Well it's the weekend again. Here are some updates on life in the Martin household:
Still no laptop. However, my hubby surprised me on valentine's day with an incredible gift: an itouch. We can't get an iphone because we're on Alltel (I know, I know, it just makes the most sense for us...all of our family is on Alltel and with the my circle plan we hardly ever use any minutes. I just wish they had rollover!). So he knew how much I wanted an ipod to listen to music, etc while cleaning, walking (eventually, when it gets warmer), etc. And since the computer debacle I hadn't been able to get on the internet during the week, unless I used my cell phone, he got me the itouch. I gotta tell ya...I have enjoyed it immensely. I had never tapped into podcasts before and I now have subscribed to a few. I can't wait until my favorite shows start coming back so I can download a few of them! If anybody has a suggestion of an incredible-you-can't-miss-out-on-this type podcast, let me know!
Lights are now installed at the church. Theatrical-type lighting. Shaun's not quite finished, a couple of the dimmer packs were broken so he had to send them back, but they are all installed and the finish work is done on 2 sections. We are actually going to get to use half of them on Sunday. The choir's gonna have a fit...lol. But it looks so much better. Before, the regular lights cast so many shadows that it just looked bad. And they will be a huge benefit come Easter and Christmas for our musicals.
We bought a potty chair. Just to get him used to it. Every night before he takes his bath we let him sit on it. I don't think he understands yet what it's for, but he sure does like it! I guess I'm just going to take my time with it and see what happens. I don't want to push him before he's ready, even though he has shown several signs of being ready.
His vocabulary has grown so much! He's just growing up so fast; he turns 18 months next week.
Our church is growing. We had 2 more couples join this Sunday. I think there have been maybe one or two Sundays this year that someone hasn't joined. And I know of at least one more couple who will be joining soon. It's incredible what God is doing in our midst! Our discipleship university classes are going so well, too. I know mine is just awesome.
The puppies are growing, too. They are getting so big! I still have 3 available, by the way. They'll be ready around Easter.
I guess that's it for now. Maybe this weekend I'll get a chance to blog more and have some interesting posts. No promises though! Now I'm off to go take a long bath and pamper myself, since hubby and son are still asleep!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Last post for a few days
Before I forget, here's a group pic of my new "babies". And that's my maternity clothes they are sleeping on! Batgirl opened the box herself and nested in there.
The weekend is almost over and that means the 'puter is goin' back to the church. And unless Shaun brings it home during the week, I probably won't get to blog again until the weekend. I'll be so glad when his laptop either gets fixed or he gets a new one.
So, here's the summary of my weekend:
Friday night I got to go shopping! I bought a couple new maternity dresses and some clothes for Cayson.
Saturday night we had our Valentine's Banquet at the church. It was so much fun. We had a skit with a parody of a dating game like love connection. The "contestants" were characters like "Whitney Fears", "Zsa Zsa Galore", "G Diddy", "Nerkul", a parody of the superstar girl from SNL, and a parody of Larry the Cable guy. The lucky bachelor and bachelorette looking for love were normal and they ended up running off together at the end. It was so funny!
Today we had an awesome worship service, with 3 people joining the church. Tonight we started our Discipleship University. I'm taking a class called "The Next Step". It was written by a guy in our church who is also teaching it. It's good stuff, I tell you. Tonight's lesson was all about getting out of your comfort zone and giving God your absolute best. The Scripture was from 1 Kings 18, the story about Elijah challenging the followers of Baal to have Baal send fire down to light the altar. When it didn't, Elijah wet the altar with a ton of water and God not only sent down fire, but burned it all up and the flames licked up the water too! That's the incredibly short version, but it's an awesome story about the faith of Elijah and the awesomeness of the God I serve. At the end, David, our teacher, challenged us to do something to get out of our comfort zones this week. Something that the only way we won't make a fool of ourselves is if God does it. And then to help someone else to do the same thing. There are 24 people in our class. Can you imagine if every person in our class did that? That's a possible 48 instances of God-sized happenings! In one week! I'm very excited about this...and at the same time, terrified! But I guess that's where God likes us to be because then He can use us. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet, I still need to pray about it. Hopefully I'll have something amazing to post next week!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
A few changes
I realized that a lot of my links were old, so I updated and added a few. Also, while I was playing I noticed that there's a new poll option. So I created a poll. For what? What else...baby names. We have our girl name and our boy first name. We just need a middle name. We've only come up with 2 that we like so far, but if you come up with another one, just comment.
Bath time
Tonight's bath time brought back memories of an earlier time with Cayson. Back when you had to be quick changing his diaper or you might get a shower! After I undressed him for his bath, I suddenly had to go to the bathroom (pg bladder LoL). He was standing by the bathtub and I let him start putting his toys in. He picked up his fish...that squirts water...and suddenly I see a stream of liquid shooting onto the floor. In that first split second I thought it was the fish. But no, it was worse. It was Cayson! All over the floor! We got a good laugh, cleaned up, and he got his bath. Parenting is never dull!!!
FSBC Website
Our church is finally joining the 21st century. We now have a website. Well, actually we just have the name and a temporary page. But soon we will have a bona fide website. It's www.firstsbc.com. I'm really surprised we don't already have one, considering a major part of our communication is email. But it truly was God's perfect timing, the way all the details worked out. I'll let everyone know when it officially launches.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Whew...what a week!
This week has been crazy! Here's the rundown:
Tuesday there was a massive fire in the Barling/Central City area. Shaun called me about noon that day to say that he was stuck at the church, they weren't letting anyone on hwy 22 (runs into Ft. Smith). The church is right on the highway. He knew it was some sort of fire, but didn't know where. I turned on the news and found out it was Ft. Chaffee. I could see the smoke from my house. It was incredibly bad. Shaun was stuck at the church for about 3 hours because the fire had jumped across the highway. Our pastor was one of the last ones they let through and he said the fire was practically at his truck. The visibility was about 10 feet. It ended up burning up almost 200 barracks. It's so sad to see the place now, with all the history behind it. We also had record winds on Tuesday, which didn't help with the fire any. We have to get a new roof on the church now.
