It's late and I'm wiped, but I just wanted to post and say that this week (with it's ups and downs) was awesome. Tonight's service was amazing and I'd bet 200 people went forward to make a decision tonight. Wow. I teared up, just realizing how worth all our work was in the grand scheme of things. I'm so thrilled that we got it all done, and that the crusade was a success - they had plenty of stuff to break and set on fire, everyone had enough to eat, and overall it was awesome. Here's a photo to tide you over until tomorrow. enjoy!
I think this might be a new birthday tradition for our family. If it's your birthday, you get to be the subject of a birthday photo blitz. Doesn't that sound like fun? Eli enjoyed it, but he kept making funny faces. Should have done it pre-presents, cause all he could think about was his new video game inside waiting for him. Oh well, he did great and then Daddy and Sarah jumped in, so that was fun.
Guess I'm just really dying to take some pictures. Next Saturday can't come too soon for me. :)
I can't believe Eli is seven. I remember taking him home from the hospital. I remember it so clearly, because it was snowing. Not the pretty stuff either, the wet slick gross snow that turns to ice shortly after it hits the ground. They rolled us out of the hospital (I was soooo not ready to go home) and there is my proud husband, all ready to put our new baby boy in the Geo. I was like "You brought the Geo? You expect us to take our baby boy home from the hospital in the Geo? The car that's very name has to remind it what it's supposed to do?" I was appalled, and almost refused to go with him until he went home and switched cars. But I was tired of the mean nurses and ready for my own bed, so I consented. Funny, we've been driving trashy cars ever since then. Poor Sarah, she came home in the 81 Ford LTD minus the air conditioning. Ah, our family and cars.
Oh well, back to Eli. He's the important subject at hand.
This kid is amazing. He's smart. I know every parent says that about their kids, but he really truly is, people tell us all the time. He taught himself to read. One day, he just read me a book. Crazy, huh?
But more importantly than smart, he's compassionate with people. He loves Jesus and is ready to tell you all about it. He's very sensitive and loving. He's got a very strong moral compass. He's funny. He's got great hair (gets it from Rob). And he's super photogenic - a definite plus in our family. I'm thinking tomorrow we may need to do a special birthday photo shoot. A little for him, a little for me. I'm dying to take some pictures. It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow, finally.
I'm thinking green pancakes for breakfast - it's his favorite color. We have that in common too. And I made him a chocolate cake tonight, and I'm frosting it on a green plate. I still need to wrap his presents. We've got quite a bit going on tomorrow, but we'll still make it special.
and wow, that photo is bad of me and Rob. How is it we are older but we look better? That doesn't seem right, but hopefully we look better than that! :)
1.) I miss my blog. It's been way too long. My life has just been sucked up by church lately. This Power Force is a huge consuming thing, and they arrive on Saturday, so life restarts a week from tomorrow when they go home. It's exciting though, just a tremendous amount of work. I think it's all really starting to come together now, but time will tell.
2.) Sarah has bronchiolitis. I'm pretty sure that's fancy word for her lungs are jacked up with asthma gunk. She's back on the nebulizer, twice a day with two medicines, sucking back prednisol and singulair. I wish we could get this thing under control. Not to be a jerk, but it's really hard to add two breathing treatments (15-20 minutes a pop) to our already overloaded schedule.
3.) I missed church tonight. I hate that I did. Sarah lost her mind over hotdogs at dinner and I could tell she just couldn't handle Rainbows tonight. So she was in bed by quarter to seven, asleep within 60 seconds, and hasn't changed positions since. poor thing. Eli and I made expo videos and watched the disney channel. It was sweet.
4.) I miss my husband. We have date day tomorrow though, and we are writing our will in the am. Shouldn't take long, not like we have much. :)
5.) Eli turns seven on Saturday! wow. He's pretty psyched. I need to make a chocolate cake tomorrow probably. That's his request.
6.) I bought 20 large bags of M&M's at CVS this week for a quarter a piece. I'm thinking I'm pretty cool and that I love this game!
That's all I can think of for now. Off to watch a movie with my husband and snuggle and be thankful that it's Wednesday night already.
This is the skit we put together to promote the Power Force coming this weekend. It was a huge hit, lots of laughs and cheers. Yep, I'm a total dork, but it was well received and our teenagers still talk to us. :) That's a good thing, cause I really was wearing a sweatband. Power Force Skit
**** These photos might make you want to start shooting in Macro mode.
First of all, this photo of me and Sare started it. We were sitting at the lunch table, just hanging out after our food, laughing and stuff. (my favorite times being a family, now that the kids are suddenly older) Anyhoo, Sarah was sitting there in exactly the same position as I was. We were laughing about it and I asked Eli to get the camera and take a photo.
