EXCITMENT:)

I WILL BE WITH MY FAMILY IN 4 AND A HALF HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!!!!

home for the holidays

i'm so ready to see my family! only 14 days until landon and i make the 6 hour drive to friona and i couldn't be more excited!!! this is the longest that i have ever gone without seeing my family. i talked to my nephews the other day. there is nothing better than calling and hearing "B!!!!!!" on the other line. when i called, they were making cookies. i told cash that i loved making cookies and he kindly invited me over to help if i wanted. i love making christmas cookies, so i decided that when i get home, i have a cookie date with my nephews!

i love christmas sugar cookies!!!

another favorite, corn flake wreaths! (rice crispy treats)

and last, Tiger butter homemade candy!!

Well, now my mouth is watering and i'm super ready to see my family! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your family...................... and eat lots of goodies.

thankful

this time of year, it's easy to be thankful for so many things. it's the holidays. it's the most wonderful time of the year. i have plenty of things to be thankful for this year!

the most wonderful husband i could ever want/need (and our first christmas trees together:)

most adorable nephews!

best dad and little brother

best sisters/best mom/best friends

most amazing family i could ever ask for

i have a lot to be thankful for this year. God has truly blessed me...more than i ever deserve!

changes

the last 6 months, i have personally gone through a lot of changes. changes that were expected and also unexpected. changes that i couldn't wait for and changes that i wouldn't mind waiting a little longer. changes that have been hard and changes that have been easy. changes i love and changes could do without. changes that are easy to trust in God and changes that have tested my faith:

graduated from college, married the love of my life (will be 6 months on monday), moved away from friends from school, moved away from my family, moved to a brand new place, searched for a teaching job, didn't get a teaching job, and the list really goes on.

needless to say, it's been an exciting yet very different time in my life. and i'm learning to pray and trust God more and more every day. He has brought wonderful new people into my life and am looking forward to the relationships and friends that will continued to be strengthened and the ones we have yet to meet. this weekend, some of our very best friends were engaged. i'm excited about that friendship that we will get to continue to build on for the rest of our lives. i'm excited to have friends that are married. i've been really wanting a young married friend who i can relate with and understand the wonderful and difficult aspects of marriage.

all this to say, random and mixed up as this whole blog is, God is good. He knows what I need and when I need it. When I get discouraged in some of the changes i have gone through, He knows how to lift me up. This week, it was simply witnessing the engagement of two wonderful people, and the friendship we will get to share with them.

holiday decorating!

i'm a little late, i know. i didn't think i was until i went to the store to find fall decorations and there is only christmas decorations! so i got a few things on sale, a couple candles, and now i'm feeling very festive. i should probably get started now on getting stuff for christmas. i still don't have a tree, am trying to figure out what colors i want to go with on the tree, stockings, garland, centerpieces, a wreath, etc. i need some good ideas if anybody has any pictures they would like to post! i love the holidays!! i love being festive!! i love the joy in everyone and everything!! i love the weather!! i love everything about it!!

home sweet home!!!!!

friday was the BIG day!!! my last day in Friona and my long drive home to my sweet and wonderful husband who i missed terribly! i was able to leave school early so i could get on the road and not get home so late. i didn't tell my students that i was leaving early until about 15 minutes before i left. a few girls cried, they begged me not to go, and i laughed...haha! heartless?maybe. ready to be home? definitely!

when i got home, landon had supper ready for me! fetticini with chicken, red potatoes, asparagus, and bread. it was DELICIOUS! i hadn't seen landon in 2 weeks and 1 day! it was such a wonderful welcome home!

we have really enjoyed being back together. i finally feel like his wife again. i have been able to cook dinner, do laundry and hang out with my husband. it has been PHENOMENAL!

i had a great experience in friona. it felt good to be a teacher. i had my mom and my aunt across the hall for help. i had a great group of students. now i'm ready for my own classroom. i turned in all my paperwork to sub here in denton so i'm hoping to at least start doing that asap!

thanks again for all your prayers. we truly are blessed!

