Shaving Cream Fight

Last Friday for the youth group fun night we had a giant shaving cream fight. This was mostly my idea. Josh couldn't think of anything and I thought we should take advantage of the last semi-warm weather. When I suggested the shaving cream fight, Josh's first question was "what is the point?" I had to explain that there really is no point other than to get good and messy.

We all had a great time except that most people forgot to bring a change of clothes or a towel. So we turned the sprinklers on to semi rinse off then used the baptistery towels and Josh and I took the towels home to wash them. Now, 4 days later my hair still feels a little weird. Enjoy some of the pictures from the nights festivities!!

The whole group


Caren and I



Josh and I

Ike

As many of you probably do, I have several friends and family members in the Houston/Galveston area. Not knowing if people are ok is stressful and scary. I know that everyone in the area appreciates all our prayers and help. Continue to pray. Hopefully we will hear updates on people we love soon.

Lord, I pray that you keep our loved ones safe. Fill their hears with comfort and peace. Be their Hiding Place, Protector and Shelter.

Tagged.

I was tagged by my sweet friend Ashley Snow to write 6 random things about me. I will try to come up with something at least a little exciting.

1. I am entirely to addicted to sugar. I generally eat really healthy but I do have a big sweet tooth.

2.When I get cold (like right now in my office) my fingers feel all weird and slow. It's taken 3 tries to type this sentence with no typos.

3.I have a few dream jobs - it is currently to design and produce homemade greeting cards and decor stuff, but I also want to be a forest ranger/search and rescue person. Two completely different things I know.

4. Sometimes I have a fairly positive body image but no matter how strong or in shape I am I still feel like my arms to are jiggly and I look to young (last week someone ask if I was a freshman in college.)

5. I have messy handwriting and was always jealous of my friends with beautiful handwriting. Josh has better handwriting than I do.

6. Lately I have been eating a lot of zucchini and summer squash. Yummmm

I tag Sam, Leah Stephens, Mellie and Lindsey!! Let me know if you do it.

Longhorn Football

I grew up a lot of different places but I consider myself my Austin, Texas. Part of the greatness that makes up Austin is University of Texas, specifically Longhorn Football. In honor of this great football team I will have posted some pictures...

Vince Young after winning the Championship!



UT Tower after Championship



Coach Mack Brown



Colt McCoy



Major Applewhite's last game

This is a post I borrowed from my friend Jen Reid's blog http://jenperkins.blogspot.com/ Like me, she has a social work degree. What she talks about here is so true! Since being in the social services workforce I have constantly struggled with balancing my professional ethics and faith - some of the time they are aligned with each other but sometimes they are in conflict. There are times I have to work with families when I don't agree with their lifestyle choices and I have to give them the same professional courtesy and hard work that I would give any other family. One of the things social work has taught me is to have an open mind and open heart when dealing with people. I have to be polite and considerate of parents I internally might despise because they hurt or neglected their children - but I also have learned to look at them with a fresh perspective and try to see what their strengths are, what contributes to their circumstances and what they need. Sometimes I think that all Christians should have social work training. As Christians all to often we look down on others instead of thinking what we can do to help (the panhandler on the corner, the alcoholic, the pregnant teen, the man having an affair). As social workers, we try to first ask what people are needing and what we can bring to the situation to help. Bottom line of my ramblings - While social work and faith have many of the same values at times they are drastically different and it is a challenge to balance them.

"I received my BSW (social work) from ACU and was taught about this helping profession from people whose knowledge of social work and their deeply rooted faiths fit together like white on rice. somehow, at UT, this has gotten lost for me; lost in the severely opinionated, political, and let's just say different lens of which these subjects are taught to me. I think as a general whole, social workers are passionate about the rights to which all people should have, being the voice for those who can't speak, being advocates to change policy that effects those who are vulnerable, even changing the way we perceive those with the worst stigmas in our society. That is common. But then there are foundational biblical truths that have become...blurry. I lost my own voice, wanting to be polite, wanting to conform, and wanting to fit in. It is sad that is true for me at 25. I am not ashamed of what I believe, it is apart of who I am, but I am afraid of how to communicate that to a school so obviously fighting for worldly acceptance. Not in reverence to an all loving and all powerful God.

