Whirlwind of life is about to hit!!!

I don't even know where to start. Or how to begin what's happening. I don't even know my self what's happening. I'm just holding on tight and waiting for the whirlwind to come!

Joe and I thought we were finishing up traveling with Bible Revival at the end of the Spring Tour. Because of last minute changes, and some happenings in Midland, we are planning on moving up to Midland after our performance on March, 21. Houses are selling now for pretty cheap in Midland! But I don't want to just buy one because it's cheap...We've been doing some house shopping online, a good friend has been checking out the houses for us, and sending pics while taking tours at his own risk! :)


Please pray for us if you remember! I feel like every thing's happening so fast! I don't know what's going to happen, but I do know I just need to trust in God.


Right now we do have a trailer to live in, but we'll probably have to sell it if we get a house soon. (And it won't be fun to live in during Michigan winters!) Joe does have a job, praying that they'll pick up some decent work so that we can save up some money! I just got a phone call yesterday from a potential job that won't be anymore. It was ideal because I could keep Lincoln with me while babysitting. So I'm looking and praying for any opportunities that are out there for me to work but keep Lincoln as well.

I guess the main thing that I feel is that this part of my life, the traveling, Bible Revival, meeting new people, GREENVILLE (I'll miss the most!), is coming to an end all too soon! Like I feel as if there's no closure to it. I'll miss some of the traveling and other things about it. But I am excited about Midland. Being settled in one church, being active in that church, hanging out with friends, being near to family, having a place to call home! Ok, now I feel better!

Goodbye travel life. Thanks for the fun and memories!

OWOH giveaway

Don't forget to scroll down to see more posts, as this one post will stay on top for a while! :)

*click on picture to be taken to OWOH*

I'm excited for this year's OWOH event! My mother introduced this 'blog hopping' experience to me last year, and I had a blast! The only difference was that I was attending OWOH through my husband's blog. This year, I'm here meeting you from my own lil place!

If you're new here, WELCOME! (If you already know me, you can skip this part!) Take a look around, don't be shy! Grab a cup of coffee (or tea) and make yourself at home! It won't take you long to notice that I blog quite a bit about my son, Lincoln! He's a very active 14-almost 15 month old! My little family travels with an Evangelistic team called Bible Revival. We've been on the road full time for almost two years now with our 'little house on wheels!' Right now we are in Wilson, NC. At the end of this spring tour, we are excited to see where God leads us next as we are branching out on our own and won't be traveling with Bible Revival.

That's just a little bit about me...but now on to the good stuff!

Have you noticed that my husband is an artist? :) Here's a drawing of my son when he was just a few months old! (All portraits are done in pencil.)


And here's one of my grandpa! Check out the detail!(Please visit Joe's Studio or his website to see his work and services that he provides!)

For my giveaway, the winner will receive a ONE SUBJECT, 9X12, personal portrait of there choice. (Loved one, pet, hey...why not yourself?!) That's pretty generous!

Giveaway ends February 14th, 12:00am EST. I'll draw the winner from random.org and will announce and contact the winner on February 15th. The winner will need to email me a picture that they would like Joe to draw. Easy right?! But wait...There's more!!! :)


*Remember*

*To enter, must leave a comment (ONE comment per person...or read on for an extra entry!)
*Make sure there's a way for me to contact you. (email, blog, twitter...)
*All my FACEBOOK friends are invited!!!! I'll just add your comments into my blog comments at the end of the contest! (*I'll even let you comment on Facebook AND blogger! That's ONE comment on Facebook, and ONE comment on blogger...That's double entries!!! Get going!)
*The winner has 48 hrs to respond. If I don't hear from them, I will choose a new winner!

Good Luck! and Happy blogging! :) OH! and send some comment love to Joe! He'd like that!

(to my lovely facebook pals...you really need to visit my blog. This facebook thing just doesn't do it justice...)

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Cousins sharing some love!

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Please check out my recent post for a special announcement!


Organizing the pantry!!!! (du du duunnnnn...)

I'm taking a step of faith and letting you all see my messing pantry. But it was about time for me to get in there and reorganize the mess. For the last couple trips we've made, stuff was falling out, cereal everywhere, sugar spilled, and lots of frustration when I had to look for something...

