All moved in!

We have gotten all moved in to our house and are loving it here! Now that I have internet all set up again, I figured it was a good time to update.

We are all moved in and getting settled. Our house has wallpaper up in the kitchen and bathrooms and so I am working on getting those areas textured and painted. It's actually pretty fun to texture, but I am not looking forward to painting. But, I am trying to use my summer time wisely and get some of it done now. Can't wait for the finished product!

Good news, I got a counseling job!! I will be a middle school counselor at Nocona Middle School in Nocona. It's about a 20 minute drive for me, but it is all highway...but not a busy highway, no traffic at all. It is a super easy drive. I've been to my new office and met with my principal now and am going to take my stuff up there and get my office ready next week. I am so excited, but I will admit that I am quite nervous about working with middle schoolers. Only because my focus has been elementary kids up until this point. But I am ready for the new opportunity. My principal seems fantastic and he seems like he is going to give me the freedom to create the role I want. He has not had a counselor in the past, the high school and elementary counselors have filled the role, so I really have freedom to start a brand new program. That is very exciting for me!

I will post pictures of our new house soon. As soon as I can find the cord to my camera so I can upload the pics!!

We're Moving!!

Courtney got a new head basketball coaching job in Muenster, TX (yes, like the cheese!). Muenster is a little German town near Gainesville and we have heard nothing but great things about it since he started checking into it when the position opened up.

This move is a hard move to make because of the friends we have made here. We've made some dear friends here...but these are people that I know I will stay in touch with no matter where we end up in life.

I must say, it is nice to not be selling a home this time! If you've been reading my blog since our move last year (and since before I deleted it accidentally), you will find that this one will be much less stressful as far as the house goes. I've grown to be okay with, and even really like, our home here in Queen City, but I do not have the attachment to it like I had to "our home" in Sachse. Gosh, it was so hard to leave that house!! I've come quite a long way in a year as far as my attachments to material things is concerned.

So, what about me? I am on the job search for counseling positions. You may also remember last year I said that I was going to trust God and I knew he WOULD PROVIDE a counseling position for me. Then I got anxious and took the very first teaching position that I found. Then many positions opened up in the area, but I was locked in to the teaching position. Well, this year I am going to be still and truly trust God. I'm not even applying for teaching positions. I am looking in Gainesville, Denton, and many, many smaller districts near Muenster. Prayers for my job would be greatly appreciated!

We are moving at the end of June. Our lease is up here July 1. My June is going to be crazy...I am going to Europe with my mom and a group of students from her school for 2 weeks at the beginning of June, then I get home and we leave for Mexico with my HS girlfriends and our husbands for 5 days, then we will MOVE! Whew. I guess I will relax in July!!

So, check back for all those adventures to come!

Worth sharing...

I love this excerpt below. First of all, let me say that I got it off the blog Bring the Rain, which you can get to (if you want) from my blog list. Secondly, I love to pass on inspirational things and this is more than inspirational. This is true love, the kind that we can only receive from Jesus Christ.

This is from a children's Bible that Angie was reading to her children. Yeah, I said 'Angie' like I know her, but I do not know her, have never met her, but feel like I know her heart from following her blog. She would want me to pass this on.

So, enjoy!

They nailed Jesus to the cross.

"Father, forgive them, " Jesus gasped. "They don't understand what they are doing."

"You say you have come to rescue us!" people shouted. "But you can't even rescue yourself!"

But they were wrong. Jesus could have rescued himself. A legion of angels would have flown to his side-if he'd called.

"If you were really the Son of God, you could just climb down off that cross!" they said.

And of course they were right. Jesus could have just climbed down. Actually, he could have just said a word and made it all stop. Like when he healed the little girl. And stilled the storm. And fed 5000 people.

But Jesus stayed.

You see, they didn't understand. It wasn't the nails that kept Jesus there.

It was love.

We are so lucky to be loved like that.

Great Worship, Right Object

I went last night to the Rock & Worship Roadshow featuring MercyMe, Jeremy Camp, Tenth Avenue North, and Hawk Nelson. Can I just tell you that it was completely awesome!!


I remember our pastor at Fellowship Church in Plano (Ed Young) saying that he went to a secular concert and stood back and thought, "Great worship, wrong object." Well, last night there was GREAT worship and the object was completely right. It was so awesome to stand in that arena with thousands of people and see everyone singing out in complete worship of Jesus.

MercyMe ended the night by leading us in singing "I love you Lord" and it took me right back to Kanakuk camp. He had us sing it with no music, and then he stepped away from the mic and walked off stage. We all continued to sing, most everyone with eyes closed and arms raised. Hearing all those people singing together in one beautiful voice brought me to tears. It was a really cool moment of praise and worship. The best part is that most of the people there were high school teenagers brought there with their youth groups and friends. Seeing the worship from those kids absolutely moved me.

I love you, Lord

And I lift my voice

To worship You

Oh, my soul rejoice!

Take joy my King

In what You hear

Let it be a sweet, sweet sound

in Your ear

MercyMe's mission is to make this roadshow a free concert so they can reach more and more people through this ministry. What an amazing goal!

After the concert ended, we saw that Tenth Avenue North was signing autographs, so we got in line. We felt pretty old standing in line, waiting to talk to them, but we just had to! I have their song, "By Your Side" as my ringtone and have for a little while, so we couldn't resist...when we made it up to them, Kristy called me and we played their song for them. It was pretty funny.

We had a great time. It was such a fun night of praise and worship and it came at a time when I really needed it. Doesn't God work that way? Love it!

things I love

*a spring rain. not the kind that produces horrific storms and tornadoes, but the kind where it is starting to rain and the birds are still singing at the same time. aw, I like that. it's doing that right now outside.