Thursday it snowed!!! It didn't stay long, but it was so pretty! Cayson didn't know what to think. We had just enough to cover our yard.
Friday the snow was gone, the temperature in the 50s, I think. We were supposed to take the youth to Little Rock to Winter Jam that night. It's a concert with several Christian artists and only costs $10 at the door. Well, by the time we got there, they wouldn't let us in...they were at capacity. We were very disappointed, to say the least. We missed out on Barlow Girl, MercyMe, Skillet, Mandisa, and some others. However, we took the kids to the mall and they were fairly pacified. My parents and my grandma also came up to our house Friday night. They beat us there! We didn't get home until 1 am.
Saturday we all woke up and had breakfast. We were welcomed with a surprise. We noticed that Batgirl wasn't as fat as she was. And she looked like she'd been nursing. So we walked out to the shed and, sure enough, there were SEVEN little puppies!!! 5 black ones and 2 grayish ones. They are so cute!
After that excitement, we got ready and headed to Fayetteville to Bud Walton Arena to watch the Hogs beat Florida. It was so awesome! We decked Cayson out in a Razorback track suit. He was so cute. Maybe I can get some pics on here soon. After the game we ate at Famous Dave's BBQ and shopped at the Promenade in Rogers. I found some incredible deals for Cayson! Pants for $3.99!
Today we went to church and one of my 1st grade girls accepted Christ this morning! It was incredible! We also had a baptism. I think we've baptized someone just about every Sunday this year so far. It was a fantastic day of worship and praise! Tonight we were going to have a church-wide super bowl party, but something happened with the satellite so anyone who had Dish network or used an antennae couldn't get the game. So we moved it to a church member's house. We ended up just going home because Shaun's brother and sister-in-law stopped by on their way back to OK City. He just got home from Iraq a week or two ago.
Well, that's my crazy week. Our puter is still messed up, so I might be a weekend blogger for a while. So until next weekend, or whenever, have fun and be blessed!
Friday the snow was
Tuesday there was a massive fire in the Barling/Central City area. Shaun called me about noon that day to say that he was stuck at the church, they weren't letting anyone on hwy 22 (runs into Ft. Smith). The church is right on the highway. He knew it was some sort of fire, but didn't know where. I turned on the news and found out it was Ft. Chaffee. I could see the smoke from my house. It was incredibly bad. Shaun was stuck at the church for about 3 hours because the fire had jumped across the highway. Our pastor was one of the last ones they let through and he said the fire was practically at his truck. The visibility was about 10 feet. It ended up burning up almost 200 barracks. It's so sad to see the place now, with all the history behind it. We also had record winds on Tuesday, which didn't help with the fire any. We have to get a new roof on the church now.
Thursday it snowed!!! It didn't stay long, but it was so pretty! Cayson didn't know what to think. We had just enough to cover our yard.
Friday the snow was gone, the temperature in the 50s, I think. We were supposed to take the youth to Little Rock to Winter Jam that night. It's a concert with several Christian artists and only costs $10 at the door. Well, by the time we got there, they wouldn't let us in...they were at capacity. We were very disappointed, to say the least. We missed out on Barlow Girl, MercyMe, Skillet, Mandisa, and some others. However, we took the kids to the mall and they were fairly pacified. My parents and my grandma also came up to our house Friday night. They beat us there! We didn't get home until 1 am.
Saturday we all woke up and had breakfast. We were welcomed with a surprise. We noticed that Batgirl wasn't as fat as she was. And she looked like she'd been nursing. So we walked out to the shed and, sure enough, there were SEVEN little puppies!!! 5 black ones and 2 grayish ones. They are so cute!
After that excitement, we got ready and headed to Fayetteville to Bud Walton Arena to watch the Hogs beat Florida. It was so awesome! We decked Cayson out in a Razorback track suit. He was so cute. Maybe I can get some pics on here soon. After the game we ate at Famous Dave's BBQ and shopped at the Promenade in Rogers. I found some incredible deals for Cayson! Pants for $3.99!
Today we went to church and one of my 1st grade girls accepted Christ this morning! It was incredible! We also had a baptism. I think we've baptized someone just about every Sunday this year so far. It was a fantastic day of worship and praise! Tonight we were going to have a church-wide super bowl party, but something happened with the satellite so anyone who had Dish network or used an antennae couldn't get the game. So we moved it to a church member's house. We ended up just going home because Shaun's brother and sister-in-law stopped by on their way back to OK City. He just got home from Iraq a week or two ago.
Well, that's my crazy week. Our puter is still messed up, so I might be a weekend blogger for a while. So until next weekend, or whenever, have fun and be blessed!
Friday the snow was
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Sickness this week
I know I promised more posts, but like my blog friends here and here, we've been sick this week. We as in Cayson. It started Tuesday night when he didn't want to go to sleep. He just screamed and screamed. Finally, we decided to just let him sleep with us. He seemed ok with that (of course) until about 1:30 in the morning. He woke us up by throwing up on us. We changed the sheets and cleaned him up and got settled back in. About 10 minutes later, he threw up again on Shaun. Shaun went and showered and I changed the sheets and cleaned Cayson up again. We decided that it would be best if Shaun sleep with Cayson on the couch. So we all 3 piled on the couch and tried to sleep. He only threw up once more, but it was such a long night.
The next day, was a typical getting over the stomach bug day. We skipped church so as not to contaminate anyone else. Wednesday night, he did better, but still wanted to sleep with us.
Thursday he seemed much better. However, he threw up again a couple times that night. Then last night he was having trouble having a bowel movement. Finally today he really seems a lot better. He had his bm this morning and everything. We'll see how tonight goes, though. It's always worse at night.
I hope everyone else stays healthy!
The next day, was a typical getting over the stomach bug day. We skipped church so as not to contaminate anyone else. Wednesday night, he did better, but still wanted to sleep with us.
