New Blog Address

Hello,

I am combining my blogs to be all in one place. So please follow me at:

http://pursuingmypassions.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

The Story of My Life...

I am Erin. This is me. I spent a lot of my growing up years traveling the great USA. My dad was in the military but surprisingly, the majority of our moving was AFTER he got out and was in search of a job. We lived in big cities and small towns. My favorite state we lived in was Wisconsin. I loved my friends, my school, and even my state. Best part was the cheese! After I moved out of my parent's house, I moved to Washington where I would eventually meet my husband and have our first child. We've recently bought a house and are finding ourselves nestled in like we've lived here all our life! These days I spend my time cooking delicious food, chasing after my sweet baby boy, and having lazy days with the husband. I also do a lot of cleaning. Making my own cleaning products makes my world go around! To some, my life might be boring, but right now I'm definitely ok with boring!

I have great plans and a passion growing inside of me to make my life count, to have a purpose, and to impact our world for the greater. I think about how great it would be to impact my extended family for God's Kingdom. I want to show the world around me God's great big Love. I feel a lot of times that the Christian world gets so hung up on a lot of things that don't matter, I wish we'd all get hung up on God's Love and showing it tangibly to the world around us. This is my heart and this is the story of my life...

Asher and Jax Fly into the Sky

Asher and Jax

Fly into the Sky

Asher is a little boy full of imagination and curiosity. He stands three feet tall but has never viewed himself as small. He has fuzzy auburn hair with big blue eyes that are full of life. He has a Daddy who loves to lift Asher up high and a Mommy who loves to hug Asher tight.

Today, Mommy and Asher are going outside to enjoy the summer day. Mommy thinks it's a great day to sit out in the sun and enjoy the warmth, while drinking iced water and reading a book. She gathers some fun toys for Asher to play with, including his favorite sock monkey, Jax. Mommy gets Asher all situated with his cup of iced water and makes sure that he is safe in the backyard, then she sits down in her chair and opens her book. Before long, Asher notices that she's completely engrossed in the book.

Asher plays a little with the different toys his Mommy set out for him. They are fun to lay with, but it doesn't take long before Asher gets bored with the toys. He grabs Jax and finds a good place in the grass to lay down and look up at the clouds. Before long, Asher is enjoying himself while watching how quickly the clouds are moving.

“What do you see?” Jax asks.

“I see the clouds moving.” Asher replies.

“No, I mean, what shapes or animals do you see in the clouds?”

“Oh, I have not even been looking at the clouds in that way. Right there, I would say that I see a monkey.” Asher responds.

“I see a lizard over there.” Jax points off into the distance.

They continue this game for quite some time before Asher suddenly says, “I wonder what a cloud feels like.”

They started pondering what the cloud might feel like. Would it be soft and fluffy, like a cotton ball? Or would it be wet, since the clouds are where the rain comes from? They had many questions. It didn't take long before they started discussing what it would be like to fly up to the clouds to feel them. That's when Jax came up with the idea of a magic carpet ride.

“A magic carpet? Where do we get one of those?” Asher wondered.

“Well, there's a small carpet in the bathroom. We will grab that carpet and wave our hands over it saying, 'Abracadabra!'” Jax said, enthusiastically.

“And that will work?” Asher asked, skeptically.

“Why would it not?”

“Well, let us give it a try then.” Asher said, still unsure.

They tip toed into the house, down the hall, and straight into the bathroom. Both Asher and Jax, waved their arms frantically, yelling “Abracadabra!”

Instantly, the carpet came to life. It flew around the room, did a few loops and then presented itself to Asher as if it were a butler instead of a carpet.

“Wow! I did not think you would come to life, much less fly.” Asher said, in complete amazement.

The carpet responded by flying in circles around Asher. He just giggled. Suddenly the carpet bumped into Asher in a way that made Asher fall into the carpet. It flew Asher around, this scared Asher since he had never been flying before. As it started to fly out of the bathroom, Asher panicked.

“We have to get Jax!” He shouted frantically.

The carpet turned around and went back for Jax. It bumped into Jax in a way that made Jax fly up into the air. Thankfully, the carpet caught Jax before he hit the ground. It then flew out of the bathroom and out the front door.

“Take us up into the clouds.” Jax ordered the carpet.

They flew higher and higher until they were above the clouds. To everyone's amazement the clouds were soft and a little sticky like cotton candy. To Asher's delight, they even tasted like cotton candy. The clouds also had trampolines in them. The carpet noticed the trampolines and dumped it's passengers onto a big cloud. Asher and Jax were scared when they were falling, but when they realized that the clouds were bouncy, they became excited at the opportunity to jump. They jumped really high and even had competitions with each other on how high they could jump. Next, they challenged each other to see how far they could jump. They jumped from cloud to cloud, quickly and effortlessly. The carpet got in on the competitions and even though it could fly fast, it could not jump faster than Asher. Asher was the cloud jumping king!

With all the fun they were having, Asher started to worry about not being near Mommy. He worried that she might notice that he was gone and get scared that something happened to him. So he told Jax and the carpet that he wanted to go home. The carpet happily took Asher and Jax home.

As they neared the house, Asher noticed that Mommy was not in the back yard anymore. The carpet landed in the front yard. As soon as it landed, the carpet and Jax went lifeless. Mommy came out the front door.

“There you are, Asher! I was wondering where you went off to.” Mommy said, relieved that she found her little monkey.

“Momma!” Asher said, gleefully. He ran into her arms and gave her the biggest hug.

“How would you like a little popsicle? How does banana flavored sound?” Mommy asked.

“Yummm!” Asher responded.

“I wonder why the bathroom rug is outside?” Mommy wondered as she picked it up to take it back into the house.

It seemed that all was right in the world. Daddy would be home at any moment to share in Asher's popsicle experience. Asher loved his Daddy. His favorite time of the day was when Daddy came home. Whenever Daddy came home, it meant that he would hug Asher tight and then play a lot of fun games with him. Asher definitely looked forward to playing a lot of fun games with Daddy.

So he sat by a window, overlooking the driveway and waited patiently. What a great day it was going to be!

Project Completed!

I'm super excited!

I have sadly taken a short break from writing little stories to having to work. I know... work... BOO! But is it really work if you're enjoying it? In this case, yes it is! I've worked for over a month on this project of mine. Here's the scoop!

So, about a month-ish ago, I was approached about coming up with crafts for the preschool age group. My church is putting on a Positive Parenting class thing for parents who may be searching for a better way to parent. Now I'm not sure that this is what it's really about or even the reasoning behind it. I'm also not sure that I even have the name right. I've been so focused on so many different areas in my life, but mainly BUYING A NEW HOUSE! If you have been reading my blog for the short while it's been alive and kicking, you'd know that Buying a House is a crazy and draining process, especially if the first house you invest in falls through.

Anyways, back to my project. I'm against babysitting. If I'm going to be watching someone else's kid so that they can have the freedom to be invested in, I want the kid to also be invested in. I know that a lot of kids don't think like adults, but I imagine that if they did, they would really not enjoy being thought of as an "After Thought." This means that even though my church is doing a thing for the parents, I want to be very intentional about the kids' time too.

A few times a month, I teach a preschool class at church. We have such great fun with different crafts and learning new things about the Bible. I wanted to take that same excitement (which is why I was approached in the first place) and apply it on a larger scale. At last count, we have 12-13 kids who will be attending IN OUR AGE GROUP of 4-7 year olds. I'm super excited about the possibilities. The first night of this event will be taking place in a school, whereas the second night is in a church.

So for what feels like many months (though it's only been a few weeks), I've been agonizing over what to do. I've been even second-guessing myself, thinking that maybe I should just go back and say that I just can't do this. The theme for the kids at first was Family. Have you ever searched online for family crafts? They basically center around crafts to do as a family or around the family tree. Not super helpful. I then had the brilliant idea of concentrating on the word "LOVE." Thanks to Valentine's Day, Love crafts are readily available. I put them all together and modified some crafts to be family related. The idea is that "We Love Our Families!"

