1st Anniversary, Road Trips and Memorial Services

The month of October is finally over!!!  It was such a busy month for Mike and I and I'm hoping that November will be better balanced.  October was a great month but absolutely nonstop.  We were out of town 3 out of the 5 weekends!  We're never gone that much! 

Our Fall Retreat to Lake Havasu was awesome!  I had a great time getting to know peopel that I usually don't spend a whole lot of time with.  I went with a group of mostly girls, a couple guys were there too, on a "walking tour" to London Bridge.  Our walking tour was more of, "Hey, I'm goin to London Bridge, want to come?"  I got to go waterskiing which I haven't done in a while and that of course was great!  I also had the "privilege" of riding the banana boat and getting the wind partially knocked out of me when I flew off the banana boat and into the water.  I'll post pics later!

The second weekend Mike and I were out of town was for our First Anniverary!!!!  Yes, we made it to the one year mark and have had wedded bliss since day 1....yeah right.  But, honestly our first year of marriage has been such a blessing and absolutely wonderful!  We took a two day trip up north to Sedona and had perfect weather the whole time we were there!  We hiked the West Fork trail of Oak Creek Canyon and we couldn't have planned for a better time of day to go--it was cool and shaded and absolutey beautiful with the leaves changing color.  We had a wonderful dinner at a resturaunt called Savanah's and then went to Safeway to get some wine and watch the stars out on the patio of where we stayed.  God even blessed us with two shooting stars!  Day two involved sleeping in and a delicious breakfast followed by shopping around all the stores.  We had two georgous sunsets while we were there and a wonderfully relaxing weekend. 

Weekend #3 of being out of town was a cross country drive from Glendale, AZ to Charlotte, NC to drive my brother-in-law and his new wife to their new home in Camp Lagune which is in Jacksonville, NC.  We left Friday morning about 10am and drove into the airport on Sunday at 5:45pm (30 minutes before our flight took off).  It was a long, long drive but certainly worth the time with my brother-in-law and his wife.  It was a privilgege to help them move most of the way to their new home.  Did I mention it was a long drive?  :-) 

The day after we got back from North Carolina, Mike's grandmother passed away after battling breast and lung cancer.  Actually, a week ago today.  This past Saturday, on Halloween actually, we had her memorial service.  Grandma Ruth had asked Mike about a month ago if he would speak at her service and it ended up that he did her whole memorial service.  The first funeral he did, was his grandmas!  He did an excellent job and I truly believe that the Lord spoke through him!

It has been an exhauasting month!  I'll post pictures up soon, hopefully tomorrow or some other time this week.  I'm hoping that November will be a bit more on the "normal" side and not quite as busy.  But of course the Holidays are coming so who knows!!!  All in all, even when life seems to be more than I can handle, I am blessed and I have been giving an amazing husband to walk through life's ups and downs with.  Not only that, but we have a firm relationship that is centered on Christ and with Him, we can do all things because of the strength that He pours out into our lives!  Be blessed my friends!!!

SOMA Fall Retreat 2009

This weekend is SOMA's fall reatreat to Lake Havasu!  Mike left today to get everything set up and ready for people who are able to go up today.  Unfortunately I have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.  The blessing of that delay is the two jobs that God has provided for me, which by the way are going great!  Back to Lake Havasu, it's sure to be a great weekend of fellowship with memebers of SOMA and one of the really great things is that many people who are going are not very well connected into SOMA or are new to SOMA.  I'm driving up tomorrow with a gal that is new and we've had a chance to talk briefly a couple times, so I'm really looking forward to getting to know her better.

We're going to have all kinds of fun activities from waterskiing, banana boating, those big intertubes that are pulled behind boats, volleyball, some team games and awesome fellowship.  I'll make sure to post pictures when I get back from Havasu, now it's time to go pack because I'm meeting up with my carpool right after I'm done with work.  Wahoo!

