Today we had a picnic for the counseling department at the house of one of my professors. It's usually a good time hanging out with friends, relaxing, and eating good food. Joshua was one of the skilled grillers.(Like the Starbucks aprons? Haha!)

And this is Hana, my co-counselor for this semester. She is from South Korea. I only have one more week with her until she gets a new co-counselor and I leave to do my internship. Exciting happenings.

Okay, back to homework!

the light

The end is so close I can almost taste it!

Joshua graduates very soon. Before he can, however, he has a project, a presentation, and a final. He'll be ready.

My semester ends even sooner. But before I'm home-free I've got two papers (one of which is a book review for a book I still have to finish reading) and a comprehensive final. And by comprehensive, I mean comprehensive over my whole counseling career. Yikes.

Almost...there...keep...going...

running

I've started running again. Last Friday I did about 2 miles (with some walking in the middle) and about the same over the next few days. Today I did 2.5 miles with no walking. Yes!

I haven't run in a while. I'm really not a runner. In the Fall of 2003 I was convinced by a friend to train for a half marathon. Before that time I hadn't run over a mile. Around the time that I was up to 10 miles in my training, a couple weeks before the race, I got tendinitis in my ankle and had to stop. I was really disappointed. I've tried to run off and on since then. Recently my knees hurt afterwards and I'm almost crippled if I don't ice them. Like I said, I'm not really a runner.

But I'm trying again. So we'll see how it goes.

Funny Disgusting Story

I totally forgot to tell you about this disgusting story. It happened several weeks ago.

On a Sunday night Josh and I had gotten back from our Perspectives class, so it was about 10pm. Josh went to check the mail (why on a Sunday night?). Our mailbox is right outside our front door on the wall. So he was leaning out the door checking the mail. All of a sudden I heard breaking branches and crashing noises and thought "Oh no, what is falling?"

Joshua jerks back inside as a loud "thump" hits the front sidewalk. I was thinking some branches were falling. But when Josh slammed the front door I knew it was something else. We cautiously opened the front door and there on the front walk, maybe 3 feet from us, are two possums tangled together. Nasty! One was biting at the neck of the other, both lying on their sides. I can see its nasty little face even now. I wanted to shut the door, but of course Joshua wanted to keep looking. We couldn't tell if they had been fighting and fell from the trees or if they were mating. But neither one was moving very much. And with the sound of the thump with which they hit the ground, I figured they were goners.

We did shut the door and turned off the porch light (so they wouldn't be attracted to it?) and finished getting stuff together downstairs. All the time I was wondering what we were going to do with two dead possums. Or, if they really were fighting, what are we going to do with the one that loses? Josh couldn't stop thinking about what would have happened if they had fallen on his head!

Before heading upstairs to bed we checked outside one more time. Both possums were gone! The only trace of this disgusting encounter was a small tuft of fur that had come out of one of them. Unsolved Mystery.

(I guess it could be solved if we find baby possums soon)

almost there

Once again we are in the final throws of the semester. And in more ways than one do I mean final. Joshua graduates in about 3 weeks! And I finish classwork in 3 weeks. The light is there...

But as everyone knows, that means that right now we are swamped getting everything done. Joshua is currently attending some architectural meeting in Dallas as an assignment for one of his classes. Then he has to head straight to his night class (late, of course) until 10pm. Long night. I am currently working on completing my professional portfolio. It's pretty much finished, but I'm being picky and re-doing parts to make it better.
I'm writing about things like:

• an assessment of my development as a counselor
• the relationship between theology and behavioral science
• my mission statement for counseling
• core assumptions (like how humans know what they know, what influences lack of well-being, etc)
• and my overall view of counseling

It's a lot. And it feels good to have it almost finished.

Of course, I still have to read another book for theology and write a book review. And finish my paper on salvation. And prepare for my counseling session on Tuesday night.

Whew!

It will be good to have the semester behind us.

Weather Woes

More crazy weather in the Metroplex. Yesterday American Airlines canceled something like 1000 flights. And this morning they canceled another 900. We have had massive wind and rainstorms the past couple of days.

Well, Josh was supposed to fly out to Monterrey, Mexico with the pastor and some guys from our church. But that didn't happen. One flight was canceled and they tried to get on another, only to have that one delayed and delayed and finally canceled. There are no other available flights this weekend.

