Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Basking...

The laundry is folded and put away.

Dinner is prepped and ready to be cooked when Clint gets home.

Kitchen is clean and counter tops are reflecting the setting sun on their shiny surface.

Floors are all swept and cleaned.

Only have a few more gifts to buy for Christmas but other than that everything is done.

Basking....

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Dog Breath



Ahhh!! I can't believe it's been almost two months since I have updated my blog!! I am awful.

Okay, got that out of my system. Well since I have neglected my blog, I guess I better update before I get to why I titled my post "Dog Breath".

This month, we attended my cousin, Eric's wedding. He is my oldest cousin on either side so I don't know him as well but he is an amazing guy and has found a really neat girl. I'm excited for them as they start a new chapter in life. I've stayed busy knitting too. I have lots of gifts and things that I'm excited to show off. One of them I made for myself.

I love this pattern and am making it for one of my sister in laws right now. I think I might try selling a few of these but I'm not sure right now. I'm so busy with other projects for now that I'm afraid! Maybe next month while it's still cold, I can do it. We'll see.

So my title is really kind of silly but if you have a dog you might understand. For others you will wonder why the heck I'm even bothering talking about it. I have never been one to get all weird about my dog. I love her and she is definitely part of our lives but I'm not going to go out and spend tons of money on her or anything. Well, the other week I was petting Cherry and noticed her breath was awful. Like she had gone outside and eaten a dead mouse, it was soooo bad. I called our vet here and asked how much it would cost to get her teeth cleaned and a few hours later the receptionist sent me an email with the break down. $440 for the whole thing!!!! Yikes!!!!! I couldn't believe it! Well anyway I called the vet mom uses in Robinson and it was half that. Unbelievable. I never thought I would ever pay to get my dog's teeth cleaned. Ever. But here I am. I don't know why I will spend it now. Maybe because Cherry is a part of our family? Maybe because before I had never had an animal I was so attached to? Or maybe "city life" has gotten to me. Either way, Cherry goes to the vet at the end of the month for some serious debridement (deep cleaning). Dog breath is sure to improve.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

October's Goings Ons

Goodness! It's been awhile since I updated! Obviously, it's been a busy month. Let's see what has been going on...

Clint finished his super busy surgery rotation and is currently working on his family medicine rotation.

I'm staying busy watching the kids during the day and various activities at night.

Some of our good friends, Lindsay and John McKinney, moved to Tyler. We will miss them!

Kara, Clint's sister, is pregnant with their second child. So excited for them!

The Rangers are in the World Series. Mom has gone to two post season games. Clint is jealous.

Jenna Lane had her baby. So happy and excited for them!

Began a new small group at church over the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn. Awesome book!!!

Began singing with a group at a local hospice center. It has been a real blessing.

I am doing Threads of Love. Along with other women who make different things, I knit hats for premies in the NICU at local hospitals.

I recently made bread and graham crackers from scratch. Both turned out pretty yummy.

I got to see Jaxon (Bobbi's little boy) about 2 weeks ago. It was great to catch up with them.

What I've read: The Hunger Games trilogy (2 thumbs up), Dirty Sexy Politics ( 1.5 thumbs up),
The Glass Castle (2 thumbs way up), The Help (2 thumbs up) and Twelve Might Orphans (1 thumb up). I think that's about it.

Well, I think that pretty well sums up October. I can't believe how fast this year has gone. It's been great though. We love Fort Worth and the people we have met here are wonderful. I still can't believe Clint is in his third year. One more year to go and then he begins residency. He would never say this, but I think he really impresses the doctors he is with. Clint tells me the compliments he gets from them. The last doctor he was with told him he was a great student and will be a great doctor and even asked Clint if he wanted a letter of recommendation from him. This guy went to Harvard medical school and is a well respected surgeon in Fort Worth so it meant a lot coming from him. Clint loves interacting with patients and trying to help whenever he can. I know he is going to be great. Okay, enough bragging about Clint! I'm just so proud.

