Sweet Trinity

This past Sunday was our last Sunday at sweet Trinity United Methodist. After much prayer and consideration, the church has decided to close. If you have been to Trinity with us, you know what a very sweet. . .and tiny church we have been attending. It is also a church with LONG roots in the community - it was 97 years old, and there are a lot of people who have attended there for their entire lives. They've grown up there, married there, some moved away and came back, and some have been there all along.

It has been a STRANGE week. We packed up Eric's office yesterday, and we'll try to find a home for everything here in the house. Seeing the sign out front taken down was incredibly sad, but we know that this was the best decision and God has a plan for us, as well as all the dear friends we've made at Trinity, as they find a new church home.

Here are Nana and Gil with Bryce (and his sweet lion, that our friend Ms. Beth gave him!) on Sunday, our last service at Trinity.

After church we had a reception downstairs in the Fellowship Hall - how amazing is this cake!? In case you couldn't guess. . .that's the church on there! I love it!!!

Sooo, you might be asking what our plan is now. Where are we going? Well - your guess is as good as ours at this point!!!! Thankfully, Eric still has his part time job at Lakewood United Methodist, where he is on staff. But there isn't another church in our district that Eric can be assigned to at this point. We never anticipated this process, in getting a full-time appointment, to take quite so long. Every year we hope THIS will be the year. . . .but not nearly as many pastors are retiring when they thought they would, thanks to the economy. And there are more pastors than there are positions.

So we wait.

And we trust.

And we pray. . .that maybe NEXT year will be the year.

If any positions open up throughout the year, Eric will be considered for them. and hopefully next summer when everyone is up for reappointment, Eric will get a position (a FULL time position is what we are praying!!!)

So in the meantime, Eric has to find another job on his own. We haven't really been able to start looking much yet, because we needed to get things done at Trinity. The closing process happened quite quickly, so he's had to scramble to get everything done, and help the congregation through this process. So now that we are officially done there, we can focus on what to do next.

Anyone want to hire a fabulous, good looking, multi-talented guy? I know someone who might have some time on their hands!!! ;) (I love you Eric!!!!)

XOXO

the new church!

Eric started at the new church this week! Bryce and I went over to check things out today, and I of course tried to snap a few pictures! I haven't edited these yet, so pardon any red-eye, and dark photos! At least I got them posted!! :) I'll be back tomorrow with some fun 4th of July photos!!! XOXO

it's official!

here are some photos from the ordination service on

friday night. (eric is the first one on the left. you can click on it, to see it gigantic!) he's official and liscensed now! woohooo!

two of his favorite things . . .

Fountains and ice cream. ( a special thanks to the girl who works at Cold Stone Creamery who said "You look like you would like blue ice cream with sprinkles!") Seriously? Blue icecream? NOT something I would have encouraged my child to eat!!!!! It was SO sweet - its a miracle he didn't throw up last night!!!!
we're having a nice time in lakeland .. .dinner HERE last night (so yummy!) ice cream afterwards, as you can see. . .and lots of meetings for eric, and catching up with friends from the conference today and tomorrow. tomorrow eric will be OFFICIALLY liscenced as a United Methodist pastor! Woohoo! I heard someone say last week that "pastor's wives are dangerous" (in a good way!) so I guess I can be officially considered a DANGEROUS woman now .. . .but we already KNEW that, didn't we? XOXOX

We're almost there!

Two more days!

This is the graduation announcement that I made for Eric. If you haven't gotten one, it may be sitting on my kitchen counter - I forgot to take the last batch to the mailbox before we left town! (SORRY!!)

I realized that I never shared the scoop on our plans for the coming year. . .

So here's the scoop. We are staying in Jax for another year, and Eric will be splitting his time between two churches - our current church, (the one we got married in, where Eric has been working the past few years) and another church in Jacksonville. It's a very small church (about 20 people on Sunday mornings) and Eric will be THE pastor - so he will preach on Sunday mornings and have some office hours during the week, but also share his time with his duties at our other church.

SO that's the plan. THE plan. Oh, and we are staying in our current house - not moving across town like we had looked into. Most likely, we will be moving again next year, so staying put for now is definitely a good thing!

Juggling

We had such a great time in Orlando last week (as you saw from our photos!) and now it is back to the grind!! We are still awaiting details on Eric's placement with the United Methodist Church, but we will share what we know, when we can. ;) Things are always sort of top-secret until the end of April, when announcements are made about what pastors are moving where. We'll keep you posted though! Until then, Eric is juggling. Juggling his job at the church, his internship at the City Rescue Mission, school, and requirements for the UMC. . . . one of which is a TWO WEEK intense training in Lakeland .. . which just so happens to be during his last two weeks of school, leading up to the day BEFORE graduation. YIKES. He is working out with his professors how exactly that is going to work out. I am sure that it will - it just means a lot of scrambling to get work done early and finals done early and coordinating with people. Stress???? Ohhhh, just a LITTLE bit. (urrggh!) He will hopefully get to come home during the weekend in between (to do laundry at least!) but it will be the longest he has ever been away! I guess that means I will be forced to scrapbook every night while he is away! Then a week or so after graduation, we will all be back to Lakeland for the UMC Annual Conference. So basically, Eric will spend three weeks out of May away from home! And then in June. . .we move! SOMEWHERE.

Please think lots of happy thoughts and prayers for us, and especially for Eric as he tries to balance everything and keep about sixteen balls in the air at once. We are trying to figure out our budget (which isn't pretty) and find a place to live, and keep life in a very delicate balance until everything calms down! (But Eric is going to take a break long enough for us to go see BILL COSBY next week. . .I am soooo excited!!!)

finally . . .okay. . .

Okay, sorry I promised THE SCOOP a week ago, and here it finally is!
Eric is in his LAST semester at Asbury . . .he has two courses on campus(all day Tuesday), one course online, and an internship at the City Rescue Mission that goes along with one of his courses. In addition, he still works part time at our church as the director of the Christian Activity Center, (and resident technology guru, media person, and powerpoint guy on sunday mornings.)
In the midst of all this, Eric has been completing the requirements for the United Methodist Conference, to be placed in a church as a pastor, after graduation. This has been an ongoing process for. .. almost just as many years as he has been in school. It started off with psycological assessments, (just to be sure that he is officially wacky) and lots of meetings, paperwork, and interviews. He has his official confirmation though, and is finishing up paperwork, and I think he has one more board to go before. We think that sometime in April we will find out where we will be placed. It WILL be within the state of Florida. It's POSSIBLE it will be in the northeastern part of Florida. But it COULD be almost anywhere in Florida. We won't be able to share that information as soon as we find out, but by the end of April we should be able to share where we are heading, and July 1st we will be in our new location.
SO, Eric has been JUST a bit busy - and it's going to be a VERY busy few months.
The recap:
-April: we'll find out where we are heading (oh, and i might just be turning 30 too, but don't tell.)
-May: graduation, and probably looking for a place to live, unless the church we are heading to has a parsonage for us, and the UM Annual Conference in Lakeland for a week
-June: hello PACKING
-July: hello new home sweet home.
And I am probably missing about 30 other major events that will happen between then, because that's just how life goes!!! Okay, feel caught up with us!!!????