Flipping Over Ranch!

Yes, Anderson takes after me & thinks everything goes well with Ranch... EVEN PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY!!! YUCK. Now that's just gross!

Karoline is loving her second round of classes at Gymnastics. She has a few more classes left before she takes a break until spring. I know she is really going to miss it. Anderson is also quite the little flipper! He has perfect form.

Karoline's class went to the Fire Station last week. She had so much fun!

"Hi, I'm Anderson. I'm going to be TWO on THURSDAY!

Can you believe it!?"

Wellspring & To The Right

Wellspring...

Check out the new post on the Wellspring Partners blog... post title Wellspring On Reality TV. CHECK IT OUT!

To the right...

Did you notice that I put TJ's music to the right on my blog. TJ recorded a CD many years ago when we lived in Texas in a friends house! Honestly I have not listened to the whole CD for a while but did recently and I still think it is AMAZING! We sang one of his worship songs on Sunday and it was AWESOME! I have to say I have quite the talented husband! They are all original songs except for a hymn that he wrote a verse to go with it. Check it out. You can buy it on I-Tunes!

Catalyst 2009

Trey, Danielle, TJ, and I had an amazing time at Catalyst this past week. We drove down on Wednesday and the conference was Thursday and Friday. It was very refreshing and we all learned a lot.

There were amazing speakers and it was quite a bit to soak in in just two days but wonderful. Some of the speakers were Andy Stanley, Dave Ramsey, Tony Dungy, Louie Giglio, Chuck Swindoll, Rob Bell, and MANY more! The worship was lead by Steve Fee the first day and some other great worship leaders on Friday.

I'll share the one thing that God really spoke to me about this weekend. I think I worry and want to be steps ahead of where we are at Wellspring. I can't wait for small groups to start, or our kids ministry to grow, or having this or that.... I felt very convicted that have been looking ahead so much I have not been focused or THANKFUL for what God is doing NOW at Wellspring! The Lord really impressed on my heart to WAIT! HE will grow Wellspring at HIS pace and timing NOT MINE.

They said several times at the conference if you grow too fast be cautious. It's more important to grow slow and build that firm foundation of leadership in your church! So my prayers for our church has changed a little... yes I want LOTS of people to come but more importantly I will pray for the hearts and lives of those who are coming that the Lord is really changing their lives and the foundation of Wellspring Church will be a FIRM foundation built on HIM! I am SO thankful for all that He taught me at Catalyst.

Here are the pictures from Catalyst!

Andy Stanley


Yes, TJ looks like he's falling asleep :)


Amazing Worship






Tony Dungy


Friends


Trey and Danielle


Mac Powell of Third Day and his wife Amy introducing their precious son they adopted this year!






Louie Giglio


Video of the world record broken at Catalyst!! This is CRAZY. This man jumped into a baby pool!!

Happy Birthday TJ!

It's finally TJ's 29th birthday! Yes, he is younger than me by 5 months and he always makes it known how "OLD" I am! On Saturday we had a quick little family party for him so that I could give him his gifts (a shirt and some jeans) before we left for our Atlanta trip since we were going to be out of town on his birthday. Karoline always loves birthday parties. She was SO excited we were having a "party" for daddy. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TJ! We love you SO much!!

Catalyst

TJ, Trey, Danielle & I are heading to Atlanta today for the Catalyst Conference and will be back on Friday. Pray for us that we will have safe travel and that the Lord would speak to us as we learn and worship Him!

YES - 7 Years

Seven years ago TJ and I got MARRIED!

We had a great time celebrating today... just spending quality time together talking and laughing. He took me to see Love Happens & then we went to Chili's for dinner. Chili's was my choice... I have been craving it for a while. We got their 3 course meal for $20 offer and it was awesome! Such a great deal for a date! We were stuffed and brought food home! He also got he a Pandora charm for my bracelet.

It was a great anniversary! I am SO thankful for TJ! He is the BEST husband and father.

(excuse the non-focused picture please)

Take A Deep Breath...

