Wacky Week 2

Week 2 was definitely different for us. Matt resigned from his senior pastor position. It was an incredibly hard decision that wasn’t made lightly. We prayed for guidance and felt God leading us in a new direction. So we know we have no other choice but to be obedient and trust that His plan for our lives is perfect. We don’t really know what the future holds or what’s next for us. But we are excited. We would appreciate your prayers as we continue to seek God’s will for our lives.

My picture this week is a small glimpse of all of the boxes of books that used to be in Matt’s church office. Now they are stacked neatly in our guest bedroom. I already have plans to organize our storage area and soon they will all be tucked away in there. :)





Don't forget to check out the other Project posts here!

Project 52

I don’t ever take pictures. I want to be that person who has pictures of everything and has all of life chronicled, but I’m not…yet. This year one of my goals is to become better at taking pictures. I’m not going to focus on how I take pictures or how my pictures turn out. I will celebrate the simple act of taking my camera with me somewhere and documenting that act by snapping a few pics.

My main source of inspiration for this new goal is my friend Jessica. She is so good at taking pictures and documenting her family’s story. She is doing a picture taking project titled, “Project Life”. It’s this awesome kit that comes with everything you need for a complete album. Literally everything but your pictures and handwriting. Check it out here.

The goal of the project is to document life as it happens. Basically you take a picture everyday and write a little blurb about each picture. At the end of the year you have an album full of 365 pictures from your life with little reminders about why that picture was important to you that day.

I love this idea, but it’s a little overwhelming for me. So, I decided I would take a baby step first. I have committed to do “Project 52” this year. Basically it’s the same concept as the other only I am focusing on one to two pictures a week instead of one every day. This feels WAY more manageable to me right now. There is no kit, that I know of, for this so I am using an album that holds 160 pictures. I am going to cut cardstock to 4x6 and do my dates and journaling on these. I gave myself extra room so that I could use more then one picture a week if I just can’t choose one. :) My hope is that I will love it so much I will branch out and do “Project Life”, also known as Project 365, next year.

So, without further ado, here are my two pictures (I’m already going above and beyond!) from the first week in January. Also, on Jessica’s blog she is hosting Project Life Tuesdays where others who are doing the project or something similar can link up together. I will join her each Tuesday and post my picture of the week! It’s not too late to start your own!

Matt and I went on a little weekend getaway to Atlanta. One of Matt's favorite restaurants, Pappadeaux, is there. It was so fun to be able to just get away and to eat some really good food!

Running Update

I wanted to give an update on my running. I am currently in week 3 of my training program. If you are decent at addition you may wonder why I’m a little behind. The truth is, this Christmas season has been a challenge for me. It was hard to figure out when to ‘fit in’ my runs. So instead of trying to fit those in I just didn’t do them. Anyway, I am back on track!

I had been dreading Week 3 since I started. See, Week 3 Day 3 requires a 2 mile run with no walking. This was a hard for me to believe I could do from a mental stand point. And this morning, when I got on the treadmill, after walking my warm-up lap, I was flooded with excuses for not being able to finish.

First I thought: I ran last night, I shouldn’t be running again already. My legs are already hurting, there’s no way I can run 8 more laps. Then I told myself: if I make it to one mile, I can just take a quick walking break. I deserve it. I can’t finish this without a break.
I felt like the whole time I was running today I had to convince myself of all the reasons I shouldn’t quit. My legs really weren’t that tired. I wasn’t too short of breath. I didn’t need to slow my pace. I realized I just had to want to finish.

And you know what? I did it.

I ran all two of those miles at the pace I wanted to run. I know that’s not an amazing distance, but it was a challenge for me. And I did it. I’m proud of my accomplishment and I’m ready to do it again tomorrow on Day 4. This is the way I needed to end 2009. I’m not going out feeling defeated, beat up, put down, frustrated with my self, or on the heels of personal let down. I’m starting 2010 with a sense of self pride and a belief that if I want it, I can get it. I can’t think of a better way to start a new year and a new decade.

How are you going out?

A little bit of Christmas

I thought I would share some of my favorite Christmas decorations. I was inspired, yet again, by The Preacher's Wife. Enjoy!

I made these letters using plain, cardboard letters from hobby lobby, gold spray paint, scrap book paper, and the amazing Xyron machine. Here they are in the kitchen.

My husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on November 25th. He got me this beautiful nativity scene. I've loved it from afar for years and I'm so excited to have one in my own home. I'm looking forward to adding to it each year.

And here is our tree! I only have a mixture of the ornaments I've received since my very first Christmas and a few I've collected since. I have to fight the urge buy ornaments to fill it up. My mom always had a full tree and so that's what I think a tree should look like. One of these days...

