The lovely life of me

Writers block again

2009-09-16T13:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, I don't have writer's block, I'm just blocked for time to write/blog:
How about a link to some facebook photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=101172&id=506093021&l=ce60703b3f

Twenty Five Things About Me

2009-05-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, I participated in a "post this and share it" thing on facebook. The title was 25 random things about me, and the rules were to post 25 random things about yourself and share it with 25 people. The day I got it, I needed to get my mind off of a stressful situation....seriously, when you stress, just Go do Something Else besides worry about your situation. If you can't find anything else to do, go do something nice for someone else, or be very kind to someone & see how much that helps - it does help a lot.
Anyway, I have not been able to fit blogging in my schedule as much as I'd like to, so I'm going to share the list of 25 random things about me that I posted on facebook.
Here they are:
1. I am only doing this because I want to get my mind off of stupid stress (seriously I rarely stress, so my stress is stupid).
2. I love to go shopping; window shopping is just fine too.
3. I am a big fan of black and white, because you can use a splash of any color with it.
4. I really Love my friends; most are musicians, business owners, influential leaders & authors.
5. I think my family is completely Amazing and love them all so much.
6. I've never loved, (do like & drink) coffee, but know a lot about it from working at Starbucks for 4 yrs.
7. I worked at a prestigious law firm for a year; out of 200 applicants I was hired.
8. I love to laugh
9. I think collections are silly, if I were to collect anything it would be something I'd actually use....like awesome funky high heels and lipstick...oh, I do have a lipstick collection.
10. I could eat salad every day and not get tired of it.
11. I was recently hired as a freelance makeup artist...it was a temp job, but I had a blast!
12. I rarely watch television
13. Hot wings are a random craving of mine (that occurs too often)
14. I would love to take a "visit all of my out of state/country friends" trip, if I did, I'd be gone a long time
15. I don't have a particular bff, but if I had to choose one, hands down-my sister Lisa, she's my favorite (and only) sister
16. I get slightly irritated when I hear someone say that I’m quiet and shy
17. My most highly valued possessions are my wedding ring, notes from conferences & church services, and hand-me downs from friends
18. I am a great cook, but really do not like to cook
19. I have two left feet when it comes to dancing, unless I stand behind someone who knows what they’re doing
20. I’ve never been on an over seas trip, but plan to take an extensive tour of Europe some day
21. I’m allergic to fish; it’s the only food allergy I have & am glad for it because fish is just nasty. Seriously, who likes eating something that smells that nasty?!
22. My very favorite thing to do is spend time with people I love.
23. I would love to have my very own cosmetics line & most of the profits go towards ministry and worthy causes
24. I secretly wish to turn one of my extra rooms into a luxurious dressing room closet full of shoes, purses and fun girly things…oops, secret’s out!
25. I'm going to be a mommy.................................some day

Can time fly that much?

2009-04-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

" I've been learning a lot about myself lately, and I've discovered that I'm pretty much Amazing!"
I got an e-mail from my brother in law Ryan, and he announced that Grandma Avis posted another blog. I'm Thinking to myself, it's probably been a year since I've blogged, and yes, almost! I've been editing along with many other things that keeps me busy. I'll blog more of my lovely life very soon. For now, here's a random thought/question: We all have the same amount of time in a day to spend, do you spend your time wisely? Spending time with God first makes time management flawless! Try it, if you haven't already.

Writer's block

2008-05-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, I do not have writer's block, there's just so much that has been going on in my lovely life that I would have paragraphs up on paragraphs of stories that would just take up too much time to write, and then take too much of your time reading. Check with my pictures link....I'll update those eventually, because afterall, pictures can say a thousand words.

On Vacation/A week in the Ozarks

2008-04-27T19:06:00.000-07:00

Very early Thursday morning, I was reminded of my insane Starbucks schedule as we loaded up our car and headed out to the airport at 3:45am. To get the most out of our visit with Jason's parents, we were scheduled and early morning flight out. I do not remember much of our flight because I was actually able to sleep this time. I do remember our trip to Jason's parents house. The beautiful green! Oh, and clouds, and um....ick-the humidity. So, that humidity made me have a week full of bad hair days. Seriously, it took me 30 minutes to just get my hair dry. Despite the bad hair days, We had a blast! It's always wonderful to visit Jason's family!

