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.

Thanksgiving: Taken by Storm

I think that would be an accurate movie title, if there were to be one made about the way our Thanksgiving went yesterday.

This being mine and Daniel's first Thanksgiving married, and also our first away from our families, pre-move, we knew it had to be special. So we decided to spend it with our dear friends Nathan and Jill, also transplants from far away and unable to connect with family for the holiday.

A few days before the grand event, Jill calls. Keep in mind that none of us have ever cooked anything "thanksgiving-ish" before. (this is the reader's digest version of the convo):

Jill: "So, what's our plan for Thanksgiving?"
Me: "I dunno...we've always had traditional turkey, cranberry, stuffing, etc..so I'm not sure what else works for turkey day"
Jill: "So you wanna go easy, or do you wanna go for it?"
Me: "I'm up for going for it. You wanna go for it?"
Jill: "I wanna go for it"
Me: "Ok, let's go for it:
Jill: "Ok!"

We decided to go for it. By the end of our phone conversation, I was in charge of the green bean casserole, the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, and the bread. Jill took the turkey, the cranberry sauce, and the salad. Oh, and the house. We had it at their place :)

So yesterday arrives. The night before I had spent an hour in the kitchen doing "prep":

3 onions, chopped. (Daniel cried like a baby, and I was the one chopping the onions)
12 corn bread muffins, baked (for the stuffing)
lots of groceries, including 3 cartons of heavy cream (yay clogged arteries) bought.
recipes, in hand.
supplies, packed and ready to go.

Thanksgiving, here we come.

We arrive at our destination at 11:30 am and come across Nathan and Jill having a hands-on turkey education class. There is a metal "thing" buried deep into the turkey legs holding them together or something, but we need to get it out to clean the turkey and it's not coming out and what do we do? We get pliers. Nathan and Jill get salmonella all over their hands. It is nasty. But in the end, Nathan and Jill prevail over the metal turkey-leg-holder-thing.

Immediately afterwards, we send the husbands to the store for extra supplies. Jill's cranberry chutney had almost a million ingredients, and we needed some bleach cleaner to get the turkey nasty out of the sink. Men out of the house, Jill and I sit down to plan out the day. Our goal? Eat around 6:30.

11:45, turkey in the oven.
12:45, walk to the beach to play frisbee, get lunch
1:45, check turkey, baste if necessary
2:00, eat lunch, commence "Speed Scrabble"--so fun. And I also discovered that eating pomegranates is my new favorite thing. It's so satisfying picking the little juice ball things out of there and eating them. Great. Man, I wish I could post pictures now. They are glorious.
3:30, start the cranberry chutney. More onions chopped, along with 2 apples and some ginger root. Jill is putting in the other million ingredients. Then the chutney simmers.
4:00, start the stuffing and green bean casserole
5:00, everything goes in the oven, start the mashed potatoes and bread.
5:00, is the turkey ready? Check the thermometer. Nope, not ready yet!
5:30, the turkey is ready. It needs to sit awhile.
5:31, the husbands stop playing their carcasonne game and do the dishes. Such lovely husbands.
6:00, rolls go in the oven, casseroles come out. Commence chopping for salad.
6:15, turkey is carved, casseroles on the table, bread in the basket, salad, done!
6:21, everything is not only out on the table, but so are the utensils and plates, our glasses of premium wine provided by nathan's brother Brian, and we are holding hands for the prayer.
6:23, Jill and I pause and look at our table and spread and think, "wow, we did that. WE DID THAT!" but wait, we haven't eaten it yet. Will it taste good?

6:25, we all take our first bites, and immediately think "OH YEAH BABY! THIS IS SOOOOOO GOOD!"

I'm sorry but Jill and I beamed. The green bean casserole was supreme. And it was not the recipe provided on the Fried Onion Strings container, thank you. The mashed potatoes, so creamy, the stuffing, divine. Turkey? Juicy, tender, and the cranberry chutney? A perfect compliment. And it just so happens that Brian is a wine connoisseur so it complemented everything perfectly.

After the initial 'goodness' shock, we then proceeded to stuff our faces. Completely full. It was ridiculous. There were surprisingly little leftovers, but we will enjoy those for dinner tonight. After we had eaten rounds one and 2, we sat and played a game before the turkey lethargy set in. And set in it did. Daniel and I arrived home around midnight and fell asleep with full bellies and happy hearts.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Next year let's have it at my house!

