Albuquerque!

Well, it's been an interesting few weeks around here! Crazy busy with summer activities....VBS last week, kids' camp this week! I'm exhausted! In the meantime, we had an opportunity presented to us about church planting in Albuquerque. Chris and I have wanted to do this forever; we even considered it when Chris was finishing seminary, but it wasn't the right time. A missionary friend of ours is heading out there, and he was needing an associate planter. Chris and I prayed about it, and we feel like this is where God is moving us! Kind of scary....I didn't even know how to spell Albuquerque! I'm totally excited, though. It's going to be totally different from anything I've ever experienced, and we're planning to start a church unlike anything I've ever experienced. It's going to be hard and great and stressful and fun and all kinds of other stuff, and I'm pumped! We move mid-August. I have teaching committments here until then. I had to tell my boss that I couldn't take that comfy full time job this year, and that kind of stinks, but I just have to think God's got something even better for me in New Mexico!

We're heading out there in a little over a week to find a house and hopefully have some interviews lined up. Chris will be going back into nursing, so we've both put in some apps at a few places. Please pray that we'll find a house and jobs! Obviously, I'd love to teach, but I've applied for some other positions as well.

We've told Caleb. He was a little disappointed at first about not getting to be a Westside Warrior this fall, but he decided it would be cool to go to a "desert school." Of course, he also told me he wanted to see a camel when we move to the desert. Not that kind of desert! Maybe he'll settle for a lizard or something!

Please pray for us as we make this move that God would use us in a mighty way to impact the folks in Albuquerque. 80% of the population is unchurched there....they need Jesus!!!!

Some pics....

Just wanted to share a few pics from the last few days....

Caleb is God's warrior! He learned about the armor of God and got to bring home the costume....the breastplate and belt are in Chris's truck, so we improvised!

Here are some of Joshua in his big boy undies!

How cute is he!?

Weird Day

Hope you all had a better Monday than I had! I didn't tell many folks (cause it's not something I enjoy talking about!), but I have had belly issues for about a year now. So I finally broke down and went to the doctor. Of course, being the great nurse that I am, I self diagnosed myself, but the doc just wouldn't give me what I wanted! He wanted to do a....colonoscopy. YUCK! I knew he would say that; it's why I took so long to go. So, I skipped church last night to do the prep. I was more scared of that part because I would be completely conscious for that! It wasn't as bad as I had dreamed it would be :), but no fun nonetheless. Got up super early this morning. Praise the Lord for great friends who watched my kids and took care of me afterwards while Chris had to work! It would happen that the nurse who got me ready was a lady I teach with! I guess that's better than being the nurse actually in the procedure. Honestly, I don't remember much after that. Yipee for drugs! Thankfully, everything turned out OK. No major problems. Praise God!

So, I pretty much slept a lot of the day away due to the drugs. This afternoon after Chris got home we went outside for a while. My plan is to start potty training Joshua tomorrow, so we went and bought big boy undies for him the other day. He brought Chris the package right before we went outside, and Chris put a pair on him. Totally cute! You could tell he thought he was so big! He wanted to go to the bathroom outside once he saw Caleb (yes, my son loves going outside!), but he couldn't figure out how to make it happen. We eventually had an accident, but at least he's getting the idea. Hopefully, he'll be as easy to potty train as Caleb.

We had a wonderful evening playing at the park. I'm feeling much better now! I needed to get out of the house. The kids just love the playground. I really need to take them more often. Joshua is fearless out there! He loves the slides. He can do the same thing over and over again. Caleb's getting into climbing....up the ladders, up the slides (not down!), etc. Such a fun time watching the boys!