A month in a nutshell

2008-04-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

When there's a lot of exciting new things that go on in my lovely life, I totally want to blog about it, but by the time I finish the day, the little cozy couch by the livingroom window is a lot more inviting than the computer desk. I'm going to attempt a short blog, with random sentences of what Jason and I are up to. If you read this blog and think, huh? wait, that's only one sentence and she left me hangin' I wanna know what else happened!....call me & I'll tell ya 'bout it.
So, let's see, the beginning of the month, or a little before....like sometime in March after I attacked my closet:
Jason got his dream job without even asking, I'm about to get mine, but I did ask.
Okay, I wont leave ya hanging on that one sentence. Jason did get a new job, but never asked for it, he was approached. It's pretty much his dream job, working with leaders. It fits him well, like it was set up specifically for his talents and abilities to be put to use at their fullest. He loves it, and I love it!
At one of my visits to the MAC counter, I met the regional manager, and I asked her for a job. She set up an interview for me, and I will be scheduled a second interview when they finish up with events. I think I'm in. Long hiring process. I've been told it's a very difficult job to get, but ya know how God totally sets things up sometimes....so you can meet the right person at the right time?! That's what happened!

We're gonna buy a house!
Remember that whole house-hunting thing we had requested prayer about a couple years ago? We found a mean time house that we didn't buy and thought wow, God's so detailed with this rental, imagine what our miracle house will be like! It's time for us to find that miracle house we prayed for a couple years ago. We've been packing.
So, dream jobs, house hunting, and well, church activities....yep, that keeps us busy. That's what's been going on in my very lovely life.
We're off to go celebrate a graduation. Jason's sister Dawnetta, and her husband Travis are graduating from Evangel University. We leave Thursday bright and early! Hooray, a little vacation!

I like e-mail better I guess

2008-03-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

So I haven’t been blogging lately because it's usually to keep everyone posted on what's going on in the lovely life of me, when I haven't e-mailed and such. I don’t quite forget I have a blog page, it’s just that I’ve been way better at sending individual e-mail notes lately, so for the most part, I’ve kept in touch with everyone, and have even had the privilege of having lunch with some of you. Whoever’s reading this and is thinking, gee, I haven’t had lunch with Natalie, and wants to….do call, lunch with a friend is one of my very favorite things!
Anyway, e-mailing is why I haven’t blogged lately. I usually blog while doing laundry, but my schedule changed after being forced to spend several days in pj’s. I had a lot more items on my iddy-biddy projects list than I remembered looking at, and said to myself, “if celebrating crossing off a large number of items on that list is going to be done, I’d better get busy.” Off I went to the every day housekeeping items, which are a must before I take on any projects. I have conquered my closet; it is now the most organized any closet of mine has ever been! I made sure to leave room for some new spring fashion. The closet was a monster, and took me a couple days to complete. After crossing off that item, I celebrated with none other than a shopping trip. Not for me - Jason was in need of a wardrobe update, so I got him some clothes. He was well pleased with his new business casual attire. Now he has new wardrobe for his new job. Yeah, he has a new job and loves it. I’ll talk about that in another blog; this one is to talk about why I haven’t been blogging and before it gets too long, I’ll end my blog now with, “There’s been much excitement in the lovely life of me and I’ll tell all very soon.” We’ve got so much great to celebrate!

Several Days in PJ's

2008-02-06T08:07:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've ever actually wished for a day to stay in my pajamas all day long and do absolutely nothing.....but all last week I did just that. I was actually getting tired of my comfy pink fuzzy slippers! I enjoy relaxing, but not the way I was forced to. That bug that's been going around caught me pretty bad! I even had to go to the doctor and the doc said I was "sick". Duh! I think the two days of having a fever told me that.
It's been a week since I went to the doctor, and just as he said, taking it easy for a couple of days & the antibiotics should get me all better within a week. I don't like that my voice makes me sound like I've been yelling non-stop. Feeling much better, but I'm not at a hundred percent yet. I ditched the pj's and sleeping in...even though the doc said take it easy, but hey; I've got those iddy-biddy projects to cross off our list of things to do at home. I've managed to stay on task, and not start a dozen things at once. During my days in pj's, I came up with such fun ways to keep our home organized and nice n' tidy, and awesome things to keep us focused on a year of celebrating the great things in our lives! Themes! I love hosting theme parties, so I came up with theme days and months. I wont go into detail about my themes, but I will invite ya to any theme party we have.

