More about the Pastor

So our church has been without a pastor for a little over a year. So last night was the "big announcement" of who they are bringing before the church to be our new Senior Pastor. Then he comes to preach and we vote on him, but odds are he is our new pastor. I cannot tell you how excited I am about him! He is 32 years old and about to have his first child (like, this week sometime). He has such a powerful testimony and I cannot wait to meet him and his wife when they come hopefully the first week of October. Their names are Robby and Kandi and they are from New Orleans. It is so exciting! I love the idea of having someone so young in our church! I'm so excited!

Real Quick Entry and More Later

So tonight at church they are announcing who our new Senior Pastor will be. Well, they are announcing who will be coming to preach "in view of a call" and then he comes and we meet him, listen to him preach, drill him with questions and then vote on him. But, odds are that he will be the new pastor. Our church has been without a pastor for a little over a year, so everyone is very excited about the announcement. So, I will post later about the man. We are very excited!
On a personal note, I joined the mentoring program at our church. This is where they pair up one woman to mentor and one woman to be the mentoree. Well, I found out this morning that my mentor will be Pam R. and I am very excited about this! She and her husband are two people that my husband and I greatly respect and I am so looking forward to getting to know her better and to grow spiritually together!

Good Times with Good Friends

So yesterday was a good day. We took the big kids to school and then ran errands for most of the day. While I was driving around, I happened upon the campaign headquarters for McCain/Palin in my city. I didn't even know it was there. So we went in and got two bumper stickers and a yard sign. They didn't have yard signs with Palin's name on it yet so we'll go back and get one with her name on it later. The ladies in there were so nice - they gave my two little ones cupcakes! Then we did a little grocery shopping. I really don't like doing this with any kids. It costs so much more when they are with you! But, it had to be done.
Then we came home and I mowed the backyard. If you've never seen my backyard, this is about an hour to an hour and a half project. It's big and the grass is thick. But, I do some of my best thinking while I am mowing. It's time that is pretty much uninterrupted. My kids play outside while I am out there so I know what they are doing, but they don't talk to me. So I was able to sort out some pretty important stuff that I may or may not blog about later. But, it was really nice to be able to think it out.
Then, last night, our dear friends came over for pizza and cake to celebrate Annabelle's birthday. We had lots of fun! They have five kiddos, so just our two families together is 13 people. When we get together, we have four adults, two nine year olds, an eight year old, two five year olds, a four year old, two three year olds and a one year old. It's a bit of a zoo, but lots of fun! Annabelle had a Backyardigans cake that I didn't make, but it was good and she was delighted. We had already given her all her presents so we just had fun. It was a great night with good friends!

RNC Speeches Last Night

I want to start this post by saying that if you live in the United States and are over the age of 18, please make sure you are registered to vote and that you GO VOTE! No matter who you vote for, please exercise this right that you have just by living in this great land. It is a right that can be taken away, so please be grateful for it and go vote!! Okay, that's my PSA for the day.



Secondly, if you don't want to know my political thoughts, then stop reading. I'll warn you that I am a pro-life conservative Christian who thinks people should be allowed to own guns if they want to (after all, the first thing Hitler did was disarm the people...is that really what we want?) and I think we do have a responsibility to care for the earth that God created, but I still believe that man was created above the animals and plants. So, if you don't want to hear about it, you should probably stop reading.

Okay, last night I watched some of Romney's speech, and all of Huckabee, Guiliani and Palin. What a great night to be a conservative Republican! It was so much fun! I liked Huckabee's speech and his story about the desks and the veterans was very touching. Then the camera shot over to a veteran wiping tears from his eyes...very moving. Adam and I both teared up. I thought Huckabee did a good job.

Guiliani was so great too. He comes across as just a good ole boy from the Bronx. When he outright laughed at the community organizer thing, it was so funny. I think instead of trying to come up with things that Obama has done to try to prove he has experience, they should just say, Yep, you're right...he has no experience...but he has great ideas on ____. Of course, he will have to articulate some ideas instead of just saying he doesn't like what Bush is doing.

Anyway, Guiliani had the crowd all riled up before Sarah Palin even stepped onto the stage.

