the Kimberlins

Tiny Prints...to be honest

2011-11-28T10:29:00.002-06:00

A commonly used phrase on facebook right now is “to be honest,” something several of the student in my youth group are using to tell each other their honest thoughts about each other…

Well, to be honest I am a shutterfly.com person. I have used shutterfly.com for several years and always enjoyed their products. However I recently began my search for our Christmas cards for 2011, and TO BE HONEST I absolutely love TINYPRINTS.COM Christmas card selection! It is completely creative and looks like great quality, from the color schemes to the shapes/ designs of the cards.

Here are my top three favorite cards, with a little bit of why I like each- I won’t tell you which I purchase you will just have to wait for yours in the mail. The links will take you the card, I was unable to get pictures of the cards to transfer.

1. Sheer Collage- I like this card because of all the pictures and patterns that are visible on the tri-fold, which I have never done a tri-fold before so it would be fun to such a beautiful big card.
http://www.tinyprints.com/product/28466/trifold_holiday_cards_sheer_collage.html

2. Little Berry Bunches- The card reminds me of simply Christmas and hot chocolate in the mountains. I like the warm colors and bunches of little berries, it has a great warmth to it and beautiful simplicity!
http://www.tinyprints.com/product/27530/christmas_cards_little_berry_bunches.html

3. Colorful Wreath- This card is so tempting because it is just unique and could be easily hung on someone's Christmas tree or kept for future ornaments. And it has great colors that are fun and have a modern twist to the usual holiday colors.
http://www.tinyprints.com/product/28052/ornament_cards_colorful_wreath.html

So tell which is your favorite!

1st Swim Lessons

2011-07-25T19:49:00.005-05:00

Eli had his first swim lesson today! It went great, was so much fun for me and he smiled every once in a while. It's not that he didn't like the water, he was just so busy watching the little boy on the other side of the pool really swimming. Here are some pictures we took.

We worked on blowing bubbles in the water....

holding on to the side of the pool, he was much strong than I thought he would be...

floating on our backs...

here he was just checking out the other kids...

worked on kicking with our legs to be like a motor boat...

learned how to climb out of the pool, he was pretty good at this! And then he had to wait to jump in until I said it was ok...

and paddling with our arms.

This is the group we are swimming, singing, and learning with.

Elijah's Balloon Birthday

2011-05-17T17:00:00.005-05:00

Eli is ONE! I can’t believe it’s been one year, what an amazing year. I know more than anything you really just want to see pictures, so this will be short. We had Eli’s first birthday party at our church in the Children’s worship area- it was perfect. The only decorating I did was table cloths and balloons, our family had so much going on in the past three weeks that I ended up having to keep the party a lot more simple then I had planned, but I pretty happy with the outcome. My saddest moment was about an hour and a half through the party I realized the camera was on the wrong setting- so many of our pictures are blurry because of this- so sad but we still got a few good ones once I fixed it. We have had a week full of family and new adventures for Elijah- I will post pictures soon of our visit to the zoo and arboretum. Here are just a few of his birthday pictures. Sorry I am on the mac, and the pictures are on the PC. So I hope to have a little smile box slide show soon.

It was so much fun to make the balloon trees and banner, I wanted to find an inexpensive way to use all the balloons I found in our church garage sale and this worked perfect! I had so much fun decorating with the balloons I was sad to take them down. John's family helped blow them all up on Friday afternoon, it was so fun! My mom ordered the wonderful Batman cake you see below, it was so cute.

Fun & Soaking

2011-03-01T16:38:00.006-06:00

Some fun news for our family, yesterday I received an email from Shutterfly.com asking to use the picture of Eli I entered in a contest for advertising. I receive a $50 credit and so does the friend that took the picture. I was pretty excited, she said Eli's picture will most likely be used in like birthday card examples on the website- but I'm still excited about it.

As for what’s been going on in our lives I think you could say John and I are in a soak phase. With Eli we are soaking in these wonderful days of laughter and discovery. One of our favorite times of day is around 9pm each night. We strip Eli down to his diaper, usually putting him on the couch between us and just play together for about 30 minutes before his bedtime. The sweet smiles and wonderful giggles we get in those 30 minutes seem like pure bliss and continually help us praise, God is so great.

With our family we are soaking in the opportunities to share afternoons and meals together. The past couple of weeks my sister and her family, and all my parents have come out on different Sundays to join us for church and spend some time with Eli. It is amazing how Eli and Anabelle (my niece) have made spending time together an even bigger priority in our families. We hope to visit John’s parents at the end of March.

With friends we are soaking in some wonderful traveling with the Howards, soaking in our small group dinners, and I am soaking in some amazing accountability/prayer group emails. A few weeks ago our family joined the Howards out at Lantz’s parents home in Graham to help do some work on the house. Jessica and I enjoyed some great time just playing with the babies together. This past Sunday John and I joined some of our small group friends for an Oscar evening party. It was so fun to get dressed up and having an evening out with John and friends.

I am absolutely soaking in Isaiah this year with my BSF group study. I have learned so much and continued to have a renewed awe for God’s work in studying Isaiah. We are soaking in (sometimes drowning in) a blessed youth ministry that consistently has challenges (so we know Satan is worried and working against us) and growth (so we know God is moving in our students lives). I don’t know what is ahead for our family but I do feel like God building us up right now with so many blessings!

Family Book 2010

2011-02-16T23:19:00.001-06:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Valentines Day Card

2011-01-29T15:35:00.001-06:00

Love Hugs Kisses Valentine's Day 5x7 folded card

Modern greeting cards and party invitations by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

VOTE FOR ELI!

2010-12-11T08:27:00.001-06:00

Check out this entry I found on Shutterfly Holiday Photo Contest.

I have entered Eli in the Shutterfly Holiday Photo Contest! Please take a couple of minutes and vote for Eli! Thank you!

Shutter Crazy!

2010-11-29T15:09:00.004-06:00

The past couple of years I have tuned into my creative nature and love for graphic design (on an amateur level of course) and spent hours upon hours creating my own family Christmas card in Adobe Photoshop. The task itself is a bit time consuming, resizing and reformatting pictures to be the correct size but great enough quality to show the awesome pictures. And then there is the process of loading the Adobe Photoshop file into whichever service you plan on using to print your cards, which last year was the most frustrating part of my Christmas card experience.

Last week however, on Monday a friend of mine that I go to church with agreed to take our Christmas pictures with Eli, she did his new born pictures as well. Bianca took the pictures on Monday morning and by Monday evening she had sent me the link to Elijah’s own web page through www.shutterfly.com that had all of our family pictures! If you would like to view some of these amazing pictures you can find them at www.elijahkimberlin.shutterfly.com. The next day I loaded all the pictures from the shutterfly.com page she had created into my own shutterfly.com account and from there made a Christmas card within 15 minutes! And ten of those minutes were spend trying to decide on just one of their Christmas cards!
I won’t tell you yet which Christmas card I have chosen but a couple of my favorites are below; feel free to help me decide.

1. With Love Chartreuse Christmas: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/with-love-chartreuse-christmas-5x7-folded-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93496
2. Many Merry Memories Christmas: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/many-merry-memories-christmas-4x8-photo-card-4x8-photo?sortType=2&storeNode=93496
3. Merry Modern Collage Christmas: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/merry-modern-collage-christmas-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93496

Also, besides Christmas cards shutterfly.com does so much more! I have already done two photo books and I am working on a third. The photo books have been amazing! I have one from mine & John’s trip to Italy celebrating our 5th Wedding Anniversary and one from the first months of Eli’s life celebrating his birth. They are so beautiful and shutterfly.com even sent me a replacement when my Italy book was torn. For Eli’s book all I had to do was upload the pictures and shutterfly.com actually organized them for me into a photo book layout. Caring for a new born, I was thankful to have so much of the work done for me.

Like our Christmas card from last year I spent several days (maybe even weeks) working on Eli’s birth announcement, by the time I ordered them and got them in Eli was already 3 months old. I wish I had made Eli’s birth announcements from shutterfly.com; they have some many super cute ones... http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birth-announcements/baby-boy-birth-announcements?c=60375&sortType=1&pageNumber=1&foType=a&fa=8&DCL=true. I love the ones with multiple pictures because we could never narrow down Eli’s pictures to one. And because his new born pictures were already on a shutterfly.com share cite I could have made it in about 10 minutes! Think of all the naps I could have gotten in, instead of working.

So, there you have it! I hope that even if you don’t go to shutterfly.com to get your Christmas cards you will look into how great their service is! I am working on getting all of my pictures into my shutterfly.com account. After my computer crashed last year I almost lost all of them, but on shutterfly.com I can not only store them but create a share page for family to see new pictures of Eli. Which is great considering John’s brother & family is in El Paso, and John’s sister who just returned from Afghanistan is now in Georgia. She hasn’t even met Eli yet but has been able to see all his pictures!

So go shutter crazy! (MAKE SURE YOU CLICK ON THE PICTURES POSTED TO SEE THE FULL PICTURE).

Five Months, the next step...

2010-10-14T15:07:00.004-05:00

Elijah is now five months old! I cannot believe he has been a part of our lives for that long already, it is simply amazing. He is doing great and it seems getting happier and happier each day. Below are a few photos for you, we started yesterday giving him rice cereal! He seems to like pretty well for the most part.

2010-09-09T16:42:00.003-05:00

I have returned from the wonderful life of maternity leave! I love my time at home with Elijah and being able to visit friends around town- it was amazing. I am so thankful to have a job that allows for 12 weeks maternity leave!

However I am also loving being back at work- I have completely renewed passion for youth ministry and feel confident that I am working where God has placed my heart. Also now as a mother (even though I'm only a new mother) I do feel like I even have a renewed love for the students themselves, knowing that they are someone's children and need to be dearly loved as I hope some day others will love Elijah.

Our fall at home and with the students has taken off with a flying leap! I came back the week we welcomed in our new 6th grade students, and the next Sunday we had 52 in class! To put it in perspective, the first Sunday John and I were at Preston Road (6 years ago August 1st) we had 5 students in class- in 2007 our goal for Friends Day was 50, and we didn't make it. What is more amazing to me is that it isn't really a huge income of new families either, it is simply our members that are now invested. Our next Friends Day is this Sunday, our goal is 80- I'll let you know how that goes.

At home Elijah has been wonderful! Smiling, rolling, and reaching are some of the highlights- it is amazing. And we have been so blessed to spend time with loads of friends lately. I had two college roommates come in to see me (well to see Eli, but I was there too). Traci and Neena each brought their kids and we had so much fun! It was as if we had not been apart at all- I love these girls and cherish their friendship so much. We have also had so many chances now to spend time with the Howards who have Kennedie(she is 10 days younger than Eli), their move to Dallas have been nothing short of the hand of God. I know it's not just for my benefit but sometimes it does seem like it. :) Lantz & Jessica shared their tickets to the Cowboy game last week, I have to say this is one of the first games that I have spent more time talking than watching the game.

baby.

2010-07-20T11:13:00.002-05:00

Baby Eli and John play with the new video camera.

A few sweet moments...

2010-07-12T10:42:00.008-05:00

I thought I would update with a few sweet moments I have had time to work on, we have so many pictures it takes so long to pick ones out and edit them. In this slide show are his first bath, and just some sweet moments with dad or sleeping. :) Elijah is doing great! Growing so much, smiling all the time, and making some sweet sounds. I love how much he recognizes mine and John's voices! He is starting to sleep 6-8 hours at night, which really makes the days so much more fun! We are loving every moment of our little man.

Let me explain this picture, of course it is funnier to JOhn and I than it might be to ya'll but oh well. The left side is Eli trying really hard to stay asleep, he would not wake up for anything. The right side is after John had pestered Eli to try and wake him up, his little fist went up really fast- as if he was saying, "go ahead touch me again..." We laughed so hard in the moment. Hope you enjoy the pics!

The Sweetest Sound...

2010-06-16T18:14:00.005-05:00

This past week Elijah has been discovering his voice, other than his cries- though he has been working on that one too. But the sweetest sound to me has been hearing him discover his “coos” and “ahhs.” It is just so precious. He is also developing a few facial expressions; John didn’t believe so I got it on video and hope to show it to him tonight.

This week so far, has been great. We have recovered from camp I believe, if you didn’t know Eli and I went to camp with our youth group last week, Pine Springs. I am so thankful that I got to go, and Eli did great traveling but it was challenging being away from home and taking care of him. The only thing left to do is wash our sleeping bags! So this week I have been concentrating on getting Eli’s routine down. Not so much the exact timing of everything but working on the routine of eat-wake-sleep more consistently for each cycle. He is not a very good napper at all in the late morning and early afternoon, and has been very fussy in the late night (12am). But he is a baby and we are finally giving him more consistency so I am hoping that will help him know what to expect and work on his sleeping.

Finally, a lot of people have said he has my nose and others have said he looks like John. I really thought he did have my nose and looked quite a bit like me. Then I pulled out our baby pictures, look for yourself and let me know what you think.

Elijah

John

Crysty

Four Weeks For Real...

2010-06-08T15:31:00.005-05:00

Elijah will be four weeks old tomorrow, I cannot believe it has been four weeks since Eli entered into our lives and changed them forever. It has really just seemed like one super long day. He is getting so much bigger each week, his cheeks are getting chubbier and his little legs are getting fat rolls- he is so precious. And despite that he is a little boy we call him beautiful and gorgeous all the time! We will transition to words like handsome when he is older.

