Ok, so I don't have pictures for this post, but hopefully it will still be interesting. I just started some coffee brewing, Good Morning America is on (I don't know why I love watching this in the mornings, but I do), and the sun is shining and promising a beautiful day. I love it!
I am settling in nicely to life in Canton. We had church all day yesterday, and we had a church event Saturday morning, too. Last night, my heart was so full of joy and contentment. I told Trey, "It feels so good to be connected to a church family, again." It's been a while, maybe since my days at Cowboy Way or North Metro, since I've really felt connected to the church body like I do here. Our congregation has quite a few elderly individuals (they are the majority, actually), and they are the sweetest and most encouraging individuals. I sat in on a deacon's wives meeting, and at the end they asked me how they can help my ministry in the church. I told them they can love on me, pray for me, and pass on all the wisdom and knowledge they want. I look forward to hearing of their different life experiences and growing from their lessons.
While the elderly may be the majority, our church is definitely not lacking in the younger age groups, either. The neat thing is that it is growing, too, through transfer of letter, statement, and salvation/baptism. That's right - this church family is so evangelical and so interested in loving on those in their community. I am challenged by their faithfulness and love for the Lord.
Yesterday, Trey and I started spreading the word with some youth that we were going to eat at Jerry's Pizza after the evening service. Well, word got around not only to the youth and their families, but to so many other families in the church. We all had a blast, and our church took over Jerry's Pizza. Dean, a youth that recently got saved, said to me at one point, "We need to do this more often!" It truly was so much fun.
Other than church, there are other things I love about living in Canton, too. Being close to Lee, Marilee, and Burke Warren, for instance. We are all having such a great time. I love having their family over for dinner, any night of the week. I love the fact that Marilee and Dubs (nickname for Burke Warren) love being at our home, and typically don't want to leave when it's time to go home. I love having those two kiddos spend the night, as they did last Thursday night. I look forward to Lee and I starting to walk together, or maybe even try out P90X (workout video series). I just love being so close to family.
My favorite thing about living here in Canton and being connected with FBC is how happy Trey is. For the first time in a long time, Trey is so fulfilled by the work that he does. He is respected, trusted, encouraged, and treasured for his work and his ideas. He has freedom to do ministry, and he is paid to do so. I love how at rest he is. The struggle to find meaning or purpose with work is over. Trey doesn't count his hours to make sure they add up to 40 and don't go over - out of the overflow of his heart he works, and he does it without a thought to whether or not he's exceeded 40 hours. This is a time of blessing for my husband, and I'm soaking it up!!!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The House!
Well we are all moved in and loving our new home! Trey started at the church officially yesterday (although he's been up there everyday since we moved here), and he is busy and loving his job. I wasn't able to be at his first Wednesday night with the youth, but he told me it went GREAT. I can't wait to meet and connect with more youth as we get settled in and get to know more of them.
One thing I'm really loving about Canton, TX, is the slow-paced life. When I drive places, I'm not fighting traffic on the interstate or crazy city drivers. I'm also loving being so close to my sister-in-law, niece, and nephew. They've eaten dinner with us a couple nights this week, and it's been so great having them join us. Now what we've all been waiting for (or at least my mom and sister have been waiting for), some pics of the new place...
First pic is of our awesome kitchen. It's so spacious and pretty!
Next is the living room. It is so spacious and cozy. We love it!
(yes, that is Michael Scott on the TV)
A pic of the bathroom. Kinda hard to get at a good angle of it, but you can trust me that it is super cute.
Our guest room, ready for ALL OF YOU to come visit at your convenience. :)
And last but not least, the master. We are totally happy with it.
And that is it from Texas for now. Until next time...
Friday, March 19, 2010
Moving!
Well the time has come. At this point, the house is about half packed. I've been amazed this week at what crazy and amazing things a woman can accomplish when left to her own devices. Yes, I am tooting my own horn. In between purchasing and picking moving supplies, finishing up my own full-time job, picking up dry cleaning, doing laundry, saying goodbye to Fort Worth friends, cancelling the internet, shopping around for a new vacuum cleaner, and being an excellent wife to Trey Holmes, I have also managed to pack about 1/2 the house. We currently live in a house filled with boxes and random items sitting out. **disclaimer: Trey did pack 1 1/2 boxes last night...must give credit where credit is due :)
As you can see, we have tons of boxes, and this will be oodles of fun. I'm so thankful the church is paying someone to move all this stuff to our next location! I'm also SO excited that, starting tomorrow, Trey and I will officially live in Canton, TX. While this also freaks me out since I will be away from my amazing friends in Forth Worth (like Bessie Ann, Kat, Jenny...), I can't wait to live so near to Lee, Marilee, and Burke Warrren. What a neat time of life this will be. We will only be a few minutes from each other. This is going to be fun.
