The Rest of America Should Take Notes

You might remember my good friend, Chelsea, from my post back in January.  Yesterday, after a twelve month tour of duty in Afghanistan, her husband Joe returned home.  And what a return it was!

Small Town, Illinois, you did it again!  I brag on you a lot... noting how charming and easy-going the folks here can be.  Everyone's willingness to do anything for anyone never ceases to amaze me, and the rest of the country should take notes.  Here, if you need to borrow a lawn mower, someone will more than likely go the extra step and do it for you.  Or if your on bed rest, a parade of folks will be in and out of your home the whole time to cook and clean.  I would know... I've experienced both.  And when one of our own returns home from deployment, people line the streets in 95+ degree heat to give a hero's welcome.

Yesterday I was in awe (once again) of how a community can come together.  Chelsea had made a few phone calls to a few folks just a couple of days before to see what we could do to really give Joe a deserved welcome.  From there the whole thing snowballed and by the time they rolled into town, it was perched on top of a convertible behind a fire engine with its sirens blaring, about 50 motorcycles, and followed by several decorated vehicles that had jumped into their convoy on the way back from Clinton, Iowa.  It had been announced in the local paper that they would be cruising down Main Street around 3 PM and the residents here were encouraged to make signs and line the streets to honor the family.  Sure enough, the streets were lined with people, many waving flags, and when we heard those sirens and saw the family we all cheered, shouted words of thanks, and in my case (and many others) teared up at the sight.  It's easy to forget that we have thousands of men and women overseas everyday risking their lives to protect our country.  It's easy to forget that these men and women have spouses at home that do all that they can to make that void feel small for their children.  It's easy to forget that these men and women have children who change so much in a year and are totally different kids when they return.  And even though we can't make it up to them, I hope that yesterday helped show one family how appreciative we are of that sacrifice.  I cannot imagine being away from my husband for an entire year and being home by myself with the kids, but here in Small Town, Illinois, I know that I would be taken good care of, just as Chelsea was.  America should take notes.

I won't do a good enough job trying to describe the fanfare, so I won't try.  Chelsea wrote a great recap on Facebook, but I'm not sure that you could access it, so I'll leave that for her friends and family to enjoy... it's her story to tell anyway.  But if you'd like to see more pictures and read more about the festivities, you can check out these articles and photos here and here.

Today was the first time in a very long time that my heart really swelled with pride for America.  I grew up as an Army kid, so my patriotism runs deep, but we take it for granted all too often.  Even more than that, I'm truly proud that I can call this family my friends.  And most importantly, I'm really happy that this daddy is back where he belongs- at home with all five of his girls.  Welcome home, Joe!  You were truly missed!

Home

I have to admit, when Josh and I got married, we hit the jackpot in terms of our first home.  While most couples spend the first season of their marriage in a tiny apartment or condo, our first years of husband and wife have been spent in a beautiful, and very large, Victorian house... complete with the picket fence.  Upon first seeing it we both fell in love.  Josh has even called it his dream home on more than one occasion and I could honestly be happy staying in that house forever.  But alas, it is now adorned with a For Sale sign in the front yard.

This past week we spent about two solid days looking for a new house here in Lexington.  We knew the area we wanted to live in, had our "wish list" of criteria, and moved very quickly in order to find something that would be available for us starting in August.  Rental houses in this area, particularly in the neighborhood where we want to live, go quickly, so we knew that if we found anything we liked, we would need to act fast.  We were this close to settling on a house that would certainly be comfortable for us, but still not everything that we needed it to be, when one more ad caught my eye.  We were on our way to drop off our rental application on the first home when we swung in and toured what will be our new home for at least the next year... if not longer.  Again, it's more than we could have ever imagined and is perfect for our needs.  We feel blessed.

