Back-Story

I am so excited to share something with you.  I mean SUPER excited.  


But first, I must fill you in on the back story, because isn't that the way to hook you?  Make you emotionally attached?  Oh wait, maybe that just works for me...


I'm from a small town.  Not nearly as small as tiny town where I currently live.  Small town is about 10,000 times bigger than tiny town.  Confused yet?  So, in a small town, it seems that every one's lives criss-cross in some way or another.  Growing up, I found that rather annoying.  But as an adult, I've come to adore it.  It's a part of me.


Growing up, I had a friend from school (who also lived close to me) we'll call her Shera...because that's her name.  I loved going over to her house.  Shera had a little niece named Haleigh.  Haleigh was seriously the cutest little thing I'd ever seen.  I remember I couldn't get over how tiny and petite she was.  Isn't it weird the things your mind remembers?  But I remember loving the atmosphere in their home.  


Shera went to a parochial school with me.  At that stage, I knew about God, but I didn't know Him.  Neither did my family.  But Shera's did.  


I switched schools in fifth grade.  Parochial school turned out to be a bad fit for me.  Just what you want to hear about a pastor's wife, eh?  Shera and I lost touch...new friends and such.


At the end of eighth grade, my mom received a call from the pastor of the church we attended, informing her that I would not be getting confirmed with my classmates because I had not been accomplishing my work...on purpose. My lost, distraught mom, decides to accept the invitation of a friend and try a different church.


*side note* 8th grade was not my finest moment.  I also managed to fail band on purpose because my mom would not let me quit.  I knew if I was failing she'd let me drop it.  And she did.  I'm quite sure the band teacher still hates me.  


So we go to the church.  I think the pastor is crazy and inform my mom we are not going back.  But, we go back...and I met Jesus there.  My heart changed.  And most certainly the direction of my life changed...significantly.


Turns out, Shera and her family were also coming to that church.  We had so much fun in youth group together.  And we may or may not have completely stalked DC Talk.  Youth group was crucial in my life.  It was my favorite place to be.  At the end of my youth group years, Shera's brother and his wife (Haleigh's parents) became our youth leaders.  I loved them...still do.


Life, always intertwining.


Little Haleigh is now a beautiful grown young woman.  And she's got a project going on that simply amazes me...and I can't wait to let you in on it. 


Tomorrow.


Brutal, I know.  But I'll leave you with a little something...there will also be a give away. Yippee!  


See you tomorrow :)

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I'm Rude Like That...

I'm so rude.  I totally left everyone hanging on my flesh-eating-canker/no-sugar-insanity post.  I hope none of you lost sleep.


Never fear.  I salted the thing like a mad woman and in a few days it was good. to. go.  You guys gave me some great advice.  Who needs Google when you have blog friends?


Also, I'm on day 18...or 19 (I've lost track) of very VERY little processed sugar.  I cut my carbs down too, because when I eat them, my body ends up craving sugar even more.  By about day 8, I wasn't craving it nearly as bad...and by day 10 I knew it wasn't quite long enough to break my addiction...one pumpkin spice latte and I'd totally fall off the wagon.


It's empowering to tell myself no.  I feel better.  I only ran once the past couple weeks (I'm on a lazy-sleep-loving streak right now) and I still managed to lose eight pounds.  Eight pounds of sugar!

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Riveting Stuff

I bit the side of my cheek with my molars.  It happened about a week ago, and now I have the biggest baddest canker sore evah.  I think it may actually just eat a hole entirely through my face. Can they do that?  Wait...don't tell me if it can. I don't wanna know.


I've tried gargling warm salt water (because this is what my Grandma has made me do since I was a toddler) but it's not helping all that much.  I've also been spraying it with sore throat numbing spray, and that helps for about 1.5 seconds.


Any tips for me?


On a totally other topic about me I am on day 4(of 10) of my low sugar/carb detox. I'm less cranky, for sure.  But I'd still love me a bowl of cookie dough...and by bowl, I mean mixing bowl.  I will admit, the food I am eating now is keeping my belly full much longer than the usual junk I eat, but at the end of the day, I'm just not eating all that much because, lets face it,  if I can't have sugar, I'd rather not eat.    


Also, yesterday on my morning run, my body was like, "What the heck?!?  Where's the sugar? Where's the carbs? I quit."  It felt terrible.  So tomorrow I'm gonna give my body what it's used to having before a run: peanut butter toast and coffee.  


Wow...aren't you glad I'm blogging again...riveting stuff here folks.  Riveting.

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Oh Kid...

Jake started Kindergarten this fall.  He turned 6 in June, and was more than ready for the challenge.  He's a little bummed though...apparently Kindergarten is not as difficult as he was hoping for.  This kid kills me.  He's so serious...and shy, but his eyes and expressions say all that his mouth does not.  He's a thinker.  He's always...and I mean ALWAYS listening, and repeating what he's heard.  Even when I'd rather he not.   I tried to explain that right now his teacher is just reviewing what they'd learned in preschool, and soon he'll be learning new sight words and reading books.

His response:  "Mom.  We had to learn about a chair.  What good does that do?  I think they're trying to make me stupider."

Did I mention he doesn't always believe me?

Seriously, kills me.  Love that kid.

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It's Necessary for Me...

This weekend I watched a documentary on Netflix (I'm a sucker for documentaries) called Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead.  It's basically about this guy who is, what the title says, and decides to go on a 60-day juice-only fast.  It's extreme, which is why it's so entertaining. 

