Richard Simmons Visits FBC

Can you believe it?!?! Richard Simmons himself in Washington Iowa. If you've paid a visit to the Faith Baptist Church gym the past few Sunday mornings, you've had the privilege of watching Richard in all his glory leading an exercise/dance/music class. It's a sight to see! It's a new ministry model we're trying - Sunday School/Dance/Exercise/Richard - we think it's going to be a huge hit. jk.

Actually, the junior high students in this particular Sunday School class have no idea who Richard Simmons is. It's just that I cannot stop thinking of those 80s exercise tapes as I watch Tony teach these students the songs for Vacation Bible School.* It's not because Tony's wearing a leotard. It's not because he's grown his hair out into a fro. And it's not because the music sounds like its from the 80s. It's just that Tony is hysterically funny and goes all out with his goofiness and boundless energy as he helps these students get excited about serving at VBS.

This year our junior high students are leading the Opening and Closing sessions for VBS and Tony is gracious enough to lead them in that responsibility. He is crazy talented at working with students! He's made it a blast for them to learn childish songs, all the while setting an incredible example to them of the pure enthusiasm you need when serving children. It's an amazing sight- he's got 7th/8th/9th graders dancing their hearts out to silly VBS songs so that the kids @ VBS next week will feel God's love through adults and students that care enough to join them in learning at their level.

I wish I could capture Tony's heart and attitude and put it into words, but as these last few paragraphs have shown, my words just aren't adequate. For heaven's sake, here I am comparing him to Richard Simmons.

*You may be wondering why in the world I ever watched Richard Simmons' exercise videos. I'm really not sure. I think my Aunt Karen had them. I spent some of my elementary days a little on the pudgy side, so maybe my Mom kindly invited me to spend an hour with Richard every once in awhile. I really don't remember. Unfortunately, those ugly images are scarred in my memory forever.

Who Needs Justin Bieber?

Not me...I've caught a different kind of fever. I guess you could call it the Widdel Fever. That doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but that's not the point. Tonight my husband serenaded me with a little "Never Say Never" and "Baby." Yep, I'm that lucky. Married to a man whose singing and guitar playing could put Justin Bieber to shame any day. In fact, even the baby in my belly couldn't help but dance a little to Daddy's Bieber tunes. If you pay any attention to the words, they aren't quite fitting for our circumstances. Ok... not at all fitting, but you have to admit the teenage rockstar's songs are pretty fun.

At about 3:00 this afternoon Tony called to let me know he was taking me shopping and out to dinner tonight. He said he needed to "spoil" me and would explain later. I had plans for a meeting, but he was making the phone call to cancel that meeting so we could be together. I had spent the morning and afternoon with my Mom and sister, so I was already feeling spoiled. Mom even got to join me at my doctor's appointment and they did an ultrasound just for her so she could see her grandbaby! Very fun!

Tony came home at about 4:30 to pick me up. He grabbed his guitar and told me he was about to "set the mood" for the evening, that's where the serenading came in. He's
so stinkin' funny! I can imagine him sitting in his office this afternoon practicing his Justin Bieber sounds...awesome. That's the kind of thing I love about youth pastors. After the mood was set, we left for Williamsburg where I was treated to some shopping.

Tony insisted it was against the rules to shop for the baby. This trip was only about buying some fun new stuff for me. I did not deserve that and felt rather guilty about it, but Tony was adamant that this was the way he wanted to let me know just how important I am to him. It was fun and I got some great deals! I avoided maternity clothes...as I'm trying so hard to do. They're just so awful looking. I know eventually I'll need them desperately, but it's really hard to want to spend money on them.

We left the mall and headed for Texas Roadhouse where we ingested thousands of calories in rolls and cinnamon butter. I chose not to stop after the rolls and caesar salad, and continued on to finish off a steak and mashed potatoes. Tony's steak came home with us in a to-go box. I don't like being the big eater, but that's been the trend around here lately.

I know it must appear that all Tony and I do is spend time together and enjoy one another. We do spend a LOT of time together and we thank God for the precious opportunity to be together so often. However, since most of that time is spent working it sometimes feels like it's been a long time since we've connected. We've been together the last two weekends, doing lots of ministry along the way. We've been together most evenings...sitting in meetings and serving alongside one another in programs. We've even been together most afternoons, but those afternoons are focused on the work of the church. Please don't misunderstand and think I'm griping, I rejoice in this amazing season of life in which God has allowed us to work side by side.

During this season we've come to realize that since we are together often, it's easy to forget that it's been a long time since we've talked about anything besides the ministry of the church. We've learned we must be more proactive in setting some time aside to be husband and wife, and not just Youth Pastor and Children's Director. Tonight was a wife and husband kinda night...and I'm thankful and feeling refreshed.

