A child of God educating other children.

On Thursday Tim and I walked across our lake since everything was warming up and melting we wanted to get our chance in while we could. Then Friday night and all day Saturday we got a really good snowfall. We didn't play on Saturday because of how hard the snow was falling, and it was really windy. Today was a great snow day. Amanda and Connor came over with Davis (they were over last night too). And then Nancy brought Brittany, Brenden, and Brianna over. Apparently we and our land lords have the best hills on this side of the lake. It was fun riding down, but man, it was a work out to walk in about 15 inches of snow back up the hill. It still hasn't stopped snowing, and shouldn't until Friday. Church was canceled today due to the road conditions, but Tim will be going into the office tomorrow.

Tim sliding around on the lake. Right now, the snow goes up to his knees out on the lake!
A truck taking their fish house off of the lake.
My first time to shovel snow! (And wear my new snow boots outside!) :)
Our snow covered house.
Tim, Connor, Brittany and Brenden. They were pulling a snow tube and sled behind the snow mobile.

Posted in: on Sunday, February 25, 2007 at at 9:12 PM 2 comments    

For the first time I am following a whole season of American Idol. And I feel like I have already gotten to know each of the singers. I actually even voted on Wednesday night for my favorite girl. Since American Idol is on during youth activities I have to record it and watch it when I get home...which is when the show is usually over. They leave the lines open for votes for at least 2 hours after the show, so I had a chance to vote.

I have liked Melinda Doolittle's story since I saw her at the first additions. And when she sang Wednesday night I was blown away, so Tim said, "why don't you vote for her?" I didn't ever think about actually participating in these shows, but it was nice to!

I was a little surprised with the results of people voted off of the show, but for the most part in agreement. My main shock was the first person voted off, Paul Kim. I actually liked this guy, and was impressed to see a different nationality out there. I didn't think he did so bad, and thought in all sincerity Sanjaya should have been the one voted out instead of Paul...but I like Sanjaya too, I do think he could have done a lot better Tuesday, but I am glad that he is getting another chance.

Rudy and the 2 girls voted off were ones that I thought if they weren't going this week, then next week they would be off.

My top favorite guys are, Blake, Phil, and Nicholas. And my favorite girls other than Melinda are Jordin and Lakisha.

I'm looking forward to next week's performances, and voting again! :)

Posted in: reality tv on Friday, February 23, 2007 at at 9:55 PM 1 comments    

The other day Tim and I noticed that our clothes aren't quite fitting as well as they use to, so I talked to some ladies in the church about what places there are in town to work out. One place in town lets pastors work out for free, so that's great for Tim, but leaves me to find a place. Monday I was feeling so gross 'cause we haven't worked out in about 3 months, so I got one of my pilates videos out. That felt wonderful. Then Tuesday morning I went to a yoga class at the church. There is a girl in the church that has to give a class for credit...so that's great that I have a free class to go to. And then this morning, Ruth, our landlord/neighbor/one of the youth workers took me to her fitness place and used a guess pass to join her in the step-aerobic class. Man that was a hard class, but a great workout! I am exhausted after 3 days in a row of working out, so I think I might take a break tomorrow before I burn myself out.

Today Amanda called me with the good news that she went back to the doctor and he said that it's possible for her baby to come any day now. He said he'd be surprised if it lasted 'til March 9th. So that is very exciting! She nannys a little girl during the week, and asked if I was interested in watching her the week that Amanda goes into labor. I'm pretty sure it'll be able to work. If it's next week then it'll be Mon-Fri 7am-7pm or if in 2 weeks it'll be Mon-Sun 7am-7pm. That's a long time, but it'll be fun, and I'll make a little money. I'll meet Tricia's mom tonight. I met the little girl the Tuesday we moved here and then saw her again on Sunday. She is very sweet and well behaved.

Tim has a youth meeting tonight that I'll go too with him and then tonight is Jr. high youth group. Then off to bed 'cause I'm exhausted!

Posted in: on Wednesday, February 21, 2007 at at 2:15 PM 0 comments    

Today was a good day. Tim and I went to all 3 services to be introduced...except cut out after our introduction in the 2nd service to make it to the Sr. high Sunday school class. We have met a lot of people in the church already before this morning, so I felt really at home with all of the familiar faces. Everyone has been so sweet and welcoming. I think we're gonna like it here.