The Dentist's Chair

I had a dentist appointment today. The dentist is not a huge deal for me, now that I've reached my adult years, but it for sure has been in the past.

You know the hygienist who asks you questions the whole time...not yes or no questions, but "What's your biggest fear?" type questions.

And you know the hygienist who takes the big metal hook they use and pretends you are the fish she's just caught for dinner, yanking your mouth around and tearing through your gums...

You know?

Well, enter Mavis, the dental hygienist from heaven. This woman did not cause me one ounce of pain, and she probably gave me the most thorough cleaning I've ever had. And she taught me how to floss properly.
Did you know you're actually supposed to brush your teeth for FIVE minutes twice a day? The average person brushes for a minute and a half.

And on top of that, Mavis gave me a $5 Starbucks card. She told me to go get a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate....I believe I will, thank you very much.

And for being a new patient, I got a mug filled with chocolate. From the DENTIST!!! How cool is that? I can't eat it of course, per our no-dessert regulations, but I mean, a dentist that will hand out chocolate to his new patients is definitely worth a second visit...or even a third.

So all in all my pearly whites are even more pearly than they were before, and I highly recommend Mavis. If we weren't moving next month, I'd want to see her again.

Speaking of moving (how's that for transition?) Our house is now in boxes. And we've still got about 3 weeks to pack, so that's good....wait a minute...we're moving in THREE WEEKS!!! That is so weird! It's going to fly by. Really quickly. We are trying to figure out, currently, how we are going to move across the country. We're selling one car, so we'll have our suv and a truck with our stuff. It looks like Daniel will take the truck and I'll take the Kia and we'll go it separately....all 23 long hours. great.

Daniel is in the process of beginning to look for a job, and he's already begun school, which he is super excited about! If you know of anyone who would like to offer Daniel employment, let me know :)

Well, that's the latest from Proffitteer land. It's amazing how excited my trip to the dentist made me today. I'm telling you, a good dental hygienist is worth getting excited over. My gums are grateful for Mavis :)

If I May Have Your Attention Please

Well, folks, there's no easy way to say this except just to say it. So I'll say it and then give you some background:

At the beginning of December, Daniel and I will be moving to Texas.

What?! You ask?

In July, about 4 months ago, I was approached about a job at Trinity, the church I worked for before Daniel and I got married. The job would encompass everything I am passionate about and want to do with life----leading worship. At the time we were in the middle of summer camp and were not looking to move back to Texas, though we imagined we might end up there at some point in the future. Needless to say, we were a little caught off guard by the possibility of a job I would love to do and a possible invitation back to Texas, home to both our families and a church that we both love.

Over the next 3 months, I kept in touch with the church as things continued to develop with the position. As Daniel and I were praying about the job and what to do, I realized I really wanted the job...and not only that, but to be back in Amarillo. And I really felt like God was saying "This is what I have for you. Go"....all the while recognizing my own desires and dreams to go and fill this position...

In October, 3 months after we initially were approached, Daniel and I sat down with a few Pastors at the church, and they offered me a job...a different job than the one I had originally been approached about, but one that still encompasses what I love and feel called to do--lead worship!

And it boils down to the tons of things God has been doing in both me and Daniel, together and separately, and it boils down to where God has called us to be.

So I have accepted the job at Trinity as the children's worship pastor (not sure exactly what I'll be called), and we will be moving after the first week of December, and I will start work after that.

Our time out here in California has been amazing, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It has been a defining part of mine and Daniel's first year of marriage, and I am thankful for the opportunity we've had to be apart from the world, out here by ourselves, working together and learning about each other---while at the same time being in a community of people out here who have loved us and been true friends. For us as a couple it is a closing of a season of life in the mountains and the beginning of one on the plains...uncertain and yet exciting, and one that we've been being prepared for. We know God will take care of us, and we know we've got friendships out here that will continue for a lifetime.

For those of you out here in Cali, we will miss you a lot. For those of you in Texas, we've missed you a lot.

If you have questions, let me know!!

love love

Notes on a Breather

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........

That is the sound of me exhaling a tad.
It is wonderful.

We finished Future Life, season 1 (not a tv series, but real life), and we finished well. Our last retreat was 4 days long, and that, for me equals a lot of leading worship. 6 full-blown sets to be exact. I am tired, but my voice is still intact, which means (hopefully) all those vocal warmups and practicing is really paying off!

