Things he Loves

Chelsea tagged me on this. Jen, I know you tagged me on that other husband thing... but that requires a cooperative husband - so far, no luck. So, in no particular order, here are most of the things Jeff loves:


Jeff loves to cook out and happens to be the best griller I've ever known! It's true. He would LOVE to have a grill like this some day!


He loves to hunt! Which also encompasses his love of weapons. Which has spurred my love for gun safes.


He also loves the stock market...this is kind of a love/hate relationship really. Like yesterday...yikes!


Jeff loves dogs! Especially big, cuddly ones or cute little ones that will become really big ones. The tiny dogs kind of scare him - sort of like babies.


Jeff loves tile showers. He has always wanted one and I'm pretty sure already has designed most of the elements of our future house in his head. We won't live there for another 10 years or so - but he's totally into all that stuff.


He loves his friends and hanging out with all of them. If you're not pictured you are still loved.


Jeff loves fishing! He and his dad used to go every Saturday morning when he was growing up.


He loves ice cream - more than anyone I've ever known...really.



Jeff loves to go to the movies, watch movies, he loves movies on sale, $0.50 Tuesday at the dollar movies. He loves all things movies!


He loves his truck! Really, he loves most trucks.



Jeff loves his family!


Jeff loves him some Dallas Cowboys!


And last but not least, he loves MEEEEEE!

ummm...what?!

I've been off and on studying the arabic alphabet for about a year. You really can't off and on study ANYTHING well for a year especially the arabic alphabet. So, really, what I've been doing is going over and over the basics trying to gain a basic understanding of word structure and letter formation and the shapes of the letters. There are 29 letters in the Arabic alphabet, and for 8 of them there is no sound in the English language that is even equivalent to the sound that this letter makes. That baffles me... and kind of discourages this beginner.

The other thing that makes learning the alphabet seem insurmountable is that the letter changes depending on it's location. Like, if it is at the end of a word it looks different than if it is in the middle or at the beginning, so you have to be able to recognize the basic structure of the letter before you can even begin trying to connect it to another letter to form a word. My previous language learning experience has not proved to be of any value yet because I've always had some kind of framework for understanding 'Oh, that's like this thing is in English.' Not so with Arabic. But, I'm eager to start learning Kurdish and hope that at least being able to recognize letters when I get there - even if I have no idea what word it is forming, will help me adjust more smoothly.

Did I mention that you read and write right to left? I will certainly count it a miracle and mercy of God if I can master the alphabet before we leave for Iraq - that is my goal anyway. I'll let you know how it's going, don't expect me to write you letter in Arabic or anything, but I might be able to write the alphabet for you!

200th post

Wow... I wish I had something more important to say. I just logged on to tell you about my new favorite product and realized that this is my 200th post. I momentarily considered trying to come up with something cooler to say, then I decided that would require a lot more time than I was intending to take. So on to the actual content of this post...

Downy Simple Pleasures laundry detergent!!!


I know this is going to make me sound kind of crazy, but I first smelled this on someone else's clothes like 3 months ago and was like "What IS that? I need that perfume." First, this was my sister so it wasn't like I was smelling some random person. When she told me it was her detergent I made her describe in detail the bottle but then she told me it was kind of expensive. So, I never bought any but made sure to tell Jeff that if he got some I would want to do laundry all the time! He looked at it at the store a few months ago and smelled it and told me it smelled too 'purple'. Well the other night he came home and surprised me with flowers and this laundry detergent!!! I think I was equally excited about both! I've been doing laundry today and I just have to say that this lavender and vanilla scent makes me feel REALLY happy and makes me want to do lots of laundry! I know Jeff's not thrilled about his clothes smelling 'purple' but I think this 'purple' smell is kind of magical. Well, back to the laundry...

