Won't you be my neighbor!!!!

.....Thank you, Mr. Rogers for that song!

I thought I'd update my faithful followers on my endeavor to make friends with our new neighbors.

When we first moved into our house our great friend's Troy and Tirzah made a plate full of warm cookies for us. The plate has this cute little design and a phrase that basically talks about passing the plate through your neighborhood. It's cute and I wish I would have taken a picture of it before I passed it on.

I woke up yesterday and baked a batch of brownies and wrote a little welcome card and prepared them on that cute little plate. At around 11am I took the kids next door with our plate of goodies and rang the door bell. The windows were open so I could hear the kid(s) yelling, "MAMA!!!" but no one ever came to the door. I went home and waited until about 4pm and tried again. This time a young woman (maybe like 19?? or she just looks really young) and a little girl in nothing but a diaper and necklace answered the door. I said, "Hi! I'm your next door neighbor and I just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood by giving you this plate of brownies." She looked at me and said in a thick accent, "How much?" I replied with, "No, no it's free! I just wanted to give them to you." She then went on to say something in Spanish, all I caught was "su plato". I tried again telling her I didn't want the plate back and she told me she doesn't speak English...

My Spanish is terrible!! I can understand quite a bit but can't speak it worth beans! ;) Needless to say, it was very awkward! I felt really silly as I walked the 23 steps back to my front door wondering if I had just made a complete fool of myself and hoping that she understood what I was trying to say.

Then........ as I was walking back from visiting another neighbor later that evening my new next door neighbor was sitting on her front step and she made eye contact and waved with a big smile on her face. I think I made a good first impression!! I may not have been able to verbally communicate with her, but I think she felt welcomed into our neighborhood.

I now need to go practice my Spanish!!! My goal is to find out her name, how many kids she has and their names and ages. Anyone know what the Spanish word for brownies is?? She asked me if they were 'pastels' which I know is the word for cake... but wasn't sure if it could also be the word for brownie...?

I don't know all the details about my new neighbors, but I do know they look like a young married couple with at least one kid the same age as mine!!!!! God is SOO good to provide exactly what I asked Him for!

P.s. I learned a trick when I was a student at CFNI. To keep your brownies from getting over cooked on the edges put some tin foil around them when the edges have finished cooking and then continuing baking the brownies until the middle is done.

If my hair looked like that I'd DYE!!!

So this is a continuation of my last blog....

I wanted to tie these pictures into the last blog, but they didn't really fit. So I thought I'd tell you all how I feel about dying my hair.

It all started back in the 6th grade when I dyed my hair for the first time, it was a mix between red and purple... from there it went to pink (more times than once), purple, brown, blonde.. or should I say orange, and back to brown. I used to love dying my hair!!!

I think it was my junior year of high school that I stopped completely and just let my hair go back to it's original color.

My first semester of CFNI I noticed all the girls colored their hair and I wanted to fit in. So when I went back CO for Thanksgiving I had my faithful hairdresser (Devin) highlight my hair blonde. I needed to ease myself back into this habit.

Me and Devin in the process of highlighting my hair

Vinny and I after my hair was complete

P.s. Vinny is one of my best friends... and he's single... ahem ladies... any takers??? :)

Since this experience went so well I decided I wanted chunkier highlights when I came home for Christmas, so it was back to Devin's house for round 2....

At this moment I was anticipating great results....

AHHHH!!!!!! What happened?!

Yes, it was that bad. We went to the store and bought brown dye so she could do low-lights and it wasn't enough so I went home and called my next favorite hairdresser.. Jordan!!! He came over and dyed my hair back to brown.

The next experience I had was my last. I decided to go almost black because Jordan thought it would look good on me. Thankfully it faded very quickly. :)

I haven't dyed my hair since and I'm happy having just plain brown hair.

Now, let's talk about finding a good hair dresser, hair stylist, hair artist.. whatever it is you want to call them! Devin went to a vocational school for cosmetology and I was her hair dummy. The first time she ever cut my hair it took well over 2 hours because she was so terrified of messing it up. I can't even count how many times she's cut my hair since then! I always had free hair cuts in high school because she needed to practice.

When I moved to Texas I found a lady who worked at Super Cuts (don't judge me I was a poor college student)... anyways, she cut my hair the entire time we lived in Texas and she was great! By the end of our time their, she knew exactly how I like my hair cut and I had full confidence in her. I like my hair in a bob/a-frame, thinned and cut with a razor. I loved being able to walk in and not have to say any of that and walk out being satisfied.

Ever since we moved back to CO I've had a hard time finding someone I really like. Unfortunately, getting a hair cut that costs $50 isn't in our family budget, so I still go to Great Clips, Super Cuts or Cost Cutters to get my hair cut... One day I will splurge and get an expensive hair cut.

