Vacation to Nebraska Part 1

Shane had some vacation to take off for work, so we decided to spend that week at home in Nebraska. Shane hasn't been able to spend that much time at home in the summer since college. We left Friday, June 26th after work and stopped in Lincoln for the night to stay with Shane's sister, Janice and her family. They recently bought a new house, so it was our first time getting to see it! The next morning we headed the rest of the way.
Our time was spent seeing family and friends. Shane was put to work on the farm running the tractor, hauling pipe, irrigating, mowing, working on this and that, etc. After sorting thru all my pictures from the week, I ended up with 75 to post on the blog. They are in no particular order:

Emma cheesin' up the camera

One afternoon, Nana was nice enough to clean the baby pool and fill it with water for Emma to play. She had a blast!

Chase

The next several pictures are some I took from my mom's flower garden,and of some old buildings that they own...we are going to put some pictures together to frame and hang at their new house they are working on...

My niece, Zoe and Emma...
it never fails, my sister and I don't shop together, but our girls still end up with matching clothes!

Daddy and Emma

My niece, Kenna and Emma

Daddy and Emma heading to Shane's house for the day...it was their first outing without mommy...the first hour I kept looking for my kid, wondering where she went out of instinct...and then I started to enjoy the 'no-responsibility' for the next 4 hours! I was happy to see Emma when she got back though and she didn't let me out of her sight for the rest of the day!

Emma and the beautiful afghan my Aunt Sara made her!

My niece, Abby w/ her afghan

Me holding Abby and the diaper bag I made her mommy!

Nana and Papa w/ their grandkids

Nana and her granddaughters

Me and Emma

Me, my brother, Jared (30) and my sister, Britni (27)

Britni, Jared, my mom and I

My nephew, Nathan

Holding baby Abby for the first time!
She is very tiny...hard to imagine Emma was that tiny once!

Enjoying some french toast...my mom makes the best french toast EVER!
And we were blessed enough to get it 3 mornings while we were there!

Nana, Haley Mae, Zoe, and Emma

The whole family

Me, Emma and Shane

We bought a car...and no, its not a minivan!

So here is the story of our car situation I told you I would blog about. I really hope that you can see how God's hand was in all of it. Shane and I earnestly seek God's will in our lives and pray that it is evident in the decisions we make and the way we live out our daily lives.

So lets back up a bit...my parents handed me the keys to my 1996 Grand Am on my 16th birthday (I remember it, because that night I drove to watch Shane play basketball and I believe it was the first night I met Shane's dad), its been a great car but showing its age lately (Shane has been driving it as a work car for the past 4+ years). For the last few years I have been praying that it would last until we got our car paid off (and we did back in March over a year early!). I then started praying that it would last until we could pay cash for our next car...a minivan more specifically (yes, I really want a Honda Odyssey, strange I know, but very practical).
Well, the day before we left for vacation to Nebraska on June 25, Shane left for lunch and I thought the Grand Am sounded quiet, when he drove home from work it was smoking up a storm and our little computer we have for it said 'cylinder 1 misfiring'. So we dropped it off at our mechanic's shop on Friday before leaving town. The next Monday, we get a phone call telling us that the Grand Am blew some head gaskets and was gonna cost $1500 to fix (which is all the car is worth in running condition, $1000 alone was labor, since you have to tear everything out to fix it) and that was at a minimum, who knows what else could be wrong once they tore into it. So we thought and prayed on it and then my mom asked if we would be interested in buying her 1994 Camry, so we thought and prayed on it some more and decided yes, we would like to buy her car.
Why not just go out and buy a minivan you may ask us (which I would have loved to do)...yes, we can afford a payment for a minivan, but we are trying to change our mindset that if we can't pay cash for it, we can't afford it (yeah, we took that Dave Ramsey class at church!) After paying off our car, I have been saving money for the minivan and to side and roof our garage.
So a few days later I called our mechanic back to tell him that we aren't fixing the car and he said that he may be interested in buying the car from us, but he wanted to investigate further to make sure it was just the head gaskets (makes sense for him to fix it, he doesn't have to pay labor costs!)
So Sunday, July 5th after driving to Nebraska with one Toyota Camry, we returned to Iowa with two!
So where is God in all of this:
1) I prayed that the Grand Am would last long enough until I could pay cash for my next car...I was able to write a check in full to my mom, and had the exact amount leftover to still do the garage! We didn't even have to touch our emergency fund!
2) Timing couldn't have worked out more perfect, we happened to already be going to Nebraska and was able to just drive mom's car home. Funny thing is, the last several years we joked about buying mom's car...I kept telling her she couldn't sell it to anyone else!
3) God already had a buyer for the Grand Am...and as hard as it was to let go of something that my dad worked hard to give to me and that I had for 9 1/2 years, I have great peace that God worked everything out! I didn't even fret over any of the decision making (anyone that knows me, knows I hate making decisions)! I pretty much just handed it over to God and my husband!