Then, I started playing around. Leah taught me a bit about macro mode, and I've been playing some more lately. Wow, I love it! So much fun. Anyhoo, in the space of about ten minutes I took 60 photos! These are just the very best from our mini-session.
geez, do you think I'm dying to take some people's photos or what?
oh, and ps - I totally think Eli could be a model. Not bragging or anything, I've just worked with a lot of kids lately and Eli works it like nobody's business. Seriously, the kid is talented in the 'schmoozing the camera' department. I bet he took 20 seriously good photos today, just moving from one expression to the other. He's the easiest person of all time to photograph. lucky me.
I kind of feel like I've been in a black hole this week.
First of all, Sare's had a double ear infection since last Sunday. She's getting better, but her cough has gotten worse. go figure. So she only made it to school 2 days this week, which is fine, except that it threw my Power Force plans into a tail spin. I played major catch up on Friday. That's ok though, we got there. I realized late yesterday, I have one more school to book (still) and some bottled water to buy, but beyond that I'm pretty much ready for the Power Force to get here. Oh, and I'm still tracking down fire axes, but details, right? The kids and I are going on Monday to pick up a utility pole, isn't that funny? In the church van, they are going to be so excited!
We had our first scrapbooking group last night. Five of us ladies were there, it was pretty fun. I think our numbers were down because of a funeral tomorrow and because of lousy weather. Apparently in southern TX rain is a perfectly acceptable reason to stay home. Isn't that funny? I did finish up some pages I started before, and started on a few more, but overall I was mostly uninspired. Lately scrapbooking doesn't excite me nearly as much as photography. What is with that?
Speaking of photography, I have a shoot scheduled for Feb. 2, an engaged couple. I'm pretty excited about it! I wish I didn't have to wait so long. Patience has never been my strong suit.
So I'm cleaning house today. Need to do that pretty badly, it's getting deep. This week was just a loss that way, and I'm not sure why. I was home Monday-Wednesday and worked on things, but never got quite caught up. I also have about 20 inserts to cut and sort from the past two weeks papers, so that's enough to keep me quite busy for the day.
Oh, and the pictures I'm sharing. Rob and I splurged this week. I know, doesn't fit in with my 'fiscally responsible in 2008' very well, but I bake ALOT and I had bought a kitchenaid hand mixer to replace my dead lost ten year old wedding gift mixer and it didn't work properly. So in the midst of sending it back, this mixer went on crazy sale ($50 cheaper then I've ever seen it in two years of watching it's price) so we decided to take the plunge and buy it instead. She's beautiful, I've used her three times. We (me and the kids) decided to name her Ruby. She's a welcome addition to our family. Oh, and she matches my kitchen and my china. Lucky me!
One of the ladies at church brought Sarah a big bag of hand me downs, including a pair of black mary janes. Well, the first time Sarah wore them the bows fell off. She was pretty upset about it. So I started thinking about it and decided to 'bling them up' and this was the result. I also cut off the strap so she could handle putting them on and off by herself. She's in love! So am I, trying to decide if it's five of me to make myself a pair.
Wow, when I think about all I did today, I just want to crawl in bed and die. I think I will. But I wanted to share this picture first. I bought this shirt with Christmas money a few weeks ago and I've been meaning to post it. Terrible photo, but you get the general idea. nighty night.
[the photo is a comic strip Eli drew and I just thought it was adorable]
So here is my long awaited New Year's post. I can't believe it's already the 8th and I'm just now doing it, but I'm starting to believe that our life in Baytown is just that way. For all my retentiveness, I still can't get things done on time because I'm just doing too much! :) But it's all good and I am grateful! I have a big old list of resolves to share, and I'm not sure how far I'll get on any of them, but that is the beauty of the new year - you always get a chance to start again. In case you want to check up on last year's resolve, you can linky back to it, but I'll tell you now I didn't do so great. We've had a very big year of turmoil and change in our household and while I didn't necessarily make progress on some of those goals, I've definitely grown a ton in 2007 and I am very excited about what God is doing in me already in 2008!! Oh, and if you want to go really old school, you can go back to 2006's resolutions. he heh.
So starting on a hard note and ending on a funner one (in my hubby's words)....
