God Is SO Good!

In the same day that I posted the bad news of my layoff, I got a job and am starting on Wednesday!!!!! It's not my dream job, but it is a job, and it just shows me once again how great and faithful and loving the Lord is, and how He looks after us ALL THE TIME - whether we acknowledge it or not!!!!!
Thank you, Lord! You are amazing, and I give you ALL the praise and glory for this!

Calling all Prayer Warriors!

Well, it seems awfully ironic to be posting this after my last post of "Exciting News," but my boss let me know last Thursday that I was being laid off. Apparently our company is not doing so well, and I guess I was the most expendable person. So, Feb 1st is my last day.
Yesterday at church, God was really speaking straight to me about His strength being mine and about His love for me and how He is in EVERYTHING! And I know that without a doubt, but please just pray that He would guide and comfort Chris and I during this time. I was completely blind-sided with this news and just need to be reassured that the Lord has His hand even in this!
I love you all!!!!

Exciting News

Well, I have decided to continue more original journey to become a High School teacher. It's funny because both of my parents were teachers (dad still is...going on like 40 years or so - WOW!), but in HS and college, teaching NEVER crossed my mind. But over Christmas break, it just kinda hit me again, that that's something I really wanted to do. I love High Schoolers and have always volunteered with the Youth Group wherever I have gone to church, and I figure this is a great wya to minister to them outside of church as well. So, I will take 2 tests, one in Mar and one in Apr, and HOPEFULLY I will pass them the first time and then be eligible to start looking for teaching positions in the area. So, if you could just say a lil prayer for all of this, Chris and I would really appreciate it. We're both pretty excited but kinda anxious about the change as well.

Christmas Day

We had a great breakfast with mom (she cooked for us the ENTIRE time we were there which was SOOOOOOOOOO NICE and so sweet and such a nice break from cooking for me) and then headed to TX. You would think that after driving 17 hours to AR, a 6 hour drive to TX would be nothing, BUT it was actually quite a long trip as well. :( BUT we made it and Chris got to meet my 2 aunts and their husbands and 1 of my cousins on dad's side. And of course, he knew everyone else, both my sisters, my dad and Belinda, and my grandparents.
We had a blast. We ate a lil, sang karaoke (THAT was a lil scary), had a Chinese gift exchange, and just kinda hung out. It was so good to see my extended fam on that side again. It had been around 5 years or so since I had seen them.
So, here are some pics, and if I can think of anything particular to tell you about the rest of that Christmas week at dad's, I will post again later this week.
Love y'all!!!!!!!!!!!!

Autumn actually smiling for the camera! My aunts singing to karaoke AND dancing too!


Belinda snoozing! :) Dad in the background with me, Danny, and Chris Crystal & Autumn
Ha! Ha! Coby's gift got stuck in his Dirk-style long hair!
Caden


Uncle Larry and Josh




Coby







Danny & Craig and Larry in the background






All of us, wow it's been a LONG time since we've had a group pic, but we're missing my other cousin, Jill and her hubby and son :(
Good pic, though, huh?

Trip to Arkansas

Chris and I got off from CO just in time before a snow storm hit, BUT we were going 45 mph on the Interstate pretty much from Denver until the Kansas border. So, after driving all night (Chris did all the driving, bless his heart), we got to mom's 17 hours later. Boy, were we exhausted. Chris fell asleep immediately after mom gave us a very quick tour of her house and slept for 2 1/2 hours, while I could NOT fall asleep. So I just drug myself around all day and ended up falling in and out of consciousness throughout the day. :) Terrible, I know.
On Sunday, we went to church with mom, and I got to see alot of wonderful ppl I knew when I lived in AR, and right after church, mom treated us to a movie, the sequel to National treasure. If you haven't seen it, and you liked the 1st one, GO SEE IT! It is GREAT! Then we went bowling, and each of the 3 of us won once. Chris bowled the worst 3 games of his life and was not too thrilled. :) And THEN we went back to the movies (mom LOVES going to 2 movies in one day) and saw I Am Legend. And we all really liked that. And at first, I was telling other "fraidy" cats like me that it was fine to go see, but I have been having crazy dreams and been seeing mutants in the dark at night. SO, if you are like me, I would actually not recommend that you see it, but it was really good!
So, after that we just kinda chilled Sun night and all day Monday, then we headed out to TX on Christmas Day morning. And I will tell you all about that in my next post..............and in the meantime, here are a few pics

Chris cuddling with Casper
The cats on our luggage while we were away

Chris' Devilish Nature Comes Out

We're Back!

Well, since we had quite the adventure over the past few weeks, I thought I would post a little a few times this week to catch you up. Instead of posting one very long "essay." AND please don't hate me, but after being with my entire family and traveling and doing all sorts of things, I only managed to get about 10 pictures! SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, please forgive me for that, but I will post at least a few of those 10 and write more about our holidays later this week....Happy New Year!