Tuesday, April 27, 2010

A Comedy of Errors

My life has turned into a comedy of errors. I mean, it has always been somewhat a comedy of errors but right when I was thinking we were in the clear the sky began to once again fall on top of us. In typical Roger and Jessica fashion all we can manage to do is laugh so hard we fall over into a puddle of tears.

There has been a lot of things going on but for this blog I am only going to focus on the past 5 days.

On Friday night we spent the night with my parents because we were in town for a conference. That night Anna refused to go to bed. She was too excited to see the grandparents and the puppies. That child is obsessed with dogs. Anyway, we finally got her in her bed around 2am. She literally crashed. One second she was jabbing away to me and the next she was asleep.

At 3am I woke up feeling like death and got really, really sick. The next morning Roger was suppose to go back to the conference so I was left alone with my sick self and two hyper active children on 5 acres. Exhausting.

On the drive back home, in the pouring rain, our power steering went out. Thank the Lord we were not on the interstate yet. That would have been HORRIBLE. We pulled over at a gas station and called for backup. My parents came to the rescue! Paul got upset so we got some food and had a "picnic in the car, in the pouring rain!!! It'll be so much fun Paul!!!" Then I explained that his uncle David was "a super hero that had a huge tow truck that would hook up to our car to take it to the shop " I then explained that Grandpa "would pick us up and drive us back home because he is AWESOME like that." His little eyes went from scared to really big and excited.

Monday morning Roger has to go to class so I was left at home without a car. Thankfully my stroller fitness class meets at the gym within walking distance of the house. However, it was raining. I toyed with the idea of not going but when faced with the realization that Roger wouldn't be home from class until 10pm, I bundled the kiddos up with blankets and umbrellas, threw my rain jacket over my spandex suit and took off in the freezing rain. It was cold, a little miserable but the rain on my face made me feel ALIVE!

This morning was the last straw. I about exploded. I'm actually surprised that my head didn't pop off. First, when I reached for the cereal in the cabinet I noticed a big hole chewed in the top. At first I thought it was hilarious that Anna would chew a hole in the cereal box, but then I noticed mouse poo. OH NO!!! There is a mouse in the house. Second, while I was in the middle of drying my hair, my hair dryer went out. It only blows cold air now. Don't you just hate that?? AAAH wet hair day!

Then on top of all that I just found out that my final exam in my Seminary class is a 14 page paper. It looks very practical and not too too hard, but when in the world am I going to do it? I thought about going away for the weekend, leaving the kids with Roger but then again Roger is trying to finish up his semester AND get a sermon together for Sunday. Hummmmmm Wonder how this is going to play out. I'm seeing some late nights, early mornings and lots of caffeine for the two of us.

So, needless to say, when Roger got home from class last night he immediately went to Ralley's and got us both a large order of french fry's (don't judge). We did the unthinkable; we snuggled in the bed, in our jammies and devoured every single fry before rolling over into a stress induced coma. We didn't even get up to brush our teeth (don't judge).

Saturday, April 24, 2010

In sickness and in Health

Last night we spent the night at my parent's house. At about 3am I woke up incredibly sick. I thought I was going to die. Actually I was praying for death. All the color drained from my face and I was sweating so much that I looked like I had just jumped from the shower. It was horrible. HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE

I managed to yell a small "ROGER." I knew there would be no way he would hear me but HE DID! And like the Super Hero he is, he came to my rescue and nursed me back from death. What you need to understand is that when I am sick I am the biggest baby EVER. I HATE being sick. So, he had to fight through my "just kill me. Just kill me. This is it Rog, I'm dieing." in order to make me feel better.

I'm thankful for a wonderful husband that takes his vows seriously "in sickness and in health."

Now, I sure hope I NEVER EVER EVER in my whole entire life feel that sick again.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

reflections on life

As Roger and I begin to prepare ourselves for the possibility of yet another change in our lives, I can't help but reflect on the past six years.



Being a young married couple, still in college, we didn't really think ahead far enough while we were planning our wedding as to where we were going to set up house after our oh so exciting honeymoon.



Let me explain.



We both had jobs in town and campus housing lined up for when the fall semester started but we were getting married in mid May and the college said no to us moving in over the summer. My first though was "well, we can live in my parent's basement until class starts. Then move into married student housing." My future husband said ABSOLUTELY NOT!" In retrospect I can understand his feelings. He wanted to provide a HOME for us. For US!!