So that's a disappointment. Now instead of being in Mexico eat tamales Josh is sitting in his Thursday night class. =(

But we trust that God has other plans and reasons why they did not need to go to Mexico.

discovery

Last week had been a pretty busy week and then Friday I went to a ladies retreat while Joshua went on a boys camp-out. So by Sunday afternoon we decided it was time to do something fun together. I decided I wanted to make oatmeal raisin cookies. As we pulled out our baking ingredients, we realized that we didn't have any eggs. Not one to be deterred so quickly, I searched online for a vegan recipe (since they don't use dairy products) and found some for oatmeal raisin cookies. It turns out you can substitute mashed bananas for eggs. How cool is that?

And the result? Absolutely delicious! Couldn't tell!

Now, we didn't follow the vegan recipe exactly because we used butter (the recipe called for applesauce). But I think it was a pretty cool discovery.

Hailstorm

We had a HUGE hailstorm last night. The weather reports had been saying there would be rain in the evening, but we didn't see anything for a while. A little after 11pm (yes, we were still up) it started pouring and then we could hear what sounded like little hail. Then all of a sudden it sounded like rocks were being thrown against our window and covered parking area. When we looked outside, the street was covered in hail!
I tried to take some pictures, but I could get any through the window, since it was dark, and when I opened the door I got wet. So no pictures. But trust me when I say there was a lot of hail and big pieces!
And then just as suddenly it all stopped and we went to sleep.

Pictures

Look! We found a new place to live and really spread out!Haha! Just kidding! These are really pictures from our camping trip. This is from the Historical Penn Farm that we visited at the State Park.

We tried to blaze our own trail through the woods. We only ended up with scratches on our legs and a muddy dog. Josh washed him off. Aw, what a cute family! Now, before I start getting any comments and remarks, let me make a few things clear.
1. Yes, we really like our dog and enjoy having him with us.
2. No, we do not think he's our kid nor is he serving as a child substitute.
3. Yes, we do buy toys for him and play with him.
4. No, we do not dress him up nor let him sleep on any bed.
5. Yes, he is a wonder-dog.
6. No, you cannot have him. =)

Let the countdown begin! Josh graduates on May 9th! Whooohooo!

Spring Break

The rest of our Spring Break was spent right around here. We had a kind of 'lay-low' week, watched a couple of movies, tried to do homework. On Friday we went camping out at Ceder Hill state park. I had not ever been camping at a location like this - it was more like "park-and-camp" than what I imagine as camping. And there was a burn-ban in effect but there was a lot of rain Tuesday night so the hiking trails were closed due to mud. Talk about caught in the middle. So it wasn't necessarily a fantastic camping trip, but it was a nice time out of the house, enjoying the sun and no distractions.

On Saturday after we got back from camping we dyed Easter eggs with a lady from our church and two Taiwanese boys she knows. They are Buddhist, but their mom let them come to church for Easter Sunday to get to experience Easter. Pretty cool.

We spent Easter lunch with friends of mine from seminary. I have been in classes with the wife since coming to seminary and they invited us over for lunch. It was nice to get to share the holiday with someone.

And then Spring Break was over.

Rocks and Caves

This past weekend we went to visit Josh's parents in Kerrville. Josh's brother Michael is living out there now, too and Laurie came out for the weekend from San Antonio, so we were all there together. On Saturday afternoon we went out to Enchanted Rock. Grandma Seefeldt told us it is the second largest rock in the nation. Josh and I had not ever been out there before but Laurie had several times and said we needed to do the caves, too, while we were there.

Here is the rock. This is not what I had in mind. If you ask me, this is closer to a mountain than a rock.
So you hike up this rock, which can be a little steep at times, and get an amazing view.

It was a good trek walking up. Not too difficult, but you definitely had to remember to drink your water. And please be friendly to everyone you meet along the way.


So we got to the top and looked around. Then Laurie directed us to the caves. Now, when someone says 'caves,' I think of a passageway in the rock that you can walk through, maybe ducking or squeezing by protruding rocks at points. Laurie did warn us that there were tight places and that it is completely dark inside the caves (we took flashlights) and she did say we would have to crawl through some places. But still I did not imagine what this cave was going to be like.Here is Josh at the opening to the caves, getting ready to go in.One last look at daylight before plunging in. See how happy and excited we are!

