Francis Chan Video

This is the video I talked about in my "This is it" blog post. It is a MUST SEE! Watch and enjoy!

Catalyst East 2010: Francis Chan from Catalyst on Vimeo.

322 Days

322 Days. That's how much time I have left until Malia goes to kindergarten. Add another 365 days to that and both Malia and Pressley will be in school all day long and I will be at home with only one girl! Things will be so different then. I can't even imagine what that will be like! So, in the meantime, I have made a promise to myself to make the most of these next 322 days with all three girls at home.
While our situation here is definitely not my ideal situation, renting a townhouse rather than owning a home, yet owning a home in Pittsburgh that hasn't sold yet, I have promised myself that I'm going to not make that the focus of this year, but enjoy every second that I have with them before school starts next fall. In attempt to follow through with that promise, we have been craft and fun crazy around here! We've made all kinds of fun Halloween and fall decorations, played in the park that is walking distance from our townhouse, had movie nights at Wegman's, dance parties in the kitchen, baked a homemade cake and enjoyed every minute of swimming at the YMCA! It's been the most fun and memorable moments I've had with everyone! It's been a blast! I hope the next 322 days go in slow motion, but in case they don't (they never do), I've got my camera to capture all these fun moments and freeze them forever!

We are Penn State!

We took a trip to campus tonight to walk around and get some photos with the lion...unfortunately the girl who snapped the one of all of us took some blurry shots, and I didn't realize til I uploaded them :-(...oh well...it's not like we can't do it again! Here are some shots from our night. We had fun!

Out takes

Here are some fun out takes from our Goose, Bug and Bee photo shoot! Some are not edited, but I thought they'd be fun to post!

Slobber Face and Fashionista

I had so much fun with Isabella this afternoon! She didn't take a very long nap at all, but she was a happy girl when she woke up! While Justin was taking a little nap on the couch downstairs, I laid with her on the floor for about a half an hour and just played with her. We bounced on my leg like a pony and she kept leaning over and grabbing my face and slobbering all over it. I was literally drenched in baby spit-it was running down my face! We were both laughing so hard and having so much fun though! She's so sweet! I just love her so much!

It was a pretty good day over all. The fall weather has been incredible...cool and breezy. I just love it. The girls and I walked around this morning and picked leaves to make a leaf collage. It didn't turn out the way I had hoped. We laid them on wax paper and I doubled it over and tried to iron the pieces together, but they didn't stay together too well. It was still fun though. Once Justin got home (earlier than expected! Yay!), we hung a few more things on the walls and put a few more things away, then headed out to walk the mall and eat at a little pizza place we had a gift card for. Pressley just cracked me up with the outfit she decided to go out in...black heart pants, under a pink skirt with a purple t-shirt on, a baby bathrobe over that and a football bead necklace. Over all that she was wearing her Hello kitty track jacket and a head band in her hair like a hippie would wear. She has a style all her own! She's so funny!




So that was my day anyway...so fun, as usual! I love my girls...it's never a dull moment around here!

Tooth!

Ladies and Gentlemen...we have a tooth!! Isabella's smiley face won't be toothless for much longer. :-( She has a tiny little dot on her bottom gum.

Snapshots

I just wanted to remember this little snapshot of Isabella as I came to pick her up from the church nursery on Saturday...
She did great when I dropped her off, and she was in class with Pressley, so I'm sure it was nice for her to have a familiar face with her. But the best part was when I went to pick her up after the service. She was standing up holding onto a chair and Pressley ran over screaming my name and gave me a huge hug. Isabella looked at me and had this sweet smile that just grew all over her face and she reached her hand out and made "grabby fists" at me. Then, (the saddest part), she just collapsed onto the floor in tears. I got down on my knees calling her name and she ran/crawled to me. So very sweet...absolutely the best greeting I've ever received from my girls.

Prayer Time

Malia's prayer last night:
"Jesus I pray that you would love me forever. I love you. And I pray that you would make everyone not be bad. Thank you for the world. Thank you for my family and my friends. Thank you for the world. Thank you for my stuffed animals. Amen."

Day 2

We had such a fun day today! Justin headed out to help sort uniforms for work and the girls and I spent the morning playing Barbies and having a dance party. I did some unpacking too and hung some pictures in their room. Our couches will not fit downstairs, so unfortunately our seating is kinda screwy right now until we can find something that will fit through the doorway. Once Justin got home, we ran to Aldi to get some MUCH needed groceries, and then ran to Wegman's to try out their cafe and grab a quick dinner. To our surprise, they had a free kid's movie night! So we ate in the cafe and watched The Lion King 2. Apparently they do it as a monthly activity...so we will definitely try to come back next month! The girls had so much fun. They passed out coupons you could cash in for a free snack and juice box. Malia was thirsty and wanted a drink, but she was too shy to take her ticket in, so she had Pressley walk with her and they did it together, then Pressley went back a few minutes later to get Isabella her snack and drink. We didn't even make it through the store, but it is an awesome place. I can't wait to go back and check it out. I could spend hours there just getting lost in all the selection that they have...it reminds me of a Giant Eagle Market District. On the way home we saw a rainbow in the sky...I will say, the sky is pretty incredible here-especially against the autumn colored mountains!

