while I'm sick...

Last night we got home from Journey18:25 and I quickly went from a scratchy throat to not feeling well at all.

I ended up with a temperature and throbbing head and was in bed by 10:00. It was a restless night. Finally around 5:00am I went downstairs to the couch to watch TV.

On the bright side, my fever is gone today and I feel a little better. This is my first sickness of the season. I'm pretty proud of my immune system for holding stuff off for as long as it did.

I can't believe it's the last day of January. My first month of not working full-time was great.

I still miss the boys like crazy. Last week, I went to the mall for the first time since I quit working. The boys and I would go to the mall twice a week because it was free, close-by, and indoors. When I went last week, I got all teary-eyed walking in. And to make it worse, the Hallmark lady asked me where they were. She would always give them balloons.

But, I am enjoying my free-time. When we've actually been home this month, I've been cleaning, organizing, working out, and doing other housewife things.

Starting next week, the plan is for me to start taking back some responsibilities at Journey, which is what I used to do before my nanny job. So, I will be working part-time doing that. 

This morning, I sat and paid the bills all by myself because Aaron was at work. I was a little pleased that I remembered everything. I set up our February budget and planned out meals for the next week. I love planning out meals. It's my new favorite thing. It makes life so much easier.

Speaking of meals, my picky eater can hardly be called picky anymore. This past week, he ate mushrooms (I couldn't believe it), kiwi, and grapes. He did reject cantaloupe. Cantaloupe is a little weird though...

a catch-up post

Well, the blog has slipped down the priority list these past few days. January isn't over quite yet, but our month of "no plans" is most assuredly over.

I've been a bit hesitant, but it's time to jump back in. There's much to be done and no time to lose.

After being "snowed in" this past weekend, we finally got our butts off the couch on Sunday for a non-stop day of fun.

It was more like "Iced in"

Being back at Journey was wonderful after missing a week, although I failed yet again to make it to a service. You would think with three options it would be easy. Sunday, however, that was not the case. I worshipped with Mini City first and second hour and got to snuggle cute babies during third.

Sunday afternoon we had a rehearsal for February FX, which is coming up on Friday. 

After rehearsal, Aaron and I jumped in the car and drove all the way to Cary for our niece's first birthday party.

Aaron and his brothers being strange...

It was a Minnie Mouse birthday party...we were so proud.

The birthday girl

Us with our nephew, Samuel.

We crashed back at home around 7:00pm Sunday night.

Monday, we woke up and headed straight for the Dollar Store. One of the many jobs of a children's ministry is preparing supplies for each week. We are very intentional about what we do at Journey, and in no way do we just sit around a babysit for four hours every Sunday.

Our curriculum is very age-intentional as well as focused on a particular bottom line each week. We prepare supplies and activities for our kids from 2s all the way through fifth grade.

Each activity is targeted to an appropriate age-level and makes a point with what we are learning that day. We, thankfully, don't have to make up the activities. But, we do supply everything for our teachers.

For example, two-year-olds this month are making stethoscopes one week in February out of headbands, ribbon, and stickers to remind them that Jesus loves them and wants them to love others. One way they can do that is taking care of others when they are sick. We therefore scoured the dollar store for 50 headbands.

Another example would be that elementary kids this month are learning that sometimes you have to get messy to make peace. Fourth and fifth graders are painting with shaving cream on cookie sheets with their noses at one point. That's something that will be hard to forget. It's a great reminder to make peace even when it does get messy. 

So, seeing as we have about 300 kids per Sunday who are all doing activities such as those every week, we buy a lot of supplies. Shopping day is no small feat. We shop for two months at a time. It takes a whole day and three different stores on average. 

I haven't been able to be a part of shopping day in a couple years because I've been working. It was good to be back.

Here was our stop at BJs:

It's hard to see everything. But that big cart is packed with February supplies.

So, Monday was busy with shopping. Tuesday then, was packing day.

After we buy everything for the month, we have to go through the lesson for each group, each week and pack the supplies they need.

This entails:

TheBLOCK (2s):  prep for approx. 50 kids each week

MiNi CiTy (3s-5s):  prep for approx. 90 kids each week

Uptown (K-5th):  prep for approx. 150 kids each week

Every week, each group has between six-eight activities. Not all activities require supplies. Some only require a couple. Some require enough for every kid to make something that they will take home.

You just never know.

Packing day for February actually finished up in three hours. This is basically unheard of.

To end our Tuesday, we headed to our friends Ryan and Aura's house for an impromptu birthday celebration for their daughter, Leah.

It was complete with a fire-breathing ninja rainbow dragon cake.

Yes.

Not your typical five-year-old girl...we love her.

And that's been our week so far.

My sister-in-law asked me on Sunday how I had time to write a blog.

I thought for a minute.

"Well, I don't really have time I guess. I make time."

So, I did. And I will again tomorrow somehow.

in pictures

Some favorites from the past month...

a Friday flashback

Remember that time I told you about my dad? About how unfortunate, but funny things seem to always happen to him?

Well, friends, this is one of those stories.

Let's flashback to...

Spring 2010...