A Bunch of Randomness

It's time I update with a bunch of different randomness.  I have a new favorite recipe blog which I did a short post on last Wednesday from my phone so here is the website: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com  I decided to go out on a limb and made the Almond and Parmesan Baked Tilapia and the Garlic-Roasted Green Beans with Shallots and Almonds last night since Mike and I had our friends John and Tara over for dinner.  They brought a Boston Cream Pie for dessert and we concluded the evening with two stepping.  It was delicious!!!  So, go to the website and get ideas--they are yummy and healthy!!!

Thursday night I had the wonderful privilage of going to the Brad Paisley concert!!!  It was a blast!  Jimmy Wayne and Dierks Bently were also performing--excellent concert!  I didn't get any pics of Jimmy Wayne performing but here are several from Dierks and Brad.

Darci, Me, Jenny

Dierks Bently

 

Brad Paisley

Brad and his band

Brad Paisley

Saturday I went to this wonderful tea room called The English Rose Tea Room with Jenny, Sharon, Erica, Susan and Candy, Jenny's soon to be Mother-in-law.  I wish I had a picture of all of us, but I don't.

Candy and Susan

Sharon and Jenny (aka Bride to Be)

My tea cup, plate and tea pot.

Another large event this past month has been that Matt (my brother-in-law) got married in a civil ceremony on September 8, 2009.  So I now have a new sister, Holi!  Matt recently found out that he will be stationed in North Carolina, so hopefully Mike and I can go visit at some point in the near future!  Please pray for this huge transition for Matt and Holi as they are adjusting to married life and moving in the next several weeks.  Since Matt is finishing up his schooling, Holi has been unable to be with him, but thankfully she will be able to be in North Carolina with him.

 

Waiting at the courthouse

During the Ceremony--I love this picture!

Mr. and Mrs. Mathew Dearborn!

Recipe Blog

I found the most amazing blog with tons of healthy recipes!!! I am so excited about it and will post the link next time I'm on my computer. Right now I'm picking Mike up from the seminary and then we're off to our Wednesday night Bible study. More to come soon! I also have pics to post!

God's Faithfulness

God had been so faithful to us!!!  I know we could all share countless stories of how God has shown His faithfulness to us over and over again!  This spring I did a Bible study called "Believing God" written by Beth Moore--one of my spiritual mentors whom I love dearly--and one of the last lessons was about the Israelites passing through the Jordan River into Gilgal and into the Promised Land.  Read Joshua 4 to get the full story, but basically Joshua took twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel, and had them go into the middle of the Jordan River and each take up a stone from there and put it down where they were camping to set up a memorial to the Lord for His faithfulness of bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.  These were rocks or stones of rememberance.  Joshua 4:20-24 "And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal.  And he said to the people of Israel, "'When your children ask their fathers in times to come, 'What do these stones mean?'  then you shall let your children know 'Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.' For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever." 

Why do I bring this up?  Because I believe that we should all have a way of remembering God's faithfulness in our lives.  For me I will at some point purchase a large, beautiful vase so I can put different stories of God's faithfulness into it.  It may look like folded up pieces of paper, but my prayer is that it will be a conversation starter that will bring God glory for all the times He has been faithful to Mike and I throughout our lives together.  This vase of stories will be our "rocks of remembrance" and also so we can tell our children someday all that God has done for us.  It will also serve as a reminder when we are discouraged, all we will have to do is pull out a story and remember how mighty and faithful the God we serve is!!!