Things you can be praying for during this move: the weather this weekend (they're seeing it might freeze or even snow on Sat/Sun), ours and the movers safety during the drive and move, a job for me (I've applied for one that might be pretty great...just waiting to hear back from them), Trey's transition into his new position at the church.
Trey just left for work, and I fel the need to take a picture of him on his last day at his SWBTS job. Check out my handsome man headed off to finish what he started:
I leave you today with one amazing photo I took of my niece last weekend. While at Old Navy, she really grew attached to those supermodelquin things. She kept standing in the mix with them, holding their hands, and checking them out to see what they were. I took her pic, and she cheesed it up for this one!
Monday, March 8, 2010
The Next Step!
Well, most of you already know this and have been praying for us during the process of making this decision, but yesterday FBC Canton, TX unanimously voted for Trey to be their new Minister to Students. We are both so excited about this next step in our journey. We give our two weeks notice today and will move the weekend of March 19-21. Yahoo!!!
In other news, Trey and I recently took a day trip to Waco to eat some good BBQ and to check out the Texas Ranger Museum (not the baseball team). We have always loved escaping to Waco, since its such a fun and refreshing day trip. We will start out the pics of our day with a video from the man himself, Trey Holmes:
The first place we stopped was Jasper's BBQ. Now Texas is a place known for it's BBQ, and I personally believe that Waco has a concentration of especially delicious, good ol' Texas BBQ. Jasper's is such a place. Check out how delicious it looks!
The next stop was the museum. If you know Trey and I well at all, you know that we are suckers for a good museum.
When we got to the museum, we asked the guy up front how long it usually takes people to go through it all. He said 45 minutes to an hour. Well, we journeyed through the musuem, including watching the video (which was very interesting), and we were there a total of 3 1/2 hours! We didn't even finish checking it all out, either. It got pretty crowded with kids and their families, so we decided to head out and come back someday.
To Trey, this museum was like a candy store. If only you could have seen him and heard him as he told me stories, explained guns, and got excited over new pieces of information. I personally enjoyed the kids exhibits.
The next time you're in the Waco area, be sure to check out the Texas Rangers Museum. And be proud, my fellow Texans!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Blast from the Past
Well, chicas y chicos, once again I'm supposed to be doing homework but the call of the written word beckons me like an ice cream truck draws kids. So much for stats. (Apologies to Dr. Yount, but he probably understands because he wrote a 400 page textbook on math because he couldn't find one he liked.) It's like some kind of addiction- and I'm not sure if it's good or bad.
We've actually been having some winter weather here in Fort Worth which as been carving into Kara's workout time. The other day our financial planner decided she didn't want to go for a walk outside, so she went to Target to walk around. While she was there, she decided to buy "13 going on 30" because it was on sale.
"13 Going on 30" or "Great Scot! Where's the plutonium?!"
I used to say I liked chick flicks. This was such a lie that I didn't even know I was telling a lie. It was just a way to get in a dark theatre with a cute girl and eat stale popcorn and drink overpriced Mr. Pibb. Marriage is good for ironing out all the lies you tell yourself and making you realize the truth. Such as me saying I like chick flicks. But I can have more posts on marriage later.
Let me tell you something else: The older I get, the less mature my taste in movies becomes. I don't care about character motivation, dynamics, relationships, plot twists, etc.... I just want enough plot to move from one explosion to the next about every 2 minutes or so. Don't confuse me with plot, just entertain me. I'm entertained by the sound "BOOM!" and things flying through the air. And I don't want some frilly love interest thrown in to keep the women happy. Also, no apologies. Sometimes violence is necessary. Julius Caesar knew this way before movies were invented. (That's why he said "If you want peace, prepare for war.") Bad people aren't going to stop being bad people because you're willing to talk it out or discuss their feelings! Violence has use - such as to stop aliens from taking over the world, bad guys from winning, or just because the movie's so boring that without it you'd be watching paint dry. ("A History of Violence" is a good example of this and "The Time Traveler's Wife" definitely could've used some explosions.) "Boondock Saints," one of the best movies of all time due to the no-nonsense, no-apologies, shoot-everything-and-every-bad-guy theme running through it STILL has too much down time between action scenes. But hey, I don't produce the movies, I just watch'em.
