Sunday, October 28, 2012

It's gettin cold out there!

Stepping outside and being able to see your breath is just another reminder that fall is rapidly turning into winter here in Northern MN. I can't help but be excited for Christmas time and yes even be excited for snow... I am excited and nervous for what God has in store for us this year! This time of year really makes me want to stay in my warm house and cuddle up with my honey, and oh yes bake yummy things that make our house smell oh so good! Currently it smells like banana bread... mmmm can't wait for a bit of it!! 

This week flew by as usual and I can not believe that it is almost November! That means almost time for the big turkey dinner, and my love's birthday, I guess you could say that November is my second favorite month of the year! This year JC and I decided that we will be spending Thanksgiving here with the two of us and the pups, which makes me sad that we will not be with family. JC is excited to have the day just to ourselves, we will have to see how he does with the turkey... because we all know I would never be confident enough to take that on myself haha! 

This week is busy, but not as busy as last week which will be nice for a little break since JC is still trying to recover from his cold he got earlier this week! We are doing trunk or treat at the church for Halloween on Wednesday and we are decorating our car as the bat mobile and I believe we are bringing Zeke as our Bat Dog! I hope you all have a great week and stay warm!! 

XOXO Bee

JC's office door covered in notes from students
for pastor appreciation month! 

A sweet notes one of the students left for me
absolutely made my day! 

One of our new favorite snacks at night... NEVER
too old for chocolate milk! 

Zeke was very cuddly with daddy this week,
I think he knew he wasn't feeling good! 

My favorite puppy girl! 

Us after the fall carnival we did with the teens yesterday! 
My birthday gift from Vera Bradley, they sent me a
gift card so I only had to pay shipping on my
computer case and address book!
Love getting deals like this!! 



Yummy Pumpkin cupcake with maple frosting! 

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Let Go & Let God...


It's Sunday night and I am home alone with the pups while JC is at church for worship practice and riot. This week has gone by super fast as always, and I am still recuperating from the weekend retreat with the teens! Looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow with my love! 

The retreat with the teens was a lot of fun and I am thankful and glad that I was able to get to know some of them better! I always find it interesting to learn about these teens and where they come from and what their family life is like. I pray and hope that they feel comfortable with me and are willing to share their lives with me. Bluewater Bible Camp is a beautiful place and I really enjoyed visiting there, it was filled with time of playing games, being in silence with God, and being in worship! 

The word Mercy was really on my heart this weekend, and I'm excited to dig into the meaning of that word this week.Today at church something that stood out to me was the saying "Let Go & Let God" I have heard this saying many times in my life, but it truly applies to our life right now with trusting God with our future with JC's job. It is hard to give complete control and fully trust God with our lives, but I truly believe that when we do this in our lives we are able to fully experience God's plan for our life. As time goes on we are just praying that God makes our options obvious and that we are both able to be open to what he has in store.

This week is another full week of; Sunday school training, small group, a spaghetti dinner/ planning a fall festival, youth group, release time, and hopefully time to relax and be with each other! May your week be full of blessings!! 

XOXO Bee





Truth


Beautiful Bluewater Bible Camp! 

Fun playing Apples to Apples!

Yup we love each other! 
The whole group! 



Monday, October 15, 2012

Mondays

Most people hate Mondays because it marks the beginning of the work week, well in the Barber household it marks a day off to spend together. See when you are married to a pastor, you as a family don't really get weekends off because that is when a pastor does most of his work! Now in general I think a pastor is always on call, to be there for the people in the congregation. For example JC praying in the ER waiting room for a family in the church only a couple of days after we lost Maggie Grace and while we were still in the hospital! 

