January 31- February 6, 2010

Welcome to another week! Can you believe that we have already completed the first 6 weeks of 2010? Today starts Week 7!  And guess what, I am behind about a half of a week on my Project 365/52! I have part of Week 6’s layout done and need to finish it up!  But I wanted to post what our week was like for you. So enjoy!

January 31

Today we went to the Mexican restaurant after church.  And even though his birthday wasn’t until Thursday we had them sing to Nathan! It was funny! And I think he secretly enjoyed it!  To be honest with you I love Mexican but I so did not want to go today mainly because I was tired and Micah was tired and cried the minute we left to church all the way to the restuarant. He just wanted to go to sleep.  But he ended up being fine once he got some chips and salsa and I had a good time to.

Februaury 1

Our dog, Waffles! She is a crazy dog.  If you haven’t read about her before, we adopted her (ok, I adopted her) from the animal shelter in Pennsylvania in September 2007. In October of 2007 I found out I was pregnant with Micah!  Waffles is deaf!!  But other than that she is a pretty good dog, and I imagine that she would be a great dog if she could just hear us! I thought this picture of her was so cute; she is snuggling with the pillow!

February 2

Micah had to go to WIC today to pick up his vouchers.  And for the first time we actually played with the toys and didn’t keep coming back to “check” on me every two seconds! He is growing up!  At 20 months old he weighs 21.8 pounds and is almost 32 inches long! My little man is growing up!  He weighs about 5 times more than he did at birth and is almost twice as long!

February 3

Micah and his friend Alexis at church in the nursery on Wednesday night.  They love playing on the teeter-totter! And it was a nice night since there were only 4 little ones and 3 workers! A lot better than last week when there were 8 little ones (3 babies) and only 2 workers; now that was a crazy night!

February 4

Ok, I know you are thinking this is a weird picture to have; why in the world would I take a picture of a greeting card display? Well, it is because every Thursday morning, I drive to my local Wal-Mart and I spend about 30-45 minutes straightening and stocking this card display.  It is not very labor intensive and the pay is not outstanding (but not bad either) but I love doing it! It gives me a little break to get out by myself.  I have also done product demonstrations, mystery shopping, samples, and surveys.  Want to do it too? Just ask me and I will tell you where to go to get started.

Today was also Nathan’s birthday but I didn’t get a chance to take any pictures of that. I thought I did but couldn’t find them after I uploaded from my cameras. –Ok, just had a duh moment and realized that I can’t find the picture because it is still on my camera! Now I feel really silly!– I might add it later.

February 5

Ok, no pictures for today but I do have a video that I hope you think is as funny as I did.  A couple weeks ago Sarai asked if she could order some things from her book order forms from school and Josh said sure.  So one of the tings she picked out was this voice recorder/distorter.  Well, she brought it home today.  As I was sitting in the bedroom listening to them I was cracking up!  And Josh and her were laughing hysterically too.  I was going to record them without their knowledge but as I was going out to do so, they were coming to the bedroom to let me listen to their antics.  Hope you enjoy a good laugh!

February 6

–All of todays pictures are in RAW format and I have to edit and convert them before I can post any. To do that I have to open PSE. Be back soon!–

Today Sarai cheered at her first Lighthouse League Basketball game.  She did great and they were so cute.  But let me tell you, watching some of those little ones play basketball was so funny and cute!  Talk about dramatic; you should have seen them when they would barely get bumped or pushed!

So there was our week; hope you enjoyed it!

January 24-30, 2010

Ok, so in my digital scrapbooking endeavors I am doing what is called Project 365.  Basically it is a way to document everyday life.  The goal is take at least one picture everyday and then at the end of that week you scrap the weeks worth of pictures.  I am doing pretty good and keeping up with it.  But to help even more, I am going to post about my week here on my blog.  So every Saturday night (hopefully) I am going to type up a post for you that chronicles my families week and post some pictures from the week.  Enjoy!

January 24

Micah loves to brush his teeth.  He usually asks to do it any time we are in the bathroom.  He does a pretty good job of brushing them by himself but I still help him so that we are for sure getting them clean!

January 25

Micah loves to listen to music! So anytime someone is listening to their ipod, Micah usually asks to have one earphone so he can listen too.  Here I caught Sarai and Micah on my bed listening to her ipod.  Probably a Taylor Swift song!

January 26

Tonight Sarai started practice for Lighthouse League Cheerleading.  If you have ever heard of Upward Basketball/Cheerleading than you know what ours is about as they are similar.  She has practice every Tuesday night for an hour and then they cheer at basketball games on Saturday from the beginning of February to the beginning of March.  She seemed to enjoy herself.

January 27

If it is Wednesday you will find us at church!  We usually get there about 5 pm and eat dinner. Then around 5:45 Micah and I head up to the nursery while Sarai heads to Awana and Josh heads off to make the rounds.  Micah enjoys being in the nursery and playing with his friends; but his favorite activity is the slide!

January 28

This is Micah with our dog, Waffles.  Most of the time she will get up and move when she sees him coming towards her.  So this is a rare moment that she actually laid there and let him sit on her like this.  Even when she did finally have enough, she got up slowly and let him slide gently down her back.  She is such a great dog, even though she is deaf!

