Ta-da! Miss Lay Speaker!

I just finished up basic lay speaking class Saturday and I passed so watch out all you Methodists - I'm on the loose and I have a certificate, baby! :)

(My new friend Webb took this picture of me during our class time.)

Just a quick look at my children and I on Sunday April 20th dressed to celebrate Earth Day and remind our fellow church goers to take care of God's awesome creation.

How Awesome Are Friends?

I had told my women's bible study girls that I had to travel to Scranton Friday and Saturday for a lay speaking course and that I was excited because I was getting to spend Friday night in a hotel ALONE. And tonight they showed up at band practice with this basket they filled with things for my trip - How awesome is that?! What great ladies I am able to study God's word with every week! Thanks for loving me guys!

Not again - I'm a slacker!

Ok, so at 5pm my husband said "what's today's date?" and I said "April 16th....CRAP!!!" Cuz I realized it was my dearest friend Lene's Birthday (and I had forgotten). Soooo sorry girl! Hope it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a lighter note!

On a lighter note (from my last post) this is the newest member of our family. He is Teddy, the hamster and we all love him! He lets us hold and pet him and Rob and I have talked about hooking his wheel up to a light bulb or something cuz he literally runs ALL NIGHT!! We thought maybe we could harness all that energy... No solar panels for us, 100 hamsters would do it! Of course they eat dried corn and we all know that's not getting any cheaper as a source of energy! So maybe this idea wouldn't work as well as we thought...

Ok, random picture but how cute is my daughter?!

Here are some picture from a women's retreat that was held Saturday April 12th at Wiseburg Methodist Church. I had come up with the idea last year and held one at my church. Someone who attended that day asked me about 6 months ago if I could come do a women's retreat at her church - so she and I put it together and it was a great day. We had praise and worship sessions, and devotions/lessons (a mix of live talks and use of media), a big lunch, and free time which included the choices of a craft station, Mediterranean hand treatment station, reading station with used Christians books the ladies could take home, music listening station to sample a variety of Christian artists, prayer/meditation station with finger labyrinths and stones to write your concerns on and leave at the foot of the cross, and a coffee and dessert bar. The day's theme was "You're God's Beautiful Daughter" and the whole event was 100% free to the 32 women who came (I don't believe in charging people to tell them how much Christ loves them). It went well - but man, I am exhausted!

And last random photo: The sky last night... beautiful.

This War

I am on my last nerve, as far as this war is concerned. My cousin was just deployed for the THIRD time, leaving his wife and children behind, and I write today with a very heavy heart.

Ya know, I’m not naive… I know that sometimes you have to engage in physical battle as a nation to protect yourselves (heck, God did it all the time in the Old Testament) but this war seems to drag on and on with no end in sight. I am actually a registered Republican, believe it or not, but I’m fed up.

Trust me, I am ETERNALLY GRATEFUL to all those who serve in our armed forces to protect me, my family, and our way of life, but it is because of those folks that I am venting. We hear casualty numbers on the news and I think we forget that each one of those numbers was a special person with a family who is now heartbroken. Even our enemies are God’s children (remember, He loves them as much as he loves you) and each one, whether our people or theirs, was at one point someone’s baby held in their parents arms while big hopes and dreams were imagined for them.

And I say I’m mad but obviously not mad enough. Nothing about my day today will change because of this. I’ll still go about life as usual while half a world away unspeakable horrors continue. I’m ashamed. And all I can think is, really?

This is the best we can do?

Really?

Dad... look at this...

Just wanted my Dad to see what my son made at preschool (notice what the bottom says :)

Easter Outfits

Just a quick post for the Grandmas to see the kids Easter Outfits. (You can click on this first picture to enlarge it.)

Oooo... I can breathe again.

Ok, so to say that I have been feeling suffocated lately by stay-at-home-mommy-hood is a major understatement! But alas! I have some relief! (Thank you Lord!!!!) BOTH of my kids are now in preschool (right next door to our house) and I bought a bike with a little trailer/wagon thingie so that I could get out of the house and exercise with the kids in tow. Right at this very moment my four year old is at a friends house playing and my two year old is down at preschool and I tell ya, I don't know what to do with myself. I am truly thankful to God for answering my prayers (pleas, really) for a break! Here are some photos of the kids at preschool and the bike set up.

A Must Read

Upon reading my cousin Greg's blog post about the best books he'd read in 2007 I picked up this book and man! If you are a Christian this is a MUST-READ!!! It perfectly explains the major change that has occurred in our society and how people now view the church and Christ. As a young person I felt at times as I was reading like, "Yes! This guy actually gets it! He gets my generation!" Cuz lets face it, our church services and events as a whole are not geared toward the younger generations at all. Whether we admit it or not we as the church are saying "You're welcome to come to us as long as you don't change anything" which is stupid and wrong. We are not effectively reaching the world for Christ and this book is one way we can start to see why. Seriously, read this book.