As we were debating the pros and cons of the houses we toured, it occurred to me that at this stage of my life, I could be happy anywhere.  Sure, space is nice to have and we would love it if the kids could have their own rooms, which as it turns out they will.  A fenced-in yard is ideal and room for a home-office is important, but if we had to do without either one, we would survive.  As I compared the options, I was just struck by how at this point in my life, my home is wherever Josh and Jake are... and that's why those first shoebox-apartment days for many married couples work out just fine.  As long as I have them under one roof, whether that roof be big or small, all is good in the world.  Sure, I'll miss our big Victorian, but as we transition here it is feeling like much less of a home and much more like a house.  And if anyone would like to buy it feel free... haha!  But seriously.

To that point, I would be lying if I told you that we don't have our concerns about having a mortgage, rent, and two sets of bills.  My maternity leave is right around the corner and it's a lot to prepare and plan for.  We have been saving for this situation for months, but as the start date on our lease draws closer, the reality of our situation becomes more and more apparent.  I am typically someone who worries about money, and was particularly bad about it when we got married.  I've always been used to having somewhat of a "reserve" saved up and do not like to see it dip below a certain amount.  With all this being said, I have been truly amazed at what God has been able to do in this area.  He truly started working on me as I became a diligent tither, and time and time again, He has provided and honored our giving.  Our prayers are still for our house to sell, but even though that hasn't happened, He has continued to bless me with a great peace about this move.  I expected to be a total and complete stress-ball right now, and instead I am nothing but excited about the move, our new home, and most importantly, the new work we are doing here.  While we did not see a large number of people come to our first meeting, the right people certainly showed up and have the passion and connections that we needed them to have... God definitely provided once again (as He always does) and things are moving in the right direction.  It seems like the more we continue to diligently and joyfully give, and the more we step out in faith, the more peace I have filling my soul.  I know I should not be surprised by this, as it is what His word says, but His love never fails to amaze me.  We are feeling tremendously blessed.

We're heading back to Illinois next week to pack up our first home and prepare for the move to our second.  So come August first we will be going from this:

To this:

Truck not included  :)

We're giving up a bedroom (as if we needed them all in the first place!) and quite a bit of square footage, but we are gaining more closet space than I could have ever dreamed of... Josh and I will actually be able to share one and have room to spare!  We have quite a bit of painting to do as every wall in the house is white (and Kim does not do white!), but it is nice to have a blank canvas which gives me the opportunity to pick out all of the colors.  We'll be paying for that upgrade, even though we're just renting, because my hubby knows how important the "cozy factor" is to me.  I am one lucky woman.

It will be bittersweet to pack up our things and leave a house, town, and friends that we have grown to love, but as the details of what we're moving toward continue to unfold, I am so very excited to be home again... in Kentucky.

 ³ Trust in the LORD and do good;
   dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
⁴ Take delight in the LORD,
   and he will give you the desires of your heart.

{Psalm 37:3-4}

Phhhttttt.....

Um... yeah.  That's what my brain feels like these days... total and complete mush.  What does church planting entail you may wonder?  Well I can tell you from these past few weeks that it's a whole lot of little things that will eventually culminate into one big thing, for one big cause.  And it will make these little things worthwhile.  The reason that my brain feels like mush is that all these little things?  Yeah, they all happen at the same time.  Multitasking has taken on a whole new meaning as I feel like I'm constantly doing about eight different things at a time.  So here's the latest updates about our journey:

• Our first informational meeting is on Monday night in the Paris, KY community.  To say we're excited, anxious, and full of anticipation would be an understatement.  A few weeks ago we created and mailed out about 225 six-page newsletters introducing ourselves, outlining the vision a bit, and inviting folks to join us.  Yesterday we hit them up again with reminder post-cards.  Mind you, the first mailer entailed the creation, proof reading, printing, and hand-writing the addresses on them.  The second one was much easier to create and we printed them at home, but we wrote personalized messages as well as hand-written addresses on each and every one.  I felt like we were doing wedding invitations or thank-you cards all over again.  We both feel like a personal invite will go a long way in getting people to join us, and we wanted folks to understand that we care about each and every one of them.  We prayed over ever family as we worked and I truly hope that we get to put a lot of faces to names next week.
• Getting organized has been a challenge thus far.  We're living at my sister and brother-in-law's house, which has been a huge blessing by the way and we're so very grateful, but with no dedicated office space, it's a bit tough to keep up with everything.  My sister did upgrade her filing cabinet recently, so I took her old one and have set up shop in the guest room where we're staying.  Slowly but surely we're getting there and my next big task is to learn how to use the budget software and reconcile what has been given with what has been sent.  I'm a geek and love that sort of thing, so I'm actually looking forward to that project.
• We're still trying to get our website off the ground, and unfortunately, the process has been slowed down mostly by the company that is designing it.  It's been a bit frustrating, but we're updating the pages that we can as we can get to them and the "fancy parts" will hopefully be up soon.  Ideally we would love to have it looking great before our Monday night gathering.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but add that in to working full-time, raising a son, finding a place to live, and making connections with people we meet here (which Josh is doing a far better job than I am!) and it adds up to quite a bit.  Not to mention that there is never a dull or quiet moment in a house where nine (yes nine... my parents have been in town for a couple of weeks, too) people are staying and you can't even really hear yourself think.  

The only real hang-up we've had so far is that we really haven't had a whole lot of quiet time for devotions, reading, or prayer.  These are probably the things that we should be most focused on, as we're taking a huge leap of faith to even start this journey, but finding five minutes of peace and quiet is not something that happens a whole lot.  And when I do find it, I just want to close my eyes and bask in the silence... it's such a beautiful thing.  I still talk to God quite a bit, but I know that He would probably have a whole lot more to say back if I just made the time to listen and let Him.  The void gets bigger everyday and so it's something that even just tonight we talked about changing.  We're both better people, spouses, parents, friends, and pastors when we carve out that time.

Just like the title, I feel like this has been a very blah post, and so for that I apologize.  I've also somewhat neglected my little blog for no better reason than a lack of time and energy.... well, that and not really knowing what to post about or where to begin.  People ask all the time how it's going or what we've been up to and it's difficult to even put into words, which is crazy since I rarely run out of things to say.  Maybe one day I'll be able to sort through it all and put it into a recap of the entire adventure, but sometimes when you're in the thick of it, it's hard to see the forest through the trees.  There are just so many things that you just don't learn from reading books on church planting- truly living it out is a completely different and unique experience.  What I can say, however, is that we're still enjoying everyday, still learning a lot, and still feel like we're exactly where God has called us to be.  I know my husband feels like he's not doing enough, but I have never been more proud of him.  He's been a great leader thus far, he's working his tail off, and he is so very encouraging.  There is not even a glimmer of doubt as to whether this was the right move for us, and we have not even seen any fruit yet!  But everyday I remind myself that Jesus taught that He is the vine and we are the branches.  With this in mind, I also remind myself that branches don't have fruit on them all year round... there are seasons of growth and preparation for the harvest and that is where we sit.  Even though the grapes have not shown up on those branches yet, a farmer must do all that he can to prepare, grow, and foster that plant for a harvest.  Grape season is coming and we're praying for a harvest that is bigger than we could have imagined... and when that time comes, we will be ready.  One baby step at a time.

Somebody Stop Me...

My name is Kim... and I am in full-blown, OCD, crazed nesting mode.