So the caves are really more like a small tunnel under and through the rocks in which you have to contort your body into all kinds of gymnastics positions to get through. Maybe that's a slight exaggeration. There were only a few contortion moments. I can't remember how many times Michael and I said "This is stupid" during the hour long trek. Michael also commented on how dangerous it was. And it's true! If you were to get stuck or hurt under there, I don't know what you could do. There certainly is no way you could get a medic team down there.
See?
But all in all it was fun. Great chance to put our problem solving skills to work as we figured out how to climb over a rock without hitting the ceiling or how to pass a flashlight so that all could see their feet. I ended up having to hold the flashlight in my teeth several times so I could use my arms and my feet to work through some tight spots. We made it all the way through! (Of course, you really had to make it through once you got started because there was no way to get back past a certain drop off.)

Would I do it again? Yes. Would I still think it is a stupid thing to do? Probably.
One thing we were surprised about is the total lack of park rangers or guides anywhere around the rock or near the caves. It was pretty much a free-for-all once you pay your entrance fee. After our adventure under the rock and after Michael commented several times on how dangerous it was, we saw this sign on our way out.Yeah, thanks.

Snow and more snow

*Note: I tried to post this yesterday and I had trouble. So I'm just posting it now.

For Texas in March, we have had quite a bit of snow lately. Monday night it started snowing around 8pm. When I walked the dog at 8am there were still mounds of snow on cars and all in the grass - which is impressive considering that the sun was out and it was in the 40s.

Yesterday, Thursday, a winter storm blew through here. We heard on the radio that morning that there was 100% chance of rain and snow - which we laughed at because 100% sounds goofy. But sure enough, by 11am it was raining hard and not long after that it was sleeting. Then it started snowing and sleeting. The sidewalks at school got frozen and the flowerbeds were all white. Cars had a layer of ice on them. Then it would go back to raining, then sleeting, then raining...you get the picture.

When I got home at 5:30pm this is what our street looked like
And our "backyard"
There was a good layer of ice on stuff and it was cold, cold, cold.
By 11am the next day, Friday, the snow began to melt. But Friday was still a pretty cool day. By now you would not have known there was snow just two days ago.

Crate Training

Josh and I have been really impressed at how well crate training (or kenneling) Sammy has gone. He seems to like his crate and it works well when we travel to visit our parents because he always has his little place. We occasionally muse about how great it would be to crate train our kids someday...and usually people laugh at us.

Well, for all you skeptics out there....






See, it can be done!
In fact, this little guy was so well trained that we didn't even have to tell him to "get in his crate," he just jumped right in and shut the gate himself. And he was perfectly content.


Really, he did go right in. This is our friends' son, Corban. They stopped by on their way to the airport and while we were all talking Corban ran around the house playing with Sammy and then jumped in Sammy's crate and lay down. Sammy wasn't too sure about that.

Friends are great!

A few weeks ago (I'm late posting this one) a good friend of ours from A&M was visiting in the Metroplex and took us to dinner. Adam Fields was my Impact Camp partner for the summer after my freshman year of college and we were friends all through college. His family lives in Kerrville, so sometimes we get to see him when we are out that way. We met him at a little Mexican food restaurant (Shelley, it's the one you and I used to meet at!) in Duncanville. Great food, great stories, great time visiting with an old friend.

About Sunday

Okay, I'll end the suspense! But I did have fun with it. =)

Background: Our church currently meets at a community center in Arlington. We do not have a building and are renting the space. So occasionally during the year we have voting booths partly blocking the children's "wing" or other clubs coming in to meet right after us. So, I got a text message on Saturday night from the office manager/ministry coordinator at our church. She was letting us know that Bill Clinton was having a rally on Sunday morning at the park by this community center. The streets were going to be blocked off at parts of the park, there were going to be people everywhere, parking would be a mess, secret service would be around, and we were still having service.
We pulled up Sunday morning and sure enough it was a madhouse. The parking lots were almost full and there were policemen directly traffic. People were lined up in the park waiting for Bill and police were everywhere watching. Inside the building was no better. It was an early voting weekend so the voting booths were up, which meant we had to be careful with the flow of parents and kids going to kids' church. Throughout the morning we had several people coming into the building looking for the rally. There was even one secret service guy who was lost looking for the rally.
The really cool thing was that several people came to our church service because they were already there. We saw them with their campaign signs sitting through the service. And I know that people who were voting got to hear the worship songs proclaiming the goodness of our God. Talk about a testimony. Pretty cool. Those are the times when I am glad we are in a public place where we can share through our worship who He is.

So, did Josh and I get to see Bill. No. But our friend did. Did we vote early? Yes. Did we vote for Hillary? My parents taught me to not tell who you voted for...but you can probably guess.