Let's start with my dad.

In the spring of 2010, my dad was in charge of our acre of yard work and landscaping, he was working full-time and more because he worked from home, he was leading a Journey small group, and, like always he had a very bad back.

Needless to say, that spring, his back took a turn for the worse.

Now, let's move on to me.

In the spring of 2010, I was engaged to Aaron and planning a June wedding, I was a senior in college and attending classes, I was involved at Journey and working there part-time, I was full-time student teaching in a kindergarten class.

Needless to say, that spring, I had a mental and emotional breakdown one night.

I was at Aaron's, trying to study and prepare for my next day as a student teacher. Plus, I had tests coming up, and decisions for the wedding were looming.

It became overwhelming, and I turned into a blubbering mess.

After a couple hours, Aaron had calmed me down enough where I could drive home. He followed me in his own car, because he's just that sweet.

He had assured me that taking a day off might just be the ticket.

So, I had decided to not go to school the next day, and that felt a little freeing.

Aaron left, and I went upstairs to my room. It was late so everyone at my house was already in bed.

I put my pajamas on and got in bed, but being alone was not working out for me.

Since Aaron was gone, I did the only thing that makes a girl feel better. I went downstairs to get in bed with my mom. 

I fell right to sleep. 

So the rest of this flashback comes mostly from my dad the next morning as he told us about his night...

After a little while laying there with three people in the bed, my dad could not get comfortable or fall back to sleep.

He decided his best option was going up to my vacated bed for the night.

He rolled out of bed and landed on his hands and knees. His back was so bad back then that he couldn't even walk. He proceeded to crawl out of his room, down the hall, and up the wooden, winding staircase to my room.

We all slept for a few hours after that.

Around five in the morning, my dad woke up to go to the bathroom. I had a bathroom in my room that also connected to the upstairs hallway, so he used that.

At the same exact time, I woke up downstairs and looked at the clock. I decided that I might as well go up to my room for the remainder of the night. I had set an alarm up there anyway that I needed to turn off. I didn't notice that my dad was not in bed with us at this point.

I went upstairs and into my room. I turned my alarm off. I heard the toilet flush in my bathroom. And at this point, I realized that my dad was upstairs. Aw, that's sweet of him to move up here so I could sleep down there. I shouldn't make him go back downstairs. I'll just grab my warm Cinderella blanket from the bed and leave, I thought.

At the same time that I thought this, my dad was about to wash his hands when he heard shuffling feet and a little cough from the other room. Oh, Whit must be coming back up here to sleep for the night. I'll just go back downstairs after I wash my hands.

I exited my room and headed straight back down to bed just a minute before my dad exited the bathroom through the hallway door to crawl all the way back downstairs. Down the wooden, winding staircase, down the hall, and into his room, only to find...

Me, sound asleep in his spot in bed.

He was flabbergasted. He didn't understand what happened. But, he resigned that he must have heard things.

As not to disturb us, he quietly turned and crawled away, completely puzzled.

Back down the hall, up the wooden steps yet again, and back into a bed that suddenly felt a lot colder. Weren't there more blankets a few minutes ago?

We were none the wiser until the morning when all the details surfaced. Poor dad.

a whole lot of random

Hi.

I was ready for a change of appearance around here. Here being the blog, I mean. So, new template. 

Today is one of those days where my hands will not warm up. I am warm otherwise. I would put gloves on, but it would be so cumbersome to type. Cumbersome, indeed. I'll survive.

We were on a trip last week. I am sorry if you are tired of post after post of pictures with very little content. It was all I had to give at the time. Thanks for putting up with it. I had planned to sit down and type out profound things and such. But, my mind wasn't having it. I could never sit down long enough to concentrate on writing. At least our trip is thoroughly documented now.

We did have a great trip. It's always a bit odd-feeling to come back from vacation. The weights of certain realities waiting at home feel heavier the closer you get to being back. On vacation, and especially at Disney, where "dreams come true," it's easy to not think about sad things and hard things and looming things.

Therefore, I usually cry when we leave a vacation. This time, I did not. I was way too excited to get home to Penny. She gave us the warmest welcome. Everything is right again now that we are all back together in our house. 

And sad things and hard things and looming things are not in our hands anyway. And that makes it exciting to come home too. Because we love what we do. And if God is for us, who can stand against us?

It takes a couple days to get back into routine though.

Aaron has been brave and jumped right back to work the very same day we got back. He's my hero.

It throws us off to miss a Sunday. So, the beginning of this Sunday will feel a little strange. But after one service, it will all come back. It will be good. We missed it. Sundays aren't quite the same without the controlled chaos that is Journey Kids.

January is almost over. Which means our month of "no plans" is almost over. But, I think that's good too. I'm ready to see friends again. The dates are already filling up the calendar.

Our niece turns one year old today. So that's very cool. Oh how a year flies by. She has the best smile.

After going to Disney, Aaron and I firmly decided that days and days at Disney World are not healthy for children under 5. Maybe even under 7. It is too intense. But, we are all the more excited to have kids old enough to take. We best get working on that...it will be awhile.

