Monday, January 26, 2009
Progressive Dinner
Our small group had a progressive dinner on Saturday night and it was so much fun! We started around 5:30 at one house for appetizers. Then went to another house for soup and salad. Then round 3 was lasagna. Round 4 was dessert at our house. Then finally games and drinks at the last house. We didn't get home until around 12:30... at late night for us old folks ;). It was so much fun to be at everyone's houses, and eat a little bit at each. It was so perfect, we were never too full or too hungry. Yah for people to do things with!
Life Lessons from a 3rd Grader
In the kids' sunday school this month we are talking about working for God and doing our best for Him at every job that we need to do. For my small group of 3rd graders, that is: chores, homework, playing with a younger sibling when they don't want to, helping mom and dad, and so on. Well, one little girl has a lot of allergies and asthma and stuff and last week told me that she had to go in for a sweat test. We all shared a job in the coming week that we were going to try extra hard to do our best at, and that was hers... that she would have a good attitude and not be grumpy or upset about going in for more tests (because she has had a lot of them lately and is very sick of them). So I asked them this week how they did at their jobs, and she said, "I prayed and I had a good mood and it wasn't so bad!" Wow, that blew me away! These girls are good at coming up with the 'right' answers of what they ought to do, but rarely remember to carry through with anything that we talked about later in the week. What a blessing and an encouragement she was/is to me. Thank you Jesus for her!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
My Prayer This Work Week:
Nearly every morning on my way to work, I say a prayer, asking God to give me patience that day. Now of course I don't remember to do that quite every day... but I was thinking about all of the other things that I really ought to be praying for as well. Here goes...
Dear Lord,
Give me love for these children when they are not in their most lovable states, use me to give them your love for you. Give me guidance in how to deal with their challenging behaviors and in how to best teach them. Give me patience upon patience to keep my calm and not get frustrated with them - to not make their problems and behaviors any worse, but to use my peace and love to change their attitudes. Give me energy to keep up with them, play with them, and serve them the best that I possibly can. Give me perseverance when I mess up and do not do these things as well as I'd like, to keep striving for them anyways. Give me integrity in my choices in dealing with both the children and my co-workers. I know I cannot achieve all of this on my own, but with your help I can be a better person, do my job better, and spread your love better. Thank you for everything that you are to me, I hope that I can become more for you.
Amen.
Dear Lord,
Give me love for these children when they are not in their most lovable states, use me to give them your love for you. Give me guidance in how to deal with their challenging behaviors and in how to best teach them. Give me patience upon patience to keep my calm and not get frustrated with them - to not make their problems and behaviors any worse, but to use my peace and love to change their attitudes. Give me energy to keep up with them, play with them, and serve them the best that I possibly can. Give me perseverance when I mess up and do not do these things as well as I'd like, to keep striving for them anyways. Give me integrity in my choices in dealing with both the children and my co-workers. I know I cannot achieve all of this on my own, but with your help I can be a better person, do my job better, and spread your love better. Thank you for everything that you are to me, I hope that I can become more for you.
Amen.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Christmas Celebrations - Long overdue
On Christmas Eve, Matt had to work during the day, then we hung out and made a fire before going to the 11pm service at our church. His fam was driving into town that night and made it just in time to come to church with us! That was very nice. Christmas morning, we opened our gifts to eachother, then his fam came over for breakfast and more gifts. It was a very nice, slow morning. In the afternoon we went to his aunt and uncles and got to see more family. We were so very blessed to be able to spend Christmas with his family and then have our own Christmas later with my whole family. I don't know what the Christmases to come will look like, but I hope we remember how nice these were.
Our trip to Seattle right after Christmas was wonderful. God answered a big prayer by providing good weather to fly out it. We were hit with snowstorm after snowstorm just a few days before. We left GR right as it warmed up and we did not have to witness the melting of 2 feet of snow and all of the flooding that resulted. Anyways, we had an entire day devoted to our family Christmas. We had a big breakfast in the morning, opened gifts, hung out, had a big dinner, hung out some more, played a couple games, and had dessert. It was so great to just sit and visit and relax with my family. I miss them so much! I got to see so much of my beautiful nieces! They really are the cutest babies ever.
