Things That Make Me Up-Chuck

Whit and I recently upgraded to the ever trendy, awesome, handy, (near-idolatrous, in fact) iPhone. I've been waiting and waiting to get this phone. No lie, ask Brian Barton. So here's where God kindly reminds me that my joy comes not from the created, but the Creator! :)

The story on my iPhone . . . We both upgraded at the ATT store, immediately had to go to an annual meeting of Baptists in Enid. At the meeting, I had to 'use the room.' The iPhone slipped out of my chest pocket and into the toilet, no lie, within the first two hours of owning the dang thing. I immediately grabbed it - gross - and dried it off. It worked through the meeting, but then quit working when we got home. I googled some remedies and found a possible, slight chance of fixing it: I put it in a bag of rice over night, and to this point, it works. . . except the camera, the shutter won't open...

Aaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh!

But for now, I am enjoying the multifaceted quality of our iPhones . . . God, you are the joy of my heart, not this piece of machinery, but Lord can I keep it?

A New Method of Putting Your Baby to Sleep (Bryan in Training)

We thought we'd share the latest adventure in the Life of the Laramore's:

First, Whit's current daytime responsibilities are taking care of two little girls, one is 4 months old and the other is 18 months old. This is perfect for the time being, for it affords me (Bryan) some practice before we begin having our own children. The other day, we were playing with the little one when Whit says to me, "Hey, will you put her on your shoulder so she can go to sleep." So, with a little look of confusion, I take Lil' E, that's what we call her, and put her on my shoulder, though, not how you moms are thinking . . . I took her and placed her up on my shoulder, like she was sitting in a chair . . . my shoulder being the chair!!!!

Whit turned around, looked at me in hysterical confusion and said, "What are you doing!?!? I meant lay her on your shoulder so she'll sleep!" My bashful response? "Oh . . . right . . . I'll get right on that . . ."

We had a good laugh at that one.

A follow up on that story: Lil' E's mom thought it was hilarious, so much so, that she came back into the Sanctuary yesterday after worship, holding Lil' E up on her shoulder, and said, "We just wanted to say by!" We laughed . . .

Welcome to the Neighborhood

As it has been FAR TOO LONG since last posting, this one will include pictures.

Here is our new life . . .

The Hacienda. Front and back of the house, the garden, and our pup Cocoa:

The Church and the Summit House (our all purpose building/coffee house/youth room/etc:

And OSU Nation:

Week One

This past week was our first full week in Ames. The house is great, the church is great, the office is great! We went to Ok City for our first hospital visit. I'll be honest, it was different walking into a hospital, not as a friend, but as a pastor. A strange, but full feeling!

We're really enjoying the pace of life up here. Easy going, good conversation, gotta love it.

We're still working on the house, we don't have a dining room table yet or bedroom furniture . . . well, we do have bedroom furniture, but we're going to buy a new bedroom suit (is that how you spell that) as our "welcome home" gift to ourselves. So, we will post pictures, as the previous post stated, just not yet . . .

Grace

A Good Start

Our official first Sunday at Ames Baptist Church was a great day.  We met so many great folks and had a great time.  We got to sleep in our new house for the first time.  It was quite strange really, we've gotten so used to only having one door that I kept thinking, did I lock both the FRONT and BACK door?  Oh, people, can I tell you how happy we are to have life size kitchen, a real fridge, a dishwasher, our own washing machine and dryer . . . AND MORE THAN ONE BATH ROOM!

It's great little place that in no time we'll make our cozy little home.

We're going to have little place tilled up for a garden . . . yep, that's what I said, a garden. Can't wait!

Also, "for the first time in my life I can proudly say that I am an American." Oh wait, that's not what I said, that's what our First La-- . . . oh never mind. :)  Anywho, I am proud to say that  "I have a yard." A man ought to have a yard to take care of.  And we have one. . .sweet.  Now Whit will just have  to see if her hubby can handle it . . . :)

Pictures of the empty house to come . . . to be followed later by pictures of our house with furnishings.

We move our stuff in this weekend, we'd appreciate prayers for safe travel.

Grace

Are Those Wedding Bells I Hear?!?!

The only thing better than returning from your honeymoon to open all of your wedding gifts . . .

is returning to your storage place THREE YEARS LATER only to re-open over a third of your unused, unopened, untouched wedding gifts!

This Memorial Day Weekend, we made our way to Holdenville, America for an annual family reunion. As we've been planning and preparing for our move to Ames, OK, we've been looking forward to picking up "the few" wedding gifts that we temporarily left home when we moved into our HUT. . . err . . . eh em . . . pardon me . . . our Student Village apartment at SWBTS ;) You know what I'm sayin'!

Anyhow, three years can really work over a person's memory! When we opened Whit's Grandma's garage, we were quickly struck with the realization that we had left many of our wedding gifts behind simply because our apartment couldn't hold everything! Here are some of the items we'd left behind, but are now greatly looking forward to using in our "new" home in Ames!

Well, It's Official

Our immediate future has been solidified.  We are now officially going to serve as pastor of Ames Baptist Church in Ames, OK.  We preached in view of a call this past Sunday and were excited to learn that they had a unanimous vote, "Yes!"  

The plan is to start on Sunday, May 31st!  We will have to do a little bit of back and forth between Fort Worth and Ames for Whit to finish school and complete a training session she has been obligated to for some time now.  

So, here is our summer schedule:

May 31st - June 13th: Living in Fort Worth, but traveling to Ames on the weekends

June 14th - July 5th: Staying in Ames

July 6th - July 31st: Living in Fort Worth, commuting to Ames on the weekends

August 1 and beyond: permanent residents of Ames, OK!!

Any prayers are much appreciated!  We'll update as time goes on.