Now for the reason that I am sharing this important information: After 5 months of searching for a second job and getting every door that I tried to open closed, God has provided not just one but two nanny jobs for me!!!  I will start this first one on Wednesday and work for this family every week on Wednesday and Friday.  The second family I will work for are a wonderful Christian family from my chruch and I will care for their two girls Monday and Thursday each week starting next Monday.  I feel truly blessed!!!  Not only do I get to work with these two families, but God allowed me to continue my Tuesday morning Women in Leadership Development (WILD) class that I'm taking through chruch.  This was an area that I had such a hard time surrendering to God.  This spring when it came time to register for our Spring Bible Study classes, the WILD program was being kicked off--I originally was going to do a study on Esther, but God kept on tugging at my hear to be part of WILD.  At first I refused, due to finances, but told God I would "check it out" and go from there.  Part of my big hesitation of joining this program was that it is a two year commitment and Mike will graduate from Seminary this coming May 2010 and we have no idea where the Lord will take us.  After attending the info meeting and talking with Mike, he told me that I should take the class and that we could probably pay bit by bit, which ended up being the case.  I have grown to love this group of women so much that the thought of leaving them for a job, as well as my commitment to the class as a whole, was causing me deep distress.  I had several wise and wonderful women tell me that I had to be willing to surrender it if that was what the Lord wanted.  I came to that place and as I continue to interview for jobs I would simply pray and say that "if this is where you want me Lord open the door, if it is not, then please close them."  Our finances have been getting tighter and tighter and the Lord has continued to provide just enough.  Now the Lord has given me two nanny jobs in which I can serve these two families!  My heart is overjoyed and I can't wait to write this story down as a "rock of rememberence."  What will you do to remember all the times and ways God has been faithful to you?   

New Ceiling Fan

The last couple weeks have been busy and interesting around the Dearborn household.  I got sick early last week and was on the edge for several days of feeling fine or going under, well I finally went under last Friday and slept a good part of the day.  Saturday I felt much better but still needed to take it easy, so it was a lazy sleep in day and also when Mike started feeling sick.  He's been sick this whole week, having the same thing I did--sore throat which moves into a cold and then into a cough.  Only problem is, Mike has had it worse and longer than I did.  Oops, I didn't meant to get him sick!  This morning I found him sleeping on the love seat with the foot rest popped out and leannig way back.  Apparently he had been coughing quite a bit and needed to be more elevated so he could sleep--I had no idea until I woke up at 8 this morning and found no husband next to me as I stretched out and felt nothing but empty space!  He did look so sweet and peaceful, I wish I would have thought to get a picture! 

Good news is that we did use the down time while Mike was sick to install a new ceiling fan in our living room. Actually Mike did it, I just took the pictures, gave moral support and opinions.  Mike started cutting holes into our ceiling around 4:00 on Saturday afternoon and after a trip to home depot to grab a box for the wiring and switches finally finished the part 1 of the ceiling fan project around 12:00am--yes it was long and there was dry wall dust everywhere!!!  I had the privilege of vacuuming the floor two to three times in that 8 hour period.

 

This is where the fan will be!  Look at Mike's arms, you'd

think it snowed! hehe

 

 

Just an idea of some of the mess we had--next time, if

there is one, we are putting a drop cloth down!

Sunday was day two of our ceiling fan project--wiring day!!!  By the time we had all the wiring from the switches on the wall to where the fan would be hung, we had 6 holes, yes 6, in our ceiling so we could get around all the joists--I believe that's what they are called--anywho, it's the wood in the ceiling.  Mike also put in a new box to hold all the wiring that connects to the switches.  We now have 3 switches instead of two!  Installing the box seemed like a pain in the neck and nothing I would want to do, but Mike did such a great job!!!  Not only did Mike get the box and wiring set with the switches, he wove that wire through each of those 6 holes!  Again I offered my moral support and took pictures. :-)

 

Here's what it looks like in our ceiling--see the thin white thing in the corner--I'm holding the screw driver so Mike can see where in the ceiling he cut the hole--he had to get around those two joists.

 

  

  

  

  

If you look carefully you can see the loops of wiring along the ceiling.

 

This was a messy and frustrating project!

Patching up the holes with spackling paste--it's pink when

it first goes on and then drys white!  Love that it's pink!

Tuesday Mike installed a metal plate of some kind, I have no idea what it's called, but it's what you attach the fan to on the ceiling. 

 

  

 

 

 Humoring me for a picture!

