Halloween

Kirsten had a great Halloween this year. We celebrated all weekend.

We started off Friday night with Trunk-or-Treat at church.




Saturday night Kirsten met up with her partner in crime, Jacob Crane. It was only fitting the two of them went at Woody and Jessie.



Yesterday morning the kids got to wear their costumes to church. And last night, we concluded our celebrating with traditional Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood with some friends.

I hope everyone had as much fun as we did this Halloween.

Playing Bible Study

As you may or may not know, on Monday nights I host Bible study in my home. Every Monday afternoon Kirsten helps me move furniture, bring out the folding chairs, clean the living room, put her toys away, dust, etc. She gets so excited that "the girls" are coming over, because she thinks they are coming to see her. She also knows that Monday nights are date night for her and her daddy. They have been having picnics upstairs in our bedroom. They'll lay out a blanket, eat a digiorno pizza and watch a movie of Kirsten's choice. She loves this.

Hosting a Bible study has its perks. I sometimes get some leftover goodies from the ladies who bring the snacks. Kirsten gets excited about leftovers. One day, she told me she wants to have Bible study when she's a big girl. I told her she didn't have to wait till she was a big girl, we can have Bible Study anytime. So, now, our Tuesday ritual is to "play Bible Study". We"ll set out a couple of fold out chairs. Kirsten wears her name tag, and she eats leftovers on our flower Bible Study plates. We have our prayer time and pray for Daddy, Jacob, Luke, Erin, Tucker, Mrs. Becky and Mrs. Susan...same ones every time. Then she gives me the attention to share with her a little bit about Jesus. After we talk for about 3-5 minutes, she's ready to watch "the video". Right now, "the video" is Mickey Mouse clubhouse, but one day, I'll remember to put in Veggie Tales.

This week, I read Kirsten parts of Matthew 18, and we talked about how much Jesus loves little children. At this age, she's starting to understand and ask questions about God and Jesus. Her little mind is such a sponge and she learns things so fast. Her innocence and imagination melts my heart. I am so honored and blessed to be her mommy. I know God is going to use her in amazing ways. He already is.

Breaking Free

My Monday night Bible study group is doing Beth Moore's, Breaking Free. We're only on week 4 and it's quite intense. I can't help but share. This study has made me do some extreme soul searching, and some major spring cleaning of the heart.

This is what I have learned about God and myself so far...

Captivity is anything that hinders the abundant and Spirit-filled life of a believer. This will keep us from discovering our purpose.

There is a huge difference in believing in God, and believing God
*Even though I believe God is who He says He is, and I believe He can do anything, do I believe He will do anything

I can believe that Jesus is my LORD and Savior, but do I believe He is my Redeemer and Deliverer?
*I can be a Christian and have my place in eternity sealed, but I may not allow myself to experience Jesus to the fullest.

God's glory is the way He makes Himself recognizable. This is His reflection. If the Holy Spirit doesn't dwell in us, we have nothing of God in us for Him to show. "We were created for the purpose of giving God's invisible character a glimpse of visibility."

God never sheds light on our weaknesses and failures to condemn us. He brings them to our attention so we can allow Him to work on these in us. This will set us free.
* What is hindering me from being everything God wants me to be?

God hates pride and arrogance. Pride is anything that is keeping us from having a God-glorifying attitude. Pride keeps us from growing. Pride is denial. Pride won't admit weaknesses. Pride deceives. Pride disguises itself in many ways. Pride is the opposite of humility. Pride is not only thinking highly of yourself...pride is also thinking lowly of yourself. Pride doesn't allow room for God in our hearts.
* Pride has to be my biggest stronghold. I see pride now for what it is...it's what's keeping me from being totally honest with myself and God.

Be prayerful. Work on developing a deeper intimacy with God. Keep that line of communication open between us all the time. Pray without ceasing.
* Prayer isn't a chore, it's a privilege. God wants me to pray to Him with an honest heart. He doesn't care about the flowing cliches. He doesn't want to hear what I think He wants me to say. God just wants me to address Him humbly and honestly. He wants me to come to Him with my deepest concerns and hurts. Even if I am mad at Him, He wants me to know that I can come to Him with this. He already knows our hearts anyway, why can't we be honest enough with ourselves to be honest with Him?