Being a mom has been the most amazing experience of my life, it has also been the most challenging. Adjusting to all that my body went through in pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum- I have never experienced such emotional changes. I consider myself a pretty even tempered person, so dealing with so many emotions in a short period of time was hard for me. And you considering the physical changes my body is still going through, it’s weird because Eli was pretty heavy to carry and since I have delivered him it feels like I should just ‘poof’ be back to what I was pre-pregnancy. Of course that’s not how it works. I have lost half of my baby weight but there is still so much more to go, and I am so anxious to see it gone. I look at my regular clothes and just feel like I will never fit in those again.

Another challenging part is the lack of sleep and keeping Eli on a routine. We have not really mastered his routine yet; there have just been so many people around. And no one cares too much about the routine he needs when they are just there for a few minutes. Our little family has not had one day since Eli was born that someone hasn’t been by to visit or come to stay. I am absolutely ready to be home and set our family’s schedule without considering who will be coming over or if Eli will be over stimulated. Over stimulation has been one of the biggest challenges for our little man I think. It seems that people feel if his eyes are wide open then he doesn’t need to go to sleep yet- and when he misses that small window of perfect timing for a nap the next cycle is ruined. Eli has also had a hard time transitioning through his sleep cycles; it is also called the 45 minute intruder. At that point he needs to be soothed back to sleep; otherwise he cries and is wide eyed again.

I apologize if my tone seems negative, I don’t mean for it to be. I am blessed beyond measure with a beautiful healthy baby boy, a husband that goes beyond expectations to take care of both our baby and me, family that adore our son and help at every opportunity, and so many people that truly love us and want to love on us. And on top of that I love being a mom, but I don’t wanted to be honest with the challenges I have had, because I know that from the friends I have that read this ya’ll might have some wonderful insight.

I Love It! I Love It!

2010-05-18T09:32:00.004-05:00

We arrived home on Sat. around 4pm. This little guy is amazing. If you don't know, he has already peed on me. He set me up with a poopy diaper and as I cleaned his bottom, he locked-on to his target and shot away. Direct Hit. But never the less, his skills are improving. He got his Nana (Crysty's Mom) the next day. He then waited for his next victim which happened to be his Aunt Cyndy. She came over yesterday as she held him in a blanket with his diaper on, He let go of the control valve and made it through the blanket through the diaper on her belly. "Score!" was what he was thinking. This morning as I got up, His Nana pointed to the couch were there was a spot. Yep He peed on the couch. Now with the last two, I am thinking there was a operator error on the diaper exchange. But he is marking his territory faster than expected. Elijah is amazing. We love him and he so beautiful (handsome). Thank you for your prayers and love.

This is Amazing

2010-05-15T11:53:00.002-05:00

Wow, it's been three nights in the hospital and now we are headed home! I can't wait. Not so much for Eli to be home, but for me to be back in MY bed. This hospital cot thing is not working for the back. Eli on the other hand has like 100 places to sleep here at the hospital. His crib, his mommy, his daddy (chest,arms,lap), his Paw Paw, his Nanna, his Grandpa, his Grandad, and his Abuelita. His last two days have been amazingly great. He is sleeping,and eating wonderfully. He is a big shutter bug (His cousin is the ladybug). He constantly shutters in his sleep. It could be triggered by noises, movements from us, or even just something he may be dreaming about. I told Crysty he is fighting crime in his sleep. There he goes again. Right now he has been sleeping since 9:30. Awesome. It's Noon. We are loving it. Thanks for all the prayers. God is great. The picture is of his Uncle Chris and Aunt Cyndy.

More of Elijah

2010-05-13T19:26:00.006-05:00

2010-05-13T16:18:00.000-05:00

Elijah

2010-05-13T16:14:00.001-05:00

Elijah, Daddy, Grandad

2010-05-13T16:04:00.003-05:00

2010-05-13T11:46:00.001-05:00

2010-05-13T11:07:00.001-05:00

Other Pics

2010-05-13T10:50:00.002-05:00

Elijah Keaton

2010-05-13T10:44:00.002-05:00

Here is Elijah. We had a great first night. He is feeding great and sounding great. I am doing great healing and enjoying time with him. All the grandparents were here and we were so blessed to have them here waiting and anticipating his arrival. My sister and her husband were also here waiting for him.

40 weeks!

2010-05-10T16:59:00.000-05:00

It has come; I am officially 40 weeks pregnant on Tuesday, May 11! However Elijah has not even dropped yet so I have a feeling that we will be arriving for our appointment on Wednesday ready to meet our baby boy. Wednesday, May 12 at 5:30pm I will be having a c-section. My doctor believes Elijah is so big she is passing up the epidural and going straight to a c-section. So please keep John and I in your prayers as we prepare for this amazing life changing step. It will probably be a while before I update our blog again- but wanted to let you know where I will be.

Wishing & Hoping...

2010-05-04T13:38:00.005-05:00

Today I am 39 weeks pregnant! The hope of my family, myself, and my doctor is that I will naturally go into labor any minute now. I had a sonogram last week that estimates Eli is already over 8.5 pounds, I know there is room for error but our doctor, as she gazed wide eyed at my round belly says she doubts the error is on the small side. It's amazing to think that at any moment God may decide ok, this is the time that Eli should be welcomed into our world- and bam, our lives are forever changed.

Tomorrow I go for my weekly check up and that will be the day that we make some choices on Eli's arrival, I think. I hope to go into labor naturally, the only reason being I have always wanted to have those moments of excitement when I get to go tell John, "It's TIME!" And then see him freak out, and go into a frinzy getting ready. Oh that would be so fun! But I am ok with however we need to get Eli out, I have peace about the whole thing, just anxiously awaiting.

Do you have any great stories, or heard any great stories on couples going into labor, husbands freaking out, or anything of the sorts?

Here are some shower pictures...some are from my church shower, and a few from my family shower.

Elijah's Room!

2010-04-29T10:52:00.005-05:00

I am finally finished with Eli's room! I am pretty happy with it, there are several more things I would have liked to do, like painted or picked out a little different furniture - but I am super excited about how well we budgeted the room and kept all costs to a minimum. So I have posted the pictures on facebook if you want a better look at them. The blog is being difficult and only posting the pictures as text.

Elijah's Batman Nursery!

2010-04-29T10:31:00.003-05:00

Elijah's nursery is finished! We have kept it simple, and not overdone the Batman part, I am pretty excited to be done with it. Here are the pictures.

A Little Practice as the Day Draws Near...

2010-04-13T21:08:00.003-05:00

This week John and I are taking care of three kids (9, 11, & 14), you could say we are getting a little taste of what it may be like to have a big family. The kids are great, other than wanting to eat everything their parents told us not to let them eat they listen to everything we ask of them- pretty amazing. The schedule is crazy, and I completely understand why parents feel like chauffers. Each kid is involved in two sports and one is part of a school play as well, its a lot of practices to juggle.

A wonderful part of taking care of the kids is seeing John with them. I am sure it will come to a huge surprise to you that John is the "fun" guy between the two of us but also he takes care of so much, and enforces the rules when needed. Since I am 8 months prego John has been especially willing to take care of more than his share of duties with the kids, grocery shopping and the little bit of cooking we have done. I love seeing John with the kids, it makes me so excited to have Elijah here and begin our family.

We agree though the toughest part of this week is sleeping in someone else's bed, it is a horribly hard bed and neither of us has gotten much sleep at all, which makes us both so tired and me incredibly sore.

A Sneak Peak

2010-03-04T13:12:00.007-06:00

Since the day I discovered I was pregnant I knew that if we had a boy I wanted to decorate his room with Batman. John has been a Batman fan (and picky collector of Batman memorabilia), his groom’s cake was even decorated with Batman. So I have been brainstorming how to make this little boy’s first room a collection of something his father already takes pleasure in. I knew I did not want the “scary” Batman stuff, it is a baby’s room and I knew I didn’t want it to just be a tacky overwhelming collection of everything Batman. So below are a few pictures of aspects that will come together to make Elijah Keaton’s first room. Be nice though, everything looks better in person and will come together really well I think. John was excited when he saw what I had worked on this week with the bottom two things.

Poster- I hope to have this image printed out and framed as the center piece in Eli’s room. It is the 1939 introduction of Batman from Detective Comics.

Bedding- After much thought of making the bedding after doing the cost calculations I chose to go with this bedding from Pottery Barn Kids, I don’t have it yet but have registered for it.

“ELI”- Taking some old Batman comics I painted the edges of the letter and then deco-podged clips of the comics on the letters.

Paintings- I copied a few silhouettes from some Batman greeting cards John had on to these canvas to add bright color and keep a kid feel. I hope to add a couple more canvas as well.

Our Winter Wonderland

2010-02-17T14:58:00.002-06:00

This past weekend Dallas had the most snow it has ever seen. The snow began to fall early Thursday morning and continued throughout the day, John & I were both substituting in the HP schools. Stuck inside with all the kids going crazy thinking- we should be outside playing in this snow! This is not normal for Dallas! The high school, where John was at even went 3 hours without electricity; those students were really going crazy.

Thursday afternoon I picked John up from the high school and we both agreed this is amazing and we need to do something in all this snow! John really wanted a snowball fight, every time we drove past kids attacking each other you could see the sad longing to lob a snowball at some kid, and his pregnant wife would not play that game. So John finally came up with the solution that I could be part of, we would build a snowman, and not just a normal snowman of until we got tired of being outside but a huge snowman. So Friday afternoon we layered on our ski clothes and created an 8ft snowman, however Friday night John decided that was not big enough so on Saturday he added 2 more inches.

We had so much fun building this snowman together and looking forward to the many snowmen in the future that would be built with our kids. And the joy of creating this snowman increased each time we looked out the window and saw a family taking pictures with him or just stopping to admire his size. This will absolutely be something I always treasure and remember about our record snowfall in Dallas!

Thank You...

2010-01-25T14:44:00.002-06:00

Ok, so I am at Winterfest, thirsty. I have two options: coke machine or stand in line at the concession. I am closer to the concession so I choose to stand in line.
I get behind a girl from another youth group. I ask how she likes it to which she tells me this is her third year to attend and she loves it.
“Great,” I say.
She responds with a question, “Do you have a dollar I can have?”
“Well, I only have a twenty. How about you order and I will just pay for yours
and mine at the cash register.”
“Thank you,” she says (I think).
We wait in line for about two more minutes not really talking before we reach the lady who asks what we would like. “Two pretzels,” she says. My eyebrows raise, my thoughts flashback to her only asking for ONE dollar.
I order orange juice. She receives her two pretzels. I get my OJ and my wallet to pay. Then lean over and say, “So, you really decided to take advantage or me offering to pay for your snack.”
“Well, one is for me and the other one is for my friend,” she says. But for some reason I don’t quite believe her. She takes her two pretzels and heads down the hall. I wait for Crysty at the exit of the concession. While I wait, I am just baffled that this girl would take such liberty in ordering more than she first requested. What was it that made her think she could now order two pretzels? Why didn’t she ask me if it would be OK? I know, I could have told her and stopped her order and said that I was only go to loan her a dollar. But I didn’t even make her spend her dollar. So she got the pretzel she wanted, an extra pretzel, and kept her dollar. I felt scammed by an eighth grader who is now going to enjoy two pretzels on me.
I looked around the hall as I waited on Crysty, and I see the girl. She just stopped walking to stand next to another girl and begins to had one pretzel over to her. Her friend is surprised. I can see the joy and confusion on her face. It seems she knew that her friend only had one dollar to begin with. She is happy to get her own pretzel, but wonders how her friend was able to get one for each of them. I cannot hear them, but I can see that she asks her friend how that happened. Then the girl in line points down the hall in my direction and says something. And her looks my way and says, “Thank you.”

2010-01-22T11:22:00.000-06:00

As a minister, a youth minister that is (who apparently is in his office too much) I get the chance (or the shortest straw) to meet several people who come to the church looking for some kind of help. We call this the Back Door Ministry. The needs range from bus tickets for local transportation to sometimes the Greyhound. Food, prescriptions, clothes, boots, money, a night at the hotel, gas for their car, utility bills are all needs that have been presented to me. Most of them are easy, but we never give out cash and never fill prescriptions so, those people leave mad. Others become more complicated as their list of needs grow as they tell their story. We also get repeats; people who come twice a month, sometime more.

We had a guy call down curses on our worship minister. Crazy thing was that this guy could pray. He had a deep voice, strong and energetic, which just fed these amazing prayers. We saw Nathaniel for like 3 years here and there. He came in Dec. 2007 saying that he was moving to Denver and will not be back to ask for help in 2008. He failed to keep his promise.

Our campus minister has this on going pen pal from prison. Problem is that he serves his time and then makes personal visits. I have had a couple of visits with Raymond. We do what we can while he is out. But then we receive another letter from prison. He is one of five of our non-official prison ministry members.