Be it Resolved in 2008:
1.) I hereby give up Dr Pepper. (wah!) I know, I'm an adult, and it's an addiction, and I know all the reason's I should. But yes, I'm still emotionally attached. But I am convinced that the five pounds from last year's resolution that are still here for this year's resolutions could be easily misplaced permenantly if I just gave up that sweet elixer. So as of today I'm on the wagon. Pray for me if you think of it. :)
2.) Daily Bible study. I was up to about 3 times a week real faithfully, and daily prayer this year. But I'm making an empassioned effort to raise that. I guess as a pastor's wife everyone is probably shocked that I admit my failure at that, but you would not believe how many people in a day steal my time. I have to do it first thing in the am or last thing before bed or it just simply doesn't happen. So far this year out of the 8 days, I've done my study 6 of them, that's pretty good for me. And I fell asleep last night watching Joel Osteen, so that's cool! I had a dream a few night's ago that I had left my oven on, at 675 degrees (which it doesn't even go to) and I walked into the kitchen to find blue flames shooting from the vents and the handles and the burners and the door. So I'm frantically trying to put out this fire because I don't want to call the fire department, I think it will be too expensive!! I woke up in a sweat and told Rob about it, and as soon as the words fell out of my mouth I realized what the dream meant - that I can't do this on my own and it's just silly to try!! That dream has stuck in my head this week and I keep thinking, my oven's on fire, I need to call for help! God's just waiting to rescue us and it doesn't cost a dime! wow.
3.) I will truly invest myself in my church. I read this on 2006's resolutions and I thought "Wow, I really did that at Hartford." And I feel like I am doing that here, and I want to continue. I want to maintain a right heart and attitude and a love for the service of God. I am so excited about all that we are doing at Trinity. I see the 20's and 30's group needing to grow and take off, the youth group needing to really explode this year, and I'm starting this scrapbooking small group in a few weeks. All of things have been placed on my heart and I think they are all valid investments of my time and effort. I need to uphold them in prayer and trust them to God. Also, we are hosting the Power Force here at the end of the month and Rob and I have taken on a lot of the responsibilities for that. We are praying that it will bring a lot of young families to our church and that we will be prepared to minister to them.
4.) This will be a year of financial responsibility. We made oodles of progress in this department last year. I think we took more steps forward in the area of our family finances in 2007 than we did from 1997-2006!! But we bought a house. gulp. And a car, which in hindsight was not our best choice. So we are selling the car. I have an ad in the paper and an interested buyer, so hopefully that will pan out. I love how God always gives you an out. I can remember Pastor Craig preaching about that back in the day. Anyway, with that car payment gone we will be in a much better place and able to make some progress again. Not sure that a blog is the best place to be so vocal about that kind of thing, but I think our country as a whole is in a very precarious place with money and these are things we shouldn't be afraid to talk about! Things left in the dark only get scarier, right?
5.) I will rock the Grocery Game this year. I know I just said we will be saving money, and this has to do with spending, but it's how to make our money go the furthest. And I won't be slacking in this department for the next 12 months. I know that this is one of the important keys to our family's overall success.
6.) We will tackle our house in 2008. There are so many things about this house that are not me. I can't believe I've let 6 months slide by without changing them! The entire interior needs a coat of paint. I've got to at least start this year, it's driving me nuts! At least remove those ugly vertical blinds! barf.
7.) Deal with my paperwork. My office has become such a mess, I can't hardly find anything. Ever since we moved in, things have been piling up. One good day at home uninterrupted and I could make a clean slate of it.
8.) Take on more photography. I think I'm getting to a point I need to make some decisions with my photos. I need to talk to an accountant and figure out what has to be done with all of that. I'd like to take a class to learn some more. I'm starting a free online class at 2Peas that I just discovered today. Pretty thrilled about that.
9.) I will come back and check in on my resolutions on the first of each month of 2008. I wrote a 'resolution check-up' apt in my date book, which I am very faithful to. One of the reasons my resolves have failed in the past is because I haven't checked back in.
Well, I thought I had more, but that's quite a bit. And if I can just accomplish half of them, I'll be pretty happy. So on to a lighter subject. This is a little survey I found a couple years ago and I just think it's fun to mentally review the year. This one was a biggie for us.
50 Year End Questions:
What are your resolutions for the next year? See above.
What happened in your life that you never expected to happen? We moved to Texas. wowsers.
What is one thing you did that you have never done before? Walked the boardwalk at Kemah.