Can you tell I've just started my collection of Christmas decorations? :)

Couch to AnyK

Yesterday I joined a gym. Well, actually, I went to a gym to join it and got a free 7-day pass, but my intention is to join. I had been looking for a while but couldn’t decide what my priorities in a gym really were. Since Matt and I moved to our new house (Oct. 1st) I have not been to the gym. I take that back, I have been to the gym once or twice to drop Matt off but that's it. In no way am I an avid exerciser nor do I enjoy it. But I do believe it is necessary in my life in order to ‘maintain’. This being said, I was able to generate a list of things I needed in a gym. Here they are in random order: proximity to my home, group fitness classes, cardio (treadmills), and friendly staff. I chose my gym because they have all of these things. I’m actually excited to go work out today.

I have never been an athlete or an exerciser of any kind really, but my husband is. He loves to exercise and exercising totally changes his mood. And since he loves exercising, particularly running, so much he decided to sign us up to run the half marathon to raise money for a local school. Yeah, both of us. By now you could probably guess that I do not run. Until yesterday. I started a program called Couch to 10k. It’s a training program for total beginners. It starts from the couch and 10 weeks later you’re running a 10k. I’ve looked at this program a lot and have actually had it on my iPod for a couple of years. The only problem I’ve had with the program is starting it. I’ve never even tried. Until yesterday.

Yesterday I finally completed Day One Week One. Today I will complete Day Two Week One. I finally have the motivation and a goal in sight to help make this program work for me. If you know me, or even if you don’t, please ask me if you think about it how this is going. That will give me extra motivation to keep it up.

Have you ever tried Couch to 10k or something similar? Did it work for you?

M2M Scavenger Hunt

I have recently started reading Lisa's blog, A Preacher's Wife. I love the way she encourages all of those, 'married to the ministry'. Currently she is doing this little scavenger hunt to help pastor's wives get to know each other. I thought I would join in on the fun! Check out her blog to learn more about this fun activity. Happy hunting!


1. First Name- Alyson

2. State and Country of Residence- Music City, USA (Also known as Nashville, TN)

3. Husband’s Ministry Title- Senior Pastor

4. Length of time in Current Ministry Location- Right at 1 year

5. Children? Not yet! We haven't quite been married a year.

6. Number of unique homes in which you’ve lived during your marriage. Two homes already. At this rate, I should be a moving pro in no time! :)

7. Cook Sunday lunch or eat out? Eat out! Why make Sunday any different than any other day?

8. Typically on time for Sunday School or not? I go to the young adult class so we always start late which means I am always on time.

9. Favorite TV Show. I LOVE TV! Grey's Anatomy, The Office, The Hills, Top Chef, Project Runway, Flipping Out, ALL the Real Housewives, etc. etc.

10. Something you watch/like/do that you would never tell the church people. I absolutely love Marshall Bruce Mathers III aka Eminem aka Slim Shady.

11. Most annoying church-related pet peeve. I think this relates to life in general, not just church, but when people will talk to everyone but the person they are having an issue with.

12. One thing you need to throw away but can’t bring yourself to do it. A project I did on Hamlet my senior year of high school.

13. The one food you can not live without. All things chocolate.

14. Parsonage or have your own home? We have our own home.

15. Freak when the doorbell rings or always ready for a visitor? I love having a clean, organized house. So...always ready!

Summer Recap

Wow this summer is flying by! I feel like school just let out yesterday. I had envisioned a summer of relaxing by the pool with Matt. Going to the gym everyday and hiking in the park. We haven't even been to the pool all summer! Hopefully we can find our way there in the next couple of weeks.

So if I haven't been doing the things I envisioned, what have I been up to?
The last week of May I went to Ft Lauderdale for the weekend to work. I occasionally babysit for a family who lives there. It's a way for me to make a little extra money but not have to work too often.

The first week of June I went to camp with the youth from our church. I had a great time! It reminded me of the days I was a camp counselor and youth sponser...I have always loved camp! It was great to be able to connect with some of the girls and get to know them better. I hope that I can continue to grow some of those relationships I started there.

The day after I returned from camp I headed back to Ft Lauderdale. This time it was a much longer trip. I was there for over a month! One of the weekends we went to Cincinnati for a graduation. I had never been to Ohio before so it was fun to get to go there. The best part of the trip was the week the family went to Hawaii for vacation. Matt was able to come down and vacation with me in FLL. We felt like we were staying at a fancy resort. It was a wonderful time away together.

I got home from Ft Lauderdale the first week of July. About 10 days later I flew to Chicago to meet the same family for their annual family reunion. We stayed in the Drake Hotel on Michigan Avenue. I really like Chicago and would love to go there with Matt for a few days, mostly just to eat and shop. :)

Whew! That brings us to today. For the rest of the summer I'm taking 2 days of professional development per week. I'm also going to get to spend a little time with my family. I'm very excited about that!

School starts August 14th which means I have to report the 10th. I'm teaching Child and Lifespan Development and Family and Parenting. I have only taught Child Development once and never taught the other. I will be calling on all of my friends with children to give me 'real world' examples and experience!

Soon I'm going to try something new on my blog. It will ensure that I'm blogging more regularly instead of once every couple of months or so. :) I'm excited about it and can't wait to get started. Just need to work out a few of the details and such. Stay tuned!