church tubing trip...

we went to ichetucknee springs today with a few families from church, it was soooooo much fun! if you didn't go, you missed out! if you want to hear more about it, you'll have to ask someone who went...

blackjack 2 and the bible?!?

i thought it was really cool that jerry took his new phone today and was using it to take jeff's sermon notes. lol on top of that, he sent them to my cell phone in a text message...wow, technology never ceases to amaze me! (as long as it doesn't become independently intelligent like it did in i-robot...which i watched tonight for the first time!) i can't wait until august when i can upgrade my phone...i'm not sure what kind of cool gadget-y one i want to get, but it had better be as cool as jerry's!

only one service at church today...
dinner with the fam...
long afternoon nap...
youth group...
target...
movies...
...priceless!

i love laidback weekends, especially when things seem to be going smoothly and life is good!!!

next weekend...tubing!!!

the body of believers...

i wish the following verses were viewed from a biblical perspective by the church community as a whole. i know pastors agree, and very active church members agree, but i don't think church "attenders" get it. everyone is needed to keep the body of Christ working properly and everyone has a place of importance in order to accomplish the work for the Kingdom that we are placed here to do. but what strikes me most is toward the end about when members suffer... you know, everyone suffers, it seems, in one way or another, but pretty much everyone is unwilling to be open and honest about it. if people would just talk to each other and share their hurts or struggles or frustrations...and be listened to out of love and not out of judgment, the church would be such a better place. if it were only that easy, right? just something to think about and try, it might be new for you, but since we're all suffering anyway, what would it hurt?

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

-1 Corinthians 12:12-27

relaxing weekend...

it's just what i needed! it started off friday evening with elisabeth and i attending a friend's play and eating dinner with their family afterward, just some good hang-out time with friends...(jerry and nick went to see the new indiana jones movie with other friends)

saturday, i slept in a bit and then registered for baby stuff at target with elisabeth, went to a cookout at another friend's home, and just enjoyed more hang-out time with friends and new acquaintances...(jerry and nick went to the big backyard bbq or whatever it's called, to see "the almost" and some other bands, they had a great time too!) i also was able to pick up a crib, mattress, toddler bed and stroller for the baby...all free, from other friends, and am excited and blessed to have this stuff to start preparing for our new addition to the family.

it was nice, just taking some time to relax and not stress about anything...we need more days, weekends, weeks like that for sure!

today was great too. we went to church, a church we dearly love...worship time was amazing for me, the songs were just perfect...the message was amazingly right on what i needed to hear (just like last week's was also)...there was an awesome time of prayer and sense of God's presence there too... i have been convicted the past couple of weeks that i need to pray more for our church, our pastor, our families, our community, and what God is trying to do here, and the message today just reiterated that to me, convicting me more and more that God has been saying the same thing that was spoken of during the message. i feel so blessed to have been brought to this place of worship and service, and can't imagine being anywhere else to worship and serve God and hear his word...

dinner with the family, a nice long sunday afternoon nap...all a perfect ending to a perfect weekend...and i still have another day to go! i feel refreshed and rejuvenated, ready to focus on what's next...i hope your weekend was just as refreshing and relaxing too!

amazed again...

as i mentioned yesterday, jerry delivered the sermon today. i'm not being biased at all, but boy was it good! it never ceases to amaze me how his sermons come together, and usually at the last minute because that's how he and God seem to work best together, and they are so good.

most mornings i sit through two services, so i tend to space out during one of them. this morning i took over youth for the first service and only went to the second one (i had a week off from the worship team since nick had his surgery and is still recovering).

this morning jerry spoke from ezekiel from the passage where he has a vision of the river and goes in to the ankles, then to the knees, then to the waist, and then it's deep and the current is too strong to swim or be in control of the situation. he likened it to how we should be...many of us are in to the ankles, knees or even waist deep, but we haven't come to that place in our relationship with Christ where we will just go in to where it's so deep and so strong that the only way to live is to let Him be in control and take over our lives completely. we want to be in control of something and can't just let the river take us where it may, but that's where the biggest blessings are...the passage talks about fruit trees that bear fruit monthly, and abundant life from the nourishment the water from the river brings...

