Middlecamp Moments

Finally!

2012-01-22T20:36:00.006-06:00

After three months we finally received our official immigration letter! Basically, what that means is that we got permission to bring children back into the U.S.. We are so excited and honestly shocked that we got the letter already!

It takes a long time to get this approval and there is not much that you can do while you are waiting to get approved. So we have just been waiting on this letter, so that we can move on to the next step!

While we are in the process of adoption we have been taking advantage of some of our free time. All of our friends with children have encouraged us to go on dates, go to the movies, take vacations, etc. Just because we won't have as much free time after we get the baby. So, we have been taking peoples advice. Last night Matt planned a date to go to a painting class. We had so much fun! Here are some of the pictures I took from last night.

This is my painting just after having started. We went to a place called BYO Brush in Ocean Springs, MS. We also went on a night that all the proceeds were going to Sisters with a Purpose, a non-profit for abused women and children. So we were happy to go and support them.

The picture above is part way through the painting class and then the picture below is us with our finished products! We had tons of fun and it was nice to get some creative energy out. I felt so relaxed when we left. So if you ever have a chance to go to one of these classes, I would recommend it!

Update

2012-01-15T19:57:00.002-06:00

I'm sorry it has been so long since I posted. Someone asked me about the blog the other day and I was explaining to them that we really didn't have anything to update about. However, I should just update about other things that are going on. So, I'm sorry!

Well, we are still waiting on getting out official approval from immigration, but we went last week and did our biometric fingerprints. We had been waiting to hear about this appointment since some time in October and finally when we got back from Christmas we had a letter with our appointment date and time. We were so excited! So last week we went and had our fingerprints taken. We were there about 10 minutes total for our appointment. I asked the lady that was helping us about 2 or 3 times if that was all we needed to do. She reassured me that it would be ok and that we had done everything. I just couldn't believe that was what we had been waiting on for close to 2 months!

So here we are again....waiting. Even though we are waiting and have been for some time now, we are in a good place emotionally. We definitely have our moments of impatience but we know that God is working out all things for His Glory. He has already worked out so many things with regards to our adoption. God is so good!

I'll try to do a better job of keeping you informed of what is going on!

Registration

2011-11-19T22:05:00.002-06:00

We talked to our adoption agency this week and they let us know that we are a good 6 months away from being able to travel to Africa to go pick up our baby. Six months is on the good side of the spectrum, there are any number of delays that could occur and prolong our adoption process. However, while we recognize that these delays are possible, we pray against them and we pray for a smooth and speedy adoption process.

Because we are six months out from being able to travel to Africa, our agency advised me to go ahead and register for a full load this semester. If you don't know already, I am a student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. I am pursuing a masters degree and I'm am trying to get in as many hours as possible before we get the baby. So, I registered for classes tonight and now we owe the seminary a bunch of money. Ugh! I'm trying not to freak out about the amount of money that we owe and the number of hours that I am taking, but I know that God has called me to take classes at the seminary and to pursue the adoption.

Being in grad school and pursuing an adoption are two major events in life by themselves, let alone doing them at the same time. However, I know that I am doing what the Lord has led me to do right now. Praise the Lord that I don't face these things alone. God has given me a wonderful husband who helps and encourages me every step of the way. There are some days that I know that I wouldn't have been able to make it through the day without Matt. I also have awesome family and friends who support and encourage us. Our families have encouraged us through every step of the adoption and they are so excited to see the ways that God is working in our lives.

We are so excited that Thanksgiving is this week and we have a lot to be thankful for this year. I am so thankful for my husband and our family and friends who are so encouraging to us. I'm still a little shocked that Thanksgiving is this week, but I'm so grateful for some time off and getting to spend that time with Matt and our families.

Now what?

2011-11-11T20:47:00.003-06:00

So, in the last couple posts I've explained all the background story for all the decisions that we have made regarding the adoption and how the Lord has led us to this decision. So now, I want to get you updated on all the steps that we gone through up until this point. We have been accepted to an adoption agency, and finished our home study. We meet several times with our social worker while we were doing our home study. I was really anxious about the home study process, but once we met our social worker, she put me at ease almost immediately. I really didn't have anything to worry about with regards to the home study. Looking back now I wonder what all my fretting was about. Now that our home study is competed we are waiting to get approval from immigration.

When adopting a child international you have to get approval to bring a child back into the United States. That is where we are now. We can't do anything else without this approval, so we are in a waiting stage right now. We have heard that this process could take up to 3 months. It's been a month already and we haven't heard anything, so we are continuing our wait.

Please continue to pray for us as we are waiting to hear back from immigration. Please pray that we would be patient as we wait. Please pray that as we wait we continue to rest in the Lord and continue to grow in our relationships with the Lord.

Please pray for our baby or babies that God would protect them and provide for them while we are separated. Please pray that the Lord would provide someone to hold our babies, until we can hold them. Please pray that the Lord would provide food for our babies, until we are able to feed them. These are some of the things that Matt and I pray for everyday and we will continue to pray for these things until we can be with our baby or babies.

How we chose our agency and country

2011-10-25T20:38:00.002-05:00

The decision to adopt came quickly for us. God knew his divine plan for us but the opportunity came suddenly for us, and we were not expecting the opportunity to come in the way, and at the time that it did. Don't hear me wrong, we are really excited about the opportunity to adopt but the way that it came about was just a shock.

We had not really done any research on adoption agencies before this point. We made the decision to start the adoption process and then we had to decide what agency we were going to use. Some people know the country that they want to adopt from and they chose their agency based on the country that they want to adopt from. We had no idea where we wanted to adopt from. We decided that we wanted to approach all the decisions about the adoption prayerfully. We made the decision that we wanted to chose an agency that we trusted. We put a lot of time and prayer into the decision of what agency to use, we talked to friends of ours that had adopted to see what agencies they used and the experience that they had with those agencies.

After a lot of research and prayer we decided to use Lifeline Children's Services in Birmingham, AL. Once we chose an agency we started praying through all the countries that were available for us to adopt from through Lifeline, including both international and domestic adoption. We both felt very clearly that God was leading us to adopt internationally at this time. We are not ruling out domestic adoption for the future but we just felt very clearly about the decision to adopt internationally right now.

Lifeline had a list of countries that you can adopt from through their agency. We started praying about each one of those countries and looking at the requirements to adopt from those countries. Each country has it's own requirements for adoption in that country. When we read the requirements for Uganda, Africa we fit each requirement. As we read about Uganda and prayed about adopting from Uganda, we were both filled with such peace. We knew right then that we were supposed to adopt a baby from Uganda. The age range for our adoption is 3 months old to 2 years old. So, our baby will fall in that age range somewhere.

We sent in our application to Lifeline and a few days later we got our acceptance letter via email. Matt and I had run an errand to TJ Maxx and we were standing in the checkout line, when we got the email. Matt read it to me as we were waiting in line and we had our own public moment of rejoicing and praising God for His blessings. We were able to pay for our items and get out to the car before I lost it. I just sat in the car and cried because I was so happy.

I told Matt, "This has got to be what it is like to find out your pregnant. I don't even know this child, I don't know if they are a boy or a girl, I don't know what their personality is like, I don't know anything about this person, but I'm already in love with this child!" We know that God already has a child picked out for us and we know that one day soon we will get to meet this child.

Sorry this post is so long, but I am trying hard to get our blog up to date. Thanks for bearing with me as I'm trying to explain our thought process and decisions that we have made up to this point. God has bless us so much through this whole process and we want to be able to share that with others, so that they can see how good God is.

Our Adoption Story

2011-10-17T20:08:00.007-05:00

Our story of adoption really starts when Matt and I were dating. Adoption was something that we talked about once we realized that our relationship was heading towards marriage. We both talked about that we had an interest in adoption and that it could be a possibility of how we would grow a family.

After we had been married for a couple years, we decided that we wanted to go ahead and try to start a family. We wanted to start early because we knew that we may struggle getting pregnant. So we started trying to have a baby. After about a year with no results we went to see a doctor. After several doctors appointments and tests, I started fertility drugs. We were on the fertility drugs for about 6 months with no results. My doctor decided that he had done all that he could do and that we needed to go see a specialist. The closest fertility specialist to us was in Mobile, AL. So we traveled over to meet with the doctor and discuss our possibilities.

After Matt and I left that meeting we decided that we had a lot of decisions to make. We struggled with all the possibilities and knew that we had to draw the line somewhere. We could spend all of our time and money spent persuing fertility treatments, if we wanted to. Also, we could put all of our resources into getting pregnant and God may not ever bless us with a child. After spending a lot of time in prayer and discussing the options we decided that we needed to take a break for a while.

After several months of taking a break from all the fertility drugs and treatments, Matt and I felt really at peace with our decision and we were also starting to come around to the idea that we may never have a biological child. During all of these years of decisions and struggles adoption was always a topic of conversation. We would talk about adoption and if we felt as if God was calling us to adopt a child during this time. We never felt at peace about pursuing adoption at that time. I started to pray more consistently about adoption. I prayed that God would help us see when the time was right and that He would provide the finances for an adoption. We knew that the finances would be an issue for us, but I prayed that God would show us areas in our personal budget that we could cut back on to raise money for an adoption, I prayed that God would give me ideas of how to raise money, and I prayed that He would provide the finances.

