Can You Feel the Excitement?

If not, put yourself in my place.  In less than 24 hours, Jadie and I will be leaving the kids behind with their one and only Granana so we can get away for the weekend!

If it were you, you'd be excited too.

Where are we going?  Wimberley,Texas, of course.  The most captivating location in the world.

Not really.  Yes, we are going to Wimberley.  No, it's not the most captivating place on earth.  But it is quite a slow-paced, peaceful kind of place.  And we will enjoy ourselves.

A group of married couples from our church takes a trip to Wimberley each year around Valentine's Day.  There will be lots of fellowship and good food along with a few seminars that are very laid back and informal.

So, adios, y'all!

Thankful

Church Family.

Tonight was our church Advent Celebration.   Putluck dinner.  Soups, salads, desserts.  Friends.  Crafting ornaments.  Perfection.

Thank you, Lord, for beautifully different people to enjoy life with.

Another Boring Narrative Post

Since I posted last Wednesday for St. Patty's Day, I've been busy.  

Jadie took care of the kids for me from the time I left Friday morning until I returned Sunday afternoon.  That's right, almost three whole days!  What a blessing he was to me this weekend!  Where did I go, you ask?  To Tyler, Texas, of course!  

Our church held the annual Women's Retreat at Pine Cove amid the tall pine trees, on the beautiful banks of Lake Palastine, in the falling snow.  Yes, you read that right.  Snow.  The snow fell on us from late Saturday night until after breakfast Sunday morning.

I was feeling frustration and disappointment as I lay awake until 1:30 am Saturday morning.  I had been counting on getting a solid night's sleep since Sarah's still not sleeping through the night here at home.  although it didn't happen the first night, I managed a decent block of sleep the second night.  Enough about sleep, let me tell you what we did.

Friday night, we enjoyed a time of praising our Lord with songs and studying the character of a few women in the Bible.  We talked and laughed until it was time to hit the bunk beds.

Saturday we enjoyed a hearty breakfast, worshiped God some more and studied a couple more ladies from the Bible.  We worked on creating our very own quilt blocks, which I have not yet completed and we scattered all over Tyler for some free time.  During free time, I chose to hitch a ride to Tyler with 4 other ladies who dropped me off at Starbucks to meet my cousin Melissa.  She took me to my grandparents house (whom I have not seen since Thanksgiving) where we visited for a while until my mom arrived.  Mom, Granny, PawPaw, and I enjoyed a tasty dinner together at the Farmhouse restaurant in Van.  We took PawPaw back to the house and I let Mom and Granny navigate me back to Pine Cove so I could rejoin in the Women's Retreat activities.  My favorite parts of the weekend (with the exception of seeing my family) were still to come.  The Variety Show was hysterical as usual and I always enjoy staying up late telling stories and laughing until my stomach hurts.  Fun times!

Sunday morning we wrapped things up and headed home.  Jadie was still standing...did I mention he had help from his mom? I'm sure glad he did!

Jadie had the day off Monday, so we spent it running errands.  So helpful considering I would usually have to do these alone with the two kiddos.  Thank you hubby!

Tuesday was supposed to be back to normal:  Jadie to work and me and the kids getting things done around the house.  But other plans were in store for us.  Jadie's truck sputtered and died fifteen miles down the highway requiring an $80 tow back into town followed by $200 in repairs.  Apparently his ignition coil was damaged and needed replacing.  We got things taken care of though, and Jadie handled himself with such patience and calm.  I am so thankful for the way that he's allowing God to change his heart and attitude.  

Wednesday Sarah woke up feeling icky, but we trudged on to Bible Study.  She was fussy for a bit, but seemed to be herself after being fed.  We made a quick trip to the grocery store for some sandwich items and basic stuff like milk, bread, and eggs.  She fell asleep sitting up in the grocery cart.  By the time Jadie got home from work, she seemed a little warm, but I didn't really think much of it.  I should have.  Buy 8:30 last night, her fever was 103, so we hurried to the Urgent Care Clinic here in town.  She has a milk ear infection and likely has a viral infection that she's fighting off.  

