ARGH and not so argh...

I am horrible at correspondence. Some of you know that. HORRIBLE. Which means that I can guarantee (and have already proven thus far) that I will be bad at blogging, which is really just a means of mass correspondence. My biggest roadblock is not knowing what to write. I feel like I have to entertain, and quite frankly, my life doesn't seem all that entertaining. Some people don't find it amusing to read a 16 page blog about how my daughter smeared poop in her bed yet again. I apologize for my lack of entertainment ability (and vocabulary, apparently), and also for the fact that I will have to revert to stories of poop art.

Everytime I talk to one of my friends, they ask me what's new. "Nothing. Nothing is new." is usually my response. Not entirely true, though. Since moving to Tulsa, Chad and I have hit more rough patches than we know what to do with, thanks to the level of stress in our new life here. He is working sometimes as much as 65 hours a week, although not lately, and until recently, I had no income. I did recently start getting unemployment, so we do have a little more income. With our fights have come an unexpected blessing. In fighting, we have learned to be more tolerant of the little annoying things, and we have learned to communicate better in order to avoid those nasty blow ups. I have a really bad tendency to tell what I'll call "mistruths" in order to keep out of trouble, and I think that I have gotten better about not doing that.

Thanks to financial burdens and a deep desire to make friends in our new place, we have put more effort into finding a church home than ever before, as previously noted. I'm not going to lie, part of my motivation for finding a church is that I know that there I will also find friends. Not my only motivation, but it is certainly there. And good news! We think we may have found a church home. Go to www.asburytulsa.org if you want to check it out. It is a mega church. Chapel, 2 story sanctuary, additional worship space for a contemporary service, HUGE children's area, a bunch of classroom learning options, and about a million members (not really, but it certainly seems like it on Sunday morning when you're looking for a parking space). I grew up in a smallish town, in a small church, and this church is soo big. But, the message last Sunday was great, the music was great, and as luck (ok, definitely God) would have it, there is an intensive 34-week Bible study starting in a couple of weeks. What do you know...Chad and I have both always wanted to really study the Bible. Our orientation was on Tuesday, and we start the actual class on the 11th. Please pray for good study habits!

And of course, the final thing that is ALWAYS new is that Hailey is growing and learning every day. I am so proud to take her places, she is well behaved, she's smart, and let's face it, I'm a little vain-she's also very pretty. She repeats everything we say, knows who mommy and daddy are, and she's starting to run (sometimes I long for those days of lugging her around in a carrier, I'll admit it). Parenthood is hard, and being a stay at home mom is even harder. I am so grateful that this opportunity has been provided for me to stay at home and be a bigger part of her development, but I gotta say it, its tough sometimes. (Not just the cooking and cleaning, either!)

Anyway, so that's it...not terribly entertaining, but as we say around here, "that's the poop!" (Ok, no one says that, but I bet you chuckled!!)