I told you I was bad at this...

So in my last post I mentioned that I hate house hunting (which I do) and that we probably would never find a perfect house well not more than a couple days after that post we FOUND A HOUSE! Its awesome! 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, its on 5 acres of land and has a dishwasher AND a fireplace! I love love love it! And I am more than likely going to end up buying it in like 5 years or so! So we set the move in date for Memorial Day weekend however, on May 22nd life changed as we all know it here in Joplin!

It started out an awesome and amazing weekend, my parents showed up Friday morning for a surprise visit! I was beyond shocked and so so excited because I had been missing them so so much and I wanted so bad for them to come see the new house we were about to move into! It was so great having them here! It was a busy weekend but I just made them tag along to everything :)

May 22, 2011
Sunday comes around and it was a nice Sunday, we had church and lunch with the church family and then my parents and I went to a few places in town before they left town. My dad loves Buffalo Wild Wings so we had to get an early dinner there before they left and before I needed to be at Solace for our show that night. After we ate my dad and I went outside to wait on my mom who was still inside we heard the tornado sirens going off and then they stopped and it started to rain a little we said our goodbyes pretty quick (they are easier that way) and went our separate ways (still completely unaware of what the weather was holding in store for us). (5:30pm) They headed towards I44 to go to STL and I headed down Range Line to 15th street to Solace.  It started to rain a bit more and then as I pulled up to Solace on 16th and Main it started to hail. Everyone was outside watching the storm come in because that's what you do in Missouri! We were standing outside as the sirens went off again 3 of my friends were across the street watching it come in from that direction and then we heard the sound the sound (5:41pm) that everyone says a tornado sounds like a sound of a freight train. We RAN to the middle of the building unsure what the outcome would bring. We watched out the windows of our church as it was darker than the night and as rain was moving in a circular motion and debris was being tossed down the street. Scariest moment of my life! As soon as the tornado passed, we looked got closer to the windows and looked down the street it looked bad but we had no idea how bad it was. A group of us went outside and started down Main St. towards 20th and when we got to the 17th block windows were blown out we were pulling roofs and trees out of the street to allow traffic to get through it was utter chaos! We headed West on 20th for a bit and up another street (not sure what street the signs were gone) somehow we ended up by 22nd street and didn't even recognize where were were! Thats when we knew it was pretty bad! We heard the High School got hit good so we headed that way down 20th street and as we got over that little hill on 20th street I saw my flatted city and I began to weep! It was so unreal and like nothing I had ever seen before! My phone was blowing up with text messages checking in on us. We heard a lady yelling for people to help because people were trapped inside this church so we rand over there and started a chain of people as we helped these (mostly elderly people) out of the rubble of what was their church (a few of them did not make it out). If I close my eyes I see it all so vividly still! We were out until it got dark so for a good couple of hours and still even at this point had no idea the magnitude of this storm! We came back to Solace all of us in complete shock! What do we do from here was the question. How do we respond to our community? Love them and meet their needs is what God told us and we got started doing that the very next day! Solace Church became a city distribution center as well as a place of refuge (a safe place to share and be loved on) for those in the storm being so close to "ground zero" people would walk in and just have this look of no hope in their eyes and when they leave there was a small amount of hope restored. So many friends lost everything! This event is so heartbreaking and still so surreal. My only material loss was my back window of my van, my taillight and some dents here and there.

However, my greatest lost was my little friend Lantz Hare (16 years old) a kid from the ministry of The Bridge. He was missing for a few days and later his body was identified at the morgue. His great smile and personality will be missed greatly here on earth! You think that working in youth ministry you wouldn't have to attend so many funerals but this was my 3rd...

Thanks for reading my story. Please continue to pray for Joplin as we rebuild lives and homes and as we continue to love and hurt for our community that we love so much!

House Hunting

I HATE house hunting! Nothing is PERFECT! I really like our house now so its hard to find something that will work with all the demands we have with the kids, Amber's crafting area and loving to hosting lots of people! Most of the houses I have looked at are laid out so odd and I don't think I could make them work. I looked at 2 house tonight one was decent and I could make it work its just that the living room is pretty small and thats where I spend most of my time with the kids so I don't want to feel so trapped! Oh well I know the right place is out there its just I wish I knew where to look and when!

Well I was going to watch a movie and fall asleep but I am really sleepy now so I think its early to bed for this girl!

I will leave you with two pictures of Ella from today! These make me laugh!

      

I am so bad at this whole blogging thing

I am awful at this blogging thing but now maybe since I have a follower (Hi Kristen!) it will challenge me to blog more!

Well a whole month went by and I didn't blog about anything and so I will catch you up a little bit but with very little words.

