Remember that cute dog?

In my last post, the dog had peed on the bathmat. That's okay--I can wash the bathmat, and it's not that great of a bathmat anyway.
This, I cannot excuse:

You are aware that winter (my favorite season) has descended upon us, and it is now really cold outside. Too cold for Mobo, our lovely pup, to stay outside. So she spends her days when mom and dad are at work, in her crate. We check on her at lunch, and she's super excited when we come home from work--it's really nice that the best part of the dog's day is when Daniel and I come home. Feels good, ya know?

Well, last Wednesday Mobo had spent time in her crate all day, and was going to have to spend more time in there because Wednesday is our long day at church. Daniel went home to check on her after school before he came back up to the church. He couldn't bare to to put her back in her crate again, so he chew-proofed the bathroom, put her crate in there with some toys, and left her.

I was the first to arrive home after church that night, and so I was the first to let Mobo out of the bathroom. I was also the first to discover the fun she had while we were gone!

Because our bathroom did not come with storage space, we keep our bathroom essentials in a brown wicker chest that has 4 drawers. Mobo decided that because Daniel had chew-proofed the bathroom, and because the toys he left her weren't good enough, that she needed to claw through the 3rd drawer in our wicker chest (yes, all the way through), drag out our hair dryer, curling iron, and CHI flat iron, and destroy them. Like, chew through all the cords. So I walk in to wicker shards all over the floor, and my 3 hair essentials in sad little pieces alongside the wicker. I didn't pick up the mess because I wanted Daniel to see what our beloved pup had done, and he appreciated it all even less than I did!

The best part was that it was 10:00 at night, my hair was on its last day before it majorly needed to be washed, and I had to wear my hair curly (which I do with my flat iron) the next day for a video I was shooting. And I had to be at work early. All things add up to me being super happy and thrilled about shelling out the money to buy new hair essentials.

I dug through some old stuff and found a curling iron from elementary school that still worked. So my dirty hair made it another day, and was curly. The hair dryer came the next day, and I found a CHI for really cheap as far as CHI's are concerned. It arrived 2 days later. All in all, it wasn't too bad, but Mobo spent a few days as "the dog" instead of "our cute puppy"

Sigh.


This week has been a little nuts. We had our first party at our new house--the worship and drama teams from Trinity came over and we had our annual Christmas white elephant gift exchange. It was fun! I ended up with a Snuggie for dogs. Slightly ridiculous, but hey--Mobo likes it. Our house is going to be a good "have company over" house. I was kind of nervous about that, but it was a success! More to come, maybe? ;)

In other news, the other day someone asked me if I was expecting. I said no, I am not expecting. He said "oh! Well, you kind of look like it, so I thought I'd ask." Oh, you just thought you'd ask, huh? hmmmm.....

I'm hoping it was the empire-waist tunic I was wearing that day. ugh.

Tis the Season?

Yes, tis the season I believe. Today I got up at 6:15, went in the kitchen and got some oatmeal and some coffee, then talked with Daniel while he got ready for work (he has to leave at 6:45--the life of a basketball coach). After he left, I sat on our cozy couch with my cozy robe and cozy blanket, opened my Bible to 1 Corinthians 15, and promptly fell asleep. Until 8. I have to be at work at 8:45 on Tuesdays.

Mobo (the puppy) must have realized I needed to sleep, because she laid quietly in her bed until I woke up. That is not the norm.

When I bolted off the couch at 8, I debated taking a shower. I took one last night, but I didn't wash my hair. When did I wash it last? Can't remember. Could I just pull it back and it would look fine? No, not today--my bangs were on full stand-on-end alert.

Into the shower I go. I have no choice these days but to be a fast shower-er, because our water heater keeps us accountable by promptly running out of hot water when it thinks you've been in there long enough.

I get out of the shower to find that Mobo has peed on my bathmat, and she also needs to be fed before I put her back in her crate--it's too cold today for her to stay outside, and the garage is full of wonderful things she'd love to chew on and or/digest. I need to be out the door at 8:35. I got 10 minutes to feed and water the dog, take her outside to potty, dry my hair, find something to wear, and throw some makeup on.

