Ugh, I'm so annoyed at myself for not writing about this right after Easter, when everything was so fresh. (Just a reminder of how happy I am that I wrote Aiden's birth story right after she was born. Most definitely wouldn't remember 99% of those details otherwise.)

Ok, so I was super excited about Easter this year. My first time really experiencing it for what it really  was - the resurrection of Jesus. The Garden of Gethsemane really got to me, and I couldn't wait to hear the rest of the story! Since we had to miss Good Friday service, I did go ahead and read that on my own.

On Sunday, we got all dressed up and headed to church! I knew it was going to be packed, but I didn't realize how much that was going to affect me. I was crammed next to the wall, and Adam kept brushing against me during worship. The whole time I was just so annoyed and I kept asking Jesus to let me be in the moment and stop worrying about all the outside disturbances. But I couldn't shake it. I was so annoyed! I kept thinking about how I had really hyped the Easter service up, and there was no way it could live up to my expectations. (Not a great start. Maybe I should have set up a meeting with David prior to Easter to ensure he tailored his Easter service to exactly what I wanted to hear.)

The actual sermon surrounded The Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). It was great, but certainly not the "Easter Story" I was looking for. (Again, David. How dare your message not be ALL ABOUT ME?) Even though it wasn't what I was hoping for (there's no way anything could have held up to my expectations), I love how David didn't stray from his typical style just to please the masses (re: me).

However, before his sermon started David stopped the band between worship songs and briefly talked about how he knew it was crowded (get out of my head, David), but to try to really pay attention. Then he read out of Revelations 5, which describes the scene in Heaven when Jesus rose. Finalllly! The moment I was waiting for! A part of the Easter story I didn't know! It was so powerful to hear how Heaven reacted when Jesus made his way up there. You hear so many stories of the reactions on earth, but I honestly hadn't even thought about it from Heaven's perspective. After all, we always say "He is Risen", but it's rarely discussed what happens on that actual rise. It was beautiful. I loved it.

I still have much to learn about the Easter story, but I feel like this year was a great reminder that your walk with Jesus is never complete. As long as we keep looking for them, He will always have new lessons to teach us, new stories for us to hear, new perspectives.

Garden of Gethsemane

We were at the Bakers for dinner on Sunday and Dave mentioned that Easter Sunday is the biggest day of the year for churches. Bigger than Christmas Eve or Christmas. I thought back to when we were dragged to church when I was a kid (which was very rare), and then immediately remembered that it was never on Easter. I vividly remember feeling bad for everyone who had to go to Church instead of getting up to hunt for Easter eggs and eat a ton of candy. The true meaning of Easter, duh!

We've been going through the book of Luke for over a year and our pastor, David, has timed it perfectly with Easter. This past week we went through Jesus being mocked, being questioned by the Council, being questioned by Pilate and Herod, and finally - Pilate's decision to cave to the Council's wishes and crucify Him (Luke 22:63 - 23:25). I was on the edge of my seat. I wanted to hear the end of the story! Then I realized "Uh, you have a Bible. Read it yourself." For some reason, I haven't. I kind of want it to be a surprise. I'm seeing the Easter story - easily one of the most important stories of Christianity - for the first time as a Christian myself. It's truly breathtaking. (Maybe I should point out that I know the obvious parts of the story. He's crucified, buried and then rises to Heaven. As I typed that out I realized I clearly don't really even know much of the obvious stuff. Is that even right?)

Over the past year, I've been able to see Jesus in a different light. I'm a big visual person, and I love that David uses visuals every once in awhile at church to really get his point across.

This is a good representation of how I always pictured Jesus. Totally chill, just a scrawny hippie going around talking about peace and stuff. (I actually laughed when I found this picture. I Googled "peaceful Jesus" and this was one of the first to come up. Still laughing.)

In reality, He is so much more. Jesus was and is a warrior ready to fight for us. To go to war for us. Us. Isn't that insane? The same God who spoke the universe into creation fights for US.

At the same time, He also loves us more than we will ever comprehend. He wants us to trust Him, to give 100% of ourselves to Him. To literally take a leap of faith and give him full control.

But I've still always had this vision of him marching into Jerusalem all self-righteous with his chest puffed out, ready to die a martyr on the cross. I didn't understand why people were sad on Good Friday. This is literally what Jesus was put on earth to do, and he knew it from day one. It was all part of the plan. It wasn't a surprise to Him. He dies for our sins (whatever that really means). He goes up to Heaven. Ta da.

Then we went through the Garden of Gethsemane a couple weeks back in church. I was moved to tears. It speaks about how Jesus went into the garden and spoke to God (his dad), saying "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done." They describe Jesus as crying, sweating blood, terrified of the wrath of God he is about to endure. FOR US. It's easy to forget that He was human. He knew what he was about to face, He knew this was his mission... but He was still scared. He didn't want to do it. But he knew it was the only way. It was the only way to save the hearts of all of God's children. Of you and me. The one who never sinned was betrayed, tortured, beaten and died at the cross to save our sinful hearts.

I still haven't finished the story of Easter on my own. I'm am so eager for Sunday. I am so excited to hear the story of Jesus' Resurrection for the first time as a Christian. Sunday is coming, and I cannot wait.

(Side note: I love the way Aiden's bible spells it out. It was a great way for me to digest it. If you're interested in Jesus and/or Christianity, I 100% recommend the Jesus Storybook Bible. It's for kids, but I love reading it because it sums up the big stories of the Bible into easy, short reads. And each story points back to how it relates to Jesus. It's the best, and I steal it from her room to read myself.)

Easter Joy

Easter is always one of my favorite holidays. Other than it obviously being a crucial day for us Christians, the weather always seems to be beautiful and I love any excuse to be surrounded by family. 

