I can't believe its July already. My last post was in April. To me, days go by in a blur as usual.  There have been a lot of changes in the Lanz household. First, we are pleased to announce the possibility of moving into a beautiful home soon. It's a house that we have waited 10 years to buy. We have wanted to move for many years but never felt the timing was right until now. We are really excited and hope it will all work out in the end.  When I saw the house, I really felt as if "God" made this house for us, it had everything we wanted, down to the tiniest detail.  It has five bedrooms, a beautiful unique shaped pool, studio for my photography, a small homeschool room for the children, a separate garage for Bill's workshop and storage. Even the color of the house happens to be my favorite color, blue. It has a double porch in the front, in the southern style that I absolutely love. 

I will post pictures of the house, if we DO get it. Otherwise, I can't post pictures since I need to protect the owner's privacy.

I have decided to seriously launch my photography business. I have wanted to do my photography for years but I never felt "right" about the timing because of my health, the children being so young, and so many other factors.  I decided to seriously launch it about a month ago, and I feel as if the Lord knew "Here Julie, you're ready to have this house which has a studio ready for you".  I really feel God is nudging me to really launch my business.  It is no longer "Lanz Family Studios"  (I never really did anything with it anyway) plus I felt the name didn't fit my daughter, Hannah, who has a different last name than mine.

I have always felt photography is a family business, and I am determined to make it a family business. Family is very important to me, so it is now formally called "Famiglia Studios (TM).   I will also be launching merchandise, "Famiglia", that is symbolic of American Life and the way we live life and the way we know life as. My photography will echo different eras and portray the best of American living. Famiglia means "family" in Italian.   I have never felt comfortable using my  name solely as a business because my husband and children would be involved in every aspect of my business, even my Mom!

Clarissa is finally moving up the gymnastic ladder. She traveled to Savannah, GA this past June to represent Florida at Nationals.  She placed 3rd AA in the country for her age group/level. I think she did great for her first year of competing. Here's three sweet pictures of her.

Clarissa also traveled to Amarillo, TX for National Competition in Trampoline and Tumbling. She placed first AA on Trampoline for her age group/level. She is National Champion in this area. I am so happy for her. She has only been "jumping" for 6-7 months!  She also placed 3rd on Double Mini and 6th on Tumbling. She probably would have placed higher in Tumbling, but there was an episode that was reminiscent of Nadia and her coach Bela Karolyi. 

There's a real story that Karolyi and Nadia Comaneci traveled to another country, only to find out they wouldn't let Nadia compete (politics as usual). Bela ran into the competition field, made a spectacle of everything, and tried to convince the judges to allow Nadia to compete. The thing was, Nadia never got to warm up.  Warming up is essential to the athlete to perform to the best of their abilities. However, Bela told Nadia "Take off your warm up suit and show your routine on the floor!"  Nadia listened to Bela and did exactly what he told her to do. Bela was yelling at the judges and everything to allow Nadia to compete.

In this circumstance, Clarissa was stretching in the back, but they never called her name to get in the line up for Tumbling. All the girls got six runs (practice their tumbling 6 times before official competition starts). When they were finished practice tumbling, a couple of girls went and saluted the judges. Clarissa was missing, I was not really aware of the situation because I thought maybe Clarissa was in a different flight. There were about 4 different flights (they separate the girls in groups of 10s), so it can be confusing.

I knew immediately something was wrong when her coach, Rich Masters and Clarissa ran up to the competition area, and Rich Masters made a spectacle with the judges. He was yelling at them, saying that they never called Clarissa up. They allowed her to get in line, BUT,  she wasn't allowed to practice her tumbling.  I remember feeling shock. This was national competition and Clarissa hasn't tumbled in a week. Rich told her to "go".  Clarissa "nodded" and simply went. I couldn't believe it. If it was me, I'd be breaking into a sweat, saying "No way Jose!".   One of her skills was doing a back tuck, so I couldn't believe she pulled it off.  I was really proud of Clarissa for listening to her coach. It proved to me that she had complete utter trust in her coach, Rich, like Nadia did for Bela.

