Who Am I?

For the last few years, my job has been as an administrative assistant in one aspect or another.  In the past, I was a working wife but this changed when Jubilee came to be and now I am also a working mom.  I pretend to sell Pampered Chef in my spare time. I am contemplating selling Scentsy.  I am currently in transition from moving from Pittsburgh where I was a church planter's wife to Grove City/Sandy Lake/Stoneboro, where I am the Community Life Pastor's wife. I love working with kids and can't wait to get my hands dirty again with the kids on Wednesday nights at U-Choose.  Lately, becoming the mom to an adopted infant or a child in waiting has been growing on my heart.

But what I do is not who I am.

Some people say I am pretty quiet and reserved. others who know me a little deeper know that, eventually, I do come out of my shell.  My husband says I am messy. But he also says I am loving and kind.  My coworkers say I am hardworking.  Some would probably say I am forgetful. Depending on the situation some would say I am confident and in-charge, but given another situation, others would say I am insecure.

But what you think about me does not define who I am.

I have a beautiful daughter and an amazing husband. I have two dogs, and two cars. Two fantastic parents and the worlds best mother-in-law who are always there when we need them. I have 3 sisters, two sisters-in-law, three brothers-in-law, 6 nephews, and 5 neices. I have 4 living grandparents and 3 living grandparents-in-law. I have a Blackberry, but I do not have a television.  I would like to have a Kindle or an iPad, but currently I settle for my iPod Touch and an aged Sony laptop.  I have bills to pay. I need to find a job.  I have a lot to be thankful for.

But what I have has no significance to who I am.

So who am I?

I am a beloved daughter to the Almighty King.

Everything else flows out of that. 

Thanks for the reminder, Henri Nouwen  

Help Us... By Eating Great!

Good morning all! Jeremiah and I did a quick calculation this morning and discovered that 9 x 7 – 1 = 62!! This means that, provided Baby Jubilee decides to make her appearance on or close to her due date, she’s only 62 days away, give or take!!! INCREDIBLE!!

We consider ourselves blessed that God would trust us with her life. Our prayer is to do our best to provide for her and bring her up in the way of the Lord!

A couple of weeks ago, Jeremiah wrote a three-part email sharing some ways that you, whether you are near or far, can support us as we follow God’s leading with The Bridge in East Pittsburgh. Now there is yet another way that you can help us find additional income so that Jeremiah can continue putting his time and effort into the church plant!

In the past, I have been active as a Pampered Chef consultant, hosting parties and selling high quality kitchen tools and sharing delicious recipes. Since moving to Pittsburgh, my membership has become inactive because I did not immediately have the circle of hosts to keep my sales up. I would really like to be able to pick this up again, but I need your help!!

Live close by (or within a couple of hours)?? You can host a show! All that means is you can get a handful of friends together for a relaxing evening of great food, pick up a few groceries, and let me handle the rest! What do you get out of it? FREE STUFF OF YOUR CHOICE!!! DISCOUNTS!!! FUTURE DISCOUNTS!!! AND MORE!! Hopefully one or more of your friends will see the great host benefits YOU get and will want to host a party for themselves, thus growing my circle of contacts!

Don’t live close by but want to help?? You can do a catalog party! (I send you catalogs and order forms and you simply collect orders from wherever.) The only difference is I probably can’t come over for the evening to bake… but you still get great bonuses and your friends still get a great no-pressure shopping experience! The products get mailed directly to you and you’ve done a great thing in helping us (and therefore helping The Bridge)!

Live in Canada?? I’m working on a way to make it possible for you to join in the party fun as well! If you are interested at all, let me know and we’ll work it out for you to get great products and benefits and free stuff!

Here’s the catch though... I don’t want to buy another start up kit if I don’t have the support of people I know to help me get the kick-start I need. If you are AT ALL INTERESTED, please respond to this email with a simple “I’d like to help!” and I’ll be in touch!! There is no pressure – I just want to see if I have a handful of people who would be willing to help me get started!

It couldn’t be easier than this to take part in some of the Great Things God is doing in Pittsburgh!

it's been almost a year...

Who knew it had been almost a year since I last blogged!  Life has taken MANY turns and looks nothing like it did a year ago!  A year ago, we were living in Carlisle, PA, enjoying our first home, both working secular jobs while Jer kept his ear to the ground for his next step ministry-wise, and visiting doctors to find out why my body was not cooperating with the baby-making/family-growing dreams we were praying so hard about. 

And now, just a year later, we are living in an apartment in Pittsburgh, PA, trying/praying desperately to sell above-mentioned first home, I am working a full-time job as a Career Consultant for a staffing agency while Jer is partnering in a church plant in Eastern Pittsburgh, and we are visiting doctors to monitor the precious life that is growing inside of me; we can't wait to meet our precious little girl, Jubilee Rayne, who is preparing to show her face to the world in just 12 short weeks!  

It sure took us a while to get here, and by no means is "here" the end, but what a journey!  We had pretty much settled on the idea of looking into adoption before finding out I was pregnant.  Doctors had gotten us to the point where our insurance was no longer going to cover further infertility testing/medicines, and we felt that, for us, we would rather visit the path of adoption rather than the unsure/imperfect path of infertility drugs/procedures. 

