A child of God educating other children.

One of the moms of our youth gave Tim and I a gift card to the bike store in town, so we waited for the end of the season clearance and got me a bike!

Yesterday was a gorgeous day and Tim and I both came home thinking that it was the perfect day to get my bike and go riding. No kidding, we really both were thinking on the same brain wave. I thought about going to get me a bike as I pulled into the drive way then sort of forgot about it while I checked my email, then when Tim came home he said something like, "You know what we should do today?" And I replied, "Go get me a bike!" I don't know much about bikes, so Tim did all the talking and asking about what ever he was asking. Then we went home and Tim fixed up his bike and we went riding for an hour. It was so nice to go riding. Which also meant that I didn't have to wake up extra early this morning for my jog. I rode for another hour today. I use to drive around town figuring out which roads go where, but I like it even more getting to ride my bike. I did 30 minutes this morning by myself before lunch, and then Tim and I did 30 more minutes together before dinner.

Hopefully tomorrow will be another nice day to go bike riding again.

Posted in: exercise on Thursday, August 30, 2007 at at 8:36 PM 0 comments    

Today is my Great Grandma Z's birthday. She turned 91 today and is such an incredible lady. I am bummed though 'cause I was thinking I still had another day or two to call her. I thought I was doing so good remembering my Great Grandma's Birthday sending her a card and kept reminding myself that I need to call her this week. I was thinking her bday was the 30th or the 31st, knowing that it was the end of the month, but I just looked at a letter she recently sent to make sure and get her phone number, and her birthday was today! I am so bummed that I didn't call her today, so I will have to make sure to call her tomorrow, and not just during a break I get from work, but when work is done for the day, I need to call and spend a while on the phone with her. Ahh I'm so bummed.

My other bummer for the day is I was finally looking forward to getting to go eat dinner out with the ladies in our church again. I was able to do that when we first moved here, and then ever since each month they've done it I've had something going on. They usually meet on Thursdays, so I've had in my head that I am going to make a point to be there, so I just checked my email to see what time to be there, and they were meeting tonight instead! What a bummer!

But I did have a good day today, I'll tell you about it tomorrow! :)

Posted in: family on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at at 9:05 PM 0 comments    

Tim started the youth leader training tonight at our house. I left work early (at 5) to come home and help set up. I love being around all of our youth leaders. It is refreshing to be in fellowship with them. I also found out that this bush (in the picture) is mini plums that we can eat! I am so excited! I love to eat fresh fruit, but it can get expensive at times. So now we have 4 apple trees and a really large plum bush! Yumm!

Best news of all today, Dan and Maggie had their baby today, Titus Daniel. God willing we'll be able to make it down to the city to see them sometime this weekend. There is a man at work whose grand baby was born today too. Good day!

Posted in: family, ministry on Monday, August 20, 2007 at at 8:32 PM 0 comments    

Here's a picture of our group that went to MUUUCE (pronounced moose).

Tim and I went to sleep around 11 last night and slept until around 10 this morning. It was so nice to sleep that long. I have felt really sleep deprived lately, and today I felt really refreshed. It was funny 'cause one of the youth this morning said that he was still really tired, and he had slept for 13 hours! I was surprised that I felt rested. Today was rainy so we didn't have any events going on. Tim and I had a quiet Sunday afternoon and evening together, which I can't remember the last time that has happened. We were able to work on our budget and figure out how Quicken works better. I'm excited about us doing a budget, now we have to be disciplined and stick to it. I'm going to try even harder to find a cheaper place for us to rent so we can get out of debt and save up for a down payment to buy a house.

This week will be pretty busy for us. Tomorrow and Tuesday night we'll have the youth leaders over for a training from 6-9 both nights. Then Wednesday and Thursday we have youth group from 7-9 at our house too. I'm not sure how much work I'll have this week. They should have had the machines going Thursday and Friday while I was gone, so depending on how well they're running will determine how much work I have. I am definately bringing a book to help pass time if needed. I might not write much this week, unless something happens I can't help but to write about. We'll see. Writing also helps me relax and focus.

Posted in: on Sunday, August 19, 2007 at at 8:19 PM 0 comments    

Tim and I got back from taking our Junior High students to Most Unbelievable Ultimate Urban Camping Experience (MUUUCE). Which consisted of 800+ Junior High students! Since we're new to most of the activities up here, one of the Dads took charge and put everything together, and we also had a Mom come help chaperon. Both of which do an incredible job with our students.

We left the church at 1pm Thursday to head down to the city. We rented a charter bus, so that was very comfortable (18 students plus 4 adults) and convenient since non of us adults had to drive...saves a lot of energy! We made it to the main church in time for dinner and our first session of music and a message. Then we headed out to the Water Park of America. I don't think I have ever seen an indoor water park until we moved up here, and they are all over the place here! They are a lot smaller than the outdoor water parks I'm use to, but it's so nice to have them up here since it is mostly cold year round (we're in the 50s today! I almost got all my sweaters out today).