While in Texas, she got to meet one of her gymnastic idols, Nastia Liukin! We went to WOGA. It was so much fun for Clarissa and her teammates to see where the All Around Gold Olympic Champion trains.

We got to visit Palo Duro Canyon while in Amarillo, TX. It was awesome being in a place like that. God's creation is heavily evident. I have never been to a canyon in my entire life, so Clarissa and I couldn't believe our eyes.  We had so much fun in TX. We went shopping, there was parade of Athletes from all over the country in the Cal Farley Coliseum, there was a party hosted just for the athletes, the team went swimming (except Clarissa who wasn't feeling well), we went out to a ton of restaurants (our midlines are groaning!), and we stopped a lot along the way to visit different places, such as Pensacola beach in FL on our drive to TX.

Here's a picture of Clarissa competing on the Trampoline, her winning routine,  at the Cal Farley Coliseum in Amarillo, TX

We were really sad, last month, when our beloved bunny, Thumper, died. It was a very sad moment for us all. The little ones (even Me and Bill) were absolutely heartbroken. We didn't expect him to die so early, we have taken such good care of him (babied and spoiled him) with attention and love. We are not sure why he passed away, but we think he had an unknown illness since he had a deformed foot. We had a burial in the backyard.  He passed away while I was in Texas. Bill especially misses him "thumping away...." when he got home from work. Thumper would be so excited to see him. He always thumped his foot when we were going to give him attention, hence his name.

Ironically, I was taking these pictures of Hannah and Thumper just before we left for TX. These images make me cry....

More than anything, I miss his nose...the kisses he would give to us, the kisses we would give to him on his cute busy little nose.

The worst part was sharing the news with Hannah while she was away in Virginia with her family. She never got to say goodbye to her bunny. I plan to get her a locket with a picture of him in it.

In couple of weeks, my Mom will be coming down to Florida with Hannah. I look forward to her visit. Hopefully around that time, we will be moving into the new house! It will be a change for all of us.

Blessings Always

~Julie Ann~

Some of you are wondering why I am leaving facebook...

There are things that happen in my walk with Jesus. Before I REALLY knew him, I did whatever I wanted, but now serving God, starting in 1999, I desire to do his will. I have been feeling in my heart for the past two weeks, that  HE wants me to leave facebook. I had an answer this week to close it down by this Friday.

I am very sad to leave facebook, I will definitely miss the updates and being in touch with my friends. However, being a servant to God, there are reasons beyond my comprehension.

As we grow and mature in our walk with Jesus, we often learn that we have to do HIS will and not our will.  God does not wish to bring harm to us and the things he tells us to do, is for our own GOOD.

I do not want to leave facebook, but I DO want to  yield to God's will. I don't know his reasons and I may never know, or maybe one day God will share with me.

I had someone call me "crazy" and also accusing God of being "crazy"  that he would want me to leave facebook.

Well, why is it not crazy when someone wants to do witch craft?  When people do things that are wrong or evil, people don't bat an eye, but when it comes to doing something that God wants me to do, why is it crazy? To me, that makes no sense.  Why is it so easy to believe in so many things but not God?  People do all sorts of crazy things and they aren't being judged, but I'm being judged by someone for leaving facebook?

I reassure you, this is MY decision with the Lord. I am not saying facebook is "bad" or anything like that. I am also not asking you to leave facebook. Let's be clear on that. 

God requires different things from each of us, maybe facebook is not what I need, but maybe facebook is what you need.

We all have different needs and wants in the Lord.

Since I have a laptop now, I will try more to blog. I may start a website and put a blog on it so I can add "live" updates and send out automatic emails to you whenever I update my blog. I wish Xanga had this option!

Much love in Jesus

~Julie Ann~

PS. You can still comment here as a guest even if you are not a member of Xanga.