Path of the Pattersons

Going password protected!

2011-10-17T20:27:00.000-07:00

SO, I have always had two main purposes for this blog. First reason: to keep a journal of what our family is up to over the years that we can look back on and always have. Second reason: to keep family and friends updated!

I still want to be able to do those things, but I am changing my blog to be password protected/invitation only. I just feel like it is safer : ) So, leave a comment with your email address if you want to continue to read the blog, whether you are family, friends, or just brief acquaintances. I love being able to keep you guys updated on our little family, so don't be shy! Let me know within the next 2 weeks if you want to keep reading. This way I can make sure my blog is safe, AND still be able to satisfy my original purposes for having the blog. Win Win situation for everyone!

Hope your week is blessed (no doubt in my mind that it will be)!

...and four more months down

2011-10-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

SO, 4 more months have gone by, and I want this blog to continue to be a reminder to us down the road of what our family was up to. So, yes, I actually am going to try to go back through the four months and post about what we did. It will be briefer than normal, I suppose. But, I will get it done, and then try to do better about posting more often.

So, toward the beginning of the summer we got to spend a lot of fun time with Stephen's family! We went on a mini-vacation over a weekend, and Micah got to spend a lot of time swimming and playing with his cousins and his Papaw and Gogo. Here are a few pictures from that trip.

This was the day after the Mavs won the Championship! We all watched the game together, and we let Micah stay up for the whole thing. He has really been into Basketball during the playoffs, and he had fun dunking the ball in the pool too!

Micah and Ben are 6 months apart! What a pair!

This is Micah with his Gogo...and his "big smile" : )

That particular vacation was WAY too fast. But, we were happy to be together for a little while. We also all went to a Ranger's game together on 4th of July weekend. It was SO MUCH fun! We got to watch the fireworks show afterward, and it was awesome! I LOVE fireworks, and it was the best show I have seen : ) Here are some pictures from our night at the Ballpark.

Aunt Laura with Micah

I love this picture because it has 4 generations of fathers/sons: Grandpa, Papaw, Stephen and Micah

Micah loves his Papaw and Gogo

It was HOT...but it was so much fun. AND, now the Rangers are in the World Series! Awesome! Micah really did have fun, but he was hot...

More on our last four months to come! We went to a couple of weddings, went to Galveston with friends, went to a musical, and most recently worked on carving a pumpkin! Lots of fun in the last 4 months : ) Most of all, we are so thankful. We have also grown closer to God in the last four months and are always working hard to make our lives full of purpose.

Easter 2011

2011-06-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

Easter weekend always brings tons of family and friend time. We always get together for my extended family Easter celebration on Saturday. We enjoyed spending time together and watching the kids hunt for Easter eggs. Micah and Levi were adorable together, and they got their Easter baskets from Mimi and Pops.

That night, we colored Easter eggs at Mimi and Pops' house (a family tradition since I can remember)! Micah did this last year, but didn't get too involved. This year, he loved it. He would plop the eggs in the different colors, look for them, and then reach in and grab them with his bare hand. He was hilarious to watch. He was so proud of his colored eggs!
The next morning, we went to church for Easter Sunday. Micah dressed up in a suit and tie and got ready to hunt more Easter eggs. I taught his Bible class that morning, and I tried hard to help the 2 and 3 year-olds understand the true meaning of Easter. As followers of Jesus, there is no better celebration. Our faith hinges on the resurrection of Jesus, and I want Micah to grow up having fun with Easter eggs, hunts, and celebrations (because traditions are fun!)...but most importantly I want him to know Jesus and the miracle of his resurrection. I know that at his age, there is NO WAY he understands the concept...but, he does know about his Bible, asks to read it often, and talks about Jesus. What a sweet-hearted boy I have. Here he is in his suit and tie : )

And, here he is during his 2nd Easter egg hunt. He got a few eggs, and then quit early on, because he became very interested in a sucker that he found!

After our church luncheon, we headed down to visit with Stephen's family. We relaxed with them for awhile, and then proceeded with our 3rd egg hunt! By that point, Micah had finally mastered the objective. He came out with quite a bit of goodies, and we all had fun watching him, Sam, and Ben : ) Here is Papaw helping Micah find a hidden egg:

We tried getting all three boys together on this bench for a picture, but I didn't get a good shot. Sam had already gone off to do something else when I took this shot. Micah and Ben were checking out their baskets...

Papaw and GoGo got the boys golf sets and an Easter basket for Easter! Here is Micah checking out those goodies, and learning how to play from Papaw:

Now that Summer is here...

2011-06-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

...I will finish posting about Spring!!! : )

So, our Spring Break this year was a blast. We got in the car with my whole family (3 different cars actually) and headed down to Lake LBJ. The little townhouse we stayed in was on Horseshoe Bay and it was AWESOME. It had everything we could have wanted for a relaxing getaway. The boys spent a lot of time playing together, and the adults took turns watching the boys, napping, sleeping late, fishing, cooking, reading, and playing games. Sara and I drove together on the way down there and had fun talking and singing, while mom entertained Micah in the backseat. They played together and slept together...

The townhome we stayed in had a back dock that overlooked the bay...we sat out there a lot! It was too cold to swim, but we thoroughly enjoyed the view.

(This is Levi and Pops...adorable. Micah didn't get to sit out by the water much, because he wouldn't leave his life jacket on!!!)

Near the bay, there is a tall cliff, and a church sits right at the top. It has a wall of windows that overlooks the bay, and we wanted to see it! So we made a visit. Unfortunately, they were doing some construction, but we took pictures anyway...and, of course, like most things the pictures don't do the view justice. Imagine getting to see this view every Sunday morning!

We also went to an Exotic Resort Zoo (or so it is called), and took a trailor ride around the park petting and feeding animals. The boys really enjoyed it, and we did too! We got to feed buffalo, camels, zebras, and so many more fun animals. Mimi (my mom) told the boys they could each pick out a stuffed animal from the gift shop. They both picked zebras! Here are some pictures from our trip there. Shocking moment: Levi didn't want to pet/feed the buffalo and Micah did!!! That is not very characteristic of these two. Levi is usually the more adventurous boy, while Micah is always much more cautious. It was fun to see Micah branch out a little bit!

We grilled out:

We played tons of games:

We busted out the guitars:

Sean caught a big catfish! Around midnight one night, we were sitting in the dining room playing a game, and we heard the bell on his fishing pole! All of us ran outside and watched him reel it in. Then, Sean and Stephen cooked it up for our appetizer for dinner the next day. I don't like fish at all...but, I ate it for them...and it wasn't awful! : )

And, the boys got lots and lots of attention!

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation. Not only was the extra FUN time a blast, but the TOGETHER time was so special. I love my family. I am so thankful for who they are and for who they have made me. We had an impromptu sappy session one night. It wasn't planned...but we all just sat around talking about each other's strengths and what we have learned from each other. While I am not typically always comfortable with everyone gushing about their feelings (mom and jenny thrive in that atmosphere!), it turned out to be an incredibly special moment and a perfect way to end the family vacation!

I am going to finish up talking about our Spring in the next couple of posts! We have a busy week this week...sometimes extra busyness motivates me to move faster though and I end up being even more productive than normal. Let's hope that is how this week pans out. At the end of all the hard work, we get to go on our next little mini-vacation! I can't wait! We are going to spend a couple of days with Stephen's family at his aunt and uncle's house. We will get to swim, play more games, grill out more...and have more TOGETHER time : ) I am seeing a theme...I enjoy the routine of day to day life...but, man how I love the spurts of rest, relaxation, and fellowship!

Update...5 months of stuff : )

2011-05-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

So, this semester was a little rough on our family. We have battled a lot of illness over the last few months, and I took the hardest, most work-intensive class I have ever taken! Micah got RSV in February and then passed it to everyone in our family and extended families. It was the sickest he has ever been and it scared us...we were officially initiated into the club of parents who have had to strip their crying baby and put him in a warm bath to bring his 104 degree fever down. I cried just watching him feel so miserable. It was awful...but, we survived and we learned. And, babies are super resilient...he bounced back faster than the rest of us did : )

So, mid February Micah became a walker and quickly went from crawler to "all over the place"! He loved being able to walk and carry things at the same time. This also meant that we spent a lot of our time chasing him around! It is so worth it, though...he is SO much fun. March brought a Spring Break trip with my family. Micah and Levi played together all week, and my family enjoyed some much needed down time and game time! I will dedicate an entire post on that next (so that I can look back on this later and not have 5 entire months missing!). April wasn't too eventful, but I spent a lot of time working on school work, and about halfway through the month I started feeling sick again...I was so frustrated! Just couldn't seem to feel 100% all semester with illnesses coming one right after another. Well, I went to the doctor and figured out why I had been feeling so yucky. They did blood work, and I have Mono : ( I was relieved to have an answer, but bummed because it takes so long to get over it. I still don't feel great, but I think I am heading in the right direction. My throat still hurts a bit, and I am still tired, but I don't need a nap everyday anymore. I am slowly starting to get our lives organized again : ) My class is over. I have a few weeks off. AND...I am starting to feel healthy again. Things are looking up. Of course, watching Micah grow up over the past 5 months has been truly incredible. He is talking so much now, and he understands so much. He has developed his own little personality. Parts he gets straight from his daddy, parts are obviously from me...and, part of him is just his own little person. He brings his own stuff to the table too. We love it. I will also do a post soon all about Micah and what he is doing at 18 months (he is officially a year and a half on Sunday). Until then, I will leave you with a few pictures of our family...

Here is Micah at 15 months old

Here is a picture of Micah at 16 months old (cousin Levi is in the background)

Micah at 17 months (after he colored Easter eggs for the first time)

I tried to upload a video...it was taking FOREVER...maybe I am doing it wrong. Guess I will work on that. More to come...