felt the prayers

a lot of people have been asking how my sub job has been lately, so i figured i needed to just update my blog. the week before i started, i found out that i would only be subbing 3, maybe 4 weeks, which was great news! on the first day, the kids tested me out, just like any kid would do to a sub, but they quickly realized that i meant business, but we could still have some fun. the first week went by fast, like SUPER fast! that friday was my sister's homecoming and she was on the homecoming court. she asked me to fix her hair for the football game before i flew home to be with landon for the weekend. my flight was at 6:45, and if you have ever flown in amarillo, you know that you can get there 20-30 minutes early and be fine. i got to the southwest counter to get my boarding pass at 6:20 and the lady says to me, "ma'am, your flight is at 6:25. you need to run down there." i ran down to my gate only to see the terminal pulling away from my plane. needless to say, that "fast week" that i was talking about earlier, all of the sudden seemed SO long and i was dying to see landon!! tears + a super nice southwest lady = changing my flight to saturday morning with no charge. the interesting thing about it was that my bags made it on to the plane, so i had to get them on saturday when i got there. i cried all the way back to friona.

saturday morning, i woke up early and drove to the airport and got there with plenty of time to spare. i wasn't going to miss another flight! i finally made it to landon after a missed flight, lost luggage, and a 50 dollar travel voucher for losing my luggage, and we had a great weekend. it was hard to leave on sunday. but once again, the next week went by fast. the second week i had to drive back to denton on wednesday after school to go to a subsitute orientation in denton on thursday and then drive back on thursday when i was done. luckily my sister skipped school to make the trip with me so it wasn't near as bad. i didn't go home that weekend because landon was gone, and frankly, i didn't want to make that drive again.

this week has gone by fast again. the first two days the 5th grade has had field trips and today we had parent/teacher conferences (a little weird as a sub having parent teacher conferences, but i made it through). i'm not sure yet if i will be here again next week. the lady i am subbing for had surgery, but now has the flu. i am ready to go home and be a wife to my husband, have the same schedule, see him every day, and not feel like we are dating again. i'm not a fan of this long distance. the money would be nice, but i now can sub in denton so i'm really ready to go home. i miss landon a lot.

all this being said, thank you for praying for us during the last 3 weeks. we have definitely felt every prayer being lifted up for us! God is good and he always provides.


ps...i applied for a 4th grade position that opened up in the ft worth area yesterday. say a prayer for me that if this is where i need to be, the doors will open. thanks so much!!!

you know you're a blogger when...

you know you're a blogger when you are in target and you overhear someone on the phone say something about a dashboard and you automatically think they are a blogger, then you continue listening and she says, "no, i'll go pick up the car but i'm telling you, i left the papers on the dashboard!"

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

lately i have been going to Barnes and Noble to read a Karen Kingsbury book that i have been wanting to read, but haven't wanted to buy. so i go, i find the book, i find a chair, and i read 3 chapters. by the end of next week, i should have the book finished! In this particular book, she mentions the verse 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: Be joyful always pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. this verse is something i have known my whole life, but as of recently, i have not put it into practice. we have been praying for a job for me for a while now and nothing has opened up, not even sub positions. we have been through so many emotions through our circumstances, but i have not given thanks through every moment of our circumstances.

a couple weeks ago, my mom called and said one of her friends who teachers 5th grade with her is going to have surgery and will be out for 6 weeks and was wondering if i wanted to take the sub position. i laughed about it because it is in friona, which means 6 hours away from my husband. as we have continued to pray for God to open a door for me, this sub position has kept coming up. so as of yesterday, i will be taking the sub position in my home town for 6 weeks. I will come home on the weekends to see my wonderful husband, and i will miss him probably more than i can even imagine right now. but as of right now, this is the window that God has opened, and through the next 6 weeks, we will be joyful, we will pray continually, and we will give thanks through our circumstances. it will be a hard 6 weeks. it will be hard going back to a long distance relationship. but i am excited about the teaching experience i will get from it and how much landon and i will grow in our relationship with each other and with the Lord during this time.

i will start september 21, and leaving the 20th. so for the next week and 3 days, i am going to cook for my husband, hang out with friends, be joyful, and get ready for a new experience. if you think about us during the next 7 weeks, your prayers would be appreciated as we know this will not be easy, but we know God has a plan.