Friday we were on the bus at 7:30 to eat breakfast at 8 and then session 2 with more music and a message. Then were out for the day to Valley Fair then a Twins game (vs. Texas Rangers) and then MUUUCE held what they call CHAOS (Crazy Humans Attempting Outrageous Stuff) which was a medley of messy games.

Lights out was a little after 1am this morning, we were back to our church by 2pm and off to Joyce's surprise birthday party today that started at 3, so we were a little late after kids were all finished being picked up at 3. After the party I came home and cooked Tim and I a good chicken dinner, trying a new recipe out of one of our wedding gift cookbooks from a lady at my Dad's church, which was made up of people's favorite recipes.

I really enjoy hanging out with our Junior High students. There were a few on the trip that I hadn't met before, and are just as awesome as the ones I already knew. I was already impressed by the junior high students here from the first night of youth group we attended. And now after being around 800+ junior high students for a 3 day event, I am even more impressed with our students. They seemed to be more mature and respectful than others, and were just great to spend time with and bond with. I am so glad God gave me the opportunity to help out with MUUUCE.

Posted in: ministry on Saturday, August 18, 2007 at at 6:32 PM 2 comments    

I only worked 16 hours this week. I already took off for Thursday and Friday to help chaperon a youth trip. And then today we finished testing our 2 machines, so they're getting shipped out today, meaning tomorrow is just moving machines around and getting them ready for testing to begin again. I'm bummed that I didn't get many hours, but I know I need the rest, and I'll have time to go apply to a couple jobs tomorrow. Our house could also use some cleaning before we're gone for the weekend.

Oh! And I am so excited! We will be going to the Twins game on Friday night, and guess who they're playing!!! The Texas Rangers! I'm so excited! After living 3 years in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I hadn't ever made it to a Rangers game. I was looking up the Twin's colors so I could wear them at the game, but now I think I might get out my Texas gear for the game.

I'm tired, I haven't had the chance to sleep in, in almost 2 weeks 'cause I worked on Saturday.

Tim and I are still waiting for our niece or nephew to be born any day now. Pray for Maggie as she waits for the baby to come.

Posted in: family, ministry, work on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at at 9:18 PM 0 comments    

I usually really like storms, I think the thunder and lightening are exciting and I like to sleep to the sound of rain. But last night scared me. I woke up around 1:30am feeling like I was in a car wash. The rain was pounding on every window in our bedroom. I quickly got up and closed the windows above our bed, and before I could close the ones on the sides of our room I got sprayed with the rain while standing in the middle of the room! After closing everything in our bedroom I ran down stairs to alarm Tim that we needed to close every window in the house...which all were open including our sliding doors...to say the least, our carpet was wet. :)


One the way to work I think I was just in a state of shock the whole way. Starting with pulling out of our drive way. Our landlords had 2 trees down, one a huge evergreen pictured above, and then another oak or something by their house was down. Further down the street a tree was over with the trunk split in half, and at the stop sign to go into town, there was a trampoline all torn up in the middle of a corn field. All the cornfields were ruined and blown over. And right by work there was such a crazy looking wall of rain with clouds I hadn't ever seen before, or remember seeing.


I got off of work at noon and everything was gorgeous. I absolutely loved today. Tim and I spent time going to the bike shop looking at possibilities for me 'cause someone gave us a gift card. And went out for dinner. Then I came home and took tons and tons of pictures which I loved doing 'cause I feel like I haven't had much time to do anything today. And now I need to get off so we can go watch a movie together. I started an online photo album, so you can see all my pictures from today here.


This is what today ended up looking like. It was gorgeous! A perfect day for taking pictures!

I know you think this picture is kind of random...and it is...but this is Eureka. I realized that I hadn't taken a picture of him to share with everyone yet, so here he is. We've had him for about a month now. Oh! I almost forgot. I had read before that you can train a Beta to eat out of your hand, well I was just playing around holding a piece of his food in my finger tips and he jumped up and took it from me! It scared me so much, but that was so cool! Tim tried it, and he wouldn't take it, but ate it when he put it in the bowl. I guess Eureka has bonded with me all the days I have fed him and been in the kitchen cooking with him. Who thought a fish could be fun! :)

Posted in: photography on Saturday, August 11, 2007 at at 7:42 PM 0 comments    

(Sorry the picture is blurry, I took it through our window screen.)

What a great morning to wake up to a hawk outside our window. I was so drowsy getting up, and to my surprise on our roof just about 4-5 feet away from me was one of the hawks that have been hanging around in our trees. I can't help but to praise God when he sends pictures of His amazing glory. And I've needed those with working 10+ hours each day. I'm glad that I have this job to help Tim and I kick start getting out of debt, but I dread being bored all day. Since the teaching positions were filled I'm now looking for an administrative assistant position. I really liked doing that right before moving from Texas. So now I'm asking God to guide me where he wants me, and for that to be a place where I will love it as much as I did my last position in Texas.

