Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family!  Many blessings to you on this day of thanksgiving!  We hope that you have many blessings to celebrate.

This is our fourth Thanksgiving together as a couple--third as married peeps.  Each year, things are kind of hectic between traveling and trying to be there for both of our families.  It's a lot of fuss upfront, but at the end of each day, there is always a feeling of thankfulness for the love that we do have for each other and for our families. 

We have so much to be thankful for, and this chapter in our life has been humbling in that a good amount of our monthly income was taken away when I didn't get a job this year.  I have a post in the works that addresses some our feelings on that, but the main lesson that we learned is that we have been given so much... and even when we feel bummed because we don't have extra spending money or something unexpected comes up that we have to pay for, we still have so much more than so many others.  That's kind of a hard lesson to remember in the midst of a gimme world.  So, in the end, we are so thankful to remember that regardless of what happens to us in the world, there is a much larger eternal picture.  :)

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name."  

1 Chronicles 29:11-13

Happy Thanksgiving!


Love--
J, Lauren, & Bruce :)

A Day in the Life of Me and our Cute Dog

A friend from college, Lacy from Tatum Tales, asked her blog readers to do a Day in the Life blog.  I thought... well, it's usually just me all day long.  How boring will that be?  So, in order to jazz it up a little, I included pictures from Bruce the beagle's life, too.  :)  He mostly sleeps all day.  I hope no one thinks that I'm weird for documenting his life, as well as mine.. but he keeps me company.  And well, he's so sweet.  Just so loving.  :)

So here goes...


7-7:30ish-- I wake up to try to spend a little time with J before he goes to work.  I appreciate how hard he works, but it always makes me feel a little sad to see him go.

When J leaves, I usually go to the kitchen to find that he's left a cup of coffee prepared for me.  It's a sweet little gesture that he does most mornings.

8ish-- Usually, I have to go and get Bruce up out of bed.  That boy likes to snooze!  He goes to the back door to wait for me to let him out.  While he's out doing his business and "hunting" (especially if it's earlier in the morning!), I usually pour his food into his bowl and catch up on the local news on the internet.  Bruce usually very loudly lets me know that he's ready to come in to eat his breakfast!

Wake up, little buddy.

Waiting to go out!

Where ya at, MOM?  Hungry dog here.

After dawdling on the internet for a while, I usually eat breakfast around 9 or so.  Cereal or toast or whole wheat waffles.  I sometimes will turn on the television for a little while.  After breakfast, I usually either start working on chores or work on some craft project.  I am good friends with Mr. Dishwasher and Miss Washing Machine.  We stay regularly acquainted.  Sometimes, I check my email and then spend a lot of time on allrecipes.com trying to plan our meals for the week.  I like this website because it has a feature that makes a shopping list for me! 

Currently, I've been working on a felt rosette for my sister's Christmas present and a Christmas wreath for my sister-in-law... so I make a mess on our coffee table!

Messy mess.

Work in progress!

12ish-- Typically, I remember that it's about to eat lunch and/or take a shower!  I almost always have some leftovers to eat from dinner the night before.  On this day, I had leftover corn chowder.  I'll post this recipe soon--it's delicious!

12:30ish-- Bruce is snoozing away.  If I haven't already, I usually send J an email to let him know how my day is going and to just have an excuse to tell him that I love him.  :)

I also go outside to get the mail.. and I'm going to use this as excuse to post pictures of our pretty flowers.  Prettiness, thanks to the gardening husband of mine!

1ish-- I either try to go back to my chores or succumb to cuddling on the couch with Bruce to watch television.  Lately, I've been watching a lot of Law and Order: SVU. 

Love this little face.

Around 2:30, I usually let Bruce out again and try to get back to work on stuff around the house.  A lot of times, I'll use this time to bake muffins for our breakfasts or start making dinner.  I think I might be the world's slowest chopper so sometimes, I'll chop ahead of time so that I don't have to use such a long chunk of time preparing dinner.

Around 3:30, I remember that J will be coming home soon so I start to prepare for that.  Usually, I pick up around the house.  I also open the front door so that Bruce can watch for J to come home.  Or I'll take Bruce for a quick walk around the block.

Waitin' on my dad!

"Bowing" for a treat!

4:45ish-- J walks in the door!  Most of the time, I'm in the kitchen whipping up a fabulous meal.  ha ha. :)     

We usually eat around 6.  Sometimes, we'll eat while watching Jeopardy.  We've been really into watching it lately.