In the summer of 2009 I was helping a young man named Isaac who served some time. He worked part time at La Madeleine. So he had a little income but not much. He stayed with his sister sometimes, until she felt like he was not doing his part around the house or to find a new job and she would kick him out for a few days. I tried hiring Isaac a few time around the church. He was an awful worker, slow, non-efficient, and never on time. I had lunch with him several times. We would talk about job hunting, prison, and his family. Crysty and I were prepared to help him with a monthly bus pass so he could be where he needed to be. We did for two months. Then he stopped showing up. I hope he found a full time job, but I just don’t know.
I have been conned a few times. One guy I met around 8:00 pm sometime in 2005. My wife and I were at Target, and I get this call from our office administrator who is at the church for a prayer meeting saying there is guy at the door who will not leave until he talks to someone and he is being a little aggressive. Crysty and I rush home. I listen to his story and decide to help. I helped with a hotel room, bought him boots for his job, played some ping-pong with him, and bought him some food from Wal-Mart. I helped him for about a week. Then nothing. I didn’t hear from him. About a year later, he shows back up at the church, but this time he is using a different name. Bummer. I bring up the past help and his other name, to which he replies, “I was on the run last year.” Bummer. I gave him a bus pass and sent him on his way.

We once had a lady who came every Tuesday for help. Her name was Elizabeth. We continued to push her toward Central Dallas Ministries, but she said her needs were not that great. She had small requests (except one time our campus minister bought her a diabetic blood test thing that cost him $65). Every once in while she would test the waters and ask for cash, “I need ten dollars in quarters for laundry.” We (I) denied her request. She would get mad and leave. But not without a bus pass, and she would be back next week. She tried going back to school (or at least that is what she told us). We probably saw her for about half a year then one Tuesday she didn’t show up. That Christmas I got a letter in the mail at the church. It was Elizabeth. She sent Crysty and I a Christmas card saying thank you for the help and that she moved to Kentucky. It made me smile.

I wished more of these stories ended this way. With just a letter that says thank you. A letter that contains a little closure. I don’t feel bad, when I can’t help someone out, I do feel great when I do help someone out, but I wonder when I send them on their way if their story is going to change because of the help I have given them.

Jesus one time saw this man who was born blind. He then spit in the mud placed it on his eyes and told the blind man to wash in a pool. So the blind man went and washed and came home seeing. The rest of John 9 is this man telling a new story, a grand story, a story of redemption. As a blind man he was a beggar, an outcast, a person with no story. Even Jesus’ disciples weren’t looking to redeem this man; they wanted reasons for his blindness. Jesus shows us purpose. “That the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Am I looking for purpose in outcast situations? Was I looking for the work of God to be displayed in Isaac’s life, Nathaniel’s life, or Elizabeth’s? I don’t really know.

Today, I helped a couple get to Austin, TX. They have been in Dallas for three days. They said they have visited at least 40 churches asking for the same thing. I could see the hunger in their faces and the tiredness in their posture when they showed up. I bought them bus tickets and some lunch at Whataburger (it’s the go to fast food place for moments like these). I took them to the bus station, purchased the tickets, and handed them over. Last night they stayed in the ER room of a hospital. Tonight they will stay with family.

I may not ever hear from John and Donna King again. I might not ever know why they were stuck in Dallas and not somewhere else, but I do know that the work of God was displayed in their life. And I know that they have a new story to share with their family.

Preparing for a baby with John...

2010-01-19T11:22:00.002-06:00

I am sure John will have a post later this week about our Winterfest Retreat with the youth group but I wanted to share a little paragraph with you that expressed so well what it is like preparing for our little boy with John.

Below I is a paragraph John wrote to his brother and sister updating them on how we're doing and what's going on. Please read with a sarcastic tone of voice.

"Crysty and I are hard at work trying to get a name for our child. It’s one of my new years resolutions. She is hard pressed to name him before May 11th and I tell her she is pushing the schedule up 7 months in advance (I have until Dec. 31). I threw out the name Diego, because I do think it’s cool, a little Hispanic sounding, and that was my name while I waited tables at Olive Garden, because the ladies loved it. My hope of naming our first Bruce and our second Wayne has been laid down to rest. We also have to find furniture for our kid, which already sounds like a pain. I mean we just visited the furniture stores for a TV console and end tables. Now I have to go back in these stores to find something for my child already. I was trying to get Crysty to go with, “If the child doesn’t ask for it we don’t need to get it” agreement saying it would save us some money, but she refused. So, now I have to go crib shopping, then look at changing tables, and maybe a dresser. The other thing to add to all this is the fact that we want at least 3 more kids. “We really need to get some thing nice and durable,” she says. So I had to throw away all my drawings of how to stack or move the furniture we already own. Let me tell you, seeing eight hours of drawings that include your couch facing the wall, or a pallet of blankets on your dinning room chairs all pushed together with their backs making a crib didn’t really settle well. I hope this is worth it. I am sure in hour ten I was going to revolutionize the baby furniture market. Babies are so demanding, and this kid has four more months in the womb. I have to take a class on just his arrival! "

My First Blog, Please Go Easy...

2010-01-14T17:18:00.000-06:00

Write, write, write. I keep wanting to write something for this blog but I really haven’t been finding anything to write about. Much less anything to think about and have others think about. I mean, if you are reading this right now you have to be thinking, “Lame.” Which is exactly what I am thinking. So to get started maybe a few random things from my life.

I am having a boy. Awesome. I love the fact that it is a boy, because that is what I wanted. I kept calling the baby a boy way before we ever new. Which spurred some youth members and parents to keep saying, “It’s going to be a girl.” Which then put them on the “NO HOLD” list. That’s right, a “No Hold” list. But back to me hoping for a boy. I prayed about it quite often, but I can’t say that I always knew for sure. And as much as I would like to say it was all me, I must be humble or I will be humbled. My mom on the other hand decided to make a blanket for ‘Bruce (gestational name, not real name)’ which was a blue blanket on the day we found out we were having a boy. She is good, real good. My next step is to toss out all her pink yarn so it will always be blue blankets. Well, maybe not. Having a girl wouldn’t be that bad now that we have the big brother. (I think we need to have a girl next time so that my niece Katie will be nice to me. I told her we were having a boy and she gave the phone back to her daddy.) This whole pregnancy thing hasn’t been that bad either. Well at least not for me. I really thought I would be going crazy with the whole, ‘Crysty’s pregnant and can’t do anything because she sick every morning.’ But she’s not. She hasn’t been sick once. Which is so cool, because it makes things just a little easier when the smell or sound of vomit is not the first item in the morning.

That was longer than what I was shooting for. I don’t think I can do that again, especially not with this one.

Our youth group is amazing. This past week we have had just some great fun with them and they have really been participating in a lot of activities. Our fist Sunday here we had 4 in class. This past Sunday we had 40 from the roll with two visitors. Amazing. I was humbled, in a good way. Then we went to worship and 38 students sat up front. We filled 4 pews and spilled over onto the fifth. This was great for the congregation to see, and it was great for me to see. Three of our students even went and invited three others to come sit with us. That night, we had went to one of our students JV hockey games as a surprise to him. 24 showed up plus 12 adults and siblings. So we yelled and cheered “J-Ho” every time he touched the puck (His name is Jonathan Holt (I might need to ask his parents if I could use his name on the internet (privacy concerns (it could hurt his future job hunt)))). We went to IHOP to eat after the game and two elderly persons complimented their behavior in the restaurant. This weekend we have Winterfest. Small retreat, but great time with students. Although the singing (or sound, actually) is weak, the teaching does allow us to reflect on what God has done for us and how we share that with others. I am ready to go and watch our students do and say amazing things.

Wow, I thought of others things to say, but since I am at a page I thought I might need to save those for later. I am not sure if you read this far, but if you did, Why? Post a comment and let me know. Lame, Room for Improvement, or Stop writing and let your wife tell the stories. She’s good.

New Page, New Writer...

2009-11-24T16:45:00.002-06:00

Well, I am finally updating the blog. After our trip to Italy the only news that can be more exciting than that is that John and I are expecting a BABY! I am due on May 11, 2010. I have update the blog now because John said he would start blogging if I changed the layout to be for our family. Alright John here's your chance.

Words Aren't Enough...

2009-04-21T10:24:00.004-05:00

Words aren’t enough to describe the wonderful days John & I spent in Italy! I have posted only a few pictures here, but several more are on both myspace and facebook. I will keep this short because there is just too much to really go into, but Venice and Rome were my favorite cities. Venice is completely unique and I completely felt like I was going back in time, it was beautiful. I also learned so much, I had no idea the rich history that Venice has, it retains one of the longest records of a republic in history, from 500-1600 AD. And Rome, all roads lead to Rome and for good reason. Rome has everything, it was simply breath taking! Here are pictures.

Arrivederci!

2009-03-11T12:27:00.003-05:00

Arrivederci! Tomorrow by the time that your alarm goes off John & I will be on our first flight to Italy! I am almost completely packed and still cannot not fathom that this trip is actually happening. It has been five years in the making, and in the saving. We have been so blessed to have both family and the church celebrate this trip with John and I through gifts. Both of which will make this trip even more wonderful.

I am most excited to experience a new country with John and spend time together celebrating the last five years of our marriage, and preparing for what God holds in our next five years of marriage! Below is a concise version of our itinerary; I will post pictures shortly after we return on the 24th of March.

Thursday, Day 1- New York City, tour the city, the Broadway show Guys & Dolls.
Day 2- Depart USA
Day 3- Arrive in Venice, meet tour guide for dinner and explore Venice.
Day 4- Venice, Pisa, Florence.
Tuesday, Day 5- Tour Florence. Michelangelo’s David, the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio.
Day 6- Florence, Assisi, Rome. Sun Route, Basillica of St. Francis.
Day 7 & 8- Rome. Tour Vatican Museum and Ancient Rome, the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Arch of Constantine.
Day 9- Rome, Pompeii, Sorrento. Mount Vesuvius, ruins of Pompeii, and the Forum.
Day 10- Sorrento. A day at the beach in southern Italy.
Day 11- Naples to Depart for USA.
Day 12- New York, USA to Dallas.

Reasons to Celebrate!

2009-01-15T14:48:00.004-06:00

I am not going to apologize for not posting in the past three months, everyone takes a while to post at some point and I am just lagging behind.

Anyway, two huge reasons to celebrate among all of the wonderful things that have happened in the last three months…our offices at the church are finished! We moved into them last Tuesday and needless to say I had my office set up that same day. And then this Tuesday John & I were so over productive that we cleaned out and set up all of the general office supplies. It is so wonderful to be in the place that will be permanent! And I have a window; if you ever need to know what the weather is like in Dallas just give me a call.

Secondly, this past Friday (January 9th) John & I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary by planning and booking our trip to ITALY!!!!!!!!!!!! We are finally going; March 13, 2009 we will spend 11 days touring throughout Italy! Sadly though we will have to fly out of JFK and the travel agencies recommended that we arrive in NYC the day before just to make sure we have plenty of time for an international flight, so we will be adding in a trip to NYC also! It’s a rough trip but we’ll make due. We have friends that were so excited we are going to NYC too that one has offered to buy us Broadway tickets and another has offered to buy us tickets for a boat tour around the city. Any other offers? Well I bet that is all the excitement you can handle for today; I don’t want to overwhelm you. I will post again soon!

These pictures are from the Youth Specialties Convention in Pittsburg back in November 2008, but I thought you would like to some type of pictures.

When It's Not Working

2008-10-27T11:25:00.002-05:00

Well I am running low on energy and the ability to concentrate today, so I will try hard not to just ramble. I got up at 5:20am this morning to take a friend to the airport and now John and I are watching their three kids while they are out of town for a couple of days. But the kids are great; it’s the lack of sleep that is affecting my ability to focus on anything.

The pictures up are from my grandmother’s 90th Surprise Birthday Party. John & I provided the church building and the excuse for her to come see us, and all of her sons (my dad & uncles) provided the resources for the party. It was wonderful, truly a blessing to celebrate my grandmother, Fannie Lucinda with all of our family and friends. John & I were also able to make an Imovie of all of her old pictures and the whole family growing up, it was so special and fun to see our families go through the growth over time.

Here is something I have been struggling with the past couple of weeks. Four years ago now I started a Middle School Girls Bible Study that met once a week, the group was small (between 4-6 girls each week) but it was consistent. And those girls that I started with are now freshmen; they are changing the leadership of our youth group and are the closest group of girls in our youth group. This year I am continuing their study, which is now a High School Girls Bible Study, but I have also attempted to begin the next Middle School Girls Bible Study. This is where the struggle is coming in. At what point do I justly declare that the new Middle School study is not working out and disband it? It has been four weeks, the first week I had one student, the second week I had two students (but it was like pulling teeth to get them to talk, simply painful), the third week only one made it so we went and got ice cream, and this past week it was canceled because no one could make it. So where is the line in this ministry that I can easily draw, and say this is not accomplishing it’s goal time to stop, pray, and see what will provide they unity and growth for these girls. What are your thoughts?

2 Floods and Some New Names

2008-09-22T11:57:00.000-05:00

I am finally taking the time to update my blog, let’s see since I last wrote we have under gone some major construction at the church, the church experienced its 5th flood, John experienced his 6th office flood, we had our annual parents’ meeting, we have begun searching for our Italy trip plans and much more. I will just cover some highlights.