Thursday he seemed much better. However, he threw up again a couple times that night. Then last night he was having trouble having a bowel movement. Finally today he really seems a lot better. He had his bm this morning and everything. We'll see how tonight goes, though. It's always worse at night.
I hope everyone else stays healthy!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Questions
Just when I think I've got this parenting thing down, things change! So I've got some questions for you seasoned moms. I've been blogging these in my head all week, but as I'm typing I can only remember 2. Maybe they will come back to me as I go!
1. My son (16 months) has woken up in the middle of the night every night this week, ending up in our bed. He is getting over a nasty cold, so we've been pretty lenient. Are we doing the right thing? Or have we created a bad habit?
2. When did you let your kids start sleeping in a toddler bed? With the new baby coming in July, we are going to have to get Cayson a bed soon...well not too soon. The baby will sleep in our room for a while. We had thought about getting him bunk beds and let him sleep on the bottom. That way when family visits someone could sleep on the top. Or would it be better to just get a small toddler bed first?
3. Cayson is starting to show a few signs of toilet training readiness. He gets a diaper out of his bag and brings it to us if he needs changed. He also can say "tee tee" and "stinky", just not at the appropriate times yet. My question is: should I begin the process of toilet training any time soon...or should I wait a while after the baby is born? It would be great if he was out of diapers by then, but I don't want him to regress after the baby gets here. He will be 23 months when the baby comes.
Well, that's all I can think of. Here are a few updates:
Cayson is talking up a storm! He has a vocabulary of about 25 to 30 words. He started at Christmas and hasn't stopped since! My favorites are "stinky", "trash", "please" (sounds like pease), "sweet tea", and "love you". I'm not sure how he learned trash...I guess just from observing us. He was eating a package of fruit gummies and when the bag was empty I said "All gone, trash." He then takes the bag and runs off to his room. Then a moment later he came bag empty handed. He looked like he wanted me to come to his room and I was curious as to where the bag ended up. Once in his room, he points to the trash and says "trash" and the bag is in there! I was a very proud mama!
As for me, I haven't been feeling well at all for about a week now. I thought that I was getting out of the morning sickness phase; I hadn't felt bad since before Christmas. But I have had some upset stomach problems this week. Plus, I haven't gotten a good night's sleep yet this week. With Cayson ending up in our bed, he kicks and flips and flops and makes my stomach queasier. And 1 night he woke up at 1:30 ready to get up. We couldn't get him back to sleep until 5. I broke down Thursday morning and cried because Cayson wouldn't eat his banana, which is his favorite food and had asked for it. I'm starting to feel a little better, though. This is my last week in the first trimester so hopefully the sickness ends soon.
Shaun is doing well, putting up with me and Cayson. He's had a rough week between the 2 of us! Plus, we're getting ready to start Discipleship University at our church and he has to design all of the graphics and stuff for that. With his computer messed up. It all has to be done by Sunday, because everyone is signing up then. He's done a terrific job, though!
Well I guess that's it. I'll be looking forward to some answers to my questions, moms!
1. My son (16 months) has woken up in the middle of the night every night this week, ending up in our bed. He is getting over a nasty cold, so we've been pretty lenient. Are we doing the right thing? Or have we created a bad habit?
2. When did you let your kids start sleeping in a toddler bed? With the new baby coming in July, we are going to have to get Cayson a bed soon...well not too soon. The baby will sleep in our room for a while. We had thought about getting him bunk beds and let him sleep on the bottom. That way when family visits someone could sleep on the top. Or would it be better to just get a small toddler bed first?
3. Cayson is starting to show a few signs of toilet training readiness. He gets a diaper out of his bag and brings it to us if he needs changed. He also can say "tee tee" and "stinky", just not at the appropriate times yet. My question is: should I begin the process of toilet training any time soon...or should I wait a while after the baby is born? It would be great if he was out of diapers by then, but I don't want him to regress after the baby gets here. He will be 23 months when the baby comes.
Well, that's all I can think of. Here are a few updates:
Cayson is talking up a storm! He has a vocabulary of about 25 to 30 words. He started at Christmas and hasn't stopped since! My favorites are "stinky", "trash", "please" (sounds like pease), "sweet tea", and "love you". I'm not sure how he learned trash...I guess just from observing us. He was eating a package of fruit gummies and when the bag was empty I said "All gone, trash." He then takes the bag and runs off to his room. Then a moment later he came bag empty handed. He looked like he wanted me to come to his room and I was curious as to where the bag ended up. Once in his room, he points to the trash and says "trash" and the bag is in there! I was a very proud mama!
As for me, I haven't been feeling well at all for about a week now. I thought that I was getting out of the morning sickness phase; I hadn't felt bad since before Christmas. But I have had some upset stomach problems this week. Plus, I haven't gotten a good night's sleep yet this week. With Cayson ending up in our bed, he kicks and flips and flops and makes my stomach queasier. And 1 night he woke up at 1:30 ready to get up. We couldn't get him back to sleep until 5. I broke down Thursday morning and cried because Cayson wouldn't eat his banana, which is his favorite food and had asked for it. I'm starting to feel a little better, though. This is my last week in the first trimester so hopefully the sickness ends soon.
Shaun is doing well, putting up with me and Cayson. He's had a rough week between the 2 of us! Plus, we're getting ready to start Discipleship University at our church and he has to design all of the graphics and stuff for that. With his computer messed up. It all has to be done by Sunday, because everyone is signing up then. He's done a terrific job, though!
Well I guess that's it. I'll be looking forward to some answers to my questions, moms!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
I'm still here
I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still here. Shaun's laptop that he uses for church work is the one that I use to get on the internet at home. Unfortunately, the screen went out over the holidays and then it wouldn't charge...again. We just had that repaired 3 months ago. It's the church's laptop and we can't get it fixed right now, so he brought our (old) desktop to the church to use. It's basically the one I bought my freshman year of college...in 2001. It has a newer case and a new hard drive and I'm not sure what else, but it doesn't have much RAM. Which makes it very slow. Plus, it's a desktop so it's not that portable. He is being a dear and bringing it home on the weekends so that I can get on the internet. I do have internet on my phone so I'm able to check my email and read my favorite blogs...thank you Bloglines...but it's kinda hard to post on my own blog. So I wanted to let everyone know I am here, I'm still readin', and I've got some posts a comin'. Just not tonight. I'm pooped.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
2007 Year in Review
Fellow bloggers, I'm leaving for South Arkansas in 1 day, so this will more than likely be my last post for a couple of weeks. A week, at least. We are coming home on January 2. So, I thought I'd post a review of this year's happenings with my family and our church work.
