Love Story Part 2

So, Leadership Camps were over for the summer and it was time to return to school.

Josh came in to Abilene to hang out with friends a few weeks after class started. It was Beach Bash and they were showing the movie Princess Bride (one of his favorites)on the side of the Tower of Light. After the movie I went with Josh and some other friends to Anson to try to see the spooky lights - we didn't see anything scary but Josh put his arm around me.

About a month or so after that I was going to go to the metroplex to see a Osteopathic specialist for my headaches. Josh was still living with his parents for another week or so before he moved into his apartment. I stayed with his family and met his parents for the first time. One night we were watching a movie and I thought he was going to kiss me...no such luck.

We started emailing each other almost daily. These were just update emails and silly things but also lots of questions (I mean long lists of questions) some serious, some funny. We were starting to get to know each other pretty well. Later, for an anniversary I put a ton of our emails into a book that I gave to Josh.

In October Josh came for Homecoming. I was super busy with pledging stuff but excited to see him. He had emailed me earlier in the week to ask if I wanted to go to dinner on Saturday night. I said that I would love to - thinking it was just friends hanging out. As I was telling my friend Kasey about it I all of a sudden thought "Oh my gosh, this is a DATE". I wasn't nervous earlier, but at that point I all of a sudden started worrying about what to wear etc. We ended up going to Olive Garden, that has now become a special date place for us.

The dinner was great - we talked the whole time and then in the car on the way home listened to the Sara Lynn Grub version of I Can Only Imagine like 5 times and talked about memories of Kadesh. We prayed together before he dropped me off at Sikes for the night. It was a wonderful, real, first date.

The first kiss came a few weeks later. It was close to my birthday and some of my friends were going to Arlington to a Weezer concert. Josh and I were going to go with them but since we were both broke we just went out to dinner instead. He gave me Notting Hill - a movie I loved. We went back to his new apartment and watched it until time to meet my friends to go back to Abilene. We had our first kiss that night - I still remember it...

Part 3 coming soon.

New Pics

I added new pictures to the Cheetah entry, the entry about Sean and I and the Love Story Part One. Thanks for looking!!

Mexico Mission Trip

Josh is in Monterry Mexico right now with 3 other adults and 12 kids. I don't get to talk to him but he has been able to email a few updates. This is an update he sent yesterday and a few pictures.....

Hey Family & Friends!

Well, we made it through our first day of work. We are finishing up the 2nd floor of the church building, as they are adding classrooms for their congregation. We are getting it all braced and supported in order to pour the concrete roof on Wednesday morning. It should be a week FULL of work!

I've attached a few pictures so that you will know your kids are okay.

The first one is of Clay...after we ate dinner last night, we went walking through a park area where a street performer was putting on a show, and OF COURSE Clay was called out to join him and help with the show. It was quite a show!


Alyssa using her pink DIVA hammer.


Then there's us eating an amazing lunch provided by the sweet ladies of the congregation we're working with.


Looks like they are working hard..


And after our first day of work, everyone is all still smiles! Except for Mitch...I'm not sure what's wrong with him.



Oh, and by the way, we are working with the Youth Group from Faith Village Church of Christ in Wichita Falls, TX, which is where Leah Stephens grew up...in fact, her brother is with us!

So there you go...we're all doing great. We'll send another message later!

Josh, Kevin, Dennis, Connie, Clay, Tony, Ryan, Alyssa, Justin, Mitch, Caren, Adam, Evan, Tara, Lindsey, and Nathan: I am praying for you guys this week!! May God give you endurance, strength, rest, energy, patience and joy. May you shine like stars in the heavens!!

I give up... (Love Story part 1)

Well, I have been reading several of my friends' love stories on their blogs. I tried to put off writing my own - not because I don't like it, only because everyone else was doing it.

I finally decided to just go for it. So here is the first installment of "Josh and Shiloh's Love Story"

I was a freshman at ACU in the fall of 2000. Josh was a Senior Youth Ministry major that year and Senior Class President. In the first few weeks of school applications came out for Freshman Action Counsel (FAC) and my friend Jackie Beth and I both wanted to apply. When it came time for interviews I had a small problem. I was supposed to be back in Austin for an appointment with my neurologist Dr. Gupta. He was going to be preforming a small procedure called a nerve block on the occipital nerves in my head (I have occipital neuralgia headaches and this was supposed to help). So I had to call the FAC committee and beg to reschedule my interview.

