So what's up?

It's still summer. . . things are still crazy. I'll try to fill you in.

Earlier in the week, it was my freezer/ice maker. My wonderful husband fixed it!! Last night, my washer started smelling like something was burning... not good when today is laundry day! ;) Call the repairman and he can't come until August 11th!! So, my piles of laundry are sitting in the bathrooms -- that's why I have time to blog! ;)

Cherith & I went to the American Idol concert last week. It was a BLAST!! Here are a few pics from it. . . out of the 87 pictures that I took (I'll spare you all of the bad ones):

Adam

Adam & Allison singing "Slow Ride" -- this was my favorite part of the night

Kris Allen

Adam & Kris during the finale

Top 10 during the finale
L to R: Scott, Lil, Michael, Danny, Adam, Kris, Allison, Anoop, Megan, & Matt

Anoop

Michael Sarver

Lil Rounds & Megan

Allison singing "Cry Baby"

Danny singing "My Wish" -- the most powerful performance of the night

I'm in one of the weirdest and hardest seasons of my life. Right now I'm listening to Kris Vallotton's message "Love Suffers Long" and it seems to be right where I am. These last few weeks have been so lonely, frustrating, hard, emotional, etc. I just want to scream sometimes -- yes, that's how I feel. Kris said his season lasted 5 months. . . just hoping mine is shorter! ;)

Still doing P90X. I really like it! Everyone else has dropped out of the group, but I'm still going and I'm determined to finish. 6 am is early, but it's so nice to get it out of the way for my day and then when I get home, I still have about 1 1/2 hours to myself before the boys wake up and I'm really liking that! But, I'm on week 7 out of 12, so I'm on the down-side!!

Here's some AMAZING news!! Emilie has been working so hard on my classrooms and the hallway. Here's some before & after pictures of the barn, which will be for the 2 year olds:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This isn't even completely finished, but isn't it amazing?!?! It's finished now, but I just don't have pictures of it. She's been working so hard and has so much done! When she finishes the hallway, we'll only have cutting in to do inside the classrooms & flooring. . . then we can move in!! I want Emilie to paint the inside of the classrooms, so I'm believing God for the money to pay her what she is worth. God owns everything, right? So, my amount isn't very big. ;)

OK . . gotta run and get something done. Pray for me. I'm asking God what His vision is for children's church. I know it's big and I know it's bigger than me. . . I just need to know what God says about it.

My Latest Project

Goodbye John Wayne . . . Hello Cars!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:
The boys putting up the stickers

The bed with the most ridiculous stickers!

This excited little boy makes it worth it all. . . and no, I never got the permanent marker all covered up. . . guess it's ok.

Yesterday, we found out that Payton's principal passed away. We are very sad and words just really can't even begin to express what an amazing woman she was. So, last night we told the boys and talked about it. They both seemed ok with it. Here's how part of the conversation went:

Aaron: But, she's alive in Heaven.
Evan: What? You mean she's up in the sky with God? That Heaven?
Aaron: Yes.
Evan: Now that's just awesome!

I think that pretty much sums it up. Please pray for her family and for the Cornerstone family. I love that school because it really does feel like one big happy family, so we are all grieving about this loss.

What's Up?

So, what's been going on . . . hmmm. Ever feel like you're so busy, but when you sit and think about it, you can't remember what you've been so busy doing? That's me.

So, I'll share our summer with pictures of what we've been doing (in no particular order):

The classrooms. . . they are consuming my thoughts. It's all good and it's going good, but there's so much to think about and decide!! Emilie is working on some sketches for me right now and just with what I've seen so far, I'm in total amazement!! She is amazing! These are pictures of the other end of the hallway before and during the work day. Hopefully we'll get started on the children's church end of the hallway soon!

BEFORE:

DURING:
OUTSIDE DURING:Somehow I haven't gotten "after" pictures yet. Better go do that before we have another work day and everything changes!! I have a TON of pictures from the work day, but I'll just share a few for now.

Jaxon's taking swimming lessons. He's not all that fond of them. He likes to crawl out and jump back in, but that's about it. He's finally getting the concept of splashing and kicking. He'll do it outside of the pool, but once he gets in, that all seems to go out the window!