God has really changed us these past 3 years. We know that with such great blessings comes a call to responsibility. Something that stays on our minds. We don't know where God will put us in the end but we know wherever we go, that serving others is what it is all about.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Relationships

A few weeks ago one of my friends from church approached me about being an accountability partner. At first, I really wasn't sure. I didn't even know what that meant. Honestly, I had some pretty negative thoughts about it because of how it was used in my youth group growing up but I knew there was more to it than that. We both prayed about it and I felt like it would be a blessing. It would be something new and different so I was excited. We have been meeting once a week at my house for the past 3 or 4 weeks right after she gets off work. It has been really wonderful, a huge blessing. We pray, talk about our lives and read the bible. Right now we are going through Matthew and I love it. Things that I don't pick up on when reading, she does and vice a versa. There is just something about having one on one time with someone who isn't your spouse. God has shown himself to us and it has been very powerful.

I think it's amazing all the different relationships God shows and gives us. I think especially now that I am older, I have a greater appreciation for those that are in my life. One huge blessing that I received from college and Aggies For Christ in particular is that I learned people are just people. We all want someone to talk to, someone to validate what we believe. That the guy with the funny looking nose and the girl with perfect hair ultimately want the same things in life. When I truly believed this, I found talking to people to be much easier. But I also think an important aspect to that is making yourself uncomfortable. When my friend asked me about being an accountability partner I knew I was going to have to let some of my walls come down. I couldn't put up the "I'm fine, we're fine, everything's fine" facade.

I found this to be true with my small group as well. There are 2 other couples in our group and we meet every week. They also live really close to us and drop by whenever so that if Clint and I have been arguing and they walk up to the door, they know somethings up (and this has happened). They do it on purpose though because we all agreed we wanted to live in community as much as possible. This means it's uncomfortable. We have seen each other super happy and excited and we have seen each other at our worst. But through it all, God has shown himself to us. We are growing and changing. We love each other and through that love, God has blessed us. We all go to different churches as well so one person's beliefs and values tend to be different from others but we all have the most important thing in common so I guess it all works out in the end.

I don't write this to be all (in the words of Cat from 10 Things I Hate About You) "Look at me, Look at me". I still have so much to learn, so much to do, so much to understand. I am messed up and wrong on so many levels. I know I have a huge mountain to climb, but it's good to know that the people around you have their own mountain to climb.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

No Pics...Boo

Ok, I feel like a big loser because a lot has been going on lately but do I have any pictures of any of it??? Nope. Not a one. This is exactly why I've never entertained the idea of getting some super nice camera. I wouldn't use it. Ever. Oh well, hopefully my writing is full of entertainment and inspiration so people will keep reading it. Oh so where to begin??


My birthday/ anniversary were last week. We had a great time! We went to a local restaurant here called Ellerbe's. It was originally a gas station but they redid everything inside and it now it's modern and really beautiful inside. The food is amazing. The chef goes to the farmer's markets and also connects with local farmers to buy a lot of the food there. She changes the menu according to what is in season. Also, the wine selection is very unique because it is from mostly local wineries. One of "my mom's" gave us a gift card for Ellerbe's so we got to splurge a little more. On Friday night, we went to Dallas and stayed at the Hyatt that is right beside Reunion Tower. It was so pretty. We stayed up on the 16th floor and had a big window to out to all of downtown Dallas. I would definitely recommend staying there if you are visiting Dallas. Saturday we went to Cafe Brazil (YUMMY!!) and then went to the Dallas Farmer's Market. It was really big and nice but the only thing to me was that it wasn't all local. So we tried to be careful and only buy from the locals.


Back in October of last year, I made a few goals. I have pretty much reposted them here with updates of how I am doing on them.


1. Take a knitting class......Check! I just knitted my first scarf!

2. Go camping (like tent, sleeping bag, etc. kind of camping).....Check! We did this over spring break!!

3. Blog at least once a month.....Check...well, kind of I think I missed on month.

4. Pay off a student loan....Check...Actually we are dangerously close to having all my student loans paid off! Whoop!!

5. Train for a half marathon...ok, not so much...I can come with excuses but fact is I didn't do it. :( Oh well, I am still exercising so that's the most important thing.

6. Have my wedding pictures made into an album... In progress! I am currently working on one.

7. Volunteer at the Humane Society...Nope. I need to volunteer for something. I just haven't yet.

8. Get re-certified in CPR....Decided not to do this one. I know how to do CPR. And the class really isn't that helpful. especially when you remember how to do it.

9. Take a dog training course with Cherry...I originally wanted to do this because I thought I might be able to take Cherry to a hospital/nursing home but she has proved to me that that is not a good idea. She is a bit tempermental.