I do remember this happening to some extent when I was pregnant with Jake, but this time around it has taken on a whole new level of crazy!  Take today for example... let's see... today (aside from working from home and taking care of Jake) I cleaned all of the kitchen appliances and then wiped down the washer and drier which reside in our creepy basement.  Our front porch also got a nice little sweeping and clearing of some cobwebs and then I added "deck paint" to my shopping list so that I can do a fresh coat on the railings tomorrow.  Speaking of paint, there has been a patched portion of a wall upstairs that has been driving me nuts for some time, so today I finally sanded it down and put a coat of paint over it.  Hmmm... what else?  Oh yeah, I started cleaning all of the downstairs windows, but that is still a work in progress.  I can thank my friend Chelsea for that since she mentioned that she likes nothing more than sparkling windows.  Until that comment I had probably never noticed dirty windows.  Thanks, friend... now that's all I can see!  Then I decided to Murphy Oil our kitchen cabinets.  But why stop there?  If you have ever been to this old house or have seen pictures, you would know that it is covered in wood.  IN. EVERY. ROOM.  We're talking window frames, baseboards, cabinetry, and intricate woodwork in every doorway.  So yeah, what did I do?  I oiled all of it!  My back may not forgive me for that one.  But now that I had shiny wood, shouldn't I have floors to match?  Which brings me to ten o'clock at night when I started sweeping and mopping the floors.  Can we say psycho?  Someone just needs to tell me to go to bed already!

I guess the good news is that if our house shows again any time soon, it should sparkle like the Emerald City.  Part of me wondered if this behavior was due to the helpless feeling that comes when your house is on the market, but then I look back at the past three weeks when I haven't been at my own home and really do blame it on the nesting.  My sister, Angie, is a bit overwhelmed at the level of psycho-organization that has been going on with me as her houseguest.  Our big project was cleaning out the playroom, painting it, and organizing the closet, but the rest of her house is getting small changes as well.  I even dusted the other day!  When is the last time I dusted?  And it wasn't even my own house?I   just hope that this is not a reflection of my sweet baby Lilly's personality.  I am a mom who appreciates tidiness, but I don't think I need to give birth to Monica Gellar.  One in our household is enough.

Other than that, I guess I haven't given a bump update in awhile, so while I'm thinking about it, here are my confessions from 26 weeks:

• Nesting is my middle name.  I guess you've gathered that by now.
• I am not proud to say that I have gained almost as much weight as I did in my total pregnancy with Jake.  There have been three occasions now when someone finds out I'm due in September (and I fail to tell them that it's actually late September... or October 2nd if you want to get all technical) and they gasp in shock.  Two of them actually told me that they thought I was due in the next few weeks.
• Based on the above, I am trying to walk more and eat less crap.  When you're moving though and temporarily living in a household with two growing boys, it's impossible to get away from it.
• Speaking of food, I do crave fruit a lot and am loving Mexican food this time around, which is funny since I despised it with Jake!  I'm also liking popsicles and thankfully Minute Maid makes them without sticks.  Random fact #264 about Kim: she hates food on wooden sticks.  Just the thought of it makes my teeth hurt.  But my biggest (and worst) craving?  Coke.  Oh yes, there is nothing like a Coke, especially one from a fountain and a bonus if it's of the cherry variety.  I try to stay away but it calls to me.  Ready or not, Lilly might just be a ten-pounder!
• Overall I feel really good.  Lifting and carrying Jake around is getting a bit tiring, but it's probably because our little beefcake is a whopping 27 pounds and 11 ounces!  He had an appointment the other day and I was quite impressed with that stat!  He's in such a lovey phase though, so I take advantage of the cuddles.  He doesn't seem to mind the belly much but has recently discovered and taken an interest in my belly button.  He will lift my shirt, poke it, and then cover it up again.  It's pretty funny.
• My biggest surprise has been that Lilly is quite a mover!  I didn't feel Jake until about 22 weeks and I felt her little bumps at around 18.  And then even crazier, I could see her move starting at about 21 weeks!  Josh saw it, too, and now several other people have seen her roll across my belly!  If you want to feel her kick you're guaranteed a show around 3:00 each afternoon and lots of movement before bedtime.  I love it, but wonder how bruised I'm going to be when she's more than just two pounds!  Ouch!

I have no belly photo to post today, but perhaps tomorrow I'll take one and add it to this post.  Nobody needs to see the mess that I am after all the cleaning I've been doing!  But for now, I'm going to take my own advice and get my booty to bed... after I fold the laundry and clean the bathroom of course.  Kidding!  Yeah, I'm not convinced either.  So belly pictures to come... goodnight for now!

