Ups, Downs, and a Few Sideways

The Lord certainly works in mysterious ways, and our family is no exception. The last couple of weeks have been sprinkled heavily with the good, the bad, and sometimes the downright scary! I cannot express my gratitude for all of it enough. I know it is making us stronger, preparing us for the unknown, and bringing us closer as a family! What more can a girl ask for?

**This is a long post, bear with me!**

For sanity's sake, I will cover the good news first, and unveil the newest adventure in the Zollinger household. But first, a short back story! Last fall/early winter, a very dear friend of mine started asking me questions about scrapbooking, really out of the blue. Some of you may know, I love to scrapbook, I just don't make enough time for it, and that really needs to change! Anywhooo, after asking these questions, she got down to the point and I discovered she was planning to start her own business! I was so excited for her! I am pretty sure I was jumping up and down, though she couldn't see me. This was great news for her and I was willing to do anything I could to help. Little did I know, I could do more than I thought! As of January 1st, I am officially a partner in Scrapbooks Ect. LLC! I have loved every minute and thoroughly enjoy putting a creative side I haven't used in years as well as talents I didn't know I had to good use! I am excited to be in business with a best friend and confidant and helping to make both our dreams come true! We even had a successful trade show this weekend, and had a blast! I can't wait to help this business grow and flourish! **Check us out on Facebook! Chances are you have already received an invitation to "Like" our page! :)**

In other good news, we had an ultrasound last week and all fears of Traydon not being a boy we quickly extinguished when he gladly put his feet straight in the air. What a goober! In not so good news for Mommy, he is currently in the 80th percentile for weight. We have told him multiple times since the ultrasound that he isn't allowed to stay in that percentile and he needs to slow down on his growth spurt! He is not allowed to be over 8lbs when he is born! Mommy's orders! Think he will listen? Yeah... me neither. It is worth a shot though!

MARK GOT A CALLING!!! On Saturday evening we received a phone call from our High Council member asking to speak with Mark and I on Sunday during church. We agreed and my mind went about 100 different directions trying to figure out what he wanted to talk to us about... the obvious, a calling, never crossed my mind! So we find him after getting the girls to primary and nursery and walk in to talk to him. He says since I already have a calling, we can probably guess why we are here, to extend Mark a calling of course! (I didn't mention that it had not in fact been one of my million guesses! Though looking back, it was the only logical one, which Mark was quick to point out to me after church.) He was asked to serve as the Elder's Quorum 1st Counselor! I almost cried! I was so excited for this calling, and have been waiting for it to come, I just didn't think it would be right now! That's what I get for thinking apparently! I am very excited to see Mark excel at this calling, but slightly surprised because for whatever reason, our callings have always been "together" so I guess I was kind of expecting to be in the Relief Society when he was in the Elder's Quorum, but this is still going to be great!

**DISCLAIMER: We are now moving on to the "not-so-good-news" portion of today's broadcast.**

First, I would like to express my gratitude for our Lord's tender mercies. In times of struggle or hardship, it really is the little things that can make all the difference! With Mark's last paycheck, we noticed it seemed a little low, but in my rush to get other things done, I didn't look as closely as I should have. Come to find out, he wasn't paid for a mandatory training course he took at a different time than originally scheduled to take. We were shorted a few hundred dollars... Once I finally realized this, it was too late and I had already paid all the bills that were due. I knew money was going to be tight and from that point I moved some bills around that could wait and scheduled just the things that would have it deplete our account, but not overdraw the account. Then it was up to prayer to make sure none of the automatic payments came out before the next pay check. Then came the trade show for the weekend... I offered to use my credit card reader so we could take cards as payment and I would keep track and transfer money after it was available in our checking account. I woke up this morning thinking the money from the trade show should now be available and I was relieved to see that it was. I was not so pleased to see that an automatic payment to a company we had meant to cancel had also been posted to the account... AFTER THE CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS WERE DEPOSITED! It was such a relief to see that it had happened in that order and I know it was just meant to work out that way. No overdraft fees, no bank calling to ask when we will be depositing money, none of that! Simple perfection. Like I said, Tender Mercies. It really is the little things.