I have been searching why I have had my attitude about school. I have complained about the program, the teachers, the whole process, without identifying why I may feel so out of place, so uncomfortable in my school. It took me a year and a half to communicate that.

Let me clarify one thing. It is not a waste of time, I value the education that I am receiving and there is no doubt that a professional degree will open doors for me to do a job that I do believe I have a God given gift for. I just didn't realize that some definite soul searching and questioning, not to mention some serious attitude, would be such a big part of the deal."

Blog Change

I know, I know....I just changed it not long ago. But I didn't like the red. This is more of what I like (at least right now). It will probably change again soon - I like change and being creative....

Estes Park

This past weekend Josh and I spent some time in Estes Park. We stayed at a cabin at Covenant Heights -a camp that Josh uses for youth group retreats. We had a small 2 bedroom cabin off by ourselves, a bathroom, microwave, sink etc. This camp is great and has a ropes course, fishing lake, wonderful food, a beautiful new chapel, and we found out they even have camp sites.

There is a family that owns and runs the camps. I am curious to know how the whole thing runs but basically it is a couple, their kids and the spouses, and some other hired staff. Josh and I would love to run a camp like this someday.

We spend the days in RMNP, Estes and Grand Lake. Friday the weather was cool and rainy. There were clous covering all the valleys so all you could see was the peaks. Saturday we were able to drive up a dirt road to the top of the park that we had never been on before. The weather was cool and starting to feel like fall. The aspen leaves haven't started changing yet - that is one of the only things that could have made it better.

Enjoy the pictures!
Sunset over Lily Lake - this does not do it justice at all!


Me hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park -around Alluvial Fan


Josh while hiking to Chapin Creek


The Road we drove up - it is one way going up only - there is no way you could drive down it!


Beautiful clouds on the way up to the top of RMNP

Books Books and More Books

Josh and I have been looking at townhomes to buy so we can get out of our apartment after 4 years (that's another story for later). So, since I love to be organized, not procrastinate and clean I have already started packing. The thing I started packing first was the bookshelves in our guest bedroom/Shiloh's craft room. I have two regular sized bookshelves and one tall skinny bookshelf. Every shelf has at least 2 rows of books on it because I ran out of space. It didn't look like a huge amount to me, but once I started packing I was amazed at how many there were. I also found myself pulling some out of boxes that I wanted to re-read. I am sure that I cannot find time to re-read all the ones I pulled out before we are out of the apartment but I can sure try.

I have so many different types of books. I have books about God, faith, prayer, worship, theology, history, biographies, children's books, books of quotes, social work books, poetry books, etc But I also have tons of mystery and suspense books. I love these books so much because I can just get lost in the story. I don't feel like I have to read deep, thought provoking books all the time. I love the escape of a good mystery novel and enjoy reading just to read.

So, since reading and all of my books have been on my mind I decided to write a list of my favorite books. I have a feeling this is going to be hard to do since I LOVE books and LOVE to read. (these are in no particular order)

1. "I'll Love You Forver" - this is a sweet kids book about a mom who rocks her son to sleep until she gets too old. Very sad at the end, but precious!

2.Anything by Mary Higgins Clark. I started reading her mysteries in 8th grade and was hooked. Two of my favorites are "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and "I've Heard That Song Before". I really get into books like this and feel like I am involved in the story.

3. My bible. The bible I use now is small, worn and very colorful from things I've highlighted and notes I've written. I also have all of my bibles back to kindergarten. They are each special for unique reasons.

4."Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorst. This book makes me laugh and is great for kids.

5. Books by James Patterson. I love the Women's Murder Club series and the Alex Cross series. Some of the other "stand alone" books are ok, some I thought were not so good.

6. "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maruice Sendak. I used this book in therapeutic groups often. Great pictures!

