This weekend and new developments

Hello Everyone!

Weekend Events:

Friday: Daniel and I hosted a young adults get together at the church office in our new life group room (which we should get pictures of as it is quite nice). We had about 9 people there, and we played wii and chatted, ate pizza and chatted, played Slapagories and chatted some more. It was fun!

Saturday: Daniel got up early and went to Melrose MA to work on a lady’s house for our first community project of the year. It went well, lots of folks showed up so he was able to be home around 3pm that day. He hung out at the house and I ran a few errands and early in the evening we got a call inviting us to a bon fire (don’t think woods and a huge fire with tons of wood…think on the deck with an outside fireplace anda few friends). Which was nice we just sat around the fire, ate cookies, made smores and talked. Daniel talked Alison into showing him how to catch and throw a lacrosse ball, so that was extra fun for him.

Sunday: I was baptized in the rain, on a rather dreary day, at the 1st-of-the-year baptisms and baby dedications for NLC at our 2nd cook out at the park. The water was cold, but around 30 people decided that it would not hold them back, and they were baptized right along with me! It was a great day, despite the weather. Daniel and Pastor Josh both had a hand in dunking me, the first dunk I didn’t quite make it under …my head hit the back of the pool…so I made them do it again! 2nd time was the charm.

New Developments:

I have started to create loogies, napalm loogies that will not hock out of my throat, and because I am pregnant the whole sensation of them stuck in the back of my throat makes me vomit! So that’s a delightful new development, that I would enjoy moving passed.

Sweet baby boy is now, 14 inches long and about 1.75 lbs. The average baby is about 20 inches long when born so he will grow a lot from now until his due date! Baby moves a lot now, and can be felt and seen and it’s awesome!

I think that is it from me…Love you all!

Why we are here!

Hey guys…I am so grateful and overwhelmed that God is using us and allowing us to be a part of something so huge. I got another example this week in this email to Chris (who leads worship sometimes and helps with video stuff in the office – AWESOME dude!) from an old friend he invited to church…

“So now that things have winded down for me a bit…what an amazing church you have. Such a different atmosphere then the standard ‘church’ atmosphere. The worship band was good as well-never knew how talented you were on drums by way.

So is it just me or is the church family, including the pastor that came on in the beginning, a young group of people? I dont mean that with a negative connotation just something I picked up on. And is the church a branch of many others around? I guess i could go online and just figure this out instead of ask you a zillion questions…

The pastor who did speak, wow, what a message… Chris we never really got to catch up more then that night, but I have been struggling for about a year and a half now- not wanting anything to do with cliche churches or religion, and everytime i would visit a church i would close up-too far from Gods presence to allow for change, yet desiring to KNOW God for who He is without relying on others interpretation. So church service after service i grew hardened towards church and towards God, I strayed, never completely, until recently-It’s amazing how God will bring you to your knees-as painful as it is-to ultimetly bring you back to Him. So through this whirlwind of change i’ve been experiencing since May, I have been inching my way back to God- your church was the first service i’ve attended since my hearts change… i was able to receive that message (and what a fitting one it was). exciting for me anyhow!

{it’s funny how God orchestrates things i tell you- makes my head spin sometimes}

Just pouring my heart out huh- it’s all good-it’s all from God.

So in closing—

Thanks for telling me about your church-I hope to visit again sometime.
and it’s been great getting back in touch, even in brief passings!”

THAT is why we are here and have given up so much to be a part of Next Level!

PS- Don’t forget to check out the new www.nlc.tv!

Huge photo update!

1-4) Ultrasound photos. In the ones that say profile on the bottom, you can kinda see lips and nose from a side view.
5-9) Pics of me from a staff photoshoot we had done by a pro who goes to NLC for the new website – www.nlc.tv
10-15) A mini-golf adventure with out friends Jacquie & Allan
16) The glory of eating a Loco Coco – the first thing to even resemble real Mexican food we have found around here.

Hope you enjoy the picture updates! If you hit up the new www.nlc.tv you will be able to visit the staff page and see a cool group shot from the photo session as well as picxs of the other guys!

Where have I been all week?

Sorry for the lack of blogging this week, but literally my entire week has been spent finalizing the brand new, utterly fantastic, long-awaited, much-needed, www.nlc.tv website! It is now live and active! Feel free to check out the hottest church website in history and let us know what you think…

A return to regular blogging should occur next week!

NEW website is ONLINE now!

The new, sparkling, long-awaited, incredible… www.nlc.tv is online now! Check it out!

Blog rebuttal and updates

Hey all…just a quick pit stop, as I can’t really stare at a computer for too much longer after the last few days. Why? Because I have spent the entire week (literally stayed at the office til 10pm last night) working on nothing except for our new website. I am hoping it will be going live tomorrow morning, but it is absolutely gorgeous and contains every every feature we have ever dreamt of having! Needless to say, we are excited!