Just another day...

2011-01-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

Stephen came home from work yesterday and got to work on a little shelf we bought for the bathroom. Micah wanted to help his daddy. I could not help grabbing the camera and catching some pictures! He was adorable trying to be a big helper. I did not position him AT ALL. He watched his daddy first, and then imitated what he was doing. I'm in love with this little handyman...

This is my favorite. Such a hard worker...

Taking a break after all the hard work...(remember i didn't position him for any of these!)

Working together with daddy is the best...

Earlier in the day, Micah and I went into our backyard and he played in his swing that he got for his birthday from his great-grandpa (Stephen's grandpa). He loves it! So happy...

And, here is a look from our backyard later that night! Such a pretty sunset...

Happy Football Playoffs Everyone!

My ONE year old...

2010-12-20T06:06:00.000-08:00

It is so hard to believe that Micah turned ONE a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to get his one year update on here BEFORE he turned 13 months (although now I think we stop counting by months!).

So, right now Micah is a wonderful handful : )

- He is FINALLY almost completely sleeping through the night. Stephen's mom told me that all her kids waited until a year old to sleep through the night! Guess Micah got the Patterson genes on that one.

- We figured out that he has a milk protein allergy (at least for now). That poor babies tummy went crazy when we put him on whole milk. SO...SOY it is for us for awhile.

- He still LOVES music and he is a dancing fool for a good two hours of every day. : ) He will go from toy to toy playing the music on each and dancing. I will post a video of this later...it is priceless.

- He is talking ALOT! He says off (loves to turn lights on and off), this and that (when he wants us to tell him what something is), he can do sounds for the rooster (doo doo), cow (moooooo), monkey (ah ah), and dog (like a howling noise). He says byebye, mama, dada, gogo (Stephen's mom), mimi (my mom), and he just started saying Pops and Papaw (both of his grandpas). He says hot and we think he knows what it means : ) He knows 4 of his numbers - 1, 2, 8, and 9...he can say and point to the correct ones! He also says dance and out ...two of his favorite things.

- He is a great eater. He doesn't like peas, but everything else he pretty much eats. We just discovered that he loves pizza, and we have known for a while that he loves pickles. He takes after both his mommy and his daddy!

- He is so analytical and can stay focused on one toy for a long time trying to figure it out.

- He loves to swing

- He isn't walking yet. He is still such a cautious little boy who doesn't like taking risks. He will do it when he is ready!

- He just officially hit the peak of separation anxiety. He is VERY aware when me or Stephen leave the room and is not happy about it. I can't leave him in the church nursery anymore like I used to be able to!

Well, there is so much more about our wonderful little boy. He is hilarious, so sweet and cuddly, and so much fun. He loves to watch people and flirt with little girls. When he is super tired he doesn't get fussy, he gets silly, and we can usually get him cracking up.

AND...here he is at his first birthday party, enjoying cake (sort of), and having fun! Just kidding....not letting me upload right now! I will try again later...

NOW...here is the Ninja Turtle

2010-11-04T06:07:00.001-07:00

HA! I just noticed that the title of the last post didn't make a lot of sense because I never got around to posting his costume pics. Anyway, here is our little "Micah"-langelo. I put his costume on him a while ago and thought there was no way he would ever wear it again. He was mad about the whole thing and kept trying to pull it off. I learned quickly, though, that if I got it on and took him immediately outside that he would get distracted enough to forget! SO...with this technique I was able to get him to wear the costume successfully four different times.

AND...now we are sitting here in November. That is amazing to me. Time is going extremely fast. With Micah it seems to be going even faster. Stephen and I have to be even more proactive about making sure that we aren't just letting life pass by!

My little Ninja Turtle

2010-11-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

At 11 months old, my son is a happy fun-loving little boy who amazes me every day. He is constantly learning and making me and Stephen laugh. We feel so blessed to have been chosen to be this little boys parents.

My sister, Sara, and I took him to the pumpkin patch for some pictures and they turned out so cute. He had a good time, and we did too! Here are a couple of pictures from that day.

I will post tomorrow with pictures of Micah's actual Halloween costume! Until then...

Another 3 months

2010-11-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

Ya know... I remember a very specific conversation I had with my dad when I was in early high school. We talked about time and how it goes fast and slow depending on a person's perspective. He told me that time seems to go faster and faster the older a person gets. He said that high school would feel like it went way faster than middle school, and that college would feel even faster than high school. Well...he was absolutely right. Time just seems to go faster and faster the older I get, and that was never more true than after we had Micah. Now that we are a family of 3, I am constantly wondering where in the world the days, weeks and months just went. All of that to say...it has been since July that I posted last. Our lives are completely different than they were just 3 months ago.

MICAH IS MOBILE!

He started crawling at 9 1/2 months old, and now everything is a different ball game : ) We are chasing him everywhere. He has changed so much in the last few months. Here are a few pictures of him since July and an update on where he is right now.

Here is Micah in July at 7 months old

This picture and the family picture are of Micah at 8 1/2 months old on our Patterson Family vacation in August
Micah at 9 months old during our trip to Abilene to visit Hannah, Lauren and their kids at the end of August

Micah at 10 months old crawling around everywhere : )

(I will save his 11 month pictures for my next post - Halloween and the pumpkin patch)

Here is a Micah update at 11 months old, though:

*He loves to dance - ANYTIME music is on, even in stores, he starts dancing. He has a variety of different moves from arm shaking to hip shaking and even body rocking. He just started a little shoulder bounce that is hilarious.

*He says "This" when he wants you to tell him what something is, He says "Out" all the time and loves to be outside, and he is just now starting to say "bye", "Moo", "Ball", and "Dog"

*He has a great sense of humor once he feels comfortable with you, but he is a pretty cautious little boy and it takes him a little time to decide that a stranger is okay.

*He loves pickles, cheerios, any kind of bread or cracker, and he just fell in love with Turkey. He is really a pretty good eater. He struggled a lot at first (he had a really strong gag reflex and would throw everything up!), but he has really started getting the hang of everything. We even started chunks of meat this week and he seems to be doing great! He does NOT like peas, though.

*He loves dogs...all animals really...but especially dogs

*He loves to play ball. He will roll it and throw it to anyone

*He just got into a throw everything stage. That includes my phone, and other things he shouldn't be throwing!

*He is so sweet and loves to give hugs and kisses

*He isn't a risk-taker. He likes to sit back, watch, learn, and study!

*He loves to read

*He has 6 teeth. 3 on top and 3 on bottom

There is so much more...I will have to post more later, though. He will be waking up from his nap soon, and I need to get some things done!!

I will be posting a lot in the next couple of days to get myself caught up! I had no intention of falling behind on this blog. I want to keep it as a good record of our lives for us all to look back on, but busyness and life has gotten in the way of that the last few months. To make a long story short...we bought a house, spent a month doing remodels, moved, found out we had some asbestos in the house and needed to move out and get it cleaned up, lived in between our parents' houses for 2 months, and then finally moved back in and are starting to get settled. We have been trying to keep up with my school and Stephen's work, too! We are tired, but happy to be home.

Wow...

2010-07-14T14:09:00.001-07:00

Well, I am officially going to stop making excuses for myself. I am just going to own up to not being a very good blogger. I am sorry, Micah, that 3 and a half months of your life were not posted on the blog. Micah is 7 and a half months old now! So, be prepared for lots of pictures. There is no way I could update on EVERYTHING over the past 3 months, but I will hit the highlights.

I cannot believe that it has been since March that I updated. Micah was SO tiny then. Well, he started rolling over the night before Easter. He also got REALLY good at sitting up all by himself at 5 months old. Since then, we have started Micah on solid foods. Here is a picture of him eating with a spoon for the very first time:

He LOVES to eat! So far, he loves sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, prunes, pears, cereal, oatmeal, and bananas. He will eat peas and peaches but he doesn't like them as much, and he does NOT like avocado. He also is a huge water drinker. He likes it better than juice!

Around 5 1/2 months old when he got really good at sitting by himself, I started letting him play on the floor by himself. One day, he was playing on the floor and I was working on homework. It got quiet, and I looked up to find this:

Micah had leaned over and fallen asleep on his toy! So sweet...

AND...here is Micah at 6 months old! He is such a sweet and happy boy. We found him sitting like this with the remote, and Stephen couldn't resist taking a picture:

Here he is rockin' the camo pajamas! (thanks for letting him borrow them, Levi!)

Here are a few more recent pictures of Micah at 7 months old:

We took him with us and the youth group (and several others from church) to see Fireworks on the 4th of July). Micah had fun hanging out...not sure if he cared about the fireworks, though : )

Check out the matching outfits! Totally unplanned : )

As I said before, Micah LOVES water, and he also loves drinking it from a straw. Anytime we are out to eat somewhere he wants us to give him water from our straw and let him chew on it. We went to get some breakfast from McDonalds last weekend and he had a great time : )

We went to a wedding last weekend, and we got one quick family picture. I really need to take more of these.
And, here is my little boy at almost 7 1/2 months old in his monkey footed pajamas. He is growing up so fast. He babbles all the time. He says dadadadadadada constantly (no mama yet). He loves to eat and play. AND...he is sort of the center of attention kind of kid. He loves it...he craves it. He shows off when everyone will look at him, and he does not like to be ignored. He wants to stand up all the time, and he loves to sit. He hates being on his belly, though, so crawling seems like it is still so far away. We will see...
As for Stephen and I, we are doing well. My Spring semester was long, and then I took a class in June. I loved it, but a short class like that was SO challenging to do as a mom. I decided to take the month of July off...which is probably why I have found time to blog : )

Stephen is headed to camp soon. I am sad that I am not going, and Micah and I are both sad that Stephen won't be here for a whole week. Maybe I will blog again while he is gone : ) No promises...

