so I have a gig now

It's so empowering. I can take pictures of anything anywhere and never run out of room on my camera. Very exciting. Me & Paris. We are going to have a blast! Anyhoo, in honor of my gig, I am posting some random pictures of the weekend.

The first is my kitchen in progress. It's really terrible right now. The color doesn't look too bad in the picture, but in real life it's valentine pink, and not working. So I'm off to Lowe's this morning (again) for a toilet seat, red paint, mirror tape and foam rollers. Fun, huh? I am actually very excited about the kitchen, if I could ever give it my full attention. I'm going to leave the upper cupboards open and paint the inside back walls a linen color, the rest white. Utilizing white trim too, this is just a primer over the awful lime green for now.

The second photo is Kim and I hanging at the Mills. I think she was in love! We had a cheezy photo booth picture taken too, but I forgot to scan it before she left. It got late. I'm sure she'll send me a copy, and I'll be sure to post it cause it's funny. We had a blast yesterday, checking out Crate & Barrel. Possibly Rob's and my new favorite store, right up there with IKEA for sure. I bought this popcorn bowl, the large family one, because we love popcorn and eat it all the time. Plus it will looks super cute in my new kitchen. And Kim found this juice glass and for $1.95 it was too inspiring to pass up. I know, I'm a freak. But at least I know what I like! We also visited World Market, such a cool Joe&Dory place. Found some giant red mixing bowls, so overdue for our kitchen.

I also scrapbooked last night with the gals at church. They are way into it already, I have this sinking feeling I've created a monster. :) I finished one super simple page, but it's so cute. I will take a picture later and put it up. Started two others. It felt good to create something other than a giant mess in my kitchen!

Think I'll hit Target this morning too. I need a few more small things for my trip. Off to check the weather in Paris today. Toodles!

recovering.
What a long weekend. We had a youth rally on Friday night. It went well, I would even say 'awesome'. We really connected with our youth and more then half of them came up for prayer afterwards. I would catagorize the worship as 'angry worship' which I've never heard before. The singer was really good, but a bit too much angst for me, kind of felt like she was screaming at God. Now I love Doris O'Reardon as much as the next gal (lead singer of Cranberries) but not so much for worship. Saturday we had a membership class (joining HAG) in the am. Then I had four or five friends from the church come over to paint my kitchen, which is still in shambles. It will be a very long project, I have the first coat of red almost up, but need another gallon darker. Then there's trim and cabinets. Definitely the toughest room thus far, and it took 3 days to peel that paper. My stove is in the studio and the fridge is in the dining room. It's a mess. And I have a crazy 18 month old in my lap, so I'll have to finish this later. Just wanted to check in so you don't all think I died.

{fussy}

Are you ever just in a funk? That's me today. Been kind of off all day. Woke up tired, I think just from working too long and too hard. Sarah fought against her nap until just about 20 minutes ago. We finally pulled the plug on her, literally. Her passy is a thing of the past, she's a big girl now. Apparently big girls don't need naps, according to her.

I've been peeling strips of green ivy wallpaper down, nearly dreaming about it. Seems like that's all I've done the past three days and I'm maybe half done with that room. Hopefully I'll get motivated tonight after our youth rally and kick it into high gear and finish up. Or I'll curl up with some tea and catch "Convicition" which premiers tonight. I'm not endorsing the show, have no idea if it's any good, but I love Law & Order, so I'm sure it will be. :) Maybe I'll catch the show and then peel wallpaper until I fall over. Sounds like a plan.

Sarah's making me crazy. She's just so insane lately. Rob's really taken to calling her "Storm" - like the chick in X-men. She's into everything and has no shortage of energy. Trying to remind myself not wish away this stage.

One of my second cousins was killed last night in a car accident. Looks like I'll be headed to Chicago early next week for the funeral. I really feel for the daughter of the victim, also my cousin, having to plan her mother's funeral. She's maybe a year younger than me. I am praying for her.

I am happy about the bonus of getting to see my Dad at the funeral. Haven't seen him since October. The kids have grown a lot since then. Mom isn't coming, but I'll see her in a few weeks, so that's ok. This trip is going to fill the time between now and Paris, unfortunately I didn't need filling, if you know what I mean!

