Much Needed Spring Break!

Although I love my job, I have to say the best parts are June, July, August, 2 weeks at Christmas, 1 week for Thanksgiving and Spring Break!  This year we were able to go to Pagosa Springs, Colorado.  We stayed in Pagosa Springs and we skied Wolf Creek.  4 friends made the 15 hour trek with us in a rented mini van....awesome!  The drive was long, but well worth it!  

The whole group at the top of the mountain!

We stayed with some friends of our friend Dave who went with us.  The house we stayed in was amazing and the owners were amazing people who I feel blessed to have gotten to know a little bit.  Thank you so much Chris, Rachel, Sierra, and Cedar!  You made our trip so wonderful!

We skied for 3 days and it was a blast.  Michael snowboarded for the first time ever.  He did take some pretty rough falls, but ended up boarding blues most of the time.  I ventured out and skied my first black ever!  It was scary, but so much fun!  I am horrible at sports, especially ones that involve eye-hand coordination.  For some reason, when long things are attached to

 my feet, it feels natural!  I love to water ski and snow ski!  

      I still cannot figure out picture layout in this thing!  Sorry!

It was amazing to see the view from the top of the mountain.  I was thinking as I looked at the mountains and the beautiful snow how amazing it is that those mountains are there to glorify God. They were created to give Him glory and they cry out praises to Him in all of their beauty!All of this to say, Spring Break was great!  We feel so blessed to have this time off in March to recoop!  We feel extremely blessed to have it off together!  What a good thing the Lord has done for us!  

Happenings...

Some things that have been happening lately...

• I went this past weekend to Michael's cousin's bachelorette weekend.  It was so fun and such a blessing to be with his sweet aunt and cousins.  I am so blessed to be part of this family!
• My dad went on a Precept ministries men's retreat this past weekend.  The theme of the weekend was breaking strongholds of the past.  Mom called Sunday to say that he stood up in front of the church to talk about what the Lord is doing in his life.  He told them that he struggles with alcoholism and needs their help.  Praise God, this is a HUGE answer to prayer.
• Shared another valentine's day with the love of my life!  We went to dinner reeeaaalllly early, like at 4:30 then went to set up church.  It was a sweet time because I was able to reflect on Michael, his passion for me and his passion for ministry.  I love his heart and am so blessed to be his bride!
• Michael and I had a major heart to heart about all the baby stuff.  It can be overwhelming!  We talked about how we don't want to look back at this time in our marriage and have memories of being miserable because we couldn't have kids.  We want to enjoy each other and be used affectively in ministry.  We know that if we allow ourselves to be consumed by our sadness, we will become inaffective.  After this conversation, the peace that came over me has been indescribable.
• About a week after our conversation I was ironically standing in Babies R Us with my friend Amber who is 5 months pregnant.  We had gone to buy some boy clothes for her sweet baby on the way!  While I was there my phone rang and I answered.  It was my doctor's office calling with the results of some blood work I had to have done.  The first question the nurse asked was, "did you even have a cycle last month?"  I knew that since they were checking for ovulation, this was not a good question...because yes, I had.  She told me that progesterone levels following ovulation will be on average about a 10.  Mine was 2.6.  Ok, so this is low.  This is not great news.  That peace I was talking about....overwhelming peace....that passes all understanding....guarding my heart!  Amazing!  I was in Babies R Us hearing that I don't ovulate and I had peace.  Thank you Jesus for Your grace and Your overwhelming peace!  I am going through one more round of blood work this month and then we will talk about clomid.  
• Truly thank you to those who are praying.  We know that His timing is perfect.  We know we will have a sweet baby that is ours someday.  Pray specifically for continued peace over our thoughts and hearts.  Pray for my body, that a miracle would occur.  Pray for patience.  Pray that we are used in this situation for His glory!  We love you and we know that we have prayer warriors!  We are forever grateful and so overwhelmed by Him in these days!

"I want to sit at Your feet, drink from the cup in Your hand, lay back against You and breathe, fill Your heartbeat.  This love is so deep, it's more than I can stand.  I melt in Your peace, it's overwhelming!"  (The More I Seek You by: Kari Jobe)

R & R

My brother is home for a few weeks from Iraq for his R&R.  This past weekend I went to Ennis, to my parents so I could see him.  He looks great!  I am so proud of him.  I was able to see some pictures from his tour.  His platoon is doing some really great things over there to help the Iraqi people and prevent future attacks.  I am thankful for my brother and the men and women he serves with every day.  

I not only was able to see him, but his sweet family.  Chasten is 2 and Claire is 8 months.  She started walking at 7 months so she's walking like a pro now!  They are soooo cute!  I love being an aunt!  Here are some pics!  Chasten had a book of shapes and was naming the pictures.  He would say, "that's a star!"  "You like that star?"  It was adorable!  When he came to the page with a balloon on it, he said, "It's a party!"  "You like that party?"  We laughed and made him do it over and over again!  Soooooo adorable!

