Bohling Family Sites

According to google, there is much research showing 21 days to be a milestone maker in the industry of forging habits, either good or bad.  There is probably an equal amount of debate on the matter, but I have set out to establish a habit of committing the first minutes of my alert day to spending time with our Creator.  So far this has consisted of reading Romans and the first few chapters of I Corinthians, and listening for The Spirit to speak.  This also, admittedly, has involved warding off a new sub-habit of falling asleep in the process. All in all, day 12 has come and gone showing 12/12 on the scoreboard.

For me, I hope it works.  So many times in the past I have told myself “Self, from this day forth, you shall not drink milk from the carton again.”  Inevitably, I find my lips pressed madly against the jug sucking the liquid down in the hopes that nobody will see me as I rush to wipe the drizzle from my chin and slam the refrigerator door shut before they stroll into the kitchen.  Sheesh.

Forever is intimidating, and that means change. Who wants to change who they are?  I like to think that I’m OK just the way I am.  By forming a habit, you’re simply adding to who you are.  21 days is less intimidating.  If I can do this for 21 days, there is hope for a sliver of discipline in me (by the grace of God, naturally), and that if I allow, God can accomplish something in me.  Even if it is small.

As a human, and of the male orientation, and arguably ADD at that, I find that I only have about 512 MB of RAM with which to store my habits.  My hope is that by cultivating a new habit once in a while, I’ll have less room for the old ones.  This is my logic at it’s finest.

Using man’s wisdom to implement a Godly habit: also debatable, but this is my starting point.  Thoughts on the matter are welcome.

Isn’t it great to be alive? We have so enjoyed all these years of parenting. What a variety of personalities God built into the six kids that he loaned to us in these past 29 years! And now we are getting to meet the next generation and see another round of personality traits appear. It is so cool! If I ever figure out how to stop long enough to read and even make entries more often, I could really have fun…and who knows what I might learn MORE about my adult children. Yes, they are ALL adults now. Neal, I think you are beginning to understand what drove your Dad and I to take that “risky” step into missions….and you can probably see why some thought we were totally out of our mind! Seth, you are now getting a glimpse into the 6 ring circus that we enjoyed for so many years. Matthew, you haven’t a clue….yet! Laura, I think I can almost read your mind. I’ve been there. Lily and Leah, Daddy and I DO remember what it was like to be your age….believe it or not!
We are so proud of each of you and excited to see what you will choose to do with the life God gave you. We’ll continue to cheer from tlhe sidelines! Love you all so much!!!

Since our last series of posts, we have sealed the deal on our home, completed some low risk maintenance on the Jetta, received 9 months notice from The Stork, secured a used Golf, and planted a lime tree and various herbs on our property.

Water thermostat, cooling fan, secondary air pump mounts.

Are you certain? You can be, with “Be Certain!”

Our little lime tree. It has not yeilded fruit yet, but trust it will begin to contribute to this family soon enough.

This is the one week anniversary of my 4 a.m. phone call. Have you ever been awakened by the ringing phone in the wee hours? First I had to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Second, I had to move toward the noise. Third, I had to make my dry mouth speak. Fourth, I had to make my brain think. Etc. Kind of slow motion. It was Laura. She was up and wanted to chat. She was up questioning whether she was in true labor. That’s a good thing to question when you are almost 9 months pregnant. We chatted. I asked a few questions. She answered. We decided that it was probably time to make a few important decisions about babysitters and labor coaches. Plan A was not going to work because sickness and travel had invaded the plan. So, we hang up and Laura made a few calls. Babysitter? Check. Ride to hospital? Check. Call Mom. Check. That much accomplished….and in less than an hour. Contractions? Check. Go now….my best advice….and the Drs (after another phone call). Fast forward, but only about an hour….another ring of the phone. Another chat with Laura. Confirmation that this is the day. Admitted to the hospital with the news of dilated to 5, fully effaced, and having a bulging water bag. Good news. Call me back. And she did. About an hour later, the call revealed that her bulging water bag had ruptured. Splash! Right on schedule. Casey was definitely coming. We go off to church with cell phone left audible. Sure enough, right in the middle of the sermon, the phone rings and I exit to take THE CALL. It was Laura. She had Casey about an hour and a half ago. All was well. Amen. At almost the same instant that I had requested prayer for a safe delivery that hour and a half earlier, she had delivered a healthy baby girl. Now that’s timing. God is so good at perfect timing. I must remember that as I grandparent another individual in this world. AMEN.

