Seriously, at youth group when we have a new kid I always introduce myself in the same way. "Hi, I'm Randi, I'm the youth pastor here." They stare at me blankly like they are trying to comprehend how somebody their age got the youth pastor gig. So then I say, "I know I look like a teenager, but I'm not." Every time the student laughs and all the kids talk about how young I look (though they make jokes about how old and out of date I am) and then they guess my age. Well that's how it used to be until I got pregnant. Apparently pregnancy makes me look older. Because two weeks ago when I did my schtick and I compared myself to a teenager the students responded with, "Um... no. You're pregnant." To which I responded by throwing my hands in the air and shouting, "Teen pregnancy, WHOOP WHOOP." To which I received horrified looks and then when I came back to reality and my words traveled from out of my mouth to my brain, I quickly dropped my arms and recanted my statement by saying, "I don't know why I just cheered for that. Not teen pregnancy. Don't get pregnant..."
Anyway, I am so far off topic now. Why was I writing this post?
Oh yeah, my birthday!
Today, I am 29 and I can't complain. I really love most of the things about my life right now. I'm not trying to brag or make everybody else hate their life... really, I promise I'm not. I just woke up this morning and thought, "I really want to write down how I am feeling on my birthday today because life is good right now." Too often I don't stop to enjoy the really good moments. Plus, you may look at my life and think it sucks... so there's always that, too. :)
So I'm going to ask myself some questions and document my answers, so next year when I am 30 I can come back and remember how great 29 was and compare.
What are you enjoying about life right now?
- My marriage- Kris and I have had or ups and downs and we are still newly married (3.5 years.) This year really felt like a year where we truly became one (that takes time for some people) and I have found such joy in being married to Kris.
- Kris (Sorry,
not sorrybut this is my life and it is a little bit sappy) I am enjoying watching him prepare to be a daddy, I love how he loves me and he is just so freakin funny...I die every day listening to his jokes. - Looking forward to the arrival of Baby Girl Shepherd!
- Looking forward to ordination (as long as I pass my last interview!)
- Looking forward to my little brother Kris' wedding to the most awesome Jessica
- Our church -I feel like there are so many exciting things happening there right now. Plus God has been putting it on my heart to really deeply pray for our church. I think God is doing a new thing and I am looking forward with anticipation to what he has for us!
- Living in Oroville - Sure this city has it's quirks and it makes me mad that there is not one place in town to buy maternity clothes (I have to drive a half hour to find a very very small selection in the next town over.), but we are so happy here. I'm enjoying it. Plus I'm about to score $20 to the new Dollar General coming to town. WHUT UP OROVILLE!
- Being pregnant, hands down. I'm at 28 weeks and I am still only able to function if I take medicine daily. I still throw up 4-5 times a week (which I recognize is better than the 4-5 times a day that was occurring) and generally have a constant stomach ache plus a myriad of other fun pregnancy symptoms. Pregnancy has been hard.
- Working with some of the teenagers in the youth group. We have a lot of teenagers that need a lot of love. Hearing their stories, doing life with them sometimes is absolutely heart breaking. I truly wish I could rewrite some of their stories. But alas, I'm not God and I'm not them. I can only do my part which is lead them to God and pray that they choose to give their lives to Him.
Randoms?
- Book: Don't have one, but I am reading a lot on the subjects of babies in the first year and women in ministry
- Movie: This year has been strange one as far as movie tastes go. I have always hated cartoons, but with kids on the horizon I have really started to evaluate our movie collection. It seems that more often than not Kris and I have been actively looking for more family friendly movies including Despicable Me, Frozen, Monster's University. As my favorite movie of this year... probably 42. I love a good sports movie!
- Favorite things to do: Crossword puzzles with Kris, read, go to coffee, walk on the dam, go to bed at 10pm
- Least favorite things to do: Pull weeds, cook
- Things I would like to do: Learn another language, pay off school debt, eat clean/healthy
I started the day by having coffee with Julianne which was fabulous and then Kris and I started the day by dropping off our car at the dealership to get a part fixed that had been recalled. After that we made a mad dash to our baby Dr. for our monthly check up. She said our baby has long legs. :) I am so hoping she takes after Kris and gets a little bit of height. We were so excited because we are at the point where we have check-ups every two weeks. This means we are super close to having our girl here with us!
After the doctor, we went to a furniture store to look for a chair for the baby room and then to Target to find some maternity clothes and then we headed over to the mall so I could get my hair done. Kris honestly was so great. He hates shopping and stuff like that, but he spent the whole day with me doing the things I like just because. I seriously love that guy.
After my hair appt. we headed to Chilis for lunch and then back to Target really quick because I hadn't had time to scope out their shoe collection...which was very disappointing. Come on Target! Next we headed to a few more furniture stores and got an idea of what we liked. Then we stopped by Marie Calendars to pick up a lemon cream cheese pie for my b-day celebration.
When we got back to Oroville, we stopped by Big Lots to compare chairs (because we had previously found one there we liked) and we fell in love. We bought a chair on the spot and brought it home thanks to the Neal's who let us borrow their Pilot for transportation.
We got home in perfect time because Deb was just arriving (she is staying with us for the weekend after a work conference in Sac.) and she was able to help Kris get the chair in the house. We wrapped up the day by eating pizza (of course) and pie and watching TV.
All in all it was my kind of perfect day.
