2 Birthdays and an Anniversary

Russ' birthday was on Sunday and mine was on Monday. For some reason our birthday's really snuck up on me this year! I'm usually the one who has everything planned and ready weeks in advance. Not this time. I didn't even have a cake made. We did go to a larger town on Monday and Russ took me to the mall and to a couple of other stores. He bought me a couple of cute dresses. Have I talked about how many of the women here wear dresses all of the time? It was not like this in Missouri. I love it and I have been wearing dresses a lot more because of it. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Our anniversary is this weekend and we are going to try to go to the capital. It should be fun!

Yes, I am a preacher's wife, but....

It makes me very sad when people have unrealistic expectations of me for the simple fact that I am a preacher's wife. To add to it, I'm also a preacher's kid and a preacher's sister (though I've never had a problem being a preacher's sister).

Being in a preacher's family has it's upsides and it's downsides (more ups than downs...well, more important ups than downs anyway). One of the things that has always struck me as a downside is that we live in a proverbial "Glass Bowl." People are always watching us because we are the preacher's family. We are like animals at a zoo. Unfortunately, many people are not afraid to nitpick everything we do. Which leads me into the second downside and what this blog is really about: Some people have unrealistic expectations of preachers and their families.

One thing that I hate is that there are individuals that think I don't make mistakes. I do. A lot of them. Big ones. I'm 27 years old. I'm not perfect and I'm still gaining the wisdom of life. I love God. I love Jesus. I love the Bible. But, I'm a sinner. It's the cold, hard truth of the matter. Just last week I made an enormous foul-up. As a side-note: the quickest way to get rid of a friendship is to blog about the person. I have temptations just like everyone else. Just because I'm a preacher's kid/wife doesn't mean that I'm never swayed by temptations. One of the things I have to constantly keep in check is my temper. My personality is one that I fly off the handle about some...okay, okay *most* things. It is something that I work on daily. Another thing I have to work on is jealousy. I have a lot of anger and jealousy that stems from my infertility. I know I shouldn't have it. I know I need to completely work through it. I have been able to work through most of it, but sometimes anger or jealousy hit me out of the blue.

I do my best to be the best Christian that I can be. I do wish that people had a better understanding of who I am and what my blog is about. I don't mean to offend with my blogs. Some are written to make people think about things (such as ones about immunizations and parenting, but not necessarily to make people come to my side of the argument), but they aren't written to offend. Some of my blogs should never have been written. I get that. I have deleted many, many posts for that reason. Sometimes when I need an outlet (more than just talking with Russell), I go to my blog. It lets me write things down and, consequently, get them "off of my chest." When I write it helps me to let go of things that bother me.

In the end, I just want people to know that I'm not a perfect example. I am a preacher's wife and ,therefore, am an example, but I make mistakes and I sin just like everyone else. Please don't put me on a pedestal because of my husband's occupation. Please don't put me on a pedestal, period. I'm not automatically a better person because I am a preacher's wife. I wish it were that simple. As it is, I have to work on myself constantly just like the rest of the world.

There has only been one perfect Person in the world, and we crucified Him, literally and by our sins.

Because I know you all are interested!

When we left Missouri, Chloe Jo was consistently using the potty before bath time. It was almost every time. I didn't go ahead and try to potty train because I wanted to get to South Carolina and settled before I started that. I also figured that a huge change would, well, change things for her. I was, unfortunately, right about that. She hadn't gone potty in the big potty one time since we've been here until Saturday night. I was thrilled when she decided to go in the big potty again. I always put her on the potty before bath time whether she wants to or not. Tonight I put her on the potty, as usual, before bath time. She started whining about it and her whining because a cry. It was really more of a griping cry than a real cry. Well, the griping cry turned into a real cry. Since she had been on the toilet for several minutes I got her off and much to my surprise, she had gone #2 in the big potty!!! No wonder she was crying. She was probably scared since that was the first time. Russ and I both made a huge deal about it and gave her huggies and kissies and lots of high fives. I'm so excited for her and this makes me think that it will be possible to potty train her at 18 months. Here's to hoping that we are rid of diapers before the end of the year!!!

Just a quick post

I just wanted to quickly post and say that the line about the Lake of Shining Waters was from Anne of Green Gables (congats Courtney! You won 5 points!). The other line about being a game where the points don't matter was from the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway. I don't even know if that is still on anymore.

