Is Monday over yet?

Today has been one of those Monday's that I am ready to end! Today started out rough because everyone was dragging and taking their time getting ready. Jeff finally got the kids out the door to take them to school and then head to Camp Hillmont so he could work. I finished getting ready and headed out so I could get to work. I got in the van and started it, but nothing happened except a clicking sound! I tried several times but no such luck of it starting. So I started calling Jeff, who had his phone on silent, and didn't answer his phone for about 30 minutes. After talking to my Dad I started trying to figure out what might be wrong. He suggested to try the battery first but I had no jumper cables. Long story short, Jeff finally answered his phone and came to pick me up and drive me into Nashville. He headed back to Dickson to see if he could get the van started and find out what was wrong. It ended up being the alternator. Thankfully we have some great friends who let him come over and they worked on changing it out. In the end it was better than it could of been but still not cheap. We didn't have to pay a mechanic for labor so that helped a lot! The van is now working and hopefully tomorrow will be much smoother!

We did have a great weekend. Friday night we went to the home of some new friends from church. We ate dinner then spent the evening playing games and laughing. The kids had fun playing with their son who is the same age as Luke. It was so good to get together with another Christian family and just enjoy the evening. Then Saturday I woke up to rain, but everyone was still asleep so I rolled back over and went back to sleep! It was so nice to sleep in for once. We didn't have anything going on so it was a very lazy day. I have been wanting to get back into digital scrapbooking and decided I just need to do it. Last year my external hard drive stopped working and I lost a lot of pages and a ton of digital scrapbooking kits. I was very upset about that and just didn't have the motivation to get back in there. I am very far behind but have decided to start with our pictures from Disney, which I'm sure will be a book of it's own.

Sunday we had a great day at church. Jeff sang a solo with the choir then he sang the special music and I played for him. It was so good to hear him sing! At the end of the service we had a baptism with a little girl being baptized. Then after the service we had a potluck meal to send off one of the guys that left yesterday afternoon for Basic Training in the Navy. It was good to fellowship and get to know some of the people better. We have already seen God working in the church and are excited to see what all He is going to do there. There were almost 20 kids in children's church which is the most they have had in a very long time!

Here are some of my Disney pages. They aren't the most elaborate pages but they are filled with some wonderful memories. Since I am so far behind, I'm using lots of templates to help speed things up a little. It was fun looking back at the pictures and remembering the awesome week we had with our family. Just made me want to go back this year!

Title Page for the book

First night at the resort

Our day at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Headed out on our trip to Disney!

One of our favorite shows!

Waiting to check-in at the resort

Stronger

I was recently introduced to a brand new song by Mandisa titled "Stronger". I love the song and have made it my theme song for 2011. The song talks about how all that we go through God is with us the whole way and we will come out stronger in the end. It really hits home with a lot that is going on with us right now. So no matter what we face this year as a family, in the end God will bring us through it and we will be stronger!!! The single was just released yesterday on Itunes and you can hear it on facebook on Mandisa's page.

I first heard the song on a "Made to Crave" webcast that I have been watching each week. If you are not familiar with "Made to Crave" you can check it out here on their website. This is a book written by Lysa Terkeurst about how God made us to crave Him, not food. For the last 6 weeks she has had a weekly webcast on Monday nights that I have watched and learned so much. Jeff and I both struggle with our weight and made a decision this year that we are going to make lots of changes in our family concerning food. Our kids are starting to struggle with it also and I don't want them to deal with this all their life like I have. We have made lots of changes about the kind of food we bring into the house and we are all loving our choice to eat healthy. This is an investment that is not just for myself but also for my husband, kids and future grandkids, etc. And most importantly for God. This book has really made me re-think a lot about how I feel about myself and how God views me and how I view food. I am one who turns to food for so many different reasons. When I'm stressed, happy, sad, and just about any other emotion we have. I turn to food during those times when instead I should turn to God. Lysa is doing a 21 day challenge on her website. She is sending out a daily devotion that you can sign-up for. I'm looking forward to all that God has in store for our family during this journey!

