Awesome Praises

I just have to say it, ever since we've moved here God has done some awesome things. Well, this week, there are more. Levi and I joke because he'll get ready to tell me a story and he'll say, "I'm not one of those people who says it's a God thing but...." and then proceeds to tell me the God thing. I've told him to quit saying that because he is one of those people. It's just amazing how coincidental things are but they're really not because they are God things. Like this week, our band really needs in ear monitors. The facility where we're meeting isn't so conducive to our type of sound...we rock. It's loud and there's a lot of stage noise. If we all had in ear monitors, there's no need for the stage noise, we can each control what we hear. So, Levi and Jonathan have been praying about that. Sidenote: Catalyst is committed to being a church who gives and serves. So, we saw a need with another church plant and tried to do a small part to help. Well, another church plant is doing the same for us. It's just so cool how we're all helping each other. So, back to the story...our music guy is working with another worship pastor and happens to mention the need for in ear monitors. Well, low and behold this worship pastor is getting ready to list his church's in ear monitor system on Ebay and offers it to us at a FRACTION of the value. What the heck? How cool is that??!! It's just really exciting to me and I'm trying to notice the God things in my life on a daily basis.

5K or BUST

Okay so I'm not so much joking about that. I'm really going to run a 5K, yeah quit rereading that, I am really going to do it. I guess I should say, I am really going to participate in a 5K it might be walking but I'm going to do it. Levi's been after me to do it for a long time and I've always told him no way. Well a friend of mine has done some 1/2 marathons and I just got to thinking more about it. So, this week was my week to start training. My friend Xuan and I are going to do it together. Levi and our friend Brad, correction B-RAD are also going to run it...right guys? So I've got this training plan or whatever which you work up your endurance. So I did my little thing at the gym today. Tonight we had band practice and the church is like walking distance from our house, maybe a mile. I don't know. So, I told Levi I was going to walk/run to and from. He and the kids decided to walk with me. So, I decide I'm going to jog home. Well, I told some of the band I was doing it. I hesitated whether to tell anyone aside from Levi and Xuan because I didn't want to be embarassed or feel like a failure if I don't follow through. I know the motivation to follow through after telling them about it but I guess my brain works backwards. I told anyway. Okay onto the good part. So, I ran almost all the way. I stopped for a distance of 5 trees (these little trees line the main road that I was running on). I get to the entrance of our neighborhood and walk. Then I alternate until I get to our street. Then I start feeling kind of weird and start gagging. Dadgum if I don't keep gagging until I throw up. It wasn't a large amount, I know gross for a blog. Sorry. I walk in and tell Levi and he just busts a gut laughing at me. Thanks Mr. Considerate. I really felt good about it.

On a side note, Xuan took me to a movie tonight, we saw, "Baby Momma." It was funny!! I really like my times with Xuan, they're always fun!

PlayGroup

Okay this blog post is dedicated to my playgroup. When we moved here, it was VERY hard for me. I guess if I'm honest, I was in a major funk. I think I was mad at our situation, mad at Levi, and probably mad at God. As much as I knew in my hard of hearts that we were supposed to make this move, I didn't want to. I didn't want to leave the people from our old church, they LOVED Addy. I mean more than loved her. They would call us out of the blue and ask to babysit...who does that?? It meant so much to me that people loved her. Then, Keegan came along and I had a 2 year old and a newborn. We found out we were moving CROSS COUNTRY further from our families. Again, anger, resentment, etc. So we move here and I literally have no one. I knew I had to reach out or I would drown, quite literally. Levi was going through his own transitional blues so although we were partners in misery, we didn't seem to be helping each other. I found the website meetup.com. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is trying to meet other people with like interests. I searched for some local stay at home mom groups.

So, I joined the group and immediately made my friend Xuan. Sidenote, I go out with the kids on Sundays but Levi shared some of what the sermon was about and asked for people to tell a time in their lives when a friend came along side them at a pivotal point. Well, Xuan immediately came to mind. Xuan moved to Dallas about a month before me. She knew NOONE in Dallas, story sound familiar? That's what I thought, it was way too coincidental to be coincidence. We became great buddies and still are. She actually attends Catalyst. I feel like God put Xuan right in my path. There are LOTS of great moms and kids that we have become friends with. Another is Sheila. Sheila again moved to Dallas a few months before us. Her husband is in seminary in the doctorate program. Sheila and her husband were youth pastors and had been involved in church plants....coincidence, I think not! Sheila was always super friendly but we've gotten closer in the past few weeks. Sheila is 26 weeks pregnant and has been hospitalized for the duration of her pregnancy. She also has a daughter. Can you imagine being away from your child for over 15 weeks? Only visiting once a day and having to say goodbye. Can you imagine the trauma on you and your child not understanding why you can't come home? I feel like again, God has put these women in my path for me to learn from and I am so thankful for that. It's like so many of us are transplants (I almost said implants....totally different blog right ?). We're all walking similar paths in life and can go through this stuff together.