What were your biggest achievements? Purchasing our house. Not because becoming $100,000 in debt is a brilliantly amazing thing that you should pat some one on the back for, but because it was such an act of faith for me.
What were your biggest challenges? Deciding to leave Hartford. Putting Eli in public school, but that's totally worked out. Learning to balance all that I want to do at church with all I want to do at home. Trusting God in the area of finances. Trying to help steer Sarah's very strong personality on to the right track.
What is your biggest regret? Buying a used car for too much money.
When were you happiest? Interviewing for the job in Texas. That was an awesome experience. Photographing families and couples. Thursdays home with Rob. ;)
Who was your best friend? gosh, I guess I'd have to say Lori. I wonder if she'll ever fall off that list. But I talk to Kimmie a ton too. And Rob holds me when I need holding. I'd be a miserable person without any of those three in my life.
Who surprised you this year? In what way? My mom and my sister, a surprise birthday party. That was pretty cool.
Who did you admire most this year? I really admire Linda, my senior pastor's wife. I think she is me in 30 some years. She's smart, accomplished, totally retentive, overachiever to the max. I love seeing a woman who's super successful being a pastor's wife. That is cool.
Who were you in love with? Rob wins that one. He amazes me. We did that photo shoot last week and I am just in awe of him. He so gets me. So few people do. I love that.
What was the most important lesson you learned? God gives us awesome second chances. And third, and fourth and fifth and sixth....
What was your favorite TV show? LOST. Comes back January 31st on Thursday nights. But I really like Grey's still, and the Office is hilarious. I don't get a lot of time for tv though.
What was your favorite film? Dan in Real Life. go see it already.
What was your favorite book? I can't remember. I read a lot this year, but I guess nothing that amazing. huh.
What was your favorite food? Steak Diane from Perry's. wow. Pretty much the only *amazing* food I have found in Texas so far. no offense, just not my style.
What was your favorite song? I've shared it before, but here you go again! :)
What were your favorite phrases? Y'all.
What did you do for your Birthday? surprise party with the fam. awesomeness.
Which was your favorite holiday? Christmas. It was quiet, but nice.
What was the best gift you gave? an ipod nano to Rob.
What was the best gift you received? An ipod nano from Rob.
What did someone say to you that surprised you? "So y'all are yankees." what is that? We are from Iowa! sheesh.
What was your hobby? Scrapbooking, when I have time. Blogging. Surfing. Travel. Photography.
What new discoveries did you make? Grocery Game. yes. and Red Box.
What was your guilty pleasure for the year? Peanut M&M's.
What did you do on an average day? phone calls, quick clean ups, pack lunches, drive across town, visit with church people, lots of CVS/Walgreens trips.
What was your fashion like? funkier this year. Lots of color and bright design. Loving flats and a dark jean.
What was your career/job like? different. More time at church, less at home. Kids starting school. We are in a new stage of life. but good.
Did you make more/less/same amount than the previous year? More. Thanks to Expo.
What new skills did you learn this year? How to deal with one way feeder roads. (grumble)
What do you think was your most valuable contribution? a good attitude. 90% of the time.
What lesson(s) did you learn about yourself? I can't do it all. Wish I could though. and I'll still probably try. :) Cause I'm five like that.
What were the most significant events of the past year? Moving to Texas, Rob's licensure at district council, buying a house, Sarah starting school.
What were you afraid of? Not paying our mortgage.
What was your most memorable journey? Flying to Houston, wading in the gulf with the kids.
Which did you do more of? Smile or cry? Definitely smile.
Did you make any new friends? many.
Did you lose any old friends? I'd like to not think they are lost, just out of touch.
Did you have any births/deaths in your family? My grandfather passed away in September.
Did you fall in love/out of love? Loving the Texas winter. Love my new scrapbook store in Clear Lake.
What is your newest tech item? My nano.
What was your most extravagant purchase? Our house.
What should you have done more of? ironically, last year's answer still applies. Asking God for help. He's right there, waiting to fill the need.
What should you have done less of? worrying.
What made the biggest difference in your life? cable internet.
What gave you joy? My family. Photographing people. Scrapbooking, when I can. Blogging. Doing ministry. Just loving on people.
What made you sad? the evening news. A general apathy in people. A lack of change on my part. My flesh. Oh, and discovering some new wrinkles this year. bummer.
What is your motto for the year? Do I really need a motto? I don't know, what's the motto with you?