We kicked off the week by being 20 weeks pregnant! Full disclosure: I specifically put on this workout outfit because it's my fave and had Adam take a picture of me being "cute and active". Except our dogs are still re-learning how to walk on their leashes and it started raining, so it all ended up just being stressful and weird. But we're halfway there to meeting our babe!!

On Friday night, we headed to the Coopers to finally meet little Minnie! Ignore the terrible quality of the picture, how cute is she in her rain jacket??

Two visits in two weeks?? Weeeee!!

I was extra exhausted on Saturday morning, and Adam surprised me with breakfast in bed! He's the absolute cutest sometimes. 

We celebrated Easter with my family on Saturday, because Mamabear doesn't exactly know the difference anyway. I Adam made a really yummy Cinnamon Baked French Toast! I've been so bad at taking pictures recently, so I have none of our pre-Easter brunch. Whoops.

We successfully made it to 7am church on Easter Sunday! (And someone enjoyed three donuts. I'm not above bribery to get me somewhere early.) We have really come to love our church, and Easter was no exception. Always such a great message!

As soon as church was out, we headed to the Bakers to hang out before brunch. Meagan and Nathan go to the later service, so Jude always goes home with Debbie and Dave when they leave the early service. This means we got our little Jude Dude all to ourselves for a couple hours!

Obviously, that meant it was time to annoy him with tons of photos.

Cutest little bunny I ever did see! Can't wait for the little chicky to be around for next year's celebrations!

Photo Shoot Take 100 by Dave. I love these people!

Monday night was Opening Day and the NCAA Basketball Finals. Adam wanted something "festive" for dinner to celebrate it being Opening Day, so I made these amazing nachos. Chips, cheese, shredded chicken, toppings - throw it in the oven on Broil for 3 minutes and voila! Deliciousness. And the Braves won, so it was a good night!

It also must be noted that Duke won the championship game, which means my bracket beat Adam's bracket! He now has to give the dogs a bath every two weeks for 3 months. (And I'm so glad I don't have to do his ironing for two weeks.)

Easter and such...

Easter happened on Sunday, and a lot of other things happened before that. Here's my (once again) sorry excuse for an update.

Did I mention I met Ted Turner? He's awesome.

Ruthie and I have been attending as many of Adam's baseball games as we can - which honestly isn't that often. She still doesn't understand why she can't be on the field at all times.

Visited the Governor's Mansion and saw the Olympic Torch. Just another casual living room decoration...

Kelly and I filmed Atlanta Eats at Del Frisco's Grille. [Caution: This guy will manhandle your food.]

Adam had his Fantasy Baseball draft party at our house - looks exciting, huh?

I had to run by Little Alley Steak for work, so my mom met me there and we had a couple drinks... and the nice bartenders also gave us a couple shots. 

Doug's 25th birthday celebration was on Friday, and we all celebrated at Johnnie MacCracken's (of course). I tell you what - that place attracts the most diverse people. We saw a group of people around our parent's demographic, a bunch of hipsters, people just there to hang out, and a legit biker gang. There's something for everyone!

My mom's friend for over 26 years, Jay, came in town on Saturday and I enjoyed being a part of their reunion. We had a boozy lunch at Einstein's (not the bagel place), and then headed over to BYOB nail salon Sugarcoat.

Easter was awesome. Adam and I went to the 7am service (they bribed us with Krispy Kreme), and then we worked in the nursery for the 9am service. They put us with the baby babies, and my heart just melted. Cutest little bugs, ever!

After church, we headed to the Bakers for the first binge fest of the day, then headed over to my parents' for the second. If you were keeping track, Lent was OVER on Easter!!!! It may be hard to believe, but we're actually going to keep doing this paleo shin dig, just not nearly as strict.    

This past week was a blessing, as they all are, and I'm looking forward to the fun weekend ahead - Braves game for Dominica's birthday and Natalie and Emily are coming to town!

With Love from Peter Cottontail

We had another fun-filled weekend in the Baker household! One day I'm going to actually post things that happen during the week and not just the weekend, but right now nothing really happens during the week...

Have I mentioned how insanely amazing the weather has been lately? Well, it's amazing. Saturday I woke up and ran 9 miles (less than 2 weeks until the half marathon)! My big brother, Jeff, was in Augusta with work so my parents and I met him half way in Madison for lunch. Adam would have joined us, but we're in the middle of baseball season so he had a game. If you ever have a spare afternoon, I highly recommend making the hour drive over - it's the most adorable little town. Apparently it's the #1 small town in America, but I'm sure they all say that.

We ate lunch at Amici's and then went exploring. The Captain on Jeff's flight also tagged along. Poor guy probably wasn't expecting to spend the afternoon with our crazy family. 

Jeff and I in front of the Monroe County Courthouse.

Casual Karen.

Madison is home to Georgia's oldest tree. It's a beast.

After our exciting afternoon in Madison, we headed back. And Adam and I spent the rest of the evening grilling out with some of our good friends.

Yesterday was EASTER! Adam and I attended a wonderful church service at Due West UMC, but due to our lack of timing skills we had to leave early to get to his parents' house. AND of course we were still 35 minutes late. I was beyond mortified.

I didn't take any pictures on Easter, except for this one. Adam and Dave brought the living room TV onto the covered porch, and we watched the Braves game out there. It was magnificently relaxing.

Then we headed over to my parents' to celebrate Easter with them. Busy and exhausting day, but it's always fun to spend time with the fam!

Here's something exciting that happened during the week: Today is Adam's first day teaching by himself! He's been observing/semi-teaching while the teacher was still there, but today was the first day he had the class to himself. So exciting!

I hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing Easter weekend!