Crazy Faith: I'll Hold You In Heaven!

Crazy Faith: I'll Hold You In Heaven!

Where Did the Time Go?!?!

According to my last post, it has been 10 Months since I have blogged!  Man.  For anyone who keeps up with this thing, if there is still anyone who checks in on it, I am sorry for the absence of posts! 

In my last post Bryson was 8 months old.  He is now 18 months, almost 19 months within a few days.  We've celebrated his 1st Birthday, here in Shelbyville, his first steps, his first words and the every day joy and delight that he is to be around!  He is still such a pleasant little man.

Zachary and Nicholas started school in Shelbyville in August.  Zachary is in the third grade and Nicholas started Kindergarten!  I remember during the summer months feeling very anxious about the school that our district fell in.  I made many trips to the Board of Edu and attempted several times to get them in a different school.  My attempts and trips failed.  However, though, I have been VERY pleasantly surprised with their school that they are in, and to top it off, I could not be more pleased with both of their teachers!  Zachary's teacher is just wonderful with such a sweet personality and years of experience in teaching.  Nicholas' teacher is actually a girl that I knew from school.  She graduated a couple years ahead of me, but she was always so nice and sweet.  She is the PERFECT teacher for our Nicholas.  He just adores her!  He lets us know very often of how much he loves his teacher!  What a blessing!  We are so thankful for both of their teachers and the school that they are in!

Dan ended up taking a small break from school.  Unfortunately, the overloaded schedule that was demanded from his job, Shelbyville Chrysler, and the 18 credit hours that was assigned to him all online was just too much for the Fall Semester.  We got through the small setback and held our heads up with anticipation for the Spring Semester to begin with less credit hours.  Then set back #2 came.  Finances.  Unfortunately funds did not become available for Dan to start back in the Spring.  As frustrating as it is, knowing that Dan would have graduated in just 2 short months, now we're a year behind!  UGH!  But, I do also know that He is in control.  And His plan is perfect.  Dan will finish school in His timing!  Even if we did have a couple setbacks to put us behind schedule. 

In the meantime, the Lord has really opened some doors for Dan.  This is officially his last week at Shelbyville Chrysler!  Praise the Lord!  Dan has a new career start working for the Board of Edu in Shelby County!  What an awesome opportunity!  Especially with Dan's calling for youth and counseling!  We are very excited about the change and the opportunities that are coming!  Dan is looking forward to catching up some credit hours during the summer months and preparing for seminary.

As for me?  Well, during the summer months I had the joy and privilege to be home all summer with the kids!  What an amazing experience that was!  It was such a sweet time for me and the boys to share together.  Some of the sweetest memories are swinging on the porch swing listening to the church bells play a hymn at noon each day, eating ice cream outside together, taking nightly walks in the park with Daddy when he got home from work, being able to run errands and do all the household chores during the day (yes, I do miss being able to do those things during the day without feeling rushed!), reading to the boys often, and just the time that we had together.  Once the boys started school in August, I went back to work in September.  It was a very difficult choice to make, and I spent much time in prayer asking to not to have to, but I needed to.  And a door was opened up for me back at the bank that I worked at before leaving for Clear Creek.  I am really enjoying being back with old faces and friends that I once worked with! 

When we first moved back to Shelbyville, our family was excited to be back at Southeast Christian in Louisville.  We enjoyed the sweet fellowship and corporate worship there.  We also became involved in a church plant that we had first been told about before moving to Clear Creek.  It is a church on the UofL campus.  The lead pastor and his family, first shared their vision in 2009 and what an awesome experience to see what God has done through them and this vision of a church on a secular university campus in the heart of Downtown Louisville!  It was a joy to spend a couple months there to see the church in action.  Our family is now involved in a local church, about 20 minutes away.  Dan is the Youth Pastor there.  It is a small growing church in the farming area of Shelby County.  It can be discouraging at times trying to bring growth in the youth group, but we know He is faithful and we are waiting with sweet anticipation for growth in His timing!  We just need to keep being faithful and obedient!

We have now been here since May 2012.  It's almost been a year and I still think of Clear Creek and HFB often!  I miss campus terribly.  And I miss my friends and co-workers at the bank where I worked.  It is nice being home with dear friends and family, but I will never forget the time we had in eastern ky.  For one girl who didn't want to go and went kicking and screaming, there are moments where my heart longs to be back on campus sewing with Mrs. Cummings, writing with Ms Patty, sitting on the Swinson's porch watching the kids play, being with Jan in the gazebo soaking in all her wisdom, walking on the 'tunnel path', walking on campus over the swinging bridge, walking to the library to pick out a Bible Man movie, having bon fires on Holly Hill, enjoying women's ministry nights in Kelly Hall.  These are just a few moments that I will NEVER forget and forever cherish in my heart.  I am so thankful that the Lord called this city girl to 'Hickville, USA!'  I found out that it wasn't all hicks in eastern ky.  I made several close friends at the bank whom I cherish dearly and I will never forget.

