Day after Thanksgiving...

Before we headed home from Red River, we stopped by the cabin that Richard and Gloria were staying at to feed the ducks. The kiddos loved it!

Eli, Ileigh, Mema and Papa... 

Thanksgiving in Red River

This year for Thanksgiving, the Pirtle side of the family went to Red River. While we were excited, I was a little bummed because it was the first time I hadn't spent at least part of the day in White Deer at my Nanny's house- but, we had a great time and they had a great time, and we went to see them the next weekend! :)

It was awesome to drive up to the house Tim rented and play in the snow. The house was huge and all 18 of us had enough room to eat and visit. Chris, me and the kiddos stayed across town. My cousin had won two free nights at a condo, couldn't get away, and let us have them. Then the owner even threw in an extra day free and waived the cleaning fee for us. Sweet.

We ate a ton of good food... 

Addy babysat for us...ha! 

Eli LOVED playing with uncle Timmy... 

Gosh, he is adorable... 

My new favorite picture! Tim was such a good sport with Eli for the entire weekend! 

Mema and Ileigh 

Morg, Ileigh and Baby. Ileigh loves that dog.

Morg and Ileigh stolen from her facebook. We didn't take very many pictures at all; by this point, we were totally done with taking pictures- it had been a LONG and STRESSFULL  photo season. Sorry to the rest of the kiddos that we didn't get pictures of!

Later, we played the longest game of 90's Trivial Pursuit on the face of the known planet.

It is banned from any family function hence forth.

We're Doing It.

One afternoon I called Chris. I was kinda nervous and had been thinking about how I was going to tell him...
I thought for sure he would laugh or think I was crazy....

Chris: Hello?
Tif: Hey, whacha doin'?
Chris: Workin'. What are you doing?
Tif: Well, I decided what I want to do for my birthday this year.
Chris: Okay, what?
________________

So, I'm turning 30 in February.
And, while I am very happy with where I am in life- I have a fantastic husband and two amazing kiddos- I don't know how the big 3-0 will effect me psychologically. I think I will be okay....I just still tend to think of myself as an early 20-something and when I talk about 10 years ago, I am referring to the 90's.

Anyway, just in case there is any shadow of a doubt that I won't love my 30th birthday, I decided to do something to ensure a celebration.

________________

Tif: I think I want to go to Ft. Worth
Chris: O-kay...why?
Tif: Well, there is a half marathon there that weekend, and I want to run it.
Chris: Okay, when do we start training?

________________


And so, Chris and I signed up to run a half marathon in Fort Worth the weekend of my birthday- it is officially, official and we are making our commitment public.
We have been training for almost 10 weeks and we are up to running 8 miles.

If you know me, you know this is a huge deal. HUGE. I am not a runner...I have never been a runner. I was the girl that could barley run around the track in middle school.

And so, we're doing it. And at the moment, we are both really enjoying running. Talk about crazy.

Can I just take a moment to tell you about my awesome husband?
I cannot believe how enthusiastic he has been for me and my goal ever since that phone call almost 11 weeks ago. He has been dedicated and a great encourager for me. I never intended for him to run with me, but the first words out of his mouth were "When do we start training?". I think he is amazing and I am so happy that he is totally with me on this...and I can't wait for us to cross that line together.

Would you pray for us?
Even though we have come a long way, and run many miles already, we still have a long way to go.
One sickness or injury could have devastating effects and Feb. 24th is still many weeks away.

Thankfulness.

Last year we jumped on the “30 days of Thankfulness” wagon. This year I am hesitant.

While I do feel like it is important to step back and count your blessings, I struggle.

I am struggling amidst all these blessings, all this abundance- is Christ alone enough? Is He really the one that satisfies my soul, or am I just living off His unending love for me- out of all my abundance.  If God ceased to send a single blessing in my direction, would I still praise Him?

I pray that I would. I am thankful that I have a God that loves me and chose me.

He chose me.

Thank you, Jesus for choosing me.

For giving me more that I have ever deserved and being faithful to me over and over again.

But, most of all…just for choosing me. For redeeming me.

When everything else falls away, may my heart still hold tight to the salvation of our Lord Jesus.

I feel like that should be my status update for the entire month of November; my motto for every single day. It is so easy to simply overlook the significance, to breeze past the beauty and type out my two-line, Facebook appropriate blessing. Instead of looking around me, at this abundance and blessing, I want to look up and simply be thankful. Thankful for being chosen by a majestic and holy God, of which I am so unworthy.