7. " I Love You, Ronnie". This is a beautiful book by Nancy Reagan. It is full of letter that her husband wrote her and a memoir of their time together.

8. "Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. I really love any of his books but I think this one is my favorite.

9. "2000 Years of Prayer" complied by Michael Counsell. I have barely made a dent in this book. It has prayers written by people from the West, the East, Prodestant, Catholic, etc. It is such an expereince to read prayers written by people thousands of years ago that are just as powerful if I pray them now.

10. Ramona Quimby books by Beverly Cleary. These were some of my favorites as a kid.

11. "Three Little Words" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter. This is a memoir of a girl who grew up in the foster care system and was eventually adopted. Parts are hard to read but it is an amazing story written by an incredible young woman.

12."Power of a Praying Wife" by Stormie Omartian. I loved this book!! I read and re-read many of the prayers, adapting them for my marriage and situations. It taught me alot about prayer but specifically how to pray for Josh. I read "Power of a Praying Woman" in college and liked it. I recently tried to go back and read it again but didn't like some of the things said so I haven't been good about finishing it.

13. Max Lucado books. When I would read this in middle school and high school I would have a notepad with me to write notes on and I would underline things I liked. Some of these books have been powerful in my life and faith. Two of my favorites are "Traveling Light" - (I read this during a difficult period in college and it really made me think differently about burden we hold on to) and "No Wonder They Call Him Savior" (this book makes you think differently about Jesus).

14. This last item is just a general category or group of authors - I love anything that grabs my attention and keeps me engaged. Other authors I like are Linda Howard, Julie Garwood, Iris Johanson, and Mary Jane Clark.

I could probably go on for ever- especially if I was at home looking at my bookshelves. Who knows, there may be a part two to this post soon. I would love to hear some of your favorite books if you want to share!

Love Story: Engagement!!!

I am going to try to get the whole engagement story in one post but I guess we will see.

Easter Weekend always meant LTC (Leadership Training for Christ) I participated in LTC most of the time I was growing up and tried to stay involved through Highlands in Abilene and Pleasant Ridge. So, I drove into Arlington Friday night, met Josh and went straight over to the hotel LTC was at in Dallas.

My dad and my brother were also in town from Austin doing LTC with Westover. We had already planned for Dad to stay at Josh's apartment with me on Saturday night and come eat lunch with Josh's family Sunday afternoon.

Josh and I had planned to go out to dinner after the conference was over Saturday night. I was pretty sure we were going to get engaged. It was our year and a half anniversary AND exactly 8 months to when we had talked about having the wedding.
So, after LTC Saturday night we were both tired. Josh said we could just drive through some where and go back to his apartment for awhile before he went to his parents house to sleep. I absolutely would not go for that. So we started driving to dinner. He wouldn't tell me where we were going but he had directions written down. I looked at the directions and said "Oh, are we going to Cheesecake Factory?" He was obviously frustrated when he said yes, that was where we were headed. We got there and had an amazing dinner at one of my favorite places that I don't get to go to very often. After dinner we drove to his apartment to take my dad a piece of cheesecake we got for him, then Josh made me go back to the car while he got something from the apartment.

From there we drove a few minutes away to a park that we liked to go to. We walked around for awhile and then sat on a bench. Josh pulled out my "anniversary present". It was an amazing scrapbook filled with out story. It had pictures, funny stickers, letters we had given each other, cards, emails, the receipt from when Josh's car got towed when we were in Austin etc. The last 2 pages said "Jones is a good name, would you like to have it?" Then he asked if he could pray for me. He said a prayer that I am sure was beautiful but I don't remember any of it. When the prayer was over he got down on one knee and pulled a ring box out of his pocket. He said something that he had told me in a few letters "I love you. I'm in love with you. It's like I've always loved you, it just took me awhile to find you" and then asked me to marry him. I was crying, he was crying, I said yes and he put the ring on my finger.

Then I told him my secret- that Friday while I was at his apartment for the night I realized I forgot a shirt to sleep in and I was getting one out of his drawer and saw the ring box!! I can never wait to open a present so of course I looked inside. The ring was beautiful!!! I think he was totally shocked that I found the ring..he still likes to tell people that story.

