Dave and Shari's Blog

Ron and Val!!

2006-11-04T12:37:00.000-08:00

We had a really good time with Ron and Val. I think they really enjoyed playing with Carson. This is a picture of the three of them before we went to the airport. We were all sad to see them go. I told them they should just stay the whole week. Those jobs just get in the way don't they? The wind made it really cold while they were here. You can imagine how much Valerie was worried about her hair!!
Being around them made us miss all of you even more. It was fun to just hang out and catch up on everything. Sometimes it's tiring meeting new people all the time and answering/asking the same questions. So, when are the rest of you coming to the great city of Lafayette?? We are planning on coming out for Dave's spring break, which starts Friday, March 9th. Hopefully we'll be able to see everyone that week!!! I think that Heath and Rhianon will be gone to Guam right? I know that it is still a long way off, but I'm already excited!!

More pictures!!

2006-11-04T12:31:00.000-08:00

Carson's California room

2006-10-31T09:16:00.000-08:00

Well we finally painted and decorated his room. I always thought I was going to be the one that had the baby's room completely done before they were born. Carson won't remember anyways, right? Dave's Dad helped us out with the artist work. We have a couple of touch ups to do, but no one else notices. I won't show you all the pictures, but you'll get the idea. I'll show you more later our computer is working really slow right now.

Trying to get used to the college life again!

2006-10-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since I have wrote. I can't belive that Carson is growing so fast. He will be 4 months old on the 8th. He just started playing in his Jeep, this time without his head falling forward into the steering wheel! I think he already wieghs 16 lbs. and is about 24 inches long. My arm gets tired holding him. (I think in an earlier blog I said he was 25, but that was a mistake.) Carson has rolled from his back to his stomach 3 times, but neither Dave or I have acutally seen him do it. He's a sneaky little guy! He smiles all the time now, but not for the camera, of course! Dave can get him to laugh a lot. It's really fun to watch the two of them. We also wanted to thank Kevyn and Cheryl for sending us the little bible with Carson's name on it and the dedication certificate. Thanks for thinking of it.
So, our lives has changed a lot the past few months. I think having Carson was the easy part. God is definitely trying to teach us something and we're trying to keep our hearts open to what that is. Sometimes I think it's patience because we haven't sold our house yet. Our realtor thinks this is the month, I hope he's really right. Or it could be we need to trust God more to provide for our needs. We didn't know this month how we were going to make both mortgage payments because Pfizer's "cost of living allowance" just ran out. Then, God stepped up and we FINALLY received our student loan and the refund check from our move 2 1/2 months ago. This reminded us of the book we read together where the pastor kept worrying about how he was going to pay his bills, but God always provided. Who's idea was it to read that book anyways!!! Sometimes I think God wants us to be more humble. I was always a saver because I wanted to be, but now when I don't have a choice it feels a little different. I have to take Carson to the health dept. for his shots because they're free and the last two times we've had family and friends stay they've brought us bags of food. Of course, it's been at the perfect time when we needed it, but it's not always easy to receive.
I feel like our life has changed so much, that sometimes both Dave and I wonder if we made the right decision in moving. Dave had a good job, with insurance, and I could've kept my job in Carlsbad to have some extra money, and Carson would be growing up with all of you!! But, I really think that God wanted to push us and take us out of our confort zone once again. I just didn't think it would be as hard as it is. This experience really says a lot about how big a part Matthew's House has played in our lives. Moving to Oceanside was actually really easy because you were there as friends as well as a church. God knew where we needed to be. Because God provided then, I thought this move would be just the same, maybe easier because we would be closer to our family. I thought that we'd find another church right away, make friends easy, and that Dave would enjoy school. I don't feel like any of these have happened yet and we've lived here almost 3 months. (Dave is struggling with his classes and is pretty discouraged) It took one week for us to get connected with Matthew's House why wouldn't God do the same here? I really do know that we are here for a reason and that God still knows where we need to be. Doing what God wants doesn't mean it's always the easy way, I've learned that for sure. We really are blessed and thank God for everything we do have. Pray that we will listen to what God us to learn. Thank you for playing such a big role in our lives, we really cherish the friendships that we have with all of you.

