Merry Christmas!

Well we have been in 29 states in the past 4 months and since internet hasn't been available at all times I really haven't been able to post! When you only stay a few days everywhere you go, it is hard to do anything online like Facebook or Pinterest, much less blog! I have been keeping a journal of our journeys and I am even behind on that! I really need to get it together! But I just wanted to post a quick little note to say I'm still here and I can't wait till I have more time to blog about all our adventures! Merry Christmas Everyone! And remember, Jesus is the Reason!

Is It Fall Yet?

I love fall. It is one of my favorite seasons (which, i think that every time a season changes, I say that it is my favorite season)
Some of the reasons I love fall:
Cooler Temperatures.
Scarves and Hoods.
Beautiful leaves.
Autumn decorations.
Watching the farmers harvest the corn.
Fall festivals in little towns.. Last years Apple Butter Makin' Days was a blast!
Apple picking.
Bonfires.
S'mores.
Carving Pumpkins.
Halloween Candy.

Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Pumpkin Anything.
The smell of smoke in the air when we would drive to grandma's for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Day.
Texas Longhorn Football Games
And so many other things. Fall in Texas is really not fall at all. I have been so dissapointed as the temperatures have stayed in the 90s and 100s so far in September. However, Next we we are leaving and beginning our journey to Boston. I have heard that New England in the fall is beautiful and I cannot wait to enjoy fall there! I will post pictures of my fall experiences!!

It Has Begun!!

Well, we made it to St. Joseph, MO on Thursday evening July, 28th. We ate dinner and enjoyed the fellowship of my dad's small group. The Bible Study was on Mark 8. It was great! Friday and Saturday and Sunday we rested and spent time with Mom, Dad, and Luke. Church was good on Sunday. It always brings back so many memories coming back to Green Valley Baptist. Monday, we tried to get work done, and ran many errands. Today I met one of my best friends from high school for breakfast. It was soo good to see her beautiful face and catch up on so much! I miss her terribly and I'm so glad we have kept in touch over the past 4 years. After that I went to the dentist and I had my teeth cleaned and I cleaned Jaron's teeth! We didn't have any cavities and are ready to go on our trip with no tooth aches! I also got my hair trimmed and spent a lot of time with my momma! We all watched Rio as a family tonight and had a good time! Then Jaron and Dad watched and "Elephant Room" while mom and I messed with my camera and Luke laid bored on the ground playing with his phone.. lol the usual in this house. Tomorrow morning, Jaron and I will head back down to our house, pick up some more of our stuff and be ready to head to Jaron's uncle's house in Dallas. We will arrive Thursday afternoon. I'm sure Jaron will be reading to get to his promise land of Texas. We will be there for Sunday service and then go to central Texas-Brownwood- where his grandpa is a pastor of a church. We will spend the next sunday there and then head on down to Houston (Webster) Texas where our "sending" church is. It is Jaron's uncle Tommy's church. We will be there for around a month before we head up to Boston! I'll really try to keep everyone updated via this blog!!! We covet your prayers!!

Table Rock 2011

Last weekend we went down to Branson and spend the night a the cabin where Jaron's parents have been staying for vacation. We were able to go out on Darrin and Lauras boat and we had so much fun out on the lake! We went tubing, cliff jumping and we took lots of pictures!!

2nd Anniversary!!

On June 18th 2011 we celebrated our second anniversary! I can't believe we have been married for two years already! Jaron took me on a weekend getaway to St. Louis. We went to see Brad Paisley and we went to the zoo the next day. We had a blast! We ate on The Hill and had a great time!

We stayed at an awesome hotel! We woke up to a personalized anniversary card under our door! It has only been open 7 months and was so great!

On our way to the concert!!His opening song.
He came out and played to the people in the "cheap seats!"
Brad Paisley and Blake Shelton singing a duet!
The next day at the St. Louis Zoo we really enjoyed ourselves. jaron LOVED the hippos!
I loved the elephants!
this poor rhino seemed soo lonley. It made me sad.
mr. lemur!
a puffin Jaron got a great pic of!
We both loved the gorillas! One of them got angry and screamed and started punching the door.. he was scary!!
They have a pool where you can pet stingrays AND sharks!!!!!!
We were able to pet a baby hammerhead and 2 other sharks and all sorts of stingrays. It was awesome! We got some food and fed the stingrays. It felt so weird! One of them thought Jaron's thumb was a piece of food and tried to eat it! He had scratches all over his thumb that looked just like he had been rubbed with sandpaper. We had so much fun!! It was a great anniversary weekend. I love my husband and I'm so excited that we get to spend our lives together.

Fishing!

Jaron and I have caught a fishing but this summer. We have been going as much as possible and had a great time. We went with Chad Holland and Aaron and Kylie Noble up to Stockton Lake. We fished until about 3 am. Chad caught a really big catfish. it was 12-15 lbs. He reeled it in for about 20 min on 4lb test line. We couldn't believe that he got it in. When it got close to shore Jaron pulled a Steve Irwin and jumped in on top of the monster! It was so fun and we had a great fish fry a few days later at the Hollands, enjoying our catch! We also went out on Table Rock Lake with Darrin and Laura, but our efforts were not so fruitful! It was a fun ride though! We went fishing at Fellow's Lake and again, had no luck. We did, however, have a great little bratwurst picnic!!

