So it's definitely been awhile since I last updated. I'm not very good at keeping up with this thing, but I am very good at keeping up with other people's blogs! :)
The biggest and best news that I have is that Josh and I are expecting our first child - a sweet baby BOY - around June 9th!! For those who know, 2010 was a rough year as far as pregnancy was concerned. 1 miscarriage and 1 chemical pregnancy tend to discourage a person. However, God's perfect timing prevails again. It's so funny how when you try so hard to do something on your own, it fails. When God decides the time is right, it doesn't matter what the circumstances...it's happening! It's phenomenal to see prayers answered and almost comical the way God makes things happen.
This pregnancy has gone SO well! I don't know that I could have asked for an easier time. During the first trimester, I had lots of food aversions. Macaroni and cheese was my go-to food. I also gagged at drinking regular water. It had to be flavored with something and ice cold. No horrible sickness, though. I'm very thankful for this, since there are so many women who have quite a time with morning sickness. Appetite-wise, the second trimester has been very good to me. Perhaps too good...
I'm just about 23 weeks and am enjoying feeling my baby boy's acrobatics every day. We are slowly accumulating baby stuff. Very fortunately, the soon-to-be grandparents have purchased the large items - the travel system and the furniture. We are SO thankful for their generosity! All that's left now is the little stuff! :)
In other news, Christian Challenge is going well. Lots of changes have been made, and they have proven to be changes for the better. I'm excited to see what the rest of the semester brings.
InsideOut Church is going even better. We are having our first worship gathering on March 3rd!! It's so neat to have a date set. We've been a part of the planning process and it's finally coming to fruition.
Lunchtime! Pita chips and hummus sound amazing....
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Hi everyone!
It's fall! In Colorado, it's a true season. The trees are turning, nights are in the 40's....it's so nice!
I got a sweet guitar for my birthday in September. I've been taking lessons and have been playing for my students. So far, I'm comfortable with A, D, E, f# (barre chord = hard!), G, e, a... so basically I play I-IV-V (A-D-E) for everything. My teacher is the director that Josh works with at Christian Challenge. Wade is quite talented and has given lots of helpful hints. He's also very patient while I learn, so it's great. Joining me is a wonderful woman of God that I have quickly become friends with. She is a student at CSU and she is from Moldova. Her name is Ana, and she's awesome.
School is going well, though I'm unsettled about what to do next school year. On one hand, our district is cutting $4.5 mil from the budget this year, which is the same amount they cut from the budget last year. State-wide, school districts are not doing well financially. This means, for my school and 5 others in the district, the strong potential for closing our building and consolidating with another school. It goes without saying that staff will be cut. Could that mean me? As a specialist, my position is one that, sadly, is easily cast aside.
On the other hand, I'm not feeling like large-scale teaching is what I want to do. I mean, I do love the interactions with the kids, teaching music is fun, but something is making me think of doing something else. I have no clue what I would do....sub, teach private lessons, spend time wholly devoted to Challenge...it will be interesting and exciting to see what the Lord has for me.
Since moving to Fort Collins, we have become part of the Core Team of Inside Out Church, a church-plant. We have known the planters for a good while, so it seemed to be a natural fit for us. Josh and I have been so blessed by Inside Out! It's so neat to come in at the very start of a church. The vision of Inside Out is to reach those outside of church culture with the love of Christ. No re-churching here! We seek to make relationships with those who would never set foot in a regular church. Our first Explore venue is this Wednesday! People who are coming are people we've met and built friendships with. We will be serving a meal, showing a video about who Jesus is, and then discussing the claims from the video in table groups. This is the first official Inside Out community "event," however small it will be. The goal is relationships...both with the people we get to know and with Christ. Please pray for this, as we have some people coming who will be challenged by what is shown in the video.
Overall, this is a fabulous place. Looking back over the past 2 months, this is clearly where the Lord wanted us. It's been such an incredible faith journey to move here and rely on the Lord to provide our financial support.
This song, The River by Meredith Andrews, is our prayer for the people of Fort Collins.