I succeed. The dog chowed down and made it to the crate, my hair is a little flat, my makeup is most definitely thrown on, and my sweater is really old. And I don't even care. I have made it to work, and I have some hot coffee and a few Hersheys kisses.

Some day I'd like to think that I'll be able to get up and stay up, and sometimes I can...but boy, it's hard. My couch invites sleep. But I really really like sitting on that couch! Some day I'd like to think that putting my makeup on in the car on the way to work is a rare occasion instead of the norm. Plus it's not that safe.

Some day I'd like to think that I will have it all together and all my problems will be solved, but there is some comfort in knowing that will not happen in this life--it's an eternal process.


Well, off to work. Today's tasks include finding fun Christmas songs to do in service, practicing my guitar, sending gobs of emails, putting together set lists, and other fun things. It's a hard job, but somebody's gotta do it!

A New Place to Sit

In our house, we have 2 living areas-- the "living room" and the "den"...The living room is the "formal" living area which houses most of the furniture we had in our California living room--a "couch" ( ok, it is a couch, but not a typical couch. It's a West Elm couch that looks cool but is small and uncomfortable) and an entertainment unit. That's all the furniture we could fit in that living room. It was pleasantly small. So we move into our new house that has these two living areas, and we decide we want to put the California furniture in the "living room" (formal) and have the "den" be the room we spend the most time in (TV, big comfy couch, etc...)

The problem was that we didn't have any furniture at all for the den. But we still wanted to spend most of our time in there! So a lot of that time was spent on some big floor cushions we have, and when Daniel felt like dragging in a chair from the living room, one of us sat on a chair and the other one sat on a cushion on the floor (which is HARDwood, by the way).

Enter the day awhile ago when we stumbled into Ashley furniture and stumbled even further onto a great couch we kind of fell in love with...

But you (and my banker dad) will be happy to know that we did not impulse buy the couch that day, even with their 0% financing, no-payments, no-interest blah blah blah stuff they were pulling. We decided we would actually SAVE (what a concept) for the couch and buy it when we had the money! I know you are thinking "how novel. I'm so proud of the Proffitts".

Thank you.

So Friday, the day our money stash equaled the price of the couch, was a glorious day, and Daniel's parents helped us move or new couch into the lonely, furniture-less den.

I so do wish I had a picture to show you, but at this moment I do not. I don't even know if I'll be much of a picture taker when I have kids. Maybe we'll leave that to the grandparents.

But this couch is a soft chocolate brown microsuede, modern and contemporary yet cozy and comfortable. And just fabulous. I don't even know if I care what it looks like, actually. I sink into it, and that's what matters.

It was nice that when my parents came over Sunday night, they had a comfortable place to sit (you should have seen my dad trying to sit on West Elm couch--comfortability was non-existent)

Okay okay. A redeemable quality of West Elm couch is that it does turn into a remarkable twin bed.

Every day since Friday, when Daniel has asked me what I want to do, I usually respond with "Let's sit on the couch!" with a girlish squeal and a big smile. He obliges. He is just as excited about this couch as I am.

Oh and you can forget those "don't eat on the couch" rules you had to follow when you were a kid. There will be much much eating on this couch. We will try to keep our messes to a minimum, of course, but still--there will be eating.

So now I sit here on the couch typing this blog while Daniel folds my laundry. That may seem kind of backwards to some of you out there, but that's what I get for marrying an amazing guy.

Why do I do this to myself?

So I create a blog, then I write on the blog consistently for a few months, only to neglect it for several months...I then reprioritize my life, find that the blog should be a priority, and begin the vicious cycle again.

This is one of those reprioritizing times. Or, actually maybe it's that I have the time to blog for the first time all summer. Let's go with that.

It's been the craziest summer ever...maybe even a little bit crazier than the summer we spent at Camp Hammer in the redwood mountains (wait, wasn't that just last summer?!) For a lot of people with children, summer is a time to relax and play outside and have fun as a family...and when you work in children's ministry, it's time to plan all sorts of fun activities for children while they're out of school. So it makes the life of a children's pastor a little more hectic.