I've been meaning to update the blog with how things are going with everything. The first Sunday that we went to United, Kylee was very nervous and just not wanting to go. When she walked into her Sunday School class she discovered that there were 3 girls that she knew from church camp. As soon as she realized that she was fine. This has been a huge praise item!! The kids have adjusted well and really like the church. Jeff has been subbing in Dickson county and seems to enjoy it.

I am home today with 2 sick kids. Jacob was sick over the weekend with a high fever and felt awful. Then Noah has been sick since Monday and Luke started getting sick late Monday night and is still sick. I was home yesterday also, so I changed sheets on beds, sprayed everything down with Lysol and cleaned everything trying to get rid of these germs. I'm praying everyone will start feeling better soon! I'm just thankful that I am able to work from home when things like this happen. Jeff didn't get called in to sub on Monday so he was able to keep Noah.

I hope that everyone is enjoying this spring weather we are having. I hope that it sticks around but I'm not getting my hopes up since it's just the middle of February. I need to get back to work so I hope everyone has a great day!

Waiting...

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He will direct thy paths." Proverbs 3:5,6

This verse has always been one of my life verses but the past few weeks I have really been clinging to it. This past Sunday was our last day at First FWB Church in Dickson. We found out the beginning of December that the church was doing away with Jeff's position as Associate Pastor and he would not be paid anymore as of the end of December. They were also doing away with my position as Church Secretary. We were surprised that this decision had been made by the leadership. God seemed to really be working and our youth group, B.O.L.D. Ministries, was growing. This decision was not because of budget problems or anything Jeff or myself had done. Matter of fact, they told us how much they appreciated us and what we have done for the church and wanted us to continue doing what we were doing. It has been a hard thing to understand. We have felt stabbed in the back and just felt that the leadership, some of the members and ourselves were not on the same page as far as the vision of the church and it's ministry. We spent many hours praying over what this meant for Jeff's ministry and what he felt God wanted him to do. We felt like God was shutting the door of that ministry and that it was time to pursue other ministry opportunities. This was a hard decision to make. We love the people and have grown very close to the teens in our youth group. Sunday was a hard day, but we plan to keep in touch with those teens and stay connected to them.

So, Jeff is now looking for a youth pastor position in the middle Tennessee area if at all possible. This past year I moved into a new position as Financial Aid Coordinator at FWBBC and really feel like God has worked in that and placed me there as my ministry. So we would like to be able to stay close to Nashville so that I can continue to work there. If anyone knows of a church that is looking for someone we would love to hear about it. He is looking for either a part-time youth position or full-time. He doesn't have a problem with be a bi-vocational youth pastor. He has a huge burden for the youth of our denomination and I know that God has the perfect place for him, we just have to wait for that door to open.

Please pray for our kids through all of this. We will be attending another FWB church here in Dickson as we wait for God to open doors. The boys seem to be dealing with all of this fine. Sunday after church Noah came to me and said "Momma can we go out to eat to celebrate going to a new church." I think he is more like his Dad and welcomes change. Kylee on the other hand as a teenager is having a hard time, which is very understandable. My dad moved us from Arkansas to Illinois when I was going into the 6th grade so I completely understand how she feels. The difference from then and now is that she has a phone of her own and Facebook to stay in contact with her friends from the church.

Not much else is happening around here except for all the snow we are getting. The kids were out of school all last week because of snow. Then they were out this Monday for MLK day. They went to school Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday they were dismissed at 11:30 because of snow that was coming that afternoon. We ended up with about 2 inches last night so they didn't have school today. I just watched the news and they are saying there is more snow coming Sunday and Monday. Dickson County has 1 more snow day built into the calendar and then we will have to start making them up. We started with 11 snow days. The scary thing is that it has only been winter for a month and we still have 6 or 7 weeks of winter left. Who knows how long into the summer they will be going to school!

Jeff took advantage of the snow day and re-arranged the boys room and cleaned it out some. It looks a lot better and even looks like they are a little more room. Kylee is wanting us to re-arrange her room tomorrow, so guess we will try to get that done.