The most wonderful 4 month old!

2010-03-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well, the last month has been tough on our family...to say the least. Both Stephen and I lost our grandmothers within 10 days of each other. Needless to say, we have been a little out of touch. Both grandma's were wonderful women, and we miss them a lot already. I won't dwell on this right now, though. I feel like that has been our world for weeks/months, and I just need a break. One of the best mood boosters, though, is our little man! It is hard to believe that he is 4 months old already. Time is literally flying.

Here is a little bit about Micah at 4 months old. I know this will be long...don't feel obligated to read! These are mostly as a memory for me! (oh, and pics and update on me and Stephen are at the end) :

*He is a great eater! We have never had trouble with getting him to eat
*He is an OK sleeper. We are still working on this. And, just when it seems like we have made progress, he decides to change it all up on me.
*He is extremely laid back (takes after his dad). Stephen and I have a pretty busy lifestyle and Micah is great at just going with the flow! He has even been to several youth activities.
*He is a little bit small, but the doctor tells us not to worry, he will grow into his own skin! Right now he still fits into a lot of 0-3 month clothes. He is right on the edge of moving up, though.
*He is smart, loves to watch our mouths when we talk, and he smiles ALL the time.
*He loves to stare at logos on shirts - sometimes it even looks like he is reading them
*He LOVES music - and rhythm ...He likes it when we beatbox (or attempt to)
*He can hold a conversation - he seems to understand the flow of conversation. He will coo at us and we coo back. He waits to coo again until after we have talked back to him.
*He goes through obvious mommy and daddy phases. Stephen and I each relish when it is our turn : )
*He loves playing with toys and grabbing things
*He could roll over if he wanted to, but he doesn't really seem to want to...
*For a long time, Micah has been "walking". He moves constantly, and wants to be going places. If we stand him up and hold his arms, he starts putting one foot in front of the other, and will go a pretty good distance. We did not prompt this! He just started doing it.

Here are some pictures of Micah James at 4 months!

Anyway, if you read this blog (the 4 or 5 of you who do!), just bare with this post. I know it is such a mommy post, but I wanted to make sure I wrote all of this down!

As for Stephen and I, we are really just trying to pull ourselves back together after the sadness of the last several months. I turned in a midterm this week (12 page paper!). It was definitely difficult to write a paper with a baby. Hopefully I will get more and more used to it, because I am determined to finish this degree. I am trying to decide if I am going to take summer classes right now. The class I am in right now was easy because it was a night class. Stephen came home after work and watched Micah for the evening. The 2 summer classes I want to take are during the day...not sure where I would send Mr. Micah. Stephen is doing great. He is gearing up for summer with the youth group. Lots of wonderful things happening there. We are enjoying spending time with them and can feel the excitement about school coming to an end.

AND...I am so excited and ready for warm weather!

I will update again soon! My goal is to post more often then just Micah's monthly markers.

Happy Thursday!

~Rachael

On a lighter note

2010-02-24T17:20:00.001-08:00

I have to post this second post tonight to allow my heart to feel a little lighter.

Our baby boy turned 3 months old on the 22nd - 2 days ago. He is a JOY in our lives. We are so thankful for him : ) Here are a couple of pictures of him this week and a little update about what he is up to!

At 3 months, Micah:

- has started laughing out loud! It is the best sound in the world

- is a huge talker...he is babbling all the time

- holds his head up really well

- doesn't like to lay on his tummy at all

- is sleeping 6 or 7 hour stretches just about every night now!

- will stick his tongue out to imitate his daddy

- loves to lay on his changing table and get his diaper changed

- is just barely starting to actually play with toys!

I know there is more, but I have to run. Happy 3 month birthday baby boy! Your dad and I could not be more proud of you.

This life was not meant to be easy...

2010-02-24T16:55:00.000-08:00

My heart is really heavy tonight...

I have so many things that need to get done, so many things I want to cross off of my to do list...and yet, all I can do is just sit here and think. My mind won't stop, and so I am giving in and writing about it.

I know that life is fragile...and, I also know that we are not guaranteed a single day on this earth, but it seems to me like I am getting news of this reality non-stop right now. And, when people's lives are hanging in the balance, I can't help but start thinking about the bigger picture and what God might or might not be up to. At the beginning of this week, the 32 year old daughter of a well-known preacher died of sepsis. She went to the hospital thinking she had the flu. She has a 9-year-old daughter who will have to say goodbye to her mommy at a funeral tomorrow. Her husband is broken. I truly cannot imagine. A friend of a friend lost her mom at the end of last week...she went in for a pretty routine surgery. Stephen's granny and my grandma are both currently fighting for their lives...and my heart just hurts. I know that we have hope, because of Jesus, and that we can rejoice that those who have died are no longer suffering here on earth. But, my heart hurts for those who are left to pick up the pieces after people they love so much have gone. It makes me want to hold my son's, my husband's and our family's hands and never let them out of my sight...to hold on to every single moment we are given. I know I sound emotional, and that is because I am tonight : ) My heart just wants to fix things for everyone I know who is hurting. That isn't my job, though. I am not capable of filling a void that only God can fill.

I can't get my mind off of the mother I mentioned who died this week. Her family had 2500 people on a prayer chain on 5 different continents. All of these people were petitioning God to save her life. In the end, I have to believe that with that many people begging God to let her live, He must have had an important reason for taking her home to be with Him. I pray for that family tonight. I pray so hard that they feel the peace that passes understanding - especially her husband and daughter. And, I pray for Granny and Grandma...be with them God. Please don't let them feel lonely when they are all alone in their hospital rooms. I pray with all my heart that they feel you right there beside them.

I pray that we all feel God right beside us...

Football

2010-02-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

So, it is no secret that football is my favorite sport. I LOVE it. I love to watch it, and I typically will choose one team to go for and I will root for "us" to win. Stephen thinks I am crazy, because I should never say "us" about anyone but the Cowboys. I can't help it, though. Anytime I watch a game, I have to pick someone to identify with and to root for...it is more fun that way! All of that is a side note, I guess : ) Anyway, Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the weather (before it gets too cold) and I love the feeling of the holiday season approaching, and I love the football. Of course, this year I added another love. Now, I can look forward to my son's birthday being at the end of the Fall season. Now that football is coming to an end, though....don't worry...Stephen and I are on a flag football team! I am so excited about it! We even get to play with our families. My brother and his wife are playing. My sister, my dad, and Stephen's dad are playing too! We had our first practice yesterday, and I am unbelievably sore. I haven't run in more than 9 months!!! It is great to be sore again, though. Our first game is this weekend. I will post some pictures afterward. : )

For now, I will leave you with a picture of my sweet son after church yesterday. I know this was a random post. Is it obvious that I am procrastinating when I should be doing my homework?!

How can you not fall in love with this sweet face???

Well one more picture will be okay...

Here are two very sweet and adorable cousins just hanging out together : )

2 Months Old

2010-01-26T05:23:00.001-08:00

Sorry if this post is a little long for anyone who actually reads this blog :) , but this blog is partially meant as a personal log of our lives so that we can look back on it in years to come. Someday, Micah will look back on it, and so this is a little letter to him!

Micah -

I can't believe that you are already 2 months old! Your daddy and I are so amazed at how much you have grown and changed in that short amount of time. We tell each other all that time that it is really going TOO fast for us. We are trying so hard to soak up every minute! We never would have believed that we would love being parents so much. Here is a quick picture of you at 7 weeks old. You were watching the Cowboy game with us : ) Yep, your mommy and daddy love football! We don't want to force you to love it, too, though. If you decide sports aren't your thing...that is okay with us. : )

What are you like at 2 months old? Let me tell you!

*You smile all the time (it makes our day!)
*You will smile at anyone but you smile ALOT more at mommy and daddy
*You are definitely a talker! You make all kinds of noise all the time. You look like you are trying to tell us something very important : )
*You also stare a lot like you are trying hard to figure out the world around you (Pops and Mimi say that I used to do this too)
*You love music and you LOVE to be naked. Both of these help calm you down if you are upset about something.
*You actually really like your baths
*You love hanging out with all of your grandparents (Grammy, Papaw, Mimi, and Pops love you so much!)
*You just realized that your cousin Levi is there and you both smiled at each other yesterday
*You only cry when you are extremely hungry, when you are gassy or when we let you get too tired. Otherwise, you are a very happy baby.
*You are finally starting to sleep a few longer stretches at night. YEAH!
*You look a little bit like mommy, but you look almost identical to daddy's baby pictures!
*If we leave you alone in your swing, you will look up at the mirror and smile and talk to yourself. It is probably the cutest thing we have ever seen.

Here you are at two months! We love you so much more than we ever could have imagined being possible...

Here you are talking to daddy

Sweet smile...with lotion on your face before bedtime (you had a little bit of a rash-sensitive skin)

Just hanging out

Adorable

This is my favorite because it is exactly what we get to see everyday. You smile and talk to us all the time. We love you, Micah! We can't wait to see what the next few months hold.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

2010

2010-01-12T05:11:00.000-08:00

So, I started this post, ten days ago...

Well, it is a new year. We are 12 days in to 2010 and I still haven't sat down and thought about 2009 or what I want to accomplish in 2010. So, I am taking this moment while BOTH babies are taking a nap to do that. (I am watching Levi, my brothers son, during the week since he is in PA school and Jenny has to work-Here is a picture of both of the boys together!)