SO glad she's arrived!

If a movie has any of the following people in it, I’ll watch it no matter how bad the movie looks (probably a work in progress):

Pierce Brosnan
Bruce Willis
Simon Pegg
Tony Jaa (for now)
Richard Dean Anderson
Jason Lee
Jim Carrey

These are almost there. I’d watch most anything these kids were in:
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Grant
Hugh Laurie
Rachel Weisz
Gyllenhaals
Anthony Hopkins
Jessica Biel
Jackie Chan
Penelope Cruz
Michele Yeoh
Donny Yen
Bruce Lee
Jet Li
Christian Bale
Johnny Depp

There’s probably some huge psychological analysis to be done on the fact that nearly all of the above are male.

I had nearly given up on the delivery of the gift Matthew had warned about and didn’t want to have to wait untill
another day to get it, so I went online and saw what it was. (I had a hunch it was
flowers) I called the number only to get a busy signal over and over…then not
much after that, a woman called to ask if I would be home to accept the delivery. She said
“we have something for you..”  *Ding Dong* the doorbell rang a little later and I
accepted a very beautiful arrangement of different colored roses! They smell good.  I
love that they are all different colors! It makes me think of a rainbow.   I really feel special that Matthew did that for me.  

Now I just have to make sure to separate the cats and the flowers when I’m not around to
watch them both, because the cats like to chew on the flowers and leaves….stupid cats. 
I spray them till they are soaked every chance I get. Hahahahahhahaaaa!

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http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=app_2392950137&ref=name&id=519455093#/video/video.php?v=334559600093

House #5, affectionately dubbed “The Yellow House”:

The bank countered our offer with a price that was a long shot away from our budget and we were downhearted.  The Seller’s agent explained that we could not go that high and the bank responded “this file is CLOSED!”  (Just like that I think, she said the lady was not very nice).

So just like always, we picked up and moved on…..  (side note – my gut kept telling me that we were not done with The Yellow House.  I had felt SO STRONGLY that it would be OUR house).

House #6:  A little smaller, GREAT price, updated throughout, SWEET kitchen….quaint.  I could imagine us living here!  No time to waste, we place our offer.  And then we wait…..

In the meantime…the bank asks regarding House #5, are we going to counter?  We tell them no, again (!), and it goes to a second review (!?).  There’s still a chance!!!!   Wahoo Wahoo Wahooo!  And…..

THEY ACCEPTED!!!  Party dance!

We close this coming Friday!  So now we are gathering up all our cleaning supplies and paint and elbow grease…ready to tackle.  God has truly blessed us – I hope we can consecrate this house to Him.

More pics to follow after we begin work…

Say "cheese", Leah.

After two performances (one more to go….without Leah) of VNL, we are spending Saturday afternoon learning how to “POST”.  Neal came to Friday evening performance and this morning tried to educate me in “posting” and “commenting”.  Now you may tire of my comments.  Oh, well.  

Neal, Daddy, and I took Leah to meet the Country Bible Church RV (& trailer) at Gas City in Benson at 5 a.m.  They arrived, got gas, loaded Leah, bought some refreshments and headed out to Mexicali.  Don’t forget to pray for Leah this week.  She’s working with the Coronitas VBS.  We came home and took a nap and then had lunch and Neal headed for home and a late afternoon wedding. 

The VNL performance included some nice band songs:  That’s Entertainment, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lexington March, Come on Feel the Noize and Puttin’ On the Ritz.  The choir sang Sh-Boom, Bookbag Boogie, Oh, Susanna, Wait for the Wagon, and That’s Entertainment.    They filled the program with the Cha Cha Slide and Numa Numa and had audience participants invited to dance on the stage.  Leah enjoyed dancing with several others to the Michael Jackson song “Thriller”.  She also enjoyed wearing a “poodle skirt” and doing choreography with Sh-Boom.  She had some SOLO  moments in some of the band piece.  There were also some skits between things (The Monty Python 3 headed giant) (The Reporter and the Politician) and Austin Dye and Ben Sanford actually sang the song about getting things on  ”E-Bay”.    There were some solo pieces also and a Kazoo Band.  The desserts were very fattening and the audience seemed appreciative.  Daddy got all his cues at the sound booth right!  Now we’ll do it one more time….without Leah.   We’ll have some video to show you at a later time. 

So…that’s VNL 2009….and now off for an “empty nest” week.  Do pray for us….who knows what trouble we’ll get into!

This site is fun to tinker with.  Thanks Neal.