Cayson
Boy, what a year this has been! Cayson will turn 16 months in just a few days. He's had so many milestones this past year! It was around this time last year that he first started eating a little rice cereal and now he's eating everything we do. Well, almost anything. Just not most veggies! Especially if they're green! He's got his daddy in him there! Also, he's learned to crawl, pull up, cruise, and walk. He has 8 teeth, with 1 breaking through now. He's had 2 haircuts, the first one on his birthday and the 2nd one just on Wednesday. He's growing out of a size 4 shoe and in between 12 and 18 months size clothes. He weighs about 23 pounds. This year he's been on several trips with us: to Minneapolis to the Mall of America, to Fort Worth for a youth ministry conference, and to Stuart, OK for youth camp at Camp WOW. He's got several people in our church wrapped around his little finger! If he decides he doesn't want to be in the nursery and starts crying, usually someone will come and get him out and walk around with him! We never have to want for babysitters, either! He has been such a good baby and toddler. He hasn't been very sick at all, with the exception of a couple of viruses. He's a joy to be around and I'm very thankful that God gave him to us!
Shaun
This past year Shaun has had a few milestones, himself. He turned 29 in April and celebrated his first Father's Day in June. He will celebrate his 2 year anniversary at First Southern in just a couple months. Also, this was the year of weddings for him. He sang at 3 weddings, served as best man for his brother's, and actually got to marry his first and second couple this year. I'm so proud of him and his willingness to be used by God!
Me
Well, I turned 24 in June, which means I've been out of high school for 6 years and out of college for 3. Crazy how time flies! I've experienced another move, just to a different house this time. I took on teaching the 1st and 2nd grade Sunday school class in June and I love it! Also, I taught a junior high girls Bible study this summer. I played Mary Magdalene in our Easter cantata and Lisa/Elizabeth in our Christmas musical. I found out in November, just before Thanksgiving that we're going to have another baby! Also, Shaun and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary this month and 6 years together in all in October.
First Southern
This has been an amazing year at First Southern. Our theme for this year was "Go". In the student ministry, we've grown a little bit, even seeing 3 of our kids come to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. We took the students to Minneapolis for spring break and Camp WOW for summer camp. We finished up our student worship area early this year and it looks awesome. We saw 2 of our students graduate from high school in May.
In the worship ministry area, we have grown so much! We presented "The Borrowed Tomb" on Palm Sunday. It was a huge success. We began preparing a worship cantata, "God for Us", soon after Easter. We presented it in August. It was such an awesome time of worship and reflection on what God has done for us. We had Christmas in August to reveal to the choir what musical we would be doing for Christmas. We had so much fun with that! We added several members to the choir, including a couple of teenage girls. Also, we saw one of our longtime accompanists "retire" from playing so she could sing in the choir and be free to travel. It's taking 3 ladies, including me, to fill her shoes! And we could never completely do that! She's a tiny woman, but those are some big shoes to fill, so to speak. But Shaun put us on a rotation basis so we could all still sing in the choir, too. We also add a guitarist to our worship time, which brings our instruments to piano, keyboard, and guitar. We are adding congas tomorrow!!!! We just presented our Christmas musical, "Be Not Afraid", this past Sunday and Wednesday night. This was the first time we attempted to present a musical twice and it was a success. We had over 100 people there on Wednesday night and almost half of those were guests! Tomorrow, we are having a "Homecoming Christmas". We are using 2 guitars, congas, and a praise team to lead in worship. We are also taking the Lord's Supper and singing by candlelight. I'm very excited.
We added a women's ministry this year. Our Women's Ministry Coordinator is doing a fantastic job. Last February she organized a Beth Moore simulcast conference for all the women in the River Valley. It was a huge success with many decisions made. We had a women's Bible study this fall with over 30 women taking part.
We've had 11 additions this year, some by baptism, some by letter. In our GROW ministry, we seen at least 2 salvations. For Thanksgiving, we provided Blessing Baskets for people who needed food for Thanksgiving. There was at least one salvation as a result.
Our church really stepped it up ministry-wise this year. I am so excited to see what God is going to do in 2008!
Well, that was pretty long. I think this was just as much, if not more for me as it was for you. It is so good for me to go back and remember what God has done in the life of our family and church. God is so good! I pray that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Cayson
Boy, what a year this has been! Cayson will turn 16 months in just a few days. He's had so many milestones this past year! It was around this time last year that he first started eating a little rice cereal and now he's eating everything we do. Well, almost anything. Just not most veggies! Especially if they're green! He's got his daddy in him there! Also, he's learned to crawl, pull up, cruise, and walk. He has 8 teeth, with 1 breaking through now. He's had 2 haircuts, the first one on his birthday and the 2nd one just on Wednesday. He's growing out of a size 4 shoe and in between 12 and 18 months size clothes. He weighs about 23 pounds. This year he's been on several trips with us: to Minneapolis to the Mall of America, to Fort Worth for a youth ministry conference, and to Stuart, OK for youth camp at Camp WOW. He's got several people in our church wrapped around his little finger! If he decides he doesn't want to be in the nursery and starts crying, usually someone will come and get him out and walk around with him! We never have to want for babysitters, either! He has been such a good baby and toddler. He hasn't been very sick at all, with the exception of a couple of viruses. He's a joy to be around and I'm very thankful that God gave him to us!