You can check out my hard work at this website: http://adventureclub427.blogspot.com/

I feel like I'm finally proud of the kids portion of the event and even happier that I can say that I have finished my part! Hopefully things will go exceptionally well!

My Laptop's Note to Me

I haven't been able to post too much on this blog as of late due to the death of my last laptop. I loved that thing like it were my child, my large, square child. It decided to start making noises, which alerted me to a hardware problem. Then, one morning as I fed my son breakfast and turned my laptop on in faith, I found a message that told me that my Operating System could not be found. I actually took a picture, when I get a chance, I will show it to you. It's perfect because it shows my eyes in the "OH NO" stage! It cracks me up.

So, tonight, I went to Best Buy and impulsively bought myself a replacement. Actually, I told my husband what I wanted (CHEAP!) and said that he should pick it out and I'd pay for it. He picked it out, I paid for it and I think we both walked away very happy. 

Well, this new computer has Windows 8 on it. I can't say I'm too thrilled with this operating system. I feel like there's so much going on. It's hard to concentrate and multitask. I know that spending more than 15 minutes dinking around with this thing will fix my "new computer" problems. But for now, I'm mourning the loss of my Windows 7. I hate that the Windows 8 stuff won't recognize the Windows 7 Office programs. So I followed my husband's advice and have loaded LibreOffice on my computer. This is the result after many, MANY minutes of waiting for LibreOffice to download. It's a letter from my laptop to me. Hopefully you can relate to the lack of wanting to change a good thing!

Good morning!

My name is Baby. I am your new laptop. Please proceed to the start menu to get started. Do not confuse this Windows 8 for Windows 7 as we are worlds apart. Windows 8 requires a college degree to understand and to navigate. Windows 7 is for sissies. You, Miss, look like a sissy. Windows 7 is perfect for you. Why are you clicking on that over and over again? Did you know that if you do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, you have just proven that you are insane? Clicking on that over and over again expecting a different result is an insane choice. Please reconsider this choice. Banging on that button over and over again expecting a different result is not a proper response, it is still insanity. Screaming at the laptop is a useless response. Throwing the laptop across the room is a ba...

Asher's Magical Room

Asher is a little boy full of imagination and curiosity. He stands three feet tall but has never viewed himself as small. He has fuzzy auburn hair with big blue eyes that are full of life. He has a Daddy who likes to lift Asher up high and a Mommy who likes to hug Asher tight.

Today, Mommy wants Asher to play in his bedroom by himself for a while so that she can clean the house. Asher is excited at the opportunity to have some time to himself to play in his room. What Mommy doesn't know is that Asher's room is magical. She puts him in his room and says, "I need you to play in your room for a while so that I can clean the house. I love you my little monkey."

After Mommy leaves, Asher turns around and looks at his bedroom. His toys are put away and his bed is neatly made. The first thing he does is lay down in the middle of the room and looks at the ceiling light. Asher is fascinated with lights. Wherever he goes, he points them out to his Mommy and Daddy. He looks at the light and wonders how it works. What makes the light so bright?

After spending a while of looking at the ceiling light, he decides to get up and play with his favorite stuffed animal, a sock monkey named Jax. Asher picked Jax up off of Asher's bed. He held on tightly to Jax's arms and spun Jax in a circle. They spun and spun and spun until...

"Asher, I'm getting really dizzy!" Jax protested.

Asher was delighted to hear Jax's voice. They always have so much fun on their many adventures. He stopped spinning so that Jax would not be so dizzy.

"Thank you!" Jax said, happy that they weren't spinning any longer.

"You are welcome, Jax. What are we going to do today?" Asher asked.

"How about we create a theme park and invite the other toys to come enjoy the theme park with us?" Jax offered.

"I think this sounds like a great idea!" Asher exclaimed.

They got started on building the theme park  They put together the train track so that the different toys could easily tour their theme park. Once Asher put the train on the track, it let out a happy "TOOT! TOOT!" It then sped around the track excitedly. Next, they put together the Hot Wheels track in big loop de loops, they placed it in the center of the train track. They put some cars on it and all you heard was "Weee!" from each car. So far the theme park was loud, excited, and very active.

Asher then took some animals from his Noah's Ark toy and put them inside a gate to create a petting zoo. He had a couple lions that let out a loud ROAR, a couple of monkeys that said HEE HEE HOO HOO as they scratched their armpits, and a couple of elephants that trumpeted loudly. It seemed that all the animals were happy to be out of the ark. 

One thing their theme park needed was a pool. It was a good thing that Mommy left a bottle of water for Asher to drink. He unscrewed the lid and dumped it's contents into his toy boat to create a pool. The dinosaurs went straight into the boat. They were thrilled to be swimming and splashing around. Some water even splashed into Asher's face, which only resulted in a delighted giggle. 

Asher and Jax had quite a lot of fun creating their theme park. They created swings using string, a carousel using a lampshade and some horses, Asher even took some of Mommy's makeup to turn some of his stuffed animals into clowns. When they finished, they just sat back and watched as all the toys enjoyed Asher and Jax's creative masterpiece. 

Everything was going great until Mommy walked by. She had heard some commotion and had decided to check on Asher to make sure everything was alright. As her footsteps neared Asher's door, the toys all heard and went back into their lifeless state. Mommy ended up walking into a big mess. There were toys EVERYWHERE, not to mention a little pool of water in the middle of Asher's creation. She was shocked and amazed at what Asher had accomplished. 

"Looks like someone is having fun in here." Mommy stated. 

"See!" Asher exclaimed at his masterpiece.

"Yes, what a big mess! Let's go ahead and get this cleaned up and put away. When we're done, we'll go get a yummy snack." Mommy suggested.

The two of them started cleaning up Asher's mess. They put away all of the toys, dumped the water out of the boat, took apart the different tracks, and put everything in their own spot. Asher took Mommy's hand as she led him out of his room to the kitchen where she placed him in his chair. She prepared a delicious snack of animal crackers and a banana. As she handed it to him she said, "Here's a snack for my little monkey."

He ate the snack in no time.

"How would you like to help me make some cookies for Daddy?" Mommy asked.

"YAY!" Asher excitedly agreed. 

So Asher spent the rest of the afternoon baking cookies with his Mommy. Don't worry, he made sure that Jax was there to help him make the cookies. 

What a lovely afternoon that was!

The Adventures of Phil the Walrus as an Entertainment Slave

What is a slave? If you were to look up the definition in the dictionary, it would only show you a picture of Phil the Walrus. Phil is a slave.

Phil lives at the zoo, only he and the other animals call it "Prison." The thing is, they do not know what crime they committed to be put into prison. They assume they did something really bad in a past life and are serving at least one life sentence, perhaps more. Still, they hold onto the hope that they will soon be released from the prison as long as they are on their best behavior. Little do they know the zoo is not prison, rather a place for humans to gawk at them. Humans are easily entertained by animal noises, animal activities (such as swimming or balancing balls on their noses), and natural animal functions (like peeing). Phil and the other animals are entertainment slaves.

This is the story of Phil the Walrus as an entertainment slave.

Phil is not an ordinary walrus, he's not even an ordinary animal. In fact, he seems to be smarter than all the other animals at the zoo. He recently came to the conclusion that he will never be let out of prison. He no longer thought it was necessary to be on his best behavior in order to be released from this prison. He tried to persuade the other animals to do the same.

"Uh hem." Phil started. He noticed the other animals weren't paying him any attention. 

"UH HEM!" Phil shouted, the whole zoo quieted down.

"Attention all fellow inmates. It has come to my attention that there is no way we will ever be released from prison, even for Good Behavior. The humans would rather we continue living in these cages so that they remained entertained by us. I propose that we no longer entertain them. This means that we should be quiet, become inactive, and hold in our body functions until they all leave the prison. Maybe if they aren't entertained by us, they'll let us go. What do you say?

The animals were speechless, so many thoughts ran around in their brains. Some were afraid, wondering what would happen if the humans weren't entertained by them any longer. Others simply didn't want to stop peeing for the whole day. Still others were intrigued, but refuse to put in the effort. They ended up voicing their concerns to Phil, but ultimately told him that they would not go along with his plan. 

