Though we use this blog mostly for personal updates, I wanted to update you all on some really exciting happenings on all 3 of our campuses!
Wingate:
* Our campus staff hosted a dodge-ball tournament in the first few weeks of school and 300 students showed up! This is unheard of at Wingate.
* 135 students were at the first weekly meeting! A football player who Clint has had many gospel conversations with came to Christ!
(Though numbers are not our primary goal, there is a reality that the more people involved in these types of events, the more will hear the gospel. Please pray that the momentum, fun and community would translate into genuine conversions and growth into laborers in the kingdom!)
UNCG:
* Many of the leaders in the movement are multiplying their own lives, leading Bible studies and sharing their faith with non-believers on campus!
* 35 girls and 17 guys just returned from our annual fall retreats!
Elon:
* Artie, our newest addition to the team, showed up to Elon today to give his life away for the sake of the gospel!!
* The ministry is becoming very student led! This is a huge answer to prayer as students gain vision to impact their campus and "own" the ministry's convictions and vision!
*Between the 3 schools about 300 students are hearing the gospel weekly at our evangelistic meetings!
Please pray with us that the Lord would use these meetings, retreats, relationships and events to draw unbelievers to Himself!
A special thanks to Mike Sal and Luke for admitting they read my blog :)
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Things We Love
I am a bit of a health nut. Not overly crazy, just a little less...well American in my diet than most. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE Chick-Fil-a and various other fast food. I love a good cheeseburger. Sweet tea is a delectable treat and a must for summer. But in our lifestyle we have to eat out a lot. So when I am at home what I cook is more than a few healthy steps above Bojangles.
My husband grew up not eating many veggies and eating a ton of sugar. So when we got married we had some issues agreeing on what was bought at the grocery store. This applies not only to food, but sometimes more so to the beverage category. I didn't want to have super sweet tea in the house all the time and he wanted something besides water. One day I stumbled upon a little green box that brought harmony to our dinner table!
Let me start by saying not all green tea is created equal. This is the ONLY brand we like. Others tend to taste like either grass, mint or citrus. Ick. But this is pure refreshment! Hardly a day goes by when we don't have a pitcher of this in our fridge. And I'm proud to say we are responsible for converting many green tea haters into lovers. :) Green tea has more antioxidants, less caffeine and requires less sugar than black tea. So while the heat of the summer lingers on, I highly suggest you go grab a box of this goodness and do the following:
My husband grew up not eating many veggies and eating a ton of sugar. So when we got married we had some issues agreeing on what was bought at the grocery store. This applies not only to food, but sometimes more so to the beverage category. I didn't want to have super sweet tea in the house all the time and he wanted something besides water. One day I stumbled upon a little green box that brought harmony to our dinner table!
Let me start by saying not all green tea is created equal. This is the ONLY brand we like. Others tend to taste like either grass, mint or citrus. Ick. But this is pure refreshment! Hardly a day goes by when we don't have a pitcher of this in our fridge. And I'm proud to say we are responsible for converting many green tea haters into lovers. :) Green tea has more antioxidants, less caffeine and requires less sugar than black tea. So while the heat of the summer lingers on, I highly suggest you go grab a box of this goodness and do the following:
Microwave 4 bags in 2 cups water for 2 1/2 minutes
Let steep until nice and green
Add 1/4-1/3 cup of sugar and stir until dissolved
add 6 cups cold water and chill
try not to drink the entire thing in one day (good luck)
Monday, September 20, 2010
Rock a bye baby...
Today marks exactly one month until our due date with baby number 2!! While I am still in shock at the reality of this, I am feeling the pressure more and more. This is especially true when I remember that Eden was 2 weeks early! Yikes!
Currently, the baby's room looks a lot like an attic. Boxes everywhere, a crib in pieces on the floor, no furniture what so ever (we realized about a week ago that we have NO furniture for his/her clothes. This happens when someone is living in the "nursery" pre-move with their own furniture. Oops!).
Anyway, we have gone back and forth about whether or not to keep the baby with us in our bedroom at first. We kept Eden with us because she never slept. And at the time walking across the house every 45 minutes didn't sound very exciting. However, we know moving the baby out of the room means a little more sleep for at least one parent. We don't have a bassinet and so had settled on just putting the baby in his/her room. That is until my mom showed me this... Fisher Price Rock and Play Sleeper.
What a great idea! With the amount of traveling we do, and the lack of flexibility even a small bassinet provides, this is amazing! It holds a baby up to 25 lbs. (which in theory means my toddler could use it! Ha!) and folds up to move from room to room (or city to city- hooray no huge pack-and-play to pack in our car!)! So now, this little one can sleep in our room at night, in the living room during the day and at grandma's for the weekend...eventually.