Breaking Free is a study that's making me look at my fears and insecurities, and finding out how I got them. Then, it's showing me how to let God come in and not only fix these fears and insecurities, but fix what caused them in the first place.

So what's my biggest fear?
If I don't know you, my prideful answer would be:
extremely bad weather, nasty bugs and rodents, and coming face to face with a dreaded intruder

If I knew you and trusted there would be no judgement, I would have said being left alone with no support group or friends.

Now, I can honestly say that my biggest fear is, going through a very tough trial...something traumatic and life changing...and on the other side of it, when the healing begins, not learning what God wants me to learn from it.

Kirk Cameron

Saturday I got to meet Kirk Cameron. I can't believe I can write this and it actually have truth to it. I am still on a high from the event so I have to blog about it....bare with me.

Kirk Cameron came to Marietta to speak on "How to Fireproof Your Marriage". My sweet husband bought me tickets for this event back in April. He even sprung for the VIP seats. I can't tell you how excited I was. This is the best gift Greg's ever given me, coming in 2nd only to getting engaged. (I say this because I consider Kirsten our gift from God)

Let's go back to the mid 80's... I was about 10 or 11 years old. I had no real interest in boys and hadn't reached the stage to where they were attractive to me. This was, until Growing Pains came on TV. To me, Kirk Cameron was not just a boy, he was The Boy. The one all other boys should try to be. His curly mullet and dreamy eyes were perfectly placed on his head and face. My mom probably bought me every Tiger Beat, Teen Beat and Bop magazine that came out with him on the cover. I sent in my $10 to his fan club with a letter claiming that I was his biggest fan. I of course didn't let them know that I was "madly in love" with him because I didn't want to come across as forward. Bop let me know that he wanted a girl that loved him for the person he was on the inside, not because he played Mike Seaver. In return for my $10, I got a thank you letter with Kirk's stamped signature, a centerfold sized poster with a complete background on him to tell me anything they thought I should ever want to know about him. You know, the important stuff like... his favorite color, his height and weight and his favorite food. His posters covered my walls and ceiling like wall paper and paint. I knew that one day I would marry him. I knew this because I would pray for this every night.

I was about 13 or so when the mad crush came to an end. Tiger Beat let me know that Kirk had fallen in love with his co-star, Chelsea Noble, and that they got married. What a way to break up a relationship... by reading it in a magazine. I was happy for him that he was happy, and this way I wouldn't have to tell him that he had been replaced on most of my walls with Jordan Knight and other New Kids on the Block.

I must have shared my Kirk Cameron era with Greg at some point...probably when we watched Fireproof. The movie touched us, as it did many, and taught us a lot about our relationship and our marriage. When Greg heard Kirk was coming to speak on how to Fireproof Your Marriage he was excited to go, and knew I would be too.

Last Friday night it hit me that I was going to get to see Kirk Cameron in person. God was going to give me a blessing, through my husband, to meet the man I thought was "the one" for me, and just rejoice in the fact that he wasn't. I was so extremely excited. When we got to the venue, I realized that Greg and I appeared to be one of the youngest couples there. When Kirk was announced, and came on stage, he received a standing ovation. From the second you saw him, you could tell he was serious and passionate about the message he was about to deliver. In person, he didn't look a day older than he did on Growing Pains. He still has the same sparkly eyes and adorable crooked smile. His skin is flawless and he's just precious. It wasn't his star status at all that gave off this attraction. Honestly, the men would say the exact same thing. It was this glow about him that immediately you knew this was a man whose heart is on fire for God. He did make light of the fact that he was a child star, and he "fed our Seaver fever", as he would say, for a minute. There were lots of camera flashes (and not all mine) in the beginning. It was amazing how in only a few seconds God transformed him from this teen heartthrob to a humble vessel.