AND...that is as far as I got! I am quickly learning that I am going to have to be extremely proactive about getting the things done that I want to get done! :) I love watching L during the week, though! It is so fun to watch the boys together and will be even more fun when they really start interacting! On another note, I started my class for the semester this last week. I am a nerd, but I love being back in school. I am trying to find a good balance, though. It is going to take being very proactive to learn how to be successful at being wife, mom, aunt and babysitter, graduate student, friend, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, and youth minister's wife. I will let ya know when I get the hang of it... :)

So, as you probably guessed...I didn't get around to my resolutions for 2010. I suppose I just want to have a year that is a little more stable than the past years have been. Stephen and I have moved a lot in the last several years, changed jobs several times and it is just time to settle down and enjoy our baby boy!

I will leave you with a picture of Micah at 5 weeks old... Stay tuned for a 2 month update later today!

3 weeks old with Christmas on the way!

2009-12-15T12:49:00.000-08:00

Well, Micah is officially 3 weeks old as of this last Sunday. I can't believe how fast he is already growing up. Here are a few pictures of our precious little boy.

Micah and daddy are talking. They do this alot : )

Micah is starting to get a little chunkier! We are excited about that :)

And, this is still what he looks like most of the time! Newborns need SO much sleep. It is hard to imagine that mommy and daddy are so sleep deprived when this little one sleeps so often.

As for Stephen and I, we are looking forward to getting to spend some family time over the holidays. I love Christmas time, and I haven't really had a chance this year to get out of the apartment and enjoy it! I like looking at lights, eating lots of great food, spending time with family and friends, and singing Christmas music! In fact, I watched the Rockefeller Center special the other night, and there were tons of big name musicians out there performing Christmas songs. I love watching millions of people sing about Jesus (I suppose they sing about Santa, too). I love the songs about our Savior...I just imagine what it would be like if EVERYONE who sang the songs really believed them.

Our BABY is Here!

2009-12-03T12:04:00.000-08:00

Well, I know I should have posted about this a week ago...but, man sleep deprivation is intense : ) Last week, on Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009 our baby boy was born at 9:17 p.m. He was 6 pounds 9 ounces and was absolutely beautiful. Stephen and I never could have imagined what having a child would be like. It is truly watching one of God's miracles unfold over the course of 9 months and then ending with the craziest miracle - BIRTH! And, now we are home and taking care of this sweet little human being who is completely and utterly dependent on us. The first couple of days at home were so surreal...partially because it was still so new and probably some because we were so sleep deprived! We would just sit with him in our arms and stare at him, listen to his adorable little noises and thank God for allowing us to be this little boy's parents. Now he is one and a half weeks old and he changes a little bit everyday. Stephen and I are already aware of how much we have to soak up every minute with him, because we can't get them back! His first week of life is already over! I know...sounds dramatic. But, hey...I deserve to be emotional...no sleep + recovering from delivery + taking care of a newborn (the first one!) = a little emotional. Anyway, without further ado...

Let me introduce you to Micah James Patterson

This picture was taken about 20 minutes after he was born!
Born on 11-22-09 at 9:17 p.m.
6 pounds 9 ounces
19 1/2 inches long

Stephen and I have always loved the name Micah, and it happens to be one of Stephen's favorite books of the Bible. James has always been my favorite book of the Bible...so we decided to put them together! My dad would always sing "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor to get me to fall asleep when I was a baby, so I liked having James be a part of our son's name - meaningful in more ways than one.

Micah sleeping on Daddy's chest - just 4 days old

Micah with his cousin Levi (almost exactly one month apart) in their matching outfits on Thanksgiving Day. We can't wait to see these boys grow up together!

Micah James - 5 days old and sort of wide awake : )

Micah is one week old here and sleeping with Mommy!

Last Days of our Family of 2

2009-11-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

Well, we are down to the end. How do I feel? Well, I wanted to document that, so here goes : )

1. I am super uncomfortable, and I understand that there are only a couple of ways that this little boy is going to come out. All of those involve pain : ) It is funny how most of the pregnancy you can allow yourself to be in denial about that!

2. I am constantly feeling pulled in 2 directions...I want him out so badly, but I am nervous about how that happens! I CANNOT wait to see him, hold him, talk to him face to face...all of it! But, there is a lot of work to do beforehand...

3. So, I am beginning to realize that the books are all correct. The last week is filled with anxiety, anticipation and nerves. I also have realized that I am not very good at being comfortable with the unknown. I think that is what I am most worried about. Every labor and delivery story is different, and there is no way to predict how it will go! Which brings me to my next and most important realization...

4. More than anything this entire pregnancy, God has been trying to teach me one VERY important lesson. He is ultimately in control. Any control I think I may have is an illusion. ;) This realization is easier for some to accept than others! I am one of those that has trouble truly understanding this concept....don't worry, though. God is constantly working on me! He has been shaping me and molding me throughout this pregnancy to remember that He is God and I am not! This child that we will be meeting soon is actually His child. Stephen and I have been given this baby boy to love and to raise, but he is ultimately a child of God. Just like the rest of us : ) Anyway, just a little insight into what I have been working through in my heart over the last year.

SO...as we wait for our baby boy to get here, we continue living our normal lives, and we pray! We pray that the delivery goes smoothly and that mom, dad and baby are all healthy afterward. I am honest with myself about my nerves, but I constantly find peace in God's promises. Millions of women do this, right?? : )

Anyway, I apologize if this post does not seem like my normal cheery self. I am exposing my anxiety for situations when I can't be in control (or at least when I can't even pretend that I am!). We went to our doctor appointment yesterday and she said that everything looks great. We love hearing his little heartbeat, and I LOVE feeling him move all the time! I think Stephen is jealous that he doesn't know what it feels like to be kicked from the inside : ) It is truly something that can't be fully described...but, it is amazing. My next posts could be from the hospital...who knows! Send up some prayers for us when you think about it!

Blessings to anyone who made it through this entire post : )

Baby shower and Baby Campbell

2009-11-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

So, I know this is way late, but that is alright. I should get a pregnancy excuse : ) So, a few weeks ago, we had a family and close friends baby shower at Stephen's parent's house. We invited boys too, and they watched football while the girls hung out. It was really great to get both of our families together. We are SO blessed on both sides of our family! This baby is lucky...

Here are a few pictures from the shower. There are more on facebook...i didn't want to upload them all here!

This is the crib we got! Stephen's parents gave us this gift and it is perfect! My parents gave us the bedding and they had it all set up at the shower. We don't have an official name picked out yet, so my mom had Baby Patterson monogrammed on this blanket. I loved that too : )

After everyone left, it was just immediate family left so we took a picture. Sean and Jenny and Josh, Kim and Sam were all there too but they had already gone.

This is me, my cousin Ashley, and Jenny (sister in law). We are all pregnant (obviously) and due just weeks apart from each other. Jenny is first. Then 2 weeks later Ashley is due. Then 2 weeks after that I am due!

This is the cake that Stephen's sister Laura made for the party! It matches the bedding...so awesome!

This is the diaper cake mom and sara made...so GREAT! All the little decorations are toys, teethers, nail clippers, etc. They did a great job too.

The shower/baby party was a lot of fun and very relaxed. We were given such sweet gifts from family, extended family, and friends. Andrew, Stephen's brother, was the only family member who couldn't make it. We missed you Drew! I can't thank both of our moms and our sisters enough for putting this together for us. It turned out perfectly. Again more pics on facebook...

AND, THEN!!!
So, 6 days after this shower...Sean and Jenny had their baby! He is so adorable...just perfect. Both entire families (our family and jenny's family) waited at the hospital for their baby boy to be born. You should have seen all of us in the waiting room. Yet another chance for 2 families to come together. Here are a couple of pictures of Baby Campbell. I won't put his name on here for their privacy (not sure if they would want it on here or not).

Here is Sean and Jenny and all of their siblings. One night it was just us left at the hospital, so we had some good sibling time!

Me and Baby Campbell (who is resting on Baby Patterson!)

And here he is just hours after he was born. How precious is he?!!!

Well, I have come to the end of this post : ) I am nearing the end of this pregnancy journey! I will be 37 weeks pregnant this weekend. That is officially full term. That means that if I have the baby at any point after that, he will not be considered premature. I am definitely more tired and having a much harder time getting up and down, but overall I can't complain. I still feel pretty good. I can't wait to meet this little boy inside of me. He moves all the time, and Stephen and I love to just sit at night and watch my stomach roll around. Please be praying for us as these next couple of weeks unfold. I will definitely try to update this a little more often so that I have a record of the last few weeks of our family of 2.

Lectureship, Maternity Pics, and What Is Next...

2009-10-14T14:22:00.001-07:00

Amidst hearing all of the speakers, Stephen and I also got a chance to hang out with friends. Daniel was there so we got to hang out. We also got to see Melody who was in from New York, and I got to spend a lot of time with Hannah and her kiddos. It was definitely a fun couple of days. I didn't get any pictures of Daniel and Melody : ( I wish I had had done that...but, here are some pictures of my time with Hannah and Mason and Sawyer (Hannah has a picture of the two of us on her blog!). We had such a good time!

While we were in Abilene, Hannah was so sweet to take some maternity pictures for us. Here are just some of my favorites. There are so many more, and I am so glad that we could document this pregnancy and how big I am getting! : ) She did a great job, of course...here is her website http://hannahvickersphotography.com/

MAN! I had several other pictures i wanted to upload, but it isn't letting me. I will try again later :)

Mother/Daughter Shower

2009-10-14T14:09:00.001-07:00

The shower was wonderful and I was given so many sweet gifts. Here are a few pictures from the day...

We don't get to all get together very often, so we enjoyed just hanging out and catching up

We played a fun game and each answer we got right, we got to pick one of the onesies hanging on the wall. Here are Michelle and I writing our answers down...