Shaun
This past year Shaun has had a few milestones, himself. He turned 29 in April and celebrated his first Father's Day in June. He will celebrate his 2 year anniversary at First Southern in just a couple months. Also, this was the year of weddings for him. He sang at 3 weddings, served as best man for his brother's, and actually got to marry his first and second couple this year. I'm so proud of him and his willingness to be used by God!
Me
Well, I turned 24 in June, which means I've been out of high school for 6 years and out of college for 3. Crazy how time flies! I've experienced another move, just to a different house this time. I took on teaching the 1st and 2nd grade Sunday school class in June and I love it! Also, I taught a junior high girls Bible study this summer. I played Mary Magdalene in our Easter cantata and Lisa/Elizabeth in our Christmas musical. I found out in November, just before Thanksgiving that we're going to have another baby! Also, Shaun and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary this month and 6 years together in all in October.
First Southern
This has been an amazing year at First Southern. Our theme for this year was "Go". In the student ministry, we've grown a little bit, even seeing 3 of our kids come to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. We took the students to Minneapolis for spring break and Camp WOW for summer camp. We finished up our student worship area early this year and it looks awesome. We saw 2 of our students graduate from high school in May.
In the worship ministry area, we have grown so much! We presented "The Borrowed Tomb" on Palm Sunday. It was a huge success. We began preparing a worship cantata, "God for Us", soon after Easter. We presented it in August. It was such an awesome time of worship and reflection on what God has done for us. We had Christmas in August to reveal to the choir what musical we would be doing for Christmas. We had so much fun with that! We added several members to the choir, including a couple of teenage girls. Also, we saw one of our longtime accompanists "retire" from playing so she could sing in the choir and be free to travel. It's taking 3 ladies, including me, to fill her shoes! And we could never completely do that! She's a tiny woman, but those are some big shoes to fill, so to speak. But Shaun put us on a rotation basis so we could all still sing in the choir, too. We also add a guitarist to our worship time, which brings our instruments to piano, keyboard, and guitar. We are adding congas tomorrow!!!! We just presented our Christmas musical, "Be Not Afraid", this past Sunday and Wednesday night. This was the first time we attempted to present a musical twice and it was a success. We had over 100 people there on Wednesday night and almost half of those were guests! Tomorrow, we are having a "Homecoming Christmas". We are using 2 guitars, congas, and a praise team to lead in worship. We are also taking the Lord's Supper and singing by candlelight. I'm very excited.
We added a women's ministry this year. Our Women's Ministry Coordinator is doing a fantastic job. Last February she organized a Beth Moore simulcast conference for all the women in the River Valley. It was a huge success with many decisions made. We had a women's Bible study this fall with over 30 women taking part.
We've had 11 additions this year, some by baptism, some by letter. In our GROW ministry, we seen at least 2 salvations. For Thanksgiving, we provided Blessing Baskets for people who needed food for Thanksgiving. There was at least one salvation as a result.
Our church really stepped it up ministry-wise this year. I am so excited to see what God is going to do in 2008!
Well, that was pretty long. I think this was just as much, if not more for me as it was for you. It is so good for me to go back and remember what God has done in the life of our family and church. God is so good! I pray that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Our Christmas Present is on its Way!
Yeah I know what I'm getting for Christmas. And I'm super excited! Shaun and I decided to buy something together this year because it's so hard for us to shop by ourselves and actually surprise each other. Especially for me. He sees exactly what is spent and where it is spent. Anyway, we had purchased a Kodak EasyShare camara about a year and a half ago. Well, it broke right before Christmas last year. And we've been depending on our camara phones and family members' camaras for pictures ever since. Well, we found an awesome deal on a Fuji camara the other day. It's a 10 megapixel, 10x optical zoom, and it's got lots of other nifty features. It will be here Wednesday!!! So get ready for lots and lots of pics!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Ugh
As I alluded to in my last post, I have been very sick this week. And not from being pregnant, either. I caught the stomach bug that's been going around. I was up all night Tuesday night throwing up. Wednesday morning Shaun actually took Cayson to work with him so I could get some sleep. I am so thankful that his job is flexible like that. I slept all morning and woke up at lunch to find him cooking me chicken noodle soup! I couldn't eat much; in fact, I only drank the broth from it. Shaun left Cayson with me that afternoon because he needed his nap. Bless his heart, he slept for 2 and a half hours! So I got to sleep some more. I didn't go to church Wednesday night, either.
Thursday I woke up feeling much better, just extremely weak and sore. And this was our anniversary. I wanted to get out of the house, but my appetite wasn't completely back. So we went to Panera Bread so I could get some soup. Then we went Christmas shopping. This was so hard at first, but the more we walked around, the more my strength started coming back.
Friday I woke up feeling much, much better. I had more strength, but I was still sore. We had our dress rehearsal for our Christmas musical last night. It was kind of rough for me, standing up there for so long. But we had a pretty good rehearsal. Not perfect, though. So pray for us on Sunday morning!
I'm typing this post at 4:30 am Saturday morning. I woke up at 4 feeling queasy. I'm guessing this is just plain ole morning sickness. Plus, somehow my son ended up in bed with us. He's grown quite a bit, so that doesn't leave much room. So I came in the living room to blog and clear my head and hopefully get some more sleep on the couch.
If I get to actually plan the next pregnancy (yes, I want 3) I'm going to try and not be pregnant at Christmas! Or at least, not be in the first trimester at Christmas. It has been so hard to even want to do the things I usually love to do at Christmastime...like decorate my tree. Which still isn't done yet. It's up, the lights are on, the ornaments are in a box beside the tree, I just haven't had the time or the energy to do it. We're leaving for my parents' house in a week, anyway, to spend the week of Christmas and New Year's with them. So, it probably won't get done.
So, moms, has it been your experience that when you were pregnant with your daughter(s) (if you have one) you were sicker with her than with your son(s)? I've been told this by several women at church. If it's true, then this must be a girl! lol. Oh well, I guess I'll find out soon enough. Thanks for listening to my queasy ramblings. Have a great day and weekend!
