A good and a bad and some randomness

Ok so randomness first :) The picture above is my birthday night! I'm a 24 whoppin' years :) I feel old AND I feel young. I like being young better. My dear dear Mother kept my boys ALL day, from 9-5:30!!!! That was huge for me! So I could choose what I wanted to do, I could go shopping or stay home. I chose to stay home, turn {{my}} music on, and spring clean all the closets in my house and clean all the bathroom and laundry room cabinets and drawers. It was like therapy. She made me Pasta Salad for my lunch. I threw away so much stuff! I had fun! AND I chose to make my birthday supper which consisted of wedding chicken and rice out of the blue cookbook and cooked carrots, salad and a icecream sandwich dessert also out of the blue cookbook :) It was a good day. Britton and the boys got me Bose headphones and 3 new pair of pjamas! I was thrilled. AND to top it off I got to take a bath with a ton of bubbles and candles. It was a good day and I was blessed. Oh and notice the USMC ( United States Marine Corps) shirt I bought at Brents graduation. :) nevermind Carters silly face :)
Here is what we had for supper last night. I like taking pictures of food btw. I tried to sorta copy Chipotle but I didn't feel like paying for steak so we just used hamburger instead. It still tasted good!
Yes I ate the whole thing
My boys and I are going through this devotional by Ruth Graham. We read it in the morning during our breakfast. I feel that it starts are day off good.
My boys have been very busy lately. I think it is because they are board and I KNOW spring/summer will help with boredom. They locked the upstairs bathroom door and it was like this for several days. Finally......
Daddy literally had to ply the door knob off to get inside :(
Also one morning I woke up to two little boys who had taken off their clothes and drew with markers all over themselves and ALL over doors, walls, and furniture. DEEP BREATH...and then call daddy to come home asap to take care of it because I knew I would respond out of anger. And no it wont come off. I was very disapointed.
Middle son rearranged my sewing drawer during his naptime :(
Marker on my sewing machine :(
My youngest started climbing out of his crib several months ago so we decided this way was safer.
Oh how he loves his stuffed animals. He giggles and squeals when I line them up like this.
The broken closet door in Brysens room that the boys were riding on :( Still hasn't been fixed
I get SO SO tired of the growing number of unorganized toys at our house. This makes them so much funner to play with. They haft to pick all the rest of the toys up and then they can choose a tub to play with or something else on this shelf.
Even though my days are filled with tears, fights, boys, messes, toys, laundry, breakfast/lunch/supper, endless dirt, I come back here often to my fridge and by the grace of God realize what my purpose is. When I think, "Oh I could be working in a orphanage somewhere", or "I am not making a difference in the world!" God whispers in my heart, "You ARE making a difference! I gave you these children and husband so you could serve them....with JOY!"
Carter wanted his picture taken and he had just gotten his fingers pinched to he's showing you his ouchie finger
My dear husband and I after a long day. He works so hard for our family. I love him so much!

* Well we got news today from our case manager. The good news is, we got two new pictures of our sweet little girl. She is smiling and appears to be happy BUT ( the bad news ) she had to move back to the Sodo Orphanage where her Mother brought her. The Sodo orphanage is six hours away from the capitol of Ethiopia. It is a crammed, packed, dirty, very poor, not CWA ran orphanage. Last summer she was moved to the Acacia Village because they had no more room. I was told this was not the usual. So she is back at the Sodo orphanage until we have a court date. So sad. It breaks my heart. The reason behind her moving back is because the officials are cracking down. I sure wish I could tell her everything is going to be ok and everyone is working hard to bring her home. Oh Jesus, please be with our little one.