April:
-April 1st Opening Day for the Diamondbacks! Go Dbacks!
-Solace had its first "big" show with our buds War of Ages and a few other Facedown Bands it was a blast!
-Drove to Albuquerque, NM at the beginning of the month for my friends Brandi and Levi's wedding (I drove 12.5 straight through the night! It was a fun accomplishment!)
-While I Breathe had a reunion show and it was awesome and so great to see so many faces I hadn't seen in years!
-We (Solace) got to host one of my very favorite bands My Epic it was a night of blessing!
-Solace hosted its first Good Friday service and it was awesome!

And now that pretty much brings you up to speed we are in May now! I cannot believe that its May already!

On Saturday I went bargin hunting with Kristen and Daniel these were my finds!

            All items here cost me $3.75!

Also on Saturday I went to a Birthday party for my friend Micah and let me tell you that family knows how to host a party! It was truly a fiesta! 

So I have started to coupon clip! Its been fun and I am not too awesome at it just yet but I am hoping to get there! There is a lot to learn! This is what my front room looked like Sunday afternoon

Today was Ravioli Day these pictures say everything;

So much fun to clean up! Haha!

Ok its time for sleep but I want to live you with some of my favorite faces! I get to spend my days with these cuties!

Don't they just make you smile?! :)

ok maybe not everyday

I'm thinking that I wont be posting everyday haha! Also, you will more than likely not be getting posts on the weekend, my weekends are entirely too busy for a blog update!

Ok so now to make up for lost time. Friday was an interesting time with the kiddos! It was a Friday for sure! We had Beef Ravioli and they thought the sauce was made for shampooing their hair! But since thats all I really remember about that day with them I guess it wasn't too bad! I laughed so thats always more helpful than getting worked up over it!

Now for the weekend. Saturday I slept in and it was wonderful! It was rainy and I didn't get out of bed until about 3pm! Lazy? Maybe but in my defense I haven't had a day like that in a really really long time! That night (10pm) I spontaneously jumped in ROAR's (Romance On A Rocketship) van and we took a journey to Fort Smith, Arkansas! (Oh the joys of being single and having nothing to hold you back!) This was a great trip! We had to go pick up their lights for tour (they leave April 7th). I have missed my dear friend Kasey so it was really great to spend some time with him and Ethan! We got home around 3am! And yes I even made it to church on Sunday!

Sunday was beautiful and I spent the day cleaning after we all went out for lunch after church of course (dear sweet Susie bought our lunch!).

Yesterday was an amazing Monday! The kids and I had lots of fun and the day flew by so fast! Ella and Jaxson were picked up by about 4:45 so Zion and I walked to the park! It. Was. So. Fun! Here are a couple pictures from our time at the park!

And now its nap time and nearing the end (well that depends all on how long Ella sleeps today). Thanks for reading!

Our day in pictures

Today is St. Patrick's Day! Yes I wore my green did you?!? Like I said I love pictures so I will be posting lots of them. Today I will show you mine and the kids day so far in pictures! (All of the pictures were taken on my iphone so they will not be the best of quality)

Ella was trying to problem solve. Her shoe kept getting stuck to the rug because of the velcro and she was trying to move away from the rug. I love to watch the wheels turn inside their heads as the problem solve!

                 Car check up time!                                                                                                   

During the cold months Amber taught them to warm their bottoms by the fire. We were burning trash and so they were warming their bottoms! 

We made Shamrock necklaces! 

Finger painting our Happy St. Patrick's Day Shamrocks! We LOVE to finger paint and we think its sooooo funny! :)

All this fun will make you tired! Jax taking a 10 min nap before lunch!

And now I am updating my blog, checking emails and Facebook, working on some things for Cornerstone and trying to stay awake during their nap time!

Thanks for checking out our day! Its really nice outside today so I can't wait to take them outside to play!

My blog

Ok so I think I have created and tried to start blogging close to 7 times and have never stuck with it. Maybe this time will be different! I think I have said that every time but I am really excited to start again and stick with it! I really do not feel like I have a lot of great things to say all the time but that is where my blog name comes into play. My blogger name is two-fold really, I love St. Francis of Assisi's quote at the top of my page because I believe that we as followers of Christ have a responsibility to live a life that preaches the Gospel to those around us. And when its necessary we use words and the second part of my blogger name is I believe the reason I did not do well with my previous blogs is I felt like I always had to update with profound thoughts or ideas but I have since learned that is not true. I LOVE taking pictures! (this is not on a professional level) So if you follow this blog you will see A LOT of pictures. I feel like this blog will be like my life in pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words right?