And no...

I'm not pregnant.

God is good.

And here are a few examples of His goodness...

1. My daughter is talking in short, yet complete, sentences.

Example: Last night while eating quite the tasty dinner at Casa Ole, she decided to tell us a story. Granted, it was a 2-year old version, so it was very simple. First, she pointed to the butter on the table and called it "Mommy". Sweet, I know. Then, she pointed to the honey on the table and called it "Daddy". She concluded her little narrative with, "Baby coming." I have to admit, that I have been hoping her first sentence would be "I love Mommy." However, "Baby coming" will have to do, I suppose. I understand she left out the all important "is" in this sentence, but we're working on it. Once she has a complete gerund phrase, I will let you know. Also, I'll let you know when she has learned the difference between the truth and falsehoods. I immediately began praying that her spiritual gift is not prophecy.

2. We have a new house!!

The funny thing about moving is that no place, no matter how wonderful, is ever without its flaws. While we are beyond thrilled to be in a new, much more spacious home, we have had an adventurous first week. First, we discovered a minor electrical problem in our bathroom. The shower light seems to only want to work when you don't really need it to. I'll turn it on before I get in the shower, and inevitably it turns itself off before I've finished washing my hair! What gives? Also, we have yet to have a functioning light where the toilet is. I'll leave you to draw any additional conclusions about this that you care to.

Also, we discovered that our upstairs bathroom has a minor plumbing issue. And by minor I mean that flushing the toilet results in sewage seeping into the bathtub through the drain. Yeah. It's as disgusting as you're thinking it is. Very gross. Thankfully, it's the upstairs bathroom that never gets used. Whatever happened in that bathroom happened before we moved in. I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

3. I have two tests next week.

I know, I know. You're probably sitting there now thinking, "How can this be a demonstration of God's goodness?" Well, I'm so glad you asked! Yesterday, in my Marriage Therapy class, my teacher decided to let us review the exam. Notice I didn't say "review FOR the exam". He literally let us REVIEW THE EXAM. As in look at the actual test for 10 minutes and "write down whatever notes we needed to."

Now, I have to follow this statement of God's goodness with an explanation. Next week is a first time event for me. Since I have been in graduate school, I have never had a week (outside of finals week) where I had more than one test. Next week is the first time in two and a half years that I will have two tests in one week. Needless to say, I've been a bit worried about this for the past several weeks. To this, God says, "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."- The Message

God is good.

So, how has God been good to you recently?

Long time....

No see. Or write would be more appropriate I guess! I just looked at the last time I blogged, and it was 5 months ago! Let's see, 5 months ago was the end of April and beginning of May. I was prepping for finals of what I hope was the most horrendous semester of my life as far as grad school goes. I look back on those weeks, and I honestly don't know how I survived. But thankfully, the Lord saw fit to see me through yet another three courses on this journey known as "getting my Master's degree". Also, our family was preparing for Braelyn's first appearance as flower girl in our friend's wedding. It was a gorgeous ceremony, and I have to say that my daughter made her family so proud as she walked (as in she did not run as she had EVERY time we practiced!) perfectly down the center aisle to her beaming mom. It was a beautiful moment of sweet pride for me, as I was quickly seeing how grown up she was becoming (even at 18 months old!). We had practiced so many times with her trying to get her to walk while sweetly carrying her little basket full of flower petals....it was a picture-perfect moment. Then, when I picked her up to take her to the back of the sanctuary, she did the unthinkable. As I hoisted her up telling her how awesome she had done and giving her an animal cracker to try to keep peace during the most climactic moment of any wedding ceremony, it happened. Braelyn chunked....and I do mean CHUNKED her beautiful little basket of flowers on the floor, and quickly followed it with a loud and proud laugh that filled the thick and anticipatory silence in the room. I quickly decided that was not the moment to attempt to fix the mess. Thankfully it was out of the way enough that I thought we had avoided the stage scene to be shot in every picture that was to be in our dear friend's wedding album. I found out later that apparently no one else even saw what had happened...thank you Lord! The last thing I wanted was for anyone to be looking at us when the bride was having her moment coming down the aisle. What a fun (and yes, I'll admit it, stressful) day that was.

