Blustery Day

Wow!  What an eventful day we had!  This morning I was planning on going in to work to cover the shift of my co-worker who was out of town.  So my alarm when off ("Iiii am a maaaan, of constant soorrroows..." -yes I know that is an interesting choice of songs to wake up to, kinda gives you a hint of how I feel about mornings!) and in between hitting snooze I hear POURING rain and crazy wind and sirens.  So after a few times of snooze Neil says, "well I guess we better get in the closet... its time to get up anyway" he said this with a nonchalant tone as if that was a normal morning greeting for us *laugh*.  So we got in the closet and I grabbed a bunch of pillows, he got the weather radio and some granola bars then I went to get my purse and my wedding ring, then he wanted his book, then I wanted my book, then we both had to go to the bathroom, (you can see how good we would be in a real emergency situation!) 

So once we were settled in the closet we decided to find out why we were in the closet and it turned out there were 85 mile an hour winds flying through our neighborhood!  Ack!  So we didn't really need to be in the closet since there wasn't a tornado warning, but since we were in there we decided to be safe and stay just incase flying debris came shooting through our window!  So then my boss called me to say that I didn't need to come in today since the weather was so bad!  That was good since I wasn't looking forward to driving in the monsoon!  So after the severe weather warning was over we looked out the windows and there was trash all over our front yard and the wind was blowing all the rain sideways and knocking over people's trash cans and walloping over our new little maple tree!  

Yes it tipped our little tree clean over and rubbed it so roughly against the pavers that it looks like we tried to chop it down!  Needless to say we were quite distraught, and had a hard time waiting for the hail and downpour to stop for us to go prop it back up!  The storm abruptly passed and the sun came out, so Neil pulled some of the steaks out of the backyard  that are no longer needed and we put them in the front yard to stabilize our trees. 

This task was harder than it looks, because if you will remember, our yard is made of cement! In the process of securing our trees we discovered another little home that survived the storm :)  

After we were done with the yard work we headed out to run some errands.  We got lunch at Q'doba (soo good!) and then went to flowerama and got a ton of beautiful yellow carnations to hand out to the mother's in our church on Sunday.

Oh and last week we went bowling with Jon and Amanda for Amanda's birthday celebration! 

 I was by far the best at getting my ball in the gutter :)  

It was their daughter's first bowling trip and she had a blast!  

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!

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!

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 :) 

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 :)  

Last day of March

Ah March, my favorite month. The birth of springtime and the beginning of new growth. This windy month has breezed by and floated softly into April.
Today started out pretty rough! I woke up with a stomach ache and still felt bad even after I took some medicine! So I called in to work and told them that I was going to be a few hours late and then just curled up in a ball on the couch. Lucky for me, I have a wonderful husband who happened to be working from home today! He snuggled up right next to me and just held me for about an hour, until I felt better :) I told him that he has the "chest of healing". Thats a term I made up because I learned in college that really premature babies, ones so little that they can't be held, are sometimes laid on their mothers chest to promote healing. Here is a quote from everything2.com that I just found about it
"Premature babies thrive when placed skin to skin on their mother or father's chest long before they are stable enough to feed. Often, they are still on a respirator when such "Kangaroo Care" is initiated. They settle down quickly into deeper REM sleep and use fewer calories crying and wiggling thus allowing for better growth."
Pretty cool huh? Well there is your random piece of knowledge for today! I just feel so blessed to have Neil. It meant so much to me that he took time from his really busy day to just hold me and help me feel better :)We finally got our house all put together! We have started hosting some leadership training meetings at our house so it gave us a deadline to finially get the last boxes unpacked. Here's a pic of our new bookshelves!

a quarter of a century

I told you I was excited, and for good reason too!  My day of turning 25 started with Neil waking me up and asking if I wanted to come eat breakfast that he had made for me :)  He also had me open a card and my first present which was a devotional book called "pure praise" for us to read through together!  I thought it was the perfect book for a worship pastor and his wife *smile* Then I headed off to work and had a good day of describing roosters and then I expected to come home and go to church. Originally I thought I had work till 5, a meeting at 5:30, set up at 6 and church at 7. Well on tuesday night one of the ladies I was going to meet with called and canceled, which I was glad about so that I wouldn't be so rushed getting from work to church.  Then I was able to leave work early on my birthday and when I got home, Neil was waiting for me with 25 pink roses!  Then he said, "here is the plan for tonight, I'm going to cook you dinner while you go get ready, then ... we'll open presents, I'm taking you to a movie and then out for dessert!" I was in shock that we weren't going to church!  Then I started piecing together the canceled meeting and realized he had masterminded that as well! Sneaky sneaky!

My favorite restaurant is Johnny Carino's, but they don't have that in Springfield, so Neil made me my favorite dish from there, baked cheese tortellini! 

 Yum it was so good!  He even set the table like an Italian restaurant would with a bread tray and olive oil with balsamic vinegar! 

 I tell you that boy is thoughtful! down to the smallest detail!  Like all of my presents were wrapped with pink, my roses were pink, my card was pink and my drink at dinner was pink!  He puts so much effort into making things special for me and it shows me so much that he loves me.  So then I opened the presents from his parents, which were this beautiful jade green Tahari shirt and 6 ocean themed Eddie Bauer charms! 

 I could hardly wait to wear them!  

They also got me a Parallel Bible which has two versions (NASB and The Message) side by side.  

I've been wanting one of those bc I really enjoy reading from the Message, but I want to be sure that it is accurate and that I am getting the correct interpretation of the text.  So this Bible is the perfect compromise!  

My parents got me some Bare Minerals make-up and some lotion I had been wanting!  I will celebrate with them when I visit in April. 

 I also got some beautiful cards from Mimi and Papa and my family and friends and oh my so many facebook messages!  I just really felt loved and blessed!  

Neil took me to see Bolt, the new Disney movie, it was cute :) he knows I love cartoons!

  Then we went to Cheddars for a Cookie Monster which was so delicious!

When we got home I opened my other present from him, a Bamboo!  No, not the plant, its a "notepad" for your computer.  It comes with a pen and an electronic tablet that you can draw or write on and it is directly connected to your computer!  I'm excited to use it to embellish photos and make all kinds of creative things that I couldn't do with a mouse :) 

 

Wow this was such a wonderful birthday!  The only was it could have been any better is if my family were with me too, I really missed them on this day in particular, but Neil and I had an amazing date and It was an incredible first married birthday!