A New Chair...

Thanks to wonderful C.G. we have an awesome new chair, that is just for Faith...a highchair!!! We were so excited when it arrived. We just cannot believe that Faith is ready to start trying rice cereal. She had a lot of fun trying out her new chair. She was such a big girl....she even tried some cereal. Her face was pretty funny as she scrunched it up when I put the spoon in her mouth. Here are some pictures of Faith enjoying sitting in her chair for the very first time.

My New Favorite Picture

The other day, I gave Faith a bath, and we had an impromptu photo-shoot afterwards. This photo just turned out so awesome, and is m current favorite!

Say Cheese...

Some pictures of Faith that were taken recently....

Faith's New Trick

Faithie has learned a new trick...she can scream at will. It's hard to not think it's cute, when she is obviously getting so much enjoyment out of her new found skill (Although at 5:30 this morning, when she was wide awake, and screaming for fun, it was not very cute.). At some point, squeals of delight have morphed into screams of delight. My, how fast the time is going with her. She'll be rolling over before we can blink...

I caught a video of her a couple of days ago, laying on a blanket during some play time. In it, she is screaming and accidentally rolls to her side a couple of times...it's pretty cute. (Before you play the video, stop the playlist at the bottom of the screen, so that you can hear her...)

Our So Called Sitcom Life

Have you ever had just one of those days? A day where you are sure that the Lord has a sense of humor, that He just loves irony, and He has your number? We had a day like that yesterday. We decided to attend a parenting class Friday evening. Derek's mom came over to babysit Faith, and we headed out for an evening together.

We drove thirty minutes before we arrived at the elementary school where this class was being hosted. But, as we tried to enter the school, we found the doors locked. Perplexed, I pulled out my registration form. No, the class was definitely at the elementary school. "Umm, hun?" Derek said to me, "The 25th was yesterday." Did I mention that I do calendar time with my 4-K class, not once, but twice a day??? Yes, I did think it was the 25th, even though I had put the apple with the 26th clearly marked on the calendar twice.

Well, since we had a babysitter and were free for the evening, we decided to go out to dinner. We had a fun time together, and decided to head home. On our way home, we were discussing our expanding family. We debated how long my little Escort Wagon (which we were driving) would be able to meet our needs. We decided we probably had a couple of more years using this car before we needed to upgrade to a larger, more family-friendly vehicle. Derek said we should be able to get another 60K miles out of my little tank, which already sports over 125K.

No sooner were the words out of his mouth when the car lost power, and we stopped accelerating (Do you see the irony?). Derek thought it had popped out of gear (It's a manual), but that was clearly not the issue. We pulled over to the side of the road, as cars whizzed past us at 70 plus miles per hour. It was dark out, and we said a little prayer that we would be kept safe.We called for a tow truck, but were told it would be over an hour and a half before they would be there to get us.

We stepped over the guard rail, and waited. I prayed that a police officer would see us and stop....they never seem to be around when you really need one. After about thirty minutes our prayer was answered when a very nice State Trooper (who looked for all the world like Nick Stokes from CSI), did stop and waited behind us with his lights on for the tow truck. Eventually the tow truck showed up. Derek and I squeezed in the cab with the driver, and his helper. That was not a comfortable ride! A few miles from home, the two truck broke down - I kid you not. We ended up getting a tow for our tow. We did eventually make it home, safe and sound, but it was quite the evening.

Too Cute

Faith loves her puppies! She needs some shirts to tell the world...or at least the folks at her childcare. I went to cafepress.com and found these cute items. Can you say shopping spree?!?

Life is crazy!

It's been a couple of weeks since I've had a spare moment to post anything. School has started, our church has moved locations, Derek's been working overtime, Faith has started childcare, the dogs demand attention...needless to say, we are busy!!! But, overall, things are going pretty good.

My student teaching placement has been going well. I like where I am at, and have been learning a lot. One of the neatest things I've gotten to do so far is administer all of the children's initial assessments (or as I call them, "Brain Checks") to see where they are at entering the school year. I have flashcards with the alphabet, numbers, shapes, and colors. I ask the children to identify each one, and take notes. The same assessment will be given in the middle of the year and at the end of the year to see the progress the children make. It has been interesting to see how each child does.

Faith is adjusting to childcare just fine. Her mommy and daddy are still adjusting. I cried for two days when she first started going, but I am able to drop her off sans the tears now. It is an excellent program, and she seems to enjoy being around other babies.

Our church has moved to the Union on my college campus for Sunday morning services. We have outgrown our current building, and can use the Union at no cost. We also want to reach out to the students on campus. With the move comes so exciting things. You can sit at a table, drink a cup of coffee bought from Starbucks downstairs, and listen to the sermon. We have a new logo, slogan, and are becoming much more contemporary in style (which Derek and I LOVE). We have also teamed up with a college ministry, so students are getting involved too. We hope to attract young families too, and to continue to grow.

I'm super excited about all of this, but it comes with a lot of work too. As one of the directors of the Children's Ministry, I've been busy getting our area mobile. We are not permanently housed at the Union, but "rent" some space there every Sunday. This means everything that we need has to be transported to the Union each Sunday, set-up, and torn down. I have also been busy updating our security policies, creating a volunteer handbook, training our volunteers, and learning a new curriculum.

Derek and I now live for Saturdays :-)