Kirk impressed me by how deep in the Word he got with his message. You could tell he dwells in God's Word. He is so in love with God and his wife, Chelsea. It was so awesome how he took specific scenes in Fireproof and explained everything about them. He would go into detail about the message each character was trying to relay, through their words and body language. He would parallel this description with what the Bible says. I could go on and on about how great he was and how he brought things to our attention that we would have never thought of ourselves. I left wanting to be a new wife to Greg, and appreciating things about Greg I never thought to appreciate before. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful man for a husband and partner.

After the conference, Kirk stayed around to sign autographs and copies of his book. As we were waiting in line, Greg and I were talking about what I should say to him when I got to the table. I thought about telling him that when I was eleven the color of my room was Kirk Cameron. Then I thought, no, that's dorky. I decided that I wanted to tell him how much admiration I had for him now, and I am so proud of how he's become such a man of God. How he inspired me to go study God's Word at a much deeper level, and I wanted to be a better wife and mother. Then it was my turn. We fumbled with the cameras for what seemed like 10 minutes...how embarrassing. Then Kirk looked at me with those soothing eyes and in the sincerest, softest voice he said, "Hi, how are you?" "What's your name?" I responded with, "You're really great." He smiled, signed my book, posed for a picture and that was about it. Life changing, huh? Whatever... since I couldn't figure out what my name was, I didn't tell him. So, at least he won't know who the star struck fanatic was that couldn't answer a few very simple questions. After all, he is totally going to remember that and me, right?

His book is good, by the way. It's not a Francine Rivers novel, but it is him trying to share his testimony and how he came to know the LORD. It's a way for others to come to know Christ if they don't already, and it's an explanation of how knowing Christ can not only save you, but will change your life.

Preschool

So my baby is going to preschool, and has just completed her first week. She goes 4 days a week to the 3 yr. old program at FBC Powder Springs. Her teachers are precious. The theme for her room is zebra and the class color is pink. LOVE IT!!! There's just not much of anything that is more fabulous in decor than black and white zebra stripes with pink accents.

All summer, I have been looking forward to a few hours a day to myself to run errands, work out, tan, have quiet time, do my Bible study, clean the house, unpack more boxes....my list goes on and on. This also gives Kirsten some time to miss me.

Last Friday, I took her for her "Sneak-a-Peek". On the way there my mind went from excitement to thinking about the fact that from this point on, my child will be in school. She'll be in school until she graduates college, and then she'll probably be on her own, or maybe even married. I started crying and almost couldn't pull myself together to go inside. It hit me all of a sudden that this is the first step I am taking in the letting go process.

Kirsten loved sneak-a-peek and the idea of preschool. She was so excited when Monday rolled around. Kirsten was the only kid in her class that wasn't crying when I dropped her off. She ran up to one little girl and was jumping up and down saying "it's preschool, it's preschool." She wasted no time being upset. Yesterday, the teachers told me they were very proud of her and she was doing great. I hope this continues.

I just read the book Lift by Kelly Corrigan. It's a very sweet book, written by a mother to her young daughters. She wrote stories of their early childhood and explanations for the choices she made. She knew they wouldn't remember those precious moments that are shared between a mother and her child in early childhood. It's such a sweet gesture.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my favorite man! Greg turns 32 today. I think I'll pay him tribute by listing 32 things I love about my man. These are in no particular order.

1. I love how he always knows how to put me in a good mood when I've had a bad day
2. I love how he leaves great first impressions
3. I love his smile
4. He's hilarious...he's got the best 1 liners
5. He's the smartest person in the world...really he is
6. He's awesome at putting people in their place, but doing it with truth and kindness
7. He sets such a great example
8. He loves his girls
9. He's a godly man...with strong faith
10. He looks fabulous in red
11. He helps me so much around the house and with Kirsten
12. Everyday he tells me he appreciates me and what I do for him and Kirsten
13. He never makes or expects me to do anything I don't want to do
14. He's motivating and inspiring
15. He'll watch teeny bopper shows with me
16. He likes my cooking
17. He works hard for our family
18. He puts up with a lot
19. He's patient
20. He smells great
21. He's so neat and clean
22. He's quite easy on the eyes
23. He's the type of man I want my daughter to date and marry
24. He's sincere
25. He's honest
26. He's a man with integrity
27. He doesn't gossip and he doesn't judge
28. He's a great leader
29. I love watching him play with Kirsten
30. He's not high maintenance
31. He's so much fun
32. He's my best friend

Happy Birthday, Greg! I hope it's great. LOVE YOU

Week In Review

This past week has been one of the busiest weeks the Caraways have had in a very long time. However, it was one of the most fun weeks we've had in a really long time as well. As many of you know, my birthday was last Wed., June 30th. And whether you want to or not, if you are a friend or even just an acquaintance of mine, you are expected to celebrate all week long. Especially if my birthday falls in the middle of the week, like it did this year.

