Kelly's Korner - Show Us Your Singles

I am bringing back the blog for one more post. I am linking up with http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/ for Show us your Singles.

Meet my sister, Kyle. She is 28 years old, an OU grad, and she currently lives in OKC. She is #3 out of 4 girls, and she has 9 (!) neices and nephews. Kyle currently holds the "favorite aunt" title in our family. Kyle is an avid sports fan, whether she is cheering on OU or the OKC Thunder. She enjoys playing on a co-ed softball team, cooking, reading, and traveling. Kyle is involved in her church, helping out wherever needed, but commonly with the women's and children's ministries. She is one of those girls that can be cheering on the football team with the guys one minute, and then dressed up to the nines the next.

Kyle has previously worked as an editor at a small publishing firm. She has had the unique opportunity for the last 4 years to work as a nanny for a family of 3 small kiddos who lost their mom to cancer. Her time as a nanny is coming to a close, as they won't need her for much longer, and this presents an exciting opportunity for Kyle.

I did get permission to post about her, but she is probably slightly embarrassed knowing that I am doing this! Kyle can be shy initially, and I think that this would be a great way for her to meet a possible Mr. Right. Leave a comment if you think you have a match for her!

No excuse

No excuse for my poor blogging skills. Not sure why I even pretend that I am good at blogging! I do have some new pictures of Cooper and Britton, taken about 2 months ago. I guess that I use the term "new" rather loosely...

Website that you MUST check out. http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

Prepare for your life to be wrecked when you read it. Amazing, and completely unbelievable. Can't stop thinking about it. If you would like to donate, head over to www.jennysimmons.com to find out how!

This is the dream life...

I just taught Cooper how to "correctly" use his underwear so he can go potty without taking all of his clothes off. The kid thinks that he is in heaven with this new invention. That's why the picture is on the back of the undies..who knew?

oh, for the record, he thinks that he will just "leave it out" for the next time he has to go potty. Mind you, I did teach him how to put it back...

What a life. :o)

Easter Photos

Just a few pictures to show how precious our boys looked on Easter! Can we say models? :o)

You know you've run over a skunk when...

Friday night we were driving home from a little get together when we accidentally ran over a skunk. Neither one of us had done that before, and can I say that from now on we will do whatever it takes to not do it again. Seriously, the smell associated with a dead skunk is terrrrible. We can still smell it despite our attempts to rectify the situation. ugh.

In other news, Britton Thomas joined our world on Jan. 15, 2009 around 7:45ish. He weighed 7lbs 14 oz. and is absolutely precious. We loved our stay at the hospital in Decatur. They are awesome there! Britton is still doing great, now almost 2 months old (already??) and most likely over 10 lbs. He loves to eat and talk and smile. Precious! He has not had a bottle yet, which we are all impressed with, especially knowing what type of eater his big brother is. Britton, I have a feeling, will be much bigger than Cooper. He is sleeping well at night, which I am extremely grateful for!

Cooper is a great big brother, who loves to love on his little brother. He sometimes likes to hug a little too tight, kiss a little too long, and lay on top of baby Britton as he calls him. I have a feeling he will be a tough little boy after Cooper is done loving on him! Coop is growing so much, he seems enormous compared to Britton! He is doing puzzles like it is no big deal, and he comes up with the funniest things to say. He has a great sense of humor. He is definitely missing his friends and familiar surroundings from Lubbock, but he has adjusted pretty well. He has been asking if we can go back home more recently, but I can't figure out what he is referring to. We took him by our old house in Lubbock (which the sale was completed a week after B was born! wahoo!) and he was very confused and said he didn't know where we were. So, who knows what he is talking about.

Anyways, things are going great here in big D. Just trucking along, planning all kinds of fun stuff for our youth group. We are looking forward to a little bit of a spring break, and we might even see Disney on Ice!

Finally...a baby!

Well, we finally have some good news on the baby Britton front! We are having a c-section on Thursday morning at 7:30. WOOHOO! I am so ready for this pregnancy to be over. Once we found out that I had the protein S deficiency, it has not been fun. I have had to have shots everyday, and I will actually continue for 6 weeks post partum. The shots help thin my blood, so they are literally life savers, but they are painful and cause some crazy bruising. Next time around I will have to do the shots for the full 9 months and 6 weeks post partum...yuck. Anyways, 2 more rounds of the bad shots and then on to the better, different kind of pain shots. Lovely.

Anyways, God has definitely showed us that he is in control in all of this, which we really already knew but has been magnified. Needless to say, I have never been more read to deliver. Hopefully someone will post some pictures on here or facebook quickly after Britton arrives!

Good Grief...

So, I am terrible at this. Life is crazy, what else can I say?