About the slurp recipe: I thought this was a family recipe until my Mom told me that the recipe is in the box of Sure-gel. Ha! It was super simple to make and you can do it with a ton of different fruits. I'm wanting to try blueberry and peach sometime. I have no idea why we call it slurp. It has been called slurp ever since I can remember!

I've been working on Bible Class materials. There wasn't a Cradle Roll class here so I have created one. I decorated part of my room today (redid a bulletin board and put some stuff on the door) and have been working on visual aids. I'm hoping to get the visuals done this week and get everything laminated. I'll post pictures of what I've made.

I've got to get back to it, though. Toodleoo!

Outdoor Fun

South Carolina has several state parks. We think this is great since there are a few that are close enough for a day trip. We have been wanting to explore our state parks and today we were able to get out and visit one. Our family loves the outdoors and Russ and I love to reminesce about our childhoods and camping with our families. We hope to be able to take Chloe Jo camping soon and give her a few happy memories like we have.

The park we visited today has a small lake that you can fish on. It wasn't exactly "The Lake of Shining Waters" (5 points to whoever can tell me where that is from...though, this is a game where the points don't matter...5 more to whoever can tell me where that is from), but it was still nice to be able to show Chloe Jo the water and all the lily pads. When I say "all the lily pads" I mean all. There were tons. I don't know how people were fishing without getting their hooks caught in the lily pads!Chloe Jo loved exploring the wooded area.

I don't think she knew what to think about everything at first.

"What is this thing I picked up, Momma?" "Why, Chloe Jo, that a leaf."

She only sees pine needles in our yard, not many leaves!

"Oooh! This thing looks cool. Maybe I should try to eat it!"After we finished walking around we got back in the car and drove around the rest of the park (the park is on a busy highway so we couldn't walk around the whole thing). We thought this swampy area was neat to drive through.

Then there was this white sand area. The sign called them dunes, but when I think of dunes, I think of the sand dunes in Colorado and this sandy area was very flat. I think it looks like snow in this picture.

So we had a fun day at the park and we are excited to go explore the other state parks in our areea!

Just for fun, I'm throwing in this cute picture of Chloe Jo!As always, thanks for reading and I hope you all are having as good a weekend as we are!

Slurp!

I love being able to cook at home and eat as a family every night. When we lived in Missouri, Russ would work every single night and we weren't able to eat as a family very often. Which also meant that I didn't cook full meals on a regular basis. Now that we are here and Russ only has one job, then we are able to eat together every lunch (Russ is able to come home for lunch) and dinner. A few nights ago we had spaghetti and I had baked rolls to go with it. A few nights before that we had grilled chicked, also with rolls. As yummy as the rolls were, they were definitely missing something. That something was slurp.

Slurp is a homemade strawberry jam that my family loves. My Granny Tiger makes slurp. My Mom makes slurp. I love slurp. Rolls with butter are good. Rolls with butter and slurp are the bomb shnizzle, yo!

Well, I had slurp in Missouri. I had a jar in the fridge and several in the freezer. Because our trip out here was over the span of 3 days, I didn't bring any freezer or fridge items with us. I gave everything to my Mom and Dad...my slurp included. How we've missed slurp. Sigh.

But, not anymore. My Granny Tiger makes slurp. My Mom makes slurp. And now I make slurp.Delicious strawberry goodness in a jar. Yum. And I made enough to share. Oh yeah.

Oh my, Frustrations!

Okay, the title doesn't really convey the whole day...just part of it. This morning we got up way too early and travelled to a preaching school here. Their first day was today and Russ wanted to go meet the director and the new students. Ichabod (our GPS...yes, I named him!) had us turning the opposite direction of where we needed to go at one point, but we still made it on time...only because it turned us into a church parking lot that wasn't the church building we were looking for! Chapel service was great. It is so uplifting to see men who are wanting to do the work of the Lord and it really gives us the gumption to continue in this very challenging line of work. Plus, we were the only white people there besides one student. The rest are African American and I love how energetic they are. One man led the songs and it was so cool! It reminded me of when I went on a couple of mission trips to NYC. The congregation that we worked with was an African American congregation and every service is completely uplifting. Well, now that I've written all of that I think I need to think more about that than anything else that happened today! One thing that the director said this morning during his lesson was "The closer you are to God on your knees, the harder it is to fall on your back."