God heard my prayers and He provided the funds for our adoption. God provided the funds in such a way that it was a complete shock to us. We took some time to pray about the decision to start the adoption process. We felt very clearly during this time that God was telling us the start the process.

God has blessed us tremendously during this whole time of struggle and decisions. We know that we are doing exactly what God had lead us to do during this time. We are taking the whole process one step at a time and we are trying to be patient while everything is being worked out according to God's plan.

Update

2011-10-14T13:58:00.004-05:00

We have had a lot going in the last few months. Well, really since May. I feel like we have been going non-stop since the end of May. We spent most of our summer traveling to see family and making preparations for the next school year. We really had a good summer and got to spend lots of time with family.

We also made some major changes to the BSU building at the Perk campus, which included lots of painting, removing wall paper, and redecorating. It was a lot of work and all of our free time in the summer went to the work that needed to be done at the building. I am so glad that all the work is done and I'm never taking wall paper down again! I didn't realize removing wallpaper is tough work!

We also made a big announcement this summer. We are adopting a baby! It's been a while since we first made our announcement, but I wanted to update our blog and be able to tell more of the details on here. We are really excited and looking forward to day that we get to meet our baby.

We took family pictures this summer and this is one of the pictures that we are able to take.

Just a heads up, you may see this picture on a christmas card too. So here are some of the details that we know. I'll share more about our story in later posts but for now I'll just share some of the major details that we know. We are adopting from Uganda. We have not specified wether we would like a boy or a girl. My thought process behind this was that you don't get to choose when you are pregnant, so why should I get to choose. We will be fine either way. We know that God already knows who our child is and we will get to meet him or her very soon. We have requested the age range of 3 months old to 2 years old. Our agency has given us a timeline of 9 to 15 months, but we know that any numbers of things could prolong our timeline. So, we are just praying that God protects us from those delays.

This is just some of the major things that happened this summer and I will be sharing more about our story at a later time. Check back in the next few days to read more about our story and where we feel like God is leading us.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

2010-11-30T18:03:00.006-06:00

Before we left for Thanksgiving I went ahead and started decorating for Christmas, so we could come back home and it would all be done already. I love decorating for Christmas because I collect stuff all year and then when it comes time to pull everything out it's like Christmas because I forget about everything that I've have.

Here is our tree. I did the netting and ribbon a little different this year and I'm not really sure how I feel about it and I'm too lazy to do it again. Let me know what you think, and it won't hurt my feelings if you don't like it because M already told me he didn' t like it.

Here are some other views of our place with our Christmas decorations. It takes me a while to figure out where to put everything.

The navity is really special to me. I got it from my grandmother, who collected all the pieces from Avon a long, long time ago. She gave it to me a couple years ago and I love it! The table cloth is new this year. It was an after Christmas clearance sale at Target.

I love to see other people's decorations. So now I want to see your Christmas decorations. So take some time and post a few pictures of your decorations and some of the traditions that your family does.

Black Friday

2010-11-29T18:22:00.005-06:00

We made it back from Thanksgiving. We had a good week in AR with our families, but it is good to be back and sleeping in our own bed. I didn't take any pictures to document our Thanksgiving this year. I need to be better about taking pictures.

This year Thanksgiving was spent with M's family. We had a great time and lots of really good food. One of things that M's mom likes to do is to participate in Black Friday shopping. So Wednesday and Thursday when the sale ads came in the paper we would all sit down and go through everything that we needed to get or stores we wanted to go to. This year our big Black Friday stop was at Walmart. I've gone shopping on Black Friday before, but I have never gone to a store and waited for a specific item. M's mom was looking for a couple specific things at Walmart so we all went.

I didn't need anything special so I mostly got to observe everything. Once the sale got started M and I had so much fun just walking around, dodging people, and picking up a few items that we saw. Here are some of our purchases. (I can't show everything because some it is Christmas presents)

I think we got some pretty good deals. M got these packs of undershirts for $7 each and I got the sheets for $20. We had a good time experiencing Black Friday madness, but I'm glad I wasn't trying to get anything specific.

For my family

2010-10-26T12:22:00.003-05:00

We went to go visit our families recently and I had several people inform me that I need to update my blog. I was starting to question if I should even keep our blog or just get rid of it. I feel like we don't always have the most exciting information to share, but recently I've come to the realization that it's ok if we don't exciting information to share. People just want to keep up with us, even in the mundane everyday stuff. So I'm going to try and be better about blogging.

School started in August and we are having a really good year so far. We have a really great group of students and we are really excited about what God is doing on our campus and our three other campuses. This year has a totally different feel for Matt and I. This is now M's third year on his campus. One of things that we learned over the summer is that we can not force God to move, but what we can do is step back and let God do what He wants. It's not about us and what we do, but it is about Him and all we can do is point students to Him and pray that students develop a burning desire to get closer to God and His Word.

Here is a picture of our first event of the year. We did a cookout and had a huge slip-n-slide! It was so much fun. Matt and I's life group from church came to help us and it was a huge blessing. We were able to meet new students and hangout with students because our small group was handling all the food and programing details.

We have been super busy since school started, but it has been a good busy. So we definately can't complain. We are starting to feel more and more at home in Mississippi. We have made some really good friends and they make it easier to be here and so far away from our families.

We did just get home from a trip to visit families and it was so good to see them. I wasn't ready to come back, but I know that the holidays are right around the corner. My sister drove back to MS with us to spend a couple extra days with us and it was so great to have her here. I took her to the airport this morning and I miss her already. Thanks for coming to visit us sis!! I love you!

I'm sure there is alot more that I could share about our lives right now, but I think I better wait. I better ease back into this blogging thing!!

...When I stood condemed to death He took my place....

2010-02-16T21:49:00.006-06:00

We have been really busy the last couple weeks, but I'm not complaining. We have had a lot of fun! Two weeks ago Matt and I had the opportunity to go to a Gaithers Vocal Band Concert with our friends J.P. and Lacie. J.P. is a big fan of the Gaithers (big may be an understament!). M and I had never been to a Gaither concert and really we hadn't ever listened to much gospel music, so we really didn't know what to expect. We had a great time! We got some good pictures of the all the artists that performed including The Isaacs, Buddy Green, David Phelps, and many others.

This is a picture of Bill Gaither and the Vocal Band. The first part of the concert was my favorite. All the artists take turns singing their songs that they are known for doing and then the second half everyone joins together and all sing together.

This is at the very end of the concert. If you don't know, the man in the front is Bill Gaither. Honestly, I didn't know what he looked like before the concert. I'm really upset that I didn't get a picture of the four of us at the concert. I meant to snap one but I just forgot. We had a really good time listening to all the artists and we worshiped right along side of them. If we had the chance to go to another concert we would go, but next time we would have a better idea of what to expect and maybe could sing along with everyone. So if you have the chance to go, definately go!

Our Tree

2009-12-06T19:26:00.005-06:00

This is our tree this year. I love it! Matt and I collect Christmas ornaments from everywhere we travel together. We have ornaments from our honeymoon, vacations we have been on, and several ornaments from other countries we have visited. I put our tree up early this year so we could enjoy it a little bit longer this year.
We had a good thanksgiving, but I don't have any pictures because I accidently left my memory card at home. I guess I could have bought a new one but really I didn't have a spare moment to even go pick one up. We spent part of the Thanksgiving holiday in Arkansas and then spent part of it in Oklahoma.
This week and next week are pretty packed full with Christmas activities, so we are going to be pretty busy but we are excited about everything going on. I think the next two weeks are going to fly by!

10 things

2009-07-28T19:31:00.002-05:00

I saw this on a friends blog and thought it was good idea. I really don't anything important to update you on so I just thought I would come up with 10 random things that have been going on recently.

1. It has rained here everday for the last two weeks. Maybe not all day but at least of a little while everyday.

2. Big Brother has started and Matt and I are big fans of the show.

3. Several members of my family have come to visit us in the last two weeks.

4. Matt and I are starting to feel a little overwhelmed with school right around the corner.

5. Although we are overwhelmed I think I am ready for students to start coming back.

6. Matt has had to get some dental work done today.

7. We went and saw Harry Potter and I loved it and can't wait for the other ones to come out.

8. I found the best popsicles at Sams. They have real chuncks of fruit! So good!

9. I've been really wanting to plan a trip to NYC. I don't know why but I have just really wanted to go lately.

10. I'm reading a couple good books right now. I'm reading Crazy Love and Into the Wild. Totally different books but both really good.

Well, gotta go but leave me a comment and let me know what is going on with you.

