First Day of School

A Screeching Halt

That's what happens to life when kids start puking.

I was on a roll . . . a large mound of laundry was in the hall ready to be folded and put away. I was getting ready to mop the floor and vacuum the carpets. The girls' rooms were picked up. My house was on it's way to being in order. And then Abby started puking.

I am still staring at the large pile of unfolded laundry, which has grown in the past 12 hours:) Toys are everywhere and floors never got cleaned.

But I don't entirely mind. I got to spend a good 12 hours with Abby, who refused to be anywhere but next to me. This mommy job is okay by me:) We spent the day yesterday (in between puking, which Abby handles like a champ) watching movies, tv, and reading books. It is kind of nice to not be *able* to do all the housework that needs to be done, because my little girl needed me more. I was certainly okay with that.

But one of the hardest part of this mommy thing is juggling work and kids, especially when they get sick. I love working part-time and I love my job. It has given us a nice balance that works for our family. But when one of the girls gets sick, I really struggle with having to be at work and wanting to stay home with sick kids. Nate can rearrange his schedule much easier than I can, and he is usually our first option when considering who will stay home with the sickos. Not only am I hourly, but we can't call substitutes anymore due to the budget cuts. So, Nate usually stays home, and I really struggle with that.

Nate had big plans today . . . the man weekend. He went to the delta (which I really have no idea where this is) with a friend of his for a few days of man weekend type things, which include a houseboat, beer, and lots of good food. I'm pretty sure he will come home tomorrow night in the same clothes he left in. He was supposed to leave at 7:30 this morning, but couldn't leave until 12:30 because we couldn't have a babysitter over and get her sick too!

So it was a struggle. But Nate is off to his man weekend, I am trying to entertain two kids who are sick of being in the house, and hoping that no one else get sick!

Not Fair

The last week and a half have been some of the most difficult times we've had in ministry. We have been thrown a curveball and are currently doing our best to honestly seek God's will and not our own. A conversation with our girls pretty much sums it up:

Nate: Girls, I need to talk to you about something very important. Another church in Orchard Park, NY wants Daddy to come be their pastor. We don't know if we are going to live here in California or move to New York.

Jenna: What happens to Mount Olive if you aren't their pastor?

Nate: I don't know.

Jenna; What happens to the other church if you aren't their pastor?

Nate: I don't know.

Jenna: Well, that's just not fair.

Abby: (Too busy to say anything because she is attempting to eat her spaghetti without any utensils. Picture a faceplant in the plate.)

Nate has received a Divine Call (Lutheran speak for job offer) to be the pastor at St. John's in Orchard Park, and I never fully understood the "divine" part of a call until this past week. Yeah, I know that God has his hands in everything, but we have experienced God in ways this past week that we never have before. Nate asked God to help him discern His will for us in a very specific way, and God is showing up. Big time. He asked him to help him figure out what to do through his dreams. Sounds a little crazy, I know, but God works in all kinds of ways, and he sure has been working overtime here. 10 dreams in 6 nights. God is also speaking through other people. Some in our church, some old friends, and some people we barely know.

. . . We did not seek this call out. We did not have Nate's name out on a call list and we are not looking to leave Mount Olive. The past four years here has been amazing. The people are wonderful, the ministry is wonderful, and we are happy here. But it is clear that God is doing something with this process and we are working hard to figure out what that is. Is He growing us here or moving us to New York? Considering this call is a matter of obedience at this point. When God speaks, we listen. And God is speaking.

Next week, we'll all fly out to visit St. John's and Orchard Park and will have a decision soon after. Please pray for both congregations involved and for us to discern God's direction for our lives. The thought of leaving our church, our friends, and our life here is very scary. We love the people of our church--they have been our partners in ministry and life for four years. And seeing the sadness and disappointment and even anger in some of them has been especially difficult for both of us.

In the end, I know that God is good, in control, and ultimately knows what's best. And that is a huge comfort to me.

Newspaper Thievery

I am ticked and am going to do something about it.

We get the newspaper every day, and reading it is an essential part of my morning. As I come downstairs for breakfast, I stop outside to get the newspaper that is either still in the driveway or sitting nicely on our porch where Nate threw it when he left for work. I get breakfast ready for all of us, make my peppermint green tea, place my newspaper to the left of my breakfast and endulge in quiet bliss while I eat.

I love news. I love watching news, reading news, and debating what's in the news. I secretly love and follow politics. I read the police log faithfully and never miss a Mr. Roadshow article in our paper. If I could have one channel (or two) on all day, it would be MSNBC and Fox News. (I like to switch back and forth. The best is watching Glenn Beck and Rachel Maddow at the same time, switching back and forth because they are so crazy and polar opposite.) But you see, I cannot watch news all day. I can't watch the news at all. If the tv is on at our house, certain little redheads are whining about putting Yo Gabba Gabba or the Backyardigans on. So I often leave the tv off.

That's where the newspaper comes in. I love it and savor the ten minutes I get to read it while the girls are eating breakfast.

