I apologize to the two or three of you who read this:) for the great blogging lull. I realize it's my fault, but I would like to blame it on my blackberry that I got last month. I never get online anymore and so I never think to blog!
Gosh . . . this month has been crazy.
Affix released their EP CD, Right Where You Are on June 13, where they shared a stage with Darrell Evans and Avelon. Very exciting. They haven't been selling as quickly as I hoped. This is bumming me in particular because Richard and I paid for the CDs and we're being reimbursed with the sales. [I have serious issue when it comes to money (I recognize it and realize that a lot of people do), but I've really been freaking out about upcoming bills that we need to pay]. Anyway, Affix is doing really well, so you should buy their rocking CD at www.rockaffix.com. This is has always been a dream of Richard's, so I'm really excited for him!
From June 14 to 19, we directed Jr. High camp at Presmont for the fourth year running. I'm seriously going to put this year at my favorite year yet. Maybe that's just because last year was really rough on me . . . right after an old camp friend committed suicide, internal conflicts at camp, and I was pregnant, again. We really only had one major behavioral problem (whom we had to send home :( ). We had three campers accept Jesus! And a lot of good was done in the hearts of some of the others who were already Christians. Praise the Lord! There are a few campers who are weighing heavy on my heart still . . . the Serenity Prayer is going to be anthem to deal with that.
My faith walk has really been on a steady up-hill climb over this past year, and I'm so thankful for that. I have been blessed with an incredible husband, three wonderful girls, an awesome ministry, and amazing friends. Thank you:)
Friday, June 26, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Conversations with Evelyn, Part X
First, you should know that Tyler is my 12 year old brother and that Evelyn has my speed dial numbers memorized so she can call people. This morning she was trying to get a hold of my mom.
E: She's not answering.
Me: Are you using my phone? (Richard's phone is identical to mine).
E: I'm using my phone.
Me: Your phone?
E: Ya, my phone. You know how Pappy and Tyler share a cell phone? Well, you and I are going to share this one.
She completely made that deduction all on her own. We're so in for it!
Evelyn has been on a kick for the last few months where she wants a real cell phone. I'm sure the kick isn't going to end until we give in in like 10 years. But I find it amusing how early this is starting. The girls in my youth group help her send text messages back-and-forth. And I'm sure as soon as she can start writing, she's going to be using my phone to do that as well!
And we do have three daughters! Oh, my.
E: She's not answering.
Me: Are you using my phone? (Richard's phone is identical to mine).
E: I'm using my phone.
Me: Your phone?
E: Ya, my phone. You know how Pappy and Tyler share a cell phone? Well, you and I are going to share this one.
She completely made that deduction all on her own. We're so in for it!
Evelyn has been on a kick for the last few months where she wants a real cell phone. I'm sure the kick isn't going to end until we give in in like 10 years. But I find it amusing how early this is starting. The girls in my youth group help her send text messages back-and-forth. And I'm sure as soon as she can start writing, she's going to be using my phone to do that as well!
And we do have three daughters! Oh, my.
Teenage Boys and Baby Girls
Last night we had a youth group gathering at my house. Usually, we have more girls than guys, but last night we had 8 guys and 6 girls. Keep that in mind as I get further into this. So the first car-load shows up and it's a bunch of the guys. Immediately, one of them is jumping on my girls trampoline which has a 175 pound weight limit. So I look at them and say:
Guys, I have two rules, one at a time on the trampoline and two,
One of the Guys: No jumping off the roof onto the trampoline.
Me: Stay off the roof.
This conversation pretty much sums up younger teenage guys (13 to 15).
So a little while later the girls show up and we're about to start a game of capture the flag; the girls think it's a swell idea to play guys versus girls. I understand the whole women's lib movement and what the intent was . . . but seriously, 8 teenage guys versus 6 teenage girls in a game of capture flag . . . girls, get a clue! Anyway, after 20 minutes of screaming about birds, bugs and poop, the girls finally got their flag hidden in which it took the guys 4 minutes to recover. Sigh.
So after capture the flag, the girls are intent to sit around and talk. The guys are not, and I find out that they're "turkey hunting." I'm not going to even explain what turkey hunting is, but I will say it's extremely inappropriate. So after discovering what it is they were doing, I went up to Richard and explained the situation; his response was, "That's kind of funny!" Ah, girls are so different than guys! He did agree, however, that it was inappropriate and nixed that situation. Ah, praise the Lord, that He saw fitting to make suitable helpers!
So last night, Gigi fell asleep for her evening nap at 5:45. Normally, I would have woken her by 7 but when you have 8 teenage guys, an accessible roof with a trampoline below it, turkey hunting, and an electric fence, for heaven's sake, you let the baby sleep! Apparently, she needed it. She slept until 5 am! She fell back asleep until 7 am. Fell back asleep again at 9 and slept until noon! The great part of that whole scenario is that it's Saturday; Richard and I took shifts and we all got sleep! Yay!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
My Children
I read some moms' blogs, and it seems like they mostly blog about their children. I, on the other hand, rarely blog about my kids. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I lost my mind, oh, I don't know, probably, when I found out I was pregnant with Gigi. I have three kids, three and under. There are also three very good reasons why I'm not completely insane: I have all girls, my mom has the oldest two probably 20 hours a week, and Richard helps me.
