The Great Escape!

Have you ever needed a break from the routine of life?  That's where I was last week.  This church planting thing is very stressful and taxing on our family.  Don't get me wrong ...  I wouldn't want to be doing anything else, but it's hard.  That's just being honest.  Doug and I have to be intentional in our family time and couple time. So, we took some intentional time last week.  It was good and a much needed refreshment.

Doug and I were able to take a short trip to Austin, Texas compliments of the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention (SBTC).  Each year, the SBTC invites church planters and their wives to come for a retreat.  It was our first time to be a part of this retreat.  I was so thankful for the relaxed attitude of the SBTC and the gift of getting away together.  The SBTC had classes planned, but their approach was -- attend the classes you want to and if you just need to reconnect as husband and wife, do that.  I was so thankful for that.  Doug and I went to two sessions and then just spent time by ourselves shopping and sight seeing.  It was just what we needed! 

Although we've spent more time together these past nine or so months than we probably ever have in our married life since Doug is officing out of our house, our time has spent working on Connection Church and all that we have to accomplish in order to (with the help of God) make this thing fly!  It was nice to have a couple of days just reconnecting as a couple.  Us.  Remembering how much we enjoy being together.  Man I like that guy!!  Love him.  We still talked about Connection Church some, but it was on a dreaming level of what God might have in store for this new adventure.  Not the endless "to do" list that comes on a daily basis.  I like to dream and I like those kinds of talks!

Austin was fun.  I don't remember spending much time there before, although I grew up just a few hours south.  The theme of Austin is "Keep Austin Weird" and weird it is.  You can see all kinds in downtown Austin!  Austin is the live music capital of the world and so there were lots of music stores.  Benjamin is learning to play the guitar and Adyson loves music too (she's very into drawing music notes these days) so we were able to pick up a music souvenir for them.  Adyson got a pair of musical note earrings and Benjamin, my book worm, got an assortment of guitar bookmarks. 

Saturday we went to Ikea.  My favorite store ever!  In our move, we either left behind a drawer of kitchen gadgets, spoons, etc.  or the box was mistakenly put into our shed and has yet to be discovered since all the outdoor gear still isn't very organized.  (I know we've lived here nearly a year.  See above paragraphs that refer to our busy life!)  Anyway, I was able to shop and pick up most of what I left behind.  Yay!  We also picked up curtains for the rest of the house and some lighting for the church.  I count that a pretty successful trip!

After shopping, we decided to take advantage of being south during crawfish season!  We hunted down a place that served crawfish and shrimp!  It was so yummy!  I love the spicy, buttery, messy goodness of a good crawfish boil!  I love eating with my hands.  It makes me feel like I'm playing with my food and my Mom's not around to scold me for it!  (Yeah ... it's the simple things in life that make me smile!)  On a side note, super spicy shrimp juice hurts really badly if it squirts in your eye.  Not that I have any experience with such things.  :)

That's about all that's been going on in the last week.  So ... now you're filled in on the ho-hum life of the Hixson's!  Do you feel better?  I'll try to make my next post a little more entertaining! :) 

PS:  I know I don't have many pictures on my blog yet.  Be patient (Heather)!  I'm not good at thinking about taking pictures.  I'm working on it!  :)

Busy, Busy Week!

This week has been a busy week.  Monday and Tuesday were filled with catch up work for Doug since he's been traveling the past two weeks.  The poor guy has a list a mile long of things to do before our April launch service and the busy summer we have ahead. 

In an attempt to try to lighten Doug's load some, I've been acting as his secretary for a few weeks now.  My assignments lately have been to finish outfitting the block party trailer for this summer's outreach events and to secure two apartments for our summer missionary help that is coming in beginning in April.  The block party trailer stuff has been ordered (the UPS man is going to either love us or hate us) and I was able to secure a perfect location for our summer help coming in.  We were able to find two apartments in a fourplex that are right across the hallway from each other!  PERFECT!!  The landlord has been wonderful to work with.  Not many people want to do a 6 month lease.  He is even allowing us to move in our furniture as we need to even though our lease doesn't technically begin until April 1st.  Nice guy!  Now we are on to trying to find some basic furniture to meet their needs for the summer.  Craigslist here we come ...