The interview committee consisted of several upper classmen members of SA - including Josh Jones. I remember going in for the interview, being nervous and meeting Josh. He says he remembers thinking that I was cute and also confusing me with my friend Jackie Beth.

That is most of the contact I remember having with Josh until the Spring of that year when we both were giving counselor positions for Leadership Camps. Josh had graduated in May but did not have a youth ministry job lined up yet so he decided to work camps on last summer. We had weekly training meetings and a counselor retreat. Jan Meyer - one of the camp directors, really likes to use people as examples in training. She knew Josh since he had been a counselor before and had worked in the camps office all year. So, when it came to the talk about don't date during camps she said something like this "Now Shiloh, you are going to think that Josh is really cute playing with all the kids, and he's going to be a great youth minister. And Josh, you are may think that Shiloh is cute, BUT you are not allowed to date during camps". I think that I just turned red during this whole conversation. Josh says that he looked over and thought "Yeah, she is pretty cute".

So that began our inside joke of saying that we were going to date when camps were over. Our first ever picture together is when I was at Taco Bueno with Jackie Beth and some other friends and Josh was there with his parents and his brother. We were talking and decided to pretend we were on a date and take a picture together. I'm not really sure why we did that, but it was funny.

During that summer we actually never worked directly with each other. I worked KidQuest and Learning2Lead and Josh worked MPulse and Kadesh. We would all hang out on the weekends and I would go say hi and give him a hug in the campus center when we passed each other. He told me later that was when he first really started to like me was when I would give him hugs - apparently I have really good hugs.

All of the Staff from the summer of 2001


At the end of the summer we had a BBQ at Jerry Strader's house to celebrate the summer. Josh got to keep the giant Kadesh sign and asked all the counselors to sign it for him. I had also written him a letter saying goodbye and good luck finding a youth ministry job etc. It turns out he wrote me a letter also. After that we parted ways - I went home for a few weeks before school started again in August and he moved in with his parents in Arlington to work as a youth ministry resident at his home church Pleasant Ridge.

More coming soon.....

The fake "first date" at Bueno


A picture of Josh at MPulse ( I hate this picture - it is creepy)


Josh and the girls on one of our weekends off

Nathan Dodd

Today is my friend Nathan Dodd's birthday. Nathan was killed in a car accident on December 26th, 2003. He would have been 27 today. Nathan was a U.S. Marine, a friend, a brother, a son, and a fiance', and most of all, a follower of Christ.

Right now I am at work and trying to decide what stories to share about Nathan. There are so many to choose from. It's also hard to sit and think about all of those stories because it makes me sad. But it is also a joyful experience to remember all of these things. When I think about my Westover Hills Youth Group it seems that no memory is complete without Nathan. Recently I was cleaning out several boxes of letters, pictures and other "keepsake" things. I found several letters that Nathan wrote me while he was at boot camp, for Christmas etc. I also found pictures from different activities and retreats. Hopefully I will be able to scan some of those and upload them later.

One of the first stories that comes to my mind is that Nathan was a great athlete. He played football and wrestled at Lanier High School. On Friday nights our youth group had 5th Quarter at someones house. We would go and eat, hang out etc as an alternative to all the parties that were going on. Nathan had plenty of reasons and invitations to go to parties with friends from school. Instead, he would bring some of his football buddies to the youth group activities. He also started a bible study for the football team at Lanier.
Another thing about Nathan that I love is that it was so hard to be mad at him. He was so goofy and funny that he would make people laugh and forget all about being upset.
I really hope that any of my friends who read this that had the privilege of knowing Nathan will post their own favorite "Nathan Stories".

Nathan and some of the boys in our Senior Huddle



The last thing that I want to add is a prayer for Nathan's family -
"I pray that you will find peace and be comforted even in the midst of struggle and grief. May you be able to feel God's arms of comfort around you each day as you love and miss your son and brother. I pray that you will remember the moments that you cherish so dearly and find joy in them. May you be filled with a joy, peace, strength, hope, and wisdom that could only come from the Father. " You are loved!!

Sean and Shiloh

This is Sean after I found a green marker!


Sean and I at Kadesh when I was a counselor and he was a camper


Sean and I when he was a baby.

I was feeling a Little guilty because I have posted things about my sister Aletheia, and my brother Jeremy but not my brother Sean. So I decided to rectify that situation.

