One pastor one salary: Not two for the price of one.

This is an idea that I'm not sure if it's old tradition or expectation sinking through, or what, but there's a mix of people in this world that still seem to think that when you hire a pastor you're getting his wife for free. Sorry. Not so. At least not with this pastor and his wife. This is a topic that Jon and I discussed at length towards the end of his time in seminary. As well as something that was made clear when he was candidating at the church he currently pastors. "Veronique is a member. She can be as much or as little involved as she wants to or can do." Everyone was very accepting of this. Someone, granted a great someone, that has joined since we came down here reffered to me today as a "co-pastor". Jon has a great amount of respect and admiration for this woman but he was very quick to set the record straight. I had been feeling a bit of pressure from this lady recently and feeling as though she really thought it was my responsibility to do what Jon does as well. He told her, "Veronique's job is mother, wife and whatever she wants to do in the church. They don't give us two salaries."


AAahhhhhh......

too long, i know

I've been bad..very very bad. I haven't bloged in weeks! I know. The only justification I have is...teething. That's it. I promise I'll be better. It's 10:30pm right now, and I facing the prospect of waking my sleeping baby in a bit to give him more medicine and nurse, praying that it will send him into a painless sound sleep. I hate it when my baby hurts and there's nothing I can do about it.

Here's something to enjoy...please keep in mind that about 5 min before this video was taken Joseph was VERY upset. His gum pain comes and goes. Thank GOD for the distraction of cats!

6 months

Oh...what can happen in 6 months time....

1) Went from only had best friends in other states to having one just a couple blocks away

2) Learned a significant amount of French

3) One of my best friends from High School moved halfway down the country...with his girlfriend, got engaged, moments later his cell phone died due to drowning in the Atlantic, bought a house, lost a job, got a job. Whoa.

4) Seen way too many marriages of people our age go bust.

5) Jon finished seminary, candidated, got hired, we moved, he quit 2 jobs, I quit 1, he started 1 new job.

6) Over 25 sermons.

5) Met two of my closest girlfriends at Gordon..ok so that was about 2 days, but we became very close within 6 months.

6) Got engaged. Got married.

7) Couldn't tell I was pregnant. No WAY I wasn't pregnant by the looks of me.

8) Baby born. Joseph. His being, personality, he laughs, giggles, cries, smiles, almost sitting on his own, eating from a spoon, sipping (sorta) from a cup, rolling over by himself, on and on...

9) From now until Joseph's 1st birthday. He'll be eating food...like the kind we eat...on his own, crawling, probably walking which I'm sure will mean running, eating birthday cake, on and on...

Being Grateful

We had yet another period of freaking out over lack of money. I have this feeling of not wanting much, just be able to pay our bills, food, diapers, gas, and maybe a little extra. I wish we could put away to savings, but even just an occasional pizza or paint for these projects I've been wanting to do for months. We'll get to that point, I know. I have to have patience and I'm naturally patient, so having to try to be more patient is sometimes hard for me. Despite this I know I need to focus on the things that I can get down on my knees and thank God for. In this last time of freaking out over money these things happened within days of each other, all within the last 10 days or so.


A parishioner of the church called and asked if Jon would help her clean out an apartment she rents out: $30/hr. (probably around $200 total)


Jon's car needed to get a lot of work done in order to pass inspection the end of March, I thought it was going to be around $350, first quote was $1,300, went down to $1,248. Literally on the way to pick up the car, Jon got a call from a Minister's Council organization in MA that Jon had been playing phone tag with. He said he could send us $1,000! (note the combination of the last two minus the total car bill = $48 out of our "pocket")


We were sweating doing our taxes. Last year Jon had 3 jobs, one of which was the church which his paycheck doesn't take out taxes. I LOATHE doing taxes. Jon asked a lawyer who does taxes in the church what he would charge to do them for us "I'll do yours for free". He called one night and gave us an estimate of what we would owe. It was a little under what we had saved away. YEAH! The next day he called and said "I found you another $600 last night." Can you say "Hallelujah"?