Where in the world is the Mauney family?

My sincere apologies if you now have the "Carmen SanDiego" song in your head.  Oh, you didn't?  Well, now you do.  You're welcome.  I guess you probably have to be around my age to even know what that is so some of you should consider yourselves lucky that it's not going to be stuck in your head for the rest of the day.  But anyhoo...

These past few weeks have been quite a whirlwind!  My poor blog has been neglected because we have not been in the same place for more than a week at a time.  Instead of doing an in-depth recap, here's a quick update in photos of the past few weeks:

At the beginning of the month, our friends from Crossroads blessed us with a going-away shower.  It was so nice for everyone to come together to bid us farewell... or to say "see you later" as I keep telling them!  Jake spent the entire evening "playing" carpet ball with "Grampa Larry" while Josh and I spent some time with the friends that we're going to miss so dearly (and already do).

To cap off our time in Small Town, Illinois, we celebrated Josh's ordination the night before we left.  It was an awesome night and such a moving ceremony.  Because we were sitting in the front row, and because I was on stage with him during the actual ordination, I unfortunately have no pictures.  So if any of you have photos from that evening I would love to have them!  The only photo that I do have is of our family that night... and it's blurry.  In fact, until about three days ago, every picture I took came out blurry.  I think someone might have had their grubby little paws on the lens... hmmm... wonder who that could have been.  So blurry or not, here it is anyway:

So on our anniversary, June 13th, we loaded the car and drove all night to get to Kentucky.  I had to work the next day so we wanted to make sure we got there by morning.  On a sidenote, two years before we had packed the car and drove to Illinois, so it was an appropriate way to celebrate I guess.  Until we sign a lease, which will probably be for a place starting in August, we are staying at my sister's house here.  I think my nesting is earning our keep as she is probably growing tired of going room by room with me as I clean out closets.  We (or should I say mostly Josh... I helped when I could between work and watching Jake) got a lot of ground-work stuff done such as setting up new phone numbers, securing a location for our first informational meeting, and finishing up our very first mailer.  We would have loved to start some other projects but midway through the week we got the news that my Nana had passed away.  It was somewhat expected and I know when the time came she was ready to go, but it was news that we were all sad to hear.  So after being in Kentucky for less than a week, we loaded up the car again and headed north to New York.  It was a low-key weekend with the viewing and funeral on Saturday, and the rest of the weekend spent up at aunts' houses cooking out and playing corn-hole.  The best part was getting Jake back together with his cousin, Adam, and watching them run around together.

Gramma, Aunt Angie, and the boys after the funeral

Hanging at Aunt Carol's house... SO relaxing!

Family game time

The boys and Aunt Carol... their traditional photo!

Even with the nature of the trip, however, we did manage to have some fun and got away for a day to visit West Point.  It's such a special place for our family as it's where my dad went to school, where my parents met and got married, and where I was born years later.  Josh and Michael had never been and it had been years since I last visited, so it was such a neat (not to mention gorgeous!) day.  It was also father's day, which was quite appropriate as my dad got to spend it in one of his favorite places with all three of his daughters... I don't think that has happened on father's day since we were in high school!  We went to church at the West Point Cathedral, which is where my parents got married, and then walked around the campus seeing the parade fields, monuments, and breathtaking views of the Hudson.  What an incredible place!  I have tons of pictures and could do a whole post on it, but I'll just pick a few:

The West Point Cathedral

Happy Father's Day!

The place is all began... almost 40 years later

Mr. Stud Muffin

Fort Putnam.  If you look closely you'll see helicopters flying overhead. 

Like I said, it was a great day!  Both of the little ones were tuckered out and took monster naps when we got home, which was quite nice as we had a cook-out with the family and got to relax.  We had originally planned on heading out that night, but decided to take it easy and wait.  It's an 11 hour drive and Aunt Angie joined us since her family had gone back a few days before.  With all of the activity from the past few days, Jake was a total angel and slept the majority of the way home.  I'm also a big advocate of our new DVD player, which was our anniversary gift to each other!  Ha!  With all of the traveling we've been doing, we decided it would be a good investment.

