I promise to get better at this!

Sarah and I at the HALF MARATHON!!!

Terri, Jackson and Lori and Lilly!!!

Me with Jonathan, Andrew, Jordan and Madison after graduation!!

Me with the Fam at Graduation!!

The Mississippi Bridge!!!

Me with Maria and Logan!! Tootsie in the Snow! She did not know what to think of it! I do not think that she liked it, I think that it was too cold for her!!

Ok so I know it has been about 6 months!! I promise to get better!! So it is the week of thanksgiving and I have oh os much to be thankful for!! I am thankful for life that I am still here brathing and living, to have such a supportive family and friends, to have a dog Tootsie that has been there for me when I knew no one in Mississippi, that I have my dream job, that I have God's mercy and grace to cover me when I mess up! and that he also provides!! That is definitely not everything but just a few! I am so excited that in less than 24 hours I will be on Texas soil again. I am so excited to see friends and family and get to spend itme with both.

I am excited to come Home to Texas but have now made Mississippi my home and will be looking forward to ocming back. That is so weird because just months ago I still felt like I was just here visiting. I now have come to accept and celebrate that I am a Mississippian! I am a transplant and Texas will always be near and dear to my heart but it is no longer my primary home!! It will always be home because my family lives there and I will always have roots there!!

Not a whole lot has changed!! I am still loving my job so much!! I am very much looking forward to a break because it can get just very emotionally draining. I know it can be hard and challenging but in the end it is so worth it. I on a daily basis get to help cancer patients. I get to help them with everyday things and stress so that they can focus on their fight for their life. I get to hear some amazing stories of people that have that hope and fight from the time that they hear the words "You've got cancer" to the people that have to dig to find that hope and someitmes they find that hope in some of the programs and services that their American Cancer Society can provide. That is so rewarding to hear it in the patient's voices that you have really helped them.

I have moved!! I am still living in the same complex but have moved in with a girl that i have met through church! Sarah is just a few years younger than me and is a 5th grade Science teacher. Right now we have her classroom pets at the house for Thanksgiving break!! Louis the guinea pig and Gidget the fish!! Tootsie just does not know what to think of Louis!

I am going to be attaching a few pictures so you can just see a few glimpses of Mississippi life so far! I do not have a lot of pictures and plan on changing that! I have gotten to know more people since getting involoved with my Sunday School Class!! Jessica and Matt and I have been hanging out and they are a ton of fun!!

Of course I have already seen New Moon Tiwce and absolutely love it!!!!!! The Blindside is also so incredibly good!!

Love you all!!!!

Sorry it had been awhile!!

So where should I begin!! I am still in Mississippi even though every time I go home people say that I should move back. I have been so incredibly blessed with the amount of love that people have shown me since I have moved. In a way I had this fear that no one would remember be once I left, no one would miss me, and I just be like I never existed. I know kinda dramatic but when you have lived in one place for about 15 years and you are moving all by yourself it is scary.

Life here is great, I am loving it!! I am still loving my job some days are harder than others. There are days like today where I feel like I cannot help anyone and everytime I turn around I am getting told that. I love that I get to come to work and help people and let people know about this amazing organization that is fighting cancer every single day!! I was able to help this one lady who was needing to go to MD Anderson for the 3rd time and was able to find a donor to donate the $645 that she needed to be able to stay in Houston while receiving her treatment. That was an awesome day and an incredible phone call to make!! I had already told her that I had done all that I could and came up with 0 results. I got off and wanted to absolutely cry!! I then get the call the next morning about the donor!!! It is so great to hear a patient's voice go from no hope to they are actually able to possibly see a light. I was just relieved that we were able to help take a small burden off of her during this time in her life. Not all days are like that but in the end it is a great job and I am so incredibly blessed to be able to have it. I am excited because the first week in June is CAMP RAINBOW!!! I get to go and be with the kids at camp, it is for kids all over the state of Mississippi that have Cancer! They get to come for a week and just be a kid, of course there is plenty of medical assistance if needed. If they are in the middle of treatment they still receive it and get to have fun.

