T minus 10 Hrs.. and counting...

As many of you know, who know me or read my blog section "the FUN life of youth ministry." know that I'm a youth pastor. I absolutely love my job. I love Jr High and Sr High kids! They are so much fun to hang around (and i'm sure the fact that I act like both groups at times helps ;)
With the Sunday and Wednesday programs also comes the fun extra activities, and what would a New Years be without a LOCK-IN.. yes i said it, Lock-In..where you stick me in a church with 200+ students and say "good luck see ya in the AM" haha.
Monday evening starting at 9pm the doors of the church will lock and my body will start to panic trying to go into sleep mode around 10pm ;) Have I said yet that I love my job?? ;) For some reason, the older I get the more I just can't stay up all night. As I'm writing this blog, it's about 11pm and my eyes are struggling to stay awake. haha. When I do lock-in's I'm usually grumpy by morning, sleep deprived, and I look like death that just came up out of the grave. (great visual I know) :)
HOWEVER, with all that being said, IT'S NOT ABOUT ME :) it's about the students! And if they will have a blast and hear a message about the amazing gift of grace and forgiveness through a Lock-In, then bring on the Lock-In's. If there is only one person tomorrow night who hears the message of Salvation and comes to a relationship with Christ, then the whole night and sleep deprivation is totally worth it. :) I will be taking pictures throughout the evening and then on Jan 2nd or 3rd I will post the damage :)
Here is the start of the Lock-In Prep......

First off, we had to drive to Wichita to get some inflatables. (A fun road trip for the husband and I, AND we got a dinner with my family out of the deal.)

 A big Thanks to "Big Sky Party Rentals" for being so awesome. If you ever need inflatables for some event, they are the people to go through, they are wonderful and are so helpful. We rented a "obstacle  course" called the "Adrenalin rush" (i'll be needing that at 2AM) and we rented a "bungie run".

We had a great view of the Kansas sunset as we were driving. 

The music for the evening....

Our students are such a talented group of students. Main Event Praise Band will be leading us in worship a few times during the lock-in, and so today was practice day! They sound amazing!!! I'm so proud of each one of them. 

And here is the obstacle course AKA: Adrenalin Rush. I'm excited to try this one out !!! 

So that is our Pre-Lock-In prep. Monday morning and afternoon I am heading to Wal-Mart and SAMS for lots of fruit (to compensate for the loads of sugar that students will be intaking), granola bars, chips, soda, gatorade, and muffins, and more fruit for breakfast the next morning. It's going to be a long day, and I will make sure to take pictures of my adventure as I gather it all. Then at 8pm it's a meeting with my amazing leaders who signed up to either help all night or just for a few hrs. (either way they all are AWESOME!!) and then at 9pm It's LOCK-DOWN.. I mean, Lock-In :) haha

:) I do love youth events, and doing what I love,  we are going to have such a BLAST!! 

One man's trash, is another man's treasure!

So this past Christmas, my husband and I went to a Christmas party where they had a white elephant gift exchange. Each couple was to bring a good gift (under $5) and a crappy gift. Ben and I weren't so lucky and were one of the couples that went home with 2 crappy gifts. So after wondering around Hobby Lobby tonight looking for some ideas of how to decorate my house after I take all the Christmas decorations down, I came across an idea! Here is what I came up with...

So this was the lovely picture frame that I received as a white elephant gift... Now I know that someone worked really hard on this cross stitch gift (great job and props to you) , but the colors and theme of the pic just wasn't gonna work out in my house, so I decided to craft it up a bit with some things that I had laying around my house. :) 

I went downstairs to my husbands stash of spray paint and found some Primer, Red Gloss, and some Chalk  Board paint (the chalk board paint is mine:) ) 

STEP 1: Take the glass out of the frame. Place the frame on some newspaper (that way you don't have a lovely design on your counter when you are done) haha. And spray the Primer on your picture frame. Let it dry and if needed apply a second coat. 

Here is what your frame will look like after the primer is on...

STEP 2: While the primer was drying I decided to spray paint the glass. Take the chalk board spray paint (or even the chalk board paint you get in a can) and apply it to the glass. I made sure to clean the glass with window cleaner before applying the spray paint that way it gets all the dirt, and dust off of it for a smooth clean surface. 

Here is what it looked like after I spray painted the glass. 

 Once the Primer is dry (which only took a few minutes..ok maybe 5 or 10 min but I was doing laundry in the middle of my craft time so it didn't seem like that long ) haha. 

STEP 3: Apply the colored spray paint. Now you can use whatever color or finish you would like. I used a Red Gloss because I have red accent colors in my house and gloss was the kind that we had in our basement. But either Matte or Gloss finish will work. 

This is what your frame will look like after you spray paint it the color you want. Now this one took a bit longer to dry. I actually put a fan on both the chalk board glass paint, and the frame to speed up the drying process. 

And Ta-Da now you have a nice chalk board with a cute frame. :) 

Here is what I did with mine :) I saw a sign like this in Hobby Lobby and thought it was super cute, and figured why buy it when I can make it :) 

 a more head on view

And there ya have it, a super easy and quick project that you can do in between loads of laundry to pass the time by :) 

Christmas with the Fager's!