Today the kids and I are sticking around here to rest and hopefully get Sarah's fever under control with Mortin.  In happy news, we should be receiving our Dyson Animal Vacuum today.  No, we didn't shell out the $599 that it retails for.  Jadie used rewards points from work to purchase it.  I can't wait to see how well it works, but I can wait to see all the nasty stuff it sucks out of our carpet.

Sarah's Baby Dedication

Along with our church family, we pledged to bring up Sarah "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Ephesians 6:4

SARAH
Meaning: Princess
Spiritual Connotation: Beloved
Scripture: "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God." 1 John 4:7

KATE
Meaning: Innocent
Spiritual Connotation: Godly Example
Scripture: "So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe." Philippians 2:15

Keeping it real for you...

Finally, the money shot!

Jadie, Caleb, Lauren, Sarah, and Brother Preacher-Man Pastor Cary

Fall Festival Picture

Kids Say The Darnedest Things

To give a little background information, we have 3 friends from church who are from Zambia.  They originally came to America as part of the Zambian Vocal Collection, a group that travels the US singing their hearts out for God.    

So, we were at a graduation luncheon yesterday afternoon and Caleb was having a good time playing with and talking to Zach, Wilson, and Allan.  While we were finishing up eating lunch, Caleb took note of how light the palms of Allan's hands are.  So he says to Allan, "Your black is coming off!"  Caleb seemed genuinely concerned.  What a sweet (but confused) little boy!

Several months ago, there was an awkward silence during LifeGroup when Caleb shouted out (about Allan), "He's black!"  Yes, honey, God makes people in several different colors!  Thankfully, we all had a good laugh about the innocence of children.

Weekend Trip

We haven't seen my grandparents since Christmastime, so we made our "Easter" trip to Van this past weekend.  Before having Caleb (and on Caleb's first Easter), we would go to my grandparents for family time and Easter egg hunting.  The last three years, we have decided to stay home for Easter and visit my grandparents either the weekend before or after Easter.  We have been doing our own smaller family egg hunt and we plan to go to church on Easter Sunday at our home church.  This year, we were able to go to our home church, but we had childcare duty and missed the sermon.  The person who coordinates the childcare volunteers promised we would not have duty on Easter Sunday next year.  I hope not!

Anyhow, that's what we did this weekend...we drove to Van Saturday morning and back home Sunday afternoon.

Tomorrow's the big day to find out baby's gender!

Valentine's Day 2009

I began creating Jadie's Valentine's present on Tuesday evening.  It would be a decadent chocolate silk pie with cool whip and chocolate shavings.  Yummmmy!  I only read the ingredients list before starting, not the instructions.  To my dismay, I realized that the last step of the recipe was to add 4 eggs, beating the batter 5 minutes between each egg addition.  Then I was to refrigerate the pie for 2 hours.  Notice that there would be no baking of the eggs.  Poor me, I would not be able to devour half of Jadie's chocolate silk pie.  Raw eggs=not a good idea for pregnant women, elderly women, or children under three.  I did take a little nibble and rest assured that I will be making this goody again in about 6 months!

On Friday, we made our way to Wimberley for our church Marriage Retreat.  We stopped at Golfsmith on the way down so that Jadie could try out a golf club he's been eyeing.  We made it Wimberley in time for BBQ dinner catered by Salt Lick BBQ.  Delicious.  

We had our own cabin; it was nice to be alone in he evenings even though we were surrounded by other couples from our church during the day.  

Ironic tidbit: This is the second time we've stayed at a Bed & Breakfast where we had access to a hot tub (this time it was ours exclusively, on our back porch).  And this is the second time I've been pregnant while having access to said hot tubs.  Relaxing in the hot tub is a no-no when you're expecting since it can raise your body temperature for a prolonged period of time and can put the baby in danger.  So for the second time, I watched Jadie oooooh and aaaaah while I sat on the side with my feet in.

The weekend was relaxing in that we were "away from it all" and beneficial in that we were really able to spend some time focusing on our marriage.

February Has Begun!

Woah, a whole week of February is behind us!  What have we been up to?

