Call Day 2011

I haven't updated this blog since December, and we have had a couple of events in the last five months.  We've had the normal challenges with my job, Sean's classes, and the girls growing and changing.  Christmas was wonderful, Easter was a blast (Christine is a CHAMPION egg hunter by the way).  Now that Spring is here, we've had two very big events that I'll just go ahead and skip to.
The first is Call Day!  Many of you watched from you computers and witnessed the service right along with us.  Sean had to sit with the other candidates, which was really hard not to be able to hold his hand as we awaited our destination.  I sat with my two closest friends as we tried to pay attention to the hymns and sermons.  We held our breath as our friends received their calls and tried to keep track of who was going where around the country.  I celebrated with Kathleen when she learned they were going to New York - close to her family.  Finally I saw Sean stand up and sat on the edge of my seat waiting the eternity it took for him to reach the front of the line.  Finally his name was called.  Instead of hearing "pastor"  I heard "Minister at Large".  I tried to contain my panic as I asked Heidi and Kathleen what that meant.  Heidi said "it has to be a church plant."  I knew this was a possibility, and one that had me nervous because I had no idea where this church plant was in the process.  With three children - one a newborn - I had some concerns as to how I would be able to pull this off (I know - pray and let God worry!)  The service finally ended and I found Sean waiting for me outside the chapel doors.  He didn't know what Minister at large meant either.  After passing by a few friends asking that same question we didn't have an answer to we made our way to the meeting room and tore into our call documents.  Our fear subsided as we read about this brand new congregation in Skiatook Oklahoma.  By the time we finished talking to the Oklahoma district president we felt excited about our first call. 
In the couple days since Call day, we've learned some great things about our new congregation.  We are very excited to see where God leads this new church!

When we know more about dates, I will post the information about Sean's ordination and Aidan's baptism  Right now all we know is that both will be in Oklahoma!

The first real snow of the season!

Today we woke up to a beautiful blanket of white.  The girls had a great time this morning, which I'm sure will continue this afternoon after nap time.  It's been a nice little storm here.  Several of you who read this are interested in the weather, so as I write this post, below are our current conditions. 



22.8 °F
Light Snow Blowing Snow Mist

Windchill: 23 °F
Humidity: 76%
Dew Point: 16 °F
Wind: 3.0 mph from the WNW
Wind Gust: 6.0 mph

Today
Very windy. Much colder. Mostly cloudy. Blowing and drifting snow in the morning. Snow in the morning...then chance of snow in the afternoon. New snow accumulation around 1 inch. Total snow accumulation up to 2 inches. High in the lower 20s. Temperature falling into the teens in the afternoon. Northwest wind 25 to 35 mph with gusts to around 45 mph. Chance of snow 80 percent.

Tonight
Bitterly cold. Windy. Partly cloudy. Low around 6. Lowest wind chill readings of around 10 below late. Northwest wind 20 to 30 mph with gusts to around 40 mph in the evening decreasing to 15 to 20 mph with gusts to around 30 mph after midnight.


Monday
Bitterly cold. Mostly sunny. High around 19. Lowest wind chill readings of around 10 below early in the morning. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to 25 mph in the morning.

The wind gusts are fun as they blow the snow from the roofs, cars and trees, and sometimes from the ground too so we don't know if it's coming from the sky or from what already fell.  It is very cold, and a great day for Christmas movies and hot chocolate.  It's also very cool to sit in my chair looking out at the snow with our tree lit in the corner and Christmas carols playing.  I'm hoping for a snow day tomorrow.  Driving to work in the "bitter cold" does not sound fun ... but I'm not holding my breath.

Here are a couple pictures of the snow at our house.  They're also on Facebook for those of you who are on there.

She loves the snow!



Kaitlyn filled the whole bucket with snow




View from our back porch




the back




Kaitlyn making a snow angel



Our neighbor's side

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was great this year.  We were reunited with our trick or treat buddies, the Schmidts and all the kids did great.  Christine got the hang of the whole concept at our last few houses and actually pushed past Kaitlyn and Ethan to knock on the door herself.  She was so funny!

