Happy 15 Year Anniversary

So I intended to write a romantic flowery post that would show the world how much I love my husband. But then I decided against it. Sometimes you have to call it for what it is.
Tom I love you, I know that I am pain in the ass to live with and we have been through so much in the last 15 years. Thank you for putting up with me, for loving me and encouraging me to be a better woman, mother and wife. I love you and wouldn't want to be with anyone else. I have no idea what God will bring us in the next 15 years but I want to continue to be by your side through it all.
I love you Tom,
Love your Ivory Soap Girl

DONE.....for now

Well one more semester under my belt and 12 more credits are officially mine. It was a hard semester going back, one tween daughter, two sons in elementary school and oh yeah planting a church! Sometimes there just wasn't enough of me to go around. I am really proud and thankful that I had a great semester but there definitely isn't enough of a time lapse to sugar coat the stress that was involved. My desire always has and will continue to be how can I be the best wife and mom that I can be to MY husband and MY kids. The question always needs to be asked, "How can I do better?" How can I be the best? For this semester it was going to school full time, dropping out of other activities I'm involved in and just focusing on family and school work. At times though, it truly wasn't enough. The great thing about a semester is that you have time to evaluate before you jump into the next round. I loved my classes this past semester and the profs and the students. I honestly felt very privileged each time I went to class. So now that I am done what's next you may ask? Well my husband and I are going to be meeting in Denver for our 15 year wedding anniversary which is so ironic it's really not funny and then back to life without school but still having one tween daughter, two sons in elementary school and oh yeah planting a church!

Stomach Ache

Not feeling so kick ass today.....

Stepping out in Faith......a reminder.

This post was originally written on August 19th, 2006.
(The first month of our church plant) a good reminder when things get hard.

When we chose (yes it is a choice) to step out in faith by quitting our jobs and starting this church we had an idea of what the stress might look like. We had an idea that our family life could look differently if we didn't keep in place our boundaries. We knew we had to be diligent of not being out every evening of the week for the sake of "ministry". We knew that our kids could get really burned out on church if they got dragged around town to every "ministry" function for again the sake of "ministry". We knew that aspects of our marriage would become more stressful and that we would have to work harder than ever to keep the romance alive. We knew that we would come under attack, personally and professionally simply because we knew we wouldn't be able to make everyone happy and someone was bound to get pissed off. And we knew that financially we weren't making the most wise decision since we were relying on God to provide through others for our primary source of income. So, some may ask (or all of you) why do it? Why take a huge risk like that? What do you have to gain? Well when you take a step of faith like we have you feel and experience God in new and intimate ways. You have nothing to hide since you have sacrificed all for the sake of telling people about Jesus. And you are humbled on a daily basis by the love of others which you know ultimately they are able to show you because of Christ loving them.

AHGGGG

Instead of doing homework I have now spent over an hour trying to get my blog background back! What was I thinking.......I think I have lost have the stuff I had posted on here.....I will keep working on it....

A Story of an Ipod Nano

T turns 8 next week.
He decided that he wanted a silver ipod nano for his birthday.
We decided that this wasn't a good idea. T has the desire/ability/talent/gift to take every piece of electrical equipment that he ever comes close to (or he can sneak up to his room) and take it apart to figure out how it works. I know some day this "gift" will come in handy and hopefully he will make millions but for now this "gift" doesn't work in his favor. Should I also state for the record that he is a boy, the cost is $149 and he is 8!!!!
I digress from the real story.
We are having a birthday party next week and T took his invitations to school on Monday to give to all the boys in his class. There was one little boy that said he was going to bring T his present the next day because he wasn't sure he would be able to make the party. So imagine our surprise and T's delight when he came home and showed us this! That's right his little friend had taken his brothers ipod, he figured he didn't use it, and gave it to T.
Poor T knew as soon as he saw our faces that he couldn't keep it and kudos to him he didn't complain when I explained he couldn't keep it and I needed to call the little boys mom.
It is never a dull moment around here.....

What was I thinking....

I am again sitting in the BSU library trying to write my ten page paper on the doctrine of the Trinity. Whose idea was it to go back to school? Who thought they could handle 12 credits, a pastor husband, a preteen daughter, two elementary school boys and a dog?! Oh yeah that would have been ME four months ago.
I am so enjoying my classes and being on a college campus but so not enjoying the papers. It's the last three weeks of classes and I have a huge amount of work to do. When all is said and done I will be a total of 75 credits closer to finishing my BA and then who knows what will be next. I would like to do a Masters in Spiritual Formation but if writing is my weakness it might not be the best option for me. Well I guess there will be more time for reflection after the three weeks is over but for now back to the library ... after another cup of coffee....