Along with loving the women in this group, I love our playdates. They are always so creative and fun. Today we had a free playdate at the Little Gym. The owners go to the church plant in Rockwall that we attended before we went weekly. It was so fun to watch the kids play and jump and bounce and swing. Addy and Keegan both had a blast.

Blogging Blues

Okay so I know it's been a while. This last week was killer for me. Not California cool killer, like kick my butt, I don't want to get out of bed killer. I think it was the combination of being gone and returning and getting back into our routine. We did a lot with our playgroup last week. Monday is my big tutor day, yeah like 7 hours BIG, it wears me out. We had a Garden Party for Earth Day, then we had a Sidewalk Chalk Party Wed. and then our preschool came over on Thursday. It was just a lot. So, needless to say, I didn't blog as much. A lot went on however, instead of making this a HUGE blog, I think I'll break it up. I'm actually tutoring now so my thoughts will be sporadic in between sessions. Just wanted to explain the lack of "the blog."

Wedding & Old Friends

Tonight Jonathan & Meagan watched the kiddos so we could go to Bryan Neal's wedding. Bryan is a long time childhood friend of Levi's. He lives in Tyler which is a couple of hours away. The funny part is that Levi hooked Bryan up with some other friends who lived in Tyler about 8 or so years ago. They were in business together and Bryan has just really flourished there. He got married tonight so we went to the wedding. It was lovely. They were beautiful and it was just fun to be with old friends, even though they weren't mine. It was fun to hear stories on Levi. He had two groups of friends there, some from Atlanta from when Levi was a kid and then some of his college, soccer buddies who moved to Tyler after college. We got to visit with both sets and had a great time. Why we haven't hooked up with these people before now is a mystery. We are definitely going to make the effort to reconnect and stay connected. They are great people and we had a lot of fun. To finish the night off we visited with Jonathan and Meagan. We're so grateful for them. It's been a few since weeks since we've just caught up so it was good just to get to talk. Levi and I were talking tonight on our drive home about how precious our time together minus kids is. We have got to commit to more date nights. So....Thank you Thank you Thank you to Jonathan & Meagan. I'm so glad our kids love you and you love our kids....you guys are priceless!!!

We're BACK!!

Woah, it's been too long. The kids and I got back last week and I've seriously had to rest up from our vacation. We had so much fun with Nana and Coach and my sister and her family. The kids loved being there. It's really funny. Addy and my mom are inseparable and Keegan and my dad were the same. It was a lot of fun. They took us to Disney and the kids had a blast...okay so did I. It was a lot of fun to see Disney through Addy's eyes. The funny thing was while we were at Disney, Addy kept asking when we were going to Nana and Coach's house. She liked being there just as much as Disney. Dad let her ride Sassy and Princess (his horses). We got to go on tractor rides and pulled around in the hay trailer. We went swimming in the pool and played in the sandbox. There was so much to do. We all had a ball but we were all pooped. Keegan is now walking more than crawling. He's still kind of got the Frankenstein walk going where he's stiff legged. Levi said his hair was a lot blonder when we got back. Addy cried real, serious tears when we left Mom and Dad at the airport...it was really sad. I hated to make her leave. I wish to goodness we were closer to them. I have to watch that I don't get resentful about that. We had a great time but we were also glad to be back together with Levi and Becker. We missed him!!

Blessings & Butterflies

We got butterflies Friday and have been watching them all weekend. It has been the coolest thing EVER...thank you Cindy!!! We thought only 5 would make it because they all came out within an hour of each other. Addy kept looking at the last little cocoon and saying, "I don't think her's going to make it." Well, her made it, a day later than the others. We let the first 5 go today and tried to let that last one go but she wasn't quite ready. I know that probably sounds silly but we've grown quite attached. We thought we'd give her another day. She's been "clapping" around like crazy in there. When Addy saw the butterflies flapping their wings she said, "Look, they're clapping for me." It was cute.

We had another awesome day at church today. God is really amazing us with what He can do...it's almost sad that we have such little faith. Mine is definitely growing and I'm learning to trust Him and know that His word really is true and how thankful I am. We were missing a lot of our regulars, probably 15 or so and we still have almost 50. How cool is this?! I didn't think I'd say that. This has been such a hard road and I know it's not over by any means but it's so cool to see new faces and then to see those faces come back. We have some of the nicest people. I'm really enjoying meeting the kids too...it kind of makes me miss teaching or at least the interaction with the kids. I'm really proud of Levi. Although I've only heard one of his sermons live in the last 6 months, he's doing a great job preaching and just orchestrating everything. My heart is full today as I reflect on what God has done. We were kind of stressing about finding nursery workers and I'm checked to have more faith and know that God will provide. We're hoping we grow so that we have volunteers who can staff those areas...I'm anxiously awaiting to see what God does...He always does it at just the right time.

