Time's almost up

Have you ever been going about your routine in life, totally oblivious to LIFE when something from out of nowhere stops you dead in your tracks?  Well, that happened to me last night.  Claude & I were on our way home from New Bern.  We were listening to his iPod and a song came on that brought me to tears.  The song is called "Hosanna".  The 2nd verse of the song says "I see a generation rising up to take their place, with selfless faith, with selfless faith..."  It hit me so hard that the next generation IS RISING UP.  In less than 2 months, we will be seeing 5 of our youth graduate from high school and go off to college/the air force/the army/etc.  I can't even imagine what it will be like without those seniors there every Sunday night.  Oh, how much I will miss them.  Is this what a parent feels when their child "grows up" and leaves?  Even now, as I'm typing this, I am tearing up!  I love those kids and I don't want to let them go yet.  I have so many thoughts running through my head.  Did we teach them enough?  Do they REALLY GET IT?  Are they prepared to face the world?  Are the prepared to face the spiritual war that they will be entering in college?  Can they feel Christ's presence?  Do they truly know what it is to have a REAL relationship with Him?  

With all of these thoughts going on in my head, I hear a voice (maybe the Holy Spirit?) reminding me..."Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."  Proverbs 22:6

So, parents, some of you may be struggling with "where did I go wrong?"  Why is my child doing this?  Even though I am not a parent, I understand a little of what you feel like.  The Bible gives us a command with a promise!  Pray! Pray! Pray!  God will keep them!  We just have to let go and let Him!  (that doesn't mean that I am not going to ball my eyes out at the graduation ceremonies though!) Thank you Lord for giving me "my" kids!  I love them and am so humbled that you allow me to share in a small part of their lives!

BTW, we have NO juniors, so I don't have anymore to cry over for 2 years!  Unless, of course, our sophomores start inviting juniors!

Here's another one Mom!

So, I talked with my Mom yesterday and she mentioned how Claude, Jason, and myself don't blog as much as we used to.  Well, Claude and I have just been busy.  I try to, but get busy doing other things and forget.  Like last week...I thought I had posted a blog about Claude & I going to Raleigh for a 2 day getaway.  I guess I didn't!!!  I had every intention of doing it, I just got busy and apparently forgot!

Claude has been busy doing church stuff!  New series, new graphics t-shirts, new stage project, new childrens church wing prep, etc.  It's been hectic, but hopefully it will slow down a bit after Mother's Day.

Jason's excuse is that he "twitters" now.  Personally, I think it's a lousy excuse!  But, hey, who am I to stand between a man and his techno addiction!?!  No, it's been busy for all of us!  So, I'll let Jason have that excuse too!!!!!

We are at Claude's mom's house tonight.  His brother and fiance' are in town from Florida, so we are doing the BBQ thing at her house tonight.  I felt a little weird, but they are having hot dogs, brats, mac N chesse, and baked beans. So I brought healthy food for Claude & me to eat.  Which leads me to my next item of what's been going on...

Claude & I have been working out at a gym for about 6 weeks now.  At the very beginning, we measured ourselves. Last Friday, we measured ourselves again to see what progress we've made.  SO...Claude has lost 20 pounds and 5 1/2 inches in his waist!!!!!!!  Now, here's the shocking part...I've lost 20 pounds an 4 1/2 inches in my waist!!!!  My chest size didn't change too much (much to my disappointment and Claude's pleasure!).  I was just shocked that I had lost as much weight and almost as much in inches!  Anyway, I am going to go with the trainer for another 5 weeks in hopes of losing more weight.  My goal is to lose 30 more pounds by summer!  I actually feel like this is within reach.  I haven't felt that way in a LONG TIME!!!

So, that's what's been going on for me.  I will TRY to do better blogging.  I promise!

So long Bruno...

Well, as some of you know, we were fostering a small horse - Bruno.  The 9month old Great Dane went back to his original owner last night.  I can't say that I'm really sad, just bummed that we couldn't make it work.  However, if it comes down to Bruno or my Jack-Jack, Bruno loses everytime.  You see, Saturday afternoon Claude was outside with the dogs talking at the fence with our neighbor, Sandy.  For no real reason (other than territorial dog reasons), Jack-Jack and Bruno got into it.  I mean, they REALLY got into it.  It was so bad, that Claude finally got Jack-Jack away from Bruno, but not before he ended up with a hole in his shoulder (Jack, NOT Claude).  Claude said that Jack-Jack just wouldn't back down and Bruno got ahold of his collar.  He said that Jack-Jack got slung around like a toy and Bruno's tooth just happened to be in Jack's shoulder during this sling-fest.  Anyway, it's probably a great thing that I was not outside when this was happening, because I'm pretty sure I would've gotten hurt trying to kill Bruno...

So, last night, the family that couldn't keep Bruno came back and got him.  I told the youth that we weren't going to be able to keep him and they were upset.  They wanted to make sure that we would be able to "visit" him.  In all honesty, Bruno was a very good dog.  He NEVER showed any aggression to anyone.  Jack-Jack was the aggressor everytime we had an issue.  I just couldn't take the chance that my Jack could get hurt again, or worse, be killed.  I know it may sound silly, but I felt like a mom who couldn't protect her baby.  My Jack got hurt and I couldn't do anything to make it better.

