We have these amazing neighbors...
Last night 13 of us met outside and grilled pizzas, had an ice cream bar, played washers & play doh and had so much fun!
2 things have meant so much to me this past week from my neighbors....
1. Last weekend we had some people over for dinner and invited Kasey and her daughter Lily. (Lily was born on the exact same day as Liliana- Dec. 28, 2007. We hang out with them A LOT.)
Kasey made an amazing salad with feta cheese. She knows I am Greek, so she found an ethnic store so she could buy real feta cheese instead of the crumbled stuff you buy at the grocery store. It was so delicious and I couldn't believe she would take the time to go to Gino's Deli to buy the good stuff. She had never even been there before but scoped it out for me. And I have to say, the feta was great!
2. We have a new couple Scott and Cassie who just graduated in May and moved a few weeks ago to start their new jobs in Madison. Liliana loves Scott- he is super fun and great with kids, so he likes to play with her. Anyway, Scott and Cassie are already planning something for when Lily and Liliana turn 2. C was starting to tell us the other night, S told her to wait and that we would find out in 6 months what the surprise is. I haven't even thought about Liliana's 2nd b-day and here our neighbors are already brainstorming. Super sweet!
This is actually the first time in my life I have ever lived in an apartment and it has been a great experience. I met some more neighbors tonight in the next building that seem super nice as well. We even have a great maintenance guy from Albania and we plan to have dinner next week with him and his wife. What a fun little community we have!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Teachings
One of my primary responsibilities with our church plant is overseeing the teachings each week. Chris is great at sermons, but he is even better at going out and meeting new people. Since sermon prep takes lots of time, we decided that I would teach 3 Sundays and he would teach 1 Sunday, in this season of the church life. This frees up his evenings to meet new people and then after he and L go to bed I can work on teachings. ( I am a night owl by nature)
This has been so good for me for a number of reasons.
1. I have to stay current with Jesus. If I am going to have something to say week in and week out, I have to be spending lots of time hanging out with Jesus and reflecting on the Bible. When we led youth group or various small groups, you could always have a "fun night" planned if you just couldn't get around to a teaching for the week. But not the case for Sunday mornings
2. I have to really spend time extracting out the nugget to be learned. I am a pretty straight forward type person when it comes to teachings. I like it when sermons are easy to follow and there is a main point instead of going all over the place. It is challenging to spend time on verses and figure out what in the world is important about what you just read. Sometimes I get stuck and I have to make myself keep digging in until something clicks. It's so fun when it does click and the Holy Spirit shows you something relevant.
3. It challenges me as a person. In high school I was involved with drama and also competed with speech class. However, after that I never did much with it and so I reverted back to my introverted self. I am naturally very shy and don't prefer speaking to large groups of people. Plus I talk super fast when I get nervous. It is a huge down fall of mine. I remember a few times giving announcements at church and people saying that they had a hard time keeping up with me b/c I talked so fast. But I know that the only way I am going to grow is to have lots and lots of practice. Fortunately we have a great group in our church now, who are super encouraging and give me space to make mistakes and grow in this area. I really love the Bible and have a desire to teach others, so I am thankful for this opportunity to develop this skill.
It's amazing all the dynamics that go into teachings- studying, formulating a thesis and points, making sure you are true to the rest of the Bible and not pulling verses out of context and then delivery. We asked a few pastors how long sermon prep takes them.. the avg is usually 10-12 hours per sermon, more if you are just starting out. Hearing that made me feel much better! I also remind myself that God is bigger than my prep or delivery. If someone has an open heart, God can certainly teach them, even if I am going at lightning speeds. :-)
This has been so good for me for a number of reasons.
1. I have to stay current with Jesus. If I am going to have something to say week in and week out, I have to be spending lots of time hanging out with Jesus and reflecting on the Bible. When we led youth group or various small groups, you could always have a "fun night" planned if you just couldn't get around to a teaching for the week. But not the case for Sunday mornings
2. I have to really spend time extracting out the nugget to be learned. I am a pretty straight forward type person when it comes to teachings. I like it when sermons are easy to follow and there is a main point instead of going all over the place. It is challenging to spend time on verses and figure out what in the world is important about what you just read. Sometimes I get stuck and I have to make myself keep digging in until something clicks. It's so fun when it does click and the Holy Spirit shows you something relevant.
