Monday, January 31, 2011

More Snow/Freezing Rain headed our way

Well, more snow/ice is headed our way today through Wed. I am not liking what the weather forecasts are predicting. Michael found predictions ranging from 8-20 inches of snow and 1-2 inches of ice under all of that. boo. I have learned how to deal with the snow, even getting some nifty snow boots to get around, but ice. Me not likey. They are warning people to be prepared for power outages. oh my. I am off to work this morning. Just thought I would do a quick update in case I don't get a chance to later. If you read this, pray for our safety and that this wouldn't cause our power to go out. We southerners don't really like this cold stuff. The snow is cute and all for a little bit, but ice not so much.
On another note, we really enjoyed church yesterday. We visited the Kirk for the second time and even went to a K-group (kind of like our community groups from back in Alabama) last night. It was nice to get to meet more people and feel so welcomed in. SK is liking it too, which is so nice. She actually went to her own class during the service (this being the first time since we have gotten here that she hasn't sat with us during the service) and she really enjoyed it we think. She knows a couple little girls in her class that are seminary girls too. She calls one of the girls "my best friend". She's so stinkin cute :)
Gotta head to work, but pray for us, ok? Thanks :)

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Just another Sat. in St. Louis!

We had a good week getting started with my job and Michael's classes. We decided Sat. do spend some time doing some fun stuff since Michael didn't have too much reading and school work yet. So SK and I had discovered St. Charles last weekend and had heard they were having an ice carving carnival thing so we decided to go check it out. It was warming up to a warm 42 degrees so we decided it would be a good day to get out for a bit (Now I know you Alabamians had much better weather warming to over 70 I hear, so don't rub it in...). We started out our morning splurging on a yummy breakfast at Bob Evan's (don't have those in Bham, so ha :)). We loved it and def. plan to go back there sometime. Then we were off to St. Charles (it's about 30 minutes away--which seems far here in St. Louis since everything else is so close). It was fun seeing all of the ice carvers making some really cool things, then we walked the Main street checking out the shops (more window shopping since most shops were not fun for a certain cute 2 year old). It was a fun Sat. which then ended with a fun grocery trip(my how Sat. nights have changed over the years!). I am on a mission this week to start cooking some yummy foods and using more produce than anything else! I spent the afternoon gathering up recipes (Thanks to the Pioneer Woman!) and got everything week need for a yummy menu this week! So here is our menu:

Sunday: Chicken Quessadilla's with Refried Beans (Me and SK will be having PW's ones with chicken and pineapple. Michael with have just chicken :)).

Monday: Lasagna (Thanks again PW)

Tues: Chicken and Dumplings (Guess who's recipe?!?!)

Wed.: Michael is working--so it will be a leftover night

Thurs: Chicken Enchiladas

If you haven't heard of Pioneer Woman, you should definitely check her out. I have a link to her blog on my sidebar. You can look through her recipes and she does blogging too.

Well, that's all I got for now. Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday. Off to get ready for worship!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Up Early...

It's Sat. morning, and I should be enjoying some shut eye since I don't have to get up early and head to work (weekdays I get up at 5 and out the door a little before 6), but instead I am bright eyed with lots on my mind. I want to share everything on my mind hopefully at some point, but not today. My prayer today: Lord, break my heart for what breaks your heart. I want to have a heart of Christ, which for me today means a broken heart for the things that breaks His heart. I want to be used and be willing to be used in whatever ways the Lord would choose to use our family. I want to be a part of Kingdom work while we are here on this side of the veil. Trust me, I can't wait till He returns or calls us home, but He has left us here for now to serve Him and to further His kingdom. I wish I knew what it was going to look like, but I have heard Michael say before (which he probably heard from somewhere too) "If the Lord showed us the whole picture, it would scare us to death". So instead, we are shown a step at a time. It feels like we are driving through the fog at times only seeing 10 feet in front of us, but soon enough the Lord will reveal how He plans to use our family for His purposes. And that is my prayer, that it be for HIS purposes and not our own. I have learned the last 2 years that WE are NOT in control of our lives here on earth. Even though I really try and want to have the control, I can't and won't. Have I talked about this before? I feel like it is constantly in front of me and on my heart. I know God's ways are so much better than ours and He knows what He is doing, but sometimes in the midst of things it is hard to see how this is better or for our good.
I hope to share more as time goes on with what is on my heart, but for this morning, this is all you get. A vague post that might not make sense, but I had to get it out. So, for those that actually take time reading this mess of a blog, pray for us. And, my prayer for all of us who are a part of the Kingdom, break our hearts, Lord! Give us a heart of Christ, not a heart for things of this world.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Half way through week 1!

