Papers and Patios

I'm not doing the photo-a-day challenge anymore,

but that doesn't mean I can't do a post all about my recent pictures.

First, this is a picture I took on my drive home from class last week.

Of course, I love getting out of class early.

But when I get out too early, I have to take the toll road home, 

which means I have to face this

1) I'm scared of bridges

2) I'm scared of heights

This is just bad all around. 

Especially when traffic is stop and go the entire way up.

Michael and I have been having a little competition the past couple months

We were at Target one day where he found 2 polos,

and I found shoes for about the same price.

We decided to keep track to see who gets more value out of their purchases.

 You can see who won that challenge.

Yesterday I had a huge paper due at midnight.

Of course, I waited until Monday to start writing it,

so Buster tried to help me out a little bit.

Also yesterday, Michael picked up our new patio set!

 We found it for a great price on Craigslist,

(of course, we don't really buy furniture new)

and I am in love!

I have already had two meals out there.

 And, I even did some of my paper outside.

Those of you who say "Houston is too hot" have obviously not been here in April.

It is perfect!

However, we are probably going to need an umbrella for it soon.

Happy Wednesday!

Anniversarys All Around

The blog-iversary is not the only 1 year celebration that we have had lately.

At the beginning of April, Michael celebrated his 1 year at JV. 

It is hard to believe that it has already been a year. 

It was a pretty big adjustment:

moving to a new church,

meeting all new people,

and the biggest one: Michael having full reigns of the youth group.

He has loved it, of course!

And everyone has loved him, of course!

(I'm a little biased, but I never doubted that they would)

We have been blessed beyond belief by the JV family in our short time here.

 This weekend, we decided to have a date night,

and use a gift card that we were given for our 1 year.

It was to one of the BEST restaurants in Houston - Taste of Texas

Waiting for a table

Michael and half of our HUGE steak

YUM!

Great dinner, even better guy!

Thank you to everyone that has accepted us, loved us, encouraged us, 

and supported us this past year! 

It has been such a wonderful first year, 

and we are looking forward to many more with our JV family.

*In other news:

I tried out a hair wand this weekend.

One of my good friends let me borrow it and I am in love!

Its super easy to use.

And it lasts so. long.

Even better, Michael is in love!

So I guess I will be buying my own wand soon.

Also, aren't these invitations super cute!!

I'm getting really excited for my Mother-Daughter Tea!

Blog-iversary!

Today marks one year since I started this blog.

I started it mainly as a way to keep up with all the blogs that I read,

 but also as a way for family and friends to keep up with us.

It is still all of these things,  

but I also think it has really become more of a scrapbook for me.

 I used to make actual scrapbooks.

Who really has time for that?

I mean, I can barely keep up with this type of scrapbook, 

and it doesn't involve cutting paper and being crafty.

In celebration of the blogiversary,

here are some random facts about the blog.

1) The most viewed post is Making an Impact

 I think this is a fluke.

Or someone who reads my blog regularly saved the link to this page.

I mean, Impact was a great week, but surely not that popular.

2) The second most viewed post is Some More What?

This is probably correct.

It's also a favorite recipe among the teens.

3) The label used the most times is "Life"

That is boring, and covers every post

So...

4) The 2nd most used label is "Family"

and the 3rd is "Youth Group"

I would say those accurately describe the way I spend my time,

and what I find most important to write about and remember.

5) There are 160 posts from the past year.

I would say that is pretty good, all things considered.

I might try to do better this year.

6) If it weren't for this blogs I would forget all about the great times we have had.

Like building a desk here 

 The awkward times on our vacation here

Catching a ball between my legs in the softball game here

Or how many times I painted our chairs here

7) Michael's favorite post is Harry Potter World

and my favorite is a toss up between the Royal Wedding, Kate Middleton

and Michael shaving his beard!

Well, there you have it!

Lots has happened over the past year.

Now that I look back at some of the posts, 

I am really glad that I have kept up with blogging.

Hope you guys are ready... (if not, stop reading)

Here comes another year of the Johns Journey!

Teenage Weekend

This weekend was all about the teens!

Some of you are absolutely terrified by that thought, I'm sure.

I could not be happier about it though.

It was our JV Youth Retreat this weekend, and the focus was on Spiritual Gifts.

We talked about the different parts of the body of Christ,

and why it is important for each part to be working and doing its part.

Then, we took the Spiritual Gifts Assessment,

(thank you Discovering Your Gifts class at OC)

The assessment gives around 25 different gifts, so after the test Michael went through each one, 

explaining the gift, 

and giving an example of someone with this gift in the Bible.

Last, each of the kids came up with a plan for how to use their gift in this year.

