Prayer Request

I would like to ask everyone to pray for a little 7 year old boy who comes to my church. His name is Trace and he is having surgery today to put in two growth rods along his spine. Trace has Spinabifida(spelling) which is the curving of the spine. The mortality rate of his surgery is 50/50 but without it he could die within the next 6 months. The way his spine is curving it is cutting off all of his vital organs. Trace is a very sweet little boy. His surgery with last 12 hours and started at 6:00a.m. eastern time. Thank you all for your prayers.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Well our high today is 32 degrees, but I have to say the weather has surely helped to put me in the spirit of things. There's a light dusting of snow outside but there's ice on all the road signs and trees. It looks very calm and peaceful. I love being at work in the mornings before anyone else comes in and I can just soak up the quiet and peacefulness of the church. The ladies came and decorated over the weekend and they did a great job making things look festive yet classy and simple. The sanctuary feels so warm compared to outside. I'm feeling a little sentimental and stuff today. Last night we had a moms meeting for moms with young kids. It's our version of MOPS, anyway we were talking about traditions that we can start with our kids and we had a mom come in who has 4 kids ages 26 to 10 and she talked about the different things that she started when her oldest was little and that she still does with her youngest. My point here is that the traditions that I most remember and now miss are the ones we did with our friends in Vegas. Our Thanksgiving traditions and our Christmas traditions and those are what I crave at this time of year. I miss going out to cut down a tree. Now we use our fake one we had before we moved to Vegas. I miss watching Christmas Vacation on Thanksgiving and sitting around a crowded housefull of our friends. I want to start new traditions with our kids especially now since Abbie and Kaleb are old enough to remember them and want to keep doing them so when Sophia is old enough she'll want to be apart of them too. I do have to say that I enjoying baking with the cold weather. It makes the house feel all cozy and warm while I bake and look outside and it's cold and snowy. Wow! When did I can to be so sappy?

Death

I don't know what is going on with our little church that so many people keep dying. Our organist at our church passed away in her sleep last night. She was in her 60's and just had a hysterectomy last week. Her husband woke up this morning and went to ask her what she would like for breakfast. He thougth that she was still asleep but then when he touched her he realized she was already gone. I've know Judi and Willi all of my life. This is just a big shock to all of us. In the little over a year that I have worked here we have had 6 deaths in our congregation of around 225. It's just getting to be a little more than I can handle as a church secretary.
We have an older man who's wife died this past summer having brain surgery to have a tumor removed this morning. My boss Dave, our pastor, just called me and he is going back and forth between Willi's house and the hospital. Dave himself is still recovering from Lymphoma. We have several others with cancer or other problems right now too. I just don't know how one little church can go through so much.

There's a lot of other things going on but I won't go into anymore. Pray for my church. We are on the edge of growing and changing and satan is really trying to keep us from doing that.

Updates and things

I thought that I should let you all know that my sister Stephanie had her baby on September 19. After 16 hours of hard labor they ended up doing an emergency c-section. David Martin Guenther was born at 11:30p.m., and weighed 6lbs 14oz. She had been told all a long that he was going to be a big baby, but they got that wrong. At least they didn't get the sex wrong. She's doing well and so is her baby. It amazes me how motherly she is.

I've recently been in contact through email with Sabrina and Jules. Jules and Steven had visited us on their way to Washington state just after I had Sophia. It was a short overnight visit but it was great getting to see them. I know that most of the time that Jules lived with us I whined and complained about a lot of things, because that is what I do, but I have come to find how much I truly enjoyed having as a friend. She brightens up my day with a quick email and it just makes me wish that I had been a better friend while we lived together. I've also come to the conclusion that I suck at living with other people. Justin would probably leave me if he wasn't married to me. Ok that's probably an exaggeration, well I hope it is. I'm bossy and controlling and I just complain and whine way too much. It's only taken me 28 1/2 years to figure this out. I've missed Sabrina and I'm sorry that I used her ear as someone to complain to all the time.

Sophia is doing well. She's growing at a normal rate. I can't believe she'll be 4 months old next week. She still comes to work with me which I love. She's a very calm baby. Right now she's being held by the ladies here for Thursday morning bible study. They love having her down there with them on Thursdays.

I think we are going to carve pumpkins with the kids this year. I recently found out that my husband has never carved a pumpkin. I think we are going to remedy that this year. Justin's home about 4 nights a week now so I've been trying to find more family things we can do together. That is when he's not out digging up my back yard. That's a whole other story that I won't go into.

Well it is Thursday which is my busiest day at work so I guess I better get to it.

My Kids

My kids are such wonderful blessings to me. Each time I look at them I am just amazed by how creative God is. Each one has their own personallity and their own look. Abbie is my whiner but she is my most creative. She can make up all kinds of stories which also means she can lie pretty well too. I look at her and I see me. Not just in her looks but in her stuborness and her moodiness. I think that is why we argue the most. Kaleb is my sweetheart. He loves to give hugs and kisses. The only problem with Kaleb is he's bigger than your average 21/2 almost 3 year old. We are still working on what it means to be gentle. He tries it's just hard. Justin has already be showing him how to be a great blocker for football. Kaleb is our boy and he is all boy. He loves to bother Abbie because he knows he can. I look at them though and I am thankful that they have each other. They may fight and yell but they have a bond that will never break. Then there is my sweet Sophia. She has been my best baby so far. She comes with me to work everyday. She is very calm which is good when there's just one of you most of the time. She reacts well to Abbie and Kaleb even when they are right in her face. This is my family and I love them and thank God for them.

Justin's grandma past away over the weekend. I remember when he took me to meet her the first time. We had just started dating and he wanted me to meet his grandma. His grandma was the image of what you typically would think a grandma would look like. She was a short, round white haired little lady. Her house smelled of moth balls and she always wore skirts. I remember her home was just full of stuff that she had collected over the years. She loved to cook and loved to bake. She made quilts and was well known for them where she lived. Everyone knew Norma Cleaveland. I wish that my kids could have known her better. I wish that I could have known her better. She would have been 90 in November. She had a bunch of Grandchildren and even more great grandchildren.

I've been in a very reflective mood lately. I've been really good at going through the motions lately. Of doing the right things and being the person everyone thinks that I should be. I'm working on finding out who I am. Who it is that I want to be. I don't know. I could just say that I have a little post pardum depression but I think it is more than that. I'm not happy with myself as a whole. It's not just my body but my heart and soul. I need a makeover of my heart I think before I can work on the rest. Wow I don't know where all that came from but that is me and where I am. Now I must tend to my calm little girl who isn't so calm at the moment.