Prayer Needed...

Please check out my sister-in-law Lindsay's blog and be praying for this sweet family. This has been a difficult year for them, and much prayer is needed for peace in their lives and the health of our newest nephew (at 21 weeks), sweet baby Luke.

Birthday Week

A little over a week ago we had a blast celebrating Adam's 27th birthday all week long. Since we live in town with family, b-days consist of multiple dinners throughout the week, and we love it! I love having any excuse to spoil my honey. This year it was extra special because Adam's grandmother and aunt came into town. She took us to a delicious steakhouse, Perry's, and we spent the entire day catching up with them. What a great gift! My brother Jeff also came into town, so we celebrated Jeff, Adam and my dad's birthday all together after church. On his actual birthday day, we had some dear friends over for pizza and cake. I decorated our kitchen really cheesy (complete with balloons and confetti) and surprised him with a cookie cake. Low-keyed and wonderful. Here are some pics...

With the family at Perry's

The waiter preparing our Bananas Foster table side. YUM!

Spending time with my one and only (and favorite, I might add) brother Jeff.

It is never boring and I love it!

Our at-home b-day celebration!


Nick and Alia

Nick and Alia are dear friends of ours that we were thrilled to spend time with. Alia and I met while at SMU and became fast friends. She was maid of honor in my wedding, and I was in hers. We have so many memories together...singing late at night in our dorm rooms, sharing fajitas at Pappasitos (a real treat for starving freshman!), meeting the loves of our lives and encouraging each other through each season of life. She is a wonderful musician (violin and singing), an incredible songwriter, and amazing friend. We never imagined we would end up in the same city, yet here we are, and it is wonderful! Nick is one of the happiest, sweetest people we know, and the two of them together are just incredible. We love you guys! It was great to kick back and relax together.

Kim and Eric

Kim and Eric are wonderful new friends of ours. We met them in the middle of the summer and love them already. We were at a Sunday School social for the first time (it has taken me 3 years to get up the courage to go to SS on my own, and now I am loving it! Adam can't go b/c he is always in the church service), and on our way home Adam told me he had a great conversation with a guy named Eric. I told him I had met Eric's wife and LOVED her. We were so excited to find a couple where we both enjoyed time with them, and were thrilled to find out that Eric and Kim wanted to get to know us better, too. (We laugh and think that making new couple friends is kind of like dating. You know...did they have fun? Do you think they will call us? I hope they liked us like we liked them! Haha!) Anyways, this couple has a contagious joy and love for the Lord. They are so much fun to be with, and even like the Target lady from SNL (Yes! It's a match!) Thank you, Lord for new, dear friends!

It was so special to join our seasoned friends with our new ones and celebrate together. We were so refreshed from that evening! Ok, back to pics...

Blowing out (ok, trying to blow out) the trick candles. Took him at least 3 times, heehee!

A cheesy message for my musician...

Adam's thank you for the cake. Apparently it went over well! :)

Looking forward to MANY more years, honey! I love you!

Why Not?

So last night we were sitting in church and I got a huge craving for cherry pie. Since it is Adam's favorite pie as well as mine, I felt justified in making one at 8:30 when I got home. I'm so used to being in the mind-set of cutting out fun, random things b/c of my schedule at work, that it took me a while to realize there really was no reason I couldn't go ahead and bake late at night! I LOVE working part-time! Anyways, I made the pie and we indulged ourselves (a 'la mode, of course) around 10:30 last night. Why not?

New Job

Well, I'm still waiting for my student, so I thought I would post again about the latest in our lives. Besides my shift from full-time employment to part-time, Adam's job has changed quite a bit in the last month as well. My husband is a music pastor, and his title is "Associate Minister/Pastor of Music," which means he works alongside our head music minister, Dick, and also leads the youth choirs/worship at our church. Since our church membership averages around 10,000, his work load has been pretty full for the last 3 years. In June we had a bit of a surprise. Dick's wife, Dot, has been sick for many years, and her health has unfortunately continued to decline. In light of needing to be there for his wife, Dick announced that he would be leaving our church for a 6 month sabbatical. Adam would take over most of Dick's responsibilities in his absence, effective August 1st. We were extremely overwhelmed at first; so grateful that Dick was doing the right thing to take care of his precious wife, but SO sad that we would lose our incredible leader for a while. Dick has been more than a boss to Adam; he and Dot have truly been like family to us for the last 3 years. We came here because Adam was so excited to be mentored by such a joyful, godly man, and have treasured every minute! Since Dick left, Adam has been leading the main worship every Sunday, directing the adult choir, sitting in on senior staff meetings, and also maintaining all his previous responsibilities as an associate. It has been a crazy ride, and we are still adjusting to the new demands, but thankful that we are here for this time. I am humbled when I see how God prepared us for this...6 months ago we began to pray about whether or not I should return to teach at school, and both of us lacked a peace about it. I was terribly sad at the thought of quitting my job, but it just seemed like the right thing to do. Wow, are we thankful that was the decision we made! I am so glad I can be flexible with Adam's schedule and be an available wife to him right now. I am still teaching, but I am able to be free on his days off and determine my own schedule. He can work nights or weekends if he has to in order to make it through this time, and I can help him through it. God prepared us to face the next 6 months together. Thank you, Lord! I'll try to post some pics sometime of Adam leading our choir or something, just to give a glimpse into where we are the majority of the time! Give me a couple of Sundays and then I'll post them...

Thunderstorms...

I am waiting for my next voice student to arrive for her lesson and it is POURING outside. My last student brought all 3 of her kids with her, and it started raining during her lesson. Since she was without an umbrella I escorted them one by one to their car and got soaked in the process. I guess I would prefer rain to heat at this point, but we have had so many severe storms lately! Better go dry off before my next lesson...