It's fall! In Colorado, it's a true season. The trees are turning, nights are in the 40's....it's so nice!
I got a sweet guitar for my birthday in September. I've been taking lessons and have been playing for my students. So far, I'm comfortable with A, D, E, f# (barre chord = hard!), G, e, a... so basically I play I-IV-V (A-D-E) for everything. My teacher is the director that Josh works with at Christian Challenge. Wade is quite talented and has given lots of helpful hints. He's also very patient while I learn, so it's great. Joining me is a wonderful woman of God that I have quickly become friends with. She is a student at CSU and she is from Moldova. Her name is Ana, and she's awesome.
School is going well, though I'm unsettled about what to do next school year. On one hand, our district is cutting $4.5 mil from the budget this year, which is the same amount they cut from the budget last year. State-wide, school districts are not doing well financially. This means, for my school and 5 others in the district, the strong potential for closing our building and consolidating with another school. It goes without saying that staff will be cut. Could that mean me? As a specialist, my position is one that, sadly, is easily cast aside.
On the other hand, I'm not feeling like large-scale teaching is what I want to do. I mean, I do love the interactions with the kids, teaching music is fun, but something is making me think of doing something else. I have no clue what I would do....sub, teach private lessons, spend time wholly devoted to Challenge...it will be interesting and exciting to see what the Lord has for me.
Since moving to Fort Collins, we have become part of the Core Team of Inside Out Church, a church-plant. We have known the planters for a good while, so it seemed to be a natural fit for us. Josh and I have been so blessed by Inside Out! It's so neat to come in at the very start of a church. The vision of Inside Out is to reach those outside of church culture with the love of Christ. No re-churching here! We seek to make relationships with those who would never set foot in a regular church. Our first Explore venue is this Wednesday! People who are coming are people we've met and built friendships with. We will be serving a meal, showing a video about who Jesus is, and then discussing the claims from the video in table groups. This is the first official Inside Out community "event," however small it will be. The goal is relationships...both with the people we get to know and with Christ. Please pray for this, as we have some people coming who will be challenged by what is shown in the video.
Overall, this is a fabulous place. Looking back over the past 2 months, this is clearly where the Lord wanted us. It's been such an incredible faith journey to move here and rely on the Lord to provide our financial support.
This song, The River by Meredith Andrews, is our prayer for the people of Fort Collins.
Everyone is broken and in need of a Savior,
so He came and was broken for the marker, for the shamed.
Still our eyes are blinded by the culture, by the lies.
We can't see that we're filthy, we're fallen and so dry.
But He invites us
Can you hear Him say
He invites us
Hear Him call your name...
Welcome to the river
Come drink away, come find your very life
Welcome to the river of God
where your brokenness is washed away.
Everywhere is the sorrow and the pain of empty living
You can see it, look in their eyes, all the hopelessness of the world.
But look closer, He is right there, in the midst of every fear.
Living water is the offer, restoration is the call.
And He invites us
Can you hear Him say
He invites us
Hear Him call you name...
Welcome to the river
Come drink away, come find your very life
Welcome to the river of God
where your brokenness is washed away.
Find your healing
Find your freedom
In the river of God
Your healing here
Your freedom here
In the river of God
Everyone is broken and in need of a Savior.
"The River" by Meredith Andrews
so He came and was broken for the marker, for the shamed.
Still our eyes are blinded by the culture, by the lies.
We can't see that we're filthy, we're fallen and so dry.
But He invites us
Can you hear Him say
He invites us
Hear Him call your name...
Welcome to the river
Come drink away, come find your very life
Welcome to the river of God
where your brokenness is washed away.
Everywhere is the sorrow and the pain of empty living
You can see it, look in their eyes, all the hopelessness of the world.
But look closer, He is right there, in the midst of every fear.
Living water is the offer, restoration is the call.
And He invites us
Can you hear Him say
He invites us
Hear Him call you name...
Welcome to the river
Come drink away, come find your very life
Welcome to the river of God
where your brokenness is washed away.
