No Autism here

Yesterday I took Savannah to her 9 month check up. She is well. She's 27 inches tall (34th percentile) and 19.1 lbs (65th percentile). Travis is a special ed teacher so he always has all these questions about her having autism. So just for him I asked Dr. Nau about it. He asked me all kinds of questions about her behavior and said that as sure as you can be with a 9 month old, she does not and probably will not have it. I'm glad to hear she's not autistic, but today she did have her first go at eating mud. She found a chunk of it on the floor and it melted in her mouth before I could even do a swipe to get it out. That's a daddy's girl.

Laundry List

Okay, So you know I gave up on real laundry (see previous posts). Here is a Jesus laundry list for you. Every so often in the Bible there is just a great list of things to reach for - found a GREAT one today.

2 Corinthians 6:3-8 ( I call it "How to have a Faultless Ministry list")
" We put no obsticle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found iwth our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights hunger; by:
purity
knowledge
patience
kindness
the Holy Spirit
genuine love
truthful speech
and
the POWER OF GOD WITH THE WEAPONS OF :
righteousness for the right hand and for the left,

through honor and dishonor, slander and praise.

Amen Brotha Paul. Amen.

New Building Tour

After staff meeting on Monday, Mike Despard took a few of us on a tour of the new building. It was pretty cool to see it all taking shape in that dry wall box! Below are some pictures I totally ripped off of Mark Arants blog (http://metropuritan.blogspot.com/). But I was so there too. Mike said I could take people in for tours during non-working hours - so weekends and after 4 on week days. Let me know if you want me to take you around.

This first picture is the entry to what I think is the coolest part. It also shows how spiritual I am. I'll tell you what it is at the end.

The wooden box at the bottom here is the frame for the new baptismal. People will be dunked out here while everyone in the auditorium watches on video feed. It will be full all the time so people can just run in there when the spirit calls them..well, don't quote me on that. In the back ground you can see the new foyer. There are so many windows!

This is back stage. Storage, tech/video room/green room/bathroom.

Looking from the stage out into the new auditorium. It will seat over 1000 people on the main level and 900 on the upper level. No more gym service!

Okay, here's the best part. There's an underground tunnel! It goes from back stage to the back of the seating. It's how the worship team will get out when they're done leading worship. It's also where I plan to spend my free time and schedule all my student meetings. I love heights and tunnles. This place is perfect for me.



Hope you enjoyed the sights!

The best thing EVER

So Savannah and I have been passing colds and flus around all winter. Last week she has this weird fever thing going on so guess who got it next! I had been feeling yucky for a few days and then last night when I got home from meeting with someone I was just freezing and achey. So I thought I'd take a hot bath and asked Travis to keep Savannah away from me. Turned out I had a temp of 102.4. I don't know if you've ever called First Nurse here but they don't want to see you unless it's 105 or higher, which I think is crazy because 102 is boiling! Anyway, I took a bath and went to bed at 7, leaving Travis with Savannah duty all night. He was a great dad. He got her up from her evening nap, fed her, changed her, put her jammies on, and played with her. At 9:00 he came in and woke me up to tell me that she was playing on floor and he laid beside her, then she crawled over and cuddled up next to him and fell asleep right there on the floor. He said it was the best thing that has ever happend to him! I believe it. If you know our baby, you know she stops for nothing! Especially to sleep! They just laid there for 20 minutes or so before he put her to bed. I'm so glad that Travis got to experience that from her.... but I'm still the only one she kisses.

ps, I'm feeling much better - after night sweats and lots of juice I woke up with a temp of 97.

Random Picture of Savannah for your efforts:

House Of Hair/Amanda

I got my hair cut this weekend! The last hair cut I had was Labor Day weekend. Since then I've been "trimming" it on my own with a straight razor I bought a while ago. It was a really good investment, but has left me with some really funky spots in my hair. One of the reasons I have been so bad about getting hair cuts is that I haven't had a person that I wanted to keep going to. So I found what I was looking for - House of Hair. It's down stairs from Jimmy Johns on main street. The first time I went down there I wasn't totally sure that I was going to the right place, but once you hit the bottom of the stairs you know you're there. It has a really cool vibe. Kind of retro -ie. Amanda cut my hair. She did great! Totally listened to what I liked about my hair and what I hated and talked about future plans. I got away with a great hair cut for $25. Here's the number : 515-232-0474. I should put a picture of my hair up but I didn't shower today.

It has been so nice here the last few days! I took Savannah and Brisco on a walk Saturday. Savannah could not get enough of of laughing at him. Sometimes things crack her up and I have no clue why!

Refresh

1 Corinthians 16
Paul ends his letter to the Corinthians by telling the church his future plans and wrapping up details. He makes mention of a couple friends of his that are coming to visit and he says that they "refresh" him.

Thank you Nattie and Charissa. You two truely refresh me in ministry.
(even though I know neither one of you read my blog - suckers).

This one's for the children..

I thought I would give a quick shout out to the students in Mr.Pierce's class room at Marshalltown High School! Woop Woop! What's up?! Now you guys be good to your teacher today. Be respectfull, honest, and most of all funny. I want to hear good things about you when my husband comes home today. Especially you Steven. I bet you guys didn't know this, but one thing that would make him really happy would be if you called him Mr. Catfish the rest of the day. Just for today though.

Mi Casa, Tu Casa

When we were trying desperately to sell our house on 13th Street, I prayed and told God that if he would give me a bigger house and a bigger living room, then I would be so hospitable and use it for whatever he wanted... Despite my immature bargaining, God gave me what I wanted.

Sunday was a little crazy though. We had some friends and their two girls over for lunch after church. About an hour later, we had about 25 kids over to watch the super bowl and eat deer tacos. This Friday I'm planning to have a few more friends over with their kids. Crazy? Na. Faithful? Yes. A little dumb? Maybe.

Below:

The girls made a tent and pulled Savannah in to play! Her first blanket "fort".

Our living Room during the Super Bowl on Sunday.