WTAMU here we come

All tests have been passed and transcripts are in route.

Thank you so much for all your prayers. We both made it through our last class with South University and I passed my entrance test for WTAMU. I am signed up for my spring classes and ready to go. We are still waiting for one of Cory's transcripts and then he will finish up his enrollment.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers, it's gonna be a long road ahead.

GO BUFFS!!!

Trip to the Mountain

We went to visit Granny & Papa in New Mexico for Thanksgiving. It was a long 10 hour drive. The kids were such troopers; they really did a wonderful job both on the way there and back.

Jacie had been praying for snow for over a month and she got her wish. It didn't snow hard, but it snowed. We went up to the ski resort one afternoon and played in some man-made snow for a bit. We weren't totally prepared and our clothes weren't the best for snow playing. I think we might have lasted for 45 minutes or so before we all piled back in the car to go home. Jordan was the lone trooper who would have been fine for us to leave him up there all day.

The next day we went up to the tube shoots. It's like Schlitterbahn in the snow!! We had to pick out our tube, stand in line forever and then enjoy the 1 minute ride. Everyone had a great time. Cory and I rode double with Jacie and Jax for awhile, then Jacie wanted to brave it on her own. I tried to get a pic of her coming down, but her tube turned at the last second. I did get a great shot of Jordan, he was in the air coming off of a jump.

The last night we went to Granny & Papas church program "A walk through Bethlehem". Granny was a Ladivical dancer, and Papa was one of the priests. The kids were in awe as we walked through a re-enactment of Bethlehem during the days Jesus was born.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Gig'em

ALL DUDED UP

Saturday morning fun. We all got dressed up with our Aggie team spirit and went to I-Hop for breakfast. There were some people sitting next to us that tried to get Jaxson to put up the tu horn sign. He told them, naww and showed them his gig'em thumb :~)

Play-Off Game

We thought our Friday Nigh Football fun was over , but there was one more play-off game. We sat with Shelly and Mike up in the "good" ;~) seats. Boy was it cold!!! The weather didn't stop Jaxson from being his usual #1 sports fan. He clapped... stomped... and hollered for his Rebels the whole game. Jacie and I pretty much just stayed huddled up with Mrs. Shelly and our blankets.

Read ALL the instructions before starting.........

Ok, so this post goes out to Jordan.

Im working fast and furious to get all 6 of my assignments turned in on their due date for this last week of class. And something in my head says " just go out to the message center and check the Proff. update" . I took a picture of it to share.

So had I looked at this before I started the assignments and seen all the red writing telling me what to skip, I would have only worked 4 of the 10 problems on Assignment 3 & 4. And I wouldn't already have1/2 of Assignment 6 completed.

Next time Jordan makes this mistake I guess I'll have to go easy on him.

See why I needed prayer??? HAHAHA :~)

Prayer Please

This is the last week of classes for Cory and I and because of South University's course schedule this last week is cut from 7 days down to 3. We still get the same amount of homework, but have less time to turn it in. SOooooooo the next 3 day's will be packed for us.

Also, I plan to take my math placement test on Friday at the tu testing center. This is the only portion of the placement I haven't met yet and WTAMU requires this before I can actually schedule classes.

Cory has one more transcript to get in to them before they will offer him a transfer. He isn't quite sure if WTAMU is where he should go, but I'm really hoping he chooses to go there with me. It has been a true blessing for us to take classes together, and I so desire to keep it that way.

What a wonderful weekend!!

We enjoyed a peaceful Friday night together with steaks on the Grill. Cory is perfecting his
rib-eyes. Then, Saturday, we visited Mema & Dado and helped out with some heavy lifting jobs getting ready for the new house. Today we sang praises around the house while cleaning & doing homework then wrapped it up tonight with our marriage class.


Jordan, Dado, and Cory mostly did the "heavy lifting". Dado had jobs lined up for them when we got there...Jordan bareley had 1 foot out of the car before Dado handed him a pair of gloves and put him to work on the jack hammer. He didn't mind, as you can see from the pictures, it was quite fun. Almost as fun as him acting like a lumber jack on an old tank. By the end of the day he could balance on it quite well.


