It's been awhile!

Hi blogging friends!

Sorry I've been out of commission for the last few weeks! There has been lots happening around the Riley house: some good, some not so good and to top it all off I've been really busy!

I'm pretty sure all of you know by now, but we are pregnant with Riley kid #3. I was so excited about this baby and the whole idea of having a 3rd just brings me so much joy. I am not sure how we are going to fit this baby in our house or in our Camry, but we have about 8 months or so to figure it out.

I wish I could figure out an easy way to get rid of this morning sickness. It is killing me! Oh man...I wake up each day feeling nauseous and go to bed every night feeling the same way. When I wake up in the middle of the night the nausea is still there. I have heard that morning sickness indicates a surge in hormones and that there is a less chance in miscarriage, so on one hand the nausea makes me feel a sense of relief, but WOW, it sure is hard to deal with this everyday. Praise the Lord for preschool!!! Addison goes to preschool for 2 1/2 hours 3 days a week and it's only 4 minutes away. We drop her off, Ainsley takes a nap, and I watch TV and nap and rest and do nothing (and feel kind of guilty) for  that whole time. It is worth every penny.

It helps that Addison loves preschool. She unbuckles herself, throws her backpack over her shoulder and runs up the steps to the door full speed ahead, always stopping to wave and say "Bye mommy!" I don't even have to get out of the car! It's even cuter when we pick her up. Ainsley and I come inside and Ainsley runs in front of all the parents who are waiting to catch a glimpse of Addison. She is always so happy to see her after those 2 hours. Then Addison hugs all of her new friends and gives me the "preschool scoop" on the way home. "Mom, Trent got in trouble because he was chewing with his mouth open" etc...

Because I can't seem to write a post without talking about car drama, I've got more for you! All summer long the Camry's been giving us trouble, but Devin's 97 4runner was holding strong. Then it started overheating and leaking coolant. Thinking it would probably be a quick fix, we took it in. Baaaaaad news awaited us at Midas: $3k Have you ever heard of such a thing? THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS to fix a car? What the heck? That is just crazy! Well considering:

-the radio doesn't work
-two of the doors are pink
-the back won't open because the bumper is dented

and all of this new stuff, Devin doesn't want to fix it. It's only worth $3k to begin with. So now it's up for sale on craigslist and we're trying to decide what we're going to do next. We are only a few months away from paying off our debt, so we have decided to try the one car thing, pay off the debt, and then start saving up for another car.

I know it is not the end of the world, but frankly, I am really frustrated and angry. We have been working so hard and staying on a budget for four years, the end is in site, and now any money that would be used for a fun "we're out of debt" trip has to go towards another car. The thing is, I know we could go out today and get a really nice car with probably a pretty low payment. It would be so easy and it's so tempting. I just know that is not the answer. If we did that, what will we have learned this whole time? I am not judging anyone who has a car payment, I just know how difficult paying off all this debt has been and I don't really want to jump back into round 2. We'd also like to start saving up for a down payment on a bigger house, but how can we do all of these things?

I was so furious this afternoon. Sure we won't have any debt, but I thought we were supposed to feel "richer" than this. But I don't. Things are just as tight around here as they were before and will be even tighter if we have to save up for another car.  Anyway I was pretty mad and felt like God was leading me to open up the Bible to get some perspective. Nope. Didn't want to. Too frustrated.  I watched Oprah instead. It was about this Colombian lady who was kidnapped for 6 and a half years. Now THAT is perspective. She talked about how she was brought to God during the ordeal and her favorite verse was from 2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for thee."

Not a fun get out of debt trip, not a nicer car, not having the ease of two cars, but just Him. That should be enough. He will provide our needs; he always has. I feel like I am learning this lesson a whole bunch of times, and it's always hard to go through, but I am so thankful for a God who gives us second chances and a God who does care about our needs, trivial that they may be sometimes.


Thanks for listening!