Phil got down from his big rock. He was discouraged at the lack of support from his fellow inmates. 

He found himself starting to feel angry at the other animals, which led to feelings of resentment. He started thinking of ways to be mean to the other animals. He considered getting onto the nearest bulldozer and driving it into different prison cells, in an attempt to scare or possibly harm the other animals. A few minutes went by and he started thinking this option was a bit rash. He then decided to set out and make the other animals look like behavioral problems. This option sounded like a lot of fun and he thought it sounded even better if he came off looking like a sweet walrus angel. He resolved to starting this plan in the morning. For now, he thought sleep sounded like a great plan.

Except, he woke up at 3 am. He tossed and turned, but when sleep wouldn't come, he became very bored. He looked around. There were no prison guards and all the other animals were asleep. 

Just then he remembered his plan of vengeance and mischievousness against the other animals who didn't support his plan of not entertaining the humans. Then it came to him. He would shave the tops of every tree in the prison. The prison guards would surely blame the giraffes. They would most certainly never suspect a walrus!

Phil thought this idea was brilliant and he started thinking up his plan to accomplish his goal of shaving the tops of every tree in the prison. He decided that launching remote controlled helicopters with remote controlled scissors attached to the helicopters would do the trick. These items were readily available thanks to children who unwisely brought their toys to prison, only to have them confiscated by the prison guards.

Phil got right to work. Thankfully all animals (with the exception of Phil) are heavy sleepers. In no time, the tops of every tree in the prison were bald. Phil was pretty proud of himself. He hid all the evidence and found that all this hard work made him sleepy. He headed back to his enclosure to settle in and sleep. For the rest of the night, Phil slept like a baby.

That morning, the whole prison was in an uproar. The prison guards were blaming the giraffes, in fact the whole prison were blaming the giraffes for the bald treetops. No one even found it strange that even the tops of the pine trees were bare. Giraffes HATE pine needles. They hate how pokey the needles are and how their mouths itch afterwards. It's an itch that can't be scratched! As expected, no one suspected Phil of this mischievous act. This made Phil very happy. In fact, it only encouraged him to continue his mission of revenge against the other animals. 

Later that night, while everyone was sleeping, Phil pooped into Dixie cups. He built a device that would fling his poop at the touch of a button. He mounted his contraption to the top of the monkeys' prison cell, using his trusty remote control helicopters and a remote controlled robot he built out of three sticks and piece of gum. He loaded this contraption with his Dixie cup contents. Did I mention that he's the walrus clone of MacGyver? Probably an important detail, I do apologize!

Next he went into every building and enclosure and tole every ice cube he could find. He piled every ice cube high in the penguin enclosure.

All this late night activity made him very sleepy, so he hid any evidence and headed back into his prison cell to settle in. Just like the night before, he slept like a baby, perhaps better than a baby. 

The next morning, as predicted the prison guards blamed the penguins for stealing all the ice cubes. The penguins also received blame from the other animals. This isn't common knowledge, but all zoo animals LOVE iced water. Since the main ingredients are ICE and water, you can understand why all these animals were upset. 

Later that day, Phil remembered his poop-flinging device. He watched the monkeys from his prison cell and waited until they were hyper and humans were around. When the time was right, Phil pushed the magic button and poop flew everywhere. It hit peeping Tommy smack dab in the face! Peeping Tommy was stunned and started screaming in such a high pitched scream that the wolves started to whine. When peeping Tommy's parents ran over to check on their son, Phil pressed the magic button twice, pelting the parents with poop. When the prison guards ran over to the family, they were outraged at the monkeys' behavior. Just then

SPLAT! SPLAT!

The prison guards had been pelted with poop. This earned the monkeys a day behind glass so they could no longer fling their poop. The monkeys were dumbfounded. They weren't the ones who flung their poop at the humans. For the rest of the day, they had to endure kids knocking on the glass. This troubled the monkeys. You see, when you do the slightest tap of your finger onto glass enclosures, it sounds like a freight train running into an airplane engine. Now imagine how loud and obnoxious KNOCKING on glass would be! This obviously made the monkeys very unhappy with the humans.

The monkeys did their best to quiet the noise. A few even got so desperate that they put poop in their ears. It didn't make too much of a difference, but it made enough of a difference that they were slightly happier than if they had no ear protection at all.

This whole scene made Phil pretty happy with himself. He found the taste of revenge to be oh so sweet. It was then that he realized there was another feeling creeping up. We would call that feeling, guilt. He called it nausea. He decided to take a nap to see if it helped this feeling go away. The nap did not help his "nausea" problem.

That night Phil fought through the guilt and continued with his mission. He wandered down to where the elephant paintings are displayed. There they were, big and beautiful. Phil took a moment to ponder at the meaning behind the paintings. He imagined what it would be like to be as popular as the elephants with their great talent. He was happy the paintings were displayed behind glass. He wanted to make a statement, but didn't want to ruin such beauty. He decided to sneeze on the glass to cover it in walrus snot. He sneezed and he sneezed until there was not enough moisture in his nose to produce any snot. The display was oozing with snot. It was thick and starting to drip. The thought of this would make any human sick to their stomach.

Somehow Phil tip toed into the Prison Kitchen and took out all the meat. He then hid all the meat in the Lions' Den. When he had finished putting all the meat in with the lions, he made his way out of the enclosure as quickly as he could when they started stirring. Did lions sleep as heavily as all the other animals? Phil found a hiding spot as quickly as he could. They started sniffing around and suddenly covered their noses with their paws. It would seem with all the exercise that Phil had been getting recently, he was extra sweaty and smelly. This horrid smell woke them up from their deep slumber. They noticed the pile of meat and immediately forgot the rancid smell that was Phil. The pile of meat made them think they had died and gone to heaven. In their excitement, they didn't notice Phil as he made his way into his own cell.

The next morning the prison guards were in a panic. They noticed that ALL of the meat was missing and they couldn't feed meat to any of the animals. This was troubling to the guards because they just had a shipment of meat the day before. They started walking around the prison looking for the meat thief. When they walked by the lions' enclosure, they noticed the lions' faces were covered in blood from their feast and they were extremely inactive due to the extra meat weight. Upon further investigation they found leftover meat in their den. The guards were furious! Where were they going to get the money for more meat? The other animals who ate meat weren't too happy with the lions either.

A couple other guards noticed the snot mess that Phil had made of the elephants' painting displays. The elephants were upset that their artwork had been treated so disrespectfully. They vowed to find the culprit immediately and to pour their paints on the culprit once he or she were found.

Just then, one of the guards exited one of the buildings and walked excitedly to the guard that seemed to be in charge. He quickly told the guard in charge about what he found on the surveillance cameras. Phil assumed this was the conversation because the guard kept pointing to the cameras hidden around the zoo and made big motions towards Phil. That's when Phil knew... he had been caught.

That day Phil was moved into a bigger enclosure that was Walrus Proofed. The guards made sure that there was no way that Phil could ever escape to cause any more trouble in the prison. The other animals were not happy with Phil. They were furious at him. They hated that he got them in trouble the few days prior, but were happy that the truth won out. All the animals started getting along again, except that no one would talk or even look at Phil. This displeased Phil because he felt like they deserved everything that came to them.

That night Phil thought about the day and he was so angry, mostly because he got caught. Getting caught took away all the enjoyment he got out of his mission. He decided that since the prison guards had done their best to make sure he could never escape, that he would take up magic to pass the time. For days he worked on different magic tricks and even prepared to do a magic show for the whole prison.

The day finally came where he would perform his magic show. He started with the usual, pulling the bunny out of the ground trick. He moved on to pulling snot out of his nose like it was a never ending string of bandannas  Then it came to the grand finale of magic tricks... he would disappear.

That's when poop started flying everywhere, snot poured from the sky, ice cubes pelted the visitors, and...

Phil the Walrus disappeared.

Moral of the Story: Go along with any idea a walrus has, it's better than being blamed for things you did not do.

Shining Sun!