This is a must have for us. Thanks Fisher Price! I cant wait to get one of these for our new little one!
Currently, the baby's room looks a lot like an attic. Boxes everywhere, a crib in pieces on the floor, no furniture what so ever (we realized about a week ago that we have NO furniture for his/her clothes. This happens when someone is living in the "nursery" pre-move with their own furniture. Oops!).
Anyway, we have gone back and forth about whether or not to keep the baby with us in our bedroom at first. We kept Eden with us because she never slept. And at the time walking across the house every 45 minutes didn't sound very exciting. However, we know moving the baby out of the room means a little more sleep for at least one parent. We don't have a bassinet and so had settled on just putting the baby in his/her room. That is until my mom showed me this... Fisher Price Rock and Play Sleeper.
What a great idea! With the amount of traveling we do, and the lack of flexibility even a small bassinet provides, this is amazing! It holds a baby up to 25 lbs. (which in theory means my toddler could use it! Ha!) and folds up to move from room to room (or city to city- hooray no huge pack-and-play to pack in our car!)! So now, this little one can sleep in our room at night, in the living room during the day and at grandma's for the weekend...eventually.
This is a must have for us. Thanks Fisher Price! I cant wait to get one of these for our new little one!
Face Lift!
The house is finally done being painted...
Before (a little drab and fading)
And After
a much cozier color!
(Please excuse the dead ferns hanging from the porch. I'm in the process of trying to revive them!!)
Next on the list is the door color. I want something bright that pops! I'm thinking cherry red. Suggestions?
Saturday, September 11, 2010
The parade isn't cancelled...
What we didn't tell you about our moving day is how after gifts were abundantly poured on us, things fell apart, literally. You can always count on Satan trying to rain on your parade when things are going well. He always tries to taint the good gifts the Lord gives us.
So heres how it went....
We leave closing to fill up our U-haul with the first load and have to wait a while for the cleaning ladies to finish up. We end up not getting to the new house until 6 pm. Not great when your plan is to sleep there. While unloading the very first piece of furniture, I watch as my treasured dining room table gets pushed too far and "craaaaack" goes the leg. I had previously joked with Clint that they could break anything they wanted, just not my table. Ouch.
There is a car right across the street from our house whose back window has been smashed. Not exactly a warm welcome.
Two sweet girls from UNCG showed up a few minutes later with cookies, sweet tea and bubbles to keep my toddler happy. It worked amazingly well, but apparently the mass amount of sugar being ingested also led to every mosquito in Greensboro finding my daughter.
We then walk into the now (mostly) empty house to find multiple mouse traps. Yikes.
A random guy stops his car in the middle of the road, walks into our yard, directs not so nice words at my hubby and asks everyone there for a cigarette.
Someone unintentionally warns us that we now live beside THE party spot. Great.
I watch as a truck is moved with our glider on the back. It falls off and breaks. Ugh.
We don't go to sleep until 2 am and both wake up at 6 am to allergy attacks, thanks to the never-been-cleaned blinds left behind. We decide to get up and medicate with coffee. We are overwhelmed and slightly scared that we made the wrong decision. Was this not a gift from the Lord? Was it just our doing? And that's when this happened.
I fix our coffee and sit down in front of our huge window that looks onto the side street. We pray and I look up to see what...? THE SUNRISE! Right there outside the biggest window in the house. I can see the steam of my piping hot coffee in its light. What a way to start the day. And I might add that I have had a particular love for sunrises (and sunsets) for many years. Our engagement morning started with such a grace. We are immediately relieved. This is the icing on the cake, a sign from the Lord that He is with us, and we have indeed sought Him and found Him in this decision.
Since then it has been nothing but affirmation. We love this house. But the Giver is much much better than the gift!
So heres how it went....
We leave closing to fill up our U-haul with the first load and have to wait a while for the cleaning ladies to finish up. We end up not getting to the new house until 6 pm. Not great when your plan is to sleep there. While unloading the very first piece of furniture, I watch as my treasured dining room table gets pushed too far and "craaaaack" goes the leg. I had previously joked with Clint that they could break anything they wanted, just not my table. Ouch.
There is a car right across the street from our house whose back window has been smashed. Not exactly a warm welcome.
Two sweet girls from UNCG showed up a few minutes later with cookies, sweet tea and bubbles to keep my toddler happy. It worked amazingly well, but apparently the mass amount of sugar being ingested also led to every mosquito in Greensboro finding my daughter.
We then walk into the now (mostly) empty house to find multiple mouse traps. Yikes.
A random guy stops his car in the middle of the road, walks into our yard, directs not so nice words at my hubby and asks everyone there for a cigarette.
Someone unintentionally warns us that we now live beside THE party spot. Great.