Wednesday we spent ALL day working on our new church building.  The carpet is being installed this weekend and we wanted to get the painting done before we put down the new carpet.  We started around 8:30 or 9:00 on Wednesday morning and worked until around 11:00 pm.  We were so tired, but got all but the hallway and a bathroom done.  We just ran out of steam and decided we'd just lay drop cloth to finish up those areas.  Adyson was with us all day and worked like a champ.  She painted, picked up screws that were all over the building from construction, scraped up globs of sheet rock mud that was on the foundation to help prep for carpet, swept the floors, and helped move the 130 chairs to the stage to get them off the floor for the carpet guy!  I was proud of her working with such a helpful attitude.  What a trooper!  Benjamin came to help around mid-afternoon as he was still not feeling the best.  He helped out some too. 

Poor Benjamin was sick on Monday and Tuesday running a pretty good temperature (102 to 103), but not having any other symptoms other than a headache.  I hate it when my kids mysteriously run fever.  Then Wednesday he had an asthma attack while he was sweeping up sheet rock dust.  He's never had a moment like that before and it scared him (and me) when he felt like he might pass out.  Poor guy. 

This week, beginning Wednesday, has been Spring Break for our kids.  They don't get a full week like Texas schools do.  However, we have an Easter Break in April.  Our Spring Break has been different this year.  Usually, we go skiing in Colorado at Wolf Creek.   This year, the short break wouldn't allow for that.  Yesterday, we spent the day going to the dentist for teeth cleaning and for a follow up visit for Adyson's eyes.  We got a good report on her eyes.  It seems that doing the dilation drops on her left eye is allowing her right eye to strengthen some.  She had gained some acuity when her vision was tested again yesterday!  Praise God!  So ... it's eight more weeks of dilating her eye daily and then eight weeks of dilating every other day. 

We've also gained two kids this weekend as our friends the Hartung's will be welcoming their new baby girl into the world today.  Their two older children joined us last night and we had a fun night playing games at Peppy's Pizza (kind of like Chuck E. Cheese).  We brought home four tired, but excited kids.  Today they are busy seeing what they can get into and having a ball!  It's been a long time since I had four year olds in my house!  I forget how funny they can be!  They are very much looking forward to meeting their sister later today (hopefully -- come quick little lady)!

Read Between the Lines!

• I'm so ready for Doug to be home.
• Last night at 11:30, I was chasing sleds down the street due to the ridiculously strong winds we had.  They blew out from under the deck where they are stored.
• I'm sure my neighbors appreciated the woman in her pajama pants and son's snow boots running frantically trying to catch sleds.  I know it was an exceptionally graceful show!
• My 11 year old sons boots are too big for me.
• I can't wait for Doug to come home.
• I bribed my kids today with a movie and sleeping in Mom's bed in order to get extra chores done today without complaints.
• I'm not ashamed ... you know you bribe your kids too.  Don't judge!
• Adyson announced that her favorite chore is dusting. 
• I would never want to be accused of not allowing my child to do their favorite chore.  Adyson is now crowned "Queen of the Dust"!  :)
• I can't wait for Doug to come home.
• Adyson:  "Mom, my manners are stuck in my head so good."  Me (out loud):  "Good for you.  I noticed that."  Me (thinking to myself):  "It's about time.  It only took 7 1/2 years."
• Today Benjamin went from loving me and saying I was the best mom in the world, to telling me I was mean and not fair, to loving me all in a time frame of about 15 minutes.
• Joy ... teen years are just around the corner.  Uggghhh ...
• I'm not sure of my current parenting status with Benjamin.  Am I still cool and the best or have I fallen out of good graces again??  I'm so confused.
• I can't wait for Doug to come home.
• Benjamin got a new game at AWANA on Wednesday.  Apparently, I'm not smart enough to figure out how to play it.  Has anyone ever played Othello?  I don't understand the strategy.
• I made my favorite smoked chicken alfredo pizza today with a homemade honey wheat crust.  YUMMMMY!  It's Friday night food.
• I'm so ready for Doug to be home. 
• Benjamin just informed me it is no longer a cool treat to sleep in Mom's bed.  He's moving to his own bed after the movie.  (sigh ... there's that growing up thing again ...)   
• Adyson, on the other hand, is pumped to get to sleep with Mom! 
• Something tells me I should have borrowed someones football pads to sleep with Adyson.  She's dangerous!  :)
• Have I mentioned that I'm so ready for Doug to be home?