The 5th flood of the church was an amazing one, not the most amazing but one to remember. You see the new building was just installed with a fire sprinkler system that will eventually also be added in the old building, well a pipe on the second floor was not capped off when the water was turned on. For about 45 minutes pressurized water flooded the east side of the second floor, flowing freely into the auditorium balcony which then created a waterfall in the auditorium (which would have been so beautiful had it been made purposely). The water also came through the floors of the second floor seeping into the first floor and cascading down the stairs. So much fun! I could only laugh as we hastily swept water out of the balcony and second floor, praising God that it was not my office.

Last week John was interrupted in his work by water flowing through his ceiling tiles, we had to quickly evacuate his office of anything that might get ruined, nothing was ruined but his office reeks of stale water now.

Right now, I need your help with something John and I must decide this week. We have to name the three new youth rooms for signage purposes. There are two classrooms and a gathering/hangout space in the between the two classrooms. Since the two classrooms are separated by the gathering space I have been rejected to simply call them classroom A and classroom B. So what should we name these three rooms? I don’t mind some funny answers; I expect nothing less from many of you- but a few helpful ones also. They don’t have to be themed just simple.

Cool Mountain to a Fiery Furnace

2008-07-29T11:50:00.002-05:00

From the cool mountain air to a fiery furnace, meant literally and a little symbolically. A week ago John & I returned from our greatest week of camp with Preston Road in the last four years. Literally the temperatures were average about 50-60 degrees it was wonderful to wear jeans and fleeces in the middle of the summer. We were encouraged to take 20 students with us to camp this year; two years ago we went alone to fulfill our teaching responsibilities. Therefore taking 20 students was exciting, but numbers is not the most exciting part of course or the real evidence of God’s hand. Throughout the week our students worshipped with instruments (provided by our favorite worship team ever from Dave Drake, Edwin Guerra, and Aaron Collier), they worshipped accapella, they opened up to one another, and included everyone. The Preston Road Youth Group actually looked like a group of students seeking Christ together, this is a huge milestone for a youth group that is spread through 25 schools and has had no leadership from students until now. It was inspirational and one of the few times in four years that John and I have been able to SEE the difference in our group now. This week was our cool mountain air.

We came back to a literal fiery furnace; the temperatures this week will stay around 102 degrees every day. I am not a friend of the heat, I have always been sensitive to heat and the sun with headaches and sunburns, but after getting heat stroke and dehydration last year I do all that I can to stay out of the heat now. Symbolically, it was not exactly a fiery furnace but it felt a little similar. I had a confrontational meeting with someone that expressed to me I had let them down, hurt their feelings, and had missed opportunities to show Christ’s love to them. My reflex was to defend myself, find excuses- but I had nothing and I could defend nothing- this person was right. I had unintentionally failed to offer support, give encouragement, or show Christ’s love in the past year. It broke my heart to be told this and know there was truth in it. I cannot go back and change my lack of actions, but I seek God to forgive me, and to allow this to be a building step in my ministry. One that will encourage me to actively seek more people out boldly if needed to show them care and encouragement. I strive to not let this confrontation tear any part of God’s work in me down, or give hold to any doubt of what I am doing for Him.

Revelations 3:19-20, here He is knocking

New Orleans Mission

2008-06-18T20:40:00.005-05:00

This past weekend John & I took our students to New Orleans to work with Operation Nehemiah, to help rebuild the city. We had a great trip, some lessons in patience and flexibility- but still a great trip that we believe has been instrumental in forming and connecting our students. Here are some pictures of our trip. I’m headed to Nashville in the morning to have a girls’ weekend with all of my old Dallas friends that have abandoned me (see blog titled “And then there was one”). I hope to fill you in more on our New Orleans trip when I get back.

Breaking open the crawfish was so gross at first.

But well worth the flavor!

Going Solo

2008-04-28T15:21:00.004-05:00

Last year in March I wrote a blog about the core group of friends I had made in Dallas, I told you how great they were and how much God had worked in our lives through each other. The title of the blog in March of last year was “And Then There Were Two.” Because from the three close friends that I had here in Dallas- one moved to the west side of Fort Worth, and one moved back to Kentucky.

Yesterday, I said goodbye to the third. Summer and her family moved to Alabama, her husband was our worship minister and took a job at a church in Montgomery. To say that I shed a few tears is a huge understatement, but I am thankful for the sorrow I felt. It means that Summer and her family were an important part of my life here, that God has made me more of the woman He desires me to be through our friendship, and I believe I will be a better mother someday from what I have learned from her! Though yesterday was hard, and it will be sad to enter into the church not hearing her little girls yelling my name in excitement, and I am still sad for how our friendship will have to change- going from weekly visits to yearly, but nevertheless I rejoice and have faith that there will be many more opportunities for God to use new friends to mold me.

For this is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it.

A One-Woman Man

2008-04-22T14:04:00.003-05:00

Madness, complete madness. That is what my schedule has felt like lately. In the past month I had an amazing trip to Nashville for Church of Christ women in fulltime Youth Ministry Retreat, and I was able to see one of my favorite people Lesli and her family that moved from Dallas to KY last year. It was AMAZING! I have started a new bible study at one of the private schools nearby after having finished studying with one of the girls that had some BIG questions about God (examples: If heaven is sinless how did Satan sin while there? How do we know Jesus was the Savior? Where did all the nationalities come from? Where did the Bible come from?) And she is in 6th grade. We just had a lock-in with 25 members of our church and 35 friends they brought! So fun!!! I want to stay up 24hrs every day. Ok, the lock-in was great but at age can I claim to be too old for that? We had a Deacon/Elders/Ministers Retreat, which I was the only female at- fun times. And from the retreat I have been given my first big task at Preston Road, well you know other then spiritually forming the lives of teens.

I have been set as the chair of a committee of deacons and elders that will evaluate two things. First, potential deacon candidates, our church has not installed new deacons in six years. So they are asking me to chair a committee that will get it done in less than one month, gee thanks. And second, we will present to the elders a translation of what it means for a deacon to be the “husband of but one wife.” 1 Timothy 3:12. Literally translates a “one-woman man.” I don’t know where to go with this and how in the world I became the chair is beyond me. What is your church’s policy on this deacon qualification? Or what do you believe, I have done the research and I have my own conclusions but there are so many different situations. What do you think? And any advice for chairing a committee?

A Sad Realization & Working in a Wind Tunnel

2008-03-10T11:43:00.004-05:00

Last month while cleaning out my parents attach I had a slight mishap, when tossing down a stack of heavy metal trays I released them to early- throwing them on top of a wooden pole which in turn flew up and hit me in the face. Sounds fun uh?! The stick came within an inch of my eye but thankfully only put a messy scratch on my eye brow. The next day after John & I went to a Couples Retreat with our church, where I was asked repeatedly what happened. Eventually one person asked if the scratch was still from the fall when I had two black eyes. I told him the story of how I got this injury at which point he asked…”are you a klutz?” Of course I said no, I really am not.

The following week that question came back to my mind twice when I once burnt my finger on the curling iron, and then again when I burnt my shoulder by dropping the curling iron on myself. And then this past week when a student in our youth ministry tossed me a cell phone and it hit in the face. So my family nickname of “Grace” has come to full tuition, and brought me to the sad realization that I am a klutz.

And now at this time I once again write to you from the wind tunnel of my office. Though my office took on no water it shares a wall with John’s office and a portion of the youth area that once again flooded for the forth time. Here is the sad part though; no matter if it is a foot of water all over the whole basement or about 10sq feet that got wet the process of drying out the walls and floor demand multiple days of huge drying fans and furniture moved. Hence now I am working with hair flying and ipod blasting to block out the noise of the fans. Oh, the adventure of it all!

This is the day the Lord has made, I will be glad and rejoice in it.

A Trove of Teasures

2008-02-27T16:17:00.002-06:00

Two weeks ago John & I got the itch to do some cleaning, and well there was no cleaning out to be done at our house- we have simply gotten rid of everything we can. It is an amazing feeling! So, we went to my mom & stepdad’s house to clean out the attic. A place that evidently had not been cleaned out in at least 15 years! The task was huge, but we did it!

Among the treasures found in our parents' attic was an Atari box (not the actual Atari but just the box), a Speak & Spell, a plethora of KFC & Wendy’s memorabilia (my dad worked at each place for multiple years) , a Light Bright, Trolls (in various sizes and styles), Barbie’s, some toy zoo like creatures that we could not remember the name of (one was a lion mixed with bumble bee wings, and there was an elephant mixed with something else), many Pound Puppies, and a long lost Popple (see 1st picture if you don’t know what that is). It was a great time to throw about 10 trash cans of stuff away and see everything from my childhood!

Did these treasures bring back any memories for you?

Valentine's Day

2008-02-21T17:45:00.003-06:00

I would love to take just a moment to brag about John, my husband. Last Monday he had his wisdom teeth out, which was in itself a hard thing for him but a hilarious experience for me. When John was coming out of the anesthesia he started right away asking if he could have his teeth that were pulled- so that he could put them under his pillow for the tooth fairy. Not just once, but repeatedly he asked…I started to let him know that I was no sure if we got them- at which point John shook his fist at me, as if saying “oh, you better get them.” The entire 15 minutes that he was coming to in the dentist office I could not stop laughing, it was great, not even drugs can take away my husband’s sense of humor!

Back to the real bragging part, John had is wisdom teeth out on Monday and Valentines Day was Thursday, which meant John would not be able to really eat so our plan was to just go somewhere with good soup like Corner Bakery or La Madeline. Also, let me tell you John is not much for celebrating anything other then Christmas and major birthdays/anniversaries, and definitely not buying gifts for such occasions, it is just how he was raised and I can see the value in not buying things for everything all the time, it makes some years even more special and memorable. But he is the type that does bring home flowers or little presents unexpectedly so it all evens out.

Well, this Valentines Day after showering and getting ready I go into our closet to get dressed and John has perfectly set up a dress and shirt that he bought me! He picked it out all on his own and did so great! It was so special that he not only went out and got me a present but got me something that he really likes too, I mean usually it is hard to get an opinion on any clothes at all- but he went and picked this out! It was wonderful! It was a great Valentines and John made me feel so special that he cared about a dress for me!

And the picture is exactly how it looks on me ;)

Foo Fighters Concert

2008-01-28T11:01:00.000-06:00

John & I have these amazing friends, some of the coolest you could ever have. Their names are Edwin & Tami, and they among many other gifts, recently gave John & I two tickets to the Foo Fighters concert last week. It is amazing that someone would just give tickets away that they had paid for, but they did. Like I said these are amazing people we are friends with.
So last Wednesday, John & I made arrangements to skip church and went to the concert with Edwin & Tami (they had floor tickets, ours were in the first level of the AAC). The concert was pretty packed; I would not have wanted to be on the floor at all, way too much pushing and body heat and invasion of my personal space. Edwin & Tami are much more hard core then I am. The Foo Fighters were flippin’ awesome though, I didn’t realize how many of their songs I knew, they did great! My favorite part of the concert was the acoustic songs (still with the whole band but on the acoustic instead of the electric). And at the intro into the acoustic songs Dave Grohl (lead guy) begins strumming some acoustic riffs as he walks from the main rectangle stage that is set, down the cat walk in the middle of the crowd, to a circular band stage that is being lowered down from the rafters! It was so great, and once he got there, facing the opposite end of the AAC now he says to the crowd in front of him something like “I didn’t want to forget about you guys.” It was greatness, I really enjoyed their music and some of John’s dancing. Hahaha.

I had not been to a secular concert in years; John & I are usually too cheap to pay for the tickets that make it worth going. And even then we have only gone to Christians concerts. But this concert really reminded me how naive I am and pretty much sheltered by the church and people I spend time with I am. Not to my surprise, just a reminder. In between his great songs Dave Grohl threw in as much profanity as possible I think, plus a wonderful little tribute to smoking weed. I was a bit disgusted by it, especially the fact that it was not what he was saying that was getting the crowd rallied, but the profanity he used. I mean really “let’s all cheer for the f-bomb,” or “oh, he said s*%t, that’s our queue to scream.” That small part of the concert though is simply a good reminder of the world around me I think, not the reality but the world. I am glad I went, and so thankful to Tami & Edwin for giving us amazing seats at the concert!

2008-01-22T14:43:00.000-06:00

Winterfest is a convention for teenagers in grades 6-12, it is held by the Churches of Christ in Arlington and gathers over 4,000 students together! They bring bands, commedy, artists, and all sorts of entertainment for the youth to experience Christ through. For us Winterfest was last weekend.

We took 25 students to Winterfest, the largest group we have ever taken, it was amazing! Our students built relationships, spent time together worshipping and learning about Christ, and learning how to Know, Be, See, and Share Christ. This is a weekend that John and I have been praying for and we feel that God has answered our prayers in big ways. Our youth group is finally becoming a community found on Christ. Of course it will never be perfect, but it is on the move. I hope you enjoy the pictures, there are tons more in the Winterfest Album on my myspace page, www.myspace.com/crystymarie .

What Everyone Wants for Christmas…

2007-12-06T11:20:00.000-06:00

At this time of year I always hear friends, family, and other people talking about how much they wish they had more time off from work, to get shopping done, to be with family, to relax from the demands of the holiday…which is sad too that there are so many demands that you need rest from during a season of joy…but anyway back to topic.

