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)!