Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Duffy Diaries

It's been quite a while. Life gets in the way all to much. We lose track of what we really love because we don't stop going. I've been reminded of this over the weekend. I love photography but I haven't even taken out my several hundred dollar DSLR to capture life's finest moments. So I took it out and "dusted it off". In my "free time" I hope to be able to use it more often to practice.

Anyway, we have been quite busy, like I mentioned. Ryan is picking up more items for his Associate Pastor position and I am getting ready to take on a new classroom starting in 2 days. If you recall, I interviewed and had been offered a PreSchool position about a month ago right down the road here in Massillon. The only convenience it had was that it was 5 minutes away. Well I had decided that I don't want to be a teacher the rest of my life. I wanted to be in Administration, and my current job already had me on that track. I am a teacher as well as the third in charge/ lead training teacher. I'm currently getting many hours of training in so that I can become an Assistant Director. My hope is to find an Assistant Director position within the coming year that is closer to home (than my current 30-mile drive). So yes, I am still in Fairlawn due to an awesome offer that I couldn't resist with help getting to my career goal.

Titus is growing like a weed. I don't think he's stopped growing since he's turned 3 months! At 10 months, 2 weeks, he's 26 pounds and 30 inches tall! He loves playing with Milo, bouncing on his butt, rolling everywhere, and standing. oh, and eating! We will be having an Open House on Saturday, June 13 to celebrate our sweet boy. Be looking for an invite soon!












love,
the Duffys

Friday, January 30, 2015

Massillon Sweet Massillon

This update will be going back a couple of weeks and will have some random updates and blessings in it. So I'll begin 3 weeks ago on Sunday. I drove my car the mile to church, and something began to misfire in the engine. I left it in the parking lot so that it could be taken to the shop first thing Monday morning. Ryan & I had friends over for lunch after church & we were discussing the pros and cons of car buying. Our cars work just fine, but it's that time, ya know what I mean? Not an hour later I get a knock on the door. A friend lets me know that someone hit my car. The only car in the entire empty parking lot. My heart sank. I was starting at my new job location on Monday. We were moving on Saturday. A snowstorm hit that week. And I had no car. Lucky for me the other driver had Progressive (who made the whole process so simple!) I was able to get a rental (my dream car) while my car was fixed at a $1,400 expense. All because the other driver wanted to use the bathroom at the church. So I got my car back 10 days later, all shiny and new. I didn't even make it out of the driveway of Progressive before the brakes give out. Luckily I didn't have Titus, so I drove the 30 minutes home with hardly any brakes. Apparently the front passenger brake line blew. So that was an unexpected $420 blow to our budget. Luckily there is an amazing mechanic a block from the church who fixed it that day. After all that, my car is pretty much brand new. First blessing: we have two perfectly working vehicles.





The week we moved I began to get sick from being at the new job. I went to bed early Friday night and woke up Saturday morning and could barely get out of bed. It was awful. Some sort of flu I'm guessing. I also had a terrible cough, stuffy nose, migraine, the whole basketful. On moving day. Ryan & I were blessed to have a group of men from church come up and load everything into the moving truck. It was like negative something degrees out so I was extra miserable. We got to our new house to find out there was no electricity, not heat and frozen pipes from the bills not being paid. Fantastic. One more thing to add to this sickness. The group of amazing ladies and gents from church unloaded everything into the house while I directed traffic and the pipes were being unfrozen.  Ryan, Titus and I ended up staying in a hotel downtown for the weekend until they turned on the electricity on Monday. Got to the house on Monday, no electricity. We had to borrow a generator from a friend for the night. Got to the house Tuesday, electricity! I am still terribly sick, getting worse, and Ryan and I are still working full time all while unpacking box after box. Finally on Thursday I couldn't take it anymore and I called a doctor down here to establish a new local doctor. Now I have to wait 6 weeks. Nope! I gave in, called off work on Friday and took myself to the doctor. Turns out I had Bronchitis. Then Titus an I went on Sunday. He had a double ear infection but gave no signs of it. I felt terrible. I also was diagnosed with a sinus infection. We got our medicine and finally got rid of the sickness! Oh and all the boxes were unpacked. Ryan and I could finally be settled in. Second blessing: fantastic welcoming group of friends at our new location and healing from sickness.

So what are we doing now?! Ryan is the Assistant Pastor (Family Life Pastor) at Calvary Baptist Church in Massillon, OH. Lizz is the Infant 2 Lead Teacher and Team Lead (head of all the teachers) at her new location in Fairlawn. Titus travels with Lizz each day to daycare where he is often visited by mom. And we still have Milo...

How can you pray for us? 
Pray for Ryan as he is slowly transitioning into this new position. Teaching Sunday School, Youth Group, leading worship, and several other duties on his list. Pray that he should seek the Lord in this exciting new adventure and to seek only Him for answers.

Pray for Lizz as she is currently struggling with not being the one to raise Titus. She feels burdened that she need to be home with him instead of working full time. Pray that if the Lord wills that she could find a nanny position that would be closer to home and that Titus. Pray also for health, because working in a daycare... any little "bug" spreads like wildfire.

Pray for Titus as he is growing every day and reaching several milestones! Pray that he may seek the Lord when the time comes.