Asher Is Finally In Undies!!!

I almost forgot to add a very important event around here. Yeah!! Asher is finally wearing undies. He has been a pain to potty-train. He is 3 and 1/2, so it is about time. I am not saying we are completely accident free, but at least we are finally out of pull-ups. We have been buying diapers and wipes in this house for 7 straight years. That is a bunch of poopy and pee-pee. Now, we have Justus to train. Of course that won't be for a couple of years though.

House is Finished, Abigail Gets Baptized, Ladies' Conference, Family Reunion

Let's see. The house is finished. It looks great. It is not the green color we were hoping for. It looks more gray, but it is still much better than the paint chipped and dirty white we had before. I added bigger pics of it below.

Abigail was baptized yesterday! I read down the blogs and realized that I never posted when she asked Jesus into her heart. We have been talking to her about salvation for quite some while now, but she never seemed to fully understand. She always told us ,"I am not a sinner." Then the last weekend in June she finally understood, and she brought it up herself. I was cleaning the house, and she came to me and said, "I am a sinner. I do bad things. I want to go to heaven." We talked for a while, and she prayed and asked Jesus into her heart. It is a joy and excitement that is hard to explain when your own little ones ask Jesus into their hearts. So, she was baptized yesterday. I tried to get pics, but my camera stopped working during her baptism. There was another person taking some, so I am going to see if they have any of Abbie.

I went to a Ladies' Conference at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Indianapolis(the church Aaron grew up in) this past Friday night and Saturday morning. The theme was Cooking School: Ingredients For Life. It was excellent. I learned a lot about how to be a better wife, mother, and pastor's wife to the people of our church. They are also so creative in their decorating. I got bunches of ideas for my own ladies' meetings and banquets. I have been to 5 of their conferences now, I think this was the best one yet. In my own devotions this past weekend also I read a verse in Galatians where Paul was asking do we seek to please men or God. He then goes on to say if we are seeking to please men then we are no longer the servants of Christ, but of men. I needed that. I know that too often I am so worried about pleasing the people around me, and I need to just make sure I am pleasing Christ in what and how I do.

We also had a family reunion on Aaron's side this weekend. It was good to see everyone and meet people that we didn't even know. There was a good turnout. The kids - and boy was there a ton of them- played together like they had always known each other. They had a great time .

The Unfinished Paint Job

Our house still isn't finished being painted due to the rain. Praise the Lord for the rain though. It has really cooled down the temperature. When it is finished I will post a few pics.

Kidney Stones Plague Us Again

The unsuspecting man woke up with an excruciating pain....Aaron passed a few kidney stones this past Saturday and Sunday. He woke up around 3:00 Sunday morning with a dull pain in his left side. He then woke me up and told me that he thought he had kidney stones again. I quickly got up and took him to the emergency room. In October when I had them, I waited to long to go to the hospital, and by the time we got there it was so painful I was curled up in a ball on the waiting room floor. I didn't want Aaron to have to be like that. They took him back fairly quickly and immediately gave him and i.v. with two strong pain meds. This eased the pain, and he was able to sleep. He received a scan that confirmed he was passing kidney stones. He was sent home around 7:00 with meds and a strainer to catch the stones. Before we got home he passed two more. Kidney stones are awful!! They are the worst pain I have ever experience. Yes, even over child birth.

This was Sunday morning, so the pastor of our church didn't make it to church that day. (The pastor being Aaron.) That was a first. What do you do when the pastor can't show up and you find out the morning of services? The deacons had to tag team the day. We assume that it went well. No one has said otherwise. He did make it to church that evening. He even had choir practice before and did a wedding afterwards. He definately took a licking and kept on ticking. I could not have done that.

While we were on vacation we had our house painted on the outside. It is still not finished yet due to the rain. The painter is hoping to be completed by Friday. We also had our wood floors refinished in the foyer and office. They look amazing. I can't believe this beautiful wood was covered by carpet. I am so excited and eager to get the other floors and stairs done now. We hope to save the money and have it done in the late fall, but before we host Thanksgiving. Since the girls are at Nana's and Papa's we are getting lots of things done inside the house too. In the last five days we have painted 3 rooms and rearranged the furniture in 2. We painted the office this great deep reddish-brown color called paprika. Mom is planning on painting her kitchen this color, and I loved it when she showed it to me. So... we bought the paint on the way home and painted after Asher's surgery. Thanks mom for picking a wonderful color. It looks soooo good. Then we painted the foyer a beautiful golden color called bungalow gold. It looks awesome next to the paprika. They are both rich fall colors. Then we painted the girls room purple. They having been asking for it since when moved in. They miss their purple room from the other house. It is a surprise for them to return home to.

Asher's surgery

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Asher. His surgery went very well this past Friday. The doctor took his adnoids out and drilled the small holes in each ear. He did not put another set of tubes in. He said that there was not a lot of fluid sitting on the ears, so he hopes this will take care of the problems. We did have to stay an extra hour of recovery because Asher would not drink anything. We couldn't leave until he drank 6 ounces. I sat on his bed with a juice box and just kept sticking it in his mouth. Obviously he drank it because we are at home. Asher was funny before the surgery. He was laughing and giggling with us, but everytime he heard the door open he would play like he was asleep. He would not talk to the nurses or doctors. Then when they left he would go back to playing. He feels pretty good now. He hurts more at night. He is waking up quite a bit crying. I don't know if it is how he is sleeping on his pillows or what. He also crys when he has to have his hair washed. The ears are still pretty sensitive. He loves his medicine. He says that it tastes yummy. We go back for another appointment on August 7th. They will check to see that all is healing well and schedule another hearing test to see if the surgery has been successful at improving his hearing.

Okay! I am finally catching a moment to give a little update on what has been going on with us. We took a vacation to Tennessee for the 4th of July. Yeah! Thank you Lord that we were able to go and no one got sick this time and there were no hospital visits ( that seems to be our habit when we go ). We did absolutely nothing the first couple of days which was wonderful. We haven't done that since I don't know when. We had a bar-b-que with Mom, Dad, Bo, Amanda, and all of the kids on the 4th. That evening we sat in the yard and watched all of the fireworks being shot on the mountain tops. It was beautiful. Bo and Aaron also put on a show of fireworks. On Saturday Mom kept all of the kids and Aaron and I were able to go out for a few hours by ourselves. We haven't done that since Justus was born. We went to eat and then shopped at the outlet malls for the girls' school clothes. Sure, that is not too exciting, but it was just the being able to spend some time together that mattered. We also took the kids to a petting zoo and Black Bear Jamboree during the week. Abbie was scared of most of the animals at the petting zoo. They all had a good time at the Black Bear Jamboree. The girls got on the stage and sang with all of the other kids. Abbie and Asher danced all through the show. They were hilarious and enough entertainment themselves. We also rented a boat and went out on Douglas Lake. Abbie was terrified for the first 50 minutes. She would not let me move away from her. She eventually eased up and started having a good time once she realized it was not scary. The mountains from the lake were gorgeous. We will definately go out again next time. The girls stayed there with Nana and Papa for a few extra days. We miss the girls a lot, but it has been a breeze around the house having only the boys. We are rested and ready to get back to church and get going again.