3. It challenges me as a person. In high school I was involved with drama and also competed with speech class. However, after that I never did much with it and so I reverted back to my introverted self. I am naturally very shy and don't prefer speaking to large groups of people. Plus I talk super fast when I get nervous. It is a huge down fall of mine. I remember a few times giving announcements at church and people saying that they had a hard time keeping up with me b/c I talked so fast. But I know that the only way I am going to grow is to have lots and lots of practice. Fortunately we have a great group in our church now, who are super encouraging and give me space to make mistakes and grow in this area. I really love the Bible and have a desire to teach others, so I am thankful for this opportunity to develop this skill.
It's amazing all the dynamics that go into teachings- studying, formulating a thesis and points, making sure you are true to the rest of the Bible and not pulling verses out of context and then delivery. We asked a few pastors how long sermon prep takes them.. the avg is usually 10-12 hours per sermon, more if you are just starting out. Hearing that made me feel much better! I also remind myself that God is bigger than my prep or delivery. If someone has an open heart, God can certainly teach them, even if I am going at lightning speeds. :-)
Monday, July 6, 2009
Good Night
The other night when I tucked Liliana in I just held her as tight as I could, hugged her and thanked her. I thanked her for bringing such joy to her Mommy and Daddy. I told her she has no idea how much joy she gives us and I pray that we can bring her joy as well. I love her!!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Disco
Yesterday when Chris came home from work he was in a fun mood. He was playing a bunch of disco and 80's tunes and doing break dancing moves for Liliana. Next thing I knew we were all dancing around the living room to YWCA and Play That Funky Music. I love my fun husband!
Monday, June 29, 2009
The Lou
I never did write about trip to St Louis...
Liliana had so much fun- on Thursday night 3 of her cousins spent the night together at my sister's house. Whenever the cousins spend the night they have a tradition of going to the gas station and Bess lets each of them pick out 2 junk food treats. They LOVE going to the gas station. So, when I put L to bed they made their trip and by the time I came down to the kitchen the counter was full of Funions (is that how you spell those crunchy fake onion rings??), pringles, gummy bears, etc...
Then the next morning we went swimming. My sister Bess has a friend Robin that she has known since kindergarten. It has been a few years since I have seen Robin, but she was so excited to meet L. She is a teacher, so she is wonderful with kids and we all had such a great time at her house. We ate TONS, swam and just wore ourselves out. This was Liliana's first time to really go swimming- we took her in sprinkler type thing last year, but not quite the same. She has a cute new bikini and she loved swimming. She kept up with everyone and as soon as pulled away from Robin's house she was out cold. Kids have it made that the can sleep in the car- I was a little jealous at that moment that I couldn't sleep in the car with her!
We came home, changed, and then Bess, L and I went to Imo's Pizza. We were cracking up- first we spilled ranch dressing all over the ground and had to get someone to clean it up. Then we spilled our iced tea- we were making a scene just laughing. We weren't trying to spill things on purpose. So we decided we better get out of there before we spilled more stuff!
Then Saturday was the baptism. My cousin Bessy had a great reception as usual- there were at least 100 people there. She had lots of food, Greek dancers, crafts for the kids, take home gifts, etc... They had those fake tattoos, so L got her first Elmo tattoo. I heard "Elmo, Elmo" all the way home as she would point and get so excited about her new tattoo.
I remember growing up getting to spend time in the summer with my out of town cousins from Chicago, California, Canada and Greece. Those are some of my best memories and I hope I can pass that on to Liliana too.
Liliana had so much fun- on Thursday night 3 of her cousins spent the night together at my sister's house. Whenever the cousins spend the night they have a tradition of going to the gas station and Bess lets each of them pick out 2 junk food treats. They LOVE going to the gas station. So, when I put L to bed they made their trip and by the time I came down to the kitchen the counter was full of Funions (is that how you spell those crunchy fake onion rings??), pringles, gummy bears, etc...