One afternoon, about 2wks before our set wedding date, Roger was sitting on the back steps of the library on our college campus. He was praying specifically about our housing issue. Where could we find a place that was cheap and would rent to us from mid May to early August? That's when he looked up and saw the Baptist church across the street and remembered that they had a small room on the third floor of their Sunday school/ preschool building that they allowed the campus ministry intern to rent during the semester. He took it as a divine revelation and took off running across the road to speak to the minister. The plan was a go!



Let me describe our first place a residence:

It is a massive old house that the Baptist church owns. The bottom flour is a preschool. The second floor is used as Sunday school and a Wednesday afternoon men's fellowship lunch. The third floor, the attic, has been turned into a small bedroom. We stayed in the attic. There was enough room for a matres, a couch and a small closet. We had to go to the second floor to use the bathroom and cook in the kitchen.



Boy do I have some memories about that place. I'll never forget walking down the stairs in my pjs to get some breakfast, only to be met with a room full of smiling men. "Ooops. O forgot about that Wednesday fellowship lunch thing. Sorry. Let me just grab a pop tart and I'll be out of your way." Or the time we attempted to get a bed up three flights of stairs only to give up and be satisfied with a full size mattress on the floor. It wasn't the BEST of situations but it wasn't our parent's basement! It was our first home!



In August we moved on to campus. Being cheap we moved all of our stuff one car load at a time. It took forever. FOREVER I worked two jobs (campus safety dispatch and coffee shop barista) while Roger worked three (minister, campus library and campus safety dispatch) and we both went to college full time. It was rough but we were in it TOGETHER! So, you can imagine how shocked we were on November 27th, 6 months after getting married, when we discovered I WAS PREGNANT. :0 Oh NO



I wanted to crawl in a dark hole and die. Instead I went into the bathroom and refused to come out. When I finally did emerge I was greeted to a campus apartment FULL of candles and a smiling husband!



The following June, a month before Paul was due to arrive, we were informed rather abruptly that our college would no longer be providing married student housing and that we were to move out as soon as possible. Once again we FLOORED but OK, "I guess we'll put all our stuff in storage and move into a hotel until we find a place to rent."



Once again God provided and the President of our college offered to rent us a house that the college owned that just so happened to be within walking distance of campus. Good thing!! we only had one car and we were trying to figure out how we were both going to be able to make it to and from class with a BABY.



We gathered family together, trucks and vans, and moved to a little, old, crappy, falling down house that the campus owned and DID NOT take care of. I was 8 months pregnant and completely miserable. That was a HOT summer. HOT HOT HOT



Now, let me explain this crappy dwelling place that we were so incredibly blessed to have!



The porch was falling off (it finally did and the college put cation tape around the house. It looked condemned), there was a family of raccoons that lived in the attic, the gas furnace was ANCIENT, the tub leaked MASSIVE amounts of water, and the kitchen floor was so old that if you moped it the dirt turned into mud. But once again, it was HOME. We made it a home!!



A few things that I will never forget about that crappy house:

1. The raccoons

- It was snowing outside and I was making hot choc on the stove when I noticed a raccoon paw scratching through the light fixture. We called them all by the name of Sam "Oh look Roger. Sam wants some hot choc too. He's just part of the family!" That's when a bunch of the PHA's (his fraternity brothers) came over with axes and baseball bats, determined to rid our house of raccoons. It didn't work.



2. The leaking claw foot tub

- It got so bad that we would just turn the water off to the whole house. In the morning we would walk down into the dirt floor basement and turn it back on in order to take a shower. Or sometimes I would just walk over to the College's fitness center to shower and get dressed for class.



3. Having friends over at all hours.

- our house was right behind Roger's fraternity house. At all hours of the day and night we would get knocks on our door "Jasper, I need to talk. Can I talk to ya!" I think we were the resident PHA therapists!



4. Bring our first baby home

- That July we had little baby boy Paul!!! He turned into the campus baby. I'll never forget Dr. Ward rocking him while teaching class or the afternoon that come of the PHA guys offered to babysit while roger and I went on a campus date!



After Roger graduated from college I still had one more year. We decided to leave the old crappy house for an apartment across town. Little did we know that it was drug deal station. After several small issues....



- guns being flashed in the parking lot

- watching a drug deal take place while eating dinner on the patio

- having to call 911 after finding our neighbor trying to break into our back bedroom.