Hanging up my aprons

2008-01-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

After exploring the world of retail at Starbucks for a few years, I decided it's time to hang up my aprons, and replace them with professional attire. I'm super stoked to get to polish my nails again. When I interviewed for Starbucks, I was asked "Why do you want to work here?" My answer was, "It looks like a great place to work, and I kinda like coffee." The manager giggled and continued the interview. The curious look about her face made me wonder if she was going to hire me. All I knew was "office". Maybe she'd let me take a shot at retail, I really wanted the experience of interacting with a diverse crowd, and expressed that in the interview. Two days later, I was back in, signing paper work, getting a store tour and presented with two lovely green aprons. Hooray, I was in! Mid training, I kept wondering what in the world was I thinking, especially when they told me I couldn't wear nail polish! Oh well, hours of standing gave me a pretty good excuse to pamper my feet-I could still polish the piggys! Retail was quite an adjustment, but I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so well, that I stuck around maybe a little too long. It's the first time I have ever left a job without having another one lined up. Scary move, but I like to call it a leap of faith. Jason and I both felt comfortable with that decision.

I've put the working in cosmetics thing on hold for now. I did explore many of those options, and Sephora would have been an awesome place for me, but I want out of reatil more than I want to work with cosmetics & girly prettys! And goodness, I'd probably spend a lot of my paychecks on product! So for right now, I'm working at home, but searching for a new job that is far away from retail. Perhaps after crossing off the last little item on our vast list of "iddy-biddy home projects" I'll get a phone call for an interview at a perfect for me office.

Starbucks was a great job, I kinda just grew out of it.

Family Time's Awesome

2008-01-02T07:44:00.000-08:00

It's so nice to pause for a day and do absolutely nothing but fun stuff. That's just what Jason and I did on New Year's day. We slept in, enjoyed a lovely brunch, and went to watch a movie. Over brunch, our conversation was that of how much we enjoyed his family visiting. We're still trying to get used to a very quiet house again! We viewed pictures of the festivities, and talked about what a sweet gift it was to have the family come visit.

We are planning a trip to visit them in May when his sister & her husband graduate from Evangel University. More Celebrating!

Happy New Year.....almost!

2007-12-29T20:04:00.000-08:00

Well Christmas was so much fun for Jason and me this year. We got to enjoy his family coming for a visit. Now that all the presents have been exchanged and unwrapped, the guests have gone home, and the decorations are slowly being put away, it's time for me to look ahead and prepare for a new year! But there's one thing that I decided not to put away after the holidays, Celebration! I love to celebrate! Oh, and hey my birthday's tomorrow. Last year Jason put on a pretty awesome party for me, this year, it'll be a little more quiet. We're having lunch with some of our friends after church, and then I get to go shopping, with Jason as my shopping buddy! What a way to celebrate! My favorite definition of the word celebrate is: to observe (a day) or commemorate (an event) with ceremonies or festivities, or to praise widely. Every year when I turn a new page in life I look at how I'm going to celebrate my new year. I love that my birthday falls just a little before the new year, it's extra celebrating for me to do! I have experienced great things this year and expect even greater things to come, so "my theme" for the new year is to Celebrate The Great in 2008! A little cheesy with the rhyme thing? Nah, it'll resound in my mind even more just because it rhymes. Celebrating is such an awesome thing to do! Focusing on God's greatness, and the great ways he's blessed my life make it all the more easy for me to enjoy my life and celebrate....even when there's not so great things that might go on. Since Jason and I love to celebrate, I thought, hey why not make it my new year's theme. So, a little early, Happy New Year! Let's Celebrate!
If it gets to be challenging to celebrate, remember that one very encouraging scripture in Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-19T07:42:00.000-08:00

We decided to be different and send e-mail greetings instead of snail mail......not as personable I know! Next Christmas, I promise the handmade snail-mail greetings :)

Here is picture of us right after we finished decorating our Christmas tree.

