To make you laugh... check this out

Josie is just starting to laugh and coo and even giggle a bit. This video warms my heart and I totally love it!

Just Me the Champion...

The other day when I was dropping off Grace and Toby at school a Mom stopped me to ask if Grace and her daughter could have a playdate. She is an awesome Mom and was one of my OB nurses in the hospital with Josie. She mentioned that I "Look greaat" and that I lost ALL my baby weight... I shook my head vigorously (that's funny to imagine)but told her NO NO NO I did not lose all my baby weight. I have about 20lbs to lose to get back to my pre baby weight. Having a C-section delays the hardcore workouts of my past as well as being sleepless and having small amounts of time to get things done during the day. So I have a challenge ahead of me. But I will do it. This body does not lose weight by merely cutting back on the food I eat. God requires more of me to be fit. I need to workout about 4 days a week and eat well. Lucky me! :)

My profile name on this blog has a funny story to it. I posted it a while ago but I thought I'd repeat it for fun. Last time I started a new workout plan, I was adamant that I would lose the weight and I would get healthy. I never have felt athletic or like I was really good in PE. I never really exceled in those areas. But I had never been pushed either. I started doing Denise Austin DVD's on the television and saving one hour a day to myself... an hour where this Mommy got some ME time to workout. I LOVE working out, I just rarely make the time to do it. Denise Austin has a feature on her DVD's where you can mute her voice. Some poeple think she is annoying. I would pray before each workout and ask the holy spirit to multiply what was happening in my body. I also ask God to take calories out of chocolate... He could do it if he wanted to! ;) Anyway, one day when I was working out I was at the end of the workout doing the stretching... I felt accomplished and exhausted I felt sweaty and tired. And then Denise said... "good job, your doing great, your an athlete, a champion." Now, I don't know if I was hormonal at the time or what but when she called me an athlete and a champion I just started crying. I was sitting in my living room crying and thinking to myself. I AM a CHAMPION. I really am. It makes me laugh when I look back on it now. But I think many times we can believe the voices in our head that tell us we can't do something more than we believe the truth. And the truth is I am a champion. A champion mother, a champion wife, a champion athelete and a champion for Christ. It doesn't get any better than that. Peace!

Mighty to Save

In the next couple of weeks the kids in our children's ministry are worshipping in "big church" to this song. Today my daughter was listening to it on her Dad's ipod and singing as loud as she could the lyrics. She believed them. She was confident. Then I started thinking... do I really understand how big how powerful and how awesome God is? Can I even comprehend his power and with that can I even ever comprehend his love? If he created everything in 7 days... and his power raised Jesus from the dead... he WILL do and CAN do whatever he wants.

I love to pray. I love to pray because it causes me to be aware of when God has answered my prayers. If you are praying a lot it is because you have seen prayers answered that could only be answered by God. You see God in it. There is NO coincidence. God likes us to pray because he enjoys the conversation, he loves hearing from us, like a daughter calling her Daddy when she's far from home. He delights in our voice and our thoughts. But when it comes to answering prayers, he knows what's coming, he's already got it covered. He will act even if I didn't pray. He loves me that much. When I pray and see God move in an answer to prayer I cannot help but tell people. A prayer answered is a faith builder. My God is mighty like that. He puts it on my heart to pray so the truth can be told. He can move a mountain. He is SO mighty. That's so awesome.

Welcome to "Funk"y town

First of all, I need to change the main picture on this blog... it does not represent the Kline family on this day. We need to take a new family picture so I can put it on here. That will come soon. Baby Josie fulltime job and family/church stuff is time consuming. We'll fit it in here someday soon.

Did you ever have one of those days weeks and months where you just feel like a punk? Today I woke up in a funk... funky... funkadelic. So, I am practicing living more intentionally... not letting my "feelings" and emotions rule the day. Time is too precious, life is too short to let emotions and feelings run me into the ground.


So on most days like this I would get frustrated easily, be quick to anger say things I'll regret, let the little things get to me. But not today. I am doing an experiment in "acting" the opposite of what I feel. If I feel angry, I'll do something that makes me happy or another person happy. If I feel sad, I'll try to get my baby girl to laugh. If I'm frustrated about something I can't control, I'll blow it off to think about it later .

Do the feelings follow the actions? Well, so far it has worked.

In the 80's there were these books called "choose your own adventure" books. Where you could make a choice and depending upon your choice the book would turn out differently. I am being intentional with my actions today praying that my feelings will be obedient and follow shortly thereafter. So far it has worked... this morning could have been riddled with yuck and funk. Not today. Nope... not today. Peace

What do you put your hope in?

I used to hope for a big house, now I'm happy for the one I have. I used to hope for a really nice car a red one with shiny black tires, now my minivan rocks. I used to hope for a perfect body with perfect skin, now I have stretch marks but three beautiful children. I used to hope to travel the world, now I see life through my children's eyes. I used to hope to get stuff, now I want to "give".

