My Twins -The Results

Well, I must say - you guys did pretty good! Missy, Jeff's seen all these pictures too many times to get the wrong answer. I remember in high school before we were dating doing the 'which one am I' test with him where we would go around to EVERY picture in the house and he would have to guess which one I was. If my memory serves me correctly he was only right about 45% of the time - but he's gotten much better now! Fortunately there's never been any mix-ups on his part - although, there was that one time in college when Elyse's then boyfriend tried to kiss me because he thought I was her...awkward. Without further ado (what's ado anyway?)

Kasey: you got them all right!!!! way to go! YOU are the champion!

Jennifer: you scored a 90, you got Pic # 2 wrong, I am on the left

Chelsea: you also got pic # 2 wrong - Santa must have thrown you off.

Missy: You were wrong on pic # 1 - with the baby pictures, when in doubt - I'm the smaller one. My dad and I were talking about this post yesterday and he's like 'I always assume you are the one with the smaller head.' Elyse stole my food tube in utero so she was fatter than me and yes 1 inch taller than me (good observation Tera).

Elaine: Good job! You got pic # 2 wrong and Pic # 9 wrong, It's me, Elyse, and my mom.

All in all, great job friends! You guys are clearly not the ones that go up to my sister or my mom and talk to her like she's me. Last weekend at the garage sale someone thought my mom and Jeff were married....awkward? Yes.

I'm going to PA to visit my sister and her husband this weekend! I'm pretty excited! I haven't seen their new house, and the leaves will actually be changing, I can't wait!

no more nyquil

So, I decided that it must be the Nyquil that makes me crazy after all. Last night we were laying in bed about to go to sleep and I guess Jeff could tell I was kind of restless so he asked me, 'What are you thinking?', my response was something like:
"About safety patrol flags, peanuts, glaciers, doorknobs, hockey, petals, shopping centers, rabbits, pendants, quilting, we need more stamps, who won the debate? ice cream, cleaning out the refrigerator, Kurdish, fire escapes, landslides, what are we going to eat for dinner tomorrow?, where's my phone?, kayaks, girl scouts, meadows, my steering wheel...."
It went on like that for about 4 minutes, during which I think Jeff went to sleep and I decided not to take Nyquil anymore. Yikes!

garage sale update

I'll give ya'll a few days to do the picture guessing, but I wanted to update you on the garage sale. It went really well - thanks for your prayers! I went down to Corpus Thursday to start going through the attic, storage unit, my mom's garage, and our stuff at Jeff's parents house. At first I thought I had just inhaled too much dust and my allergies were going crazy, but by Friday evening I conceded that I was in fact sick - really sick. I made it through the morning shift of the garage sale and then had to go lay on the couch and try not to move. We met our goal of how much money we wanted to make and got rid of all of our junk!

If you can't read the sign it says 'Welcome Mate! I'm Joey, you can take me home for just $2"... But nobody did, he's at Goodwill now.


Turns out the Christmas tree really did sell the clothes it was wearing - kind of like seeing stuff on mannequins...only not so much.



I was pretty disappointed at the timing of the illness, but then I got to thinking last night - and maybe it was the nyquil (I'm still kind of under the influence) but I was thinking about all those things that make me think 'Why would God create that?!' Things like infectious mosquitoes, raccoons, cockroaches, disease causing bacteria, bats, ants that don't bite but eat your food, armadillos, ants that do bite and it feels like fire - things like this. And I realized that all of these things (or maybe just most of them) cause me to have to depend on God and usually produce in me an attitude of humility or a general acknowledgment that I need help. It's good for me to look back on this weekend and KNOW that there is no way I would have been able to have a successful garage sale without God's grace. I'm feeling much better today, and hopefully Jeff & I will not acquire enough stuff for another garage sale for at least 10 years!

My twins

I don't know what the deal is but lately everyone (particularly people who aren't around me very much or who are really close to me) keeps telling me that I look just like my sister, or that I look a lot like her today. I mean I know we're twins and all and look alike but not THAT alike...right? I mean I always thought that as we got older we looked less alike. Also, I am apparently looking increasingly like my mother - to the point where people approach her and talk to her thinking she is me. It's kind of weird to have so many people that look like me. So here's the challenge - look at the pictures below and guess who is me, who is Elyse (my sister) and I'll even throw some mom pictures in there.

First, this is me and my sister. I'm on the left and she's on the right


Now, you're on your own... I have a few pics of us growing up so you can help me decide if we are in fact looking MORE alike as we get older or less alike.
Picture 1

This one's pretty hard - I'm only 92% sure I know which one I am

Picture 2

We did a lot of the matching outfit in alternating colors thing

Picture 3

Okay now for the getting older pictures...

Picture 4


Picture 5

Notice my mom in this picture as a reference for future pictures

Now, for the current pictures. I'll throw in some of my mom too, so you have to guess which one is me, which one is my sister, AND which one is my mom....good luck!

Picture 6


Picture 7


Picture 8


Picture 9



Picture 10


Now it's your turn! Just tell me what side I'm on, and in the ones with my sis and Mom tell me who's who by saying what side everyone is on. Mom & Jeff you don't get to guess

*****update*******

I'm taking Kasey's suggestion and adding individual pics of me, Elyse and my mom so now see if you can tell who's who...