Any way off my little tangent there... Mondays are days that I always look forward to because we sleep in, spend the entire day together un interrupted (most of the time) by work stuff. Monday is that day that we take to recoup from the week and plan our up coming week... and man is this week busy; we have a staff lunch tomorrow and small group tomorrow night, Wednesday I have release time in the morning, We are doing teens (for the first half) at the football game and then having teens go until about 11pm. On Thursday we pack up the fifteen passenger van and head to Blue Water Bible Camp for the fall retreat! I am excited to go to Blue Water because I have never been and I have only heard good things about it and how beautiful it is! Needless to say when we get back from the retreat on Saturday we will need to recuperate, and we will both be looking forward to Monday!! 

Today's mission is to relax,spend quality time together & I need to figure out what I am going to bake for small group tomorrow night!! I hope you all have a blessed Monday! 

P.S. I apologize for all the pics of our pups, but they're our kids... so until we have a baby to take tons of pictures of they are what I have to take pics of!! :) 

XOXO Bee

Beautiful Daisies ( my favorite flowers) My hubby bought me! 

Some yummy treats we picked up at Trader Joe's!! 

My sweet little puppy girl on the drive home on Saturday! 

We bought Zeke a new rope toy and now they are
constantly playing tug a war! 

Zeke in his happy place with his rope toy in mouth &
looking out the window! 



Friday, October 12, 2012

An Overwhelming Sense...

Well JC and I arrived at Dad & Mary's house yesterday afternoon and I have to say this has been one of the most relaxing trips home I think I have ever had! JC had a meeting yesterday near here for the fall retreat next weekend, so that is what originally brought us down here and we decided to extend the trip a little bit to spend some time with the family! We slept in today, took our time getting ready this morning, had lunch at Noodles & Company ( My favorite!) and ran some errands! And tonight Brad, Whitney & the boys came over for dinner, I have felt very blessed and thankful for this time with family. 

Coming home for visits has changed quite a bit since Mom has passed away, and I must say that I really miss coming home to my Mom. There are just certain things that I miss; like her hugs, the sound of her voice, the smell of her perfume, the smell of her apple crisp... in general I just miss her. Coming home just makes it that much more evident of how much I miss her, she was such a special lady and I miss her dearly. 

With that being said I have been thinking lately at how I just have an overwhelming sense of peace about Mom & our Maggie Grace being in Heaven together and it just brings a smile to my face. Just knowing that they are in a truly better place, not dealing with physical pain, emotional pain, losing loved ones, dealing with the hurts of life here on Earth. I am so thankful to know that our loving God has promised us with everlasting life and seeing our loved ones again in Heaven! It makes my heart so happy to know that our Maggie Grace is in Heaven with her Grandma Honey enjoying all of God's glory! 

JC and I continue to rely on God with what our future holds, but it is difficult not knowing where we will be in two months from now. I just continue to pray that God will make it evident to us on where he wants us to be, JC has one other church he is looking at besides International Falls. We would love to stay in the Falls but we know that nothing is guaranteed, so we are trying to keep our options open. Right now it is hard having everything up in the air and just not knowing, but that is what faith is all about... 

Now Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

I have been holding dear to this scripture the last few weeks, because it certainly fits the way I think both JC and I have been feeling lately! 

Well we head back home tomorrow morning, and Thursday we leave for the fall retreat with the teens... October is already flying by way too fast! I am really trying to savor every moment and enjoy my time with JC and my family, life is too short not to savor every moment isn't it?! I hope you have a great rest of your weekend! 

XOXO Bee


Taking time to be Thankful.

I had a pie making class on Tuesday and made
my first totally from scratch apple pie! 

Driving yesterday we ran into this strange white stuff! 

JC in his Happy place... playing guitars at
Guitar Center! 

The seasons are changing way too fast for my liking! 

Got to spend time with Will! Love this kid!! 



Sunday, October 7, 2012

Thankful.