There is one HUGE thing that has happened!! I GRADUATED!! I have a Master's Degree and could not be more excited. I did not realize till after I walked that it was a big deal to have a Master's. It was hard and exhausting but so worth it. It was such a great accomplishment and was a great moment to walk across that stage and to stand as receiving a Master's of Arts in Health Education. I do not feel that I will go one to get a PhD but I definitely see myself as going back and possibly getting another Master's Degree. I think I would wait after marriage before kids. Of course who knows how far away that is.........................That is another thing I really really want to get married and have babies and children and be a mom and wife. It hit me the other day that I will be turning 27 in a few months!! 27 ok I know that I am not ancient but I just really hoped that I would at least be engaged or even dating someone right now. I know that God has an amazing plan for me and my future spouse. I have been praying for him for awhile and when I think about it that he maybe praying for me also it just makes you smile. I cannot wait to meet him. I know that it will all happen on God's time table and not my own.

I am really excited about going to Fort Worth this weekend and getting to see the Herrington's and seeing Lilly for the first time!!! I cannot wait! I can't wait to just talk to Lori and Jeff, it feels like I have not seen them in forever. Well it has been about 5 months!! I cannot believe that I have already lived in Mississippi for over 4 months!! WOW!! How time flies!!

Well I better let yall go but I will try to be better about updating the blog!!

CURRENTLY READING: "My Sister's Kepper" loving it and cannot wait for the movie to come out on June 26th!!!

Love yall!!!!

Mexico and after and lots of thoughts!!

So I once again had the amazing opportunity to go on a week long mission trip to Autlan, Jalisco Mexico.  It was amazing!!!  I was more excited this year because I knew what we would be doing and how God can work through us and in us.  I cannot describe the feeling when you know that you are fulfilling the great commission.  When you are doing exactly what God wants you to do is just an overwhelming feeling of joy.  It is just awesome!!  This year was so different but so the same.  It was so awesome to have a family living at the Center.  The Bruggeman's are such an amazing family that I only hope that one day I will be able to be close to the family and connection they have and I will consider myself blessed.  They had 5 children and the oldest 2; Jessica and Brent went with us throughout the week and help with translation during our gospel saturation.  

It is so great to see these amazing people that do not have a lot yet they are so incredibly proud of what they do have and very generous.  They want to make sure that their guests are served even if that means that they have to go without.  I met someone Estella who I had met last year and she is one amazing woman with such a servant's heart.  She is such an inspiration.  She taught me so much when we did not even speak the same language. 

 I have grown a lot spiritually in the last few months but for whatever reason got out of God's word and I just been letting satan attack me and my thoughts.  One thing that happened on this trip that just grab my heart and filled it with the hope that with God nothing is impossible.  That through Christ all things are possible.  When climbed this mountain behind the center which we had done last year, but it was extremely hard this year and there were points were i seriously wanted to give up because i was like well I have been to the top I know the view whatever.  So i just prayed that God would give me the strength and the energy to get to the top.  I even almost started crying because i just knew that this feat was impossible but just continually praying those few words and believing what i read many times in the bible. HE DID IT!! He got me up that mountain.  This really just did a lot for me because I have followed in the way that God wants me to be and that is to my dream job in Jackson Mississippi, and it has been tough and there have been days where I have cried, I just knew that i could not make it here that i just wanted to give up and go back home to College Station Texas however I just have to stay attached to God and he will get me there he will get me to the top of that mountain.  That was one amazing lesson with a great view at the top!!

