Merry Christmas!

Jason, Toby, and I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! And to quote Linus from A Charlie Brown Christmas, see:
Luke 2: 8-20

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men..."
-Luke 2:14

Thankful!

This may be over a week late, but with traveling home from Virginia and my FINAL week of class ever (did I mention how thankful I am these days?)it is late. But God calls us to be thankful all the time, not just on that special Thursday in November. I thought I would make a list and include some pictures of all the things I am thankful for. God has blessed me so much! I struggle to remember that sometimes when I get stressed or tired but I hope having it out here in cyberspace will help me remember!
I am thankful for...
-grace
-my husband (without whom I could not have survived grad school with sanity intact)
-my family; Dad, Mom, Meghan, JP, Pam, Katie, aunts, uncles, cousins, Granny and Grandpa, etc. (this is a picture of Thanksgiving at my parents' house)
-good friends (below are some more specific listings...I rarely get to see my friends from undergrad but the phone calls and emails remind me why I am so blessed by their friendship- they are amazing women!)
-Cornerstone (our community group, friends...basically our Auburn family)
- the girls in my grad class (see all these brilliant, beautiful girls at our Christmas party...the reason I am sad to be finished with class is that I won't see these girls each week!)
-That I never, as long as I live, have to sit through another class lecture in Haley Center 1202
-My dog! He has provided endless distractions and fun over the past year and a half!
-Being able to finish my first race ever today! The 5K Toys for Tots run. I am hooked now, Music City Half Marathon, here I come!

HAIR!

There has been much talk around our house this month about hair. First of all, we are always fighting an uphill battle against dog hair, since our 1 1/2 year old lab lives inside most of the time. One would think that he sheds his entire coat of fur every other day! Secondly, Jason had been participating in "No Shave November" (it is as simple as it sounds...men do not shave in the month of November). That means until yesterday, he had a full beard. I was impressed with how quickly he could grow a beard (apparently in man world that is something to be proud of). I was told that women are NOT allowed to participate in "No Shave November". Here is a picture of Jason and I at his grandparent's house in south Alabama the day before he shaved off his beard. Finally, I have been talking about getting MY hair cut for weeks. It is just long and scraggly and I am ready for something different. Bangs? Should I keep it long? Cut it short? Add layers? Highlights? Do you in blog world have any thoughts? I am tempted to go in to the salon and say "be creative" because I am tired of the no style style that I have right now. Don't worry, I am not brave enough to do that! So, all of that to say, there has certainly been a lot of talk about hair around here lately. What is our society's fascination with hair? Men are excited when they can grow a beard quickly, and disappointed when they begin noticing a receding hair line. There are millions of hair products available, from the "Hair club for men" to hair dye to cover that gray. Women are constantly inundated with commercials about shampoo, conditioner, mousse, dye, etc. Throughout history we have been vain about our hair, from wigs for men to fad hairstyles. Someone once said clothes make the man, but I wonder, is it really hair?

Blog Neglect

Yes dear blog. We have neglected you. We have not updated you on a regular basis. We promise to try harder in the coming weeks to keep you freshened up.

Stay tuned folks. I've got a million things running through my head. I just need the time to gather them together and type them out. The end of the year craziness has started!

2 Tuesday Prayers

So I have a lot going through my head today being that it is the day we vote on a myriad of issues both locally and nationally. My emotions the past few days have swung from indifference to indignation to fear to worry to carelessness...so basically all over the board.

It is hard for me to swallow some of the things people are saying this election cycle. The vile and hatred we have clothed in some of our arguments is appalling - on both sides of the aisle. We don't all agree and I think it is unreasonable to think that we will ever all agree on everything. The founding fathers didn't agree on everything but they did agree on one thing - God ordained them to do what they were doing. I won't expand my thoughts on that much today because my brain is so scattered it would be like reading a James Joyce novel. I do encourage everyone to read Under God by TobyMac & Michael Tait. It will provide you with an easy read and a great resource to explain just who our founding fathers were and why they established this country.

