The Last Day of September

Today was the last day of the month...a day that saw my nine year membership at Hyde Park fall away and a new beginning at First Baptist Bartlesville. I really feel like we've found a church we can call home. Pastor Joe Fowler is an amazing person and speaker and you can tell he has a heart that chases God. As we went down front to join the church, you could just see the look of joy in his face. This place is not about numbers, it is about people. Beth, Lauren, and I look forward to growing in the Spirit and making lots of friends at this church.

Lauren enjoyed her moment in the spotlight. As we were standing at the front, she suddenly noticed that there was a large projection screen for the choir to see the sermon (so it faces the pulpit). She saw us standing up there and started pointing at the screen saying, "Mommy! Daddy! Mommy! Daddy!" Of course, this was picked up by the pastor's mic and she had the congregation--all 1,000-- rolling. The pastor lost his train of thought and the minister of education (a University of Arkansas grad) told everyone he'd never seen the pastor get so lost in the middle of an introduction. All in all, it was a great morning!

This afternoon, we took a few maternity shots of Beth. I'm including one here.



After the photo session, we decided to take a nap. Now that's how a Sunday afternoon should go. After we woke up, we ate dinner (roast) and watched a sudden downpour. The spiders all had to rebuild their webs. Lauren had a good time watching.

That's all for today, but maybe I'll have time to write a little more tomorrow--I'm taking the day off.

Fall is here...

We've gotten settled into our new house in Bartlesville. There is certainly an adjustment period that you go through when you move into a new place...you can never remember exactly where you put anything and that can be complicated by the fact that you now have two stories to deal with. It seems like anytime you want something, it's on the other floor. Oh well, I can't complain too much. The extra room is certainly nice.

Lauren is growing up so fast. Today, we went to a local nursery to buy some pumpkins. Lauren LOVES pumpkins. She sees one and will say pumpkin 17 times in a row...so we bought her 17 pumpkins.


We've been trying to get our house ready for fall because the weather has really had that crispness that comes right before the leaves change. I'm so excited for Beth to experience a fall season like the ones I grew up with--there's not much of a fall in Texas.

A couple of weeks ago, we had our first real break in the weather. It was about 55 degrees on Saturday morning. Beth, Lauren and I were downstairs in the den and Beth decided to let Meshach hang out on the patio below. She thought she should check in on him, but when she looked he was no where to be found. He decided that 55 degrees would be a perfect opportunity to chase the swan that mocks him while he's stuck on the deck. Beth looked out onto the pond and there was my dog (I say MY dog, because when he does something wrong he belongs to me) swimming in the pond not too terribly far from the swan. I have no idea what he planned to do with the swan if he caught it. I have a feeling that the swan would have torn him up, but I didn't tell him that. He thought he was big stuff until I yelled at him to get out of the water.

I hate to think of the thoughts running through all of our neighbors' heads...

This photo was taken pre-Meshach chase...

We've found a church home, I'm happy to say. First Baptist Bartlesville has just been absolutely wonderful. The pastor stopped by to visit us a couple of weeks after we'd been visiting and you can just tell that he has a heart for the Lord. We're really excited to get involved. The nursery is fantastic and we've met some people we believe will be great friends.

I guess that's all for now.

-c