Things are going really well. We are anxiously awaiting the birth of Britton Thomas, which will be sometime in Jan. I am growing like nobody's business, but feeling decent most of the time. I have started to swell at an abnormal rate, which had to be checked for blood clots today, but everything is clear. Hopefully we will find out what is really going on soon, I am in pain.

Cooper is doing well. He has adjusted to life here pretty quickly. He is growing up so quickly it is crazy. He loves being with daddy as often as he wants since Clint's job is pretty flexible. He cannot wait to be a big brother. He loves to just lay on my tummy and rub it and talk to Britton. It is so sweet, I can't wait to see them interact once Britton is out and about.

We are still waiting on our house to sell, so please let anyone and everyone know that it is available! We are considering renting the house, so if anyone wants to rent it, let us know. We would really like to be in an apartment by the time December rolls around. I miss our things that are still packed up! ;o)

Not much else is going on, as long as everything goes as planned, we will be in Lubbock for Carol of the Lights, which I am super excited about!

I am so behind....

Well, who is surprised by my lack of posting?? Everything has been super crazy around here! It is so nice to live in the same town and only have one job...

Cooper and I have adjusted nicely to Decatur, we have really enjoyed seeing the family on a weekly basis! Church is going great, Clint is loving his job. What a blessing!

I suppose that I never officially "announced" that we are pregnant again, but we are! WooHoo! We find out tomorrow (Tuesday) what this little one is! I can't wait. I have enjoyed feeling all kinds of kicking in just recent days. What a sweet reminder of what is going on inside! We are praying that all is healthy with this little one, and that we can finally choose a name! :o)

Clint and I were blessed to be asked to teach at a Special Friends retreat this last weekend. It was amazing to say the least. It is a retreat for special needs people of most ages, although most were over 18. It was a blast, and we especially enjoyed the talent show! We of course enjoyed the very very very very most seeing Ben, LeAnne, and Isaac! We were so overdue for a visit with our beloved cube. Cooper enjoyed loving on Isaac, probably too much, so sorry LeAnne! :o) We miss our friends the very most! We were also able to bum around Lubbock for about 4 hours on Friday morning, so we headed out to New Home to see our previous youth group. What a surprise they had! We were so glad that we were able to see them during their lunch hour, and it was even better to see the look of total and complete shock on their faces. We miss them so much! It was great to see them, and we were amazed at how much they have grown up over the last few months.

Not much else is going on. The house is Lubbock is still forsale...please tell anyone that needs a home in Lubbock to take a look and BUY it! :o) We miss Lubbock, but it would sure be nice to have everything officially moved over to Decatur. Let us know if you will ever be in the DFW area, we would love to see our friends!

(I will probably update on Wednesday with the gender results as I have class tomorrow evening...)

An update would be good...

Well, I suppose I should update since it has been a while. We survived the funeral. Clint did a fabulous job singing and playing the guitar, probably the best he has ever played. The family and everyone there really seemed to enjoy his song choices.

I was able to complete my 3 classes in June. I was taking Master's level classes so that we would able to move. I made all A's! WOOHOO!

Camp in Glorietta was unbelievable. We arrived around 11pm New Mexico time on Monday evening. We had a blast the whole week, with only a few bumps in the road. Clint sprained his ankle on Tuesday which set us back for the whole week. We still had a good time though...it is gorgeous up there.

We returned from camp on Saturday evening, went home packed up Clint's portion of the house, and drove to Decatur. We had our first official Sunday at Cornerstone, and it was amazing. Clint then left Monday morning for camp with Cornerstone. They had a great week of bonding and growing closer to God and each other. And I am a little bitter that I wasn't there.



While Clint enjoyed camp, I started my last class at Tech. I also experienced having a hot water heater break and flood my carpets by myself this week as well. NOT FUN! My mom came in town on Friday, and we are still waiting on the carpet company to come and fix it all up. Hopefully we will end up with some new furniture and carpet through all of this...and maybe our house will sell better!

LeAnne and Ben also welcomed sweet Isaac into the world on Thursday, July 10. He is precious, Cooper and I have had to hold ourselves back! We could just eat him up! :o)

Not much else is going on here...I would love to hang out with everyone before we officially move on August 6!

Devastated

Devastated...

That pretty much sums it up.

Yesterday morning in Lubbock there was a wreck involving a motorcycle and a Tahoe on 82nd and Milwalkee. The Tahoe had a young mom and her two kids under 5. The motorcycle had a dad and a 14 year old boy. The wreck ended with 2 fatalities. Justin, the 14 year old on the bike, goes to New Home Baptist Church, and Clint and I are his youth pastors. We had the joy of being with him Wednesday night, preparing for camp, and enjoying a swim party as a part of Clint and I's last official Wednesday. Dan, Justin's dad, was also at the meeting. We had the chance to meet him and brag about Justin and his other son, Jacob, 16. That was the first and last time we met and saw Dan. Justin is in Heaven now, and we are rejoicing. Yet the town of New Home has been rocked to the core...again. Just 2 short years ago they lost a student to a car wreck on her way to school. How will the kids survive this?