Sean is 4 years younger than me. We had an interesting relationship growing up. It was always either Sean and I united against Jeremy OR Jeremy and Sean ganging up on me. Most of the time everyone loved Aletheia except for Sean who occasionally got jealous that she had assumed the position of the baby of the family.

Sean had (and probably still has) the unique ability to embarrass me. One of the best examples of this is when I was in high and I was taking Sean to the grocery store with me. It was summer time but he came out of the house in a bright red t-shirt that had a teddy bear on it and said "Have a Beary Merry Christmas". I got all upset and told him it was not appropriate attire. So then he went to the driveway and picked up a tire that we had just changed out and put it on like a hula hoop and said he was ready to go to the store. We went to the store and while he never did wear the tire we would frequently do silly things like have him pretend he was blind or pretend that we were spies.

When I was a junior in high school my mom and I were driving to my friends house so we could get ready for prom. I couldn't find Sean to say good bye before I left and was a little upset at him for it. We had been driving about 10 minutes when we heard a noise in the back of the car. All of a sudden Sean popped out from the trunk (there was one of those seats that would lie down so you could get into the trunk). My mom and I started laughing hysterically and I think she almost wrecked the car.

Sean and I also had a tradition when I was at ACU that whenever I would come home we would go on a coffee date to Monzart's - a great coffee house on Lake Travis in Austin. I really enjoyed those times with my brother and hope we get to make more fun memories in the future.

Sean is at Harding University now with his wife Ashley. He will graduate this May with a degree in something like Church History and Philosophy. He then wants to go get his doctorate. I don't get to see him enough but think about him often.

Finally

Well, I FINALLY got pictures of my brother's wedding that I didn't steal off someone else's facebook page. As I was thinking about how to start writ ting about the whole event I decided it would be easier to do brief bullets of the highlights....

- I loved walking around Pikes Place Market on Thursday with Mom, Larry and Aletheia. We went to the original Starbucks, ate at the Crab Pot and I feel in love with Seattle.

- Thursday night I met Krista's family for the first time. She has an older sister with cerebral palsy (Leah) and a younger brother who will be a freshman at ACU (Tim). Her parents are great and the whole family, including extended family is very close.

-I got to go with Krista and our moms to pick up her dress on Friday. I was in charge of doing the bustle at the reception. Her dress was beautiful and reminded me a lot of my wedding dress.

- My dad arrived at the rehearsal dinner. Unfortunately my brother Sean could not make it because of airport delays. It was good to see the family though. Krista's gift to Jer at the rehearsal dinner was a Rosetta Stone language kit so he can learn Spanish. His gift to her was cue cards that he flipped as he told her how much he loved her (a little like in Love Actually). Krista is hard of hearing and has hearing aides. It was so sweet.

- The day of the wedding we went to get our hair done before going to the church to get dressed. I will go out on a limb to say I looked hot (not really but I didn't look awful)!!

- Getting ready was the usual craziness and fun. One of my favorite moments was when I pinned Jeremy's boutonniere on him - a very special thing for a big sister.

- There was a sweet slide show at the start of the wedding. I looked at the groom when the bride walked down the isle (a habit I picked up from my husband). Krista walked down to "Come Thou Fount" the same song that I walked down the isle to. Jae had the most wonderful smile and tears in his eyes. He is so head over heels in love!! Krista started crying and leaned on her dad's shoulder as she walked towards her almost husband. It was perfect.

- My sweet sister sang Sanctuary during the lighting of the Unity Candle. She has an amazing voice and was a beautiful bridesmaid.

-Jer also played his guitar and sang a song her wrote for Krista. My family is so musically talented (I do not have that gift).

- Jer's friend Cory Jones was his best man. It was really special that Cory was there since so many of Jer's friends were unable to come.

- After the wedding it was time to party!!! I rode with the wedding party in a limo to the reception. Surprisingly that was my first time in a limo that I remember.

- The reception was great. We danced, ate, did the toasts, danced some more, danced even more and then finally went home. I danced with my brother and my mom got to dance with her oldest son. Everything was beautiful and perfect except that Josh wasn't there.

