flowers and friendship

My friend Tabitha brought me flowers on Friday. She was at the Farmer’s Market, saw some wildflowers, and thought of me. I was so surprised… how sweet! There she is, 9 months pregnant, having so much to think about preparing for her daughter to be born, and she thought of me. I was really touched

.

You know, the Bible says in Proverbs 18:24 “A man that has friends must himself be friendly”, and that has really become truth in my life recently. As a young Pastor’s wife, and a leader in the church, things can be lonely sometimes. Jamie and I have found ourselves, as many church leaders and pastors do, without many “friends”. Sure there are people that we associate with, our co-workers and such, people that we love dearly, but no one that we can really just “be ourselves” with. So many times we are in Ministry-Mode and are conscious of what we are pouring into people and how we are portraying ourselves, that it’s hard to let our guard down. But just the other day at lunch I experienced one of the greatest honors of my life…

Tammy Queen is our Student Ministries Pastor, and has been my mentor for many years. We have gone on mission trips together, we room together on youth trips, and I have served under her for the past 6 years or so. We were at lunch with the Youth Management Team this week, just as a time to hang out with no agenda or issues to discuss (a rare treat). She went around the table thanking all of us for our work in the Student Ministries. When she got to me, she told me that she considered me a friend. I was shocked. Someone that I have looked up to for so long, thought of me as her friend. I am so honored …

my little girl

i want my little girl to be like this, how precious!!

intervention

shiloh met his cousin rocko last night for the first time. shiloh is an obedient dog and has never tried to fight for dominance with any other dog. so i was a little bit concerned when he met his new cousin who is literally 2x his size. they did good though… they sniffed, circled, sniffed, and other weird things that dogs do and they proceeded to “play’. by “play” i mean spar. rocko would try to “dominate” shiloh, and shiloh actually fought back! i’ve never heard him growl like that, but it was strange because it was not a mean vicious growl. he just wanted rocko to know that he was not going to be the lady of this relationship.

they got a long very well, in their fighting playing way… but then they came inside. they kept trying to play in the same way they had outside and “grandma” wasn’t happy about it. so we kept trying to break them up. they obeyed and did well, until the bone entered the picture. this rawhide bone brought out the worst in them! they were actually fighting over it. so we had to do a “dog whisperer” style intervention with them.

they both ended up on their back until they could relax and calm down. it worked GREAT! after that they remembered where their place was (they are #2, we are #1). and from then on out, they were good …

Thanks Cesar!

so much of nothing

having “nothing to do” is taken for granted.  while too much free time isn’t always a good thing, having plenty of it from time to time is wonderful.  what did we do today on vacation you ask … NOTHING.  we slept in, played at the pool, watched tv, surfed the internet, went to dinner, and talked.  it was great.  aaah, its so nice.  we have no obligations, no deadlines, no schedules.

but at the same time its hard to turn your brain off.  work stuff still has a tendency to swirl around up there, but when you love your job its not such a bad thing.  tomorrow is our last day and as sad as that is, its a good thing.  this week has been really relaxing, and its given us a great chance to talk like we haven’t had a chance to in a while.  but its about time to get back in the game…

iWin

Aaahhh yes, the sweet sunburn of victory!! I finally triumphed over the rain today! I woke up at 9 am and was at the pool by 9:30am! I had plenty of time to lay out, soak up the sun, and Jamie and I even had a few swimming competitions. Then we showered and ate and headed off to Deland Florida where Grandma Tobler lives.

We had a good visit and ate dinner. Uncle Steve cooked steaks and I was having flashbacks of Napoleon Dynamite. Its a good thing that no one rode by on a bike or I may have launched my steak at their head (if you haven’t seen the movie, just keep walking). So yeah it was good, it was really the first time I had ever gotten a chance to speak to Uncle Steve. The first time I met him was in a wedding dress (me not him) and I only got to speak to him for a moment. And it was neat to see Grandma Tobler again for the second time. It amazes me how much you take for granted with your own family. Its so easy to slip right into the groove with your own family. You know what stories to bring up, what NOT to talk about, and what makes people laugh. But its so weird being at your “grandmothers” house and not really knowing any of that. I’m so used to the Bailey family (Jamie’s mom’s side) because we see them several times a year. But the Tobler side I’m not as familiar with. They are great people and I look forward to getting to know them better as the years go by.