Please pray with Clint and I for the sweet town of New Home. Please pray for Jacob as he is going to be lost without his best friend and younger brother. Please pray for Sherry as she copes with losing a husband and son and has she mourns with their 10 year old daughter. Please pray for the whole school as they are lost right now and unsure of what to do next.

Clint and I have never dealt with this as youth pastors. We are just praying praying praying and loving loving loving. It is hard to shake seeing the family find out the news as Clint and I were at the hospital all day yesterday. Hard to have about 50 kids in the waiting room sobbing hysterically as they find out that their friend won't be making it. Hard to patiently wait to see how God is going to move this town and these kids.

We are scheduled to leave for church camp on Monday morning. Please pray that the services will be Sunday or Monday morning and that the autopsy will happen soon. We need these kids to be in a place where they have few distractions, where they can be together, and where they can be moved by God.

Here is the story. http://everythinglubbock.com/media_player.php?media_id=13681#

WOOHOO!

Well friends. It is official. Clint and I have a new job. We are now the newest youth pastor at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Decatur, Texas. WOO! God is so good! We have been praying and searching for a church that we could serve at full-time, and here it is! We are so excited, but spazzing out at what needs to be done! We are currently prepping the house to put on the market ASAP. We have a little left, but otherwise it shouldn't be long. I am also taking 9 hours at Tech in June, so that has me busy from 10-4 everyday. Plus we have our responsibilities in New Home to finish up....oh man. Here is our schedule for the next few weeks:

June 16-27 Kerry finishes up class at Tech
June 22- meet and greet Sunday at Cornerstone
June 27- Clint's last day at APS
June 27-28 in Abilene for Cooper to be a ringbearer at our dear friend's wedding
June 29- last official Sunday in New Home
June 30-July 5 Church camp with New Home
July 6- first official Sunday with Cornerstone
July 7- Clint leaver for camp with Cornerstone
July 7- I start summer school for July
August- hopefully I move to Decatur with a sold house!

Please keep us in your prayers!!!! Check out the churches website too. www.cornerstonedecatur.org

God is GOOD!

Christmas morning yet??

I feel like a small child waiting for Christmas morning....

The suspense is killing me!

Amazing how God works it all out...

Well well well, friends. School is officially over! I can proudly say that out of my 3 classes that have posted grades, I have 3 A's! Now if I can just see the other classes...Not too bad for having a load of 18 hours, working part time at Parent's day out, working with the youth at our church, raising a 2 year old and spending some time with the husband! As you can probably tell, I have been patting myself on the back a little for this good semester! I even went and got a mani and a pedi! I am enjoying my time off of school, but things haven't slowed down just yet. Summer school also starts on May 28...(our 3 year anniversay, no less!)

Well, on to bigger and better (God-related things). I ask that everyone be praying for Clint and I this weekend as we are leaving town to take part in some very important business. I can't share right now, but I will say that it would involve some huge life changes for us. We will covet your prayers until a final decision has been made. If you want to know, you can email or facebook me, but I can't quite share on blogspot yet! God is doing some amazing things though!

Well, my "d" on the keyboard has decided to fall off, and I am struggling through this post. Figures I would use more "d's" now then ever.

Almost there!

Homework...

Lots of homework....

May 1 = freedom (for a while)

Hmmm.... Update much?

Well, I thought that I was doing a great job on updating and then...I stopped. I do have a good excuse though! Let's see where we left off.

We had spring break (well, I had) a few weeks ago. And it was absolutely amazing. I think that it was by far the best Spring Break I have ever had. Seriously. We went on a family vacation with my mom, sister (Dawn) and her husband (Jim) and their 2 kiddos (Bailey-7 and Tate-3.5) and my mom's mom. It was so wonderful. We were able to go to Durango, where my uncle owns a condo. The snow has been unbelievable there. I think that they had somewhere around 4 feet of snow just hanging out in random spots. The house across the way from my uncle had at least 4 feet of snow piled on their roof. We were able to sled, tube, build snowmen, eat snow, make snow angels...well you get the idea. Clint was able to ski which he really enjoyed. It was so nice to feel so refreshed and literally just taken out of your current location. I truly felt removed from everything. I have never had a harder time coming back to real life. I think that we were all a little depressed around our house last week.