Last day of the project was Thursday!  Thursday night while I was having fun at a Mary Kay party Mike installed the fan all by himself.  I would think you'd need someone to help, but Mike being the awesome man that he is, figured out how to install it solo.  My only regret was that I was not there to take pictures during the process--and it's only a minuscule regret .  But that would have also meant I had to hold something over my head for an extended period of time and that is tiring on the arms.  Not to mention I had a ton of fun with the ladies I was with and I wouldn't want to trade that in!  So, here is what I walked in the door to, well almost I made him get in the picture:

Isn't it beautiful?!  Look what My Man did!!  Yes I'm so proud of him and have to brag!

Prayer

Please pray for Grandma Ruth (Mike's grandmother) she was just discharged from the hospital last night and is not in the best condition. She has breast and lung cancer and is now on oxygen full time. We need prayer for wisdom for Donna, my mother-in-law, that she makes good and careful choices as Grandma lives with her. Also please pray for Mike and I that we can be available in any way possible, whether physically there to help, emotionally and Lord willing spiritually. Of course or biggest prayers are for glory to be brought to God through Grandma's cancer and may she come to know Him if she doesn't already. Below is one of the few pictures I have of Grandma Ruth.

Eye Doctor and Job Update

Well, it's time for my annual eye exam and I expected it to be pretty normal and uneventful. My eyes are doin pretty well but they aren't receiving enough h2o, so I am getting blood vessels growing in my eyes. Not good. In a couple weeks I'll go in again and get fitted with a new type of contact so my eyes will breath better. I'm hoping I'll be able to notice a difference and that the blood vessels will fade a bit. Sadly they won't ever disappear, but I can do things to help them get better. Blah.

In other news I heard back about my job interview that I had just before leaving for Dallas last month. Unfortunately I did not get the position as the Children's Director. They felt it would be difficult for me to be working at their church while Mike is working at SBC. They didn't want me to feel divided with working there and also wanting and needing to support Mike in his ministry. I'm disappointed, but I also know that God is in control and will continue to provide for us. Ultimately I feel that this is the best choice for their church since Mike and I are unsure of where we will be once he graduates in May. Please continue to pray for wisdom as I look for a job. I am contemplating going back to the preschool where I worked before, but at a different location. I'll let y'all know what happens!

Time

There is something about trying to find time to blog and come up with interesting tidbits of life in the Dearborn home--I think of them, but not at the right time, or I'm just too tired to blog and then I forget all my great ideas.

Then there is the issue of wasting waaay too much time looking at all the cute backgrounds and pondering about changing a background that I have had for less than a month and barely posting on it--something seems wrong to me about that. But there has to be a way to add some cute stuff to it to jazz it up a bit, but then again, it doesn't really need much else--the message is about being aware of breast cancer.

I have two people in my family who have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, along with the breast cancer there is cancer in other areas of these two sweet ladies bodies. Please pray for them as they do not know the Lord....

More another time--I'll have to remember to do updates from my phone. My eyes are heavy with sleep and my heart heavy for these to ladies in my family with cancer. My I be a vessel that God can use if He chooses.

Testing a blog from my phone. Hope it works, if so more to come! =)

Open Hands

The past month has been so busy and hectic! The month started with Mike's birthday on June 2nd. We celebrated his birthday with his family on June 6th--he got two great suits from his dad so he will be all set for interviews when he starts looking for positions as a pastor come Januaryish. Let me tell you--he looks HOT in them, whew I have to fan myself just thinking about it! ;) His mom also took him shopping for some shirts and pants. I happened to get a couple new dresses on our shopping adventrure too, that was a treat! This past weekend we celebrated Mike's birthday with my family. We had dinner at my parent's house--salmon one of Mike's favorites! It was certainly a treat because I am not a salmon fan and do not plan on ever cooking it--I don't want my house smelling like fish--icky! He got a couple shirts from my parents to go with his suits, I got him a tie (black and pink) for when he comes to Mary Kay events with me, and my sister and her boyfriend gave Mike the hacksaw he has been wanting for months. I believe one of his favorite gifts was a pair of nurf dart guns also from my parents--thankfully they bought two so I can "defend" myself. Right when he opened them, he continued to take one out of it's packaging and I enlisted Rod (my sister's boyfriend) to help me unpack the other. A nurf dart war then ensued for at least 20 minutes--we had fun and I made the rule that he couldn't shoot me in the face. I know, where's the fun in that right? I'd have to say that Mike did pretty well with keeping the birthday celebration going for most of the month.