Then the next morning we went swimming. My sister Bess has a friend Robin that she has known since kindergarten. It has been a few years since I have seen Robin, but she was so excited to meet L. She is a teacher, so she is wonderful with kids and we all had such a great time at her house. We ate TONS, swam and just wore ourselves out. This was Liliana's first time to really go swimming- we took her in sprinkler type thing last year, but not quite the same. She has a cute new bikini and she loved swimming. She kept up with everyone and as soon as pulled away from Robin's house she was out cold. Kids have it made that the can sleep in the car- I was a little jealous at that moment that I couldn't sleep in the car with her!
We came home, changed, and then Bess, L and I went to Imo's Pizza. We were cracking up- first we spilled ranch dressing all over the ground and had to get someone to clean it up. Then we spilled our iced tea- we were making a scene just laughing. We weren't trying to spill things on purpose. So we decided we better get out of there before we spilled more stuff!
Then Saturday was the baptism. My cousin Bessy had a great reception as usual- there were at least 100 people there. She had lots of food, Greek dancers, crafts for the kids, take home gifts, etc... They had those fake tattoos, so L got her first Elmo tattoo. I heard "Elmo, Elmo" all the way home as she would point and get so excited about her new tattoo.
I remember growing up getting to spend time in the summer with my out of town cousins from Chicago, California, Canada and Greece. Those are some of my best memories and I hope I can pass that on to Liliana too.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Happy Father's Day
This was Chris' first Father's Day. It's crazy to think that last year at this time we had no idea Liliana even existed, much less would be our daughter. Life can be full of surprises.
3 days before FD Liliana and I were in St. Louis visiting family for a baptism. (more on that in another blog entry). I am not the type of wife that can be apart long from their spouse. I know many people travel and have to spend extended periods of time away, but I just am not wired that way. So, on the ride back to Madison I called Chris how many times? I missed him so much.
Since we were gone for 3 days, all Chris wanted to do for Father's Day was to be near us and have a low key time at home. He was in the mood for some sort of Italian flavors and salad. So, I made a yummy chicken and roasted red pepper alfredo pizza with feta and parmesan cheese. We cooked it outside on the grill and I also made a big salad to go with it.
We played a lot with Liliana- she was super wound up... she gets that way when we travel and she gets out of her routine. But it was hilarious and she was totally cracking us up. After her nap, Chris and Liliana went to go rent a romantic movie and get some treats for Mommy and Daddy to have when Liliana went to bed.
We snuggled on the couch with treats and we were in paradise. We have full schedules, so to have an evening to lounge around and chill with a movie was so great. It was a perfect first Father's Day. :-)
3 days before FD Liliana and I were in St. Louis visiting family for a baptism. (more on that in another blog entry). I am not the type of wife that can be apart long from their spouse. I know many people travel and have to spend extended periods of time away, but I just am not wired that way. So, on the ride back to Madison I called Chris how many times? I missed him so much.
Since we were gone for 3 days, all Chris wanted to do for Father's Day was to be near us and have a low key time at home. He was in the mood for some sort of Italian flavors and salad. So, I made a yummy chicken and roasted red pepper alfredo pizza with feta and parmesan cheese. We cooked it outside on the grill and I also made a big salad to go with it.
We played a lot with Liliana- she was super wound up... she gets that way when we travel and she gets out of her routine. But it was hilarious and she was totally cracking us up. After her nap, Chris and Liliana went to go rent a romantic movie and get some treats for Mommy and Daddy to have when Liliana went to bed.
We snuggled on the couch with treats and we were in paradise. We have full schedules, so to have an evening to lounge around and chill with a movie was so great. It was a perfect first Father's Day. :-)
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Emotions Galore
I thought about how many different emotions I experienced yesterday... These are just the ones that come to my mind right away. No wonder Chris had a hard time keeping up with me sometimes...
SATISFACTION- got a delicious ice cream cone and sat out on the terrace by the lake at UW eating it. the weather was gorgeous and the ice cream tasty.
SADNESS- i read my e-mail for the volunteer opportunities this week with AIDS network. one of the clients said he would buy someone a ticket to go with him to the amusement park and ride roller coasters. i almost cried when i read this.. someone has to pay a stranger to go to great america with him because he is lonely and has no friends to go with him. so sad.