January 29

Josh and I went out of town overnight today for a Deacon’s and Wives retreat which also included the Pastors and their wives.  It was in Quincy Il and we had a pretty good time!  My husband really spoils me– I got Starbucks twice and a milkshake from Steak N Shake!  I love him.  We also had a great time and lots of un hanging out with everyone, but especially Wade and Emily!

January 30

We came home from the retreat today after we went out to lunch at TGI Fridays and to a movie, Extraordinary Measure, with Wade and Emily. Lunch was great although Josh and I really should have shared the 3 course meal! And the movie was great too! I am glad that we went to see it although I wasn’t too interested at first.  It wasn’t that I didn’t think it was going to be a good movie but given the choice I would have chosen something different.  So I am glad that Wade and Josh made the decision! I cried, a lot according to my husband.  Although I think he exaggerates a little bit, I did cry several times during the movie.  It was made worse by the fact that I didn’t have any tissues so I couldn’t wipe my nose and kept having to sniff the entire movie!  That probably made it seem like I was crying more often than I actually was.

So there was our week in a nutshell!  Hope you enjoyed reading about it and see the pictures!

Pray for me

I really need it right now.  No details, God knows and like my husband keeps reminding me “He wasn’t surprised by any of it”  Just pray for me and my family.  It is much appreciated.

Putting Our Best Face(s) Forward!

Over at I ♥ Faces this week they are celebrating their birthday! So the contest this week is about showing off our best face photo!

So the photo has to be one that prominently featured a face in it. And it had to be taken in December 2009 or early January 2010.  I have went through photos from December 1st until today. This was made easy since with my christmas present of Photoshop Elements it allows me to have all my picture files downloaded to folders that are sorted by shot date! I love that feature!  There were a couple that I kept going back to and I had a hard time choosing which one I wanted to use.  But I finally chose, so here it is.  Maybe not the best photo technically but one of my favorites. Background is a little cluttered and I probably could have gotten closer to him and more down on his level.  This is the only second time Micah has been out in snow and the first time wearing his new snowsuit papa got him for Christmas.  He was so bundled up and warm but could barely walk on his own. But I just love the little expression (mixture of “i am cold” and “i love being outside!”) on his face and the way he pointing off camera (towards grandma i think).

It Happens Subtly

I am sure that you can think of a lot of things that happened subtly. But this post is about the healing that takes place after a deep loss or hurt.  The healing process following a deep hurt or devastating loss happens in a lot of stages.  And although forgiveness of the parties involved and forgiveness of our own part is the main goal, there are so many emotions and other factors that play into healing.

Because I am such an emotional person and I tend to ramble when I get emotional, I am going to copy and paste a blog post that my husband wrote today.  While not all of it is relevant to me, a large part of it is.  Thinking back to where I was almost 2 years ago emotionally and spiritually to where I am at today is like night and day.  So as you read my amazing husband’s words, realize that they also come from my heart. And yes I cried, both as I read his post and as I typed mine. But that is just part of who I am!

It was about 2 years ago when I first came to FBC Macon looking for a place to heal.  My wife and I had been through a terrible battle within the church and to be honest I did not know what was going to happen next in our lives.  The only thing I knew is that I wanted to find a place where we would be loved and where I could sit under sound teaching.  These two fundamentals were vital for me.  After serving as a pastor for 15 years I wanted to just blend in for once.  For once I did not want to be known as a pastor and I did not want the junk that I had thought went along with it.  To say we were beat up I think would really be an understatement.  However this post is not to focus on what has happened elsewhere but I write to focus on what God has done since that time in our lives.

You see when we first came to Macon I did not want anyone to know that I used to be a youth pastor.  In fact I sat in my Sunday school class for months without telling them my background or what I had done for a living for the previous years.  Yet week after week we felt loved and wanted and accepted.  Not because I was a pastor but for who we were.  Week in and week out I had a tremendous opportunity to sit under solid Bible teaching that challenged me often.  After a few months I decided it was  time to be involved in the church.  However, I firmly believe you become a member and then you get involved.  So we became member.

I can’t even begin to tell you the tremendous amount of love we have felt from our church family.  I can’t even tell you about all the times people have come and encouraged me or told me they were praying for me.  I have been moved in ways that has just been overwhelming.  The other night as I stood in the pulpit to preach my sermon it almost did not feel real.  As I took time to thank the church for all they have done it also hit me like a ton of bricks that one day I would move on.

I have made so many friends in this church.  I have great relationships with the pastors of this church and even as I write this I am sad.  I love it here.  I love the people and to be honest I never want to leave.  However God has placed a call on my life and to be disobedient is not an option.

Thank you so much Macon FBC for all you have done.  I do not know how much longer I have hear sometimes I wish it was a lot longer.  But this church will never know how much it has touched me.  It will never know the healing it has brought to my family.  The people of this church have displayed the Love of Christ to me in ways I have never seen before.  In addition to that I have had the awesome privilege to be on staff here.  First as the intern youth pastor and currently as the interim children’s pastor.  Thank you for loving my family, and giving me an opportunity to serve.  Whatever happens in the future I love this church and they will always have a special place in my heart.