We are working on the kitchen tomorrow, some friends are coming over to help paint. Not sure I'll have anything for them to paint, but we'll see. At least it will be good laughs and fun company. We have a busy weekend planned. I think Kim is coming, at least I hope. But maybe not with a trip to Chicago looming on the horizon. (alone with two kids) I can do this, right? Just hanging on for the ride today, I guess.

discouragement.

Started peeling paper in my kitchen today and this is what I found. I literally almost sat down and cried. Rethinking my plan for that room. Just getting a little overwhelmed with this house I guess. Funny that it would hit when I'm over half done. I guess I'm just tired. My callouses on callouses are tired! :) And this is going to be a big job.

Christmas Joy

Last layout of the day. Don't be impressed, some of these I did a bit ago and just hadn't posted yet. I like this layout a lot, but you can barely read the title - I scratched it on with the EK Success transfer paper, it's better in real life then in the photo. Had fun 'piling' my pictures, also cutting my own stars and distressing the edges. It really is all about the stars lately, sorry. The journaling is very hard to read "Every year we make an effort to get down to AR to celebrate Grammy's birthday and family christmas. Ther kids really enjoy thier time with Rob's mom."

Help Yourself.

Totally and utterly a Heidi lift. But it just worked for me! Love these pictures of Sarah, she was just cracking me up that day! Giant HKS flower, even more giant button, some fun strips of patterned paper and a big cardstock circle. Love the edge distresser, everyone needs one. It relieves stress!

Never Growing Up.

Not in love with this page at all. But I tried a lot on it, so that's never a bad thing. Had fun with all my various star stamps and loving the stickles I picked up in Rockford. I even decorated the edge of my picture. Ha!

the Dr is in.

Today's page. I actually started it last night, but I'm slow. I'm looking at the finished result and thinking I found a lot of color inspiration from the new Jenni Bowlin kit, which I'm seriously tempted by. I've been on a big green kick the past 3 months or so.

A lot of craziness going on here, shocking, I know. Loving the green rick rack and the orange glitter T. Our pediatrician's name was Dr. T, so that's what that is about. Also had fun with my little orange star stickers, left over from last year's Simple Scrapbooks calendar. Love using things in succession like that. Had a blast stitching down my photo corners too, just for something completely different. The "IN" is stamped from the MM monograms and HKS giant foam stamps, with scrapworks orange rub-ons over top. Orange is in. :)

Sarah's room.

Well, I guess I forgot to take before pictures. Sorry. But trust me, it was hideous. Bright red (thinly coated - ack!) with a tan/yellow lower half and some frightening border. I promise you will find my house borderless. I still need to paint the trim work in here, but I've lost momentum. Hoping to pick back up tomorrow and start working on the kitchen. (dread creeps in)

Sarah's room is cute. The crib is a little displaced right now because she keeps turning the light on when I lay her down, so I had to move it away from that wall. She's a real pistol today. You know that verse in the Bible, the one about satan stalking about like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour? That's Sarah right now. I know that's terrible, but she's just looking for trouble! She just wanders my house moving from disaster to disaster. I can barely keep up. She's napping right now and I'm enjoying the peace!

What reality show would you be on?

I'm not a big fan of reality shows. I miss good old well-written sitcoms. Where have all the Seinfields, Friends, and Frasiers gone? Reality tv is just lazy script writers with big pocket books. Plus, I think they are all rigged anyway, they hand pick people to antagonize other people to boost ratings. Interesting to see people at their worst though, and that's what a lot of it is.

To be on one? I'd do my own. Just following my drab life day to day. Like my blog, only with a camera. One one condition. I'd want my own stylist/make-up artist and a complete wardrobe. Heck, I want that anyway!

Every SAHM needs one of these bad boys.