....... we decided to move.



When we moved into the triplex we though we were living the big life! We had a yard! now, we had to share it with three other families, but we had grass! We had a deck! we had a garage! Then all of a sudden we had another BABY! WHAT!?!??! There was just something about not feeling like we were living in the third world that made us unable to keep our hands off of one another. :)



A couple of months after Anna was born Roger was offered a youth minister job, that would later turn into an associate minister, 30 minutes away. We decided we had enough for a down payment why not buy a house! So, be bought our first home!



On the day of the closing we picked up Subway and ate lunch sitting in the living room floor. We later ran around the house doing crazy kid things. Just think of Tom Hanks in the movie "Big". We were that giddy and yes, THAT nervous.



Now we are in the mist of another change. A church that we have been watching from a distance since college is about to present Roger to the congregation for a vote. Within the next couple of weeks we will know whether are not we will be moving to a new town, to a new church Family, putting our first home up for sell and saying goodbye to the relationships we have formed over the last two years. It is scary. But we have been through so much TOGETHER. the key is TOGETHER.



After looking over all our past situations and how crappy they were, I couldn't help but notice a recurring theme. We were TOGETHER and we were HAPPY. We weren't always happy, there were those days or weeks of despair, but we were for the most part HAPPY. Because of that I have peace. I am peaceful about this new adventure in our lives and look forward to the relationship that will form along the way.



It is out story and I love OUR story!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Fishing on the Lake

I feel the need to write this blog to let the world know just how much I love my crazy, messed up extended family. I just do! There is NEVER a dull moment around them. I'm either laughing hysterically or crying my eyes out. WE are an emotional bunch but somewhere deep deep deep deep, way way way way down, we care a GREAT deal for one another.

WE just express it in very blunt ways "Hey, did you get that oil changed in your car?" translates into "Hey, I love you!"

You just have to learn to translate. And learn not to get your feelings hurt when your mother announces as soon as you get out of the car "yeah, you look horrible. Are you sick?" see that translates into "honey, are you tired? come here. I'll let you rest while I watch the kids!"

Last weekend I wanted to take Paul fishing but found out at the last minute that the stocked pond on the farm was no longer stocked. Oh no! But my uncle David was gracious enough to let us come out on his house boat with him to fish off the dock. Here comes the hilariousness of it.

When we first arrived we found my uncle sitting on a couch that he had placed on the dock with a fishing pool in his hand. He was fishing on a couch in his jean shorts, tennis shoes and no shirt! Oh and he had his traditional dip in! YES!!! It cracked me up!! Then later that day my other uncle, Travis, who has a house boat docked next to David's, came out of his house boat riding a water cooler that was made into a scooter. "Hey, guys!"

He rode that water cooler EVERYWHERE. At one point I looked out and saw him fishing on the water cooler. He then said "they aren't biting here." Then proceeded to keep his line in the water while he moved the cooler scooter down the dock. It was the craziest thing and it cracked me up. Of course we all had to take a ride on it. That thing goes FAST. And I must say it is pretty practical!

WE are all just so darn country that Roger gets that strange "umm I'm out of my element" face. Now THAT REALLY cracks me up. Roger on the lake or on a farm is rather HILARIOUS!

Paul ended up catching two fish on his first fishing trip and David let us have some of the fish that he had caught earlier so we would have enough to fry for dinner. Then we went back to my parent's house and mom made us some hushpuppies to go along with the fish. There is nothin' like sitting outside eating fish and hushpuppies! MMMMMMMMMM

Oh and we got to go out on the speed boat! I loved that. I like going fast on the water! But Anna thought she was near death. The child screamed and screamed and didn't stop until we were back on land. Paul however thought it was the BEST thing in the whole wide world!! Roger, well, he was Roger and just sat back and enjoyed the view.

ta ta for now!!!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Update

Sorry I have been unable to post anything on my two blogs lately. Our apple computer crashed. We found out it was a problem with the hard drive so the apple people are going to fix it for free! So, that is going to take forever. I'm in the public library right now. I had to sneak away. It is rather fun to sneak out of the house. I feel like a naughty teenager! Oh the small thrills I get!