So, then her family came in and took their seats. All the kids, including the future son-in-law, and Todd Palin came in and sat with Cindy McCain. It was endearing as they sort of passed the baby around. The daughter had him first and then Cindy and then Todd. Eventually, the littlest girl got him and there was a precious shot of her licking her hand to smooth his hair out. It was great.

Palin's speech was so great. It was funny, inspiring and exciting! She has a plan to cut our dependence on foreign oil (this is different from Obama's plan to cut our dependence on the Middle East for oil, since we get our oil from various sources-Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, not just Saudi Arabia.) which I think is great. We need to drill AND work on other types of energy. I agree with her that we can't just do nothing until we get the technology to do the other kinds. She just sort of touched on the pregnant teenage daughter thing, but then went on about the rest of it. Good for her. The focus needs to be on other things. The daughter has no bearing on her ability to be VP, just as Al Gore's son had no bearing on his being able to be VP.

All in all, it was a great night and a great night to be a Republican! I am actually excited about voting in November!! GO MCCAIN/PALIN!!

A Good Day and Some Funny Stuff

Today started out really well. I was a little nervous that Sebastian wouldn't want to go back to school after the long weekend, but he got up and was ready to go. Then we hit our first snag...today was purple day. The first two weeks, every day is a different color and they are supposed to wear that color. Well, the only purple shirt that we have that isn't a girl's shirt is a Veggie Tales shirt that the boys sleep in. So, Sebastian's first protest was that he didn't want to wear his pajamas. Okay. So I explain to him that the shirt isn't actually pajamas, he just sleeps in it sometimes. Well, then he said, "I don't wear purple. I'm not a girl. Girls wear purple." He assumed his position that means, "I am absolutely not budging on this issue." So, he picked out a blue striped shirt and I told him he could take the blue shirt with him and, if no one else had on purple, he could put the blue one on. This is after I told him, "Cole...Jake...(insert any name of some of the kids in his class) will have on purple." Well, he seemed content to just take another shirt with him. So we all got in the car and headed off to school.
While we are still sitting in the car rider line, I look in my rearview mirror to see Sebastian has already changed out of the purple shirt and into the blue one - all without unbuckling his seatbelt! Houdini! So, the next arrangement was that he wore the blue shirt and took the purple shirt with him. Fortunately, that was fine with him and he got out with no problem. When he got home, he immediately informed me that no one else was wearing purple and he told me he should wear the blue one. He's a funny kid.

On to Annabelle's birthday...we went and had lunch with Adam and got to see his new office. He didn't change jobs, but his firm moved into a new office. It's really nice and I got to meet some people I hadn't met yet. Then we went to Applebee's. I really like Applebees, but it's not large family friendly, so we never go. But, since it was just the four of us, it was fun. Then I took Annabelle shopping to pick out some presents. She got a big baby doll (who she named Carly) a new stroller, some baby bottles, sippy cups and a big pink ball. I also got her a cookie cake. We are having a little party for her on Friday night with some friends, because tonight I had to work and Zoe had soccer practice. But, Annabelle had a special day and she enjoyed telling everyone she met that she was three years old today!

Happy Birthday, Annabelle!

I can't believe that Annabelle is three years old today! Time goes by so fast. It seems like just yesterday on one hand, but I also can't remember her not being in the family. I am also so that her middle name is the same as Adam's mom. I had no idea that his mom would have so little time with her. Annabelle is a funny kids, with some great facial expressions. She is very very verbal and has no trouble telling us exactly what she wants and thinks.
Here are some pictures.

Happy Birthday, Peanut!

Annabelle and Grandmother

Mid Sentence

My Big Three Year Old

Labor Day

How long were your labors?
Child #1 - doctor told me to go to the hospital
Child #2 - fourth trip to the hospital, contractions 2 minutes apart
Child # 3 - Tons of contractions
Child #4 - More contractions

How did you know you were in labor?
Child #1 - 2 1/2 hours (way too short, horrible experience)
Child #2 - 11 hours
Child #3 - 9 hours
Child #4 - 21 very long hours

Where did you deliver?
Hospital for all of them...

Drugs? Epidural for #1 and #4 (I got tired in hour 18) and natural for #2 and #3

C-section? Nope. Almost on #2, but everything settled down.

Who delivered? My doctor for #1 and #2, a nurse for #3 (doctor showed up 20 minutes later) and an on call doctor for #4

I got this from this site...
http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2008/08/laborious.html