Thursday I woke up feeling much better, just extremely weak and sore. And this was our anniversary. I wanted to get out of the house, but my appetite wasn't completely back. So we went to Panera Bread so I could get some soup. Then we went Christmas shopping. This was so hard at first, but the more we walked around, the more my strength started coming back.
Friday I woke up feeling much, much better. I had more strength, but I was still sore. We had our dress rehearsal for our Christmas musical last night. It was kind of rough for me, standing up there for so long. But we had a pretty good rehearsal. Not perfect, though. So pray for us on Sunday morning!
I'm typing this post at 4:30 am Saturday morning. I woke up at 4 feeling queasy. I'm guessing this is just plain ole morning sickness. Plus, somehow my son ended up in bed with us. He's grown quite a bit, so that doesn't leave much room. So I came in the living room to blog and clear my head and hopefully get some more sleep on the couch.
If I get to actually plan the next pregnancy (yes, I want 3) I'm going to try and not be pregnant at Christmas! Or at least, not be in the first trimester at Christmas. It has been so hard to even want to do the things I usually love to do at Christmastime...like decorate my tree. Which still isn't done yet. It's up, the lights are on, the ornaments are in a box beside the tree, I just haven't had the time or the energy to do it. We're leaving for my parents' house in a week, anyway, to spend the week of Christmas and New Year's with them. So, it probably won't get done.
So, moms, has it been your experience that when you were pregnant with your daughter(s) (if you have one) you were sicker with her than with your son(s)? I've been told this by several women at church. If it's true, then this must be a girl! lol. Oh well, I guess I'll find out soon enough. Thanks for listening to my queasy ramblings. Have a great day and weekend!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Happy Anniversary, O Husband of Mine!
Shaun and I, while we were dating, about 2002
Razorback game this year
This was a show that we were in together at UAM.
Shaun and I got married four years ago today, after being engaged for six months, and dating for a year and a half before that. So, we've been together 6 years in all! It's so hard to believe! We've been through so much together already. We've served in 3 churches, moved 5 times, had one child, and one is on the way! One day, when I feel like writing down the whole story, I'll tell you how we met, got engaged, etc. It's a great one, the love story I always wanted.
Shaun, thank you so much for being such a great husband. I'm not exaggerating when I say that when God gave you to me, he fulfilled everything on my list. And I had a pretty good list! Thank you for putting up with me these last few weeks, especially when I was so sick. You never complained, you just did what needed to be done. I love you so much.
Monday, December 10, 2007
One Down, One to Go!
Our children presented their Christmas musical "It All Happened in the Country" last night. It was so good! Now, we just have the adult Christmas musical left. It's next Sunday morning. We're having a full run-through Wednesday night and a dress rehearsal Friday night. I'm a little nervous about it.
I also have a MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) Christmas party in the morning at 9:30 and our 20s/30s Bible study hour Christmas party is Saturday night. Then we should be through with the parties. (I think.) If I can make it through this week, I think I'm gonna be ok!
I also have a MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) Christmas party in the morning at 9:30 and our 20s/30s Bible study hour Christmas party is Saturday night. Then we should be through with the parties. (I think.) If I can make it through this week, I think I'm gonna be ok!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
I'm so tired!
Ugh. I'm so sleepy. This has been such a long week. It's my least favorite week of the year. It's the week when we have to build the set for our Christmas musical. Last year, we were up until 3 in the morning one night working on it. Fortunately, the children's musical is first this year, so we've had more help. And we're able to use the same set for the adult musical. But it's still been 9 pm every night when Shaun gets home. And Wednesday night I stayed with him to help. Last night, we had our staff Christmas party so it was late getting home. And today, the children had rehearsal all day, so we were up there finishing up the last touches on the set and Shaun was helping to do the sound. Cayson finally fell asleep at the church at about 3 and he slept all the way home, but he woke up after we got home. Grrrr. I was hoping to catch a few zzzz's myself. And Shaun is pastoring a wedding tonight. I guess I'll sleep well tonight.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Just plain ole updates
I wanted to write tonight, but I couldn't think of anything in particular, so this is just a random update kind of post.
Cayson is over the sign language setback. I'm not even sure if I blogged about it, but a couple weeks ago or so, he just didn't want to do any of his signs, except for drink. But now he's doing them again and he's gotten pretty proficient at "hungry" just today. It's so exciting to be able to communicate with him. Plus, he's saying, or at least repeating, lots of words. Also, he's mastering the spoon!
We had a long day at church. Starting things off, our pastor is on vacation so we had a guest speaker. Shaun had to redo the bulletins because his printer messed up. I had a lot to prepare for my Sunday school lesson (I teach 1st and 2nd grade) and one of my kids came about 20 minutes early! Which means I pretty much have to stay in the room. Fortunately, my lesson book has a section for kids that come early, so I had an activity for him to do. Our accompanist had to be at work at 12 noon today, so she had to leave immediately after the singing portion of our worship time was over. She wanted me to play the invitation and the offertory, but I just didn't have time to practice so Shaun played his sax during the offering and one of our very talented guys did the invitation. We had to be back at the church by 2:30ish so Shaun could prepare for drama practice at 3:00. I'm in the drama so I have to be there too, and wrestle with my kid at the same time! (Incidentally, I'm playing Lisa who plays Elizabeth, mother of John. One of my lines is "Oh, I'm not pregnant, they just dressed me up like this for the play!" And later I say "I'm sorry to interrupt things, but I just got some great news on my voicemail...we're expecting!!!" Talk about life imitating art!) After drama, we had choir at 4 and then small groups at 5ish. We have the youth and officially ours doesn't start until 6, but since some of the girls are in choir and we finished choir at 5....they just stay and hang out until time. Finally, we got home at about 8:30 or so. Whew! I love it, but it sure gets tiring sometimes!
I forgot to mention this a while back. I posted Labor day weekend how Shaun was putting a new floor in our kitchen and we encountered problems and it took longer than expected. I realized that I never posted that it was finished. He finished it in the middle of October. It looks so good! Now if I can just get rid of the pesky wallpaper...
