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JUST KIDDING! Thought it might get your attention - haha!

So, I'm changing to a WordPress blog. Meaning, I will not be blogging at this address anymore.

I'd love for you to follow me over there, so here's the new bloggy address: http://three4me.wordpress.com/

It's not all fancified yet, but I've done an initial post to explain the move, etc. So go check it out, and don't forget to change your bookmark or RSS feed settings.

Thanks!

Christmas Music

I really love Christmas Music. Now, if you are or have ever been in a worship band with me, you might say that sentence is false.

Here's the deal, and you can agree or disagree....either way, I've felt this way for a long time and don't see my views changing anytime soon.

I'm a worship leader. More specifically, I lead contemporary worship (aka, praise songs, worship choruses, whatever you might call them). My goals in leading worship are to 1) glorify my God Who is so much more worthy than I can even proclaim; 2) present a holy and loving picture of Him that will encourage others to also want to worship Him; and 3) (although very similar to #2) create an atmosphere that is inviting for people to engage in worship and draw near to Him.

Back to the original thought -- I really love Christmas Music. I do not, however, love to lead Christmas songs in a worship setting. A lot of Christmas songs are story-telling by nature and just don't seem to fit in a vertical worship kind of setting.

Another issue is this... I'm usually playing with a modern/contemporary band. For us to try to lead some traditional Christmas song, played traditionally, just sounds weird, 'cause that's not our thing. For us to try to take that traditional song and make it sound contemporary or modern, often sounds forced and cheesy.

Give me a nice intimate Christmas Eve service, just a little guitar and/or piano, and I'd be happy to sing traditional Christmas carols the whole evening long! :)

While classics and traditional carols are my favorite to listen to during this season, there are a few non-traditional Christmas songs I also like.

I've just found a Christmas album by Dave Barnes (who is completely wonderful singing anything and everything)! Seriously, he's amazing. I absolutely dig his style.

His Christmas album does not disappoint either. Feel free to take a listen. Hey, feel free to keep this open in a tab while you're working on other stuff. I think you'll like it!

Okay, tried inserting a widget playlist here in the regular post, but it's showing "no songs", so here's a link to the playlist: GROOVESHARK - DAVE BARNES - VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

I also did successfully put said widget in my sidebar, so you can click play and give it a listen right here, too!

I promise it's worth listening to! :)

Disney!

Well, it's almost been a month now since we took the older two kids on a complete SURPRISE trip to Disney for the weekend (they didn't know what we were really doing until we told them after landing in Orlando!).

I didn't want to lug around my nice camera (and after experiencing some surprise water squirts and stuff during some shows and rides, I'm glad I didn't). So I just took my old Point&Shoot. Therefore, the pictures are not great......but the memories are!!

Here are some of the pictures we took:

I gave descriptions on the photos, so if you'd like to read those, view the slideshow HERE!

What a Week!

It has been one of the craziest weeks around here.

To start it off, hubby and I surprised Wes and Claire with a trip to Disney! We flew down to Orlando on Veteran's Day and spent the weekend there. I'll do a whole separate post about our trip soon. It was a really fun trip and we were absolutely exhausted, as most people are when they go to Disney.

Well, on Saturday morning (our last day in the parks), we got a call that my husband's uncle had passed away suddenly. He was young, only 56, and it was unexpected. We continued our trip and came home as planned on Sunday.

The uncle's children live a couple of hours away. They all came in town, and we let them have our house for the week. Since they were there, we came to live at the lake.

We love being at the lake, of course. But it was just crazy coming back into town from vacation and coming straight here to the lake. The whole week was filled with family gatherings, driving into town to take kids to school, to go to their Thanksgiving programs and lunches, running errands, etc. And, of course, there was the funeral and all of that.

On top of the craziness of our schedule and living arrangements, it was also emotionally draining. A death like this is very bittersweet. We enjoyed spending time with his children, whom we don't see near enough. They had such a beautiful perspective on all of it. They were understandably heartbroken and grieving heavily for their father. But they knew, and rejoiced in the fact that their father was in the presence of God Almighty; that he was welcomed by his parents who had gone before him; that he was probably singing and dancing before the very throne of Jesus! How wonderful and exciting!!

And the funeral service was probably the most beautiful, sweet, and moving I've ever been to.

Aside from all of that, I dealt with sinus issues all week. I was to sing at the funeral on Thursday, and didn't even have a voice on Wednesday. God came through as He is faithful to always do, and I was able to sing Thursday. But the sinuses issues continue....'tis the season.

In addition to all of that, my grandmother passed away over the weekend. We had not really had a relationship at all for about 10 years. In any case, the loss of life, and my grandpa's loss is very sad. Her service will be Tuesday.

Then there is Thanksgiving on Thursday. We'll be doing it at the lake again this year. We started the tradition last year of having Thanksgiving at the lake, and plan to do it probably every year from here on out.

So, the craziness continues!

What is wonderful and comforting is to know that through it all, God is always faithful. His Spirit was sent to be our Comforter, and it truly is. May I continue to depend on Him...

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

time to think about Christmas cards!  Ack!