Before:Everything thrown around...Lincoln decided to help and eat some of the left over cereal! Which was a bad idea! I turn around to throw something away, and Lincoln thought it'd be cool to DUMP the entire box of chex onto the floor! (I was seriously not happy when I took this shot!)

After:
I'm kinda disappointed that the before and after pics look the same. I'm telling the truth, I DID organize this closet! It looks MUCH better in person. :) I took everything out and even wiped it down top to bottom!
I didn't go out and buy special containers like I should have. But everything IS more organized and I did get rid of lots of things that were outdated. I even found some extra things to put into the Haitian pantry that the church in Ducan, GA was putting together.
I can find things a lot easier and nothing fell out today when we drove back to Greenville!

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The weather was WONDERFUL on Friday...of course. We had to leave and travel the afternoon while the sun was out! While Joe was getting the trailer hooked up, Lincoln did some exploring! This is his first time out on his own since he started walking!

After his nap, we showed up in Ducan, GA! Lincoln's ready!

Lincoln's first Birthday!

Finally I'm able to update you all on the events in our lives. I haven't been able to sit down and upload my pics and type out a post. I've missed my blogging friends and am looking forward to keeping up with you all when we settle down in Greenville for a bit.

We just finished practice, Lincoln's down for a nap, so here I am in Pastor's office with my lil computer and I'm using what precious time I have to share! Hope these photos come through for me! (connection is lil slow...)

Right now we are in Harrisville, MI with a week of meetings. This is the third time in a year that the team has been here. We always enjoy our stay and love seeing people that we've gotten to know over the year.

Last week we got a little break and celebrated Lincoln's birthday in our home-town, Midland, MI. We celebrated on the 31st at Grandma and Grandpa Ortega's house with his cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents/GREAT grandparents!

(Lincoln with Grandpa and Grandma Everson)
Lincoln enjoyed all his gifts from everyone! But for sake of time, I have to show the gift that Mommy and Daddy got him! :) (sorry everyone...)

On the 3rd, we celebrated his REAL birthday at Buffalo Wild Wings with cake! He really liked that! :)

Trying it...
Thinking about it...
YEP! It's good! :)

After this week of meetings, we go back to Midland and get another lil break before the big trip down to Greenville, SC for Thanksgiving! There we will be with the Snow family! Joe and I are ready to head south for the winter, but will miss family very much over the holidays.

It's hard to believe that Christmas is creeping up on us and that we as a team are going through our Christmas numbers and program. Right now I can hear Joe in the other room recording a peice that he's working on. Gets a little annoying at times... : \

I've spent too much time already twiddling with the pics and stuff. I should go. Keep me updated on what's to come in the blog world this holiday! Looking forward to connecting with everyone again! Until then, Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Good times!

Quick note before I get to bed...
I had a WONDERFUL time in Wisconsin with my family and Joe's family! But I am HORRIBLE at taking pictures! (sigh...I don't take ANY!)

We parked our lil house in the Everson's driveway for 2 weeks in Northern Wisconsin near campus. It was nice to visit campus and see old friends and meet up with my brother and sister. It got VERY cold really fast. I grew up in the North, but I never liked the cold... : / I enjoyed the times we had with Joe's family as we had 2 weeks off of traveling and stayed at their house during that time. It was very relaxing! :)

My parents met us on campus to have an early celebration for Lincoln's first birthday. (just a month early) I had to steal these pics from my mom's facebook! :)

The Birthday Boy!

Grandpa giving Lincoln a taste of the YUMMY cake! (Thanks Mr. Gaugler!) :)

Opening gifts from Grandma and Grandpa with mommy and Grandpa!

Grandma made a special gift! She put familiar faces under the puzzle peices so that Lincoln will remember his Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Brooke, and Uncle Brennan! So cute!

Lincoln had other ideas what he should do with the puzzle peices!

More gift opening with Grandpa!

Sitting back and talking on Aunt Brooke's phone during supper.

Grandpa lets him drive on campus...

