July

Somehow, we are three weeks into July, and in spite of my attempts to get everything done my to-do list keeps growing longer. Two weeks from today I will be a Virginia resident again, and four weeks from today I will have completed my first day of official classes as a Graduate student. While I'm excited at dusting off the old books again and diving once more into the world of academia, the details that come with starting a new chapter in life are a little overwhelming.

And somehow, in the midst of finishing an online preparatory class, wrapping up things at work, and moving to another state, I have to figure out a way to say good-bye to this little guy.

I know God would not have widely opened this door and directed me to it if He was not going to give me the energy and strength to walk through it. And while "Kissa's" heart will definitely break to leave my current buddies, I'm really excited to see what God is going to do with me in Virginia.

"Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings ALL mine with 10,000 beside!"

Sleepover With My Girls

"Miss Karissa is too boy-ish…" "Yeah, her bed is red and blue and looks like a boy's!" "And girls aren't supposed to like baseball!"

Chloe

"Jenna, why do you read those books? They have bad words in them." "Yeah, I know. She calls someone D. U. M. B.!" "And there's the S word…you know…the C-H word... [whispers] Shut Up."

Essie looking rather suspicious.

"Ha, now we know what your secret ingredient to making pizza is—oil!" "That's true, but did you see what else I put on there?" "You put something else on it?" "Yep." "So we don't know then, do we?"

As I suspected. She scared me to death up there.

"All we want to do is go back to your house and play school, and all you want to do is stay at the playground and swing." "I never get to swing." "We get to swing all the time. I'll swing some for you later."

It's a good thing I didn't feed them any sugar… 

"Miss Karissa, Essie has moved and taken over my spot, and now I don't have anywhere to put my head." "Well, Mosby is sleeping on my pillow, so I can't sleep there. Where do you want me to sleep?!"

Jenna

"Last night was the greatest night of my life!" "Why, because you were at my house with Chloe and Essie?" "Yes!"

Best Friends

Wednesdays

For the past year and a half I have had the privilege of teaching our kids program on Wednesday nights at my church, and it is easily the second biggest highlight of my week (the biggest, of course, being the Sunday School hour on Sunday mornings when I'm in the nursery!)

We have four kids who come on a regular basis and a handful of others who come and go. Last May we started memorizing the books of the Bible, and two weeks ago we finished learning all of them. Last week I printed out a list of the Old Testament books and cut them out then made the kids put them back into order. They did so great, only mixing up a couple of the minor prophets. Let's face it—who hasn't mixed those up at one time or another? 

Their favorite activity is coloring, which gives me an easy lesson on weeks I'm too busy to plan anything big. Pick a Bible story, find a picture they can color while I read it to them, and they're happy and content. That has given me so much flexibility to start connecting stories with the book names they're learning. We have an Esther Ruth in the class, and as a result, those two books are, somewhat biasedly, our favorite books and stories.

We also love to sing together, or just dance/run around in circles while the music plays. Our favorite song is Ha, La, La, in which we have to do things like squeeze knees and scratch backs, or, as is most often the case, just scream, "Ha-la-la-la-la-la-lay-luiah" at the top of our lungs. I'm sure the youth group, meeting directly across the hall, is every bit as thrilled about music time as we are.

These pictures were taken during a rendition of the song. No matter how many times I say we aren't going to get on top of the table, we somehow always manage to end up there. My constant, ineffective, fussing about this seems to fall on deaf ears. My love for them and my example to them is, I hope, falling on tender hearts, which one day will help shape these kids to grow into valuable instruments in God's hands.

The Horse and His Girl

Courtney & Cody, a real-life love story.

Kentucky Christmas

We picked out our Christmas tree the first weekend in December, and found the perfect tree we named Gandalf. I don't have a picture of him. I did, though, capture Courtney and Sam turning into macho-girls.

Then, Santa left me the perfect Christmas gift. Or, rather, he left Mosby the perfect gift. Or he gave Mosby…himself? I'm not sure what the correct interpretation of that picture is. 

 We had our house Christmas early, while everyone was still in town. We ate Cathedral Windows and Corn Flakes Wreaths while we unwrapped gifts.

Christy certainly knows the way to my heart. This was the perfect companion to Sam's gift for me, which was The Bread Bible. I predict our house will smell very good this year.

