Cakes, Texas, Valentine's

I'm sitting in a quiet house listening to the the wash machine and dryer and smelling a chocolate cake in the oven! Jaxen is still napping and it is a Friday! Friday's are my days off and I look forward to them so much! I love getting to play with my Jaxen and get things done around the house!

This past weekend we attended a church in Texas to candidate for a youth pastor position there. It is 10 hours from our current home and praise the Lord we were able to fly! That 10 hours is projected but I'm sure they don't take my 2 year old in to account for the timing! We had a fantastic trip! We absolutely love the pastor and his family! The were so welcoming and made us feel like part of the group just sitting around the kitchen table! Their youngest daughter is 7 and my Jaxen was smitten! He would have followed her anywhere! The church there will be voting on hiring us this upcoming Sunday and then the ball is in our court.

Valentine's Day was Brandon and my's 9th one together! We both had to work all day but that night we went to Fazoli's which is where our first date (group date) was in 2004 and sat in the same booth!! Then we went to see the movie "The Vow"! Loved it! There were a few things in the movie I wish they would have left out but overall good!

The above pictures are 2 cake orders I've made and then Jaxen posing showing his tattoo!

It's been a while

Hello friends! It's been a while so here are some of my favorite pics since I've blogged last!

Sorry I have slacked lately in the blogging dept. With Christmas crafting I have been super busy and married to my hot glue gun the month of December, now January is here and the decor is back to normal in the house so here I am blogging again!

I'm sitting in a nice warm and quiet house thinking of how blessed I am! We had a fantastic Christmas with both sides of our families! It was odd not having my daddy there however I'm sure their celebrations in Heaven are way better then anything we could do down here! Gifts were given and received and the moral of the story we are very loved!

We are still actively pursuing a full time ministry position to wherever the Lord has for us! We do however struggle with the thought process of serving some place we wouldn't choose to be members if we moved to the area. We want an up and coming church, nothing liberal but we love good worship music and great preaching. We prefer bigger churches with more then 1 staff member. So we struggle with the option of taking a job simply b/c its offered to us and there is evidently a need to reach people in the area and is that where our preference is to be. It might sound silly or over thought but it is something we discuss often especially now we have a child in the mix. So please pray with us as we follow God's will in our life and pray that the job He has for us will show itself clear very soon!

As you can see above the cake orders coming in! I absolutely love them! In the midst of it all its a bit stressful but at the end when you know it turned out exactly the way you wanted it to be it is so worth it!

too blessed

I am sitting in bed on my lap top as Brandon is asleep next to me snoring away! Jaxen is in the next room breathing heavy to where I can hear him from here and the 2 basset hounds are snuggled up in the other room cozy and quiet on their beds! I am so blessed! I take so many things for granted that I don't pause to observe them most of the time! I am surrounded with so many people that love me and poor their love onto me! God has blessed us with good health, a roof over our head, food in the pantry, more clothes then can fit me, too many shoes to count, great relationships, a fantastic church with the Godliest pastor I've ever been under, a good paying job, friends that are a hoot, family lives close, the list goes on...
Today as a service project with our small group from church we volunteered at the Salvation Army. We unloaded a truck full of food and then sorted and re-packed the food for people to be given! I wasn't around the poor and desperate people that need the food, but it still blessed me. It blessed me in the way that it was so nice to see how much food was donated to people there was no face with. Thankful I live in a country where food is one thing we never go with out!

Crazy Love

I haven't blogged often for simply lack of anything blog worthy. Some days all I want to write about is missing my dad and how much of a void I feel without him here. But I choose to not be depressing or sad. Other days I feel that I'm simply going through the motions between working, mom-ing, wife-ing, etc. simply living life with nothing new to blog about.

However, I am here today to post about the current book we are doing our Bible study on Wednesday nights about! My husband is leading a small group Bible study at church on Crazy Love. I'm not a reader! I'll define that better...I pretty much loath reading books. I get bored and it takes me forever to read anything since I make different voices up for each character. The book Crazy Love is a very convicting read!

"Have you ever wondered if we're missing it? It's crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe-the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor-loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss. ...when you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything."

Luke 6:32-36 says If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even "sinners" love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even "sinners" do that. And if you lend to those from who expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even "sinners" lend to "sinners," expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

I am learning so much! Even growing up in church and being around Christians my entire life there is so much to learn about how to love like Christ!

update

I've added some new things to the Etsy store today! I plan to finish 8 new recipe boxes and upload them by the end of the weekend! Keep checking for new items! My new favorite is the duct tape brooch! Check it out! www.onegirlscurls.etsy.com

My baby turned 2 in Sept!! I still can't believe I am a parent of a full blown todler! I look at people that have 11 year old children and they seem so old and that stage of life seems so far away! I'm afraid we'll be there before I want! Here is a picture of my sweet baby on his birthday!

Jesus Bring the Rain

I have set down to start this blog many times and have ended up hitting the back space button and staring at a blank page. My dad has won battle of cancer! He is no longer suffering in the awful cancer ridden body that was once the shell I hugged and loved on for 27 1/2 years! Heaven gained a great man on September 14, Wednesday night around 5:40 pm. I'm sure the angels rejoiced for the weary soul that was able to walk on the streets of gold that he had only dreamed about but became reality in the blink of an eye. I'm sure he was welcomed in the presence of my God with open arms and greeted with "Well done my faithful servant, welcome home!"
We all sat by his bedside as he slipped from this life to the next. I wish I could say we knew what was happening, but truthfully we did not know what was happening that very moment. However, we were there as a family and we all had a very private time that I will never forget. We had a beautiful funeral service Friday night Sept. 16 here in Springfield and then we all traveled up to his home town in Indiana and had another set of services up there along with a burial service on Tues Sept 20. Salvation was preached at both services and I know my dad would have been very proud of how everything was handled and said.
Since my dad was diagnosed with cancer he learned to play the guitar, simply to play and sing one song. In June of this year he sang and played Mercy Me's "Jesus Bring the Rain" so I will close with an exert from the song that he sang and lived with all his might.

I can count a million times

People asking me how I

Can praise You with all that I've gone through,

The question still amazes me

Can circumstances possibly

Change who I forever am in You?

Maybe since my life was changed

Long before these rainy days

It's never really ever crossed my mind

To turn my back on You, oh Lord

My only shelter from the storm,

but instead I draw closer through these times

So I pray,

Bring me joy, bring me peace, bring the chance to be free, bring me anything that brings You glory, and I know there'll be days when this life brings me pain but if that's what it takes to praise You, Jesus, bring the rain

The Big Boy Bed

I haven't blogged for a few weeks, partly because I don't want all my posts to be depressing with how Dad is doing so I was waiting for "something" blog worthy to type about! This week we have taken apart the baby crib and given Jaxen his big boy bed!!
He now has a car bed! He loves it! He immediately stood up and said "jump, jump!" I was confident he would adapt quickly and without problems. However, I was slightly wrong! The first few nights were awful!! After 45 minutes of blood curdling screams we decided it wasn't going to be as smooth as we hoped for! But each night has gotten a little better and we're anticipating normalcy any night now!
Next Saturday my baby boy will be 2!! We're planning a McDonald's birthday party so I will have pictures soon!!