Disney World!!

Hey girls, you may not know it right now but in 4 years we are going to go to Disney World for your 6th birthday present. Why am i saying this now, well the story goes back many years when your mom and i first got married. We decided that we needed this and that for our little apartment, and then we needed more and more. And an X-box (which we never played). Then we needed a bigger nicer apartment in The woodlands which was awesome, but expensive. We were working all the time to keep up with our lifestyle of consume consume consume. Then we would pay some off and then dig a deeper hole, pay it off dig a hole...etc. Well a few months ago that all stopped. Student loans and car payment is all we have left now, but by the time you girls turn 6 they will be gone also. You see its not about what you can buy when you are out of debt, but what you can give away. For a while it will be difficult for your mom and I, but you will never know :). We will learn to be happy on less and less and no longer be slaves to Sallie Mae or SSFCU or any other company.

Proverbs 22:7:
7 The rich rule over the poor,
and the borrower is servant to the lender.

I have taken this to heart lately and feel like a weight on my shoulders when I think of what I let our family get into. Temporary suffering is ok for the greater good. We will do this as a family and I want better for you than what I am providing right now. So we won't have (m)any vacations, nights on the town, spending sprees etc any time soon. Even when we are debt free this wont change, but we will be able to give more away. I Love You!!! In 4 years when we are paying cash for a celebration at Disney it is going to be great, we will have hiccups along the way, but we are doing this as a family. Below is our payment schedule, which may change (for the better or worse) as life happens, but we have a plan.

Month	Sallie Mae 1	Sallie Mae 2	CR-V
10-Jul	353	157	365
10-Aug	353	157	365
10-Sep	353	157	365
10-Oct	353	157	365
10-Nov	353	157	365
10-Dec	353	157	365
11-Jan	353	157	365
11-Feb	86.8	423.2	365
11-Mar		510	365
11-Apr		510	365
11-May		510	365
11-Jun		510	365
11-Jul		510	365
11-Aug		510	365
11-Sep		510	365
11-Oct		510	365
11-Nov		510	365
11-Dec		510	365
12-Jan		510	365
12-Feb		510	365
12-Mar		510	365
12-Apr		510	365
12-May		510	365
12-Jun		510	365
12-Jul		510	365
12-Aug		510	365
12-Sep		510	365
12-Oct		510	365
12-Nov		510	365
12-Dec		510	365
13-Jan		510	365
13-Feb		510	365
13-Mar		316.07	558.93
13-Apr			875
13-May			875
13-Jun			875
13-Jul			875
13-Aug			875
13-Sep			875
13-Oct			282.73

Aint no Mountain High Enough....

So the girls have been climbing everything for a while now. But yesterday we hit an all time record. My sweet angels have showed me their courage, strength, (mentally and physically), persistency, fearlessness, and stubbornness all in one act. Amazing little girls they are. About a week ago the girls learned to climb on their tallest dresser. Well this now distracts them from nap time and they take everything out of the drawers and it is just a real nightmare for mommy and I get beyond frustrated. Aside from it being dangerous. Well over the weekend, we had our usual power struggles about nap time and Kallison got her leg stuck in the drawer and was dangling upside down, naked from the 2nd drawer in her dresser. Scared me to death. I thought she broken her leg, it was horrible. I did not handle the situation well to say the least. Well the next day, I hear "ouchie, ouchie, mommy, mommy" so after a while i venture back in their room for about the 8th time during which should have been their nap time. And low and behold, my littlest lady (Aida) was hanging from her curtain rod. Naked. Kallison is sitting on the dresser, naked, playing with a toy. So that night, Brian screwed the drawers shut. ALL bottom drawers screwed shut. I thought, well we have two drawers on top for clothes they will never be able to reach them. Perfcet! HA... yesterday in again what should have been nap time. I go to check on them and THEY are sitting on top of the dresser. naked. Last night we had to remove the dresser. They might get it back one day, Im not so sure though.
All I can do is laugh to keep from crying. They are so amazing, smart, problem solvers, that im just excited to see what happens next. And as I dad, Brian encourages this independent, fearless behavior, as do I to an extent. But then the mom kicks in and I think "If you fall off that 5ft dresser you are going to get hurt". And then the nurse kicks in and evaluates all the potential injuries that could occur from this kind of reckless behavior.
Welcome to having two 2 year olds is what my mom says. Thanks!!!