"bring your wife to work" day

the pro's to not having a job:

1. i get to come to work with landon
2. i get to actually lay out, get a tan, and enjoy the summer weather
3. i got to keep my nephews for 4 days
4. sleeping in is always great
5. i can wear whatever i want
6. i can text my husband throughout the day

the con's to not having a job:

1. our bank account
2. cute "back to school"/fall clothes....................if you are wondering why this is a con, it's because of #1.
3. i get bored at home
4. get to start paying back student loans in december
5. both of our cars have had problems in the last weeks. both of our cars require money to fix.

There are more pro's, does that mean i don't need to get a job? i don't think so! If anyone has any ideas on any kind of random job, let me know!

I know the Lord will take care of us, it's just hard waiting.

church camp

landon and i had the privilege of going to church camp with some of our friend's youth group this week.  we went to lead the high school group.  going as a leader was completely different than going as a youth.  i was challenged in a new way!  Ben Stuart was the speaker and Charlie Hall was the worship leader, both extremely incredible!  Ben went through the life of David every day and applied it so our lives today.  The kids were very receptive to him and i really think God did a work in their hearts.  

the last night really spoke to me.  he read out of 2 Samuel 7 which is about how David wanted to build the temple of the Lord.  God comes to Nathan, David's friend, and tells him to tell David that he doesn't want him to build his temple.  He says that someone in David's line will build His temple, speaking of Jesus.  Ben went on to talk about the plans we make for ourselves and the plans God has for us.  Even though our plans are not always "bad" plans, sometimes God wants to do something else to use us.  Am i willing to let God change my plans for his?  Billy Graham wanted to be a chaplain in the military, not a bad plan.  He tried 3 times to get into the military and every time, he was too sick to get in.  He was confused as to why God didn't allow him to get in because he wanted to simply preach His Word.  God had other plans.  I think Billy Graham is probably glad that God's power overruled his plans.  

Too many times i have made plans for my life, especially in my current situation.  I have made all these plans about what I am going to do and when i'm going to do it.  now that it hasn't happened yet, i have started to panic.  Who am I that i would worry and stress over something that God has complete control of?  Who am i to not trust him completely?  Who am i to think that i know what's best for my life?  Who am i to limit myself rather than expecting God to do something great?  

so what am i going to do now?  i'm going to trust him.  i'm going to bask in his sunlight.  i'm going to pray for peace.  i'm going to let him blow me away with his plans for my life.  he is an awesome God!

pound cake

tonight we had landon's grandparents over for dinner. i know, you are thinking, how sweet! but i won't take all the credit, it actually wasn't our idea, ha. landon's mom mentioned that his grandma had casually brought up that she "didn't even know where her grandkids lived", so we had them over for dinner.

ok you know that typical meal that your grandparents always eat? you know, like pinto beans, that weird meat that you aren't really sure what it is, and anything else they can find? well that's what we had. i had never cooked that kind of meat before (landon got it) and landon told me they like their meat well done, and well done means very well done! because i didn't know what it was supposed to look like, and he did tell me it needed to be "well done", i might have let it get a little bit TOO well done. when you drop it on the plate and it sounds like you dropped fork on the plate, that's a little TOO well done. i ran to the grocery store and got some fried chicken, hid the box in the pantry, and they never knew....they even ate the rock solid "well done" meat and complimented it.

the dinner and night ended up being a productive night, they enjoyed being here, we enjoyed having them. there is just something about grandparents humor that makes the night fun/interesting.

ps...when your grandmother-in-law asks if you are going to try her pound cake, always say yes, even if you made your mom's brownies that you have been craving all week...better yet, eat a piece as soon as she brings it in. AND before she leaves, when she asks if you want to keep some, ALWAYS say yes!

