First post ever

Ok so I'm new to this blogging thing....I'm not sure why I'm doing it (I didn't wake up today and go hmmm the world needs another blogger: ME!), except that I think God wants me to blog about being a Christian single mom in today's world. All of my struggles, successes and what have you I think are supposed to go into this blog. So here it is for all of you to read, my dirty laundry, my deepest darkest secrets, my fears, my fantasies (don't get too excited), my dreams, my hopes, my laughs and my tears.
So a little about myself. I'm a 33 year old single mother of one amazingly cute 3 year old boy. We live in Iowa, and if you sneeze and happen to shoot across the river, you land in Illinois. I actually grew up here on the Illinois side of the river but adulthood has catapulted me to Iowa. I actually enjoy living in Iowa, all the best restaraunts and shopping are on this side so I'm sticking around awhile. I work as a retail store manager in a men's big and tall clothing store, and for the security of my job, I will leave the name of the business out. You never know, I may have a really bad rotten awful customer that I need to vent about and I put it on here, my boss sees it and BAM....FIRED! So anywho...work is not my life but I do enjoy my job. I get to meet all sorts of great people day in and day out and I work with a pretty great team as well.
I attend an amazing church, The Vineyard Church and I have an amazing church family that I have accumulated over the years there. Recently God has been placing quite a few single moms in my path and though I am not sure exactly at this point what He plans on me doing with or for them, I am pretty sure this blog is the first thing I am supposed to do. I am on our prayer and VK teams at church. VK is Vineyard Kids, what most of you would think of as Sunday school, but its soooo much more! We have kids back in VK praying for one another to be healed...and they ARE! VK has its own worship time and kids are hearing from God, seeing pictures and getting words, its so very cool to see God working in His kingdom here on earth, the now and the not yet collide! (Let me pause here and say: I realize that some of what I'm writing about God and pictures and words may be foreign to some of you, heck foreign isn't even the right word, at this point you are thinking I'm crazy and you are no longer going to read my blog. Well here is my "CRAZY" disclaimer: Yes I am crazy, crazy for God in a way that I never thought was possible. But please do not let this keep you from reading this blog. Yes there will be "God" stuff sprinkled throughout my blogs, heck somedays it may all be "God" stuff, but I just want to be honest and open, like I would expect and appreciate from each of you. I won't belittle you and your beliefs and I hope I get the same respect from you. I will not try to convert you but if God has other plans you'll have to take that up with Him ;)) Back to my really super duper stupendous church. Coming up this Sunday, June 27, 2010 is our Community on a Mission day, or otherwise known as "THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING" day. We are going out into our community and sharing God's love with everyone we meet, whether its providing free drinks to busy bike path walkers, picking up dog poop at the dog park or picking up trash along Kimberly Rd, we are going to be out doing it! I think that is truly why I love my church, we practice what we preach. I recently invited a couple of friends to church and the one concern they had was not fitting in or feeling like they stood out. I reassured them that they would not feel "weird" after walking through our doors. Come as you are I believe is how Kurt Cobain (Nirvana, not exactly Christian music, but a Christ like ideal nonetheless) put it, and so do we...come in your PJ's if you want just come!
I know so you're all thinking, ok tell us about this oh so adorable 3 year old....your wish is my command! His name is Nathanael Andrew but I call him Nate, Nater, Nater-potater, Bubby, my lil buddy, Goose, sweet boy, trouble, oneryness, love bug, Nater-gater, Nater potater alligator, etc... and so does everyone else who knows him! To know Nate is to love him. When I realized 3.5 years ago that I was pregnant, I wasn't really sure how some of my family would react. Luckily I was very blessed to have a supportive family who couldn't wait to meet the little peanut I was growing inside my womb. I was 29 when I got preganant, and it was not planned. The biological father (referred to as SD or sperm donor later on due to his lack of interest or involvement and we like it that way) of my child and I were not even in a relationship in the traditional sense of the word. I sent him a card telling him I was pregnant and that I was keeping the baby, but he didn't have to be involved, I just didn't feel right not telling him and then 15 years down the road this kid shows up on his doorstep and says "Hey Dad". So yeah Nate was born May 31, 2007 near Chicago. Had the epidural and I highly recommend it to anyone! I also highly recommend breast feeding but that's another blog altogether. My life hasn't been the same since.
When Nate was 3 months old we moved back here and in with my mom, yeah that's been F-U-N! But (and I hate to admit this) I'm really not sure I could have done part of these first 3 years alone. My mom is not always the most supportive person (I passed out for three hours after delivering Nate and probably almost died but she couldn't be bothered to show up at the hospital), nor does she know how to talk to someone with love, but when it really mattered, she has been there for me (ok so now all of you english majors are freaking out because I've mixed my verb tenses but deal with it, this isn't a book just a blog). Moving on....currently I am working on paying my car off in the next 4 months so that I can begin house hunting. I actually started house hunting in March/April of this year but I really want to get the car paid off first so I'm putting it on hold until that happens.
For the first time, Nate began attending public daycare/preschool and let me tell you that really freaked me out! I always said I would go on welfare before I put Nate in public daycare, but I found one through a friend, that we really love. Its at a local church and I couldn't be happier, Nate either. He loves it. Tuesdays he has Bible story and he can't wait to hear the story. Each morning he wakes up and says "Where I'm going today?" and if I reply "To school" he'll say "Is it Bible today?" I feel bad when I have to tell him no, he enjoys it so much. Somedays though when he asks "Where I'm going today?" I reply "With PoPo." PoPo is my grandfather, Nate's great grandfather. And PoPo just loves his little buddy. Most of the time I don't even have to ask if he can pick up Nate or watch Nate because he is calling me to see if he can have him overnight or to go down to my aunt Rhea's (Rhea lives in a small town outside of Bloomington/Normal with two of her children, Ellie and Evan and her husband Erik...remember this as they will pop up from time to time in "Nate Tales") Ya know, for being a single mom I rarely see my child on the weekends, he is almost always with PoPo! It truly is a blessing to have PoPo in our lives, and not just because he takes Nate all the time but because he is such an amazing PoPo, trust me when I say "My grandpa is cooler than your grandpa!" (I have friends that would validate that statement ;))
So it seems that I have mentioned pretty much everyone that might show up in this blog except for my dad. My dad, what can I say he's a pretty cool cat. He's a retired iron worker who loves his music and his art. You think you know art? You ain't seen nothing yet son! My dad can pretty much carve, sculpt, paint, build....you name it he can probably do it to anything you want! He has made Nate some of the coolest cars around. For his first birthday Nate got a Natemobile from my dad. It was one of those Playskool push cars that help kids learn to walk and dad painted it blue with flames! The hood ornament said NATE, personalized plates said NATE1, the wheels said NATE1 (picture GoodYear tires but with NATE1). Too cool for a first car! This year dad made him a peddal car that is black with flames, awesome! So yeah my dad is pretty cool as well...runs in the family I guess ;)
Then there are my amazing friends which are really my family as well . But I think I will mention them as they come up. Each one is in my life for a reason and I am grateful for all of them.
So today or at this moment (are you supposed to blog more than once a day? I think I need a blogging mentor because as I read the preview I think this is a really super long blog, are they supposed to be long? what is blogging etiquette and did I spell it right? ARGH!), I will leave you with this: Everything happens for a reason, but before you go seeking that reason be sure you really want to know it.