The beginning of the end

So I have decided to give blogger a whirl. I have been considering this switch for months, so it is not as random as it seems. Will you still visit me? I will still be back to check my subscriptions, and for now I am leaving my site up. I have not decided what exactly to do with these posts as they are memories I do not want to lose. Thank you to all of my subscribers. It has been such a blessing for me to "meet" so many other godly stay-at-home mommys, to connect in the busyness of this time in our lives. God has used you to teach me. I have laughed over your  posts, cried for you, and prayed fervently in your times of sorrow. I cannot wait to meet some of you whom I will never meet here on earth in heaven someday. You have blessed me!

http://amomentcherished.blogspot.com/

Tomorrow.

Our counselors come in to start their training tomorrow. It is hard to believe that after the months of planning our summer starts tomorrow! I have butterflies in my stomach - I am so excited and nervous, too. Every summer here at Bayouca is different. The dynamics change with different staff, different programming, different campers, different speakers. . . .and this is a very different summer for me with now two children to take care of. I also have been really committing to God in prayer our female staff. I have a desire to be able to really invest in their lives this summer and develop relationships. This is not something that comes naturally to me, but I want God to work in me this summer in this area.

We have a few snafus in our family right now. Scotty's allergies are very bad again. They are the worse they have been since getting him diagnosed with RAD and getting him on a nebulizer. We have been trying to alleviate his discomfort, and we are praying his allergies will clear up for him soon.

He is a pro at using his nebulizer. Most of the time now he will sit on our bed and hold it himself. Last night he was feeling so miserable I tucked him into my arms and helped him out. Poor guy.

I am also not feeling so great. I have had a sore throat and a headache for the past two days. I have a tendency to get strept throat when I get overtired. I am praying that is not the case this time.

On a positive and fun note - Cadi got her ears pierced yesterday. She looks so sweet and pretty. We had to run some errands for camp yesterday morning and were near the mall, so Daddy took her in, while I stayed with a sleeping Scotty in the van. Ten minutes later Cadi came strolling out grinning from ear to ear with a yellow lollipop clutched in her hand. (I think she was most excited about that lolli, as they are a pretty rare treat for her!)Jim said she didn't cry. She just blinked a few times, gave Jim "a look" and said, "that did NOT feel like a shot!" .  lol

I love this photo, but am bummed that Jim is so out of focus. Cadi picked out little flowers for her ears. They have tiny pink chrystals in the flower shape - very girly. And Jim made sure to get her 24K gold, as he was worried about an allergic reaction. lol

My sister and her sweet girly, Kaylen came up to visit last week. Oh how I love them both. I have the best sister, and I cannot get enough of her sweet daughter! Kaylen has quite the spunky personality. She is six months old now, and she tries to eat/lick everything, according to my sister. Here she is trying to eat Cadi. lol

And again! Even though we live apart, I hope Cadi and Kaylen grow up close.

My two sweeties. Another fuzzy shot, but I liked it too much to delete it.

Jim and I had an amazing time at the Casting Crowns concert. I am not sure how anyone could have walked away without knowing the truth. It was a very worshipful experience, and we hope to attend another of their concerts soon.

This photo has a funny story behind it. It is cheesy as can be. We were both super excited to finally be able to see Casting Crowns, and I wanted to document it. However, I forgot to have someone take our photo before we left. So as Jim was driving down the camp road, I scooted over next to him and thrust the camera in his face for a quick photo. Well Jim freaked a bit as he could not see the road, and did not know the camera was coming. But I got my shot  . . . . and a memory.

Photos coming out my ears

I have tons of photos to share. I just have not had time to upload them or edit them until now. The problem is my time is limited, even now. The children will be up from their nap soon, and then their Daddy and I are going on one last hot date before camp officially starts. (Our counelors begin training this Wednesday.) We are going to see Casting Crowns! I am beyond excited! We have wanted to go for several years now, and were finally able to coordinate the timing in order to make a concert. 

I think I will edit and upload one photo at a time and publish and edit the time stamp as I go. We'll see where that gets me by the time the kiddos awake. Keep checking back this afternoon as I keep adding.

The cinnamon buns were a huge hit with our work retreat kids. So I whipped out another big batch to practice in the big camp mixer. (I always cheat and do my dough in my bread maker. You all know by now my obsession with that machine. ) I got the buns to the point where they were rolled out cut up and nice and puffy, and then I froze them to bake staff training week.