...i'm jumping in! (or at least trying...i'm a control freak, so that's a hard one!)

headache free since friday morning...

so now what?!?

after nick went to school on friday, he hasn't had a headache since. he even says the constant one is barely there. he hasn't had any of the new meds (we decided to wait until after the EKG results) and the dark circles under his eyes seemed almost gone this morning at church. i'm baffled, but happy that it's happening. so i guess unless the constant headache comes back, i won't give him those pills. i just don't know. hopefully he's been healed of the issues and they'll be gone forever, but if he isn't, what's the right direction to go if they're no longer constant? i guess we'll cross that bridge if they come back and then call the neurologist to see what to do.

onto other things...

nick's team won their soccer game yesterday. he did a great job keeping this one kid on the other team from just running up and down the side of the field with the ball, and i swear the kid had legs that were twice as long as nick's! he did a great job keeping up with him and keeping him at bay. i don't think the kid broke away once to score with nick on him like that!

elisabeth's team (coached by jerry) tied 2-2 yesterday. she did a great job as goalie. one of the points was scored by the ball flying up near her head, and at that age those are hard to stop. she does such a great job watching the ball and jumping on it when it's coming!

jerry preached today at church. it was a great message to go along with our church's current series on "40 days of community". our church is just such a great place to be, and every week i'm reminded just how blessed i am to be there and how awesome it is to know the friends we are making and considering as part of our family.

we went to see "the pirates who don't do anything" today, it's a really cute movie, and even if your kids are a little older, it's not too bad. i think nick wasn't too upset we went to see it even!

so "school" starts tomorrow. it's going to be an interesting journey, that's for sure! i'm sure i'll be thrown for a few loops here and there, but i hope to be finished by december, may at the latest. i'm just so excited to finally have the opportunity to finish my degree and all of the doors it will open.

amazing grace...

"amazing because it is"....so true! that's the title to a song by the almost but it's what comes to mind when i think of my church too. grace community amazes me more and more the longer i'm there. the love and understanding that's shown to everyone who needs it from almost everyone else....it is truly amazing! i'm so glad we're there and can't think of a better place to be "exploring grace, experiencing growth, and extending God's love" while "building a better community by God's grace". worship this morning was amazing (at least from my viewpoint on the worship team--both experienced by me, and observed in others), and the message was even more so.

i'll leave you with a video and the lyrics of our closing song (by matthew west), which brought me to tears at the end of both services....



only grace

there is no guilt here
there is no shame
no pointing fingers
there is no blame
what happened yesterday
has disappeared
the dirt has washed away
and now it's clear

there's only grace
there's only love
there's only mercy and believe me it's enough
your sins are gone
without a trace
there's nothing left now
there's only grace

you're starting over now
under the sun
you're stepping forward now
a new life has begun
your new life has begun

there's only grace
there's only love
there's only mercy and believe me it's enough
your sins are gone
without a trace
there's nothing left now
there's only grace

and if you should fall again
get back up, get back up
reach out and take my hand
get back up, get back up
get back up again
get back up again

there's only grace
there's only love
there's only mercy and believe me it's enough
your sins are gone
without a trace
there's nothing left now
there's only grace

life's been so busy...

I haven't had much exciting stuff to post here at all. For anyone who happens to still pop by occasionally, sorry I've become so boring! LOL

Today our youth group is going ice skating. It was supposed to be "Serve and Skate", but the "serve" part fell through. The lady we were supposed to do stuff for (yardwork and clean-up around the house) has company coming. It should be fun, and Elisabeth gets to come, so she's excited to try ice skating for the first time.

Let's see. Our school is down-sizing on staff because of 2 new schools opening in the area. Thanks to our fiasco move to the other side of the state, I had resigned and therefore lost my position on the seniority list. So, now I'm last on the list and depending on the allocations to see whether or not I get to stay. Elisabeth came into my room at school one day this week with her face all splotchy and a school letter in hand, she had misread the letter and thought she wasn't going to get to come back to our school next year. Poor thing. I hope I can stay just because of her, but we're losing two principals, so who knows how good our staff will be next year anyway. If I do get the bump, I'm willing to go to one of the new schools. They have some really good administration people, so I'd be fine there. Plus, Elisabeth's best friend Alex will be going to the new school....it wouldn't be all bad.

So that's the excitement around here.

I do have to say though, we've met some great people through our "new" church, and have made some awesome friends. That feels nice for a change. Usually we get shoved off with the youth and none of the adults really try to let us in and get to know us. Our church is gearing up for it's first anniversary, pretty exciting stuff going on there.