For Sale...

As of today our house is officially listed FOR SALE! So yes come one come all and please buy it! Not that we know exactly where we will be yet. You see we found this house in Old Cloverdale we LOVE... but you shouldn't be surprised that Chris and I are a little picky. And it is missing 1 thing on the want list!

What we both want:
1- Character
2- Not cookie cutter

What Chris wants :
1- Garage

What Jessica wants:
1- Either a 4th bedroom/or office so that the 3 bedrooms can be bedrooms
2- 2 1/2 baths or 3 baths

Well we live in Montgomery and to find all those things is HARD! So we're house hunting right now. This means my website of choice for now is http://www.alamls.com/. I live there lately I feel like. We know the right house will come and God will place us wherever he wants us to be. So we're in a pickle, we want our house to sell quickly but there may be a chance that when it sells we have nowhere to go! Anybody want to welcome us into their home?

40% Off

Some of you may know this... I am slightly addicted to shopping. Chris figured this out the hard way. Well I used to never look at sales... now in my married stage of life I always look at sales. One of my favorite stores is Ann Taylor Loft. My co-worker deals with this on a daily basis with me. It is so perfect for my life.... professional yet trendy enough for work, dressy enough for a contemporary church, comfortable for travel, and fun enough for social activities. I swear- if I woke up one day and was told it was the only store left in existence, I would be okay. So all week I've been getting e-mails about how everything is 40% off. 2 problems with this...
1- I'm on a two month clothing spending freeze. (sort of- I took one small detour on April 1st and bought an outfit) Other than that I have stuck to my freeze to show my husband how much willpower I have.
2- We might be about to buy a new house... aka I have to show how seriously I can stick to a budget.

Because of this I have been having to ignore those enticing 40% off e-mails. But today, just because it is Friday I thought I would indulge myself by picking out what I would purchase if I could.

Feminine but fun and super comfy. This needs to be my lake top for this summer with white shorts, pants, jeans, everything maybe.

Everything about white and linen makes me smile! With Easter being a week away it is officially time to pull out the whites. This would be perfect for work... feeling a casual Sunday at church. Top it work a pretty blouse, to be more casual just throw on a tee, or even pull over a blazer if it is still chilly one day/night. LOVE

 Oh the many things I love about this. 1- I love skirts. 2- You look and you can't really tell whether its animal print or not. 3- Its not as super long as some pencil skirts for short girls like me. Skirts at work make me smile :)

 So those are the things I love at the Loft right now. None of these will make its way to my closet; however, a girl can dream. For now I'll just go look at my overly full closet and remember how extremely blessed I am.

Blah...

To be honest, I'm just having one of those days. I slept way too much yesterday.. 6:30-9:30 then 10:30 to 6:30- bad idea. I'm paying for it today. I haven't been in a good mood, things getting on my nerves, slightly emotional, ya know all those not so fun things. What I'm trying to say is I'm just not myself. So self- come back. I'm 99% of the time bubbly and excited and glowing and looking forward to what is coming up next. But right now I'm blah and a little sad to go on top of that. So to make myself feel better I'm going to list all of the good things that are going on right now...

1- There are only 2 more hours of work left and the last hour will be spent at a meeting.
2- Tomorrow is Thursday which means Friday is soon after...
3- We go to the lake with some friends this weekend YAY!
4- Chris and I will have been married 6 months on Saturday :-)

See... I have so much to be excited about even in just the next few days! So self come back and be happy about it!

Chains...

This weekend I am a Chaperone/Small Group Leader for our Youth's Girls Retreat. The theme for the weekend is Chained. It will both be focused on breaking our chains to this world and then in turn being chained to Christ.

 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. ¹³ As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. ¹⁴ And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. Phillippians 1:12-14

Paul spoke in Phillippians about how he was chained to Christ and because of this he was able to bring others to Christ. What difference could we make if we truly broke our chains to this world and to sin and fully let ourselves be chained to Christ... We could experience true freedom for ourselves but just imagine what effect we would have on others.

My sweet husband is helping one of our friends lead worship for the retreat this weekend and the theme song per say is "Holding Nothing Back." This song proclaims very empowering lyrics about us not letting anything keep up from being fully a child of God and living fully for him. Let these words speak to you today...