Now, we are preparing for a certain little girl's second birthday party. I'm trying to decide between 101 Dalmatians, or the Little Mermaid theme. I just don't know yet. I need to decide soon though so that I can get invites out. I think we will make this one mainly family, and a few friends. I figure next year we will probably have our first "real" birthday party, complete with kiddos, cheesy games, and party favors that no parent ever wants to bring home with them.

Well, hopefully this won't be the last post for the next 5 months....getting back into a routine again, and I am hoping that blogging will have a designated block of time somewhere in my crazy schedule.

The End is Near...

....and I mean that in the most positive way possible. I am so close to the end of the semester. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's getting bigger by the day. I have one paper (really about 2/3 of a paper) left and one test. Then I can breathe easy for a week before my summer class starts. Even with one summer class, it's gotta be better than this semester when I had three. It has to be better right?

On a different note: I have recently noticed a new pet peeve that I seem to have, but never realized hot much it bothered me. Grammar and spelling. I have found myself critiquing every kind of public writing forum, whether a marquee on the rode, or a magazine, I have found that I am able to point out grammatical mistakes from a mile away- and they drive me crazy! Spelling misakes especially seem to creep up under my skin. Of course, now that I say this, I'm sure I have many misspelled words and grammatical mistakes. Hopefully not. But it's definitely possible.

New Style

So, today I had the pleasure of attending a two-week parenting class at church. Isn't it funny how, just when you think you've got it figured out, God steps in and says, "Ok- What about this? Did you ever think about it this way?" And then, a whole new way of thinking is opened up? Well, that is exactly what happened to me today. As a graduate student that is studying counseling, I'd like to think that I know a little more than the average person knows when it comes to these things. However, sometimes God takes our little human egos and shows us Who really knows something, and who doesn't.

Today, my ego was put to shame in an area that I would like to say that I'm somewhat knowledgable and that area is- parenting. While I haven't been a parent for a real long time, I have read and studied it quite a bit. And while I in no way consider myself to be an expert, I have always felt like I had a pretty solid handle on how to raise Godly children, and more specifically, how I would raise my kids to be Godly adults. There are some things that seem obvious, such as praying for your children, praying with your children, and letting them "catch" you reading your Bible. While those things are good, and even essential, there still seemed to be something missing. I wanted solid, practical, parenting skills that I could apply in the heat of discipline, and in the cool of playtime. This morning, I feel like the Lord revealed to me a solid Biblical perspective for parenting. And honestly, while I am talking of these tactics in relation to parenting, I feel that this will radically change how I live my life in general.

The two verses that were said this morning that the Lord really brought to the forefront of my mind and heart are both very familiar to anyone that has spent any amount of time in a Baptist church. The first one, Deuteronomy 6:5 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength." THe second is this, Leviticus 19:18 "Love your neighbor as yourself."

These are the two commandments that Jesus gave when the Pharisees were questioning his status as self-proclaimed Messiah. They were testing Him and His knowledge of the law. In a way, I feel this is where I have been in my quest through parenthood. I have just been sitting back, "knowing it all", questioning God's ability to parent my child. (Really, that's a pretty bold place to be seeing as I've only been a parent for about 17 months. Just goes to show how fast your ability and/or knowledge can go straight to your head.) The truth of the matter is, I can't parent my child. I can't. It's that simple. Just like I can't be a suitable wife to my husband, I can't be a suitable mother to my daughter. This is where these verses come in to play....