That's the Sunday story.

Anger revisited

So my group presented on Tuesday night over anger. Apparently it was a hit with the class - everyone I have run into has said it was great. (Well, all the students, not the profs) It's good to have that over with. But, after a comment from a friend on the previous post about anger, I will elaborate a bit about it.

As I said before, anger is a normal human response and an attribute of God. Nahum 1:2,3:

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The LORD takes vengeance on his foes
and maintains his wrath against his enemies.
The LORD is slow to anger and great in power;
the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet.

So, we see that God demonstrates anger. His is a holy and just anger, not ever selfish or inappropriate. We have been created in God's image (Gen 1:26) and therefore have some of God's attributes in us. However, we are also selfish and tend to seek our own motives and our own good in situations. Therefore, our anger is often short-sighted, selfish, inappropriate to the situation, and inappropriately expressed.

James 1:19, 20 says to be slow to anger because the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. It does not say anger is bad, but being short-tempered is not what will bring about the good things of God.

Proverbs 29:11 says a fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control. Hmmm...self-control. Not only fruit of the Spirit but also a sign of wisdom.

Ephesians 4:26 says not to sin in your anger and not to let your anger dwell. Don't hold onto it! Easier said than done for some of us (myself included). But the Lord knows that bitterness grows when we dwell on anger.

So what do we do about it?

• First, recognize it for what it is. A normal human emotion. An emotion that sometimes masks other emotions like fear or pain. An emotion that can, and should, be controlled.
  
• Learn to confess your anger to God, not because anger is a sin, but because you have only your limited perspective and could be missing the big picture.
  
• Learn to express yourself in healthy, helpful ways. One way to do this is through "I" statements like "I feel hurt when you say those things because it seems like you don't care about my feelings."
  
• Develop a lifestyle of forgiveness. Not merely "sweeping things under the rug," but actively forgiving others.
  
• Develop an outlook of thankfulness. It's hard to be angry with you are thankful for what you have and what God has done for you.

Some of those suggestions are my own opinion. Take it or leave it.
Thanks for reading!

Once

Okay, so Josh just told me about the song that won best song at the Academy Awards. It's from a movie called "Once." My brother gave me the movie for Christmas and although the language is really bad (giving it an R rating) the movie itself is good. Almost the whole things is music. And it's set in Ireland, so the people all have accents. Very cool. Anyways, I really like that song and am thrilled it won!

Just in case anyone was wondering...

Quite a weekend

This weekend started out by us offering to keep our friend's maltese dog named Pria. Little did we realize how "yappy" little dogs really are. She's a very cute little dog and very friendly, but she "talks" non-stop. No kidding. Even when all the lights are out and Sammy is sleeping and we are trying to sleep. Pria lies there on her bed going "yap..yap.......yapyap" until Josh turns on a fan just to drown her out. She's not even barking at anything! Just talking. Poor Josh couldn't sleep very well. As far as Sammy goes, he tolerated her but they are definitely not buddies.

On Saturday we visited a Hare Krishna temple with people from our Perspectives course. This is a religion from India, basically a branch of Hinduism. It was a very interesting experience. They have 7 worship ceremonies at the temple each day and devotees (Krishna followers) are supposed to pray a chant-type prayer a thousand times a day. It was sad for us to think about the bondage they are in striving after an idol, repeating chants over and over hoping to draw close to this god.

We went to an Indian food restaurant for dinner afterwards which was delicious! For dessert there was mango pudding and rice pudding. I have to say I loved them both! The mango pudding was bright orange and I was a little nervous about trying it, but after one bit I wanted a gallon to take home with me. =)

On Sunday...
Well, I'll tell you about that famous person later...

Quick school update. Not that anyone is really interested, I'm sure, but this way I have something to post. This week I have hardly done anything but school.

I am currently in the middle of a group project for my counseling practicum. We have to do a presentation about anger. (The irony is beautiful since group projects usually get me pretty angry.) We are to present a biblical view of anger and explain how to counsel someone in anger management type of stuff. It's been pretty interesting. One thing that was interesting was to find that anger is talked about in the Bible as much as love. Anger is one of God's attributes which means it is not a sin in itself because God is holy. Rather, our responses in anger are what causes problems. In regards to human anger the Bible usually cautions against it, since we often have selfish aims or see the situation incompletely and respond in anger. However, anger can be helpful when it motivates us against injustice. But be slow to anger, recognizing that our anger does not accomplish the things of God (James 1:19-20).

