Birthday Celebration and New Porch Swing

We picked tony up from work yesterday and took him to eat lunch at a local Mexican restaurant in town.  We all ate way too much, but enjoyed each others company as we celebrated Tony's 31st birthday. 





Afterwards, Aunt Carol and I took the kiddos to a certain retail store (that may or may not have started with a "W") to get some much needed items for the house. It's amazing how many things we had to use on a daily basis that we didn't have.  Thankfully, we had enough gift cards to cover the expenses.  Thank you to everyone who has given us a gift card! We are putting them to good use!

Tony put a porch swing on the porch yesterday.  Oh, what fun it is to sit and swing!  The next door neighbor has 4 hummingbird feeders on his porch and we love to watch the hummingbirds!  The kids are amazed at how fast they can fly.  Aunt Carol bought us a feeder and we hung it on our porch.  Now we can watch the hummingbirds from inside the house, through the windows.  The weather today was amazing!  Tonight it actually rained and we all sat on the porch and watched.  We are praising the Lord for the rain.  I don't know if I have ever been more thankful for rain. 



Tony and I went today and looked for a couch for our living room, and some other needed pieces of furniture.  We have always been so frugal.  It's hard to commit to a couch, and spend a chunk of money on ourselves.  We eventually gave up and came home.  We are praying for wisdom, and direction in purchasing items for our home.  In the meantime, we are thankful for our beds, and thankful for our stools to eat at the kitchen bar counter.  My kids are so thankful for the little pink picnic table that survived the fire. 

Tomorrow is "meet the teacher" day at Tobin's new school. We are looking forward to meeting his teacher and getting the details on his upcoming first day of school. What a fun and exciting day it will be!

Thanks again for all the support, prayers, letters, and gifts!  We are overwhelmed to see the body of Christ come together to help others in need!

Until later,
Rachel