At the beginning of the month, my mom and I went to the birthday party for the three sweetest boys I know! My cousin Mandy has always been so dear to me, and I love seeing her boys. Their birthdays fall in February, March, and April, so it just makes more sense to have a joint birthday party in March. This year's theme was superheroes. Weston turned 5, Caleb turned 3, and Tyson turned 1! Mandy and Logan did such a great job planning the party; the kids had a great time, and there was even a special guest! I'm sad I didn't get more pictures than this, but Weston was Spiderman, Caleb was Batman, and Tyson was Superman.
Mandy's sister Melody is amazing with cakes, and she made a spectacular three-tiered cake for the boys. Since this was Tyson's first birthday, the top tier was his smash cake. Clearly, he worked hard to put a dent in it! He was covered in blue icing by the end :) Such a sweetheart!
We so enjoyed celebrating the boys' birthdays! So thankful for this family!
The next week, I started the partnership class with The Paradox Church. I had been attending the church since January, and having visited a few others before then, I realized pretty quickly that this was where God wanted me. The church is unlike any other I'd attended, having been raised in a traditional Southern Baptist church and then attending two others in college and in Fort Worth. Just to be clear - the beliefs of the church are totally in line with mine, obviously this was the number one priority. The church even states that it's beliefs line up with Baptist beliefs - it just isn't part of the Southern Baptist Convention. The church is an Acts 29 church. It was a church plant out of Cityview Church in Keller, and that church was a church plant out of The Village Church, so the history is kind of cool. I love the preaching, music, and mission of the church. I feel convicted/challenged every Sunday, and I truly feel like I meet with God each week. The natural by-product of this is to help my walk during the week, and I definitely yearn to be closer to God. I joined a City Group pretty quickly and enjoyed meeting new people and being discipled together. The partnership class consisted of two 2.5 hour sessions on consecutive Sunday afternoons, followed up by an interview with one of the elders before covenanting with the church. They take "membership" so much more seriously than other churches I've been a part of. It's not about signing a card, it's about partnering with leadership and covenanting to be a vital/active part of the church. I really appreciated hearing a breakdown of the church's foundation and then how I could serve. I help with Kids City once a month, which of course is something I love doing. All in all, the Paradox Church has been a huge blessing to me already, and I'm so excited to be a part of it.
During this time, I was on a crazy engagement at work. This project should have taken place in January, but it was delayed due to an issue that was uncovered by the client. Unfortunately, once we got started again, the deadline was accelerated and we had no choice but to work around the clock to get the job done. I ended up working 97 hours in a week (Saturday - Friday), after having already worked consecutive weeks of 62, 62, and 76 hours. It was the most miserable experience of my career, one that I never intend to repeat. Working on so little sleep made me worthless by the end of the week - I had trouble answering a simple question. The only positive about the experience was that I got to bond with a Senior Manager out of our Dallas office - she was so great to work with and is an amazing person. She actually became my counselor at work not long after this, which is a very good thing. Anyway, 2013 busy season gets two thumbs down :(.
Because I had killed myself, my boss graciously allowed me to have two days off at the end of the month to get things done. I needed to get measured for a bridesmaid dress and run a few other errands, so I appreciated the time. For quite some time, I had been seriously thinking about buying a house during 2013 instead of renewing my lease. I had considered it in 2012, but I never got my act together to start actively looking into my options. I was tired of living in a one-bedroom apartment, and I really wanted to invest in something rather than continue throwing rent money away every month. My lease was going to be up in July, so I wanted to start looking early to make sure that I gave myself plenty of time. I had already gone through the process of being pre-approved for a mortgage, so I had an idea of my budget and what I was looking for. During one of my days off, my mom and I drove around several areas of Fort Worth, and I thought that I had found the perfect neighborhood, only to have my hopes dashed because the crime in that area was TERRIBLE. After re-grouping, I decided to investigate the first neighborhood we went to, which was in an awesome location right off of I-30 in White Settlement. The house we had driven by was out of my price range (and too big for me), but online they showed that another house was under construction and would be finished by the end of June. It was the perfect size - 3/2 - and it was definitely in my price range.
I immediately emailed the sales rep and inquired as to whether this house was under contract or still available. On the last day of the month, I got a reply that it was available! We started corresponding about the details, and she was so quick to reply to all of my questions. The property definitely seemed like a promising option!!! (more to come in April highlights...)
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