I voted this morning before work but after going to Man2Man. We vote in Loachapoka...it's ok if you have to read it a couple times to get the pronunciation right. It's a small little town but it's pretty cool. We usually have to wait 5 minutes max to vote there but this morning it was over an hour from the time I got in line to the time I left. I think that's pretty cool. It's about time people stood up and made their voice heard.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous about this election. I feel like the soul of our nation hangs in the balance. I was filled with apprehension when I first got in line, but then it happened. I stopped, took a breath, listened to God, and prayed. I prayed for about an hour, nearly the whole time I was in line. I prayed for the election, for the candidates, for the voters, for people in line around me, for the soldier and his family that walked by headed to the back of the line, for our church, for prayer requests mentioned this morning, for my family, for anything and everything that was weighing on my heart. When I left after turning in my ballot and getting the "I Voted" sticker from the older gentlemen at the door I felt as though a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I left it all up to God. I'm still a little apprehensive about the election, but I'm not losing my mind. I know there's nothing else I can do but pray, and pray I will continue to do. My hope is in God. My faith is in God. My life is in His hands. He knows what we need and he will provide it for us, even if it isn't immediately apparent.

Oh yeah, I also picked up a nice lady, Tina, on my way to work today and gave her a ride a couple miles up the road in rural Macon County. It was totally a God thing. I had no choice but to stop when she waved at me; it was as if I literally couldn't help but stop. She thanked me profusely and we talked for the 3-4 minutes or so she was in the car. We didn't get in depth but it was apparent she's had a difficult life. She moved to Alabama in 1995 from Cleveland. Please pray for her that she would find what she needs, though I don't know what that form that might take. I didn't ask her if she was a Christian. She just said she had to go to the store this morning and was on her way back home and didn't have a ride. Hopefully I saved her a little energy and helped her smile a little bigger today. Those God things can totally take you out of your comfort zone but they are so awesome and so much bigger than we know.

Halloween

(A picture of our trunk from Cornerstone's Trunk or Treat and a picture of Jason and Toby with our little pumpkin)
I don't have a ton of time to post, mostly because I am watching the Auburn v. Ole Miss game. WAR EAGLE! But I wanted to first of all say "Happy Birthday!" to my dad (and a belated Happy Birthday to my little sister!). My dad was almost born on Halloween, but missed it by a day. Which is probably just as well. My point of this supposedly short blog is to say, what has happened to Halloween? When I was little it didn't matter what day Halloween fell on, you trick or treated and almost everyone on your street had a pumpkin out and had candy or some other treats for you. This year here in Auburn they changed Halloween (which was perfectly situated on a Friday) to a Thursday night so it didn't interfere with high school football. What? Are you kidding? Maybe I underestimated the power of football here in Auburn (ironic that I have to cut this short to watch football). My mom told me earlier this week that she wouldn't let us go trick or treating if we were little now. How sad that the evil in our world is ruining this little bit of innocent childhood fun. I love that churches now have "Trunk or Treats" which are a great way to have some Halloween fun in a safe, friendly, and non-scary environment but they are never on the actual Halloween day. I am not sure what my point is other than that I am sad how much our world has changed since I was little AND that I think trick or treating should not be moved from Halloween day (trunk or treats are the exception). I am interested in what the 2 or so people who read this may think. Do you agree in the moving of Halloween?

Quick note

So, Jason is gone to Atmore, Alabama (???No clue where that is??? Middle of nowhere near Mobile, I think). Anyway, this morning as Jason was packing for his fire class (more about that later) Toby was pitiful once he figured out Jason was leaving. That dog is very attached to the "pack leader". Here is a pic. of Toby pouting on Jason's suitcase.
(As an aside- what a cool boy job my husband has that he gets to take a class on setting fires! The inner pyro in me is slightly jealous!)

Get over it!

So, for those of you who have known me for any length of time, you probably know that I hate hospitals. Maybe it is because I have spent too much time in them as a patient, maybe my fear is just irrational. Whatever the case, I have always disliked hospitals. They are creepy and dirty and full of germs that are just waiting to make me sick! (I told you I didn't like them!) In college my friends worked on helping me eat at the creepy "hospital McDonalds" (the McDonalds located inside of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center). I did not want to eat with people who were sick, ew! But eventually I did, and I lived to blog about it (I probably should have been more worried about the fat and calories at McDonalds than the people there). For those of you who work in a hospital, I applaud you. Thank you for helping make people well- you are awesome! I have actually worked for a hospital myself, not IN a hospital mind you, just FOR the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. My office was never located where the sick people were, which I qualify as "hospital". Anyway, by this point you probably think I am weird or uncaring or in need of a psychologist.
I have a point, though, I promise. So, in the Speech Language Pathology graduate program we are required to have experience with both children (yay!) and adults (scary!). This semester I am doing an internship at the Tuskegee VA, which is hospital-like, especially the nursing home. BUT, I love it! The people I get to do therapy with there are amazing and I hope I have half their enthusiasm for life should I ever go through what they have been through. I decided that to celebrate conquering my hospital-phobia (surely that is a real condition with a real name) I would make a list of all the things I love about working at the VA, in the most HIPPA friendly way possible (if you don't know about HIPPA, be glad).

