Closing out 2009 and Bringing in 2010

Here we are half way through February and I haven't written since the beginning of November!  I have had so much that I wanted to write about and never got around to it!  One of the families I nanny for is extending my hours which is great, but it also means less time for everything else!  I'll have to post some pictures of the playdough animals that Scott and I made last week for 2 hours before I put him down for nap.  They are pretty cute!

I think the best thing to do is to give an overview of the past several months in pictures so I hope it isn't too overwhelming and I sure do hope you enjoy all the pictures...now to see if I remember how to add pics...lol!

 

Rod proposing to my sister on Thanksgiving Day

 

You know she said YES!

 

The four "kids" with our stockings celebrating Christmas

with my parents.

 

Mike and I got a Wii!!!  Super exciting!!!

 

Visiting my Auntie Catherine in CA the day after Christmas.

 

Jenny's Bridal Shower...with mimosas!!!

 

The beautiful Bride and her ribbon bouquet! 

There are more pictures to come I just need to get them from other cameras onto my computer!  Happy 2010 everyone!!! (I know I'm only a couple months late!)

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!