30 minutes

{This was written on Thursday, but as most of you can relate to, being a mom and blogging means being interrupted 20 times and never being able to finish & publish a blogpost. hehe}

Today I was able to get 30 minutes of peace by the pool. It was much much much much needed, and I am so thankful that I was able to at least get 30 min. It would have been nice if it was an hour or 2, but you get what you get, and that 30 minutes was bliss! I read a little from Building a Discipling Culture by Mike Breen after attending my first discipleship huddle today w/ other pastor/ministry wives. Meeting with a group of people that you can be real with, let your guard down, and be full of high challenge is so refreshing. What a great Thursday it has been!

life before maggie claire...

Happy Monday Everyone!

So I got the call at 5:25 this morning that the labor & delivery unit was full, and they didn't have enough beds to induce me today, which I'm totally fine with! :) They are going to call me again tomorrow, and if they are still full, I have an appointment on Wednesday w/ my doctor to see if I have progressed anymore & we'll go from there.

I'm thinking she is holding out to share a birthday with my brother, Jacoby, tomorrow! {10-5-10} Or maybe she wants to have the cool birthday of 10-10-10 which is on Sunday! It's all in God's perfect timing, and I don't mind wait until this weekend either! :)

Here is my 39 week belly shot!

Last night, I decided to make some treats for my hospital guests & the nurses for when I have Maggie Claire this week! I made the famous pretzel surprise and bagged them up really cute with these adorable tags that I won from the pretty paperie! :) You should go check out Natalie's blog and her etsy shop! She is super talented with graphic design, and I loved how my tags turned out!

This is Mike & I on Wednesday at groundswell united, our mid week youth service! We are representing the "blue tribe" which is 7th & 8th grade. Mike looks real thrilled to take a picture with me... lol. Oh, speaking of my cutie husband, I cut his hair last night, and he is looking mighty fine today! :) I told him that he needed a "daddy haircut" so he will be looking sharp for when maggie claire arrives.... hehe.

This past week has been super fun, but a little busy with everything going on in ministry!!

Last weekend, was the middle school allnighter! {Crazy! I went and stayed until midnight!} Since Mike is the Middle School minister/director, he was busy getting everything ready. On Wednesday was our midweek service and this weekend was the last weekend of Nitro, our middle school service on the weekends. Needless to say, this was a very bust week for ministry! Now it's behind us and we can relax and enjoy our baby girl coming soon! :)

Here are some crazy pictures with me & my friends on Wednesday after groundswell. These girls are some of my best friends, and they just love talking to maggie claire in my belly! They can't wait for her arrival either!

{from right to left in the 1st picture: Sarah, Brittany, April, and me}

oh yes... one last thing! I am so in love with this fall weather that we are getting in Charleston today! This makes me excited about staying pregnant for a little while longer... {well, not too much longer... a week max!} I'm finally not sweating as soon as I wake up in the morning! lol. I'll be rocking the maternity jeans today with a light jacket! :)

Since it is Monday, I'm going to go ahead and link up to carissa's miscellany monday.

Enjoy your Monday everyone!

Elevation '10 summer camp!

This past week I've been hanging out at our youth summer camp, Elevation, in Myrtle Beach, SC. This is the first year we did the camp in Myrtle Beach, and it was HOT! Especially for this preggo mama. I drank so much water this past week, I was seriously in the bathroom 20-30 times a day! It was fun, the students enjoyed it, and there was life change in so many students that I'm looking forward to seeing how these students will grow in the future! I feel so privileged to be able to pour into these students lives! Sometimes it's kinda crazy living the life of a youth pastor's wife, but it is so worth it in the end!

This is me with a bunch of the 7th grade girls on the beach the first day we arrived!

{we were the green team}

During one of the services the students had the opportunity to give things to Jesus and nail it to the cross. Powerful stuff going on in these student's lives!

This is during the MEGA relay that we did on the beach!

I think this was the red team!

Me & Mike, right when we were taking the picture, he decided to take my lollipop! haha

This is me with the girls in my room! I love all of them and I pray that God will use them to share His love to others!!! They will be heavily on my heart this week, and I will be praying all kinds of crazies for them to be radical for Him!

What a blessing it was to be a part of this summer camp! Also, I posted about 200 pictures on facebook, so if you want to see more pictures from camp you can go to my facebook page here.

Here is my post from Elevation'09 last year.

my life as a minister's wife

Most of you know that of course, I am married to a youth minister, which I think is the most amazing thing EVER. I never thought that I would have married a youth minister, even though I have always wanted to marry a pastor and be a pastor's wife! When Mike and I met, I knew that we would get married and he would be in ministry, even though he didn't say that when I first met him. After a while, he finally changed his major to Youth Ministry at CSU, and I just knew that I would LOVE to be a youth pastor's wife.

Now, I am in love with pastor's wives, and any wife of a ministry leader. I just think that people don't give enough credit to PW. Lately, I have been reading Holly Furtick's blog and it is so encouraging. She is one woman of God who is a great example of being a PW who really fulfills the role. Then I was realizing that just about all of my friends are wives of men in ministry. I have so many friends around me who live just about the same life as I do being at church all the time, and loving it. Sometimes, it seems to get a little tiring, but we are all there to pick each other up. One of my best friends Christina Harris, is also a wife of a middle school pastor, now I realize why we are such good friends, we relate with each other. Plus, I just think she is awesome and I look up to her so much with her role as a PW. Some other amazing pastor's wives that I know and absolutely ADORE are Sarah Chalk, Jenny Miles, Many Santos, Sarah Bolin, Sara Smith, Cyndy Morris and Selina May. I see a little bit of myself in all of them. Also, I didn't even name the PW's that are related to me that I just love: Debbie Surratt, Sherry Surratt, Dee McGarity, Jenny Surratt, Lisa Surratt, Jenna Surratt, Jenny Mayer, Jess Ray, and Bethany Singleton. Anita McCart and Allison (soon to be Rankin) are also PW or soon to be that I hang out with and love.

So, as you can imagine, I am always at church. Last year when Mike and I were first engaged, I decided to use my time wisely while being at church all the time and volunteer in the nursery. I absolutely loved it, and a few months later I was asked to come on staff as a part time nursery worker on the weekends. This meant that I would work 2 or 3 of the services out of 5 of them on the weekend, and occasionally a first wednesday. I have been doing this for about 10 months and of course, I love it. There are 6 nursery rooms at Seacoast church LPR on the "0-24 months" hallway, and you will normally find me in one of them on the weekend, loving all those kids whether they are babies, crawlers, or walkers. :)

My favorite part of being at church for every service is this:
Whichever service I am not working in the nursery (which is normally the 9:30), I am upstairs in "the attic" where the middle school service is held. I get to see my husband speak, and act crazy with all the students that come to Nitro. I love it, and I have realized lately that my most important role there is Mike's wife. I am there to support, encourage, and help him do whatever is needed. Lately he has given me the duty of doing a part of the service on stage called "Tell Me Something Good". It's pretty fun, and most imporantly I feel that I have helped Mike with his job as a middle school minister!

In two weeks, I will be going on a youth trip with my husband for the first time as the "youth pastor's wife". (What a way to spend our first Valentines Day as a married couple huh?) I am very excited because I just love hanging out with the students just as much as he does! We will be traveling to Lake Junaluska in North Carolina for Lift, the ski/snowboard/tubing winter retreat. Mike told me that we are taking over 220 people total with all the campuses. I'm looking forward to joining my husband in ministry and seeing what God has planned for this trip!

This is me and my minister husband whom I will always love!
:)