Well, we have made it half-way through the first week of things gearing up around here. I started my nanny job on Monday, and so far things are going pretty well all things considered. The baby has done awesome and is really being sweet. I forget how demanding little ones can be though. They cry when they need something (or sometimes who knows why they cry...), and I am more used to a 2 year old that can come and tell me what she wants or needs. How quickly they change. Speaking of changes, SK decided that this would be a good time to do this whole potty training thing. While it isn't the ideal week for this, who's to stop a determined two year old who said she is ready to wear panties and "tee-tee in the potty!" We eased into it around our own house this weekend and she did great. Then Monday I decided to not try too hard since it was day 1 on the job and I didn't want to get too stressed. So, day 2 we attempted more panty wearing time...which turned into quite an eventful day. SK comes up to me after leaving the room for a few minutes and said "I tee-teed mama.." which I then discovered was more than just tee-tee...it was poop too.. and it ended up quite fun to clean up (esp. when you are in someone elses home and trying to keep it clean and not let the place smell like poop!). BUT, today we were in panties again and guess who decided to run to the potty and put her poopy in the potty for the first time! All on her own too. I was so proud!
Ok, so enough potty talk, I know I have said tee-tee and poopy a lot in the last couple of posts, but that is all I have heard around here lately. Not to mention the amount of time spent hanging out in the bathroom....
The job is going well so far. I am still getting used to getting up and out the door before the sun comes up and not getting to be at home in the mornings, but I am so thankful for the provision of this job. The Lord has truly blessed me with a great job where I can keep SK with me and still be mommy.
Michael starts classes tomorrow. Pray for him as he starts classes. That his load won't be too much with school and job and husband/daddy too. He took his Bible Content exam yesterday and he felt pretty good about it. It sounded like quite the test, but he studied quite a bit for it, so we shall see how he did on it sometime soon hopefully.
Well, I am off to fold laundry and get ready for bed. Early to bed so I can be early to rise :)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Potty Training Bootcamp!

So yesterday afternoon, SK decided she wanted to wear some panties. She has been talking lots about pottying and recently got a new book (Thanks Mimi!) about going to the potty, so off we went to her room to put on panties. She has done this multiple times before, but never really wanted to sit on the potty and ended up tee-teeing in her panties. Last night was different though! She got her panties on and decided she wanted to try to sit on the potty. No tee-tee, but she said she would try after a bit (I set a timer and told her we would go and try again after the timer went off). Well, we go back and Ta-da!! She tee-teed! We celebrated and said we would keep going to the potty when she felt the need. Well, 15 minutes later we ended up with tee-tee in the panties, but wanted to keep trying, so we cleaned up and decided to keep trying to wear panties. After dinner, she goes running to the potty saying "I need to potty!" and yes she made it to the potty! So then the rest of the night, we heard "I need to potty" about 45 times, most of which meant that she wanted to go in the bathroom, pull her pants and panties down and pull them right back up and come back in the living room. She was wearing us out, but it was funny too. We went to bed in a pull-up, since she really wanted to (it helped that they had princesses on them). Got up this morning to a happy little girl for sure. She wanted to put her panties on, but proceeded to tee-tee in them. Then we decided since we were heading to church, we would see if she was ok with doing a diaper for church. We will see how this story continues, but hopefully this means we are on our way to being done with diapers! Woohoo!
We did make it to church this morning, though it was snowing quite a bit when we were leaving. We decided to check out Kirk of the Hills this morning, this being the 3rd church we have visited since being here. I really enjoyed this church. There are so many churches we could visit up here, almost too many. It makes my head spin really to try to remember things from each church. I know the Lord will lead us to the right church to be a part of while we are here in seminary, I just have to trust that. So I will leave you with what the sermon was on this morning:

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it."--Matthew 13:44-46

The sermon really made me think. Think about what my "treasure" is. While my treasure should be Christ, in reality it is so many other things. So many times I find myself believing that "If I just could..." then I would have full satisfaction. Of course, how long will that satisfaction last? Makes me think, you know. Well, off to go rest up before starting work tomorrow! (While Sk sounds like she is not taking a nap again today...instead having "rest" time in her room).

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Field Trip with Mommy and SK

We decided after this last snow (all 8" of it) we would go try out our new sled at Forest Park. We found a different hill from the one that I posted about the other day. One a bit less crowded and long. Daddy and SK took a few trips down the hill together (that is after SK let Daddy test out the hill first and watch him do it). At that point Mommy's toes were done for the day, so we headed back home :)


(This is the World's Fair Pavilion, for those of you that have seen the movie
"Meet me in St. Louis")


So after moving here, I decided SK was at a good age to start helping with chores around the house. She loves it and makes mundane tasks, more fun with her cheerful attitude :)
So when I unload the dishwasher, she takes this post of unload the silverware!



Since Michael had to work today, I decided SK and I needed to go on an adventure and explore. I knew I wanted to go find snow boots for both of us (since my feet have been freezing and I know SK didn't have good shoes for getting out in the snow). After finding boots for both of us, we ventured to a town called St. Charles, which was about 30 minutes from our house. I had heard someone say it had a cute historic downtown area, so we decided today would be a great day to check it out. It was getting close to lunchtime, so we just drove down the main street and decided we needed to bring Daddy back with us on a warmer day to check out all of the cute shops. It was fun though to see it. Then we came back home for lunch and hopefully going down for a nap soon.
On another note, yesterday we got to go over to another seminary family's house and stock up on some incredible FREE bread! St. Louis Bread Co (aka Panera Bread for you Bham folks) donates their day old bread to the seminary families. I found out about it through some friends that we had been connected with from friends back in Alabama, and I am so thankful for some yummy bread! We got over there and saw a boutiful supply of all sorts/types of bread possible! and it was free!! (did I mention that already!) They do this twice a month, so I definitely plan to be a part of this while we are here :) We ate some last night with our dinner, the had cinnamon rolls this morning, and have plenty to last us the week! (I might even freeze some). Sorry, rambling I know, just excited about this!

Temps have been cold here, but we are getting used to all the extra layers. It takes so much more work, I will be thankful for summertime when it doesn't take so long to get myself and SK bundled up and out the door.

The snow is fun....and pretty...and cold. Off to get some hot chocolate and knit after getting the little monkey down for a nap :)





Thursday, January 20, 2011

Winter Storm #2

We are 2 weeks in and now in our 2nd snow storm here in St. Louis! The storm that just came through last night was said to be the biggest this season here. Go figure. It waits on us to get here. It is pretty to look at. And fun to play in for a few minutes at least. I must say though, that it is a lot of work to "play" in the snow. We start bundling up SK at 10, then Momma and Daddy get all our gear on and finally get out the door about 30-45 minutes later. After all of that work, we stay out for maybe 30 minutes before heading back in. We forgot to take our measuring stick out, but we are thinking it is about 8 or so inches at our house. And still falling a little. This is an adjustment for me to say the least. I like beach weather. The snow is fun for a day or so, but 2 weeks so far we have pretty much seen snow on the ground. And, to top it off, it will get down to 4 degrees tonight. 4!! I guess that is better than the zero that had been predicted earlier this week. I should count my blessings right :)



SK loved playing in the snow and sledding around. Even though it is really almost too much snow to sled in. She rode around and the snow just piled in with her. She threw a few snowballs, then Mommy convinced her it was time to head inside for a warm lunch. The funiest part of heading outside, was using SK as our measuring stick. Isn't she cute as a measuring stick?!?