Sorry so quiet

2009-07-16T10:07:00.003-05:00

I'm sorry it has been so long since you have heard from me. We have been sooo busy, and I'm afraid it is only going to get worse. We went to Oklahoma and Arkansas a couple weeks ago to see family and we had a great time. Since we have been back home it has been one thing after the other. Part of my family came this week to visit us. We gave them the grand tour of Gulfport and spent a lot of time looking at houses. We had a great time with our family and were sad that they had to go home. It is pretty quiet now without any one here. I forget how quiet it is with just the two of us.
We will be having a busy next couple weeks too, so I will try to be better about posting more frequently. I would also just like to ask for your prayers Matt and I have lots of things going on (looking at houses, school starting, my job search) and we are just trying to sort thru everything. We need the Lord's guidance and we would definately appreciate your prayers.

Pyramids and Mt. Sinai

2009-06-11T09:34:00.010-05:00

Part of our trip to the Middle East was spent doing touristy things. We had the opportunity to see the Pyramids and The Sphinx and then to climb Mt. Sinai. Both experiences were incredible. The pyramids are amazing. You can't see them without wondering how in world they were built. The pyramids are huge and suprisingly the sphinx is not as big as I had always pictured it (but still amazing to go see, I was just suprised at the size). Here are a few of the pictures that we took.

This is group picture of us at the bottom of the Great Pyramid. There is a rope around the bottom of the pyramid so you can't get close to it, but a very nice guard let us climb over the rope and take some pictures. You can see how tall the rocks are, the one next to me is about as tall as I am.

We also had the opportunity to climb Mt. Sinai to see sunrise. We had to leave about 2am to start climbing. Mt. Sinai is close to 7,000 ft. We were able to ride camels a little more than half way up the mountain. Riding the camels was one of the highlights of our trip. It was very dark while we were riding the camels so we got to see the desert night sky. It was breathtaking. Being there made the Old Testament come alive. I could never explain the awesomeness of the whole thing. It was just amazing!

This is me on my camel. It was so fun to be able to ride a camel up the mountain.

The Sunrise from the top of Mt. Sinai!

Just a landscape picture after the sun came up.

Overall it was a great life changing trip. We had so much fun and I don't think that Matt and I will ever be the same because of this trip. I can't even begin to explain everything that we learned while we were there. We learned lessons about ourselves, other cultures and religions, we learned about God's Word, and learned more about God's heart for the nations.

May

2009-06-02T18:53:00.005-05:00

May was a crazy month for Matt and I. We spent the majority of the month traveling. The first part of May was spent in Arkansas for my sisters graduation from the U of A. She graduated with her Masters in Social Work. Congratulations Lyndsey!

We had a great weekend with friends and family celebrating Lyndsey's accomplishments. We are all so proud of her.

After Lyndsey's graduation Matt and I spent some much needed time with family. We were able to spend about a week just hanging out with family.

Then, Matt and I had the opportunity to go to North Africa to visit some friends. We had a great time and were able to experience new things.

This is Matt and I standing where the Nile River meets the Meditteranean Sea. Matt and I were out one day and a taxi driver that we were with asked us if we wanted to go see "where salty water meets fresh water", at first I had no idea what he was talking about. He kept talking about it saying it was where everyone goes to visit. The more he talked the more I realized what he was talking about, then I got excited. I had no idea how close we were. It was literally right down the road from where we were. Matt and I were so excited that we got to go and so grateful that he took us. I would have been so sad if I would have known we were that close and didn't see it.

I'm not going to go into all the details of everything in this one post, because there is too much. I learned so much while we were gone and I am still processing everything that happened. We are still struggling with jet lag a little bit but other than that we are feeling good. Hopefully, the next few posts will be about our experiences that we had and things that we learned while we were away.

Blogging Break

2009-05-03T14:06:00.002-05:00

Matt and I just returned from a great weekend in Nashville. We went to Nashville we went to The National Collegiate Summit. It was a great time with other college ministers. It was great to see friends and family. Matt and I were definately feeling worn out and discouraged when we got there, but we left feeling encouraged. It was a much needed weekend.
Well, I think we are going to be taking a blogging vacation. We have a lot going on this month and to be honest I was planning on not blogging until the end of everything. So, I've just decided that I'm going to take this month off. I needed to just be able to enjoy the things that we have going on this month without the pressure of updating the blog about everything that is going on. I will update you the first of June about everything that has happended during May. Well, I need to get going. Ya'll have a good month and I'll see you in June!

2009-04-21T16:06:00.002-05:00

It's time for another blog. I really don't like having such long periods of time between posts, but I guess that is just how life is right now. Stuff at the BSU is going good. We are ending the school year so things are pretty busy right now. We are finishing up some Bible Studies this week, we have pancake dinners during finals, movie nights, and several other things going on. I can't believe that school is wrapping up already. This year has flown by.

It's been a while since I have used the Idea prompter so I decided I would see what ideas it had today. It suggested coming up with titles for my autobiography. I thought this would be something fun to do, so here goes....

1. "There's always an adventure" - It seems like when my sister and I get together you never know what is going to happen. Some of the most random things that have happened in my life have happend when my sister and I are hanging out. We have a good time together and we laugh a lot.

2. "It's Jacque." - Because of the spelling of my name a lot of people miss pronounce my name. When I was growing up in school, I hated when we would have substitute teachers because when they would call roll they would always stop at my name and say "Ok, tell me if I pronounce this wrong.... jock?...jack?" and all of my schoolmates would say "It's Jacque". Even when I was in college I had a professor that called me Jack all semester and I finally got tired of correcting him, so I just let him call me Jack.

3. "No Driving in the Rain" - When I was sixteen I had a series of car wrecks all in the rain. Because of these car wrecks I hate driving in the rain and don't like other people driving in the rain. I get really anxious when I have to drive in the rain, or I know someone I love is driving in the rain. I try not to be anxious about it, but my husband will tell you it's pretty bad.

Well, I think that is it. I don't think I will be writing a autobiography anytime soon,but it's kinda fun to think about a possible title. What do you think about these? What would you title your autobiography?

Update

2009-04-08T20:34:00.005-05:00

We have been super busy! There has been so much going on with the BSU the last couple weeks. This past weekend we took a group of students to a Leadership conference. It was really good. It is sad to see some of our students getting ready to leave and move on, but I understand that it's just part of college ministry. On the other hand I really look forward to see what God has in store for us next year.

When we got back from the Conference Matt and I headed over to New Orleans for an engagement party for some friends. Our friends Daniel and Janna got engaged a couple weeks ago. Matt and I are so excited for them and can't wait to see them get married.

I have known Daniel for most of my life. We grew up together in Arkansas and grew up just blocks from each other. I would have never imagined growing up that we would be as close as we are today. Matt and I met Janna while we were at the seminary and we are so happy that they getting married! Congrats you guys! We love ya'll!

This week we have been busy at the BSU. We had an outdoor movie night and cookout to raise money for summer missions. We had a good time despite the fact that it was freezing outside, but we raised some money for our summer missionaries. I have a feeling that Matt and I are in the middle of a full on sprint to the end of the school year. Just because we have so much going on from now until the end of the school year. I can't believe that our first school year is almost done.

Well, this is what has been going on with us the last couple weeks. See you later!

New Years Resoultions

2009-03-25T20:34:00.006-05:00

So this year I decided that I was going to set a New Years Resolution for myself. I am not a reader, I never have been because I am a slow reader. I read everything really slow and sometimes I have to re-read things because I'm not focused on what I am reading. My Resolution was that I would read a new book every month of this year. So far I have the Twilight series this year. I really have liked it but I am drawing to the end of the series. I'm trying to come up with other books that I would like to read or that I should read. This is where I need your help. I'm looking for suggestions of good reads. I think I would like to get a wide range of books, so that is why I'm asking for suggestions. I know that everyone will have their own opinions of good books. I have a couple on my list already but if something better comes along I may move your suggestions to the top of my list. I'm hoping that by the end of the year that I will enjoy reading more and that maybe my speed will increase.

Here are a couple that I am thinking about reading at some point this year. Let me know what you think and any other suggestions that you have.

I always like Beth Moore. I've never read a book of hers. I've only done her Bible Studies. But I'm sure that I will enjoy this book just the same.

I'm interested in this book because it is a tragic true story of a group of people that climb Mt. Everest. I became interested in this story because I went to Nepal one summer and I got to see Mt. Everest. I loved being in Nepal. Being there was when I really started to sense God moving in my heart and my heart for the Nations and His people.

So let me know what suggestions that you have. There are still nine months left in the year and I don't want to miss any good books!

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-03-22T21:05:00.007-05:00

The last couple weeks have been really busy for us. After Valentines Day we went to St. Louis because Matt's grandmother was having a suprise 80th Birthday party. So we took some time off during Mardi Gras to go visit. It was a good weekend, but just not long enough. The next weekend I spent in Dallas for a friend's wedding and to see some family. I was so ready to get home. This past week was our Spring Break. We took a group of students over to do some work for a couple days. We had a good group go on the trip and it was a lot of fun. Matt and I have spent some timek resting this week since it was our Spring Break. Matt's parents also came and visited this week for a little while. It was good to spend some time with them. We spent some time shopping and eating out and just relaxing too. It has been good to spend some time at home this week without anything on the agenda.

