Oh boy, oh boy... almost a whole month since my last post! I think that is a new record of laziness in the blog-world for me. I will try to catch you up on the major events of our November, and then I have a couple other posts to hopefully make this week.
*My family came to visit us the middle of the month. It was GREAT to have them here! It was my dad's first time to see the house since we moved in and we loved showing him the things we did to it. He even got in the game and helped with some lighting fixtures and installed a new (and MUCH more modern) ceiling fan/light for us! We had a really good time just playing games, shopping, and hanging out at the house with them, and were so glad to spend some time with them as we weren't able to go home for Thanksgiving this year.
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| Barkley wanting to spend the night in Kyla's bed |
*The Saturday my parents were here, Steven, Barkley, and I got dressed up for our Christmas pictures and my parents took several pictures of us on our front porch for our Christmas cards this year! Barkley was wearing a Santa hat and he was less than thrilled... which is pretty apparent when you look at ANY of the pics but Steven and I both agreed on our favorite so we got that printed out.
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| one of my FAVORITE pics of Barkley... spoiler of Christmas pics lol |
*We had our first Thanksgiving in O'Fallon. It was my first Thanksgiving to not be in Oklahoma with my family, so even the days before, it didn't feel near as much like a holiday as it normally does. I worked Thanksgiving day and then went straight to Dan and Susan's house where Steven already was. We had Thanksgiving dinner with them and it was SOOOOOOOO good! We still have tons of leftovers in our fridge. While it was hard not being with family this Thanksgiving, Steven and I are very grateful to have become close with so many people here who were willing to open their homes to us.
* " The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." This perfectly expresses our heart this year, as God has done SO much in and for us in 2011! We couldn't be more grateful for what He has done, where He has brought us, and who He has put in our lives. He is good!
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| Barkley and I bored in the car. I told him to make a funny face but he psyched me out and smiled instead! |
*This Thanksgiving/Christmas talk has made me realize how this year, more than ever before, I am just so thankful for family and grateful for the time we'll get to spend with them this Christmas. For a while there, it was looking like I was going to only get 3 days off work for Christmas, and I was so devastated that not only was I not seeing my family for Thanksgiving, I was only going to see half of them for Christmas and it would be very brief. God is good though, and He provided a way for me to get ten days off so Steven and I are going to be able to see each of our families! As a kid, Christmas was always more about getting presents for me, and even the past few years it has just kind of been "what we do" to go to Oklahoma and spend time with family. But this year it's totally different in that I am just excited for that time of fellowship with loved ones. Being away from home does that to you, I guess.
*Steven and I made our first Thanksgiving turkey together! Delmar Gardens gives a turkey to all of their staff, and we were saving mine for Friday when Steven's mom was planning on coming. She didn't end up being able to come, so we cooked it Saturday and I gotta admit it was pretty darn good! We reheated all of our Thanksgiving Day leftovers to eat with it, and even Barkley liked it as he jumped to the counter and ingested a bone. He suffered the consequences that night though, and woke us up twice needing to go outside. All day the next day he was been feeling bad, too.
*Last night at youth, we had a big answer to prayer! One of our kids, Wolf, has been coming faithfully since September, when a girl in our youth group invited him to come. He said he was just coming to make friends and play the games, but didn't have interest in the religion part of it because he wasn't sure that there was a God. Steven and I have been praying for him for a long time, and he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior! He said that he just started really listening to Steven's lessons two weeks ago, and since then God has been getting a hold of his heart. He even made a status update about it when he got home on facebook, which is really encouraging to see such boldness from him!
Well, that's it for now... hopefully I'll be back soon :)
