Smorgasbord of Catch Up

Congratulations to my incredible husband for graduating from Truett Seminary yesterday! It was a great day of celebration! We had lunch at Truett with some of our best friends and Ray's professors, and the actual graduation ceremony was later that evening. I'm so proud of the many things Ray accomplished during his time at Truett. He has learned so much and I could not be prouder or more excited for him and the ministry God will do through him in the future. (I don't have a lot of great grad pics, so I'll post more when I get them from Friends) It was such a wonderful celebration with family and friends (not to mention some good Ninfas, thanks to wonder boy Ryan Arnold!)!







It was a perfect day!

Duke has been sick lately :( He lost 3 lbs. last week thanks to a nasty little virus. But, we've been pumping him full of drugs the vet gave us and he seems to be doing much better! We're just glad he didn't get eaten by what we found in garage last week:


Yup. The snake was 6 ft. long and about 2 inches around. Ray's from Beaumont, I'm from Dallas, we had no clue of what to do. Thankfully a church member did (Buddy killed it by swinging it in circles, beating it's head on the ground. yikes).

Last weekend Ray and I went to Dallas to celebrate with Lauren Doumany and Jeff Sutton in joining their lives together! The ceremony (at SMU) and reception (at the Petroleum Club) were absolutely beautiful, perfectly stylized for their personalities, and so much fun!

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I am so excited for the summer and ready for it to get here! Starting in June I'll be teaching 5 classes a week for Bearobics! Along with TurboKick, I'll be teaching a Step class and a Spinning class. Yah! So excited and cannot wait!

For a long time I've struggled with figuring out what I am going to do in the fall. I've had several opportunities, and several things fall through; all in all, nothing seemed fulfilling. Growing up as a minister's kid, my experiences in churches have been less than stellar. Though my mind and heart work and think like a minister, I've always been to afraid to willingly walk into church ministry. Why in the world would I go to a place I know might hurt me, again? Wasn't marrying a pastor good enough? I mean it gets me pretty close to being a minister without technically being one. I think we all know the answer to this one. Last year I was accepted to Truett and decided to being a masters of social work instead. So, when I walked in to Truett this week to talk with Mr. Grear Howard, I assumed he would tell me I needed to begin the process of applying all over again. Within 5 minutes of talking with Grear, he figured out how to get 70% of my tuition paid for, waved the $100 registration, and offered me job.

Yeah. Wow.

It's amazing how things fall into place when we decide to stop being afraid and faithless and surrender to the call God has on our life.

So I've registered for classes and officially begin in the fall. In all honesty, I'm not super excited yet, but I trust that will come. Nevertheless, it's so nice to feel at peace and know I'm being obedient to God's call and hold on my life.

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That's all I got! Happy Graduation weekend!

A Few From Spring Break

Duke was not a huge fan of the car

Ahh the mountains!

The famous staircase made with no nails

Happy Birthday to me and ray!!

Long week :)

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Silence
Most people are incredibly uncomfortable with silence. Especially among younger generations who are so technologically overstimulated that they have forgotten what face-to-face communication is like.

I can remember the first time I ever truly experienced silence. It was my sophomore year of high school and I was climbing my very first mountain with a good friend and group of church members. Before heading out to Mt. Hope, our climbing guides stripped us of all things technological. This was completely okay with me, until they took my watch. My watch?! You're kidding right? How am I supposed to know what ungodly hour your waking me up at? How am I supposed know when it's time for dinner?

The response: "Trust us; your guides. You don't need to know how and when things will happen, they simply will . . . take time to enjoy the silence."


Enjoy Silence? And why should I trust you? How do I know you really know what you're doing?



I've found myself saying similar things to God this year. God has only ushered me into two silent seasons with him in my life and let's be honest, these seasons are not my favorite. Mostly because there's not much to do when God is silent other than grow . . . and growing is a slow, some times frustrating and almost always an uncomfortable process.


It became clear last semester that God was inviting (more like telling) me to step up with confidence and make the next directional decision. That's where we hit the road block. God knows that I will follow Him anywhere, anytime, but we've discovered I'm not so quick to move (if at all) when the decision is left in my hands. I have found myself not asking if He is trustworthy, but rather if I am trustworthy.


What we believe about our own abilities are a direct reflection of what we believe about God's.


A painful truth that has been searing itself into me for months.


Reminders
As Ray and I climbed our first mountain together last week, he reminded me that Mother Teresa followed God's command to the slums of India and then did not hear from God again for another 30 years. A reminder that was not so encouraging at that moment, but profoundly powerful in the days to follow.


I have begun to grow fond of the simplicity of His silence and the way it forces faith to stand there naked; the way it invites you to trust. I continue to be amazed at how simply pieces of me have come to life during this season learning to live as beloved child who has been made in the image of the Creator.

Where is all this leading? I have no idea, but in silence or communication, I trust my guide.
He's been up this mountain before.

Best Valentines Weekend Ever!!

This year me, Ray and four of our best friends (Josh and Autumn Lockett, Ryan and Kristyn Arnold) spent Valentines weekend in San Antonio. The men made all the plans and reservations and the ladies were able to relax and enjoy! It was absolutely a blast!


Here are some pics from the weekend!!

Happy FAMiversary!!!

Warning: The following post something I've wanted to write about for a while and is not for the faint of heart.


Now that you have been warned, to all those who have stuck it out (or are merely curious) . . .

Happy 6 "month" FAMiversary to Ray and me!


During our engagement, I spent a miserable 6 months on the BCP Yaz. Looking back I didn't think twice about getting on the pill. I got engaged, isn't that what your supposed to do next;
pump drugs into your system that trick your body into thinking you're already pregnant? The inability to lose weight, depression and increased risk for blood clots are just special gifts thrown in! No seriously though, Ray and I had no clue that there where safe, effective, NATURAL ways to prevent pregnancy. And no it's not abstinence. After learning about our struggles on BC my dear friend Jennifer sat me down and introduced us to a practice she and her husband use, called The Fertility Awareness Method or FAM.

To all of you skeptics who are 45 and above NO this is NOT the rhythm method. The rhythm method is incredibly unreliable, uninformed and let's be honest, it's probably why most of us (who are my age) are here. So don't tune me out yet!

Jennifer directed me to the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility. Holy Cow, talk about making you a different person. As we read this book I was totally floored and slightly embarrassed with how little I knew and understood about my own body. Why in the world did they not just pass out copies of this during the 6th grade talk?

The more we began to read, the more we began to realize that God created us with the ability to naturally prevent pregnancy. Imagine that, God really does think of everything. And like so many other aspects of a relationship with God, all we have to do is slow down, educate ourselves and listen, to find that God has already thought through whatever we are trying to control and actually has a better way. Coming to the understanding that we were trying to control the future, while daily ingesting who knows what into my body, quickly became convicting. So after a lot of research, tons of discussions, even more prayer and some unbelieving, very concerned parents (which, how can you blame them, they still think FAM is the rhythm method), I got off BC in June and we have successfully prevented pregnancy for six cycles.

(TMI? like I said, not for the faint of heart)

Ray and I are pretty passionate about educating people in the ways of FAM, it's ability to keep you healthy and pregnancy free; not to mention that compared to the $100s of dollars you spend on the BCP every year, FAM is basically free. I'm currently working toward becoming certified to formally teach FAM and hope to educate young women in the future. At the VERY least I feel women should know that YES, YOU HAVE A CHOICE. The BCP is not the only way to prevent pregnancy. And even better, when you and your husband decide that you'd like to begin a family you don't have to wait for months while the drugs you've been taking for years flush themselves out of your body.

Go here for the information on practicing FAM

Happy Reading!!