I figure that if those two commandments were radical enough to put the Pharisees in their place, they are radical enough to put me in my place. And they did. These commandments seem so simple, and in a way they are. But at the same time, again, they bring me to the end of myself. Because the truth of the matter is, I can't "Love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, and all my strength." Nor can I "Love my neighbor as myself." Christ must do this for me. I give up and give in. Allow His love to pour into every crevice of my being. I think it involves keeping these verses in the forefront of my heart. This, I believe, is essential to the everyday living out of these verses. Allowing them to "transform (me) through the renewing of (my) mind". That means creating a new mind- or a new mindset. Taking captive those proud, judgmental thoughts that consume my current patterns of behavior and replacing them with compassionate, understanding thoughts that allow for mistakes: from others and from myself. After all, if it weren't for mistakes, we wouldn't need grace.

Now in relation to parenting- Deuteronomy says that we are to "commit ourselves wholeheartedly to these commands, and repeat them again and again to our children." (This is the paraphrased version.) So, when we think of parenting, what are the goals that we strive to attain in parenting? I will list a few that I have always envisioned myself striving, as a parent, to attain:

• Educational success (aka: a college degree...at least)


• Finding a successful mate


• Having a successful career that fits their God-given talents and abilities


• Having Godly friends


• Being drug/alcohol free


• Staying sexually pure

These are just a few. So, the question that was asked this morning is "How will you measure your children?" When you are sitting at your child's high school, or college graduation, what would make you say, "Success!"? Would it be the fact that they made good grades, and skated through all of their AP courses relatively unchallenged? Or would it be that your child got a full scholarship for his talents on the football field? "How will you measure your children?"

Today, the Lord has revealed that, even at the tender age of 17 months, I have already begun to measure my daughter by things that will not contribute to the Kingdom of God. Not that I don't think the things I listed above aren't important. Quite the contrary. After the discussion this morning, I think that these things are still important, however they are not the focus. The focus needs to be love. "How does my child love?" Does she love the Lord her God with all her heart, all her soul, all her mind, and all her strength? Does she love her neighbor as herself? When these two commandments are fulfilled, all of the above measurements will be met as well. That is why there is no need to put total focus on the previous measurements. I am thankful for the Lord opening my eyes to this truth today. I wish I could say this is the only time I will have to be reminded of these commandments in parenting, but the reality of the situation is, my heart and my mind are forgetful, and sadly quite stubborn.

Moving on...

My apologies to those of you who actually read through the entirety of my last post. I don't complain a lot, and while it is not productive in any way, somehow you just feel a little bit vindicated in being able to "give it what it deserves". In this case my "it" was school, and it deserved a swift kick in the you know what. I think I successfully did that in my last post, so now, as the title of this post suggests, I am moving on....

I have to tell you this because I think it's a pretty monumentous occasion. Today, March 24, 2009, Braelyn wore her first ponytail! I feel like we have entered into the world of all things girly now that she has enough hair to actually put in a rubberband. I had to use those tiny clear plastic rubberbands though. I have never used them before, and let me tell you, those little boogers are difficult to use! Poor baby probably thought I was just pulling a massive amount of her hair out of her head when actually I was just trying to pull it out of her face. We're in that in between stage right now of hair growth. If you've ever had bangs, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's too short to put behind the ear or pull all the way back, but it's too long to be considered bangs. Quite frustrating for me. I don't think it bothers her in the least bit having hair in her face constantly, but it definitely bothers me!

Well, I'm signing off for now! Good day!

