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.

a little hope for the sunshine! :)

We took a three day trip down to Orlando Sunday-Tuesday, and it sure was fun! We attended a conference called the Youth Pastor Summit! It really is a fun thing to go to because the conference is totally free & you get to spend half the day in Island of Adventures & Universal Studios! The entire event is geared towards bringing your students to either Rock the Universe or Atlantafest, two summer events with live bands and teachings. Well, we just went for the free fun with our core youth staff and a few of the core leaders.

Here's a group picture of all of us, minus Maria... she was shopping somewhere else...

Me & Jessica waiting for everyone to get off the new rollercoaster.

{I know I look like a bum, I snagged Mike's jacket to wear for the late afternoon when it got a little chiller. It's a little oversized on me! haha.}

Being pregnant means that I only got to ride a few things... one being the Dr. Seuss carousel.... haha.... it was pretty funny!

Me & Mike in front of Cat & the Hat!

This was in line for the Hulk roller coaster, one of my all time favorite roller coasters, but because I was an expectant mother, I couldn't ride it! That's ok, next year we'll be back! :)
It really was a great trip & was fun to get away. I'm so glad to be back home, I feel like we've been going out of town for this whole month! First with the ski trip, then with Mike going to Russia, and then this trip! I'm ready to just relax at my house and rest for this baby to grow nice and healthy inside of me!

It was a great day when we went to the park because it was 70 degrees in Orlando! I actually got a little sunburn! I had a farmer's tan where my tshirt was on my arm! Pretty funny! This gives me a little hope for our Charleston sunshine weather to return soon.... I'm ready to get out of these jeans and wear skirts & dresses all the time again! Please and Thank you!!!! :)

P.S. I found out this week that I know 4 people that are due within a week of me! One of them has the same due date as me!!! This is going to be one wonderful October! :)

Elevation '09: EKHO

This past week we did our summer camp that Seacoast has been doing for I think 8 years now! We packed up 8 school buses full of luggage and students and headed down to Camp Awanita in Marietta, SC! It was so awesome! We saw so many students come to know God for the first time, grow in their walk with Jesus, and fall more in love with Him! Words can't even describe how successful it was because we just wanted the students grow in their walk with Jesus!


This was also a cool experience for Mike and I on our marriage. If you don't go to Seacoast Church, one thing that I think is so cool is the response time at the end of the services. During the response time, there is a chance for everyone to come and take communion, and usually it is the pastor and their spouse giving the communion. Well, at Elevation this year Mike and I were able to give communion together to students. It was such a special thing to me that I was able to do it with Mike. Nothing is more beautiful than giving something away to these studnets that represents what Jesus has done on the cross for us. It was such a neat experience for Mike and I.


Also, We had the chance to baptize students together, and that was so amazing! The three pictures below were of three of the girls in my small group at Elevation. It was so cool to participate in this symbolic act of worship which celebrates a new life in Jesus Christ!

Right before the mega relay that we did amazing at! We beat the 6th graders!

We started out with the coolest team flag, and after a while another team stole it, took the banana off, and eventually it got left outside, and the inflatable monkey was destroyed, we bandaged him up for a little while, but he eventually died! It was fun though!

Zeke loves Pastor Mike!

No, those are definitely not cheetos girls! The boys hanging out!

We won the spirit stick and made it into a 7, but then it broke last minute, so the kids made a cross out of it! (We put glitter on it too!)

Our team was the Chiquita Bananas, 7th grade from LP campus!

Services were awesome, the band did such a great job! We sold over 100 goats to feed families in Africa! It was awesome, one they bought one, they could put it on the map!

Roxi and I needed a lot of sugar and caffeine to keep up with all the students, so we splurged at the concessions getting reeses and mountain dew!!!!

Me and my girls after the last night of service:

Having fun in the Lake:

My AMAZING 7th grade small group girls:

Talent Show between campuses: These were our Randy, Simon, and Paula (in that order):

Hummer Rides:

Welcome to June!

- First of all, I just got done with my maymester class! (I got an A!) It was a great class, and I had a lot of fun! Now, just for the records, I have only one more semester, and I'm graduating in December! It's 191 days away!!!!! ijustcantevenwait! :)

- ELEVATION! This is the summer camp that Seacoast has done for many years, and this is my second time going as a leader, we leave next Wednesday, June 10 and we will be there until Sunday the 14th! I'm looking forward to the trip, I have the 7th grade LP girls! We haven't came up with a good name for our group yet, my creativity hasn't come out in me yet! I'm still working on it!

