St. Louis, Here We Come!

Aaron, Matthew, and I are headed to St. Louis this weekend. We haven't seen my family there since Matthew's been born. I am so excited! How do you fit what they missed in the last 21 months into a weekend visit? Impossible! But at least he will meet them and we'll get his picture with them. To top it off, my aunt has free passes for us into Six Flags while we are there! Not sure how that will go with Matthew, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm game. But we will have fun! Thinking and planning, planning and thinking about this weekend is all I've wanted to do this week. I am glad Matthew will get to spend more time with my grandpa because he's getting old and you never know ...

A little more into my life ...

Aaron and I met while we were in college. I was going to a college in one town and he was going to college in another town 45 minutes away. His pastor's daughter was getting a ride home with Aaron the weekend before Valentine's Day, 2001, and wanted me to go with her so she didn't have to drive her car back by herself. Always willing to help a friend, I said yes. We met Aaron at his college and when I first saw him, he was wearing suspenders! I was thinking to myself, "What have I gotten into?"

I'm pretty shy with new people, so I didn't talk to him much for the first half of the way to her house. The second half, my friend had a headache and layed down in the backseat, forcing me to talk to Aaron. If you know Aaron, you know he likes to talk, so we didn't run out of things to talk about.

The next day, he called my friends house and asked me if I wanted to go to their church's Valentine's Banquet with him. I said I would. Why not? My friend and a bunch of other people from the church were going to be there so if it didn't go well, I wasn't alone.  I was nervous the whole time, but he was a gentleman. And on our way to my friend's house, he asked me if I wanted to go to the BSU (now it's BCM) Valentine's Banquet at his school. I said yes, and the rest is history!

OK, so if you're a guy that probably bored you to death. So here's something for you.  Aaron got his first deer this season Saturday night. He brought it to the house before he cleaned it and showed it to Matthew. I figured he'd call it a zebra. He just learned to say zebra, so any animal he doesn't recognize is a zebra right now. He was looking at it, saying "D, D, D!" (which is deer in Mattheweeze).

"Let's Start at the Very Beginning"

I am going to be honest. I've never done a blog before so this is a new experience for me. Everything I've heard and read says a blog should be about you. People like to read about real life, so here it goes.

 Before I start in on where I'm at today, I would like to give you a little information about me. My dad is a pastor and my mom is a special needs preschool teacher. My brother writes computer programs and is happily married with no children, yet. I have a wonderful husband and a son who has stolen my heart.

I lived in St. Louis, Missouri until I was 12. Then, my dad started pastoring a church in Southeast Missouri, middle of nowhere town with a population of at most 400. I didn't appreciate the move because I was in the middle of 6th grade and was in middle school in St. Louis and 6th grade was still in the elementary school in our new home. But looking back I know God had his hands on us the whole time.

Within a week of my high school graduation, we moved to Southeast Kansas, where my dad started pastoring another church. I didn't mind it much because I was off to college in a few short months. But my new friends in Kansas took me in like I'd been around forever. God knows what we will need and provides it before we even know we need it.

While I was in college, I met and married the love of my life, Aaron. After moving around a few times, we are finally settled and loving every moment.

Enough about my boring past. On to something much cuter - my son, Matthew. He is almost 21 months old and I love to watch him learn something new every day! He makes my heart smile. His newest word is zebra. Right now, if he doesn't know what an animal is, it's a zebra. 

All he's wanted to do lately is draw. I cannot tell you how many pieces of paper are covered in his wonderful art. Seeing how dedicated he is to his artwork makes me look at my life. (He just walked up to me and wanted to draw!) What am I that dedicated to?  Church? Friends? My family? What? I wish I was as dedicated to learning and growing in the Lord as he is to learning and his artwork. He has made me stop and think about myself more times than not. Sadly, sometimes it takes a child's view to remind us of the important things in life.