On the vacations topic, John & I are in the unique career position that most of our out of town trips pertain to work for example; youth group ski trip, girls retreat, guys camping trip, summer camp in New Mexico, youth minister conventions in California or Colorado…it’s a tough life. Also, both of us being the youth ministers when we do leave town it takes extra work to fill in all of the whole and get the next weeks work done before hand, not to mention I don’t know anyone affords an out of town trip…they are so expensive. All of this to say, John & I almost never leave town without it being for our ministry the result of this is that John has 186 hours of vacation hours, and I have 208 vacation hours stored up! Which roughly comes out to John having 4 ½ weeks and me a little over 5 weeks of vacation!!!!

This past year our church came out with new policies for vacation hours, each employee can roll over up to 80 hours of vacation (2 weeks) into the New Year. Therefore before December 28 (because we leave for our youth ski trip then) John has 106 hours of vacation (2 weeks) and I have 128 (3 weeks) that need to be taken!!! What an amazing problem to have, sorry I cannot not give some of you these vacation hours to use too.

Thankgiving...San Diego...Third Times a Charm

2007-11-26T11:10:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! John and I had a great time with Thanksgiving, we saw my dad and memaw on the Saturday before (made roast, quite an accomplishment!). On Thanksgiving Day we were with my mom & stepdad and sister and bro-in-law, and then on Friday we went to John’s parent’s house. It was a wonderful holiday full of family, food, relaxing, and stories.

The pictures here are not from Thanksgiving if you are wondering. The pictures are from our trip a month ago now to San Diego for the Youth Specialties Convention, it was an amazing trip. Though the conference was GREAT!!! With David Crowder Band and Shane & Shane, I must confess we still skipped a few general sessions to hang out with some wonderful friends. And my friend Beth had never been to an IKEA so Heather and I had to take her. The day before the convention we spent at the San Diego Zoo, which was wonderful! Enjoy the pictures.

Also, you will not believe what I am about to tell you…I am once again out of my office for a couple of days only though this time. YES!!! Believe it, our church offices once again took on some water, not near the amount the past two times but the basement is a wind tunnel at the moment. The water this time came from under the wall in John’s office, NOTHING was damaged though. Amazing how after two we have gotten the hang of it.

Softball Play-Offs

2007-10-30T13:54:00.000-05:00

Well it looks like the David Crowder Concert was not exciting enough to get any comments, so let’s see if this is exciting enough for all of you.

This past Thursday our church softball team made it to the play-offs, which is amazing considering last spring we never won a game. Our first game was at 8pm and if we won that game we played at 9pm for the championship. I must confess I am not exactly the key component of the team and especially since I had never played softball until this year and so my position is usually the catcher. First inning went by great; I even caught the ball when the batters struck out. Second inning, I am ready once again to prove my amazing catcher ability when the pitch is thrown, and the batter just barely gets a piece of the ball…the ball hit the top of bat, hard enough to put a back spin on the ball and WHAM! right into my forehead. I have never in my life felt such a blow to head, of course there was no helmet and I went down but not out.

We were able to immediately put ice on the knot (which was not fun in 52 degree weather), and after batting one more time I sat out the rest of the game, and the next one (since we did make it to the championship, and the guy that barely got the ball struck out after I was walked off the field).

I kept ice on the knot the rest of the night and the next two days, by Saturday I had some pretty hideous black eyes, to say the least I got some amazing three time glances from people, or simply blatant stares and John got some dirty looks…I think the fact that he is so tall and big didn’t work in his favor either.

After a lot of fuse from others at church on Sunday about my appearance, and a friend in medical school suggesting…I went to the doctor on Monday. She even said it looked painful, but the fact that I never passed out or vomited was a good sign. I have to check in with the doctor for the next couple of days but I should be just fine. Enjoy the pictures, the scrape on my forehead is where the ball actually hit.

David Crowder Concert!

2007-10-08T12:39:00.000-05:00

This past week, John being the piddler (a person that piddles) that he is, found something cool on the new David Crowder Band CD. He followed the website and went through more things that only someone wanting to waist time would go through and found a certificate that fans can get signed by the band when you bring it to the concert. So, we printed a couple off hoping to get them signed at their concert this past Friday. Little did we realize that after the sensation of standing through David Crowder’s awesome concert the certificates we had printed off actually worked as BACK STAGE PASSES! The students we had brought were a little sad that we didn’t have some to give them but they lived.

John and I were able to go back stage where the David Crowder Band was hanging out with friends and family, it was great. All of the band members were super nice; of course we didn’t recognize all them and had to ask one which signature we were missing and which person he was. Though we felt a little bit like middle school girl fans and dorks it was worth it to meet David Crowder!

Here's to All Nighters

2007-09-24T17:08:00.000-05:00

For some reason much to mine and & John’s dismay the most attended and anticipated event in our youth ministry is the Middle School Lock-In…they only happen once a semester but we are asked when will be the next one beginning the day after the last one.

This past Friday was our Fall Middle School Lock-In and once again our students amazed us and broke the record attendance from the last lock-in. 22 out of our 31 Middle School students came to the Lock-In and they brought 37 friends! Can you believe that?

Over all the Lock-In went GREAT! We had a only one injury (a broken toe) and only one dramatic angry girl, but both stayed through the night. We had tons of help from parents and other young couples that all have a new respect for the fact that John & I stayed up the entire night and did clean up. The Lock-In was from 8pm-8am and we went to bed at 9:30am pretty good for all the kids we had. The majority of the night was playing Capture the Flag and Murder in the dark church building, which I must admit I enjoy almost as much as the middle students.

I think we have pretty much recovered on our sleep, but I feel a sinus infection coming on…you know its like the day before or maybe even two days before you get sick. Nothing really sounds good to eat, the pressure around the nose, drowsiness, and a funny taste in your mouth. But I already started on Clariton D so hopefully I can get this thing nixed before it starts.

OH, and we are back in our offices. It took one week and two days to get back into our flooded offices…way better then the 16 months that it took last time.

Flood 2007

2007-09-10T10:22:00.000-05:00

Here are some great pictures! And guess what though these picture may look like they are the office flood picture from a year and half ago NO, these are from today! 5 Inches deep in water, not just mine and John's offices but also the rest of the staff and the youth classroom. And we just moved back into these offices in May! Have fun looking.

Stumped

2007-08-27T16:03:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have a random quote or scene from a movie or song come to your head and then you can’t figure out where in the world it came from or how it got in your head? Lying in bed last night, while contemplating how to solve the mysteries of the universe, all of a sudden a movie quote came to my mind…only bits of it and I had to keep repeating it over and over in my mind to even get the whole quote. Usually I consider myself pretty brilliant at figuring movie quotes out…at least with classic movies, but I was stumped. So I turned to John for help, and he agreed that it was completely familiar but could not figure it out either. Well, of course I could not go to sleep without solving this tormenting mystery. Finally after about 10 minutes of repeating it to each other, and giving our own images of what we saw and heard with the quote I solved the mystery, but can you? Can you tell me what movie and scene this quote is from; “…it is but a faint idea, anything more then a whisper and it will vanish.” Let’s see if you’ve got it!

A Wedding to Remember!

2007-08-21T16:57:00.000-05:00

I am so excited that this weekend has past and also now almost officially all the business of my summer is over! This weekend alone was packed with our 6th grade promotion dinner and party, a funeral, cleaning my house (like deep cleaning) because of our open house for the ENTIRE church, and finally a wedding last night. So surely you can understand, I am excited to be done with some duties.

Of course a wedding isn’t really that consuming right, of course not…unless you are performing it!!! Yes that is right, last night for the first time in my life (and most likely the last) I performed a wedding ceremony! My cousin Brian & his fiancé Carly asked me to perform their wedding, why I am not entirely positive other then that they are family and love me. Leading up to the wedding I was not all that scared or nervous, I think it was because I had some many others things on my mind at the same time…but evidently I was more anxious then I assumed. About 5 minutes into the ceremony John, sitting in the audience began giving me hand signals, which I read to be saying slow down (like I was speaking too fast). Although even after slowed down he continued to lip something to me (which I cannot read lips!) then I realized, OH NO, I did it…I had skipped over the 20 pt font in bold and all caps that read PLEASE BE SEATED! I had forgotten to seat the audience after the bride had been given away. Oh, everyone got a good laugh out of it, and the bride and groom told me after that they had not even realized it. So, I lived and made a few jokes along the way that went over with flying colors. And in the end, the important thing is they are married and on their way to their honeymoon now.

After, feeling all of that tension released at the reception John, me, my sister Cyndy & her husband Chris took it upon ourselves to make sure that the disposable camera’s on the tables had some questionable and hilarious pictures on them…just to freak the bride out a little when she develops them.

So, it is done and now I focus on getting everything into place for the fall in our youth ministry.

this Summer & 3 Years!

2007-07-31T17:06:00.000-05:00

John & I have had a wonderful summer and have been able to spend time with so many of you that mean so much to us. I am excited to finally be home for at least a week and get all of the laundry done without packing it again right away. We have three weeks of camps, a week in El Paso visiting our one year old niece, a week in Caldwell visiting the in-laws, and some time in Lubbock visiting friends in between camps. And now we are home until we go back to Lubbock and before a church wide retreat. I get tired just thinking about all of the traveling. It has by far been our best summer here though.

Tomorrow, August 1st will by mine & John’s 3rd year anniversary here at Preston Road in Youth Ministry together. Even though most people still do not understand that, yes I am a full time youth minister at the church too…along with John. I don’t know when a youth minister should feel like they have their ministry running like a well oiled machine, but I absolutely do not feel like that. And I have heard this saying that you know that your ministry is healthy and doing well when you (the minister) can be gone for a month and everything still work and move on as usual…if we were gone for a month nothing would be done! I am a little sad about what that might say about our ministry, I just now after three years feel excited about some of the new plans we have for the youth ministry and just recently have begun to feel at home more and more here. It is the first time in a long time that I can honestly say we are not tempted by other ministry offers, not simply because of the obligation we feel to this church but now because it is home.

I hope you enjoy some of these pictures and I will attempt to update more each week on the details and excitement of our summer, there are some great stories. Happy 3 Years to Us!

GroundBreaking and Offices

2007-05-09T11:05:00.000-05:00

Another victory in my month! Do you remember more than a year ago when I wrote about the church offices flooding and the chaos that was caused? (refer back to blog on March 22) Well the chaos is coming to a close. This week after a year and two months our staff at the church is now back down in the basement offices, although all of our furniture was ruined in the flood last year and so we still do not have furniture yet, that is why I said the chaos is ALMOST over. We get our new furniture in mid June while John and I are at camp. But for the first time EVER I have my own office and my own phone.

On Sunday our church celebrated the official ground breaking for our new Family Life Center, which will provide a new Children’s wing, a youth area, high class kitchen, full gym with hard wood floors, and a commons area. We are so excited to see this day come, each minister had a part in the ceremony; John & I together said the closing prayer. John said he looked up during my prayer and saw most of the crowd covering their ears…he was obviously joking but everyone has really liked the joke around here. Also to help make it a memorable day for the youth we buried a box that was full of prayers from all of the students about their hopes for the new building and the youth ministry’s future.

The pictures above are our new offices, the room in the basement where the youth will meet (that should be finished in a week) and our land next door to the church where the new addition will be (that is our house in the background).

It has been a wonderful week!

Oh I Thought the Day Would Never Come

2007-05-03T12:14:00.000-05:00

What an amazing week!!! After two years of a simi-temporary duplex and then 4 months of living in boxes in a house the day has come and we have a HOME!!!! This weekend John and I moved into our newly renovated duplex, provided by the church. A member from our church graciously remodeled the upstairs of this 80 year old duplex, it was two 1 bedroom apartments and now it is one amazing 3 bedroom-2 bath-laundry room-living room-dinning room and incredible kitchen luxury home. There are still a few things that have to be completed and touched up but it looks amazing and we are so thankful that our time of personal transition is OVER!

Now we need your help, our dining room is too big to just have a table and chairs but too small to double for living and dinning...what do you suggest?

What Going On...

2007-04-12T11:40:00.000-05:00

Where to begin…last week I reluctantly flew to Nashville to be part of a Renewal Retreat for Women in full time Youth Ministry in the CofC. Lispcomb University pays for all of it except for the flight there. I say I went reluctantly because after having just said goodbye to my friend that moved to KY I wasn’t really up for opening up to and “bonding” with other women that I only see once a year. However as could have been expected God moved in and around me, and the three days I spent with these women was a wonderful and encouraging time. Though I am not able to see them very often I do feel like I know them well now and they are women that will continually be a strong hold in my personal ministry life. So thank you to all of the wonderful women that I met for the first time and met again.

As for Easter, it was a wonderful day. My dad spent the night with John and I, we had a couple of really good meals (Salt Grass & Cantina Laredo) that he was not suppose to pay for but did anyway. We made some new record scores on this awesome little bubble game that is on dad’s phone…we watched the Ranger’s Game while listening to the Mavericks Game, which if you know me then let me tell you the overwhelming excitement I could not hold back during that (hint: read with heavy sarcasm). And then we went to church on Easter, John and I had to be at both services. I read scripture twice, without messing up. And John did the communion thought, which was so great!

