preK-4 and house update

Hello friends! Annabelle officially started preK-4 today! Andrew was a little sick so he had to stay home with Mommy. She had a great first day! Andrew was so sad he didn't get to go to school today, but hopefully he will get to go Thursday. They are letting us all adjust. This week they go Tues/Thurs and next week they will go Mon/Wed/Fri. Then the week after that they will go Mon-Fri!!! I can not believe it! Please pray for them as the start at a new school and please pray for me because I haven't been without my kiddos like this EVER!! We will be fine, it will be an adjustment (more for me than them) :) God is gracious! This is the best elementary school in the county!

More on God is gracious....we have rented our house in Dickson. We were praying for it to sell, but apparently God had other ideas in mind :) One of our friends from the Dickson church needed somewhere to rent and called us up! The deal should be finalized on Friday!! God helped her out and us out!! Double blessings!!!

Jeff goes back to school the 1st of September! He is excited about his classes, especially the Hebrew one. I would think that I would be apprehensive about that one, but he is all for it! Good for him! He still has about 3 years left at MTS if he takes 25 hours a year, but he is enjoying it and making new friends and reuniting with a couple of old ones :)

Church is going pretty good! We had a great revival a week ago! It was so powerful! For the first time since we came, we were able to partake of the Lord's supper as a church family!! Our church family here continues to amaze us with the way that they care for us! They are amazing and we are very blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!

home sweet home

We just took an amazing vacation to the mountains. We were able to go to the WonderWorks, Dixie Stampede, Aquarium, and Cade's Cove. We had a wonderful time. We stayed at a chalet that's owned by one of our friends. It was awesome. Views from the back porch....amazing!!! We didn't really get any rest, but we had a lot of fun and even saw some bears at Cade's Cove.

House hasn't sold yet, but we did put a for rent sign up. So now there is a For Sale and a For Rent sign up at the house. We are still praying that God's will will be done.

Jeff did really well in school in the Spring and Summer classes. He has a 3.7 GPA. He is also preaching his first funeral service tomorrow, so please pray for the family and for him.

I am still planning on substituting this fall, just to make a little extra money. The kids are starting Pre-K in a couple of weeks. They are so excited! I was too until I realized that they will not be with me for 5 days!!!!! I am excited, I just don't know how I am going to be without my babies. They have only been to the two day mother day outs. It's definitely going to be a change.

Right now, our current prayers are that we could find some great friends that we could just hang out with. So please keep us in your prayers. Please pray that we would do God's will for our lives. He is in control!! That thought just gives me total peace!!!

House/Substitute

I have been been a slacker when it has come to updates. Tonight is probably not the best night to write. I am discouraged about our house selling, or rather not selling. I am trusting in God, because I know when it sells it will be Him alone. Psalm 130 really hit home tonight. It says..."out of the depths I have cried to you, Lord hear my voice, let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications...I wait for the Lord, my soul waits and in His word I do hope". Well Lord, all I have is Yours. I will wait on you because because 1)you are God 2)You love me 3)Your ways are so much better than mine. I will wait on you Lord!!!

In other news...I have become an official substitute, which also was a gift from God. I was with pre-k inclusion class that ranged from 3-6 years olds, that was fun. Then received a call the very next day and was with 4th and 5th graders for a half day. Both were extremely good experiences. I feel like this is what the Lord is wanting me to do at this moment. I still get to stay home most of the time, but am able to make a little extra money. God is good! All the time!!! Even in the midst of a disappointment, even in the midst of celebrating. Our God is a wonderful, compassionate God!!!!

I Have An Interview

Yay!!! The McNairy Co Board of Education just called and would like to interview me for a substitute teacher position on March 31!! I am so excited!! Thank you God!!! We were just praying and talking about this exact thing last night. We had decided that since it had already been over a month, maybe I should just check out a couple of other options. I am very hopeful! We were trying to figure out if we could make it on Jeff's income alone and we figured out that we could, we just would be scraping by at times. Please pray with us that if God wants me to be a substitute that I would do very well in the interview. Since God has opened this door a little I am hopeful that it will work out. The only interviews that I have done were for the jobs that I had in college. So...it has been been awhile folks:) Please pray for my nerves and everything else. This is so exciting!!!!