Our evening time routine varies.  Sometimes, we'll go run a quick errand or just stay at home and do the same thing.

9:45ish--  Typically, we start getting ready for bed.  We almost always read before bed.  J's been reading the last Harry Potter book for the second time.  I've been reading a book called The Zookeeper's Wife.  It's probably not the best bedtime story, since it's about a family who lived in Warsaw, Poland during WWII and who helped thousands of Jews hide in their home and on the zoo property.  It's pretty astounding how that whole thing happened less than 100 years ago and how horrific the whole thing was.

10:15ish-- Bedtime!  Getting ready for another day! :)

Fall Wreaths!

I have to admit that I'm getting a little anxious over my Christmas wreath.  Mainly because I have so many ideas that I want to try!  But my sister-in-law on J's side asked me to make her a Christmas wreath so maybe I can make more than just one for me! 

I'm getting ahead of myself.  I have made a few fall wreaths for myself, my mom, and another sister-in-law (my brother's wife).

This first one is the one that I made for our house!  Two little fall lovebirds! :)

My brother and his family just moved into their house a few weeks ago so I wanted to give my sister-in-law a housewarming present so I made up this little guy.  God totally blessed me with a fantastic sister-in-law!  Love her!

 

And my mom's...  Terrible picture quality. :)  My mom loves butterflies!

Burlap Wreath

I stumbled across a burlap wreath tutorial on I Need More Glitter (also at Tater Tots and Jello) and thought it looked like a fun project.  I think it turned out pretty well, although it took longer than I expected.  I made it as a gift for my friend, Julianne*.  I missed doing something for her birthday (which, embarrassingly, was in July) so I thought this looked like something fun for her and her new apartment!  Julianne is a great, great friend and deserves to receive gifts any time of the year!  :)

Supplies:
Styrofoam wreath shape (I used a 12-inch round styrofoam, but you can use the squared round ones, if that makes any sense! hah!)
Burlap (about 1 yard--or borrow from your art teachin' husband)
Scrap fabric ( the more the better!)
Hot glue gun & glue sticks
Ribbon for hanging
Upholstery tacks (optional--or any other type of tack)

The first thing that you do is to wrap the foam wreath with strips of burlap.  I used white burlap, but you can use brown.  Then, you get your fabric and start making your fabric flowers.  This takes quite a while!  The easiest thing that I found was to work on a flower at a time.  I cut the circles myself without any circle templates so some of them were a little uneven, but it really didn't seem to make much of a difference once I put the flowers together.  The hardest part is gluing the flowers together.  Be careful with the burlap because that hot glue goes right through it onto your fingers!  Ouch!  One wise crafter suggested using a popsicle stick to work with the burlap. 

This picture just shows a close-up of the flowers.  I really need to work on better picture quality.  :)

And here's the finished product!  J wasn't home so I had to try to hold it up by myself, hence the off-centered picture.  hah.  I'm kind of embarrassed by my pictures.  

 Anyway.. I thought it was cute and fairly fun to make!  Pretty messy and time-consuming, though!

*I met Julianne during college orientation.  Almost immediately, we found out that we had so many connections that it was almost weird.  And we hit it off and have been such great friends since.  She's so funny, caring, sweet, and generous!  She really exhibits so many godly characteristics--it's a blessing to have her as a friend, and hilarious how many people think we're related because we look alike! :)

I Love Rosettes!

I don't know about all of you, but I really love the big flowery headbands and accessories that are in style right now.  Too bad I'm not in high school or college anymore... :)  Just joking.  There are some headbands that I think are still okay for people in the now closer to 30 than 20 age group.  ha ha ha. 

So after finding this tutorial on Mrs. Priss's blog, I wanted to try to make a rosette headband.  So easy and fun!  You just cut out a spiral pattern out of a square piece of felt and wrap it as shown in the tutorial.  It's so inexpensive, too!  I probably spent $3 total on the whole project and still have another headband to go!

I need a haircut.  :)

We're Still Alive!

It's been a long time since I've been on here.  October turned out to be a surprisingly busy month!  As mentioned in the previous post, J broke his clavicle while riding a bike.  It was a nasty break.  In the words of my best friend, "Dang!  When you break bones, you do it big!" 

So, two weeks of October were mostly spent at home with me making helping J rest and get back on his feet!  The surgery was successful, and his condition improved very quickly.  He still has about 3 weeks to go before he can lift anything more than 5 lbs with his right arm, but that means recovery is going to be so soon.  While J was down, I realized how helpful he always is around the house!  I love him for his sweet, giving, helpful heart!