After some hugs and kisses we went back to his apartment to tell my dad. On the way we call his parents (who knew he was asking) and my mom and sister. It turns out that early that day Josh and talked with my dad and asked for his blessing. Then, we drove all the way back to Dallas to tell my brother Sean and to ask my youth minister Rick if he would do the wedding.

The next day was Easter Sunday. I went to church at the LTC convention with my family and friends then my dad and I drove to Josh's grandmother's for lunch. His grandparents did not know we were engaged yet and when Josh told her them they were so excited!

After church Josh and I went back to his apartment to take a nap before church that night. Josh left early and I was going to come later. He had given an picture of us just after we got engaged to the guy doing the slide show for the LTC program that night. Unfortunately I slept in and barely made it in time - right as I walked in to the church Josh's dad was leaving to go wake me up. So, Terry the other youth minister was up making a presentation to the church about the LTC weekend. He was finished but Josh said "Wait Terry, there is one more announcement you forgot" Terry was totally confused and when he turned around the slide came up that said "Josh and Shiloh are engaged!" The whole auditorium started clapping and we were both mobbed by people hugging us. It was such a cool night.

I drove back to Abilene that night and Josh drove in later for my Pass the Key with Siggies. It was such a great weekend I will never forget.

Love Story part 4 - Getting Serious

Josh and I at a Servant Leader Retreat with the Pleasant Ridge Youth Group

When I finished the last installment I was thinking that this next one would be the engagement story....but I realized I left out some important details.

My junior year Josh and I were getting pretty serious. We had discussed getting married and knew that was the direction we were headed in. We spent a lot of time talking and praying about it all, wanting to make sure this was the right thing. We had talked about rings, talked about dates and even talked at times about what the wedding would be like.

There was a lot going on that year. I was planning a mission trip to Tsumeb, Namibia that summer that Josh would accompany me on. Since missions is such a big part of who I am I really wanted him to be able to share that with me. I knew (even though I was in denial) that marrying a youth minister would detour my plans to be a missionary overseas but I still wanted to be involved in what I was passionate about. I also had an internship that year at Hope Haven - a transitional living facility in Abilene. Then there was the usual family drama, homework, work and other ACU activities.
So, while I was busy with all of that in Abilene, Josh was busy working at Pleasant Ridge in Arlington as the youth minister resident. I finally had a car in Abilene that year and drove to, or got rides to Arlington whenever possible. It was a neat experience to be able to get to know the youth group kids Josh worked with, families at Pleasant Ridge and to be involved in that part of Josh's life. I went on retreats, Senior Night Out and all the regular stuff like devos as much as I could. People have asked me if it was hard to get married when we never lived in the same town for very long. It was hard but it was also a good experience to be dating while he was already in ministry. I got a clear picture of what life as a youth minister's wife was like - the good and the bad parts. I was able to form some close relationships with the kids he worked with and I looked forward to being around even more.
On a side note, one of the frustrating things was when I would come into town for the weekend and we didn't really get to go on a real date because Josh has youth group activities or wanted to go play football after church on Sunday.

As all this was going on we continued to think more seriously about the future. We looked at rings, talked about time lines of getting engaged etc. We wanted to get married the next December. Part of that was because I did not want to get married, graduate and move somewhere all within a few weeks time (we knew that Josh's resident program would be over in May 2004). Another silly reason for the engagement timing was that one of my good friends was the Keeper of the Key in Siggies and I wanted her to be able to plan my big Pass the Key night. That didn't end up working out, but it was OK. My best friend Jackie Beth and I had a code for when I called to tell her I was engaged. I was supposed to call and tell her that I "got a tattoo" so that if she was around other people no one would know what we were saying (remember that for the next segment). I had even started looking at dresses and beginning to wrap my brain around all that was involved to plan a wedding.

Continued soon....


a date at the Zoo



Senior Night Out in Arlington - Josh and "Partnuh" Jenny and me.