Busy Times

July 7th, 2010

So a lot has happened since I last posted and much more to happen soon! Kyle and I went to visit our good friends Richard and Ashley along with Elliott in Chicago...what a cutie. It was a great time to visit and catch up on life. It's always to encouraging to just spend time with these friends especially because they are such great followers of Christ and build us up in so many ways. It was also great to ask Ashley questions about what it's like to be a new mommy and things she's gone through recently to help me know what to expect. The only thing that stunk was not enough time and hip/foot/leg pain for me! Being pregnant really does change your body and I'm annoyed. It's like I can't go a day now without being uncomfortable or having hip pain. I will not miss that when little Abigail leaves my body.

The other thing that is new is I am no longer working with Fitness USA...I am fully self-employed with Fit For Life! It actually wasn't by choice but they wanted me to sign a form that would greatly hurt my ability to perform as a trainer outside the gym. I told them I would not sign it so therefore I am not there anymore. It wasn't a surprise to me and I was ready for it. God times things perfectly.

I went and registered for baby stuff at Target and Babies R Us with my mom also. That was fun and a little overwhelming with some stuff. I am now just over 26 weeks pregnant and getting bigger! I am starting to notice more things that are making me uncomfortable. But thankfully I still enjoy the elliptical and can get a good cardio workout on it!

So more adventures ahead with the Jacob's family moving here...Jack was born on July 1st! 10 lbs 10 oz...what babies Lindsay makes! We are so excited to have them come and live here...it's like a dream. Plus Kyle and I will be celebrating our 3rd anniversary next weekend! Then my one of my dear friends Amy Clark is getting married on July 31st and I'm her personal attendant. So there are lots of things going on and this is just for July. August is a whole new story but we'll stick with July for now!

24 Weeks

June 22, 2010

Here's an update on my garden....wowee! It's growing big! I weeded yesterday and came out this evening and there were tons of new weeds! ahh! But it is fun.

I bought this table at a garage sale 2 houses down from ours and I paid $4.00 for it. I saw potential the minute I walked up! The last furniture item on my list to buy was a nightstand for Abigail's room that I can put next to the glider and have a lamp on it and put books underneath to read to her. I also wanted it mainly to be able to set things on it like a bottle or a drink for me since I know I'll be doing feedings and up during the night with her (I am excited about that though :)). So I knew that if Kyle were with me he'd say, "that's ugly, we shouldn't get it." But I had faith....lol.

Ta da! Here it is sanded and painted the same day by me! I think it turned out pretty good.

Here I am at 24 weeks pregnant! Abigail is over 1.5 pounds! I only have one more 4 week appointment and then I go every 2 weeks then once a week! Time is flying but I am getting more excited for that special day. I have dreams about her coming almost every night. I am just so excited to be a stay at home mom and take care of her and my hubby :)

I will trust in Him who richly provides...not in my riches

June 15, 2010

So Kyle and I have been listening to a series from Andy Stanley about learning how to ACT rich. Most of us Americans are rich compared to the other 96% of the world. We have houses with air-conditioning, houses for our cars, go on vacations, and do home projects with "spare" cash. Basically, we usually have more than we need in materials. But too many of us put our trust in our money rather than God. When we're doing well financially we are relaxed and spend more money on "fun things" we want. When we're tight on money we get stressed and freak out about anything. It's been really good to listen to it because I am a frugal person and tend to be this way by putting my trust too much in money. He also talked about how little we actually give of our finances. Studies show that the more money people have the less they give. How interesting is that?! It's easy to give 1 dollar out of 10 dollars but it's a lot harder to give 1,000 dollars out of 10,000...there's so much you could do with 1,000 dollars! God wants us to be generous and take money off the top and give to Him first. We tend to get selfish and want to keep all our spare money to spend on going out to eat or buying new clothes or whatever the case may be.

Well, we've been trying to practice trusting in God each day and not relying on our riches by committing it to prayer together and separately. Well yesterday we got our car back and it overheated when Kyle went to Best Buy. We have to spend over 500 dollars to get a new water pump and there are other things that need to be fixed on it too. Surprisingly we haven't been worried or freaking out. Thankfully we have an emergency fund and can pay the bill with no problem but normally I would be freaking out because that's a lot of money to spend that wasn't expected. I am so thankful that God is in control of our finances and all we have to do is trust in Him and obey His word with tithing and being faithful and He'll take care of us.

23 Weeks!

I'm 23 weeks pregnant and loving it right now! Abigail is moving a lot now and getting bigger. I am feeling less worried about labor and more anxious to meet her. Kyle can feel her move too and you can see my belly move. We also have gotten more things for her room at great prices so it's very exciting! I can't believe I have about 3-3 1/2 months to go! I am just praying that I'll be able to start being home all the time the last month of my pregnancy to get the baby room done and such. How fun!

22 Weeks

June 9, 2010

I am at 22 weeks with this little Abigail. She is now just over one pound! It's amazing how fast time is flying. I read that in the next month she is going to grow faster and double in size...oh boy! I love it that there is a little being inside of me that Kyle and I made but I have decided that I don't necessarily "love" being pregnant overall. I feel constricted because I can't do a lot of activities I want to now (exercise), I get tired, and I have been getting leg cramps, foot pain, and charlie horses. I do so many things to prevent this stuff but it seems that you can't avoid everything. But on the other hand I am very motivated to get my body back in shape after the baby and nothing is going to deter that no matter what anyone says! Kyle has given me a challenge with a reward at the end of it for a physical goal within 6 months after Abigail is born...so it's on! Ha, ha.

Here's a preview of Abigail's theme for her room!