Now my hope is only for God's promises in my life. That his word is true. That anything is possible with God. The great commandment and the great commission are true. Love others like He did... Tell others about Him and how he saves us right when we need Him most. That is my hope.

boom boom

You know when you hear a story and it sends tingles down your spine? Well I heard one today and I just have to share it with my blog friends (and stalkers) hee!

My brother Austin is an amazing young man. He turns 21 this winter and is at NYU studying musical theatre. My Mom had him when I was 17 years old. He is the baby in the family and was pretty much raised as an only child there was such a huge age gap between he and my brothers and I.

Because of that he spent tons of time with my Grandparents. Austin had an incredible relationship with my Grandma on my Dad's side.

We all did. But when we were all off at college and in school. Austin and Grandma developed a deep awesome friendship. They would go to the park. He would call her and ask her if he could sleep over at her house. She was an amazing woman with a thick German accent and a heart of gold. She loved him so much. Austin and Grandma could talk for hours. She would take him around at the age of 8 or 9 and he was so proud of her. He had Grandma's heart. She would take him to concerts, ballets and the theatre. She had a huge passion for it. She loved Pavarati, Placido Domingo and lot of other Opera singers. She even subscribed to Opera magazine. She never played an instrument or sang herself but she had a passion for music and theatre.

She always had tic tacs in her purse and coffee candy in a glass dish in her living room. Austin would always ask her for a tic tac.. he LOVED them with her. He referred to them as BOOM BOOM's. We would all laugh because whenever he saw Grandma he would immediatly head for her purse to get the boom boom or ask for it politely. Grandma passed away before we moved to Colorado.

Well Austin is now in New York studying musical theatre which is so cool. I always think about how proud she would be of him. He loves it. He is great at what he does and he has a good perspective on it too. When he was home this summer he heard the opera singer Andrea Bocelli was going to sing at Carnegie Hall. Austin wanted to go very badly. He told me the tickets were really really expensive and on a college student's budget he couldn't afford it. My Dad knew about Austin's desire to go to Carnegie Hall and told him that after thinking about it for quite a while he wanted to pay for his ticket to see him. Really good seats like 40 ft away from him. He said if he didn't pay for it... Grandma would have been really mad. So he paid for the ticket.

Austin went to the concert at Carnegie Hall the other night. Here's the cool part. I was saying how Grandma was probably with him as a guardian angel that night. Watching over him... enjoying it with him. He said that when he arrived he sat next to three older ladies. Two of them were in their 50's and one of them just turned 100years old. He sat next to the lady who was 100. He said that she looked and smelled like Grandma. Then he said, right before the show started... the older lady without saying anything really to him.... reached into her purse and asked him if he wanted a tic tac. He told me at that moment he said a prayer and thanked God for having "Grandma" with him that night. God is so good. He knows exactly what we need when we need it. And I believe he knew my brother needed a touch from the Lord and an awesome memory of my Grandma delivered to him and he got it... at Carnegie Hall listening to Andrea Bocelli...eating a tic tac.

Born Again

Listen to this song. I love it. Although I don't ever refer to myself as born again I do feel new or different or transormed. God will never leave me the same. I am always transformed by his love and influence in my life. I felt new the day after I was baptized in the Animas River. I had a new perspective. I understood my purpose on earth. Praise God for all things new! Enjoy this song from Third Day. I'll try to pause my playlist.



Peace!

Writers block

It bothers me when I sit down and cannot come up with something to write about. That has been me in the past week. I have been so preoccupied with new job and kids in school and the new busier schedule...

I feel like I am so busy transitioning my life I have yet to settle into a new normal. At work I am waiting on my laptop, my office is empty and boring. We joke that it's the principals office or a dentists office. :) I still have to organize the HUGE closet I was blessed with and figure out what stuff I need to keep and get rid of. (I am planning to decorate the office to make it kid and adult friendly)

At home, I am working through piled up laundry, purging more toys( yes... more toys) from my kid's room and trying to determine how long both of them can live in their room and function for much longer. Grace needs her own space. They are getting a little too old to share.

I battle negative thoughts daily about everything. Finances are tight. (which is uncomfortable but necessary for this season) However, we are working towards being debt free and really getting ourselves on a budget.

All of the above gives me writer's block. No funny stories. Can't slow down enough to pay attention. This morning at church I cruised by our Senior Pastor and he literally was a blur. I had to stop. Slow down, look at him and say an intentional "good morning."

But today, I found my inspiration again. We came home. The kids were exhausted. We all ate some lunch and we napped. We just slept and I slept HARD. I don't make a habit of this but I really enjoy it . Josie took a nap with me in the bed. When I look at her, I am inspired and feel blessed. The rest of the world melts away. My negative thoughts turn to joy. Nothing else matters. This beautiful girl has entered my life and I am so so so happy. I kiss her cheeks, and she smiles at me. I say her name and she grins. She is pure goodness and I am inspired.

So as my transition time becomes a new normal... I will write more. But for now I will enjoy these quiet times with my baby. I will relish every moment... and blog.