The Valentine's Day party is TODAY!? Crap! I'll be right back!

I love it when I get up in the morning and actually have a productive day planned. Every time I think I "got it together", someone has to throw a wrench in my plans. Today it went a little something like this:
6 A.M. Alarm goes off. Make my coffee, turn on the news, enjoy my quiet time before I wake up the family. I decided not to shower today, because I was going to work out after I dropped the kids off at school.
7 A.M. wake up husband and kids. Get David out the door and start to get the kids ready.
7:30 A.M. why kids eat breakfast I make my list of "things to do" after I drop them off. I can vacuum, clean the bathrooms, mop the floor, brush the dog, work out, fold some laundry and I'll have this all done before I pick up Kade! YES! Today is a good day because I got it together and I'm going to get a lot accomplished! 8 A.M. get the winter gear on, packed the school bags and we're off!
8:20 am. Drop Kindyl off in her kindergarten room and walk Kade down to the gym to meet his preschool class. I walk in and entire class is dressed in red. His teacher is holding  presents wrapped in heart paper. "Hhhmmm...am I missing something here?" I think to myself. So, I say: "Ms. Kelli, are they having a Valentine party for preschool?" Ms. Kelli: "Yeah, today at 10!" (Me, eyes wide open) "OH CRAP! How did I miss that!?" As Ms. Kelli tries to convince me it'll be ok if Kade doesn't have any valentines to hand out...I look at my sweet little Kade's face and think- "Yeah right!! I'm not going to be the horrible mother of the year who doesn't bring valentines for her son to hand out!"  I kissed Kade on the cheek, held his face in my hands, smiled and said in my best calm voice..."Mommy will be right back with your 'Sponge Bob' valentines for all your friends...." "Ok, Mom! You'll stay for the party too, right?!" ...."Of course! See you soon!"
So, I did what any Mom would do and cancelled all my plans for my "productive morning" and jetted off to walgreens! Crossed my fingers that this would be my ONLY stop for Sponge Bob valentines and ran in.
Found the valentines, picked up some Fun Dips for the class. Picked up a few other things I needed and ran home. Filled out all 19 valentines, counted out 19 fun dips...jumped in the shower and ran out the door at 9:45 to get to the school for the party.
After the party, we headed home...the house is trashed, nothing has been done.....yet. Today hasn't been a "productive" day so far....but,  watching Kade hand out his valentines with a huge grin painted across his face, made my day priceless! (Dressing Kade in a "red" shirt was just pure luck!)

"The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed" ~Proverbs 11:25

For those of you who don't know...at the end of summer last year, I was asked to help with our church youth group ministry. Youth group at our church consists of junior high and senior high. At first a friend of ours (Dan) who facilitated the small group David and I were in, was taking over the youth ministry for a few months while our youth pastor and his wife took a small break. I volunteered to help him for the few months that he did it. At first I was was very apprehensive...not knowing exactly where this would lead, I wavered in my decision to commit. The first night, we had our youth leaders meeting, I came eager to hear what was in store for the next few months. At this meeting, all my nervous feelings sky rocketed! Hearing what we would be doing, all the commitments that were involved, the responsibility, the endless hours spent being with a bunch of kids I didn't know was a little scary to say the least! I pretty much decided at the meeting that I was "out of my league" and had apparently walked into a world that I did not belong in.
At the end of the meeting we stopped to pray. Instantly, Dan and the other leaders from the church looked at my face and started laughing. Apparently I had the "deer in headlights" look going on. They all asked what I was thinking and I began to basically tell everyone in the room that I wasn't equipped to "minister" to anyone, especially a bunch of other peoples' kids!! Are you kidding?! I could hardly understand my own mood swings yet a bunch of teenagers!  Talk about selling yourself out! I tried..but in their eyes, I was completely selling myself short. They saw the "me" that I couldn't see...yet....
That night turned out to be one of the most eye-opening nights of my life. Here I was, in a room with 4 adults I had only known briefly for about a year. They all began to tell me how wrong I was. They began to build me up by pointing out all the qualities I had to offer. They encouraged me in saying that God uses anyone willing to be used...not just those that appear qualified. They all felt that, if I was being led to this ministry that I had better jump on board 100%, as I would be better off obeying God then turning my back on him when he was calling me.
So, I left that night shaken to the core. How could I be so dumb I thought?! Did I really think that God, the creator of all the universe, made me wrong!? He didn't "EQUIP" me right!??! Whoops! That night, I went home and decided that instead of turning my back and running away...I was going to dive right in and trust God that he knew what he was doing.
So, here I am...7 months later. Still working with the youth every Wednesday night from 6:00-9:00. Teaching confirmation class every Sunday from 2:00-4:00 and loving every minute with these kids that I thought were going to ruin my life! JD (the youth pastor) and his wife, Amy...had returned from their break back in October. They asked me to stay and I agreed. In the meantime, we've become great friends.
I love going to church and seeing "my kids" every week. We sit together every Sunday and they laugh at all my stupid jokes ;)
I remember when I started this adventure a lady from my church told me...."Sometimes, God asks us to do things that put us out of our comfort zone. He does this so that we are forced to lean on him and this builds a stronger bond with God. The best thing about trusting God is that in doing so, we are blessed more then we could every imagine."
As I sat at JD and Amy's house this morning, sipping on coffee...my mind wandered. I thought about them and all the great friendships I've made by taking that "leap of faith"! By stepping out of my "comfort zone", I've gained so much more! Next time God ask me to do something, I won't hesitate. It's not worth it. Every Wednesday night and every Sunday afternoon when I walk into our youth room and get bombarded by a bunch of obnoxious teenagers, I thank God for putting me where he knew I needed to be all along....

