A new blog schedule...

Usually I either can't think of anything to post. Or I have so many ideas that I just don't know where to start. So... to help myself out a little:) I'm going to start blogging with a "schedule".

It'll hopefully go something like this:
Musical Monday's -- I'm hoping to start reviewing Cd's
Transformation Tuesday's-- Household Decorating/improvement ideas
"Word's of Wisdom" Wednesday -- inputs from older women
Thoughtful Thursday's -- Gift ideas, ways to bless others around you
Free Friday's -- I usually go into work with Victor on Friday's, so I may not even get to post...
(Any ideas for Saturday? Please leave it in a response to this post, and I'll consider each one)
Spiritual Sunday's - Devotional, bible thought, something from Vic!!!, etc.

Let me know what you think? Hopefully this will help me be a little more faithful in this. I'm hoping to start this on Monday. Feel free to leave feedback. It's always appreciated!!

~Bethany

Happy birthday and a whole lot else...

Monday was the birthday of my now six year old brother, Seth. I was able to spend a good deal of the day over at mom and dad's house, as I had some laundry to do, and wanted to spend some time in general with the family.



It turned out to be a very enjoyable day. I got some laundry started, and then Angie and I went out and swam in the pool. It was a wonderful workout, and I didn't feel it till later that night:) It also seemed to help with my sciatic nerve (which has been giving me a terrible time).

Victor came straight to mom and dad's house after work to join us for dinner. We had a fun time playing Dutch Blitz with some of the boys while dinner was being made.

Tuesday, I had a pretty slow day. I was feeling totally great. Dad and some of the boys came in the afternoon to work on some things around the apartment. The closet they're building in our room is really coming along nicely and I'm looking forward to using it.

After Victor got home from work, we took Seth out to Burger King for dinner to celebrate his birthday. Then we went shopping and got groceries and a few other things. Victor got me the items I needed to plant the beautiful flowers he gave me in a bigger container!! He's so sweet and thoughtful. We then went to La Fiesta to do our grocery shopping. We'd never been there, but found that we really like it. They have quite a few sales, in store coupons, etc. and the people are super friendly. We will probably start doing our shopping there!!

Today has been kind of slow. Part of that may be the weather, I don't know. I almost feel like I'm coming down with something, but I don't want to believe that:)

Our little one has been super active as of late. Especially when I sit still for a long time I feel quite a bit of movement. I can't wait for the sonogram on the 8th!! Oh how exciting!!

Well, I have a pretty good sized to-do list, and I'm moving slower than usual today, so I'd better get going on it:)

~Bethany

Prayer request...

I would like to ask for prayer for a family in our church who was in a major accident on Sunday night on their way home from church. They were stopped at a light not too far from their home, and a highly intoxicated man in an F-150 hit them from behind without any indication that he tried to stop. The two girls were airlifted to a local hospital, and the mother and son were taken by ambulance to the same hospital. All seem to be stable, although one of the daughters is having surgery today to wire her jaw and put plates and screws in her cheek bone. Yesterday, her face was so swollen that she couldn't open her eye.

Please pray for this family during this time. Having been through four accidents myself I know the truma associated with them (especially when there are substantial injuries).

You can see a news report on what happend by going to this link http://www.ksat.com/video/13927202/index.html

Thank you in advance for your prayers. I'll try to keep you all up to date.

WOW! I've passed the half way mark and I'm into the second half of my pregnancy!! That's almost hard to believe. Time is going by SO fast!

Last week was quite busy with preparing food for our pastor's daughter's reception. It went well, but I was a little worn out by the end. I think I'm a little recovered now:)

Yesterday, I went to mom and dad's house to do laundry and got the menu and shopping list for this week done. Then, last night Victor and I went shopping. I was able to do some bargin shopping at a few different stores, and really enjoyed that (I'm new to all that, so it's fun and exciting).

Today promises to be busy as well. I need to wash my hair (it seems to need it more often now that I'm pregnant), I hope to get some house cleaning done as well as some sewing. I'm quickly outgrowing all of my clothes and need to make some new ones pretty quick!!

So... I'm off to get started on my busy day.

~Bethany

A day with the family...

Yesterday, I went with my family to see a Brother in our church off. He's headed to India, and we have a family tradition that we always go see him (and his family when they go) off.

After we saw him off, we went out to China Sea for a special treat. That's one of my favorite Chinese restaurants!! And... I remembered my camera, and was able to capture some real sweet pictures!!

My absolutely adorable dinner companion:)

Watermelon was definitely his favorite (that and the jello:)

My very young parents (they don't look old enough to have two grankids do they?)