Look at all of these fun baby things!

Both of my mom's came since it was a mother/daughter shower! Mom got us our stroller and Tammy (Stephen's mom got us some adorable bibs and outfits (above).

Kristi made me this blanket - it has monkeys on it : ) And, it is SO soft!

Thanks girls and moms! I had a great time, and it meant a lot to me and Michelle to have you all there!

Where have I been???

2009-10-14T13:39:00.001-07:00

WOW...September must have been crazy, because it has been way too long since I posted what we have been up to.

September started with Stephen's birthday! He turned 27 on the 1st! I love him SO much...I could not imagine my life without him and don't think there is anyone out there more perfect for me. We had a small celebration at his parent's house, and his mom and sister made him this awesome cake! Stephen loves Sonic and loves getting Sonic gift cards, so they made this for him and it was perfect...

I also forgot to mention that we moved into my parent's house at the end of August. Things were crazy. The title was never cleared on the house we had a contract on...and our lease was up at the end of August! So...we moved our stuff into storage, moved in with my parents and tried to decide what to do next. It worked out great and we had a good time staying with them for a whole month! We actually went out of town twice while we were staying there...The first trip was for our 9/9/09 Reunion trip with college friends. We spent a couple of days at a lakehouse in East Texas (thanks to Curtis' aunt and uncle) and played games, relaxed, cooked lots of good food and enjoyed the company. Here is a picture of breakfast Saturday morning. I made Stephen's mom's famous banana nut pancakes (Stephen's favorite meal). There wasn't a single pancake left afterward! The picture below that was our group shot in front of the lake.

The next thing we did was go to Lectureship at ACU. We went to hear a lot of speakers during the day, and then spent time with a few of our friends still left in Abilene. There aren't many left! I am going to put up a different post about that next. When we got back, my group of friends from high school threw me and michelle (she is pregnant too and we are 2 weeks apart) a baby shower. We have such a fun group of friends. We have been close for a long time now, we get together every Christmas, and we all know we will be friends forever. It is so cool to have a group of girls who have been with you through a lot and practically watched you grow up. It was a small mother/daughter shower and I will just post some pictures from it...

All of us (minus Laura - we missed you!)

Wow, it is hard to believe we are 26...the four of us became friends before we even turned 16!

Okay, this isn't allowing me to add more pictures...so let me start a different post :)

Mamma Mia!

2009-08-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

So, I am well aware that there aren't many guys out there who like Mamma Mia...but, I love it! For my birthday (back in May) Kristen got me tickets to see Mamma Mia on stage. We got all dressed up and went out to see it last week. It was so much fun. They did a great job, and they even sang extra songs at the end with the entire audience standing up singing and dancing. So fun...

Here are a couple of pictures of us out that night:

On our way!

Right before it started

Afterward...we had a blast! Thanks Kristen! For her birthday back in February, I got her tickets to see Grease...so, we will be going to that in 2 weeks.

As far as life in general...Stephen and I are going through a lot of change at the moment. I am obviously changing. I posted some pictures of that below...But, we are also in the process of trying to buy a house. We never dreamed it would be so complicated. We found one that we really like, and we have had a signed contract on it for almost a month and a half now just waiting to close. They keep telling us it will be soon...and then they find something else that they need or something they have to work out. So, the big deal right now is that our lease is up in a week and we still haven't closed on the house. We are hoping and praying that this will work out within the next day or two. If not, we will be moving in with my parents until it does. We are so lucky to have both sets of parents in the area and willing to take us in! My parents are closer to work and church, though....so if we have to, that is what we will do. We would rather not move twice, though. I will update as we know more!

The first picture below is at 25 1/2 weeks. The second is at 26 weeks. I will be starting my 3rd trimester soon! Baby Patterson is due in exactly 3 months and 4 days : )

Who Will Baby Patterson Look Like?

2009-08-12T21:21:00.001-07:00

So, just for fun...I pulled up a couple of baby pictures of me and Stephen. I have been wondering so much lately about what this little guy is going to look like : ) I only have two baby pictures of Stephen and I on my computer, and I laughed so hard when I pulled them up. Here they are for your viewing pleasure!

The look on Stephen's face and the size of my ears are enough to make anyone laugh. I am sure hoping that this little boy gets Stephen's ears! I got a little cuter as I got older (when my hair could cover up those ears)...see below picture of me and my papaw.

Stephen just stayed adorable! Look at these cute pictures...

So, what do you think? Who is he going to look like? I can't wait to find out!

Update....Be Prepared!

2009-07-28T07:21:00.000-07:00

The BIGGEST NEWS is that Stephen finally got to feel the baby moving yesterday : ) So far, I have been the only one who could feel him. Stephen felt him kick several times yesterday!

In other news, we have had a busy couple of weeks! I am going to start from this past week and work backwards...

We just got back from a week at camp with the youth group, and it was wonderful. We had a great time, we had great weather, and God definitely touched the hearts of the kids that were there. And, don't worry...I took good care of myself and the baby. I slept great on those cabin beds and rested when I needed to. When I started to post about camp I realized that I can't post any of the pictures that I took! They all have our youth group kids in them...and I probably shouldn't post them on here without their permission. So, I will leave you with one picture of Stephen teaching his morning class by the lake. The great part is that as I was listening to Stephen talk the baby moved around the entire time! He loves the sound of his daddy's voice!

Stephen teaching by the lake

Right before we left for camp, Stephen and the Softball team at church finished up their season and WON the championship game! Several of us were there for most of the games and they were always fun to watch. Here are a couple of pictures from that...

The team after they won the championship

Stephen playing shortstop

A peek into the dugout. Stephen even smiled for the camera

Stephen up to bat. He was my favorite player : )

And, then...last but not least, Stephen and I decided to take a short little mini-vacation for the Fourth of July. We realized that we hadn't been away just the two of us in a couple of years! We checked in to a little hotel in Granbury, TX and spent the weekend away together. It was wonderful. We rested, ate out, went to the Fourth of July Parade, went to the drive-in movie and just had fun being together!

Hanging out at the parade

I thought this float was adorable

The drive-in movie: We saw Transformers 2

We ate at the Nutshell Eatery and Bakery for one of our meals!

We drove back for church on Sunday, and then I got to meet up with some sweet friends of ours who were driving through town. The Driskells are our good friends from Abilene and we love them! Here is a picture we took outside of Chili's (Stephen didn't get to go)

What's coming up next for us? Well, our goal is to finish out the summer strong. I have one more week of my summer class and I am gearing up for the class I am taking this fall. We will be moving at the end of August, and then I will be starting my third trimester (the home stretch!). I am so excited about Fall. I love football and the weather changes, and this year we get to look forward to baby preparations!

I know this was a long one...so thanks for hanging with me if you made it this far. I will try to update more often : )

19 Weeks and We Are Having A....

2009-07-07T15:06:00.001-07:00

BOY!!!

We are so excited and thankful that we have a healthy baby boy growing inside of me! The doctor's appointment was so much fun. We were able to hear HIS heartbeat again and we got some incredible pictures : ) Here they are with some explanation...

This is his arm and hand. You can see his torso too. The four dark spots are the 4 chambers of his heart : )

These are his adorable feet

This one is my favorite. It is a great profile shot. You can see his eyes, nose and mouth. He looks like he is smiling (or maybe it is just me!), and his little hand is up by his face.

This is another profile shot. His mouth is still slightly open and smiling :)

We are feeling so thankful that this pregnancy is going well, and that everything with this little boy looks healthy. I will be 20 weeks this Sunday, and that means half-way through! Please keep praying that the second half of the pregnancy and the delivery go just as smoothly.

For any who are interested, here is what the baby belly looks like right now.

I will post again soon with some other life updates!

P.S. The wall on the last couple of pictures is strangely splotchy. That was a hotel wall, and you couldn't see the splotches with the naked eye...only with the camera. Strange, huh?

So it has been awhile...

2009-06-06T05:45:00.000-07:00

So, if anyone still reads this blog...here is an update! : )

I haven't posted since February because I had a hard time posting when I wasn't ready to talk about the main thing going on in our lives! We found out over Spring Break that I AM PREGNANT!

This is the morning that we found out! We were on a cruise (and, yes I took a test with me on the cruise...I had a feeling!)

So, we have been to three doctor appointments now and the baby is looking great! Our due date is November 29th. I am 15 weeks along, which means I am definitely in my second trimester and definitely looking pregnant too...not really big, but you can tell that I am pregnant :) I will ask Stephen to take a picture of the little baby bump for me to post. We had our third doctor appointment yesterday and listened to that strong heartbeat! We loved it. And, we set up our appointment to find out the sex of the baby! We will know in 4 weeks.

Other things that happened the last couple of months:
1. I finished my Spring semester of classes and got a couple weeks off. I am about to start summer classes on Monday!

2. We hit our one-year mark of living here in the Metroplex, and Stephen hit his one-year mark working as a Youth and Involvement Minister.

3. We have been looking to buy a house. It makes more financial sense to do that when we don't foresee moving anytime in the near future. We have an offer out on a house at the moment and we are crossing our fingers that it works out! It is a cute little house and would be just what we would need for the next 7 years or so!

4. My brother and his wife found out that she is pregnant back in March also! We are exactly 4 weeks apart. I am excited that these kids will have somebody else to play with.

5. Oh yeah...although I didn't post about it, my entire family went on a cruise for Spring Break. We had a great time relaxing together and gave Stephen and I some rest and rejuvenation to get back to working hard. We have the summer coming up and we can tell it is going to be busy!

