Youth Fire Crusade

For the next few days I'll be in Branson, MO with our youth group. Every year we go to Branson to New Life Temple for their annual Youth Crusade (which is more like REVIVAL)! I can't wait to get off of work today and hit the road. I'll take plenty of pics and have some great new posts next week.

Birthdays, Anniversaries, Cook-outs...The Weekend

Saturday...

This past weekend was a very busy one around our household. Thursday was my Grandmother's birthday, Friday was my Grandparents anniversary & Saturday was Ben's birthday. Needless to say, we had a very busy, but fun family weekend. Friday night after work Ben & I went to the lake to stay at my parents house trailer with them and Saturday we had a huge fish fry.Here's to the cooks! My dad and my Great Uncle Gerald. Yummy!! My little cousin Makayla & Me after filling our tummys with fish and all the fixins. (You know you're a southern when you say fixins). ha!

My Grandparents stuffing their faces. This past Thursday was their 55th wedding anniversary!! Isn't that the most amazing thing? It's a miracle these days if people make it 55 days, even 55 minutes, but 55 years is an AMAZING accomplishment!! I'm very proud of them.

Sunday...

After our church service Sunday morning, we (most of our congregation) went and joined our evening service with another church. Here's the pics of us, again, stuffing our faces after church and having some fun.

Me & Ben at El Chicos.
Me, Terry, Austin & Pam after stuffing our faces. ha!

We had a great weekend! A very busy weekend, but great weekend!!

L-I-F-E

Sorry that I haven't been on here lately with any new postings, but LIFE has been absolutely crazy! A couple of weeks ago I found out that my dad had not been feeling very good. I hadn't really noticed any changes with him until recently. In the more recent months I don't guess that he had been as "outgoing" as he once was, but I didn't really think too much about it. I mean, come on, just a few months ago he found out that he was going to be a Grandpa. (That can be a lot on a person!) ha. But Seriously, I really didn't give much thought to dad not being himself.

Well, it all kind of came out, like I said, a couple of weeks ago. We were having VBS at our church and my mom and I realized that things just weren't quite right with dad. Later on that evening I called him to check on him to see what was going on and he begin to tell me that he hadn't been feeling that good. My dad had coronary bypass surgery about 13 years ago. He told me that he was beginning to feel like he did before he had bypass surgery. (Since I work for three cardio-thoracic surgeons, this set off a BIG red-flag in my brain). He went on to say that he had been having some chest pain/pressure, fatigue, etc. (This is not a good thing for a 6 month pregnant lady to hear). I told him that coming Monday I would call his cardiologist and get him scheduled for a heart cath. He agreed. Along with the not feeling so good and the "chest" issues, he told me that his nerves were "just shot." You see, my dad does A LOT! He pastors a church full-time, works on rental houses for his friend Bob, helps people at church with things around their house, him and my mom have a house trailer at the lake and he works around there. Like I said, he does a lot. Not only does my dad have a history of heart disease, but he has also been a diabetic for 30+ years. He keeps his diabetes under excellent control, but anyone who works in the medical field knows that when you have diabetes it affects your entire body. I told him that Saturday night that I thought it would be a good time for him to set down for a little bit and let our associate pastors take over some of the load. Unknown to me, the next day, Sunday, he called a staff/board meeting and had my mom and I in there also and said just that... that he needed to get to feeling better and that our associate pastors would start preaching more. Not to say that he's not going to be there, because he is, but some of the load will be taken away. After that early morning meeting during the morning service dad preached one of the best messages that I've ever heard him preach! Talking about how "things" attach themselves to us and how we as Christians, have to shake those things off. The altars were full. It was a great service. That night our associate pastor Austin preached and then on Wednesday night my husband (our other associate) preached. So far, this has worked out great! Dad is still preaching, but I can tell he's already beginning to feel better. Oh and with his heart cath, everything checked out just fine! You may say that there was nothing there, but I am a FIRM believer in the power of prayer and our church and several other church families interceded on my dad's behalf and I believe that there were some blockages, but through prayer his heart is fine!

Below is the most recent pic of my mom and dad. (I have to say, it's not the greatest pic of my dad because he looks goofy, but it will work. ha.) This is for our new church website. Check it out wordoffaithmayfield.com. It's still in the early stages, but I think it's going to look really good once it's finished.

Other than my dad and his health, Little Ms. Olivia has been moving around like CRAZY!! I absolutely love it! Tomorrow I will be 6 1/2 months!! My clothing options are wearing thin. (I need to go shopping!!) Hopefully next week I'll get some pics posted of my now Bulging Belly. But I just can't believe how the time is just flying by. I can't wait until she gets here and we get to see her. She's already taken over and she's not even here yet! :-) This weekend is a busy one. It's my Nanny's birthday, my Nanny & Pap Paw's Anniversary & Ben's birthday. I'll try to post some pics from our family BBQ this coming weekend. (Maybe a better pic of my dad). ha! Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers! They are and have been greatly needed and appreciated.

Olivia's Room

This Friday I will be SIX months preggo... WOW!! Time has been flying by. A few weeks ago I felt like we hadn't accomplished anything in Olivia's room, so Ben & I took a shopping trip to Nashville. I was very surprised that Ben was willing to go along for the ride, but we had a great time. While we were there, we bought Olivia's bedding at Target! Yes, Target!! We got the best deal on all of it. After we bought her bedding I was ready to head home and put everything in her room. Literally, from that afternoon to the end of the next week we had Ms. Olivia's room finished! I picked out the colors and Ben did the rest.... He worked really really hard... let's see...He painted stripes, yes, stripes on the walls, put up a chair rail (painted it also), Ripped up carpet, laid new laminate flooring... I was very much impressed! He's going to be such a great daddy. We just can't wait until she gets here!

My first post...

My husband and I are embarking on a new journey... PARENTHOOD!
We are expecting our first daughter, Olivia Layne to be born October 30th. Throughout this blog, I plan to post about our daily lives (as exciting as they may be). These posts will include parenting, work, church, friends, family, etc. I guess a little background info. might help...

My husband and I met at church going on seven years ago. (My dad is the pastor and Ben's parents attended our church.) Our mothers got together and decided that Ben's mom (Mary) would start praying for me and my mom would start praying for Ben. You see, we were wild childs to put it bluntly. However, they're prayers were heard and answered and we both started attending church on a regular basis and soon thereafter rededicated our lives. I'm sure your thinking, Aww love at first sight. Don't count on it. Just because our parents thought we would make a cute couple, I saw things slightly different. However, in the long-run, we ended up together. I remember our first date. It was a Sunday night after church and he came up and asked, "Do you like coffee?" Very random, I know, but I guess it worked because we have honestly been together since then.
To be more current... we just celebrated our five year anniversary last October and found out that we are expecting our first child in October of this year. Life is full of surprises. However, life is a trip and we're loving every minute of it.