Insomnia

My insomnia is killing me, getting the best of me, rocking me completely to a new level. I need sleep like no body's business, and my time has not come yet

Merry Christmas

So this year I am not sending out Christmas cards and I am quite sad about that. But, to make up for it, I went crazy with one on here...because length, pictures, price, and even time are all saved by doing it digitally and electronically!

Merry Christmas to your family from ours!

We had a celebratory year in many many ways this year!

Jeff was ordained as a minister in March. He has officiated 2 weddings and one endless counseling since! We then celebrated my birthday in amazing style as Jeff and I took a mini-vacation to Wichita, KS. Then, Jackson turned 3 years old and we had a fantastic day week of celebration for him and potty trained! August rolled around and it was a little nuts, as we celebrated our 5 year anniversary of marriage, Jeff's birthday, and Jeff's 5 year anniversary of being on staff at Grace! Creighton turned 2, so we had 2 parties! Last but not least, we had celebratory weaning of lots of things baby! No more cribs, no more binkies, no more nursing, no more baby anything!
Jackson and Creighton are going to school 2 days a week at Good Shepherd and I love it, and so do they. They are doing fantastic there and learning so much, as well, I get 10 hours a week to get things done or just relax if need be. Next year Jackson will begin pre-pre-K because I am holding him back a year. Creighton will have the teacher that Jackson currently has, whom we all love. I am hoping to put them into gymnastics as soon as Creighton is potty trained! I think it will be a really great fit for both of them and help coordinate them and expel some energy! :)

I am helping out in various places and I love it. I am staying very busy with youth ministry, the kids, the house, doing private volleyball lessons, playing ball, exercising, and odds and ends part time jobs. We also bought a minivan this year and so that has been a huge blessing to us! I am now a "soccer mom"!

Jeff still continues to work very hard to lead the youth in Bartlesville and loves it! He has an assistant this year and that is very helpful for all of us to ease the load and get more kids loved on. As each year passes, he loves what he does all the more! Besides doing youth ministry 24/7, he is serving in various other ways in our community as well. He stays busy, but when he isn't he still loves watching movies and playing games!

We plan to stay in Bartlesville until the Lord calls us away...so glad He hasn't done so yet. We love it here! Our home is awesome and we are SO very very blessed by so many people in our congregation.

Hoping that the Lord blesses you this coming year. Grace and Peace to you all!

Love,

The Bergs

Jeff, Courtney, Jackson and Creighton

Going out with a bang!

Today hasn't been one I would chalk up on my list of good days!

Although the morning started off with the kids sleeping in, that is about where the good stopped. At least for a while.

I wanted to go play volleyball with a bunch of adults, so I got the kids all ready to go and Jeff was going to come too. So we all get in the car. We are heading there and at a stop light a police car was behind us. As I was driving off from the light his lights come on.

I pull over in a church parking lot and reach down to get my license out of my wallet. Guess what? Not there.

That wouldn't be bad, but it got much much worse from there.

Thank goodness Jeff is with me because he had his license (although he wasn't driving) and we had the insurance for the car. The problem would be that, according to the law, technically speaking, our car was considered stolen, and the tags were very expired.

So, I guess my day would be a lot worse if the most severe actions were taken: impound my car and take me to jail.

But the worse part came when we got to the tag agency and they threatened to do the same thing because BOTH of our vehicles were in the same condition...expired tags and not in our name (null and void titles). Oh yeah, and the license plate number we DO have on the Nissan wasn't registered to anyone and wasn't in the system at all.

Again, thankfully, they did not take drastic measures in punishing us, other than financially we are now 1100 dollars in the hole. in the red. broke.

I think it is all just weighing in exponentially because just before we left for Enid this week, we had to get 2 new tires, new brakes, new alignment, new this and that for the car, costing us an arm and a leg (unexpected)

Then our sink pipes/plumbing was leaking all over our kitchen and Jeff spent a ton of hours and 2 trips to Lowe's to fix.

Then our dishwasher broke last night.

Then our oven we had to jerry-rig last night (thankfully not out any money)

On top of an expensive month for us anyway...ugh.

I hate money.

But I am very very very thankfully we have two cars still in our possession and neither of us is spending the holidays in jail.

So, note to all people who didn't know: you need to get the title changed to your name and get new tags immediately after you get a new/used car... it makes sense, but neither of us knew this...at all.

No place like home!

We are home again. Two Christmases down, one to go! We actually fit ALL of our stuff into our minivan this year! I must say I think I should go into the packing business. :) It was a tight squeeze. We were very blessed this Christmas already with LOTS (and lots and lots) of toys, gifts, clothes, money, etc. It is all kinda overwhelming in my living room right now, as we didn't get home till 1am this morning/last night.