A couple weeks ago I got on this Brady Bunch kick. There was a marathon on tv one day and I got excited about it and since then I have thought about all the shows and cartoons that I used to watch when I was growing up. So I did a little research to see if I could find some. I remembered that there were a couple cartoons that I liked that had a narrator, but I couldn't remember much more about them, but I found them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuYdY125fmg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vPJkQsP20A

Well, I ended up just posting the link to the Youtube video. Hope that you enjoy these and that they bring back some childhood memories like they did for me.

Valentines Weekend Continued

2009-02-21T16:12:00.008-06:00

Sorry this is a little late, but I wanted to finish the rest of our story about Valentines Day! So, Matt and I went out and ate on Friday night for Valentines Day, but I still felt like we should do something special on Valentines day. So, the morning of Valentines Day Matt went and got breakfast from Chic-fil-a. They have the best breakfast! Then we went to the movies. Going to the movies in the morning is one of my favorite things to do and it is so much cheaper than going in the evening. We went and saw Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was pretty cute.

After going to the movies I had an idea. I didn't want to go out and eat again, so I decided that we should cook together. We both love to cook. So we went to Barnes and Noble and went to the cookbook section. We looked at lots of recipies and we choose what we wanted to make. It was fun just to go and sit and look at books and magazines together. Then we headed to Walmart to pick up everything that we needed.

I took some pics, so you could see what we choose to cook. We had a lot of fun, but were extremely full afterward. We ended up cooking most of the evening because we would make one thing and eat it and get full, so we would wait to start on the next until we felt like we could eat it.

Caution: The following pics are full of calories, so beware! This was a diet free night!

First was our appetizer, We chose to make Roasted Red Pepper, Spinach Artichoke dip. It was so good and pretty easy. I would definetly recommend if you need to take a dip to a party or something.

Next was the main course. I can't remember what this chicken is called, so we just call it Yummy Chicken in our house. I rarely make this, but it is very good. This one we didn't pick out at Barnes and Noble, this is a recipe that I had already, but this is what Matt wanted, so I decided I would make it for him.

For dessert Matt chose to make Camellia Grill Apple Pie. Camellia Grill is a restaurant in New Orleans. We like Camella Grill, so when Matt saw this recipie I wasn't suprised when he picked it. I was really easy to make and it tasted really good.

So that was the last of our Valentines Day adventures. It was a great weekend and we just enjoyed spending it together. I didn't get any pictures of Matt and I on Valentines Day, I think I was just excited about all the food and sampling everything that we made together. I also enjoyed this because we had leftovers for several days and I didn't have to cook for a few days.

2009-02-16T12:26:00.004-06:00

One of the things that Matt and I have struggled with since we moved over to Mississippi, was that we couldn't find anywhere that we loved to go and eat at. We love to eat out. We try to keep the eating out to a minimum, so we really one only go about once a week. We like to try new resturants, but we just have not had much luck finding a good place to eat. Some of our students told me about a couple places that were supposed to be really good. So, for valentines day we decided that we were going to try one of these places. We decided to go to the Blow Fly Inn. It was so good.

But here is the exciting part! When we walked in there was a note on the door that said that the night we were there The Blow Fly Inn was going to be featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives on the Food Network. Matt and I were so excited. We love that show! It was so fun to able to eat there and then watch the Food Network and see what they said about it. We had a great Valentines Day weekend! I'll have to post more later about the other details of the weekend.

Behind

2009-02-10T21:41:00.004-06:00

I know I am really behind on blogging, but the truth is I really am just lacking material to blog about. The last couple weeks have really just been routine weeks. This past weekend we were able to go to New Orleans on Friday and see lots of friends. It was really refreshing to go back and see some friends. I think Matt and I both just needed to get out of town for a little while.

My girls Bible Study has started on our campus. We are doing a Beth Moore Study called Stepping Up. I hope and pray that the girls who are involved in this study will grow exponentially. I know for me that college was a time of major growth in my life and I just want the same thing for these girls.

Well, I think that is about it for tonight. Hopefully, I will post again sometime this week, even if I don't have much to say.

I faced a giant today....and Won!

2009-01-21T16:57:00.002-06:00

I have a bad habit. I like to do laundry, but I detest hanging it and putting it away. I don't know why I do it because I like our room to be clean and neat, but for some reason I sometimes get lazy and just put the hanging clothes in this rocker. Most of the time it isn't this bad, but sometimes it just sneakes up on me and it gets to the point where I can't stand it anymore. So here it is! It was tough, but I defeated the giant and now the rocker is empty. Does anyone else have the same problem?

Help!

2009-01-10T19:29:00.002-06:00

I need help. Matt and I need a new camera. The camera that we own right now is old and everytime I take a picture I literally say out loud "I hate this camera". I used to love my camera, but the last couple years, we have really grown apart. I have got some money for Christmas and my birthday and I'm thinking about getting a new camera. The only problem is that the one I want is really expensive. I have the money to get it, but it is just so much money. I'm trying to decide if it is worth all that money. Wolf Camera is having a really good deal on Nikon D60's, so I have to decide pretty quickly. What do you think I should do? Should I get the camera and spend all my money or should I just buy a cheaper one and pocket some of the other money? Is it worth all that money? Let me know what you think...

Christmas, Birthday, and Anniversary

2009-01-09T14:15:00.008-06:00

Matt and I went home for Christmas and it was great time with family. This year Christmas was spent with my family. So all of my siblings came in town and spent the majority of the time all together. We spent about two weeks in Fayetteville and is was a blast. We spent a lot of time playing board games and playing on the Wii.

The presents this year were a little crazy. We love Christmas in our family and we all get a little carried away around this time of year, but it is always fun!

This is my nephew setting out the cookies for santa. Also notice the presents. This is the rest of them. The presents literally came out to the middle of the floor in the living room. It was a little hard to walk around in there.

While we were in Fayetteville my grandmother came to visit and ended up buying a house, so she is going to be moving to Fayetteville sometime this spring. We are really excited about her move and can't wait to help her get all her stuff moved and set up in her new house.

School has started back now at our campus, so Matt and I are back now, but this week we have celebrated my birthday and our anniversary. I had a great birthday, my sister came back with us after Christmas to visit for a little while. The morning of my birthday I woke up and Matt and my sister had made breakfast in bed for me. My sister makes the best breakfast burritos! Matt had to go to work, so my sister and I watched movies and then went and got pedicures. It was so relaxing. After Matt got off work we all went to New Orleans were we meet some friends at my favorite resturant.

It was so good! I had such a great day. I didn't even know what to do with myself. Matt and I also celebrated our 4th anniversary. To celebrate we went and ate at Mary Mahoney's. It was very nice and the food was great.

This is a picture of the outside. The resturant is in a really old house, but it is beautiful.

This if were Matt and I sat. This is the glassed in front porch. It was really romantic. We had a good time just eating, enjoying eachothers company, and talking about some of the memories that we've had from dating until now. Now we are excited for the weekend. We don't have any plans, but we'll see what comes our way.

Still alive

2008-12-09T22:40:00.002-06:00

Sorry it has been so long. We have been super busy lately. We went to Fayetteville for my brothers wedding and Thanksgiving. We had a great Thanksgiving break. We were able to spend lots of time with family. When we left to come back home we both talked about what a great week we had. Now we are back home and we have both been sick. I walked in the kitchen one morning and the kitchen counter was sprinkled with nyquil wrappers, cough drops, and kleenex. I thought it was pretty reflective of what was going on in our home. Matt is doing better, but I'm still not feeling all that great.
Sorry for the lack of pictures but I didn't take any pictures while we were gone. I am really going to have to get better about taking more pictures or our lives are just going to pass us by and I won't have memories of what we have experienced.

We are Sea Wolves fans!

2008-10-29T16:07:00.008-05:00

For Bosses day the staff at the BSU got Matt tickets to three Mississippi Seawolves hockey games. So this past weekend Matt and I went the games. The tickets were for Friday night, Saturday night and then Sunday night. So this weekend was busy going to all the hockey games. We had so much fun and our seats were great! I really thought the games were entertaining and I really enjoyed sitting so close.

This was taken during one of the fights. I don't know what happened but on Sunday when we went to the game, both teams came out ready to fight. I think this was the first fight and it happened like two minutes into the game and they fought like that the entire game. I don't know how many fights total there was but it was a lot.

All in all we had a good time. I've been battling a sinus infection so I wasn't on top of my game, so I didn't get a picture of Matt and I at the games but I'm sure it won't be our last game. So, I will have to get a picture of us next time.

I've been tagged!

2008-10-25T21:45:00.002-05:00

Stephanie tagged me on her blog. I've never been tagged before, so I feel so honored! So here it goes!

The rules of the tag are as follows:1.Post the rules on your blog. 2.Write six random things about yourself. 3.Tag three people at the end of your post. 4. If you are tagged, JUST DO IT, and pass the tag along.

1. I can't stand to sleep in pants or anything on my legs. I can't stand when the bottoms of my pants come up around my calves and knees. And they get so twisted around me during the night. I just don't like it.

2. Matt and I sit in total darkness when it is just the two of us at home. I can't stand paying high electricity bills, so to save when it is just the two of us all the lights are off.