On this trip I was able to get to know some amazing young adults and teenagers!!  These are just an amazing group of people.  Jessica is the oldest daughter of the Bruggeman's and she is just amazing.  She has a love for christ that just shines through her and such a caring heart.  She is someone that is so incredibly mature and taught me a lot and I am 10 years older than her.  Caleb is about to be a Sophomore at A&M and was able to go with us.  He was an amazing asset to have on this trip.  I had to keep reminding myself that he was 19 because he just had this amazing wealth of knowledge and was an amazing spiritual leader.  He is such a caring person that when it talks about there is no greater gift than laying ones life down for ones friend......I just know that if it came down to it that Caleb would.  He is just an amazing young man and i am so glad that i have been able to get to know him.  I feel that he has become the brother that I have never had.  Sarah is a senior in high school that has a heart of Gold!! She also is amazing with children.  You can learn a lot from sarah, she maybe quiet at first but she has such a presence about her.  She is one of those people that you will never be able to forget even if you tried. Those are just a few of the young people that impacted my life this week.  There was also Brent who is just fabulous and Brittany that also came with us.

Since returning home it has been difficult just trying to get settled back into regular life, however you do not want to settle enough where you are not sharing the gospel and living out the great commission.  When you come back you realize how much we talk for granted, how incredibly selfish you are, and how incredibly blessed we have been and also just how materialstic we are.  It is so crazy how we think that we are identified by the car that we have, the job we have, how may digits are pay check is, the size of your tv, the size of your diamond ring etc.  Instead we should just be perfectly happy with the fact that we are children of God and we have the best thing ever, eternity with him.  We do not have to worry if we do not wake up tomorrow, I know that of I do not wake up tomorrow morning that i will be going to heaven and when i get there I hope to hear Well done my good and faithful servant. 

Thank you for all of the prayers while in Mexico!! I love you all and will post again soon!!

Oh to be in Texas

The last couple of days have been extremely hard.  Now with Jackson born and Lilly going to be here literally any hour now.  I am wanting to go home so bad!  It all started when we celebrated a birthday at work which was so much fun but then it made me realize that I will not be able to celebrate my birthday with friends and family.  The only thing that is reassuring is that I will pretty much be in Texas every weekend in March.  I cannot wait to go to Mexico on the mission trip.  I have found a church here and am starting to get to know some people.  The good thing is that I love my job and the people that I work with, if not I have a feeling I Would have already broken a lease.  I know that God has put me here for a reason and I am staying.  

I just wish that I could see my best friends all the time and their babies.  Which Maria will be 1 in May!! Oh my goodness!  I want to meet someone get engaged, get married and have babies myself.  Hopefully that is what my future holds and hopefully it is more near the near future than far off!!

Well i better go but be looking for pictures of Jackson Alexander and Lillian Ruth soon!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Great Day!!

Today was a great day!! It started with some Krispy Kreme Doughnuts!!!!  I looked up some articles for my homework for my online class.  Then I went to the mall and got a phone cover so when i drop my phone it will not get beat up.  I then came home and Tootsie and I went to Lakeshore Park where you get to walk along the water and it is absolutely gorgeous.  I then came home and decided that I wanted to make something different for dinner.  I am trying to cook more and cook more of a variety than spaghetti, and chicken.  I went online and found a really really easy for baked pork chops.  All it was was some onion soup mix, cream of mushroom soup and you bake it and the mixture makes a great topping for rice.  So I had brown rice with it.  It was really really good.  The great thing when you cook for 1 you really do not have to do it that often because the left-overs will last awhile and sometimes you can even freeze it.  

In case any of you are wondering NO BABIES yet!!!  We will see what happens next week.  I know that Connor will be born on Wed or Thurs, because Kristy is being induced.  With Terri and Lori who knows when Lilly and Jackson will come.  Terri is my hero!! She is going to go natural, she is such an amazingly strong woman.  I do not even have a desire to do that.  Terri is an amazing person, and I am so glad that we were able to be roomates.  

Tomorrow is super bowl sunday and I have zero plans, figure that.  I am going to go to a different church tomorrow.   I am thinking that I am going to go to First Baptist Ridgeland.  I am hoping that I have better luck with this one.  

Well I am going to go so I can get some homework done.  

Love and hugs

SO SO SAD!! I miss everyone so much!!

