I broke a life long tradition this past week and put up our Christmas decorations early.  I totally freaked my mom out because I used to be the Christmas decoration nazi– NO decorations until the day after Thanksgiving!!!  It was so funny to hear her remarks of how now she is ‘free’ to put up hers since I’ve deemed it okay…..  Sorry Mom for what I put you through =)!

Well now that we travel for the holidays and our calendar is packed with events I decided to try and beat the rush.  I put them up Monday and have LOVED the feeling of getting to enjoy the season already start.  I LOVE the season of Christmas- the reflection of the nativity, the smells, the family, and the list goes on of “LOVES.”  One more though is the family traditions I hear of each year.  Do you have one?  Is it a food? An activity? An order of doing things?  I know it’s a bit early for most people to ‘go” there but please add to my festive cheer?  What do you look forward to doing each year?

P.S.  This is Monica’s first Christmas she’s really gonna have fun with.  She was determined the baby Jesus below needed one of her diapers….  Also we strung popcorn for the kids trees.  Within 45 minutes Monica had pulled off her strand to start eating it!! Just means we can string more after Thanksgiving, I guess!

Sooooooooooo I guess I’m just having a stupid streak this week–  I took Rosco to the Doctor twice yesterday!!  Yes twice.  Once to the Doctor’s office and once to the vets office right next door.  Yes that’s right I was talking on my cell phone when I pulled into the parking lot.  Both clinics have adjoining parking lots and are named after the street they are located on.  I got off the phone.  Unbuckled Monica, hooked Rosco to his leash, and we all three jumped out of the car– right on time I might add. I walked in, thought the carpet was strange for a vets office and promptly responded to the receptionist I had an appointment for Rosco at 11:15. It was about 10 seconds later it dawned on me WHY the carpet was down and the chairs so neatly lined in perfect sized people rows.  I know I must have turned as red as rudolph’s nose, when I asked if I was at the vets office…..  She laughed and thankfully didn’t turn me in for breaking city ordinances that require dogs NOT to be in people doctors offices.  I assured her before leaving that I was not a parent that would name my child “Rosco.” So we walked out–  I hopped in the car and drove next door.

Steven said I shouldn’t tell many people that story…. but I’m willing to admit I’m an idiot only if you promise to laugh really hard visualizing that one- I mean REALLY HARD!!  We need all the reasons we can get these days!

This story took me a few hours to admit once I realized what I had done.  I had to come to grips with myself first.  Before I tell you what I did let me introduce you to a not so amazing product…. at least not at our house. This is SWIFFER furniture polish:Okay so here’s the catch.  It was with the floor cleaning supplies.  In Stephanie’s world Swiffer ALWAYS equals FLOOR cleaning supplies.  I was trying to find a better deal on floor cleaner than what the floor distributor sold to us with our new floors this past summer.  I read the back of the bottle. When listing the surfaces it was good on it says “wood laminate.”  Bingo!!  It’s half the price and even smells better.

Well…… after cleaning with this not so great Swiffer product, let’s just say if you need some entertainment come on over!!  We have a great skate rink. Socks are not allowed right now because it’s virtually impossible to stand up.  No joke– we could make money over here!! I think we’ll call it, “Smithson Skate.”

The worst part of cleaning our floors with furniture polish is that Steven was the one to realize what I did!! I just thought it was a crummy product.  I hate being wrong, especially when it’s something in my territory…..  He’s had great fun watching me slip and slide around our place. We’ve had ALOT of good hard laughter because of my mistake.

Oh and just so you know I did go purchase the expensive stuff again…. it just made the floors more slippery.  I guess the Swiffer polish is gonna have to wear off slowly.

Oh what bliss– I got to sleep until 9:00 this morning!!!! I don’t remember the last time that happened. The extra sleep was definitely appreciated and needed. We’ve got a big week coming up. Steven leaves Monday morning and our renovations start then.

Thanks to my sister-n-law and friends the week has definitely taken shape and seems to be doable now. In a way my kids are going to camp too. We’re calling it “Camp Smithson.”  The kids will leave Sunday night and won’t return until late Wednesday afternoon do to all of the saws the construction workers will have laying around. The kids will spend one night across the river with family. Late the next afternoon I’ll venture back to pick them up and then we plan on spending the other two nights in our friends home (they are gone to youth camp with Steven). Tuesday they will be staying all day at another friends house. I’ve got a a list to accomplish while the kids are away and another list of fun things to do while we are together in the evenings. I cannot imagine what life is like for those without family and friends that come to their aid in time of need. Steven and I are truly blessed. With all sincerity let me say… God is Good!!!