Michael has the day off so we plan to just hang out here and stay warm, then Michael has to shovel the driveway so that he can get out for work tomorrow! What an adventure our time in St. Louis has been so far!

We are off to go bake some cookies then settle down for naptime! Enjoying the day before things get busier next week!



Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Blessed...

I am truly blessed. I love how the Lord throws little blessing our way even when my rotten self deserves nothing. Today, I am thankful for a clean house. So here's the story: Our landlord promised that our place would be cleaned right before we moved in, since it had been vacant for some time. Well, we find out the day before moving that her cleaners had caught the flu and would be unable to clean it. Boo! Well, it turns out to be a blessing in disguise really. Our landlord then said that she would have them come after we got everything unpacked and today was the big day! A sweet lady came and cleaned away for 2 and 1/2 hours while SK and I enjoyed lunch and a movie/knitting. It was lovely. To smell a clean house and not have to do it myself. I could get used to that. Except we have never used paid cleaners before and probably won't again. Not really in the budget, you know :) It was nice for today though!
Michael is at work today. He is liking working at ChicfilA and they really seem like a great company to work for. I am taking SK to meet baby Molly (who I will start keeping fulltime Monday). We have talked a lot about her and I think SK will do great.
So I feel pretty random with the blogging, but like giving updates on things here. I am ready to get into a routine. Have I said that before? I like routine and a schedule. I am trying to enjoy the somewhat down time we have right now, other than the crazy amount of errands and phone calls and such that we have had to do getting everything set up here.
I am also ready to find and get plugged into a church here. I miss Community and our church family in Alabama. I don't like being the "newbys" if you will. I know we will find something, but it will just take time.
On another note, I have started SK with chores up here. Not sure why I have never done this with her before. She is a pro at chores and LOVES doing them, even calling them "fun!" I hope to start a chart soon with rewards for her, like stickers and such, but for now, she is content to do them and get smiles from Mommy and Daddy. On her list of chores: Making her bed each morning, putting away toys before nap, helping unload the dishwasher (silverware is her job), and setting the table for each meal. I love having a little helper and she makes it more fun with her positive attitude, which makes it more fun for me :)
Well, that's all the rambling I got for now. I am thinking some JJ Heller and coffee are calling my name on this dreary and cold afternoon. Have I mentioned that it is cold up here? Like, one night this week I think the low is 0. ZERO! That is crazy!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Random Pictures with Update!

Just getting started with our book collection...These are Michael's books for his 4 classes this spring, and there are still 3 to add to the stack!

My dear friend from Alabama, Melissa, painted this picture for us for our new home up here. The colors ended up working so well on this old shutter I had, and it looks so lovely in our living room. What a great reminder we need in front of us each day we are here.

Saturday, we decided to take some time out for fun with SK. We are learning more and more about how St. Louis has great activities that are free or cheap for kids. We decided to head out to Forest Park, about 1.5 miles from our house and see all that it had to offer. We spent most of the morning in the Science Museum, where SK had a blast! The museum is split over the interstate with a bridge going over the interstate. SK loved the see through glass where you could see cars passing below.

Mommy and SK at the Science Museum!

Daddy helping Sk see through the telescope.

Also at Forest Park, we found an outdoor iceskating rink. We happened to get there while the speed skaters were practicing, which was really cool to watch.


We were cooking dinner the other night and saw the most beautiful sunset from our windows at the back in the kitchen. So, here is the view we see while cooking dinner! Not too bad, huh!

And lastly, Isn't she cute with french braids!

We are taking it easy around here today, esp. since all the things we need to do are closed today, like driver's license and car tag, ect. Michael is studying for his Bible Content Exam, which he will take next Tuesday. So, I have been getting my knitting back out and getting new projects going! I will share later with what I have made....
Hope everyone is having a nice Monday!






Friday, January 14, 2011

Boxes=done!

