VBS

Vacation Bible School. Our church is having Vacation Bible School next week and I am already tired from getting things ready. I am incharge of all the registration stuff and computer stuff. I like that because I didn't want to have to teach or decorate. There is just so much to do and I don't know when I am going to get it all done. Hopefully by Friday afternoon I will be ready for Monday. Abbie is going to have a class for her age with all kinds of fun things. Kaleb is even going to have a story time and things to do in the nursery. I will be taking pictures and making a power point presentaion for the Friday night celebration. I am really excited for all of it, but I am also looking forward to it being done. Well Abbie just came down stairs and is ready to play.

weddings

I went to a wedding on Saturday night for a guy that I have known my whole life. He is a family friend that attends our church. It was the sweetest wedding. Aby his wife is from Mexico and they met there 2 years ago. Kevin can speak fluent spanish and is going to be teaching spanish next school year. It was fun to watch as Kevin translated the pastors message into spanish for Aby's family. She is the oldest of 5 girls and the first one to get married. I love Aby too. We have hung out together at a couple of girls nights and she is so much fun to be around. She speaks english pretty well and loves to have fun.

The weather here has suddenly gone from sunny and humid to humid and stormy. I love Ohio weather.

Justin and I watched Along came Polly last night and it was one of the few Ben Stiler movies that I actually liked.

Life in Ohio

Well not much has been going on here since we returned from our trip to Las Vegas. Justin has had 2 days off since we've been back so needless to say I have been very busy with the kids. Justin has been looking into other jobs and has even gone on a few interviews. I just keep praying for him. I thought that he was happy but now I don't know. It makes it all very hard for me to understand. I keep telling him that no matter what he decides I will support him totally.

I have to say that I really had a lot of fun seeing everyone in Vegas while we were there. I am sorry that we missed some of you. It was a crazy time. I wish that we could have flew and had more time. As a new rule Justin's or any manager for Donato's in no longer allowed to take longer than 7 days off at a time. I don't understand why but oh well. I am so glad for the time we had with the Caldwell's, Sabrina, the Carder's, the Boyd's, the Parks', the Lentz's and everyone else. I still miss you all very much but life goes on. Abbie keeps asking me when we are going back. She'll ask me if we can go to Eliza's house or to see Eli and Aidan. I keep telling her that they live to far away, but she just doesn't understand that.

Our small group is going very well. We started to go alone with the Purpose Driven Life and we are going to continue on our own. It's been so nice getting to really becomes friends with a few of the couples in our church.

It's made me a little sad lately to read some of the blogs about Apex and Canyon Ridge. I have been trying to think about if and how I wanted to put my two cents in. Having been apart of both church's (going to Apex and working for Canyon Ridge) I feel sad about how some people observe things. No church is perfect. No church should claim to be perfect. How you worship God should not matter as long as you are doing it for him and not yourself. I have felt from some blogs that a few people not all from Apex seem to make it out that if you aren't doing church their way then you are all wrong. Just because one church has a band and sings their worship doesn't mean that they don't love God also and aren't teaching about that. I love Apex but when we were back we didn't go because I felt like it's not the place I remember and I preferred to remember it the way I did. I'm not saying that Apex is wrong either. I don't want anyone to think that. I am saying that we all have ways that we worship and show our love to God. Some of us do it better the way Apex is and some other ways. Our church here still sings older songs and some new. We have a piano, organ and keyboard. We don't have a worship team our pastor just leads us. Something that I have learned though is that the whole service is a worship time that we should be giving to God. Worship isn't for us it's they way we should love to our Father. I don't really know where I am going with all this, but I just had to say that. I really hurt for Alica Staples the other day when she blogged about her feelings of the changes that Apex is going through and how she is going with her family to CRCC. The anonymous comment back to her made it sound as if she was not a good Christian for preferring the entertainment church. Just because a church has music doesn't make it wrong. I feel like that person was making it out that Apex is the right way and all others are wrong. If that is true then every church must be doing it all wrong. I must also say that I don't believe that this is the feeling of everyone at Apex. I believe that this is the feeling of a few and I pray that you will open your eyes and your heart and see what God sees. The comment to Alica was not made in love and should not have been made at all. The comment would make me not want to attend Apex again. Ok I think that I have gone on my tangent for too long and that I am not really getting my point across. I love everyone that was a part of both church's in Vegas. I am no longer there so really it doesn't matter what I think. What makes me sad is we should be working together as Christians who love God and love others and not be picking on things at each others churches. Canyon Ridge is not perfect and if you asked anyone of the pastors there they would tell you the same thing. I think most everyone would be turned off by the church that I go to, but I feel that I can worship God and show him love in each service that I attend. I am excited about our small groups and the growing and changes our church is making. If we are to ever bring more people to the Father and show his love then we need to stop picking on each other and show his love to each other also. Christians turn people off of God so easily by the way we treat each other. We can all be such hypocrites at times that it makes me wonder why anyone would want to become a Christian. If you have read this far then thank you. I hope that I didn't hurt anyone's feelings because that was not my intent. I guess that I to was hurt by some things and I just needed to get my thoughts out.

I haven't felt much like blogging lately. I really don't know why. I haven't felt like I had too much to say. I have also been trying to keep myself busier and away from the computer. Abbie has also started playing games on the computer and takes a lot of my computer time away.

We are going through the Purpose Driven Life book at our church right now and have started small groups to go along with it. We are hosting one at our house on Tuesday nights. It amazed me last Tuesday how much I have missed the close interaction with out adults. I was amazed also by how comfortable I felt. I wasn't afraid to talk and to voice my opinion. I am excited about tomorrow night and how things will go. There are only 6 of us, but I like it that way. It' s 3 couples and we all have 2 children. They are all somewhat close in age so it works out well. It's been exciting to see some changes in our church.

I am looking forward to our vacation here soon also. We will be in Vegas from May 12-17. I am just so happy to be getting the chance to see everyone again. I would also like to get to spend sometime by someone's pool. I would love to get a little bit of sun. I also can't wait to be in the warmer weather. It's supposed to be 52 degrees for the high tomorrow. Hello!! It's almost May.

Mother-in-laws

I thought that it was the husband who was supposed to hate his mother-in-law not the wife. I don't hate Justin's mom, but I don't know how much she cares for me. She handles me at an arms length and just bugs me to death. Sometimes I feel as if she thinks that I am the antichrist trying to take her son away. I would think that after 6 1/2 years of marriage she would be over losing Justin to me. She just has this habit of making me feel like I am dirt. That I never let her spend time with the kids and that I am the only one able to make decisions around our house. She still thinks that I made Justin move to Las Vegas. What she doesn't realize, even though I have mentioned it, is that it was more me wanting to move back to Cincinnati than Justin. There really is no pleasing her. It just hurts me sometimes the way she is. I get so jealous of my sister because she gets along great with her mother-in-law, and so does my best friend. She considers her MIL to be one of her close friends. I never thought that I was a hard person to get a long with. She could make an effort on occasion to see her grandchildren. Why should we have to call and see if they want to get together, why can't she just stop by. Basically it's because she thinks that I don't want her to do that even though I have told them that they can come by at anytime to see the kids. She just really got under my skin today and it has just really hurt my feelings and I know I should talk to her about it, but I don't know if I can without her thinking even less of me. I know that I will end up saying something that is sarcastic, because we all know that is how I am, and then she will just think I hate her even more. Why does it have to be so hard.