Well, after chapel was over we had to go to another town to the social security office. We had to get a replacement card for Russ because he lost his in the move and we had to file for one for Chloe Jo. We were there maybe 20 minutes. It wasn't bad at all. 20 minutes after we got home I found Russ' missing card. It is so frustrating that we looked and looked for that silly thing and I found it 20 minutes after we got home. We did have to go anyway to get Chloe Jo's card so I guess it wasn't a complete waste. I know we could mail in for it, but Russ needed a letter from them so he could get his license changed over.

Speaking of all that, we got on the DMV website and printed off all the papers to get tags for our cars and to get our new licenses. We made sure we had everything and went up to the DMV with little Chloe Jo (who desperately needed a nap but refused to take one) in tow. We stood in line for less than 10 minutes (again, great!) just to be told we needed to pay state property taxes first at the court house. So we go to the court house and they tell us we need to go to a different building for that. We go to that building and into a room that we thought would be it to be told to go to a different room who then told us to go to a different room. We finally got that straightened out and still couldn't get our licenses or tags because we hadn't changed our insurance over yet. The insurance company we use could transfer us here, but our insurance is $60 higher! So we tried to go with another company, which was cheaper, but they won't insure us until we have South Carolina drivers licenses! It's huge fiasco. Why does it have to be this difficult??? We finally stopped trying to get that done today and are going to try again tomorrow to get insurance here. Once we get our cards then we can get our tags and licenses.

During all of this Chloe Jo got crankier and crankier. I made her take a nap when we got home, but she didn't sleep well at all. Hopefully she will sleep good tonight. We let her play in the pool again tonight. The only bad thing about the pool is that she has to have a bath after playing in it and that has been every day pretty much. I don't usually give her a bath every night because her skin gets really dry and South Carolina hasn't been good for it anyway. Her hands are so peely and I lotion her up several times a day. I'm going to have to try some stronger lotion, I think.

Once we get everything squared away maybe I will get out of my funk. We are having a couple from the church over on Friday evening and I am looking forward to that. We are going to have someone over every week until we have gotten to know everyone in the congregation. It might not be every Friday night because we would love to go to some of the high school football games here, but that is our goal.

That's it for now! Toodleoo!

Hard Days

The last couple of days have been a little hard for me. Since everything is slowing down and things aren't so new, I've been really missing my family and Missouri. But I love South Carolina. I actually haven't been this happy in a long time so it's really strange. My Dad sent me an invite to VID which is like Skype and I got to talk to them for a few minutes tonight. Chloe Jo decided to be ultra-cranky and scared of the microphone (we used a Wii mic because the one on the computer wasn't working) so I had to cut the conversation short and put the little miss to bed.

P.S. Brown streaks on the white slide on the kiddie pool equals a pootastrophe. Yuck.

Pigtails!

"DO YOU DO BANK BY MAIL????"

And more fun in the Carolina sun!!!

Note to self: It really does pay to shop the end of season sales.

I went to our local has-everything store today to pick up a few things for our place. On the list was also a kiddie pool for Chloe Jo. It took me a while to find them because they are all in the clearance aisle. Already I was thinking I scored! I knew Chloe Jo really liked the one cousin Brianna had which was a round, hot pink pool so that is what I had in mind. Well, they didn't have anything even similar to that or as cheap. I know my sister paid $10 for Brianna's pool. But, as I'm realizing that they don't have what I want, I look down and see a pool that is clearaced to $14. I'm so excited about it!

And Chloe Jo showed her excitement this afternoon after she got up from her nap!
I just think that $14 was a really great deal for this!

I can attach a water hose to the seahorse and it sprays water, but Chloe Jo didn't like that part so we just shut it off.
I'm hoping the pool will last a couple of years, but even if it doesn't it was a good deal and it was made completely worth it when Chloe Jo came out of the house with a huge grin of excitement on her face!

Fun in the Carolina Sun!

Wow! The heat here has been brutal! It has been in the upper 90's all week and the heat index has been in the 100's. Plus, we've noticed that there isn't hardly any wind here so it is a stale heat. There was a slight breeze today that was nice. It isn't anything like Missouri, though! I assume there is more wind when hurricanes come through!