3. My middle name on my birth certificate is misspelled, so legally my middle name is different than what it is supposed to be.

4. I was involved in three car wrecks within the first three months of my sixteenth birthday. Two were my fault, one was not. All three were on rainy misty days, so now I have major anxiety when I or anyone else I know is driving in the rain (I mean major anxiety).

5. I have self diagnosed myself with having restless legs syndrome. Sometimes I get tingley feelings in my lower back and legs and usually when I have these feelings I can't sleep, but when I do finally get to sleep, my legs will bend in the middle of the night. Most of the time, I sleep on my stomach, so when I sleep my legs bend at the knee and feet point towards the ceiling or sometimes I sleep on my back and sleep with my knees bent and my feet flat on the mattress. It drives Matt crazy!

6. My hair used to be bleach blonde. I don't know why I did it or why I thought it looked good. I grew it out many years ago and I don't think that I will ever be doing that again.

I tag Jenny, Diana, and Micah. Have fun!

Matt's a Hero!

2008-10-21T17:52:00.002-05:00

Matt and I drove to Fayetteville last weekend to visit our families. The trip home is long, so we decided to get up early and get on the road. We have our normal stops that we make all along the way. One of my favorite stops is at the Paul Micheal outlet in Lake Village. If you are ever driving through you should stop and browse around, plus they have the cleanest bathrooms between our parents houses and our home. So we made a pit stop at Paul Micheal and then got back on the road. Just a little while after we left. There was a bad car wreck just about three cars in front of us. I didn't see it, but Matt did. The car had flipped several times and landed on it's roof, so it was upside down. Matt pulled over and jumped out of the car. The car was smoking a little bit and you could see a small flame. He ran up to the car and helped the guy out of the car. The man was really disoriented about what was going on, but he was ok. Matt and I were both first responders in college, but it has been a few years since we took a class, but Matt jumped into action just like he was in class yesterday. I'm thankful that the man was ok and I'm extremely proud of Matt for jumping into action and helping the man. Needless to say we had lots to talk about the rest of the way home.

Long time, no see!

2008-10-20T17:06:00.003-05:00

I'm sorry it has been so long since I have been able to write. I have been out of town visiting family. It was a really good time and I have come back feeling refreshed and energized. It was an eventful trip so I will post in the next few days about everything that went on.

Since it was our fall break here at the school Matt and I took the chance to go home and visit with family. Matt came back home early last week and he was gracious enough to let me stay through the week. I flew back last night. Before I got on the plane I went to the bathroom and here is what I saw.

I love these hand dryers! I always feel like my hands are so clean after I use them. I got so excited when I walked in and saw them lining the wall. It's the little stuff in life!

Missing Fayetteville

2008-10-04T21:26:00.005-05:00

Matt and I have days that we miss living in Fayetteville. We have days that we miss living close to our families, but we also have days that we miss living in Fayetteville. We love the actual town of Fayetteville itself. A lot of the days that we miss Fayetteville are during the fall time. We love having all four seasons and we love Arkansas football. Today as Matt and I were watching the Arkansas football game we both were talking about how much we missed Fayetteville and how much we wanted to be there today. So I thought I would go through some pictures and post some of our favorite parts of Fayetteville.

I love our pregame at Uof A football games. It is my favorite part of the whole game! Anytime we are in town on a game day you better believe we are looking everywhere for tickets.

Ace of Cakes

2008-10-02T20:22:00.003-05:00

Matt and I have recently got cable and internet for our apartment. So right now I am a little overwhelmed with all the options that I have to watch on tv now. One show that I caught a few times has been Ace of Cakes. Have you seen this show? I think it is amazing what they can do with a cake! I never knew you could do such things. I think I like this show because I like to bake, but everytime I watch I am really impressed with the things that they do. What are some of your favorite shows?

Matt's Office

2008-09-15T23:03:00.006-05:00

I have finally finished Matt's office! I feel like it has taken me forever. I finished his office last week. We got most of his books set up and we placed some pictures around too. I found some lamps at Walmart for $4.50 so I got a couple to go in his office. Here are some pictures of the finished product.

This is a picture right when you walk in the door. I still have one blank shelf that I didn't know what to do with, but I figured Matt could use it for whatever he wanted.

I didn't get any pictures of his tall book shelves. But to the right of this seating area there are two tall book shelves. I don't know why I didn't get any pictures of them, but oh well.

So this is Matt's office. I think he feels a little more settled now that his office is finally finished. Let me know what you think.

Did I find a pearl?

2008-09-10T20:49:00.004-05:00

Matt and I wanted to try a new place to eat this weekend, so on Saturday we decided on a place and we went out for dinner. We went to a seafood place here in Gulfport. I hadn't had fried oysters in a really long time, so I decided that I would splurge and get them. I was about half way done with all my oysters when I bit down on something really hard. I didn't know what it was but I decided that I didn't want swallow it, so I carefully spit it out. This is what I found.

As soon as it came out of my mouth, I looked at Matt and said "Is this a pearl?" He said he didn't know. I didn't know what to do. I just sat there for a little while and stared at it. I still don't know if it is or not. I tried to do some research on it, but I didn't find any information. I'm afraid to ask anyone because I don't want someone to think that I'm stupid, but I just want to know what it is. What do you think? Is it a pearl or is it something else?

Update

2008-09-05T21:05:00.002-05:00

Matt and I have had a crazy couple of weeks. Because of Hurricane Gustav, Matt and I had to evacuate from Gulfport. Matt's parents had planned on coming to visit us, but because of the storm they didn't come and Matt and I packed up and headed north. We had a great time while we were home. We were able to spend some good quality time with our families while we were home. We got home on Wednesday night and there was no damage to our apartment. Praise the Lord! Since we have been home I have been trying to get our apartment back in order. We evacuated with lots of stuff, so now I am just trying to get all that stuff put back where it goes. I'm glad it is the weekend. We really don't have any plans, but we have several things that we need to get done. Hopefully, I will productive this weekend and get somethings done! Hope you have a great weekend!

Finished

2008-08-28T13:30:00.005-05:00

Here are some pictures of the finished BSU building. I don't have pictures of all of the final product because Matt's office still needs some work, but here is the big room. It looks so great!

Here is the view as soon as you walk in the door. The walls look a lot more blue here than it really is.
This is the view standing at the fire place looking at the opposite corner, where the entrance is.

Here is another view standing at the fireplace. The room with all the windows is Matt's office. We moved all the furniture out of this room because we were setting up for Survival. Survival was our big back to school bash for all the students.
So, that is what Matt and I have been doing the last few weeks. Almost as soon as our building was getting done we were setting up for back to school activities. It really came down to the wire, but it looks great and we are really excited abut the finished product.
Matt and I have been really busy this week trying to get everything ready for school to start. It has been a great week though.

Great Weekend

2008-08-21T16:41:00.005-05:00

Matt and I had a great extended weekend. My brother and sister came to visit us in Gulfport. They got here on Saturday and stayed until Wednesday. It was a great relaxing time. Sunday after church we headed to the beach for the rest of the day. We had a fun day relaxing and laying on the beach. We went to Dauphin Island. This was Matt and I's first time to visit Dauphin Island and we will definately go back. It was beautiful.

The rest of our weekend was spent shopping, going to the pool at our apartment, and eating out. We had a great time and I am so glad that Lyndsey and Jesse were able to come and visit. I can't wait to do it again!

I can't believe that school starts this week!

2008-08-16T22:28:00.002-05:00

We'll it is finally here. School is starting. The students are starting to move in. It seemed like this day would never come, but here it is. School starts on Thursday. Matt and I have been really busy this week, trying to get our building and programs ready for school to start. We are having a good weekend though. My brother and sister are in town visiting, so we are enjoying our time with them. Having them here is a good distraction. I will blog more about our weekend later this week with more details. See again soon!

Unforgettable Moments

2008-08-06T15:24:00.003-05:00

Today I wanted to write something fun. I didn't want to write about Matt and I's day to day activities. I went to the Imagination generator for ideas today. It suggested that I write about 10 unforgettable moments in my life. Immediately several came to mind, but I'm not sure that I have 10. I'm just going to start and we will see how many I have. I'm going in chronological order, so here I go.

1. The moment that I became a believer in Jesus Christ. I was talking with my mom and dad when everything became clear about Jesus and the sacrifice that God made for me by sending his son Jesus to die for me.

2. The moment that Jesse, my brother, had fallen off of the top bunk of his bed while he was asleep and realizing that he had asked me earlier that night to sleep on the top bunk because he was scared for some reason.

3. The moment that I came face to face with the two men that were robbing our home one night.

4. Leaving Barnhill arena after my high school graduation. I got in my car, rolled the windows down and turned the music up. I felt so free.

5. Taking off in a plane, going back to the states after I had spent the summer in Nepal. I knew that my heart had been changed forever.

6. The phone call that I got when my mom passed away. I just remember being on the phone, feeling like I was going to collapse and like the whole world was spinning around me and I was the only thing standing still.