I found this in my garage. . . yes, I was scared. But, I'm glad that I didn't know they can jump!!

Here it is dead at the end of my driveway:
I went outside the other night to find this on my roof:

There is quite a funny story behind this, but maybe I'll share it later. I'm trying to keep this post short! ;)

Payton took this picture of Evan. I was pretty impressed!

Evan's been taking swimming lessons this week. He loves to jump in and when he does, his goal is to splash everyone in his class.

I took the kids to Mine By Design the other day and we had a blast! It was more expensive than I had planned on spending, but we had fun. Definitely a place I won't take Jaxon in the future!


This weekend, I'm planning a While You Were Out room transformation of my own. I'll be transforming Evan's "Two Horse Ranch" into the ultimate CARS room, complete with car beds for him and Jaxon. I'm really excited about it. He has no idea I'm doing it this weekend! ;)

I've been working out to P90X at 6 am. I didn't think I would like it at first, but I'm really enjoying it. I've lost 6 pounds in just over a week. I am pretty impressed. I've not had sweet tea in 10 days and counting! It's not easy, by any means, but I feel really good once I've done it. I pulled a stomach muscle last week and pulled a shoulder one last night picking up Jaxon. I guess I'll have to be more careful for the next week or so.

So, there's our summer so far in a nutshell. When I get a chance, I might share the story of Evan on the house. It was pretty funny!!

Movie Day Tuesdays

Just thought I would give everyone the list of $1 movies at Century 12 theaters this summer!

These are on TUESDAYS ONLY at 10:45 AM ONLY!! ;)

June 16th: Charlotte's Web
June 23rd: Igor
June 30th: Jimmy Neutron
July 7th: Horton Hears a Who
July 14th: The Tale of Despereaux
July 21st: Kung Fu Panda
July 28th: Kit Kittredge
August 4th: Madagascar 2
August 11th: Space Chimps

All shows start at 10:45 am!!

Summer schedule

Do you have a summer schedule? For example, during the school year, every day was something:

Monday: day at the office

Tuesday: coffee @ Pam's & I pick up the kids, which meant I went to town to run errands

Wednesday: watched Cherith's kids in AM ...didn't go anywhere, so I could clean, etc.

Thursday: coffee with Brandi & Krissy; picked up kids, so I stayed in town

Friday: home & backpacks

Now that school is out, I need a schedule! I have a babysitter for 1/2 day on Monday, so most of my work has to be done @ home, but I don't want to ignore the kids!

It's been the first real week of summer & I know that I wasted so much time, but I HATE wasting time! I want to have a schedule this summer, so I thought I would ask what others are doing.

Thank You!!

Thank you guys for praying for me!! I had so much fun on Sunday! I told the staff at our early morning meeting that I was expecting it to be great in the service, but what was going on inside of me was the thing that mattered the most.

First off, I finally believed that I could talk to adults. I always knew I could talk to kids and probably wouldn't have trouble talking to a room full of kids. But adults? That's a whole other ballgame for me. When people would give me prophetic words about me leading out in conferences, it was hard for me to receive it. I couldn't see a conference of elementary school kids, but I really couldn't see a conference of adults. I can now!

Secondly, I've always felt like an "understudy". Would I ever be an equal in a man's world? Let's face it . . . ministry is mainly a man's world. I am not a man. ;) Would I ever be treated as an equal? Now, I know so.

Thirdly, I now know that I can write a sermon. ;) I did use some of Deborah Reed's sermon, but a lot of that sermon was my own. That I am very proud of.

I was so nervous when I first got up there, but once I got going, it just felt so comfortable and normal. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity. I know what an honor it is to speak behind the pulpit and I sure didn't take it lightly by any means, but I was amazed at how God used that sermon.