10. Make an apron....Haha! I bought one. Oh well!

11. Maintain my current weight or lose another 2-3 pounds....Check! Yay!! I have maintained my weight and Clint and I continue to try to make healthier choices.

12. Take a multivitamin everyday....Getting better. I still don't do it like I should but I am taking it more often.

13. Finish decorating my room and the guest room...Check! I'm pretty much done. There are a few things I would like to do but they take money to do those. For me, I did it and anything else I do is just a bonus.

Whew!! So, there you go! I would say I'm doing okay. Maybe in a month or two I will set a few more goals.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Boot Party

For the end of second year, the whole class helps put on a party to celebrate taking their boards and finishing up the first half of school. This is in front of the tree in our yard before we left. There was a catered meal, wine and dancing. After wards, we had about 4 couples over to the house. We played games and just enjoyed the company.

Four of the guys battling through this thing with Clint. Brad, Daniel (the creepy guy behind Clint), Colby and Sam

The girls who help keep me sane!! Joanna, Claire, me and Stephanie. Thank God for friends like these.

July 4th



We went to Concert in the Gardens which I would recommend for anyone visiting Fort Worth. It is held in the Botanical Gardens and the Fort Worth Symphony plays different music each night. They usually have themes like the Beatles or music of the '60's etc. Of course for the Fourth it was all patriotic music. Also at the end of each show they have fireworks. Our friends that we went with, he is the stage manager for the symphony so we got backstage passes for the fireworks. It was really cool.

This was the program for the night. Everyone brings lawn chairs and comes early to have a picnic before the show.

Some of our Aggie friends. (Jordan was giving me the bunny ears and unfortunately it was the best picture I had of all of us.) Thanks Jordan...(Just kidding.)


This was on Friday night before the Fourth. Blair getting her hair did by her daddy. I think she liked it.


And the newest Gaines! Leddy Grace. She basically sleeps a lot but she is a great cuddler. Love it!! She kind of had the mohawk thing going.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Summer Vacation!!

Clint finished up his boards last week so we have been very busy celebrating. The Wednesday before last we left for Athens to see all of Clint's immediate family. Some of Clint's family owns a lake house there and so we spent a long weekend visiting and catching up with them. We went jet skiing, boating, fishing and eating. The weather was great so we spent lots of time outside.

This past Friday we left for another lake house. This time we went to Breckenridge Texas (between Abilene and Fort Worth) where some of our friends parent's have a lake house. Once again we boated, jet skied, and this time instead of a bunch of kids there were a bunch of dogs. The grand total was 5 dogs. Yikes! It was an absolute blast hanging out with friends, laughing, swimming, eating and playing. I think I could do that every day.

On Thurday, June 17, Bobbi had her baby. Jaxon Lewis Keese was 8 lbs. 5 oz. and has a head full of hair. I went up to Plano Friday before we left to see mama and baby. They are both doing well. I am so happy for them and I know they will be great parents.

And besides that, I am working on finishing my goals that I had set for myself last year. (I wrote a post on it back in October of last year.) I have a few more to go. Also, I am looking into becoming a lactation consultant. I have been thinking about it for a while and I think I would really enjoy doing it but I have to look into a bit more. I love what I am doing for now but it definitely isn't something I want to do long term. It is just a matter of logistics at this point. Clint has 2 more years for sure in Fort Worth and then he starts his residency where we could be moving any number of places. Plus we want to start a family somewhere in there so it could get difficult to add something else in the mix!

Sweet baby Jaxon. Just one day old.

Clint and I at the lake house with friends. The picture is blurry, I know. Darn you iphone...
Okay, this picture was supposed to show our friends but Clint decided to show off the poker set... I don't know. Anyway, in this picture is Clint, Claire, Colby, Stephanie and the back of Daniel. Stephanie made a fruit pizza (yum!) to celebrate Clint and Brad's birthdays.
This is one of the dogs at the lake house. He was being crated and I thought he looked like one of those dogs on the commercials for neglected and abused animals so I took a picture. This is Duke. He is an idiot but we all love him.
This was all the food we got at Sam's for the weekend. It was out of control. But really it was the cheapest vacation ever. We were gone from Friday to Monday and we each spent about $80. Pretty crazy.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Some Thoughts on the Treatment of Animals

I have been meaning to sit down and write about Clint and I's decision to not eat meat for us and maybe for others that want to hear about it. This weekend we went and saw his family at the lake house in Athens and we got a lot of questions about it. So here is what I have compiled from Clint and I's search.

