Leslie Boxell’s Weblog

Here’s what Jada and Georgia were up to in the play room while I was taking a shower! 

BABY POWDER!!!  What a mess!

Poor Georgia…

My little munchkin is 3 already, I can hardly believe how fast she has grown.  We had 3 fun days of celebrating.  First with her little friends, then with Mommy and Daddy and Family on Sunday.   Scott and I celebrated with her becoming a “big girl” and convinced her to say goobye to the beloved binky!!! (after many weeks and months of preparation/talking it up)  WAHOO!!!  Although, as I tied the binky to the balloons and let Jada release them into the sky, I felt a little sad.  My baby is not a baby anymore and it just hit me right then.  So far, without too much withdrawal she has done great!  I worried about her taking a good nap yesterday at her grandparents, but they said she did just fine.  So, Kels I will be praying for you on Thursday around 1:00pm that Jada doesn’t give you too much hassle. :) 

Jada had a lot of fun celebrating with everyone she loves!

Weird title I know, but it will make sense in a minute.  So, many times I have been embarrassed to tell people where I went to High School/grew up when they ask.  I always smirk and say, Parkrose…  home of the Broncos… Lately, I have been thinking about that a lot.  My church has recently started a campus in Parkrose.  Since that has happened I have seen a lot of positive great things going on, but I cringe when they talk about the community and the people there.  The view most people have is that it is a drug addicted, prostituting, crack smoking, gang banging, meth smuggling ghetto.  Yes, that is all true, but there is more to the community than that.  There are really great people who live there.  People who are trying to make a difference in their community and reach out to their neighbors.  I never thought I would say this, but a part of me misses our little white house in Parkrose. We had such great neighbors, and yes we had bad ones too.  But we all looked out for each other.  One time our small little neighborhood made the news because we helped bring down 2 drug  houses together.    I’m not saying I want to go back, but I’m feeling not as ashamed I guess. So what if I grew up on what some may think is the wrong side of town.  That’s where I came from and who’s to judge my character based on where God placed me in this world?  I think I turned out pretty good.  

 Sometimes I have to laugh at where we live now with our HOA rules and the glares and frequent pull overs from HV sheriffs because my husband drives a beater ‘87 Camry. I

 don’t like the car either, but give me a break!  Total combined, both Scott and I have been pulled over in that car 6 times!  And none have been for a traffic violation.  I love where we live, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes the whole suburbia thing just gets to me.   So really it doesn’t matter where you grew up or where you live, but who you grew up to be and what you live for.  Yeah that’s right, I’m a Bronco.

So it’s been a LONG while since I’ve posted anything.  There’s a lot of reasons why I’ve been absent from the blogging world, but too much to go into.  Alot has changed in my life since June.  I’ve started a new job, which has been wonderful and weird at the same time.  I love my job at my church, yet it is sooooo different than what I am used to doing.  I’m pretty good at accepting change, but I still am adjusting to my new role.  God has changed me in many ways in the past couple years, but the biggest most apparent change has been my trust, faith and reliance on God.  Not only with the big stuff, but down to (what I think) the little stuff.  Over the past month I have seen God move people into Children’s ministry at my church.  And not just any people.  Really awesome, super qualified, excited, motivated people!  Not once have I had to beg or twist anyone’s arm to teach a Sunday school class, or help with an event at church.  Don’t get me wrong there is always a need for more help, but God always provides what we need.  I cannot tell you how great it is to be able to rest in the fact that God is in control and will provide what is needed to carry out his work.  Now you may be thinking, “ of course God is working in the churches, duhhh!”  I honestly can tell you that I did not have the trust/faith in that completely when it came to ”filling holes”(finding teachers) for bible classes.  I guess I subconciously thought that the task was too little for God.  NOT TRUE!  So, I’ve learned.    

Peace out…

Yesterday we got to go down to Salem to visit my mom, sister and her two kids (and dog).  Here are some pictures of the fun times!

Jada & Monet

Paxton

Jada & Bella (their new dog)

Wheeeeee!

Jada & Grammy

Okay, so it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything because I basically have no life right now.  I’ll try to explain…

Have you ever stood in line at a buffet looking at all the yummy food and can’t decide what you want because it all looks so good, so you take a little of all of it???  Well basically that’s what my life is like right now.  I have taken on some things that all are really good and important things… taking a class, more responsibility at church, helping my mom sell her house, two bible studies, teaching and trying to be a good mom and wife to my family and it feels like I’ve overfilled my dish. I want to do and be involved in everything I have committed to and for some that may not be too much, but for me the plate is too full. 

