Confirmation

The Marriage Retreat for which we've planned over the course of the past year is finished!  It's hard to believe that we actually did it, and that God blessed the time in such a powerful way.  We will be posting the talks to Tim's website after some editing - I'll share the link when they're done.

My favorite memory from arriving at home was pulling into our driveway.  My mom stood with Stella in her arms at the front door of our house.  Stella watched our car drive up and as she saw us get out she pressed her chubby, little hands against the glass and kicked her feet in excitement.  She practically jumped into Tim's arms the moment he walked up the steps, and then when she saw me she did the same.  I can't describe the look in her eyes; if I had to put words to it, she was saying something like, "I KNEW you guys would come back for me, I'm SO GLAD you guys came back for me!"

What a blessing to have had this weekend away.  It strengthened our marriage, was a time of ministry to other people's marriages, and it confirmed that I'm doing just what I always wanted to do in life - to be a wife to Tim and a mother to our precious daughter.

Thank you, mom, for taking such wonderful care of Birdy.  We felt complete freedom to devote ourselves to serving this weekend, mainly because we knew that Stella was in such capable and loving hands.

View From Our Room

The retreat is going great, thanks be to God.  Here is the view from our hotel room...pretty nice!

Makes me think of this:

Crazy Week

Tim, reflecting on our crazy week.

Here we are at the Marriage Retreat...the first night went GREAT.  We are so blessed to be here and to have some time to reconnect - just the two of us.  A huge thank you to my mom, who is watching Stella for our first weekend away since she was born.  I thought I'd briefly share a few things that happened to us in the week preceding this retreat:

• Sunday:  We downloaded ThinkPoint (a virus scan, which BY THE WAY EVERYONE is fake) on to our computer by accident, thus having to cancel both our credit cards in the process.
• Monday:  We began the process of planning for our talks during Stella's naps - Stella decided to change her nap schedule all week from one hour to twenty minutes a pop...making it quite difficult to prep.
• Tuesday:  Went out to my car to go to the gym in the morning and my car was dead...back to the shop.
• Wednesday:  Tim had a lousy night at work and came home feeling discouraged.
• Thursday:  Carla agreed to help out by babysitting Stella in the AM so we could run through the talks. Tim and I go out to practice, and when we tried to start his car (after only about twenty minutes) HIS car wouldn't start...totally de-railing our prep time.  Oh, and if you read my last post, you know that this is also the day I locked Stella inside the car at Target.  Score.

Long story short, the week was really lousy; however, God is showing up in a BIG way after just one night here at the retreat.  The testimonies, the worship, the talk, and all the pieces are coming together beautifully.  We are thankful to serve a God who is way bigger and stronger than the enemy.  Yay God!

Pictures of the lake view from our room tomorrow!

Today I Locked Stella In The Car

It was a bad day - and the title of this entry pretty much says it all.  Today I locked my seven month old daughter in the car.  First, let me share that Stella is 100% fine and didn't even cry (unlike her mother); in fact, through the entire episode that lasted of all of ten minutes she was smiling at me through the car window.  

I headed out to Target in the pouring rain to get a few things I needed before the weekend away.  When I arrived, I figured it would be easier to put Stella in the stroller so that she'd have some cover from the elements, but Stella had other plans and began to scream when I tried to buckle her in.  So, I placed her back in her carseat, with my keys on her lap, for what I thought would be a 30 second pause while I put the stroller back in the trunk.  However, when I shut the car door so she wouldn't get rained on, I neglected to recall that I had already locked the car from the inside!  There was my baby, precociously playing with my keys, totally unaware of the TERROR I was experiencing - while I stood in the rain, two feet away from her but on the WRONG side of the car, and realized that my purse, my cell phone, and my car keys (in her little hands) were all locked inside.  I did the only thing I could think of to do - I bolted into the store and asked the customer service rep. to call security or the police, and then I bolted outside and grabbed the first person I saw to ask them if I could use their phone to call my husband.  Thankfully, the security personnel were totally helpful and caring (they even got me an umbrella because by this time I was getting really wet) and they promptly called the local police.  While we all waited, I talked to Stella through the window and stupidly tried to coach her into pressing the "unlock" button on my key chain; she happily sucked on everything on my key ring (gross) and thankfully did not poke out her eyes or fall out of her carseat.  She was totally happy playing with something I normally don't let her get her hands on.  The policeman, who was also very kind, arrived within five more minutes...complete with sirens and lights, of course...and got the door open on Try #1.    

After all was said and done, I had a good cry in the backseat of the car while Stella watched me in a state of confusion.  Then, I mustered up the courage to go into the store so I could say "thank you" to everyone who helped and didn't judge me.  And, wouldn't you know it, I didn't even get the things for which I ventured out to Target in the first place...

...THEN, we went home, got in our PJ's, and played on the floor.

7 months

My baby is seven months old today.  Wow.

Stella is the joy of my heart.  She is full of personality, laughter, and pure fun.  She, like her mother and father, loves to eat and to try new foods.  When she's really excited about something new she swings her feet in circles like a dancer.  She has two bottom teeth and she looks like the cutest little bunny you've ever seen.  She laughs at tickles and so many other things, too.  She gets serious in public - a little shy - but when she gives a stranger a smile she really delivers.  She will be crawling any day now, I'm sure.  She loves to give me five, play peek-a-boo, and did I mention she loves to eat??  God is the source of all the good gifts I know, and it doesn't get any better than this gift he's given us in Stella.      

Get Out The Vote!

Stella, Tim, and I got out to vote this afternoon - I'll give you a few clues as to who I voted for today for Governor of NH:

She's a write in candidate, an independent, she is a free-thinker, she doesn't have the money to run negative political ads, and besides, they don't make sense to her in the first place, she was sleeping through the night consistently up until a few weeks ago, and her favorite food is shredded cheese but she can't feed herself yet...

Who is this brilliant woman of the world, you ask?

Stella Grace Carpenter for New Hampshire Governor.

Don't worry - I took my responsibility a little more seriously than that!  But look out New Hampshire, in a few more decades you just might be voting for our spit-fire, Stella...one thing is true, she has more personality in her pinkie finger than any of the candidates on the ballot today!!

Who did I really vote for today?
Only Stella knows, and she ain't talkin'...

Procrastinating

What I did today to put off working on our talks for the Marriage Retreat this coming weekend:

• Went on Facebook 1,000 times
• Checked my e-mail 1,001 times
• Wiped Stella's runny nose 1,002 times
• Tried to clip Caroline's nails, unsuccessfully
• Ate a lot of snacks
• Watched Kristen Wiig's "Don't Make Me Sing" SNL sketch a few times (over and over)
• Wrote this blog post

Okay, now we've REALLY got to work on our talks...but first, "are you sure you want to make me sing, everybody in the room?"