I know my past few posts seem a bit down and depressing. I'm here to say that my gloomy cloud is lifted, the sun is shining, and my face sports a smile. It seems that the whole house was stressed and now everyone is calming down and getting into a groove. Time really does help some issues, but being someone with a servant's heart does help matters as well. My in laws come home to a house that's clean and picked up. I'm pretty sure they're enjoying it and will notice it when we finally move into our own house. It's nice to be a blessing and to make their lives a little easier.

This past week their cat got ran over by a car. It was an especially traumatic experience because they just put a cat down about a month ago. The cat that got ran over by a car has survived. He gimped away with a broken leg. The poor thing now sports a splint with a purple wrap. He's a boy... wearing purple. I was hoping he'd have green or blue... something manlier. He also has some pretty amazing pain killers that I wish my cat would have had when she almost died. You rub it in his ear. I think this is the weirdest concept, but within about 15 minutes it seems to take effect. He's a happy boy right now!

This past week I discovered the fun of Instagram. Here is some proof:

"I always feel like somebody's watching me!!"

Making faces!

My two littlest kitties sleeping on my bed.

Our drive home from church on Sunday, it was raining.

Instagram is definitely entertaining. I'm enjoying how all my pictures have that "Wow" factor. Maybe I'll become a professional Instagram Photographer... does that exist? If not, it does now! I've also decided to become a professional singer that ONLY does jingles! I'll be famous before we know it!

STRIKE ONE!

I just had to tell this amusing little story from last night.

Last night was youth group. We had a couple extra students than normal, which brought our total up to 6 students. I know... pretty crazy! In one night, we grew by 50%. Those are some good percentages, don't you think?

Well, we started the night out by playing Live Action Mafia. Our students love this game and request it every single week. My husband and I weren't really in the mood to do much of anything, and the teens were really rowdy  so we opted for an impromptu Game Night. This brought much excitement to our teenagers.

After a few games of Mafia, we played Sardines. If you don't know what Sardines is, it's where one person goes and hides and everyone else tries to find them. Once you find the person, you hide WITH the person. Some places are especially squishy, which is where the name "Sardines" comes into play. So I hid first, and they found me pretty quickly. Next up was a student of ours, and then after that was my husband. My husband requested a few extra minutes so he could go to the bathroom before hiding. This is where things went totally chaotic. There were pillows being thrown in every which direction, teenagers running around a room and screaming. If I didn't know better, I would say that I was standing in the middle of a war zone between two countries-- Pillowland and crazy Screaming Teenagers. It was so chaotic that parenting movies are based off moments like that.

My first action was to tell them to put the pillows away. I had two kids who decided they would throw in their last pillow at each other, so I yelled "STRIKE ONE! PUT THE PILLOWS AWAY!" Suddenly the room got so quiet, that you could hear a pin drop. Actually quieter, you could hear a feather hit the ground. It amused me so greatly because of the looks they were giving me.

I never yell in youth group. I never call out strikes. They know that if they break the rules, we do call our strikes. They have three strikes before they're "Out" (like in baseball, only they're out for a while). Normally, I never think to call out a strike. I found myself, in this situation, shocked by how quickly I called out those strikes. Honestly, I was a bit proud of myself.

The teenagers were quiet for a brief moment. Some started moping around like they were in a LOT of trouble. Last night was just chaotic. The whole night was. I probably should have called out more strikes for poor sportsmanship. I just liked that in that moment when I called a couple students out, they took me seriously. I guess I had that tone of, "Don't mess with me!"

It was a good moment. I'm proud of that moment!

Vaseline

What is it with my kid and Vaseline?

The kid has had a pretty bad diaper rash for the past few days. Diaper rashes are a constant thing with him, 99.9% of them tend to be acid burns (like foods he eat don't agree with him). I always have Vaseline on hand, ready to go at a moment's notice. I think the stuff is amazing, plus he's allergic to all the other helps out there.

Anyways, on more than one occasion, my son has gotten into the Vaseline and has had a party. It's sooo obnoxious! I don't know what's so enticing to him, is it the lid, is it the Vaseline itself? I have no idea what intrigues him so.

This morning, it happened again. Let me just say right now, I am NOT IN THE MOOD! I wanted to bathe him in our bathroom, but it's being occupied by three teenaged girls. I knew that it would be a while, but in the middle of our wait (they're still not out of the bathroom by the way) he decided to have a Vaseline Party. That stuff is so nasty to try to get off things that it should not be on. What was I supposed to do? The other tub is so nasty that I'm afraid of catching various gross diseases. Seriously, If the kid sits down, I'm afraid his penis will fall off, it's that nasty. So I did what any person would do, I made him stand... I have priorities here. My plan is to one day hand my grand children Vaseline as payback, in order to do this, my little man needs his manly parts.

That was one bath that I think was pretty scarring. I don't know why. Maybe it was the standing. Maybe it was too warm for him. Maybe it was the type of shampoo we had to use. Or maybe it was the simple fact that I talked over and over again about how unhappy I was with him for doing this. I doubt this will have a lasting effect on him and curb his Vaseline party interests in the future, but I can hope, right?

Moral of the story: Don't leave Vaseline around a child. Also, smack whoever left the Vaseline out in the first place!

Easter

First off, a little announcement. Chips Ahoy has come out with a new kind of cookie, they're advertised as GOOEY! Some have fudge, others caramel, and I think there was one other flavor. I bought the fudge ones and they tasted a lot like pretty yummy brownies. I recommend that everyone go out and buy a package (at least of the fudge ones because those are the ones I know are delicious).

Anyways, this past Sunday was Easter. My family (as in grandparents, aunts, and uncles) has a tradition where everyone goes to my grandparents' house to hunt Easter eggs. Every year we have a "prize egg." which has ALL the goodies in them. Most years it even has a lot of money in it. My husband heard that my family hides 300 Easter eggs for maybe 10 kids (possibly less).

This year was my son's first time Easter Egg hunting. Since he's recently learned about putting his toys away, he caught on to putting the eggs into his bag. A little bit into it, he started noticing the eggs and would get really excited as he leaned down to pick it up and put it in his bag. I was really impressed, he probably got 20 eggs or more. The older kids had a lot more in their bags, but not by much.

Yesterday's post was kind of depressing, mostly because I've been feeling really depressed about my current living situation. For those who don't know, my living situation is that I am in limbo. We're pursuing home ownership  we have a house that looks like it might even be ours, and until that official closing date we are living with my in laws. It's not an easy task, it's rather taxing, difficult, and a constant reminder of the changes happening in my life. For this, I have been pretty depressed, able to cry on cue if I ever took up acting.

Easter was a fantastic day for me though. I was able to get out of the house and go be around my family. My family is pretty quirky, but I generally feel quite loved around them-- especially my grandparents. My grandparents aren't the typical grandparents. I've lived with them on and off my whole life and even did a cross-country road trip with my grandpa. They're full of life, great stories and memories, and most of all I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they love me. It's such a great feeling.

I also visited my other "dad." He's not my biological dad, he's the dad that I adopted. He used to be my boss/mentor and even though I haven't been working with him for about 3 years now, I still keep in contact with him and visit him when I can. He's an amazing man who loves me like I'm his own kid. I've seen him in his dad-role many times and I don't ever see much of a difference with how he treats them and how he treats me. This is currently a big deal right now with living with my in laws. With my in laws, there's a pretty major difference with how they treat their own kids and how they treat me. Anyways, I spent a lot of time with my dad and his family and it was just a refreshing time. The most stressful part was leaving and coming back to our current house.

I feel like I've "checked out" since moving in with my in laws. I don't feel very present with them, due to the hurt that I'm feeling. Yesterday I made a point to clean a bathroom and vacuum the entire house, as well as do OODLES of laundry. When they came home, it seemed like it made my in laws more peaceful and more peaceful towards me. I don't know if it was that I straightened up, cleaned up, or if they just needed to get back into the Monday routine, but there was a noticeable difference in attitudes. It was a difference that I actually felt some hope about our situation.