So currently we're back in Lexington... for now.  Josh has been contacting friends of my sisters, working on setting up lunches and dinners so that he can do some vision-casting, which is one of the things he does best.  Jake and I are headed back to the Midwest on Friday night for a few days to work on some things at the house and visit our respective doctors.  I am in the process of trying to find a doctor here, but as you can see, it's not like I've had a lot of free time to get everything settled.  Luckily it works out that he had to be back for one anyway, so I made mine for the next day.  We will be back for about a week and then will drive back here in time to help my sister, Mindy, and her family move into their new home on the 2nd.  They have been in Florida for the past ten years and recently got a job up in Cincinnati, which is about an hour and a half north of here.  My sisters and I will all live within driving distance of each other... talk about exciting!  Our next big thing, however, is our first informational meeting on July 8th.  Tomorrow we are going to pray over and mail out about 250 newsletter invites with faith that God will give us a good turnout.  If you want to pray for us in any way, that is probably the best way you can help.  Well that, and getting our house sold.  It's only been on the market for a few weeks and we've already had three families look at it, so it has been encouraging.  I know that either way we'll be just fine, but if it would we would be in such great shape financially moving forward.  We have prepared for it just in case we have it for awhile, but I do not look forward to having a mortgage and paying rent, so we're hoping someone comes along and falls in love with it the way we did.  

But anyway, that just about wraps up the current dose of crazy around here.  But don't worry, we're doing great, getting to know the area, and are really enjoying being house-guests to a wonderful family.  It already feels like home.  So even though my posts may be sparse over these next few weeks, I will try to check-in every now and again to keep you all updated.  It's all in the life of a church planter I guess!

One Man's Junk...

With an impending move, we decided that it was time to purge some of the junk stuff from our house.  Plus, I am definitely nesting (as was evident to me after I found myself cleaning the inside of our outside garbage cans today) so the timing could not be better.  Never have I been so excited to clean out closets, dressers, and other nooks and crannies and just get rid of stuff!  Thankfully, my friend Katie is a garage sale veteran (shopping at them, not having one) so I pretty much leaned on her for tips, pricing, and expertise.  She brought her stuff over the day before and together we set up the tables and racks and priced everything in the garage.  The next morning we just pulled everything out and voila- we had a sale!  We thought it looked pretty good!

Oh, and we did have some extra help that day, too.  

Like I said, she was the expert and definitely made keeping track of who-sold-what very easy.  Whenever someone purchased something, we would take the tape off of the item and stick it to a piece of paper with our names on top of it.  At the end of the sale we tallied up the totals and gave ourselves the pay-out.  Pretty simple, yet ingenious.

Neither one of us came away all that rich, but a few wonderful things did come out of it.  For one, everything that did not sell went straight into the car and over to Goodwill.  I believe it amounted to about seven bags of clothes, dishes, etc.  But most importantly, Josh allowed me to sell his Chuck Norris poster.  We priced it for a whopping four dollars (which is pretty pricey at a garage sale) and you know what?  It was one of the first items we sold!  Like they say, one man's junk truly is the bain of another wife's existence!