A friend of ours does a story "hour" (it's 30 min) for 0-2yrs. at the library two times a week and is thinking of cutting back or retiring from it next fall and asked if I might be interested. When I left my job on the North Shore (working for a PT) my boss said "If you need a reference for a health office, just let me know. I'll sing your praises!" I told him I was actually thinking the next job I would try to pursue would be at a library. I truly LOVED every job I did working at good old Jenks (Gordon's Library). This would be not lots of hours, but a little money and Joseph could be with me. Our friend brings her 2 year old and has been doing this for over 10 years. How great is that?!?



Bills still suck, but...

..the Red Sox are opening during Holy Week. My mom is coming up this weekend. My husband is such a wonderful man who is patient, understanding and loves me no matter what, not to mention our beautiful little boy. Seriously, what is more important? Stupid question I know and for all of you that know me well know that for me it's even more ridiculous a question to ask.


So, here are a few pics of the things that matter most to me.



I know I know...he'll hate me for this one one day
The BEST!

Another..THE BEST

Jon and Nathan (our nephew) both on laptops

Nathan, Ashley and Joseph under the fort...cousins are the best!

Martha and Joshua (10 days old)

Big Chechile family party: us 3 with our cousin Jesse

Jon and Aunt Ellen (Mari in the background--more cousins)

Me and Joseph on the 1st of 3 opening days for Baseball.

Always sleep with one eye open...yes he really was asleep.

LETS GO RED SOX! (opening day #2-or attempted opening day, Bos got rain)

Buh...duh....puh...3 down 23 left to go!

Hailey holding up Joseph to keep him from falling over. I love my bear!

and that's just a fraction of all i have to be grateful for. You are all part of it too, miss and love you all!

The bane of my existance

$

'nuf said.

My baby...

...doesn't seem so much like a baby sometimes...

http://www.youtube.com/user/vmchechile

This was his first time eating "solid food" which is basically powdered rice cereal mixed with the best milk on earth. A bit long, but...he's my first son, what can I say?




P.S. NO SPELLING MISTAKES IN THIS POST!!!

Time

It's an amazing thing. It can heal wounds (physical and emotional), things can grow up and shrivel down and even both given enough of it, it take seem to drag on and go to fast, even when the length of a second, minute, hour and day never change.

If you know me and the way my mind works, you know that I am fully capable of thinking of specific situations in my life where I see all of these things happening, interestingly enough, at the same time (sorry couldn't resist).

I'm seeing wounds that are healing (my scar from the c-sect!!) others that are still being laid to friends hearts that in time heal.

...nap time is NEVER long enough...I'll finish this later

An hour and a half later....

There are the best of times, the worst of times. I think both in the same moment describe best watching an infant grow. Every little new thing that Joseph does, and especially those big things (like rolling over or eating cereal for the first time) are so exciting to us. I can't count the number of times Jon and I have said in the past 2-3 weeks, "C'mon...roll over" while making our hands show the motion from Joseph towards ourselves. And when he FINALLY did it!! OH THE JOY! It was SO cool! Yet, that means he's growing up. Next it will be crawling. Something that means baby proofing the house. Caving into to making sure the apartment is clean EVERY moment of EVERY day. I hope that he's not crawling in June, though every time I say that to someone I get this look that says "Yeah, you just keep on thinking that..." I don't want to deal with an 8 and 1/2 month old who wants to crawl down the aisle of an airplane. At the same time, I do know reality. I just don't want to admit it most times. We gave Joseph "cereal" for the first time last Saturday. Now, I'm not talking Cheerios here. We're talking powder rice "cereal" that you mix with milk and it was basically liquid for the first time. We have film up the galore of it. (Anyone know what a "galore" is by the way?) Very exciting. He LOVED it, he knew exactly what to do. But...it's the first step in him not being totally dependent on me. I don't mean that in a selfish way, despite the way it sounds. It's just such an incredible feeling knowing that this little person grew inside of you for so long and truly needs you to survive every day. Having been physically connected at one point makes a Mom never want to let go. As I write that I can't help but laugh at the memory of myself as a teenager rolling my eyes at my not wanting to let me go.

I can't believe this time last year I was almost through my 1st trimester. Now, there are some days that it seems like FOREVER until Jon gets home. (Please note: it's 4:54pm here. Jon said he'd be home at 5pm.) Every minute past 5pm can seem like an eternity if I've had a rough day with Joseph.

My last thought on time. I apologize for letting so much of it go by since my last post.