A little R & R for the Nicholson Zoo

We decided to go camping for our vacation this year. We had a blast and the kids loved it - Koby didn't want to leave. He rode the tube for the first time, and of course Kole - our little daredevil rode it with Troy as well. I kneeboarded for the first time in about five years and realized that I am a lot more out of shape than I ever imagined. Of course, it was very hot considering it IS July and everything. We had the campsite reserved until Thursday, but decided Tuesday night that we probably should go home to the air conditioner considering we had downed 60 (no exaggeration) 20 oz bottles of water and didn't have enough food left. So maybe next time we will go in May or September, but we really did enjoy ourselves and just time to get away from it all.

Whew!!!!!!!!

Well, after two and a half weeks of being out of town, we are FINALLY home. We had a great time and here are lots of pictures to show what we did. We went to the Parker's house on the lake, celebrated fourth of July at Papa and Gran's with the other Nicholson Zoo, Koby took his first airplane ride to NC with Troy and I where we got to see friends we haven't seen in five years since we left and now we are home.

Our Journey Since April of 2007

After 8 hours of filming, and 50 attempts, we finally managed to condense the last 14 months into a 10 minute video. Thanks for all the encouraging emails and phone calls about our "transition". Below you will find the very abbreviated story of what God has placed on our hearts. We love you!!! Thanks for your prayers!!!

Lots of pictures from the last two months

We took the kids on their first putt-putt trip which went rather well - Koby even got a hole in one! The church had a picnic at a park with a man-made beach. The pic of Koby and the little girl at the table is at her birthday party. Her name is Reece-Mallory and we always joke with him about her being his girlfriend. Then the last few are of DeeDee and Captain coming up on Memorial Day weekend.
These are of our trip home in April, random pics of the kids I took with my phone and if you'll notice the pic on the third row of the scribbles, that was when Maci got hold of a big sharpie while Troy and I were napping and wrote on our bedroom carpet. Yeah, that still hasn't come off yet.
This was Koby's baseball game/taking mom and dad to the Big Bridge. Okay, you are officially updated.

Rumor Has It..........................

Well, I've been waiting a LONG time to write this post, and the time has finally arrived. Many of you have heard the rumor, so I will confirm it: and NO I'm not pregnant, sorry. Our family will be moving sometime in early 2009 to somewhere (not sure yet) in Tuscaloosa County, ALABAMA. Sweet Home Alabama!!! We are going to start a church there from scratch. There are so many more details than I have time to write here, but Troy and I will be glad to share with anyone who wants to hear the story. At the risk of all of you thinking we are CRAZY and belong to one of those cults where they cover themselves with purple triangles and drink special "Kool-Aid" and wait for Jesus to come in a UFO and take them "HOME", I will tell you the basics. In April of 2007, God basically woke Troy up in the middle of the night and took him to Acts 27 (the shipwreck passage), and told him that He wanted him to start a church in Tuscaloosa county called Safehaven Church. (and yes it was that detailed - Troy said he has never experienced anything like this and actually thought he might be crazy). God basically used that passage to show him that just like Paul and the crew of the ship should have stayed in the place called Fairhavens instead of continuing on against what Paul advised (and eventually ended up shipwrecked), He has places of safety in "the local church" but people choose not to use them and their lives end up shipwrecked as well. God told Troy he wanted him to start one of these "places of safety." There are many more details about that night, but to make a long story short, he didn't tell me because he asked God that if this was real to reveal this to me. So about two weeks later we were in the kitchen and I told him that I felt like we were going to start a church because God had been showing me that over the last two weeks. So that is where it all began. Troy has pages and pages of "God"/ supernatural things that have happened to us to confirm this and like I said before, we would be glad to share it with you anytime. The reason we are telling it now is because the youth group and church officially all know now. The church is going to support us and help us transition during this process. So we have a few more months here, but we do ask that you pray for us because we know that we can only do this with God's help-after all, the whole thing is His idea anyway. We are moving our family and have no idea where we are going to live or how we will afford to live, but the funny thing is, we have no fear of that - God has just given us a total peace about it and we know that He is going to take care of us. Our most immediate need will be for our house to sell in the horrible housing market right now, so pray especially for that. We will certainly keep you updated during the process.

Just a Few Updates

Koby got his diploma from preschool Thursday, which means he will officially be entering the public school system in August, which is also officially making me sad. I'm starting to second-guess the whole process. When I was five, I only went to Kindergarten half a day, why does he have to go a whole day? We'll see what happens - homeschooling is not an option because we would KILL each other or at least try.
Kole has always loved shoes, but his love for shoes has grown even more. In any given hour, he may walk in and show me five different pairs of shoes, usually Maci's, which is why I took a picture of him in Koby's cleats, so that everyone would see that he does wear boy shoes too.
Last but certainly not least is the salt story. I came in the kitchen to discover the above. This may not look like that bad of a spill, but the worse part is what you can't see. She dumped salt out all over the kitchen floor and all over the bar, barstools, bags and backpacks. I thought that it wouldn't be that hard to clean up, but it was awful. I swept, vacuumed, mopped, and then had to get qtips and clean the grooves of the picnic table. Salt was stuck to my feet and everything else. What I can't figure out is how that much salt came out of that little salt shaker.

Busy as a Bee

Hey fellow bloggers,
Sorry I haven't updated in almost a month - I think this has been the busiest month for us since we've been married. I have lots of updates and pics coming soon. DeeDee and Captain are coming for a visit this weekend, which means I will probably get a minute to blog. I have been reading all of your blogs even though I haven't updated my own. Talk to ya soon!