Speaking of our Christmas cantata...we are presenting it on Sunday morning, December 16 and Wednesday evening, December 19. If you are in the Fort Smith area, we'd love to have you! It's called "Be Not Afraid". It's a musical within a musical. I'll save the synopsis for another post. Our children's choir is presenting "It All Happened in the Country" next Sunday night at 6. I'm not sure what it's about, but it's bound to be cute!
I was in a parade yesterday. The Lavaca Christmas parade. Our church entered a float. Our theme was "There Sno' Man Like Jesus" and we had a nativity scene and snowmen all around. The kids were all the characters. It wasn't bad for our first float. I rode in the back of the truck with Shaun and the sound system. I was really impressed with Lavaca's parade, being such a small town. We were number 31 and there were several floats behind us, too. And there were plenty of people watching, too.
My mother-in-law bought me some preggie drops. They are pieces of candy that promise to help with morning sickness. And they actually do help a little. I'm not sure if it's like taking a sugar pill, or what, but it works. And they're pretty good.
I'm so ready to be in maternity clothes! I really don't like this stage where you feel like you're gaining weight, but you just look fat instead of pregnant. At least most of my pregnancy will be in spring and summer so I shouldn't have to buy too many new clothes.
I guess that's it. I hope everyone has a great week this week! Merry Christmas!
Cayson is over the sign language setback. I'm not even sure if I blogged about it, but a couple weeks ago or so, he just didn't want to do any of his signs, except for drink. But now he's doing them again and he's gotten pretty proficient at "hungry" just today. It's so exciting to be able to communicate with him. Plus, he's saying, or at least repeating, lots of words. Also, he's mastering the spoon!
We had a long day at church. Starting things off, our pastor is on vacation so we had a guest speaker. Shaun had to redo the bulletins because his printer messed up. I had a lot to prepare for my Sunday school lesson (I teach 1st and 2nd grade) and one of my kids came about 20 minutes early! Which means I pretty much have to stay in the room. Fortunately, my lesson book has a section for kids that come early, so I had an activity for him to do. Our accompanist had to be at work at 12 noon today, so she had to leave immediately after the singing portion of our worship time was over. She wanted me to play the invitation and the offertory, but I just didn't have time to practice so Shaun played his sax during the offering and one of our very talented guys did the invitation. We had to be back at the church by 2:30ish so Shaun could prepare for drama practice at 3:00. I'm in the drama so I have to be there too, and wrestle with my kid at the same time! (Incidentally, I'm playing Lisa who plays Elizabeth, mother of John. One of my lines is "Oh, I'm not pregnant, they just dressed me up like this for the play!" And later I say "I'm sorry to interrupt things, but I just got some great news on my voicemail...we're expecting!!!" Talk about life imitating art!) After drama, we had choir at 4 and then small groups at 5ish. We have the youth and officially ours doesn't start until 6, but since some of the girls are in choir and we finished choir at 5....they just stay and hang out until time. Finally, we got home at about 8:30 or so. Whew! I love it, but it sure gets tiring sometimes!
I forgot to mention this a while back. I posted Labor day weekend how Shaun was putting a new floor in our kitchen and we encountered problems and it took longer than expected. I realized that I never posted that it was finished. He finished it in the middle of October. It looks so good! Now if I can just get rid of the pesky wallpaper...
Speaking of our Christmas cantata...we are presenting it on Sunday morning, December 16 and Wednesday evening, December 19. If you are in the Fort Smith area, we'd love to have you! It's called "Be Not Afraid". It's a musical within a musical. I'll save the synopsis for another post. Our children's choir is presenting "It All Happened in the Country" next Sunday night at 6. I'm not sure what it's about, but it's bound to be cute!
I was in a parade yesterday. The Lavaca Christmas parade. Our church entered a float. Our theme was "There Sno' Man Like Jesus" and we had a nativity scene and snowmen all around. The kids were all the characters. It wasn't bad for our first float. I rode in the back of the truck with Shaun and the sound system. I was really impressed with Lavaca's parade, being such a small town. We were number 31 and there were several floats behind us, too. And there were plenty of people watching, too.
My mother-in-law bought me some preggie drops. They are pieces of candy that promise to help with morning sickness. And they actually do help a little. I'm not sure if it's like taking a sugar pill, or what, but it works. And they're pretty good.
I'm so ready to be in maternity clothes! I really don't like this stage where you feel like you're gaining weight, but you just look fat instead of pregnant. At least most of my pregnancy will be in spring and summer so I shouldn't have to buy too many new clothes.
I guess that's it. I hope everyone has a great week this week! Merry Christmas!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Please visit...
...my hubby's blog. It's been kinda lonely over there at Steps in a Journey, mostly because he doesn't blog much...or at all! However, he got pretty frustrated over something the other day and he decided to use his blog to rant, I mean draw attention to it. So mosey on over to Steps in a Journey, leave a comment, and encourage him to continue blogging! Thanks!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Lost
Update: She came back! We think one of the construction guys put her back in our yard. Please pray she doesn't get out again!
Our family dog, Batgirl is lost! The city of Barling is doing some construction behind our house and they had to remove the back part of our fence. They replaced it with some chain length fence, but Batgirl still managed to get out. The construction guys said they'd seen her all morning, but Shaun just went looking for her and he didn't see her. And they are all scared of her. Not that she'd hurt them...I don't think, anyway. She would if they posed a threat to one of us. I'm so upset. She's been with us ever since she was born...and she was conceived on our honeymoon! Trust me when I say she's one of the family. Please pray that we find her!
Our family dog, Batgirl is lost! The city of Barling is doing some construction behind our house and they had to remove the back part of our fence. They replaced it with some chain length fence, but Batgirl still managed to get out. The construction guys said they'd seen her all morning, but Shaun just went looking for her and he didn't see her. And they are all scared of her. Not that she'd hurt them...I don't think, anyway. She would if they posed a threat to one of us. I'm so upset. She's been with us ever since she was born...and she was conceived on our honeymoon! Trust me when I say she's one of the family. Please pray that we find her!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The Details
Here they are, the gory details of this pregnancy so far. (Hopefully not too gory!)
