God's Perfect Plan

I LOVE God moments. You know, the moment you realize you are somewhere because that’s exactly where God wanted you to be at that point in time. It seems I’ve had lots of these little “coincidences” lately. The most amazing one happened Sunday afternoon.

Our normal Sunday routine is: church, lunch with Grandma and Mom, home to do some chores and a nap for Shawn, then Life Group.

This Sunday was a little different. Jacin didn’t get up in time for church so he stayed home. After church I didn’t go eat with my Mom and Grandma because I needed to finish up some grocery shopping from Saturday. But Shawn wanted to go so I let him. On my way to Sam’s my sister called and needed some “sister time” so instead of going straight to Sam’s I went to pick her up. Then she needed to take something by her boyfriend’s house and since he lives close to my house I went home to change out of my church clothes. Then we got hungry so we went and had lunch at this little restaurant we NEVER go to. I realized it was almost 2:00 and I wasn’t going to have time to go to Sam’s so I headed to Wal Mart to buy Shawn’s juice (it’s the ONLY place I’ve found the V8 Splash Mixed Berry blend that he will take with his medicine). As we were turning into the Wal Mart parking lot we saw a really bad car accident that had just happened…. It was my neighbor and her two kids. I pulled into the parking lot and walked over to see if I could help. They all three had really bad seat belt burns across their chests and her little girl (9 years) was already starting to bruise around her collar bone. The driver of the other car was briefly unconscious. Ambulances and police were called but my neighbor couldn’t get in touch with her husband. Luckily I was there to be able to tend to the kids so she could concentrate on the other driver. Once they were checked out by the ambulance and deemed okay to travel I was able to take them to get checked out by a doctor. When her husband arrived he still couldn’t transport them because he has a small two-seater truck. They were all three checked out by the doctors and are okay with the exception of some sore necks and backs and pretty good seatbelt burns.

Needless to say, even though my day didn’t go as I planned, it went the way of God’s plan. Just another reminder of how God has a perfect plan for us… even though my grocery shopping didn’t get done and my laundry didn’t get completely folded… God’s children were taken care of according to his perfect plan.
I am constantly amazed by God’s plan and all the little “coincidences” in life.

The sad statues

Every morning on the way to school we stop at a little bakery near Shawn’s pre-school. Shawn usually gets a donut (and one for Ethan too) or a Mexican pastry. The bakery recently added two new statues in the corner of the restaurant and every morning Shawn comments on how sad the statues look. The statue is actually called The Sleeping Mexican and this is what it looks like.

This is how our conversation went this morning:

Shawn: Mommy, those men be so sad every morning.
Mommy: Why do you think the statues are sad?
Shawn: Because they have to sit in the donut shop ALL day long and don’t get to eat any donuts! I’d be very sad too.
Mommy: (trying not to laugh) Yes, that would be very sad.

The 2010 Otto Family Reunion

This July 4th weekend we headed up to Arkansas to attend our family reunion.  The best summer memories I have as a child are of family reunions and I couldn't wait to share the fun with Shawn.  The Otto family is my grandma's dad, so my great-grandfathers.  He has long since passed and only two of his children still get together, my grandma and her brother, Uncle Joe. There were four Otto families represented at the reunion:  Uncle Joe, Grandma, Uncle Mutt, and Aunt Blanche.  We had a blast and Shawn got to meet MORE cousins.  All weekend he kept saying, "All of them are my cousins too?" 

Here are some pictures from the reunion.  Much thanks and kudos to my cousin, Laura Jean who did all the planning and organizing.  Thank you for taking on such a huge task.  We had the lake mostly to ourselves and the scenery was absolutely beautiful!

Ethan had no problem feeling right at home.

The lodge where we had our meals, games, and fellowship.

Cousin Gary modeling a lovely 3-Musketeers hat.  He's such a character!

Shawn watching some games on the back patio.

Laura Jean planned lots of activities and tournaments, this was the canoe races.

Jacin and I even got brave enough to take Shawn and Ethan on a canoe ride too. The picture of Ethan and I isn't the best, but it's actually the best picture I have of his canoe ride so I'll sacrifice and post it anyway.

Jacin and I even got to sneak in a "romantic" canoe ride of our own but it only lasted ten minutes because it started to rain.

Shawn found this water toy and liked it better as a land toy. 

The boys liked using the water noodles as big swords and had little jousting tournaments.

Ethan, of course, liked playing ball and would play with anyone that was walking by.

There were lots of games.

And lots of food.  Here is a picture of Laura Jean, the mistress of ceremonies.

My cousin Kimberly and her son Cope.

Shawn and Ethan found this little wall and the loved climbing it, it was like their own little rock wall challenge.

On the last evening, Laura Jean surprised my Grandma and Uncle Joe with a birthday cake for their dad.  The family reunions are always 4th of July weekend because his birthday was July 3rd.  They cake was very special to them and they truly enjoyed it.  The top picture on the cake is my Great Grandfather and the picture on the bottom is of my Grandma and her brothers and sisters that started the family reunions. 

 

Here are a bunch of family pictures we took together.  You should have seen all the running and scrambling it took to get all these pictures done.

Grandma and her brother Uncle Joe

Everyone headed out for pictures.  Laura Jean had reunion shirts made for everyone so we all coordinated very nicely in the pictures.

The San Antonio Otto's- Grandma's family

My mom, Uncle Charlie, Grandma and Aunt Debbie

The Oklahoma/Arkansas Otto's- Uncle Joe's family

The Amarillo/California/Louisiana Otto's- Uncle Mutt's family

The Oklahoma Otto's- Aunt Blanche's son

The Otto men

The Otto women

 

More Otto men

Shawn and Ethan were very patient waiting for all the pictures to be taken, especially since we were in the hot sun.

 

The whole Otto family, four generations worth!

All in all, everyone had a blast and we can't wait to make this an annual Otto-Lyon family tradition. 

Time with Zoe

My niece Zoe spent the night with us a few weeks ago. The evening started off with a trip to Toys R Us so she and Shawn could pick out an activity to do while she was visiting and Shawn got to pick out a toy for completing a whole potty chart.

Zoe picked an art project and Shawn picked a train set.  Here are some pics of Zoe and Shawn enjoying the art set.

Afterward the ventured off to the art room and played with some play-do.

Zoe had so much fun making Shawn some play-do jewelry.  I'm sure he'll really appreciate these pictures when he's 16!