Well thanks for reading about all that's going on with us. We would greatly appreciate your prayers during this time. Jeff has signed up to sub in Dickson County schools. But with all this snow he hasn't had a chance to yet.

I don't have any recent pictures to share so since I didn't post any during Christmas I will post a couple from our Christmas at the Edgmons. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The whole Edgmon family together at Christmas for the first time in 9 years!

13 year old and snow!

Wow! I am now the parent of a teenage daughter!! Kylee turned 13 this past Saturday. It is so hard to believe. We are so proud of the beautiful young lady she has become. Here is a picture of what she did most of the day:

She had waited several months to have a facebook page but we would not let her have one until she turned 13. She was so excited Saturday morning and could not wait until I helped her get her account set up. Then she was on there most of the day. She got excited as each new friend accepted her friend request.

Just a little about her at this age:

*She is in 7th grade at Dickson Middle School.

*She loves playing the saxaphone in the band.

*She loves the Lord and tries very hard to live out her belief's in her life so that others know she is a Christian. (I love watching her grow spiritually!)

*She still likes to mother her little brothers even though they can do everything on their own now.

*She loves to cook and help either Jeff or myself in the kitchen. Lots of times will even cook a meal on her own!

My parents were able to come for the weekend to help celebrate her birthday. We had a party with our families on Saturday afternoon. She is planning a sleepover with some friends later in the month.

Today we woke up to about 3 1/2 or 4 inches of snow. The kids were very excited to be out for the day. We were suppose to have registration for the Spring semester at FWBBC today but they had to postpone because of the weather. The kids and I went out this morning to play and sled in the snow. We had a great time!

The last few months have been crazy and very busy around our house. I'm not going to promise to post more on the blog because every time I do that, it never happens! I would like to ask for those who are still reading the blog to pray for our family over the next few months. I'm not going to go into details right now, but there is going to be some transitions for our family in the near future. Pray especially for the kids as they deal with this. Pray also for Jeff and I as we seek God's will for the next step for our family. We are holding on to the truth that God doesn't close one door without opening another door. We are just waiting for Him to open the next door!

Upward Flag Football

Once again it has been a long time since I posted anything on here. It's been busy so I am not going to try to catch you up on all that is happening. With 4 kids, school, work, church and photography there is always something happening in our family.

We didn't think we were busy enough so we added Upward Flag Football to our agenda. All three of the boys are playing and Jeff is coaching. He is Jacob and Luke's coach and they are loving it! If you are not familiar with Upward I would highly recommend looking into the organization and checking to see if there are any churches in your area offering a league. They have soccer, flag football and basketball. We have played soccer in the past, and Noah played basketball several years ago in Nashville. We love this organization. They do not focus on winning. They focus on the skills needed for the game, working together as a team and have a Christ-like attitude while playing. I have seen too many community leagues where the parents can be so hateful and the kids that aren't very good, never get to play. In Upward, everyone gets to play the same amount of time. During every practice the coach takes a break about half way through and gives a devotion and they learn a bible verse. Then at every game during half-time they give a devotion for the players and all those attending the games. It is a great ministry for churches. We feel like this is the best option for our family, at least until the kids are old enough to play sports in school. We have practice every Thursday evening, then the games are on Saturday. I love watching the boys get excited about playing!

Since I have talked some about the boys, I will add a little about Kylee. She is loving 7th grade and is doing a great job. They get report cards next week, but from what we can tell she will have all A's for the past 9 weeks. She is so excited and we are so proud of her! A couple of weeks ago she went to the first dance of this year and had a great time. She is growing up so fast!

The kids are on fall break. They are finishing up their 2nd week. Jeff took them all camping Monday through this morning. They had a great time and had lots of stories to share. I had to work so I wan't able to join them. Hopefully I will have some pictures to share. I sent my old camera with them but haven't check to see if they took any pictures.

Here are a few pictures of the boys playing football and one from Kylee before she left for the dance. Enjoy!