In the communion thought John compared the Garden of Eden with the Garden of the tomb that kept Jesus’ body. He spoke of how in the Garden of Eden, where Adam was the gardener our relationship with God became hindered, and when Adam and Eve heard God's voice they hid and were ashamed. To the garden where Jesus body was buried Jesus was mistaken for a gardener by Mary, in that garden our relationship was restored, and when Mary heard Jesus' voice call her name she realized who he was! I don’t do it the justice John did it, but it was a wonderful communion. I think as we get older and grow in ministry that John will eventually have to acknowledge more and more the gift he has been given in preaching and put it to work.

And then there were Two...

2007-03-20T10:29:00.000-05:00

Two and a half years ago now John and I graduated from LCU, and moved to Dallas. It was the second time in my whole life that I moved to a different city (the first being to college), and at the same time all of my friends from college were also moving off to begin their careers. It was so exciting to come to Dallas and begin ministry along side my husband but it was also terribly difficult to start over making all new friends.

I am the type of person that although I love knowing and being friends with tons of different people, I always end up finding a comfort zone, a core group of people that I completely bare myself to. That I share my struggles, joys, and everything in between, it is always difficult to find a new core in a new city. In college it was easy, everyone was looking for new friends, and there I found more then I could have ever imagined that were more dear and precious to me then any I had had before. But moving to Dallas, I am an adult now (supposedly) and adults are too busy to be searching out new friends or to spend much time building relationships. So I prayed and prayed, and I had my friends that had moved away pray for me, and God heard my prayer.

I become accountability partners with three other women, which shared my faith, my age, and my desire to have close friends. It was a bigger blessing then I had even imagined. And I could go on and on about how great it was, but I will move one because there is still more. It is now two years later, back in August one of the girls moved to Fort Worth and though she is not far it was still a goodbye because we would not be seeing her three times or more a week anymore. And so our group was down to three. And now we have come to know that at the end of this month we be saying goodbye to another one from our group. Lesli will be moving to Elizabeth Town, KY. And I know she will hate it that I even wrote about this, but I do it not to make her feel bad or sad but to let her know the amazing answer to a huge prayer that I had so many others pray for.

And now there will be two, and don’t worry its not oh poor Crysty, because I have John, I have my amazing family within 30 minutes of me, I still have Summer, and most importantly I believe. I have already seen though how hard I am going to have to try to keep my heart open though, just last week the newly marrieds class had a big get together because there are so many new members in the class. Sure enough, since we spend all of our time with the youth group when at church we only knew a hand full of the 32 people that were there, and I caught myself thinking…why, why even open up to any of these people because they will just be gone in another two years pursuing their dreams and careers somewhere else. But when I think of all of the joy that I had the past two years I remember that it is worth it, to meet and say goodbye it is all the in between that is wonderful. Sorry this is soooo long, how do you cope with saying goodbye and making new friends? Picture above is Summer, me, and Lesli.

Mavs Madness

2007-03-05T16:49:00.000-06:00

Well John has always been a Maverick’s fan but he is starting to go crazy. He has Mav’s fever, he has been craving to go to a game since the season opened and it finally drove him to buy a ticket this past week. He went to the game on Thursday and then on Friday went to Northpark Mall and got Devin Harris’s signature on this picture, but was so sad when he got to the front and all that Devin had to sign with was a blue sharpie instead of the silver. So what did we do on Saturday? We went to Plano to get Devin Harris’s signature again, but not on a picture this time. John had now had enough time to come up with a much better idea of what to get signed. So before going to see Devin Harris for the second time we stopped at shoe store and got a pair of the Converse Maverick shoes and bought our own silver sharpie just to make sure he didn’t run out this time. So John got the Converse signed and I got John’s hat signed for him. And then on Sunday John smoozzed (if that is a word) his way into Mav’s tickets for this Tuesday from a member that has season tickets. Although don’t ask me how the game goes because John has stopped taking me to the pro-games, he says that if I won’t watch the whole game on TV then I shouldn’t go to the game in person.

Cannon Ball

2007-02-19T11:44:00.000-06:00

Ok, I got enough complaints about not updating my blog that I guess I have to, even though most of the people that complained don’t even comment on my page…so I expect some comments people!

Well we are doing great, we spent some time in Lubbock for Master Follies which was a blast and we were able to visit with some friends and mentors that have played big roles in helping us become who we are. This past weekend we spend the majority of our time with some of our favorite Dallas people and their kids, which are the cutest in the world. There is nothing like hearing a child scream your name in excitement to see you walk in the room, or have one run to you and pass John (just kidding), it is so great.

But the real craziness of our weekend came last night at the church wide talent show. (For legal reasons and job security I claim not part in this stunt.) At the talent show during a time when our worship minister was about to introduce the next act two of our girls did cannon balls into the baptistery! After which their parents held up signs that scored their jump (10.0 9.7 and so on). And the best part was that we, I mean they didn’t tell a single soul it was going to happen. Oh the greatness of it and shock on everyone’s faces were priceless. Although from what audience members tell me our worship minister was speechless and had the most amazed look on his face. I wish I had pictures for this story; I will have to check with some of the audience to see if anyone got this shot. Oh, and yes the inspiration for this stunt came from the utub video on the internet.

So is that a good enough update to get some comments?

Greatness!

2007-01-22T17:04:00.000-06:00

Well our early move out was not in vain. Here are pictures of the accomplishments our church has made towards the new addition to the building. I never new watching demolition could be soooo fun! So, enjoy the pictures of my old house being torn to pieces! And today the apartments next door were torn down as well.

Adventures in Winter Wonderland

2007-01-12T15:39:00.000-06:00

What an adventure! We left for our youth group ski trip at 8:30 pm on December 28th. We were going from Dallas to Denver by charter bus without any stops. With almost everyone asleep at about 4am on the 29th I woke up to see how everything was going. To say the least we were driving in treacherous weather! The ground was completely white and the everything else completely black, the only way to stay on the road was to look from road marker to road marker…and between each road marker there was about 5 seconds that I was praying oh Jesus please show us another marker! Well, at about 9am on December 29th we were told that we were not going any further. We got snowed-in in Lamar, CO. Never heard of it? Well, don’t worry you aren’t missing anything!

We were snowed in for 3 nights and 4 days in the wonderland of Lamar, CO at the Cow Palace Inn (which is a Best Western). Though we were stuck and as each day the same report came in, that we could not leave, the 20 students we had kept themselves entertained with playing in the several feet on snow and then coming in the hotel stripping down to suites and going swimming in the indoor pool. We also had a restaurant in the hotel so we survived well enough. On January 1st, which is the day we finally were able to leave all the students had to help dig our charter bus out of the snow! It was quite a crazy site! When we finally did get to leave Lamar (or as our students came to call it LAME-R) we saw another youth group that had been on their way to a ski trip also and were snowed-in in Lamar, but they stayed in a hotel that had no restaurant, no pool, and all the door opened to the outside. The leader said that for two of the days when the Walmart and McDonalds were closed they ate at the gas station whatever they could find. They were with a Methodist church from Plano…so I guess God does the church of Christ more…Hahaha I am kidding, no really I am completely kidding. NO offense to anyone!

On New Years in Lamar, CO we had a midnight devotional outside while it was 1 degree. We all bundled up in our ski clothes (that got no action this year) and had a devo then took communion. Although our grape juice had frozen so it was more of a slushy then a drink…you think that still counts? It was a fun way to bring in the New Year! Anyway, it was an adventure and after that trip John and I went to NCYM in Colorado Springs. But I will wait for another day to write about that. Hope you have a snowy New Year too.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-24T15:44:00.000-06:00

Our move went as smoothly as can be hoped for with a room full of boxes that will stay packed for the next four months until our final place will be ready! John and I are excited to depart Dallas on the 28th for our annual youth group ski trip, and then we will stay in Colorado for NCYM and drive back from Colorado Springs with some wonderful friends from Floridia. So, see you in the New Year and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

What A Mess!

2006-12-14T19:52:00.000-06:00

Well, the tree is down, the wreaths put up, and Christmas is not even over! The day is almost here, what day is that? No I am not speaking of Christmas but at last…the MOVING DAY. Below you get the low-down of how our month has gone, though it may sound like some frustration, know that we are excited about the ending…if it ever gets here.

November 27th: our “boss” tells John and me we are NOT moving until after Christmas.
November 30th: John and I go to Ft Worth to get our Christmas tree
December 1: I put up all of our Christmas decorations and clean the house so everything looks perfect.
December 4th: Our “boss” (which is our elder) says he has some bad news; we might have to move before Christmas.
December 6th: We are informed our move out date is Dec. 15th.
December 8th: I pack everything that we will not be using for the four months we are in the temporary house.
December 13th: It is realized among our staff that the youth group will be moving into the building and out of the youth house NEXT WEEK (and the basement still isn’t fixed from the flood in March, which means we are already short two classrooms and the youth are about to take the next two biggest classrooms.)
December 14th: John and I pack everything else.
December 15th: MOVING DAY…I will let you know how it went.
March: Our hopeful move in day for our newly renovated home.

YES! It is COLD!

2006-11-30T16:00:00.000-06:00

So the Christmas season is here. How many of you tempted the waters and went shopping the day after Thanksgiving? I did, but I was in College Station with John’s sister, Kayla, so it was pretty empty because everyone in College Station was either in Austin or at home watching the game. It worked out great for me. J And I am proud to say that John and I took an afternoon off this week and from having no Christmas shopping done to having everything done except for each other! Are we efficient or what?

And how about that cold front!!! I was so super excited to have the cold front move through last night, it went from 80 degrees to 35 degrees in a matter of hours…I LOVE COLD weather! We have even been out driving all over the place today in this horrible wonderful weather. My sister asked me today if I had trouble getting to work because of the sleet and snow (I live next door to the church, literally across the parking lot) and so I told her “the traffic was awful, people were moving so slow and causing back ups…but then John feel and I was able to go around him.” Hahaha, I know you’re rolling aren’t you?

Well, I am off this evening to put up my Christmas décor, last word we got about moving is that it won’t happen until January now, so I get to put up Christmas decorations. Maybe even watch a Christmas movie like “White Christmas” while I do it. Hope you have a wonderful beginning to your Christmas season. Rejoice always!

Girls Retreat

2006-11-16T17:14:00.000-06:00

The Girls Retreat was this last weekend, and it went great! I took all middle school girls, which I was sad that no high school girls went but it was still a great group of girls. My sister was one of the sponsors on the retreat too, which was really awesome. The girls all love her, and thought she was two years younger then me (even though she is three years older J) and it was really amazing to have her there when I taught and have her help. I taught on Deborah and realizing the gifts God has given you to use. At the end of class I had the girls make duck tape bracelets and write on them one character of theirs and is from God. They loved that part because we had like 10 different colors of duck tape. So the weekend was great, I am doing pretty great, and we are still waiting to move. Enjoy the pictures.

YS Convention 2006

2006-11-07T15:57:00.000-06:00

What an amazing week! We are now back from the Youth Specialties Convention in Anaheim and we have so much fun! Not only did we finally get our instrumental fix for the month (and not just instruments but David Crowder Band worship) we were able to spend gobs of time with some of our favorite people that live no where near us, or even in Texas. The convention was great, David Crowder worship and our friends being my favorite part, the only let down was the Women in Youth Ministry luncheon. The main disappointment was that is was more like a bad excuse of a pep rally then an encouraging time where I met other women in ministry. I didn’t even meet one other woman from Texas, of course the table that was suppose to be for Texas woman had no one actually from Texas at it, so I just sat with Neena (and some other new friends in Phoenix) at the Arizona table. But that is my only complaint. Praise God for this break and community with friends, now I come back to hit the ground running with a Girls Retreat this Friday- Sunday and a staff retreat Monday & Tuesday. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

A Quick Update...

2006-11-01T09:57:00.000-06:00

Ok, a quick update before I have to leave for the airport in 15 minutes! And now you probably need to know where I am going, so first John and I leave today for the Youth Specialties Convention in Anaheim, CA! I know it’s a rough life we lead. We are so SUPER excited to get out of town, to be in California, and most of all to see some of our favorite people.

Second, as for the boys that got into some trouble a couple of weeks ago in class, only one of them ended up teaching because he was the only one that showed up to work on the lesson with me. I do have to say though he did a great job, really knew what he was talking about and how to summarize the idea of the scripture. Although my favorite point during his class was when the other students were getting a bit out of control (but Summer and I bit our tongues to let the “teacher” handle it) and the “teacher” Franklin let out a huge sigh and said, “look you have to listen to me, I’m the teacher so do what I say.” I think for just a split minute he felt some of the frustration of getting people to listen. But he did great and I loved seeing him shine!