When we got back from the Grandma trip, we went to watch the movie showing at the Resort Theatre. We saw Disturbia… well written, scarred the snot out of me, but ended on a good note so I can sleep tonight. And all I have to say about my fellow movie-goers is this … young children would behave better and scream less if you put them to bed on time and didn’t let them watch scary movies late at night.

It was a good day…

me vs the rain…

I am the head and not the tail, I am above only and not beneath, I am blessed going in and blessed going out … BUT I HATE THIS RAIN!

It was a beautiful morning, not a rain cloud in sight, and I could see the bright blue sky and hot tanning sun through the windows of The Masters Touch International Church where Jamie and I attended church this morning. Dr Mark Chironna spoke at DBTW07, and his church is here in Orlando, so we decided to check it out. Its pretty different than LWFC, but it was good. He taught out of 2 Kings 4:2 and was talking about oil and annointing and some prophesies that had been given about TMTIC. The ushers (they called them Servant Leaders) were good, and there were pews (for real.) The sanctuary was beautiful and even had a water fall on the back wall. It was pretty sweet. I even got a chance to meet Misty, Dr Chironna’s admin whom I worked with on DBTW. When we got out of the service, it was still gorgeous outside, so Jamie and I went in search of lunch.

After a couple of stops we finally made it to Five Guys Burgers and Fries (mmmmmm). We came back to the hotel, and as we pulled into the parking lot, off in the distance, my nemesis appeared … we hurried to the room, changed into our bathing suits, slapped on some low SPF sunscreen and ran to the pool. The whole way I was telling the cloud to go away. It looked like it was going to pass by without a drop of rain. I settled into my chair on the pool deck and Jamie dove in. The speakers at the pool were playing some oldies, the sun was hot, and life was good. Then the rumbling began. Oh, I wasn’t having any of it, so I kept telling it to go away. I’m sure the other people at the pool thought I was nuts. After only a song and a half, the sirens went off. Jamie and I have been hearing those a couple of times a day and couldn’t figure out what they meant … we found out. Before the siren even finished screaming its ugly little squeal, a resort employee came walking up yelling “Pool’s Closed!”.

And here I sit, un-tanned and scheming how to beat the rain. Tomorrow we go to DeLand to visit Jamie’s grandmother, so I’m going to get up before lunch and go lay out at the pool before the rain can have a chance to ruin my tanning-plans. I will beat it yet…

it’s a lie

The Sunshine State … HA! Its sunny in the morning, but who is awake at that time? Once lunch time hits, it rains, thunders, and closes pools. It should be called the “Sunny In The Morning But Ruins The Rest Of Your Day By Raining” State.

A Stalker, A Walk, And Being Banned From KFC!

We flew in today for our much needed and long awaited vacation to Orlando. We had the absolute greatest set up for this vacation … God is so great! My parents gave us a week in their timeshare and our flight was paid for using a travel voucher Jamie won at a Missions Conference earlier this year. The flight was good (early, but good), the rental car is great, and we even got to check in 6 hours early!

We needed to go to the grocery store, and you can’t go hungry, so after napping we went to find food. Wendy’s was the first choice but Jamie decided that KFC was a better choice. As I sit here writing this over 8 hours later, my tummy is STILL not happy. So not only is Jamie banned from picking food, he is banned from ever even suggesting KFC ever again. Eww. So we went to the grocery store to stock up on snackies for the week, then we came back to the resort for more napping. (Vacationing is hard work!). Then Jamie decided we needed to take a walk …

My tummy was hurting, I was tired, and walking was not a part of my plan. To convince me of the excitement, fun, and need for a walk, Jamie began to do a dance that strangely resembled a routine from Richard Simmon’s “Sweatin’ To The Oldies”… and that’s my side of the story!

On the elevator down to the walk, an unusual family got on. There were like 4 adults and an innumerable amount of children that kept flowing in and out of the elevator. The oldest man in the group asked me if there was vodka in my water bottle (yeah, you know it!), and then made some comment about its a good thing Jamie and I aren’t married (cause the rings on our left hand are just for show). So we made it through the elevator ride, parted ways, and began our walk. On the other side of the resort, we ran into them again going the opposite direction. And the we saw them again going in the OTHER direction about 30 minutes later … are we following them or are they following us?

… we may never know.