Find your healing
Find your freedom
In the river of God
Your healing here
Your freedom here
In the river of God
Everyone is broken and in need of a Savior.
"The River" by Meredith Andrews
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Here we are in Colorado! We've moved in, unpacked (mostly), and are thoroughly enjoying life here. What a great place for the Lord to call us to! We feel so blessed.
Some fun differences from our TX home to our CO home...
Some fun differences from our TX home to our CO home...
- Air conditioning. We have NO air conditioning in our new house. Most places up here don't have it. Fans are our new best friends. Hooray for low electricity bills!
- Stairs. Next...
- Cell phone service. Sprint has horrible coverage here. When we get service, we are roaming. Yesterday we made the switch to AT&T (iphones!) and will be all set up with them when our phones come in. Our numbers are staying the same.
- Bicycles. Fort Collins has been ranked one of the top places to live (like...#6 at the lowest) and one reason is its bike friendliness. There are paved trails that take you under major roads and can get you most places in town. When the bike trails can't get you there, the major roads have bike lanes going each direction. Josh and I rode our new bikes to campus and back (6 miles round trip) using these trails. Since we are now a 1-car family, one of us will be biking very often. Probably Josh.
- Wake-up time. 6 a.m., without fail. The sun shines brightly through our window at 6 a.m.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
So many changes!
It has been several months since my last post. I have lots to update you 2 or 3 readers on, so get ready for a lovely bullet list.
If you haven't checked out our campus ministry blog, please do! It's great!
Love you guys!
It has been several months since my last post. I have lots to update you 2 or 3 readers on, so get ready for a lovely bullet list.
- Josh and I are moving to Colorado! Even more...we're moving there in 2 weeks! July 30th will be our last day in Texas for awhile. It's a bittersweet move, but the Lord is in this, and we are being obedient. Along with that move comes some new things like....
- a new place to live - a cute townhome next to a large park with a bike trail and disc golf course.
- a new job - teaching elementary music at Lopez Elementary on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
- a new culture of people - open-minded, worldly, not interested in anything religious, yet still loved by the Lord. - Moving to Colorado means leaving some precious things behind. Our families, for example. My wonderful job in Trophy Club, for another. Great friends, great churches, and all things familiar. This has proven a tough emotional undertaking. It will be tough for awhile. But, we hope in what the Lord's will is for us. He promised never to leave us or forsake us. He also promised to provide for us what we need. It has been so humbling to see His work in the intricate details.
- For the past year, our attitude towards children has been "not preventing." On May 20th, after a few days of strange symptoms, I had a positive pregnancy test. I was so ecstatic!! I told Josh, we told our families, and everyone was really excited. I felt strange, though, and had some symptoms that didn't seem right. After inquiring about them at my doctor's office, she decided to closely monitor my HCG and Progesterone levels. I went to the doctor every other day for over a week. With slow-rising (then declining) HCG and low levels of Progesterone, the pregnancy was short-lived. I was told that I miscarried.
This tore me apart emotionally. Comfort from family and friends was of great help, but healing took quite a while. Some days, it still bothers me, but I know that the Lord has a plan. The miscarriage occurred naturally, so no surgery was needed. Things returned to normal in a...normal way. My doctor has no concerns about conception later on, which is encouraging. In fact, she said that miscarriage is very common, more common than we think. Most people don't talk about it. Women miscarry, then go on to have healthy pregnancies with healthy babies. So, I have no worries about my next pregnancy, though I'm sure I'll be very cautious at the beginning. And I definitely won't be telling anyone too early! :) - My little brother Elliot graduated high school! He's the best little brother anyone could ask for. He and I have a very close relationship, which I'm extremely thankful for. He is becoming a Razorback (soooie pig!) at the University of Arkansas. He'll be double-majoring in Music Education and Performance. I'm so proud of him! My parents are having to deal with me moving to Colorado and Elliot moving to Arkansas in a 2-week time frame. Please pray for them on this.