1. I get to work with Veterans; people who have served our country selflessly and fought for our country, even when no one supported them (i.e. Vietnam)
2. My patients are some of the happiest people I have ever met, but they are my patients because they have had strokes, TBIs, or some other horrible medical incident. Still, they smile and always ask how I have been.
3. All of my patients think I am REALLY young. I mean really young, like 18. Sweet!
4. The elderly say the darnedest things. Such as "I know I am older than all you people" (patient looks around the room then motions to the guy on either side of him) "well...maybe not you or you!"
5. I get to observe (and one day participate in) a cool medical procedure called a Modified Barium Swallow. Ask me if you really want to know what that is.
6. I get to see people get well, however slow and laborious that may be, I get to see progress in people, knowing that I just might have had something to do with that! Helping people communicate again is pretty amazing!

Slow Down

"Oh, I don't want to let go
Of all the things that I know
Are keepin me away from my life.
Oh, I don't want to slow down.
No, I don't want to look around,
But I can't seem to work it out,
So help me God."
--"Slow Down" by Third Day

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
--Matthew 16:24-26

For those of you that don't know, I have about a 45 minute drive one way to work each day. During this time I have plenty of opportunities to listen to many different things on the radio or I can switch to a CD. Most mornings I listen to Rick & Bubba and then in the afternoons I listen to Sportscall. This morning after Man2Man at church I didn't really have the urge to listen to Rick & Bubba, nothing against them but something in me just said to listen to the new Third Day CD. My dad and I went to the Music Builds Tour in B'ham last Thursday and he bought the new CD but is letting me borrow it this week. It's awesome and I'm going to have to buy my own copy! So I popped it in and down the road I went.

At Man2Man this morning we talked about Matthew 16:24-26 and how that relates to our daily walk with Christ. One of the topics that kept coming up was how busy we can get going about our lives and how easy that makes it to forget about or ignore God. We can get so caught up in trying to make another dollar or doing that next deal that we think we can handle it on our own. We think we know what's best for us when in fact, God our creator ultimately knows exactly what we need. We need Him.

We have to slow down and let God do His thing. We have to be humble and take the time to listen to what He has to say. I'm not always the best at doing that. I get up early in the morning to go to work and many days I work late. Time is precious when I get home. It's easy to go about my day and feel very frustrated when I go to bed. I'm tired and I don't feel like I've accomplished much. I'm learning that if I just slow down, take a breath, and let God take control I will be in much better shape. It should be a simple thing for us to accept but our sinful nature trips us up. I'm constantly working on letting go and slowing down.

At first I didn't draw a connection between the song and the scripture but after I kept repeating the song it hit me. I think God was saying "you're gonna listen to this song until you hear what it's saying!" At least that's the way it struck me. You might have different thoughts about it.

A Few More Songs

What I Needed

Man2Man

Today was the first meeting at Cornerstone (our church - www.cornerstonebuzz.org) of Man2Man. What is Man2Man you might ask? It's a new weekly meeting on Tuesday mornings at 6:15 AM of the men in the church and any other men in the community that want to attend. The purpose is to bring men together to uplift them and hold them accountable for subjects and things in life that are uniquely....well, men stuff. There will be a brief message from the Bible and somebody will share a real life story each week then we'll break up into smaller groups for discussion and wrap up with prayer. Oh yeah, breakfast, juice, and coffee are included for free!

We had an awesome story and testimony today from Mark Fuller and Josh Agerton (Pastor of Connections - www.joshagerton.com) gave a brief message on The Armor of God from Ephesians 6:10-18. Any guys in the Auburn-Opelika area that might read this I strongly encourage you to attend. I truly believe God has ordained these meetings and lives will be changed.