"Oh PLEASE can I have another dessert?!?!?"

Daniel telling me something... and Angie just being photogenic as always:)

My dear sister and I... we'll always be friends!!

After eating, we went shopping. I had to go to HEB to get some items for Saturday and Angie, Caleb and Matthew accompanied me. Matthew is SO cute and says some of the cutest things:) I love little ones!!!

For those who didn't know, Victor tried growing a beard. I wasn't real fond of it though, and he wasn't totally happy with it, so we took a picture and then he shaved it off:) Anyway, here's our self portrait. You can see my belly a little better in this picture, although it doesn't look as big here as it does in real life... (BTW, how do y'all like our couch? It was already here when we got here, but we're getting used to it:)

My adorable niece...

I was able to visit my niece and sister-in-law last Friday and I remembered to take pictures:)

Isn't she a sweetheart?

Here she is with her two uncles having a grand time!!

And here she is with Auntie Angie!!

A quick, easy and economical dinner...

Tonight I made a dinner that I'd seen when I was looking through some cookbooks the other day and really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd pass it on.

Right now, I'm taking a course from Crystal Paine titled Supermarket Savings. It's about saving money on groceries, but it covers many other areas as well. My first assignment was on menu planning. I enjoyed it. Especially the ebook that she gave us. It's called Menu Planning made easy, and it's sold on her site. Even though I've done alot with menu planning, that book was quite helpful and had lots of good ideas.

Anyway, here goes with the recipe... it's enough for two to four (depending on what else you're serving with it), so would need to be multiplied for a larger family

Turkey Biscuit Pot Pie

-1/2 pound ground turkey (ground turkey is significantly cheaper than beef)

-1/4 bag frozen peas and carrots (thawed)

-1/2 cup of corn (either frozen and thawed or from a can)

-1 can cream of chicken soup (I used the "healthy" stuff cause it had no MSG)

-1/4 cup milk

-Four Pilsbury style (but you can use cheaper ones) flaky biscuits

First brown the meat. Then add the thawed veggies to warm a little

Mix cream soup and milk together and add the meat/veggie mixture. Spread in the bottom of a glass 8x8 pan. Take four biscuits and place on the top.

Cook for 15-20 minutes or until the biscuits are lightly brown.

Enjoy with a salad!!

WOW! I didn't realize so many people read our blog. Maybe that will encourage me to be a more faithful "poster":)

Just a little note to keep you all up to date. We continue to stay busy around here. I'm still not totally moved in, but I'm having to wait for some furniture that's being stored here to be moved before I can really move in.

Victor's message on Sunday was really good and I enjoyed it alot. He's still preaching through Malachi, and he was talking about faithfulness in marriage.

Yesterday was a full day for me. I spent most of the day at mom and dad's house doing laundry (we don't have a washer and dryer at our place), ironing, playing with the boys, etc. Then, in the evening, Victor and I took Angie, Caleb and Daniel out for a bowling night. We had planned to do it for their birthday's, but were busy and so had to postpone it. After we went bowling, Daniel treated us all to ice cream at the Marble Slab Creamery. It was REALLY good. Believe it or not, though, I didn't get one single picture the whole night (even though I had my camera and planned to :(

Today has been a little slower for me. Mainly just resting and working around the house.

End of this week, I will be preparing and serving food at the wedding reception for our pastor's daughter. I'm excited about that. I love anything to do with weddings, and love every chance I get to help out with them.

I'll try to post more later this week. We'll see... maybe I'll have some wedding pics as well.

Until later...
Bethany

A reader survey...

I'm just curious to know who looks at our blog. If you don't mind, could you leave a quick note letting me know you've stopped by?

Thanks so much...
Bethany

Four months ago...

Tuesday marked our 4 month anniversary. Isn't it amazing how time flies. Next week, I'll be 20 weeks into my pregnancy (half way).

God has been so good to Victor and I. He has blessed us far beyond what we could have ever expected. We are very thankful for all His goodness to us.

I pray that He will give us many years of service together for His glory...

Bethany

Recent pics...

Some of you have asked for pictures, so here goes. These were taken in our new house shortly after we moved in. Sorry, for some reason I can't seem to get my expanding belly in any pictures. Don't ask me how that happens:)

Victor working on the computer.

Me relaxing on the couch. (Something I seem to do alot these days:)

A bit of this and that...

Just a quick update. We're doing well and settling in nicely. I'm LOVING my new home and seem to have a whole lot more energy and feel better. What a blessing.