Rob took this terrible picture of me last night, wearing my long over-due headset. We have unlimited long distance and my best friend lives 5 hours away. We talk every day for at least an hour. Most days we talk several times, just because we both have pre-schoolers and we can. I've been cranking my neck for 3 years now and finally I got sick of it and broke down and bought this. Sometimes it really amazes me what $15 can buy you. I love this thing. The only thing is that it's very reminiscent of MCI and I keep wanting to sell people long distance. ha!

master bedroom

I finally have it finished. Or at least almost. We still don't have a headboard, haven't decided how to resolve that issue. I'm still on the lookout for fabric, which is suprisingly much harder to find than you would think. I've bought two different pieces so far and niether worked. We are also still looking for a lamp for over the bed, we saw one we really liked at IKEA but of course, they were out of stock. So other than that, it's done. I really like it. A good change from what it was before, a grey pit of grey.

My Paris jounal.

Found this at B&N in Rockford. It has a plastic cover, figured that would repell coffee and the like. Yes, I said coffee. Finally starting to grow up and beginning to accept my fate as a coffee drinker. Of course, it's foo-foo coffee hopped up on sugar and creamer, but that's ok, right? I'm almost 27 you know, growing up can't be all bad. :)

So I had to scan the cover for you, it's so 80's retro, fast-paced. I look through the pages and it makes me want to scrapbook. I figure I'll be more inspired to write in it, and even more excited to scrap my experiences when I get home. Plus, there are all kinds of cute pictures and icons inside, they'll be great for embellishments, etc.

Really, almost ready to leave. I bought my 1 gig memory card and power adapter yesterday. I think I need a couple more travel-sized things (like the goofy guy in the Expedia commercial - that's me!) and to do a trial-run packing of my suitcase to make sure everything will fit. Very excited!

random things that God revealed to my heart this weekend

Target was pretty intense. God laid some things on my heart and I'd like to share them here, not so much for you, but more as a record for me.

* Worry about stuff that matters! (I worry about the little stuff all the time - but rarely have kingdom cares. Too self-consumed)

* Prioritizing my time with God alone. I can't do this by myself.

* REST. I need to learn to be still. Stop moving, rushing, working. Rob and I realized that I really never sit down. I get up and work and do so until the end of the day. I never take a day to just hang out, to chill and be me. This is necessary for me to stay healthy.

* More love - less trying to prove my point. Rely on God to correct those around me, and moreso to correct and instruct me.

* Surround Rob with prayer. I constantly encourage him vocally, but I need to back it up with prayer. His job is hard and he is attacked. I can help him through prayer more than anything. I can trust God to perfect him, as He is perfecting me.

* Give Rob leadership of our house. Stop trying to take it from him or steer him in my direction - subconciuosly or otherwise. He values my opinion too much, I need to be more careful with my influence.

Last, but not least. Are we still talking about trust? Really? Do we have to? After all these years? Has God ever let me down? Even when it's felt like He's failed me, time always proves otherwise. Wow. That is truth.

[this weekend in pictures]

This will be a short post. I'm tired. It's been a long weekend and I drove almost 300 miles today. Church is early. My kids were so happy to see us. We had Casey's pizza. It was great.

Three pictures from the weekend. The only ones we took. Sad, but we were that busy. The first is the sky on our drive north. See the star? I must be seeing stars everywhere, but we thought it was cool. The next is me on the phone. I really missed my unlimited long distance, and Rob's phone could be found pressed against my ear more often then his. The third is just a cute pic of Rob right before we left the hotel this am. We had a great time. So glad to be home safe.

Oh my humanity.

I had just typed a massive awesome post, seriously - links and everything, and accidently lost it. To err is human. right? I'm very human. Just for the record.

I was just sharing about all the neat things we've learned this weekend. Turns out Monty was just on a tangent and that wasn't the whole thrust of the conference - it's really been about taking the church outside of the walls. Important, but in our case (with our unchurched kids) we need to adequately prepare them first.

Listened to Sy Rogers a lot yesterday. He was a transexual, now a minister. I was so intrigued by his story. He shared a lot of the reasons people turn to sexual immorality, including christians. We chose to sit in several sessions of his, one of which discussing guarding against sexual sin in your own life - sharing the warning signs with us. He challenged us to talk about sexuality in the church, because the world is talking about it and we are the only ones not discussing it - yet it's just as big of a problem in the church as in the world. He talked a lot about wrestling with our humanity and working it out every day.