There is a great couple in the church, Amanda and Connor, who are a year older than Tim and I, that we have been getting acquainted with. They are very sweet. They came and helped us unpack on Tuesday, and this morning they sat in front of us for church.

Tim and I came home for lunch, then I took a nap while Tim spent a couple hours playing Guild Wars. We were needing a relaxing day. We didn't do any kind of unpacking or settling in today which was nice.

Then tonight was Sr. high youth group. Pastor Rol came and spoke for the main part because of a recent situation that happened in town. So he was there to help the kids cope and in case they had any questions about the situation. It's been really nice to see Pastor Rol. Joyce hasn't been feeling too well, so we haven't seen her yet, but are really looking forward to it. Keep her in your prayers. I am meeting with the pastors' wives tomorrow morning so hopefully Joyce will be better by then so I can see her.

After youth group Connor invited us over to his and Amanda's house. It was very nice of them, and we appreciated it a lot. It's nice to have people our age to hang out with. They are a great couple, and we're looking forward to getting to know them even better.

Tomorrow is Tim's first day in the office. Pray for him as he starts his new position. I'm a little nervous because he is starting full time and I'm not sure how much I'll get to see him. I've been spoiled the last few months with him only working part time, and of the 6 months we've been married I only worked 3. I've enjoyed all the time we had together. I am grateful for that time that God gave us.

Posted in: marriage on Sunday, February 18, 2007 at at 9:52 PM 0 comments    

Tim and I enjoyed a wonderful Valentines Day! It was perfect to give us a rest from unpacking too. We spent the morning packing waiting for the tv and internet guys to come out, and then we were on our way.
First we took a 30 minute flight around town and got an aerial view of our home and all to beautiful lakes in the area. I was nervous at first with being in such a small plane, but it was such an amazing experience. And Tim took some great pictures of our house and church from way up high.
After our flight Tim surprised me with a gift from our church. A night's stay and dinner at the Arrowwood Resort. This was such a wonderful treat. And it made me relax and not think of everything that needed done at home. We gave ourselves a tour of the facilities, amazed by the indoor water park, and then went on to dinner. We were seated by the window looking out upon the frozen and snow covered lake. So beautiful and romantic!
An up and a downside to the night...our stay was free even for the church because we were woken up several times by our noisy neighbors between 1am and 3:30am. We called the front desk around 2:30 to complain, and it quited down a little bit, but the last straw was when they were messing with the adjoining doors between our rooms. So around 4am we packed up our stuff and came home. And slept great the rest of the morning!
I was really looking forward to ordering room service for breakfast in the morning and relaxing as long as we could before check out, so Tim was such a charm with waking up to cook and bring me breakfast in bed.
I am very pleased with our first Valentines Day as a married couple. And...we get to go back for a free stay at the resort on them, which we're looking forward to! :)

Our house from the plane.
Our church from the plane.
After we landed.
The water-park in the resort.

Posted in: on Friday, February 16, 2007 at at 7:33 PM 0 comments    

Posted in: on at at 7:52 AM 0 comments    

We are in our new (rental) home in Minnesota. God kept us safe the whole way. Mom, Dad, and Katelin came to Carrollton on Friday to help us pack up. We all went for dinner at Don Pablos, getting in some more good Mexican food before we leave. I saw that there is a Don Pablos in Minneapolis...but I'm not sure if they food up here will be as good.
Then Saturday Tim and Dad went and picked up the U-Haul and we started loading things around 10AM. We had help from Jake and Michael from Redeemer and then Tim, Tim's old roommate.
We finished loading the U-Haul, Tim's car, and my Vue around 5pm. Long day!
Sunday was nice. The youth gave us a going away reception after the service. Then Tim and I went to lunch at Souper!Salad! with Phillip and Jessica and then were on our way to OK City to stay with my grandparents.
Monday we left OK City around 9:30am and drove in heavy rain all day long when we stopped for the night in Des Moines. Tuesday morning was bad road conditions. Schools and businesses were closed because of it, but Tim and I still went on our way so we could get at our house around 3.
The youth were here waiting with ready hands to help. We have everything in our house and are working at finding places for everything. I thought that this house would look empty with our stuff coming from a one bedroom apartment, but some how, we are managing to fill it all up. And having fun! :)

Posted in: marriage on Thursday, February 15, 2007 at at 11:53 AM 0 comments    

Alright, so here it is. We picked up the Saturn today after it was finished being cleaned. I just want to go out and drive it. We saved our errands for today until after we picked it up, so I could drive some. Tim told me to hold off on the driving though 'cause I'll have plenty of time doing that between Sunday and Tuesday. I'm just really excited...so hopefully that'll help the drive to MN be better.