I have SOOOOOO much I need to get done in the next few days, with the bulk of it being deadlined today at 5. Ahhhhh.

But there is nothing better than coming home. I love my home, my house, my family, MY BED! And that my kids sleep till later than 6:45 when they sleep in their own beds! :)

I have SO many posts I need/want to write, but for now, I have to get VERY busy...good day all!

Merry Christmas

Bizarre...

This morning about 6am or so I hear this muffled whine. Then a few seconds later I hear it again but longer. Then I hear it again and I am really awake now. I am trying to figure out if it is Jeff or one of the kids or what on earth it is.

Finally the whine becomes a cry and I realize it is certainly not Jeff, nor is he even appearing to hear it even though it was coming from his side of the bed .

So I get up and I am in pitch darkness, as well, completely blind. I go over to his side of the bed and can hear Creighton crying but I can't find her. I am feeling around and beginning to worry. I felt her feet finally and just assumed I couldn't see her or feel her body somehow, but then I realized her WHOLE body is under the bed except for her feet.

I don't know HOW in the world she got under there, but she was stuck. I also don't know WHEN she got there. I didn't hear anything until she started to whine. She had lines on her face like she'd been there a long time. HOW did this happen? WHY did she go under the bed? I don't know any of these answers.

But I do know that our frame is broken on the foot end of our bed and it really freaked me out. She could have been crushed. I woke Jeff up carefully telling him to roll towards my side of the bed slowly because Creighton was stuck under his side of the bed. As soon as he rolled over she was able to get wiggle herself out. She was so scared. I don't think she knew where she was. I really want to know how long she was there too...but I am just glad she is okay and wasn't crushed or really stuck...

...and goodness knows what is UNDER our bed...not me and I make it a point to rarely look under there just in case! :)

Thankfully I got her to go back to sleep in her bed and she even slept till 9!

But the whole thing was just so bizarre!

Ahhh...I have so many posts that I want to write and one that is actually already started. I just haven't had much time to sit down at the computer the last several days. I am hoping they have school tomorrow so I can get lots of things done. But stay tuned because they are going to be great!

To Come:
Christmas Letter
Pictures Galore
First Snow Day Fun!
Sweet Sibling Moments
Bizzare...

Can you change tags? I did

There are these photo tags going around, and the one I am tagged for (well kind of) was for the #4 but my photo was boring, so I decided to do #7 because I can :)

But here it is anyway. It was Jeff taking silly pictures for something he was doing (probably Christmas party with staff and elders). But that is the really awesome Frank Phillips Home, if you are ever in Bartlesville, it is worth the tour!
So since that one wasn't NEARLY as cute as the one below, here is my....7th Picture.

(sorry honey)

She was probably about 5 or so months old. I am not sure exactly because it wasn't in a labeled folder, just a random one without dates. She really liked this mat. It was hard for me to leave her there long though because Jackson (only being 1 yr. himself, really thought it was meaning she was suppose to PLAY with him). I love this smile!

7th Picture in the 7th Folder in your PICTURES. Then tag 7 people...

I tag anyone who wants to join in. It's fun to look and then of course, just post for us to see. The rules state no cropping or editing, but hey, just have fun...

Tragedy

The Saturday after Thanksgiving there was an accident and 3 youth were in the vehicle that rolled numerous times. One was pronounced dead on the scene. One was life flighted to Tulsa. One walked away with only scratches and bruises.

Today the other young man died.

2 very young and bright TEENS. It's hard to choke out.

The youth of Bartlesville still haven't quite recovered from Scott's death and I do believe that hoping for Eric is what was holding them all together. And now, even their hope for that is gone. It is so hard to try to comfort them. Especially those whose True Hope isn't God. And even then, at 13-18 years of age, who am I kidding--any age, it's just hard.

I hurt for my girls, the youth of bville, the families of Eric and Scott. Death is no fun ever, but no one should have to bury their child...

I know that our God is Sovereign and He has a plan. I know that our God has gone before us, down this very road when His Son died, and he watched him being buried. For some reason that gives me a small amount of comfort, enough to be able to attempt to comfort them.

It's just awful

Nicknames

I used to call Creighton "Maynard" when she was a baby. I don't know why. For fun, let's blame it on my severe postpartum. Everyone, especially my mother, HATED it! But, not unlike myself as child OR MY DAUGHTER NOW , that seemed to fuel the name on more and more. It just rolled off my tongue.

Occasionally I still call her that, but not often. Now, I call her RaeRae, lovie, or Peanut. I don't know where any of those names came from either, but I REALLY like nicknames (precisely because I never had one, except to my uncle and cousin, which I hated the name, but loved the attention of having a special name :)--I know I am weird).