It was a great wedding with the typical family stresses and frustrations at times. I was totally unprepared for how emotional it was for me to see my brother get married. My brother Sean is married but it was a much less elaborate event. Jer and I are only two years apart and struggled to get along as kids and teenagers. God has really worked in our family and in that relationship because now we are great friends and I love to be around him - something I thought may never happen. He has found his perfect match in Krista and I am so excited to continue to get to know and love her.


Jae and his best man Cory (the only friend of his that was actually able to come)


The new sisters!!


Aletheia and I


Jae and his sisters


Krista, Leah and Tim


Krista's family


My family

Cheetahs

Since the last post was about bunnies I was inspired to write about another of my favorite animals. I have always wanted a cheetah for a pet. This is not a totally random idea though. When I was in Africa after my freshman year in high school we went to a reserve that was just cheetahs and lions. The lady who owned the park had a pet cheetah that she had raised from a cub. This cheetah rode around in her car with her. When it would run off she had a little terrier dog that she would send to the cheetah and then have the dog come back and the cheetah would follow. I got to pet this sweet cheetah .

Me and my cheetah friend in Africa, Summer of 1997


One of my favorite movies when I was a kid called Cheetah. It was about this brother and sister who were living in Africa for 6 months with their parents. They adopt a pet cheetah whose mother was killed. Basically they raise it then have to let it go so it can live in the wild. There is a dramatic ending when the Duma (word for cheetah is Swahili) is captured etc etc.

So my goal is to have a pet cheetah, even if I have to move to Africa to do it...

Bunnies

There are cute little bunnies everywhere in our neighborhood. Occasionally Josh and I will be in the car and I will yell "bunny" excitedly and he will almost crash into somthing. I have started trying to make this exclaimation in a calmer, quieter voice.

I love bunnies. When I was growing up our house was pretty much a zoo. We had a variety of pets ranging from turtles (found and bought), gerbils (one gerbil ate another), dogs (Tiffany was mine and the best), cats, fish, birds, bunnies, hamsters, hermit crabs, a ferret and even a goat. Since moving to Denver I have been having pet withdrawl. Until college I had never not had a least one pet, usually 2 or 3. Every once in a while I try to convince my husband that we need a pet. I completely understand that having a dog in our apartment building would be a pain as well as expensive. But I don't think that something little like a fish should be a problem.

Back to bunnies...yesterday I went on a walk while Josh was at a devo. During the 40 minutes I was gone I saw at least 13 rabbits. Several of them were cute little babies. This time I was actually able to pet one quickly before it jumped away. My long term goal is to actually catch one - whether that means chasing it and catching it or being able to lure it in with snacks. That way I can have a sweet, soft pet to play with and company while Josh is gone. I think it is a great idea.

2 whole weeks!!

Josh got home tonight from taking the middle school kids to camp. The most exciting part about that is he is here for an entire two weeks - that is a rare occurrence during the summer. I think I have been planning so much for us to do that he may wish he was gone again.

It's also an adjustment to live with someone else in the house again. I am super tired but can't sleep...I think I got used to sleeping in the middle of the bed.

I think the highlight of his week at Cornerstone was playing an intense, competitive game of Four Square using a tennis ball. This was also a game between youth ministers, not kids. Apparently a video will be posted on Youtube of the intense last few minutes of the game. Weird.

Massages

I love massages. I would gladly paint my own toenails and get cheap haircuts for the rest of my life if I would get regular massages. There is something about an hour of very little talking, quiet music, and the pain that comes with somebody working hard to get the giant knots out of my back that is pure bliss.

Not only does it feel great to indulge myself a little but apparently regular massages are good for your immune system, circulation, muscele tone, digestion, stress response and a ton of other things.

There really was no point to this post other than to share one of the great loves of my life. Now I feel like I need to go make an appointment.....

M&M

Last night I was luck enough to be able to go spend the evening with my sweet friend Melanie and her husband Matt (see above pic). Mel and Matt are living in Colorado Springs but only for a few more weeks. Matt is in the Air Force and will be stationed in Cheyenne, Wyoming starting in August.
They sold their house and are currently renting a cute tiny yellow and pink cottage that is sandwiched in between two bigger houses close to downtown CO Springs. I am so sad that they are moving but I guess it really isn't that much farther than Denver to the Springs. Usually Mel and I meet for dinner half way between us. I hope we can still do that even though we will both be driving farther.