When I started blogging I purposed in my heart to be as honest and vulnerable as I felt God would allow me to be. BUT it has been so amazingly crazy that I’ve needed to kind of process my emotions and just get things taken care of. Anyway- it’s piling up- so I thought I’d better share as well as ask for your prayers. I’ve attached a section of an e-mail I sent to a good friend below.

“Thursday, we woke up on Steven’s birthday (also Peak Week and VBS day) and our house was infested with maggots!!!!! right now my house is void of carpet in the Living Room and hallways and there is a soft white film of dust covering most everything in my house from the concrete dust! ewe!! – The University of Arkansas is doing some research in insure it won’t ever happen again. I laughed, now we have pestilence =)

Last night we got a call that while my parents were on vacation. Their house flooded. They have 3-4 inches of water standing in the basement. Their ceilings upstairs are starting to warp from the roof damage they received. The flood damage is not insured. =( Trees are fallen everywhere and their pond rose so high it covered the driveway…. A friend that was feeding their dogs was the one that found it like that. They came home a day early.

I found out Monica threw up ALOT in her bed last night when she woke. She seems to be doing okay now- low grade fever is all.”

Oh and our toilet has completely quit working as of yesterday afternoon.

Added to the list of incidents, about two weeks ago, a doctor alarmed us that I could possibly have cancer. They sent me immediately to a general surgeon to have some lumps in my neck biopsied. Gratefully though the surgeon thought I had nothing to worry about and gave me a clean bill of health after my blood work came back.

My mom had a heart catheterization the day after I had received the cancer news. Her tests came back with a good report as well.

The trials don’t stop with me. Our town was hit by really bad storms last night– AGAIN!! The downtown area has been told they may be out of electricity for a week. We drove around this morning and viewed the damage. It looked as bad as Katrina without the water. We are praying about how God may be able to use our youth group to help out.

Sooooooooo like I said it TRULY has been crazy!!

I’ve learned so much though and have been able to count many blessings. Here’s another clip from the same letter above.

On the bright side. Peak Week was wonderful! We had great attendance and enthusiasm was in the air. Steven asked me to speak one night. I was so blessed to be able to do so. My topic was presenting Christ as servant. I dressed up in coveralls, john deer hat, and boots to give the visual that Christ, the King of Kings, came to get messy in both our lives and our world. I have no doubt that I am always way more blessed than anyone else when I get to speak. SUCH a privilege!!!!

We also have been avoiding our house because of how dirty it is with the concrete dust so we had great fun on a picnic we took to Lake ft Smith Saturday . Later that night Steven and I went on a date to Shogun’s. He introduced me to sushi– I liked it. Wasabi was amazing. FUN!!!

He’s leaving next Monday for camp which is also the day they are going to lay our floors back down. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to juggle everything both this week and next. I know I don’t have to ask but please pray for me.

Okay– so there it is!! That’s why I’ve been away. All I can say is God is Good. We can sense His presence and are smiling at the ride we’re on right now. WOW life is exciting!!! We appreciate your prayers both for our family, extended family, and community. Thanks guys!

I’ll keep you posted the best I can!!

Well it was back to excercising this morning only this time it was minus the spinning eyes and trip to the bathroom. Instead I made it ALL the way through my Cardio class. Yay!!! Thanks for all your encouragement. Maybe there is hope for this girlie to get into shape!!

While gearing up for summer I realized it was time again to find a new swimsuit.  That search I must say has been a depressing one.  After two babies NOTHING looked good!!  I mean just because the baby weight is gone does NOT mean everything is where it’s supposed to be.  UGH!!

Well instead of complaining about it forever I decided I’d try out the fitness center in our neighborhood.  They provide a free three day pass that includes childcare to check them out.  This morning was my first try–

I went to the cardio and abs class that’s taught by another youth pastor’s wife.  When I arrived I was a bit nervous.  Seriously, I’m not the most coordinated person in the world and I totally knew I’d be a spectacle. However, the first fifteen minutes went pretty well.  I was proud of myself, nothing too embarrassing happened.  What I did not expect was the sudden sensation of my eyes starting to spin after about 30 minutes of the workout.  I kept going…  Ten minutes later we got out the mats to do some ab stretches.  It was at the point I was to support someone else’s stretches “IT” hit!!!!!  Yes I had to RACE to the bathroom–  thankfully I hadn’t eaten much this morning so it wasn’t too violent. (sorry if that’s more graphic than you expected)

The verdict–  I may need to get more than a 3-day pass because I’m DEFINITELY OUT OF SHAPE!!!