Genesis 1:26 says "Let us make men in our image...let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the cattle and over all the earth...". The Message version says something along the lines of let us make man reflecting our nature... let them be responsible for the fish...the cattle...the earth.

So what is our responsibility when it comes to nature? For me, I don't fully know the answer to that but I do know God has charged us with this task. I also think it's something that we don't address much. I also know He has said to eat animals and that He has said that they are all clean to eat.

Romans 14:1-23 speaks to how I feel so if you really want to see where I am coming from I would look there. Specifically verse 14. I don't think meat in nature is unclean but we have exploited animals in our country to the point that I don't have a clear conscience about eating it.

So let me explain why I think animals are exploited. Most of my understanding of the treatment of animals comes from "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer, the movie "Food, Inc." and interviews I have seen by the author of "Omnivores Dilemma".

I think the worst treated animal is the chicken. First of all the chicken we eat today is nothing like the chicken they ate in the 1950's. Chickens now (as in almost all chicken we eat) can't reproduce naturally. That is now done in a lab. They also can't survive outside in what should be their natural environment. And even if they could they wouldn't be able to walk around because their muscles are engineered to grow at such a rate that their bones can't support them. This is so they can harvest that meat sooner than ever before. Chickens now do not live very long at all because of engineering. And that is a good thing because their short lives are pretty miserable. Most are raised on a "farm" which is just a long building, usually with no sunlight and a very poor ventilation system so poop, urine and any other bodily fluid can be kicked up and inhaled by the chickens. Because these chickens are cramped all together disease is a real problem. This means they must be given antibiotics on a regular basis. I know one farmer that appeared on Food, Inc. got Lyme disease and she almost died because she was resistant to a lot of antibiotics because of her chickens.

Swine are also kept in cramped conditions and again disease easily spreads. For female pigs life can be pretty bad because the "farmer" keeps her pregnant or nursing piglets most of the time. I think my heart goes out to pigs more because they are more like a pet. They are very intelligent, on the lines of dogs. I would still eat a pig though...if I knew it was treated the right way in life.

According to "Eating Animals" cattle are probably treated the best, which I can see. Drive around a farm to market road and you can see how cows are treated. Open spaces, grass to eat and water to drink. Sure country life isn't easy but at least they aren't shoved together and forced to breath in each other's poop. Life is okay, until the last 90 to 130 days of life. That's when the cows are shipped off to the feed lots and eventual slaughter houses. The treatment at the feed lot is pretty bad. Here they are kept in cramped conditions, disease now becomes a problem, they are standing in their own feces and they eat corn and animal by product. The corn helps fatten the cows but it is also fairly indigestible not to mention the animal byproduct aka bits of other cows. They think this is where Mad Cow Disease comes from. It's cannibalism. Yuck, no thanks.

And I haven't even touched the slaughter houses. I don't buy grass-fed beef because: it is very expensive and I don't know how the cows were slaughtered. Half of my problem with meat is the slaughter houses. I won't go in to this part because it's pretty awful. If you want to inform yourself about it read "Eating Animals". The guy that wrote it I trust, to a degree. He did a lot of investigation on his own or with the help of people that know the industry but I think everyone is probably biased when they do this kind of work and he definitely has his opinions on it. But I also think something has to be going on or you wouldn't see video coming out every few years showing downer cows, cows so sick they can't even stand up, being shoved through slaughter. If a cow is that sick I don't want it on my plate.

To me, the biblical definition of meat that comes from factory farming, and most of it is, is unclean. That is just me and I don't write this blog to tell others how they are wrong and I am right. I just want people to know where I come from. To hopefully convince others that I am not crazy. I once read that Leo Tolstoy went to a slaughter house and didn't eat meat after that. I don't know how accurate that is but it sure got me thinking. I know if I did the same thing, I wouldn't eat meat either. I am not a full out vegetarian. I consider myself a part timer. I don't eat meat at home. I just don't buy it. When we go out to eat, we will get it sometimes and when we are at other people's homes we will eat it. Also, we eat seafood and I will buy that at the store.