So this whole moving to a whole new place where I know absolutely no one is a lot harder than I thought and I feel like it is getting harder.  I have always had friends to talk to and hang out with and do not have that right now and it is hard.  I love the people that I work with and they are all so nice and some amazing women.  But its work and we have not hung out outside of work because everyone's married, engaged, dating, busy etc.  I have always gone and gone and never just go home and stay in the evening.  I was really involved in church, school, Relay, and hung out with friends.  Frankly it really stinks right now to be bored all the time.  I am trying churches but that is not something that happens overnight.  I really miss everyone.  I miss my family and all my amazing friends and my church family.  I know that this is where I am suppose to be and am here for a reason.  I know that God is with me and is constantly with me but I am lonely.  I guess that in the back of my mind I thought that it was going to be easy because God wants me there so her was going to plant a Jessica, Kim, Jeff and Lori, Terri and other great people in my life and they were going to be waiting for me.  

Today has just been a really homesick day and I just miss all the hugs.  i have not had a hug in weeks...................That is huge I am a hugger like no other.  Sorry that this blog is a debbie downer but this is what I am dealing with right now.  I do not know what I was thinking that this would be easy, I was excited to move.  I know that it is the right choice, I love my job, even though I do not have an office not even a cube I am just outside someones door in a common area where there is no privacy!!  I want to have a friend to call and go to lunch with, go shopping with, go to the movies with.  

I cannot wait to come home and see everyone but know that leaving to come back will be really hard!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love everyone and miss you even more!!!

WOW oh WOW!!!

So I have been here going on my third week!!!  It has been a whirldwind!!  I have started traveling a little but to my areas and am getting excited to get out there and help the cancer patients.  I had something incredible happen today!! I fulfilled my first service request which is if a cancer patient needs help and they call the 1800.ACS.2345 and they are not able to fulfill their request it will go to my assigned office asst. and if she can not fulfill it then I have to do my best to fulfill it so ACS can meet that need of the patient.  I was able to give a patient information of 2 hotels in Jackson which give cancer patients reduced rates.  They are having to travel 2 hours to receive chemo treatment.  It was just amazing to make that phone call and tell her that i had information that would help her during this difficult time.  It is going to be those phone calls of I have help for you that are going to make this job.  It is what is going to get me through the difficult times.

I am liking living in Jackson it is so pretty and I am getting adjusted.  I have not quiet adjusted to the fact that I do not have friends here yet.  I have always been so busy at night with church activities, going to dinner with friends or just hanging out with friends so this has almost been culture shock to come home every night and cook dinner and just be here.  I am hoping to get involved with a church.  My first church experience was absolutely horrible!! I went to a HUGE GYNORMOUS church on Sunday it is Pinelake and their "campus" sits on over 100 acres and they have about 5-6000 that attend their sunday services!!  I went and met with the singles minister and am possibly going to go to their next event, a super bowl party and am possibly going to get involved with a women's small group.  They do not have Sunday School they have small groups.  

I have really only been homesick once and it was bad i called my momma and I cried.  I think i miss different things all the time but I was really really homesick.  I think it helps a lot to know that I am coming home a few times for my nephew being born, and for the mission trip soon.  I cannot wait it will be a long drive and exhausting to do for a weekend but so worth it.  I cannot wait to see God's little miracles in Baby Connor, Baby Jackson, and Baby Lilly.  I cannot wait to see all 3 of them and love and hug on them.  I cannot wait to see everyone.  I hope that i will find some great friends in Jackson like I have in Texas.  

I have gotten a new car and am loving it.  It is a 2007 Honda civic and gets the best gas mileage ever!!!!  Tootsie is loving it we have gone to some great parks and am waking up at 5:15 in the mornings to take her on a nice long walk, don't worry we go to the neighborhood right beside us that is lit very well.  

Remember that anyone can come visit, I have a couch and an air mattress.  I would love to show jackson to you!!

Well I guess that that is it for now!! I miss you all and love you even more!!!

LOVE YOU!!!!

WORKING to Fight Cancer!!

