Home Sweet Home

Only two more days at work with the kids and one half day of parent/teacher conferences and then... We'll be jumping on a plane and flying HOME!! I'm so excited about getting to see everyone. I miss my family so much. We're even going to get to see most of Sam's family too. They are coming to the Dallas area and celebrating Thanksgiving at Sam's sister's apartment. If they time the food just right, Sam and I may get to enjoy 2 Thanksgiving dinners in one day!! (We'll see if we can handle that.)

The next few days are pretty full so hopefully they'll fly by. Tonight we're going over to hang out with Hannah and Peter (some friends from church) and then Monday I have lots of stuff I need to do at work and then I have to go to Wal-Mart and do laundry. Then Tuesday night our church has a special Thanksgiving service. Then Wednesday will be here. I think we'll be done with conferences by 11:40 and then I get to go home and pack. Our flight leaves at 6:30 so we'll be heading to the airport around 4. And we'll see the family at 9:05 (or shortly thereafter). YAY!!!!!

Happy Happy Thanksgiving. God is so GOOD!!

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted. A lot has happened. Sam and I have been really enjoying ourselves (for the most part). The Wheaton psychology grad program had a Wirley Ball night the day before halloween. Sam's class dressed up like the characters from Willy Wonka. Sam went as Mike Teevee (the little cowboy kid) and so I also dressed up as a cowgirl. I don't know if you can see it in the picture but Sam has a golden ticket in one pocket and a remote in the other. He was pretty cute. Some of his classmates dressed up like Oompa Loompas (or however you spell it), Willy Wonka, and Charlie. His class won for the best costume theme.

Yesterday was our anniversary. We spent the weekend in Shipshewana, Indiana. It's Amish country and it was a lot of fun. Friday and Saturday we had beautiful weather. It couldn't have been more perfect. We spent our time going to different shops, we ate some delicious pretzels, drove by lots of horse drawn buggies, ate some marvelous chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes, and learned a lot about Mennonites and the Amish. It was a very special time.

Thanksgiving is coming! I am so excited about going to TEXAS! It's kind of weird being the one traveling to see my family. I'll be a guest at my own house. lol. Only nine more days and I'll get to give my family lots of hugs.

Bunny Trail

Ok, so a few weeks ago, on a cold and rainy afternoon, Jill and I were heading to the store when Jill pointed out a really cute little bunny hopping around in the bushes outside of our apartment building.

Upon observation, we decided that the bunny was NOT a wild rabbit (the main clue was that it was white with black/brown spots, and that it casually hopped about 10 feet away when we approached it, rather than disappearing into the underbrush). We looked around and realized that no one else was paying attention the rabbit, and we decided that it had probably been let go or escaped from someone. We also surmised that it probably wouldn't last very long in the wild, so we decided to catch it and give it to someone who could take care of it.

So, about an hour later (and having used a carrot as a threatening tool rather than a temptation), we managed to trap it in a box. Then, we were like, where can we take this thing? We aren't allowed to have pets inside of our building (on pain of eviction), and we weren't sure if any of our friends would want it. Then, Jill remembered what looked like a small, private pet shop down the street from our apartment, so we took it there to see if they would know what to do.

Well, this pet shop turned out to be a huge chain that sells an astounding variety of fish and cuddly animals, and they took the rabbit off of our hands after we told them the story. The guy we gave it too (I guess he was some sort of manager) told us that he would talk to the store's breeder to see if she could take it.

Ok, so it would seem that the story ended there. But wait! We went to the pet store on Sunday to check out the animals, and what would we happen to see but a rabbit...In a cage on the floor... Apart from the other rabbits...That looked mysteriously like the rabbit that we had brought in...For FIFTY DOLLARS!!!

Is that crazy or what? I have checked out their web site, and they say that they have staff veterinarians that check out all of their animals, so it is possible that the $50 is just their having to pass on vet fees and maybe medications. But come on, who pays $50 for a rabbit? When I was in 4-H, I only paid $15 for my high-quality breeding stock rabbits, and we only managed to get $1.25 a head when we sold their prize-winning (adult) offspring! Now, this was not a special rabbit that we had found. It wasn't a lop or rex or one of the more exotic varieties of rabbit (they had mini lops in another area specifically for bunnies). This thing was just a white rabbit with some black and brown spotting (which you can pretty much make by crossing a meat-variety Californian with any dark-colored variety of straight-eared rabbit). Anyway, just had to get that off of my chest and celebrate the irony of it all!

The Changing of Seasons...