Is this depression?? No, it's just winter in Iowa....

So, I've made my first post and it's mainly about Kindyl.. So, thought I'd add a few of our favorite pictures from this year so far. If I get around to it, I'll work on our favorite memories from 2010! Wouldn't that be spectacular!? Well, don't get too excited.....So, my first pictures are from our first snow day of the year! Last week, we were "snowed in" for 2 days. The kids did a fine job of trashing the house and keeping me busy! Kindyl lost a tooth to kick start our day, followed by games, painting and sledding. Baking was on the agenda, but never happened because our oven blew up. Literally, it hasn't worked since. Here are a few pics from our snow day (s)!

Kindyl's First Date!

I know, 6 years old is kinda early for a "first date"! Kids start dating much earlier now a days! Ok..ok...it was Kindyl's first dance at school, the "Father/Daughter Dance"...it was this past Saturday at her school. She was so excited! First thing Saturday morning we woke up and made a "girls only trip" to Target to pick out her outfit for the big day. I was a nice mommy and let her pick out her very own outfit-trust me, I was biting my tonuge the whole time. ;) She picked out her own dress (black w/ neon hearts) her own tights (bright blue), her shoes (hot pink w/ a big flowered rhinestone on the top) and her hair bow (a white headband w/ a big white bow on the top). It was pretty wild! The outfit actually looked very cute on. She is very bold w/ her style and that's ok! It's just hard to get used too, considering I'm not! Anyhow, while we were out shopping, David and Kade were out doing "man things". David called and he was at Flowerama, picking out a corsage for Kindyl. (How cute!) It was a very pretty hot pink rose w/ a black, sparkly wrist band.
I sat and curled Kindyl's hair into little ringlets and we put her outfit on...she was all ready to go! We came downstairs and David put her corsage on...we took lots of pictures and they were off to the dance! They had a great time...David said he was only "cool" the first 5 minutes, then he was "benched" so Kindyl could dance with her friends ;) They did get the final dance together. All either of them could remember was that it was a slow song....they don't remember which one. They got their pictures taken and I can't wait to see them! Here are some of the ones I got before they left~ (oh, and David was so great, he sent me a few pics while they were at the dance...which was fun! Gotta love technology these days!)

Over 60 gallons of water was saved today by doing this blog instead of laundry.

This is my first blog. I don't really know why I started doing this...kinda like, I don't know why I married David, I don't know why I had kids and I don't know why I got a facebook account. For some reason, all of the above turned out to be the things that I can't imagine my life without..the good and the bad. Ok, maybe facebook shouldn't be put in the same category as my husband and kids..but, let's face it. Facebook is important. Especially when your idea of "spending time with friends" involves logging on to a computer

Well, I'm hoping to update this regularly. We'll see how it goes!