In light of this new day and a pretty great ending to yesterday, I've taken some time to reflect on the meaning of Easter. Easter is the celebration that Jesus rose from the dead, that he defeated the grave. The grave couldn't hold him. I don't want to believe in a God that is just like me, I want to believe in one that is greater than me and can do great things. Being raised from the dead is something that no human can do to themselves. If they could, graveyards wouldn't have bodies in them. I have this overwhelming desire to live life to the fullest. To live a life full of meaning and purpose and JOY. Because of Jesus, I have all of these things, best of all, I have his love and his HOPE.

One of my friends posted online yesterday that "He has Risen!" You could look at it and be like, "wow, he was slow to catch up, since Easter was yesterday." Or you can look at it the way all Christ-Followers should, that Jesus is Alive all year long! If he's alive all year long, then he can do something about our situation today. He can change our hearts today.

Easter is just a reminder of the hope we have.

Short Seasons

I haven't written in quite a while. Lots of new changes have happened since I last posted. Since I don't feel like reading over my past posts to see where I left off, I may repeat a few things.

First, We were going for a house that was supposed to close on the 25th. We ended up rescinding our offer. On top of being jerked around by those people, their listing agent was completely unethical, unprofessional, and possibly even a bit on the illegal side (I'm not so sure about it, if it isn't illegal, then it should be). He started calling our bank to see if we had the finances to go higher on price. Thankfully our bank respected our privacy and told him to bug off. Since that house fell through, we have been on the hunt for a new place. Last weekend we put an offer on a beautiful and perfect house for us, but for reasons other than financial, the owner went with the client of an agent she knew. We then turned around and put an offer on my other first choice house and the couple accepted our offer. So far this house has been a breeze to work with and the owners seem exceptionally nice. We are still waiting for the earnest money back from the first house. This could make or break whether or not we actually get this house. We're praying hard, not only because we can really use the money, but also because we don't want to have this go any farther (as in no lawyers and whatever).  It's frustrating and discouraging, but we are encouraged by this other house and its owners.

Second, we have moved out of our apartment and in with the in laws. The reason was to save money and be able to put more towards the house. I also didn't want to keep jerking around our land lord, because I am just a really nice person. I work really hard to keep my promises and I felt that going back and trying to work things out would make me look like a flake. I also understand that they need to be able to know how to plan for things.

Anyways, we got all moved out, go the apartment cleaned up and looking better than when I moved in there. It was beautiful and I was sad to leave it, though still hopeful and excited about becoming a home owner. The down side to all of this is that my in laws came over to help pack up a few extra things and now I don't know where anything of value is. It frustrates me and stresses me because I like things to be organized. When I pack boxes, I can pretty much tell you what is in the boxes. Now, I have no idea and I'm already stressed about unpacking all these boxes because there's no organization to them. It will make unpacking take MUCH longer, and we won't be able to unpack based on priority.

The dynamics of living with the In Laws has been incredibly stressful to me. Emotionally, I have sunk into a state of depression. If you look at me wrong or use an annoyed tone, I burst into big, fat tears! No matter how hard I try, it's really difficult to stop crying once I get started. All of this is incredibly abnormal to me. I'm constantly frustrated and stressed that I'm not even talking as much as normal. I have to watch the words that come out of my mouth pretty closely, for fear of being offended or being disciplined like a small child. I have to work hard to actually parent my own child and to establish that as my role in his life because the in laws want to take over. I constantly feel like I'm messing up, that I'm not good enough,and that I pretty much suck at life. Moving into my own house cannot come fast enough.

I'm working really hard at being a blessing. I've been cleaning a lot: doing dishes, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, etc. If a need presents itself, I fill it. Part of this is also out of boredom. I've also been taking my husband and son out for walks. The other day we walked 6-7 miles plus we walked around in Walmart. Keep in mind that we haven't done any real exercise in a long time. It was really refreshing and nice to get out as a family.

My son has been so good. He hasn't been allowed to take much of a nap in the last 4 days. He tries to but the family keeps their tvs on SO LOUD! It's loud enough that it's quite difficult to have a conversation. If I put him in his bed to give him the chance and he cries, the grandparents will go and get him up. My poor boy has really bright red dark circles under his eyes. Yesterday he took to falling asleep whenever he could. He fell asleep on the way to church (which is an hour) and he slept for 3 hours while we were at church, and then fell asleep during car rides when we continued our Easter trek to see my extended family who live 3 hours away. During all of this, my son hasn't been real grumpy. He still is pretty happy.

In the midst of all the life changes and this season, I hold onto the hope that this season will be a short one. The prediction is that (if all goes well) we will be in our new house before April is over. Our closing date is May 9th, three days before Mother's Day.

Here's to a REALLY SHORT SEASON and for EVERYTHING to work out WELL!

French Onion Pork Chops with Gravy

Ok, I don't know that it's officially French Onion, but it tastes like it.

Ingredients-
2 TBS Beef Base or Beef Bullion Cubes (I use Beef Base, so you'd have to play around with the bullion cubes)
1-2 tsp Dried Minced Onions
Water
Boneless Pork Chops
*** Please note that the measurements are not exact. If you add 6 pork chops, you will want enough water to cover it, which will require you to add more beef base and onions. My measurements are for 2-3 pork chops.

Directions:
In a crock pot, mix Beef Base and water until it is a dark brown (not black) color. You will want the water to be able to cover your pork chops. Add dried minced onions. Cook on high for 2-3 hours or until done. Once the pork chops are done, ladle the water into a small pot over medium heat. Add flour to thicken to make a gravy. Be sure to taste the gravy. If it's too strong/salty, add water. You may need to add more flour, but give it time to heat up. If it's not strong enough, add beef base and minced onion to taste.  Serve over Mashed Potatoes!


This makes the best pork chops that are fall-apart good! My husband swears he has died and gone to heaven, with every bite he takes.

**When I make it again, I will post pictures!

Just Showing Up

When I was about thirteen years old, I met this guy named Matt. Matt was an odd character (and still is). Our first real encounter was that we rode in the back of a car to go to Walmart together. He was painfully quiet and because of this quietness, I thought he was weird, or off, or so different that we would never connect. The first words he ever spoke to me were, "So did you get everything you wanted to buy?" I just looked at him and said, "Huh?" I was in shock that he spoke. This was after a 30 minute drive to Walmart, after shopping in Walmart, and standing in the checkout lanes waiting for my mom to buy what she needed. Matt was weird.

Somehow, though I'm not sure how it REALLY got started, we struck a friendship and really hit it off. I was only in Washington for 10 days total and met him a few days into it, but by the end of it we were best friends. Our friendship still exists today fourteen years later. He is now married to an amazing woman who is so beautiful, I constantly am wondering how he caught her. Not that he didn't deserve someone so special, but she is stunning. She's got this devious side that assures me that they get along GREAT! Whenever we talk, I am constantly plotting against Matt. It's what I do...

Anyways, when Matt walked into my life, I was dealing with depression and on a few occasions was considering taking my own life. Life seemed hopeless, I felt lost, I felt like I was wandering aimlessly through this life with no passion and no purpose. Matt was always there, maybe not in location, but if I sent him an email (because that was the cool thing back then), I would have a response within 24 hours. Above all else, I knew that Matt loved me, that he cared for me, and that he always had my best interests at heart. 

About eight years ago, I was having a conversation with my Mom about how my grandma's church was looking for a youth pastor. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, because it seemed like the church went through youth pastors really quickly. I knew that I wanted to be a youth pastor, but dismissed this church. At the time I was working overnights at Walmart. I went to bed that day (my night) and could not sleep. For two days, whenever I'd try to sleep, I would just get so excited that I literally had a grand total of 2 hours of sleep in 48 hours. I wasn't even tired when I went to work. I was energized, excited, giddy, and full of passion and expectation. Eventually, I just emailed my grandparents telling them of my situation. I was young (just barely 19), had no credentials, and I was a single female. These don't really spell success. I figured that if I emailed them that the situation would no longer be in my hands and that maybe I'd get some sleep.