So, we are now back to 2 dogs, 1 cat, and a few tropical fish.  Our housesitter, Bethany, is happy about that!!!  She was nervous about the thought of having to deal with Bruno when we were gone!  

WHEW!

So, we had an AWESOME turnout at the Easter egg hunt Saturday!  We are estimating around 1000 people came!  We had a great mix of ethnicity!  Everything went so smoothly!  As one of my small group buddies said, no children were hurt, crying, or lost during any of the even so it was a TOTAL SUCCESS!!!!!!

Claude & I were discussing it and we guess that we were on our feet for close to 24 hours of the Friday/Saturday experience!!!  It was worth it!

Sunday's church was great too.  We had several families that came to the event show up at church the following morning.  We had 27 in childrens church!!!!!  It was alot of fun and HOPEFULLY, I can get some of the video from claude and put it on my blog (yea, right!!!).  

BEFRORE I FORGET(like that's even possible!)... we were given a very special blessing Saturday afternoon!  We got home from the egg hunt and took a little rest.  Then, we decided to head out and grab a bite to eat.  As we were leaving, Claude checked the mailbox for mail.  We had a thankyou card FILLED with gift cards from all over town (check out his link for details)!  I can't tell you what a nice "pick me up" that was!  So, to whoever sent us these wonderful blessings, thank you so much!  It is truly OUR BLESSING to serve and work with Discovery Church!  We love you all!

a challenging day!

I woke up this morning after a wonderful nite's sleep (which is rare for me!).  I got ready to go to the gym and work out with our trainer, Eric (7:30 was WAY TOO EARLY FOR THAT!).  I fixed myself a couple pieces of toast (with peanut butter on them! YUM!!!  and good protein for work out time too!).  Once I was done, Claude was done eating his breakfast too and he decided to "measure" himself to see how much progress he's made in the last 3 1/2 weeks.  I was so proud of him!  He's lost 5 inches around his waist!  THEN,  I did something extremely stupid...I chose to "measure" myself too.  BAD IDEA.  It appears that I haven't lost any inches around my waist.  OK, I thought to myself, maybe I measured wrong. (is that even possible?!?)  So, I measured my hips and my chest.  REALLY BAD IDEA.  They appeared to be the same too.  

So, this was how I went to the gym this morning...with the thought that I've been working so hard, 5 days a week, watching everything I eat, counting calories, eating extra protein, taking extra vitamins, and nothing.  So, I worked out (had to go to the bathroom a couple times and "compose" myself!  I know, it sounds silly.  I just felt awful and I couldn't seem to get it out of my head.  Usually, I can literally talk myself up and tell myself to not think about it and keep pushing thru.  Not this time.  I had a mental moment.  The funny thing is, the whole time I felt like crying, screaming, complaining, etc.  I kept hearing a verse in my head.  Galatians 6:9 tells us "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."  OK, it's only been 3 1/2 weeks.  I still have April, May, and June to be what I want to be!  I will keep on.

So, I went home afterwards and headed out to the Pitt County Special Olympics.  Some of our small group had volunteered to help and I was looking forward to this!!  It was fun!  The only thing that wasn't fun was how cold it was.  The day was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky. However, the wind was ridiculously cold.  I had a long sleeve shirt on and the Olympics shirt on over it, but I was freezing.  I left there this afternoon feeling like I would never be able to warm up.  I came home, Claude built a fire for me and I bundled up in my rope, blankets, and 2 pairs of socks!  I fell asleep and woke up feeling kinda light-headed.  I hope I didn't do something dumb and catch a cold because of it.  

Tomorrow, I will continue to do what I need to do.  I know in my head that it's gonna take time, but I will keep having to remind my heart!  Thank you Lord, for reminding me that in You, I can do ALL things!

It's been awhile!

OK, so I admit that I am NOT a great blogger!  I was talking with my wonderful husband at dinner tonight about the fact that I'm not very sure of what exactly my gifts are, but I KNOW they are not techy stuff and blogging!  

Now, about my wonderful husband...I am so proud of him!  It's been quite busy around here with the big Easter Egg Hunt, Crosslink, The ROCK, graphics for church, etc.  He just keeps going and going (like the energizer bunny!!!).  He's been sick this last week and it's just now going away.  Claude calls it the "phlemy stage"!  I'm just happy that he's feeling better.  I hate having to watch him be miserable and not be able to do anythng to help him.  

Anyway, he's a blessing to me as well as so many others!  I'm so honored to be his wife.  I don't think I tell him enough just how much I love him and respect him.  I see so many ladies come and go that love their husbands, but it's hard for them to respect them because they are not men of integrity.  It makes me realize how blessed I am to have a husband who puts God first, then me, then his job.  Now, that might sound strange since his job is the ministry.  But, I've learned from very wise women (and men!) that God calls men to be husbands and spiritual leaders in their OWN HOME before they can be leaders in their church.  Claude does that!  He is my hero and I am so proud to belong to him!  

So, to my friends and family members, take a look at your spouse.  Do they reflect what God calls them to be in your relationship and in your home!  I hope so!