Something to think about..

A very dear friend of mine shared this with me and I thought I would put it on here for all of you..

See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.Isaiah 48:10-11

In some rivers in the world, the riverbeds are full of gold dust. It is free for the taking; all you have to do is pick it up. This sounds simple, but collecting gold from the bottom of a river is hard work. Even when the dust and sand have been separated, the gold is mixed with dirt and other impurities. It does not look pretty. In fact, only an expert would be able to determine if any gold is there.

And in its impure form, it doesn't have much value. Before it can be made into coins, jewelry or other valuables, it must be refined. The impurities must be burned out or skimmed off, and the real gold melted and collected together. In ancient times, the purest gold was refined seven times in a hot fire. Some say that the ultimate test of purity was for the gold to be so clear and smooth that the refiner could see his own reflection in the molten metal.

We are like the unrefined gold—mixed with dirt and impurities. Only God can see the real gold mixed in. In order to make us beautiful and useful, God has to refine us. The trials and temptations that we face in life are like the fire that the refiner uses to remove the impurities. It is painful to be refined. No one enjoys being in the fire, but we can rejoice knowing that God is using the fire for our ultimate good.

Food and Family

One of the many things I'm thankful for, is having my sister near by. I would love to have ALL of our family here, but so far she has been the only one to come up. I know Randy enjoys having his brother around, too. Tonight Randy grilled some chicken and the four of us had a really nice dinner together. There is just something about family that can make any day a good one.

Flag Football

Yesterday we spent the morning out at the ball field. A friend of ours asked Randy to be his Assistant Coach for a 4, 5, and 6 yr. old flag football team. Talk about cute. I think alot of parents have some funny video footage that could be worth some money. This week was their first game so they were still getting the hang of which way to run and what team to run after! When one of our players scored our first touch down, another kid from our own team came running up and grabbed his flag off. lol. It was not the last time someone pulled off their own team's flag! There were many more to come!!

Then Sings my Soul..

Alot of you have told me that you have missed my "Then Sings my Soul Saturdays" posts. Honestly, I just keep forgeting to post them!!

So tonight, even though it's late and I almost didn't make it..I have one for you.
This song has been a favorite of mine for a while, but it has been particuarly comforting this week. Jesus knew how much we would fall short and mess up all the time, but He still chose to come to our rescue and die, to free us, and forgive us.

Tryon Palace

Yesterday, after a long stressful week, we decided to take a family day, and get out of Greenville for a little bit. We loaded up and headed to Newbern to tour the Tryon Palace. We had a really great time and I highly recomend it!

The Palace was originally built between 1767 and 1770, but had to be reconstructed after it burned to the ground. They have tried to make the new palace as accurate as possible. The grounds are filled with people in character that tell you about the lifes of the Govenor and his family, as well as Palace employees. It was very interesting.

After seeing all we could of Tryon Palace, we decided to walk around downtown New Bern for a while before heading back. The weather was perfect and we really couldn't have asked for a better night to explore.

We just HAD to stop for a soda at the Birthplace of Pepsi!! Ella even had a little sip!

We also grabbed dinner at the Cow Cafe. After being in the hiking backpack all day, Ella was happy to see that there was a children's play area to run around in!

Ella's New Park Pics!

Here are some pics from Ella at the park last Friday. I think this is becoming her favorite spot in town!

Ella (14 mo) and Hadleigh (12 mo)

Ella was 4 weeks old when we joined this playgroup, so she and Hadleigh have also been friends since Hadleigh was born. I can't believe how much they've grown!!

I'm not sure who this little girl is, but Ella wasn't so sure about her!

Aha! We found them!!

Yesterday Randy was pulling up the weed block in the flower bed to pull out a weed, and he found them..the grub snail like things that have been eating my Hosta's!! Yay for Randy! And Yay for Hazel who told me it was snails!! We went crazy with the salt trying to kill them all and also put out little cups of beer under all of the plants (thanks again Hazel). Apparently they will try and drink the beer and basically drown themselves in it. I have a couple of pics of them, beware they're pretty gross. Also, more to come of the "beer traps" we caught 3 already- woo hoo! It's probably going to take awhile to catch them all, I think we have an infestation!!

Also, this morning I went coupon shopping because it's triple coupon weekend at Harris Teeter again-yay! I didn't do as much as usual. In the past I have had to ring my stuff up in 4 seperate orders because I've used the max amount of coupons allowed. lol. But this time I only cashed out twice. I'm still pretty pleased with the results though. I just love that when it's triples I can buy higher priced iteams that I normally wouldn't pay the extra money for. I love how much stuff you can get for under a dollar, too!!

Here's what I got:

The total should have come to $129.09, but instead it cost me $62.19. I had a total savings of $66.90! Woo Hoo!!

Mondays Update on...Wednesday :)

Ok so I once again said I would update you on Monday, but I forgot. I have no other good reason except that I was a bad blogger. Shame on me! I'm sorry. lol.