I think this was 16 cups of bread flour!

Cadi was pretty fascinated.

The dough before it rose.

The final product, minus being baked in the oven and then slathered

 in cream cheese icing - mmm.

My sweet kitchen helper.

Cadi has suffered some firsts at camp lately . . . .

Her first fat lip. She slipped on the wet floor in the dining hall and hit her lip on a bench. My dad has rather large lips and Cadi thought she looked like Grandpa.

She also got her first slivers. Thankfully Daddy came to the rescue, carried her to the nurse's station . . . .

removed the slivers . . . .

and bandaged her in quite an exaggerated manner. She loved it!

One of two is awake. So I will leave you with these last two photos. I have quite a few more that I will have to share another time. Plus Scotty turned ten months, so I have a shoot with him and those photos coming soon!

A blogger is selective. You never get the whole picture. It's subjective. I am pretty transparent in my blog, but at the same time still leave things out, as I am sure you do as well.

But for fun tonight I thought I would let you in on some of what you may have missed.

My husband & I just purchased our FIRST vehicle - a very nice used 2005 Chrysler Town and Country with very few miles. (Yes this was our first purchased vehicle as a couple, but also as individulas! God has been very good to us!)

I have lost over 35 lbs since January and am working at getting this Mommy body back in shape via running and healthy living.

I am very blessed to have a sister that is like a best friend and a best friend that is like a sister. I think to have two amazing women in my life is a truly amazing thing.

My husband and I are both addicted to coffee.

I like expensive things - clothes, bags, shoes- for my whole family. But I have learned to like them even better when they are secondhand - thrift store, yard sale, ebay, etc.

I chopped my hair all off again, and love it! I got some great highlights, too - soy highlights, actually.

I am really excited to start a new Bible study on Esther this summer.

That's it for tonight. Another thing you may not know is that I like to go to bed early!  G'night.

I'm not very good at balancing blogging with life once we move to camp for the summer season. And as you can see from my lack of posts, we have moved. We have lived at camp for two weeks now. It has been a crazy two weeks, with my grandmother unexpectedly ending up in the hospital and coding while there. (Praise God that He still has plans for her. She is now at home on oxygen.) We also found out that one of our friends from our camp ministry ended up in the hospital with an unexpected need for a liver transplant. Miraculously God saw fit for her to get a liver very, very quickly. She still has a long, long road ahead of her. If God lays it on your heart pray for this family, they have three children under the age of 5. We have also had normal camp stuff- retreats, hosting work groups, cooking, cleaning, and also settling our living space and caring for our children. It has been intense, but I am finally feeling as though we are falling into a routine once again.

Scotty turned 9 months in the midst of this. And sadly I have no photos yet. I have some plans to remedy that soon! He had his well child check up. Scotty has been having severe allergy/respiratory problems. He is now on a nebulizer as needed, and may move to asthma medication within the next few months. He is also having a little trouble lengthening - vertically challenged . (My family has short genes, so this is not completely unexpected!) The concern is that for height he has dropped from the 25% to below the 5%, and is actually unchartable. Scotty is just over 25 inches. He has grown less than an inch in three months. The doctor is a bit concerned and will monitor his growth carefully, and perhaps do a little testing at his 12 month check up. Although his weight is only in the 25% at 18 lbs, he is chubby and round, and looks just perfect to me!  I do worry about his height, but know God is in control. Hopefully he is just a slow grower! Scotty did finally grow a tooth! I am so excited for toothy grins from my little man.

Our family promoted for camp in a church this morning. I attended the ladies Sunday School class and was really blessed by the study this morning. The class was doing a Beth Moore study. (I forget now which one.)The lesson was on living a quiet life at home and having your family be your number one ministry. I feel as if this is not taught nearly enough today, even within our churches. So it is always so refreshing for me to hear anything on this subject, I just soak it in. And I am not going to lie, it is nice to feel validated every once in awhile. My husband does a fantastic job of this, but sometimes it is nice hearing from others, that my ministry in my home and as a wife and mother, truly is so very important.

Well, my little munchkin needs his mommy now. Have a wonderful Sunday afternoon/evening, Be blessed.