I plan to post a lot more often now. Thanks for stickin' with me to find out everything that has been going on with us. I have definitely still been keeping up with all of your blogs! And now...we are back : )

Another month goes by

2009-02-11T07:49:00.000-08:00

Sorry everyone who reads this. I have a terrible habit of forgetting to post. SO, since another month has gone by since I posted, of course a lot has happened! I will just do a quick life update and then hopefully my next post will be more fun:

My spring semester is in full swing and I love it. Counseling is a lot more complete than I ever could have imagined. I am sort of still at the nervous stages of thinking, "Can I really do this" I felt like that at the beginning of my undergrad degree too. I still have a lot of learning to go.
I decided to substitute teach on the side, and I am really enjoying that too! I have only done high school so far. I haven't been brave enough to try elementary school. Each time I see a job for elementary I debate so long that the job is already gone before I can accept it.
I have really enjoyed the weather lately. I can't wait for ALL of the cold days to be gone.
Stephen is still really enjoying his job. He is finally starting to feel really comfortable in it. A lot of times it takes an entire year to really feel like you understand a job. The first time we went to this church (to interview) was last March, so we have almost seen the church go through a complete one-year cycle. That really helps...
My immediate family decided that it would be really fun to play in a Flag Football league. So, we found a Christian Sports league and recruited some people from our church to play too! We have a 14-person team (even my dad is playing!) and we had our first game last Saturday. We got creamed. There were a lot of rules that we just didn't know. We had a blast, though, and we can't wait until our next game this Saturday.
Last but not least, my family is going on a cruise in March (Spring Break) to celebrate my parent's 30th Anniversary. So...we are excited about gearing up for that too.
Oh and I finally posted the 25 Things About Me on Facebook if you are interested and haven't read them yet. I keep trying to pressure Stephen to do his. :)

That is an update of what is going on in a nutshell! I promise that my next post will be a little less frantic. And to end this awesomely sporadic post, I will say that my favorite thing about Spring is the smell in the air. There is just something about the smell as winter goes away and warmer weather comes in...and the rain. I love it. Seriously : ) I want to know what your favorite thing about Spring is...so post a comment!

One Week Ago Today...

2009-01-08T16:00:00.000-08:00

was January 1, 2009...exactly 30 years after my parents got married! Their 30th anniversary was on the 1st and as a tribute to my sweet parents, here is a cute picture from their wedding day. They had a very low-key wedding and then changed to go back to my grandparents house and eat cake.

Is it obvious that they were both a little hippie-esque :) And, it is probably obvious that I look a little bit like my mom.

Happy 30th Mom and Dad! Thanks for being such incredible examples to us kids. We know you are more in love today than you ever have been!

As Promised...

2009-01-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

I did go to sleep as soon as I finished that last post last night! It was 1 in the morning, and since I am old now...I was tired : )

Anyway, here is the fun picture I promised...can you guess what happened?

Stephen and I met for lunch at Braums so that I could give him a pile of stuff for work...that he had left at home! So, I am casually eating my grilled chicken sandwich when all of the sudden the little cup of ketchup began to fall upside down onto my lap!!! Everything started happening in slow motion and I could just hear the movie music playing in the background : ) And, then I, being as graceful as possible managed to catch the ketchup cup before it hit anything else! Ketchup poured out into my hand but touched NOTHING else! I had to take a picture...as a clumsy person, I don't get too many opportunities to say that I actually SAVED the mess from happening!

Anyway...just some fun.

First Few Days of 2009

2009-01-04T22:51:00.000-08:00

This will surely be a random post, but that's okay! There will be some fun pictures.

First fun thing on the agenda is that Stephen and I got each other new couches for Christmas! We don't usually surprise each other for Christmas because we aren't too big into gifts (in fact, we really don't ever get each other Christmas presents), but we decided to use some of our Christmas money and buy ourselves some new couches! The ones we had were probably a good 20 years old (Thanks Hannah!). Anyway, we found these on Craigs List! It was a great purchase and we plan to have them for a LONG time! Here they are in our apartment...(in the first picture you can tell that we are using a cardboard box as our end table...it is awesome!)

For New Year's Day we had my brother, his wife, and my sister over to grill some burgers on our new grill that we got for Christmas. We had a really good time, and even busted out some Bible Scattegories. This game is way harder than you think it will be : ) Here is Stephen on the floor playing the game.

Here is Stephen, the photographer, taking a picture of my bro, sis-in-law, and sister!

Here is another shot of Bible Scattegories. My answers were the most creative, by the way...this is probably a shot of them discussing whether or not my answer should get credit!

I have one more interesting picture and a fun story to go along with it...but, I will save it because it is late and I am sleepy. Check back tomorrow, though!

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T07:54:00.000-08:00

Well, you may have to bare with me during this post! I might ramble a little, but I am just sitting here thinking about this last year and decided to try to put some thoughts down. When I think back to where Stephen and I were on Jan. 1, 2008...I am amazed. We have had an incredibly eventful year. One that sort of makes you tired when you look back on it! : )

In January of 2008, I was still working at ACU, Stephen and I lived in Aspen Place and Stephen was starting his last semester of grad school. Just one month later...big changes! I left ACU and we moved! It was an adventure to live downtown, and I really enjoyed getting to experience a different type of job...I learned a lot and made some great friends. THEN...we began the 3 month period of being out of town on the weekends. Seriously, it was crazy! We had friends getting married, and then both my brother and my cousin got married out of town...more trips. We got so used to packing up and driving back and forth on I-20. My sister graduated from college down in Huntsville, TX too! One of those out of town weekends was spent visiting with and interviewing with a potential church for Stephen to be a minister at. Within a week of that, we knew where we were going to go next. And, then it was time to move again. This one was sad. And, happy. We were excited about what lay ahead, but sad to leave so many friends. Just before the move, Stephen graduated from ACU for the second time. His grad school education was such a blessing to us, and I was really proud of him!

So, we moved here right in the middle of a youth minister's busiest season....SUMMER! We took several trips with the kids, planned our first big lock-in and enjoyed spending time with our families more often.

THEN...I started grad school! I feel like the big transitions in life just kept coming and coming...

Of course, I am focusing on the good or exciting things...because those are fun to talk about. We had our fair share of tough times this past year too. Yet, we still believe that God loves us, and that He is bigger and more magnificent than we can even imagine. Our faith and our hope is in Him. We aren't promised an easy life, but we are promised certain joy in sadness, and I find joy in knowing that I am a stronger person after the trials of 2008, that Stephen and I are more in love and are stronger together, and in knowing that I am now more equipped than I was before to help others.

So yes, just as I warned, I have sort of rambled. I am excited about 2009. I am happy this year to say goodbye to 2008 and to look ahead. Stephen actually preached for the first time on a Sunday morning this last Sunday (it is streaming online too)! He was anxious the night before, but did an incredible job...and when he got up there, he looked SO calm. In his sermon, he reminded all of us that above everything that we do, everything we strive for...Jesus is first. That by Him, through Him, and for Him, everything was created. Nothing else is more important to focus on. I want to try to live in 2009 like Jesus truly is the most important part of my life.

And, I guess to end my post, I will leave you with a few pictures to say Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to you!

My parents beautiful tree this year. I LOVE Christmas trees...the lights are my favorite

Stephen and I as we rang in the new year last night. We joined our friends from church for a sports-themed new year's party. I sported my Boys jersey...even though they embarrassed me during the last game, I am still a fan. Stephen sported his Ultimate Frisbee shirt!

Friends that we spent New Years Eve with! We had a blast...Wii Tennis, Wii Fit (this was hilarious), catch phrase, buzzword, and lots of great food and conversation)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Engagement Anniversary and a surprise...

2008-11-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 10th was me and Stephen's "Engagement Anniversary". Yes, we really do celebrate it because it was special to us before we got engaged too. : ) This Nov. 10th was 3 years since the night we got engaged and exactly 5 years since we decided we were officially dating! It is funny because 5 years ago was a Monday, too. I remember that because Kristen and I were out with our roommates at Subway (we tried to have roommate dinners at least 2 times a month) and it just hit me. Why was I trying so hard to deny that Stephen and I were dating?? It was obvious to all of our friends, but I was in denial. Now, don't get me wrong. It had NOTHING to do with Stephen...he was awesome, and I would have been proud to say I was dating him. BUT...I had just come out of a REALLY long relationship and I was afraid to say that I was dating someone so soon. I'm not sure what it was that made me decide on that day to stop being in denial, but I told the girls at dinner (they weren't surprised) and then I called Stephen to let him know that we could be "dating" : ) It seems so funny to me now. It wasn't even until Thanksgiving when Stephen was taking me to a family reunion to meet his immediate family (CRAZY!) that we actually discussed if I was going to be called his "girlfriend" or not.

So...we always considered Nov. 10th to be our dating anniversary and then Stephen chose that day to propose 2 years later (i think I will write that story out next...I don't think I have ever written the entire story down, and it is CRAZY!). So, 2 days ago...I was having a hard day. My gma is in the hospital and I spent a tough 3 hours taking care of her up there (we didn't have a super friendly nurse that day) and then Stephen and I decided to meet each other for dinner on my way home. We ate and it was fun, and that is usually all we do to celebrate...neither of us has ever been really big on gifts. BUT, when I walked in the door....I saw flowers on the table and a bunch of puzzle pieces. I immediately got excited and didn't even take my shoes off before I was sitting down working the puzzle. Stephen put it together with me, and it turned out to be a picture of us during our 2nd honeymoon in Mexico (another story for later). Anyway, it was a sweet little surprise that made my day! Here are pictures of the flowers and the puzzle:

**This was the best pic of the puzzle I could get. It looked worse with the flash off!

Homecoming!!!

2008-10-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we had a BLAST in Abilene for Homecoming. We were literally gone for only 24 hours, but we packed a lot of activity in. AND...I borrowed a camera to take, so I will tell the story in pictures. They came in backwards...so I will go backwards too!