What a great week I have had filled with; visitors, a trip, my Birthday, feeling loved, and most of all being thankful for my life! Tuesday was a great day of baking and starting our small group at church, Wednesday I had release time in the morning a lunch date and youth group that night. Thursday JC and I headed to Bemidji (a town two hours away) for a day to celebrate my Birthday & to visit one of the students going to school there, we ran into a snow storm on our way there! It was fun and nice to have time away from the falls for just JC and I to spend time together, our time in the car was filled with conversation on what our future may hold. We are in the middle of another transition point in our life where we just don't know where God will place us, all we can do is pray about it and know that God will provide for us and place us just where we need to be! Friday Shannon and the four kids got here to stay for a couple of days, it was wonderful to have them here with us for awhile and to get my fill of hugs and kisses from the kids! This weekend has flown by and I was thankful to be able to take a nap when I got home from church, and was able to sit down with a yummy mug of hot chocolate and reflect of this past week.

Last Friday I received a phone call from my Dad telling me that my cousin Ben's (who lives in Alaska) wife Bethany had passed away from a seizure, she was only 22 years old and was holding her 3 week old baby girl coralie when she passed away. BAM! This news hit me like a brick and I was so sad (still am) about this horrible news. Ben has been on my mind every day since I received this news, I know what it is like to lose a child, and to lose my Mom but I have no idea what it is like to lose your partner in life and the love of your life. All I can do is pray for a peace that surpasses all understanding for Ben and pray for baby Coralie and know that God had/has a purpose for this part of their story even though we may never know what that purpose is in this life time. 

Hearing about this tragic event left me feeling very thankful for my life and my time here on earth, and it makes me that much more thankful for the beginning of my 27th year of life! Makes me thankful for my family and friends who love me and being able to share in life with them through tragedy and triumph! I am praying for more triumph and joy this coming year because to be honest I need a little (or loooong) break from the tragedy part. When you hear about tragedy in other people's lives it truly makes you thankful for your life and makes you think twice about the blessings in your own life.

This week promises to be another busy one with a pie making class on Tuesday, Release time/ youth group on Wednesday & a quick trip down to the cities to see Daddy and Mary. I hope you all have a blessed week! 

XOXO Bee


Beautiful Fall day on Monday! 

Peanut Butter M&M cookie dough
cupcake! 

Excited for our road trip... I know we're dorks! 

Wearing a cute hat from one of the teens! 

And then we ran into snow...


Feeling the Birthday love!
Made these for a baby shower... Feeling pretty crafty
these days! 

Me and my big boy Zeke

My favorite little girl! 

Just love her! 

Clay William... I love little feet & toes! 

Pretty little girl in her cupcake pajamas! 

Clay loving on Zoey

She was cuddling with me! Best feeling ever!!

I love being an auntie! 

Craft time! Painting little pumpkins!

Good job Ryleigh! 

Nothing beats a yummy cup of Hot chocolate! 



Monday, October 1, 2012

Hello October!

Well hello October, you are a month that I love and look forward to all year long. I wait for you with anticipation for your pumpkin spice lattes, fall colors, cool fall weather, and my birthday!! Here are somethings that I am looking forward to this month...

1.) My Birthday
2.) Getting a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks
3.) Going to Bemidji for a day trip with my hubby for my Birthday
4.) Having Shannon and the kids visit!
5.) Going to visit daddy & Mary
6.) Going for fall hikes with my love and our pups! 
7.) The smells of fall/ baking apple crisp!
8.) Painting/ carving pumpkins for Halloween
9.) Doing Trunk or Treat at church for Halloween
10.) Starting our own small group

*Hoping and praying for a baby soon! 

Absolutely loving the weather and this season! Trying to soak up the great weather before it quickly fades into the negatives! This week is busy with JC's friend visiting until Tuesday and then Shannon and the kids come on Friday and we are also starting our small group on Tuesday night, I have release time Wednesday morning and youth group that night along with a lunch date (and it's my birthday!) so this week is going to fly by! I am hoping that we can fit in our day trip to Bemidji on Thursday and do a little shopping while we are there! Here are a few fun pics I have taken lately! Blessings on your week!

XOXO Bee


Yellow Leaves!



Just Me

Zeke cuddling with me on the couch

My pretty Zoey girl with the Fall colors!

Zekey boy!

Beautiful Fall colors!