Settled...well almost :)

We are pretty much settled in our new home. We have finished unpacking all boxes. We just have to put the pictures on the wall as well as put some curtains up in 3 rooms. We went to our first church outing. The church goes out to lunch every 1st Wednesday of the month. We went to Ryan's today! Yum!! It was fun!! We had a chance to sit, eat and talk to some of the church members. I am already feeling a great deal of love for our new church family.

I have been struggling the past week. I have absolutely no clue on how to be a pastor's wife. I feel so discouraged at times. I am praying that God will show me the new role he has lined out for me. I am looking forward to learning!

I have been lonesome for my family and Jeff's also. I have never been this far away from my parents. Even when we lived in Dickson, Jeff's family was always near so I always had someone close to talk to. I am praying that God would show me the plans that He has for us here...step by step. I know that He is faithful and is always near. That thought alone has brought a smile to me face as well as gives me such a peace that only He can give me.

We are in the process of planning several events for the church. A few ideas that have been thrown out are...Easter celebration, VBS, a revival, showing FireProof. I am looking forward to each of these.

The kids are enjoying preschool. They go two days a week from 8:30-12:30. They seem to really enjoy it. I have applied to be a substitute. I am just waiting for the call to be fingerprinted as well as interviewed. I hope that they call soon!

Everything else is going okay. The kids are healthy at the moment, as are me and Jeff. That is always a good thing. We are looking forward to the next couple of days when it is sunny and warm outside so we can play outside. We are also excited about Chris, Wendy and the girls coming up on Saturday!! Hurry up :)

Hi/Lo Thursday

This post is part of "Hi/Lo Thursday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else's "Hi/Lo" posts and for a chance to win $100.

This is part of the Rigg's family blog. It's also a chance to read others highs and lows for today or the week.

Well...our high moment for this week is when we moved into our new house and all the help that was offered to us. By the time they left Sun. we had under 10 boxes left to unpack. Also...the new church that my husband is now the pastor of us gave us a "pounding" with food! Just wonderful!! Our low moment was just a moment ago when I had to write the checks for our house that we are trying to sell. I am trying to be patient and wait on God's timing, but could use some prayers on this please.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We are gearing up for a wonderful Valentine's Day!!! We are moving!!! Yay!!! Everything is pretty much packed, the bed is taken down....I am so ready to finally be able to move. We are excited about what the Lord is doing in our lives.

Today, amidst packing and other things, Jeff, Annabelle, Andrew and I all made Valentine cookies and decorated them with strawberry icing. We also painted Christmas ornaments (my mom gave them to me at Christmas) for Grammy and Pap. They love helping me and Jeff cook, clean, whatever we are doing they want in on it too. I am so blessed to have my family. Annabelle is such a sweet girl. She loves dress up dresses and having tea parties. She also loves to play on her Dora computer that Santa gave her at Christmas. Andrew is such a little man. He loves to climb all over Jeff no matter where we are. He loves to play with tools. He helped Daddy take down our bed today. Jeff helped him use some of his tools to take care of the job. It was cute. I wish that I would have taken a picture.

It's been hard on me lately to spend quality time with the kids. I have either been packing or cleaning or just trying to get the house ready here lately. It seems I am always cleaning just in case someone wants to come and view our house. God has really been convicting me that cleaning and other things are not as important as spending time with my children and playing with them. I am missing out on them growing because of cleaning. How ridiculous is that. My prayer and hope is that starting this weekend, I will cut out a huge block in my schedule just to play with my kids. I want to love them like God loves me. I want to show them that Mommy loves them and likes to play with them and be with them. I want to be a better Mommy.

On a side note, a church member just dropped off my very first sewing machine. I am hoping to make the kids some curtains for their new room and playroom. I am so excited!!!

I hope that each one of you have a wonderful Valentine's day. I hope that it is a day filled with love from family and friends!