ACU Football...of course they won! We had a good time at the game. We had a pretty awesome fan sitting right in front of us, too. He made it even more fun!

Go WILDCATS

We were able to play Ultimate Frisbee! It was a small group, but it was still so much fun. I don't think I will ever get tired of playing.

Here I am with Jessi! The parade is such a great place to see friends that you haven't seen in awhile.

Here are some of us at the parade. We had a good time watching all of the floats go by, eating our traditional cinnamon rolls and watching Mason and Sawyer sleep through part of their first parade! They were still awake at this point...

About 9 months ago, Stephen and I got a certificate to stay at a hotel in Abilene, so we used it during this trip. It was nice to feel like we had our own little vacation get-a-way, even though we weren't there for long! Here is Stephen drinking coffee in our room. Ewww....

Overall, it was a wonderful trip full of friends, eating and wishing we were all back in college : )

We are still here....

2008-10-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Wow...I realized how long it has been since I have written. There are a million excuses I could come up with, but the real reason is that my camera is broken : ( What does that have to do with blogging? Good question. Well, being a visual person, I like to tell stories with pictures! For some reason (incorrectly, of course)...I feel like I can't tell the stories if I don't have pictures. So, needless to say, we have had a very busy month and a half since I last posted but I have nothing to show for it : ).

AND...the second reason is that nothing really monumental has changed. I still love Fall and Football. Stephen and I still love to hang out together and we spend time with friends, family and teenagers. I actually still LOVE school. And, this is after several papers and tests...

So, like I said nothing much has changed. Yet, we are changing all the time. Last Sunday, Stephen and I had a great discussion with a group of people from our church. We tossed around ideas of what true discipleship looks like...and what it shouldn't look like. We all agreed that a disciple takes action for the cause of Christ, but those actions were not just a checklist of things to do to earn our salvation. That can't be done. Instead, a disciple does continually take action and tries harder and harder to be like Jesus. Not because it earns us anything, but because it is what God intended for us...to be like Jesus.

So, while not much has changed in our external world, we are not content to stay the same spiritually. Just some things on my heart lately, and I wanted to share.

On another note, we are headed to Abilene today for HOMECOMING! We are so excited and have been looking forward to this for a while. We can't wait to visit friends, play ultimate frisbee and enjoy being back in the place where we became adults. Not to mention watching some ACU Football. GO WILDCATS : ).

Weekend Fun

2008-09-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I had a great weekend. Friday night we went to a high school football game to see one of the guys in our youth group play. The weather was perfect and we had a really good time. It has been a long time since we were sitting in the bleachers at a football game...so long in fact, that we had forgotten how uncomfortable it is to sit on those things for a long time. I prefer the standing sections : )

Saturday morning we woke up early and met some friends for a relaxing game of disc golf. AND...I got to play with my awesome new disc! It is pink (or red, but i say pink) and it is a shark (and has a picture of one!) Now if you really know me, you know why this disc was perfect for me. So, I had to include a picture...

Crystal, Tommy, Me and Stephen just before we played the course

Take a look behind us and you can see all of the trees! It was a beautiful course...for most of it we felt like we were in the woods, crossing creeks and hiking trails. It is nice to know that there are places like this to retreat to...even in the big city.

Happy Monday!

School Update

2008-09-03T07:23:00.001-07:00

Just an update on how school is going...

I still love it! Thanks to everyone for their encouragement : ) Along with being excited about being back in school, I am loving the upcoming season. Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the smell outside when the weather begins to start changing, and I love the cool weather at football games. Which brings me to another Fall favorite: Football! And, now we get to go to high school football games, too! Several of the guys in our youth group play, so we will be going to watch them when we can. And, of course the Cowboys.

This Fall also brings a couple of special trips back to Abilene! We will be going out to Abilene for Lectureship at ACU in a couple of weeks, and we will go back in October for Homecoming. We are looking forward to both of those trips!

Post a comment and let me know your favorite things about Fall. I am getting so excited!

Labor Day and Birthday

2008-09-03T06:41:00.000-07:00

Monday was labor day and it was Stephen's Birthday! He turned 26, and both of our families got together to celebrate. My camera is broken, so I don't have any pictures from the event, and that is really too bad. Stephen's Granny got herself a Wii for her birthday a few weeks ago, and the whole family played. It was hilarious to watch our parents and grandparents play. Really the last couple of days have been filled with family and friends. Stephen preached Sunday night at church and, when word got out, tons of our family and friends came to hear him. It was so cool to see how many people love and support Stephen. We are all so proud of him. We ended up with 16 people going to dinner on Sunday night, and we had a blast.

So, in honor of Stephen and his birthday, here are my top 10 favorite things about him (pulled from an unending list):

10. He loves to play. He will never lose the joys of life that many adults seem to lose.
9. He loves sports and games just as much as I do, and puts up with my competitive nature.
8. He doesn't make ANY decision without thinking long and hard about it first. When Stephen makes a decision, you better believe he is 150% sure about it (I need this by the way...it is a perfect compliment to my tendency to jump into things too fast).
7. He is a deep thinker...about everything! We love to sit and talk for hours. It never gets old.
6. He loves family and thinks those relationships are so important. There is no doubt in my mind that he will be an incredible dad someday!
5. He is hilarious. He keeps me laughing everyday.
4. He cares deeply about other people. Stephen is so good at putting other peoples' needs, wants and feelings ahead of his own.
3. He loves teenagers and is able to meet each of them where they are to help them get through some of the hardest years still believing that there is a God who loves them.
2. He loves me.
1. He loves God and is determined to live out the life God has called him to. He knows what God has gifted him for and he has thrown himself into that wholeheartedly.

I love you, Stephen! Happy Late Birthday! (I have been so tired the last couple of nights when we finally made it home that I didn't get to post on his actual birthday!)

A New Future

2008-08-27T05:57:00.000-07:00

So, I always knew I wanted to go to grad school. Well, I guess I just assumed I would go for a communication degree because that is what I feel good at. I thought I would go on to get my doctorate and then enjoy being a professor. Well, about a month and a half ago...I changed my mind. I decided that I wanted to use my communication skills to help people. Not that teaching college students about Communication Rhetoric isn't being helpful, but I wanted to do more hands-on work. I want my work to be fulfilling. I thought for a long time about what that would look like for me, and I have decided to go back and get a Master of Arts in Counseling. I am really excited about it!

So, in the last week, I have been doing everything I need to do to prepare and be a studious student : ) I decided to go to the New Graduate Student Orientation at the University of North Texas last Thursday night. What a completely different experience for me. I definitely found myself missing ACU. The campus is huge (compared to what I am used to), and I was definitely a bit overwhelmed with everything they talked about. Seriously, one person talked for 30 minutes about the rules, regulations and stipulations on PARKING! I think the funniest part about the whole thing was the "committee" that was obviously there to get us "excited". I'm not sure they thought through their audience very well. There were about 500 master's and doctorate-level students interested in getting the information they needed and then going on their way. The "committee" wanted to treat us like we were college freshmen, though. Each speaker who got up tried to prompt us to get EXCITED! They even made us stand up and taught us the fight song and the alma mater. I just felt bad for them, because they weren't getting much of a response. Anyway...

I started my first class yesterday morning! The campus wasn't too overwhelming once I actually got there. Parking was a little crazy, but I already have a strategy. And, I really loved my class...I am such a dork. I love school. What more can I say? That particular class will be challenging for me. It is Educational Statistics. I do not have excellent math skills, but I am going to try hard and see how the class turns out! I will keep you posted...

The Last Couple of Weeks

2008-08-19T06:28:00.000-07:00

Well, our Lock-in a couple of weeks ago was fun and exciting! I will have to post a few pictures when I get them. We had some hilarious activities for the kids to do. I had two favorites. One of them was the duct tape game. The entire night we had the kids split up into two teams of about 14 people. We gave each team 2 rolls of duct tape and told them that they were going to have to pick a member of their team to be duct taped to the wall. At the end of the time limit, we took the chair out from under that person and the one who stayed up on the wall the longest won points for their team. I promise I will put a picture of this up...it was hilarious. One of the teams was able to keep their person on the wall for over a minute! That is really good...I think the other team only got 30 seconds.

My second favorite game was dodgeball in our sand volleyball court. We added a twist too. Each team put three plastic bowling pins at the back of their side of the court. We told them that getting a person out was one point for their team, but knocking a pin down was worth 5 points for their team. The kids had a blast, and Stephen and I played some too! Sometimes you can't just sit out and watch the kids...

Anyway, the entire night was a lot of fun, and we kept them so busy that nobody had a hard time staying awake all night. Stephen and I got home around 8:30 a.m. though...and we crashed!

I guess I should have labeled this post "youth ministry stuff". Of course, summer is the busiest time for youth ministry...so we feel like that is our life right now. It is a good life to have! We are getting to know all of the kids better and better and we love hanging out with them. So...this past weekend, we took some of the kids on a camping retreat.

We drove out to East Texas...out by Mt. Pleasant and Mt. Vernon. We stayed at a State Park and had a blast. The theme for the weekend was "The Love of God". We spent 2 days out there, and in between sleeping, eating and playing games, Stephen taught the kids all about the depth of God's love for them and the way we see that in the Bible.

The weather was amazing...Low 80's most of the days and got down to the upper 60's at night. Here is a picture just outside one of the cabins. You can't see the lake very well...but it is just through the trees.

CAMPFIRE!

Stephen let a couple of the girls help get it started...

We roasted marshmallows around the campfire and ate smores! We had a devotional around the campfire, too. It was wonderful to worship God sitting outside in his creation. I just don't think we do that enough.