Well, autumn is a beautiful, fun season. I love the crisp air and the changing leaves. Pumpkin farms, scarecrows, and bon fires... It's just fun. It has been pretty cool here this week. It was in the 40's most of today and is supposed to get down to 28 degrees tonight. But it will warm back up and be in the 50's most of next week. Sam and I wanted to give you guys a little taste of the fall season here in Chicagoland. So, we took some lovely pictures, but they're not loading so I guess I'll try again later. If all else fails, I'll post the pictures on facebook. Love you guys!!

New Music

In case you listen to the music on this blog, you may notice that I have put the first tracks for my playlist as a bunch of existential songs that question the meaning to life. I think that this is an important thing to question. What are you living for? What is the purpose to your life?

The Bible teaches that we are created to be in a loving relationship with God. Unfortunately, everyone has sinned and created a rift that makes this relationship possible. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life, was murdered by the religious leaders and government of his day, and rose from the dead so that we could come into relationship with God and have eternal life with Him. The only other alternative is eternal death and torment. For more information, check out http://followchrist.ag.org/

Sam

Good Morning Illinois

Okay....so I (Sam) realize that we haven't posted at all for the month of September, and I thought that it may be a good idea to post today, before the month runs out. Oh, and I also got a year older in September, which was nice! Jill surreptiously organized two birthday events. The first was at some new friends' house (we met them at church), and we basically had a football party. They officially made me a Bears fan with a nice new t-shirt! That was the day before my b-day. On the night of my birthday, Jill took me out to Macaroni Grill with some friends from school as well as some other new friends from church, and we had a good time. Jill also got me Risk (Vintage Edition, with wooden block armies instead of men, horses, and cannons), which we played for several hours over two days. I am very thankful to the Lord that He has blessed Jill and me with such good friends and surroundings at this time in our life.

Other than that, we have pretty much spent our time getting acclimated to the area. You know, finding out which grocery stores are best, going to the library, getting involved in church, making new friends, adjusting to the weather, etc.

On the weather note, this August and September were probably the most comfortable Summer months that I have ever experienced! We generally had weather in the 70's, with cool nights. Then, a day or two ago, we got in a little storm that blew in some cold weather, and I was wearing my heaviest coat to go outside yesterday morning! It's a little warmer now (supposed to be in the high 50's today), but I have a feeling that we will soon be getting a taste of this famous Illinois Winter!

So, that's pretty much what has been going on. We are planning on flying back home for Thanksgiving, and hopefully one of us will publish before then :-)

Good Night, Texas

Well, it became official today. Jill and I headed down to the local Secretary of State's Office and, after several lines and a written exam, traded in our Texas driver's licenses for a set of new ones...we are now residents of Illinois (registered to vote and everything). It is weird to be changing states, but we are probably going to be here for at least the next four years, so one can imagine the difficulties involved in trying to stay Texans that long!

We left Texas last week and made it to Illinois after a two-day drive. The rest of the week, as well as pretty much all of this week, has been one long vacation. The vacation ends Monday, when Jill will have to go to work, and I will have to start school. I need to find a part time job as soon as I figure out what my schedule will be like for school. There is a family style diner near our place, and I have a feeling that going back to the restaurant scene may be the best-paying part time job available to me at this time. There's been a little sticker-shock on some of the prices of goods/services, as well as some of the taxes, but that has already started going away, and we are beginning to realize that the differences are not really that great once we know where to look. Jill's parents have also been with us since we came up, and we have a new GPS for our car, compliments of Jenny O. The weather has also been very agreeable.

Well, it is about time for bed. In short, we can see the hand of the Lord in our move here, and we are happy and excited to be here. We'll try and keep you updated, especially if we start seeing any of that mythical white stuff reported by many to mysteriously fall from the sky to the earth in these parts (I have heard that this substance is frequently referred to as "snow").

The end is near... Or is it just the beginning?

Lian, Lavin, & Krissy

Us on the 4th of July


Wow... things are crazy right now. There are so many decisions to make and not enough information to make them. I guess that's just how it is when you are moving to a place that is 1,000 miles away from where you are. Right now we are trying to find the cheapest truck rental.

We took a trip up to Chicagoland last weekend. The goal was to hopefully find a job and a place to live. I had a job interview and they scheduled me for a second interview over the phone (which I just now completed). So, I think I got the job. When we were wrapping up the interview, Melinda (my possible new boss) said she was pretty confident that I would be hearing from Amanda (my other possible new boss) with a proposal of a position and pay so that we could negotiate it. I was so excited and relieved when I got off the phone. Phone interviews are so nerve racking.

And we looked at a few places to live while we were in the area. It's expensive up there! So, we just have to wait and see about the job and how much money we'll have and if someone else takes the cheap basement apartment we looked at... Maybe I'll have more info in a couple of days.

The pictures are from the 4th of July. We celebrated it with Lian & Krissy in Granite City, IL.