We alao heard Mike Yankoski. He is 22. Very mature and engaging and humble. Unusual for someone that age. He took 5 months out of college, between his sophomore and junior year, and became homeless. He shared his story with us. Talked to us about what we can do for the homeless in America. One major thing he shared, so simple, was keeping gift cards in your glove box, to give out when you see a homeless person. Not just the gift card for a warm meal, but a few moments of conversation, affirming their value. Rob and I feel like this would be a really good missions opportunity for our youth.

God is moving me towards compassion. We heard Bono (from U2) speaking to the President at the National Prayer Breakfast (on C-span) at the beginning of the month. He talked about giving 1% of the US budget to world hunger and poverty, explained how that one percent would end hunger altogether. Mentioned that many Christians (in a country that claims to be christian - when it's convienient and doesn't offend anyone) in the the US tithe ten percent, but the US doesn't even tithe 1%. I was very impressed with Bono's ability to speak the truth in love. It was a little unexpected from a rock star, if you know what I mean. I had always heard that U2 was a christian band but didn't fly the christian banner over their band. I assumed that they did that for financial reasons, but now I'm seeing their greater purpose, reaching a greater audience, allowing them more influence. I've always liked U2 - but usually their lyrics are a little "God-or-your-girlfriend" for me. Anyhoo, take a moment and read his speech. It's worth your time, I promise. Make a decision for yourself.

Funny, too, how I see God answering prayer in my life. Thinking about the issues I was struggling with last week and God's alread got most of them resolved. Amazing how He works. Still praying about HOF. Praying if it's His will for me, it will happen. If not that I have the grace to accept it graciously. Thankful that we can come to Him with anything. Do you ever think about that? No matter how large or trivial, He cares so intimately. I am thankful.

Ready for home. We are leaving a bit early to catch the kids before bed. We both really miss them. Otherwise tomorrow is Sunday and we don't get family time on Sunday. I just want to love on them. Also ready to bring all this info back into our church.

now we know

What you guys really like to talk about. I plod along on my blog every day, posting and wondering if anyone really reads it. But one little post about sex and you guys are commenting like there's no tomorrow. Duly noted. (now I really need to get going, we are going to be late!)

[too much information]

That's where I'm at this morning. The conference is going great. But I'm struggling with my usual - receiving more information than I can process. I took two pages of notes in last night's session and ran out of room. I'm bringing a notebook today.

The crazy thing is that I could be blogging right there in the general session. Yep, it's wi-fi-ed for all of us. They actually encourage it. You can tell that most yp's are young guys loving technology. I think it's a good idea, but don't know if it's outwayed by all the jabronies myspacing rather than blogging, or checking their email or whatever else. I'm taking notes old-fashioned style, but Rob's bringing the laptop to the next session.

Rob and I are in an unusual situation compared to most of the yp's here. They are all tired out, over-scheduled and needing recharged. We are just starting out, fired up and ready to do massive ministry - just at the beginning of our journey. "Journey" is one of the hundred dollar words at this event, along with 'culture' and 'highly caffeinated'. The point of this conference is taking the church out of the walls of the church - an awesome concept for any other youth group we've ever worked with, but our kids at HAG just aren't there yet. We have to disciple them first, give them some 'ethics' (another hot button word) to equip them to go out into the world.

Monty Hipp is talking a lot about how to reach kids, working with the government to do 'good work' and not shove Christianity down any one's throats. I think doing good work is all well and good, but if we aren't presenting the gospel then no one is getting saved, we are not spreading our light to the world, we are missing the message, the point. I'm honestly a little disappointed in the push in this conference, it's so watered down from what the AG has always been hard core on - spreading the gospel. In my opinion, there are lots of good people out there, but that's not what makes us Christians. I listen to the speakers and realize how old I am. I know that sounds funny, cause I'm 26 (almost 27) but I have the morals of a baby boomer. Not sure why, but both Rob and I are very much a part of the last generation, plus technology. It scares me, starting out in youth ministry when I already feel like we are already outdated. I pray that God can use us anyway. That we don't have to water down the truth. I feel like kids are searching for truth. I'm just not sure how to convince them that the bible is the truth that they are looking for. But that's not my job, that's God's job, we just need to be faithful in giving them that opportunity.

