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 :)

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!

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.

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 :)

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).

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 :)

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!