AND...of course we played some Mafia around the campfire, too. The kids love it.

On another note, I start school in a week. I am really excited about it. I have decided that I need a part time job, though. Any suggestions?

Abilene and Oklahoma

2008-07-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

PREPARE FOR A LONG POST

Well, our crazy week came to an end, and we had a blast. We felt old though...it took us a day and a half to recover! My trip to Abilene was great. My sister got to go with me, and we actually had a house to ourselves. We house/dog sat at my sister-in-laws house while they were out of town. So, we had a lot of sister bonding time (including the movies Just Friends and Hairspray). We had fun visiting with friends, too. And, of course I couldn't go to Abilene without seeing Hannah and two of my favorite babies! Sara and I got to go over there twice...I miss being able to go over there all the time, but that made being there even more special.

Sara and I with Mason and Sawyer

Well, along with seeing friends and enjoying sister time...we did have a purpose for being in Abilene. Both Sara and I had been working on a project with IN-Focus Digital, and we were there to wrap it up. Our final presentation went so well! I was so glad that all the hard work paid off. We had a going away party on Thursday before we left. Bowling and Red Robin...Sara even decided to stay for it. Afterward, Sara took me to pick up the van that I was going to drive up to Oklahoma. She took off for Dallas in our car, and I began the trip up north : ) I was really excited about seeing Stephen and all of our kids at camp. And, I'm not going to lie...the van was fun to drive. I arrived at camp just in time for dinner on Sadie's night. It was a good thing I made it to be Stephen's date : ) All the kids looked like they had a blast ALL week and were sad that there was only one day left. The area was beautiful...mountains, lakes and lots of kids learning about God. It was wonderful. I got to be there for the talent show that night and for a devotional under the stars. AND, one of the kids in our group was baptized that night. Of course, since it was the last night of camp...nobody wanted to go to bed. I stayed in the oldest girl's cabin and I think I finally fell asleep around 2 or 3...and woke up at 7!!! I did go hiking the next day, though. I wouldn't have missed that. The mountains and the view from the cliff were such a good reminder of how big God is and how small we truly are. Here are a couple of camp pictures:

The VIEW

Stephen wore this hat all week apparently...the kids LOVED it. I got there and he had ALL kinds of nicknames. I think my favorite was Safari Steve. People saw that I was new and came up to introduce themselves to me...I said that I was Stephen's wife...and they said, "The one with the hat?" Yes, he was famous.

It isn't camp unless a speaker does something crazy to get a point across! Yes, this is Rob and he shaved off half of his hair and half of his mustache as part of his lesson.

Here is Stephen after he climbed up "Hell's Gate" - a VERY narrow crack in the rocky cliff. He stayed there to help pull other brave kids up!

Stephen and I at the top of "Hell's Gate" - I was "the mom" who held water bottles and yelled at kids to get away from the edge.

After several meals, a two-hour cleanup time and one last session, it was time to pack up the kids and make the long trek home. I took the older kids, and Stephen had the younger kids and we drove for 5 hours! The entire trip was a reminder that God is faithful. He provided the strength and the energy right when we needed it most. We both had plenty of energy to get the kids home and off with their parents. We arrived at our apartment around midnight...and we crashed...for the next 24 hours!

Until next time...coming up next in the crazy Youth Ministry summer schedule is...LOCK IN...ALL NIGHT...T MINUS 2 DAYS

Where Did July Go?!

2008-07-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

I realized today that July is pretty close to being over, and honestly I don't even know where it went. The month just flew by! We have been getting more and more settled and really enjoying spending time with old friends, new friends and family.

We spent 4th of July with Curtis and Lauren, some of our friends from Abilene! They stopped through on the way to a wedding and stayed with us for a couple of days. So...we decided to go to the Fort Worth Zoo! The four of us showed up right when the zoo opened. I was laughing at us, because we were waiting in line for the doors to open...and, we had no children with us! We had a great time, though. Here are a few pictures.

All four of us at the end of the trip

Stephen with a huge eagle head...and a hat

The Gorilla = my favorite animal ever

The Bald Eagle was Curtis' favorite

And the orangutans were just hilarious!

That night, the four of us plus my sister, went to celebrate the fourth at my brother and sister-in-law's apartment in Los Colinas. We thought for a minute that we wouldn't be able to see the fireworks from their apartment! But, Curtis ran to find out where we needed to be...they had already started, and we could barely see them. He called Stephen and proceeded to take us through doors and hallways and stairs (yes, we were running) to get to the show. We came out of a door...and right there was the canal and the fireworks right over it! It was the best show I had ever seen. The finale was crazy...and amazing.

Since the 4th of July, Stephen and I have been working and spending lots of time with kids. We have played some excellent mafia games, volleyball games, nertz games, and more.

And, now we have a different kind of week ahead of us! Stephen left for camp in Oklahoma around noon today. He will be there with the kids all week. Camp is one of his favorite places, and he is super excited about being in the mountains. I will be headed to Abilene for work tomorrow! My project is nearing the end, and I have to make a final trip out there to wrap it up. Afterward, I will drive up to Oklahoma and help Stephen bring all the kids home. We are both excited about our weeks. I will likely take lots of pictures and have some to post on here when we get back. Keep us in your prayers as we travel this week and enjoy the end of July!

Late Celebrations

2008-06-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems that between Stephen graduating, us moving and Stephen starting a new job...things have been incredibly busy. So, this weekend we finally decided to go out to eat (by ourselves!) to celebrate my birthday. Yes...my birthday was on May 7th, but we just never got a chance to sit down together and celebrate! Terrible, I know. So, we went to T.G.I.Fridays (one of Stephen's favorite places) and enjoyed some time together. It was great! AND...the waitress decided that we should have a free birthday dessert, even though it wasn't exactly my birthday!

Here is a picture of us and my official birthday dessert!

The rest of the Patterson family is just as busy as we are, so we postponed Father's Day celebrations from last weekend to this weekend. We went over to Tammy and Eddie's house (Grammy and Papaw's) for lunch and games after church today. Of course, the main focus was Sam, though! In fact, there were at least 9 of us there, and at one point we all just sat and laughed at Sam for half an hour! He is the cutest little boy. Stephen and I are so proud of our little nephew. Here are some pictures from the afternoon...

Sam LOVES his Papaw

Definitely looks like a Patterson!

Sam's Talent: Attempting to shove entire fist into mouth...

Well, it is time to end the long but wonderful weekend! It is hard to believe that June is coming to an end soon. Time is flying by so fast...

2 Weeks in DFW

2008-06-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it is official. We really are staying. We really did move. We weren't on vacation for a week...and we aren't headed back to Abilene. Surprisingly, I am not having a hard time adjusting. I thought I would have a really difficult time thinking of this place as home. It hasn't been home for 7 years now. I was wrong, though. It actually took no time at all. I think that DFW has always felt like home. Abilene will always have a special place in my heart, and I can't wait to go back and visit. I know I am going to get super excited when we go back...and no doubt, we will visit often...Homecoming, Lectureship. Some of the best times of my life so far happened in Abilene! Okay...now I am feeling nostalgic.

Anyway, all that to say that we love being here in DFW and it definitely feels like home. In a different way, though. This time, I see Dallas in an entirely new perspective. There are soooo many people to minister to here. It isn't exactly the same place that I remember... mostly because the last time I lived here, I was 17. At that age, I was pretty self-contained. I didn't really focus on the world around me much. Now, I can tell that there are so many possibilities here.

That was probably me rambling...anyway...

Our apartment is the "hub" for my family. We are exactly in between my brother and sister-in-law and my parents house. So...last week, my sister and Jenny (sister-in-law) came over and we hung out by the pool. It was an awesome afternoon. We met a cool kid out there, too : ) So, we got some sun and some exercise, and then we went to church that night and played 3 and a half hours of sand volleyball. Oh my goodness. What a great evening. I haven't done a good job of taking pictures since we moved, but I will post some pictures of our apartment soon!

Let's Try This Again...

2008-06-02T13:58:00.000-07:00

Okay! It is official. I am starting a blog ... again! I have tried this before. I think it was 2 1/2 years ago, and I failed miserably. I think I posted once. So, now that Stephen and I are going through a ton of changes in life...I decided to try to document all of it right here. If I start forgetting to post ... just send me some encouragement!

Well, Stephen and I are officially in DFW. We aren't settled into our place, yet...but, we are here. After several long days of getting all packed up, we hit the road on Saturday at about 1. I couldn't leave, though, without pulling a "Rachael". Stephen hopped in the U-Haul to leave, and I drove our car. About 3 minutes down the road (thank goodness), I realized that I had left my entire purse back at the previous apartment. We turned around. I thought I was doing better about that kind of stuff!

We made it to our storage place in Lewisville in about 4 hours. Stephen wanted to drive the U-Haul pretty slow and then we hit a little bit of traffic. There were 5 people from our new congregation there to help us unload! It was absolutely wonderful. In fact, I was still getting the keys to the room, and when I came out, they had already unload half the truck! Unfortunately, U-Haul wasn't as organized as we were. The keys they gave me would not open the room. I turned right around and went to talk to someone about it. They eventually sent someone (after some more waiting around) to come and cut the lock off. The guy who moved out of the room had put his own lock back on. But oh wait...another surprise. The guy who moved out...actually hadn't moved out. All of his stuff was still in the room! We ended up having to take two smaller rooms and split our stuff up. Stephen and I are staying with my parents until Friday when our apartment will be ready. So...after all was unloaded we started heading up there. We called to let them know just how exhausted we were. And, they were awesome! They ordered pizza for us, and it was delivered within minutes of making it there.

We are finally here...this has been such a long time coming.

Stay Tuned...More To Come...I Hope!!