School is back in full swing, and although I have "less" to do this part of the semester, I am already feeling mildly overwhelmed. I think that is in part because I am looking to what has to be done over the summer...yikes. I know I will get it all done though! I just can't think about the future right now!

Friday night we had our youth kids over and it was a blast. I usually enjoy having them over, but this time was most excellent. We have two new girls that have been coming, and one plays the keyboard/piano and the other plays the guitar. It was really cool to have them all playing along with Clint and just singing. I also love that they all feel right at home here. And better yet, they don;t mind a little dust. Good thing, because neither do we...at least not right now. Our church (New Home Baptist) also celebrated their 100th anniversary today. It was pretty spectacular. There were many many guests from all over that came back to share memories and to take part in this big celebration. They also created a little booklet that had all of the church's history recorded. It was amazing to read everything. It also made sense why they record everything at business meetings! We are also able to enjoy the fact that we made it in the book, and hopefully we will continue some sort of legacy at NHBC!

Lets see...Cooper gets to be ringbearer in a wedding on Saturday. My best friend from high school is getting married and Cooper gets to try his shot at being the world's best ringbearer, round 2. He will be able to try again in June...let's hope that he is a good as he was at Ben and LeAnne's wedding!

No other news to report except that this is incredibly long. Hopefully since I have finally taken the time to update I can do a better job from now on!

Hi Baby Isaac

My favorite quote...ever.

Cooper (speaking to Isaac via LeAnne's belly button in the privacy of hiding under her shirt) says in a quiet whisper:

"Hi baby. I Pooker." and then kisses LeAnne's tummy. So sweet. I can't wait for his best buddy to come out! (In July of course)

Help?

Ok...so I am trying to update my blog...I just want it to be something cute, I am not too particular. BUT, I am ridiculous at trying to figure this out. So for now, I am having it on the most boring option available. If you have any ideas (above and beyond the 12 offered templates) please let me know! I need some fun in my life! :o)

My how time flies...

So the other day we were looking at Cooper's baby pictures. Wow! Bad idea! I cannot believe at how much he has changed. He is such a big boy now, I miss my sweet baby boy. Here are a couple of "then and now" photos of sweet Cooper.

These are from his first few months of life:

And these pictures are from the last few months....

Stephanie tagged me...

So I guess that I better do this. :o)

The directions - Share five random and/or weird facts about yourself, and then share the five top places on your “want to see or want to see again” list, and finally tag five people.

Randomness:
1. I have recently felt like I have been called to be the mother to multiples. Weird, huh? Maybe just a dream so that I could have many children at once, but maybe it isn't? Who knows. My SIL also had a dream that I had twins.
2. I love to have everything organized, but a lot of times everything is a mess. I will assume that it because I am rarely home to organize everything, so it kind of gets thrown around. Maybe sometime when I have more time...
3. I am kind of an animal hater. I would never do anything to hurt them, but I just really don't care for animals. I didn't grow up with pets, and to have a puppy now is just weird. Plus, you have all the work of a child, but without the benefits of a child. IE a soul in Heaven for eternity.
4. I love to read people's blogs. I feel as though it is like a window into their lives, and although I don't really update too often, I can't wait for others to update. I also like to read random people's blogs. Like I will say down below, I am a people watcher. But not a creeper, ok? :o)
5. My parent's got divoriced after 34 yrs of marriage, and it happened (well the separation) right before Clint and I got married. I think that it has allowed me to realize exactly how much work a marriage takes. Now, thats not to say that we have it down at all, but I know that it will not be easy.

Places to go:
1. New York City! I want to go and see Wicked on Broadway (I saw it in Dallas and it was amazing!) I also love to just people watch, so I think NYC would be a great location. I also would like to live there for a short amount of time.
2. California - just because I have never been. Plus I love Disney World, so I can't wait to go to Disney Land!
3. Hawaii - I love the beach, so I suppose that this would be the "ultimate" beach...except that it is extremely over priced.
4. Europe - I have never been, and I want to see it all!
5. Bermuda - I have been once, but I would love to take Clint to create even better memories! :o)

Five Tagees:
1. Kim G.
2. LeAnne
3. Karen
4. Clint
5. Gretchen and/or Jamie

It's about time...

I suppose that it is time for a new update...

School has started for me again, and I am taking 18 hours this semester. I am really excited though, because they are all education classes! I will be working in school on a weekly basis, and that is so thrilling. Busy, but exciting!

So I have definitely been seeing God using all of our past experiences to use for His glory. I have been able to share our experiences and see God working in some people's lives. It has really been a blessing as I have been waiting to see where all of our experiences were taking us.

Not too much else to say, possibly more on the above statement at a later time, but we will just have to see how everything works out!