A Boy and His Dog

Okay, so you may have noticed (or not) that our dear, sweet pups have not had any blog-love lately.  In fact, it seems as if they might have even gone MIA.  About a month ago, Josh and I made the tough decision to give both of our beloved pups away to good families.  Minnie Pearl was lucky enough to stay in the family and is living the good life in Georgia as a companion to Josh's dad.  Teeny, on the other hand, is now a permanent resident of the great state of Illinois and is with a family here that has a lot of land, other dogs, and room for her to RUN.  I'm not sure if you've read past posts on these animals of ours, but needless to say, Teeny had a bit of a running-away obsession problem.  Many times she would be out wandering the neighborhood only to return hours later- many times in the middle of the night.  When I was on bed-rest last year she managed to escape and I hobbled down the stairs (against doctor's orders) to let her back in when she returned later that day.  We tried an underground fence, remote-controlled shock collar, a very expensive (and labor intensive) fence, and even resorted to chaining her up and nothing seemed to work.  She really should've been named Teeny Houdini.  We've shelled out a pretty penny getting her out of the pound twice now and it the animal control officer now knows our family members by name after numerous house calls.  I love that silly animal, but unfortunately she had become quite a liability and a major source of stress that we knew we could not sustain forever.  We knew that we would have to find a place for her before we moved since we will more than likely live in a place without a fence (not that a fence makes much difference!).  I knew we had made the right decision when she disappeared for a few hours on the morning that we had planned to take her to her new home.  So thank you, Teeny, for confirming my decision that day.  I do still have a little bit of guilt (and a lot of sadness) surrounding our decision, but I know she'll be happy where she is at.  And honestly, from the moment she was out of this house, a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders.  I had no idea how much stress she was causing me as I constantly worried about whether she would get out, who (or what animal) she would encounter when she was out, and when (not if) she would be picked up and taken to the pound again.  Between that and the amazing lack of of dog hair that is now in the house, I know it was the best- if not difficult- decision for our family.  Wow, we are responsible!

Or are we???

Fast forward to only a couple of days later...

A few weeks ago, friends of ours had a dog that gave birth to a litter of labradoodle puppies.  Josh has been spending much time with this family because they want to plant a Crossroads campus in their community and he has been working with them to help make that happen.  They would always tell us that we needed to take Jake over to see the puppies before they were all gone, and we agreed that it would be fun time.  They also joked (or so we thought) that we needed to come pick our puppy out.  Considering that these pups were selling for over a thousand dollars a pop, we never took it seriously.  We finally did get out there, however, so Jake could play with the little ones, and it was so fun to watch him giggle and squeal as they clamored over to him.  There were five left (although one had been claimed) and they rolled over each other and wrestled and it was pretty darn cute to watch.  After awhile we went inside and spent some time with these friends and filled them in on our future plans as well as what would lie ahead for the future of their potential church campus.  As we were wrapping things up, she handed me a folder and said, "Here is the paperwork for your puppy."  I shot Josh a "do you think she's serious?" look and he kind of shrugged back at me.  Upon opening the folder, however, it was evident that she really meant it when she said we should take one home.  All of the puppy's papers were there along with medical records and pictures of mom and dad.  As we walked back outside, we still were not sure where this was going.

Well, it was over the moment we passed back by the pen.  After giving them a few more pats, one strayed away from the bunch and sweetly looked up at me.  Oh boy.  And then I made the mistake of picking him up.  And it was all downhill from there.  On the way home we reasoned that (A) it is one of the nicest (and most expensive) gifts we've ever been given, (B) it was okay because this breed doesn't shed, and (C) every little boy needs a dog, right?  Um yeah, it's Jake's dog.  Totally.

It has now been two weeks since we added a member to our family (after freeing ourselves of two very naughty members) and thankfully he has been an incredibly mellow pup.  Seriously... I have never met a puppy that is this calm.  He is very playful in the mornings and occasionally gets a little too wound up when Jake is running around outside, but other than that he is pretty content just laying around the house.  We even took him on an 8-hour road trip this past weekend and we hardly even knew he was in the car. I know it wasn't the smartest decision in the world, but so far so good.  So without further ado... we introduce to you our newest member of the family... Wrigley!

Seriously... who could resist that face???

Best Buddies... not sure who picked who

It's a bird, it's a plane... it's Super Pup!

As for the name, we decided that we should pick something Illinois-related since this is a little piece of this place that we're taking with us when we leave here.  And even though Josh is a Braves fan, he loved the name Wrigley as soon as it was suggested.  I'm not a Cubs fan per se, but I don't dislike them either, so it works out.  Besides, it definitely suits him.  Hopefully his antics will not be as stressful or blog-worthy in the years to come.