What a Night

Last night I went to a MK training and had a nice time with some pretty cool women.  When I got home, Mike and I shared a homemade wheat crust pizza (yum... I love my homemade pizzas!) and relaxed.  I actually felt sleepy early, so I went up to bed with him around 11.  By 1:30 I had already had 3 really bad dreams and couldn't calm myself down.  I was feeling scared and panicked even after I had woken up.  So I woke Mike up.  Truly, I must have the best husband ever, because instead of being annoyed and making me feel bad, he held me when I cried, got me a tissue when I inevitably snotted on him, and talked with me about them.  He got me water, rubbed my back, and made me feel safe.  I know God gave him those arms for times like those... Madi loves her Daddy's arms and when she has a bad dream she always wants me to sing to her and hug her, but Daddy to hold her.
He also told me that when his brother left for college, he was scared at night becuase they had always shared a room.  So he would lay there and say "We have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind" and repeat it until he either fell asleep or was calmed and wasn't afraid.  Mike also told me that God gave us 3 things to fight that fear... power, love and a sound mind.  That helped me a lot last night.
I don't usually have dreams that I remember and I almost never have bad dreams.  I can actually remember almost all the bad dreams I have ever had in my adult life... and count them on one hand.  After calming down and praying and repeating that promise of scripture, I fell back asleep and slept horribly!  Haha... I really figured after all that stuff, I would sleep so well and feel safe and peaceful... but no.  Im not sure what God was trying to teach me or show me or what was going on, but I tossed and turned and had a lot of pain in my back and hips.  (My rheumatoid arthritis has been acting up the past few days, and last night was pretty bad!). I thought maybe God was waking me to pray, so, pray I did.  But.... I just kept waking up and being uncomfortable.  Not fun. 
Anyways... I'm not complaining (much), but really trying to figure out what was going on in this house last night.  Why did I have such scary dreams!?  I actually dreamt that I was screaming and flailing my arms because I couldn't wake up or get Mike's attention.  In my dreams I felt trapped, and like things where being stolen from us, and some real and tangible fear!!  It's pretty easy with dreams that are literal like that to figure out what I'm feeling... being trapped, the fear of something be stolen from us, those are easy.  The situations were are home, Mike's work, and lastly, our bedroom.  But... why?  And what?  Why am I feeling trapped, what is being stolen?  And what do those places have to do with it!? 
So, I'm praying a good bit about this stuff this morning... and I'm going to snag a quick nap before we head in for Madi's med-check.   Pray with me... I don't want another night like last night, but I want to figure out what's going on.  This was too strange and out of the ordinary not to mean something.

Finially.... OUTDOOR WEATHER!

Yesterday was GORGEOUS!  It was in the 50's and super sunny!  Yeah, there is still a good bit of snow around... but only on parts that dont get full sun.  And those giant piles that were as tall as the houses are only 3 or 4 feet tall now!  So we went OUTSIDE!  YAY!

Madi got her bike out and Jay used the scooter... they were riding around for about an hour... being goofy and enjoying the fresh ar!

After playing outside of our house for awhile, we decided to go to the park so we could all play softball and football and run around.  Madi played softball on a team last year for the first time and loved it, but the other 2 had never played before.  I think we are learning that Jay is probably not the sportiest of kids, while Kiki is actually pretty good at most sports.

Of course, I took tons of pics... but I cant post any that you can really see their faces... so this is as good as it gets for our foster kids.

Gotta love that this kid even poses during a water break.  Madi is sooo sporty, its fun to watch her.  While doing a sport, like soccer or softball, or even just running, she is super graceful and almost never falls.  But when she is just doing "life" she is always tripping over something or running into something... its kinda funny!

Before we were married, Mike had never played a team sport.. or any sport for that matter.  I kind of forced him into playing on the church softball league and now he LOVES it!

Even Tink got in on the outdoor fun!