My bff, Allison, from MS came in to celebrate with me the weekend prior to my b'day. We had a really good time. I consumed more carbs that weekend than I have all of 2010 combined. Allison made me the cutest birthday present. It's a wooden flower bouquet, and on the back of every flower was gift card. I had gift cards to Bath & Body Works, Subway, and Amazon. I love when someone gives me a gift, and they actually think about me and what I may like. It just makes me feel so special. It's never about the amount of what the gift costs. It's about knowing that you were really thinking of me when you got me something. Allison and my sister, Hayley, are the best present givers ever.

Friday, Allison, Kirsten and I had a girls' day at the mall. We goofed around like we were tweenagers. We shopped every store, ate in the food court, had mall yogurt, made build-a-bears...the whole tween experience.

Sat. night Allison and I went out while Greg babysat. Since I love and miss McAlister's so much, we drove 45 min. to the closest one. We spent the night singing hits from the early 90's. I can't remember what I did yesterday, but I can remember every word to every song Debbie Gibson ever recorded. Allison tried to culture me with some annoying, whiny, off pitch country songs. I hate how people are given recording contracts because they can put a booty call to music. I mean, really...but that's another blog.

Wednesday was my hollyday, so obviously Greg took off of work. Or he planned on it, anyway. He ended up going in about 3:00 that afternoon, then had to work till about 7:00. He felt bad about it so he made it up to me by going 45 min. out of the way to let me eat at McAlister's. Nothing cures the blues like some McAlister's tea.

Friday we finally got our date night. We've had many attempts at a date night since last Nov., but we've been unsuccessful. It was so pleasant to be able to just hang with my man and eat at the same time and have real conversation. We went to dinner at Ted's, then searched what seemed like most of GA for frozen custard. There's no Bop's here and I'm not happy about that. I would have driven to Flowood for Bop's but I didn't think the babysitter would go for that.

Saturday, my family came in and we all went to the Peachtree Road Race fitness expo to pick up our race numbers. The expo was so awesome. They were selling all kinds of running gear for really cheap.

Sunday was the big day. I was so nervous I had to go to the bathroom 4 times before the race started and I thought I was going to miss my heat. Fortunately, I caught up with them just in time to start the race. It was so fun. There were 55,000 runners and tons of spectators all over Peachtree and Piedmont Park. Moe's was shooting t'shirts into the crowd of runners. McDonald's had Smoothie stops. People were passing out coupons for free food. The weather could not have been any nicer. I started at 8:30 and Greg started at 9:00 and the hottest it got was 73 degrees.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first Peachtree Road Race experience. I hope we can start doing this every year. I read the mile markers wrong thinking they were telling me when the mile started instead of when they ended. Since I thought I was a mile behind in my time I slowed down. I got confused when some spectator screamed we were half way done at mile 4 and I got discouraged. Then about 2 min. later an experienced Peachtree participant straightened things out for me, so I started back up again. I probably wasted 2.5 - 3 minutes of my time. Moral to the story...some spectators are idiots so don't listen to them. My finish time was 1:25:09. Greg's was 1:10 even. We were satisfied and excited.

We were home by noon and spent the rest of the afternoon with my parents, Hayley and our GA bff's, Jason and Jennifer. Kirsten and Jacob played on the slip and slide and they had such a blast. This is what holidays are all about. Just quality time with family and friends.

As I mentioned earlier, Hayley is one of the best gift givers. She can spend $5 or $500 and buy the best gifts. She's gifted in that way, and I am blessed to have her in my life. I guess that's our love languages. The big reveal of what she gave me.....a Nook.