I wish I was blogging more often, but I get so wiped out after a long day at work. I had Tuesday off, but I still worked more than 41 hours this week. I worked 11.5 today, and I'm going in tomorrow morning (Saturday!) for another 4 hours. I could probably work a full day, but I'm exhausted and already dreading not getting to sleep in tomorrow. Pray for me. I don't want to wear myself out with all of this work, but I think I am. Pray that God will give me the strength and energy to work as much as possible through this job. I only have it through the end of the month, maybe a little longer. After that I more than likely wont have something as well paid.

I've been waiting a couple days to have some time to blog and post the picture of our hawk. I love it. I hope everyone is doing well. Pray for my great g'ma Z. I got a lovely letter in the mail from her yesterday and she just found out that she is anemic due to her age (she'll be 91 at the end of the month). She said she doesn't have as much energy as she use to, which surprised me to hear and makes me sad. I loved seeing her last summer for mine and Tim's wedding and seeing how spunky she was at 90. She was always on the go with us never wanting to stay behind to rest.

Okay, I need my sleep and spend some time with Tim. I miss him like crazy with working these long days. I get to see him for lunch which helps a lot. I still miss him though.

Posted in: family, God, marriage, work on Friday, August 10, 2007 at at 7:21 PM 0 comments    

Posted in: ministry on Monday, August 06, 2007 at at 6:29 PM 0 comments    

You know the game Frogger? Where you're a frog and you try to get from one side of the road to the other without getting ran over? Well, I know where they got the idea! Driving home tonight from grocery shopping I saw tons of frogs lined up on the side of the road and when I got near enough to see them in my headlights they would jump into the road! I couldn't believe it! I also saw one jumping back away from the road (smart frog!). I just hope those frogs won at the game instead of my car.

I went and did our monthly grocery shopping at Wal-Mart tonight. It's the cheapest place in town. Our fridge, freezer and pantry were pretty much bare except some pizza and random veggies. It's weird doing a months worth of groceries, I'm still trying to figure out what all we need to last a month so I'm not going ever week. We still get milk and bread about once a week though.

Anyways, there weren't many check-out lanes open, so I got behind a lady whose buggy was as full as mine, and it went fast! I was having a hard time keeping up with putting my items on the conveyor as I had room. Then the checker was really fast at getting all my stuff through too and for me to pay. After I got all my bags and paid I told the lady "You are really good at this job!" I seriously am impressed...I've never been impressed checking out anywhere. So when I said that she said, "Then go tell customer service for me." At first I didn't take her serious, but as I was about to walk away I asked for her name and said I do want to give her a compliment. So I went and waited about 5 minutes before I could speak to someone, and turns out they do recognize their employees who are complimented on doing a great job. So thank you Linda for being so friendly and great at your job!

Update on our Total Money Makeover. I finished the book this morning, and Tim is 1/3 of the way through it, starting this afternoon. We don't have TV anymore and took our credit cards out of our wallets thanks to Tim. Tim canceled Rhapsody today so we don't have our free music, but God has already blessed us. There is a free downloading music thing (Tim blogged about it.) that Tim has been waiting to become available, and it did today! Thank you God! Tim listens to music all the time at home, so I was impressed they he volunteered to turn it off. And we thought we would get the basic channels on tv at least...I tend to watch a lot of TV, but we don't have any TV at all right now, but I have some shows recorded from before it was turned off. My fitness membership isn't canceled yet 'cause no one was at the desk today, so Tim will have to go during the week during office hours when someone is available.

It is so nice that Tim and I agree on finances. And it is so exciting to know that we will be debt free soon!

Posted in: on Saturday, August 04, 2007 at at 8:41 PM 1 comments    

Everyone needs to go out and buy "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey. Tim and I met with a financial adviser in our church this morning, and I am so excited! He told us to read this book and then we'll meet again. Today was a very busy day at work for me, but I still got to page 79 in here. The other girl called in sick, so I had double the work to do, which today the machines weren't running smoothly, so I actually kept busy. But this book is so good I was reading it every chance I got.

We are putting off buying a house. We've only been married for one year, so we can stand renting for a while longer. But I started calling around tonight when I got home for other rent homes we can move into with lots cheaper rent. Turns out we're renting for about $200 more than we should be if we want to get out of debt. We don't have hardly any debt compared to most of America, but any debt is not good, and we want to get rid of it. So we already agreed on a couple monthly payments that we don't need, and will cancel. And we've got a plan on how to pay off our credit card and car note and student loans.

Last night when I was thinking renting for cheaper would be helpful I wasn't looking forward to moving so soon, but now after meeting with the financial adviser and reading this book, I am very excited. 'Cause the sooner we do this the sooner we can stop worrying about interest rates and save up to buy a house!

Posted in: on Thursday, August 02, 2007 at at 7:25 PM 0 comments