And third and last, I have a bit of a stressful and disappointing week. On top of being busy getting everything together for others to fill in for me we also got new news about our living arrangements. John sent an email to our elder, who is over the youth ministry as well as over the staff, concerning any news that he had. We had already been told that we will be moving next door to the apartment we now live in, the second floor of this duplex (which is currently two one bedroom apartments) will be remodeled into one two bedroom apartment for us. Which is wonderful, we are very thankful that they are doing remodeling and taking care of that. But then this week we found out that the apartment will not be ready when they will be tearing down our apartment that we live in now, so they will be moving us to a temporary (2-3 months which really mean 5-6 months) house somewhere around here…maybe. This is frustrating because no one took the time to prepare a place for us, and yes you could say well it’s just business…but no this is personal because it is our home. So now not only is our office space unavailable (it is still under construction from the flood in March) but now we are still in limbo with our house. And if you know me at all you know what an OCD person I am and to have both the spaces where I spend the majority of my days in chaos and unstable is almost more then I can bear. I am praying about this and trying to have a good attitude, but at this moment I just want to be angry that someone let us and our office and our home slip through the cracks.
Sorry it is so long, but next time I will have pretty pictures from CA instead of so much writing. :)

2006-10-17T15:19:00.000-05:00

Me and My Memaw (Lou Sims) at her 88th birthday party, she is too cute!
Windows Explorer

2006-10-17T15:17:00.000-05:00

John & I with Allie, one of the girls in the youth group. She was a citizen of the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz!
Windows Explorer

What a Weekend

2006-10-16T15:06:00.000-05:00

Well I haven’t updated in a long time and I know Josh gets frustrated with that, so here we go. For a weekend off it certainly does seem like I was busy the whole time.
First, Friday (yes Friday is a day off for me) I substituted in an 8th grade Social Studies class. Which as tiring as it can be I really have fun doing. Out of all the times I have subbed only once did I not have any students I knew, this time I had a few and the others came by to see me. Oh, and I had this one guy in my class, an 8th grader never failed or anything and he was 6’5” tall!!! Can you believe that? It’s crazy I tell you. Then Friday night was HP homecoming, we were lucky enough to fall into some reserved seating so that was GREAT! And at HP every game is sold out and overflows so reserved seating is a really great thing. We left at the beginning of the fourth winning 63-0!

Saturday, we first went to a little boy’s birthday party about 20 minutes away and then drove back home so I could make some GREAT sausage/cheese balls. Then we drove to Fort Worth for my Grandma’s 88th birthday! Which was so great, all the family was there; dad, uncles, aunts, cousins, 2nd cousins, and my bro-in-law and my sister. There was tons of food and cake and my grandmother looked beautiful! I love getting together with my family, but this time my sister and I didn’t dress alike…incase you don’t know usually without planning it my sister and I show up in the same outfit, well one year she did it on purpose to me; she thinks it’s really funny.

Sunday we had church and class, in which I was met with some difficulty from a few of our middle school boys, which is not unusual just more aggravating this week for some reason. I kept the boys after class and had a talk with them, which is really hard for me sometimes. I don’t like being the adult that gives them a talkin’ to, John says it’s good for them to hear it from me but I am not sure it makes any difference. The students in the youth group even have a joke about my “authoritative voice” the joke being that I don’t have one. I find teaching a frustration sometimes too, feeling that I am not doing the lesson justice because they are not getting the importance, the intensity, or the understanding from what I am saying… do you know? It just doesn’t seem like they realize where the battle is, where the glory is, and where they are being invited to be. I did not find the solution from talking to the boys either, but two of the boys are teaching class next week, I am going to help them some but they both said they felt like the weren’t learning anything and so I offered them the chance to learn it from teaching it and they took it. So we will see.
And finally Sunday after church we went to go see one of our 7th grade girls in “The Wizard of Oz.” She was too cute and did great! So in a really long nutshell that is our weekend, great but a little busy.

Just Hanging Out...

2006-09-14T16:46:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess it’s time to update my blog. Josh (Johnson) was bothering me today on AIM about how long it’s been since I last updated, I tired to tell him I had nothing to write about but he didn’t believe me, so I am updating to appease him.

I have started substitute teaching in Highland Park ISD, which is where our church and home is in Dallas. I have only done it a few times but it has been great so far. I have even already had personal requests from other teachers to sub for them, which makes me feel super special. I sub in the middle school and high school in order to meet more of our student’s friends and just get to know the community better, because the schools are really the heart of this “Bubble” community. Even at the HP football games most of the tickets are sold out because old alumni have all of the season tickets. Isn’t that crazy? If you would like to see more information on HP just go to www.thebubble.com no really, it’s the real website for HP.

Other then that we have simply been going with the flow, still waiting on everything (refer to Aug. 23 entry) and doing stuff with the youth group. The pictures I’ve posted are from our last youth Home Invasion, which is where we go to a youth families house hang out and eat. Eventually we hope to start having devo’s too but that is in the works.

So what do you write about when you don’t have anything else to write about?

I'm an AUNT!!!

2006-08-28T16:37:00.000-05:00

I’m now an AUNT! Ok, well I have been an aunt for 6 weeks, but now it feels real. This past weekend John & I went to El Paso, TX to see our 6 week old niece which is John’s brother’s daughter. She is just the cutest thing, and has almost as much hair as I do!
We really had a wonderful time, we hadn’t seen John brother (Richard) or his wife (Melissa) since John preformed their wedding in December of 2004, so it was definitely an overdue visit. The whole weekend was about relaxing with Richard & Melissa and getting to see our precious niece. Her name is Catherine Elizabeth, but we call her Katie. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

PS: No comments about how good John or I look with a baby in our arms…we still have 3 years before any of that!

the Waiting Game

2006-08-23T14:12:00.000-05:00

Well, I know it has been a long over due update but not much is going on. I feel like I am just in a waiting phase. Do you know what I mean? I keep preparing for stuff, and planning for stuff that won’t happen until…well until someone else does something. Waiting on other people, other committees, the church, and time itself. I feel like it should be fall already, at least October. I really wish it was fall, and then maybe we could get out of these 100 degree days.
We are still waiting to find out where the church will move us when they tear down our house, which is supposed to happen by Oct. 1st. If you wonder why we are waiting, it is because our housing is part of our salary here, which is awesome and means we can stay in Highland Park instead moving out to Rockwall (45 min away) like most of our staff. So, we wait.
Also, our church is kicking off a new Sunday morning schedule with a new children’s ministry program, which we are so excited about. We are going to an hour of Sunday class instead of a 90 min. Sunday class, who wouldn’t be happy? But it doesn’t start for a couple of weeks, at which time I will gain a middle school teacher (YEAH for Summer) who is our new youth volunteer…let me rephrase that, ONLY youth volunteer! Which we are so excited about! So, we wait.
And last, our offices still have not been restored. Six months after the flood we are still crowded into a classroom. But plans are in work and hopefully before they tear down the youth house, we will be able to have offices because where our temporary offices are is where the youth are going to meet when the house is torn down. So, we wait.
I am so sick of waiting.

A Chilly 49 Degrees

2006-08-01T14:39:00.000-05:00

12 hour drive what? I would have driven 20 hours for this weather! Praise God for mountains, rain, 49 degrees, and no cell phone signal. It has pretty much been raining the whole time we have been here but oh it is so beautiful. We are having so much fun, LeVondrick is here with us and 8 of our students and they are freezing their little patooties off! It is a wonderful week, and I looked up the weather in Dallas and its 101 degrees today.
Oh, and today marks mine and John’s 2 year anniversary at Preston Road Church of Christ…and they still like us! What a wonderful way to spend our anniversary as youth minister too. Well that’s it, enjoy the pictures.

It's the Craziest Thing...

2006-07-28T15:04:00.000-05:00

Well, once again we are off. We are headed to Pine Springs this Sunday morning at 5am, before God even wakes up. So when you get to church that morning at 9 or maybe even 10am you can think of John & I who will have already driven for 4-5 hours. But that’s not the crazy part.
We have 9 students going with us, which we are excited about. It may seem small but you have to remember this is a new camp for our church. As of now we are taking both of our cars, the Suburban and the Tahoe, which mean yes we are both driving the entire 11 hours and we are the only two adults going. Exciting no, doable yes. But here is the crazy part, for the past two days we have called pretty much every place in Dallas/ Fort Worth that rents 12 passenger vans…and no one has one! In ALL of DFW there is not one single 12 passenger van! Can you believe that? It’s madness I tell you.
So you might ask well just get a 15 passenger van, b/c there are tons of 15 passenger vans available…ah, but our church’s insurance blocked 15 passenger vans out of our policy b/c they are too dangerous and there have been too many wrecks in them. HA, but take three of those seats out and it is just dandy. I am just in amazement, have you ever heard of an entire city being out of vans to rent? I’m flabbergasted…what do you think?

On the Road Again!

2006-07-03T09:59:00.000-05:00

Thank you all so much for your prayers and words of encouragement! We had a great time at Pine Springs, we were up there with Natalie & Daniel, Link, Trent, and Tanner ( and more but those are the LCU people). It was a great week of camp and so wonderful to be up in the mountains and in cold weather!

Two days after got back from camp we left with Dean (campus minister at Broadway in Lubbock) for the NACC (noth american christian conference) in KY. It was a 12 hours trip but really great for John and I to spend that time with Dean, he is a mentor of ours...and John wants to be like him when he grows up. The conference was awesome too, it is the first time that the independent christian churches had invited the churches of christ since their split in 1906...so it is a date to mark history! It was really wonderful to be a part of something that is bringing unity to the church! And John and I saw several old friends there that we didn't expect to...it was a wonderful suprise.

We got back from KY on Saturday morning 3am, then went to Celebrate Freedom with some youth and didn't get back until 2am...then did church Sunday morning (well barely, it is all kinda of fuzzy now since we were so tired), and headed out Sunday evening for John's parents house in Caldwell, TX (near College Station). Thats right this is my third week to be out of town...and I really don't mind being out of town but its the being home for only a day or two inbetween the trips that drives me crazy. Its just a tease and long enough for you to get the house dirty and rush to clean it again before we leave. Because I can't leave my house dirty!

So, what have your summer adventures been so far?

Say a Little Prayer

2006-06-17T23:24:00.000-05:00

Well, it is 11pm on Saturday and we leave in 6 hours for Pine Springs (our church camp in the NM mountains) and I still haven't packed :). It is a 10 hour drive and we will be there until next Saturday (June 24th). Keep John and I in your prayers through out this week, we are looking forward to going to Pine Springs b/c it is such a beautiful place and so cool in the summer, but we have come to some challenges in our youth ministry and are both a bit discouraged...so when you think of it say a little prayer not that we will have a good time but that we will entertain the presence of Christ and come back renewed and more reliant on Jesus for our ministry and our personal walks. Thanks.

Good News, Bad News, Worse News

2006-06-06T14:31:00.000-05:00

So, I have good news, bad news, and worse news. I will start with the GOOD news just to keep you in suspense! I went to the dentist this morning, my appointment was at 8:45am and I walked out at 11:30am. Whew, but that’s not the good news, this was my first appointment at a new dentist and she was GREAT! I don’t think I have ever been able to say that about my dentist but she is a member of our church, and she is so great!

The BAD news is that I have multiple things that need attention in my mouth, although none of them have to do with poor hygiene so don’t even think that. But I have a crown that needs to be fixed, a (yes a, one) wisdom tooth that has to be pulled, and ….are you ready I have to go to the orthodontist to see a about a tooth on the bottom front that is causing trouble to other teeth…oh please say I don’t have to have braces a 3rd time!!!!!!!!! If you look close in the first picture you can see one little tooth on the bottom sticking up higher then the others. And crazy thing, what I learned today is that your teeth will keep growing until they hit something to stop them, I just thought that tooth had been crowded out of line but my dentist said that when I got my braces off they didn't aline the tooth right so where the other teeth hit the top teeth and stop growing this one didn't stop until it hit my gums...which is still weird. (oh, and no my hair doesn't look that for real, that was a bad bangs cut & a picture taken 2 years ago...so don't worry).

And now the WORSE news, if you have been a avid reader of my blog you will remember when our offices at the church building flooded, and all of the fun that surrounded that glorious event. The flood happened on March 19th, the first date given to get back in the offices was mid April, then we found that the carpet had to be replaced, so mid May; then we found mold (maybe black mold) in the walls and now we have found asbestos that has been activated so a new date has been given, the earliest we will be back in our offices is SEPTEMBER! Until then I am in a church class room with two admin girls and one right out side our class and then four of the ministers are in a classroom on the second floor and John is sharing an office with the people that count money on Sundays. Oh, and I though sharing an office with John was hard but now just have a table and boxing…UH. SEVEN months like this.

Ok, so that’s all of my news for this week…hopefully soon I will be able to tell you where John and I are going to be moved to b/c the church is tearing down our house to add on to the church building in August…so it would be nice to know where they are moving us soon.

Welcome to Culture!

2006-05-23T16:31:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Culture! John and I went to Andrews, TX this past weekend, if you don’t know where that is at think about the farthest you can go and still be in west Texas and there you are. It is about 45 min northwest of Midland/Odessa if you know where that is. Anyway, John was the bestman in his bestman’s wedding…do you follow? Everything went great and we had so much fun spending time with the bride & groom and their families, they made us feel completely loved and special. The wedding was beautiful; I even was able to lend a hand with my expertise in bow making! We had great food from cookouts, to Buddy’s steak-fingers, to the most important some Bahama Buck’s snow-cones!!!! And no, Andrews does not have a Bahama Buck’s we got it in Odessa on our way from the airport. Oh man, talk about that best snow-cones ever!!!

Moving on from the snow-cones, I never want to live in a small town in my life! I thought that when I went to Lubbock to go to college I was moving to a small town but oh was I mistaken! Andrews consists of about 10,000 people…more people fit in a college stadium! Now I know there can be good small towns, ones that hold a quiet beauty, an escape from the busy & noisy life in a city but this is not one of those towns. J It is not even nice enough to call a desert, b/c still with a desert you think of loads of sand, cool cactus, ect. Well, think of a desert with weeds and you have Andrews. Ok, I think that’s enough.