Our summer schedule in a nutshell:

End of May, Daniel and I go on a mission trip to Nicaragua. Amazing. We get back June 6.
June 10, we close on our house.
June 26, we go to Xtreme camp
July 1, we move to our house.
July 7, we start Kindercamp.
July 9, worship team auditions
July 14-16, camp rock
July 24-28, kids camp

When I said crazy, I mean crazy! But now we can breathe, and I am coming off of this summer stretched, challenged, and grateful.

I don't know what this next season holds, but hopefully it will be a good season. I am believing this will be the best year of my life :)

End of blog. I decided I will quit blogging when I no longer have things to say. That, for today, is now.

More Consistency

I'm not even going to start by apologizing for not keeping up with this blog since January, and I'm not even going to promise that I will do better and blog more often, because then no one is disappointed when I don't, and there are no unrealistic expectations, so when I do end up blogging more regularly, everyone is happy :)

I just got home from Trinity's women's retreat in Santa Fe. I'm still processing the weekend, but I can tell you off the bat that it was amazing to get away for several days and go to the mountains and get snowed on (actually, it was more like sleet-snow. It accumulated, but it stung my face) and eat good, comforting mexican food and just relax! I don't know if the processing of the retreat will make it to the blog, but I'm sure I'll be better for the processing.

Recently at Trinity, our senior pastor had all the staff take a strengths-finder test. In case you haven't ever heard of strengths-finder, it's a book that comes with an online test (you have to buy the book to take the test), and it basically outlines 34 different strengths people have and how to build those strengths within yourself...he asked us to take the test as a staff so we would gain better understanding of our colleagues as well as ourselves. I have to say, it's pretty eye-opening, and I'd highly recommend it! The test takes almost an hour and it comes out with your top 5 strengths. then in the book is a description of the strength as well as how to capitalize on that strength and work with other people who have that strength as well. My top 5 are:

Woo: stands for "winning others over." You enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like ou. Strangers are rarely intimidating to you. You are drawn to them. There are always new people to meet, new rooms to work, new crowds to mingle in. In your world there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet--lots of them.

Communication: You like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid. You want your information to survive.

Belief: If you possess a strong Belief theme, you have certain core values that are enduring. Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you. And guided by your belief theme it will matter only if it gives you a chance to live out your values.

Significance: You want to be very significant in the eyes of other people. In the truest sense of the word you want to be recognized. You want to be heard. You want to stand out. You want to be known. You feel a need to be admired as credible, professional, and successful. Likewise you want to associate with others who are as well. And if they aren't, you will push them to achieve until they are. You want your work to be a way of life rather than a job.

Strategic: The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route It is not a skill that can be taught. It wis a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path--your strategy.

After I took this and read these, I was like "wow"--I felt like they kind of hit the nail on the head with me!! Some of these things I've seen in myself but never really thought of them as strengths before, so now it's about viewing them as strengths and figuring out how to grow them more. And I"m really looking forward to hearing what the rest of the staff's strengths are. It's so interesting! I'd encourage you to get the book and take this test. You'll learn a lot about yourself.

That's about it. Go Miss California USA.

New Everything

Hello friends. I realize it's been more than a month since I last posted, but considering the month the Proffitteers had, you will forgive me. Or else :)

So, we now live in Texas. The glorious Panhandle of Texas, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains (at 100 mph) and you can see all around you for miles. Glorious!

We are settled in to our apartment, and enjoyed a fabulous Christmas with both the Proffitts and the Wells....

Now, here we are!
I started my first day of work on Monday. It was incredibly strange to get back into the working world, and I don't know that I've totally entered the working world yet because I haven't really done anything. Really at all.

I'm not even sure what my title is. I think it's Associate Pastor of Children's Worship. But, ?

Anyways, transition has been happening for the last month it seems, and I feel like we're only just beginning. I have no idea what life in Texas holds for us as a married couple, but it is so nice to know, in the midst of it all, that God loves us and wants to bless us indeed. And it's also nice to know that we have such an amazing network of family and friend support here that there's no way we're alone.

So, I don't know what to expect, really. I realize that God's path is through the water, not around it. But I know that He will walk with me through it and carry me when I need him to. I just have to make the choice to walk with Him in it.