Well, I better get back to my school work. Adios!

Could You Spare Some Change?

Well,

Jill and I are getting our hair cut tonight (together). It's been a while for both of us, and we figured that it's about that time. I guess that we just waited so long because we, like most people, don't really care for change.

Isn't it interesting how we resist change? Jill and I went to a Dave Ramsey conference in Dallas last month, and he spent several minutes pointing out the changes that most people never make for no other reason than a dislike of change. We drive the same way to work, even if there is a better route available. We shop at the same stores even though one next door has better deals and better customer service.

Sometimes, change causes us to mourn. I was really sad when I came to realize that Bible study, as it formerly existed at the girls' house, was no more. I get nervous and down sometimes thinking about how much will change when Jill and I move to Chicago. Today, I, along with several co-workers, expressed serious discouragement over some sudden personnel shifts at work that will probably lead to changes in the way we do our jobs.

But, when I get so sad over change, I forget that God is really in control. Jesus told us to not worry about anything but to trust God in faith, knowing that he loves us more than we can imagine and that he is not going to forget about us. I shouldn't look at change as a time for everything to go wrong, but rather as a chance to see what God is going to do. So from now on, I'm going to work on seeing change that way and living in Thanksgiving to my Lord!

OUCH!

Well, it was kind of a rough day at work today. The kids I work with were not very happy with me. If you don't know, I work with children with autism and noncompliance is a very common issue with them and it was definately true today. It is part of my job as a behavior therapist to develop discipline and teach the kids to "obey first time." My rules were not appreciated today and as a result I was the target of a lot of ... well, we'll say "aggressive" behavior. So, it was kind of rough... But it's okay. It's all part of the job and it definately pays off in the long run. Of course a little prayer would be greatly appreciated if you think about it... Thanks!

(The picture above isn't really one of my kids...just one I found online that seemed fitting. lol)

Sweet victory!

IM FINISHED!! I just completed my final and I am finished with my Spring semester. I'm so happy. I finished two days early. Now I can relax and do whatever I want with my time (well, kind of). I'll be beginning another class mid May but until then, my free time is my free time. :-)

The Holy Spirit and Surprise Sick Days...

Sorry it's been so long since our last post... Life has been pretty monotonous, not much to post about. My parents have been out of town this week on a camping trip so I taught my mom's missionette class last night. It was fun. We learned about the Holy Spirit. The girls are in 1st and 2nd grade so it was a pretty basic lesson.

My boss is sick so she decided that she needs to stay home tomorrow. She is a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA) and the overseer of all the therapy that happens at the clinic. So, when she takes a sick day, we all take a sick day. We called to cancel all of the clients for tomorrow. I'm still going to go into work for a couple of hours just to update some of the kids' programs. I'll get to spend the rest of the day working on my school work.

My spring class ends on Monday so I have to finish up all my work by then. I'm doing pretty good. I think I will have the classwork stuff finished up Friday and then I can spend the rest of the weekend studying for the final.

Well, that's what's happening in my life right now. I'm gonna run now so I can get ready for a date with my hubby. God Bless!!

