This week has been anything but typical. with the holiday on monday, a last-minute (but wonderful!) visit from Erika and her girls on Tuesday, and then having to drive to Red Bluff today to drop off my photography, I'm like, "What day is it?"

Monday Seth worked on the house with Dusty and Uncle Paul. They are re-doing the siding on the garage and in the back yard, and it looks SO good! I can't wait till it's done. Seth's been working long, long, loooooong hours again to get it all done before the rains come. He is AMAZING, to say the least.... After they called it quits for the day - around 5pm (early for Seth!) - we had a BBQ with the guys who worked here, and with some other peeps, like Lynds, Ryan, Kristen, Erik, Opa & Diana, Jessica, Carrisa, and Nory... It was fun and great food! Seth is a good BBQ-er.

Oh, and by the way - i went to Winco with BOTH kids on LABOR DAY - yes, I'm awesome.

Tuesday I had a bit of a disaster of a house and a bunch of stuff to do because I didn't really get to it on Monday the way I usually would have if James had been in school. Erika called and said she came to Paradise to go to farmer's market, and Jordan would like to come see her bestie if I didn't mind..... so we visited and played and had a great old time AGAIN instead of getting stuff done..... oh well... :)

Today I dropped James off at school, and then Josiah and I headed up to the art gallery in Red Bluff to drop off 3 of my photos - framed prints - for a contest that I entered. It was a nice drive, and Joey was so good and soooo stinkin cute. All the strangers we saw all day doted over him. He started the day out wearing his super cute new uncle ryan onsie that aunt lynds bought him - which just means a polo shirt style (haha!) - but ended the day in just a basic t-shirt onsie because he pooped on the uncle ryan one... this is like the billionth time he's done that! oh man..

ANYWAY, I'm pretty excited because I entered 4 of my photos into this contest and 3 of the 4 got chosen to be in it. They had over 200 entries, and chose only 45. Three of my photos are part of that 45. The 45 chosen photos (from various artists - some local, and some from around the world!) will be hung at the art gallery for one month, displayed for the public to see (and to buy if they would like!) Then, a panel of judges will choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner from the 45 photos and there will be a reception and award's ceremony on Oct. 2nd. 1st place is $400!

I'm just excited that my work got chosen to be a part of this, and that I will get some exposure to the public by having them hanging in the gallery... and I'm really excited that Seth and I will have a little date on Oct. 2nd when we go to the reception. There is a nice little restaurant in Red Bluff called the Riverside Bar and Grille, and it's right on the Sacramento river, so you can sit and eat (delicious food!) while watching people jet ski by and stuff.. it's really beautiful and relaxing... I'm pretty sure we MUST go there either before or after the reception that night....

SO - needless to day, tomorrow is going to be a catch up day for us! I still have BBQ stuff to clean up! Plus, I just have piles of stuff - like paper work (always....) and laundry stacked on everyone's dressers that needs to be put in drawers... stuff like that... but I'm also hoping to just play outside with the kids since the weather is sooooooooooo perfect lately, and spend some time just reading to James (he's sooooo fun to read to these days because he gets so into it, and notices everything, and asks questions and stuff) - and making Josiah smile and laugh...

Oh, I got some good news today that I got the BEST health rating you can possibly get on your life insurance physical / blood work! I was so surprised! Yaaaaaay. All that hard work and diet / cutting out cholesterol really payed off! Now hopefully I will actually stick with it.... I've been bad since the physical has come and gone.........

Things I'm thankful for:
1. That my hubby loves me so well, and is happy, and is such a hard worker, and is such a great example of Christ-likeness to me and others.
2. That James is attending school IN CHICO at loma vista and loves it!!! And how his new schedule has given me time to come out of my survival mode that i was in before, and really enjoy life, get to know my new little love a little better, and be fresh to be James' Mommy when i am with him again...
3. That James loves to talk about heaven lately, and how he's going to see The King, and sings in his sweet, SWEET voice, "Come, Lord Jesus, Come..." and reminds me over and over again to be heaven-minded! Ahhh, the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these!
4. That even though things are quite scary and unstable in our world right now - both in California, and federally, and just in general - I can count on the fact that God knows the future, and that He has us securely in His sovereign hands.

PRAISE HIM!