[Not that Richard shouldn't help me, I was just pointing out that he does, probably more than most dads do].
A lot of parents I think have a surreal experience where they have children, where it changes their life. That didn't happen to me. I think part of the reason is because (just like I've believed in Jesus for as long as I can remember), I've wanted to have children for as long as I can remember. Perhaps, I was just loving them way before they were born. I don't know; I'm just thinking as I write.
Anyway, here's some thoughts about my children:
Evelyn is smart, witty, communicative, curly haired,
beautiful, strong-willed, nurturing, creative, and energetic. She has figured out lying, but is learning that it's wrong (thanks to some mama-smackdowns). Ah, she gets her quirkiness from me.
Riley is so different. At 2, she can play by herself for hours, in her own little imaginative world. She's funny, nurturing, straight haired (like her Mama), beautiful, ornery, and smart as well. They both love music and dancing, which shouldn't surprise anyone considering Richard and I.
Gigi's personality has yet to blossom. She's such a "pleasant" baby. She only cries when she has a need, and is just as sweet natured as can be. It's hard to believe that she'll be have "bad behavior" one day. I have a feeling she's going to be hard to catch up with . . . she starting crawling right at 6 months, and is showing no sign of slowing down. She's also a morning baby. Six a.m. beckons her name, unforntunately.
New challenges every day, new blessings every day.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Listen to this!
I'm in a good mood today. I guess I'm rolling with the punches and recognizing the blessings! I'm going to recap my day:
1. I got up early to finish typing up the test that I needed to give today at 10 a.m. It was going well until I dumped a glass of water all over the keyboard! I guess when you have a desk top that would just mean buying a new keyboard, but we have a lap top. Hmm.
2. I decided to try to blow-dry it. That went semi-well. I only managed to melt one key off.
3. I went back to trying to do the test, but the backspace and space key would not work. And, the period key would stick. At one point, I had 6 pages of nothing but periods.
4. I managed to email it to my mom, thankfully, she was in my address book because I couldn't type the dot in .com. Apparantly, it went from working too well to not at all.
5. She was nice enough to come out here and try to finish drying the computer while I finished the test at her house, another thanks go's in here because she just got Microsoft Word a few months ago.
6. Riley threw a temper tantrum about Brian babysitting and I caved in and took her to my mom's. Seriously, how do people survive parenting toddlers without family close by?
7. On the way to class, someone ran me off the road. I'm not joking or exaggerating. They were completely left of center on a blind turn! Thankfully, they ran me into someone's yard and not a tree or ditch!
8. My students did horrible on the test! Three A's out of 19 students and it was open book! I'm still peeved at this one. I'm seriously considering not letting my students leave after the next test. (We have a two hour block and I let them leave as soon as they're done). Some of the students practically did not do the last two pages!
9. Richard came home from work sick. Besides the obvious, this is not good for two additional reasons. One, this is the last week in the quarter and Richard hasn't hit all his sales goals, which means his commission rate will drop 1%. And, I had planned to finish laundry and clean our bedroom today, and now he's sleeping in it. However, his boss told him he could work Saturday. And, it's not like the rest of our house isn't a mess. lol.
10. Dang it! The period key is acting up again. It's a good thing Richard started school and in another couple of months we should be able to replace the computer anyway. She's been good, we got it when we got married :)
1. I got up early to finish typing up the test that I needed to give today at 10 a.m. It was going well until I dumped a glass of water all over the keyboard! I guess when you have a desk top that would just mean buying a new keyboard, but we have a lap top. Hmm.
2. I decided to try to blow-dry it. That went semi-well. I only managed to melt one key off.
3. I went back to trying to do the test, but the backspace and space key would not work. And, the period key would stick. At one point, I had 6 pages of nothing but periods.
4. I managed to email it to my mom, thankfully, she was in my address book because I couldn't type the dot in .com. Apparantly, it went from working too well to not at all.
5. She was nice enough to come out here and try to finish drying the computer while I finished the test at her house, another thanks go's in here because she just got Microsoft Word a few months ago.
6. Riley threw a temper tantrum about Brian babysitting and I caved in and took her to my mom's. Seriously, how do people survive parenting toddlers without family close by?
7. On the way to class, someone ran me off the road. I'm not joking or exaggerating. They were completely left of center on a blind turn! Thankfully, they ran me into someone's yard and not a tree or ditch!
8. My students did horrible on the test! Three A's out of 19 students and it was open book! I'm still peeved at this one. I'm seriously considering not letting my students leave after the next test. (We have a two hour block and I let them leave as soon as they're done). Some of the students practically did not do the last two pages!