Click on the link to see our fun greeting! Hope you all have a wonderful time & really enjoy your family, friends during this season. Merry Christmas Everyone!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1494712779

The last half of my year

2007-12-17T07:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, as I mentioned in another little blog, this is just a little hobby of mine. A little hobby that has been on hold for a long while. In a paragraph or less, I can try and sum up what I have been up to. Okay, several paragraphs! I do believe my last post was some time in April. So the rest of April, Jason and I were busy with planning for a whole lot of fun during his birth month. We had a revolving door of guests in our home during the month of May, which kept us busy indeed.

Jason's birthday was the beginning of May, and the day before his birthday, his parents arrived for a visit. The day of Jason's birthday, my parents arrived for a visit....yes it was planned that way and most would think, "oh my gosh, both sets of parents together in the same house! you must be stressed!" Quite the opposite I'd say. Jason's parents and mine get along with each other as if they're best friends. We are so blessed for that. It was a perfect beginning of the month with an array of family activities. Both Jason and I highly value family time, so it was a real treat to take a "stay-home" vacation and spend quality time with his parents while they were visiting. We celebrated Jason's birthday at Texas Road House with the family, and then returned to our house for a cake reception with friends. I think he had a great time. (There's a link on the right side of my blog page if ya want to see pictures)

Shortly after our parents left, Jason's old college roommate came for a visit. Wow, the guy's such a night owl. Of course there was so much catching up that Jason and him took care of the night of his arrival. It was so fun listening to those two reminiscing about the college days, I could have excused myself and retired for the night, but those stories were great! After Jason's friend Troy left, his cousin and her family dropped in for a visit. That was just an in passing kind of visit, but busy all the same. I cannot have someone over without having a lovely little snack feast around. So, I made fresh salsa, guacamole, re fried beans and we had mini burritos and chips n salsa, or as Jason would say it, "chips n sauce". So, I got to met the cousin that I had not ever met because of her always being out of town....or out of the country. It was a brief meet, but a fun one.

The summer months: All quite a blur because we were busy working and with church activities, etc. But during the summer Jason and I made new friends and met cool people.

June: At work in June, I met the coolest customer ever! (I pick favorite customers of the day just to add something fun to my day) and this customer not only won for the day, but for the week, and month, and well she's totally my favorite customer. Her name is Rachelle. Being the huge makeup fan that I am, I had to ask her about that fabulous lipstick she was wearing. Little did I know that it would strike up a brief, fun conversation- and the presentation of her business card before I got back to making lattes. When I got home that day, I looked up her website and browsed and thought, "Wow what a Jewel, I really did meet the coolest customer ever!" Remember that admiring people thing written in one of my previous posts where I say my brain kind of falls out and I lose my train of thought and can only smile...I was totally hoping that wouldn't happen next time I saw her.....it didn't I was fine....okay, maybe I got a wee bit timid, but that's just what happens when I think highly of someone. (if you haven't, read my admiring people post, the "brain falling out thing" I just mentioned probably wont make any sense, so read that post) Anyway I sent a brief e-mail to her letting her know how glad I was to have met her. I totally wanted to keep in touch with her. I've seen her every now and again at Starbucks and it's always nice to see her. I didn't have a business card to give her, but I did giver her a Starbucks gift card just because she's fabulous.