Quiet on the Home Front

Things are quiet on the Hixson home front today.  Too quiet.  I don't like that.

Doug is in Daytona, FL at the Daytona Bike Rally.  Florida is modeling the Bike Giveaway like the Dakota Baptist Convention does in Sturgis.  He's telling his story along with many other volunteers and people at the Rally are hearing about Jesus.  Many are giving their hearts to Christ.  Even though I hate when Doug is gone, I'm glad that through his story, someone will come to know Christ.  You can watch the live web cam at daytonabikegiveaway.com.  I had fun watching Doug, our SD friends, as well as some friends from Texas on the web cam today.  It was even more fun to pick on some of the guys via text and then laugh at their reactions as they were on camera reading the texts!  Lame, I know, but it's my only form of entertainment that doesn't wear kid's sized clothing!  :) 

I took Benjamin and Adyson to McDonald's tonight to use their Valentine's Day gift cards from their Grandma and Grandpa.  We don't go to McDonald's much, so they thought it was really cool to go and eat there.  Even cooler was the fact that they got to order individually and swipe their own gift card.  It took Adyson three tries to talk loud enough to order and another two tries to swipe the card fast enough for it to work!  Silly shy girl!  :) 

Benjamin and Adyson are at AWANA tonight.  I'm so glad that they have a mid-week program to go to each Wednesday.  They have made some new friends by going to AWANA.  They look forward to going each week and have learned countless Scriptures as a result.  Benjamin was super excited today when he realized that he will complete his book tonight!  Adyson was learning the books of the Old Testament.  I love that they are learning at a young age to hide God's Word in their hearts.  My prayer is that the verses that they are learning now will be with them for life and that they will be able to recall those Scriptures at times in their lives when they need to lean on the promises of God.  I pray that they will learn to love God's Word and that they will seek to always know Him more. 

I've stayed busy today working on some administrative stuff for Connection Church.  We are gearing up for mission teams who will come to work for us this summer.  It's going to be a crazy busy summer, but I can't wait to see what God is going to do! 

I had planned to work on my sewing project a little more, but at around midnight last night I killed my sewing machine!  I was bee-bopping along sewing like Martha Stewart (don't laugh -- I was), almost finished with the second crib sheet, when my machine needle hit a pin that was holding my seam together.  Normally, it would just bend the pin or break the needle.  This time, the WHOLE needle apparatus thing-a-ma-jig (that's what it's called, ask Martha) came flying off.  Nice ... I think it's repairable, but I can't figure out how it goes back together!  Where's Doug when you need a fix-it-man?  Grrrrrr ...  So, after trying to put my machine back together, I gave up, took some lovely benadryl (it's how I sleep when Doug is gone) and hit the sack! 

Once again you've wasted your time reading my new blog, but it allowed me to feel like I was talking to a grown up!  So thanks!

I Caved ...

So ... after months of resisting my little sister, Heather's, attempt to convince me to start blogging - I caved!  Here it is, my first post.  Let's make a deal ... okay?  I'll let you read if you don't critique my punctuation and English skills.  I know I over use exclamation points, okay?  You don't have to point it out.  Deal? 

What's going on in my super exciting life today?  Sewing -- or attempting to at least!  My friend, Ashley is having a baby and seems to think I have greater sewing skills than I do.  Boy do I have her fooled!  Shhhh ...  Don't tell her!  :)  Everyone in my family knows that - quote from my Mom -"You're not the crafty one!"  (Yep, her gift is encouragement and we all love her for it!  LOL!)  This has become a fun joke in our family and I've been on a mission to prove her wrong.  I even made some of my Christmas gifts last year (gasp)!  Anyway ... back to my sewing project today.  I'm working on making Ashley's sweet baby sheets for her antique cradle since the mattress is not a standard size.  I've made my pattern, basted together one sheet and am on a roll.  Amazingly (so far), I'm not having to make an emergency trip to Hobby Lobby to replace the fabric that Ashley bought. 

There you go, Heather.  I've started my blog.  I've posted my first life-changing bit of information!  I know your life is better for reading it!