Well anyway, whenever I call Creighton "Peanut" lately she gets a big smile on her face and says: "I yous Peanut, Bubba yous Jwelly" It is pretty much awesome! I love it.

The Many Faces of Rae Rae

This girl...well she has my heart and she above all else in the world knows how to drive me mad...all in the same little tiny body. She has lots of personality. LOTS. She is awesome. Here are some of her many faces. She is hilarious!

I swear she falls asleep in the most awesome ways EVERY night, but I don't always take pictures :)

Priceless...

"oh yeah, watch me..."

she was JAMMING out...

oh yes, and the best for last. today she fell asleep in the car in her coat and so i put her in her bed for naptime without taking it off. she took the longest nap she's ever taken in her life and did not want to take the coat off after she got up either. i was trying to take it off and she threw a fit :)

Pinwheels

I rarely ever am creative, but today I decided to try. I had an idea in my head to make a Christmas tree out of Pinwheels. I tried this recipe and this one too. I made one in green tortillas and one in red tortillas and I "shaped" them into a tree. I am just sad I didn't get a picture. I do think Caroline got one though, so hopefully she'll get me a copy :) Either way they were quite good and I was impressed with my idea for my tree



We had our 1st ever Apples of Gold Christmas party. It was quite fun although I certainly wish more people could have shown up for it, but I know so many things are constantly going on throughout the entire month of December!



Good friends, great food, great fellowship...gotta love it. I was needing a refresher night today too! So that was double helpful!

Bell Curve Anyone?

I am still learning. Everyday. About myself. About life. About love. About friendships.

It's not all fun, it's not all good. But the learning is. I hope I am getting wiser and better as the days go by. I know I don't have it all even CLOSE to figured out, so why do I find myself pretending so often?!

I am in love with my hubby and my babies today. That is a good day no matter what happens, right?!

I am so thankful!

I am so thankful...

...to be home.

...for family.

...that my babies are safe.

...for heat.

...for amazingly delicious food that we ate for dinner.

...for grace.

...for friends.

...for love.

...for blogging.

...for a cell phone that works now.

...for laughter.

...for digital photography. (and photoshop)

...for you...yeah, Y-O-U!

Wedding Pics.

Jeff's younger sister got married today. It was a beautiful ceremony and everything went AMAZING. Jackson was IN the wedding, and did a FANTASTIC job! I was SO proud of my little handsome man! He did exceptional. :)


Sibling love...they do this a lot! I love it and can't get enough. It's both of them randomly that initiate it...

Wasn't her dress cute. Glad she looked so cute. She was quite the devil and wild child. Thankfully she didn't stay long as the wedding was during nap time and she went home with the inlaws to crash while we enjoyed the wedding in peace.

This is the best I got of the two of them together.

this was second best if that tells you ANYthing...the others were AWFUL.

except this one...yeah for big group family pic that actually turned out decent! :)

(L to R)*Creighton, Jeff, Courtney, Jackson, Jeff's Dad, Debbie, Steph and Matt, Bree, Brent, Jennifer, Jessica, Layne

Mr. Handsome himself!

This was him on our way to rehearsal. He HAD to wear a tie. And he was very upset we wouldn't let him wear his tux (which he calls his "tuss"). And he wants to wear his tux to church tomorrow. He really liked the attention he got in it I guess.

I wonder if one day this might be funny...

...because, right now, it's not and I am just embarrassed.

Monday morning as I was getting ready to go, the kids were playing in our room. They have two drawers that have things they can play in by my bedside. One of the drawers, however, contains MY personal things I like having by my bed. Of course, some of those things are more personal than others...

As I was putting on my makeup I noticed that they were in the wrong drawer and pulling all sorts of things out. I noticed they were also playing quietly and not pulling on my legs and so I did nothing.

I remember saying to myself "I really need to check and see what they were doing exactly and what they were playing with...", but in the midst of trying to get everyone out the door for school I forgot.

As I was picking Jackson up from school, he started cleaning out his cubby with LOTS of random items. My mind wasn't totally in it as I was just collecting them all for him as he was putting them in my open hand.

Monday will be known as the day my THREE year old son went to school with a condom in his pocket!

Yeah, read that again...

I am mortified.

Wild Night Photo Style

We had a wild and crazy, and VERY FUN evening! I didn't start taking pics till the end (and video) but we tried on EVERY single costume we own! It was awesome. They were hilarious. I wish I wouldn't have been so lazy and taken pics of it all, but with the last ones we had a dance party and it was so much fun. One day I might upload some video...these will have to wet your tastebuds for now. :)

and if this isn't my husband, I don't know what else is!