July & August: I'd say the hi-light of July & August was meeting new friends at church. Okay, I think we met them a little sooner than July, but July was when we began to spend time with them. We were introduced to "a nice young couple" Rod Hazen wanted us to meet because they just moved from Minnesota. Chris & Theresa, whom Jason likes to call our neighbors because they live just a mile & a half away from us. He's from North Dakota, where their neighbors were like 5 miles apart, so within a 5 mile radius or shorter, they're neighbors. Being we were one of the young adult small group hosts, we invited them to our home for small group Bible study. They came, and they fit right in. After our small group meeting ended, and everyone else who had to pick up their kids left, Jason and I had some time to visit with Chris & Theresa. Jason and Chris went to the same university, and the four of us enjoyed visiting with each other. We offered to "show them around the city" and later that week they came over for dinner and then we were off to see the city. We went to down town Tempe, and explored Mill Ave. Cold Stone and Coffee Plantation were our stops. We went all over the city, on a driving tour being it was late, and none of us wanted to be outside after walking down Mill, even when the sun goes down it's still hot, and remember, they moved from Minnesota! Speaking of still hot when the sun goes down, a few weeks later, they braved patio dining with us at Oregano's. We also met Sid and Andrea, another young adult couple who were new at church. One of the other young adult leaders introduced them to us. They along with Chris & Theresa have often stuck around to visit after small group sessions concluded for the evening. Sid and Andrea are both managers in the world of retail, so we do not get to visit with them very much, but when we do, it's like time has not passed, easy to "catch up" and we are so glad to see one another. Aren't those kinds of friends the best!

September-October: I was often wondering exactly when it would start cooling off here, and rather envious of my friends and family members enjoying cooler weather "up North". Okay, I wasn't really envious of my friends and family up North, but I did find myself checking the weather of where they were. I was thinking it would be so nice to go up to Omaha right then. We did get to go to North Dakota for labor day weekend though, which was wonderful!

As usual we stayed busy with work and church activities. Jason actually picked up his drum sticks again, and became one of the two drummers being rotated in the praise band. Pastor Kim said, "he shocked us with his talent". It's really neat to see him do something I thought he might not ever do again because of major burn out. I'm glad he's part of that team. Does everyone know the story of how Jason & I met? We met at Phoenix First:He was a drummer, I was a new vocalist in the band and the leader introduced me to the team, mine & Jason's eyes met, "and the rest was history" as they say. There's a lot of romance in that story but I'm not telling it in this blog, I almost went off on a rabbit trail there didn't I? Alright, back to Sept.Oct. & what we did then....during the entire month of September, I do remember trying to find a store to transfer to, one closer to me because the commute was very exhausting, and pricey. So the end of September, I ended up transferring to a Starbucks less than 2 miles away from my house. Cool, I was getting more hours and wasn't far away from home....only problem was I really missed my old store and still do! I'm not unhappy at my new store, but I didn't realize how much I'd miss my store! Oh well, the change was a must. I've adjusted.

November: The month was definitely filled with a lot of change adjusting to a store transfer, and a brand new schedule. Jason and I communicated mostly by phone calls & text messaging, and post it notes in the house. Oh how awesome it was for us to have a day off together! We'd spend the time "re-grouping" and catching up. Allright, I'm half way exaggerating about our communication, but we didn't get a whole lot of quality time together in October or November because of my work schedule. It's all worked itself out though.
We enjoyed a trip to Safford for Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with my sister & parents. Although brief, it was a much needed little get away that was so refreshing. On our drive home, we began to talk about plans for Christmas. Jason's family is coming to visit us! That's going to be so exciting!

December: This month has been busy, but nice. Jason and I both got to enjoy a little stay at home vacation last week. We enjoyed sleeping in, crossing off some items on our holiday to-do list and got almost all of our Christmas shopping done. We also spent time decorating our house and putting up our Christmas tree. Now that most of our Christmas shopping is done it's pretty much just smooth sailing until Christmas guests arrive. We are looking forward to having Jason's family come for a visit. We pick up his sister & her husband & daughter from the airport tomorrow! His parents and brother will arrive sometime Thursday! On Christmas eve, my brother and his wife & kiddos will join us for our festivities! I'm very excited about Christmas and can hardly wait for all the fun with family to begin! So, perhaps the next time I post a blog, it'll be a little shorter than this one, with a few pictures of all the fun going on!
Merry Christmas everyone!