OVERWHELMED

That is exactly how I feel right now. I am just going to go ahead and apologize- I am just going to vent (aka- complain) for a few minutes. I think of all of the school stuff I have to do in the next month and a half, and I feel like I should just kiss my family and friends good bye until May 6th. I have one class with 4 more groups that I have to observe, and then I have to write a paper about it. I also have to interview two group leaders and write a paper about that. THEN I have to do 2 more article critiques (I've finished one already). And in case that isn't enough, we also have a major group project for that class that we haven't done a whole lot on. Super duper! And that's just ONE of my THREE classes. I guess I should be thankful I don't have a final in that one. And I am- I really am thankful. I just have so much to do before finals week, that I can't even think that far. In one of my other classes, I just finished the third of four papers so far for this semester, but that fourth one is a doozy. 15 pages. woo freakin hoo. My third and final (and favorite! it really is- I'm not being sarcastic) class isn't as bad. But I do have a major project still to do for the semester...and a take home final, which we all know what that means. It is likely impossible to make a good grade on. I keep telling myself that it is good for me to be getting this degree and that I need it. And that I'd rather do it now than when Braelyn is older. At least this way- God willing (and I don't use that phrase tongue in cheek, I pray all of the time) that she has no recollection of this ever happening. I want to be at her soccer games and cheer practices. I hate missing out on so much right now, and I really feel like I do miss out on a lot. But in the long run, I know it's better to do it now rather than later. AAAAHHHHH.......It feels good to get that off my chest. People that have been in my shoes keep saying that it won't last forever, but I'll be honest- right now, there is no light at the end of my tunnel. Not even a pin-sized one. I'm walking in the tunnel looking for a mag light, and now a train is entering the tunnel about to plow me over. ugh. I'm done now. Find a fork. Hopefully I will one day be able to post again and say that I survived a train wreck. But for now, LOOK OUT!!

The Bachelor Finale Reaction

Wow. If there were one phrase regarding love and marriage that I hate more than any other (and I understand that A LOT of people disagree) is "I have to follow my heart". If anyone had any doubt as to why the divorce rate (and as a result the crime rate, high school drop out rate, and really just the overall moral decline) of this country is so high- this is it. Because people have to "follow their hearts".





*warning* *warning* I am stepping up on my soap box. *warning* *warning*





I think I have said this before, but I feel very strongly about marriages and the need for them to succeed. I believe this is a part of the Lord's heart that He has placed in my heart. It breaks my heart to see marriages fail, not just for the husband and wife, but mostly for the kids. The most heartbreaking part of all of this is how far these people are from knowing and understanding what love really is. "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." It is THIS kind of love that calls us to more than just "following our hearts". Why is this, you ask? Well, how many times have any of us offered ourselves as a sacrifice for someone else? Or even sacrificed something that we wanted for the betterment of someone else? Now think about how many people you have said you loved. Which one out weighs which? It is this word, love, that seems to have all of us confused. "Love never fails." So why do so many marriages and relationships find themselves in the distant past after two people have seemingly selflessly declared their love for each other? One of two things is happening here. Either love does fail, and Scripture is wrong, or people don't really know what love is. Maybe I'm an idealist, but I do belive that "Love never fails". And by never, I think God really meant never. I believe that the ultimate heartache that is experienced by so many people is not that they "gave their heart away" or chose to "follow their heart" instead of "leading their heart". The true heartache is that they never really knew what the word love meant. Each of them had different interpretations and meanings of the word love instead of knowing and understanding THE definition. This is where couples fall apart. How can you base any relationship on something that two different people have two different understandings of? The thing with "following your heart" is that your heart has no direction. It only feels. And while I do believe the Lord gave us feelings for a reason, I don't necessarily think that our feelings should be the primary compass of our lives. Think about it. It's like being on a roller coaster. (Maybe that's why they say, 'I'm on an emotional roller coaster!') What happens when you're at the top of that hill, juuuust about to teeter over the other edge and give your body over to the effects of gravity- and all of a sudden, you don't feel like going down that hill? You probably should have thought of that before they strapped you in and checked to make sure there was no way you were getting out of that seat without their help. That's what happens in these relationships. People get to the top of the hill, look down, and think, "Nope! Not today. I'm not going down this hill. I think I'll just get out." And then they do, and they wonder why it's so hard to get out of a moving roller coaster without getting hurt, or hurting the other passengers. It is my prayer, and my plea to anyone who reads this that is not married yet (or if you are married), that you would know THE definition of love. Not just a definition that sounds good on camera without being cliche. His name is Jesus.



"Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

Valentine oh Valentine

Today is Valentine's Day! Normally I'm not that into Valentine's Day, but for some reason this year, I was somewhat excited about it. Maybe it's because I was really looking forward to spending the day with my little family. I wanted to do some fun activities with Braelyn today so I thought we'd go for a picnic in the park. It was supposed to be slightly chilly, but pleasant. As we were packing lunches for our picnic and such, little Miss Priss decided she couldn't wait until we got to the park to eat. So we had to eat at home. Which, after I thought about it, was probably a good thing. I don't know how well it would have gone trying to eat and feed a 15 month old in a park. So after we ate, we went to the park to play for a while. She had so much fun! She played and ran around the playground for about 30 minutes! (Which is a long time when your legs are only about a foot and a half long!) She went down the slide and down the slide and down the slide some more. She loved it! We all had a lot of fun just playing and hanging out and taking some candids.

I made some delicious homemade manicotti for dinner as well. We then pulled out the Jell-O I made the day before. I wanted to make some jigglers with cookie cutters. Natually, with a 15 month old, things didn't necessarily turn out as I had envisioned.

These are the flowers and strawberries that Ben gave me. What a great husband I have! He also promised to take me on a cruise next year. We've tried so many times to take a cruise and because of my school schedule, we've never been able to. Ben found one that leaves next January that should work for us. Hopefully it works out! I am so blessed. I hope everyone else had as great of a Valentine's Day as we did spending time with those you love!

Week 'O Birthdays

So this week is crazyyyy busy with birthdays in our fam. My husband's younger brother had a birthday on Tuesday and we celebrated with a tasty trip to Shogun's! (I had my leftovers for lunch today. Almost as good as the first time I ate that meal!) Tuesday was also my grandpa's birthday. Since we were celebrating my bro-in-law, we had to postpone my grandpa's birthday until Wednesday. But then we went to Cheddar's! Also tasty! My sister and I were asked to pick up a cake on the way home, so we did not realizing that it was actually frozen. Woops! It was still good, it just kinda hurt your teeth when you bit into it. You know, like when you bite into ice cream or something really cold and it feels like frostbite on your teeth? That's kinda how it felt. Anyway, Sunday is Ben's birthday! We will be the same age again! I am about 6 months older than he is, which isn't that big a deal now, but I have a feeling the older we get, the more he'll rub it in. The good thing about it is that whatever trick he plays on me at my birthday, I can always get revenge on his birthday. muaahahaha! :) We are supposed to take breakfast to Sunday school on Sunday, so I'll have to make something super special since it's his birthday! I love making special food for him. I don't know why. I guess because I know he likes eating. Apparently, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach! Well I suppose I should head off to bed pretty soon. I'm still trying to recover from being sick last weekend. I lost my voice and had bronchitis. Losing your voice makes it very difficult to get your child's attention when they are about to do something that could potentially be very bad. Like, grabbing cups and placemats (with cups on them) off of the table; or sticking their hands in the toilet- just to name a few. ahhh...never a dull moment. Now I am really heading to bed. Goodnight all!

Getting started!

Wow- Ok. So I don't really know why I am doing this. I don't have time to do the things that I need to do, and for some reason I am starting a blog. We'll see how this ends up going. I will try to post the random thoughts and occurances from my day. Typically my days are pretty eventful since I have a small child. Anyone that has kids knows exactly what I'm talking about! ;) So- a little bit about me. I wear several hats. Not literally- I don't actually care much for hats. By hats, I mean roles that I have. First, I am married. To a GREAT guy. I know everyone says that, and some people may seem sincere, but I really mean it. He is great. Second, I am a mom. I have a 15 month old daughter. She is amazingly cute. Seriously. One time I counted how many times I got stopped at the grocery store by people telling me how cute she is and I counted 8 times in 30 minutes. She's really cute. And she's a great kid- even though we are entering the "tantrum" phase. Third, I am a student. I am currently working on my Master's in Marriage and Family Counseling. I am almost halfway through with school, and sadly I still have 2 years left. Yeeeeah. Also, I am a part time employee. I recently started a part time job as Administrative Assisstant for a mission organization here in town. Also, my boss is an LPC, which works out great for me! On the job training for what I really want to do! So yeah, I'm pretty busy. Hopefully I'll have time to keep up with this. I think it could be fun!