jean shopping

landon hates my jeans, well at least the pair i wear the most.  after i wear them the first time they sag in the butt and he hates how long they are.  he keeps telling me he is going to buy me a good pair of jeans.  so yesterday we ventured to Plato's closet.  he was going to find me a pair of jeans.  he started on one side of the store and i started on another.  by the time i was ready to go to the dressing room, i had 4 pairs and he brought me like 8, all nice brand name jeans for awesome prices.  you would think out of TWELVE pairs of jeans, i would be able to find at LEAST one that i liked.  3 was too short, like 4 were to small, 1 made my butt look WAY too big (mom-type jeans), 1 was saggy in the crotch area, 1 was too big, 1 was just not cute, and there was 1 that COULD have worked, but i didn't love the way they looked on me,  so i didn't want to spend money on something i didn't love.  

did i mention i HATE jean shopping???  

i could shop all day for anything OTHER than jeans, that just makes me crazy!  i try watching What Not To Wear to get ideas on jeans that would look good on my body type, but it never fails, i can't find anything.  i really need staci and clinton to help me i think......................oh yeah, and that $5000 visa gift card too!  

i want to be a teacher

four years of tedious hard work to get my degree in education, all to just sit and wait.  i have a hard time doing that, i always have especially if i have no control of the situation.  it's something i'm trying to work on.  graduating from a university in oklahoma and then moving to texas right after graduation makes it hard to find a job, especially in teaching.  

i tried starting early in my job search in texas.  i started applying for jobs, took resume's, and applied for a texas certificate a couple months before i graduated.  heard nothing.  texas is very picky in  choosing their teachers and doesn't want anyone working in the education field if they don't have a texas certificate, or that's my conclusion.  i have waited for my oklahoma certificate to come in the mail so i can finally get it turn into texas and figure out what i need to do to get my certification there.  along the way, there have been some obstacles that have left me discouraged, frustrated, and negative.  finally, after a one-day trip to OKC to the education department, i might be on my way to being certified in oklahoma, but with it being middle of july (1 month until school starts), only having 2 interviews, and knowing just about everyone else in my education classes already has a job, the discouragement has stayed about the same.

landon has been such a huge support in all of this.  he knows when i get down and frustrated and he knows exactly what to say and how to pray for me.  he is my rock.  God has been working on me in this whole process as well.  i know "All thing work together for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  that verse has been brought to my mind several times over the last couple weeks especially.  the Lord is teaching me to trust him....completely, because that is where i am falling short.  

landon has been going to his "alternative certification" class last week and this week he will finish them up.  i am also helping him with his online classes that he has to take as well.  as small as it may be, talking to him about these different teaching principles he is learning and the things that i am "re-covering" on his online classes excites me even more to be a teacher.  i know this is what i am supposed to do for now and i know God will provide a way for that.  he has called me into this ministry of teaching, my mission field and he isn't going to leave me hanging now.  i'm excited (and a little nervous) to see where this road will take me.  it's already been a crazy ride, but with a wonderful, loving, and supportive husband and an unfailing God, i will be right where i'm supposed to be in the end.   

120 Murphrees

last weekend my family gathered for the annual Murphree Family Reunion. we have a very unique family. family from all over texas gather in Comanche, TX to hang out at the lake for the weekend. the reunion started with my Papa's brothers and sisters and their kids and now it is their grandkids, great grandkids, and some great great grandkids. we are all family, cousins. we may only see each other one weekend every year and we may be barely related because we are so far down the family line, we still consider each other family. this weekend is something we all look forward to every year, while most people dread huge family reunions. this is a tradition in our family that i hope continues, and i hope my kids get to experience the unique family they are apart of. the best part of our family is that we are not only blood family (and some of us barely that), but we are part of the family of God as well.

hanging out in the lake breakfast: bacon, eggs, and fried biscuits!

i couldn't resist

i am a blog stalker, not in a creepy way, just in a "i love hearing about people's daily lives" way.  sometimes i find myself reading blogs of people i don't even know.  i enjoy the blogging world, so i decided to join.  so here i am...more to come later:)