Sharing photos

2007-04-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how many photos I can put on one post. I'll put several pictures of Jason and me, I'll put together a slide show of some kind on my kodak spot and post the link later. These photos are from the bottom to the top: Jason & Me, a self portrait on our anniversary, me with my little "mommy trainers" Jonathan & Josie (my brother's kiddos-they came over for a visit), Jason and me on Christmas Eve at my mom & dad's house-it was like almost midnight when that pic. was taken, we were so tired, the fire was so cozy, and there was a whole lot of visiting to do so sleep was really just overrated that night...plus we totally wanted to see if Santa would attempt to come down a lit up chimney! Okay, next photo: Jason & me, we had family over for supper & this was a candid shot that Vic took. The other two are of us taking required pictures for "the amazing race" that the married couples ministry at church has every year. We Won!! Wearing that fluffy leafy suit at Cabella's is as close to out doorsie as I get.....because I'm girly and proud of it.

Oh, and I got a haircut, that's a self portrait I took to e-mail a pic. to my sister. Jason loves it, so do I, my hair's not boring anymore, Staci is a genius!

Sorry it's been a while!

2007-04-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, sorry it's been a while since my page has been updated! Life got busy, and well blogging is bottom of the totem pole of priorities, in fact, it's not even a priority, it's a little hobby, apparently one I have not had much time for in the past couple of months. What have I been up to? Oh, lots of stuff, from work, church, babysitting, cooking, (I like exploring my cookbooks), and all kinds of stuff in between. Pictures coming soon :)

Admiring people

2007-01-25T10:51:00.000-08:00

I’m rather selective, and careful with whom I choose to esteem highly. These people that I really admire probably do not know that I do admire them, but I hope that in any interaction I may have with them, they’d sense my appreciation for them. Most are a part of my life as acquaintances. A few, I’d be forever grateful for the opportunity to meet (Delilah) and spend some time visiting with them-once I pick my brain back up and re-gather my train of thought and am able to at least say hello.

I have a few reasons to admire a person and it’s never a “just because”. They say or do something that inspires me, or encourages me. The quality of their character really stands out and catches my attention.

Now, the trouble with me, is with these people, any interaction I have with them initially, my brain falls out and I can’t think of a word of conversation to have….that has happened with Every one of them. Silly me, it’s not lack of confidence really…and it’s not “star struck” either, I think it’s just an overwhelming, sense of awe that the person I admire is acknowledging me with a smile, a hello, or even a brief conversation. They might think of me as timid. If they just knew…it’s a deep appreciation for them, I’m not "star struck", I’m not really timid (okay maybe a little), I just really appreciate them, and for some reason, I completely lose my train of thought, and can barely talk to them. Oh well. If they just knew.

Our Anniversary's Coming!

2007-01-06T13:49:00.000-08:00

Our 6th Anniversary is coming up, so I was reflecting a little and trying to complete a wedding scrapbook with all of the wedding day snapshots that friends and family members gave us. This is one of my very favorite pictures of us at our reception. So I wanted Everyone to see it! For our 6th wedding anniversary we will be attending our church's marriage retreat the weekend before, and on our actual anniversary, probably have friends over for dinner. We feel like this past year for us has been full of restoration, turn arounds and we look forward to this year to be a year of growth together as a couple and individually, and also many more favorable years ahead of us on our journey of life! Our deepest desire is that our lives glorify God and that we walk in His will and draw close to Him. We are also really hoping to be blessed with children and that this time next year we'll no longer be a family of just the two of us.

We Have A House!!

2007-01-06T13:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, So Most Everyone has either seen our house with helping us move, or photos on the family website, but I really wanted to post it on my blogspot for everyone else who lives out of town and received my e-mail back in October about specific prayer about our home search. God answers prayer in completely different ways than we expect Him to, and I believe with my entire heart, that His ways are indeed better! This is not a home that we bought, but are renting. It was literally placed in our path and we were able to move in within a week after viewing it. It has everything on our list that we made, except the flooring, (I can totally deal with the desert rose color carpet, hey it could have been out dated shag carpet), once all the furniture was in, and the carpet got cleaned, the color of the carpet hardly stood out as when we first saw the house. But it is a miracle home for us, and we figure, if God is this detailed about our list with a rental home, just imagine what our home we'll own will be like! We moved in the last weekend of October, and hosted a lovely crowd of family members for Thanksgiving, and enjoyed friends and family over the weekend before Christmas! Thank you everyone for praying for us! We love all of you! A very special thank you dinner celebration will be given soon for all who helped us move! We were waiting until after the busy holiday season, we have not forgotten about you!

