A New Sitter For Jubilee...

Jubilee is getting a new baby sitter (SITTER, not SISTER...)!  Why, you ask? Because Mommy is going back to work :)  I have been offered the new Administrative Assistant position at the church where Jeremiah is the Pastor of Community Life!  I have loved the time that God gave me to stay home with Jubilee over the past couple of weeks, but our bank account is *clearly* showing that it's time to go back to work. 

Keep praying for us though... Jer is part time at the church, and I will be part time as well. Jeremiah is already working a second job as a van driver for our school district, but even with the three part time jobs, we're not meeting our already sliced and diced budget.. There is *nothing* left to cut, so we need to find additional income.

Please pray with us that God will eradicate our debt and provide us with additional income so that we can rest and spend time together as a family. 

SIDENOTE:  I am still registered as a Pampered Chef consultant so if you would like to help out by hosting a party, I would be MORE than willing to help you put a great show together!! I am also quite interested in the Scentsy scene, so if you love candles and things that smell wonderful, please let me know.  I am far from pushy, but would GREATLY appreciate the help you would be providing for my family!!!

When's a good time??

When is a good time to teach a baby to eat on her own?  Apparently, at our house we think 10 months is an awesome time :)  However, apparently we also think that starting with Blueberry Delight Applesauce is a good idea... Believe it or not, I don't think there's any on her dress :)

Here's Your Sign

When you first enter the club of motherhood, there is no end to the advice (both warranted and unwarranted) that you will receive. Some of it is helpful; others, not so much ("my mom always rubbed whiskey on my gums when I was teething" -- great advice... but what are the chances of Jer or I EVER having whiskey in the house?? and is it really an approved treatment anymore??). 

But there are two pieces of advice that have stuck out in my mind that I am really glad I heard about when Jubilee was on her way.  One: The BabyWise Scheduling Strategy!  If you have not read this book or at least know what it's about, I recommend it!  Get the eating schedule into a decent routine and the sleeping schedule will follow suit (a *very* brief description of the underlying idea).  Jubilee was eating on a set schedule at just a few weeks of age and was sleeping through the night before she was 7 weeks old!  But that's not what this post is about.

The second piece of advice that I received that I'm so glad I got was "learn to sign with your baby!"  Jubilee, Daddy, and I have been using sign language since she was a handful of weeks old.  Now she's 10 months old, and while she's not signing back yet, I *know* she understands a lot of what is being said/signed! We started out with just a couple basics at first --- milk, eat, and more.  After a few months of these, I started throwing in a few more signs here and there. 

Here's a quick list of words that I use regularly while we're playing, eating, or spending time together during the day:

MILK
EAT
MORE
ALL DONE
CRACKER
PLAY
BALL
BATH
HELP
LIGHT
PUPPY
BALL
GIRAFFE
MONKEY
MOMMY
DADDY
DIRTY
HOT

I can't wait to see which sign it is that she decides to start signing back with first :) I'm even more excited about that than the "race" to see whether we get a "Mama" or a "Dada" first (mostly since Dada already technically won that one -- it just seems to have disappeared or morphed back into "Baba")

Did/do you sign with your babies?  What was their first "words"?  How old were they when they started "talking" to you?? 

Sleeper

Jubilee is a sleeper.  She has slept through the night from the time she was just shy of 7 weeks old! She would take a bottle at 7, be up for maybe 45 minutes (MAYBE!) and go back to sleep. I woke her at 10 for another bottle (much to the questioning eyes of some people around...) and put her back to bed immediately where she would sleep until 6am!  Now, at 10 months, she is still an amazing sleeper.  She sleeps from about 8:00/8:30-6:30/7:00 every night. The only exception has been earlier last week when she woke up screaming a few nights in a row sometime between midnight and 2am but we are accrediting that to the tooth that she pushed through on Wednesday.  During the day, she still takes three full 2 hour naps most of the time.  She is like clockwork --- up for 2 hours, down for 2 hours, up for 2, down for 2.  Needless to say, she treats her mommy pretty well.  I know that eventually she will stay up for longer, but for now, I'm enjoying the breaks and the chance to relax (or clean) between kid chasings! 

I questioned the doctor about it, making sure that it didn't seem like an absurd amount of sleep for a 10 month old baby.  She just smiled and said some babies just need more sleep than others and since Jubilee is SO active and is growing and developing so well, her brain just needs lots of down time. 

So be it! Sleep, Baby, Sleep :) 

Speaking of which, time to wake her up so we can head up to the church. 
Happy Sunday!

10 months -- HUZZAH! (Subtitle -- How'd that happen???)

Later this week, Jubilee will be turning 10 months old. Besides Facebook, I have not been overly wonderful at writing down growth landmarks for her.  I said to myself what everyone does at one point or another -- "Oh, I'll never forget! I don't have to write it down!" And yet, with only 10 months down, already too much has been forgotten! 

So, I'm going to do my best to start blogging again.  Surely, between life in Sandy Lake, new jobs (hopefully!), baby laughs, and new relationships, I'll have something to write to keep at least myself interested in my blog :)

We took Jubi to the park today.  The last time, she was practically busting a gut laughing as Daddy was pushing her on the swing (a little higher than Mommy would have done, of course-- isn't that what Daddy's do???). Today she wasn't quite as into it.  She has been a little out of sorts lately. We believe it is due to the teething that she's been working so hard towards over the last few weeks.