9. Richard came home from work sick. Besides the obvious, this is not good for two additional reasons. One, this is the last week in the quarter and Richard hasn't hit all his sales goals, which means his commission rate will drop 1%. And, I had planned to finish laundry and clean our bedroom today, and now he's sleeping in it. However, his boss told him he could work Saturday. And, it's not like the rest of our house isn't a mess. lol.
10. Dang it! The period key is acting up again. It's a good thing Richard started school and in another couple of months we should be able to replace the computer anyway. She's been good, we got it when we got married :)
Sunday, May 24, 2009
6 Years Ago Today.
Today is Richard and I's anniversary. Yay!
I'm really excited about it. I don't know the statistics, but I know a lot of marriages don't make it to five years, so that in itself is exciting that we've made it past that and are thriving!
This has been the best year of our marriage. The first year we were married, with the exceptions of a few weeks, we lived apart: Richard in Japan and me at Muskingum. The second year of our marriage we lived in a tiny apartment on Yokosuka Naval base. You may think that was a good year, but I was extremely depressed, and although we made a lot of great memories and had a good time it hasn't compared to this year. The next three loooong years, we lived with my parents while we built our house. Enough said.
But this past year, we have had our own little home, Richard doesn't leave for weeks/months at a time, I have family support, and currently, I'm not pregnant! Yay! Double yay! Triple yay!
In a lot of ways I feel like we're just getting started, just getting good at things . . . we're just figuring this whole thing out. It's great! Awesome!
I love you, Richard! Happy Anniversary :)
I'm really excited about it. I don't know the statistics, but I know a lot of marriages don't make it to five years, so that in itself is exciting that we've made it past that and are thriving!
This has been the best year of our marriage. The first year we were married, with the exceptions of a few weeks, we lived apart: Richard in Japan and me at Muskingum. The second year of our marriage we lived in a tiny apartment on Yokosuka Naval base. You may think that was a good year, but I was extremely depressed, and although we made a lot of great memories and had a good time it hasn't compared to this year. The next three loooong years, we lived with my parents while we built our house. Enough said.
But this past year, we have had our own little home, Richard doesn't leave for weeks/months at a time, I have family support, and currently, I'm not pregnant! Yay! Double yay! Triple yay!
In a lot of ways I feel like we're just getting started, just getting good at things . . . we're just figuring this whole thing out. It's great! Awesome!
I love you, Richard! Happy Anniversary :)
My week.
Monday morning I woke up like usual and was going about my day. Someone had sent me a message on facebook that I decided to check. When I got on, I noticed that one of our church kids (who is away at college) had RIP Keith on his wall. It didn't take me long to find a page dedicated to his memory. I asked Scott, who graduated from St. C., what happened; it was then I found out Keith had committed suicide.
I was concerned because he was just a year out of high school, and I wasn't sure what my role should be. After making a few phone calls, I found out he was the cousin of one of my comes-to-youth-stuff-but-not-our-church girls. So I texted all the girls and we met at the church on Monday evening.
It's the second time in my life I've held someone who was grieving the loss of a loved one. There's nothing you can say in those moments, and certainly nothing you can do to make it hurt any less. Then came the questions and flood of emotions that I just listened to and understood, but didn't have an answer for.
Yesterday, I stood at the funeral home with her next to the dead body of her 19 year old cousin. I watched young person, after young person file through and cry and ask the same questions she was asking.
But the hardest part of it all was on Monday evening, that sweet girl looked at me with tears in her pleading eyes and a voice that was whisper said, "And the worst part of it all, I don't even know if he was a Christian." And the hope I could offer her wasn't very comforting.
I could have told her that God was sovereign and righteous and just. I could have told her that he was a God of comfort and mercy and grace. I could have said a lot of things, but all I said was, "All we can do is hope."
Please pray for me.
I was concerned because he was just a year out of high school, and I wasn't sure what my role should be. After making a few phone calls, I found out he was the cousin of one of my comes-to-youth-stuff-but-not-our-church girls. So I texted all the girls and we met at the church on Monday evening.
It's the second time in my life I've held someone who was grieving the loss of a loved one. There's nothing you can say in those moments, and certainly nothing you can do to make it hurt any less. Then came the questions and flood of emotions that I just listened to and understood, but didn't have an answer for.
Yesterday, I stood at the funeral home with her next to the dead body of her 19 year old cousin. I watched young person, after young person file through and cry and ask the same questions she was asking.
But the hardest part of it all was on Monday evening, that sweet girl looked at me with tears in her pleading eyes and a voice that was whisper said, "And the worst part of it all, I don't even know if he was a Christian." And the hope I could offer her wasn't very comforting.
I could have told her that God was sovereign and righteous and just. I could have told her that he was a God of comfort and mercy and grace. I could have said a lot of things, but all I said was, "All we can do is hope."
Please pray for me.
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