In response to Katherine’s earlier post on names…here is my problem with Evan: it does not have any good nicknames. Van sucks as a nickname. Period. And I am all about giving the kid options.

As an additional response, yes I am worried about her not having a job. Income tends to help with paying the bills. In the meantime, we can not simply live off of no money or credit cards or whatever. Doesn’t work like that. So yes, I would like her to find a temp job. I am looking for something part time also, but my schedule is much less flexible, so that is tougher.  Even when I am making more at the church, it still won’t be a lot.

Katherine’s Favorite Boy Names

Here is the final list of boy names that I like ranked in order…feel free to comment and encourage Daniel to like my number one pick (haha 😉 )

1. Evan – God is gracious
2. Ezekial – Strength of God
3. Owen – Wise
4. Nathaniel – Gift of God
5. Conor – Young Warrior
6. Samuel – Asked of God
7. Josiah – Fire of the Lord
8. Jeremiah – Exalted of the Lord
9. Jedidiah – Beloved of the Lord

Feel free to throw together a first and middle name combo out of these 9 wonderful names (that mean something) …I personally like Evan Conor King as it means God is gracious young warrior king…which is awesome and I think a good strong name for a boy that might have to battle every once in a while for his health.

I am sure Daniel will get on here and post his own favorites…but remember I am the MOTHER and have to either push this boy out or get sliced open to birth this child…so I should get a majority of the votes!! (ha!)

Love you!

How we are doing

Hello Friends and Family!

Daniel and I just got done with another week…of normalcy! So that’s good. I know for me, I have been able to relax and enjoy life per usual, and  even though I know that the baby could have problems when he arrives, I trust God to ensure that he will arrive and what ever comes our way will be manageable!

I get to travel home to visit my family in July (which Daniel already mentioned) and Daniel’s dad and step mother, Leslie, are coming to visit in Aug. Baby will be born in Sept (hopefully late Sept) and my mother is scheduling herself to come in around the same time! This year has been FULL of visitors and that has just been wonderful for us! There was talk of Terrence and Alma coming out this summer…but I have not heard anything firm from them.

My next doctors visit is on the 2nd of July, and on the 4th I am flying out to Idaho. That gives me the most time with my family as I don’t have to rush back to another appt and I don’t have to rush back to my job (as I am done with this one this month and have not found a replacement). Daniel is SO stressed about that whole “jobless’ situation, but I really am not, which I think stresses him out more and makes him irritated!

I just wanted really to pop on here, and tell everyone HELLO and that we are doing well…and of course that we love all of you; thank you for praying for us, thank you for supporting us, and all of your words of encouragement and love!

Quick update

Hey everyone…just wanted to stop in really quick and tell you about the last couple of days.

Last night we had the training for the Content Management System on our new church website that should be launching next week. It is AMAZING!! Then Katherine and I had a great time relaxing at home.

Today, we realized we had no food, so we went to the store, picked up some things for church tomorrow, and we picked our wii that friends had borrowed. Then we went out with our friends Jacquie and Allan. It was cool. We played mini golf, then we drove around and finally found a mexican place I had heard of but never found. It was called Loco Coco’s or something and it was surpisingly pretty good! It is nowhere near like Tacos de Juarez or Taco Villa…but it was by far the best we have found around here – and they serve mole! So I was sold. We also grabbed some ice cream at Dover Delite which was good of course. So, it was a nice day.

Tomorrow, we have Father’s Day and also a special Pastor’s appreciation day planned for Josh…and then a HUGE week next week.

We also booked Katherine’s visit home for July 4-13 (yay for free plane ticket vouchers!) which she is very excited about, but I will be very lonely during.

Shoudl have some pictures to post soon. Love you all!

A good news update!

Hello friends and family!!

I failed to go to my regular doctors appt yesterday 😦 as Daniel needed the car…and I HAD just seen Dr Thompson on Monday…so I really didn’t think it was a big deal to reschedule that. BUT, I did make it to my high risk OB/GYN and we got to see the baby (I just love that) and the doctor said ***** FLUID LEVELS ARE UP!! ***** Which is awesome! I was at a 5 last Thursday and today we are at 7!

YEE HAW and praise the LORD!

I had been planning on visiting my family prior to all of this baby kidney madness, and asked the doctor if it was still ok to travel…and he said YES! He also stated that I can start coming in every other week and not have to visit once a week! AND if the fluid levels remain in this higher range he did not see why we should not be able to deliver at 39 weeks (which is ALMOST full term)!!

FOUR GOOD THINGS IN ONE VISIT!

MAN!! I love it when things start working out!

They gave me a photo of the baby’s profile (we can never seem to get his face straight on) so I will have Daniel scan it in and post it soon!

Love all of you! Keep praying!!