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Say it ain't snow!

This is what our pasture looked like the next morning. After it snowed like this...
for a good 4 hours. It came down so hard! This is another shot of our pasture where Justin's grandpa's old barn sits. We got engaged right by those trees. :-)
This is what redneck people do when there is snow. We hitched up a hydroslide that we *found* at an abandoned house to the back of Aaron's 4-wheeler, and took off.
Here's my little elf trying it out first. Bettcha can't guess whose idea it was to try this.
Then, there's me. Let's just say that I'm not the bravest person in the world, but holy cow was that fun! Well, that is after...
I got the hang of it. That's Aaron taking off on the 4-wheeler without me. I was pretty much laughing so hard I could barely hold on. (I can't believe I just posted a picture of my butt on the internet.)
I made everyone give me their "happy" face and then their "I'm scared for my life face." Guess which of Jessica's this is.
This was our front yard the next morning.

I can't wait until it snows again!!

Video from Matt

I had every intention of posting a fun, silly post about the snow we had this past weekend, but I just came across this and really needed to share it. This is a video that Matt Chandler made to his church a couple of days before he went in to have surgery to remove the tumor that is on his frontal lobe. (From the updates I've seen and heard he's doing great since the surgery. He's been moved from ICU, and is still recovering.) I am just overwhelmed at his faith.

I taught in Sunday school yesterday, the story of the Roman guard's slave being healed by Jesus. (Luke 7) The guard, who was a Gentile--in other words not one of the "chosen"--had so much faith that Jesus could heal his servant that the said Jesus needed to only speak from where he was and the servant would be healed. The greatest thing in the passage was when Jesus said that he was "amazed" by the centrion's faith. What a compliment, what an overwhelming thing for JESUS to say that He is amazed by you. I love it. God's been speaking to my heart about fear so much lately. It has been all around me, so I'm guessing that He has a big lesson in store for me. My hope is that you will watch this video, and realize how truly amazing and wonderful God is--even when you are a man who is on the brink of the ultimate unknown...in danger of being gone in an instant. I know that Jesus has to be amazed by Matt's faith. My hope is that you and I will both be found as faithful when hard things come our way.

Video from Matt

Where my brain has been lately...

I feel like such a boring blogger lately. I read other people's, and they have such great pictures and creative ideas. I have this...

That's where my head has been lately. We're busy cramming six weeks worth of skills into 4 and a half weeks of instruction, while battling the stupid full moon and looming Christmas break. It's times like these I wish I could just make them sit and watch a movie while I read my AR book. I wouldn't do that though, I promise. You have to at least wait until the last week of school. :-)

Other than grading papers and reading kids' books we've been doing this and that. I stayed sick over Thanksgiving break with a sinus infection, and then Justin and I both got really sick Saturday night. It was not fun. We have gotten a good chunk of our Christmas shopping done though. I plan on getting it finished asap. I don't want to feel rushed this year. I'm praying that tomorrow we get an early Christmas gift and that it will snow! There's a chance according to the weather "experts." I'd settle for some drizzle that looks like snow. Us folks in southeast Texas don't know how to handle cold stuff falling from the sky, so we're prone to shutting down school in a moment's notice. Fingers crossed, people. Until then, meet my new Christmas favorite...
Peppermint Mocha Coffeemate...Heaven. You gotta have some good coffee to stay up and grade that stack of papers, right? Old Pep' is helping me make it these next few weeks. I just can't wait for Dec. 19th when I won't need him so much anymore. Only 11 more school days to go!

Pray

I feel a little dorky posting this because it's not like I actually know him in person, but he has played an important part in my relationship with God over the past few years. Some of you have heard of Matt Chandler and some of you may not have. He's a pastor at The Village Church right outside of Dallas. Years ago, Matt traveled around speaking, and I had the chance to work with him at Super Summer. I started really listening to his sermons after that. Even talking to the guy once or twice his passion for God and his desire for people to know and love God was so evident. Obviously, I don't go to The Village since we live so far away, but I do listen to his podcasts regularly. He's a great, bold, godly man who has literally brought thousands of people around the world the hope of Christ. He is not afraid to tell it like it is, and God has used him in a HUGE way. Hey, even my blog is named after a series of sermons he did over Ecclesiastes!