Well, I can officially say that we have unpacked all of our boxes. woohoo!!! We have hung pictures on the wall and can finally eat at our dining room table! It feels nice to have things pretty well set up here and looking more like home. SK is adjusting so well here and I am so thankful for that. She loves her new house and what a special treat to have snow our first week here. SK LOVES the snow. We talk about it lots around here. The weather today was much warmer, getting above freezing even :) While Michael was a work, SK and I decided to venture out to find the library here in Richmond Heights and then head to Whole Foods where I was able to use a few coupons and get some deals. It can't really compare to my Publix deals, but it will do for now :)

I really do love our home. It is warm and has such character. I like it. Oh, have I mentioned we have squirrel friends? There are many trees in our neighborhood and so we have lots of squirrels who love to play in those said trees and along the rooftops. I am getting more used to the sounds of something running along the window ledges and our terrace thingys out front.

I met with the family that I will be nannying for yesterday. They are very kind and their daughter is so cute and I look foward to SK meeting her. I will start working not this coming week, but the next. I am looking foward to getting more into a routine around here. I think it will do us some good. Right now we are doing different things every day and running around getting things done. Of course, with the coming routine, will come less time with Michael I am sure. He has gotten most of his books for the coming semester and there are quite a few. I couldn't imagine going back to school and reading so much. He is excited about it though and I look foward to learning with him through this whole crazy process.

I know I haven't added pictures lately, but I will post some soon. Hope everyone is having a lovely Friday!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Random thoughts on this snowy early morn...

I am up early this morning thanks to a little 2 year old who, at 5:00 in the morning, cries out "I'm wet! I tee-teed!". She tee-teed so much in fact that it required a whole outfit change and instead of changing sheets at this early hour, she came to bed with us to cuddle. I will deal with the sheets later...
So here are some random thoughts in my head this morning...
1. Hot water is a lovely thing. At our old house I never knew what mood the water would be in, hot, cold, or somewhere in between. Not fun for someone who loves a scoulding hot shower.
2. Snow is fun except for it makes for more laundry and my car is so dirty right now it is sad. We decided yesterday that we will have a 1 time a year cleaning and not worry about the rest. What's the point really? It was hard enough to keep the windshield clean in order to see out.
3. I ventured out on my own for the first time in St. Louis. Go figure my first time to drive here in town and there is snow everywhere. I needed to get out. Poor Michael needs a break from my craziness of "We must unpack everything right now and have this place looking homey now!" I don't boss, don't get me wrong, I just run around like a chicken with it's head cut off putting things in the right place. Unpacking is hard. Esp. when back home I had an army of great people helping. It takes forever it seems and isn't as fun by yourself (or just me and Michael).
4. We went up to the seminary yesterday and that was fun to see it again. We were told that we needed to check out Forest Park for sledding. Man, was that place popular. There was a great hill in front of the Art Museum and it was packed with people. We didn't have a sled or proper clothing on for it, plus there wasn't a parking spot to be found anywhere close, so we just did a drive by, and it was fun. It was a good break from our crazy unpacking and running around getting things checked off our list.
5. I met a lady at the Seminary yesterday that is over the childcare at the Seminary. She gave me a brochure and I am really looking foward to some of the things that go on up at the school. There is a free Parent's morning out that I hope to get SK going to this semester. I think she would enjoy it and make some good friends at.
6. Michael starts training today at ChickfilA. I think it is going to be a good job. I met the lady that will I guess be his boss, and she was very kind and sweet. Pray for him that training goes well and as he starts classes that he doesn't feel overloaded.
7. I am going tomorrow to meet with the family that I will be nannying for. I am excited about my job and pray that SK adjusts well with Molly being with us each day.
8. Skype is a lovely invention. It has been nice to get to see our family and friends on the "Puter" as SK calls it.
9. I love that we live so close to things up here. This is something that we have never had thus far in our marriage. We have always lived a good distance from work and grocery stores and all, that this is a nice change. We are literally walking distance to Schnucks (not a Publix, but it will do). And our bank is just past it, could walk to it as well if we wanted. Target is 5 minutes away (that could be good or bad depending on how you look at it :)). We are 10-15 minutes from the Seminary and both of our jobs. It is nice to not have to drive so much and not have to fill our tanks so often with gas.
10. Hopefully SK and I can get some things done around here today while Michael is at work. I am itching to get some pictures on the wall since I think we pretty much have furniture in it's place. My goal today is to get the dining room table cleaned off with all the stuff all over it so that we can start eating at our table instead of the couch. And laundry today. And organize the pantry. And finish unpacking SK's room (Poor kid, her room is the only room left with boxes still sitting around). And...nevermind, let's be real, all that won't get done, but wouldn't it be nice if it did...