I usually have a pretty regular cycle that lasts about 25 days. So when 28 days had come and gone I was starting to get a little suspicious. That was almost 2 weeks ago. Since we were broke, I made myself wait until Monday, when Shaun got paid, to buy a test. It was really hard going that whole weekend without knowing. We weren't trying, so I freaked out a little bit at first. Financially, I didn't think we were ready for another one so soon. But I began to realize that God had His hand in this and He brought us through the first pregnancy--with no insurance--and He'll bring us through this one. So Monday rolled around and when we did our grocery shopping, I got a test. I learned my lesson last time with those tests that have the lines that are hard to read sometimes. So we went for the digital. I knew that the best time to test was in the morning so I made myself wait until the next morning. Tuesday morning, November 20 I woke up and took the test. Very quickly and plainly it said Pregnant. It was such a relief to know for sure! I immediately began planning how we were going to tell our families. Since it was right before Thanksgiving, I knew there was an opportunity for some creativity.
For Shaun's parents, we were going to make a shirt for Cayson that said, "I'm going to be a big brother!" and let him wear it to the family get-together. However, our shirt didn't quite make it. So Shaun made a slide show with our Mt. Magazine pics (most of his family hadn't seen them yet) and at the end we put the picture of Cayson that had him announcing that he was going to be a brother. (From my last post.) For my parents, we made them and my brother birthday cards...they all have birthdays in November. We put our family pictures on the front and inside said, "We didn't know what to get you for your birthday, but we think it's the perfect gift. Just one catch...it won't be delivered for another 9 months!" And we taped a small Babyruth candy bar to it. My mom and brother got it, but my dad didn't. It went over his head! Everyone was really excited.
The Symptoms
So far, I've only been experiencing a lot of queasiness. With Cayson, I never threw up, but I was just occasionally queasy. With this one, I'm queasy just about all day. And guess what really sets it off: sweets! Aagh! I can't even drink sweet tea. Right now all I want is Kool-Aid. Also, I am sooooooooo tired! I can't even sort laundry without needing to rest.
As to the sex, I don't have a preference...too much. I'd love to have a girl, but I love boys too. I definitely won't be disappointed if it's a boy. We just don't have a boy name yet. The girl name has been picked out since before Cayson was born. I'll wait to divulge that when we find out.
I haven't been to a doctor yet, we've got to find one up here. Last time, I delivered in Warren. And as much as I LOVE Dr. Wharton, I can't handle the drive again. So if anyone knows of a good doctor in the Fort Smith area, let me know. However, after doing some calculating at Babycenter.com's pregnancy due date calculator, the tentative due date is July 22, which puts me about 5 weeks. So Cayson and this baby will be almost 2 years apart.
Please remember our family in your prayers, especially our new little blessing. We're very excited, even though I know it's going to be a tough road ahead. Everyone keeps telling me to be afraid of this baby since Cayson was such a good baby! LOL. Thanks, everyone, for the well wishes!
I usually have a pretty regular cycle that lasts about 25 days. So when 28 days had come and gone I was starting to get a little suspicious. That was almost 2 weeks ago. Since we were broke, I made myself wait until Monday, when Shaun got paid, to buy a test. It was really hard going that whole weekend without knowing. We weren't trying, so I freaked out a little bit at first. Financially, I didn't think we were ready for another one so soon. But I began to realize that God had His hand in this and He brought us through the first pregnancy--with no insurance--and He'll bring us through this one. So Monday rolled around and when we did our grocery shopping, I got a test. I learned my lesson last time with those tests that have the lines that are hard to read sometimes. So we went for the digital. I knew that the best time to test was in the morning so I made myself wait until the next morning. Tuesday morning, November 20 I woke up and took the test. Very quickly and plainly it said Pregnant. It was such a relief to know for sure! I immediately began planning how we were going to tell our families. Since it was right before Thanksgiving, I knew there was an opportunity for some creativity.
For Shaun's parents, we were going to make a shirt for Cayson that said, "I'm going to be a big brother!" and let him wear it to the family get-together. However, our shirt didn't quite make it. So Shaun made a slide show with our Mt. Magazine pics (most of his family hadn't seen them yet) and at the end we put the picture of Cayson that had him announcing that he was going to be a brother. (From my last post.) For my parents, we made them and my brother birthday cards...they all have birthdays in November. We put our family pictures on the front and inside said, "We didn't know what to get you for your birthday, but we think it's the perfect gift. Just one catch...it won't be delivered for another 9 months!" And we taped a small Babyruth candy bar to it. My mom and brother got it, but my dad didn't. It went over his head! Everyone was really excited.
The Symptoms
So far, I've only been experiencing a lot of queasiness. With Cayson, I never threw up, but I was just occasionally queasy. With this one, I'm queasy just about all day. And guess what really sets it off: sweets! Aagh! I can't even drink sweet tea. Right now all I want is Kool-Aid. Also, I am sooooooooo tired! I can't even sort laundry without needing to rest.
As to the sex, I don't have a preference...too much. I'd love to have a girl, but I love boys too. I definitely won't be disappointed if it's a boy. We just don't have a boy name yet. The girl name has been picked out since before Cayson was born. I'll wait to divulge that when we find out.
I haven't been to a doctor yet, we've got to find one up here. Last time, I delivered in Warren. And as much as I LOVE Dr. Wharton, I can't handle the drive again. So if anyone knows of a good doctor in the Fort Smith area, let me know. However, after doing some calculating at Babycenter.com's pregnancy due date calculator, the tentative due date is July 22, which puts me about 5 weeks. So Cayson and this baby will be almost 2 years apart.
Please remember our family in your prayers, especially our new little blessing. We're very excited, even though I know it's going to be a tough road ahead. Everyone keeps telling me to be afraid of this baby since Cayson was such a good baby! LOL. Thanks, everyone, for the well wishes!
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