Later that week, we took the hour trip down to my hometown to stay at my parent's house for a couple days. I decieded that we needed to put together a HUGE party for the Packer/Viking game! I invited my friends and my sister came from school to make the big event! Lincoln even had a handful of grandparents attend! :) Not sure if they were there for the game or what... But even though the game didn't turn out as we would have liked, we still had fun! I wore my Brett jersey from his Packer days...But I DID NOT cheer for him.

The Friday before we left, a bunch of our friends from the college, siblings, and their friends, went out bowling. I miss those days of young college bliss! It was fun, but I was in the mothering mood and Lincoln was running a low fever. He did so well in his stroller watching everyone bowl and did not complain one bit!

We left for Escanaba, MI and did Revival America in the Sunday Evening service. From there we were off to Pittsford, MI where we had a short week of meetings. All through this, both Everson family's on the BRM team were sick. I think I got through it without getting the ruff end of it. But poor Joe and Lincoln were up countless times b/c of trouble breathing due to congestion. (and that takes a toll on mommy)

We just got in at the church in Williamstown, WV and will be doing a FULL week of meetings here. Hopefully we are all recovered from all our sickies.

It's been an exhausting couple weeks...ready to head down south. :) But now I need to go to bed. *Night!*

Lincoln looking out

Right now we are on our way to Wisconsin to Joe's parents. It should be a 6-7hour ride. Not too bad.

This past week we had some visitors and Lincoln enjoyed his view outside our front door!

I should be back with pictures of our week. My parents are meeting us at NIU with the rest of the family members (my siblings) to have an early birthday celebration for Lincoln! I'm so excited! Can't wait!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Fun Fall!!!

Let's see...where do I start?! Since the VCY Rally in Milwaukee, it's been a whirlwind of sorts! The Rally was awesome, the people responded very well and it was fun to do! On Sunday we did another Revival America in Hartland, WI. So that means we did Revival America 3 times in one week! It was exhausting!

Sunday was the opener of the NFL season and I am a die hard Green Bay Packer's fan! Born and raised in Wisconsin, it's a given! The big game was that evening and I had Lincoln all decked out in his outfit! :) He went to Sunday evening church like this!

What a cutie!

I was so excited for the Bears/Packers game! (Old Brett Favre jersey from his packer years...)
Joe made my day when he got the screen and projector all set up! It was so much fun! We watched the game outside, it was a beautiful night and the Packers won! :) So this was literally my "view from my front door!"
Near the end of the game it was time for Lincoln to settle down for bed...BUT the game was too exciting for him to be settling down for bed!!! :)

After Hartland, we traveled an hour to Utica, WI. I played basket ball against Utica in high school and it was nice to see some of the girls that I played with! I also met Kim and Erin and made new friendships with them! Lincoln loved playing with them when they came to visit during their lunch break!

Now we are in Inver Grove Heights, MN. We spent all day Friday at Mall of America and even got to go to IKEA. (never been there, mom said it was a MUST!) We enjoyed browsing around, window shopping, and visiting the sharks in the underwater adventure! For lunch we went to Rain Forest Cafe, Lincoln wasn't too sure of that place. I found out he doesn't like thunder storms or fog...
My mom has a shot of me and my siblings in front of this very lego statute from YEARS ago!
One of the things that I've really liked about traveling is the chance that we get to see some of our really good friends. Jon and his wife Elise don't live too far from where we are at now! We enjoyed having them over the last couple evenings! Jon's a great friend that we met in college, he was in our wedding...it was so nice to meet his wife for the first time! We love them and it seemed that Lincoln did too!
I dont have much more time...but these picture are for my mom and Brooke...(and who ever else wants to enjoy them!) He's wearing his Charlie Brown shirt from Brooke!

Making faces as always!
I can't wait till next week! We will be in Northern Wisconsin at the Everson's (in-law's) house for about two weeks! It will be nice to get to spend time with the family! I'm planning on visiting my family for a few days and visiting my siblings at NIU. I always LOVE going "home" whenever we get the chance. Northern Wisconsin is beautiful! Will always be home to me!

Well, I've wasted way too much time...I need to get ready for the evening service!