What's Up

So I haven’t been doing good with keeping up with this blog but I have a very good excuse. First, my computer came down with a bad virus but got better last week and now it is just broke. I mean it is completely gone. I need to bury it. So until I either 1) get it fixed or 2) buy a new one, blog updating will be few and far between. How am I writing this now? I am actually writing this using another person’s computer (I’m sure you figured that out).

Anyway, a lot has happened between July 31st and now. First, Cody turned 15 on August 4. I can’t believe how time flies. For those of you with little ones, cherish every moment you have with them. Second, Cody decided to quit football, at least for this year, long story, I could go into it but I don’t have enough time to write about it. If you see me, ask and I’ll tell ya. Third, I finished the sewing project and knitting project I wrote about (I’ll post pictures another time). And fourth, my new little niece, Natalie, was born on Monday, August 17, weighing in at 7 lbs. 10 oz., she is 20.5 inches long. As you can see from the pictures, she is beautiful.










If her dad isn’t strict on her with dating, her Uncle Billy and I will be. She can’t even think of dating until she’s 30….LOL. Oh and Cody and Austin love her.

If I don’t update between today and next Wednesday, Cody and Austin will start school. Cody will be a freshman in High School, a big mile stone so please keep him in your prayers. Austin is playing football for the first time and he loves it. Pray for him in school and on the football field.

See ya, love ya, bye.

A Little Bit of Culture...........LOL

We decided that the boys needed a little bit of culture in their life so we took them to a very important, prestigious event.

Roller Derby

Yes, folks, we took our impressionable teenage boys to go watch girls basically beat each other up. That was 1.5 hours of completely worth while time. It's time I will never get back! But really I believe there was another reason I was there and I'll share at another time. It's funny how God can use an event like that to spark something in us. Oh and before you ask, I'm NOT thinking of starting a Christian roller derby team.

Outward

I don't understand kids, but to be honest I don't understand most adults.....LOL. Anyway, this past week has been an event called Outward. It is a week long event where kids (teenagers) come together and serve their community. Outward was made up of 3 churchs, Compass here in Cincinnati and a church from Michigan and one from Pennsylvania. These 2 out of town churches are with a mission team called Powerplant. They go to different parts of the country and help new church plants. These kids are interested in either starting a church of their own someday or go into the mission field. They have a time of teaching and worship in the morning and then they head out to the church that they are here to help. In this case it was Compass. My boys went everyday this week and did outreach. They washed cars, gave out water, prayed for people and help put on an outdoor party. Cody and Austin loved it. But I did find out that Cody liked a girl so that meant come hell or high water, he was going.....LOL. I found out about this from the girl's mother but that's another post at another time. Honestly I don't care that he wanted to go to see a girl because regardless he still went out and did the outreaches and told the world that he is a christian. What more could a parent want, right? Austin loved it. He came home one day and told us that he actually got to pray for someone (he didn't do the praying but was with a group who did) and he was looking forward to Sunday to see if that person would come to church.

So they had a week like that but today, Friday, they are back to being demanding and self absorbed. I guess I was like that at their age. My mom was right, I would have children that behave like I did. Oh well, at least I can rest in the fact that God worked on them this week and it gives me hope that they will become men of God.

New Idea

So I've been trying to decide what I want this blog to be and it finally occured to me......write about my life with teenagers. It definitely has it's ups and downs, it's actually alot like living with toddlers. I really need to journal about this time because I am finding that it's a bit difficult. I want people to give me feedback on what they've done or just encouragement. And I need prayer. For those of you who have children, you know you pray more now than you ever have....LOL. But seriously I need prayer. The power of prayer is a beautiful thing.

So what's up with the name change "Are We There Yet?", well, we've all asked that question and I really want to know, are we at the end of the journey of teenagehood (is that a word?)?

Here are my buttheads, oops I mean my precious boys:

Austin is on the left, he's 13, and Cody is on the right, he'll be 15 on August 4th. This is not the best picture in the world but it does give you a frame of reference.

My boys will die of embarrassment when they know that I am blogging about them. Maybe they'll be on their best behaviour if they know that what they do will get out on the web. Maybe I should have talked about them sooner. We'll see.

Xtra 8 Hours

I have not updated this post lately because of facebook but today I feel like posting something. I got a new job, yeah God! And it's a God job (I work for another church). Before anyone says anything, I know that any job that God has His hand in is a God job whether it's for a church or not. Anyway, I work 32 hours a week which means I have off on Friday's. Ooh Hoo! So now I can do those things that need to be done, like fix up my house, and do all of the creative things I love and I have another morning to sleep in.

These are a few things I have in the works:


Sewing a new shower curtain








A sweater for my new niece and a sweater for myself




I will post the finished products when completed. Now I'm off to paint furniture.

Birthday Boy

Yesterday, was Austin's birthday. I wanted to post this yesterday but we were too busy, ya know, with all the festivities going on. Anyway, I now have another teenager. Where has the time gone? I can't believe how fast time has went and how BIG he is. I still remember the day he was born like it was yesterday (well it sort of was yesterday but 13 years ago....LOL). Billy and I were telling the story again (I don't think Austin gets sick of hearing it) and I almost cried, not because of remembing the pain, I will never forget that, but because of the payoff.....Austin. I miss the days when he wanted to "snuggle" with me (meaning he wanted to sit on my lap and have my arms wrapped around him) and he would give me kisses all the time. He still loves me but now he's growing up and out of the "snuggle" stage. As fast as time has gone, it won't be long and he'll be out of the house. I will definitely miss my babies so for now I'm going to enjoy the moment.