Cory was a hoot!! His job was the tractor operator, and we're not sure it was actual "work" for him. He gave all the kids a ride around the yard. Jacie loved it right away; Jaxson, however, had to be coaxed a little. Cory told him they were gonna drive to get the football players and that sealed the deal.
Me and Mema took the little guys to this great place called Dewberry Farms. It's like a farm full of old fashion fun things. There was a hay ride, pig race, corn maze and they even had swings made of feed sacks and drainage pipes. They really liked climbing on the hay pile and it brought back memories for me of Granny Crenshaw's house playing in the old barn with the hay. (We dont have these pictures back yet)

Halloween 08

Trick- Or- Treat
We continued our Halloween tradition by going to mom's office and meeting the gang at Nanna's Halloween Bash. We had a blast at both.

Grande has each department decorate for Halloween, then all the employees kids are invited up to walk around and trick- or treat at each desk. Last year the marketing dept decorated as shriek, and Jacie was terrified.... this year they did candy land and she loved it. Jaxsons favorite was the call center. They did a carnival theme and had a football throwing game, go figure.

The weather was great for fun, food and fellowship later that night at Nanna's. Once everyone arrived, we headed out to get some exercise (wink wink). The hit of the night was coach G. in his Buster the Buda Bulldog costume. The cars honked as they drove by, and all the little kids we passed came over to hug the HUGE YELLOW DOG.

San Gabriel's Horn

A few weeks ago I went on a respite with some ladies. I had never even heard of this word, respite, let alone knew what it meant. Well, God had a weekend planned to teach me live and in person the definition.

I've been on the traditional women's retreats several times. We all pile in to a car and head off somewhere with no kids, husbands, housework etc. and listen to a speaker teach us a new word from God,.but this retreat, or rather respite, was totally the opposite. This was me and God..... that's it....... no pre-printed fill in the blank sermon notes to go by......just me and him amongst all of his splendor!!

At first I was unsure how this whole thing would work. I have my daily quiet time hour, but this was 2 full days of quiet time...how would I find something to do all by myself for that long? Well, as some know, I struggle with a nasty little word called "control" and, boy oh boy, did my Jesus have plans for me that weekend.

We stayed in a large vacation home, on the San Gabriel River, in Georgetown. It was a huge home; tall ceilings with large open windows over-looking the river and from our bedroom balcony we had the view of God's creation; it was so peaceful. We all gathered a few times each day for worship and meals, but other than that we each put on our tennies, grabbed a blanket & bible then hit the land.

I love the song we sing at church "I lay back against you and breath, feel your heart beat" I have a strong desire for this peacefulness in my life. This verse of this song has brought me through some pretty tough times in life. Well, I was totally overcome with emotion as I walked down to the river and found a huge oak tree. The tree leaned just so, that it made a perfect place to sit and lean back on, as if God, himself, put it there for me. So...... I layed against him and felt his heartbeat for 2 days.

I entered that weekend with a heavy heart with a lot of life issues weighing me down, I was having a hard time understanding where all of this was coming from. I got to thinking, we all have our struggles, you know the ones we have endured forever, and we have found ways to somewhat comfortably cope with them.....but have you ever watched God just flat move one of those struggles out of the way? He has recently done this in my life. Another song I love has a verse that says "He can move a mountain, my God is mighty to save".

Well guess what I learned ..... there are different struggles on the other side of that mountain, and sometimes there things you haven't dealt with before and therefore have no coping methods. Man, this has been humbling to me, that's right where I was. So If I believe my God, not just believe IN Him, then I must lean on him for everything. So that's where my "control" problem comes in. I was stressed out because Tanya was trying to control and fix all the new struggles that had become visible to me.

I went into that weekend stressed, and came out free. The struggles aren't gone, but the stress of trying to figure out all the answers is. So I had to share this with who ever wants to read this and I have inserted some of the pictures from my spot on the river. Each of these pics are the very heartbeat of God and I know I will look at them daily. If you ever have the chance to get away and spend time with him in nature, I would encourage you to do so. And if you need someone to go with, I'm only a phone call away.