We didn't really DO a whole lot, but we got to see my fam and some friends and do a lot of relaxing and visiting. It was exactly what we needed after a busy few weeks of Christmas preparations and Matt's exams.
One day we got to babysit Evangeline... I put her hair in pig tails... and if possible, she was even cuter than usual.
So big!
Always a smile :)
Uncle Matt gave her a ride on Gus and she just laughed and laughed.
Another night we got to babysit Lucca also. She has the cutest laugh and the most beautiful eyes.
We had so much fun reading her books.
She just stares and stares at the pictures!
I love her!
New year's eve was sort of a bust, but we got to see and catch up with some more people, which was nice. On new year's day we went to my aunt and uncles house for our annual new years chili get-together. It was so nice to see my dad's family. I hardly ever get to see any of my extended family anymore. I really miss all the holidays with them. Later that day my family went bowling to celebrate Carissa's birthday. So much fun!
I got to visit my friend Teresa and meet her precious baby, Lola. Such a little sweetheart.
We went out on my parents boat with them, Jordan and Allyson, and my friend Natasha. Matt hadn't gotten to see it or go on it yet, and even in winter it was a blast.
It wasn't long enough and I already miss everyone again, but it was perfect while it lasted. Back to living through pictures, email, and phone calls (and skype video chats with Evangeline - that has been fun!).
I put a few pics on here, but there are a lot more if you go to these links to my facebook albums.
Christmas in GR and Seattle
More Seattle
Our trip to Seattle right after Christmas was wonderful. God answered a big prayer by providing good weather to fly out it. We were hit with snowstorm after snowstorm just a few days before. We left GR right as it warmed up and we did not have to witness the melting of 2 feet of snow and all of the flooding that resulted. Anyways, we had an entire day devoted to our family Christmas. We had a big breakfast in the morning, opened gifts, hung out, had a big dinner, hung out some more, played a couple games, and had dessert. It was so great to just sit and visit and relax with my family. I miss them so much! I got to see so much of my beautiful nieces! They really are the cutest babies ever.
We didn't really DO a whole lot, but we got to see my fam and some friends and do a lot of relaxing and visiting. It was exactly what we needed after a busy few weeks of Christmas preparations and Matt's exams.
One day we got to babysit Evangeline... I put her hair in pig tails... and if possible, she was even cuter than usual.
So big!
Always a smile :)
Uncle Matt gave her a ride on Gus and she just laughed and laughed.
Another night we got to babysit Lucca also. She has the cutest laugh and the most beautiful eyes.
We had so much fun reading her books.
She just stares and stares at the pictures!
I love her!
New year's eve was sort of a bust, but we got to see and catch up with some more people, which was nice. On new year's day we went to my aunt and uncles house for our annual new years chili get-together. It was so nice to see my dad's family. I hardly ever get to see any of my extended family anymore. I really miss all the holidays with them. Later that day my family went bowling to celebrate Carissa's birthday. So much fun!
I got to visit my friend Teresa and meet her precious baby, Lola. Such a little sweetheart.
We went out on my parents boat with them, Jordan and Allyson, and my friend Natasha. Matt hadn't gotten to see it or go on it yet, and even in winter it was a blast.
It wasn't long enough and I already miss everyone again, but it was perfect while it lasted. Back to living through pictures, email, and phone calls (and skype video chats with Evangeline - that has been fun!).
I put a few pics on here, but there are a lot more if you go to these links to my facebook albums.
Christmas in GR and Seattle
More Seattle
Winter Ice Skating
Last Saturday Matt and I went ice skating at Rosa Parks Circle downtown :). It's only $1 and so much fun. Except for that the coffee shops all close to early and the one that's usually open later was oddly closed all together that night.
Canon PowerShot SD1100IS Digital ELPH
Last week, before it got so cold, I went outside to play around with my new camera and it's color swap feature. Granted, I only lasted about 20 minutes before my hands were frozen. I wanted to experiment with changing the color of the snow, however, I think the coolest ones turned out to be with the sky a different color.