In other news, my brother and his family have been moving into their new house so we've been helping with that a little.  Helping, by taking care of the kiddos.  We even took them to Chuck E. Cheese!  My sweet 3 1/2 year old nephew was so excited that he kept stopping to hug me on the way in.  How precious!  We've really bonded since he's been back in the same state.  He's cute as a little button.  I'll try to post some pictures soon!

As for craftiness, I have a lot of things started but not finished so that's my goal for this afternoon-- to start finishing the two wreaths I've been working on!  Hope to be able to add more updates soon! 

Sad day..

J & I have wanted to go biking our greenway in town for several weeks now, and we finally got the chance to try it this morning.... BUT about two miles down the trail, J had a bike spill and was yelling out in agony.  I ended up having to take him to the emergency room where many hours later, we found out he has a very badly broken clavicle.  So bad that he has to have surgery to put in a metal plate so that the bone can heal.  Poor J!  It's going to be long, frustrating recovery for my guy.. so prayers for strength for both us please!  (Mostly him, though!)  :)

Tea-Totally Terrific!

Hi, everyone!  It's been a long time!  I can't believe it's already October, but I'm also excited that it's fall.  I'm feeling refreshed by this cooler weather.

So my sister-in-law really likes tea so I got inspired to make her a tea wreath after I saw this really cute wreath on this blog.  Hers is so cute--probably better than mine, but I had a lot of fun making.  They're really easy... and VERY inexpensive!  (especially if you have a mom who gets lots of tea from her other daughter.. not me! ha ha!)  The blog link I posted has all of the directions step-by-step but I posted pictures showing my progress.  And, of course, I had to post a picture of what my buddy, Bruce did while I was crafting away!  These are the pictures of how mine turned out.  I had some more pictures but had difficulty getting the pictures to line up.. and wasn't patient enough to work more on it.. :)   I used a record holder for one of the wreaths and the cardboard from a pack of scrap book paper for the second wreath.

Also... I  tried a really good recipe the other day!  It's a Mexican Lasagna recipe, and it is so delicious!  It makes a ton.. so you can always freeze some of it and eat off of it for several meals.  It's unlike most Mexican lasagna recipes that I've ever seen.  :)

I'm also aware that my captions are pretty dorky. 

:)

A-Wreatha Franklin

We used some artificial Gerbera daisies as part of our wedding decorations so I had about 30 of them left over.  I really haven't known what to do with them since they don't really match any of our colors in our house.  Since I've been getting into the wreath making here lately, I decided I would try to make a wreath with the leftover flowers!  The daisies were a little harder to figure out because they have such long stems and the flowers themselves are pretty big so I decided to bunch them up at the bottom.  The bow was a last minute addition.  The resident artist felt like the top left part of the wreath needed the bow to balance out the daisies.  I probably would do some things differently next time... but it's okay.  I'm learning.  :)

I thought wreath making looked pretty fun, but I'm really having a good time with it.  It can be a little tough sometimes, but the materials are big enough that my clumsy fingers can hold onto all of the parts! :)  It's not like sewing, which I have no idea how to do... or knitting or crocheting or other related crafts.  The only problem with wreaths is storage.  I have a Halloween/fall wreath in the works right now... and plan on making a gift wreath for my sweet sister-in-law for a housewarming present when they move into their new house. 

Speaking of my sister-in-law...  She's expecting a little bundle of joy in March.  I am so excited to be an aunt to another little kiddo.  Both my sister and brother have had only boys so it'll be interesting to see if there's another little boy joining our family.. or if we get the pleasure of a little baby girl.  Either way, I'm excited and already love this baby! 

Also.. I entered this wreath into the state fair.  That's really dorky... and I know I will never win, but it seemed like a fun thing to do.. :)  J entered some photographs and a painting.. and my mom entered in some knitting!

Tallulah, Louisiana--Home of the first Indoor Mall!

Okay, so I wanted to a post on our youth mission trip to Tallulah, Louisiana.  We went at the end of June, so this is a very belated post, and people might not care, but I at least wanted to document how fun and special it was for us to be chaperones.  We went on the trip without knowing any of the kids well beforehand.  I had actually babysat some of them a long time ago.  That made me feel kind of old since, you know, these kids are in high school!  Wow.  One kid admitted that he was pretty bad whenever I used to babysit him.  :)  It was true.  We had eaten a meal and talked with the kids about the trip before we left, so we had some preparation.  