2006-09-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!!! Hope you all are doing well. We miss you and wish that you all wanted to move to the midwest too!! Come on the humidity is not that bad. We've been getting some good rain storms too. This is Carson in his pj's. Isn't he cute? I haven't been able to catch a smile on camera yet, but as soon as I do you'll see it. Dave has been really busy with school stuff. He's gone everyday from 7:00am-5:30pm. If he leaves in between he'll lose his parking spot and they are hard to find. This week he's had two nights of seminars that are required. Last night he didn't get home until 9:30pm and stayed up until midnight reading. He's enjoying it though and still feels like he made the right decision. He interviewd for an assistantship on Tuesday in the Research Park, but hasn't heard from them yet. The assistantship would drop the tuition a lot and would actually give us a paycheck. It's between him and one other guy. You can pray that Dave's the guy they want. It would be 10 hours a week. As for me, I'm doing pretty good. I still don't know very many people so I don't have much of a social life. The day gets pretty long when Dave has to stay late, but I'm surviving. Carson keeps me busy and entertained. I've been up to my parents and got to see some of my college friends. They were excited to see Carson. By the way my parents said that anyone that comes to visit and wants to go up to the Mackinac Bridge can stay a night at their house, they would be glad to have you!!! Well, I better go. Carson is crying and needing some attention. Love all of you!! And no we haven't found a church yet!!

2006-09-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

Carson is now almost 13 weeks old!!!

2006-09-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our new house. We are really enjoying it.
Our new address is:
2806 Atlas Dr.
Lafayette, IN 47909
Home: 760-940-9350

School is now in session!!!

2006-08-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

Well, things are definitely changing around here. Yesterday was Dave's first day of school. He said he wants to treat it like a job. Be at school from 7 or 8 am until 4 or 5pm and try to get all his work before he comes home. We'll see how that works. I think it's going to be hard to adjust to Dave being gone during the days because we've been together a lot for the past month. I was getting nervous about it last week, wondering how I'd feel. I guess I just needed to get all that out of my system because it's been fine. I want to try to find things to do around town with Carson. There's still a lot I want and need to get done at home, so it's not too bad yet. The MBA program has a "partner's association" that plans events every week. I might get involved with that so I can meet some more people.

Carson is doing awesome and I love being a Mom. He's 11 weeks old now and a little over 12 lbs. I think he's about 25 inches long. He's changing all the time. Smiling a lot more, just starting to play with some toys and discovering his hands. Oh yeah, and drooling all over!!!He got his two month shots last week. I didn't know his face could get so red! I wish you all could see him and be part of his everyday life, but I know that this is where God wants us to be. We're still trying to be patient and rely on God to know when our house is going to sell. We had an offer on it last week, but they "low-balled" it, wanted us to pay all the closing costs and then carry a 10% loan for them so they wouldn't have to pay PMI. We were willing to work with them, but they didn't like our counter offer. It would have been really confusing and obviously God thought so too.

We haven't found a church yet, but that would require us to go actually go to a church. I have had no desire to go on Sunday mornings. We just aren't sure what we're looking for. We talked to some people the other night, from school, that go to a small church called The Upper Room. I'm actually excited to check it out sometime. They were used to doing church in the evenings (we didn't get into any more details) as well and were really excited when they found this church. Who knows? Well, we miss all of you and can't wait to see you again. Carson's awake now so I need to go!!

Shari

Some pictures of Carson

2006-08-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

You guys wouldn't believe how big Carson is getting. I can't believe he is 2 months old! Here are some pictures.

This is my nephew who likes to dress up as spiderman and my sister-in-law.

And this is Carson after a bath.

And most importantly, Carson is getting psyched for college football season.

First time for everything!!