7. My 21st birthday. My family planned a surprise Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood birthday party. I walked into the living room at my dad's house and the room was full of friends that I had all growing up, my grandmothers, my aunt, etc. They had all traveled in for my birthday and had written letters to me about memories and friendship.

8. The day that Matt proposed to me. The moment he got down on his knee.

9. The day that Matt and I got married. Specifically they moment that Matt and I got in the car after the reception. It was so quiet and even though we had been in the same room all day and had even said our vowels to each other, it felt as if we had not seen each other all day.

10. When Matt and I moved to New Orleans. After our wedding and honeymoon, we drove from Fayetteville to New Orleans for Matt to start classes. Once we got to our apartment and unloaded everything and closed the door, it was just the two of us. It was my first time to move away from home and Matt was the only person in New Orleans that I knew. It was a hard day.

Ok, so I ended up having ten. I think I actually have more than that, but these are just the one's that I thought of sitting here. What are your unforgettable moments?

Before

2008-08-05T14:45:00.004-05:00

Sorry about our long blogging haitus. We have had a couple busy weeks. I have actually sat down twice and started writting but was distracted so I had to quit both times. I have been coming to work with Matt a few times a week, so I can help out a little bit. He has a lot on his plate right now with remodeling one of the BSU buildings, overseeing everything he is responsible for, and getting ready for school to start at the end of this month. I can't believe that school starts this month! We are in the middle of remodeling one of our BSU buildings. So we are picking out colors, looking at flooring options and trying to get everything set up for school to start. Here are some pictures of the before and we will put up pictures of the after when it is done.

Here is a picture of the main room.

This is a picture of Matt's office. Major updating needs!

This is a picture of the main room looking at Matt's office.

This a picture of the main room from the front door.

So here are the before pictures! I'll post some after pictures when everything is done. Hopefully, everything will be done before school starts.

Sandwich Shops

2008-07-17T11:23:00.002-05:00

I love sandwich shops. So one thing that I am always looking for is a good sandwich place. I love Atlanta Bread Co., Panera Bread, Subway, I'm not very picky. But some of my favorite all time places to eat are in Fayetteville. I love Loafin Joes. I always try to make a stop when Matt and I are in town. When I was in high school Fayetteville had a sandwich place called Lenny's. I absolutely loved Lenny's! However, sometime when I was in college Lenny's closed. I wasn't really all that sad about it because there were other sandwich places to eat. But every now and then I would think about Lenny's and wish that it was still there. Well, one day when Matt and I moved to Gulfport we were driving around and low and behold, there it was in all of it's glory, Lenny's! So we stopped and ate there for dinner. It was just as good as I had always remembered it being.

Pow Wow

2008-07-11T09:45:00.007-05:00

Two weekends ago, Matt and I went to my family reunion in Oklahoma. Not a lot of people know this, but I am part Native American. I know I really look like it! I really am. I am part Potawatomi Indian. I never really cared anything about being part Native American, until I started college. You see the Potawatomi Nation paid for a good chunk of my tuition at the U of A. Every year my family has a family reunion in Oklahoma, this family reunion also happens to be the yearly Pow Wow for the Potawatomi Nation. It is a weekend event, complete with dance competitions, golf, softball tournament, and lots of free food. Every year the tribal council chooses 5 families to be honored at the Pow Wow. This year was our year to be honored. This just means that we get to dance/march around the circle when we do the big ceremony. This was the first year the Matt has got to come. I think he really enjoyed it. It is a good time to just see family and relax, even though there are lots of events going on there is no pressure to do everything. Here are some pictures that we have from that weekend.

This is picture of Dad and Rebecca at the dance competion on Friday night. They won first place for the couples category. We are so proud!

At the end of the weekend we have a final ceremony. At this ceremony is where people dress up in their costumes and we march around the arena. This is a picture of Matt and I at the final ceremony. The headband and fan were made by my grandfather. He has made all of the girls headbands and fans.

Here is a picture of one of the professional dancers that dance during the ceremony.

I wasn't able to get the best picture because he was dancing and I really need to get a new camera. But you can see his costume. Anyway, we had a lot of fun this year and can't wait to go back next year.

Congratulations Christina and Josh!

2008-07-09T14:35:00.003-05:00

Matt and I went to Fayetteville this weekend for my step-sisters wedding. We had a great time and we were able celebrate with Josh and Christina. It was a beautiful wedding and Christina was a gorgeous bride.

We had a great time spending the weekend with lots of family. Because I am not currently working, I was able to spend the whole week at home and help with wedding plans for the last week. I had so much fun spending time with all the family and I am really missing everyone this week. Congratulations Christina and Josh! Matt and I wish ya'll the best and we will continue to pray for you guys.

Update

2008-07-05T01:26:00.003-05:00

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted, but we have had a couple really busy weeks. We have moved now. Everything with the move went very smoothly. The movers came last Tuesday and unloaded all the boxes and were gone by 12 noon. So Matt and I started unpacking boxes. We unpacked for 6 hours straight until we both started getting really sad about our new move and missing all of our friends, so we decided to take a break and get out of the apartment. We were two depressed people. We went to Walmart and this is what we came back with.

Needless to say, we were having a bad day! We are doing a lot better now. That was just a major moment of weakness. I think that the whole thing had just gotten to us that day. Oh by the way, both of these flavors of ice cream were very good. Matt and I are not very big Ice Cream eaters but we were really impressed with both of these.

Adventures!

2008-06-21T21:36:00.002-05:00

After hurricane Katrina, Matt and I had to move several times to get our lives back in order. (That whole part of our lives is a crazy story that will have to be told later) Because we moved so many times we decided that we were not going to refer to moving as "moving", but that we were "starting a new adventure." So here we are three years later ending one adventure and starting another one. This week has been a little crazy with talking to movers and getting everything ready to move. We have started our goodbyes, which is the hardest part. My office had a party for Matt and I this week. It was great. Thanks Diana and Laura for putting it all together. Thanks for making Matt and I feel so special! I am really going to miss ya'll!
Tomorrow is Matt and I's last day at church. It is not going to be an easy day. Matt and I love our church here in New Orleans. When Matt and I came to New Orleans, we struggled to find a place where we felt like we could serve. After the storm Matt and I found Edgewater Baptist Church. After the first Sunday we knew that Edgewater, was where we were supposed to be. We knew that we could plug in and serve the people of the church, community, and the Lord. We knew that the people of Edgewater took the Bible seriously and taught what it said, and we knew that Edgewater's desire is to reach the nations with the message of Jesus. Matt and I are very sad to leave Edgewater. I tell Matt everyday "I don't want to leave our church." But I know that God will provide a church for us. I know that He will take care of us. So here we go on another adventure...

Blank

2008-06-17T14:41:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I have a hard time coming up with stuff to blog about. Sometimes the details of my life are not very exciting. I recently have found a website that I can use to come up with topics to write about. http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/imagination.prompt.html
So I went to the creativity portal today and one of the suggestions it gave was to list 25 things I would like to do in my life. I thought that was a good idea, but my list is only going to be 5 items long. (I thought 25 was a little much, and I really don't want to think about it that much) So here we go.
#1. I would like to be a mother one day. The pressure has definately risen in the last year or so to start on this one. I think Matt and I are asked about 17 times a week, when we are going to start trying. I try not to let it bother me too much.

#2. I would like to go to Alaska. I would like to take a cruise there. I think that it would be so beautiful.

#3. I would like to learn another language and be fluent in it. I took spanish in high school, but it did not stick. I think part of the problem was that I was in high school and I didn't care one lick about learning Spanish at the time. However, now I wish that I would have paid a little more attention.

#4. I would like to learn to play the guitar. My brother plays the guitar and He has tried to teach me. The problem was I have no rythm, so I had problems strumming. He kept telling me to keep trying and that one day it would just come naturally. That day never came, so I maybe one day I will pick up the guitar again.

#5. I want to grow old with Matt and sit on our front porch in our rocking chairs. I want to sit and let the world fade away around us. I want to laugh together and love each other more than we ever thought possible.

These are just a few things that I would like to do. I'm sure I could go on and on, but I won't at this time. What are 5 things that you would like to do?

Falling Into Place

2008-06-16T15:44:00.002-05:00

Well, it seems as though things are falling into place for Matt and I's move. We have found an apartment, picked a moving company, organized our entire apartment, and now we are currently trying to eat all of our food that is left in our apartment. I'm starting to feel more settled now that some of the major things are being taken care of.
Matt and I had a good weekend. We didn't really do a whole lot. We just tried to go through our stuff and either throw away or give away things that we don't need anymore. We spent the majority of Saturday and Sunday going through things.
This is our last full week in New Orleans. I don't think that it has really hit us yet. I don't think that it feels real yet because we aren't packing any boxes yet. Right now it just feels like we are spring cleaning. I'm sure it will feel a lot more real the closer to time it gets.

Matt's Birthday!