Kaitlyn was Ariel this year.  It sure helps to have a dress up bin of princess dresses to choose from!  Christine didn't care for costumes, but she loves the witch's hat Sean found at Target.  So we found a Halloween skirt and just made her look cute.  She was pretty happy.  Sean made me a jack o lantern shirt for my baby bump, which was awesome.  Sean went as his charming self :-)

Our friend Erik also dressed up.  Can you guess who he is????

The professors who know them well got a big kick out of it. 

Kaitlyn designed her own pumpkin this year.  She didn't understand when Sean asked her to draw a face.



Not so conducive to carving, but very cute smiley face.  So with a little more explanation, she tried again.  Sean drew Christine's pumpkin to mimic her front teeth, and Kaitlyn's pumpkin is on the right.

MMM Candy!



Baby McCoy #3

Today I had my 12 week appointment, and was not expecting an ultrasound - I don't think we did one with Christine since I had an 8 week one with her too.  Unfortunately Sean chose to stay home with the girls instead of joining me, so he missed it.  When we schedule the 18 to 20 week sonogram all of us will be there in the tiny little room to see if Kaitlyn is right and "Peanut" is a boy.

The head is the large circle at the bottom, and the feet are the two little dots on the top, and the spot in the middle of the feet is the umbilical cord.

Been a while!

I realized it's been a while since my last entry.  Since moving back to St Louis we've been pretty busy.  I'm working at a middle school that is considered urban.  I've never encountered this kind of lifestyle - foster families, boys and girls homes, homeless students, severe emotional disorders ... this school has it all.  It's a challenge to say the least, and many times I come home baffled and exhausted.  My prayer is that God will use me to make even the slightest difference for these students in the short time I'm there.

Shortly after the school year began, we learned that God has blessed us with another baby.  I've taken to calling the baby Peanut, and Kaitlyn is convinced the baby is a boy ... only because she already has a baby sister, so she needs a baby brother now.  We'll see if God agrees with her in another month or so.  Peanut's due date is May 10th. 

It was a difficult transition to go back to the school lifestyle.  We so enjoyed serving the church during our year of vicarage and are really looking forward to getting back in the parish.  But after a couple rough weeks of balancing his school work and web development, Sean seems to have gotten the hang of things again.  We have our placement interviews beginning next week, then we get to wait and see what happens.

The girls are both doing great.  Kaitlyn is in an in home preschool with a great teacher and really seems to love it.  The girls have a babysitter who we're all very happy with.  They get to play with another little girl and 2 baby boys all day.  Christine has adjusted well to being away from us too.   Christine is starting to use more words and is getting better at communicating.  Kaitlyn continues to figure out the world around her connecting new concepts with familiar ones.  It's really fun to have conversations with her to see how those wheels are turning.  She's also trying to grasp the concept of rhyming words - she almost has it. 

Now back to uploading all of those pictures I'm behind on ...

Back in "The Lou"

We unloaded our truck about a week and a half ago, and I have to say we're doing pretty well.  The move couldn't have gone smoother - the wonderful people of Fishers of Men in Sugar Land were absolutely amazing in their help both physically and financially.  God has blessed us through them well beyond any expectations we had a year ago.  Leaving them was just about as hard as leaving California.  I never thought we would be so loved for who we are, and how we live our lives.  I wish I had the words to express how amazing that feeling is ... but I'm just not sure I can explain it.  You'll just have to take my word for it!
Now we're back in St Louis, living on campus.  We are right next door to our very good friends the Schmidts and we've shared enough meals to joke about living in our own little commune.  Kaitlyn and Ethan (5) are figuring out how to get along, but boy are they demonstrating forgiveness!  They'll figure it out soon enough, and in the mean time they are giving us adults plenty of practice mediating.  Daniel (3) is excited to be around all the kids playing and is so much fun now and Katy (19mo) and Christine are getting along really well.  Christine has now added her to the very short list of people she will hug and kiss without being asked.  Kaitlyn is the only other one on that list.  Mommy and Daddy didn't even make the cut!  We're excited to spend lots of time with them this year.  Our other friends are scheduled to move in during the next two weeks which will provide several more little girls running around here.  It's an odd feeling - kind of going backwards - but we're going to make it a special year that we can remember as a time spent with lifelong friends who are really more like family.
I start work in one week and have two weeks of before school meetings before the students return.  I'm excited that the commute is only 5 miles, and my new boss sounds nice.  I've been so blessed with wonderful administrators, I hope the trend continues.
Christine is in a time of transition, which is exciting.  A couple days ago she decided to remove her diaper during naptime which resulted in a soaked pack n play mattress.  Unfortunately, I forgot to put a waterproof pad under the sheet although I'm not sure that would have helped much.  Since the mattress didn't dry in time for bed (I had to use the hose)  I had to put the crib mattress on the floor barricaded with Kaitlyn's bed.  The girls decided they like this arrangement.  What a blessing to have sisters that love each other so much!  So right now we're seeing how it goes to have her sleep uncontained.  I have the pack n play set up just in case Christine decides to play instead of sleep, but that's only happened once so far.  Soon we'll have to figure out a more functional set up for their room.
Well, I think that's enough rambling for now.  I'll save how brilliant I think they are for the next post :-)