I know this was a long update, but there was a lot of updating to do!

Until next time...(which may be next year with my track record! ;)  )
Enjoy the little moments in life and keep your eyes on Him who gives us these sweet little moments!

It's Been a While

It's been TOO long since I have last posted anything. I have had NO time for the laptop at home. I have SO MUCH to update you guys on!!

First, Bryson is now 8 months old!! He is getting so very big. And CRAWLING!! Yes, crawling. He's a bit wobbly and slow, but this week he has officially scooted those knees one at a time forward. For about a month, he has been crawling backwards. He became quite the master in reverse, but now he has figured out how to move forward!

His favorite foods so far are carrots and squash. We gave him green beans for the first time last week and he gagged. :/ But he likes them ok now.

Zachary and Nicholas are getting oh so big as well. They have both recently hit a growth spurt making them much taller, almost as tall as I. Zachary is about to eat the house through his growing. I can't imagine the grocery bill when these three hit their teenage years! Oh my!

Dan is doing wonderful in school! He's wrapping up his Junior year. Still working hard on campus and at our church. I have the world's greatest guy!

Some big news for our family.... We're Coming HOME!!! Yes, home to Shelbyville! I have been dieing to post this for some time now, but I needed to wait until I gave my notice at the bank, which I did last week.

We will be coming home in mid- May. Dan will finish his last two semesters online and then attend Seminary in Louisville!! Praise God! We are so excited about the things that the Lord is doing in our lives.

I'll try to post more details about the move soon. But for now I just wanted to post a quick update so no one thought we had fallen off the face of the earth!

Love you guys!

First Foods

Bryson started eating rice cereal when he was 4 1/2 months old. He LOVED it! He has also had a bit of sweet potatoes since then, but we've had to cut back on all solids due to him fighting a stomach bug for the past couple of weeks. I can't wait to help him explore new tastes once he's feeling better!

Bday Party

At the beginning of December we held a birthday party for the boys on campus. It was a wonderful time of celebration with our campus friends!

Dancing to the Happy Birthday song

In the gym playing

The kiddos from the party. (Swenson kiddos, Tichnor kids, Fusion kids, daniel glenn and william carter)

William and his mom, Rachel

I couldn't resist getting a picture of Bryson and Zoe together. Zoe is 6 days younger than Bryson!



It was a wonderful time of fellowship and celebration! I am so grateful for Zachary and Nicholas! Happy Birthday boys!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving on campus this year. We had family and friends over and I had the privilege of hosting another Thanksgiving in our home! I absolutely loved it!

Grandma (my mom) resting with Nicholas

Check out these place mats that I made for the Thanksgiving table!! I got the idea from Hobby Lobby's inspirational page! Thank you Hobby Lobby! All it took to make them was felt, hot glue, stickers, ribbon and artificial leaves. The pocket you see to the right is for your silverware. I had so much fun making these! I made them one night while Dan was out of town preaching. I made several different color arrangements for the place mats, but I won't post all of them!

Bryson and Landon.

Landon's mom, Tiffany, and I were 2 out of the 3 women that were pregnant together during the summer. The three of us were all due within a week or so together. Landon was born 3 days after Bryson!

We had to borrow Landon's bib for a picture of Bryson's 1st Thanksgiving! Thanks Landon for sharing!

Tiffany, Kyle and Landon. It was an honor being able to open our home up to them when they were unable to go home to FL for Thanksgiving. They were such a joy to have around! Love them dearly! I really enjoyed Tiffany and I picking each other's brains about Babywise.

After eating, Dan and I thought we may brave the Middlesboro Wal-Mart for the Pre-Black Friday sales on Thursday night. To really appreciate this, first understand that this is the only Wal-Mart within a 30 - 45 minute radius. The Middlesboro Wal-Mart gets hit with KY shoppers, TN shoppers and Virginia shoppers! Dan and I entered Wal-Mart at around 9:30pm and it is packed. Imagine taking half of Mall St Matthews' crowd and jamming them all in a small, narrow-aisled Wal-Mart. We debated for about 15 minutes whether we should stay and fight the crowds or to leave. We left. Went home and went to bed! Later I heard that the average time waiting in line that night was about 2 1/2 hours! Just in line! Craziness. Glad we left!

Friday we decorated for Christmas!

It was another great Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for so much. For family and friends. For a healthy family. For church family and campus family. Ones that we hold so near and dear to our hearts.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. ~Psalm 118:1

You are my God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, I extol You. ~Psalm 118:28

Halloween

Still working on catching up the blog. With that, here are the boys from Halloween!

Our little monkey! I love the split bananna peel on the head!

Captain America & the Green Lantern!