But we have a newspaper thief and this ruins my love affair with the newspaper when it is stolen. Earlier this spring, we had about a month where the paper wasn't being delivered regularly. We thought that we just had a bad delivery guy and called and complained. After a while, the paper was being delivered every day and we haven't had any problems. Until yesterday. No paper. Okay . . . maybe Nate took it with him to work and forgot to tell me. Nope. He never saw it. Today, Nate said he saw it in the driveway when he left at 6:45am and by the time I got downstairs at 8:30 (I know, that's late, but I'm still on summer vacation), it was gone.

So I have deduced that we have a newspaper thief and this is what I'm going to do about it.

I am going to put this in a plastic ziplock bag and somehow attach it to the back of our car in the driveway, so that the thief can see it before he leans over to steal our paper. Crazy? Probably:)

We shall see if it works . . .

Girls Rock!

Beautiful Girl

Many of my posts about Abby are about her getting into some sort of trouble or making a gigantic mess, but this one is not. Abby is adventurous, messy, curious, and busy, but she is also incredibly sweet, sensitive, and cuddly. She loves to be held and carried and cuddled.

Yesterday morning, I was up before the girls reading the newspaper in the soon to be gone silence of the day, when Abby strolled out of her room and onto my lap. Jenna is usually the first one up, but yesterday, Abby and I had a good ten minutes of solid Abby/Mommy cuddle time.

Sometimes, kids say the sweetest, cutest, most endearing things that absolutely make all the craziness of the day go away. Yesterday morning was one of those days.

Abby: Mommy, I haf to tell you sumpin in yo ear.
Me: Okay sweetheart.
Abby: You are my bootiful Mommy and I yuv you yots.

:) :) :)

I always tell Abby and Jenna that they are my beautiful girls:)

Seven Dresses

A typical day at our house involves lots of changing of the clothes. On with the Snow White dress up, off with the Snow White dress up. On with the fairy dress and wings, off with the fairy dress and wings. On with last year's Easter dress, off with last year's Easter dress. Today was a little different, however, . . . Abby skipped the 'off" part of dress up and ended up with 7 of her dresses on. Yep, all seven, one on top of the other. She's had them on for a few hours now and insists on keeping them on. Even if it is nice and toasty outside!

Jenna's Preschool Graduation

The middle of June was crazy for us. School was ending for me and Jenna and we were getting ready to go on vacation. We had graduations and parties and all the craziness of end of the year stuff. So much happened in that week, that I forgot to post pictures from Jenna's graduation. My mom gently reminded me, so here it is Mom . . . .

Jenna's preschool experience has been awesome! She had wonderful teachers and good friends, and we couldn't have been more happy with her two years there. Thank you to Mrs. Khokhar, Ms. Khou, Mrs. Pang, and Ms. Prow for a wonderful year! Kindergarten here we come!

Jenna got to be the flag leader during graduation.

All graduated from preschool!

Jenna and her best friend, Kiara.

Before the kids get their diplomas, the teachers read a small paragraph about each child. Last year, I was surprised (and a little bit mortified) that Jenna wanted to be a cheerleader when she grew up. Guess what she wanted to be again this year? Yep, for the second year in a row, Jenna wants to be a cheerleader:) Hey, if that's what she wants to be, that's great. I was just hoping to hear author or nurse or zookeeper:) We will see what the future holds!

I Love This Place

I am place person. By that, I mean that there are certain places, as in phsyical places, that I attached deep emotional meaning to. (sorry for ending my sentence with a preposition, fellow grammar geeks.) A few of those places are the Balsams in Eagle River, WI, Cindy W's kitchen in Kingwood, TX, our vicarage church in Kingwood, TX, my parents house, and Camp Pioneer in Angola, NY. It's not necessarily about the places, it's about the experiences I've had there and the memories made.

I am thinking about camp this weekend for two reasons . . . 1--we just finished up a week of VBS and I felt like a camp counselor all over again--songs with crazy hand motions, fun games, and girl drama. 2--there is a staff reunion at Camp Pioneer in Angola, NY this weekend and many old friends are there. I'm a tiny bit sad that I can't be there. I would love to see this tonight . . . one of my favorite things about camp.



I went to camp as a middle school camper, volunteered every summer in high school, and then was a counselor for four years in college. I have quite the history there. I guess it's 9 summers total. Lots of people who are camp counselors are there for one or two summers, but that wasn't me. I was sold out to Pioneer. 100%. It was a place where I experienced God, a place where my faith became my own. It was the place where I learned to serve others and how to love people who weren't like me. I have a deep attachment to this place because it is one of the places where I can always immediately feel God's presence.

Some of my favorite memories include staff training, learning how to break into the kitchen, sin ice cream, the craziness of special camp, siestas, furiously trying to memorize my lines for the woman at the well monologue, house parties, the sound of hundreds of kids singing "Oh How I Love Jesus," and doing the Johnny Got Run Over By a Bus skit a million times. I love the memory of Nate and some of the other guy counselors performing Ice Ice Baby. But I mostly remember the people I worked with. We had some really fun times and those summers were some of the best I've had.

Nate and I met at camp and spent two summers there together:) I thought he and his friend, Dion, were the craziest people I had ever seen when I first met them, and here we are 12 years later--married for almost ten years with two little redheaded sweethearts. Pioneer holds a lot of memories for us and I'm thankful for the time we spent there. I know that we touched many lives while we were there as counselors, but I also believe that the counselors and staff are ministered to just as much as the campers that actually paid to come. At least I know I was:)