I guess earlier today I was digging out and now I am cleaning out. I know I haven't posted them yet, but one of my New Year's Resolutions is to be more fiscally responsible. No laughing if you remember last years resolutions - that's the awesome part about a new year, you get another chance to start again and it's okay. Anyhoo, in light of my re-attempt at financial responsibility, another resolution is to kick butt with the grocery game. If you don't know what the grocery game is or you've forgotten about it, you can check it out here. I haven't forgotten about it, or even stopped by any means, but since we've moved to TX I've found it a lot more difficult to carve out time to do it properly. So in 2008 I want to rock the grocery game and see how much I can get for how little!! The best part about finding amazing deals and growing a stockpile is getting to give it away, I love blessing other people! Plus I love getting our family's grocery budget down in the $200 a month range and still eating like kings!! So, to encourage myself, and anyone else out there, I'm posting a picture of what I bought today. I spent just over $100 at four stores and please note that that is a 2x Tide, so that's a pretty big item. Oh, and Sarah is not included in my total, she is just modeling for me. I also have $13.50 in ECB's at CVS and $3.00 in rebates at Walgreens, so that knocks my total down a bit. :) but who's counting? oh, me.
Wow, it's amazing how much can pile up in ten days of family being here and my children being home from school and not going in to the office! My to do list today is major, but I really want to spend some time with my kids since they go back to school tomorrow already!
I've accomplished a lot this morning already and I'm really thankful for that. But I still need to work on my New Year's Resolutions and get that post up. :) I'm a big believer in resolutions, as my long time blog readers well know. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll have a good chance to get that done.
Char and Leah and I had such a good time together. I was a little disappointed that we didn't take more pictures, (other than our awesome TTD photos) but time just kind of slipped away. And we did a lot of shopping. :) But it was fun to hang out with girls. I really miss my girlfriends and hanging out with them, so just roaming through the mall was a real treat.
Oh, and I cleaned up on deals last week, it was ridiculous. My local scrapbook store had a 50% off sale on Heidi Swapp stuff and Christmas stuff, so combined with a gift card from Char I bought $80 worth of stuff for nothing and gave the balance on the gift card to the girls. That was awesome. Char also gifted me with some Victoria's Secret items she got for free or on super sale last August. Two things didn't fit, so I returned them and for some reason they gave me the original price on them - so I had $91 on a gift card!! Prime time too - it was their Semi-Annual clearance. Lots of new items and lotion found it's way into my bag and then the balance of the card went to Char. Before we left the mall I found a sweet dark pair of skinny-ish leg jeans at the Gap on clearance too that fit perfect. So it was pretty awesome leaving the mall with arms LADEN with packages having spent $35 on jeans and that's it.
This week I'm super psyched because there were FIVE inserts in my paper and the deals look awesome. We will be hitting Target and the drugstores and Kroger in the near future today.
Overall we had an awesome time and I'm so thankful to Charlotte for coming and all she did and brought and her time. And Leah did an amazing job with the photos, I'm still thinking about them. We literally have hundreds of beautiful photos to choose from, it was such an amazing experience and I can't wait to have them printed.
I truely hate that term, as trashing my beautiful gown was not the overall idea of this photo shoot. Rob and I wanted to do something special to celebrate ten years and an ultra intimate photo shoot seemed like the perfect (inexpensive and fabulous) way to do it. And my dear husband was so into it, I am thankful! We explored the Strand and we wandered up and down the beach. Leah did a fantastic job and we are super grateful!! Charlotte kept up with Sarah and that was a task in itself. Overall we had such a fun time and I love the pictures. There were twenty-eight awesome ones, and a lot of other ones I really liked. :)
The weather really cooperated, I'd been praying about it literally since about October when I first concocted this crazy idea. God just totally blessed us with a 70 degree day and it was brilliantly partially overcast, just enough to make the lighting really interesting.
Every shoot is different. Every family is unique and special. Every couple has their own interpretation of their relationship. There is no cookie cutter session with me. I think if I get to that point, it's time to put the camera down, don't you?
We've all seen those photographers - you know the underpaid hourlys at Sears, or the over-paid wedding photographer that you can tell is simply putting their time in to get the same images - just different folks than they did at the last setting or event.
I pray before each shoot to be freshly inspired by the people in front of my lens, that I see what God sees in them. He loves each of us as His precious children and delights in our personalities and quirks. I feel like my calling is to witness that special something in you and capture it in an image. The day that I stop feeling that way about it is the day I need to close up shop.