Now I've really monologued, but check the banner at the top and you'll know it's my perogative. I'm going to have to chew on this conference for a while. There are some really good things being said, but definitely some red flags to sit and ponder.

On a more personal note, Rob and I are having a wonderful time. We saw Narnia yesterday afternoon. It was wonderful. Rob was shocked at how much it was the Christ story, he had no idea. He said "It's like CS Lewis sat down and decided to write the Christ story for kids." Exactly. My mom read all the Narnia books to us out loud while we were young. It's very much a part of who I am. I can remember going in Mom's closet (my room didn't have one) and pressing my fingers past all her dresses and coats searching for a secret world. :) Instead I found my refuge in books.

We visited the scrapbook store in Janeville yesterday. It was good. Rob actually walked in and looked around with me, making comments and suggestions, helping me pick paper. The coolest thing I bought yesterday was a tiny globe stamp - $2.50. It will be so fun in my Paris album. Also found some paper and rub-ons. I'm excited to go home and play with Kim. I'm starting to miss my kids more, just cause I saw the DYD with his son, disciplining him in the hall. I was really thankful for Ginny being with ours, so we can really soak all this up.

Well, off to the next session.

[sex is the glue that holds a marriage together]

Wow. That got your attention, didn't it? (Mom, you may want to skip this entry) This is a direct quote from a book I found at B&N last night. Sheet Music by Dr. Kevin Leman. Rob and I have always been big believers in picking up a christian sex book about once a year and just checking in on the status of this important part of our life together. The book is fab. I'm already on page 49. If you are married, I highly recommend it.

Anyhoo, I say all that to say that things between me and Rob have been a little less than perfect lately, and I realized this morning that it was because the past ten days or so that area of our life had been a little neglected. This book explains that your sex life sets the thermostat for the rest of your marriage, it's a direct indicator of where things are going. I want to encourage all you married ladies to take some time to invest in that area of your life, buy some new lingerie, invest in a good (christian) sex book [resist the urge to look in the 'relationships dept @ B&N - you'll be flabberghasted], try something new in the bedroom. Believe me, you'll be glad you did. A happy husband just makes life more fun. Here's to good sex!

Hey.... (said in gayest voice possible with a girly hand gesture)

It's the punch line to a joke Rob's mom told us last night. We've been laughing about it all day. "You know that movie, Brokeback Mountain? Do you know what the cowboys fed their horses?" Anyhoo, we found it funny and we've been saying "hay" to each other all day. But we are wierd like that.

You must like weird, because you're still reading!

Great day. Spent way too much money, but that's just us lately. Still working off of our 'approved' tax return purchases, so it's ok. Trying to finish up preparing for Paris - got my travel journal and french phrase book tonight. We were chilling at Barnes & Nobles with no kids and a couple foo-foo coffees, laughing about how this wasn't our life. We still think we belong in Ozark in a job we hated, getting ready to open camp again for the spring. We both have such a sense of relief, not having to deal with the pool this summer, but that's another entry in itself.

Anyhoo, the journal I found is very eighties/modern. Has blank and lined pages, lots of random travel icons and pictures and ticket stubs. Lots of potential. I want to journal a lot over there, since I'm sure I'll be bombarded with inspiration. The phrase book was inexpensive and looked very helpful. I'm sure the French people will cry when they hear me butcher their beautiful language, but at least I will make an effort. Getting very excited.

Hit IKEA this afternoon. Rob loved it. I didn't realize how tactile he is, touching everything, pulling out every drawer, opening every cabinet. He kept saying "I like this, we could do this, wouldn't this be cool?" It was very fun. We bought two small matching dressers for our master bedroom. I'm so excited to put that room back together. We also found a very pretty duvet cover and pillow shams, super reasonable. That's why I love IKEA. Even Rob, who pays no attention to prices whatsoever, realized how incredibly inexpensive everything was. He was stoked.

We bought a few other random things, trying to make it worth the 300 miles and $6 in tolls it took to get there. We made really good time and now we are settling in for a quiet night. Missing the kids in the tiniest way, but still so thankful for the peace and quiet. Well, I'm crazy cause it's late and I'm away with my hubby, so I'll catch you later!