Walnut Bayou in Tallulah

Anyway, so we left early on a Sunday morning with 7 kids with plans to pick up the 8th kiddo on the way down.  We made it to Tallulah late that afternoon and had various activities to keep us busy that first night. The week was divided so that each team (named after dinosaurs) would spend two days at a work site and two days at Kids Camp.  Kids Camp was offered for free to all the children in the community.  The youth facilitated three different activity rotations.  The work sites were work sites.  However, the work that was planned for the kids to do were mainly minor work projects so that we all would have opportunities to not be so overworked that we would ignore the families that we were serving.

J and I were on different teams, and we each had half of our kids from our church.  We were both paired up with another adult and kids from a Catholic church in Chicago.  The other church group (United Methodists) were from Reno, Nevada.  The diversity of the group was pretty interesting.  The other churches thought we all had very strong accents and mostly made fun of the way that we say "Facebook"-- apparently, we separate it into two words.  Face.  Buck.  It's been a long time since I've been on a trip with teenagers, but it was so amazing to see how loving and accepting all of the kids and adults were.  I can't remember ever being with such a large group of people in such a short amount of time and being loved just for being part of a community.  This speaks a lot to our group, I would guess, because not only is it difficult to be a teenager in this world, our church has had some division lately, and it was special to be able to trust in a community.  I also was remember how hard it can be to be a teenager.  Some of our kids must really face a lot of ridicule and struggle with their self-worth, but going away and starting in a new place makes it so much easier to feel like you can really be who you are.  It breaks my heart to know that so many kids (and adults!) think they have to change themselves before they can be loved.

Courthouse in Vicksburg, MS- So great!

Back to trip details, Tallulah is a very small town in Northern Louisiana.  It's a very racially- and socioeconomically-divided town.  There are very distinct white and black parts of town.  It's not unlike many towns in the South.  The poverty level is super high, with almost half the population living under the poverty level.  I saw a very glimpse of the town as a whole, but there are places that were basically just different types of material put together.  My work team served a family that lived in a trailer.  Their son had respiratory problems and had to be hooked up to a breathing machine every night so we worked on getting the nasty, moldy (and dusty!) carpet out of his room to put tile flooring down.  Then, I took the kids on our team from my church and went to a lady's house to weed her whole yard.  (This is where I picked up my poison ivy!)  This lady was so grandmotherly, and I could tell that my teenagers really felt at home in her house.  We also spent a morning at a nursing home visiting with the elderly that we living there.

There were parts of town that we were advised not to go to.   We had some issues with plumbing and water pressure at the church.  But, overall, it was such a great experience.  One thing that I loved (and I'll wrap this up soon..) was that people in the community participated with us.  We were invited to a local family's ranch one evening.  We weren't just welcomed and then left to do our own thing.  The minister of the church where we all stayed brought his family to eat dinner with us.  At the end of the week, it felt like we had gotten the opportunity to become part of the community that we served.  :) 

Silly Group Photo

On the very last night of the trip, we had a footwashing service.  I don't know if you've ever had your feet washed by someone before, but it's a really moving experience.  Jeff and I washed the feet of each one of the kids in our group.  We could really sense the Holy Spirit just moving through our group during that time.  It was a very real, genuine experience.  Everyone let their guard down.  There was no fear of being made fun, no fear of having to act like you know what's going on when you don't... it was a time for our kids to love each other and to feel loved by God.  It was such a blessing to be able to pray individually with each of the kids and to praise God for making each of these kids who they are and their gifts that they bring to the group.

You Can Make a Pizza Pie!

I'm like a spaghetti freak.  I grew up eating spaghetti every Friday night with my grandparents and family at a restaurant called the Grecian Inn.  It's no longer open, and that spaghetti recipe is top secret!  Sort of...  Anyway, the point of this story is that I found a pasta recipe book at Lowe's and tried a recipe called Spaghetti Pizza.

 Spaghetti Pizza





Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 package (16 oz) cooked spaghetti
1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained
1 jar (28 oz) spaghetti sauce
1 package (3.5 oz) sliced pepperoni
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 can (4 oz) mushroom stems and pieces, drained
Garlic salt to taste
2 cups shredded part-skim Mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1.  In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and milk.  Add spaghetti; toss to coat.  Transfer to greased 13x9 inch baking dish.  Top with the beef, spaghetti sauce, pepperoni, mushrooms, and onion.  Sprinkle with garlic salt.

