Scary Faith...

Faith is scary. That's it. Point Blank. Maybe not so much for everyone, but for the compulsive, controlling, uber-plan-everything psycho that I am, it is scary. I don't know why it scares me so much. God has proven his faithfulness more times than he should have. He has gone above and beyond every need. I have nothing to be dissatisfied about. However, as we sit here contemplating classes over the summer and next fall and really for the foreseeable future I am getting worked up. I can feel that familiar ball of stress forming in the pit of my stomach. How are we going to pay for classes? We thought he was going to get to take his summer classes free and transfer in the credit, but it turns out that it is not quite that simple. Southern Methodist University (where he works and can take some classes for free) is making him jump through hoops to take classes through the theology department. He has to submit an application with several essays, several letters of reccomendation, a $50 fee, and official transcripts from BOTH his current graduate program and his undergraduate program (in Massachusetts). All of this can be done, but wait, lets throw another wrench into the mix, it all has to be done by one week from today! Ahhh...I have to keep reminding myself that none of this is a problem for God and that he is able overcome infinitely more than we can ever comprehend. But it is hard. My mind keeps wandering: If he can't take classes at SMU, can he take them at SWBTS? Will the classes still be open for enrollment? How will we afford an extra $1000 to pay for tuition plus extra for books and such? And along those lines, how will we afford classes in the fall? Will we be able to pay for them monthly? If we can't will he have to take fewer classes? Then how long will it take to graduate? I could go on and on and on and on..... The fact of the matter is: Last Spring, Mike was unemployed for about two and a half months. We (somehow) survived on little more than $1000 a month. It barely covered rent and our car payment. We were faithful through all of that in God's call on our lives to have Mike continue his degree program. He finished the semester and was offered a job the very next day. He is currently at that job now. I have to believe that if we continue to be faithful to Him and concentrate on His call on our lives that he is able to provide for us in ways we are unable to envision right now. Please pray for us as we try to submit to His authority in our lives and focus on completing Mike's schooling. Pray that we will have Faith in Him and the Peace that follows as we hand our burdens over to the Lord. Pray that God will provide a way for us to afford his tuition and fees and books. I know that his is able.

More Before and After!

I LOVE what I do!!!

Before:

After:

Hair

I have been doing a lot of hair lately which has been really exciting for me! I almost always forget to take before and after pictures (much to the chagrin of my husband), mostly because I just get caught up in the moment doing what I love. However, I recently got to color a friend's hair and cut it and I wanted to share the before and after. I think it turned out great and it is a really dramatic change! Enjoy!

Before

After

Passover Picnic in the Park!

In an effort to slow down and get back to the reason for Easter-the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ-my sister Shonda and her husband and son came up last Saturday for a "passover picnic in the park". They were planning on coming up anyways, and at the last minute we decided it would be a fun idea to do the picnic and coordinate some of it with themes from passover and traditional passover meals. It was last minute (Friday night/saturday morning) and so we didn't have time to prepare as much as we could have, but we were creative (can you be creative with passover?). I had a bunch of meat in the freezer, but no lamb, so we decided on roast chicken (didn't think roast pork would be appropriate somehow). We had carrots and instead of the apple/cinnamon mixture, we put the cinnamon in the carrots. We made garlic mashed potatoes (not traditional at all, but super yummy). We also brought grape juice, pita bread (which, interestingly enough, actually has yeast in it) and bitter herbs in oil. So we could do parts of the passover/last supper meal. We packed it all up and broke out the picnic backpack set that Mike and I have used like twice in 5 years of marriage (it was actually a really cool wedding present, we just never think to use it) and we headed off down to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. It was so fun! We ate our chicken, potatoes, and carrots. Then we read about the last supper. We talked to Mary Kate about the Isrealites and why the bread was unleavened (even though ours wasn't-hey, it was still flat). I don't think she completely understood, but I think she understood enough. Then we tasted the bread dipped in the bitter herb oil (she did not like that part-but it got the point across). Then we broke the bread and passed the grape juice and explained that Jesus did that with his disciples. It was really fun! IT was a beautiful day and so nice! I think next year we will try to do a more traditional passover meal, I don't know if we will make it a picnic or not. I guess we have a long time to think about it. It will be a nice tradition to really help us focus on the only reason for Easter. To focus on our Faith and our Savior. Anyways, afterwards we walked around the Botanic Gardens and had fun taking pictures of our families! It is really nice to live so close to my sister! Here are some pictures:

HGTV and Silence

So I have been secretly (or not so secretly) enjoying two things lately: HGTV (specifically house hunters, my first place and property virgins) and silence. The first, HGTV, I think stems from my desire not to be holed up in a tiny two bedroom apartment. I am conflicted whether or not I am actually sinning by watching these shows so much since they sometimes spur me towards coveting the television personas' ability to buy a house. In truth, I really don't want to buy a house because I don't want to have to deal with the markets right now, or the upkeep of a house. I just want the actual house. The space of it. The freedom of it. Anyways, I am enjoying seeing all the fun and gorgeous houses that other people are getting to buy. The second is a bit of a surprise. I am really starting to enjoy the super quiet house in the evenings when Mike is at work. It has taken me a while to really like my alone time and to get used to Mike working nights. I have started to enjoy it so much that some nights when Mike is home I actually miss the silence. It is nice to be able to relax and not think and blog or facebook or check email, or heck, just pee by myself in a quiet house. Well, that is that. On another note, Mary Kate is one patch away from finishing her cubbies book this year. It is so exciting and so sweet and I love that she is learning so much about Jesus and learning to hide his word in her heart. On the flip side, My baby's growing up! :( I know it really is happy, and I love that she is growing up, but I feel like she is doing it too fast. Just yesterday she was 4 months old, now she is almost 4 years old and Brianna is 4 months old. Where does the time go?

Some Awesome Pictures by Serena Garciadiaz

http://sgarciadiaz.shutterfly.com

Where did March go???

I just realized I missed the whole month of March in blogging. I am not a very consistent blogger anyways, but gosh, a month. The problem isn't just that I missed blogging this month, but I feel like I literally missed the whole month! Where did it go? I don't remember March going by this fast. I remember stuff that happened in March, but man, its April. Wow! So the kids are getting bigger which is great and sad at the same time. Brianna is rolling all over and is quite tall. We will find out how tall this week at her 4 month appointment. Mary Kate is Mary Kate, and if you know Mary Kate, that make sense. Tonight she told me that when she grows up she wants to be "a Princess farmer's wife with a pink tractor"! Only in her head could she come up with that! I swear, her imagination gains life by the second. In mid march we went to Kentucky to visit my parents. Shonda and I loaded up her little 4 door car with our stuff, a 3 year old (MK), a 5 month old (Jeremiah-her son), and a 3 month old (Bria) and ourselves and we drove through the night 13 hours. We were a little tired when we got there, but the Grammy and Papa got some quality time with the grandkids while we napped. MK got to ride on a real and really big John Deere Farming Tractor. One of the neighbors runs a farm and told Papa that he could come by and take MK for a ride if he wanted. She had a blast (and so did Papa)! We also found an arts center at the local community college where they had just opened up and Elementary Student Art Exhibit. It was cute and MK liked it since some stuff looked alot like the art projects that she makes. We also ventured out to the Evansville, IN Zoo and Botanic Garden. It was a lot of fun. It was the first time I had taken MK to the zoo, although I think I lost out on some of the experience of that as there were two grandparents and an aunt who all were enjoying her as well. We all enjoyed it though, except the snakes which FREAKED her out! Especially the fake snake that was right next to the path that we were walking on that MK noticed when she was about 8 inches away from it. I think Mike might have heard her scream all the way from Texas! She didn't realize it was fake at first. Well, we are back and are hanging in there. Only a couple more weeks until the end of the semester. Pray for us as we try to decide where and when he should take summer classes (SWBTS or SMU). Thats all for now. Enjoy some pics from our time in Kentucky!

us by the large tractor tire!

Shonda and Jeremiah in front of the "small" tractorYes, we were supposed to be this close! It was neat!




Me and my girls!

Grammy, Papa, and all the grandkids!