Summer is almost over!

Well its been quite a while since I’ve wrote in here. Can’t say a LOT has happened but we certainly have been busy.
Can’t believe that summer is almost over. This is our first summer here in CO and I can’t count how many times Kels and I have said, “ Boy I sure don’t miss those AR summers! LOL I wonder how many summers we will say that. One interesting thing is that a few Saturdays ago we looked out at the mountains and there was fresh snow! IN AUGUST!! Now that was a new one for me. We really love it here, and we have settled in so well and really feel like this is home.
Kelsey is in the process of looking for a new job. So far nothing. He is wanting a something a little more steady and we need ins, so if you are reading this please send up a prayer that he finds something soon. Right now he has been sending apps to some school’s to work on the computers. So far we haven’t heard anything but he was warned that they drag their feet about getting back to you, so he is trying to be patient.
Donavan is doing excellent!! He is HUGE!! He is wearing 4T shirts and 3T pants, size 9 shoe! He weighs about 32 lbs and he is 34 in tall. He is on a banana kick, its really funny. He was doing really good about saying banan or something like that but he is trying really hard to say it right. Since he was tiny we have let him watch some DVD’s I have on learning sign language and he is in this new kick of everything he says he wants to sign too. Its really great, we sit and go thru them several times a day it seems. Today he has been working really hard on apple. The great thing about it all is a few nights ago I think it was 9:30 or so, he came in our room with a blanket wrapped around him and said juice and starting signing good night. He was ready for bed, so we got his sippy and told him good night. We signed good night and sleep and I love you several times back and forth til he was happy and he went to sleep! So now we sign several diff words every night before he will go to sleep. To tell me he loves me he crosses his arms, we haven’t got them to the chest yet but its just so cute! He tells me just about anything he wants to eat saying it and signing it. He is trying very hard to learn some hard words like flower and elephant, its really cute. He points to the pic and then watches my mouth very closely for how I say it and tries to copy me. Flower is wower and he still isn’t sure about elephant but he is working on it. Sheep is shep and sit is more of a cuss word but he tries lol. His all time fav is HOT! He knows whats HOT and whats not so he walks up to things and sticks out his hand, he won’t touch them just to check to see if they are hot or not and he tells me if its hot. We have a lady in our church who is a licensed therapist and is a social worker. We were talking the other night about how Donavan is doing and she was impressed at how many signs and words to go with those signs that he knew. One day I was watching a you tube of some ppl signing a song and Donavan got so excited about it. I really hadn’t thought about letting him watch that kind of thing.
He also counts very well all the way to ten. Its cute, sometimes he leaves out a few numbers but for the most part he does them all. HE loves to say OH OKEY about everything, its his way of saying I heard you but I don’t want to do it. He has been fake crying lately, I don’t know why yet but we came home from shopping and Donavan was just in the house doing something and I was trying to put stuff away as Kels brought it in, and Donavan let out this wail and I though he had gotten hurt so I went running down the hall. He was mad because his ball was stuck in the door and he couldn’t get it out. So I said you want something to cry about, and I swatted him and said there is something to cry about you can’t just scream like that when you aren’t hurt. As I walked back down the hall I could hear Kelsey laughing outside. I know I sounded like a true parent!! But he was crying as if there was blood all over til he saw me.
Donavan doesn’t call me mom or mama or mommy, its Umma, and Kelsey is Diddy. He has said mama and daddy for a long time and now he calls us this, its really cute and he thinks he’s being funny about it.
The music Dept, is doing really wonderful. We’ve added four new ones since I last wrote in here. Two new tenors and an alto and a soprano. They are doing really well and catching on quickly We are still having weekly choir practices, I’ve you tube’d several of our songs. Kelsey is also doing individual vocal lessons, and those are coming along really great. We were supposed to start piano lessons this month and it just hasn’t panned out for some reason or another. Hopefully they will be worked in this Sept. We are singing at Mile High Praise Fest in Denver this next month. We are excited about doing that. We are doing two songs that I think will go over every well. Once that is over we are going to start working on Christmas songs. I know that sounds crazy to start so early but once the holidays get here everyone gets so busy and you are usually in a rush to work on whatever songs you want to do. So I decided to go ahead and start on it early so we can go slow and not work on a bunch at one time. I am VERY excited about starting on that. We are going to do a lot of really great ones with new twists to them. I really love Christmas!! And I am more than excited about putting this all together. Which is a good thing HA!