2.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Sprinkle with cheeses.  Bake 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.  Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Review:  This recipe makes a ton of food!  It could easily feed 8 people--maybe 10, if you had a side to go with it.  It'd be good for a lot of hungry men.  Also, I think next time, I'll come up with my own variation of toppings.  I didn't really like the ground beef with this particular recipe, but if you're a meat lover, then maybe you should leave it in... :)  I also didn't put in any mushrooms... Yuck.  :)  Overall, very good though!  I thought it was neat how the eggs and spaghetti formed a spaghetti "crust".  I was worried that the spaghetti would dry out, but it was really good... and for several days, too!

In Betweenie

After making the 4th of July wreath, I decided that I wanted to try making another wreath with flowers.  I went to Hobby Lobby on the 50% off flower sale day and picked out three different types of flowers and these little stems of pearls.  I actually bought my grapevine wreath at Walmart.  Their wreaths were a little neater and more circle-shaped, overall.

Here's the results!  I really love the colors and feel like it's a good in-between seasons wreath.  Not quite fall, but we're pretty much over summer, right?  At least I am over the hot weather.  :)

Tasty, healthy, AND colorful!

While being unemployed and essentially a stay-at-home wife, I've been trying to find some new recipes to try.  Jeff and I really love salads with balsamic dressing, so when I saw this recipe, I had to try it!   

Aunt Jules' Balsalmic Chicken with Peppers

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, or to taste
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 green bell pepper, cut into strips
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
• 1 large red onion, cut into strips
• 1 bunch fresh asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 (6 ounce) bag baby spinach leaves
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and drizzle the olive oil into the hot skillet. Cook and stir 4 garlic cloves just until fragrant, about 1 minute, smashing them into the oil with a spoon as you stir. Sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, and brown them in the hot oil until the surface is golden and the meat is no longer pink inside, 5 to 8 minutes per side. Remove the chicken breasts to a platter and keep warm.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the skillet over medium heat, and scrape up any browned bits of flavor from the bottom of the skillet. Stir in 2 more cloves of garlic, the green, red, and yellow bell peppers, red onion, and asparagus, and cook and stir until the vegetables are brightly colored and softened, about 10 minutes. Toss the spinach leaves with the hot vegetables to just wilt the spinach. Divide the cooked vegetables between 4 serving plates, and top each plate with a chicken breast.
3. Stir the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar into the skillet over medium-low heat, stirring until the vinegar comes to a full boil and the sugar has dissolved. Cook the mixture until reduced and thickened, 3 to 5 minutes; spoon the balsamic sauce over each chicken breast to serve.

Review:  This was so good!  We invited my parents over for dinner, and it was a success!  Just watch your nose while making the balsamic sauce.  The vinegar will make your nose tingle!  :)

It's OVERRRRRR!!!

Graduate school is officially over for me!  I turned in my thesis on Tuesday (about an hour before the deadline)!  PRAISE THE LORD!  I have a completed Ed.S. degree!  71 hours!

This has been such a long, arduous journey, and I am so thankful to finally be freed from it.  I had so many moments where I never thought I would never get to the end, especially in the last few months when I was doing revision after revision after revision.

So... I don't have a job lined up.  That's been hard to deal with this summer.  I'll admit that I'm a bit guilty of being very plan-oriented.  :)  This summer has been full of tears, moments of doubting my worthiness, and times of feeling deserted in certain areas.  Because I didn't have my thesis finished and so many applicants for just a few school psychology positions, I really didn't have a chance of getting a position.  Well, I take that back.  I had the option of a school system that was an hour and half away from home, and I just didn't feel at peace with taking a position so far away,  knowing that it would be really exhausting and stressful... and I didn't feel like it was fair to my husband to leave him with all the responsibilities.     :)

I've come a long way, in the past few months.  I'm feeling much more at peace with the way things have gone.  I feel like God is giving me a much needed break.  I still need a job just to help pay some of our bills so I'm still praying for something to work out soon.  This experience has been humbling in a  lot of ways.  I'm getting firsthand experience with how difficult it is to get a good job in this economy.  

I don't really know what's going to happen next, but I'm faithful that God will provide for us.  :)

Happy 4th of July!