If God was that awesome now...I know that if we honor the commitment we made to Him about paying only cash for our next vehicle as well (hopefully a minivan), He will bless us with whatever we need!

Here are a few pictures I was able to find...

A Senior Pic

Shane's Cougar, my Grand Am, Shane's Alero...
after 10 years, Shane and I no longer own a 2 door red car.

My Junior Prom

A sad farewell...I didn't even get to drive it one last time! We went to the shop to clean it out on Wednesday, it was completely torn apart. I did get to sit behind the wheel one last time though!

A lot of life happens in a short 9 1/2 years...hard to believe I was once 16 driving this car, and today I am a wife of 5+ years, and a mom to a beautiful 10 month old baby girl!

Most of the junk I cleaned out of the Grand Am!
Some of the stuff I found included: name tag from when I worked at SunMart in high school, Shane's high school graduation program, a warning I got from having my fog lights on while dragging main, a warning from not making a complete stop (or so the cop said) driving out at the lake one night, the old Nebraska plates, a picture of Codi and Justin from Sweetheart (I have no idea why I had that!), 4 window scrapers, 2002 Ogallala Indians tassle, 2 sets of jumper cables, every insurance card dating clear back to when the car was bought and lots more!

Shane's new car

Our driveway is a lot less colorful now, but we are the proud owners of 2 Toyota Camrys that are paid for...can't get much more blessed than that!

No, we didn't fall off the face of the earth...

Hi Everyone...yes, the Struckman's are still here...just super busy! We made it home from vacation, pics are downloaded, but still need to go thru them and downsize them for the blog...so be expecting those!
We also have had some changes around here with the cars...more to come on that as well.
Emma of course is growing leaps and bounds and turned 10 months on July 3rd...which also marked 3 years since Bella joined our family.
Well, that is all for now, I am off to bed...I leave you with this picture of my beautiful daughter!

Check back soon...

Those that really know me, know that I struggle with self-confidence and I do not like to draw attention to myself...but, after having several people ask me about my diaper bag and those who have been gracious enough to carry the ones I made them, I thought it was time I did something so that people can check them out online. So here is my blog where you can find pictures and information. I suppose I will move up to an actual website on down the line if the need ever arises, not that I am looking to start a business, I am just letting God take it where it may...

kt-designs.blogspot.com

Keep in mind I am still working on putting everything together on it. Please give me some feedback if you have any!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there...especially to my hubby and my dad!
I was pretty excited to give Shane his gift (its nothing extravagant, so you probably won't be impressed), but nonetheless, I thought it was the perfect gift, and I think Shane would agree.
Keep reading if you want to find out what it is...

We woke early this morning (not by our own free will...but b/c Emma likes early mornings)
As you can see, she is much more chipper than we are in the mornings (that is her cheesy smile if you can't tell)

Shane reading his card from Emma and me

Shane opening his gift

Shane happy to see what it is...Emma trying to figure out what it is...

Shane holding his gift up
(and you, the readers...still trying to figure out what the heck it is)

Well, you see, Shane came bringing me his screwdriver bag weeks ago and asked me if sometime I could make him a new bag for it b/c it had ripped and no longer really held them.

So I hunted thru my fabric stash and came up with some heavy denim, and made him a handy bag to hold his screw drivers.

Shane putting his screwdrivers in his new bag!

They all fit! I even put a nice magnetic snap on it and reinforced the bottom so that over time the screwdrivers won't rip the bag!

And any of you that know my husband, know he only likes vertical stripes...so I made the bag so the stripes were vertical (I'm such a thoughtful wife!ha!).

And it fits perfectly in his tool bag.

Shane really likes his gift...and even said it was 'perfect' and thought the fabric was cool. And to top it off, it didn't cost a cent, so he definitely loved that! He also asked if I had more of that fabric and is thinking up more things I can make for him. I told him I have at least 3 yards of it (that could make a lot of stuff)!

*and yes, Shane thought it was weird that I was documenting all of it...but I thought it would make a fun post!