MY NEW CAR!!!

2006-05-03T16:56:00.000-05:00

This is MY NEW TAHOE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s right, a 2004 Tahoe fully loaded with leather, sunroof, quad-captain seats, a DVD player, third row, and 20” inch rims ride’n on the side. I don’t say this to brag, it is an answer to prayer! We have been looking for a new vehicle since February, and this past Saturday the dealership let us take it home on a test drive, John said if they can get the monthly payments to “this” much then we will get it, and they got it $27 under that amount. Whoa, God is good. The only thing we didn’t like were the rims, which John thought about selling on ebay and buying the factory ones. Each time we get out of it he says, “we have to hurry back out before someone steals those rims.”

Another Great Weekend

2006-04-26T16:26:00.000-05:00

Another great weekend!!! This past weekend I had our youth group Girls’ Night!!! It was so fun, and 22 girls showed! So many more then we have ever had…we began the night by going to a place called Purple Glaze where everyone got to pick out a piece of pottery and paint it, then the store fires and glazes the pottery for you. After that we went to a family’s house to swim, eat pizza, and make smores. Once everyone was done swimming we returned to the church for some classic games that are totally great to play in a dark church building; like ghost in the grave yard, sardines, tag, and many more! After a few hours of games I put a movie on in the youth house projector and they were out at 4am. Oh what fun!

On Saturday John and I celebrated my stepdad’s birthday at a park with a cook-out and fishing. It was a great day too. And on Sunday our church kicked off its financial building campaign! In which they had John and I speak on behalf of the youth ministry on why this new addition is need so badly…I know, I got to speak in front of the church!!!! Up on stage…but don’t worry I didn’t read scripture or pray or preach. And praise God we already have one anonymous family that is pledging the amount for half of the whole building!!! Hope you had a great weekend too. And here is another Easter picture of me and John dancing at the park!

Easter Weekend

2006-04-17T11:39:00.000-05:00

I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend. We kicked off Good Friday by spending 14 hours at Six Flags with our youth group! Talk about fun, I mean insanity. We did have a couple of girls that failed to check in with us at the check-in times, and they were 20 minutes late to meet us when we were leaving. What do you to reprimand them when you are already leaving the park? What have you done?

It was still a good day, especially for John! In one of the pictures above you will see a picture of John with his hero, Batman. He even asked Robin not to be in the picture, which is why he is standing off to the side. And then Saturday when we returned the vans we found the old Batmobile, so of course we had to go home and get the camera. John was giddy!

We also went to the Dallas Arboretum, it was beautiful, and even though we missed all of the tulips in bloom it was still great. We took some great pictures too. After our Easter services we spent the day with my family in Fort Worth, it was a great Easter.

2006-04-13T12:16:00.000-05:00

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Nashville on a Renewal for women in Youth Ministry in the churches of Christ. It was such a blast and so great to meet other women that are in youth ministry full time, there were even two others that are a team with their husbands. There are now almost 30 women in full time youth ministry in the churches of Christ, two of which are the only youth ministers. Its exciting to see God's movement into teams of men and women. Of course you really should count all of the hundreds and thousands of youth ministers wives who work like full time youth ministers. :) Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend.

Tagged

2006-03-31T17:32:00.000-06:00

One of the cutest little girls ever! Anyway...
I was tagged just like everyone else…thanks Monica.

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. the Gap
2. youth ministry intern
3. gift shop in Lubbock
4. youth minister

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Pride & Prejudice
2. LOTR
3. Harry Potters
4. Count of Monte Cristo
Four places you have lived:
1. Ft. Worth, TX
2. Lubbock, TX
3. Atlanta, GA
4. Dallas, TX (the only four places)

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Gilmore Girls
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Lost
4. ?

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Playa de Carmen, Mexico
2. London, England
3. Edinburgh, Scotland
4. Paris, France

Four websites you visit often:
1. facebook
2. prestonroad youth (I have to check my work)
3. jeep.com (we are looking for a new car)
4. blogspot

Four of your favorite foods:
1. hamburger & fries
2. shrimp fried rice
3. steak (Salt Grass…mmmm)
4. Chick-fil-A kids meal with sweet tea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Four places you would rather be right now:
1. on a cruise
2. Wilderness Trek
3. Italy
4. Dallas Arboretum

Four people who are tagged to do this:
1. Summer
2.Lesli
3. Bret

You Like Me, You Really Do Like Me

2006-03-28T11:06:00.000-06:00

Well, you do like me! For the past couple of weeks I thought I had lost all of my friends, or that everyone was just really busy. I mean it couldn’t be my posts, how often do you hear about being flooded out the office. But low and behold I had messed up my comments box to where I had to approve all of the comments I had…silly me.

Otherwise things have gone great, our staff continues to share an office out a classroom, its oh so cozy, it looks like it might be a week or two before we get back into our normal offices. Although in the mean time we are enjoying the change of light (i.e. the windows we have now) because we are basically in a cave usually.

Some of my great week was because of the meeting our elders, deacons, and staff had yesterday evening. It was the meeting to unite our leaders of the church before we tell the congregation that we are adding on to the church building. And I was so relieved afterwards, because I spoke for the youth ministry on reasons we need this new addition…which would include a new youth facility. I received several compliments on my little two cents. So whoop for a new building, the announcement and fundraising for the building begin April 9th, the architecture plans are already done. The picture up is where we currently meet with our youth, the youth area is downstairs and John & I live in an apartment upstairs. It is located right behind the church.

And the Heaven Poured Down

2006-03-22T15:45:00.000-06:00

Well if you don’t live in the DFW area let me tell you about our flood that came in on Sunday. From what I know the Highland Park area was one the hardest hit areas, the street became small rivers, cars were under water, and the city drains were so full they were pumping water out. Coincidently, the church’s (my office) drains are connected to the city’s drains, so…while the heavens opened and poured down, the overflow went into our offices which are in the church basement. You will see in the pictures that in my and John’s office there is a window to the drain (I know a window that looks in the drain, yes we have a great view) well when the drain started pumping water back the widow began to fill and we had a fantastic fish tank for a few minutes, until the glass broke and put the fish tank in our office. Well, all will be fixed and nothing of great value was lost, thanks to those of us staff that were running from office to office grabbing everything off the floor…what a wonderful bonding time. And until the office is done being drained and re-carpeted we will continue to bond while we make office all together in a classroom.Oh, and all of this happened right after lunch on Sunday, that is why I am in my church clothes and John is in the baptismal waiters so his suit would not be ruined.

New Orleans Mission

2006-03-17T10:39:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures from our trip, luckly I was taking all of the pictures so I'm not in any of them. We worked three days and did insulation, sheetrocking, and mudding...I could be a pro at this stuff by now but don't worry I'm not quiting my day job.

John hard at work, doesn't he look lovely.

They cooked us amazing Cajun feasts everyday, this day was fresh crawfish.

And here is the whole group!

Spring Break in New Orleans

2006-03-10T15:33:00.000-06:00

I am so excited, John just left with 13 others headed for New Orleans; I leave tomorrow morning (Saturday) with a second team of 10. We are headed to New Orleans to help with some rebuilding for our Spring Break Mission Trip with our youth group. I am not sure if you remember but during the aftermath of Katrina our church housed some families in the apartments we own nextdoor and now the families have moved back to New Orleans. Although, one family did not have home owners’ insurance and so we are going to help her with things that need to be done at her home. Keep our team in your prayers as we are gone and I hope to post some great pictures when we return.

I Survived!

2006-03-01T10:30:00.000-06:00

I survived a night alone at our apartment. Now I know what you must be thinking, so what, no big deal. Well, it is an accomplishment for me. This past weekend John was in Seattle doing a retreat for our friend Anthony, so that left me here by myself… the reason that this is an accomplishment is because I am completely FREAKED out at night in our apartment alone…it is not that I am alone it is our apartment, I promise. In case you have never had the pleasure of visiting us allow me to set the seen for you.

Our apartment was a quadra-plex (4 apartments in one house), it was built in the 1920’s (old things creep me out), and the downstairs has been renovated into the youth house (where our youth have class & chill). We live upstairs and we do have neighbors but that really doesn’t help me much. Just imagine it, and 80 year old apartment (you think your place makes noises) all wood floors, windows everywhere, all the doors creek, and there are 3 doors that all lead to our bedroom…3! Who designed this place? One door from the bathroom which also goes to the dinning room, one door from a long narrow hallway from the dinning room, and the last from the kitchen right beside our front door, so take your pick on how you want sneak in on me, I mean really. And then the whole downstairs is empty b/c it is the youth house. But I guess it just comes down to me being a scaredy cat, but I did it and no monster got me from under the bed (of course the dust bunnies might have helped scare them from being under there J), and no ghost showed up behind me or popped out from behind a door (like John likes to do to me) so maybe someday I could do it again but not yet. And the picture is just to help you set the seen, it is not really my house.

Is anyone participating in lent? I am giving up sweet tea…in my whole life I don’t think I ever gone two weeks without sweet tea so this will be a big challenge for me. And John is giving up all cokes…which really he should be ok with. What are you giving up?

And the Winner is...

2006-02-22T13:55:00.000-06:00

You love me, you really love me…lol. Ok, did ya’ll give some GREAT suggestions or what!?! Here are the choices I was given to choose from: Omar, Scooter, something that starts with the letter “T”, Landry, Jaws, Joe (but I know a Joe and he isn’t as cool as my fishJ) Hush Puppy, Bait, Guppy, Flounder, Pookie (but then John wouldn’t know if I was talking to him or the fish, no I’m just kidding, no really I am), Big Blue, Moby, Bruce Wayne ( I wonder who gave that one), Chris (to add some confusion btwn me and my bro-in-law), John (to confuse him and get some built up anger out, but I don’t want to traumatize the poor fish). Rusty, 728b (sorry Scott but I don’t get the joke), or Briet Hewitt Gibbons Carr (thanks for giving up your first child’s name, what a true friend you are).

After much deliberation I have chosen a name…drum roll please….Moby. I talked to my sister about it, and even read a synopsis of the book so that I could better understand the real Moby Dick. And after reading that it was a violent whale I thought it might be fitting, I mean the fish cannot be put with another beta and he does enjoy dive bombing the rocks and air bubbles. So there it is…Moby.

Though this name is not permanent and is subject to change upon my choice.

Name My Fish!

2006-02-16T15:18:00.000-06:00

Well, I am not going to start off this paragraph with “its been forever since I have written,” because that is what everyone says and you should just expect it now that I am never going to be on schedule all the time for updating my blog. But anyway I have a new challenge for all of my friends. Are you ready?
I have a new beta fish for my office (picture above) but I have no name for it. I am told that every fish needs a name, and besides I have so many kids come in my office and that is one of the first questions they ask me. So lets see who is the best at naming fish, something short and catchy and of course cool.

How It Went

2006-01-30T10:38:00.000-06:00

Well thank you to the few of you who lent me some ideas. Josh we must be thinking alike b/c after I had finished writing the lesson for it I looked at your answer and it was pretty much the same.
We started off the class with questions about what POWER is and who is powerful…of course at first they gave “church” answers but then we got them started on their favorite super heroes…batman, superman, spiderman. And then we asked them about being scared, what they were scared of, why they were scared, and who helped them. That is how we introduced the story, and then we had some students act it out…a 6th grade girl play Jesus, a 8th grader being the man that was possessed by the evil spirit, and a 6th grade boy played the evil spirit that was attached by piggy back and evil by beating him while on piggy back. The kids’ favorite part was when the evil spirit fell dramatically to the floor. And we concluded that Jesus is more powerful then anyone, even batman, and we don’t have to be scared because he is powerful.
Thanks for your suggestions, Chris I would have gone with puppets next. And here is the closest thing I could find to a picture of a person possessed by an evil spirit, it is John after I cast the evil spirit out of him.

A Little Help Please

2006-01-26T15:26:00.000-06:00

Ok, I know you can't believe that I am updating my blog for the 2nd time this week, its a phenomenon, but I need a little help, any suggestions will be great. Except from Chris (my self proclaimed comedian brother-in-law)…I only expect clever laughs from your responses so don’t let me down now.
So every time there is a fifth Sunday in a month it is the youth group’s responsibility to present the children’s story lesson to them…are you still with me. So what it really seems like is that every time the children get to a difficult lesson to present they think oh lets just hand it off to the youth…for example past lessons we have had to present include the Beatitudes and 1 Corinthians 13…to 4yrs-10yrs old. So this time it is actually a story which is great, but it is the story of Jesus driving out an evil spirit from a man (Mark 1:21-28). Hello, all of the little kids are going to running out of class either acting like demon possessed kids or their parents are going to be tucking them into bed and they are going to start crying from fear of being possessed by the demon under their bed.
So, this is where you come in, any suggestions on how to present this lesson and take up 15 minutes of time with out scaring these precious children of God. I mean really, I am interested to hear from you…so if you read this I want to hear from you…lets see how creative you are…I expect at least like 10 comments this time guys.

Winterfest

2006-01-24T15:02:00.000-06:00

Well, I got nothing. So here are some pictures from Winterfest this weekend with the youth. John enjoys torturing the youth when they get out of line. Beth spent the next 10 mins. in the bathroom cleansing herself after John was done with her. I guess she didn't care for John's feet.