Last Thursday, Matt had a seizure at home. They then found a small tumor in his frontal lobe. He met with a neurosurgeon yesterday, and they decided to do surgery to remove the tumor this Friday, Dec. 5th. They do not know whether or not the tumor is malignant. Please, please, please if you are a praying person, pray for Matt and his family, especially Friday. I've been really heavy hearted for his family since I first heard about this. He and his wife, Lauren, have 3 small children. It is so heartbreaking to think of them in this situation. They seem to have such an amazing attitude with all of this. (You can check out their blogs and twitters below.) Matt is a modern day "hero of faith", and I'm sure that he would appreciate any prayers anyone could offer.

You can keep up with Matt's progress if you are interested by going to any of these.
His wife, Lauren's blog
The Village Church website
Matt's blog
Facebook group "Praying for Matt Chandler"

Secret

I admit it. I've been keeping a secret from you. Some of you already know about her, but some of you don't. I'm finally just going to quit feeling guilty for not sharing and tell you all about...

There she is. My newest hero. Teacher. Whitty writer. Cheap craft expert. She's where I've been getting all my latest ideas from. (I actually stole her from Jenni.) When I say that I stalk her blog, I mean I.Stalk.Her.Blog. I've read every entry dating back to her very first one. I have bookmarked my favorite projects. She's the best. I thought in the spirit of Thanksgiving that I would share my secret with you. Go forth and craft wisely.

'Cause you gotta have friends...

I promise I’ve thought of twenty things to blog about the past week or so, but I honestly just haven’t had the time to sit down and get anything out. I don’t have any cute pictures because I’m an awful picture taker. I don’t have any really amazing, funny stories because life just hasn’t really been like that lately. Sorry! It has been full of some amazing conversations though.

Last Friday, I headed to Dallas with my BFF, Kelly for our friend Lindsey’s wedding shower. It has been a really long time since Kelly and I have been alone in a car (or any place for that matter) so that we can talk about our lives without self-monitoring. You see, Kelly is that friend who has walked beside me in all areas of life. I am a firm believer that different friends serve different purposes in your life. Kelly is just that friend who has been through a lot of the same things in life and can relate to what I’m saying 99.9% of the time. We can just be completely honest with each other. We talked a lot about what God is doing in our lives (awakening a lot of new stuff in us), diets (she’s down 40lbs and I’m down 17 woohoo), and friendships. That was the big one.

Sometimes, it is so stinkin’ hard to be friends with women. I know some of you can relate! We are judgmental, gossipy, competitive (THE WORST), and quick to write people off. Well, I know that I am at least. I am not saying that like I’m proud of it. I’m just being honest. It’s hard to fit in with girls a lot of the time. Sometimes I find myself not even wanting those friendships, but then again those are some of the greatest relationships of my life! It seems like I have a good friend who can relate to some area of my life whether it’s college memories, high school, church, school stuff, family, and marriage. Why can’t we just have it minus the drama?

Our whole discussion centered around the age old, single friend vs. married friend. Now, it wasn’t long ago that I was on the other side of this fence, but now I’m on the “married” side. Why is this so hard?!?! As a single friend, I often felt like I didn’t want to intrude on my married friends lives, now as the married friend I feel like my single friend doesn’t really want to know about boring married life! It gets even worse with one has kids and the other doesn’t! Why don’t men have these problems? One thing I took away from our wedding, is how many wonderful lady friends I have. Seriously, the best.

Anyways, without getting on a rant, that’s one thing I’ve learned I need to work on lately. I think you should all go call your women friends (especially the single ones) and love on them a little bit.