I am praying for snow tomorrow, but I won't hold out hope. I would love that though. I love snow.

I have a lot of thoughts stirring around and posts that have been put into a list "To write." They are coming next week.

But, for today, here's the above. This conglomeration of thoughts and whatnot.

Now to go compose a fun Friday Flashback for tomorrow, because I have a good one for you...

about the end of our trip

I am so grateful to be typing this a few hours later from my last post on my couch with the luggage put away, laundry spinning, and Penny laying next to me.

Home is the comfiest place to be, is what we like to say.

Anyway, continuing where I left off yesterday, we spent our last day at Animal Kingdom and Disney Quest.

Cloudy day at Animal Kingdom

Expedition Everest is my favorite coaster at WDW.

We rode it three times before the park got crowded...once we were at the front!

The Tree of Life

You can't see it, but there was an otter in the grass. I love otters. I wish he had been swimming.

Pink flamingos

And the best show at Disney:  "Finding Nemo: The Musical"

Pretty scenery while we waited for the show

First in line

Aaron was sad because it rained and we got wet.

So. Fun.

Dory and Marlin

The shark intervention

Crush and Squirt

Of course they found Nemo at the end.

After Finding Nemo, we were tired and wet, so we headed to the hotel room for a nap. It was only noon. Like I said, Animal Kingdom is pretty uneventful. We would have done the safari, but we had before and it was rainy.

After a nap, we headed to Downtown Disney to use our free trip to Disney's giant arcade, Disney Quest.

I won the first game we played somehow, even though I had no clue what I was doing. Some sort of full-body pinball madness.

Aaron playing "Fix it Felix Jr." from Disney's "Wreck it Ralph"

Aaron playing "Tron"

We played other stuff (giant Tetris, Spaceship simulator thing, Pacman, Ice Ball, etc.) but I didn't take a lot of pictures. 

There was SO much to play, you really needed a whole day. We only stayed for two hours since we had free admission.


Well, folks, that marked the end of our third trip to Disney together. 

We packed up and headed home to the freezing cold (compared to Florida, at least).

It was such a refreshing time, and I can't wait to go back.

Headed home

Shadow as we were about to land

Until next time...

about Sunday at Magic Kingdom

We are sitting in the airport this morning. We've been up since 4am.

Usually, I am devastated to leave the happiest place on earth.

This time, however, I'm definitely ready to come home.

It's been a long week. We're exhausted. And I cannot tell you how much I miss my puppy. If I miss Penny this much, I'm going to be a mess one day when we leave our kids to go on trips. Oh, we'll still leave them to go away. But I am just predicting separation anxiety.

We enjoyed our last two days in Disney World. We spent all of Sunday at the Magic Kingdom. We were extremely glad we had gone on Tuesday to MK and done basically everything when it was barely crowded. Sunday was different story. It was packed. Instead of riding a lot of attractions, we used the day to do things we haven't taken time to do before. We walked at a slow pace and enjoyed the park.

Yesterday, we spent our morning at Animal Kingdom and our evening at Disney Quest and Downtown Disney.

One of my favorite places in the world. Main Street, USA.

The Main Street Trolley Show

We finally were able to walk in Cinderella Castle and look at the tapestries.

We ate at Be Our Guest restaurant again.

We rode the Walt Disney World railroad.

On the train. We took a picture to send to Bensen and Keyen (train enthusiasts)

One of the daytime shows at the castle.

Country Bear Jamboree

A favorite attraction that we didn't have time for Tuesday. Peter Pan's Flight.

Making memories.

And another fireworks show.

The next day we got up early to head to Animal Kingdom (this park doesn't have too much to offer, but a couple of our favorite things are here.)

But, as we are about to board our plane, those pictures will have to wait until we are safe and sound at home...

about Hollywood Studios

Today after Aaron was finished with his conference, we headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios. This is Aaron's favorite park in Disney World.

We headed out from our hotel in the morning.

After getting a Fast Pass for Toy Story Mania, we checked in to the Hollywood Tower Hotel for an elevator ride of terror.

We had to wait in line with some obnoxious people. If they said "Toy Mania" one more time, I was going to die.

We made the mistake of getting in the single rider line for the Rockin' Roller Coaster. It is not faster.

Next was my favorite ride at Hollywood Studios. And good thing we got a Fast Pass when we did...they were out of them, AND the Standby line was 120 minutes long.

Somehow, we tied! But, my accuracy was a little better... 

We headed to the 50's Primetime Cafe for lunch where Aaron got in trouble for his elbows being on the table. The waitress put a Ketchup line on the table.

This was our delicious dessert. Still not as good as the cupcake from Be Our Guest though.

We rode Star Tours after lunch.

And we hung out with the Muppets.

Lastly, we went through my other favorite attraction at Hollywood Studios, "One Man's Dream," about the life and works of Walt Disney.

It has fun things like this.

The end of our day proved fruitful as I finally got to see "Fantasmic." The last two times we were at Hollywood Studios it was either not showing or cancelled due to weather in the middle of the show.

Mickey

They project things on a screen of water. It's super cool.

Fun Disney characters at the end.

Finale.