- As soon as we get back from Elevation, 5 days later it's MISSIONS TRIP time! This is the first missions trip that Mike and I are going on together, and we are very excited to help lead this trip! We are taking a group of students to Guatemala, and we have been having meetings for the past few months getting ready for this trip. At our meeting today we worked on some dramas to perform at schools and orphanages, and the students did great learning them!

- Well, I always know it's officially summer when I start working full-time at the school. My group this year is 2nd-4th grade. Every week we have a different theme and we do different crafts, activities and games that relate to the theme! This week was "eye spy" week, we did a scavenger hunt, made magnifying glasses, and kaleidoscopes. Tomorrow we are going to Chuck E. Cheese (I love the pizza)! It should be fun! Starting next week we will be going to the waterpark 3 times a week! It is going to be awesome! I will be getting sun, and getting paid for it! It's really fun, and the kids love it! (Oh, and after doing this 3 times a week, I'm a suncsreen expert of putting it on kids! haha) Also, each age group goes on another field trip once a week other than the water park, so we are gone 4 out of the 5 days of the week! It makes work go by fast!

- One other special event that happened these past 2 weeks was my little brother Jacoby's high school graduation! It was also Mike's sister Brittainy's graduation too! We went to the senior drive through and made posters, then to the senior breakfast, and senior chapel! It was a weekend full of events! Here are some pictures:

-My little stepsister Katelyn graduated from the 5th grade last week too, they had a special ceremony, and it was very sweet, I can't believe she is going to be in Middle School! She got most athletic girl in her class, and I was very proud of her! She is so cute! Here's a couple pictures:

- This weekend is Allison's wedding and I am very excited for her and AJ. Allison and I have known each other since we can remember, and we became really good friends in High School! Her and AJ are getting married this Saturday at Old Santee Canal State Park! It is going to be such a fun wedding, and It is all about Allison, and I love that! Anything to make her day more special is all I care about! Here is a picture from this past weekend, it was Allison's "bachelorette" weekend, and we did spa stuff at Allison's new apt and here are the results, I'm the one with the "chocolate face" in the middle, the rest of the girls, except for Alexa on the end have "pink" faces, they just look like the got sunburned really bad.


- This next thing I have saved for last, because it is such a sensitive subject! One of my very best friend's in the whole wide world, Christina is moving! It has all just happened really fast, but I am very happy for her and Kevin moving back to Tulsa! They are leaving On Tuesday, after Allison and AJ's weekend wedding. I don't think it has hit me yet, because I have been spending just about every day with her, getting as much time in as I can with them before they leave. I'll post more about them leaving later (I'm tearing up just thinking about it)....


This is me, Michelle(with a crazy face), and Christina at Fonduely Yours, with our chocolate pot! It was so good! :)

Orlando Fun

Last week, Mike and I traveled with some more of the SSM team to Orlando, FL to attend Youth Pastor Summit. Francis Chan was there and I was so excited to hear him speak because I have never heard him speak live before, and he is such an amazing speaker! He challenged us to be like Jesus, and continue to serve people like Jesus did. I can't even begin to explain how much that touched my heart, and I think about it every day. He made me think that if someone was to follow me around they would probably think I am far from what Jesus was like when he walked on this earth! I now challenge myself daily to make decisions to be more like Christ. Francis put it in words something like this: "You should live your life so that when people are with you, they could say that you are the closest person that they are around that is like Jesus." I can't even imagine someone saything that about me, but I would like to be like Christ, and I am trying more and more everyday to be like Him. I feel like I can't even explain it the way Francis did. I know God was really speaking to me.

Francis Chan Praying

I also went to a couple of REALLY good breakouts while I was there too. One breakout that I really enjoyed was lead by Kristen Carr, director of girl's ministry from First Baptist Atlanta. She had such a huge heart for young girls very much like I do. She was very genuine in everything that she said and really challenged me to be a women of God like in Titus 2 that is an example to younger girls! She gave us a lot of ideas and events that could be very successful for a girls ministry at Seacoast. Maybe one day we can plan some really cool stuff just for girls to enjoy!




One of the most exciting things that we did was we got to spend the second half of the day in Universal Studios and Island of Adventure theme parks! We had a lot of fun and her are some pics from the trip!

Here is us with the Grinch and infront of the huge Jurassic Park Dinosaur!

I was totally in love with this huge lollipop!

Cat in the Hat!

This picture fits Brittany and my personality like "holy business!" as Brittany would say!