So, I'm writing a short paper about this. On Saturday we are getting together to record an example of a counseling session. Should be interesting. We have it totally scripted. haha - and our "clients" are pretty much model clients. We present on Tuesday and then this thing is over. Yay.

If you have any questions about anger, I'm your girl.

Friends!

So I am a bit behind in posting. This week has been very very busy for me. And it's not over yet. This weekend will probably be crazy too. But I'll try to do a quick update.

Last Saturday our friend Liz, formerly Schroeder, was in the Dallas area with her husband visiting from New York. I hadn't seen her since her wedding a year ago, and then only briefly (she was a little busy at the time). Another friend from college, Hannah, drove up from Austin on Saturday so that the three of us could have lunch and catch up. It was so fun to see them again and hear how things are going. I met Liz before classes started our freshman year at A&M. We were friends all through college, though it became a long-distance friendship when she first went to Germany for a year and then transferred to NY. While I studied abroad in Spain I was able to make a trip to Germany to visit here, which was just a joy! And now she's married and living in NY and I don't ever get to see her. =(
Here we are at lunch. Yes, we took a picture in McAlisters. Unfortunately the server was not as good of a photographer as he thought he was (notice the slight blurriness) but we are thankful he took the picture. It was an awful cold and thunderstormy day, but full of happy memories.

I love you guys!

I've been reading Queen Noor's (the queen of Jordan) autobiography, Leap of Faith. It has been very interesting. I have to admit that I don't know much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or for that matter much about the conflicts that have occurred in the past 30 years in the Middle East. It has been interesting reading about it from her perspective and reading about what her husband, King Hussein, tried to accomplish. (Not Saddam Hussein, King Hussein of Jordan). So now I am very curious about reading other perspectives to have a more well-rounded idea of the situation. So if anyone has any suggestions of other books to read, let me know.

Queen Noor is an American from Arab-American descent who married King Hussein in 1978 and became the Queen of Jordan. She converted to Islam right before her marriage. She worked to improve the situations of poverty, nature conservation, and increasing education and the natural resources and arts of Jordan. She was King Hussein's fourth wife. They had 4 kids together and then with all the other stepchildren, they had like 14 kids. King Hussein passed away from cancer in 1998 or 1999 (my book is upstairs).

Anyways, that is a little bit about what I am reading these days. That and textbooks and books for understanding how to help my clients in counseling. I think I'm reading about 6 books right now. And I love reading, so it's all good!

Humbled

I'm learning, unfortunately sometimes the hard way, how important prayer is for counseling. And I don't say this lightly. Before starting my practicum I would have said "Of course prayer is important. We want God to do the work." And that's still true. But it's amazing to see what that really means.

I have found that praying just before the session or praying on my way to the session or really even in the morning during my devotional time is not enough. It makes me think of the story in Mark 9 when the disciples tried to cast out a demon out of a little boy and could not. Jesus could, of course, and did. When asked why the disciples could not cast out the demon Jesus replied that that kind would only come out by prayer (and some translations say "and fasting"). No doubt the disciples said a quick prayer before trying to cast out the demon. But Jesus was explaining that it is a matter of lifestyle - a lifestyle of prayer and fasting and spiritual disciplines.

It's almost as if I've been saying to the Counselor, the One who created us and knows everything about us, "Hey, come along with me to the session and help me out if I get stuck. Otherwise, I got this one. We'll tag-team it."

It's amazing how much you can know with your head and not follow with your feet.

I have to say that I am grateful to be involved in a profession that requires dependence on the Lord in an obvious way. I think I need obvious. Otherwise I tend to get pretty comfortable with what I can do.

"Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength...Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:20-25, 31 (emphasis mine)

Heroes

We were doing so good! We have been committed to spending time together, to doing our homework, to reading, to playing on the computer...then we found The Office. And even though we really enjoy the show, we are able to limit ourselves with the dvd set of the whole season by just watching one every now and then.

Then my neighbor let me borrow season one of Heroes. We got sucked in like two suckers! Now I remember why we try not to watch TV. I guess we are only human...

At least we don't have to deal with commercials. This definitely is the way to watch your shows...if you tend to be a season or two behind regular programming. Okay, never mind, we're weird.

I better go get something productive done tonight.

Yup, yup, the school semester has started. And we already have homework. This weekend we started up the old routine of sitting on the couch with textbook or notebook in hand. While this should be a somewhat easier semester than most (thankfully!) it is still a school semester.