Missing Him

Do you ever have days when you miss someone so much even though you just saw them? Well that is how I am feeling about my husband today. I saw him last night and this morning and I'll get to see him again later when I get home but I am really missing him right now. I think I just want to be alone with him. I want to go out on a date with him, go on a walk and hold his hand, I want to snuggle on the couch and kiss. Not that I don't do that but I want that right now and I also want to be able to kiss him without hearing the boys say "ugh, do that in your room, that's gross" to which we say "we do that cause we love each other and if we didn't love each other you wouldn't be here". (By the way, teenage boys don't want to hear that because they think they are here by immaculate conception or a stork really did drop them off at our house.) All kidding aside, I love my husband. He is the best anyone could EVER ask for.

Billy, I can't wait to see you later....ILUF!

FRIENDS

I know I said that I was going to write about my "finding myself journey" but I'll save that for another day. Anyway, I went away with my friends or should I say "scrapbooking bitches" (that was for Sherry's husband Doug and son Alex's enjoyment) over the weekend and we had a blast. We went to the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Louisville and bought tons of stuff, including dorky t-shirts and laughed until our stomachs hurt. Isn't that what good friends are for? Really, these girls are great. They are the kind of friends that you can totally be yourself around. You can say stupid things and they'll make fun of you of course but it doesn't matter because you're comfortable with them. These are the kind of people that keep you grounded.

Here a few pictures of our weekend.

Purpose

By the title of this you would think I am going to talk about something deep but not yet. I've been thinking about this blog and what my purpose is in having it. At first I thought I would just write about, simply, my life. Let me tell you, my life can be pretty humerous so I wanted to share those moments and I can still do that. Now I'm thinking that I want others to share in my journey of, for lack of better terminology, "self discovery".

I've been feeling for awhile now that I want to go into a different direction in my career so that would mean I need to go back to school. I have a few ideas of what I may want to do but I'll share those on another day. If whoever reads this and knows me, please give me your input. What direction do you think I should go? You don't have to comment on here, you can email your thoughts. I'm just curious what others think. I'll share my thoughts on what I'm thinking in a few days but want to hear from others first. Yes I know that only God's opinion and mine matter but I still want to input. Thanks.

IGNITE: Creativity

Hey! This is a head's up to an event at Compass Community Church in Forest Park. Compass is a church pastored by Dorrien Hinsey who was on staff at the Vineyard in Springdale previously. You can get more information about the church at its website: http://cincycompass.com/

Compass has opened itself up to exploring different aspects of worship and they feel like art and creativity are gifts from God and should be utilized in worship and in church overall. With that in mind, Compass is hosting a Good Friday art exhibit (gallery style.) The event is tentatively being called Ignite: Creativity to tie into their Ignite series at the church.

Having said all that? We want artists! You don't have to be a pro. You don't have to be a church attendee. The art doesn't need to be "Christian" - no one will be checking for bible verses at the door.

You can paint, draw, knit, sculpt, recite poetry, do a one-act play, sing, play an instrument, sew something... whatever unique creative ability that you have. Whatever connects YOU to our ultimate Creator! :)

I'll have more details soon. PLEASE forward this to as many people as you can, especially those who may be interested in submitting work. The deadline for submissions is the Tuesday before Easter (April 7th.)

Thanks!

SNOW DAY!!!

So the past two days have been TORTURE!!! LOL! We have had a snow/ice storm come through Cincinnati which meant that me and the boys stayed home. But just because I was home doesn't mean I didn't work. I have remote access so I can work from home. It has been the hardest thing to work from home on work stuff and not creative stuff plus on top of all of that, the boys are driving me absolutely CRAZY! They cannot play Xbox online because I have to be online and all I hear is how bored they are. Well GO OUTSIDE! That's what I did when I was a kid and I loved it. I have told them that a million times and to get out of my hair but NO they can't do that. When they finally did go outside, I had to be on a conference call, I told them this but lo and behold they came in to make noise, ask questions, etc. Is someone bleeding? NO? Then leave me alone!!!!! What part of conference call don't you understand? Billy is at work because, well, that's what he does, grounds keeper for a church and that means he has to clear the parking lot and surrounding streets.

I can't believe I'm going to say this but I can't wait to go back into the office to have some peace and quiet.....LOL!

Well I'm going to finish my day at the "office" and then finish knitting a hat that I started.

Stay warm.

Balance

I feel like I’m being torn in a million different directions right now. It’s really hard to explain. I love my church and I love to honor God by doing stuff for the church but as I look at this week, I can’t help but think this is not how God intended for it to be. Tonight, Monday, I have a meeting at church, Tuesday I have a meeting at Panera for Church, Wednesday is small group with my husband, Thursday I have a meeting at Church and then my Beth Moore group, Friday I am going on a women’s retreat through Sunday. On top of all of that, I have a job, and kids who need me right now. My husband needs me also but he will be with me for some of these things. But we could have had the whole weekend to ourselves this coming weekend because the boys will be on their ski trip. It’s not too often that we can have a weekend to ourselves but I paid for the retreat and I think it would be good for me. Next week will be a bit better, just meetings on Tuesday and Thursday.

This should not be a hard thing for me because I believe God wants me to raise my kids in a home where the parents are there and present in their lives. I only have about 5 or 6 years left with my boys and I don’t want to miss out on what should be the best but probably the hardest times of their lives. They will go to Wyldlife on Thursdays so I don’t feel bad about going to my Bible study but I still need to find some balance.

How do other people handle this? I could use a little advice here.

What If?