By the way, I'm speaking at WOW in June! Kids is my favorite subject to talk about and my WOW topic is my second favorite! You'll have to come to see what it's all about!! ;)

Tomorrow (almost today), we leave on vacation! I'm working on getting everyone packed -- not fun! ;)

Sunday

I am preaching this Sunday!!! I mean, preaching in the BIG SERVICE AKA the ADULTS! I'm so excited . . . and nervous. . . and overwhelmed. . . and pumped . . . and wondering what the heck I'm going to wear. . . you know, I don't have church clothes! ;)

Anyway, say a little prayer for me this week. This is a sermon that has been in me for a while and I'm excited about sharing it...just not sure how I'll do teaching to people older than 12 year old! ;)

In Honor of Grandma Bowen

On Saturday, we received a call that Aaron's grandma had passed away. It was quite a shock and still doesn't seem real at times. She was the perfect example of the scripture that says, "Give and it will come back to you -- good measure, pressed down, shaken together, & running over (so much that you can't hold it." (my interpretation)

She was such a giver. She gave to everything! I remember when Alan & Cortney were moving to Arizona and they called them up to the front of the church and prayed over them. Aaron's grandma wrote them a check to help them move (it wasn't a small one, either).

Every birthday, we would get a check in the mail for however old we were and they started at $1. This year, I would have gotten a check for $32. Every birthday and anniversary, there was a card of encouragement and a check inside. She was the most amazing person with birthdays and anniversaries!!

She gave money to children's church and backpacks and always wanted to know what we were doing next. She gave money towards my trip to Cambodia and wanted to know all of the details when I got back.

Because of these events, Aaron went to see his mom on Sunday for Mother's Day and they went to her house and kind of went through her things. He said it was very interesting how much and where she gave. I can only imagine.

So, today we honored Grandma Bowen. Evan had a tub of toys that he wanted to sell in a garage sale. I wasn't thrilled about the idea, but he was stuck on it! On Sunday, I asked him if he would like to take them to the CCRC and give them away. His face lit up and he got all excited!! This morning, he got up and started going through his toys again to find others that he doesn't play with anymore and some that he said he just didn't need.

I was/am so proud of him. I am proud of the fact that he is such a big giver. I know that Grandma Bowen would have been proud of him giving and I know that we may not get anything physical from her death, but I am excited about the memories of how much of a giver that she truly was. I pray that I can follow in those footsteps.

Unloading from the car

In front of the CCRC

The toys dumped on the sorting cart

New Camera

Last month, I dropped my camera at a baseball game in the parking lot & had to kiss it goodbye. It was hard to part with that little thing!! It took amazing pictures and it was super easy to operate! But, I got a new one a few weeks ago and thought I would share a few pics from it. It's taking some getting used to, but I think I like it besides the video part. When I move it to my computer, it skips. But, maybe I'll figure that out soon.

Evan wanted to have a picnic today -- of course, on the hottest day of the year! So, I put Jaxon down for a nap and we had a picnic in the backyard for lunch. I learned that Evan doesn't want to ever get married, but he wants to have 100 kids. I asked him how he was going to have a house that all of those kids could sleep in and he said he would just have his workers build it for him.

Evan with all of his food. He wanted to pack enough food to feed all his 100 kids!! ;)

The ants decided to join us after a short amount of time.

Enjoying the fruits of his labor (of putting it all together)

Seeing how many Pringles that he can shove in his mouth.

Trying to get a picture of the two of us . . . this is the best one, but I wish he hadn't been silly! Oh well. . . that's Evan for you!

Here's a few of Jaxon that I took this afternoon. He was watching Payton mow the backyard in 100+ degree weather.

CHEESE!!!
And a funny one to end on. . .

My friend from college, Michal, tagged me . . . here we go!

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:
1. Going back to Cambodia
2. Having an actual children's church room w/ air conditioning
3. My sister having her baby
4. Having time to scrapbook -- someday
5. The summer with my kids
6. Having my house paid off -- someday
7. Aaron getting a newer vehicle -- someday soon, I hope
8. Vacation

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. Manage my time better
2. Cook better -- be more creative with food
3. Scrapbook for hours!
4. Take amazing pictures
5. Have my own scrapbook business
6. Find what is making the terrible smell in my kitchen
7. Go back to Cambodia -- like tommorrow
8. Go to Africa

8 Shows I am Currently Watching:
1. American Idol
2. 24
3. The Unit
4. Deadliest Catch
5. John & Kate Plus 8
6. Little People Big World
7. Any Food Network Challenge -- especially the cake ones
8. Ace of Cakes

So, I'm tagging Brandi, Francesca, & Ashley . . . leaving people for them to tag! ;)