Sweet Friends

I believe that a mark of true friendship is that no matter how long it has been since you have seen someone you feel like no time has passed. Not that you aren't sad you have missed out on events in the person's life but that their presence is always comfortable and easy. I got to have some precious (and unexpected) time this weekend with some true friends, one of whom I had not seen in over a year because she has been in Asia since last August! God has blessed me with amazing friendships and I am so thankful for them! Having even a short time with my friends was just refreshing for my soul and the distance between all of us made me value our time and our friendship even more!

Absolutely One of the Funniest Things EVER

This should probably not be as funny as it is...but it made me cry I laughed so hard at it. Call me a bad person because this probably isn't uplifting to these people but they really couldn't have taken themselves seriously. There are very few things I have ever seen that are this funny!

A little disclaimer though...I haven't checked out the rest of this blog so beyond this page I am not responsible for what you might find if you look around. You never know in the blogging world...

http://listoftheday.blogspot.com/2007/09/great-olan-mills-photos.html

Fall is Coming!

Ok, so it's hard to concentrate at work today. The first college football games of the season were on last night (congrats to Vandy on the win!) and tomorrow is the start of Auburn Football! Let's face it, Auburn should win and win big tomorrow. LA-Monroe (or ULM as they prefer to be called) will probably put up a good fight in the 1st half but we should be able to stretch the lead in the 2nd half. We usually struggle the first few series in the first game but if nothing else our depth should outlast them. I predict at least a 2 touchdown win. Maybe something like 34-17.

Meredith and I will be going to the game Saturday. We should make it to all the home games this year and plans are in the works to go to the Vandy game in Nashvegas on Oct. 4th. Cornerstone (our church) will be taking a team to New Orleans Nov. 5-9 so at least one of us will miss the homecoming game against TN-Martin on Nov. 8th. We haven't determined whether or not we'll both be able to go to NOLA, but we want to.

One quick (kind of) story and then I'll finish. Yesterday I had one of the most amazing experiences of my life while at work. As most of you know I'm a big hunter, or at least I try to be. I love deer hunting and I'm working my way into duck hunting, which I'm now obsessed with, just ask Meredith.

Well yesterday I was out supervising a crew that was spraying some kudzu. It was our last spot of the day and it was a rough, nasty one. Well, earlier in the day we had seen two spotted fawns jump up out of the kudzu and run off. If you don't know, spotted fawns will bed down and won't move sometimes even if you nearly step on them. They don't have much scent and stand a much better chance of surviving foxes and coyotes if they sit still. Anyway, on this last spot one of the guys nearly stepped on a spotted fawn. The crew is Hispanic and speaks very little English so our communication is broken at best. I knew they found something because they all started yelling but I thought it was a snake until I heard the fawn start screaming. I walked towards them and up the hill comes one of the guys carrying a spotted fawn and he hands it off to me. Before I know it I'm holding a kicking and screaming spotted fawn that's probably less than a week old! It was so cool! I didn't know what to do. I held it and petted it to try to calm it down and it eventually quit kicking but kept screaming. John, the other forester I work with, pulled up right about this time and I showed it to him. About the time we were trying to check the sex of it the thing kicked one good time and I dropped it. It popped up and took off running away into some thicker cover. It was ok but quite scared.

For a moment while I was holding the fawn it felt like the world just stopped. It looked at me and I looked at it almost as if we both said, "Why are you holding me?!" Then it went back to kicking and screaming. I have a nice little cut in the middle of my chest where it kicked me the last time but that's alright. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. They are such beautiful animals and that experience helps me appreciate them even more. I will still hunt them but I don't do it for the sake of killing. The challenge of chasing such a majestic animal and experiencing God's creation is one I hope I will always be able to enjoy. I harvest very few animals each year and I thank God each time for the bounty his creation provides.

In that fawn I saw God. I saw and held one of his wild creatures and it was incredible! God is such a wonderful maker!

A Poll

So today is a slow day at work so I decided to check out the gadgets in blogger. I thought a poll sounded like a fun thing to try out so cast your vote. What was your favorite Olympic sport to watch? I know it may be hard to narrow it down to just one but humor me. I developed the list from what we watched the most on tv.