So after a long day at work and a frustrating hour watching LOST. (They're not gonna answer any questions they're just going to leave it all in the alternate reality where the plane lands and everyone's okay. AAAAHHHHH!) I was thinking that 13Going On 30 sounded good. And it is a good movie, even after my disclaimer above. It's clean, straightforward, funny, and cute. Yes, cute. So Kara and I decided to have a little slumber party on a Wednesday night and lay in bed and watch the movie on the laptop.
To give you a short synopsis of 13 Going on 30, Jenna Rinks is a 13 year old girl and Matt Frathamm (aka "Beaver") is her best friend in 1987. At a party, she wishes she could be thirty, fun, and flirty. Thanks to the wish dust Beaver gave her, it happens. She wakes up 30 years old with a successful job as a magazine editor. At first, she's amazed that her dream came true. However, she quickly learns that she became successful by stabbing people in the back and is even sabotaging the magazine she works for. She even stopped being friends with Beaver- and now he's engaged to another woman! To put it bluntly, she doesn't really like who she has become. Because this is a movie and not real life, she gets to save the magazine, marry Beaver, and have her dreams come true!
That's how the movie went but that's not what I'm writing about. At a point in the movie, Jenna asks her Mom (and Beaver at another time) if she could have a do-over. And she got it- she got to become who she wanted to be at 13 (but in a good way). This really made me think. What would the 13 year old you think about the present you? Would they be happy with you? Disappointed? Let me ask you a question: If 13 year old you tagged along with you, how different would your life be?
I know mine would definitely be different. The naivette and openness of a junior high kid is pretty refreshing when you get down to it. Even when they try their hardest they're unable to hide who they really are. In other words, they're the exact opposite of most adults. We cover up our weaknesses, our desires, etc... so that we can be successful or cool.(Going through junior high probably has a lot to do with this!) And you know what? We're generally uncomfortable and miserable as we become successful and cool. The Lord loves us, created us, knows our past and future and has a plan for us, and we still freak out and think we have to act cool. (Btw, God definitely knew that I get confused by plot twists and analogies so he made it pretty clear in Scripture concerning these things. If I can figure it out, so can you!)
Granted, 13 year olds aren't exactly wise and life isn't predictable, but I'm going to make an effort to be more like me at 13. Or at least who I would want that 13 year old to be like when they're my age. Although, personally, to find the 13 year old me I think I'd prefer a Delorian and an orange down vest to go with it in lieu of a dollhouse and wish dust!
We've actually been having some winter weather here in Fort Worth which as been carving into Kara's workout time. The other day our financial planner decided she didn't want to go for a walk outside, so she went to Target to walk around. While she was there, she decided to buy "13 going on 30" because it was on sale.
"13 Going on 30" or "Great Scot! Where's the plutonium?!"
I used to say I liked chick flicks. This was such a lie that I didn't even know I was telling a lie. It was just a way to get in a dark theatre with a cute girl and eat stale popcorn and drink overpriced Mr. Pibb. Marriage is good for ironing out all the lies you tell yourself and making you realize the truth. Such as me saying I like chick flicks. But I can have more posts on marriage later.
Let me tell you something else: The older I get, the less mature my taste in movies becomes. I don't care about character motivation, dynamics, relationships, plot twists, etc.... I just want enough plot to move from one explosion to the next about every 2 minutes or so. Don't confuse me with plot, just entertain me. I'm entertained by the sound "BOOM!" and things flying through the air. And I don't want some frilly love interest thrown in to keep the women happy. Also, no apologies. Sometimes violence is necessary. Julius Caesar knew this way before movies were invented. (That's why he said "If you want peace, prepare for war.") Bad people aren't going to stop being bad people because you're willing to talk it out or discuss their feelings! Violence has use - such as to stop aliens from taking over the world, bad guys from winning, or just because the movie's so boring that without it you'd be watching paint dry. ("A History of Violence" is a good example of this and "The Time Traveler's Wife" definitely could've used some explosions.) "Boondock Saints," one of the best movies of all time due to the no-nonsense, no-apologies, shoot-everything-and-every-bad-guy theme running through it STILL has too much down time between action scenes. But hey, I don't produce the movies, I just watch'em.
So after a long day at work and a frustrating hour watching LOST. (They're not gonna answer any questions they're just going to leave it all in the alternate reality where the plane lands and everyone's okay. AAAAHHHHH!) I was thinking that 13Going On 30 sounded good. And it is a good movie, even after my disclaimer above. It's clean, straightforward, funny, and cute. Yes, cute. So Kara and I decided to have a little slumber party on a Wednesday night and lay in bed and watch the movie on the laptop.