Nobody's Got it All Together

Rarely do I love an entire album or does it so fully speak to where I am in my life. I've been listening to Jill Phillips latest 'Nobody's Got it all Together' album on repeat and it is awesome! Really, I can't get enough of it. It says exactly how my heart is feeling and when I can put music and words to those feelings it is really freeing! I downloaded this album for FREE here. They have a lot of other really great music too. Go there, today, it is good for your soul.

Woo Hoo!

Great news! Jeff & I both have part time jobs!!! I am continually amazed at God's faithful provision.... and humbled by my less than faithful belief in Him. God really is who he says he is - nothing groundbreaking, but still it is easy to allow myself to be burdened by the dailyness of life and forget the big picture of God's greatness and goodness. I still marvel at how much he loves us and wants to provide for us - maybe not always when and how we ask him to - but he actually delights to be our Provider...

So, about the jobs! I will be going back to work at Farmers Insurance every afternoon from 1-5 and babysitting for a family from the church a few nights a week. Jeff will be working at a bank as a personal banker part time! Thank you all for your prayers for us and glory be to God who gives us every good thing!

Fishing

Most people who know me know my love for the outdoors. While Erin and I were in Corpus I got to take her fishing with me. I woke her up at 5:30 on a Tuesday morning and really didn't think she was going to be able to get out of bed. Once she was up I got dressed real quick and went to pick up breakfast for her with a large cup of coffee. When I got back she was wearing her fishing shirt I had gotten for her the night before. (A fishing shirt is a shirt that has vents in the back and under your arms to keep you cool.) Once I got back we headed out to the dock to put the boat in. The place we were fishing was a whopping 45 second boat ride away. When we got there we tied up to the bridge and got our fishing poles ready and began to fish. I got Erin all set up and then set my pole up and then she needed a new bait so I gave my pole to her so I could re bait her line and she caught a trout on my pole. It was her first keeper. (A keeper if a fish that is of minimum legal length to be kept. For a trout it is 15 inches and for a red fish or red drum as some people call it the legal minimum length is 20 inches.) After her first trout she caught some trash fish and then Erin caught a 23 inch red drum. It was the biggest fish on the boat until I caught my 24 inch red. Here is a picture of us with our red fish.

I was so proud of her for holding her fish even though it was slimy. I learned that Erin is an amazing fisher woman. She caught 2 keeper trout and 2 red fish along with several fish that were not keepers. Our fishing trip was lots of fun, a large part of that was because I got to share something I have loved for the last 19 years with my wife. To see her succeed and catch all those fish was a great feeling. I decided that the feeling I had with Erin must be very close to the feeling my dad had all the years that we fished together and he baited my hook and took my fish off the line and fixed stuff i broke before I learned how to do it myself.

I almost forgot Erin wrote a song while we were fishing to the tune of 'Baby Got Back'. It goes like this:

I like big fish and I cannot lie
You other brothers can't deny
When a fish swims up with a real big mouth and some big fins on the side
You get HOOKED like a fish on a lure...

This is all we can remember right now but needless to say the song was hilarious.

Whew...

We made it! We are finally back in Waco, moved out of Bedford, all our stuff in a storage unit in Corpus and my sister is married. So, mission accomplished.

This is our apartment we were moving out of in a state of disarray for about a week. See if you can find me - it's like where's waldo without the stripes.
We had a good time in Corpus, it was nice to reconnect with our church there and lots of friends and family. We went on a mad fishing excursion - but Jeff said he wants to tell you that story - so I'll save it for him. But just to make sure he tells it right, it should be noted that I caught more fish than him. =)
Elyse & Stephen's wedding was beautiful! They are in Costa Rica now enjoying their honeymoon. I'm pretty glad that she is only getting married once and I have no other siblings. I mean, it was really fun but kind of stressful. Here are some pics of the event:

with the bride before the ceremony

The first dance

us with Jeff's parents

It was a really fun wedding and I'm so thrilled to have Stephen as a brother in law - he is pretty cool.

I will post more details of the week later....