Monday, January 10, 2011

We're Here!

So it's been a while since my last post, but things have been a bit crazy the last week. I am taking a break from unpacking so I can catch everyone back in Alabama up on what we have been up to! (I haven't taken many breaks since we have gotten here, so this is nice). Let's begin with last week:
Thursday-Friday--we got our "big yellow truck" (as Sk called it) and loaded it up with family and friends. We had to go pick up the truck then load up some things that were going to our parent's houses take those over to Trussville then when the truck got back, we were able to start loading up. In the midst of all of the loading, I had to take SK to the pediatrician since she had been complaining of her "neck" hurting and she had been acting kind of puny the last couple of days, so I knew it had to be an ear infection, which the doctor confirmed and put her on meds for. So I missed part of the loading, but Michael had lots of help getting the truck filled and then what didn't fit found themselves new homes :) We hung out with friends and family till bedtime and prayed together and with many tears, said our goodbyes. Michael and I set up our neighbors air mattress to sleep on and SK slept on a pallet beside us in our empty house. Sk didn't sleep so well, so that meant Mommy didn't either (I don't think daddy got too much either). Since I never really fell asleep, I decided at 3:30 a.m. that we should go ahead and get ready to head out. We headed out around 4:15 a.m. and 10 hours later arrived at our new house here in St. Louis. The drive was good, SK slept for the first few hours, then we made a stop for gas and stretching. The next stop was for lunch at a rest stop, then SK fell asleep for another hour or so. Then we hit snow, so we took it kind of slow, but made our way fairly uneventful. It helped that the grandmama's had sent activities for SK including games, movies, and the best was the little M&M's (can we say sugar rush?). After getting here, I met our landlord to sign papers and all and Michael had to drop off our trailer at the truck rental place. The gas company was here when I got here and discovered immediately that there was a crack in the water heater, meaning, we would have no hot water (we also had no hot water when we moved into our rental in bham). Our landlord was finally able later in the day to find a plumber to come and look at it, but we still had to wait to Monday, since they ended up having to order a whole new water heater. We did get to use the shower downstairs, in the other unit (we are in a duplex upstairs and someone else lives downstairs), so that is better than nothing. So after discovering about no hot water, we turned our focus to unloading the truck and cars. I wish I had taken a picture of us unloading, since halfway through it started really snowing pretty good. That was fun and cold..and really cold....We did get everything in, thanks to the help of some other seminary students. We got to hang out after getting everything off the truck and eat some pizza and have some hot chocolate (Thanks for coming over and making it Rebecca!) It was nice to get to hang out and chat for a bit. Our place was jam packed with furniture and boxes everywhere, but we were able to have our beds set up sleep in them that night. SK did wonderfully throughout the unloading of the box (as good as a 2 year old can at least) and slept wonderfully that night.

Sat.--- We got up and took the truck back to the rental place and headed to the grocery store. We decided to check out Schnuck's, which is literally walking distance from our house. It was a nice store (reminds me of Whole Foods back at home) and I was even able to find a couple coupons in the store to use! I will have to figure out couponing here once we get things in order, but I am going to greatly miss the deals at Publix... After getting back from the grocery store, we got to work unloading boxes. We worked till dinnertime and then ate some soup and called it a night.

Sunday--We got up and decided to check out a church here in town that we had heard of. We have had lots of moments of missing everyone back in Alabama and our minds were on our CPC family lots this day. SK was standing in the kitchen at one point and started singing "Our God is a great big God" and I stood in the hallway watching her do the motions and sobbed. What a blessing our church family was to my baby girl these last couple of years. I long to find a church here that will love her the same and teach her and point her to Christ (I know we will, it will just take time). After church, we ate some leftovers at home and got back to work unpacking. We got to take a break for dinner and enjoy a nice dinner at Macaroni Grill thanks to a giftcard given to us by some dear friends.

