20 Minutes

I have 20 minutes left of my Friday afternoon at work. Today has not been too terribly long. I've watched 2 episodes of Mercy and 1 episode of The Office online. A little over 100 minutes of tv time. I've checked facebook an inordinate amount of times and read all of your blogs. :)

I've also been taking stats on phone calls since 2pm. My little yellow post it note reads 14 total calls and 4 actual people stopping by. And here's the break down of why people called or came in:
3 scruffy looking guys with packs on their backs wanting bus tickets - sent away cause Tom is out
1 walk-in needing Judy I think

1 call for Jeff
1call for Judy
1 call for Donna
2 calls with no one on the other line
2 calls from same lady wanting to get a gift to Robby's son who got married a week or two ago. Robby has Friday's off.
1 or 2 sales calls that I hung up on immediately.
I didn't start recording the reasons for the calls until about 3 or so and I can't remember the ones I didn't write down.

Actually, keeping stats was kind of interesting. I think I'll continue and see what I find. :)

I really am very thankful for my job! Who gets paid to watch tv online?? I mean come on!
The previous account just shows you what one must do on a Friday afternoon when they are a receptionist at a church. Fun times!

Right after work I'm headed to payless to see if I can find some cute shoes. I found a coupon on Debbie's blog for 50% off my entire purchase. Something Oprah did. Thanks Debbie! I'm hoping for a successful trip. :)

Weekend plans: It will be a quiet weekend for the most part. Cliff's not feeling great so I am going to fix dinner and then we'll probably watch a movie. Saturday will be a day of cleaning and then we have to be at the fall festival tomorrow night. The costumes are cute...the masses of people kind of make me cranky, but overall I'm sure it'll be a fun time. Sunday will be church, church and more church...maybe a nap in between.

Bring on the weekend! I'm ready for some rest and relaxation.

Must See

If you are friends and family and know Aaron and Patricia you must go see their web site at http://www.donaldsonfamily-lifewithdakota.blogspot.com/. You will find the cutest pics of Dakota!

Happy Birthday Lerin!

The adorable munchkin that you see below is four years old today! Lerin had her birthday party at the Park's Mall on Saturday. It was a carousel party and it sounds like she had a blast. Robbyn informed me this morning that her next birthday party was going to be at the mall as well. They had pizza, birthday cake and got an all day pass to ride the carousel! Sadly, Cliff and I had to miss it, but I am determined that me and this new baby will be making all of my neices birthday parties in 2010!


It is hard to believe that it has been four years since Lerin made her appearance. It is hard to describe all of the things that run through my mind when I think of her birth. She was the answer to so many prayers and such a miracle to our family! Her birth represents a fulfillment of God's great promises and a wonderful blessing to us all after many years of struggle. She is a miracle and I am so thankful to God for showing his mighty power all throughout our lives. She has brought much joy to all of our lives! She keeps us all laughing with her antics and adorable words.

This picture of Lerin and Trish is one of my all time favorites! She was such an adorable baby and has grown into a beautiful little girl! I remember the wonderment of her birth and how cute her little nose was!!


Below are two pictures of her that was taken just a few weeks ago. Lerin has such an exciting imagination and never lacks for energy. She loves life and remembers every promise made to her. She loves surprises and loves that she is old enough for school, dance and choir at church.

I feel like I have missed out on so many fun days of her life, but I am unbelieveably thankful to call her my neice, my family! She is now the big sister to her two adorable little sisters, Robbyn and Aleigh. I know she will be a great leader for her family. I pray that she would accept Jesus with her childlike faith and that the Holy Spirit would give her understanding of his mighty strength and love! I pray that she will be protected from the scary and hurtful things in this life, but more than that, that her heart will be hidden in the one who knows her future!

Thank you Lord for giving us such a prescious gift four years ago!!

The End is Near!

Last night I received the grade for my big final paper. My palms were sweaty as I opened the e-mail, and guess what??? I got an A! Woohoo!

Last night I also turned in the last paper for the supervision class I'm in. One more small essay and a final exam left. I will be done with schooling forever!

I can taste the end. I will walk the stage in Canyon, TX on December 5th at 1pm. What a great day that will be!



In other news:
Cliff informed me earlier this morning that Southwest Airlines has a 72 hour sale going on right now. Only $25 one way! Any of my Dallas family and friends want to come visit?!?! You have to book the flights before Thursday of this week and the dates for the deal are Dec. 2-16th and Jan. 5-Feb. 10th!

Brown Eyed Beauty

I had to share this photo of Dakota that I snagged off of facebook. The picture was taken on Aaron and Trish's Sunday School camping trip last weekend. Is this not the most prescious picture you've seen?!?! She has the biggest brown eyes and the sweetest little red lips. :) Enjoy!

Best Day!

