Friday, April 24, 2009

observant

Woah!  So we just came in from a morning of lawn work and tree beautifing and Neil is in the kitchen cooking me a gourmet lunch.  We were looking for a "medium saucepan" which takes a little looking to find, when suddenly he opened a cabinet and there was nothing in it!  A completely empty area!  Can you imagine being in your kitchen, in a home that you have lived in for over 3 months, and not knowing you had a whole cabinet just sitting there unused!  lol that just shows how observant we are!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Saran Wrap

Wow, sorry it has been so long since I last posted anything, its been a busy few days, recovering from Easter, going to OKC, getting sick and then getting well :)  You would think
 that I would have had plenty of time while I was laying on the couch to blog to my hearts content, which I agree, the time was there, it was a matter of contamination.  You see, Neil has lovingly saran-wrapped all the remotes to the tv, dvd, and receiver to protect them from evil germs.  He even gave me a walmart sack to use as a glove when retrieving dvds from their case!  He is very thoughtful and slightly germaphobic, but not as bad as me.  But its a good
 thing because he has not gotten sick yet either!
Anyway, I didn't have saran-wrap to wrap around the computer, hence the lack of bloginess. Granted, I could have used my "glove" but I just didn't have the heart to.  
Here are the Top Twelve Tid Bits that sum up the last 2 weeks.
1.  We had an amazing Easter party for the "orphans" (that is Barbarians who weren't visiting their parents for Easter), complete with an Easter Egg hunt!

2. The boys were excellent sports and joined in on the hunting and hiding without too much of a fuss.

3. I went to OKC for the weekend while Neil was at the general assembly in St. Louis.  I gave Bryce Neil's April Fools day balloons and they are still inflated!  Thats
 impressive!  

4. We celebrated my birthday and I got a Gazelle :)  that is an exercise machine, not an animal. 

5. We went to Kenny and Karen's soccer game and just happened to run in to some other Missorians, Keith's parents!  What are the odds? They were watching Keith's brother who just happens to play on the same team!  They WON! Go Rockets!!

6. If the Rockets were an all girls team they could be called the Rockettes.  Then they could say that they have really great kicks! 

7. Nicole became an AUNT!  Oh and Keith is an uncle too, but not nearly as vocally excited about it as Nicole!! ;) 
 
8. I got to see my wonderful Aunt Neva and Cousin Carrie for the first time in forever!

9. On the way back to Springfield it was raining and sprinkling and carrying on, and God let me see the MOST amazing rainbow!  It shot straight up into the sky, probably 300 feet!  It was beautiful :)
10. I came back from OKC and immediately got the yuck.  If you need to know what the yuck is please click on the link to my sister Karen's site - April 10th.

11. My amazing husband has been lovingly taking care of me and cooking for me and telling me that I still look pretty even when I'm sick, all week long!

12. Tonight I am achieving a great wifely achievement which is conquering a mountain of laundry, the biggest I've encountered on my marriage adventure!  Wish me luck!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Tenebrae


"Just as you may never full appreciate a movie if all you see is the happy ending, you may never experience all the joy of the Easter Season without experiencing Good Friday first.  Come join us as we reflect on the grief and suspense of that day so we can all experience the joy of Easter together."

Last night, my savior died for me.  That was the focus of our Tenebrae evening.  Tenebrae is Latin for "shadows" or "darkness".  It is so incredible to imagine yourself as a disciple, to wake up this morning and feel such immeasurable hopelessness as you realize that your savior, friend, teacher, healer, leader - the son of God - died last night.  Wouldn't that shake your faith!?  It has only been in the last two years that I have fully grasped the incredible joy of Easter in realizing what the disciples must have felt that beautiful Sunday morning when they found that the tomb was empty!  All of their hope had been restored as they gained insight to the full glorious picture of God's awesome plan of salvation.

Our service last night focused on the last 7 things Christ said on the cross.  We also had a footwashing service (my first one), that we did in groups of family and friends.  Our small group, now known as "The Barbarians" (for further explaination of why we chose this name read "The Barbarian Way" by Erwin McManus - trust me you won't be disappointed!) chose to do the footwashing together, each couple washing their spouse's feet.  It was such a beautiful way to show an outward expression of my love to Neil, and I felt the same as he washed my feet. 
 We got to watch as Jon and Amanda's daughter participated in her first footwashing!  She is such a delight to be around and she did such a good job helping her parents and sitting still as her feet were washed.  She loves Neil and as I started to wash his feet, I think she wanted to come help!  Not even two years old and she already has a servant's heart :) 

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Just Dandy!

Yesterday was a dandy day :)  I got to spend the whole day with the man of my dreams!  It was such a mild and warm day, just the right day for working outside!  Neil and I went to the Botanical Tree Trail and Nursery and got two trees for our bare front yard!  We decided on an Autumn Blaze Maple and Neil had to have a Colorado Blue Spruce.  Since Blue Spruces can grow to around 60 feet tall, we prudently decided on the Baby Blue *smile*
We borrowed Jon's truck, got them all loaded up and when we got home we set to work!  We called Jon a second time to help us unload the surprisingly heavy trees! We had to strategically place them in between the pipe lines running through our little yard and Neil did several "drive bys" (which consisted of him speed walking past, pretending to be in a car) to make sure that we had them in the right position. 
 Neil started digging and quickly realized that our yard is not made of dirt.  It is mostly rocks bound together with rock hard clay!  So he dug and dug and dug!  All day!  
While he dug, I set to work pulling up the dandelions from our yard.  Believe it or not, there were so many that I was still pulling dandelions after he "jackhammered" through our cement yard!  I pulled two ENTIRE walmart sacks FULL of dandelions!  It was so many that when I closed my eyes later I could clearly see the sprawling shape of those yellow weeds! haha! 
Neil lugged the trees into the hole, then found out that our wire cutters would not cut through the thick wire basket around the rootball!  Jon to the rescue again!  Its so nice to have awesome neighbors!  A saws-all really does saw all!  After Neil removed the wire, I helped fill the wholes back in and we got the trees watered just as the sun was setting!  Whew! just in time :)