I am chosen, I am free
I am Living for eternity
Free now forever

You picked me up, turned me around
You set my feet on solid ground
Yours now forever

And nothing’s gonna hold me back
Nothing’s gonna hold me back
Nothing’s gonna hold me back

My chains fell off
My heart was free
I’m alive to live for you
I’m alive to live for you
Amazing Love, how can it be?
You give everything for me
You give everything for me

You washed my sin and shame away
The slate is clean: a brand new day,
Free now forever

Now boldly I approach your throne
To claim this crown through christ my own
Yours now forever

And nothing’s gonna hold me back
Nothing’s gonna hold me back
Nothing’s gonna hold me back

My chains fell off
My heart was free
I’m alive to live for you
I’m alive to live for you
Amazing Love, how can it be?
You give everything for me
You give everything for me

I’m free to live
Free to give
Free to be
I’m free to love you

Play Dates

Okay so all of my friends with children (which is a lot) always talk about their kids play dates. Boo! The fun you miss when you don't have kids! So anyway- my friends Amanda and Rachel and I got the four of our babies/furbabies together for a play date last night and here is the result....

Jacks met his best friend Fletch. Fletch is a miniature schanuzer that is I think like 4 months old! He is our friend Adam and Amanda's "furbaby" and has so much energy and is so lively! They were instant friends. We walked in the house and they started running around and they didn't stop until I left!

Jacks and Fletch also got to hang out with two of their favorite friends... Caroline and Amelia! They would play around Amelia and she would smile and giggle but if they got too close to Caroline she went into her assertive mode and was sure to tell them "NO!"

I was able to get lots of love from 2 of my favorite little girls which made my day! Amelia is getting so comfortable with Mommy and Daddy's friends and Caroline was just as fun and spunky as ever!

Thanks for the play date Amanda and Fletch and Rachel, Caroline, and Amelia. Jacks slept like a baby and can't wait to do it again!

Today!!!

Mind you, as I write this post a few words may come to your mind...
Pathetic...
Cheesy...

I'm not really sure I care. You see Chris and I have spent the night away from eachother on two different occassions since we got married. I was the first to leave...
A few weeks ago I left from Wednesday to Saturday to go on a girl's trip! Boy was it fun! But... I must admit that it is easier to leave than to be the one left.
Chris left early Monday morning (before I woke up) and was gone two nights. He comes back today! YAY!!!! It is not nearly as fun being the one left behind. So I came up with a list of why I don't like him being gone and then a few things that were nice about him being gone. The second list was much harder to come up with!

Why I Don't Like Chris being gone...
1- I hear EVERY noise in the house. SCARY
2- It is really dark when I take Jacks out to go potty. SCARY
3- I have to come home everyday at lunch. Commute from work-home=25 minutes
4- I really love my husband!
5- He takes care of me... really he does!
6-  You can talk to someone a lot more when you live together. The phone=not as fun.

What was nice about him being gone...
1- I didn't cook 1 meal
2- Don't tell him but I didn't make up the bed until today because he's coming back today
3- He doesn't let Jacks sleep in the bed and I let Jacks sleep in the bed last night!

So yes I may be pathetic and cheesy but I'm ready for my hubbs to come home!

Borrowed words...

Certain people around me lately have spoken some things I really needed to hear lately and I thought I would share...

1- Really focusing on being single-minded. We all tend to be so double-minded focusing on God but also focusing on the world and what people think. We're called to be single-minded in our focus, our thoughts, our devotion.

2- Ministry for God is not time spent with God. 9 words. It is amazing how 9 words can make a huge impact on my life. I love ministry for God. I love time spent at our church. I love serving God in different capacities. And God loves that. It is his heart for us to serve him and do his ministry. But, he wants us. He wants us to sit at his feet and listen, seek Him, worship Him. I do both- but what do I spend more time doing? I'm ashamed to admit that I probably spend more time doing ministry for Him then just sitting and spending time apart with and for Him. A few weeks ago I was incredibly blessed to have a few days to really sit in a place where I could admire His beautiful creation and spend time repenting, time in prayer, time worshipping, time reading, and time allowing Him to speak to me. What a gift that was. It made me realize how much more that needs to be a part of my everyday existence.
Not just read my Bible, read a Devotional, Worship, Pray.
Sit.
Quiet.
Solitude.
Listening.

Quiet sometimes scares me....
But those few days showed me that the quiet times with God can be the most beautiful and Spirit filled times that we have.