Christmas 2011!!

Our Christmas happenings:

- Christmas program at Joy school! The kiddos dressed up as shepherds and angels! And sang songs about Jesus, not much is sweeter than that! :)

- Matt and I went to New York with my mom and my brother the week before Christmas! We had a great time! There was soo much to see and do, wish we could have stayed for a few more days. I'm just gonna let the pictures tell the story!

View from our hotel! Yes, thats the new years ball!

We rode bikes through Central Park!

Rockefeller Center! Love the Christmas-y feel everywhere!

Mom and bro! Love them!

Our first subway ride! So cool!

That sphere set in front of the World Trade Center and what was left was displayed as memorial.

Matt posin in front of the Statue of Liberty

With my love at the 9/11 memorial. So many different emotions as we should there looking at the place the twins towers once were, with a list of names of those lost listed on the sides of the waterfall.

Empire State Building. Matt and Logan went to the 102nd floor of this building, but I'm afraid of heights, so instead I chose to go shopping at The original Macy's! 

 We got dressed up for a Broadway play! We saw Addam's Family with Brooke Shields! 

With the hubs at the play! It was soo good!

Ok, that was alot of pictures but I thought that would be the best way to describe our experience there! Of course, there was many more pics but I would be here all day if I put all of them on here. We are so very thankful that we got to go with my mom and brother! 

- When we got back from NYC, we quickly hurried around getting ready for Christmas at our house with the Stanley side! Dawn, Toby, and Reagan are staying with us! Such a blessing! 

Our 3rd Christmas together! :)

This is my beautiful niece, Reagan!

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17

 

My battle with Anxiety

I decided on this topic, because I just stopped talking an anti-depressants that I had been taking for 8 months for Generalized Anxiety disorder. Praise Jesus! I know that it is only through him and by him that I have been able to overcome the anxiety and I must daily surrender myself to Him, saying "I need you every moment!" 

Well....hears my story! Last year in Septmember, I had gone to eat at Cici's with Matt and some friends. While there I started to get a migraine (migraines are normal for me) and then that migraine lead to a panic attack, which at the time I did not know was a panic attack. I felt that my heart was pounding, I was shaking uncontrollably, and I felt as though I was having a hard time breathing. I made Matt rush me to the emergency room and there the doctor ran some test that showed everything was fine! The doctors gave me a pain relief shot and we were on our way home, not really sure what happened. These attacks continued to happen about once a week, then went to twice a week, and continued to get more often. I decided I better check with my primary care doctor. The doctor assumed it was generalized anxiety disorder, but wanted to ran some test to be sure it was nothing else. So my battle with anxiety started.... And thats exactly what it was, a daily battle against the devil who was feeding my mind with lies that I started to believe. I lived in fear of everything. I had irrational thoughts. It changed who I was. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't do my job. I cried. I feared being alone. I was afraid that this would be permanent. There was always medicine I could take, but I refused to take medicine. "I did not want to be that person who was dependent on medicine." My anxiety controlled me. At this point, in December, I decided I better see a counselor. I started visiting with a counselor at our church once a month. Things were a little better, but I was not back to my normal self. After getting advice from several others who struggled with anxiety as well, I decided I better take medicine to help me get my feet back under me. At the end of February, I started an antidepressant called Pristiq and it got me back to Landra! 

This was all during our first year of marriage, we were definitely being tested! And I would say Matt passed. Through the anxiety, Matt was sooo patience! He could never really understand me or what was going on (I didn't even know), but he was soo comforting and so supportive. The biggest thing of all is that Matt showed me more of God's unconditional love by the way he loved me during this time!

I am now on the outside of the storm and praising Jesus! When I looked back over the last year, I don't really understand why or the purpose, but I do know that God always does things for my good and his glory. Ps. 84:11 "...no good thing does he withhold from those who walk with integrity." Now, I control the anxiety, it DOES NOT control me. 

Novemember

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is over and we had a good one! I started Thanksgiving by celebrating at Joy School! We made little turkeys out of pinecones! Turned out pretty cute!

The kiddos dressed up as Pilgrims and Indians, then we had a thanksgiving feast! 

For the thanksgiving break we traveled to Lubbock to be with my mom and then went to my grandma's in Earth (yes that is a town in Texas ha). My mom's side of the family is very BIG, so we had a HUGE thanksgiving meal and it was yummy! There is usually around 30 family members at our family feast! From lubbock, we drove to Denver City to spend the weekend with my dad and his wife. My best friend, Kailee, was on her way back from ruidoso and her parents dropped her off in DC to spend the weekend with us! Also, Jakody, was in DC visiting his parents. It was soo great spending the weekend with friends and family! This was the first car ride for our new puppy, Lola! She did great and loves to lay with her friend, Presley!

Kailee and I made a Eggnog cookies! A recipe from pinterest! 

Love her!

Power was out for 3 hours in DC and my daddy refused to let it stop him from making us breakfast!

The weekend before Thanksgiving break, we traveled to Houston to see Dawn, Toby, and Reagan since we would not be seeing them for the break. While there we did a full saturday of football.... ESPN Game day in the morning and then the Cougars football game in the afternoon!

The guys made this sign the night before and Matt held the sign up like this for 2 hours, just to be seen on ESPN. And.... he made his first ESPN appearance! 