We had my midwife appointment this past Saturday and heard a strong heartbeat. What a blessing!! Also, the midwife commented on how active the little one was. I could feel them though, so I knew they were active!!

Next appointment, we're hoping to get a sonogram to see our little one, find out the gender (Lord Willing:) and possibly see two little ones. We're not sure and I'm dying to know for sure. Some things have pointed to twins, but we have no conclusive evidence. So... we wait.

I'm also enjoying being about 5 miles from my family. I've been able to see them and spend a good deal more time with them, which I'm really enjoying.

Well, I need to close and get a few more things done before I start dinner. But before I do, I'll try and post some pictures from our apartment flood:)

~Bethany

Apartment flood pictures...

See the "glitter" on the ceiling? Those are water "spouts" actively dripping. After a little while, the leaking started spreading across the ceiling and the water turned thick and more of a rusty color. Yummy!! Good thing I was over my nausea:)

Our bedroom carpet with about 2 ins. of water soaked in

Buckets lined up in hopes of capturing most of the water from the roof leak.

A beautiful display of providence...

This is an email we sent out last week to our church family, and I thought you all might enjoy hearing about it as well...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dear friends,

I want to give God the praise for all He has done for us in the past couple days. He has surely shown His hand of providential faithfulness in a wonderful way.

We had become concerned about the security of our apartment ever since someone tried our door late one night. This led us to buy an extra lock and a shotgun and to begin praying and looking into other options. However, we were still willing to stay through the end of our lease if that was what the Lord wanted. Apparently, as the story unfolds, it wasn’t!

At 3:00 AM, Thursday morning (July 26th), we awoke to the sound of water flowing in our house, through the air conditioner/ water heater space. I immediately called the apartment answering service, and they said they would look into it. Meanwhile water had begun to drip from the ceiling and down the walls. We started moving things out of the bedroom into the living room area to get them out of the way of the water. Buckets were placed under the main water flow to keep most of it off the floor, which was becoming soaked already. Eventually, water was dripping from the ceiling fan and light in the bedroom and the fire alarm in the living room. This made the fire alarm go off, which was annoying until it filled up with water, when it sounded like a cricket! Water even got in the breaker switches, which made me very nervous about walking in the wet bedroom! The mud and paint on the walls began to puff out, filling with water. We kept on calling the answering service, and I knocked on the guy's door upstairs, but he wasn't home. I looked for a way to turn off our water, but couldn't find any. A man did show up around 4:30 or 5:00, and tried to turn off the water to the building, but it still ran full force! We were quite exhausted, but we tried to stay in good humor. We took some time for breakfast together and some devotions. We read Psalm 23, and it was a great encouragement at that time to remember that the Lord is our Shepherd, who watches over us. We laid our situation before Him to deal with as He saw fit.

When it was still too early to call others, we called our married brothers and asked them to pray for us in this situation. We called Beth's parents about 7:00 and they were willing to help out in any way. A little later, I went down to the office, and they told me that I must sign a new lease to get into another apartment, or I could leave as I was, without further obligations. We weren't crazy about staying another six months there, but I went ahead and checked out the only other apartment they had available, which was an upstairs one, overlooking a pool. It had a smokey or chemical smell, and when I took Beth down there to look at it, her lungs began to tighten up. When we got back, Dad Turack called and told us that Pastor had called him and that the apartment was available for us. What a blessing this was to us! We praised the Lord for His mercies. Around this time we had a second breakfast. Then Dad Turack, Angie, the twins, and Josh came over to help us load up for a move - the fastest one so far in my life. I had never before decided to move and moved in about 12 hours! We were able to load up the trailer, van, and truck with everything, and headed south sometime after noon. When we were leaving the paint and mud were coming off the ceiling and walls in the bedroom, and it looked terrible! I asked the apartment to write me a letter showing that I was not responsible and they did do that. On the way to Elmendorf, we saw gray clouds and met some sprinkles. We kept praying, "Lord, keep the rain back." We had some tarps, but it was not sufficient for a real downpour. God was merciful, and there was no real rain the whole way.

Now we are rejoicing in the love of God and of the saints that has brought us down to Elmendorf. God does move in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. The clouds that seem ready to break over our heads are rich with His providence. Now we are closer to the church (building and people), and to Beth's family, and hopefully will have more opportunities for interaction and service. We are still getting unpacked, but I have seen a definite change in Beth, which is encouraging. She seems a lot more energetic now that she is among friends in a healthy environment. I want to praise the Lord for His grace to us in all of this, and extend our thanks to those who helped out.

His mercy endureth for ever!

In Christ,

Victor and Bethany Maxson