All this “stuff” has made me sooooo tired.  I’m tired of feeling upset, frustrated, inadequate, stressed, anxious and just tired of being TIRED!!  I know God does not give us more than we can handle, but to be honest sometimes I feel like I’ve had enough!  It’s like I’m being pulled in all these different directions and I’m finding it hard to divide my time up so that each “thing” that needs to be done gets done.  I’m working hard to be good at everything I’ve taken on, but sometimes things don’t get done, or something slips and I hate that.  I hate feeling like I’m not doing my best.  But, everything that’s on my plate I feel very responsible for and cannot “dump it.”

So, for now I’ll sit here eating away little by little until it’s all gone.  I know there is an end in sight to the craziness and am counting the days until June…when I will say goodbye to those pesky, yet adorable little 6 year olds that hopefully I’ve had some kind of positive influence on.  And all the reflections upon reflections upon lesson plans upon reflections will be all tied up in a pretty little package and given to the course instructor who will probably not spend more than 1/100th of the time I took preparing it…and my mom’s house will hopefully soon have a sold sign on a painted wooden pole in her front lawn…and my two enlightening, yet time consuming bible studies will soon come to a close as the summer months approach…

So at times it has seemed that “I have bitten off more than I can chew”, or “there’s too much on my plate”, or “I’ve got too much junk in my trunk” (oh, wait that’s something else) anyway, you get the picture.  Maybe God is expanding what I am capable of handling.  That seems just like something he would do. 

Well so long for now.  Thanks for reading   Sorry for the rambling…

I was looking through some stuff in my closet and came across my guitar that I haven’t touched in over 10 years.  So… I got it out and started trying to play it.  It was missing a string, so that made it kind of difficult.  After an hour of playing on an untuned guitar with a missing string I decided it might be worth it to take it in and get the string replaced and have it tuned. 

I was a little embarassed taking it in because I had neglected it for so long and couldn’t remember how to restring and tune it.  As I entered the store, the girl at the desk was trying to tell me to check in my guitar.  I didn’t think she was talking to me, so some other guys came over and started saying Mam! Mam! You need to check in your guitar.  I was totally clueless!  I hadn’t stepped foot in a guitar store in quite a while.  I guess things have changed.   The guitar guy was sooo nice.  He told me what a nice guitar I had and strung up a new string and tuned it for me all for free!!  He played it a little and reminded me how to keep it tuned.  I was so excited to take it home and start playing.  It was like  a long lost friend that I had wanted to stay in touch with but never took the time… So, all last night I practiced, and a little this morning.  My fingers are sooooo sore! 

It seems strange that I hadn’t paid any attention to my guitar in so long.  I first started playing right before I met Scott.  ( I even found a few songs I wrote about him back when we were first dating!)  I guess I started getting caught up with our relationship and spending time with Scott that I eventually stopped playing.  Then college, work and Jada came along and I sort of forgot that I even played.

Oh well, she’s back in town and the memories and feelings have all come rushing back (although the actual playing will take some practice).  HA HA HA!  I love my guitar!

So, my life has been a little hectic lately and so I haven’t posted anything for awhile.  Over the last month a lot of things have come up in my life that have distracted me from what is most important from my life.  It became apparent to me this past Sunday as I helped out a little in one of the 5th and 6th grade Sunday school classes.  The lesson was on the Holy Spirit and that when we have the Holy Spirit living in us, it gives us power.  The teacher did a great job illustrating that today we can get so distracted by other things that we forget and often times don’t know what to do with the gift that God has given us.  Also, the sermon was on what our “story” is regarding why we are so excited about church or God.  Basically, if someone came up to you that was not a Christ follower and asked, “Why are you so excited/involved in church/God?”  So, our homework was to come up with a short story of how God has impacted our lives that has made our life different than it was before.  I’ve been thinking about this a lot. 

Okay I’m going to back up a little.  I have always felt that my mission field was in the public schools.  I’ve taught for 5 years and have felt that God has been able to use me and the Holy Spirit has given me the power to do what God intended me to do in the schools that I have worked at.  Lately, some things have come up that have rocked my world (career).  I’m learning that God may be leading me down another path.  Things at work have suddenly seemed strange and I have felt disconnected.  I don’t want to go into details, but I feel that I have stood up for what I believe in and that has led to some awkward moments between some people at work.  Furthermore, I feel like everything that happened may be because God is leading me down a different path and opening my eyes to what I am capable of with the Holy Spirit working through me.  This all sounds so deep.  But, really it isn’t… 

So… my perspective has changed some regarding my purpose in my career and I have also realized that what I love most about my job right now is that it is half time.  And that allows me to be with my daughter and husband who are most important to me. 

Here’s Jada outside Build-A-Bear.  Isn’t she cute???