Our journey so far

2006-10-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since some of you have heard from us and we apologize for the absence of any hello phone calls or e-mails. We have been on an incredible journey since the spring of last year! We’ve been in what we’d call a growing season for some time now. And we know that the harvest is near, and we’re gathering a supernatural support system to pray us into our next season, all of you: Our beloved family members and cherished friends.

To briefly update those of you who have not heard from us in a long while, April of last year, Jason resigned his position of youth pastor at church. It was a clean departure, but we had a lot of issues to sort through: Thus the beginning of our growing season.
For the sake of being brief, I will not go into details about our 5 years at Fountain. In a very tiny nutshell, it really wasn’t a good fit for us there. We didn't work together as a team, and kind of lacked true connection with the leadership. Our marriage was faltering and we as a couple were not growing together but ministry there became a wedge that was continually being driven between us. We ourseves had issues, thus bringing us a rather negative ministry experience. Our negative experience there gave us quite the negative paradigm of church leadership, we no longer trusted church leadership in general. We didn’t leave the church offended, but we did leave rather wounded-from our own unresolved issues.

Through the rest of April, well into June, we were sorting through so many emotional issues and realizations of loss. Countless nights of broken sleep, no sleep, and intense fights to figure out how to move on- as far away from our pain as possible. We thought we had an answer. Move Out of our home, to somewhere new; somewhere in those thoughts of move out to move on came about the idea to move out of state, to be near Jason’s family. We were given a realtor’s information from our neighbors and contacted her to see about selling our condo. It was on the market for one day, and we got a substantial offer that we accepted. We weren’t expecting our condo to be sold so quickly, so we rented an apartment near my work, for the shortest lease term available. During that time, we had not been active in pursuing a new church to call our own. We decided that it would be best to try and recover in hiding. So we were just a face in the crowd of the largest church we could find. Who were we kidding? Our spirits were crying out for deeper things than just being a face in the crowd. The church we were hiding at had an evangelistic focus that we were impressed with, but it wasn’t in God’s plans for us, and we knew it.

Toward the end of the summer, we decided to travel across the valley to Chandler so we could visit some old friends for church. We were in desperate need of seeing some familiar faces. It was very refreshing to be in a service where we felt like we were part of the church family. The pastors greeted us, and knew we were there for just a visit. We briefly filled them in on what was going on in our lives. We did let them know that we had not yet found a church home, but were planning on attending a service at Lighthouse Church in Peoria the following week. They had a lot of good things to say about Lighthouse which made it easier for us to go.

Nervously the following week, we attended Lighthouse church and have since been attending. From the moment we walked in, both of us were overwhelmed with God’s presence and we knew that we had found our home church. Well into December, we attended quietly, completely uninvolved, and preferred to sit in the back, behind the tallest people we could find. Although we thought we were still hiding, we were being ministered to in every service we attended.
After the holidays we came back and found out about a marriage enrichment weekend Lighthouse was putting on. We decided to attend that "retreat", even though we knew that we’d be in a smaller group, with a bunch of other couples that we didn’t know. It was a life changing weekend for us. We met a couple about our age that befriended us at the retreat who were complete Godsends. We were very happy to have met them. I say they were complete Godsends, because they were moving that same weekend we met them. They may never know how positive of an impact they had in our lives. They introduced us to the many friends we have today, and made us feel like we were a part of the Lighthouse family, not visitors.