My friend Jenn Wyatt Neely has been here this weekend. She's such a wonderful friend. She's loved on my kids and vice versa. It's been so much fun. She's one of those friends that you just pick up with like you never missed a beat. When I'm with her, I still feel like I'm 21 and crazy. She's a ton of fun! It's good to have friends like that. By the way to all my YO YO MAMA's out there....we were scheming about our next reunion.

We're off to Florida this week and I can't wait. I packed our suitcases tonight. Say a prayer for Levi, he'll be here and it's always hard to be the one left especially without the kiddos. However, he'll have peace and quiet to get some other things accomplished...which is always nice.

Wacky Weird Wednesday

Today was a good day...felt kind of weird but it was good. The kids and I hung out at home and I finished up some cleaning (well almost finished). One of my college YO YO MAMA's is coming to visit this weekend. Jennifer is a hoot. We always have fun. I haven't seen her in over a year. Wow, it's been too long YO YO's!! I am excited about that and then the kids and I are flying to Florida to spend some time with my family. I am so excited about that I can hardly stand it. My parents are taking us to Disney. Addy talks about it EVERY day. She asks who is going and what we're going to see. She claps her hands and says, "I am SO excited." She is hilarious. I miss my family so much it hurts, literally it hurts. I hate that part of this. I hate that my kids aren't within driving distance of either set of grandparents. It sucks...hate to say it but it really does.

So, while we're on the topic of hurting (SIDENOTE: Keegan headbutted me last night, on accident, but I thought I'd have a black eye today.) back to hurting: I found a CD this morning of our last Sunday at PowerLine. Oh my lands, I watched the pictures and cried like a baby. Addy crawled on my lap, before my tears, to watch with me. She was so funny. She said she wanted to go back to that church. It made me really sad. The people there loved Addy so much. I just miss that. I know we're where God wants us. I had a friend tell me that, we'll I'll just quote her email:
"He has you there for a purpose and He is faithful. Trust in His faithfulness to provide you with what you need (and even what you want). I wouldn't put it past Him to put you in a situation where you were stripped of everyone you used to lean on to force you to lean solely on Him for awhile. He is tricky like that."

She's wiser than she knows. Her words hit me today and I was glad for them. I've been okay most days but today just made me sad. I think it was the combination of my feelings and then Addy saying names of people she hasn't seen in over a year and then not remembering others names that I wish she would have. I'm so glad she has fond memories. I will definitely tell her how much she was loved by so many there. I'm so glad for that.

Today was also weird in that I had 3 or 4 people call me and tell me crazy things that are going on in their lives and ask me to pray. I want to be a prayer warrior. I want people to ask me to pray for them and have the confidence that I will pray. That is all I can do most days. There's a lot of yuck in this world and I hate that. I wish we could all just get along and wish the best for each other. Nothing is so big that it can't be forgiven and moved past. It's crazy, a couple of the calls were about sickness and health which just makes me sad. And a couple were about relationships and that breaks my heart too. As Christians, I know we're not perfect and issues and situations are hard but can't we just forgive and let go. I have a philosophy that I try to remind myself of especially when I get frustrated with other people. It is that we're all trying to do the best with what we have been given. Nobody is out to get anybody else for the most part. I'm trying not to react with hurt or anger...gosh that's so hard sometimes. I'm trying to keep my lips shut when I want to scream from the rooftops about lies, gossip, and injustice. I'm trying to be positive and happy if at all possible, which can be hard for me, there are days I really struggle with negativity. And the last thing is very few people know the whole story (including me) so I try not to judge or form an opinion and remember there are always two sides of every story. I think I've grown a lot in this last year. I'm glad, I very well could have crawled in a shell--I know doesn't sound like me.

Last randomness of this post, so last night I went to the Body Blasters Class which is an hour of weights and it's torture...seriously. It was good and I was sore. The next class was ZUMBA which is a lot of Latin dancing. I love going to that class because I like to shake my groove thang in there with all the other women (it's at Lady of America). So, I stayed and did 3/4 of the class before I had to go to band practice. I was proud of myself, that was my first time doing 2 class (almost) in a row.

So, how's that for a Wacky Weird Wednesday Post. I may not blog until I get back from Florida. Until then....