On the bright side, Joshua and I have started a Perspectives Course on Sunday nights. This is put on by the US Center for World Mission and is basically about the world Christian movement. We learn about what God is doing around the world, what His plan has been since the beginning, and what our part in the big story can be. We've only had 2 nights so far, but we love it! We love learning about other cultures and learning about the Bible, so this should be a good combination for us. Last night we were taught "The Story of His Glory," which was a really cool explanation, in story form, of the Bible, expressing God's work and plan from the beginning to the promised end. Wow, talk about exciting! We have met other people who are interested in missions and other people who are just wanting to learn more about God's work. And we love meeting new people with common interests.
If you want to know more about Perspectives go to: www.perspectives.org

Okay, I'm going to get to work on something...
Have a great day!

Disciple Now!

Our friend Clayton is still a youth pastor down in Cleburne and he asked us to be leaders at their Disciple Now youth retreat again this year. We got seniors again, which was great. One thing that's nice about seniors is that they like to go to sleep before 3am. So we got a reasonable amount of sleep for a retreat weekend. Really, we had a great time. We had 4 guys and 1 girl, so it was pretty low-key. Saturday night, though, we wrapped Clayton's truck in saran wrap - 4 rolls. It was great! Here is our good-looking group in our matching hoodies. We were posing by Clayton's truck, but you can't really see it.

So now it's back to work and the beginning of the last semester...

And we're back!

My apologies to anyone who checks this regularly. This Christmas break has flown by! I'll try to cover all the good stuff in a few posts and add pictures wherever possible.

Bustamante was great! We had a wonderful team who went on the trip and had an incredible time there. The church we are working with there had planned a kids Christmas party for that Saturday and we got to help with songs and games. Over 70 kids were there.
We had taken 200 shoebox Christmas gifts for the church to give to kids in the area and we got to wrap them and pass them out to the kids who came to the party. We didn't know that we would get the opportunity to give the gifts to the kids, so that was a great surprise to be a part of that.

Here are some of the wrapped gifts in the church. We spent about an hour in the morning wrapping the boxes. We had quite the assembly line going!






Here are the kids sitting waiting for their food. The church had made a different version of chilly-dogs for the kids.




We got back safely with no problems on Sunday. Then Joshua and I finished packing for Colorado and got on a plane early the next morning, Christmas Eve, and flew to Denver to be with my family. We had a white Christmas! In fact, it snowed all day on Christmas! That was a treat for us Texans! We had a wonderful, Superman Christmas! We have a tradition for Christmas where we all get something that matches - funny hats, nice sweaters, shirts, etc - and this year was Superman and Supergirl.




So, even though we had a crazy traveling schedule, we enjoyed being able to do everything we got to do. We love being able to be a part of what God is doing all over the world. It was a quick and somewhat exhausting trip, but there is nothing to compare to being used by God to do His work. And then to be able to be with family is a blessing we do not take for granted.

Merry (late) Christmas!

This is where we will be on Friday! Bustamante or Bust! =)

We survived!

Yes, folks, we did survive the end-of-the-semester craziness. *sigh* It's good to have that over with. Of course, we have not really slowed down since then. We had Christmas to decorate for, work to catch up on, and of course preparing for our mission trip. By the way, we leave tomorrow for Mexico! We are taking a team from our church down to Mexico, to the town we visited this summer, to take shoebox Christmas gifts and to pray for the town. We are hoping to be able to go back next summer to do a VBS there, so we wanted to encourage the pastors, build our relationship with them, and pray for whatever God wants us to help do there. We are excited about the trip for sure! We are taking 27 people.
Of course, this trip in itself is a bit crazy, too. We are driving, leaving Thursday and coming back on Sunday. Yeah, it's really short. But this way we will still get to see some family for Christmas. That means that Monday morning, Christmas eve, Joshua and I will be flying to Colorado to see my family. We will be there for a couple days and then come back to whatever our normal life is.
So, if you read this post between 12/20 and 12/23, pray for our mission trip. I'll try to put up pictures from the trip in a timely manner. =)

Hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

To anyone who regularly checks this blog:
I'm sorry I have not posted since Thanksgiving. Talk about a busy time. Finals start tomorrow and I have been more busy these past weeks than ever. I know it will all be over soon and that I will finish well. But in the meantime I have to press through. Joshua's final project is due tomorrow and then he's finished for the semester.