I watch as a truck is moved with our glider on the back. It falls off and breaks. Ugh.
We don't go to sleep until 2 am and both wake up at 6 am to allergy attacks, thanks to the never-been-cleaned blinds left behind. We decide to get up and medicate with coffee. We are overwhelmed and slightly scared that we made the wrong decision. Was this not a gift from the Lord? Was it just our doing? And that's when this happened.
I fix our coffee and sit down in front of our huge window that looks onto the side street. We pray and I look up to see what...? THE SUNRISE! Right there outside the biggest window in the house. I can see the steam of my piping hot coffee in its light. What a way to start the day. And I might add that I have had a particular love for sunrises (and sunsets) for many years. Our engagement morning started with such a grace. We are immediately relieved. This is the icing on the cake, a sign from the Lord that He is with us, and we have indeed sought Him and found Him in this decision.
Since then it has been nothing but affirmation. We love this house. But the Giver is much much better than the gift!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Getting Settled
Someone is sure enjoying her new room! We decided today, with the help of Clint's parents, to do 2 major things. 1) Put up all the blinds (and trash the ones that were beyond cleaning!) and 2) Get E's room situated. So...up went the "big girl bed" for the first time. AND SHE LOVES IT! Hooray! And how stinkin' cute is it?!
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So then I started something I've been itching to do for MONTHS. Putting these precious decals on her walls. I love stuff like this...I love being settled, decorating things and feeling at home. I want Eden to feel like she's got her own room that is special and unique. So here's a little sneak peek into her "woodland wonderland"! |
Sunday, September 5, 2010
What else have we been up to?
In the midst of moving, a semester starting, being 8 months pregnant and chasing around a very active toddler...I had the privilege of shooting a few photos of some dear friends of ours! Chris and Nellie just got married this past weekend, but a few weeks ago they drove up to Greensboro to capture the love radiating from them. Clint and I have had the privilege of seeing these two grow in unbelievable ways over the past four years and ultimately fall in love in the past year. How cute are they??
Congrats Grissingers!! We love you both so much!!
More gifts!
As promised...here are more new house updates! We are getting settled slowly but surely. In the midst of moving we had to go out of town for a wedding we were both in. SO fun! But we couldn't wait to get back to our new abode to finish unpacking.
Closing day proved to bring more unexpected and unbelievable gifts. I'll give you a quick brief on a few.
1) Clint goes for a final walk through and finds the house disgusting. Doesn't sound like much of a gift, huh? A sequence of events led to us having to move in much later than we thought (the first load arrived at 6pm) BUT, the house was professionally cleaned! A HUGE gift to an exhausted, prego mama.
2) In addition to being really really dirty, the former owners left a lot of stuff. Some was the usual dishes, cleaning supplies, etc. But the best leftover? A 2 year old washer and dryer!! Much newer and nicer than ours! Not to mention we didn't have to move ours!!
3) In the midst of signing the closing papers we were informed that the owners paid too much on the closing cost. We left our signing with enough money to cover the cost to paint the outside of our house. Something we decided was necessary to do even if it meant not being able to get some other needed things. Unbelievable.
4) We have been praying for a house and a car for 12 months now. The same day we signed our closing papers on our new house, someone gave us their (very nice) Passat. Overwhelmed.
Needless to say we are still recovering from the amazement that the last week has brought. We are so thankful for the gifts He has given us! Our deepest prayer now is that we would worship the giver and never the gifts! No matter how many or how great they are.
Here are a few pics of the house!
Before the new paint!
Closing day proved to bring more unexpected and unbelievable gifts. I'll give you a quick brief on a few.
1) Clint goes for a final walk through and finds the house disgusting. Doesn't sound like much of a gift, huh? A sequence of events led to us having to move in much later than we thought (the first load arrived at 6pm) BUT, the house was professionally cleaned! A HUGE gift to an exhausted, prego mama.
2) In addition to being really really dirty, the former owners left a lot of stuff. Some was the usual dishes, cleaning supplies, etc. But the best leftover? A 2 year old washer and dryer!! Much newer and nicer than ours! Not to mention we didn't have to move ours!!
3) In the midst of signing the closing papers we were informed that the owners paid too much on the closing cost. We left our signing with enough money to cover the cost to paint the outside of our house. Something we decided was necessary to do even if it meant not being able to get some other needed things. Unbelievable.
4) We have been praying for a house and a car for 12 months now. The same day we signed our closing papers on our new house, someone gave us their (very nice) Passat. Overwhelmed.
Needless to say we are still recovering from the amazement that the last week has brought. We are so thankful for the gifts He has given us! Our deepest prayer now is that we would worship the giver and never the gifts! No matter how many or how great they are.
Here are a few pics of the house!
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| cute lil cabinent |
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| Living room |
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