We try to eat organic animal products. For one thing, it makes me feel good to know that they don't give the animals hormones and excessive antibiotics. I love organic milk and yogurt. They taste so much better than the normal stuff. I don't mind spending a few extra bucks for it either. The money I don't spend on meat helps pay for the better quality fruits, vegetables and dairy products that I buy now. In general, from what I have gathered, organics products are about respecting the land, the animal and the farmer. I know this isn't always true but I would rather support that industry over the other. I am having my say by buying the products I believe in.

Eggs are another thing for me. The best is when I can get them from a friend of my mom who has chickens on her property. But otherwise I either don't buy eggs or I get the organic free range.

Another reason we cut meat is the health benefits. Saturated fat, which is found in all meat and animal products, is the biggest cause for high LDL (bad) cholesterol. It is also a major risk factor for heart disease. I just happened to get my cholesterol checked right before I started this and then again about 4 months in. Even though it was such a short amount of time my cholesterol ratio (good cholesterol versus the bad) had improved. Of course giving up meat for health reasons is only effective if done right. I make sure that we are getting enough complete proteins in our diet. Clint had a guest lecturer come one time who is a leading cardiologist in America. Based on his research he believes that people should eat meat in 5-7 meals out of the 21 they will eat in a week.

So here are some things you might try if you want to. For soups or stews, try substituting tofu for meat. It takes on the flavor of whatever you are cooking. Break it up into small chunks and you won't even know it's there. Beans are great! I love black beans. If I am making a Tex-Mex dish, many times I'll replace the meat with beans and mushrooms. Speaking of mushrooms, they provide a great bite and portabello mushrooms have a good meaty flavor to them. They hold up well in shrimp or chicken pastas. Try meat substitute products. Boca chicken patties are the bomb. They taste just like a chicken patty.

You may not believe it, but my grocery budget has actually dropped since cutting meat out and I even changed grocery stores to the more expensive place where they try to buy local fair and offer more organic products.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Goodbye for a while..

Oh my goodness! Has it really almost been 2 months since I last posted??? We have definitely stayed busy the last few months and things are about to really pick up. Clint has just started studying for the COMLEX (the licensing exam for osteopathic doctors) and the USMLE (the licensing exam for medical doctors). The COMLEX allows him to practice as a physician and the USMLE he is taking to hopefully help him get into a good residency program. Another words, very important tests that he must do good on. For the next month he will be studying pretty much all day long. Also, this means my time with the computer (he has the only computer we own) will be very limited so I probably won't be able to update the blog as much as I would like.

Re-cap of the last month and a half:

Blair turned one. She is now walking and saying hi and bye and a few other words.

Easter was spent with my family this year. We went to church and mom made lunch. Once again Blair was the entertainment. It was fun getting to be with everyone and spend time together.

Bobbi had one of her showers and mom and I attended. She got lots of stuff. I'm going to see her on Saturday so I can't wait to see Jax's room.

I joined a book club. We are reading The Help right now. I'm not very far in so I don't know yet if I like it or not. I also read Julie and Julia finally. And I didn't like it. She annoyed me. I did like when she talked about actually cooking but the rest of it just kind of irritated me.

Clint and I still aren't buying meat. When we eat out we will get it but I don't buy it from the grocery store as a rule.

Alright, Clint is booting me off the computer now. So that's it for me. See everyone in about a month!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Road Trip 2010!!

Clint and I headed out of town last Friday to go on our first vacation since he started medical school! We started out at about 4:30 and went down to a small town outside of Bryan called Calvert. We stayed in a bed and breakfast. It was a little weird but fun. The house is a plantation home built in 1900. It was huge by today's standards so I can't imagine what people thought of the house back then! That night we played games and opened a bottle of wine. It was so relaxing and nice just to sit, talk and not worry about a thing. Saturday they had a hot breakfast waiting for us. It was so good!



Then we left for College Station! We stayed in a historic hotel in downtown Bryan Saturday night. During the day we drove around campus. They have added 3 buildings and are still building more. We probably won't recognize it if we don't make trips every few years! Then we went shopping to restock on Aggie gear. In Fort Worth, it is hard to find sometimes. We went back up to campus after that so we could go to the George Bush Library and then we went to Research Park. We had never gone to the library before so that was fun. We learned a lot and the touring exhibit was interesting as well. It was was about the history of wine in America.
Bush was president when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Iraq was oppressing and killing the people of Kuwait and the USA came into help push Iraq back. At the end of the Gulf War, Kuwait presented the US with this door. And why the door? There is an old Kuwait proverb that goes something like this: you give a friend the key to your door and for family you give them the door. Around the door there is gold plates with the names of all the US soldiers that died in the conflict. They also had part of the Berlin Wall and talked about Barbara's work with literacy.