On top of that Roger's car was hit while parked on the side of the road. A truck came around the corner carrying a trailer and drug our car down the road a bit, pulling the bumper. AAAHH

we have also been having issues with the people we received a grant from on the house. They let us have so much grant money to help with the down payment of the house if we signed a paper saying we wouldn't sell the house for 2 years. Well, just last week they called and said they messed up, that the grant was actually suppose to be that we couldn't sell the house for 5 years and that they were going to send another paper for us to sign that said 5 years on it instead of 2. We said "um we're not going to sign it." We have been living in the house for 2 years in November so there is no way we are going to sign a paper to cover their butts if they get audited.

Also, a small thing compared to the rest, I lost my cell phone charger. I am completely isolated from the world.

And I was informed that my battery life of my pacemaker is only 13months. So, a new pacemaker is going to be shoved into my arm within the next year. I watched a pacemaker surgery on youtube. Not a good idea. It looks super simple but it kinda made me want to vomit. I just kept thinking of my arm. I should totally stop youtubing surgeries that I am going to have to go through. Bad idea. Now I am freaked out.

Then the whole Easter thing. Gosh! Being married to a minister during lent, Easter and Resurrection Sunday REALLY REALLY sucks. I was so incredibly lonely. LONELY. There is something about waking up Easter morning alone in a house with two small children that just makes me depressed. Rog had to do the sunrise service and the main service. He managed to come home between the two services to see the kids and let me take a shower. Then late that evening he cooked dinner for his family. There should be special deacons assigned to the ministers family just to help the spouse get to church. (BIG SMILE)

I feel like Roger and I are rushing around like mad people taking care of the children and the church. Who is suppose to take care of us? I feel like being irresponsible with our tax rebate. Instead of saving it like we do every year, I want to go on vacation. We need a vacation. We deserve a vacation. Heck. If I don't get a vacation I am going to have to use the money for a therapist. There has been so much on us the past couple of months and there is still more to come. I need either a beach, a towel and a good book or a forest, a tent and a good book. Who wants to go?

Ok, I better get back to the house before Roger looses his mind with our two cute children. I love those two so so so so much! They crack me up! I wish I could have more. It depresses me that I can't physically have any more children. so, I guess we will adopt!

Oh and guess what. Our 6 year anniversary is next month. May 15th!! Super excited!

Bye you all! Keep us in your prayers.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

The do it 4 you project

I have a friend, Amanda, who works as assistant editor for Kentucky Monthly Magazine. Amanda has a great talent in being crafty. Walking into her house is like walking into an Art gallery. I'm pretty sure her garage even resembles an art studio. Who knows what crafty things one might find in the garage of a crafty person! Beware. You might be attacked by glitter.

One morning while driving to work, exhausted after a weekend full of crafting to make her already crafty home even more crafter, the Holy Spirit began to tickle her soul. The simple question popped into her head "what if I use my talents that I have been blessed with, to bless others?"  From there came the launch of the"Do it 4 You" project.  Take a look at the website to get a better understanding and to become a part of this.  

www.thedi4yproject.com

You can also find more information at her personal crafty blog: 

www.alovelyplacetoland.blogspot.com

So, today I am going to talk about my DI4  and how each day I Do it for my children so that they see the love of Christ through me. But getting to the point of feeling comfortable in my call to ministry has not been easy.
My major obstacle has been valuing my call, my talent. Simply put, parenthood is hard. God has currently placed me in the full time ministry of a stay-at-home parent. If I were to do anything other than what I am doing right now, I would feel that I was out of the will of God. But on days when Anna has been up all night screaming, Paul is asking me the same question over and over again, Roger has worked countless hours at the church and I am yearning for some adult interaction, I begin to feel overwhelmed. I start daydreaming about getting some mundane job with a nice quite office, with lots of paper work and sending the kids to daycare so that all I'll have to do during the week is feed them dinner and put them to bed. 
 
After about a year of internal wrestling I began to view family raising as an act of mercy that allows me to experience the presence of God, on a daily bases, through my children.  The simple acts of feeding, clothing, bathing and cuddling two small children in need of my love and care is a humbling experience. I truly see myself as a missionary. My home is my mission field.  It is where God has placed me. 

That is my DI4!!!  What is yours?  It could be something you are doing right now. It probably is. It just takes someone to point it out to you, to get you thinking about the deeper meaning behind those simple acts that you feel compelled to do on a daily bases. Each of us have talents and passions. We just need to take the time to change our thinking from self to others. Take the time and join the project. Are you waiting for a small Holy nudge?  This is your nudge!  Go do it!!  Do it 4 ..........?

www.thedi4yproject.com