Prayer Time

We pray with the girls every night before putting them to bed.  Kaitlyn's prayers range from thanking God for everything and everyone in her world by name, to the common table prayer (come Lord Jesus be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed).  Recently she's become a fan of this one sung to the tune of "Frère Jacques"
     God our Father, God our Father
     We thank You, we thank You
     For our many blessings, for our many blessings
     Amen, amen


Christine has become more and more interested in prayer time, especially now that Kaitlyn has been singing her prayers.  Tonight I said, "OK, it's prayer time" and Christine folded her little hands and sang her adorable version of the bedtime prayer.  How awesome is that???

Happy Father's Day!

Sean hasn't had a great string of Father's Days.  His first was great - he did exactly what he wanted and really enjoyed his day.  His second was the day we pulled into St Louis after a very hard 3 day drive, the third was spent working at Schnucks (the grocery store he worked at for a couple months in St Louis) the 4th was spent officiating his Mom's wedding to Steve (which was pretty cool).  So this year he finally got to do whatever he wanted! 
Our day started with church where he delivered a great sermon about the Burden of Expectations.  It was convicting and uplifting.  Then we went to a BBQ place called The Swinging Door which was highly recommended by a couple friends.  The food was fantastic, and the building and surrounding areas just felt like Texas to me.

 

Here's Sean and Christine after lunch

 and daddy with his girls

Kaitlyn was having an especially silly day today.  After I took this picture (at her request)

she and Sean had this conversation:
Sean: Kaitlyn, you're all that and a bag of chips
Kaitlyn: why you called me a bag of chips?
Sean: It means you're really cool
Kaitlyn: I'm not cool, I'm fancy

After lunch we all enjoyed nap time then Sean and Kaitlyn made some pineapple upside down cake.  

Happy Father's Day honey!  You are a wonderful father and husband.  There isn't a day that goes by I don't thank God for the gift you are to us.

And I Will Help You

Kaitlyn is in that super "helpful" independent four year old phase.  Most of the time it's great.  She's able to do so much for herself - fold clothes, sort toys, pour her own water (!!!) and more I'm sure that just aren't coming to mind right now.  One of her favorite areas to help is in the kitchen.  This is very fun when both of us are home because one parent can occupy Christine, who just wants to do everything her super cool big sister does.  Sean has been looking forward to this phase since we found out we were having a baby almost 5 years ago.  Here are some pictures of them cooking dinner together.  She loves to help.  When it's time to cook she gets her stool out of the bathroom (which is a bit of a hazard when I'm flying solo since Christine likes to climb on it with her) and is ready to cook!

Sean and Kaitlyn made German potato salad with sausage.  It was super yummy!

 

Then Kaitlyn helped by cutting Christine's pears for her dinner

Christine and I kept busy by playing with the camera and feeding her some kind of cracker.

Gadget's Garage

Friday concluded Vacation Bible School WOO HOO!  The whole McCoy family was there all week.  We had a great time, but were very glad to see the end on Friday - well, I think Kaitlyn would have liked another week but the rest of us were done!