Okay enough about hair... for now! :)

It's not Barbie hair...

I have love/hate feelings when it comes to getting my hair cut... as I'm sure most of us do.

When I was 14 I was visiting family in Wyoming and for some reason I thought my aunt knew how to cut hair so I begged her the entire weekend to cut my hair. As she was cutting she said, "Are you sure you want me to do this?" And I replied with, "It's not Barbie hair, it will grow back." Well, after 4 hours in the car, I hated it!!! It was about chin length and I wasn't used to having my hair so short. It was a Sunday evening when we got home and I called every hair salon in a 20 mile radius and they were all closed. I told my mom I refused to go to school the next day... she made me go and said, "wear a hat." As if a hat would cover up my new hated hair cut. After school my mom took me to Great Clips and I had the lady cut my hair to about 2 inches... as if that would solve my problem... I wish I had a picture on my computer of my hair that short. Jordan called it my boy hair cut.

Then I was on the journey of growing my hair out. I definitely had some scary hair styles during that time and remember this is during my freshmen/sophomore year of high school.

I never learned how to style my hair with the curling iron and do cute things with it until I was like 20... This is why you NEED girl friends! They can help you with these kinds of things.

Now let's take a look down memory lane shall we??

This is my first semester of college... frightening...

My niece got her hair from me

Remember when I said girl friends can help you with your hair... the night this photo was taken they were not helping at all.. :)

I dyed my hair my second semester of college... not getting any better

The humidity in Texas did wonders for my hair, especially after I cut it

I found a good hair style (the picture above is the same hair cut, just curly)

This is how I wore my hair after Jayden was born.. similar to the picture above.

But I grew it out

Then chopped it off

Grew it out again..

And guess what?? I cut it off... again...

You've got a friend in me..

Proverbs 18:24

"A man that hath friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."

This is in no way a pitty party for myself... I just want to be real.. (this is Jordan's most hated phrase used by preachers, "Can we just be real??")

Anyways, I feel like I've had a really hard time making female friends since I was in middle school. In high school my best friends were guys. There was a group of about 7 of us and I was the only girl. I just really wanted a girl best friend who loved the Lord who was my age. Well I came across a few amazing girls who became my closest friends.. the only problem was an age gap of 9 years in one direction and 5 in the other.

When I left for college I was so excited because I knew that I was bound to make a few great friends who were Christians and my age! I loved it.. for the first time I had more female friends than I did male friends and it was so much fun staying up with these girls and talking about hair and make up and fashion and Jesus!!!! The night before graduation I came home to one of my roommates (who I lived with for 3 of the 4 semesters and a summer semester) crying. She was feeling the same way I was about all of us leaving and going off. I was getting married in two weeks, she was about to go to Central America for a couple of months and the other girls were either going on to finish school or moving back home or getting married. I wasn't ready for the few close friends I made to all go off in different directions!

When Jordan and I got married we were really good friends with another young couple, Landon and Kristin. Landon was our pastor's son. The 4 of us actually "lived" together for awhile. Landon and Kristin were renting a house in Rockwall and when Jordan and I were in transition from graduating the 3rd year program and going to Guatemala they graciously let us stay with them for a few weeks. We also used to go to their house on Sunday afternoons after church so we could nap and then we'd all hang out the rest of the evening. It was so nice to have friends that we both liked and enjoyed being around.

Then when we moved back to Colorado I found myself in the same situation I was in before... I really didn't have any girlfriends my age... I did make new friends... but they either aren't my age or they aren't Christians. It didn't really effect me until lately. Since I'm home with the kids all day my main source of social interaction is Facebook... not exactly satisfying for a social butterfly like myself. It doesn't matter how many friends you have on Facebook, if you don't have face to face contact with real people you don't have as many friends as you thought you did.

So I say all of that to say this... "I NEED FRIENDS...." haha

I don't want to complain about how I don't have any friends and about how desperate I am for female interaction. So I'm doing something about it. I've taken this verse (proverbs 18:24) to heart and decided I'm going to show myself friendly.

There was a young married couple at church today that I REALLY wanted to introduce myself to but I wasn't able to because I had to the run the words, so next week it is my goal to be-friend them... or just introduce myself... either way I will show myself friendly!

I'm really hoping our new next door neighbors will be a young Christian couple... too much to ask?? ;) I plan on baking them some goodies and showing myself friendly when they move in. Even if they're an old couple who aren't Christians it will still be good to show myself friendly.

Showing myself friendly isn't always very easy for me. I've never liked it at church when they say, "go greet someone new".. I typically sit down in my chair and read the bulletin. They used to do it at CFNI as well I would just talk to my roommates or Jordan because they were always sitting next to me.