I can't upload my videos for some reason!  Maybe I'll figure it out later!  

In other news, I went in a few weeks ago for some blood work.  I have more scheduled for next Friday, February 6th.  This blood work is checking my hormone levels.  I will keep you updated on the results!  We continue to seek Him on this journey and this past month when I learned that once again I wasn't pregnant, I was overwhelmed with peace.  I am so grateful for His plan and His provision upon our lives!  Thank you for praying!  We are so thankful!

The Place to Be....

was our house, tonight...for an NFL football game that we were ASKED to record so the guys could come over to watch it after they played their own game of football!  Well...did you know that if you keep recorded things on your DVR it runs out of space???  Who knew???  Not me apparently...in my attempts to be super wife I was so proud of the fact that I even remembered to record the game at all.  So, we had a house full of guys and a few girls, snacks, pizza....and only half of a football game!  OOPS!  I learned my lesson and we have proceeded to delete some things off of our DVR list!  Some lessons are only learned the hard way!

So after we watched the first half, did they stay over for the good conversation?  NO....they left to go to another person's house who had the game recorded.  Michael stayed here so that was nice!  ;)...and I get to go to bed earlier!  Haha!

Some highlights of our Christmas/New Years/and 2009 so far...

*Christmas was wonderful.  My parents had a great visit and we enjoyed their company!  They gave me their China from their own wedding for Christmas.  This is soooo special!

*We traveled to Dallas for the Cotton Bowl and aside from the outcome, we had a great time!  We loved staying with our sweet friends George and Mandy.  We were able to see some precious college friends!  It was a blast!

*Tyson and Melissa came to San Antonio and visited our house!  I love that family!

*Michael's parents got us a gift certificate to a bed and breakfast.  We can't wait to use it!  

*I saw Bride Wars, which I think is a super cute chick flick...Warning:  do not take your guy or any guy with you to see this!  They will be sighing and grumbling the whole time!  I didn't take Michael, but I can only imagine his attitude if he had to sit through that movie!  Girls...go see it for sure!  Thanks for the invite Megan!  

*We were in bed at 11 on New Year's...but we celebrated with New York!  

*One of my goals this year is to memorize a verse a week!  I have been really lazy about scripture memory.  Thankfully, I have the help of 2 girlfriends...we are in this together!

*My brother is somewhere between Iraq and the US as I type this.  He's coming home for his R&R!  I am so proud of him and so thankful for his sacrifice for our country!

It's going to be a great year!!!

I'm Back!

It takes me so long between each post that I should really just stop apologizing!  Maybe I should commit to a day of the week to blog....I'll have to think about that and see what I can come up with!  

I'm sitting here on the couch and it's the night of December 20th.  Christmas is 4 days away.  I wish I could say I was finished shopping, but the truth is, we have alot to do!  Thankfully Michael and I are both off this week and the week after that.  We will have some time on Monday and Tuesday to shop.  We are those people who wait until the last minute.  Next year I want to be one of those people who finishes Christmas shopping in November!  We'll see if that happens!  We have so much fun shopping for our nieces and nephews at Christmas!  This year my mom and dad are coming to San Antonio for Christmas.  We are so excited to host them in our new house!  We are going to take them to a Spurs game and try to do a few other "San Antonio" things while they are here.  We are looking forward to our time with them.

As far as a baby journey update...

I had an HSG test done a few weeks ago.  This is a test where they insert dye into the uterus and watch under x-ray.  They are checking to make sure there is no blockage.  They are able to see if the dye spills over into the fallopian tubes without any trouble.  This test was extremely painful, but we found out that everything on my insides looks good.  This was a huge relief!  Praise God!  The next step is to have my blood tested on the 3rd day of my next cycle and then again on the 21st day.  They are going to check my hormone levels to see if I have ovulated or not.  My cycles have been totally out of whack lately so this will be interesting!  We are still confident in our Lord and His timing.  We continue to seek Him as we take our next steps.         I will say that I have heard some interesting things through all of this...some of my favorites have been...

*  "When you stop thinking about it, you'll become pregnant."

*  "You need to drink some wine so you can relax and then...."

*  "I'll be a surrogate for you.  I love being pregnant, I just don't like it when the kids come out."      (I'm not kidding.)

*  "You're young.  Once you have kids you're whole life will change.  There's no rush."

*  "You can borrow mine for a while.  They drive me crazy."

Let's just say this journey is very interesting.  I'm sure those of you that experienced any infertility issues have heard some of the same things!  

I will try not to make every blog about this and I know one day I'll be posting pics of our precious child up on here!  

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!  I love this time of year and am reminded of grace and mercy upon our lives.  What a wonderful Savior!  