At the cougars game! These girls cheered the whole time! And I become a Case Keenum fan! 

It was a great weekend! Glad we got to go!

Thanksgiving is over and now it is time for Christmas! Love this time of the year! My tree is up and my house smells like pinecones and winter! :) 

Lola!

One saturday afternoon, Matt and I were out running all these errands we NEEDED to do, and we decided to stop at Petsmart. Everyone knows where the story goes from there..... we came home with this precious puppy!

We named her Lola! She is a collie mix, about 6 months old now. We have had her for almost a month. We were fostering her to adopt, which allowed us to decide if we wanted to keep her or not and I think we decided to keep her. We have another dog, Presley (dachsund/cocker spaniel mix, 3 years old) and he loves to play with Lola. They will chase each other for hours around the living room. 

So sweet! :) 

Lola does this really funny thing where she attacks Presley like he is her prey! It is soo cute!

Halloween Festivities!

Happy Halloween! It's fall time and the weather is getting cooler! Love this time of year! 

At Joy School we had trunk or treat and dressed up for halloween! My kids are soo precious in their costumes! Mario, Snow White, an army man, a ballerina, Mickey Mouse, and Transformers all came to my classroom that day! :)

And I dressed up as a baseball player!

We had a pumpkin craving party last night (10/30) with our bible study small group. We meet at some friend's house, Anna and Steven Heimbecker, ate finger foods and then got to work craving pumpkins. I don't really like craving pumpkins, but I don't remember ever craving one as a child. Therefore I did not crave a pumpkin, but everyone else did! For the party I made some Green Slime Punch! Check out the link for the recipe, it was yummy! 

Matt with his big pumpkin! He decided to crave what seemed like the hardest thing ever!

Here is his finished pumpkin! Turned out really good! I am so proud of my pumpkin cravin pro!

Our whole small group with their finished products! It was such a great time! I love being with these people!

We had a great Halloween and a great October!!

Joy School

Joy School has been such a blessing! I love my job! These are my 12 precious kiddos! We went to the pumpkin patch last week, picked a pumpkin, and painted it with our handprints! 

Each week we study a letter a week, this week (10/17 - 10/21) we studied the letter O. We made Our book of Opposites and painted the Orange pumpkin with our handprints! The kids get so excited about learning a new letter and making crafts! 

September 2011

I decided that I wanted to blog at the end of the month to record the memories for that month, so here goes for september:
          For labor day weekend, we went camping with the Stanley clan at Buescher State Park by Bastrop! It is always so nice to just get away from "life" for a few days and relax with family! Camping is used lightly in that sentence! The girls slept in a cabin with a bed and air conditioner, while the guys slept in a tent on the ground without air conditioner. We DID have to walk to the community bathroom/shower though. This is as close to camping as this girl will get! During our time here we cooked out, rode bikes, went swimming, and played games. I wish I had some pictures of our camping trip, but Matt and I are not very good at remembering to pack our camera. I am definitely trying to get better at this.
          On September 7th, I started teaching at Joy School! I teach 4 years old on monday, wednesday, and friday. I absolutely LOVE it and my 12 precious kiddos are a blessing! This job is definitely a huge change from the stress of public school I experienced last year. With this job Matt and I took a huge cut in income, but we are trusting that the Lord will provide every step. Sometimes we want to ask "why?" but we know that there is a purpose and a reason for every part of life. (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

          September 9th-11th, my beautiful friend Kailee Mitchell came to stay with us! It is always a blessing to have friends visit! We attended a friends wedding! I love weddings! 

          During September, Matt and I started attending 2 bible studies. Matt and I are leading a community life group through Paulann Baptist Church and we are studying "Experiencing God." Also, Matt has a men's bible study every Tuesday night that takes place at our house with some guys from his work. And during this time I am part of a girls Bible study with Cindi Dauphin. We are studying a book called "Girls Gone Wise in a Wild World." My prayer during the next few months is that we would truly experience God, be sensitive to His voice, and then be obedient to His will.
          September 16th- 18th My dad and his wife came to visit us! I love having visitors! Again, it was a blessing to have family here with us!
          September 23rd- 25th, we went to Odessa to spend the weekend with our friends Kailee and Jakody Huckaby. When us four get together it is a crazy, fun time! So instead of writing what we did, I'm just going to post photos! 

We bought "old school" clothes from Goodwill and got dressed up to eat & go bowling! We definitely got some looks!

We played disc golf too! One of our fav sports to do together!

We had a busy month, but it was an awesome, blessed-filled month! Our lives are busy and we are constantly going, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

First Blog!

I love memories, looking at old pictures, and talking about the past. Therefore, I thought blogging would be a perfect way to track what God was doing in and through our lives at certain times. "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Psalm 139:16

I am not much of a writer, but I have always wished I could write creatively. English was never my forte, so there is a good chance that I will make incomplete sentences and miss spell words. But, my only goal through this blog is to record LIFE. Our lives are just "normal," mundane lives. Matt stays busy with Caltech and I work part time as a teacher, which keeps me plenty busy after hours too (if you are a teacher you will know exactly what I'm talking about). We are very active during the evenings doing things like bible studies, working out, getting together with friends, and the occasional hobbies. Life is good and our Lord has truly blessed us!