What's wrong with this picture? :-P
This is my favorite
What's wrong with this picture? :-P
Friday, January 16, 2009
It is cold here.
This week has been freaking cold and therefore hideously long! Currently, the temperature is 11... feels like -4, with the windchill. This is about the warmest it's been all week! I've left for work every morning with temps around zero and windchills far below. The roads have been one solid sheet of ice the entire time, of course. Luckily, I only had to shovel at work one time, and it was very much... so I ran while doing it and finished in 5 minutes (although I was still cold)!
Because of the temps... we've been stuck inside at work ALL week! 16, 2.5-5 year olds, with absolutely no way to get their loads and loads of energy out. This felt like the longest week of my life. We just couldn't get out enough things and do enough activities to entertain them and keep them from getting into trouble. We would do music and dancing to get some large motor in, but then they'd just go crazy, over do it, knock into everyone and hurt each other. I was so incredibly sick of saying the same things over and over and over. Let's just say that my patience took a hit and it wasn't what it should be be the end of the week.
Let's see... in other news... Starting next week, I will be watching a little boy from my work a few nights a week. His Mom got a new job at a CPA firm and has to work longer hours, so I'll be taking him home with me 2-3 nights a week until around 7:30. He's a real easy little guy too, so it should be fun.
Our small group is starting back up again, and in a couple weeks we're going to be going through a study that goes along with the Fireproof movie (which looks pretty cheesy, yes... but the study is about fireproofing your marriage, so not-so-cheesy).
Matt starts student teaching in a couple of weeks, so he could use prayers that that goes well and that he learns a lot. We are also both extremely excited that he will not be working weeknights, and for the first time in our marriage - we will get ot regularly eat dinner together and be home together during the week! What a blessing that that is finally coming. He will probably still be working the majority of each weekend though.
Aside from this week, I have been doing pretty well with not getting down about being in the middle of an endless winter and not having many friends around. I know I need to trust in God more to comfort me and help me to be content... but keeping busier with things helps quite a bit too, or at least it is for now :).
The one thing I really wish I could do though is exercise! This is a big frustration to me right now. It's way too cold outside and will be for months. Gym memberships are too expensive. Calvin is not reopening their facilities up to alumni after the big field house remodel. I just start to feel so lathargic and tired all the time. I could always bust out those tae-bo videos... but I feel pretty stupid does those :-P.
Because of the temps... we've been stuck inside at work ALL week! 16, 2.5-5 year olds, with absolutely no way to get their loads and loads of energy out. This felt like the longest week of my life. We just couldn't get out enough things and do enough activities to entertain them and keep them from getting into trouble. We would do music and dancing to get some large motor in, but then they'd just go crazy, over do it, knock into everyone and hurt each other. I was so incredibly sick of saying the same things over and over and over. Let's just say that my patience took a hit and it wasn't what it should be be the end of the week.
Let's see... in other news... Starting next week, I will be watching a little boy from my work a few nights a week. His Mom got a new job at a CPA firm and has to work longer hours, so I'll be taking him home with me 2-3 nights a week until around 7:30. He's a real easy little guy too, so it should be fun.
Our small group is starting back up again, and in a couple weeks we're going to be going through a study that goes along with the Fireproof movie (which looks pretty cheesy, yes... but the study is about fireproofing your marriage, so not-so-cheesy).
Matt starts student teaching in a couple of weeks, so he could use prayers that that goes well and that he learns a lot. We are also both extremely excited that he will not be working weeknights, and for the first time in our marriage - we will get ot regularly eat dinner together and be home together during the week! What a blessing that that is finally coming. He will probably still be working the majority of each weekend though.
Aside from this week, I have been doing pretty well with not getting down about being in the middle of an endless winter and not having many friends around. I know I need to trust in God more to comfort me and help me to be content... but keeping busier with things helps quite a bit too, or at least it is for now :).
The one thing I really wish I could do though is exercise! This is a big frustration to me right now. It's way too cold outside and will be for months. Gym memberships are too expensive. Calvin is not reopening their facilities up to alumni after the big field house remodel. I just start to feel so lathargic and tired all the time. I could always bust out those tae-bo videos... but I feel pretty stupid does those :-P.
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