Chad and his fish!On Darrin and Laura's boat at Table RockJaron fishin on FellowsJaron cookin our dinner!We have a great time fishing!

Floating the Buffalo

We went floating on May 28th on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. It was so much fun. We camped the night before and got up in the morning and hit the river. It was a beautiful day and the water was amazing. We floated in an area of the river that has 500ft bluffs all along the side! We went to a 210ft waterfall called Hemmed-In-Hollow. It was so pretty!! Jaron and I were with Lindsay, Erin and Caleb Reavis, Justin and Sasha Rahn, and Darrin and Laura Taylor. It was great!Me and Linds on the boat.

Jaron and I at Hemmed-In-HollowCaleb, Erin, Lindsay, Jaron and I playing in the water at Hemmed-In-Hollow.

Graduation!

Well, I've been graduated for about a month and a half! Dental Hygiene School was the hardest thing I have ever done. I could never describe to anyone who has not been through it how really hard it was. It felt like I would never be free from this huge burden. It is very surreal when I think about how it is all over and I am FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a great party at Dr. Gil's house!

This is my graduating class.

I still can't believe we made it and i'm so excited to see where the future leads. We are getting ready to start raising support for the mission field and the closer I get to leaving Springfield the more scared I am! Its going to be so hard but I know that we are in Gods will and everything will be fine! Change can be scary but I've noticed that in my life, I usually love life and enjoy new experiences!

Nicaragua: Part 3

The next day we got up and had breakfast. We laid around on the beach for a little while and then we decided to get a boat to take us out snorkeling. We snorkeled around some shipwrecks and had a great time! It was a more relaxing day. Then next morning, we got up and walked down the beach to the place where we were going to meet the man who was going to take Jaron and I fishing. Being the paranoid person that I am, I was pretty worried that he was going to kidnap us, as I had heard many stories of pirates out on these waters. They rob Americans when they can, but mostly they kill fisherman in small boats and take the boat and fish. I was pretty nervous. I also didn’t know what to expect. We got out on the water and they handed us a string with bait at one end and a stick at the other. you threw the bait end in the water and held the stick in one and and the string in the other. when your fingers felt the slightest bite, you set the hook and reeled it in with your hands. This is officially my favorite way to fish! I caught about 8 fish, and Jaron caught a whopping 0. J there were several different kinds but the prettiest one was called a queen triggerfish. It was a vicious little guy. When I reeled my first triggerfish in, I was like OHH! look how pretty!! and Jaron reached to get him off the line for me. As Jaron stuck out his hand the man yelled ‘NO! Don’t touch him!!” that of course scared me to death and I dropped him. Then, the apparently very dangerous fish was flopping all over our boat (which was about the size of 2 canoes). The man caught him and showed us that he had huge teeth and he could bite off our toes or fingers. After the next one i caught bit all the way through the metal hook like butter, I realized I should probably be really careful when i reel any fish in! After we got back from fishing, Jaron and a 13 year old boy from the island who we made friends with, named Keldon, cleaned the fish so they could be cooked. Then we went snorkeling. We saw more eagle rays and reef and huge starfish! It was so fun! We made it back to the hotel to shower and then that night we took our catch to a place called Danet’s where we had been eating. She was a sweet older lady who cooks for people who visit Corn Island. You literally eat in her living room and she made some awesome lobster. She cooked up my fish and we ate them! They were SO good. My favorite meal of the week!! We had tried many things while we were there. Jaron ate the local dish called Rondon. It was a stew with a bit of everything and it was pretty good! We went home and slept well! The next morning was Sunday and we were leaving that afternoon. Jason, Tammy, Jaron and I all decided to go hiking and snorkeling for one last adventure before we had to go back to the mainland. We hiked over a huge hill and managed to climb down and access a beach that was pretty hard to get to. From there Tammy, Jaron and I got in the open water (which took about 15 minutes for me because I was freaking out about all the sea urchins and trying to not step on them) we snorkeled all the way around that end of the island and came back to the beach our hotel was on. We got cleaned up and packed up and got a taxi to the airport and headed for Diriamba. We were sad to leave but we had so much fun! We made it back on a Sunday night and rested. Then next day, Tammy, Lindsay and I all went to the market at Masaya to look for souvenirs. We had a lot of fun walking around the market. It was my last day there and I really didn’t want to leave but all good things must come to an end. We packed up our things and headed to the airport the next day. We stopped at a coffee shop called Samson which has the closest thing to a frappucio that will find in Nicaragua. We left and I said goodbye to Jason and Tammy knowing that the next time I saw them I would either be a Registered Dental Hygienist or a girl who failed out of college. They are coming in next week and thankfully I am an RDH!!!!!!!! I can’t believe time has flown by so fast. I am so glad I was able to have that trip and I will always love and save for vacations because you make so many priceless memories! I will really try to continue posting about my future adventures in raising support for the mission field, that way, they aren’t so long when I finally post about something!