To give you a short synopsis of 13 Going on 30, Jenna Rinks is a 13 year old girl and Matt Frathamm (aka "Beaver") is her best friend in 1987. At a party, she wishes she could be thirty, fun, and flirty. Thanks to the wish dust Beaver gave her, it happens. She wakes up 30 years old with a successful job as a magazine editor. At first, she's amazed that her dream came true. However, she quickly learns that she became successful by stabbing people in the back and is even sabotaging the magazine she works for. She even stopped being friends with Beaver- and now he's engaged to another woman! To put it bluntly, she doesn't really like who she has become. Because this is a movie and not real life, she gets to save the magazine, marry Beaver, and have her dreams come true!
That's how the movie went but that's not what I'm writing about. At a point in the movie, Jenna asks her Mom (and Beaver at another time) if she could have a do-over. And she got it- she got to become who she wanted to be at 13 (but in a good way). This really made me think. What would the 13 year old you think about the present you? Would they be happy with you? Disappointed? Let me ask you a question: If 13 year old you tagged along with you, how different would your life be?
I know mine would definitely be different. The naivette and openness of a junior high kid is pretty refreshing when you get down to it. Even when they try their hardest they're unable to hide who they really are. In other words, they're the exact opposite of most adults. We cover up our weaknesses, our desires, etc... so that we can be successful or cool.(Going through junior high probably has a lot to do with this!) And you know what? We're generally uncomfortable and miserable as we become successful and cool. The Lord loves us, created us, knows our past and future and has a plan for us, and we still freak out and think we have to act cool. (Btw, God definitely knew that I get confused by plot twists and analogies so he made it pretty clear in Scripture concerning these things. If I can figure it out, so can you!)
Granted, 13 year olds aren't exactly wise and life isn't predictable, but I'm going to make an effort to be more like me at 13. Or at least who I would want that 13 year old to be like when they're my age. Although, personally, to find the 13 year old me I think I'd prefer a Delorian and an orange down vest to go with it in lieu of a dollhouse and wish dust!
Christmas in Fort Worth
Trey and I celebrated our own little Christmas on Christmas Eve, because we planned to drive to Canton later that day. Due to the random White Christmas that blew in on Christmas Eve, however, Trey and I weren't able to go to Canton until Christmas day. We were sad about missing that time with family, but we had a blast hanging out at home. Our main concern was for Bob, Trey's dad, who was stuck somewhere on I-20 when they chose to shut the interstate down, leaving many travellers stranded. He was able to make it to a hotel about an hour off the interstate, though, so we were thankful for his safety!
Here I am, a sleepy woman, but excited about opening stockings. My mom has always given great stockings, and this is a tradition I want to carry on in my family.
Here's Trey opening his stocking.
Mom, this one's for you. Trey always enjoys those Get Fuzzy calendars you get him!
Not my best picture, but I LOVE the Yankee Candle Trey bought me (well, Lee actually bought for me, but on behalf of Trey...thanks for being Santa's little shopper, Lee!)
An Update through Pics
I know I'm bad about taking pictures. Even more, though, I'm bad about doing anything with the pictures I've taken. Case in point: Trey and I don't even have a wedding album, yet (though we are working on it, right mom and Gretch?).
Anyway, I will be adding some posts with pics of different things we've done over the past few months. Enjoy!
First, the airshow. In spite of much resistance, Trey unwillingly went to the airshow with me. Shockingly, he loved it :). My favorite part of the airshow came after the show was over. Since traffic was so horrendous, Trey and I parked our car on a hill close to the runway. We then watched for a couple hours as the different airplanes and jets took off to head to their home bases.
Here we are enjoying the show from the comfort of our blanket:
After the show, we took a pic with the blue angels behind us:
I can't remember the name of this aircraft, but I do remember Trey thinking it was really cool:
Anyway, I will be adding some posts with pics of different things we've done over the past few months. Enjoy!
First, the airshow. In spite of much resistance, Trey unwillingly went to the airshow with me. Shockingly, he loved it :). My favorite part of the airshow came after the show was over. Since traffic was so horrendous, Trey and I parked our car on a hill close to the runway. We then watched for a couple hours as the different airplanes and jets took off to head to their home bases.
Here we are enjoying the show from the comfort of our blanket:
After the show, we took a pic with the blue angels behind us:
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