Now, we are back to the pre-summer nothingness...except this time it's a little different. I still have no job, but I am at least more comfortable in my surroundings and therefore, am able to venture out and find things to amuse myself with. I still am in a little disbelief, that at 24 and a newlywed, I am able to have no job and live in California, and support my husband. It's a rare, but somewhat challenging treasure!

For the next few days the boys (the husbands of camp) are off debriefing the summer and fall seasons, so we wives shall play. I'll let you know what 'play' means after we've actually done it. Because right now I have no clue what we'll end up doing. Probably eating and watching movies. Those are pretty girly things to do, right? My toes are already pedicured, so that's out of the picture...we have coffee at home, so Starbucks might have to wait....so I dunno. But believe you me, it will be fun. And it will be playing.

Speaking of playing, did I tell you about Daniel's birthday last week? Talk about fun. He's 26 now, which means he's getting up there, so we had to do some things to make him still feel like a kid. I made breakfast (a casserole--recipe courtesy of Daniel's mom--thanks Paula!), and while it was in the oven I went and woke Daniel up with 2 presents, both of which were some of his favorite beverages. One was acai green tea (it's pronounced ah-sigh-ee), and the other was Oregon Chai. He chose the green tea. So, we ate breakfast and had tea, and then we went over the hill (to San Jose) where we shopped around and looked for him some birthday presents...we didn't find any.....why?
It seems that anything Daniel finds in person that he likes, he is determined not to pay full price for it because "I can find it somewhere online for half that price." Actually, even if it's on sale he will still go and look for it cheaper online.
The funny thing is...he ALWAYS finds it cheaper online.

Anyways, so we shop. We go to dinner at this place called the Loft. It's a really cool bistro. One of the things Daniel wanted to do on his day was go to a restaurant we've never been to (one of his fav. things). I took it upon myself to pick the restaurant, and I chose well. Funny story:

I order the "Panko Crusted Chicken Breast" with garlic mashed potatoes, vegetables, and honey mustard sauce.

When it arrives, I am in shock at the large portion. The chicken was HUGE!!! It had to lay across both the potatoes and the vegetables. Granted, it had been pounded really thin, but it was still quite large. So I've got a lot of food on my plate.

I eat maybe half the chicken, a little potatoes, and half the veggies. Daniel eats all of his plate as well as the rest of mine. So we're both sitting there with empty plates, when the waitress walks back up, takes a look at MY plate, and goes "wow, you stuffed?" WOW, YOU STUFFED?!

What on earth is that supposed to mean? Daniel and I laughed so hard, and then we started coming up with other ways she could have said that....none of which would have been any better:

"Geez, you sure put that away"
"You must not have eaten at ALL today"
"Gonna go for a run later, huh?"


We still gave her a generous tip. And had a laugh. But really, that is ridiculous.

Anyways, moving on. After dinner, we went to the Cheesecake Factory.
Hold on: you may be thinking "Cheesecake Factory AFTER dinner can only mean one thing: dessert. And aren't you guys boycotting dessert for a year?"

Yes, yes, yes......but remember, we make our own rules. And our own rules include a clause that says "on your birthday, you must eat birthday cake"And because we pigged out on my birthday, it was only fitting that we at least let the man have some cake!

We got Chris's Outrageous Chocolate Cake. See entry from June 14th.....same cake. In case you missed what is in this cake, let me tell you:

It is the size of a brick.
It is 8 layers:
2 chocolate cake
2 fudge brownie
1 coconut cheesecake
2 german chocolate ganache
1 fudge ganache
Then the whole thing is drenched in chocolate ganache, with more ganache, and more chocolate, then it's rolled in chocolate shavings. And topped with whipped cream.

When you haven't had any dessert in 3 1/2 months, Chris's Outrageous Chocolate Cake is heaven on earth.....we ate the whole thing and felt so sick...in a good way. We of course, didn't feel sick enough to not get birthday ice cream on the way home. Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough, and Moose Tracks. It was the little tiny cups. Don't freak out.

Our stomachs rumbled all day the next day. Not pretty, but TOTALLY worth it. I, however, do not want to think about dessert for about 8 more months. Which is fitting.

We rang in Daniels' 26th birthday with lots of style and pizzazz, and lots of food...how else should you ring in a birthday?

We head to Texas in 2 weeks! I cannot wait. I need it, big time. Til then you know I will keep you updated on the happenings in Cali.

Miss you all!!