About 7 weeks or so ago, Wade and I signed the papers to put in a swimming pool! It's something that we've always wanted to do. I had a pool growing up and always knew that I wanted to have one when I got married and had a family. Wade works extremely hard in his job, waking up around 3:30 A.M. and putting in a 50-60 hour work week typically (with a lot of physical labor involved as well) and since he is self-employed, he barely squeaks by with a 4-5 day vacation once per year. So, we decided to bring the vacation and relaxation to us with a pool! We are very excited and were able to swim in it for the first time yesterday after school, although the water was a bit chilly. Carson had his best buddy, Jake, over and they wore themselves out. They had a blast! We even broke in the diving board some...Wade did about 5 jumps/dives off it and Callahan was in awe! He kept saying "WOAH!" It was really funny! Here are the pictures from start to finish basically. We still have a lot of landscaping to do around it, as you can see, but will hopefully start that this weekend. It definetely looks a lot better now, if you can imagine, than the small warzone it was when they started! So, the invitation is open for you to come have a "mini vacation" at the Ramer house!

Carson had his first flag football game today! His team is the TITANS and Wade is helping assistant coach. It's really cute and pretty funny too. Carson had a good time, although they have a lot to work on in practice this week. The first play, Carson was on defense and was trying to pull the flags of the player directly in front of him, even though that player did not have the ball. We are definetely learning! Carson did tackle a kiddo so his teammate could score a touchdown - except it is "flag football" and not "tackle football!" Like I said, we're learning...



Callahan had a lot of fun and did really well at the game. He waved to Wade and Carson quite often and got a little confused as to why he couldn't just run out there with his brother and daddy too. Thankfully he was entertained with eating snacks and just being outside!




Things were going pretty well and then...


Carson got hurt...another player stepped on his foot and his shoe came off...he survived! This wasn't the only time we saw tears from Carson during the game. A little bit before this happened...I looked over on the sideline and saw Carson crying. I asked Wade what was wrong and he mouthed back to me that Carson thought they were losing! Oh boy, do we have our work cut out for us already with this boy! The funny thing is is that they don't even keep a real score in flag football. We've kept telling Carson to just go out and have fun...because he cannot stand to lose and is VERY competitive...hmmm...wonder where he gets that from (hint: one of his parents and it isn't me!). He has told me about 10 times tonight that his team won...did I mention that he doesn't like to lose?





We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to our next game. We have a bi-week next week so we will practice up and work on pulling those flags! Go Titans!

It's been a great Sunday in our church's history and I just am so excited about the news we received today that I have to share it with everybody! It's an amazing story, so here goes the shortened version...

Wade and I have been members of New Heights Church in Fayetteville for 3 1/2 years of it's 7 almost 8 year existence. This church began with a group of elders and their wives from a local church in town, who desired to start a church where they could have more freedom and flexibility in practicing their christian faith. They desired a church that would be more appealing to their unchurched friends, and believers from other traditions. It's first meeting began with 50 people at a local middle school and is now a growing church of close to 1000 members.

Our church currently meets in the Boys and Girls Club in Fayetteville. About 7 months ago, our church held a town meeting to discuss our growing numbers and building propositions. The staff and elders had looked into property in this area, but the price for land here is extremely high. Our church has been and strives to be a "sending church" and is heavily involved in global missions. The staff and elders encouraged everyone to pray that the Spirit lead us in the direction we needed to go. The group consensus was to not purchase land at that point in time and it was felt that God saying to "wait."

About 3 Sundays ago, we had vision Sunday. It was talked about at this time to eventually buy land, but for now to partner with the Boys and Girls Club in some renovations and building expansions in order to help them and us with our growing family. Other ideas were discussed as well.