- Josh graduated from Southwestern in May. He now has his Master of Arts in Christian Education degree with a concentration in Collegiate Ministry. He is simply amazing. I am so blessed to have a husband who loves me like Christ loves the church. Thank you Lord!
- We sold the Dodge Ram and paid off the Vibe. Way to be (almost) debt free!
If you haven't checked out our campus ministry blog, please do! It's great!
Love you guys!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Strep throat has kept me home from school today. Why not blog?
We spent the weekend cleaning, relaxing, and going to the doctor on Sunday morning. Yesterday was miserable! Thanks to antibiotics and steroids, I'm feeling better today. My student teacher took over my morning classes, and a sub will be teaching the afternoon.
Josh and I have made a decision about where we'll be next year.
Please visit http://www.lillyfamily9497.blogspot.com
Anyway...nap time! Have a great week everyone!
We spent the weekend cleaning, relaxing, and going to the doctor on Sunday morning. Yesterday was miserable! Thanks to antibiotics and steroids, I'm feeling better today. My student teacher took over my morning classes, and a sub will be teaching the afternoon.
Josh and I have made a decision about where we'll be next year.
Please visit http://www.lillyfamily9497.blogspot.com
Anyway...nap time! Have a great week everyone!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
What a great morning to be up! This is the day the Lord has made!
We had a playoff-watching party last night with our dear friends, the Porters. It's always fun to be around them. We had even more fun when the Cowboys won! YAY!! I got to sport my Bob Lilly jersey that I got for Christmas, so that was fun too.
It was an interesting week at school because it was our first week back from break. I'm pretty sure that no one was ready to come back. It made for some interesting class periods! Lucky for us, school was canceled on Thursday for ice. Also, this coming week is a 4.5 day week, AND then we have the following Monday off. SOOOO thankful for days off! Some fun things will be happening this semester.
1. I will be finding out soon whether the grants I wrote this year will be awarded to me. I'll tell you what they are after the grant patrol has come around. In case anyone on the grant committee stumbles across my blog...
2. TMEA. February 10-13. San Antonio. To make it even better, if my brother makes the All-State band, he'll be there too. Also, since it's Valentine's Day weekend, Josh is coming down on Friday!
3. I am getting a student teacher this semester! I was surprised when I was asked to have one...I'm pretty sure you have to teach longer than 1 1/2 years before a student teacher comes along. But, I'll do my best to give my student teacher an arena to try out strategies and lessons.
Gotta get ready for church....have a great day everyone!
We had a playoff-watching party last night with our dear friends, the Porters. It's always fun to be around them. We had even more fun when the Cowboys won! YAY!! I got to sport my Bob Lilly jersey that I got for Christmas, so that was fun too.
It was an interesting week at school because it was our first week back from break. I'm pretty sure that no one was ready to come back. It made for some interesting class periods! Lucky for us, school was canceled on Thursday for ice. Also, this coming week is a 4.5 day week, AND then we have the following Monday off. SOOOO thankful for days off! Some fun things will be happening this semester.
1. I will be finding out soon whether the grants I wrote this year will be awarded to me. I'll tell you what they are after the grant patrol has come around. In case anyone on the grant committee stumbles across my blog...
2. TMEA. February 10-13. San Antonio. To make it even better, if my brother makes the All-State band, he'll be there too. Also, since it's Valentine's Day weekend, Josh is coming down on Friday!
3. I am getting a student teacher this semester! I was surprised when I was asked to have one...I'm pretty sure you have to teach longer than 1 1/2 years before a student teacher comes along. But, I'll do my best to give my student teacher an arena to try out strategies and lessons.
Gotta get ready for church....have a great day everyone!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
2 weeks off!
...and boy, are they greatly needed!
Since my last update (I'm really bad at this), here's what's gone on with us.
1. We moved into a one-bedroom apartment down from a two-bedroom. Fortunately, we have not gone into any debt for Josh's seminary, but we had other debt we wanted to pay off. Downsizing gives us a few hundred extra per month to pay off debt. Goal = debt free.
