Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Today's Coffee: Not sure, Thomas made it...

So, yesterday was a really stressful day for me. Dealing all day with kids who had broken bows or bridges and then having a 2.5 hour rehearsal in the evening. Tuesdays are usually long and awful but the Lord put me in a very unique and terrifying situation yesterday afternoon. I had 2 errands I had to run after school - one was to go into downtown New Haven and get my timesheets set up for the after school program and the other was to go to the strings shop and pick up repaired instruments. I knew I didn't have time to do both of these before a 3:45 pm cello lesson I was teaching at the house so I had planned to go do the timesheet thing first. I was nervous about driving the new car because you can usually only parallel park in downtown but I was able to find a close spot. The woman I needed to talk to wasn't there and won't be back until Monday - so I checked my watch and decided that if I hurried I could run by the strings shop and get my instruments. (This is the first interesting change in plans). Now, the street that the shop is on is one way and again - only parallel parking. I usually park at the dentist office and walk - but for some reason I decided that I was going to try to find a spot that I could pull into on this one way street. And again - there is was - it was perfect. This is also very strange that there was a spot to pull into. So, I walked in and chatted a few minutes to find out what instruments were ready and to find out that someone (teacher before me?) had jammed the endpin wooden part into the cello with duct tape. So, that was interesting. I ended up able to take 2 cellos and 1 violin with me. As I was walking out the door this Chinese woman stopped me and wanted to talk about some music program in Hartford. PRAISE GOD I didn't blow her off and continue walking - because 10 seconds later and car can flying out of control down the road - straight towards us. He ran into a car parked on the street which came propelling onto the sidewalk about 20 feet away from where we were standing. I was trying to get back inside the building - but with 2 cellos and 1 violin and a belly the size of a basketball - I couldn't move very quickly. The parked car that was coming for us hit the side of a lamp post which got knocked over and the huge glass bulb on top was shattered and glass was flying everywhere. The out of control car kept going (getting faster) down the sidewalk past us, hit and ran over a tree and finally hit another parked car before it stopped. I was in shock - God had protected me. I would have been right there next to the lamp post walking to the car if that woman hadn't of stopped me. I made sure everyone was getting help and that someone had called 911 before slowing walking back to my car. I got the cellos inside - I was shaking uncontrollably. I called Thomas when it all kind of hit me. I was crying hysterically for a long time. It was really scary. I called and canceled my lesson and got to Thomas as fast as I could. Which wasn't very fast because I drove so slow. So, praise the Lord for my guardian angel. I am so thankful for His protecting mercy yesterday.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 121


In Christ,

Julie

Monday, November 22, 2010

Today's Coffee: Regular with Peppermint Mocha Creamer

Here we are - Monday the 22nd of November. We are so close to Thanksgiving I can already taste the food. And boy o boy will there be food. I'm really excited to be having Thanksgiving at our little home this year - joined by Seth. With this being our last Thanksgiving together without children, I really wanted to cook myself and decorate the table and such. So, we didn't accept any invitations this year and are doing it 100% ourselves. I honestly think that it will be a lot of work, but I cannot wait. The recipes are amazing, the ingredients are waiting to be used and all I can think about is pecan pie and ham. I am not a fan of turkey and my family always did ham until we got a deep fat fryer and started deep-frying the turkey... so, I do a fabulous ham. I plan on starting the day with blueberry pancakes and maple bacon. Then we will go to a Thanksgiving service at the WOPC. We hope to skype the families so that we can see everyone. I am also happy that I get to be 26 weeks preggers for Thanksgiving. My enjoyment of food is crazy - so this will be a real treat. And then we will also spend some time talking about what we are thankful for. The Lord has blessed us in great ways this past year and I thought I would share a few of these things:
1. My salvation - I honestly cannot imagine where I would be today without Christ.
2. The love of my life - Thomas. What a great journey w
e have had thus far in our marriage and I cannot wait to see where we go from here.
3. Wilson Aiken Russell - I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed this pregnancy upon us. There have been some days (and nights) that haven't been the most fun - but every time I feel the little guy kicking- I just realize what an amazing blessing life is.
4. Family - Even though both families are 900 miles away the support that you have given me through the pregnancy is felt everyday.


As I am nearing the end of the second trimest
er - you really start realizing that the baby is really going to one day be in your arms. Scary thought at first, but I mainly get pretty excited now. Wilson kicks almost all day and he does flips and scoots and all kinds of acrobatics. I've told a lot of my students at school (when the ask) that we are naming him.... 'probably Cello' - they really don't know what to think of that and since I have a great dead-pan face they cannot tell if I'm kidding or not.

Thomas just played a recital in Philadelphia this past w
eekend. He did really well and the organ was bee-you-tiful. We didn't a chance to sight-see at all but I was pretty ok with just chilling at the hotel and taking naps. Sigh.
Anyways, it's been a 12 hour day for me. Started at 8:30 and worked until 8:30. Mondays are not the favorite day of the week. I have a half-day on Wednesday - I CANNOT WAIT! So, that's the brief update of our lives.

In Christ,
The Russells