Olympics

As the Closing Ceremonies are replayed on tv I got to thinking about the Olympics. Having lost many hours of sleep over the past couple of weeks watching the games I wonder what it is that draws us in to these games. Is it the patriotism? the ceremony and fanfare? the competition? For me I think it is all of these. I love cheering "U-S-A" and pulling for my favorite athletes. I also love watching the opening and closing ceremonies and the medal ceremonies and hearing the national anthems of the gold medalist. And I especially love watching the competition, especially with Michael Phelps going for 8 golds in a row. BUT I think my favorite part of the Olympics is seeing the world come together. I love seeing people from different countries sitting next to each other holding their respective flags, I love seeing the athletes put their arms around each other and congratulate each other, even if they are competitors. I think that this is a beautiful picture of what Heaven will be like! The whole world coming together for a common purpose. (Obviously, we will not be in competition with each other in Heaven!). I just love seeing people from every tongue, tribe, and nation together. It makes my heart smile and it makes me even more excited to see what Heaven will be like! I know that the Olympics are not perfect(can you say China?), and that people are not coming together for the common purpose of Jesus, but rarely do we get such a sweet picture of all of God's people together in one place. It is just nice to have these little reminders every now and then that this world is not our final destination!

Surviving!

(this picture is from Christmas, but seriously, every time a car drives by this is what happens!)

Okay, so I should probably not have titled this blog so dramatically, but that is how I feel! Jason is out of the country (in Argentina) and he only left yesterday but already I miss him! I have lived by myself, and have lived without him, for most of my life, so I know I CAN live by myself, I just chose not to when we got married! My last first day of school was today (just think about it for a minute)so I have been so busy that I can distract myself from the thought that my husband is 1,000's of miles away. The problem comes with the dog, Toby. I thought he would be so worn after after attending dog daycare for 12 hours today that he wouldn't notice that Jason wasn't home. Shows how much I know! He keeps giving me what we call "basset hound eyes" (those sad puppy eyes) and every time a car drives by the poor thing jumps up and runs to the front window and looks out thinking that Jason has come home. I realize that the dog whisperer would say he just wants his pack home or something, but it is sad! I am thankful that God has blessed me with such a wonderful husband who is such a strong presence in our family that he is greatly missed by both me and the dog!!! Until Saturday when he comes home Toby and I will keep ourselves busy and enjoy some extra hang out time.
On a side note, I really do not know how single parents do it, or even how my mom managed every time my dad was TDY (that is military for a business trip). I know I am not a parent, and I would never think for one minute that this was anything like raising a child alone, but just taking care of a dog and a house by myself after getting used to having someone else there is hard!!! I have so much more respect and awe for my mom (during TDY's) and all other parents out there.

Nothing Like I Planned

So this week is a crazy one. Meredith is in VA with her family and I'm just all over the place. Monday I came to work like normal but found out at 2:15PM that I would be flying from LaGrange, GA to Valdosta, GA and then driving to Madison, FL to look at a nursery operation on Tuesday morning. Things sometimes happen very quickly with my job. I got to fly on the Learjet 45 so I can't complain. Wednesday night I'm away from home and then Thursday night Meredith gets back home (thank goodness, when she's gone I'm reminded of how poorly I am at planning meals). Friday should be a "normal" day, but only time will tell.

This weekend will be fun, for me at least. Saturday is the Buckmaster's Expo in Montgomery and I'm planning on making a trip up to P'ville to Bass Pro Shops. After that it's hopefully a restful day on Sunday and then I leave to go to Argentina Monday night. I return on Saturday morning early. I wish we could take the Lear to South America! After these last few weeks football season will seem very calm!

Oh yeah, I'm still working with Toby on hold and force fetch. I feel like I'm neglecting the poor little guy because I just can't set a regular training schedule with him. He tolerates it well though. He did really well last night and is starting to understand walking hold. Hopefully I can dive off into full on force fetch after I get back from Argentina.

Welcome to the blogging world!

We have been toying with the idea of starting a blog for a while...and here it is! I don't really know that our lives are that interesting to blog about but here we are! :-) I guess right now our blog will be about 1) Jason's job, 2) Meredith's school, 3) the dog, 4) our lives aside from these three things! Happy Reading!