It was a lot easier for us to connect after the marriage retreat being we met other couples. I even joined the choir. That’s a pretty big commitment, but I needed something that would keep me accountable to church attendance. I thought that it would be no problem to commit for a short term, with the thought that I was moving in a few months. However, joining the choir got me a little more connected than I expected. I felt like I had known these people for years. It was getting a little more difficult to decide to move out of state. I kept quiet about that turmoil for a while, until it came closer for our trip to scout out our prospective new hometown. We both agreed that a move would be uprooting ourselves from where God was divinely planting us. We continued with plans to do our scouting trip, just to see what would happen. God spoke to us clearly upon entering the city; we both had a feeling of it not being home. Everything would have been fine there, but we really missed Phoenix, and most of all, we missed Lighthouse- our church. It was only a visit, and we were glad. Upon our return, we began to notify our circle of friends and family that knew of our plans to move that we were not going to after all. The many positive reactions to that news showed us that our decision to stay in Phoenix was the right decision.

Upon our return from our trip, we knew it was time to find a house to purchase. We contacted the realtor we used for selling our condo, and we were contacted by a lender that worked with the realtor. The numbers we were given shocked us, and disappointed us a little. The housing market was still a little crazy. We decided to find out some other options, and later on got in contact with a realtor group that got our home search actively started. We began to look at homes, and make offers on homes. Upon offer number 3, which was a beautiful home that we thought for sure would be ours, we got the news that the owners accepted another offer. Home number 4 was even closer in town, a little smaller, but very nice interior design work that would all stay with the home. Our offer was counter-offered, we changed a few things to see if they’d accept our new offer, and a few days later we heard another no. When we were inside that home number 4, I really felt God speaking to my heart telling me, “You’re looking at peanuts compared to what I want to give you.” I thought it was only my thoughts. Numbers wouldn’t work out. But even the plan of this realtor of getting into your needs home, a few years later upgrading to a larger home, and then even later dream home, sounded a little more sensible than we’re looking at peanuts. These peanut houses were pretty nice to me. But I couldn’t help but think about that dream home! We’d be settling if we bought any of the homes this realtor was showing us. God was not allowing us to settle. We both began to see a pattern, of God closing the door to us buying a house that these realtors were showing us. So, after the rejection of offer number 4, Jason told the realtor we were going to take a break from looking.
I kept thinking about our dream home, and how the realtor’s plan of getting into our dream home (probably 8-10 years away) started to sound ridiculous. I got on my knees and asked God to direct our steps, and to guide us to the home he has for us. I didn’t want to even waste my time looking at peanuts anymore. I turned everything over to God. After all, He knows exactly what we were wanting in a home, and we decided that we’d place our trust in Him about it. The day after I prayed and asked God to be our realtor, and lead us to a miracle home we both wrote down what we wanted in a home and where we wanted to live. We literally made God our realtor and prayed over that list.

It is our hearts’ desire that the testimony of our journey will bring God glory.
Thank you so much for taking time to agree with us in prayer about our house. My e-mail stated that more details about our plea for prayer support would be on my blog spot, I thank you for taking tome to read an update on our past year, and where we’re at right now. We’ll update you as much as we can in the future. We know that God is doing such a work in us right now and we recognize and sense harvest season is near. Even concerning children. That’s another long story in itself. We do not have any yet, we're walking through a difficult journey in that area, but we do know that God knows the desires of our hearts, and He is a mighty faithful God!

Our road trip

2006-04-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

Jason and I took a road trip to Springfield, MO and he was so kind as to first take me to Omaha, NE so I could see two of my very dear friends. His aunt Carol and her boyfriend, John were on their way back from a roadie themselves, and we so happened to meet up in Omaha. A fun quick visit with family was included in our trip and before parting our separate ways we had one of the hotel clerks snap a photo of us.

Me & Jason

2006-04-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

This is the most recent "nice" picture of my husband and me, it was taken at the most fabulous New Year's Eve party, aka his little sister's wedding. We crammed so much into that holiday visit, from holiday baking, Christmas Eve & Christmas and a birthday celebration (mine) as well as a bridal shower, baby dedication, and just plain fun quality family time where we gathered around the table for some games. It was a holiday visit that will always be remembered.

My first blog

2006-03-29T23:46:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! Thanks for stopping by my blog spot. I had this created to help me keep in touch with my friends and family better. It's a little more fun than a "form" e-mail that's to everybody. I'll update every now and again and let everyone know what's happening in the lovely life of me.