Besides school we are also getting ready for the mission trip we are leading with our church. It's fun and exciting. We have our last training meeting with the team this Sunday. We are going to talk about taking our personal worship with us to Mexico. We'll share some things that we learned from our time in North Africa.

So anyways, I plan to update more thoroughly later. Over the next few days remember us in prayer as we end our semester.

Thanksgiving

This year Josh and I hosted Thanksgiving and our families came to us! It was so fun to have everyone in our house! The food was delicious and just about everyone had some sort of contribution to the meal. Then, just after we had finished eating, it started snowing! Big flakes! It didn't stick to the ground of course, but we all ran outside to take pictures. What a great Thanksgiving surprise!You can kind of see the flakes in our hair and falling down. From the left: Justin (Laurie's boyfriend), Laurie (Josh's sister), my mom, Matthew (my bro), Nila (a friend from church), my dad, Joshua, and me!
Here are the grandkids with Mamaw! We are so glad she could come spend Thanksgiving with us. We enjoy her being around.

After dessert we had a long game of Cranium turbo edition. Everyone got to laugh and I think everyone made a fool of themselves at one point or another. The worst activity in this game is when the whole team has to spell a word backwards by alternating letters. Makes even intelligent people seem dumb...

It was so great to be with our families and we are so blessed to have families who are willing to travel to see us. It was fun to cook and plan food for them and decorate the house. We got to use all our china dishes, too!

We have much to be thankful for...

Wedding fun!

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we went to the wedding of a couple in our home group at church. We have been waiting for this wedding for a while now and they were so ready to be on the other side. The wedding was beautiful, the reception was fancy and lovely, the food delicious, and, the best part, there was dancing! Oh yes, dancing! And did we ever...


Here are the girls of the home group who were at the wedding. We are a pretty good looking group!
And here we are, dressed to kill if I may say so! Josh wore his new suit and I wore one of my bridesmaid dresses (Thanks Brittany!) and black & white polka dot heels. We definitely impressed a few people who did not know we are dancers. It's about time they knew...

Congratulations Jon and Heather Fearing! (We didn't get any pictures of them)

College Station

Last weekend Joshua and I headed down to College Station to visit a friend who just started at A&M. We didn't end up getting to spend much time with him, but we still had fun seeing the campus again and checking out the old town again! I miss College Station!In Rudder Fountain! Don't get wet!

We met up with Wesley, who was down visiting his girlfriend and got to eat with them. I really wanted to eat at Zapatos, but they were cleaning or fixing the inside and it smelled bad, so we went to Fitzwilly's instead. We drove by our old apartment and hung out in Research Park for a little while in the afternoon. Such a great place!
For dinner Joshua and I got Layne's to eat on our way home. Yum, chicken!Under the Century Tree - Meant to be!

Josh and the giant hotdog man!

Date Night: Morocco

No, we didn't travel to Morocco for a date night...but we did eat Moroccan food. Last Friday night Josh and I went to a cooking class at Sur la Table in Dallas. The class was on Moroccan cuisine. Delicious! It was a hands-on class, which meant that we got to make all the food. We had lamb, chicken, couscous, salad, and rice pudding. It was really fun to learn how to cook all the food. The recipes were not too difficult and I think Josh and I could do them again. And the funny part is that it turns out the chef is a girl I went to school with senior year of high school! We had English class together! So that was fun to see her and find out what has been going on in her life.

Now we are back in Arlington. =) I'm studying for a test and Josh is at work. Tonight I have my practicum, which is going really well.

Hopefully more adventures coming soon!

Who is that cute couple?

Our neighbors had a Halloween party this past weekend. Costumes were a must so we borrowed Fred and Wilma Flintstone costumes from a friend.We decided to mix things up a little bit...
Here are our neighbors in costume. They normally look nothing like this. Interesting.

So we hung out at the party for a little while and then went back next door to go to bed. We felt kind of lame going home while there was a party next door, but we had an early morning at church the next day.

That was the extent of our Halloween celebrations!

Friends are great!

This past Thursday Josh went down to Austin to attend the architecture convention. His parents were there attending, too, as was most of his dad's firm. So Josh got to hang out with all of them and do nerdy architecture stuff! =)

Thursday night I went to dinner with some friends from seminary to celebrate our friend Melanie's birthday. We surprised her at the restaurant. It was so fun. We got to tell nerdy counseling jokes.This is not a great picture of either of us, but this is my friend Melanie.