2. Three holiday programs with my choir have come and gone. My PDAS appraisal came back with the highest marks. I should hear back about the two grants I was a part of writing in the next month. We started recorders for 4th and 5th grades. Life at school is wonderful!
3. My brother Elliot is only a few months away from graduating high school, then it's off to college for him. He's probably going to Arkansas, though it's not 100% yet. I will miss him tremendously when he leaves. He's the best little brother in the world.
4. We went to San Angelo over Thanksgiving break to see friends. It was nice to see everyone. We got to go back to Glen Meadows. Even though we like our church in Carrollton, GMBC feels like home. Dear GMBC...please relocate to DFW. Love, Sarah.
5. No new news about Colorado. God hasn't directed us one way or the other. If my principal had her way, I'd be staying where I am and Josh would find a job around here. It's been a trip trying to discern every little feeling we get. So, we are staying put for now, and when God says go, we'll go. Makes it tough to plan long-term, however.
6. We met up with the Powell's last night in Sundance Square in Fort Worth. The cool thing about this time of year with the 4 of us is that our anniversaries are 364 days apart. We were married on December 16th, 2006, and they were married on December 15th, 2007. Also, they were both in our wedding and walked together down the aisle at our wedding rehearsal exactly one year before they would do the same thing as bride and groom. We all went out for our anniversary dinner last night. I'm hoping this will become a yearly thing with the 4 of us.
6.5 Josh and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary on the 16th of December. I am blessed beyond measure to have Josh in my life. He is my perfect match in every way.
One of our first pictures together. Thanksgiving 2004, Horseshoe Bay, TX
Benchwarmers Softball, Spring 2005
Our first engagement picture, Josh's house in Llano, TX, Fall 2005
Our wedding, Glen Meadows Baptist Church, San Angelo, TX, December 16, 2006
Married 3 years! :)
Adios for now. Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!
...and boy, are they greatly needed!
Since my last update (I'm really bad at this), here's what's gone on with us.
1. We moved into a one-bedroom apartment down from a two-bedroom. Fortunately, we have not gone into any debt for Josh's seminary, but we had other debt we wanted to pay off. Downsizing gives us a few hundred extra per month to pay off debt. Goal = debt free.
2. Three holiday programs with my choir have come and gone. My PDAS appraisal came back with the highest marks. I should hear back about the two grants I was a part of writing in the next month. We started recorders for 4th and 5th grades. Life at school is wonderful!
3. My brother Elliot is only a few months away from graduating high school, then it's off to college for him. He's probably going to Arkansas, though it's not 100% yet. I will miss him tremendously when he leaves. He's the best little brother in the world.
4. We went to San Angelo over Thanksgiving break to see friends. It was nice to see everyone. We got to go back to Glen Meadows. Even though we like our church in Carrollton, GMBC feels like home. Dear GMBC...please relocate to DFW. Love, Sarah.
5. No new news about Colorado. God hasn't directed us one way or the other. If my principal had her way, I'd be staying where I am and Josh would find a job around here. It's been a trip trying to discern every little feeling we get. So, we are staying put for now, and when God says go, we'll go. Makes it tough to plan long-term, however.
6. We met up with the Powell's last night in Sundance Square in Fort Worth. The cool thing about this time of year with the 4 of us is that our anniversaries are 364 days apart. We were married on December 16th, 2006, and they were married on December 15th, 2007. Also, they were both in our wedding and walked together down the aisle at our wedding rehearsal exactly one year before they would do the same thing as bride and groom. We all went out for our anniversary dinner last night. I'm hoping this will become a yearly thing with the 4 of us.
6.5 Josh and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary on the 16th of December. I am blessed beyond measure to have Josh in my life. He is my perfect match in every way.
One of our first pictures together. Thanksgiving 2004, Horseshoe Bay, TX
Benchwarmers Softball, Spring 2005
Our first engagement picture, Josh's house in Llano, TX, Fall 2005
Our wedding, Glen Meadows Baptist Church, San Angelo, TX, December 16, 2006
Married 3 years! :)Adios for now. Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!
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