Pixiemom

As many of you know, I used to be the Youth Leader at our church for the youth girls before we moved to Chicago. I loved doing it. I’m still in contact with a few of those girls through Facebook.

At our new church, Jeremy and I have been asked to fill in until they can find a new Youth Pastor/Music Leader. They are looking for a young man and are willing to look at some fresh out of college. (If you know anyone who might like this job, Here’s the church’s website.) They are thinking that if he is unmarried that I will stay on as the female leader. We went up and met a few of the kids last Sunday night. I enjoyed talking to the girls and getting to know a few of them a bit more.

One big thing that will be different this time… I will have one of my own children in the youth group. Amie will be old enough to join starting in June. It will be interesting… I wish I could share my thoughts on this, but I feel it is safer to keep it off of this public place.

Mostly, I’m excited. I love working with this age. I seem to get along with them well and they are more accepting of my quirks and craziness than older people. So… here’s to starting this new chapter in my life. *smiles*

This last Saturday, I helped a bit youth with a thing here in the Chicago area called Breakaway. It started at 9:30 pm on Saturday night and ended at 7 am on Sunday morning. The 500 kids came from many Churches. It started at a church with a worship rally and a speaker, the Chicago Bears chaplain. Then, they had pizza and soda before breaking into three different groups and heading out to three different fun places and rotating through those places during the night. I went to the church and heard a bit of the band that was leading the Worship Rally and then listened to the speaker. He was a good speaker, really knew how to get the kids’ attention. I was working the Bowling Alley rotation, so the girl I was working with and I grabbed some pizza and soda and took off to make sure everything was ready there by the time the youth groups started showing up there. The first group showed up at 1 am and each group was there for almost 2 hours. We had questions and activities for the kids to do to get candy as well as trophies for high scores. I was using the microphone quite often during those 6 hours we were there. It was a lot of fun. The next morning, I got home and found that all four girls had taken baths or showers the night before and James had already had his shower that morning. The only thing I needed to do was help AnnaBeth and Noelle with putting their hair up and then Jeremy and the kids walked to church and I fell asleep.

All in all, it was a good night and lots of fun. I have a few pictures from the night, but most of the time, it was too dark for good photography. I have none from the bowling alley, but that’s ok.

Until next time… Good bye and may God bless you.

So, yesterday was my oldest niece’s birthday. I miss living close to them. My sister and I have talked a lot over the last few days. Mostly about school stuff, but I’m wanting to see her and her family very much right now. I’ll have to wait until whenever it is we see each other again. If it be next month or not until August… at least I know I’ll be seeing them sometime.

Spring Break is done for my kids and we are getting back into school. I have a slight problem with the fact that our external hard drive got knocked down by the kids, so it’s not working, and with my laptop in the shop, I don’t have my phonics or counting worksheets that I use with AnnaBeth and Noelle. I’m making do with what I have and we’re working with their math and phonics workbooks until my laptop gets back, but I miss those pages that I’ve used with them.

I got out my stringed instruments yesterday and tuned them. I played a bit on the mountain dulcimer and the guitar and worked with Amie on the autoharp. My fingers are pretty sore today, so I’m not sure if I’ll do any playing today, but I’ll do some more tomorrow. Now I need to also get out my flute sometime and refresh myself on playing it.

We headed down to our other house this last weekend. It’s getting cleaned out and we retrieved the last of our stuff from there. I love all the flowers that are blooming down there. So many more than up here and it’s only a 3 hour drive south. Amazing how much of a difference that makes.

I think that’s about it for now. Laundry and mopping and other housework stuff is calling. I also have a few flower pictures to edit and post up on Facebook and Flickr later today.

First… Happy Birthday to my lovely sister! I love you, Jill. I wish we lived closer so I could celebrate with you and then watch your kids and let you and Rob go out on a date.

It’s Spring Break here for us. It is much needed. We were all getting a bit burnt out and stressed. We’ll start back on Monday and until the end of April, we’ll go 5 days a week and then cut back to 4 days a week and a day out (field trips?) starting in May.

We were told that our membership will be up for vote in the new church this next Sunday. We’ve loved meeting the people there and we’re still meeting more.

Also… I have a photo website now. PixiePhotography.net I’m changing the lower photo about once a week and I’m trying to figure out how to put slideshows on there. I think I need Jeremy’s help with that though.

It’s been a while since I’ve really updated, so I’m trying to think of what all to say. Hmmm…

AnnaBeth, James, Noelle, and I are all learning the routines for dance to prepare for the recital coming up in June. It is really fun. Jeremy got me an iPod Touch a few weeks ago and I’ll put on the music and do my routine over and over. The kids think it looks funny because they can’t hear the music… but that’s okay because it’s not the music I’m dancing to in class. I practice with whatever music comes on while it’s on shuffle. Sometimes a bit slower, sometimes a bit faster, but always going over the part of the routine I’ve learned so far.

I miss singing with others… really miss it. I haven’t done any singing other than with my iPod or my radio. It’s not the same.

Jeremy and I got bikes and have been riding. Because of my knee, I’m limited at how far I can go. I’m quite happy with my 1.26 miles though I do hope to get farther. Jeremy is hoping to get to where he can ride the 27 miles into work. So far, he’s gotten up to 18 miles. I’m proud of him and his determination. He’s a bit discouraged as he hasn’t been able to ride any this week because of the rain, but he’ll be back at it as soon as a nice day comes around again.

Oh.. I went down a size for jeans. That surprised me greatly. I needed new ones because the old ones were holey or ripped. I knew my old jeans were a bit loose, but figured they were like that because of being… well… old. When I tried on the same size at the store, I found differently. I haven’t been this size since before I was pregnant with Christine. A bit less “5 baby fat”. Woohoo!

My sister is pregnant with #4 for them. She’s due in early October, I think. I’m hoping she goes a little early… you know, around September 23. *smile*

Ok, now for the best news… on February 2, both AnnaBeth and Noelle became Christians. Jeremy recorded the events… so you can see them here and here.

Now… for my readers… to help me blog a bit more, ask me some questions. What would you like to know about me?