Last Week

You might have noticed I was totally M.I.A. last week. It was a very busy week to say the least! It was a good busy, but busy nonetheless.

Last week was our church's Vacation Bible School. I love VBS, and even though I'm always completely exhausted by the end of the week, I'm always amazed at the way God works through little children. I taught in the completed 1st grade classroom, and they were so much fun! I love that age because they're still little enough to love you, but they're big enough to pay attention and behave (at least most of the time!).

Our VBS theme was the "Big Apple Adventure." We spent the week "touring" New York City and learning how to connect through faith, with love, with trust, with others, and with life. Each day the kids got to hear about Christ's love for them regardless of their family, economic situation, previous bad decisions, or anything else!

It was also Will's very first VBS. Although it technically doesn't start until kids are in pre-K, the workers kids get to attend no matter how young they are. I somewhat dreaded this week because I knew we would get WAY off our schedule, but I was interested to see how it would all play out. Let me just say this...getting off our schedule is NOT the end of the world, but I still don't want to do it very often. :)

If VBS wasn't enough, my brother-in-law's wedding was Friday night with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Thursday night. This meant not only were our mornings crazy...our nights were crazy too.

The wedding was beautiful, and we are so excited to have a new sister (in-law) in the family! Theron and I were both in the wedding, and it was so special to be included in Brock and Emily's special day. We are also excited that that they will be living right down the road...and not just for the free babysitting. We are really looking forward to being able to spend time with family on a regular basis.

Despite the busyness of last week, it really did teach me some valuable lessons. I think it is important to try to learn lessons from our day-to-day experiences and last week was full of them! So, here is what I learned:

- I am MORE than grateful to be a stay-at-home mom. Major props to all you working moms out there. I don't know how you do it! It was quite a challenge getting both of us up, ready, fed, and out the door in time! I truly can't imagine doing it every day. It also hurt my heart to drop Will off in the nursery every morning. I know, I know...we were still in the same building, and I was only away from him for a few hours, but I missed him so much! I am very thankful that is not something I have to do on a daily basis. I will try to remember this every time I complain about doing housework or the fact that Will is driving me absolutely crazy that day. It is a sacrifice to stay at home with him, but it is the greatest blessing!

- I really can be flexible. Like I said....this week got us WAY off our schedule. Like our schedule didn't really even exist. By the end of the week it was like, schedule...what's a schedule? BUT, we both survived. I won't say there weren't any consequences...because there were plenty! It's not that I don't like waking up 4 or 5 times a night, it's just that I really prefer to sleep ALL.NIGHT.LONG. Will's nighttime sleep still hasn't recovered, but I can tell we are getting there. In the long run, we missed some sleep, I had a cranky child from time to time, I was a cranky child from time to time, but we all survived and that's all that matters.

- Garage doors break at the most inopportune times. I forgot to mention...our garage door broke. When we got home from the wedding (around midnight....Friday night....Saturday morning...whatever you want to call it), our garage door wouldn't go up. One side tried to go up, but the other side wouldn't budge. Since I was in a really good mood at this point (note my sarcasm), I was very excited about this. We parked the car in the driveway and decided to worry about it in the morning. After taking a good look, Theron concluded he couldn't fix it on his own, so we had to have someone out to fix it. Of course, they couldn't come until Monday. We were just so thankful our car was out when it broke! It is now fixed, and all is well. I just wish the garage door would've known what a tough week it had been. Oh well. All's well that ends well, right?

Prom!

So, Friday night, we went to the prom. What kind of creeps are you, you might be asking...but we really are not creeps at all. Our young adult Sunday school class had a "prom" party for our monthly class party night, and it was so much fun!

We all got dressed up in our formal wear and headed to our friends' house to party the night away. Not to brag too much, but I was awfully proud to still fit into my prom dress from my senior year of high school...trust me, a new mom needs to feel good about her body sometimes! Most of the night was supposed to be spent outside, but thanks to some wonderful Oklahoma weather, we stayed inside instead. (We really didn't feel like battling the strong, gusting winds, rain and lightening!). Despite the change of plans, we still had a great time.

Each couple brought food to share, and it was all so good...lasagna, fettucini alfredo, plenty of bread, salad, and of course, dessert! My favorite dish of the night, though, was this awesome bowtie pasta with a gouda cheese sauce. I'm hoping Tiffany will share her recipe with all of us!

We all voted on the "most likely to...", and tallied all the votes to select a prom king and queen. We also played a version of the Newlywed game, which is always good for stirring up some good arguments between couples, :).

We absoultely love our church and so many of the things it is a part of, but the thing we love the most is our Sunday school class. We have so much fun together...laughing and joking and always having a good time. But we don't just have fun together, we share life together. These are the people who are my best friends. They're the ones I know I can count on in difficult times. The ones I can call, text, or email with a prayer request, knowing they will be in prayer immediately. The ones I go on playdates with and that I can call with a last minute babysitting request.

I feel like this group truly exemplifies what it means to be the body of Christ. Each person has their own strengths that they bring to the group, and they use them to benefit everyone. They are the first to volunteer when something needs to be done around the church, and they're constantly giving of themselves to meet the needs of others. I am so thankful to be a part of this group...they are the best!

Prom was so much fun, and I can't wait for all the fun times ahead.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful hubby! 4 years ago I married the love of my life and looked forward to what the future had in store for us. We had both just graduated college and had lots of changes and transitions ahead of us. A lot of people say that the first year is the hardest, but I thought the first year was so much fun. Each year after has only gotten better and with the blessing of our first child, I can only imagine the best is yet to come!

I am so thankful for my husband and all he does to provide for our family. I'm thankful for his spiritual leadership and his dedication to the Lord. I am thankful for his hard-working, disciplined, and determined personality. He is an amazing husband and father, and I know I am so blessed.

The past 4 years have had their share of hard times, petty arguments, and disappointments. But those times don't even begin to compare to the amount of joy, fun, and laughter we've had. I can't wait to see what the next year has in store!