Jeff has so many hobbies!  So this summer, I decided I wanted to try my hand at something.  I've seen Lacy  make so many beautiful wreaths, and while I wouldn't exactly say this wreath is beautiful, it was fun to do for the 4th of July!  

I picked up all the supplies at Hobby Lobby and Michael's.  It only cost about $12 to make and was super easy!  I picked up a wire thing with stars on it and then bought glittery stars that I superglued onto the wreath.

Bruce and Jeff helped.

Here's the final product.  Not too bad!

I don't really like the bow at the top.  It would probably look okay if the white part of the bow wasn't in the center.  I probably will just take it off when I take it down.  Which I should probably do...  since the 4th of July was a long time ago.. :)

2nd Anniversary

Okay, so I'm posting this late.  Almost two weeks after the fact, but it's the thought that counts, right? :)  I've been practically living on this laptop trying to finish my thesis.

Two years ago today (7/26), I said "I do!" to my sweet husband.  The caring, godly man who has loved me and put up with me for three years of graduate school right in the midst of our budding relationship.  The one who has been my encourager, my playmate, my love, and my hero.  I am so blessed to get to share the gift of marriage with this man!  He loves me such a selfless love, and I am so thankful for him every day.    I love spending all the time I can with my best friend-- so fun!

Dorks :)  These are Jeff's old glasses from high school.

First dance on our wedding day

Anniversary numero uno!  Family portrait.  

2nd Anniversary at the Cheesecake Factory!

Happy Summer?

Wow!  It's been a long time since I've written on here.  Not a whole lot has changed since the last post, unfortunately. :)  STILL wrapping up that thesis.  We've had a really great summer, despite some downers the past few weeks or so.  Number one downer, being that I have poison ivy!  I discovered that I am really allergic to it.  I got it while weeding down in Louisiana on a mission trip.

So, quick update, I guess.  We went to NYC the first week of June.  Had a really great time!  I love being in the city, but it really wears me out!  Maybe I'll add some pictures from that later.

A few weeks ago, we chaperoned the senior high youth group from our church on their mission trip to Tallulah, Louisiana.  We had a GREAT time!  It was so much fun to go down and serve as God's hands and feet in service to those who needed it, and I think both Jeff and I really loved serving in a leadership position with the youth.  The kids were so great (most of the time!), and we were really excited about how close our kids became with the kids from the other groups.  I'll tell a little more about that, later, maybe, too?

So, now, data has all been collected so I'm wrapping up my first draft of the final version of my thesis.  Praise the Lord.  This has been so much work!  It was so hard to get 75 participants, and I became really worried when I waited 6 weeks to get the last few participants.  arrgghh!  That slowed me down so much, which also has led to some issues with getting hired as a school psychologist.  So, I don't know.  It's been hard because I trusted that God would provide me with participants and help me finish on time, and I've just been having to continue to trust and have faith that God will place me where I need to be for the next year.  It'll be okay.  :)

That's about all for now.  Have some recipes and crafts to share one of these days. :)

Getting close to the end!

I've been sort of MIA lately, at least in terms of posting on here.  I've been trying to finish up my portfolio, which is due in a couple of weeks (on GRADUATION day!!!) and my graduate thesis... which will not be completed before graduation.  :(  That's kind of sad, but data collection has been taking SOOO long.  This thesis has taken so much time to complete, and there is still so much work left to do. Part of the delay has been due to the fact that some participants just don't show up.  It's been so hard to be patient with people not being dependable.

I feel like this whole graduate school experience has been so full of obstacles.  Nothing really has gone easily or the way that I've expected it to.  I hope this isn't a sign of bad things to come... when I start the career.  There are a lot of time when I wonder if this is where I'm supposed to be and that God just provided all this adversity to stretch me and make me stronger... and on my worst days, I wonder why God even made me go through all of this. 

Play Date

Most people that have blogs are always writing about their cute little babies, which is great, of course, because children are such precious gifts from God.  Since we don't have a human child, we just have a little beagle boy to write about.  I thought I would post some pictures from a recent play date with my mom's puppy, Pollyanna, and my neighbor's Appalachian Big-Footed Basset Hound, Nala.  They are so funny together!  Bruce and Pollyanna like to wrestle, and Nala can only run when she's barking her head off!  So, enjoy!

Also, Bruce can now sit, shake paws/hands, and give a high five.  Jeff has been working with him on bowing.  What a smart little boy!

The last picture is of Bruce and Pollyanna when Jeff was trying to scare them with a cutting board.  I think it's really adorable!