Monday--So far today we have gone to get our Occupancy permit (Something new to us) and went to the bank to get things set up with a local bank. The plumbers are here working on getting us some hot water and I can't wait for a long hot shower after they get it all fixed for us. Michael will head to the school this afternoon during SK's nap to take care of some things then we plan to relax tonight and watch the game.

So there ya go. A quick recap of our life the last few days. Things have been crazy and emotions have been high at times, but we are excited to be here and can't wait to see how the Lord will use this stage in our lives to grow us. It might be painful at times and hard, but God is good and will be our strength (I know I will need it). We have been able to skype some with family back home and that has been nice. I know it is getting to be a long post, but I just wanted to recap everything that we have been up to.

We are expecting snow later today (2-5 inches) and more on Friday I think. We are starting to adjust to having to bundle up with layers as we go out, but man it is cold up here. I don't think we will get above freezing all week and the low on Wednesday is 6 degrees. 6 DEGREES!! I like warm weather, so this is not fun for me, but it will be fun to sit on our couch and watch the snow fall from our big window in the front.

Well, that's all I got for now, got to get back to work, but we love and miss all of our Alabama family and friends :) Enjoy your snow/ice back home, I love seeing the pictures on facebook and will take some of our later! I am gonna upload pictures to facebook, so check out there for the pictures!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Happy 1st B'day dear Angel

Well, it is 5 in the morning, and here I sit, unable to sleep. So many things on my heart, but this morning, it isn't about the move. Because of the fallen world we live, I don't get to celebrate our second childs 1st birthday with them. I'd like to think God our Father is throwing quite the bash up in heaven since I can't here.

Dear baby girl or boy,
It's mommy. I know you are perfectly content where you are, but you are missed greatly here. I am sad that we never even got to meet, but I know that day will come. I long for heaven for so many reasons, and you are definitely one of my top reasons. Yesterday in church we sang a song, "Soon and Very Soon" and it made me long for the day for Christ to come back and make all things right. I will get to meet you on that day and I can't wait to squeeze you up and kiss you all over. But for now, I know the Lord is holding you and doing far better than I could have ever done. I don't know if we will have birthday parties in heaven, but the Lord knows my heart better than myself, and maybe He can pull some strings and have a little party for you dear one. I do want to take a moment to apologize. I know there have been times that you have seen me deny your existence. When others ask how many children we have and I respond with 1 instead of 2. It is a hard question to answer for me, but I do count you as one of my babies. Mommy loves you very much and Daddy does too. My heart aches for the day that I can hold you in my arms, but I know the Lord is good and His plans for you were different than mine. Sarah Kate would have loved you so much too. I will tell her about you one day when she is older and you'll get to play with her one fine day. Well, I will let you get back to hanging with Jesus. I love you baby,
Mommy

I hope when we get settled up in St. Louis, I can get back to some fun blogs, but this is just what is on my heart and I have to get it out. So many emotions this week about so many things. This being the week we would have celebrated our baby's 1st bday and the move makes for an emotional mommy this morning. I am so excited about our move and I know the Lord is going to grow us so much through this stage of our lives, but I will so greatly miss what we have been so blessed with here in Alabama. God is good though and truly it is a great comfort for me that this isn't home. St. Louis, Alabama, none of it is going to be home, just pit stops on our way to our true home, Heaven. And we will all have eternity to celebrate and worship Christ our Lord together and party with each other up there, where there won't be separation or pain or heartache.

Soon and very soon my King is coming
Robed in righteousness and crowned with love
When I see Him, I shall be made like Him
Soon and very soon.
Soon and very soon I'll be going
To the place He has prepared for me
Then my sin erased, my shame forgotten
Soon and very soon.
(Chorus)
I will be with the One I love
With unveiled face I'll see Him
There my soul will be satisfied
Soon and very soon.
Soon and very soon see the procession
The angels and the elders 'round the throne
At His feet I lay my crowns, my worship
Soon and very soon.