The movie talked a lot about the food we eat.  It was sort of the nail-in-the-coffin sort of deal for me.  I've known for quite some time that I have a serious addiction to sugar.  I love me some caffeine, we all know that, but I can go off it it without any serious symptoms or cravings (I do it regularly, just to be sure.)  Regular or decaf, doesn't really matter...but sugar is a whole different story.  


I knew I had a problem, and I knew I didn't want to give it up.  It tastes so good.


My husband, the pastor, has also been preaching on idols...and how God hates them.  HATES them.  I'm always battling against idols...we all are...but this sugar/carb one has got. me. good.  


Back to the documentary.  Most people (including me) think this juice guy is crazy for doing it for 60 days, so he challenges them to 10 days.  So I thought to myself...ten day, huh?  The purpose of the fast it to get the junk out of your system in an attempt to re-train your taste  buds.  


So...I'm not on a juice fast...but I'm on a low sugar/carbs fast.  Ten days.  Today is day 2.  Yesterday, I thought about sugar and carbs approximately 500 times per minute.   My body kept saying to me...just a little bit, all you need is a little bit and you'll feel better...and I wanted to cave.  So very bad.  But every time my body whispered to me, it was just another sign of how desperately those substances are controlling me, and I am not designed and created to be controlled by anything other than my Heavenly Father.  


Today, so far,  is not much better.  Sad.  I contemplated drinking the maple syrup that's in the fridge door.  I'm crabby, irritable, tired and all around unpleasant to be around.  Lovely, no?  


Here's an interesting article I read here.    


I'll keep you posted on my progress...and, if you happen to battle an addictive personality...I get you.  

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Progress!

I like small spaces.  Small houses, small churches, small mini-vans, small cars, small towns, small groups of people.


Like Alan Jackson said in the 90's..."It's alright to be little-bitty"  


I adore little bitty.


But...I also like my personal space...I'm complicated.  :)

I think the addition to the parsonage is going to offer the best of both worlds...enough space yet cozy rooms. Sounds nice.

The addition project to the parsonage is coming along so, so well.  I can hardly believe it.  I like to stand inside of it and imagine actually having people over without hours spent rearranging furniture in order to make standing room.


When finished, the parsonage will definitely not be little bitty anymore.  We will have room to spread out...room for people.  I am excited about room for people.


Last time I  blogged about it (in June) it looked like this:

And Now...

You might notice it has two doors, right beside each other.  The plain one on the left goes straight into the laundry/mud room and a hall to the bathroom.    The door on the right, or as I call it, "The Pretty Door" (because I'm so in love with it.) will be the main entry.  With this set up, the kids will use the door to the mudroom to bring in their mud, thus keeping the other entry (into the dining/kitchen area MUCH cleaner.  YAY!

I'm super excited about this door.  I'm planning on painting them dark gray.


What amazes me most about the whole addition is the fact that it's being built by the guys in our church, who are sacrificing their time and energy to bless our family (and their wives and children are too!).  It's amazing.  And humbling.  And makes us so thankful for our church family here...not because they're building us this big house, but because their hearts and actions show such love and humility...it is truly an honor to serve with people like that.  

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Playing Catch Up...

I hate playing catch up.  Do you?  It requires so much work.  Whether it's trying to catch up with people I've lost contact with (which I do, because I'm terrible at keeping in touch, unless you count Facebook as keeping in touch), or blogging...playing catch up is tiring.  And since my blogging in the past several months has been, shall we say, pathetic, I have a lot to catch up on.  And since "catching up" seems so not fun, I just do what I do best...procrastinate.  I'm like a professional at it these days.

It's impressive.  Except that it's not.

In blogging, and in life, I like to hit the ground right where I'm at.  I like to talk about what's going on now, not yesterday or last week...or months ago.  But I also can't leave this gaping whole in the last few months of our life in 2011.  After all, this blog...my blog is really for me.  To keep track of me...my life, my family, my God.  So I can process the now, and look back on the then and realize how good life really is.  It's a bonus when others join along on the journey...but I write for me...my grammar is hardly good enough to "write" for anyone else. ;)

So I don't forget:

The remodel/addition project started in June and is coming along steadily (it deserves it's own post soon), Noah played catcher on his 3rd grade little league team...and loved it, we went camping with friends, my family loved it and I didn't totally hate it, so we're good to go again next year, Lucy started walking in mid July, Noah went off to Jr. Boys camp for a week...and I survived., the first week of August was:  missionary friends from Brazil, Julie arriving back here, VBS, and missionary friends here to help for VBS.  We celebrated Jake's 6th birthday, and continued Eli's vision therapy (which also deserves it's own post)  We didn't get to the pool as often as we would have liked, but spend plenty of time there for swim lessons.  Eli being baptized.  Moved Julie into college just 15 minutes away. School started August 17th, and fall unofficially begins...for all practicality purposes.   My boys loooove AXE... Jake now calls deodorant "man smell"  and because of the awesomeness of that, the whole family calls it that.  All of that should have been about 45 posts.  But it's not.  And that's ok.

And what kind of  "cramming all things summer into one blog post" be without at least a few pictures?!?

Lucy's favorite shoes.

At the airport with Julie!

Lucy's personality keeps shining brighter and brighter ;)

Getting Julie ready for college.

Eli 3rd grade, Jake Kindergarten, Noah 4th grade...standing in the doorway of the new addition, because next year it will look so different!

There.  Caught up.  That wasn't so bad. :)

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