Another thing about being me is that I'm a young mother. I was 21 when I had my first kid. It's very difficult finding people my age with kids the same age as mine. We took the kids to the library for a story time group and of course I was the youngest mom in there. I have several friends my age with kids the same age as my kids... the only problem is that most of them live in Texas or they moved back 'home' after CFNI and they live in Wisconsin!

Okay enough about this... I've stood on my soap box and told the world about my problem.. now I'm going to climb down and do something about it!!

Oasis Church

When Jordan and I moved to Texas for Bible College we started a new season together. For the first time both of us had to choose a new church. We visited about 6 churches total and finally found the one we belonged at. We went to 3 mega churches and new it wasn't for us and we went to a couple smaller churches. Right after we moved to Dallas hurricane Katrina hit and ya know, it's interesting what preachers speak about during a natural disaster. I remember visiting this one church and they're theology was so off that it was a big red flag that this is not where we were supposed to be.

While waiting in the cafeteria line Jordan met a kid named Landon. They immediately hit it off and got to talking about music. Landon's family had just moved from Memphis to plant a church in a suburb of Dallas. The following week Jordan went to the youth service and fell in love with the pastor's family. The next week I went with him and realized why he wanted to make Oasis our home church. The Huie's are some of the most amazing people I've ever met. They all know what their anointing is and walk in it. I got to talking about children's ministry with Pastor Barney and Ms. Cindy and before I knew it I was the children's pastor, Jordan was playing drums every Sunday and Tuesday and we were in the middle of something great!!

We served faithfully for 2.5 years at Oasis. It was one of those seasons in life where I grew so much in my own walk with God, as a person and in the ministry. I learned so much just by being hands on and under the leadership of great, God fearing people.

I miss Oasis a lot and the mentorship of our pastors. I still think about the words that they spoke into our lives all the time. I hope that one day Jordan and I will be as great of leaders as Pastor Barney and Ms. Cindy.

The Huie's

My first semester as Children's Pastor

My core group of kids!!!

Learning About The Armor of God

Sewing...

Awhile ago I bought a new heating pad and I was a little disappointed when I got home. I'm happy that the cover is removable so that it can be washed, but the only thing keeping it on is a little snap button that doesn't work very well. Anytime I move and it's on my back the darn thing pops open and slides right off. So I bought some velcro to fix my little problem and went to sew it on using the sewing machine. It was a disaster... I didn't know what I was doing and I just got frustrated and quit. Well my lovely husband said he would sew it for me... I know it's pathetic that I have to ask my husband to do these things for me... anyways, he doesn't use the heating pad so he has been procrastinating sewing on the velcro.

Well today I had had enough of it and I decided to break out a needle and thread and sew it by hand.. that lasted all of 2 minutes. When I realized how long it was going to take to actually sew 4 pieces of velcro on I gave up the idea of hand sewing and grabbed the sewing machine. I got it all set up on the kitchen table and was able to sew 8 lines to secure the 4 pieces of velcro. Let me tell you, sewing machines are very intimidating. I actually almost gave up after the first line because when I started the second line the thread broke and I didn't know how to put it back through the little obstacle course that it must go through before it can actually be sewn into fabric. I figured it out and endured 'til the end! I re-did one of the lines because it was so terrible!

It's not perfect but it's a start. I needed to get my feet wet when it comes to sewing and I think this was the perfect project since I'm the only one who will probably ever see it... and Jordan of course.

P.s. Last Black Friday Jordan saw Target had this little sewing machine on sale for $40 so he bought it for himself for Christmas... he's been begging me since we got married to buying a sewing machine. So it actually belongs to him. :)

Moby Wrap

A few weeks ago my sister discovered that Moby wraps are super easy to make. She went out and bought the material to make both of us Moby wraps. Well.... I became impatient and went out and bought material to make one for myself since I haven't seen my sister in a while and I'm not sure when the next time we'll be able to get together.

I did a little research to find out the right material, length, etc. that I would need to make this wrap. If you would be interested in making this wrap you'll need 5 yards (yes, 5 yards!!!!) of a jersey knit material. I used a material made of 95% cotton and 5% spandex. You'll need to make sure whatever material you choose doesn't fray when cut, it should roll. When you get the material home cut off any jagged edges. You need to fold the material in half and then take the ends and fold over to make a triangle. Cut the triangle to make a tapered end. That's it... seriously, super easy!

For instructions on how to wear the wrap and how to put your baby in, check out mobywrap.com or search moby wrap on youtube.com

It cost me $20 for the material but I had enough to cut it half and make one for my expecting sister in law! It costs about $40 to buy one from Target so for a quarter of the price I made one myself!

Wearin' my baby!

Gabri enjoyed it so much she fell asleep!