On Friday, my co-counselor Anna took me to lunch at Mimi's Cafe, a restaurant she enjoys that she thought I would like. We had a really good time together and the food was delicious.
This is my co-counselor Anna. She is from South Korea and has been here at seminary for 2 years. She encourages and challenges me in my spiritual walk. We have fun together and share lots of cultural things.
This is Mimi's. Inside it is decorated like a European cafe. Very fun. Maybe these restaurants are all over, I don't know.

Josh got home on Saturday and had lots of things to share with me about the weekend. So we took some time to relax on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon before plunging back into school stuff.

Right now I'm working on a book evaluation due Friday. Josh had a test and homework due yesterday. Viva grad school!

Birthday Celebration

This weekend we went down to Houston to visit my parents and celebrate Joshua's 25th birthday. We enjoyed our time relaxing and visiting with my parents. Sammy got to run around in their backyard and we got to sleep in a little. And we were finally able to sit down to watch an Aggie football game...only to be severely disappointed. I hope the team practices hard this week so we don't have another poor showing like that.Sammy loves to sit in my mom's lap! He's such a spoiled dog! Do you like the tropical background? =)

On Saturday my friend from high school AC got to come over and eat with us. It was good to catch up with her about what she is doing and to laugh about some old times in high school.

Finally, we got to see the family that I used to babysit for back in high school. When I first started babysitting them, Robert was just turning 3 years old. Now he's in 4th grade, riding his bike to school, playing soccer...I can't believe it! And Rachael is almost taller than me and is in junior high. I guess she'll be able to babysit our kids some day...=)
Okay, in the picture she looks like she is as tall as me, but that's because she's sitting on a higher cushion than me.

Good weekend. Happy birthday Joshua!

Tribute to Joshua

Since Joshua's 25th birthday is Saturday, I thought I would let you all know what a wonderful man God had given me for a husband.
Joshua is a man steadily seeking after the Lord and actively pursuing the calling he has heard for his life. Not only is he diligent and persistent in his studies, but he also goes to work and provides for us, even when that means late nights doing homework. He is very talented at what he does and yet so humble you would not guess how good he is at it.
Joshua is generous with his resources and our money, understanding that it is not ours to hoard but ours to give, and yet wise to know that he should be responsible to take care of his family. He is generous with his time and willing to help me out whenever I need it, even when that means doing the stinky chores.
He serves willingly behind the scenes, doing whatever needs to be done. Many times long after I would have let someone else do it.
He teaches 5th and 6th grade boys on Sundays, not because it's always his favorite thing, but because he knows they need a man to teach them and invest in them.
He listens to me ramble, vent, complain, do mental gymnastics and crazy planning for our future. He prays for us and for our families.
He is adamant about sharing the truth of God and making sure that the truth gets said.
He longs to serve God in the nations, using his talents and skills to benefit those who have less than we do. And he is patient to know that we need this time of equipping, even when it seems like forever.
He inspired me to not grow weary, but to continue to run the race set out for me, and to continue to be conformed to the image of Christ.
He's my best friend...and the best I could ever hope for.
And he makes good coffee.Thank you, Lord God, for my incredible husband.

Birthday and Banquet

So I talked to a sweet friend last week and I was reminded that people do read this blog and I need to keep it updated...at least every so often. So here's an update.

Friday night we got to hang out with some of my friends from seminary. We went downtown Fort Worth to celebrate Scott's birthday at PF Chang's. They are a great group of friends and we had a good time.This is Scott with his chocolate birthday cake slice. The waitress brought extra forks and we all had a bite. Yum!Downtown is all lit up at night with these Christmas lights. We just had to stop and take a picture! Gotta love the "one way" sign in the back.On Saturday we did homework all morning. That evening I got to go to the Arlington Pregnancy Center's annual banquet. My home group leader, Carol, volunteers there and had a table at the banquet this year. So she invited the girls from our home group to go with her. It was a beautiful event. The food was delicious and we got to hear testimonies of lives changed. They had a silent auction at the end, but of course everything was out of our price range! We stayed for a little while and the item that people bidded the highest on was a 6 week old chocolate lab puppy! This is the group of us at our table. We all got to dress up and look pretty!
The theme for the banquet was "Crowns of Righteousness" so they had a little crown at each person's place setting. We thought they were kind of goofy, but I had the girls pose with them anyways.

Well, I think that's that for now. I'm off to go walk the dog. Have a great day!