I have a love/hate relationship with this every year.  I love creating our cards, but I also stress over it.  I don't know why.  I guess because I love photography and I digi-scrap, I just want them to be perfect.  I want the best picture possible of my kids, I want the perfect digi kit and all to make the card just right.

I've started looking online a bit too.  Most years after looking online, I think that I can make a card in PhotoShop that looks as good or better than what I find in online stores.  I don't know if my tastes are changing, priorities are changing (regarding time required to make my own), or if the premade cards are really getting better, but I've found a lot of them that I really like.

I'm finding myself attracted to the more graphic types of cards where the photo(s) is really the main focus.  This year, I've mainly been looking at Shutterfly's cards...

Here are their Christmas cards:  http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

I'm really loving these:

And this one is fun too:

Here are their "holiday" cards:  http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

This one is so simple and sweet:

And you can just go here to get started with whatever kind of card you might want: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

I've usually done flat 4x8 photo cards similar to this:

But I'm considering doing a different size or even a folded one this year.  We'll see!

I think the hardest thing about this whole thing is going to be getting my three crazy kiddos to pose for a photo!  May have to just get one good one of each, rather than one of all of them together!

Have you started thinking about your cards yet?  What are you doing?

 

P.S.  Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow the arrow à http://bit.ly/sfly2010

He's 7

I honestly feel like I just brought this child home from the hospital.  How in the world can my Wesley be 7 years old today???  I know they say the older you get, the faster time flies by.  But I never realized it would go by this fast!

Here is a pic of my sweet boy at only a couple months of age:  (We have his newborn pics somewhere, just not on my hard drive since they weren't digital.)

Can you even stand those chubby cheeks!  And I loved him wearing this little jean jacket that some of my teacher-friends gave me at my baby shower --- soooo cute!

Here he is at his 1st birthday:

Here he is at his 2nd birthday:

Here he is at 3 years old:

Here he is at 4 years old:

At 5:

At 6:

And a few I took as he was playing outside yesterday.  Here he is at (almost) 7:

 

I am so very proud of the little boy he has become.  He is scary smart, has the most incredible imagination, and loves with his whole heart.  I am so blessed to be his Mommy!

Following God

Following God's leading is not guaranteed to be easy. Just look at Jesus' life and death... definitely not easy. But He did what He was called to do.

Recently my family has been in this weird place of stepping out in faith and following God's direction...

I don't really know who all reads this blog, so I'll just tell it as if you know nothing...

My family has gone to Lynn Haven Methodist for the past 9 years. I have been leading worship in some capacity or other there for about 8 out of those 9 years.

For the past year, my husband and I have felt a stirring in our hearts and spirits that God was calling us to be somewhere else, do something else. This would be no easy decision, as LH has been our church home for quite some time. We have dear, dear friends there, many who are more like family. My praise team is definitely part of those who are family.

So we began praying. We spent a lot of time praying, thinking, and talking to each other about this. There was nothing sure about any of it, and we didn't want to make any haste decisions. Where would we go to church if not LH? We need to go somewhere, but we had visited many, many churches in our area in the past, and did not feel a connection to any of them.

A little over a month ago, we decided that it was time to follow God's leading, to act on it, step out in faith, even though we didn't know what that really even meant for us.

I led worship for the last time at Lynn Haven on August 29th...

We left LH not having any idea where God was calling us. Honestly, we expected months and months of visiting other churches and being disappointed and frustrated at what we found.

However, at the very same time we were leaving LH, a church plant was launching at the beach. We visited and immediately felt drawn to this fellowship. In fact, after the very first service we visited, we were overwhelmed at what seemed to be happening. We stayed for an informational meeting after that service during which the pastor introduced some of the staff. He introduced the guy who had led worship that day and said, "He now has 364 days to find his replacement. He's great at leading worship, but his main gifting is in another area." Uh, whoa!

So we met with the pastor that evening at Starbucks. We discussed what kind of church he felt called to lead and what kind of church we felt led to be a part of. Fast-forward a couple of weeks and we started helping with worship. Fast-forward a couple more weeks and I am now the worship leader for Baypointe Church.

Because it's a church plant, it's much different than the established church we've been at for many years. At times the differences are uncomfortable, but it is also extremely exciting! Through the ministry of this brand new church, already many people have started a journey with Jesus Christ! I can't think of anything I'd rather be a part of than God moving so strongly.

I'm really blessed to be working with some amazing people, both on the church staff and on the worship team. And we already have some additional prospects for the worship team, which is great! I'm so excited about what God is doing now and what He is going to do!

In addition to diving head-first into my new role at this new church, I am continuing to pray for Lynn Haven. I know they now have holes to fill, and that is not an easy thing either. I also know how important it is to find the right people -- people God has called and sent. So I pray for Lynn Haven nothing but blessings, God's will, and a strong impact in our community for Jesus Christ.

So, that's what's been happening in our lives. It's honestly felt like a roller-coaster ride of emotions -- deep, deep sadness of "leaving" people we love (I put "leaving" in quotation marks because I don't believe those friendships will end, they will just be a little different) mixed with absolute excitement of what God's doing both in our lives and in the community.

Following His leading is not always comfortable or sure-footed, but it is exciting!