandon. He and Trent were having fun with squirt guns they had brought along.

Here is Brandon again. I am sure he is up to no good!

This is another lizard only he just happens to be much fatter than the other ones. What was funny about this one was that when we first saw him, he was doing push ups on the rock. Literally!

This view was simply breathtaking! It was when you first come out of the canyon and start to go into the Mica area.

This is where the 'road' seems to change. Notice the contrast of the glittery white with the brown. This is how you know the Mica Mine is right around the corner. Literally sinces you go over a little hill and directly to the left is the mine.

Here is a rare shot of a tourist..oh wait...thats Michael.

If he were to go to another country,he would have absolutely no trouble looking like a tourists, although he may scare other tourists away.

Boys, touri..ahem men and water!!!

Ok. I am small, have four legs, a tail, and I camouflage very well. Can you find me?

Here are some better views of the mine itself. Michael and Trent are in a little 'cave' thing that is really neat.

Here is the mine from the right hand side. It has more trees and stuff surrounding it. Notice how it seems to be almost like a half cave.

Ok time for a panoramic view. The other one is of the larger cave that you can climb up. The rocks are really sharp too! I felt bad for the poor dogs that were there.

That is one happy dog!

After we visited the Mica Mine, we decided to hike a little farther to see what we would find. We found what appeared to be a series of mini waterfalls and some rocks that had a steep incline. Of course the boys had to check it out so we girls had to follow.

Ok well thats all the pictures for now. I hope you enjoyed them. I will try to get some more pictures of Trent and birthday party he went to today posted tomorrow.

Discoveries

Today was a day of discoveries for me even though it really started a few days ago. I was looking online for a pamphlet or sermon or something that was titled True and False conversion. I plugged the title into the search engine and lo and behold, I got some 'answers'. I clicked link after link and then finally I found a link that allowed me to download a sermon title True and False Conversion, by Pastor Ray Comfort. What I didnt realize was that a good friend of mine also posts his sermons on this site. This site is www.sermonaudio.com and is a place where you can download sermons for free! It is great because I am able to put them on my mp3 player and listen to them whenever I want. I decided today to got to my good friend, Dave Most's, site www.fggmm.com and check it out. I not only got to see the links for more of his sermons but I also discovered due to a link he had posted, the site, www.oldchristianradio.com. This is where I discovered that I can listen to good Christian music through windows media player for free!!! It is great. I would like to know how you can get it to play through your mp3 player but I am not sure how. There is a link there for it but when I clicked it, it just brought my media player up so I am not sure. Maybe I should email them....oh well I will figure it out soon enough. Please make sure you check out these sites because they are pretty good.

I just cried

Last Sunday, my brother in law, started his 7 month journey to Iraq. I know that I will miss him which is interesting simply because I have only visited with him when visiting my sister so I dont know him all to well. But he is still family and I love him as such.

I decided to check out my sister's blog page and read about their last few hours before his journey. It was very touching and I (being quite the sentimental one) of course, started sniffling here and there till I had tears slowly dripping down my cheeks. Tonight after I got home from work, I checked my myspace page and saw that my sister had updated her status to lonely. I thought about that for a moment and then I started to think how I would feel if my dearest Michael were to be overseas in Iraq for 7 months. I started to think of the lonely nights, in an empty bed. The days wondering if he was all right. Thats when it hit. I cried. I cried for my sister and for her children. I feel her hurt and her pain. I just want to be there for her so she wont be alone. Unfortunately, we dont live close. The best thing I can tell her right now is to take it day by day. For my sister and her family, here are the words to one of my favorite songs, Day By Day:

Day By Day

Day by day, and with each passing moment,

strength I find to meet my trials here;

Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment,

I've no cause for worry or for fear.

He Whose heart is kind beyond all measure

Gives unto each day what He deems best-

Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,

Mingling toil, with peace and rest.

Everyday, the Lord Himself is near me

With a special mercy for each hour;

All my cares He fain would bear, and cheer me,

He Whose name is Counselor and Power;

The protection of His child and treasure

Is a charge that on Himself He laid;

"As they days, thy strength shall be in measure,"

This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then in every tribulation

So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,

That I lose not Faith's sweet consolation

Offered me within thy holy Word.

Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,

Every to take, as from a Father's hand,

One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,

Till I reach the promised land.

Kodak Moments

Today was a beautiful day out so Michael and Trent decided they were going to do some work in the backyard, landscaping and such. I keep telling him that you cant landscape a yard with two dogs in the backyard.

The morning started out with my opening up the front door to see that my dog, Sugar, was on the front porch. Michael headed out to the back to find where she had gotten out under the fence and about a half an hour later, I saw Trent at the front door and he opened it up and here comes Michael leading Sugar back to the house. He told me that Glacier had gotten out as well. Trent took Sugar to the back and let her out and he had no sooner gotten back to the front door when I saw a flash of black and there goes Sugar running past the front of the house. I knew immediately that Trent didnt check to see where she got out because she had gotten out so fast. I went outside and I saw Michael with Sugar and I went over to her to put a leash on her when I looked up and saw Glacier barrelling down the sidewalk. Needless to say, I nearly got knocked over.

Later, when Trent and Michael were working in the backyard, Glacier was having a fit because he was tied up. Sugar was tied up but being very "ladylike" about it. Trent went over to appease Glacier and I decided it was a great time to get some shots of Trent with the dog. Well at one point Trent was kneeling down next to Glacier (who was actually behaving) and they were both looking at the camera. Well right when I snapped the picture, t

he dog moved in a way that knocked Trent over. This is what I got for a kodak moment: please keep in mind that this was totally unplanned!!

I was also able to take some shots of Brandon with Glacier, but first, meet Glacier, my fun loving Siberian Husky! Oh, and Trent too!

Oh look! He posed! And of course I had to get in there too and I also posed with Sugar, my Border Retriever (half border collie half golden retriever) She is my sweetie!

Ok well that is enough for now. I will talk to you all later and I hope you like the candid shots!