Circus Time!!

DSC04162, originally uploaded by cordeauphotos.

We took the girls to the circus yesterday and what a great time we had. There was a pre-circus show where we got to see all of the animals up close and meet the performers. Guess what? The girls were not afraid of the clowns, that was my main concern, but they did great. One clown tried to give Aida a fist bump, but she was not a fan. When we went up to our seats (it was a long journey to the nosebleed section) the girls wanted to play. When the circus started the girls were watching intently....for about 10 minutes, then they just wanted to play in the seats. Kallison was really having fun dancing and they were both trying to get popcorn from the people behind us.

After a while Aida started to fall asleep (yes at the circus) and Kallison was wild and ready to go walking. So we cut our adventure to the circus short and we headed home. It was a fun time for all, and they really put on a good show.

The F word...

This week is Father’s day weekend and I look around and see the state of our fathers and it is really pitiful what has happened. Growing up I took it for granted that my Dad would be at my soccer games, serve as coach, and provide for our family. Now I look around and see so many families where dads just checked out of their kids lives. They may be there physically there but be away from their family. As a husband and dad I need to be there for my wife and kids by spending time daily loving on them. I know for my wife and kids L-O-V-E is spelled T-I-M-E. There has been a lot of talk about quality time vs quantity of time lately because as a society we are “busy” and I disagree in a distinction between the two. If we are too busy for things that matter it is time to look at where our time is spent. If I say I am too busy to spend time with my family what am I doing?? I was entrusted with my family from the Lord and it is not something to be taken lightly. When I come home and my girls give me a running hug from across the room that is one of the best parts of my day!! I pray that I will lead my family to feel this way about our Heavenly Father, that we will all run to Him and not put Him off because of other daily pursuits.

Time is our greatest gift from God and I want to treat it as such by allocating my time wisely.

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Man Up!!

I wasted much time in my life. I spent much of my college career in the bottom of a bottle, passed out in a bathtub, making those around me suffer and in general just getting as far away from my “problems” as possible. Studying consisted of drinking vodka with a friend until we passed out and woke up the next morning to go to class. I destroyed friendships, hated being sober and just was a horrible person. At the time I didn’t care, I found justifications for everything, its easy to justify and rationalize anything to our liking. The thing is the problems were never solved and in fact I made them much worse. Except for a few friends who stuck around me I don’t talk to anyone from college. I could blame the drinking, but lets face it that’s just a lie. It was me, my heart was black and was in need of healing. I had friends who invited me to Chi Alpha at SHSU, but I just blew them off, what could God do with me? I was broken beyond repair and didn’t care to try anything.

When Kristi and I got married I settled down a little, but still there were times when I would just turn away from her and to drinking. Mindless self destroying drinking was my drug for any sickness. I said horrible things and was so unhappy. We did start going to church eventually, but it didn’t last. I want to blame the church, but again I am to blame. We didn’t go anywhere else, we didn’t even try. It was over 2-3 years before we set foot inside a church. In the mean time I spent lots of money to fill a void in my life. Bought all kinds of cool things, it was great!!! Can you feel the sarcasm? Hopefully so. Obviously the void was never filled. It was a God sized hole, couldn’t be damned up with money, alcohol, drugs ,etc.

When Kristi and I found out we were going to have babies a lot of things changed, but some didn’t. We started going to church every week. The first time we knew it was a place that we felt welcome. Miracles were happening in our lives, with the birth of our girls being a catalyst for change. I look how far I have come from the dark times and realize that there is still much further to go. Thank you Jesus for saving my life, marriage, family. Going through all of these times I tried to rely on only myself which did not work. God had a different plan.

I hurt when I see people I love trying to rely on their own strength and falling. It will not work, been there, tried that.

I struggled with taking care of my spiritual life first, family second. Oddly enough the first is taking care of the second. If you are struggling the best use of time is to pray often, real quiet time, rely on Jesus to carry you in pain. There is a way out, one way out just give it up to the Lord. Obsessive Facebook, TV, Wii, drugs, alcohol, spending money, working out, provide temporary relief but will not set you free.

I know from experience.

Brian