The theme was GADGET's Garage which stands for God's Always Doing Great Exciting Things.  The mascot was a robot which Sean did - and was awesome.Watch his amazing robot moves from day 1 here.  I worked with another woman who is an elementary teacher as a preschool group leader.  I'm really glad she was there - after working with teenagers for so long, I was WAY out of my element with the little ones.  I also realized that Kaitlyn is far more focused than the average 4 year old boy.  Christine spent the week with her favorite nursery babysitter, Mynda.  But by Wednesday she was over it and wanted Mommy again.  I've never left her for two days in a row let alone a whole week.  It was an adjustment for both of us, but we got through it.  I'm thinking of it as a dress rehearsal for August.  At the end of the final day's program we were able to sneak in a family picture.  Despite the great efforts of others around, Christine just couldn't take her eyes off of Gizmo - possibly because she kept hearing her Daddy's voice coming from it.

This and that

Things are getting pretty crazy around here.  We have VBS this week - and we're all there - and we're moving in a month!  YIKES!  But I thought it may be a good time to take a minute and share the little quirks of my daughters with you :-)

Kaitlyn is really enjoying her imagination.  She likes to tell us stories about her pretend kids (lockbock, sida and noway are the regulars, though she reportedly has 10) who make her "so frustrated because they did not listen"  hmmm, I wonder where she got that idea???  It seems 4 year old ears don't work as well as 3 year old ears :-)  She seems to be handling the impending move well.  We've been talking about her friends back in St Louis and the new preschool she will go to next year.  She's just now starting to realize that her TX friends will miss her, and she will miss them.  It's going to be a hard transition, but I think she'll be fine once she sees some of her old friends again.

Christine is part monkey.  Her personality is exploding, and she is just so much fun.  She's learning that words have meaning, and knows cup, diaper, poo poo, more, all done and up really well.  She adores Kaitlyn and follows her around, and mimics her every move.  Christine isn't interested in cuddling, but likes to hug our legs and kiss our pants - especially if she has a messy mouth and Sean is wearing light colored shorts.  She'll dance to anything with a beat, or anything Kaitlyn is dancing to.  She also likes dogs - a lot.  Currently everything with four legs says, "oof oof". 

For the next month we're packing, spending as much time with our TX friends as we can, and planning for next year.  Please keep us in your prayers for stamina, patience and a safe drive back home!

 

San Antonio!

A couple weeks ago we took our trip to San Antonio.  We decided we wanted to take the girls to Sea World, so we asked for gift cards to the park for Christmas.  It worked out great!  Thanks to the grandparents we were able to take a little vacation and the girls had a blast!

Our first stop was the Alamo and River Walk.  Unfortunately, the memory card in the camera lost it's little lock button, and was stuck on lock.  So we had to buy a disposable camera, and the couple pictures we took are still on the unfinished roll yet to be developed.  The Alamo was pretty cool!  It was very interesting how this old mission looking building is smack in the middle of down town.  Growing up in So Cal, we're used to seeing missions on hill tops and wide open spaces so this was a little different.  After the Alamo, we figured out how to go down to the river walk.  We decided it wasn't stroller friendly, and being tired and so hot we headed out for our hotel.  After settling in, we headed out to find some dinner.  We eventually settled on Pizza Hut and had a nice little meal then stopped by Conn's to get a new memory card.  I guess the bottom line of that is we were spending time together, and that's what matters :-)

The next morning we prepared to go to Sea World!  Kaitlyn was so excited to see Shamu.  She'd been talking about Shamu for months!

 

We played some games, and Kaitlyn won a few prizes.  The duck is all for you Grandpa Bob!  It has a skull on it, says "Bad Duck" and she made the "crazy Grandpa Bob face" for the picture.

 

It wasn't very crowded, so Christine had some time to walk around 

The Shamu show was definitely the highlight of the day.  Christine saw the whales come out of the water and said "ooo ooo" while she pointed 
 

Kaitlyn was in awe of the whales and was so excited to see them. 

 At the end of the day, we tried for a picture with the Shamu character.  Christine did fine ... but wasn't so sure about it 

 We really had an amazing time.  It was so great to get away on a real family vacation!  Thank you!