But my garden is also growing rapidly too. I got several garden books last week and have read through one of them. It's exciting because I feel like this is my very own project that I am in charge of outside. Kyle takes care of all the landscaping and such at our house so sometimes I want something to do that doesn't involve hard labor....like my wonderful garden! I am learning so many things about how to tend to my garden and prevent disease/pesticides and keep it healthy. Being a wife and soon-to-be mother is so much fun and I can't wait till I'm home all the time with all my projects I want to do!

Planting seeds

May 29, 2010

So my little seedling is almost 21 weeks along! Now she is the size of a large banana! And we know it's a she because of our ultrasound about a week ago. Abigail Louise Johnson is her name!! Kyle felt her move around inside me for the first time this morning...it was exciting also!

But along with my growing belly, soon I will have a growing garden. Mama helped me do all of it and I am so grateful cause I didn't know what I was doing. But I just started with one box and we planted corn, spinach, green beans, peas, onions, lettuce, and potatoes. I feel like we got a lot planted in one box. Now I can do a test run this year and see how everything turns out. I want to do more boxes next year and plant more things but I wanted to get acquainted with how it all works first. My task for next year will be making my own baby food for little Abigail. I want her nutrition to be great and cost little like ours. Besides, I think it'll be fun to cook things and jar it. I want to do tomatoes and make my own tomato sauce and salsa. Oh so much fun! Well, these next couple of months will be busy but I'll try to take pictures and post blogs about it. God is so good and life can be fun!

Have my markers of where things are!

God is Faithful

May 17, 2010

In my last post I talked about the opening at a nearby church for a Worship Pastor. Well, with thought and prayer, right now we are not sensing a calling of the Lord for Kyle to do this. My first tip was just the uneasiness I felt when Kyle told me about it. And as Kyle puts it, "I am not hearing God say to Go do this." So right now that is where we are at and I don't think it's going to change.

But God is so faithful and He's been providing Kyle lots of work and side jobs which really helps us out since we have such a strong desire to pay off our debt to honor Him and want to save for the baby's arrival. Ever since we've been married God has blessed us so much and we want to remain faithful to how we should live and not be strapped to debt because we want to help the poor, needy, and just reach others for Christ with giving. The only way we can do that is to free ourselves up and live disciplined lives even when it's not "convenient". It can be hard in times where self-gratification is everywhere. But we've been able to use the money God's provided since we cut up our credit cards over a year ago. Praise the Lord! So I know God will continue to provide for us when the baby comes and during the winter months.

On another note, I am 19 weeks pregnant and counting! I am noticing more things about being pregnant that aren't too fun. My feet have started hurting by the end of the day when I work and I get really tired. Also, when I exercise to some Turbo Jam workouts or go jogging, my hips hurt! So I am sticking to weights and the Elliptical at Fitness. I enjoy the Elliptical more than I ever have. We will be finding out the baby's gender soon and we are excited...now we'll be able to really plan and know whether to call him/her London or Abigail!

Another new thing is that we re-did the living room. We took out our TV and brought in another couch for more seating. Since our living room isn't very big, I have wanted to do this but taking the TV out is a big deal because we like certain shows and the basement isn't finished. But during the summer there's really no good shows on and I don't want to watch as much TV when the baby comes so I thought this would be a good way to get used to watching less of it during the day ahead of time. When we get the basement finished we'll have our "theatre" area for movies and such which will be nice during the winter but it won't be the main focus of the upstairs. And with having the baby and people probably coming over more, I wanted more space and seating to accommodate others.

God's Plans

May 3, 2010

So I went away this last weekend for a retreat with my high school small group girls. It was a blast and we had such a great time bonding. God really worked in their hearts and in mine. I kept asking Him to show me something I need to work on and He did :) I think He revealed something new that I never really thought of before and it was good to see it. Now I just need to bathe it in prayer and ask for the Holy Spirit to change me and work through me more.

I had a bit of twist when coming home. The Lord seems to like to do crazy things to me! I notice that lots of times God will finally show me something and I feel like it's an "aha" moment and then He's like, "Ok, you're ready for the next thing I'm going to do." It's like He's waiting for me to get something and then once I get it He's moving me on to the next "level". Well, Kyle told me that there is a position open at a church 5 minutes down the road from us. Apparently our worship and lead Pastor's at River Valley have been talking and praying with this Pastor about needing a Worship Pastor and they have been thinking of Kyle. So on the fly we went to check it out and the people were really friendly. The Pastor's message was solid and the music, well obviously it needs help. We met with an Elder and then he took us to the Pastor and we chatted with him in his office for a few minutes. It was an encouraging conversation and basically they are looking for someone part time for the first year but the pay is pretty generous (I think). After the year is up they want to bring that person on full-time and it would basically be an Associate position with the music and the pay would also be enough to fully support a family.

The interesting part is that I had kind of moved on from this pastoring area because I felt like God had lead Kyle away. We are also very involved in River Valley and Kyle does music there for the youth. I am just now developing really close and intimate relationships with girls and women in the church. I love the teaching and everything about it. So I don't know what God wants to do in us or if He wants Kyle to switch gears from business to ministry. There is going to be LOTS of prayer about this and I just want His will to be my will. But I am instantly feeling a little unglued about the situation. I have been praying for a long time for a solid job and especially with the baby coming, who knows, maybe this is what God has been preparing us for. I guess we just need to have an open mind and know that our life's purpose is to serve the Lord and it's not for our own pleasure. I also know that if we're not in the will of God we won't be fulfilled or happy. Please pray for us and our journey with God and that He clearly shows us what He wants!