So today was the first day of Work!!  It was absolutely great!! All the people are so incredibly nice and friendly!! Right now all I am doing is reading a lot of stuff and just getting to know everything.  It will prob. be a few weeks till I travel to my areas.  I got my computer today which takes my fingerprints to log in, so that was way fun.  

Today I realized that I will be able to really help cancer patients and make a difference.  JeanAnn who has the same job I do but with a different area met a need.  She was able to get a stove donated to a patient whose went out and she is also diabetic.  It is just great that you can call you local ACS and really get help.  That is what Relay dollars go for.  It is going to be so great to see Relay dollars in Action!!!

Well it was a GREAT DAY!!! and I cannot wait to go back and jump in there and start helping Cancer Patients and their families.  I am excited.

I cannot thank you all for the out pouring of love, support, and prayers.  I could not of made it through all of this with out that.  THANK YOU!!!

Love you

MISSISSIPPI!!!

Well I have made it Ridgeland!! It was a LONG day but we made it.  My parents, brother in law and oldest Nephew came with me.  It was a long drive but not a bad one, we hit some rain but it was not bad.  When we got to the apartment while I was signing my lease it just started pouring.  But God was watching out for us and when we were ready it stopped raining.  We got everything unloaded and boy I have more stuff that I thought!!!

So the area that I live in is GREAT! Parts of it reminds of The Woodlands!! The guy who came and connected my cable and internet was telling me that it is a great area.  It has a lot to offer.  I have found Target, Wal Mart, Kroger, and the Mall! All the basics.  

Now that I have groceries I made some dinner and man I can make so Mad tuna!!  The only thing that is left now is just getting everything unpacked and getting pictures on the wall etc.  I am excited about work tomorrow.  Good thing that I have GPS because I do not know where the office is.  I do not know anyone there or what it looks like or anything.  I need to find something to wear and then try to find the iron.  

OH MY GOODNES!! You will never guess what I left at my parents house?? my Chi are you kidding I cannot have a bad hair day tomorrow.  So I had to get a cheap straightener at Target.  It was so funny that that is what I left.  There is still a lot to do and I am sure what all has happened with the move will hit me in the middle of the week.  I just know that God is protecting over me and I know that he is here with me because I am not scared and am just at peace with everything.

Oh yeah and I had my first surprise party on Friday!! It was AWESOME!!! I was so surprised and so touched that when I saw everyone all I could do is bawl uncontrollably!! It was Great.

I love you all and will be blogging soon about my job! Thank you for all of your love and support!!!

First Post of 2009

WOW!! This is insane that it is already 2009!! It is so crazy to think that I will be moving in 8 days! 8 days that is nothing time is just flying by. I cannot believe it. I have started to pack and it just is making me crazy becaue I start to think about what it was like when I just finished 3rd grade and my parents told me that we were moving to Texas. I had lived in this incredibly incredibly small town in South Carolina and we were moving to Texas. I was not wanting to leave my friends but was so so so excited. Here I am 17 years later and moving to Mississippi, I do not have the comfort of my family moving with me, but I know that everything will be ok! Because God is the one that is guiding me here so I know that he will be there to get me through this. I know that this is going to be hard but I am so excited. A while new place, new people to meet, new adventures, new place to live, new atmosphere a whole lot of newness. Even though I am sad there is more of me that is excited. I know that the hardest moment is coming but will be over in a flash. It will be when my parents drive away after helping me move. That will be the hardest. But after that it will get easier. I remember when Jeff and I drove away after Lori had moved to Fort Worth for her job before he moved up there also. It was so hard and I bawled like a baby but then it constantly is getting easier.

I know that families and friends can live in completely different places and still have relationships. I am nervous about meeting all new people, but that is why one of the first things that I am going to do is get involed with a church that I feel I am suppose to serve and be apart of. I am in need of a lot of prayers for this next great adventure!! It is going to be a lot of fun but hard and I have a feelings some tears will be shed along the way.

Well I guess that that is it for now, I am about to go and hang out with Jess and Baby Logan!

I will definitly keep you updated on everything!!

Love you!!!