Mel has been such a blessing since Josh and I have been in Colorado. When I spoke at a Women's retreat a year or so ago I asked her to come and introduce me. She was with Josh and I when I was in the hospital a few months ago and even cleaned our apartment for us. We have been friends since being at ACU together, working Leadership Camps etc.

I love the way God works through friends!!

(Mellie - I borrowed the above picture from your blog! Thanks.)

*Chez Dishman, Melanie Sutton, me, Melanie Larson at ACU

Joshua

I think it's become a habit that I write something to brag about Josh whenever he is out of town.

There is a book by Nancy Reagan called "I Love You, Ronnie". It is a memoir filled with letter that Ronald Reagan wrote to Nancy during their marriage. One of my favorite quotes is " I love you 365 times more today than I did on this day last year and 365 times less than I will a year from now."

I have certainly found that to be true. There have been several times over the past few weeks that I find myself overwhelmed with how lucky I am to have married such a great guy. Last weekend Josh and I spend most of Thursday night and Friday morning in the ER (nothing serious). He was so sweet and attentive to me even though I know he was feeling pretty rotten himself. That is just a small example of the ways I have seen God bless me through him and our relationship.

I can't wait to see where we will be a year from now, 5 years from now, 20 years from now etc.

This is a goofy picture but I love it....

The Sunday that everything was cancelled

When yesterday started off I was excited about my plan for the day. Josh is gone again so I had planned a day of doing things after church (which he does enjoy..)that he does not neccesarily enjoy. I went to church in the morning and then planned to go to a yoga class. I brought clothes to change into so as soon as church was over I left to go to the class. I changed, went to the gym and then found out class was CANCELLED.

So I decided to move ahead to the next thing on my list - going up north of Devner for a farmer's market. I got there, drove all around this cool little town while looking for the best place to park for the market. I finally asked someone who told me it was CANCELLED - no idea why, just cancelled.

By then it was raining a little so I drove back south of Denver to go home. Since I had some time due to cancelled yoga and produce shopping I went to Walmart to get my headlight replaced and oil changed. When I got there I was once again told that this service would have to be CANCELLED. This is starting to get a little irritating since the day before I had gone to Walmart to get it taken care of but the wait was 3 hours. The manager told me to come Sunday after church because it would be less busy - he failed to tell me it would be less busy because it was closed.

This could have turned into a rotten day but I actually enjoyed it. I went home, made a bunch of cards, went on a bike ride and made dinner. Hopefully next time I try to do this stuff it won't all be cancelled.

Church Songs

We had a youth group devo Sunday night where the kids that went to Kadesh could share some of their experiences - there is one of these after each camp or trip for the summer. One of the things that we talked about was how some of the songs we sing don't really have a great message or we don't really listen to them. One of the songs mentioned was "Get Right Church and Let's Go Home". One of the youth deacons, Dennis, loves (or used to love) that song. He would really get into it and sing it all the time. While at Kadesh he decided that he couldn't sing that song anymore because the words don't have a great message at all - it's saying that we have to "get right" to go to heaven and that we might miss the train if we aren't careful. We then talked about words to songs that we sing and don't really mean like All to Jesus I Surrender (I know I don't surrender everything freely).

So, I started thinking about songs that I don't really like. Now, get ready, this will be controversial I'm sure....I don't like "It Is Well With My Soul". Now, this has nothing to do with the lyrics of the song - I enjoy the words and think that they are powerful. The thing I don't like is the music. We are singing about the peace God gives us that can overcome anything but we sing this horribly slow and depressing sounding tune. Another thing I don't like is when we sing that song but then people say things that completely contradict what they just sang. I probably pay more attention to this since I don't like that song, but I seem to notice that it is sung and then we talk about how to deal with trials or how bad we feel about things that are going on. I'll be the first to admit that things are not always well with my soul. I have a hard time saying that they are when I can be upset, hurt, angry and confused about things. I know that God is truly bigger than anything I will ever face, but the fact remains that I am human and no where near perfect - things are not always well.

I am sure that I will be singing that song for the rest of my life in church services. I may learn to love it and I may not. I will strive to be at peace with things that happen. But really, if we are singing about the peace that passes all understanding let's not sound so down about it - be happy, sing that song with enthusiam and joy!

Teaser

I got back Sunday from a 4 day trip to Seattle for my brother's wedding. It was a great trip and I have so much to share about it but that will have to wait until I have more time and more pictures uploaded. Here are a few pictures just to get you excited!!!