*a pedicure. i am off to get one as soon as I publish this.

*good times with good friends. this weekend Courtney and I went to Oklahoma City for Natalie's 30th birthday party and we had such a great time. i love seeing my girls and laughing, laughing, laughing with them!

*and last, but certainly not least...something I love very much is a good report from the doctor. not for me, but for Brandon. God is good!!
here's the info from Phyllis.

We met with the doctor yesterday for a while...a long while. In the past two years, if you combined all the questions we had asked, it would have still been significantly less than the number that we asked yesterday. Poor April (our nurse), poor Rhianne (our PA), and poor Dr. Kopetz. They were troopers, though.
First the good news...ALL the tumors were significantly decreased in size. The biggest of the bunch (which by the way has been the biggest through this whole ordeal) had decreased from 1.5 cm to 0.6 cm...more than half ( Praise God!). We discussed a variety of options and Brandon decided to stay on a maitainence type chemotherapy. There will be no more oxalliplatin and the dose of the other drugs will be significantly reduced. Dr. Kopetz wants Brandon to be in frequent contact with them so that they can adjust the dose as necessary. The goal is to keep the cancer "under control" while allowing Brandon to live an active life. He told us several times that there are other options out there, but that Brandon's body has responded so well to the chemo he feels we should stick with it. He said we're in it for the long haul and he doesn't want to exhaust all our options this early. Apparently, many of the other options would also be much harder on Brandon's liver. All in all, we felt like this visit was very positive and much better received than last time.

NKOTB, Baby!!

I went to the New Kids on the Block concert on Tuesday night in Bossier City! Now, this was quite reminiscent for me because this is me 20 years ago...

I'm in the red with the stonewashed vest with patches all over it if you can't tell. We were sporting the signs! A big group of girls from my hometown all went together to see the New Kids in 1989 (maybe 1990) in Oklahoma City. Check out the clothes!

I have great memories of the New Kids. I loved them dearly as a child. I went to 2 different concerts at that time, this one pictured above in Oklahoma City and one in Dallas. We actually slept outside in line at the Myriad Convention Center in OKC for tickets with our moms for the tickets to the above pictured concert!! Our moms were sports, right? Gosh, it was so much fun!

On a side note--to my Becky--I missed you so much last night. I wish we lived closer and could have gone to this together. It was not the same without you. I mean, we went the the first two concerts together and loved them together and made signs for them together and slept outside for them together. Uh! I missed you!

So, without question, this concert brought back so many memories for me. I went with KB and we enjoyed ourselves so much!

KB and me, eating (and having drinks) before
Once we arrived at the restaurant, we were thrilled to find it packed with tables full of other women (yes, women) going to the concert. We were the most excited thirty-somethings around, all of us! As you can see, the people were decked out! I was sad we didn't think of the whole matching shirt thing... ;)




After much anticipation, the concert began!


{click on any pictures to make larger--you really must, it's the only way to get the full effect!! :) }

You've never heard so much screaming...and what was hilarious is that it was coming from women! Not little girls, like 20 years ago, WOMEN! And I will admit, every now and then I was one of them. So was KB!!

Joe, singing Please Don't Go Girl!

My favorite part of the night!!

More shots of Joe singing I must admit, I had moments where the memories were so strong, I was overwhelmed by it all. They put on quite a show. As dumb as it sounds, right when they started, I got all teary-eyed over it all. Not because I'm a stupid 30-year-old that still loves them (well, maybe a little!) but because all the memories of being that 10-year-old starry eyed girl would come flooding back to me.

I thought this was too good a shot to pass up. Unfortunately, this poor boy was not as starry eyed over them as I once was. The sitter must have canceled on his mama. She drug him out with her. Notice his earplugs. Good call, mom. He needed them. I needed them.

Isn't that a great shot of Jordan and Donnie?

We had GREAT seats. My camera doesn't even do it justice.

So, I was always a Joe McIntyre fan...but last night Jordan was much nicer looking than I remember!! He has aged well! This is a scene I remember straight out of the first concert I went to.

They did almost all old stuff. They did throw in some of their new stuff, which I actually really enjoyed and have already downloaded and put on my ipod!! They sang non-stop for over 2 hours! It was so entertaining! Many wardrobe changes, fun videos, lighting effects, stage changes...so much FUN!

they moved to a stage in the middle of the arena

(see them in the background?)

Old videos behind Joe as he sang.

All dressed in white

I spent the whole night trying to get a good close shot of Joe. He didn't seem to spend much time on the platform over by us. At the very end, after singing Hangin Tough and sending green and white confetti out over the crowd, he graced us with his presence. And wouldn't you know it, my camera card was full and my camera kept dying on me. I barely caught this shot of him. I didn't center very well so I barely got him at all! Even if you didn't/don't like the New Kids, they put on a fantastic show that anyone could have enjoyed! So glad I got to go!

Psst...by the way...my next post has videos, in case you missed it! :) I know, I know...you're welcome. You would not want to miss seeing videos of it all! HA!

It's like you were there!

I am so excited! I got the videos to download! What an accomplishment.

So the concert started with the boys (ahem, men) singing The Right Stuff. What a way to start!

The we have Joe singing Please Don't Go, Girl. A personal favorite of mine...

And they ended the night with Hangin Tough.

Of course, they sang so much more, but I had the smallest stinking card for my camera, so the videos had to be short. They're not the best quality, but you get the idea.

Doesn't it just take you right back to 1989?? It sure did for me!!