Picture 11


Picture 12


Picture 13

Garage Sale!

We decided Monday to have our huge garage sale this Saturday in Corpus Christi. We moved all our stuff down there in July and it has been sitting in storage since then. I'm glad we're getting this out of the way but I'm pretty nervous about it already. I had a big garage sale right after college and if I remember correctly it went something like this...
LOTS of organizing stuff all over the house, price stickers everywhere, staying up super late setting stuff up in the garage, not sleeping at all that night because I kept thinking about all the little things that I needed to get done, finally just getting up at 5 am and going to Krispy Kreme to get donuts for whoever showed up, and then we started to set up about 6 even though it wasn't supposed to open until 7. People started showing up right about 6 and we tried to get them to wait until we were done setting up but they didn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish. It was out of control, people fighting over bicycles and shoes and counting money in Spanish that I couldn't remember. Finally, it was over around 2 pm and we took everything we couldn't sell to goodwill in trash sacks. I spent the next 2 days trying to recover from that experience. 2 years later I'm not sure I'm fully recovered. There is this sense of dread already filling my insides.... So, if you think about it in the next few days, please, please, PUHLEAZE pray for this garage sale on Saturday that I will not loose my mind or sell my mom's furniture that wasn't for sale or Jeff's clothes he still wants - things like this. If you're in Corpus this weekend - stop by! 2517 Quebec, but don't come before 7 am!

100 miles of brokeness

I feel I must preface this with a warning that this is pretty fresh, unguarded pain and I'm never quite sure how to articulate it, but this is my best effort.
On the drive this morning from Austin to Waco, a measly 101 miles, I had some really significant time with Jesus and just felt compelled to share about it.
A little background: this has been a really lonely season of life for me. I've probably cried about it weekly or at least bi weekly for almost a year. I know that God created each of us as relational beings and as such he made a place for us to dive deeply into community together and love each other well. I desire that so deeply, especially after having experienced several life shaping years of intimate, spiritual community. I've felt for some time that God has intentionally placed me in this lonely season not only to refine me, but also to prepare me. I know it is His mercy that loves enough to give us the best instead of just good or fine. In Iraq I will not have the wealth of relationships and options for community that I have here and this loneliness is good preparation for what is ahead. Even though I have acknowledged that for some time, I have not up to this point been able to accept that. I have kept my fists closed on my own desires and refused to accept God's provision for the moment. I've been convicted of this several times but have never really repented until today. God showed me how self has been a joy-stealer. I've been unhappy and hurt and a lot of other things for a REALLY long time and I didn't have to be - I chose that. Why would you choose something like that?! What person in their right mind would choose to feel miserable when they could choose joy?! The enemy is so crafty and is always looking for ways to steal, kill, and destroy. I became so focused on the lack of community I was experiencing and how everyone had let me down that it became all about me and feeling sorry for myself that I wasn't feeling loved or valued. As I opened up my heart to really listen to what God was saying today and let him hold me and show me his heart for me I realized that I had been looking to the world to fill me and bring me joy. God gave me this picture of me sticking rocks in my mouth and sucking on them trying to get water to quench my thirst, all the while I am sitting by a beautiful, freshwater stream. What an idiot right?! Rocks aren't going to produce water that will satisfy me, and that's a lot of unfruitful work when there is a stream of water that is available. I wonder how often we do that? Suck on rocks when we could drink from the stream - the world will never be able to fill me and produce lasting joy in my heart. That doesn't mean that my desire for community is bad - it is in fact a God given desire. But, my inability to accept God's provision for the time being, which is not the community I would prefer, is a joy killer and a rock sucker. God doesn't always answer our prayers the way we want, he doesn't always give us everything we think we need, but He is always who He says He is and He keeps every single promise every day. That's enough for me today. So take it from me, put down the rocks that you want to satisfy you and drink deeply from the stream that actually will!

Dream last night

So, last night I had a dream that I was Jim from the office. We had just finished 'skills testing' in the office. It was this random test that was supposed to showcase the special skills that we each had so that we could work more effectively together. (Should have been the first indicator that this was in fact a dream)
Well, I was Jim in this dream, and his highest scoring skill was 'covert hiding'. Meaning that due to his lanky stature he could hide in lots of places and not be seen. Dwights highest scoring skill was 'covert operations discovering', meaning that he could thwart the plans of any undercover operations going on.
Sidenote: in my dream Jim & Dwight are both dressed like they usually are with their normal voices and mannerisms.
So, after Michael reveals the office skills, Jim and Dwight have some friendly banter about how Jim's score was higher therefore proving that Dwight couldn't find him if he hid from him rendering Dwight's skill useless. So, Dwight starts counting to 10 and I (Jim) start running to find a place to hide. Now we aren't in the office anymore and are in my old house that I grew up in and I'm looking for a place to hide and realizing that I'm so freaking tall that it's hard to hide anywhere and I'm beginning to question whether I tested correctly. I end up locking the side door to gain some more time and hiding in the pantry. However, my shoes were so big that they stuck out from behind the shelf and Dwight found me. I don't really remember what happened after that?
I'm not sure what that dream means - I haven't even watched the office recently! It was funny though that even in my dream the charaters were the same.