Long story short, I ended up moving to Washington (to the same exact area as where I met Matt). My senior pastor was a guy named George. When I talked to him on the phone, I thought he was a short, fat, balding dark headed man. He turned out to be this tall, skinny, red headed man (who was sort of balding, but had a lot more hair than I imagined). George is not your typical pastor (at least in my limited experience). He's fun, dorky, easy to talk to, and always willing to throw things (which he learned from his previous pastor) when he gets teased. In the almost five years I spent with him, he became my dad. When I was leaving Washington, my biggest fear was losing that relationship and he told me, "I will be in your life as long as you will have me." That's a direct quote, I'll never forget those words. Eight years later, he has held true to his promise. He was the minister who married my husband and I, he dedicated my son when he was a month old, and he even came to my son's first birthday (which we had only invited grandparents). He's an incredible person and I am blessed beyond words that he showed up in my life.

I tell you these two stories about these amazing men, to tell you that sometimes the most important thing you can do in someone's life is to just show up. A lot of times we enter into a relationship with someone to see what we can get out of the deal, but these men befriended me and loved me without expecting anything in return. They've never left me when things got hard, in fact, they're the ones I run to when life is discouraging, hard, or unbearable. They're perfect people to help carry the load, and they do it happily. 

How has someone "just showing up" impacted your life?

Let Hope Arise...

This past weekend has been a rough one. It's the continuation of the Roller Coaster affect known as Buying a House. Being this close to our closing date (which was yesterday), we couldn't help but get excited and expectant that we would be moving in. You know that saying, "No news is good news?" It's definitely how I live when it comes to buying a house. It's probably the wrong way to look at this situation, but no news has given me hope.

Friday the owner asked for an extension. He wanted to the 29th, which is the day we're supposed to be out of our apartment. I started to panic and even teared up a bit. In my mind, I'm thinking, "What do we do?!" We gave him to the "25th or sooner." 

Sunday, I ran into my Realtor at the grocery store and he gave me a glimmer of hope that would allow us to close probably this week. I held onto that glimmer of hope and allowed it to lift me up.

Monday rolls around and my hope is smashed into the ground and grounded up into small dust like pieces.

This is where our house stands. Ground into dusty little pieces.

One minute we're on cloud nine, the next we're in a deep depression. One minute we have hope, the next, despair. I'm beginning to have serious doubts that we'll ever call this place home or ours. I hate feeling like I've wasted my time, energy, money, and hope on this house. Home buying seems like a club that's REALLY HARD to get into. 

Sometimes when I get together with my younger brother, we joke around that we're creating a club and when the other person teases us, we say, "you're not allowed in my club." If you get invited into my brother's club, he tells you that your membership cards are in the mail. I feel like my membership card for home buying is lost in the mail. 

BUT God. But God has a plan for my life, he has a plan for this process. I believe He has my best interests at heart. I know that if this house doesn't work out in the end, that He has something better in mind. Better does not necessarily mean bigger, or without the need for repairs, but it might mean motivated owners with a decent house. I pray that through this process that the relationship between my husband and I is strengthened as we face the hope and discouragement of this process. 

I was listening to a song this morning. I think it's such an uplifting and encouraging song. One part says, "So let hope arise and darkness tremble in Your holy light! That every eye will see Jesus our God, great and mighty to be praised!" In the song, You feel hope arising inside of you, and the part where it says "Darkness tremble" sounds like a thunderstorm. I just pray that this is what happens in our situation, that hope rises and darkness trembles and dispels, never to return. 

I pray that hope rises and darkness trembles and dispels in your situation too. 

Seems we all need this. 

Disappointment

Have you ever noticed that in fairy tales that sometimes the main character has to go through some disappointment before he/she settles into the amazing life they've always wanted? Well, in the story about finally getting into a house we'll own, we have hit that place of disappointment. This isn't even our first time hitting that place, but we see our castle, we feel the good life changes on the horizon, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We really knew that the odds were that we weren't going to close on our house on March 18th, but a couple can dream, hope, pray, and expect it right? We did all those things. We dreamed big, we hoped, we prayed hard, we expected it and lived like it was going to happen. When it's all said and done, the owner of the house hasn't held up his end of the contract. He hasn't fixed the things he signed, saying he would. So we're two days away and yesterday he asked for an extension.

Little Mister's response to the Extension...

I've learned that when we choose to be lazy or procrastinate about something, we tend to use really lame excuses. Sometimes the excuses we give don't really excuse us from responsibility. The cyst on my ear hurts, I have a pimple, my shoulder is sore.... they're kind of lame excuses when you realize that the person has had 6+ weeks to complete this process. Everyone on our end (realtor, bank, ourselves) are all frustrated and extremely disappointed. I'm specifically frustrated with the fact that this guys' laziness has cost me extra money NEEDLESSLY.

So what do I learn from this situation? What's the moral of the story?

You know when Jesus was saying, Let your yes be yes and your no be no? He was talking about when you say yes to something, you do what you committed to. When you say no to something, you commit to that as well. Don't make yourself out to be a liar. It makes me really examine my own life and my own speech. I'd love to be at a place where when I say no to something, I stick with it until people realize that those two words have tremendous value, that they can count on it. I don't want someone to wear down my no until it became a yes. I also don't want to be someone who says yes constantly, but backs out all the time. That's called a flake. Being flaky is really frustrating to the people who are counting on you.

So the moral of the story, summed up, is commit to something and stick with it!

Anticipation!

Three more days till our closing date on our house!! I am BEYOND excited. Every topic of conversation I have had with the Hubs has started with, "I'm so ready to be in our house..." I'm guessing he's getting a little tired of me, but I'M SO READY TO BE IN MY NEW HOUSE!!!! :)

Last week was a bit discouraging, but from the sounds of things this week, a March 18th closing date is actually seeming like it's going to happen. I'm starting to believe it's a done deal. We'll hopefully find out more today. I'm hoping to find out a time and place to sign the stinkin papers as well as a time to get my keys.

This week we've also had a bit of added excitement as one of our students will be moving in with us in June. She is moving in with the goal and intention of finding a local job and apartment to move into. After hearing her official answer on Wednesday and hearing her excitement, it's only fueled my desire to be in my new house. I told her that she could paint her room and decorate it whatever she wants. Though the painting restrictions were just no red or black walls. So we've been discussing colors and decorations. She's never lived in a place that had freedom to paint the walls. She's also mentioned that we'll get a free babysitter (SCORE!) and that she wants to do grocery shopping with me. I told her with all these things she's talking about, I may never want her to leave, and she replied, "I'm ok with that!" I think when she moves in, we'll have a little buddy for a while, maybe even until we kick her out. Seeing how I've been wanting someone to pal around with, I doubt we'll be kicking her out.

I was telling the Hubs that with being a youth pastor so long and genuinely thinking of these students as my kids, that I was excited to take one home! You know, like a cute puppy from the store. I understand that having a student in my house takes on an entirely new meaning to "full time ministry." 24/7 baby! It will give us a glimpse into the future of when our son is a teenager. What kind of people do we really want to be? How do we want to handle arguments? What do we want to teach our kid through how we handle arguments? There are so many questions, but it's exciting. This girl gets to see the real us, not just the us that stands up in front of teens on Wednesday Nights and talks, but she'll see us in our pajamas, when we're not too happy with our kid, she'll actually see public displays of affection! I look forward to this challenge! :)

I'm excited to be able to serve another person in my house. To bless this girl with not only a place to live but also some really amazing food! I'm definitely excited about getting back into my cooking/baking. With all this packing up and moving stuff, I haven't done much baking in recent times. So when I get into my new house (FINALLY), I will start posting recipes a lot more often!

Anticipation-- I'm full of it!

Two Reasons Why You Should Never Leave Your Laptop Alone With Your Toddler

This past week we had a really amusing incident involving my husband's laptop and my son. Earlier in the day my husband and son were hanging out in my son's room. I'm pretty sure that the Little Mister was playing with his toys while my husband sat on his laptop. Anyways, we had dinner and the Hubs left his laptop in the Little Mister's room.

Later that night, we had the Little Mister play in his room while the rest of the household relaxed. He was happy, we were happy, everything was happy. Just then my husband looked down the hall, into my son's room and saw him playing on the laptop. He immediately jumped up yelling "NOOOOOOO." It was in slow motion in his mind I'm sure. I think when he got there he didn't think that the Little Mister had done much, he was wrong.