DISAPPOINTMENT- i got a phone call from a venue we have been scoping out for our church services. they are wanting to charge us double of what quoted to us. gotta keep looking some more.
APPRECIATION- sometimes i stop and stare at liliana's blue eyes and just appreciate her beauty. she was on chris shoulders and she was leaning against his head b/c she was tired. her skin color with a white shirt against chris' dark hair just made her complexion glow and her eyes shine. it's good to stop and notice her beauty, not just her cuteness.
CURIOSITY- there is a co-op in town and so we stopped by to check it out. i love exploring new stores and seeing what kinds of goods they have. we spent forever in the loose tea aisle trying to see what blends would be good to try, scoping out the various cheeses, chocolates, on and on.. it was fun.
NOT SURE WHAT I WAS FEELING- chris watched L so i could go to barnes and noble for a little while. when i got there i had no idea what kind of a mood i was in and what i wanted to read. so i kind of wandered around aimlessly and then finally got a few books and sat down, still even then not sure what kind of mood i was in.
FATIGUE- i was worn out in the afternoon, so while L took her nap, i also took a little cat nap. i needed it.
SURPRISE- chris went to return some library books and when he came home he had a big glass of iced tea for me. for some reason i am bad at making iced tea. i love the iced tea from his work, so he always brings some home for me. even though he was off today he stopped by and his boss let him bring some home for me anyway.
BOLDNESS- we have some new neighbors that moved in and they seem like a super cool couple. their daughter, lily, was playing outside for a few minutes with liliana. when we came in i told chris we needed to have them over for dinner to get to know them better. so i marched to their door and invited them to grill with on on tuesday. and they said yes. :-)
CONNECTION- we always say bedtime prayers, but after we did, chris and i had this super great time of sharing what God is doing in our lives. i felt so connected to chris and Jesus after sharing- it was one of those rare, special spiritual connection times.
SATISFACTION- got a delicious ice cream cone and sat out on the terrace by the lake at UW eating it. the weather was gorgeous and the ice cream tasty.
SADNESS- i read my e-mail for the volunteer opportunities this week with AIDS network. one of the clients said he would buy someone a ticket to go with him to the amusement park and ride roller coasters. i almost cried when i read this.. someone has to pay a stranger to go to great america with him because he is lonely and has no friends to go with him. so sad.
DISAPPOINTMENT- i got a phone call from a venue we have been scoping out for our church services. they are wanting to charge us double of what quoted to us. gotta keep looking some more.
APPRECIATION- sometimes i stop and stare at liliana's blue eyes and just appreciate her beauty. she was on chris shoulders and she was leaning against his head b/c she was tired. her skin color with a white shirt against chris' dark hair just made her complexion glow and her eyes shine. it's good to stop and notice her beauty, not just her cuteness.
CURIOSITY- there is a co-op in town and so we stopped by to check it out. i love exploring new stores and seeing what kinds of goods they have. we spent forever in the loose tea aisle trying to see what blends would be good to try, scoping out the various cheeses, chocolates, on and on.. it was fun.
NOT SURE WHAT I WAS FEELING- chris watched L so i could go to barnes and noble for a little while. when i got there i had no idea what kind of a mood i was in and what i wanted to read. so i kind of wandered around aimlessly and then finally got a few books and sat down, still even then not sure what kind of mood i was in.
FATIGUE- i was worn out in the afternoon, so while L took her nap, i also took a little cat nap. i needed it.
SURPRISE- chris went to return some library books and when he came home he had a big glass of iced tea for me. for some reason i am bad at making iced tea. i love the iced tea from his work, so he always brings some home for me. even though he was off today he stopped by and his boss let him bring some home for me anyway.
BOLDNESS- we have some new neighbors that moved in and they seem like a super cool couple. their daughter, lily, was playing outside for a few minutes with liliana. when we came in i told chris we needed to have them over for dinner to get to know them better. so i marched to their door and invited them to grill with on on tuesday. and they said yes. :-)
CONNECTION- we always say bedtime prayers, but after we did, chris and i had this super great time of sharing what God is doing in our lives. i felt so connected to chris and Jesus after sharing- it was one of those rare, special spiritual connection times.
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