Times They Are A'Changin'

Why it is that the grass is always greener on the other side? Andrew and I have been thinking about this a lot in the past few months. God is so good. In all the mess that the past 8 months have been in our lives, I am so thankful that both Andrew and I had so much time to spend with each other and with Benjamin. And yet, we longed for Andrew to have a job. And now, I am sure that in about 2 weeks we will long for what we have had.

Monday morning at 6am Andrew will start work, full-time if not more. There is a lot of work to be done right away to fix the things that no one has looked at for months. I am sure it will eventually balance out, but it is going to be busy for a while. I am also starting to work on Monday morning. I am going to be working 10-20 hours a week from home doing some bookkeeping for a CPA firm. But I have to be trained in the office over the next few weeks. Thank goodness for wonderful mother-in-laws who are willing to watch your baby on such late notice! I have also started selling Usborne books from home, which adds yet another dimension to our soon-to-be-busy lives. And to top it all off we are down to 1 car and finals for summer semester loom just 2 weeks away!! (Then it will be 2 semesters down, 4 to go!)

That said I am so thankful for the work, and God is so good to provide a job for Andrew just a week after everything with his company finished up and we weren't sure what to do next. The last thing left on our "list" is to sell our house, so please continue to pray that the Lord would bring a buyer, which I know He will do in His perfect timing.

SPENT

I am Spent.

I can't really think of another word to describe it. And it is hard to blog when you feel so spent and drained. (Hense the lack of entries :).

The last few weeks have been a roller coaster, our lives have been turned in circles, we have had a few nose dives and a few slow climbs out of the pit.

A few weeks ago (after we sent out Christmas letters, for those of you who may have gotten them) Andrew's job went from fine to one-more-paycheck almost overnight. Since then it has gotten better (we have a few more paychecks) but trying to mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually deal with all of it has left us, well... spent.

Our house is still on the market waiting for a buyer, and Drew left to start his first weekend of graduate school today (3 days this weekend and every Saturday for the next two years), and Baby Z is due one month from tomorrow. We have also spent many nights laughing with good friends and family, celebrated our Savior's birth on Christmas, brought in the new year and celebrated FIVE amazing years of marriage on the 28th with a massage and a 24-hour escape (we are now officially old :). Although we still have no idea where we will be 1 year or even a few months from now God has given us an incredible peace about the whole thing. We are learning to literally rely on Him moment by moment... and for that I am thankful.

Here are the words to a song I have been playing over and over. My amazing husband got me all the Red Mountain Church CDs for Christmas. (If you haven't heard them, you need to.) They couldn't have come at a better time. They help to calm the soul... and being 8 months pregnant I need that often. :)

COME BOLDLY TO THE THROWN OF GRACE

YE WRETCHED SINNERS COME

LAY YOUR LOAD AT JESUS' FEET

AND PLEAD WHAT HE HAS DONE

HOW CAN I COME?

SOME SOUL MAY SAY

I'M LAME AND CANNOT WALK

MY GUILT AND SIN HAVE STOPPED MY MOUTH

I SIGH BUT DARE NOT TALK

COME BOLDLY TO THE THROWN OF GRACE

YOU LOST AND BLIND AND LAME

JEHOVAH IS THE SINNERS FRIEND

AND EVERYONE'S THE SAME

HE MAKES THE DEAD TO HEAR HIS VOICE

HE MAKES THE BLIND TO SEE

THE SINNER LOST, HE CAME TO SAVE

AND SET THE PRISONER FREE

My Plate Is So Full - It Feels Like Thanksgiving!

To my dear neglected readers:

Life has been crazy lately. I am not sure where all the times goes, but it is always gone. We still do not have internet access at home, so sadly finding time to blog has become nearly impossible. Here are a few of the things that have filled up my days:

• My Puppy - playing with her, walking her, training her. We took her for her third round of shots Tuesday and she weighed in a a whopping 20.8 lbs at 13 weeks. She is going to be our little monster. She has tripled her weight in the 7 weeks we have had her. But we love her to death... so it is all worth it. :)
• Puppy Class - Monday nights are puppy night, thankfully another lab has joined the class, because before it was Ivy and a miniature dachshund, and a shitzu (both under 8 lbs), they just about fit in her mouth. :)
• Bible Study - I run from puppy class, home, feed Ivy and then head out and am not usually home until 11. Drew goes his separate way too, now that he is a Deacon at church, he usually has a deacon meeting or a missions committee meeting on Mondays.
• Choir - I sing in the church choir and practices are going from 1 1/2 hours to 2 in preparation for Easter... I love every minute.
• Moving - three of our friends have moved in the last week, so we spend Friday night, all day Saturday helping them move, and most of yesterday I spent helping one friend unpack. But now we have friends that live just a few minutes away!
• Coffeehouse - each year the youth in our church put on a coffeehouse as a ministry to the church and to unbelievers in the area. It is a night of live music, we clean out the sanctuary and bring in tables (each decorated by a high school student) couches, lamps, rugs, coffee tables etc. and we have coffee and tons of desserts... and I am organizing the whole thing this year. Fun, but time consuming.
• Not to mention the keeping the house clean, cooking, laundry, ironing, paying bills, filing papers part of it all.
• AND - as Sarah blogged about - Sarah, Dave & Jennifer came down for the weekend, which was an incredible time of doing nothing. :) Meredith is coming next week, and Drew and I are hoping to escape for a weekend in March AND we have a friend getting married in a few weeks in Raleigh and we are going to see Drew's grandma. Not to mention Ryan & Meredith's wedding a few weeks after that!
• And Friendships - forming friendships takes time! It was hard to move away from VA, and the amazing friends we had there, and it has been harder that I ever imagined making friends in a new place, but we are finally getting to the point where we have friends to call when life is hard, or when we have something to celebrate. What a blessing true friendships are!

So, all that to say, life is busy, but good. And again I leave with a promise to post more pictures soon.

L

Bad Blogger

Ok, I admit it!! I am a horrible blogger! Between not having an internet connection at home and having a puppy that can't be in her crate more than 3 hours at a time, a husband away for 4 days, and blogger not cooperating when I do want to blog I haven't been able to find time to blog. So there you have it... not an exuse just a reason. :)

As always... I will try and post more pictures soon! India is still waiting and Ivy has more than doubled her weight since we got her! She is a little piggy but we love her still... especially since she goes outside and can sit, stay, lie down & retrieve things.

L

BBLLLUURRRRRRR

On Day 1241...

I am sorry, my faithful readers, that we have been delinquent in posting. The last two weeks has been filled with fun, and busyness... and I am not shopping for Christmas at all! In an attempt to catch you up, before we leave TOMORROW... here are a few of the highlights...

My birthday! - I celebrated no less than 4 times! I had three birthday dinners, one out with my husband, one with family, and a final one with friends (which was cooked by Ryan, Jonathon & Drew and was great!). I got my traditional carrot cake, picked out a Christmas tree, was given a vita mix!!! and was even woken up by a call from my mother, singing happy birthday... horrible flashbacks to my childhood. :)

India Preparations - I have been shopping, shopping, shopping! Thankfully my mom went ahead of us, so we can bring what is missing... so I have bought shower curtains, bug spray (which is quite a feat in December!), gifts for our Compassion kids that we are going to visit!, cardamom seeds, gifts for relatives,Emergen-C, NyQuil, sandals, travelers checks, passports and visas, luggage tags, ear plugs, sheets and much much more. Thankfully after packing last night we still had an extra bag! Although I think that all our carry-ons are overweight... who allows only 12 lbs???

Christmas Parties - We have also attended 3 Christmas parties, one for work, one for choir and one with friends. At our choir party Ryan & I managed to pick up a nice purse and cookbook from the white elephant party. :)

Driveway - Well, the men who poured our driveway were not satisfied with the result, so they have graciously agreed to pull it up and re-pour it... however they started yesterday, so now I won't be able to park my car in the garage before we leave. I am still very thankful they are doing it, but it is just another thing to remember. (I had watched every morning to make sure they hadn't started, so I could get my car out of the garage... well yesterday morning I didn't check and I went to leave and they had just put the jack-hammer to the pavement, but hadn't turned it on... thank goodness!)

Christmas Concert - Every year our church puts on a Christmas Concert, which happens the first Sunday in December. So, 3 nights, Saturday & Sunday of last week were consumed with practice. The gospel was clearly presented through the lens of Christ's humility, and really understand what is meant when John said "The Word was Made Flesh." It was an amazing time, our choir director always does a finaminal job with the program, and this year was no different.

Christmas Cards - I love sending out Christmas cards. Despite Drew telling me I was crazy, we wrote a letter, and I had addressed 160 cards... they went in the mail this morning!

OK, back to all the other things I need to do!

L