I am finished with substatute teaching... My last day was Wednesday. I finally have a LITTLE time to breath! But I must say I LOVED it! I truly did and I miss my kids so much. I have cried many tears. If they offered me a job, I would quit real estate in a heart beat! I did learn that doing both was TOO hard (though I did get two contracts this month)! I could not keep up but now I can concentrate on real estate, but my heart is still in that class room with those kids. Pray for me about this PLEASE!

In other news we had a great week... LOVED the weather! We played outside a LOT and we all enjoyed it. I LOVE FALL! Karoline & Anderson both love being outside so much. Here are some pictures from the week. The first two are after church on Sunday. Anderson loves to watch Yo Gabba Gabba while I make lunch and Karoline STILL just wants her blanket and to lay down. She is so funny! I hope all of you had a great week!




In MAJOR need of a "real" bike... Christmas is coming...

Daddy wanted to play too...




Buster even got to play dress up some this week :)

Macy Brooks

We got to meet sweet Macy Brooks this week! Most of you have prayed for this sweet little girl and I was SO excited that we got to see her and hold her! Needless to say she is SO sweet and just stunning! Ashly, Denny, and Macy Brooks are vacationing in Myrtle Beach this week and we met them for dinner Monday night. Then we went to the beach to take a few pictures... where my children proceeded to throw sand all over the place! Which made for a real fun bath night! Thanks for a fun time Ashly and Denny!

The Floodgates Of Heaven

I want to share with you a story from today about our PROVIDER & SAVIOR...

As most of you know, TJ and I had to raise support to move out here and help start Wellspring. But because of our economy we don't have that many supporters and we literally start each month unsure of where our paychecks will come from or how God will provide each month, but He always does. It's hard but we have a creative Lord and he always provides a way for us to make ends meet.

Even though He has ALWAYS been faithful I get worried every month. I don't know why but I do. I pray about this stronghold often! Anyway... all this to share what happened today!

Today I had a conversation with a sweet lady that has been coming to our church. Our sermon on Sunday talked about tithing. She expressed to me how she would love to tithe but didn't have extra money. I talked a lot and I won't share the whole conversation but I will say that I told her this... TJ and I from the time we were married have tithed. It is HARD! Yes... especially now when there is not much but it's the first thing we do when we ever get paid. BUT God has POURED out His blessings on us time and time again!

Malachi 3:10 says "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

This month our support was very low and because I have been SO busy with work and preschool (which was another random way to get a paycheck) I had not balanced our check book all month. I did today... NOT GOOD... we were negative ! Quite a bit in the whole. I wanted to just cry! My computer shut off so I was letting it start back up after plugging it in. I put the check book down and went to get the mail....

In the mail was a check from someone in Rayville, LA where TJ's parents live for more than we needed to get out of the BIG hole with a sweet, enouraging note saying they were praying for our church and for our family!

I just started crying so hard in my driveway!! The feeling of His LOVE for my family rushed over me and I could do nothing but cry and praise HIM!

God blew me away and just reminded me AGAIN that HE will provide and we will be okay... we just keep doing HIS work & He will find a way.

My hope in sharing this story is two fold...

1) That you would PRAISE HIM for providing! We are all so blessed even though we are all going through hard times. We need to share these blessings with each other more often!

2) Challenge you to trust Him with your finances if this is an area of struggle for you. It's really hard to let go of (especially for me... the financial control freak!) but remember Malachi 3:10! If you don't know where to start, seek His word & leaders you trust.

What Black, White, And Read All Over?

... A NEWSPAPER! :)

Our family was written about in the local paper. Our neighborhood does a bio for a family every now and then and we were chosen. We were excited because it gave us another opportunity to talk about Wellspring. Always a good thing! Here's the article.

Here was the article that was in the paper about our Gas Buy Down.

We really are thankful for every opportunity we have been given to spread the word about Wellspring so that we can share the love of Christ with as many people as POSSIBLE on the grand strand!