2008-06-11T14:16:00.007-05:00

Sorry it has been a while since we last posted. We haven't really had much to post on. Things haven't been all that exciting, unless you consider researching moving companies and trying to figure out moving plans exciting. I don't. In the midst of all of the moving plans, Matt celebrated a birthday. He wasn't too excited about this one because he feels like he is getting older, so he wanted to keep it pretty low key this year. We just celebrated by going out to dinner with some friends and then having cake and ice cream. Since Matt wanted to keep his birthday low key, I planned a day out on the town. Since we are not going to live in New Orleans much longer we are trying to see some of the things that we haven't seen already. So, I planned a trip to the National World War II Museum.

We had so much fun there. It was incredible. I would definately recommend if you are in the area to take some time to go there. Make sure that you plan lots of time to go, because Matt and I spent 4 hours there and we could have stayed longer. It was really nice to go and just walk around and look at the pictures and read all the captions. Matt and I both walked away with a better understanding of WWII and what our country went through during that time.

These are Higgins boats. A man from New Orleans is the one who invented and built these.

These are the uniforms that our men wore while they are fighting in WWII. They are made of wool! Could you imagine wearing wool and trying to fit a war!

This is a plane that is in the museum!

This is Matt and I at the end of our tour of the museum. We had so much fun, I think we could go back and still learn lots that we missed. After we went to the museum we went back to our apartment and spent the afternoon by the pool, one of our favorite things to do to relax. It was a good weekend!

Big News!

2008-06-02T15:41:00.002-05:00

Matt and I have big news this week! It's official now. Matt has just accepted a position in Mississippi as a BSU Director in Gulfport. So, at the end of this month we will be moving to Gulfport. We have a lot to do before now and then, so it is going to be a busy month. We are really excited though. Please pray that we would be able to find housing and that the transition would be very smooth. We haven't found anywhere to live yet. We still aren't really sure what to do about housing yet. We are praying that the Lord will provide exactly what we need. Sorry there are no pictures with this post. Matt and I went to Jackson, MS this past weekend for our last interview and I didn't really feel right taking my camera out to take pictures of everything. We had a good weekend though. It was lots of fun and relaxing. We got to enjoy one of my favorite things to do. Stay in a hotel! I love to stay in hotels. I think I like it because I get to stay and leave and I don't have to clean anything. Not that I leave the room in a mess, but you know what I mean. And, Not only did we get to stay in a hotel, but we got to stay for free! I was really excited. Well, I better be off to trying to figure out what I should be doing.

12 hours

2008-05-28T15:24:00.003-05:00

I really hate to admit this because it makes me sound very lazy but after the fact I was mad at myself for doing it. I slept 12 hours last night! From 7pm to 7am! I don't know how I did it and I don't really have a reason why I did it. I'm not sick, I don't feel bad. Last night around 6:30 I started getting tired, so after Matt and I ate dinner, I layed down on the couch and thought "I'm just going to lay here for 10 or 15 minutes and then I will get up and start working on stuff around the house", next thing I know, it's 8:45 and Matt is walking me to the bed. I thought for sure that I would wake up early this morning, but I didn't. I slept all the way until 7:00 this morning, which by the way, is me sleeping in because I get up at 6am. I can't believe that I did that! When I woke up this morning I was mad at myself for not doing all the things that needed to get done last night. Oh well! What can I do now? It's done, I did it, and I'm not proud of myself. What a waste of an evening!

Road Trip

2008-05-26T16:46:00.002-05:00

Matt and I took a road trip this weekend, to go see one of our nephews graduate from high school. It was a quick trip but it was still a lot of fun. It takes us 10 hours to get from New Orleans to home, so in that time we have to come up with things that entertain eachother. Some of the things that I do is look at magazines, look at our favorite houses as we drive by, I have a coloring book that keeps me occupied for a little while, but my favorite all time thing to do is play "Middlecamp Karaoke". We find a radio station and then we both take turns singing the songs that are played. You have to sing the song that comes on, even if you don't know it. Then when you are done you get rated on a scale of 1 to 10. This past road trip I got my highest score ever! I got a 9 for singing some song that I can't remember right now. I'll have to let you know what it was when I think about it. But anyways, we had a good time and we always get a kick out of one another singing.

RA's and GA's

2008-05-22T13:16:00.002-05:00

On Wednesday nights at church, Matt and I both teach the RA's and GA's classes. Matt teaches the RA's and I teach the GA's. While it is totally exhausting some weeks, it is always a lot of fun. One of Matt and I's favorite times of the week is when we are driving home from church on Wednesday nights and we exchange stories about things that the kids said or did in class that night. One of my favorite stories from last night was from Matt.
Once a month the RA's have a prize night in class. They recieve tickets for good behavior, bringing their Bibles to class, memorizing their scripture verses, etc. All the tickets get put in a hat and then once a month they have a drawing to see who gets a prize. So last night after our GA's time, we took the girls to the playground, where the boys were already playing. I went outside and sat at a nearby table so I could see everyone. All the prizes that the boys had won were laying on top of the table. One of the boys was sitting there with a frown on his face. I asked him why he was upset and he told me it was because Mr. Matt told him he couldn't touch all the prizes, then he left and went on playing.
Later, in the car Matt and I were talking about the prizes and the boy and Matt told me that right before we had come outside, the boy was playing with all the prizes that didn't belong to him. Matt had told him twice to stop touching the prizes. After the second time he came over to Matt, looked up at him and with his teeth clenched together said, "If you don't stop telling me not to touch the prizes, I'm going to stomp on your toes". I was rolling in the car. I thought it was so funny! These kids crack me up and wear me out all at the same time.

Wow!

2008-05-20T15:15:00.003-05:00

I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted anything until today. Sorry about that! We have been pretty busy lately. We went home to Arkansas to see my brother graduate from college. Congratulations Jesse! We are so proud of you. We had a great weekend and we were able to spend lots of time with our families while we were there. We were able to fly so that saved us lots of time. We had a great time being at home. Here is a picture of Jesse and I at his graduation party. I have more pictures but none of them really turned out. I think my camera is on it's last leg.

This past weekend Matt and I really didn't do a whole lot. We went to the graduation here at the seminary because we had several friends that were graduating. After graduation Matt and I spent the rest of our Saturday at the pool. It was so relaxing to just sit in the sun and read my book and hangout with friends. We had a pretty relaxing weekend.

Date Night, Baby Shower, and Pancakes

2008-05-05T14:54:00.004-05:00

-Just a warning I forgot to bring my camera, so pictures will have to come later.- Sorry!

This weekend was very eventful, but it was lots of fun. On Friday afternoon Matt called me and let me know that we were going to go on a surprise double date with some of our friends. I love surprises so I was really excited. He wouldn't give me any hints about what we were doing but he gave me a time that I needed to be ready by. So about 6:15 we meet our friends and off we went. The hint that boys gave us in the car was, "This is a two part date, the first part is for us (the boys) and the second part is totally for ya'll (the girls)". ***Little background, my husband loves to eat out. So, when he told about this surprise date, I knew that it was just his way of getting me to agree to let him go out and eat. *** So, our first stop was to eat. They took us to Phil's Grill.

Phil's Grill has great burgers and is a total guy place. Currently they are running a deal called "Burger Palluza", where some local celebrities, like Saints players and sports reporters, built special burgers to raise money for charities. If you get one of their special burgers you get a free t-shirt. So that is what the boys did and those burgers where huge! They were definitely built for big eaters like NFL players.

After we ate, we got back in the car and by the direction we were driving I knew we were going to the movies. I was really excited because I love to go to the movies, but we just don't get to very often living on a seminary budget. We went to go see Made of Honor. We got our tickets and turned around and there were three Hornets players standing behind us. All four of us stopped what we were doing and just stared at them. Then we stood around saying "Matt, go talk to them.", "No, you go talk to them.", "I don't know what to say, you go talk to them." Needless to say no one said anything to them and we went into to the movie theatre. But it was the highlight of the night. My favorite part of going to the Elmwood Theatre is the bathrooms. The Elmwood Theatre has the best hand blow dryers. They are crazy powerful. Every time we go I like to go wash my hands before and after the movie.

The movie was good. I really liked it. I thought it was cute, very predictable but cute. It was a good night overall and we had a good time just hanging out and not worrying about all the other stuff that we needed to get done, like dishes and laundry, etc.

Saturday was Baby Shower Day. Some of my friends and I had a baby shower for our friends Cole and Chad. There were so many people there and so many desserts. It was a good time. I always love an excuse to have a party.

Sunday was a good day. Matt and I got up and went to church. Then that afternoon we took naps and just worked around the apartment getting things done. Then Sunday night we headed over to the University of New Orleans to help out with the BCM's Midnight Pancake Supper. Matt and I have helped out several times and we always enjoy it, even though getting up to go to work the next day is a struggle. We always have a good time.

May

2008-05-02T13:55:00.003-05:00

I don't know what it is about the beginning of new months, but I love them. Maybe I like it because I get to tear off a page in the calendar, maybe I like it because I feel like it is a new beginning, I don't know what it is. I think it might be a mixture of lots of things. However, I'm not too excited about the start of this new month. This is one of the busiest months in the year for the Middlecamp family. We have something major going on every weekend of this month, and that doesn't include all the stuff that is going on during the week. Oh well, I don't want to complain. We are going to get to see our families a couple times this month and that doesn't happen too often. I'm excited that we will get to see everyone. So maybe May won't be so bad.