You know that's right. 

So, Mosby is a very spoiled cat. I freely admit I am partially to blame for this. I also freely admit his aunties are also partially to blame for this. Aunt Sam got him an Angry Bird for Christmas, much to his delight.

Mosby's mommy also got an Angry Bird (although not from Sam, so this was a coincidence, not a premeditative pairing), so we match. How cute are we?

Christmas Eve I rushed back from work to celebrate the holiday with my KY family. I really enjoyed getting to experience their traditions, and I really, really enjoyed getting a cheesecake pan in their gift exchange "game" (that I may or may not have brought myself).

The best part of the evening was getting to be with my buddies and see them enjoy the Christmas festivities. Tyler went from showing us his "face" to trying to walk around while keeping a bow on his head. That is one Christmas present I would take!

Christmas day Sam and I went to my church and then came home and made a Christmas ham with all the fixin's. We watched It's A Wonderful Life and then in the evening I had Christmas Morning with my family. Thanks, Apple, for giving us FaceTime!

My sisters have ensured that I will have plenty to do in the kitchen this year. I got bread pans, cooking utensils, a gravy separator, and…doughnut pans!

To sum up my Christmas, here's this:

I love Christmas!

Christmas with Family

I made it home for a week(ish) around my mom's birthday, and we took advantage of having the whole family home for a day to go get the Christmas tree. I repeated the tree picking process a week later to kick off the Kentucky Christmas festivities, but that's an entirely different post. We went to the same tree farm we've gone to for the past decade or more, and, while I tried to rescind my opinion on "pokey" trees (more commonly known as Scotch Pines), we picked out a White Pine like we've done for the past twenty-five Christmases (and maybe longer…those are the only ones I can attest to).

While everyone else took the tree choosing seriously, I spent more time with my camera. The lighting that particular day was outstanding. The color I was getting made me want to just keep taking photos. So I did.

We finally just had to choose one so we could get home and make a birthday dinner for Mom. Try as we did, we couldn't get her to leave the kitchen and let us cook. What's the good of having grown (and mostly grown) daughters if you still have to cook your own birthday dinner?

We made her stuffed shells (which were amazing) and garlic bread and a salad and a german chocolate cake. And successfully managed to kick her out of the kitchen.

My family, for the most part, cancelled their weekly activities to be home, and we got some quality Bananagrams playing time. We also fit in a basketball game and I let Kaitlyn drive away in my car. By herself. That was weird.

While the trip seemed to fly by, it was great to get some time there. Due to being in a wedding the week after Christmas and working in retail, I couldn't squeeze in getting home for Christmas itself. I did get to spend some time with my family on Christmas day via Skype, though, and got to celebrate the day with my roommate and church family. While different, I definitely enjoyed the Christmas season (and got some fun kitchen things too!) I'll try to get some KY Christmas (and wedding) pictures up soon.

BitterSweet

After much preparation and planning and anticipation, we finally get to marry Christy off today. The sweet part about the event is that she is marrying a great guy who is crazy about her and respects her and treats her like she deserves to be treated. The bitter part about the event is that he is whisking her off to Iowa, which, last I checked, is not exactly next door.

Having lived with her for pretty much the past 5 1/2 years, this will be a bit of an adjustment for me. We had one major in common and were on the same hall for three years. Our last year at school we technically lived in different dorms but realistically both lived in the library, and logged many hours side-by-side at our table on the main floor. The past year and half we've been housemates, which worked out incredibly well in spite of the fact that dishes are really important to me while not so much to Christy (and the fact that she originally did not like my cat. At all. Fortunately, their relationship improved as the months went on.)

Christy is an amazing girl who has always been there for me and challenged me in my faith when I've needed that accountability. I've held her when she's sobbed and she's done the same to me. She has always had an open ear and her presence alone would be an encouragement during times I was really struggling. We have signed contracts to hold each other accountable and spent hours praying for and over each other and anyone else the Lord laid on our hearts. Most of all, we have just been able to be real with each other.

Christy, thank you for your friendship and the amazing example you have been to me throughout the years. You have blessed my life more than I think you will ever be able to know. Kentucky's loss is Iowa's gain, and I have no doubt that any corn exported from there in the next few years will be that much sweeter because you are there.