We also had our last homegroup meeting (Bible study group) at the beginning of the month and enjoyed food and fellowship. We are taking a break for the summer and will start up again at the end of August or beginning of September. This break is especially good becuase of Mike's schedule. He is taking both sessions of summer school at the seminary--6 classes total! Thankfully they broke up evenly 3 each session. He had an imense amount of work to do first session. One class was an independent study so he had extra work due to missing class time. He's also had a Satuturday class for the past several weeks that will end this weekend. It consists of 3 days of class all day on Saturday and then a 4 hr. class on Friday night this week. If that doesn't sound busy enough the second session started this week and he will be having class every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night from 6-10. The blessing on this is that only one of his classes started this week--the other two will start next week and the week after. Praise God for that bit of a relief in timing!!!!

I have been pretty busy myself, mostly looking for a second job. I went to Tucson the second weekend of this month for a day to visit one of my long time friends Angella. We spend most of the day together chatting, hiking and eating. I have been telling her for a long time that I would come visit, and I finally made good on my promise! It always seems like Tucson is so much farther away than it really is, that's something I'll have to remember for future visits.



I have also been learning to hold my hands open to God in surrender rather than clenching them in fists, trying to keep control of everything. It's funny because that used to be something that I was decent at, and within the last couple of months I've not been walking nearly as close to God as I would like and because of that I don't get filled by the Spirit. Instead I've been looking to Mike, family, shopping and friends to fill the empty space. Tuesdy mornings are very special to me, it's when our church has our women's Bible study groups and they have a new leadership development class that I'm taking called WILD (Women in Leadership Development). Our class is broken down into groups of 3 so you can really get to know each other, have accountability and really go deep. For this spring semester it has been such a blessing and something I have come to treasure--especially the women in my group. Little did I realize at the time, that I was being filled by them and now that we have broken for the summer, I realized how empty I'd become and what a mistake I'd made. For the past two months, I seem to have been on a downward spiral of hopelessness. God was silent and I couldn't feel His presence--but how could I if I was only crying out periodically? I had no consistency in seeking and listening for Him. I wanted things to happen quickly and I am once again learing the lesson that God's timing is perfect--in all circumstances! Thankfully I have had some wise women speak truth into my life when they could see me unraveling and listen to my pain, even though the answer was simple--seek God and TRUST Him, He will provide. His provision comes in so many forms. Recently it's come in these wise women's word's to me. I didn't realize how tightly I had been holding my grasp for control. Now I am working on surrendering everythig--job, finances, time with Mike, my business, looking for a job, etc. I know His timing will be right, and as I wait patiently (hopefully) I'll look to Him to fill my needs rather than to the things of this world. Yeserday, I just started Beth Moore's newest Bible study: Esther--It's Tough Being a Woman and I know that once again, God's timing is perfect.

Pictures

I thought I would post some pictures of some of the events from the past couple of months. I've been wanting to write about them but due to different things going on I've not had a chance. I hope you enjoy!

First up was our 6 month anniversary date--Mike took me back to Desert Ridge Marriott where he proposed and we spent some time walking around and of course reminiscing. From there we went to dinner at the Yard House which is one of our favorite restaurants.

Looking from the 6th floor down into the lobby.
Mike proposed on an outside balcony on the 6th floor at sunset.

Another date where we ate dinner by the lake and then fed the ducks.

Here they come!

It's Hot in Here!!!

