The moon over Gatesville

Elizabeth has become fascinated with the moon and so I wanted to write down a few of the things she has said about this mysterious object:

1. We went to Dallas a few weeks ago and when we got out of the car one night, she said, "Where is the moon? I can't see it." I responded by telling her that sometimes during the month we can't see the moon (I didn't use the term "new moon"--that would have really confused her). Then she said, "Yeah. We'll see the moon again when we go back home. It's not here, but it's at home." Apparently, the moon can only be over Gatesville--one place at a time.

2. We were looking at the moon while we were driving home last night and Elizabeth said, "Mama, I want to drive our car up to the moon and touch it."

3. We were in Waco recently and Elizabeth saw the moon before she got into the car (Always excitement in her book!). When we got into the car, she got so upset (i.e., threw a fit) because she did not want to leave the moon. She still does not understand that the moon can be seen from both Waco AND Gatesville.

4. She always tells the moon "Good night" every time we get out of our car and come inside. Since we don't have a garage at the apartment, she gets to see the moon more often than when we would drive straight into the garage.

I like how much she talks about this object that I typically don't think twice about. It's nice to see things afresh through the eyes of children.

Life Happenings

Ok. So I'm finally posting for all of you who have been complaining that I haven't updated my blog in a while. I'm sure I've lost many of my readers by now, but maybe I can get you back by actually being a bit more consistent in my posting!!

So, the past several weeks have been crazy. Here are just a few of the happenings:
1. A visit to the emergency room at 10:30 at night. Elizabeth ended up being diagnosed with bronchitis but was later re-diagnosed with the croup. She is on medicine,

2. Travel, travel, and more travel. We have been on the road almost every weekend since early August (and that's not counting the summer trips)! We're out of town again this weekend in Austin visiting my sister Kim and her family. We'll see Shane's dad tomorrow at church--his mom is still in Russia and we are ready for her to come back. I know Elizabeth misses her!

3. We have been extremely busy with church planting business. We went to our last "training lab" for Mission Alive; we have held two fundraising dinners for The Grove and have two more planned in Austin and Houston; we printed brochures and waited for 4 weeks; we have finally sent out our fundraising letters (today!); and we have spent much time in prayer and are seeing these prayers answered in ways that are new and exciting for me.

4. We were given tickets to go see the Longhorns play football and had a great time. I hadn't been since Shane and I were dating and we had a nice "date." Thanks, Granbarry for watching our girl!

5. I went to the doctor because my upper back/side has been hurting. I had to have an ultrasound and they couldn't find anything. They said it could be inflammation of the ribs, but I can't take any ibuprofen, so there is nothing I can do but deal with the pain.

6. Potty training has ceased temporarily. With Elizabeth getting sick, us traveling for 8 weekends in a row, church planting getting into high gear, and work, we have not had the time or energy to clean up all the mess-ups and wet spots in the carpet.

7. Elizabeth is going through a magnified stage of not listening to anything we say. No form of punishment works on her. She just ignores us all the time. We are definitely ready for her to move past the "terrible twos" and hope they don't last on into the threes like we've heard is very possible!

Other than that, life is going well. I have been so encouraged with the church plant. We will move to Waco in about a month and are so excited to begin our ministry there. We also find out in three weeks what this baby is and are excited to be able to start calling him or her a name (and stop confusing Elizabeth every time we call the baby a "her" and then the next time we call it a "him"!). Hopefully, it won't be this long until my next post, so keep reading!