Blessed

To give you an update on the journey we are on...I had the plan from my doctor and was so excited that we had a "plan."  I was to do an ovulation predictor kit for 2 months and then if I wasn't pregnant in 2 months, I would have to get an HSG test done.  Month #1 I couldn't do the kit because I never had a cycle!  This obviously means I did not ever ovulate.  Month #2 I have 2 sticks left of a 20 day ovulation predictor and have not detected an LH surge yet...this means, I have not ovulated and it has been 18 days.  I will probably have the HSG test done soon.

The desire to be a mom presses on me.  It weighs me down at times and often brings tears to my eyes.  It stirs up weird emotions and brings out sin that has to be repented of constantly.  A new set of doubts and fears arise with every passing month.  If I'm totally honest, it has brought out jealousy in my heart and envy.  I have asked the Lord "Why" and I've even proclaimed, "It's not fair."  I am embarrassed of my thoughts and have really been praying God's Word... "we demolish strongholds and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  Lord, help me take captive these thoughts that are not of You.  

I was recently reading a post that I came upon because of a friend from Phi Lamb in college. Mandy's brother and sister-in-law lost their precious baby girl when she was only 3 months old.  Jennifer (mandy's sister-in-law) blogs and just recently did an update on the past 7 months and the healing the Lord has done in their hearts.  The Lord used her words to give me a new perspective.

The first thing she said that God has taught her is that her husband is her greatest earthly gift!  Wow!  The night I read her blog, I left a note on Michael's pillow (b/c I went to bed early!) that said "You, Michael, are the greatest earthly gift that I will ever have!"  I need to tell him that more often.  I love that!  The Lord has blessed me so much with a husband on this earth.  A relationship that is the greatest earthly blessing! 

I got in bed and opened my Bible to Ephesians 1.  Ok, Lord I'm hearing You!  Ephesians 1 is about our spiritual blessing!  We have been given every spiritual blessing in Christ!  Oh, Jesus, thank You for the cross.  Thank You that through You and in You I have very spiritual blessing.  

So, I am joyful and hopeful.  I am fully blessed right now, this day!!  Praise You Lord!

Michael's Favorite Things...

Thanks for tagging me Magen!  I've needed a blogging idea for a while now!  :)  So here we go...

My husband's favorite things in no particular order...

~Coming home to our new house every day!  (I'll put up new pics soon that actually have our stuff in the house!

~His guitars....he loves playing guitar and he's taught himself so much over the years.

~Cereal!  The man could eat cereal every meal of every day.  What kinds?  Any cereal that most kids between the ages of 4 and 12 get excited about!  Fruity pebbles, fruit loops, apple jacks, cinnamon life, corn pops.....

~Preaching/Teaching/Studying the Word:  He truly is a gifted communicator of the gospel.  I love hearing him preach, that's one of my favorite things!  He really "comes alive" when he's preaching and teaching.

~Football and all things that are ESPN!  He loves to watch and know about sports!  Spurs basketball, college football esp. Texas Tech....he just loves all of it!

~Spending time with and talking ministry with his closest guy friends, including his dad!

~His family!  He loves his family and would do anything for any of them!  He loves that Julie and Bill live in S.A. now with the kids.  He loves to visit Shelby and Ricky and the boys!  He has a blast with his niece and nephews and they loving call him Uncle Mike, which make them the only people to call him Mike!  He has an amazing relationship with his mom and dad.  He really enjoys spending time at their house on Sunday afternoons!

~Shhhh...don't tell this one!  :)  Shopping!  Yes, it's true...my husband likes to go shopping more than I do!  ;)

~Dreaming of owning cool electronic equipment!  He frequently dreams of the next i this and i that.  He loves anything that Apple comes out with!  He loves to go to Best Buy to just "look."

~Running!  He's up to 14 miles in his training for the San Antonio Rock N' Roll Marathon and he weirdly "loves" running.  I didn't know those two words could ever go together!

~The Church at Vineyard Hills:  He loves being a part of what God is doing there!  

~Tickling my feet!  Unfortunately, this is one of his favorite things...too bad I am reeeaaalllly ticklish!  I guess that's what makes it fun?!

~He frequently tells me that he loves being on this journey with me.  He loves to go on dates and hang out, just me and him.  He loves surprising me in sweet ways.  He loves to lay on the couch with me and watch a movie. 

Ok, so there are my husband's favorite things!  I cannot figure out how to attach appropriate pictures because when I try to put a pic in to make this more fun to look at, they all go to the top and I can't change it!  Hmmmm... how do you get them right where you want them and then put text under them?  Any tips would be appreciated!  

Thanks for the tag Magen!  

I tag:

Ali Cooper for her husband Ben

Amy Cooper for her husband Nick

Melissa for her husband Tyson

Leah for her husband Lex

Mandy for her husband George

Carrie for her husband Chad