It was an absolutely gorgeous day on Saturday so we spent an hour or so walking and relaxing at the park.

After that we went back to our hotel and got ready to go out that night. Our hotel had complimentary drinks so before we left we did that. Square One is an American Bistro restaurant that we used to go to when we had extra money so we went there Saturday night. They had changed it up some so we were kind of disappointed by that but the food was just as good as ever. We went to Sweet Eugene's to have coffee and dessert after dinner. Clint and I's first date was at Sweet Eugene's so it has a sentimental value plus the coffee is yummy. Sunday we prepared for our camping trip. We drove out to a small town called Richards. We hiked into Sam Houston National Forest about 3 miles and set up our tent there. It was so beautiful and we felt so alone out there. It was scary but a lot of fun too. I was okay until we heard what seemed like 20 coyotes less than a mile away. That was a bit frightening but all in all it was great to hear nothing but the bugs and animals. No cars, no people. We got up the next morning pretty early and started hiking out. We had one scare when we accidentally went off the hiking trail for about 20 minutes but we were able to find it again without any problems. We found our car, got loaded up and headed out late that morning and started back home.


Sunrise...

It was so much fun to get away for a little while.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Check Me Out!

I can't believe I am blogging again in like 1 week! I'm so proud of myself! Anyway, Clint is over at a friends house so I thought I might update the blog while I had the computer. March has been awesome so far! Today it is 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky! I am loving it!

Not a whole lot is going on right now. Clint and I went to a housewarming party for our friends on Friday. They have actually been there for about 3 months but this is medical school time so things happen much slower than in real life! We had a great time catching up with friends we hadn't seen and also meeting some new people. Sadly the next day I woke up unable to keep anything down all day and Clint woke up on Sunday with a fever so our whole weekend was blown! Sad but it did give us a chance to rest up. This next weekend we will be going on our road trip! We are so excited to get away. We will be going back to our alma mater, Aggieland. We both miss it a lot and I am so looking forward to eating at some of our old haunts, going to church at A&M C.O.C., and maybe seeing a few old friends. We are also going to go camping in Sam Houston State Park so that should be fun, too. I promise to provide pictures!

Well, I guess that is it for now. Oh and a little shout out: congratulations Jenna and Brenton on baby Lane. I am so happy for them!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Lyrics I love

The other day I was listening to my ipod and started thinking how much certain lyrics affect me. So I thought I would post some of my favorite lyrics. Most of these are not because I necessarily agree with what they are saying but more about the images it creates in my mind.

Cat Power, Silver Stallion

I'm gonna steal a silver stallion
with not a mark upon his silky hide
Teach him he can trust me like a sister,
one day we'll saddle up and ride

And we're gonna ride,
we're gonna ride
Ride like the one eyed jack of diamonds with the devil close behind
We're gonna ride
We're gonna ride

I'm gonna find me a reckless man,
razor blades and dice in his eyes
Just a touch of sadness in his fingers,
thunder and lightening in his thighs

And we're gonna ride,
we're gonna ride
Ride like the one eyed jack of diamonds with the devil close behind
We're gonna ride
We're gonna ride


I'm gonna chase the sky forever,
with the man and the stallion and the wind
The sun is gonna burn into a cinder,
before we ever pass this way again

And we're gonna ride,
we're gonna ride
Ride like the one eyed jack of diamonds with the devil close behind
We're gonna ride
We're gonna ride

Robert Plant and Alison Kraus, Killing The Blues

Leaves were falling, just like embers,
In colors red and gold, they set us on fire
Burning just like moonbeams in our eyes.

[Chorus:]
Somebody said they saw me, swinging the world by the tail
Bouncing over a white cloud, killing the blues.

There are more lyrics to this song but these are my favorites.

There are lots of other songs I could have put on here but I've been listening to these 2 songs more lately. Maybe next time I will do my favorite worship songs!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Random Things

I figured since I haven't kept up with my blog this year, I would just post about the highlights and the things I have pictures of.