Posted in: on Thursday, February 08, 2007 at at 8:51 PM 2 comments    

Tim and I bought me a new car today. It's a 2003 Saturn VUE.

The pastor's son at our new church is looking into buying a car down here, flying down here to get it and drive it back up. From him and a couple other people, and through our own research we have come to find out that used cars in Texas are cheaper and in better shape than cars up North. After going and checking out the car for our pastor's son, we decided to just look around and see what we could find if this is true, not thinking too seriously about it, but we came across a deal that we think is really good.

The car was traded in about an hour before we went to the Saturn dealership and they quoted us $8,995 for the VUE with almost 49,000 miles which is less than average mileage on a vehicle for it's age. History check came up clean. If we weren't going to buy the VUE they were going to put it on the lot tomorrow for $10,995.

Last night I stayed up until 2am researching online about the vehicle, and even got back on at 7:30 'cause my mind was going a mile a minute thinking about everything else I wanted to learn about it, so I couldn't sleep any more. I even joined a Saturn forum so I could discuss with owners of VUEs to get their opinions. I kind of felt like a jock getting on the Saturn forum talking about cars with all the men on there. It's been fun though! :) They had good insight.

We'll go and pick the car up tomorrow. Since it was just traded in yesterday they've had it in the workshop checking everything out, put 2 new tires on the front (FWD). It's a manual which I like. We were going for either a manual or AWD with us moving to Minnesota. Tim drove it today after everything was done except them cleaning it out.

So tomorrow we'll go pick the VUE up, I'll hopefully have some pictures to post, and then we have to really tackle all of the packing that needs to happen.

Posted in: car on Wednesday, February 07, 2007 at at 8:14 PM 0 comments    

I've been told that Minnesota has a crazy cold in town right now. They've been getting into the -20s, or -35 with the wind chill. Today I ran around town getting errands done before we move. I kept pretty busy (dumpster diving for boxes) that I got pretty warm. It was perfect weather today for short sleeves, and windows down in the car. While I was packing and cleaning the apartment I turned our heat off and opened up our sliding door to let the fresh air in. Tomorrow should get into the high 60s. Another beautiful day!

I've been keeping my eye on the weather up in Minnesota for when we arrive...and hopefully it's telling the truth that it should be in the 20s instead of -20s. Still not quite the 'no-heat-let-the-fresh-air-blow-through' type of temperature, but it'll be warmer than -20!

Posted in: on Monday, February 05, 2007 at at 7:36 PM 0 comments    

Before we could head home yesterday we had to make a pit stop on the run way to be deiced. So just last December was the first time I've ever even see ice on a lake, let alone a whole entire frozen lake. And then this week I am introduced to planes being deiced. I didn't even know that ever happened!

The weather wasn't as bad in MN as we thought it would be. It was cold, but it was dry. Today running around town with Tim made me appreciate the weather in MN. It was rainy most of the day, which when you get wet, you get colder. And it takes a lot longer to warm up inside when you are wet. In MN it is so cold it is very dry. Even when snow is coming down it's dry.

We actually did get some snow/sleet today in Texas. It started coming down frozen on the way to the mall and continued 'til a little while after we left. Katelin called me tonight after her orchestra lessons super excited that they got snow too. Her class even let out early so they could all have a snow ball fight.

So far I have restrained myself from playing in the snow in MN. I think that's mainly 'cause I know I'll have plenty of chances to play. (And partially embarassed to let everyone in MN know how excited I am about all the snow they have...which isn't any to them.) I did throw a Texas snow ball at Tim today. :) I had a little pile of snow on my car which was a little wet, which helped it pack really well.

Posted in: weather on Thursday, February 01, 2007 at at 8:14 PM 4 comments