One thing that has been so totally awesome is how well we mesh with our Pastor and family. It seems service after service everything just seems to flow together. For instance working on this past Sunday, it was kind of hard. There were a few songs we wanted to do but neither of us felt like we needed to do them for this service. Then Kels said I really think we need to do I Feel the Joy because I can’t get that song out of my head. So we wrote it down and couldn’t figure out what to do around that song or before that song, so we let it sit for a bit and went about our day. Kelsey kept telling me all day I feel a preaching spirit on me, and I kept saying ok, but he wouldn’t elaborate on it. So finally I said, well what do you feel like God is wanting you to say? Do you feel led to shed some revelation, or to encourage and uplift or what exactly. He kept saying I’m not really sure. So we got to talking and I said something about it seems like every time we’ve sang this song here it really hasn’t went over well. I don’t think ppl are understanding what a jubilee is. ( We have a LOT of new saints in our church and we get a LOT of visitors and jubilee isn’t a word you use everday) maybe you can explain what that song is talking about. And he said I don’t know but I really feel like God is wanting me to preach a little bit. So we kept looking and all the sudden I’m Gonna Dance popped into my head. Several months ago I really felt led to have my aunt learn this song. For some reason I just kept feeling like she needed to sing this song, and when she sang it the place would explode. Now I don’t get these feelings often but I just knew this would happen.
Anyway Kels called Lisa and said, can you do it? Kelsey was feeling I Feel The Joy strongly and I was feeling I’m Gonna Dance strongly so we went with it.
Well once the ball started rolling it was still feeling right til we got to prayer request time. As the needs were being lifted (there was a lot, we have a lady in our church who was just diagnosed with cancer and some new ladies are really burdened for their lost loved ones, and there were many others) The service kind of shifted and started slowing down to a deep crying out to God. Now this has happened b4, Kels and I feeling like we needed to rejoice and then in the middle of the service kind of freak out thinking, oh no I really missed it this time!!! After prayer Bro Greg makes announcements and starts letting our visitors know how happy we are that they are here. And every time during this it seems like the Holy Ghost just starts shifting and stirring all around the room, and things just start lining up for whats about to happen next, that’s the only way I can explain it. So when they took up the offering the music started in and everyone seemed ready to rejoice. As they started singing, it was like the Holy Ghost came in the room like a flood over the people, and sure enough the place went up! They were singing I Feel The Joy and Kelsey stopped and started to give a revelation on this song and from where I was ( In the sound booth) it looked like lights were coming on over the peoples heads and when they started back up, the saints started dancing and rejoicing over the joy of the Lord. And then they went to I’m Gonna Dance and poof, that was it! I looked over and the ladies that went up for prayer were in a circle dancing and rejoicing. (ok I’m crying as I write this! It was just so awesome) Both songs were about I’m tired of the devil thinking he has control over me so I’m gonna kick my shoes off and dance for victory over the situation that I am in RIGHT NOW because I know that GOD is in control!!!
And this is how every service has been, just confirmation after confirmation that we are in tune with God and what is needed for each service. Please don’t think I’m bragging because I’m not. I seek God all week for every service and I spend hours putting the songs together making sure they all flow well and that it is what is needed, and every time Bro Greg gets up and preaches about something we have sang or we have a blow out like this past Sunday. Its really weird because when we sit down to plan, Sunday to Sunday seem to flow from where we left off from the last Sunday, and Wed to Wed flow from where we left off the Wed b4. I don’t know if this is normal for churches, but I find it very interesting how it doesn’t flow from one service to the next like Sunday to Wed to Sun. We have been doing a lot of contemporary songs, which is not Kelsey’s fav. But we like to keep a wide veriety to please everyone. He is doing better about it but still doesn’t like learning them. He said there is no progression chord wise, it just goes in a loop and he has a hard time figuring them out, whereas gospel music progresses and has syncopation, which to me the loop would seem easier cuz your doing the same thing over and over but what do I know right! Lol I don’t play so I really can’t say which is easier. There are several that I really like tho. I listened to a lot of contemporary in my early teens but slowly stopped and changed to S. Gospel. And Kelsey has slowly went from Black Gospel so a little S Gospel, so we have quite the variety going on let me tell ya. I can not tell you how many hrs I have set and just listened to song after song finding stuff for us to sing as praise songs to find that balance. I feel that it is SO important to make sure that there is a little for everyone. Kelsey feels the same way of course, and he is doing so much better about it all HA!
As for what I’ve been doing with my personal time, well there isn’t much of that by the end of the day. Which is why its been so long since I’ve wrote in here. I’m way behind in my reading books. Donavan wants to look and touch everything with me, its gotten to where I can barely eat with out him in my plate taking everything I have. He thinks all my food is his food even if he doesn’t like it. I almost feel like I have to hide to eat because it seems like mine is always better to him LOL! I told Kelsey I get a lot every time, not because I’m that hungry but because Donavan keeps stealing it all! HA He really loves noodles, oh my goodness he could live on it if I let him. And he wakes up saying cookie. He thinks all ice cream is his. I haven’t told him what ice cream is (as in this is ice cream, want a bite) because I don’t think he would ever stop asking for it. One day I had fixed myself a hot dog and he came up to the counter took the hot dog out of the bun and ate it all and came back and stole another one from me before I could eat it! It was kind of funny and kind of not because I was hungry and I kept having to go warm myself up another hot dog LOL. I have been taking a lot of pix lately. And not just of Donavan. I’ve been asked to do pix for two diff families lately and that is very exciting. I will have to upgrade my cam here soon if I keep this up! Not that I would mind lol
Well its extremely late and my eyes are crossing!
Hopefully I won’t wait to long to write in here again