Well I’m moving furniture again, all the carpet in our bedrooms and closets is getting re stretched in the morning. Last week it was the Living room and hall ways. With all of our bedrooms piled in the Living Room, a laundry mountain to tackle, four peoples to pack up (yes we’re headed out of town), and carpets to wash all by tomorrow afternoon I’m already exhausted!! CAFFINE IV please–

We’ll be gone a little bit! So I’ll catch up on the blog when I get back!

Happy Mother’s day to all the mommy’s out there!

I had a conversation the other day in which some odds facts about me came up. The laughter that ensued made me think some of my stories would bless you with smiles. This is a little weird to just write about me, BUT you will at least have some ammo to use after you’re finished reading.

“Biggest” doesn’t really work grammatically with all of these but ya know- whatever!?!?

Biggest Tragedies- (aside from real ones =)

I have the most tragic “pet” death stories of anyone that I’ve ever met.

-Rusty- childhood dog of 16 years- I found floating dead in the family pool

-Pierre- childhood cat of 10 years- found frozen to death in our back yard

-Rat Face -childhood gerbil – I discovered with his head chewed off under the coffee table

-Tippy- another family dog found dead on the front porch (humorous part was that we were heading out on vacation. We had walked back and forth over him for probably 30 minutes before we realized he was dead.)

- Sky- childhood parakeet- found missing from his cage outside with remaining feathers floating around

- Trooper- my grandpa’s dog who lived next door- I backed over him and wounded him. He was attacked by our other dogs because of his sounds of pain. Later that evening my dad shot him to put him out of his misery. VERY GORY!!

Biggest Gross Experience-

Three years ago our house was infested with maggots!!! Yes picture it- little white squirmy worms dispersed evenly over our tile and carpets throughout the house. Eli was crawling. We moved out of our house for 3 days while we purged our 7 month old home. Still don’t know where they came from! To this day I get nauseous when I see flies inside.

Biggest Childhood Dream-

I wanted to be and Olympic Skater- roller skater that is. I practiced so hard until I found out that there was no roller skating in the Olympics. I also wanted to speak another language. Pig Latin is my secondary tongue.

Biggest Embarrassing Moment-

I was on a mission trip to Denmark. The food was fabulous! Ashamedly I had eaten too much- ALOT!! I kept commenting to each host home that I was in how the food was sooooo good and I was way to “full.” Thankfully about half way through our trip a kind host asked me if I knew what “full” meant in Danish. He went on to explain it was translated “drunk.” Therefore, Stephanie, the missionary had told everyone for over a week that she was so “drunk” and loved the food…. Yay me!!

Biggest Disappointment-

I was not accepted to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago Illinois. I had my heart set on going there and for no specific reason they denied my entrance. However the fall that I would have attended, I met Steven and was engaged two and half months later. God had better plans. I was blessed to be able to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Biblical Studies from Liberty University’s Distance Learning program. (I was 8 weeks pregnant with Monica.) I got great “on- the – field” experience working with Steven in youth ministry along with my degree- so it all worked out!

Biggest Day of My Life-

Other than the day I was born, the biggest day was my wedding day- August 9th, 2003. It couldn’t have been any better. God TRULY, in ever sense of the phrase gave me the mate He designed for me!

Biggest Drive- I love people and God’s Word ALOT!! Studying and staying organized makes me feel on top of things. More than ANYTHING I desire to know that my life is making a difference for God’s kingdom. I know that my responsibilities include many factors (husband, children, church, ect.). I would say that learning to rest in my season of life is the number one struggle that I come back too. My heart beats to teach God’s Word and “love on” people around the clock. I know my drive is God’s gift to me but I also know that He doesn’t need me (He’s got lots of others to use out there – like you). I rest knowing that I’m ready when He calls me into action…

I told Steven tonight I think we should measure laundry in pounds versus loads. I’m pretty sure I’m washing close to two elephants a week! Doesn’t that sound more impressive than 25 loads (or more)… Just a thought!

I’m gonna post a pic of one of our laundry mountains sometime soon–  you’ll have to compare your’s with mine.  totally not joking about with the terminology!