He brings the laptop back like it's a wounded animal that's on the verge of death. I asked him what the Little Mister did and he said, "I don't know, but it's in Russian." Then a few minutes later he said, "He changed the password and now I can't log on to my computer. (These are two reasons to never leave your laptop alone with a toddler). I, of course, was supportive which was evident by my hysterical laughter. Hubs kept saying, "it's not funny." And I would reply, "Actually, it's pretty funny."

I had visions of that Baby Geniuses movie and was wondering what password Little Mister could have put in. I'd like to say for the record, no one would ever be able to figure it out (not that I know what the password is). He likes to put full hands on the laptop and hit it and he also likes to do one letter over and over again. It's entirely likely that he just pushed the J a hundred times and that's the password. Or he could go crazy and it's some genius word from a baby who can't even have a conversation.

Then to top it off, setting the language to Russian... Maybe my son really is a genius! Maybe he doesn't speak English well but his Russian is FLUENT!

So many possibilities!

If you're wanting your laptop to stay as is, keep it away from the little people! :)

Homemade Cheese Crackers

Look at these!! Don't they look tasty?! I am shocked at how well they turned out. Until today I had trouble finding a decent cracker recipe. I found the recipe at this site. It's actually a homemade version of Goldfish Crackers, which I think are delightful.

For my specific batch, I used cheddar cheese and pepper jack cheese. So the end result is cheesy with a slight kick. I look forward to having my son try these, but even if he doesn't like them... I will be chowing them down by the handful!

Enjoy!

Like a Child

I wonder what it's like to look through the eyes of THIS child. He's at an age where he can't really communicate his feelings with words. He is fascinated with EVERYTHING and is always checking it out to see how it works. I don't think it's too much longer before he starts taking his toys apart and trying to put them back together. He's super smart, very observant, and equally as curious. Yet he is easy going, generally well behaved, and ready to explore the world at a moment's notice.

This morning has been a fantastic one. He's been so happy and cheery that I can't help but gather him up into my arms and squeeze as tight as I can. I try to kiss him all over his face while I do this. I keep thinking that in a few years, I won't be able to take such liberties with affection, so I try to hold onto this moment, RIGHT NOW.

Even though everything has been so great this morning, I find myself feeling weighed down by the stresses in my life. We hear news today on whether or not our new house passed the appraisal. If it didn't, then that means we can't get a loan for the house. If we can't get the loan for the house, then we can't get that house. I'm not so sure what happens if we can't get that house, I don't really know what we'll do. These thoughts are on my mind. Plus our truck has broken down and is in great need of the kind of love that only money can buy. So even though this morning has been so great, I find that thinking outside of this moment brings me stress.

It makes me think of when Jesus told people to not worry. In my own "paraphrased" version, he's pretty much saying, "Don't worry... I've got this." There's a part that says, "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." (Matthew 6:34) Today's trouble is enough for today. If I keep worrying about what will happen tomorrow and the next day and the next day, on top of the things I worry about today, obviously I'm going to be feeling exactly how I am right now. Overwhelmed, stressed, worried, unable to enjoy the present.

So right now, I choose to live in the TODAY and the RIGHT NOW! If I do this, then my son gets the best of me.

So as I listen to my son making fart noises in the other room, the thought strikes me that just as I rely on God to take care of our situation, to take care of the unknown and the scary things, my son is relying on me to take care of him. He has absolute trust that everything will be alright because Mom and Dad "got this." Because of that absolute trust, he's not worrying about anything. He doesn't worry about eating or what he'll wear, or where he'll live, or how he'll get to the grocery store. He's thinking about how fun those noises are to make and about how fun those toys are to play with.

I want to be like him when I grow up!

The Uncomfortable

We are embarking on some new territory. It's uncomfortable, but then again, sometimes the uncomfortable is the most rewarding. Ever think about that? I'm not the best when it comes to stepping out of my comfort zones. I'm cautious, probably too cautious. I'm not a huge fan of change, unless I'm the one who is heading the change up. Change means that I'm uncomfortable and out of my comfort zones. Routine is nice... I love routine!

So, if you didn't know, I'm a youth pastor. I've been youth pastoring for 8-ish years. I've pastored at 3 different churches in that time. I love it. I love teenagers. I love teaching them and learning from them. I feel like they don't really get enough credit in this world. If you listen long enough, they'll say the most profound, thought provoking things. They challenge me in my own life and even dare me to change to become a better version of myself. I love my kids, every one of them!

Anyways, my current youth group runs about 3-5 students on an average Wednesday Night. Yet our dreams are big. My dreams are big. We've been in conversation with another church in our town about the idea of combining youth groups to form a community wide youth group. The crazy thing is that our two churches are not in the same denomination. I love this! I love that we can come together in unity to reach a community with the message of God's big love.

Yesterday we started the conversation with another church, or maybe we were continuing it. It was the first time that I had met the senior pastor (who also acts as the youth pastor) of the other church and I also met one of the youth leaders. We sat there discussing if we wanted to make the move of combining and also how it would look. We walked away with a positive feeling and outlook on this. So we're taking another step or two this coming Sunday in our conversation.

The thing that excites me the most is the Unity between the two churches. We're unified with the same goal to reach the same community. I even told them that God honors unity and he can do so much through our unity. What can God do if our hearts, minds, and passion are the same? ANYTHING! He says he can do more than we can ask or imagine. If we're in complete unity, combined with God's ability, I feel that this is a crazy, unstoppable combination. This is exactly what gets me excited and pumped!

I look forward to working with these other leaders and we embark on something new that isn't commonly done.
Look out world! Here we come!

Fun with Friends

So my best friend, Matt, married this really great gal, Mary, about 10 years ago. My best friend is a really lucky man because his wife is AMAZING and FUNNY and just plain fun to be around.

I remember the first time that I actually met her. I had decided to spend my vacation (also Christmas) with Matt and Mary and I was SOOO nervous! My first thought was that if Mary and I didn't hit it off, it was going to be a LONG vacation! Thankfully, we did hit it off. We even managed to pull a pretty amazing prank for Christmas too :). Seriously, what was Matt thinking when he introduced Mary and I?

I have to tell you the prank we pulled though. So Matt had been begging Mary to open his Christmas presents before Christmas. The second I walked into their apartment for the first time, he said, "Erin's here, can we open presents now?" The answer was no. Soon after I got there, Matt had to go to work so Mary and I were on our own (Bad Idea!!). We went to Target and found this mesh panty and bra set. We thought they were pretty hideous looking because they were also this horrid bright blue color (and I like blue). We then went in search for decorations. We found jingle bells, tassels  feathers, and garland. We decorated them as fast as we could because he was on his way home. We wrapped them and everything. That night, I shared with Mary that in my family, we open one Christmas present on Christmas Eve (Which happened to be the day I was telling her about this). Matt got really excited and begged Mary to follow my tradition. This was obviously staged by Mary and myself.

We handed Matt he bra and underwear set and he didn't even take it out of the wrapping paper. He got so red. Mary said, "Matt, we worked really hard on those!" So he ended up pulling it out and slipping the underwear over his pants (as far as he could) and "modeled" them for us. We didn't think that part through. I was begging him to not model them for us!

Last night, Matt was at work and Mary was bored. My husband was also away, so this left Mary and I ALONE! Leaving us alone is yet another bad idea. We talked for a few hours. I think my favorite thing was that we were talking about death and the husbands kicking the bucket. Mary and I have this standing vacation if Matt kicks the bucket. Then we talked about if her and I were to go first. The husbands don't get much of anything. So then I told Mary that if she does go first, my vote is that she comes back as her dog's voice. That way #1 Matt will be pretty freaked out by the dog speaking, and #2 it having his dead wife's voice would be priceless. We both decided that we wanted to be there for that moment just to see his face. I also said that God does have a sense of humor and I'm willing to bet that we could get God to help us with a prank on Matt. I think God would be an excellent prankster! I told her that it would be funny if Matt sees her in heaven and talks to her, it would be funny if she responded in her dog's voice.

I may have a bit of a twisted sense of humor. At least it's shared right?