And now on to even more "not-so-good-news" that I will ask my prayer warriors to help out with! Although my life is being immensely blessed, my heart is still very heavy. When Mark and I lived in Casper, we made a lot of friends and one of those friends, who is very dear to me and was always a great friend to our family is struggling. In the matter of weeks, her world has been turned upside down, and that is the understatement of the year. Her 12-year-old son has been diagnosed with a rare liver cancer and is currently undergoing chemo-therapy treatments at Seattle Children's Hospital. This young man was in Mark's scout troop when Mark was a den leader and we know the family on a very personal and loving level and I can't even imagine what they are going through. She has been able to keep us all updated via her own blog here on Blogger, and every time I read them, I just hug my girls a little tighter. With that said, I am asking for prayers for the Dirk's family. Young Caden is a fighter and will pull through this, but prayer never hurt anyone. His mom, Stephanie has been stronger than I can even imagine being, and has expressed her love and gratitude for the prayer in her family's behalf. She testifies that it is because of the prayer that she has been able to handle this as well as she has. All I keep thinking is, "I need to be doing something!". Stephanie was there for our family on many occasions when we both lived in Casper, and though we have both moved away, my love and gratitude for all she did for me personally as well as my family will forever burn in my heart. Being so far away, I don't know what I can do, so until I can come up with more, asking my personal prayer warriors to add them to your prayers is what I can do. It doesn't seem like near enough, but it is a start! So please, add them to your prayers! They are a wonderful family and deserve everything we can offer them! Prayer works miracles and Caden will win this battle against "StupidCancer" as it has been referred to on their blog. Lifting them all in prayer can only help the process along.

I know my family is blessed to have such great friends and I would hope you can help me with this family. Here is to a little less activity around our house! Have a great week everyone!

Challenge Accepted!

This year Mark and I have sat down and found specific goals we want to accomplish as a family. One of those goals was spending more time with our children on an individual level. With Baby Traydon's arrival creeping up on us every day, I know that my girls will end up having even less time with Mom and Dad than they already do. This, as I decided last night, will become my next priority for a little bit in hopes of setting up a routine and making it work for our family. This morning, I woke up and decided I needed some new ideas for things I could do with each girl on our own. I had a few ideas from different blogs I had read previously, but I was really hoping for some new, abstract ideas that would just jump out at me and scream, "Loni would love that!" or, "Madi would have so much fun with that!". My research ideas failed me... I went to my trusting idea generating site (Pinterest, naturally), in hopes that I would find some great ideas! And while I did find a couple that I hadn't thought in depth of before, nothing really jumped out at me, and nothing was a completely foreign idea to me. Thus began my thought process of taking on this challenge myself. This post may end up being the beginning of a long series, which is my hope actually! I am hoping that through my own experiences and research from our little area, I will be able to find those abstract ideas I was looking for and share them with the world! If no one else is my Pinterest world wants to take on the challenge, I WILL!

My plan for executing this idea would ideally be as follows:

• Each child gets one date a month with each parent
• For now, the dates would be on the same night equaling two date nights a month allowing for us to continue to maximize our time as a family. (Mark would take one child, I would take the other and on a different night we would trade and take the other child)
• No two date nights are the same for a minimum of 6 months!
• Child gets to choose date night in its entirety once every 6 months at least.
• Zero interruption policy! (Excluding Emergencies obviously!) No technological distractions, no shopping or unrelated errands to run, etc.
• Take lots of pictures and make lots of memories!

I know I will only have my little girls for a short time and I haven't done the job I need to in maximizing my time with them. That changes now. I can't wait to start making this happen and spending some much needed time with my girls at their level and on their terms. Stay tuned for more ideas!!