1. Baby Freeman has been growing!  I am down to being able to wear only one pair of non-maternity jeans and one pair of non-maternity khakis.  Side note:  It's a good thing I'm not too dramatic.  I tried to wear one of my maternity skirts this morning...one that I wore many times when I was pregnant with Caleb.  Let's just say the view from behind was not pleasant.  Apparently my backside is significantly larger than it was 3 1/2 years ago.  I'll blame that on Caleb...altough I'm not sure that's logical since I've had 3 years to burn off that booty!

2. Caleb and I spent a day in Keller (Friday afternoon-Saturday afternoon).  My good friend from high school was having a birthday party for her oldest, who turned five this week.  That was the reason for going, but we enjoyed every moment of being there.  On Friday, we met my mom (Caleb's Granana) for lunch.  She navigated us to a tiny airport where we could enjoy an incredible hamburger and watch the planes take off and land on the landing strip.  Unfortunately, it was pretty doggone windy, so we only saw one plane in the air while we were there.  But that hamburger sure lived up to mom's praises.

3. Sunday we all went to Temple for a birthday party for the son of one of Jadie's work friends.  We all had a good time.  It's fun to watch Caleb get excited as someone opens the present from him.

This coming Valentine's weekend, we are looking forward to our church Marriage Retreat.  We will be departing Friday around noon for Wimberley, Texas where we will enjoy our bed & breakfast cabin and the fellowship of other couples.  We'll take part in discussion and teaching sessions throughout the day on Saturday.  Mom will be here taking care of Caleb and hopefully enjoying a little time with Kristin!

Refreshing

We spent the weekend as a family among other families from our Sunday school class.  A group of us (20 adults with 10 children) drove to Giddings, TX to stay the weekend at Camp Tejas for some much needed rest and relaxation as well as for some time to seek God's guidance about how to create the kind of community He desires for us as a group.  We studied passages about unity and examples of the church living as a community.  Specifically, we studied Acts chapters 2 and 4.

Although the talks about unity were fruitful and meaningful for me in terms of my interactions with this particular group of believers, my favorite thing about the weekend was the perfect balance of time spent with Jadie, with friends, with God, and the balance of time to worship, pray, serve, and just be.  We helped serve meals from the kitchen to all of the hundred or so people there this past weekend.  We organized maintenance supplies in 5 huge trailers at the back of the property.  We stayed up late playing Apples to Apples.  We went to bed at 9pm on Saturday night.  We spent time praising our God in song.  We harnessed up to ride a zip line.  Jadie did it for the first time!  His comment just before scooching off the edge was, "This is a lot higher than a telephone pole."  Jadie even got in a game of basketball.

PERFECTION!

Weekend With Water

Here's the run-down of how we spent our lovely Waco weeknend...

Friday night we attended a graduation party for Katie, a high school senior from the Nazarene church we attended for 3 years.  Since we have been away from the Nazarene church since late December, it was exciting to see familiar "family" faces.  It truly was like being in a big family.  We miss that.

Shout out!  Congratulations to Katie, Melissa, Zach, and Natalie for graduating high school in 2008!  Congratulations to Crystal and Julia for completing a college degree in 2008!

Saturday we attended a family picnic with the MOPS moms.  It was a relaxing (but HOT) time visiting with friends and enjoying food together.

Saturday afternoon, we headed out to the lake to hang out with one of Jadie's work buddies.  At the lake, we enjoyed fishing from a docked houseboat, going for a boat ride, and swimming in the lake.  Caleb LOVED the water, until we put him in it in the middle of the lake.  In other words, he liked splashing the water with his feet hanging off of the houseboat, but he HATED being in the water out in the waves where he couldn't touch bottom.  He'll get another shot soon when we head to Belton Lake.  At least then, he'll get to walk in gradually where he can touch bottom.  **We did have Caleb in a life jacket at all times.**

Sunday we enjoyed another morning at Meadowbrook Baptist.  This is the last week we have to travel to the local middle school for the worship service.  They have been renovating the sanctuary for the last month.  Next Sunday, it's home sweet home. 

Sunday night, we attended Meadowbrook Mania for some family-friendly entertainment and ice cream floats.  Yummy!

That's all, folks.  Talk at you later.