Taking It Easy

As a family we've all been working our tails off these past few weeks. We woke up this morning and realized we needed a break! So we headed off to Gordon Moore Park for an hour or so and it was great. Right before it got hot. :) It felt good just to run around and blow off some steam and energy. Now we are laying Sarah down for a nap - I'll do some work for Expo and a little packing and a few dishes, then we'll head to the pool when she wakes up. It's just good to hang out and be a family for a bit, know what I mean??

I know I'm going to get flack for this...

We cut off Sarah's hair. But it's super cute, so don't be too cruel. We just decided that with no air in the car and the move to TX that maybe this little girl needed a little less hair. And I'm so glad we did, I love it. So does she. She just looks a little more put together. Not a bad thing. :) And it's so fun the way it all curls under, she's adorable.

packing

I am so tired of packing.

(if anyone was wondering)


Actually.

I'm just tired.

This is my house right now, pretty crazy, huh?

Also, me sacked out on the couch with my kids for a moment of down time. could use some more of that. sheesh.

Lots of phone calls today. And boxes. And tape. Piles of boxes and tape. I will survive this, right?

(still excited about my new house though. Yay New House!)

more wedding photos

finally! Sorry about the wait, that's just life sometimes. So happy with the way the photos turned out.

sorry.

My blog is just kind of at the bottom of my list lately. I know that some of you are still patiently waiting for Kimmie and Ricky pictures and I'm promising to get on that. I've just spent the majority of my time lately packing boxes and uploading to Expo. Rob got motivated and did 50 videos yesterday, when you add that to my 100 that's a lot of videos to upload! :) We are on our way to a pool party for Katelyn tonight. I think it should be a lot of fun. Ever since the hot weather hit I've been craving some pool time.

Oh, and we celebrated father's day/new house a bit early with AMAZING steak tonight on the grill. Loving that hubby!!

Also, throwing in a few fun pictures from the MOPs event the other day. These are my friends Gina and Estelle. So going to miss this group!

Pretty Much the Cutest Picture Ever

Enjoyed church tonight. Katelyn got her hair dyed and we all thought it was pretty adorable. She kind of reminds me of 1986's Rocker Barbie, but I loved Rocker Barbie!! Anyhoo, we took this adorable photo on the church steps after service. I love it!

Feeling Overwhelmed

Those of you who walked through the last move with us may remember the trials we had with Sarah. Apparently she hasn't outgrown it. With each box we pack, the more volatile she becomes. I guess she really hates change?? We've had a rough morning thus far. I spent an hour in Alton looking for boxes. (grr) and came up with ONE. Very frustrating. I'm just about ready to give up and buy boxes, only because I don't have time to search! It seems like everyone crushes boxes now, rather than letting people take them. We scored quite a few yesterday from Walmart and ShopNSpend, but have not been that lucky today. And my pile is quickly dwindling.
I guess I could really just use some prayer. I have a lot to do in the next few weeks and I think it's going to require some grace.

Ricky and Kim Forever

Wow. What an experience. I loved doing Kim and Ricky's photos. I was so nervous. Can't even tell you how nervous. But I prayed hard and I think that God blessed my efforts. (and Rob's, he was huge too!) We collectively took 900 photos between our two cameras. It was incredible. Unfotunately, I'm having trouble uploading the vertical shots - the Mac program I have self-corrects, which is great, but doesn't help me when I'm uploading to blogger. :) Anyway, I'm really pleased and I'm hoping they are too. We left three cds of photos with the newlyweds before we took off for home last night.

Well, there's more, but I'll have to upload later. Rob is on the laptop and that always interfere's with my connection a bit. I need some down time anyway. toodles.

a little sad

Sharing a few photos from our weekend. I'll be uploading Kim and Ricky wedding shots here in a just a minute. I've spent the last few hours working on lists and mentally preparing to pack. We are going to pick up boxes here shortly, and then the fury begins. I'm tempted to wander through my house with a camera and just capture a few things before they are forever changed. I have really enjoyed living in this house the past two years. I invested a lot of myself into it, and I'm a bit sad to leave it for our new shiney house. (seriously, our new house was built in 1996, I have shoes that are older than it!!) I have really appreciated the time we have spent here. I enjoyed the history of this house and I enjoyed embracing it's character with color and vintage stuff. Somehow I don't think my vintage table cloth curtains will suffice in the new house. :)
I do think that embracing change is a life lessong God has been instilling in me recently. Life moves so fast, I think it's important to enjoy things for the season you are in because season's change quickly. I want to live without regrets and appreciate things as they happen and embrace the change when it comes. I have loved this house, but I'm sure we will create many warm and happy memories in our new house as well.
We told our students tonight, the ones that weren't there this morning. That was hard. I will really miss our kids, we've grown close to them. I'm sad that we will miss major moments... graduations and proms and milestones in their life. But I know that this is part of life and part of ministry and staying here outside of God's will for our life is not a valid option.
Anyway, lots of deep thoughts tonight. Enjoying the quiet of being home again.

Who's House Is This??

So glad you asked. It's ours. :)

I know. It's crazy. And what is even crazier is that it is in Baytown, TX. We just accepted a youth and music pastorate at Trinity Tabernacle.

I know I've been really quiet on my blog lately, and that's a lot of the reason. We have known about our interview for almost a month and last week we flew down to meet the pastor, the church, see the community, etc. It's just a perfect fit. I'm sure it seems sudden to everyone around us, but we know that it's God and completely what we are supposed to do.

So.

We have two weeks to completely pack our home and get our rears down to Texas. I've known for one full week, and have yet to pack a box. We've just been really inanely busy with travel and house closing details and everything. We are securing some boxes tonight and the packing flurry begins.

Please be praying for us in these next few weeks. We have a lot on our plates. :)

Scrapbook Pages

I crazily squeezed in a few hours of scrapping this afternoon. I just needed to reconnect with myself creatively before the wedding shoot. This helped, I'm feeling more 'me' again.

Don't Look Kimmie!

This is the wedding card I made for Kimmie and Rickie. I also found some awesome black and white polka dot paper for their gift, and a big pink flower. Too fun! Can't wait for the weekend, it's going to be amazing and I'm so excited for them. A little pressure on the photography, but I'm sure we'll do fine. :) I'm just finishing up all the packing I can do the night before. Got a few more photos to share with you.

Amazing

That about sums it up. We loved Texas. It was so much fun. Kemah was amazing. We were standing there on the boardwalk gazing out at the sea and I just kept pinching myself in disbelief that I was there. I really tried to soak up life to the fullest every day on this trip. Galveston was beautiful too. I could have spent a lot more time there. Everywhere I went, all I could think was "how great is our God" because His creation just completely inspired me over and over.

HeyY'all

Greetings from sunny, beautiful Texas. We are having a blast here. I can't wait to get home and upload some pictures. Yesterday we went to Kemah - we enjoyed the boardwalk and it was incredible. There is nothing in the world quite like a breeze off the ocean. ;) Living it up here. -a

TEXAS DAY

Well, it's here. Today we hop on a plane and head for the great state of Texas and I'm pretty psyched. Eli and Sarah are pretty much beside themselves with excitement too. This week has flown by in a haze, but I survived it and now I'm ready for a change of scenery. Looking forward to dipping my toes in the bay and catching some rays. :) Toodles.