All her hard work *is* finally coming to fruition though -- She popped her bottom right tooth through the other day (I believe the first day I actually caught glimpse of the shiny white pearl was Wednesday, August 17 -- also my and Jer's 6th anniversary since we started dating).  Hopefully she'll get some relief soon.

And to close, I love that kid.  And I love my husband. 
The end.

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!

Before VS After

BEFORE

AFTER

Thanks for your help, Terry! It looks great!

Beams Carpet, Inc.
1464 Trindle Road
Carlisle, PA 17015
243-2836

Go there if you need flooring done.. Tell them Sarah sent you! :D

How'd we get so busy???

Today, I had to introduce myself to my husband. How did we get so busy??

This past week we have hardly seen each other:

Sunday (5th) - dinner out with couple from church and cleaning house (time together but hardly quality "us time")
Monday (6th) board meeting-- Jer gone 5-9:30ish
Tuesday - first night of ladies study - rushed supper, clean up, Jer leaves so we can have house, he was back by 8.
Wednesday - supper at church because we have music practice and Lagoon prep -- home by 9
Thursday -- he left at 4:45am for a district event, home by 8ish

As I was driving to pick him up from Enterprise after his Thursday day trip, he called me and told me to open my calendar and block off the entire afternoon this coming Thursday (his normal day off) for "US TIME". So I did just that. It wasn't until I got there and began talking about my trip to BOOST (children's ministry conference event at Headquarters) that we realized that I leave on ... Thursday. So we began searching for another US TIME night..

Wednesdays out for church stuff
Tuesdays out for Ladies study
How about Monday? GREAT!

Until we got home and I found facebook messages from a group of girls who had been trying to find a time to get together for coffee..... what night was good for them?? Monday....

Granted, if I were reading this, I would be saying to me "Skip coffee -- have a night with Jer!" Except that I was the one who knocked out the previous two nights that they had all been available... So, Jer, being as forgiving and gracious as he is, told me to go. So I'm going (and if you're reading this, I want to -- really I do -- I almost didn't write in the Monday option because I didn't want you to think I didn't... but it's part of the story....... I do want to ! Looking forward to it!)

So Jeremiah worked his butt off getting ready for Sunday today so that TOMORROW can be us day. Besides that little jaunt to the grocery store that I'm making first thing in the morning. Then STRAIGHT home. and that's it...

UGH -- I need a vacation.

FORTY SEVEN CENTS!!

I'M BACK IN THE GAME!!!

All You Can Eat

Tonight -- Me. Jeremiah. Michelle. Dan. Aruga's Restaurant. All You Can Eat Crab.


Enough Said.

Savings

Alright -- my spirits have been rekindled. CVS is going to be seeing me once again. A few months ago, I started "CVSing" and made some amazingly sweet deals. Then, for what reason I don't know, I stopped going. I've let a few dollars of ECBs expire even (how pathetic -- that's like lighting money on fire and watching it fly away).

Thanks to my new friend Jess, my savings will begin again. I read about her blog about savings at Target and could once again feel the pitter patter of my heart getting excited just *thinking* about the savings I could have...

So tomorrow afternoon, I will sit down with the CVS flier and a website and will once again see how I can get the ball rolling (from scratch since I don't have any ECBs at this point.)

AND now that I've seen that Target deals really can be rolled as well, I will be checking into their sales fliers a little closer as well.

Thanks Jess!! You've rekindled a monster!

No Promises

I am not a writer. I am no longer creative enough to be a writer. That is the main reason I do not blog. Because words are not fun if they are not well played with. I'm sure I could count on one hand the people who are interested in day to day life. And they probably hear all they care to hear anyway. So I'm not sure why I bother... but I don't want to delete this anyway...

Please share with me what you would care to read about me. I feel very boring as of late.

Christmas is... HERE!

Tonight is Christmas Eve. Tomorrow is Christmas. Tomorrow we drive to Ontario. Tomorrow it is supposed to snow everywhere between here and Ontario. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day... Tomorrow night, I hope to lay my head on a pillow at my parents house. Tomorrow I may lay my head on a hotel pillow (but we hope not).

Tonight I still have to pack. We'll just have to take tomorrow as it comes.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!!

36 hours

until we are on the road :) My sister and bro-in-law are on the road already - have been all day and have another 8+ hours to go apparently... Lucky them, 4 month old baby and all... We're hoping for a decent traveling day on Christmas. (Fingers crossed)

I apologize for the lack-luster attempts at blogging. I'm so tired, perhaps this was a bad time to promise blogging, cause now I'm just going to bore you to death until you stop reading it anyway.

THings I'm looking forward to happening in 2009:

- one way or another, working a full time week again.
- getting into school for my teachers certificate.
- loving my husband
- teaching my puppy that OUTSIDE is a good place for pooping.
- eliminating a butt load of debt (see the first line item to see how that will be accomplished)

Definitely not an exhaustive list, but who can make an exhaustive list when you yourself are exhausted?? Until tomorrow.... Out.