I have the best husband ever, just sayin'. Did I mention that he ended the evening with another round of "Never Say Never" and "Baby"?? Yep, I've got some serious Widdel Fever.

pink

The new pink background....has nothing to do with the gender of our baby (at least not that I know of). Ha! My timing on switching to a darling pink polka dot background is very misleading I realize. It was time to get rid of the wintery stuff and I went for something ultra-girly. Considering this is a blog dedicated to sharing my life with a YP and our adventures in youth ministry, it's probably not the most fitting...but isn't it cute?!?

I'm Baaaack!

In more ways than one, I feel like I can finally shout "I'm Baaaaack..." but I'll quickly follow that up with "but not for long."

Pregnancy is a CRAZY thing. I think I say that every day as I learn about a different effect it can have on your body. My first trimester was totally successful at slowing my whole body down. It seemed for a good 6 weeks very little was getting accomplished outside of the bare minimum. I'm really glad those weeks are behind us! I think my nice, clean house and house-cleaning husband are thankful too. :) It's good to be back to a normal or maybe even above normal energy level! I'm feeling great, so I'm baaaack!!! But not for long! All too soon a precious infant will be stealing every ounce of my time and attention and I'll start to neglect things all over again, and I don't even care. For the time being, a few things I've returned to...

1. Married2AYouthPastor.blogspot.com. Yes, I'm baaaaack. But, not for long. Tony's been as hilarious and entertaining and wonderful as ever, but I haven't felt all that inspired to write about our happenings. Bummer. I'm feeling inspired again and can't wait to share the craziness of our lives with the world wide web. I'm sure the couple of you that check this blog have missed us terribly!

2. Coffee Corner. I had a strange aversion to coffee the last few months. If Tony even started brewing a pot at home, I wanted to gag. The smell, just the thought of the stuff was totally ick. But this week I'm baaaaack!! (hopefully for good...this will probably not disappear with the arrival of our Widdel one). The thought of going to Coffee Corner and smelling the strong aroma of fresh grounds no longer terrifies me. In fact, I've enjoyed 2 mochas this week and they were as scrum-diddly-umptious as ever. aaaah. (Yes, for those concerned, I'm very careful of my caffeine intake. However, if the side effects of caffeine are a low birth weight and small head, I guess I don't understand why everyone freaks out..that sounds like a beautiful thing. oh well, i'll obey docs orders.) I also have to say, the gray haired men at the Coffee Corner were thrilled to see us return...and they're pretty stinkin' excited with our news!

3. Smelly Stuff. Not only did the smell of coffee make my stomach turn the last couple months, the smell of all of my lotion and body wash did too. I have to admit, Tony's cologne was the WORST. It's a delightful smelling cologne that he got for Christmas and I really like it, but I had to kindly asked him to NEVER WEAR IT AGAIN one day as I ran away from him. Don't worry - we can be close again, I'm baaaaack and I'm totally over it. Pregnancy is a crazy thing.

4. Vacuuming. As fun as it would be to say that being pregnant has made me puke at the thought of vacuuming, it would be a lie. Pregnancy did, however, take away my motivation for maintaining an impeccably clean house for awhile. You must realize, I really really really like a clean house. I even enjoy house cleaning - a lot. But, I'll confess for a couple months very little got done (by me) around our little house. Our poor vacuum must have felt completely neglected. Tony picked up the slack. His version of a clean house and mine are slightly different, but he's awesome and wonderful and i'm really thankful for all the dishes and laundry and bathroom cleaning he tackled. The good news for both of us is - I'm baaaaaack! (but, not for long :). I have more than made up for my lack of vacuuming the last couple weeks, I just can't stop. jk.

Ok, you get the point....I'm baaaaack! But not for long.

A True Gentleman

We welcomed spring last Sunday with our first amazing thunderstorm of the season. Of course it happened to come on a Sunday night during youth group. Bad weather usually chooses to make its appearance then. Such a bummer. Aw well...it was beautiful and the smell of rain/hail was so lovely.

Tony and I left the church that night in separate cars just as it started to hail again. Neither of our cars is particularly worthy of a spot in a nice garage, but since we have the space our "nicer" car always gets the perk of indoor parking. Tony happened to be driving the "nicer" car, so he pulled in the garage and I pulled up next to the curb outside the house. As I was opening my door, I saw Tony running towards me with the large umbrella that goes in the center of our patio table - quite the sight. Imagine: crazy strong wind, pea size hail, a super handsome man and a giant umbrella sprinting through the street on a dark night. That's true love, ain't it?