Being a Selfish Giver

Giving is something I've been struggling with lately.  We've been showered with generosity from family and friends with our birthday season, and now that we're preparing to move I feel like we're just asking for more.  I want to give back.  I want to give these people something equal to what they have given me; but I can't.  I don't have the resources to pour the generosity back on all of the people who have given to us.  I feel like I just take and take and take and have felt very uncomfortable about it. 
Today in my bible study, we discussed being selfish and generous in friendships.  It wasn't anything earth shattering.  It's not a foreign concept to understand that in any relationship there is give and take - one person should not be the giver all of the time.  And I feel like I do what I am able to most of the time.  But I never feel like I do enough.
The first passage that gnawed on me was James 3:17. 
      But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
OK, makes sense.  Hmm submissive...

The next one was Philippians 2:3
     Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Humility ... selfish ambition ... God what are you trying to tell me?  Why are these words popping off of the page?

And then it all made sense.  I was trying to be a selfish giver.  I wanted to give what I thought was good enough, what I thought was the right thing.... but giving is about submitting to the person's needs, practicing humility - it's not about how I feel about giving - it's what God does with my gift so that person is blessed.  It's about the giftee, not the gifter.  Then I realized that we give the best my house has to offer: Sean.  We give Sean's time, talent and treasures to the congregation.  I make sure he is taken care of at home so he can care for the members of the congregation.  Something as simple as clean socks ensures he is ready.  Being available for him to talk through his sermon ideas with me - and giving him my full attention to do so.  Making sure the girls are tended to so that he has a quiet space and time to write.  I don't complain about the time he spends at church even though I wish he didn't have to go to the meetings at night.  Being prepared and willing to walk into a house that is not baby proof with a very busy Christine so that he can be in fellowship.

Today the women in my bible study (thank you Emily and Rachelle) helped me realize that the people want to give to us, and welcome us into their homes.  Each time we break bread with someone we learn from them, and Sean is able to leave them with something too.  It's reciprocal - not the reciprocity I expected, or planned on - but it's not about me.  It's about them.  As Mary Beth McNamara (Our supervising pastor's wife) told me back in August - my ministry is to my husband.  If I take care of him, he can take care of them.  That's a pretty awesome job God has given me, and I thank Him for that!

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

After what seemed like an eternity for her, Kaitlyn's birthday finally arrived - and she had a great time.  Her birthday was Tuesday, April 13th which is a preschool day.  So we all went to preschool chapel time and then followed her class back to their room for cupcakes.

Then we were off to the birthday girls favorite place - Chuck E Cheese.

We all crashed pretty hard after that day.

On Saturday the 17th Kaitlyn had her princess party.  We had six party guests in our little house and it was full.  Unfortunately it rained the night before so everything was muddy outside, so we were stuck in.  A friend of mine who's daughter was at the party let us borrow some of their costumes.  The girls had a great time dressing up as different princesses.  They also decorated crowns and played some board games, and just kind of ran the house for 2 hours. 

We saw a cake at the local grocery store bakery that was a princess castle.  Instead of paying $50, we decided to pay $13 and try to make it ourselves.  We borrowed some supplies from a friend, I made the cake and Sean made it a castle.  It was one of the most frustrating things he's ever done, and we had to leave him alone and go upstairs so he could finish his creation in peace.  I think he did a phenomenal job!

Happy birthday my big 4 year old!

Happy Birthday Christine!

Celebrations are officially over for Christine's birthday.  We all had a great time celebrating what a blessing she's been to our family since we knew she was there.  On her birthday which was Friday, we had lunch with a family who has kids the same age as ours.  It was a great time for everyone.  We finished the day with a special cupcake decorated with a big sunshine just for Christine.

She was very excited to

eat her cake!

MMMM Yummy!

On Sunday, we had a party for her at a place called The Incredible Pizza Company which is pretty much Chuck E Cheese meets pizza buffet.  A good time was had by all.  I learned that the no gifts rule does not apply to Texans.  Each person brought her something :-)

The birthday princess dined on hotdogs, nilla wafers, cheese and pizza crust - all her favorites!

Time to Play!

She grabbed a hand and was off!  She hasn't decided to walk more than a couple steps on her own yet, but she loves to walk around as long as someone is holding a hand or two.

Christine loves going down the slide!

Cake Time!

OOO what's this?

Want some cake Daddy?

Look what I have!

Her party guests!

We all had a great time, and crashed when we got home - it was a great day!