In August 2009, we had gone to CPAC (Church Planters Assessment Center) and were green-lighted as church planters but did not know where God was leading. Was it a new church in Carlisle? We thought perhaps since God had so clearly led us there. But then our hearts began to drift.... Carlisle was becoming more the place where our house was and less feeling like home. God was once again on the move in our lives.  After some prayer and conversations, we teamed up with Rick and Eunice Cox in an endeavour that would lead us across the state to Pittsburgh, where, together, we would plant The Bridge, a new Wesleyan Church in the Penn Hills area.  Being that we were two sets of assessed church planters, the goal from the beginning was to plant Church Plant #1 together before Jer and I split off to plant Church Plant #2.

So here we are.  The Bridge is beginning her preview services in just a few short weeks and Bridge 2.0 is pledged to branch out in June of 2011.  God is definitely doing a great thing in Pittsburgh!

As for the adoption idea -- Jer and I are still longing to traverse this path together.  Who knows if God will bless us with another child from my own womb, but either way, we do not feel he is finished with growing our family yet.  As we began looking into it a year ago, the idea of adoption gripped our hearts and has not let go.  We are praying for the right time and place to begin that process, and do pray that God would choose to use us to bless the life of a child, our child, as we know she/he will surely bless us!

Thanks for reading! Thanks for caring!  Perhaps I'll try to write again before summer 2012 :)  Keep up on facebook where I'm sure you'll see plenty more pictures and highlights of our "firsts" with both church planting and parenting!

Wedding Memories :)

I have been spending my evening bagging (and trashing!) MANY things from the guest room in anticipation of wonderful guests arriving next week (and the next week). But some things can just not be thrown away... The Mad Libs from our wedding are safe! Rather than kissing when anyone clinked their glasses, guests had to write a MadLib and sing it to us in order for us to "have" to kiss. Here's some of what we ended up with!

LOVE ME TENDER
Love me Mexican
Love me slow
Never let me drive
You have walked my life Canadian
And I build you so.

Love me flat
Love me round
All my lust fulfilled
For my Snookums "It's Hockey Night in Canada"
And I forever will.

Love me stupid
Love me smart
Take me to your DS.
For its there that I fainted
And we'll never part.


WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN
When a horse loves a cow
Can't keep his arm on nothin' else.
He'd run the chocolate
For a snotty thing he's found.
If she is lovely, he can't see it
She can do no wrong.
Turn his leg on his hairy son
If he purs her down.

When a pencil loves a table
Spend his very hard river
Trying to jump on to what he swim
He'd give up all his beach
ANd sit out in the rain
If she said Knock it off.

Sure, when a candle loves a match
I know quickly how he smells
Cause Sweetie, Noodleface honey
I am a squirrel
When a man plays a woman

HEHE!! Too fun! There were more -- and I hope I come across them as I keep digging (and tossing!)

Just for Bobbi

Bobbi has been asking and re-asking me for this recipe because I keep forgetting to give it to her at work, so I decided I would give it to all who wanted it :)

Roasted Potato Wedges (Pampered Chef Stone Sensations Cookbook)

4-5 large red potatoes, unpeeled
2 garlic cloves (I usually use only one)
1/4 cup olive oil (I sometimes cut back on this as well, just a bit)
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2- Cut potatos in half lengthwise and then into wedges.
3- Mix remaining ingredients and sprinkle over potatos. Toss to coat.
4- Spread evenly.
5-Bake 40-45 minutes, stirring after 20 minutes.
6- EAT THE POTATOS.

Feeling Smelly

I feel like being smelly. Not me in particular, but my house. We love burning jar candles, but they are so freakin' expensive. We never buy them unless I've found a great sale. And so I have.

CVS has their Everyday Essentials jar candles on a Buy One Get One Free sale... $7.99 for two candles. Decent in and of itself... maybe.... but I probably wouldn't buy them..

However, couple that with a $5 off a $25 purchase and we're talking! Don't have one of those? Go here and get your coupon. It'll just take you 5 minutes to take a flu quiz and you're set!

Here's the breakdown:

1- Buy 4 jar candles on BOGO sale - $31.96
2- Use $5 off $25 purchase coupon - total $26.96
3- CVS will take off the price off two candles (sale) - total $10.98

Divide that by 4 and you've just paid $2.75 per candle.

Smell you later!

(Sidenote: Toffee is our favorite scent)

I AM JUSTIFIED!

Here's a pic of my second trip to KMart on Double Coupon Week. I spent a total of $7.35. I think all of my KMart trips end up in the $7 range. Seeing as there is inevitably stuff in there that I wouldn't have purchased otherwise, I've decided that from now on (in order to stay within budget) I need to justify each trip... You know, what we would have ended up purchasing anyway and what we would have probably paid for it anyway... So here goes:
Lime-Away is the only stuff we've found that really cleans the chrome in our shower, and we just ran out, so we would have gotten that. I'm valuing that at today's sale price of $2.67.

I don't have a stock of shampoo for Jeremiah like I do for me, so he'll undoubtedly be out in the next couple weeks -- we would not have bought this brand (priced at $4.99) but I will value a bottle of shampoo for him at $3.00

Jer uses a bottle of salad dressing very quickly as marinades. We're out. I value this at $1.25

I burn easily (being the furocious red-head that I am), and we have no sunblock, so I'll value that at $3.00 (would pay more than that undoubtely, but I wouldn't want to, so I'm valuing it low).

Done. My $7.35 is justified. Yay for everything else being free :)

Oh, and they didn't double one coupon properly... should have been $1.29 lower... I'm debating going back, but I don't want to make a scene :)

Better dig out some more coupons for tomorrow!