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

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

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

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....

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

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

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

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.