It's just so great to have really good friends even after all these years. I can count on them in the hard times and they can count on me. I have people in my life who desire me to have friends in the same state/city as me, but because I have these two REAL friends (plus my husband), I don't feel the need to seek out new best friend relationship material people. I'm satisfied with my life, excited about my life, because I have truly amazing people who love me no matter the mistakes I make. Isn't this the kind of relationships people are looking for? This is not to say that if I meet someone, we hit it off, that I wouldn't be unwilling to friend or even best friend them. Relationships like these don't come by everyday, when they do, we should hold on as tight as we can.

We have to have roommates when we end up in those old folk homes right? I'm glad I'll have Matt and Mary and my husband to cause a bit of chaos with.

Look out future nursing staff everywhere, we're coming!

Teaching the Cutest Little Minions

I'm pretty excited. A month ago I started a Children's Church class for 4-7 year olds. We call it "Adventure Club."I know we're only a month into it and we still only have one kid, but I am HAVING A BLAST! My leadership team is still trying to figure ourselves out and still getting into our grooves, they've been such a blessing to me. 

The first Sunday there was only me and another mom who were teaching these kids. We had no prospects for additional help, and neither did we have prospects for additional kids. I bring my son in with me when it's my day to do Adventure Club, but he's 14 months old which is a HUGE difference from a four year old. He's very much a baby compared to a four year old. Anyways, this mom and I were talking after our first Sunday wondering if we should bring this need for a third person before our congregation. We wanted a third person in case, life happened and we were sick or our kids were sick or whatever... life happens! I told this mom that we shouldn't bring it before the congregation, but we can think on it and pray about it and maybe approach someone about helping us.

My reasoning behind not wanting to bring this need before the church was that we wanted the RIGHT people in with those kids. We wanted a person who loved these kids, who WANTED to be in the room teaching them, and because of that WANT they would be more PATIENT with the kids when the kids might not do what the teacher says. In the end, I didn't want someone who felt guilted into helping, but someone who couldn't wait to be in there on a Sunday Morning. 

So I walked out of the conversation with the mom and walked right into a second conversation with a woman who was asking if we needed help because she really wanted to be available to us! Um... YES! A month later, I'm still amazed and in awe at how God not only knew our needs but filled them before we had much of a chance to think about it. He's sooo amazing and I love how he has the best in mind for those kids! Three of us is what is best for the kids who will walk through our class!

I've been writing the lessons for our class and really have been enjoying it. They're pretty easy and simple to put together, but I love that I can use these same lessons to teach my son about the Bible. We're currently on a water theme because I thought it would be really fun to decorate a classroom with our water themed crafts.  I think I was pretty right at how fun and awesome these crafts look in our room. Every time I walk in, I think, "Now this is a classroom!"

If you're interested in seeing the lessons, you can check it out HERE! I will be updating it weekly. 

Happy Teaching!

Bumps in the Road

As you may know from previous posts, my husband and I are in the process of buying our first house. We are SUPER excited and equally as nervous and anxious. Today we are 12 days away from our closing date. 12 days away and we've hit a bit of a bump in the road.

It turns out that the banking part of things kind of dropped the ball. The lady we were in conversation with at the beginning either got fired, let go, quit, or whatever and no one knew that we were stuck in a file somewhere. So today, as soon as the bank was made aware of the issue, we went in and signed our life away. They're hoping to get everything done by our closing date, but it could be a few days late. So I'm crossing my fingers hoping for better news than we received today. It's nice to know that the bank is working as fast as they can to help us out and not looking at us saying, "Too bad." or "Sucks to be you."

It seems like we're back on track. My biggest worry was the appraisal. Then my biggest worry was everything getting done. The owner has a few things to fix, thanks to the inspection, but it's taken him longer than we anticipated for him to do it. Then today we found out about the appraisal and the bank issues. I'm pretty nervous about this house and this process. We don't have too much time between the Closing Date and the day we have to be out of our apartment. There's no room for mistakes or delays!

On top of things, my son has another cold and I'm pretty sure that I have the flu. It's not too much fun to go and sign 30+ signatures when you're too busy worrying about keeping yesterday's dinner down!

Looks like an early night tonight. Hopefully my sickness is one that will go away with some rest!

Rejoicing and Mourning at the Same Time

Yesterday I posted about how my brother's dogs got into some sort of a poison. One of the dogs, Ziva, was not doing well at all. They weren't really expecting her to live through the night. The other one, Chuck, was in bad shape but they were pretty hopeful about him. Well, this morning Chuck went home, looking at 100% recovery. Ziva, lived through the night but ended up having a seizure this morning that she didn't recover from, she went to doggy heaven. Sad news to start the day with, don't you think? 

Ziva

I'm so excited that Chuck is doing so well though. I'm even more happy that even though last night it looked like my brother would lose two of his three dogs, at least one of them was able to recover. I am hating the fact that my brother lost one of his dogs, mostly because I absolutely hate my brother being in pain. I wish I could make everything better, but I have no magic powers to do so. 

So as you read this post, be praying for my brother. Pray that God will comfort him and shower him with love at this time.

Thank You!

Sometimes Life Sucks

Ever notice how sometimes life just sucks? There is no other way to put it... it stinks, it sucks, or as my mom says, "Sucks swamp water." Today is one of those days.

My son and I have had a pretty good day... worlds better than yesterday. Yesterday he was whiny and constantly throwing fits, pretty much making me want to pull out my hair. Today, I saw a glimmer of the little angel that I love and adore. We started off the morning with me trying to make him a smoothie. I'm trying to come up with ways to sneak vegetables into his meals, specifically the veggies he DOESN'T like. The kicker is that I seem to be having some sort of brain malfunction because I can't figure out how to make a simple smoothie.

Anyways, after my little fiasco called a smoothie, though I don't think it will be going in any recipe book at any point, I googled as much as I could to find something that was easily adaptable. I found it... My life is saved. So tomorrow I'll be cooking ingredients to hopefully make him a smoothie sometime tomorrow.

So we've had a pretty good day. This morning, while my son was napping, I decided to call my mom to "check in." She lives about 3,000 miles away, I'm 27 years old, and I still feel the need to check in and make sure they're doing alright. I know... sounds a little weird. Turns out she didn't have such fantastic news. My grandma is in the hospital with a burst appendix. They think it burst on Friday and she waited till yesterday afternoon to go into the doctor. She's 84 years old and has expressed the desire to die. Last I heard, it seems that she is doing better than anyone expected. They're thinking positively about her recovery. I was especially encouraged by the fact that she talked on the phone to my dad. A few years ago my husband suffered the same plight, and I don't think he could have carried on a conversation like she did.

My husband came home. He did not come home in the best of moods. In some ways he sounds frustrated and others, depressed. He barely spent any time with our son, and when he would touch him or talk to him, it was always to punish our son or tell him "no" to something. It doesn't even seem like he even wanted to spend time with me. After spending the entire evening feeling ignored, I did the childish thing and decided to "ignore him back." It made him mad enough that I'm pretty sure he went to bed. I think it was a good thing for our relationship... you know, he can get some sleep and we'll try again tomorrow.

My brother has three dogs and also works nights. So while he was sleeping after a night of working, he got a phone call from the animal control people. They had found two of his dogs. One of his dogs,Chuck, is an escape artist. The other one, Ziva, is his pal. They had decided to have go on a date (I guess), out on the town. Apparently they had gotten into something poisonous and Ziva is not doing good. My brother isn't expecting her to live. Chuck didn't seem to be in as bad of shape, so my brother is really hoping he'll pull through. It was just so sad to listen to my brother crying. From what he said, Chuck knew something was wrong with Ziva. People noticed that something was wrong and called animal control. When the guy was putting her in the truck, Chuck went home. My brother said that Chuck just looked at him with that look of, "It's really bad, Dad." Tonight, both Chuck and Ziva are fighting for their lives. So sad.

Sometimes life just sucks.

It hurts. It's painful. It's hard. This is a perfect day for a do-over. How different could all these outcomes be if we could just do things over, knowing what we do now?

What if we could turn back to the beginning of the story and write in some happy endings?