2006-08-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

Back when us guys were reading the Divine Conspiracy, I remember commenting that I had never heard a pastor talk about the kingdom and explain the Christian life in terms of the kingdom. I can't say that anymore. Shari and I were up in Michigan at her parents church last Sunday and they had a missionary speaking. I wasn't able to get as much information as I wanted about him (after hearing him speak, I was quite curious). Apparently he works at a missionary training facility in Pasadena. I wasn't too excited to hear him speak because that is all I knew before his sermon. However, his sermon was excellent. He didn't talk at all about evangelism as we tend to think of it. He talked about how Jesus almost never talked about heaven, hell, or even church. His point was that Jesus talked all the time about existing in the kingdom of God (or kingdom of heaven). I thought it was pretty awesome. We had to leave right after the service otherwise I would have enjoyed talking with him. Anyway, I thought you guys might find it interesting also.

Hello from Indiana

2006-07-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has taken so long to write anything. We finally got internet access a couple days ago. It is amazing how much we depend on the internet now. Well, we feel like we are getting settled but it has been kind of crazy. We have been juggling moving in and unpacking with trying to see all of the family to show off Carson a little bit. Carson is doing really good. He is sleeping from about 11 PM to 6 AM before getting up to eat. He adjusted really well to the time change. He is definitely getting bigger. It is kind of amazing how he is growing. He is starting to smile now. I think it is when he is happy and not just when he is releasing his gas.

It has been incredibly hot and humid here. Everytime you go outside, you feel like you need to go take a shower. I guess California has had quite a heat wave also. We met our neighbors (Nathan and Kara) the other day. They are about our age and have a chocolate lab named Sadie. She looks just like Chocolate (at least to us.) Our realtor called the other day and told us some kids had tried to break into our house back there in Oceanside. Apparently they didn't get in so that is good. We haven't heard any news about anyone actually wanting to buy the house though. We are trying to just trust God to take care of it.

We haven't visited any churches or anything yet although both sets of parents have made recommedations. Shari's mom had called a church from their denomination. We're not sure exactly what she told them but they brought us dinner the other night. It was nice but now we are fighting the feeling of obligation to go visit. My parents told us of a Baptist (of course) church here that they know of from some people in their church. They kept saying that they weren't trying to pressure us when they were telling us about it but then they kept saying "I think you'll really like it." Oh well. God will lead us to the right group at some point. We just have to be patient.

Well, we'll try to write more often so it won't be such a long post from now on. We'll send some pictures soon. Thanks for the calls and emails. We miss you guys a lot. Hopefully, we'll hear from some of you soon.

Be like me?

2006-07-08T16:24:00.000-07:00

In one of our meeting times at Kevyn and Cheryl's about a week and a half ago, Shari's dad and mom were with us. We were a little nervous because of her dad being a pastor and we are reading the "So you don't want to go to church anymore" book. In the middle of the discussion, Kevyn asked Shari's dad what he was thinking. He told us about how, when he was younger, he had put certain people up on a pedestal. He explained how he learned people would all fail and we needed to focus on Jesus and how this helped him learn the value of grace. I was curious how he prevents others from viewing him in way he had viewed others. His answer was that in Philippians, Paul says (I'm paraphrasing a bit), "Be like me as I am like Jesus." I have always heard this passage taught in order to "inspire" (a better word is actually guilt) us to behave ourselves. It was taught to me that if we want others to be like us, we should be essentially blameless. To me, this interpretation supports building a perception of godliness, not a true desire to follow Jesus. However, Shari's dad explained that Paul was saying that people should follow his example in repentance as well. This meant that Paul lived a life that was transparent. He allowed people to see him fail and repent. It was an inspiring way to read that verse. It was totally opposite of the way I had learned the verse. I was encouraged that Paul was really telling people to live as a family and to love each other through success, failure and everything in between. Even now it seems a bit weird to say to someone "Be like me". But if we are following Christ, He gives us the freedom to say that because we are really saying "Follow Christ."

Pictures of Carson

2006-06-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

2006-06-11T17:18:00.000-07:00

Carson Matthew has arrived!!! He was born Thursday, June 8 at 9:16 PM. He weighed 7 lbs. 1 oz. and was 18 3/4 inches long.