The past week has been hot!!! Not outside, but inside. Friday night--May 22nd after having some friends over for dinner and a movie, Mike and I realized that our AC was not blowing cold air--no wonder it had felt hot all throughout the movie! We realized this just in time for Memorial Day weekend, which translates into we're not getting anyone out to give us a diagnosis until Tuesday at the earliest. For us that really meant Wednesday as we had plans all day Tuesday that couldn't be adjusted. We got a referral from my parents and had someone come check our AC unit on Wednesday and heard the news that the compressor was shot, and we would need a whole new unit. Our breaker was also fried due to some quick fix someone had done before Mike ever bought the condo. The quick fix was placing a copper tube somewhere so the breaker wouldn't do it's job by breaking the electric current--therefore frying our breaker and our compressor....thank you very much to whomever "fixed" the problem! Late Wednesday night after having discovered our problem Mike replaced the breaker...he does such a good job at fixing things...and we had a call already in for a second estimate. Company #2 came through a referral of a friend, thank you Stan, and they came out on Friday to give us their diagnosis. Both companies had the same conclusion, our AC was in fact shot and useless--we needed a whole new unit. Thankfully the second company's pricing was a bit cheaper so we were able to save a little money that route. (If anyone in Phoenix area needs a great AC company we have a great referral for you!) So, today at 8:30am the work for replacing our unit started. Around 10:30 they were to bring in a crane, but I was gone and didn't see that part--that would have been cool. It's now about 4pm and they are almost done--I can't wait to have AC back!!! Overall, the heat really hasn't been too bad. We are insulated on both sides by other condos and we have kept our window blinds closed and that has really helped in keeping the temperature from creeping up too high. At night it's still cool enough to open the doors and windows so we have our doors open until we go to bed and we sleep with our window open. I'd say the hottest it has gotten is 82 and that's been today with all the in and out and the front door being open during some of the repairs. God's provision is amazing and I know He will continue to provide financially for this new AC and heating unit. We just keep looking up and trusting Him!

I'm Still Alive!!!

I know it has been a while since my last post on Easter...okay it's been a month! I promise I'm still alive! I have a lot of pictures that I want to post and events to share with y'all, so here we go.

One exciting event was Matt, my brother-in-law, graduating from Marine boot camp in San Diego. After three long months of hard work and training--that really doesn't describe what Matt went through or do it justice...at all--Mike and I drove over to San Diego with my father-in-law and met up with Donna, my mother-in-law, Greg, Aunt Sissie and one of Matt's friends Jennifer and her sister. We were finally able to see Matt on Thursday, which was family day, and spend all afternoon together. When the platoon first came out I didn't recognize Matt because they all look the same. I even took some pictures of the wrong Marine--but Matt was still in the picture--just not the center of it, oops. Once I picked him out, it was easy to identify him. Friday was graduation day and it was quite the ceremony! Such an exciting time--I'm so proud of my brother!!!

Matt had a 10 day leave here in town with family and friends before heading back to Camp Pendelton for four weeks of combat training, which is now almost over. Boot camp is much more mental than physical, and combat training is more physical. The good news is that they treat you like a human again when you are in Combat training. During the weekends Matt got liberty so he could use his cell phone some and Mike has gotten a couple calls. He's thrown grenades, used a grenade launcher and I believe will even get to shoot a rocket launcher...this doesn't mean much to me, but I know in guy terminology it's pretty sick awesome! After combat training Matt will be based in Twenty Nine Palms for his school training which will be about 8-9 months if I remember corectly. I'm not sure what that training will consist of, but I know he will be doing something with computers. I can't wait to see him again! Hopefully that will be soon!

Molly the Marine Corps Mascot at Recrit Training Deopt San Diego

Company A Platoon 1010 just coming back from a 4 mile run.

Can you find him? Left side, second row.

It's official--my brother is a Marine!
This is on Thrusday--Family Day

Flag Ceremony on Graduation Day

Drill Instructors for Company A

Marine Corps Band

Platoon 1010 on Graduation Day

Mathew Dearborn--Private 1st Class
Graduated: April 17, 2008

The picture says it all

We look good don't we?