SO! For those of you who know and those who don't, we have been trying to sell our Nissan Altima for probably 6 months now with no luck. After taking the Financial Peace class at church, we have been really wanting to live as debt free as possible. Some very good friends of ours GAVE us an accord because they wanted to help us out. We have been trying to decide what to do about the Altima since it's worth a lot less than what we would have to sell it for to pay off the loan. (and nobody seemed willing to buy it!) We decided this past week to trade in the Altima and Randy's Civic towards a used minivan that we could pay off and keep as our family grows. So on Friday we bought an 01' Chrystler Town and Country. We have significantly reduced our debt (by almost 10, 000 dollars!!) and our monthly payment. So yes, over here at the Strickland household we are fitting the mold pretty well as we have become a minivan driving family in our 20's..lol Now I just need one of those soccer ball stickers! lol ;)

But seriously, God has taken great care of us and we are really happy with the results.

And a few pictures of Miss Ella, too! On Saturday she took a spill on a curb she was trying to climb. She scraped up her nose pretty bad. I'm just so glad I wasn't there (I was at work when it happened) because I don't think I could have stayed as calm.

I must say though that she still looks pretty cute though, even with a busted nose..poor girl..

Stricklands on You Tube!

...and basically by Strickland's I mean Ella. lol. I have put up a couple of videos on youtube of Ella. Just type in Stricklandx3 into the search bar. They are mainly random ones intended for my mom, but I thought I would go ahead and share that they're out there. It's alot easier to add the longer ones on there instead of onto this blog... so I will be adding some others over the next few days.

I'm about to leave for work today so this is a short one, but we have lots to update you on so come back by on Monday to see all that's been happening with us over the weekend!

Wow! The weekends over?!?

I have a feeling this one's gonna be a long one..I have taken a lot of pictures this weekend and I suppose I could save some of them to post randomly, but I don't want them all out of order! So..

First things first..in case you were wondering (since I never updated) we survived the Hurricane..it was just a little rain and wind. Nothing bad.

Friday- we had a great day. Since Randy and I have made Friday our "rest" day, it was really nice to take a break from the usual cleaning and such..the past two weeks that we have done this I have really enjoyed although this week I got really BORED! I think I will plan something for us to do this Friday because I had some serious cabin fever. lol. Thankfully that evening we decided to go out and get some dinner before I went to Ladies Night Out. We ate at Parker's and it was so yummy! Ella loved it because she got to "dip" french fries in ketchup (something new she learned last week at band practice when we found her under a chair dipping Randy's left over nuggets into BBQ sauce and eating them!)

After dinner, I went over to Hazel's house for Ladies Night Out. We had a scavenger hunt planned, but since there was a "hurricane" we had an impromptu game night instead! Fun!

It was a great time with lots of laughing and good friends!

Here I am with my Team- "Team 2"

Here is a little pic of Ella Sunday before church..She was looking so much older, I thought I would snap a couple of pics to post..5 sec later she was in the dirt..

and FINALLY!!

a little video to show you Ella's new favorite thing to say.."Yummy Tummy". She has been saying the word "Eat" since she was around 11 months or so..well after hearing us ask, "Is that yummy?" when she takes a bite of something. She has decided to swap "Eat" out for "Yummy" which has turned into, "Yummy Tummy" because she wants some Yummy in her tummy! lol

Here comes Hanna..

It's late and I'm tired, but I can't seem to fall asleep yet. The storm is here. We have just started getting rain, but it's not too bad yet. Coming from Florida, the Tropical Storms and Hurricanes don't scare me too much. It's really the tornadoes that freak me out. I hate the idea of a tornado coming while we are sleeping...Randy's going to stay up awhile and keep an eye on the weather so I can go to bed (He's such a good husband!)..We will give you an update in the morning, although so often it's a lot of hype for nothing. I hope so.

Yep, that would be some vaseline..

Ahh my new life as a mom of a "Toddler" instead of a "Baby". Fun Fun Fun. Lol.
Here's one of Ella's many accomplishments yesterday...

Sorry the pics are a little dark, I was in a hurry to snap them and start cleaning up. lol.

Ella's New Baby!

On Sunday, Ella found a little baby doll in the toys at nursery. She was really taken by it and wanted to carry it around all day at church while I was working on some stuff.
My mom bought her a little cabbage patch doll while I was still pregnant and it's been sitting on display in Ella's room. Well, since Ella liked the one at church so much, I pulled hers down today so she could play with it. She loves it SO much! I showed her how to use the little bottle to feed it so she has been feeding it all day and saying "K Baby, Shhh!" SO cute!!! Here are the pics!

Ella feeding her baby.

One sip for baby, one sip for Ella!

This pic cracks me up because it was taken right after she tried to drink from the bottle, she knew that it was really silly of her to drink from it! She not only looks just like her daddy, but is silly like him, too! lol

Taking her baby for a walk, so gentle! Ha!

Love the Jibber Jabber

I'm sitting here checking my email (and now blogging) and listening to Ella over the baby monitor.. She has been laying in her crib for awhile refusing a nap. Not crying or fussing. Just talking and talking and talking. Actually kinda sounds like real words, but of course is making no sense at all. lol. Silly girl. Mommy REALLY wants you to take a nap!