I was touched by his thoughtfulness and amused by his resourcefulness. I married a true gentleman.

I'm Packin'...

It's true - I'm packin'. Those wouldn't be my top choice of words for letting people know the exciting news that our first baby is on the way, but hey - my husband is much more eloquent than I, and to him those were the perfect words for sharing our excitement about this baby! I had to laugh last Wednesday night as I made my way down to the youth room where the youth band was practicing. Tony had me come over and asked me in a whisper if I thought we should share our big news. "Sure" I told him, so he got the students' attention and announced "Cari's packin'." They all looked at him completely bewildered, so he continued on, "we're having a baby!"

It was a hilarious and exciting moment as they screamed, shouted, and ran down to touch my belly. Many of our close friends and family already knew, but this was the first time we had made any sort of "announcement" to a group. Tony and I are still cracking up at the words that made their way out of his mouth to share this blessing.

For those more interested in the details...I am 15 weeks pregnant and due Sept. 20th. We are absolutely thrilled and amazed at this miracle of God! Tony and I have a lot to learn about pregnancy and parenting and infants and functioning on no sleep...but one thing we are confident of is this - God is an awesome God! We're amazed as we consider the truth that God is knitting this precious child together and already has a plan for his/her life. Wow! I'm so thankful for my husband and cannot begin to imagine what this journey would look like without him by my side. We may have very different vocabularies, but I'm crazy about him nonetheless and so excited for us to become Mom & Dad.

MIA

It's true...I've been MIA. This blog has taken a back burner the past several weeks to some of the other craziness in our lives. All good craziness, just lots of it!

I really do love my job as wife to a YP. Well, I wouldn't love being married to just any YP, I just love being married to Tony. It's time for a quick recap of some of our days off...and the other funny things that have happened in between.

1. Babysitting Jimmy. Jimmy is our one and only nephster. He's 18 months and we ABSOLUTELY ADORE him - So much so that we made a trek all the way up to his home in MN to visit him on our day off (and a couple days after too). We got to spend about 3 days with this incredible little baby boy. He's AWESOME! Tony even had his first experience changing a diaper - ALONE! I was so tempted to go in and see how things were going, but I didn't...and everyone survived. Jimmy loves saying Tony. When he sees either of us, he shouts Tone-eeeee!

2. Outlet Mall shopping. The beginning of February is a great time to snag sweet deals. We headed to Williamsburg one Thursday to hunt for bargains. That mall is laid out perfectly for us. Our first parking spot lands us right in between Banana Republic and Reebok. Our second spot lands us right between Gap and Nike. There's a SWEET GIVEAWAY** for the first person who guesses right - which stores does Cari go to and which stores does Tony go to?

3. Last Thursday was beautiful! 68 degrees and sunny, so we made the most of it. We started our morning (late morning), with a walk downtown to the coffee shop for some yummy treats. We walked back home, cleaned and washed the cars, went grocery shopping, played catch, opened the windows, and GRILLED OUT! It felt like a summer day. Glorious! While I was inside cleaning house for a bit, I looked out the window to find my husband with his nail gun, nailing a Honey Nut Cheerios box to a tree. I stopped to see what he was up to and realized it was his new target for shooting his air-soft gun. I can handle that...I don't like being the target. JK - he never, well rarely, shoots me with those things.

4. Valentine’s Day. I failed to make it out of this town (where shopping is limited to Wal-Mart) to do my Valentine’s Day shopping this year, and I certainly wasn’t thinking ahead enough to shop online. So, Tony’s presents included a few of his “favorite things”: diet mountain dew, nutter bars, apple cinnamon cheerios, cashews, lime tortilla chips, and funnyuns. Thank goodness we have a grocery store to provide these delicious and nutritious treats for my valentine. I’m still a little embarrassed by those gifts (I gave him one each day for a week with really nice notes about why he’s my favorite, but still – groceries?) I’ll make it up to him soon. He, on the other hand, completely spoiled me! We enjoyed a really yummy dinner and dessert at Outback.

5. Junior High Retreat. J-highers are stinkin’ funny. We spent last weekend with 6^th-8^th graders at Pine Lake Camp. It was a whole lot of fun. The snow had all melted so we played in the mud instead. I even had a camper get stuck in the mud – hilarious! I learned a great deal about Justin Bieber (no, I didn’t catch the fever). Tony spent most of his time playing detective and solving mysteries for distraught junior high boys who had somehow misplaced their dollar bills, hats, gloves, coats, etc.

Okay, I realize this is a very poor excuse for a recap of the last month of our lives. I will fill in the blanks soon.

**Just kidding about the sweet giveaway. Just felt like I needed to be like all the cool bloggers, so I totally faked it.