This morning we went to the local home improvement store to get a trimmer for the yard. We also picked up a water hose, a rake and a shop broom. The pine needles are crazy in our yard so we will be raking them up and sweeping them off the drive and sidewalk. The water hose is really for washing the car, but it will also work well to fill up her kiddie pool (when we buy it) and for the new sprinkler we bought! Every kid needs a sprinkler to play in, right???

My Besties

Dear Husband,

After 10 minutes of incessant doorbell ringing and door beating and I still don't answer, it's not because I think it is fun to leave you on the porch. It's because:

A. I'm in the bathroom.
B. I'm in the shower (which happened to be the case today).
C. I am so incapacitated that I can not get to the door and no amount of doorbell ringing or door beating will help me get there.

Also, since the only thing locked was the knob that you have a key to, just try that next time.

Thanks,
Your Annoyed Wife

New Home in SC

Here is a tour of our new place.



I hope you guys enjoyed that. I know I am such a dork, but it's fun to do these videos!

P.S. Please ignore the "materialism" comment. I didn't mean to imply that people with nice or new kitchens are materialistic!

We're tourists...sorta

I love how everytime we go somewhere, it's a new adventure. I haven't been to this part of the country for vacation or to visit so I don't really know much about the area besides what I have looked at online. I've been hankering to go exploring so we have been trying to get some sight seeing in the past couple of days.

On Thursday evening we tried to go out to a state park that is fairly close to us. I thought I had seen signs for it and we went the way I thought we needed to go. We turned Ichabod (our GPS) on and followed it for a while. Pretty soon we came to a town and the sign said "Welcome to *insert the name of the town we live in*". We apparently went the wrong way and Ichabod sent us in a big circle to get back to square one. After wasting that much time, we still managed to get to the park which had closed 2 hours earlier. We just turned around and went back home. It turned out being a complete waste of time for us. We are going to try to go back sometime this coming week.

On Friday evening we went out to a place called "South of the Border." There are billboards for miles and miles leading to this place so we decided to check it out and see what all the fuss was about.

We both thought it was the weirdest place we have ever been to. It's in the middle of nowhere and is like a huge theme park with tons of shops and places to eat. But, it's not the good kind of theme park. It's like the twilight zone because it is so secluded and it has a bunch of creepy animal statues like this one:
Russ was creeped out that I wanted him to stand with this purple gorilla. He was a good sport about it and at least gave the camera a smile. It also didn't help that it was wet and dreary so there weren't a lot of people there.There were way too many weird colored animal statues. The shops just had bins and bins of junk that was sure to break 2 minutes after you left the store. There was a reptile lagoon with alligators that was interesting. All in all, I would probably not go back any time soon.

So this morning we drove out to Myrtle Beach to see the ocean. Chloe Jo was excited when I would tell her where we were going.

Unfortunately, she wasn't that happy the whole time. She didn't like being in the car for half the day going and coming back! But really, the trip was completely worth it and we loved seeing the ocean!

It was overcast most of the day and it rained on us on the way back home. Even with the rain and cloudy skies I enjoyed myself. It was crazy hot and humid though!
Chloe Jo didn't like the sand at all. She was completely afraid of walking in it. She also didn't like the waves at first, but once the tide splashed over her feet a couple of times she decided she did like it.I heart this picture!

One of the other things we have been looking forward to is eating fresh seafood. We found a restaurant to eat at and it was soooooo good! Russ had a crabcake sandwich and I had a flounder filet. Yum. We got Chloe Jo a grilled cheese sandwich and some french fries. She was really happy when the server brought her food!
Have I ever mentioned that Chloe Jo loves ketchup? She doesn't have french fries very often, but when she does she wants ketchup with them!

We have really been having a great time getting settled and exploring the state/area we live in now. I am excited to see what else we can find. I know, though, that once the novelty wears off I may have a hard time being here. I'm already homesick and I miss my family so much. I have been keeping an eye on flights and planning a trip to see them in January. I have found very reasonable prices for flights so I am hoping Chloe Jo and I can fly out there a couple of times a year.

As always, thanks for reading Blogger Buddies!