It was such a positive, empowering, and encouraging weekend.

This group of kids never ceases to amaze me with their dedication to the Lord, 

and to serving His church.

What a blessing to see them putting their faith into action!

Some of them have already started to use their gifts.

Double Blessing!

And, I even got some homework done while on the retreat.

Triple Blessing!

The Body Parts Game = Mass Chaos

Taking the assessment

Love watching him do his thing!

Sharing their plans with the group

They found a spider...and fed it a moth. Sick.

Such a Diva

Some of the best!

Such a CRAZY group!

 We got back Saturday, and the next day was Sunday Night Live at JV.

I was in the kitchen most the time

(no woman jokes, please)

but there were TONS of teens!

Get to know you games

It was really just the perfect weekend.

Yard Day

Michael and I both took the day off today.

Him, because he has been working like crazy to get ready for the youth retreat tomorrow.

And me, because I'm going on the youth retreat, and I haven't used any "miss" days in school, and time is running out.

So instead of work and school, we did yard work!

Doesn't that just sound like your dream day off?

It actually was a pretty great day.

Hot, dirty, smelly, and exhausting...but great.

I wish I had before pictures.

Here is a picture from the real estate website before we moved in.

If you can't tell, the vegetation is taking over.

Believe it or not it got even worse before it got better.

First, the youth came over and did some demolition.

Then it didn't rain all summer...and fall.

Luckily we have some youth boys that are landscapers and they came and saved most of it for us.

It's been almost a year though, and due to the lack of rain, 

a few of the shrubs and plants needed to be replaced.

So we took care of it today.

Here is a before from today...but after I cleaned out all the leaves that had piled up.

Not terrible.

But not awesome.

This little one is my favorite.

However, the area behind the fence is completely terrible.

Yikes.

We did finally remove that stumps of shrubs that were along the porch, because we were tired of tripping over them every day. 

So excited they are gone!

After we did some clearing out, we took a trip to Lowe's.

I had done some research so I knew exactly what I wanted.

Michael had a little accident with the shovel, 

so we had to get a new one of those while we were there too.

It took all afternoon, but we finally finished.

Our new baby Hostas

We added mulch, Hostas, and an Oleander

The finished product!

It was a long day, but I finally feel like our house has some curb appeal.

I ended the day with a mani/pedi. 

The massage chair alone would have been enough, but I like pretty nails too.

We have retreat this weekend where the kids will learn what their spiritual gifts are and how to use them!

Keep us all in your prayers!

Happy Weekend!

Happy Birthday Sister!

Today is my sister's birthday,

and I can't think of a better reason to end my blogging hiatus.

(But really, I've just been busy with school/youth group/life, not on hiatus)

So this post is dedicated to you, Sister!

Happy 22nd Birthday Bailey!!

I'm so blessed to have you as a Sister!

You are kind, loving, forgiving, and beautiful inside and out.

We are pretty different, but some of my very favorite things about myself are the ways that we are alike! 

I love you so much, Sister!!

Hope that your day is full of love, happiness, and many blessings!

You deserve the very best!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Hello

You know its not going to be the best blog post when you spend 7 minutes staring at the title line, 

and still can't come up with anything to put in the little box.

Which is why I'm just saying "hello"

I'm sorry to say it, but that might just be a sign of how April is going to be for me.

It is a month of finishing up my Masters Program's research project, writing lots of papers, interviewing for internship, planning a few parties, and going on the Spring Retreat.

I think that it is going to be a great month though, 

and when it's over I will

A) Be done with school until the Fall!!

B) Only have 1 year of school left!

C) Know where I will be working for the next year during my internship!

- Please keep me in your prayers as I go through the interviewing process.

I know where I want to go for internship,

but I know that God is in control, and I am trying to trust Him with this process.

I wanted to catch you all up on what has been going on lately.

As you can possibly tell: I quit the photo-a-day challenge.

I just didn't like it.

Maybe I'll try again after April is over.

Here are a few of my own pictures though!

- Buster got a haircut!

And he has been so happy to have that shaggy coat gone!

- My student organization painted bowls for a charity auction

Here is my bowl.

And some of us at the service project.

- I got a suit for my interviews
I'm such a professional now.

 (Professionals take pictures in dressing rooms, right??)
- We had a Service Saturday this weekend and we spent the morning passing out flyers for the JV Friends and Family Day

This is the group before.

And after walking all morning, in the heat.

Summer is here in Houston.

Great.

That day, we celebrate one of the middle school girl's birthdays, 

and she had the best cake I have ever seen.

Zombies.

Awesome!

Welcome to April, hope you all got fooled yesterday!