Well, to make a long story short, our lead pastors were contacted very recently by a realtor in our church family who said that he had an anonymous donor from a local organization that wanted to donate $700,000 for our church to buy land with. The realtor told them to go look for land. Well, they went out and looked, but pretty much knew what was out there from the previous searches. Our staff and elders kept coming back to a peice of property a little over a mile away from where our church currently meets that has great accessibility. It was the most reasonably priced peice of land in the area and just seemed like where they needed to be looking. The price of the land was 1.4 million dollars and so the staff and elders didn't know if they should take out a loan for the remainder, use the money in our building fund which was under $100,000, or really didn't know what to do. So they prayed about it and a day or two later, the realtor came back to our church staff and said that the donor met with the seller of the property and offered 1.1 million for it and on Friday, September 12...our church, New Heights Church, closed on the 40 acres located in West Fayetteville paying only $2800 in closing costs and own the land FREE AND CLEAR!!!!!!!!!!!

We were all in tears and cheering and clapping for joy with this news! It is truly amazing and we couldn't be happier and are so appreciative to this anonymous donor! Our two leading pastors asked the realtor who it was, but they were told they were not to know and the person/organization wanted to remain anonymous! How unbelievable is that!!! We are just praising God and giving him all the glory. Many in our church family, including some elders and wives, had said at that town meeting 7 months ago, that they just thought that somebody was going to give us the land. Our elders and staff are absolutely amazing and encourage me daily with their selflessness and pursuit of staying in step with the holy spirit! This story is a testament to the power of prayer and the staff/elder's desire to listen and follow the spirit of the living God! Yay God!!!!

Okay, I'm having technical difficulties and can only get a bunch of word scripts on my blogging post page. So I can't figure out where to write under each picture, since there are only words and no pictures on the draft. Has anyone else had the same problem or have a clue what I'm talking about?? HELP!!

Anyways, these are some happies and not so happies this week...Carson and Callahan reading in Carson's bed each night. Callahan has been wanting to jump up there right in the middle and read with us and pray with all of us. It's pretty funny, but also hard because he doesn't sit still for long and laughs/talks the whole time so Carson can't hear. He just thinks he is as big as Carson though and it's fun to watch him mimic his brother with everything!

The next set of pics weren't happies as much for me as they were for Callahan! On Saturday, he and Carson were coloring with markers and I was standing only a few feet away from them in the kitchen. I could hear Cal just laughing and getting all giddy about something - as I came around the corner from the sink, I saw him sitting at the table coloring away with blue magic marker all over his legs and arms. He was so proud of himself! Carson thought it was pretty funny too. I'm just glad we only buy washable markers!!

And lastly, Wade and Carson have been playing football pretty much on a daily basis and Callahan is learning the ropes - like I said, he thinks he is just as big as Carson!

Now, onto Hurricane IKE...wow! The remnants came through here last night and woke me up in a panic! My dad had to make a business trip last week to Baltimore and was unable to fly home to Houston on Friday and so he went to my brother and sister-in-law's in Kansas City. So my mom and nephew stayed in Houston (Kingwood) and rode the storm out! I am happy to report that they are well and safe, but a 100 ft. tree did fall on their house and part of it is sitting in their game room. Mom said Friday night was pretty scary and they got zero hours of sleep. They do not have any power either, and are hoping it comes back on soon. All in all, we are thanking God they are okay! Pictures to follow later...

Oh Yes, Football season has definetely kicked off and is in full swing in the Ramer house. I came in the other day and Carson and Callahan were both in full Razorback attire (above) and then the other night, well you see what I found them doing in the living room pictures above. We love it though, I can't deny that I too am a pretty big football fan myself. I know I know, I'm a strange girl I guess you could say, but I really love football season and love watching both college and NFL. There's something about football and the freshness of the fall season that comes with it that I just love. I also love coming home from church on Sunday and having football on the tube! Go HOGS and COWBOYS!

Here is sweet Callahan at 22 months! He still very much looks and acts like an 18 month old or younger...ya know, not talking and still with his baby look. That's okay though...he will grow up soon enough! He is our cuddler...he loves to give hugs and kisses throughout the day which we gladly accept. He is really into the sandbox right now and jumping on the trampoline with Carson.

Well, after the first week of Kindergarten, Carson came home and drew our whole family and cut each of us out all by himself. This was the first time he had drawn people that were not stick people and were more like "bubble" people I guess you could say. I must admit that I was pretty impressed with my little artist! He said that his teacher, Ms. Ellis, taught him how and he even gave his "non-artistic ability whatsoever" mother a few pointers!