The sonogram today was amazing! The baby is growing and developing normally. The lady doing our sonogram was great...totally on board with us not finding out the sex of the baby. I was put at ease when she squeeled with excitement at finding out we did not want to know boy/girl. I was kind of expecting her to give me a hard time.

I think Cliff and I were both floored watching the baby on the screen. It has a perfectly rounded forehead...well, pretty much everything about it is sweet to us!

Just had to share what a great day it has been so far. I think I'll be able to make it through three hours of boring class without griping once today! We'll see about that one. :)

Just pressed Send

Well I just pressed send on an e-mail containing an attachment of my big final paper of grad school. Thankfully, I will have an opportunity to revise it if I am not happy with the grade. O how I wish to be happy with the grade...sadly, only an A will suffice and I'm pretty sure the paper I sent isn't really A material. These things are subjective though so mayby the prof will be in a great mood when she grades it....or maybe she'll be so busy she just can't spend much time ripping it apart.

I will have up to two weeks before I get the verdict. Either way it goes I am so glad it is in her hands now. I'm sick of thinking about it and trying to type stuff.

Tomorrow is the big sonogram day and I'm just now allowing myself to get excited!! Can't wait until tomorrow at noon. I'll post when we get back to share the experience with all of you friends and family.

3 Years!

Today Cliff and I celebrate three years of marriage in different towns: he's in Arlington and I'm in Amarillo. Three years! I can hardly believe all that has happened in our three short years of marriage.

Just to recap:
-Amazing wedding day on Oct. 14, 2006
-Summer 2006 we both begin new full time jobs (Cliff at FBCB and me at ECI)
-Bought our first home...the home I will love forever!
-In three years three new neices were born bringing the grand total so far to 4
-Loved on our Brownwood family
-Received God's call to move....agreed to go after lots of wrestling with God
-Sold the house
-Moved Aug. 2007
-Jess starts grad school Aug. 2007 at WTAMU
-Cliff continues seminary with BHCI
-Lovely memories of the 1 bdrm apartment
-Jess gets fit
-Cliff gets comfortable and thrives in his new position
-New home bought Fall '08
-Summer '09: Find out baby Cary will make his/her appearance in Spring 2010

God has been so faithful to us. I look forward to the years ahead that will be marked by very different milestones. Happy Anniversary Cliff. I love you!

Cliff in Arlington

As the title of the post suggests, Cliff is away at a children's ministry conference in Arlington. You may be asking why in the world I didn't take the chance to go with him considering it would have meant 4 days with my family? I'm asking the same question...ha! Well kind of. He has planned to go to this conference for many months now and I just couldn't get away from work and school again. I took a week off when Aleigh was born so that counted as some really good family time...with both sides! While I'm a little bummed, it has been a busy week so far.

For family and old friends...guess who is helping to run the conference??? Laura Fillingim! She works for Lifeway up in Nashville and came to TX to help out. I told Cliff she was going to be there and told him to say hi and be really nice since Laura is one of my oldest friends and since she came all the way from Georgia for our wedding! Cliff says he's gotten to say hi and chat with her a few times...although he called her "Audra" when he first saw her. HAhahah! That must have been awkward.

Anyway, yesterday I had work and school all day until 9. Also, my HUGE paper is due on Monday. I am totally stressed about it. It is sort of like my thesis for graduation although not quite as long as a traditional thesis. This one paper has challenged me more than anything else from the past two years, which is pretty annoying considering I just want it OVER with and for December to be here.

Tonight I get to go hang out with my friend Emily and her two boys! I'm looking forward to spending time with them and getting my mind off this paper.

Tomorrow is work and church till late and then Cliff will be home on Thursday!

No baby news really. I'm feeling great and the baby appears to be growing. I have a sonogram on Monday! Can't wait to see the first pictures! I'll throw this in though for all of you who might be wondering...Cliff and I decided not to find out if it is a boy or a girl. We're shooting for the big surprise at the end!

Cliff Sr.'s Birthday Surprise

To conclude the awesome week that I had in Arlington with my side of the family, we went to the land to surprise Cliff's Dad and celebrate his birthday! Mom and Trish along with three silly girls, Lerin, Robbyn and Dakota, drove me to Brownwood where they dropped me off and met Cliff for dinner at Prima Pasta. Cliff loved getting to love on the girls for a little bit! We were able to have the place to ourselves at the land that night since the rest of the family wasn't coming until Friday. It was so beautifu land peaceful out theree!

Below are some pictures of the festivities. Cliff Sr. had no idea that Cliff and I and Kimberly and her boyfriend Alex were there. He only expected to see Grandpa and Kenneth. They didn't get in until around 8:30, but we saved dinner and cake for their arrival.

Nana couldn't make it out to the party weekend, but she definitely made her prescence known by making two delicious German chocolate cakes! One with coconut and the other without.

Below is Cliff and Alex, Kimberly's boyfriend. This was the first time we got to meet him and they have been dating for two years!


Grandpa and Kenneth enjoying life!