This is it!

Well, this is it, our last day in Pittsburgh. Justin picks up the moving truck today and we begin our adventure to State College. I've come a LONG way over the last 5 months of this transition. Five months ago I could not bear the thought of moving. I did not like State College and I wanted nothing to do with going there. Funny, because I've always said, "I'll go where ever, whenever..." and then we bought our house and I was ready to be settled. (A lot of that had to do with trying to sell our last house for 19 months...we listed it in January 2008, and sold it June 2009). So the thought of "doing it all again" was just an exhausting thought. And, selfishly, if it were somewhere "I" wanted to go, I think I would have been more open to the idea. The funny thing is 8 years ago, when we moved to Pittsburgh, I didn't really want to come here. Not that I didn't want to move somewhere then, I had just hoped it would have been south...I have always wanted to move south. But now, here we are, and though I am super sad to be leaving so many friends behind, I am also excited to start new and see what God has in store for us. It has been an AMAZING time of growth and trust in God over the last 3 months. I never in a million years would have imagined how God would have shown himself to us and provided for our every need. This should have been the most stressful summer ever, as Justin's job was done July 5 and he's been unemployed pretty much since then, and yet, we have been supported in crazy ways, not having to worry about much really and being able to enjoy some sweet time together as a family. The most stressful thing for me through this whole process has been not having health insurance since September 1 and having to take Isabella to the doctor 2 times in Sept/Oct for what I swore was an ear infection, but ended up being nothing. It definitely changed my perspective for those without insurance who are in much more difficult situations than we are. Our situation is temporary and my children are very healthy. The other difficult thing has been knowing some people look at us like we are crazy without knowing the whole situation or asking about it or making a ton of assumptions about what we are doing and why. It frustrates me for Justin because I know what a heart he has for college kids, and I know he's going to do amazing things with this non-profit he's working so hard to get off the ground. I saw Francis Chan's talk on the Catalyst website last week and I so resonated with what he was saying. He left his church of 16 years and he is planning to go to Asia. He's not really sure what God is calling him to do there, he just knows he's suppose to go...here's part of his talk that I just LOVED....

I feel like God is showing me something new, something like the early church in Acts.

My wife said to me that she was reading the Bible and everything we’re doing just seems perfectly normal. This is what’s in there. It fits perfectly. I don’t understand when people don’t understand what we’re doing.

People label me and they say I’m radical. If you put my story in chapter 12, James killed, Peter jailed, Francis went to Asia. Whoa, he’s radical, he’s insane! No, you’d just skip right over me. Let’s get back to Peter. If you put your life in this book, what is weird, the person who just goes and follows his calling and whatever else, or is it the rest of it that’s weird.

You can read his whole talk here:

http://willfjohnston.com/2010/10/07/francis-chan-catalyst-2010/

Anyway, I'm not saying that what we're doing makes us better or whatever, I'm just saying that I don't understand why getting a job (that we are incredibly thankful for) at Chic fil a to provide for your family financially and have insurance so that you can get a non-profit up and running is crazy. It's a means to an end and working in a college town allows for so many opportunities that we may not even know about yet...Justin teaching at Penn State, getting another degree, allowing me to do photography...who knows. Not to mention how many students he will be able to impact and share Jesus with. So, that being said...God has truly shown me that we are headed in the right direction. It doesn't make it any less sad or hard to leave friends. I still have so many unanswered questions...like why did we just buy a house a year ago, and why hasn't that house sold yet, but I'm trying to take it a step at a time and trust that God's plan is better than mine...it has to be, right? I've tried hard enough over the last few months to convince him that my plans are fabulous, but as I'm seeing, he doesn't always agree...he has better things in mind and he'll let me see them when he's ready. (that's no fun for a VERY impatient person, such as myself:-)

Oh, and as for not wanting to come to Pittsburgh 8 years ago, I have really enjoyed my time here. It has become almost like home to me...I will miss many things about living here, but I won't miss the lack of sun! I have been very thankful that the sun has decided to shine the last few days living here. It's made a sad last week a little bit happier! I hope to look back over the next 8 years and feel just at home at State College.

10 Fun Things About A 10 Month Old

Isabella is 10 months old! She's becoming more and more fun and so expressive! Here are 10 of the latest tricks she's been up to:

1. Pointing to everything she passes and saying "oooh!".
2. Crawl/running
3. Alligator rolling when she has to get in her car seat or have her diaper changed. She's not a fan of either.
4. Cute finger-curled waves every time the van door opens.
5. Kicking her legs and bouncing excitedly while on my hip.
6. Nuzzling my shoulder when she gets shy around people she doesn't know.
7. Growling.
8. She goes limp when you carry her away from somewhere she wants to be.
9. She clicks with her tongue.
10. Waving to "The Baby in the Mirror".