These next two pictures are from this past weekend. We ended up having about a foot of snow fall in about 24 hours. It was so cool to have that much snow fall in our own backyard. I made a baby snowman and an angel! I loved it! Clint and I went out and played in it for an hour. His school was canceled and I didn't have to work either on Friday so it was fun to have a 3 day weekend.



For mom's birthday this year, everyone came up to Fort Worth to celebrate. We had fajitas and homemade banana pudding for lunch (yummy)! Then we went bowling. It was a lot of fun to spend time together. We got mom a digital photo frame which she loved.


I guess the other "big" things that have gone on were finding out that Justin and Kassie are expecting and they find out today the sex. They think she's due early June so that is really exciting. I can't wait to be an aunt again. Also, Bobbi found out she is having a boy so baby Jaxson will be here late June. All these babies! It is so fun, I love it!

Clint is staying busy with school. This semester he also has to study for boards on top of his normal school work but as usual he is handling it all in stride. He scheduled his boards for early June so he will have 2 weeks between 2nd and 3rd year. Yeah!

I am watching kids full time. I have 3 kids: Avery 9 1/2 months, London 7 months and Carter 5 months. As you can imagine they keep me pretty busy but it is so much fun seeing how they are changing and growing. I can also mark off one of my goals that I set for myself last year, I took a knitting class and have started knitting. I am working on my first dishcloth, so watch out!

Well, other than that I have been reading, as usual. I have read this past month:

The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis (our small group is doing a study on this right now)
Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer (great, informative book)

Saturday, January 9, 2010

(3) Book Blogs

I have been doing a lot of reading. So here goes...

A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren (I think is his last name.) This book was basically talking about how we are transitioning into the Post Modern era and that the church has to respond to that. He (Brian) and his friend talk in this book about what the Post Modern church will look like. This book is pretty progressive I would say but honestly it is nothing I haven't heard or thought about myself. I really enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone that is searching for answers about church. Somethings that it addressed was: heaven and how it is not us versus them, that we shouldn't look at people who aren't like us as going to heaven or not, basically that it isn't our place to decide that and we need to stop acting like it. He also talked about how Jesus talks of the Kingdom of Heaven being here now and we need to start acting like it. We need to bring the kindgom to others, especially those that aren't as fortunate as us.

Larry's Kidney by Daniel Asa Rose (again, I think that is his name.) So the synopsis on the front cover is this, and I think it describes the book pretty well: How I ended up in China with my Black Sheep cousin and his Mail Order Bride, to try and get him a kidney transplant to save his life. The book is pretty funny and his cousin is probably one of the worst, bravest, dumbest person I have ever heard of. Good book but just very quirky. Also, in the end, what eventually happens I don't agree with on a moral basis so that was hard to get over as well.

The Lassa Ward by Ross Donaldson, M.D. This was a good book. This book is about Ross (then a medical school student) who goes to Sierra Leone to help in a hospital ward that specializes in Lassa Fever. Lassa Fever is a hemorrhagic fever found in a certain species of rats. If a person eats or comes in contact with the bodily fluid of a rat that is infected, they can contract the disease. It is highly deadly and highly infectious. The people that work in the ward are incredibly brave for doing it especially since the facilities and equipment are outdated and poorly supplied. It was amazing to see the stark difference between medical practices there versus the US. It makes you grateful to live here. Death is a constant figure in their lives. I am very blessed to live here where medicine and health education is so widely distributed.

Whew! So that's it! I just realized how random all these books are! Something for everyone...

Christmas and New Years!

This year, once again, was lots of fun. Clint and I traveled to Corsicana, to see all of his sisters and their husbands and kids. It was great to spend several days with them. We had great food and conversations. I think Christmas Eve, it snowed a little while we were in Corsicana. Clint and I were a little bitter because Fort Worth apparently got a few inches and we totally missed it! Oh well...We also went to Waco and saw my family and cousins. This year, my immediate family Christmas was pretty short. It made me sad, but sometimes that's just what happens. We came back from traveling the Monday after Christmas. I went ahead and took off that week from work to spend more time with Clint before he hit the books again.

New Years was alot of fun. My brother and Lacie, and some of our other friends came over. It was a blast. We talked, played games and then talked some more. It was a great way to bring in the new year.

So here are some pics:


Not a great pic. These are the desserts at mom's house. Yikes!!
Uncle Nathan and his namesake.
Snow! Okay, you have to look closely but I promise it is there.