5 Favorite Things

2008-04-30T16:06:00.009-05:00

Matt and I really don't have a lot of blog worthy events going on in our lives these days, so I thought I would just list a few of my favorite things. I'm sure that there are more things that I could add, but these are just the things that I came up with off the top of my head.

1. My Kitchen Aid Standing Mixer

Anyone that owns one of these will tell you how much they love it. I love mine because I can just throw all the ingredients of whatever I am making in the bowl and let the mixer do its magic! It makes baking a lot faster and easier.

2. My Chi

I love my Chi because my hair is naturally curly. It does the best job of straightening my hair and getting it to stay straight. I have that problem since I live in the most humid place on earth!

3. My Redken Guts Volumizer

This picture is really small but it doesn't matter. I still love this stuff. This stuff adds so much volume to my hair. It is amazing!

4. Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwiches

I'm not really much of an ice cream eater, but I love these. These are a great treat for me after dinner when I want something sweet. They are low fat, but don't taste like it. I could eat one right now.

5. Bath and Body Works Wallflowers Room Plug InsI like these because they really freshen a room. Bath and Body Works has lots of scents that you can choose from. Some of my favorites are Fresh Linen, Coconut Lime Verbena, and Spiced Cider in the Winter months. Currently I have Japanese Cherry Blossom in our living room and the smell makes me feel so at ease when I walk in the front door. When I'm in the mall and they are on sale I tend to go a little crazy, but I've got to stock up!

These are just a few things that I love and a few things that make my life a little easier.

What are some of your favorites?

Sick

2008-04-29T10:18:00.003-05:00

For the last week now I have been battling a sinus infection. I'm now on my second round of antibiotics. I hate being sick. But really, who likes it? What I really hate is the fact that I can't sleep. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday I woke up at 3am and could not go back to sleep. Poor Matt I try to go in the other room so I don't keep him up while I'm tossing and turning. He takes good care of me though. He knows I'm bad about taking medicine, so he is always making sure that I take it.

One night while I was up late I finished a book that I have been reading for a long time. I'm a slow reader. I wish that I was more of a reader, but for some reason I'm just not. So, since I am not a reader I get really excited when I finish a book. The last few months I have been reading The Heavenly Man.

This is a good book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. It is the true story of Brother Yun, a Chinese believer, who endures lots of hardship and persecution because he is a Christian. One reason I like this story is because many of the events that he talks about have happened in my lifetime. This book shows that even today, all over the world, Christians are being persecuted and killed for their beliefs. I think we often forget that not everyone lives in places where Christianity is accepted. This book also has made me reflect on my own life. Would I be able to endure what Brother Yun has endured? Do I have God's Word hidden in my heart so that if it was taken from me, I could remember what it says? Do I have the kind of faith that Brother Yun has? These are just a few of the questions that I have asked myself while reading this book.

Congrats Jesse and Jenny!

2008-04-23T14:54:00.003-05:00

My little brother is engaged! I can't believe it. Jesse proposed to his girlfriend Jenny this week. I couldn't be more excited for them. They are so cute! I couldn't have picked out a better partner for my brother and I am so excited that she is going to be part of our family. This is one of those weeks that I wish that New Orleans was a little closer to home because I want to be there to celebrate with everyone, but that is just me being selfish.

Congratulations Jesse and Jenny! We love you both!

Matt and Jacque

Martha's Last Day

2008-04-10T15:47:00.003-05:00

Today was a bittersweet day at work. Today was my friend Martha's last day at work. Seminary is weird place to be during these times because in a way it still feels like college sometimes. People come and you get to know them and once they graduate they move away. Martha's move is bittersweet because she is going to a new full time job here in the city. I know that this is an amazing opportunity for her but I am being selfish because I enjoy working with her and having her as my friend. Martha brings so much joy to the atmosphere of the office. Diana and I joke that instead of having interviews for Martha's position, we need to have auditions! Martha always keeps us on our toes in the office. She is really going to be missed.

This is a picture of Matt and I at graduation with Martha.

There is Always More Room

2008-04-02T10:50:00.004-05:00

I'm sorry for my absence lately. Matt and I had a crazy week last week. My self imposed "Rear in Gear" week didn't really work. However, I have now declared this "Rear in Gear Week Part 2"! I did good at the beginning of the week but then Matt and I had a death in family and we had to leave town on Thursday afternoon. My step-grandmother passed away this past week. Tommie was a beautiful woman who loved the Lord very much. After my mom passed away and my dad remarried, she always made me feel like I was part of her family. Trying to blend two families definately has its awkward moments, but she always made us feel comfortable and welcome. She taught me many things about opening my heart to love other people. There is always room in my heart to love more people, I just need to make a little more room for them. Sometimes I still need to be reminded of this. Sometimes I have the tendency to block people out and not let them in, so I need to be reminded to let people in. Tommie is loved and missed, but I know that she is busy now dancing and praising the Lord!
We got to see lots of family this weekend because of the funeral. It is always good to get to spend time with everybody. I think one of the sweetest times for me this weekend was on Saturday night at my Dad and Rebecca's house our immediate family all got together and we spent sometime just talking and laughing. Now this is rare because each one of us has major life transitions going on with new babies on the way, finding new jobs, moving, starting grad school, weddings, and graduations. I think that is why this time was so special because we all stopped and we all focused on each other the joy of family. All of us were there My dad, Rebecca, Kortney and Josh, Matt and I, Lyndsey, Christina and Josh, and Jesse and Jenny. There are a lot of us but we were all together in one room laughing, talking, and spending time together as a family should. It was the highlight of my weekend and I wouldn't trade times like that for the world. I hope and pray that we have many more years filled with times like these.

Rear in Gear

2008-03-24T16:09:00.002-05:00

Well, it is time. It is time to get my rear back in gear. Lots of people know that I have been doing Weight Watchers for about 6 months now and I have lost over 25 pounds. I have really loved losing the weight but I still have a long way to go. Since my dad was in town last week with his BCM group I took off for the week because I knew we would be eating out and I wouldn't be disciplined enough to workout. Well, now I have to get started again. I feel like I am starting all over again. I'm am looking for new motivation. So far today I haven't done bad, but I didn't get up this morning to go to the gym. I usually try to go everyday at 6am. That is when I like to work out. I like to just get it over with and not have to worry about it the rest of the day.
I also have several other things that I need to catch up on this week. Here is a list of things I need to catch up on:
1. Back on the diet and working out schedule
2. Laundry
3. Pay the bills
4. Get back on a normal sleep schedule
5. Household chores

So tonight I will be doing lots of laundry, making dinner, and watching some of my favorite shows. Tonight I will be watching The Bachelor. I always say, "I don't think I am going to watch it this season" but it always sucks me in!

Favorite Places

2008-03-19T11:28:00.005-05:00

Having Dad's BCM group here has been a lot of fun. Matt and I have been able to show them around the city. When people come and visit we love to take them to some of our favorite places in the city. Here are some of the places we would take you if you came to visit.

1. The French Quarter

There is always something to see in the quarter. We like to just go and walk around. There is lots of shopping to do also! I love to walk around and listen to the bands playing on the street. There is always some person dressed up in a costume somewhere having a good time. Matt and I were just down there this weekend and I saw a man driving a car with a puppet of a monkey sitting in the passengers seat. But the monkey was singing along with the music that was playing in the car. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen and I wish that I would have had time to get my camera out.

2. The Big Tree in the Audubon Park

Matt loves to go here. This tree is huge! Some of the limbs grow all the way down to the ground and then back up again. We like to just go here and sit in the shade and relax.

3. Eating at Ninja!

Ninja has great sushi. Matt and I definitely frequent there. We love the food and the service. I think that they put something addictive in their sushi because I crave it all the time.

These are just a few of our favorite spots. There are definitely lots more places that are great to go to, but these are just some of our favorites!

So Far

2008-03-13T11:29:00.002-05:00

Well, so far blogging has not been going well. I think my first problem is that I don't like the way my blog looks. I am embarrassed to even let anyone know that I have a blog. I'm am still trying to figure out all of this stuff. I feel like I need to take a class or something. Whatev...

It is so pretty outside today. I would really love to go to the beach. There is a group of girls going to the beach this weekend and I really wish I could go with them. My dad is bringing a group from his BCM to New Orleans next week, so Matt and I are going to show them around the city. It should be fun. I'm glad they are coming because New Orleans could still use all the help it can get. Don't get me wrong Matt and I love living in New Orleans but there are things about this city that are unhealthy. We will be sad when it is time to move away from here.

I will post some pictures soon, for some reason it isn't letting me post any pictures. Oh, well. I will try again later.

Hello Blogging World!

2008-02-25T11:57:00.000-06:00

Well, I did it. I have decided to start a blog. I have always loved to read other people's blogs, but have never really kept up with one myself. To be honest I go back and forth about this whole thing because I really don't think that my life is all that exciting to write about. But I will give it a shot. I hope you enjoy my blog and that you are able to take something new away from my life experiences.