I hope you all had a great and wonderful Christmas with your friends and family! I know that I absolutely LOVE the time that I get to spend with my family! Christmas Eve was the start of a great few days! At First Covenant Church we had 3 services 6:30;8;11:00pm. I was honored and blessed to be able to read Luke 2:1-20 at all 3 services. It was a great time to celebrate the birth of Jesus with the church family and friends! Paul and the band did a great job leading us in songs of worship, and we ended with a candle lit song. It was a wonderful evening. After the 3rd service, Ben and I then headed to Wichita to spend Christmas morning with the Fager family!!!... enjoy these pictures as you get to see the crazy and fun Fagers :) 

It was great to have a candle lit song and everyone singing "Silent Night" 

Ben and I on Christmas Eve! 

 HOORAY, IT'S CHRISTMAS MORNING...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 

Ben and I were woken up by my (very soon to be) sister-in-law's dog "Daisy" She just found a comfortable spot on Ben's shoulder. 

Now I don't know about traditions in your home, but at my parents house we all as kids gather together and then come downstairs together to open up stockings. It's so fun watching everyone open up their stockings to find out what Santa left :) 

 Daisy wanted to get in on the action so she just jumped up on the couch and made herself at home. 

I absolutely love coming home and seeing the house decorated for Christmas. My mom does such a great job of making the house warm and cozy. 

This is our Christmas tree, full of ornaments that my brothers and I have made over the years. It's so fun to look around the tree and see what we have made. Let me tell you, we are GREAT ornament makers. Especially the ones we made in the 1st grade :) 

Santa's little helper! We needed to have someone give everyone their gifts from under the tree and sort them out, so Matt was designated as the elf. 

 

It's fun watching everyone open up their gifts! We go in order from oldest to youngest! And everyone opens up on gift at a time. We like to prolong the excitement as much as possible! 

Yahzi was already exhausted after being up for an hr already. So she decided to sleep in my dad's arms. She absolutely LOVES my dad! 

And what is Christmas opening gift time without a fire?? This kept us warm, although now that I think about it, I should have brought some marshmallows!!  

So this wall doesn't have anything to do with Christmas, but I absolutely love this wall and these pictures. I like seeing how much we have grown, and where we are at today, and knowing that when we were that young, God knew what he wanted to do with us, and now we are each living out his will for our lives. 

 Even all 3 dogs got Christmas gifts. They each got TREATS, and I'm pretty sure they loved them. 

 
 

 

This is my dog!! Yahzi... she is a min-pin (miniature doberman pincher) I love her to death. 

This was some spice that my mom had made. You put some things together in a pot, add water, and heat it on the stove, and you house smells AMAZING! You just keep adding water, super simple!! 

 
Festive Placemats for the dinning room. 

My brother and his beautiful girlfriend Jaimie!! They are such a cute couple, and perfect for each other :) 

What's Christmas without some Hot Chocolate!! DELICIOUS. 

The men hard at work putting some Christmas presents on the truck. 

SANTA!!!! I KNOW HIM!!!! 

When we were little we would put out Milk and cookies out for "santa" AKA: Dad ;) then one Christmas Santa left us a message saying " Dear Fager Kids, you have all been really good this year, and I liked the cookies, but if you could put out a Pepsi instead of milk that would be great and I may give you more presents next year." haha Oh Dad!! :) 

Gotta love the old school picture with Santa! (Michael, Marcus, Matt, and Melissa) 

                                     

So it's a tradition that the day after Thanksgiving we go to JCPenny's and get the free snow globes. We have done this for the past 8 years I believe. Well this year we were sad to find out that JCPenny's no longer is doing the snow globes :( Our hearts were crushed.. so Allie (Michael's Fiancé) decided to take a pic of the 2 of them and put it in a snow globe so that way Michael could still have the tradition of the snow globes. :) She is such a sweetheart, and knows my brother well :) 

Matt and Jaimie also exchanged their gifts. It was so fun watching them open their gifts. They are such a great couple and know each other well, and have been dating for 4 or 5 yrs i think haha.. not sure but I know that it's been a long time) :) A ring is in their future I believe; )  Jaimie is a runner and she got running shorts and a shirt. Matt is a country man, and got a really nice shirt that fits his style.  

My husband chilling out on the couch "bonding" with Yahzi. 

How can you not love this face? :) 

Grandma and Grandpa opening up gifts! 

Some pictures of the animals :) 

 We had to get a all kids picture. (Marcus, Ben, Matt, Melissa, Michael, Allie, Jaimie, and cousins Ethan, Micah, and Alycea Unruh.) It's a blast when we all get together. We are missing my cousin Ben and his new wife in this pic :( 

It's also tradition to build a human pyramid. I decided that us girls can definitely hold these boys on top of us. And we were successful!!! 

The dogs just wanted some loving so they decided it would be a great idea to kiss us all who were on the bottom row. Yahzi is under me, Daisy, and Trooper were all wanting to be apart of the picture. 

Micah started to wobble..but we held strong. 

Michael then decided that it was going to be fun to just take Marcus and I to the ground so what did he do???......

...he took us to the ground. :) 

 Us kids with the Grandma and Grandpa

And then we added my mom and dad 

My parents are adorable... even after 28 years of marriage they are still very much in love with each other. What a great example of a Godly marriage they have shown my brothers and I. We are blessed. 

The Blunks: Aunt Twyla, Grandma, Grandpa, Mary (mom), 

(we are missing Aunt Diana, and Uncle Jim in this picture)

I hope you have enjoyed looking at some of the people who mean the world to me, and just seeing how Christmas was at the Fager household. There is never a dull moment when my family gets together. :) I hope that you all have many awesome memories that you made with your families as well this past Christmas. May God bless you all. 

Time to Celebrate NEW YEARS!!!! Get ready for 2013. I'm ready to see what God has in store for my family and I this coming year.