Wedding Miracles

Well, once April 15 rolls around, Jill and I will have been married for five months. If you don't already know, we were able to see God's hand in a lot of significant ways in the building of our relationship, especially in the way that our wedding came together. Our pastor told us that we should write down the wonderful things that God did for our wedding as a testimony to encourage others (and ourselves, farther down the road). Well...here are the miracles that I (Sam) remember from our wedding!
The first miracle that I remember (other than God speaking to our hearts about one another and sending us to one another) was the way that we got our engagement photos. God has placed an amazing friend named Jennifer into our lives. Jennifer does top quality photography, and we had asked her about her rates right after we got engaged. Well, she gave us the rate, and we put it in our budget. But, once we had taken the pictures (in locations that Jennifer had personally scouted before the shoot), she told us that she would not take any money. A few weeks later, Jennifer gave us the photos (over a hundred, to the best of my recall) after personally reviewing and editing them for highest quality. We still get compliments on the quality of photos that she took for our engagement!
Soon thereafter, we took those pictures to another wonderful friend, straight from the Lord (actually one half of two - Jenn and Josh, with Josh being the friend in question at the moment). This friend happens to be a graphics designer, and he wanted to help us with our engagement by helping us design our invitations. Well, he masterfully designed our invitations and sent them to us several times for our approval and to make sure that he conveyed our ideas. When it came time for use to settle our balance, he refused to take any money from us, and we got excellent professional quality invitations for nothing but a printing fee of about $75.
Another miracle happened in our lives at our Wednesday night church meeting. An evangelist who uses our church as him current home church walked up to Jill with an envelope and told her that God had told him to give her some money for our wedding, then quickly walked away. When we opened the envelope, we found a check for $500! That certainly helped ease our fears about wedding money.
Napkins...not something usually associated with miracles, but hey, God is on His throne! Jill found some reception napkins online that she really liked. They were printed to look like a little tuxedo and a little dress, and they came in two packages at $50 each (expensive napkins!). Well, we bit the bullet and ordered the napkins. After all, you can splurge a little on your wedding, right? Well, a couple of weeks later we get a package delivered containing the tuxedo napkins, but there were no dress napkins to be found. Even more troubling, I could not see a charge on my credit card for the purchase, and I was getting nervous about the order. Jill emailed the company from whom we had ordered the napkins about the issue, and they wrote her back explaining that they had discontinued to dress napkins but sent us the tuxedo napkins anyway. Because the napkins were all one order, they simply cancelled the charge and gave us the $50 tuxedo napkins free!
Cake is another wedding staple that can really run up a big charge. Well, when God is with you and sends wonderful people into your life, even cake gets His attention. My grooms' cake was bought from a bakery where our friend Bethany used to work and our friend Cory currently works. Because of the favor that God has given them in the eyes of the bakery owner, we got that cake at a huge discount. Then, my wonderful sister Jenni and my cousin Ellen came to us asking if they could have the honor of taking care of the bride's cake. To Jill's delight, they got in touch with a baker friend of their own who made 150 delicious and beautiful cupcakes (complete with icing "O's" on top) that sat just right on the amazing stand that Jenni made just for the occassion.
Let's not forget the rehearsal either. That night, my family (primarily organized by Jenni, Ellen, and Kathy) laid out an amazing lasagne dinner! A lot of couples have to stress over things like that, and I am so happy that Jill and I never had to.
In other money news, Jill's parents were able, through God's blessing, to give us $500 more for our wedding than they had planned, which allowed us to give gifts to different people who had blessed us in the course of our union. Then, in addition to so many of our friends and loved ones helping out in a staggering array of capacities, we received so much cash and wedding gifts that we were able to enjoy our honeymoon and start out our new lives together without having to go a penny in debt!
Jill could probably tell you more about the different acts of the Lord that have occurred in our relationship, but I just wanted to lay this out for anyone who might be struggling with concerns about God caring for them, especially as the economy isn't at its best right now.
As Jesus taught his disciples, little sparrows aren't worth anything to the people of this world, yet God does not overlook a single one of them. There is not a single little bird to die that God has not personally attended its funeral. He loves them so much that he doesn't even make them work for his food. They just have to get up, sing, fly, play, and find his abundance on the ground. How much more does God care for you? He knows how many hairs are on your head, and he knows everything about you. He loves you so much that he sent His Son to die for you so that you may be saved from the evil that has overtaken all of our souls. Won't he take care of the little things like our physical needs. If God cared enough to take care of a couple of his kids' wedding, won't he care for your daily needs as well? Of course He will!

In a nutshell. God loves you. He took care of our wedding because He loves us. He loves you too, and He will take care of all of your needs if you let Him into your heart.

Yesterday was March 18th (a year and two months since I went on my first date with Sam). I'm really happy God brought Sam into my life. Well, enough sappy stuff...

I think I'm about to become a drum trainer. There are a couple of kids at church that want to learn to play the drums so I'm in the process of figuring out the best time to do that. It's pretty exciting. I have to train my replacement before we move to Illinois in August.

I'm taking an online graduate course in Behavior analysis. It's pretty interesting, but sometimes it's hard to find motivation to do my school work. I've been doing okay on it lately, but I wasn't so motivated the first few weeks of the semester so I'm already a couple of weeks behind. Tonight I read one of my chapters and did a few assignments. So, I feel pretty good about myself. lol

Sam and I have decided that we are both out of shape, so I've made a new resolution to work out three times a week (Sam made the same resolution by default - I just assumed that he would work out with me. hehe). Tonight we went for a brisk walk through a near by park. It was a lovely evening. It's a lot easier for me to exercise when the weather is nice. I'm still trying to think of something we can do to exercise when the weather isn't so cooperative. Let me know if you have any ideas.

God Bless You!!

Conflict resolution...

So, in premarital counseling we talked a little about conflict resolution. Our mentors gave us a great outline to use in order to resolve conflicts. Really great stuff, but when you have such great communication skills as Sam and I, you typically don't need any formula for conflict resolution (said with a hint of sarcasm). Actually we scored very high on our premarital inventory when it came to communication, but when it comes to conflict even typically good communicators can struggle to express true desires and feelings.
I'm sure many of you are wondering by now what kind of fight Sam and I got into. Well, it wasn't really a huge deal, but we were trying to decide what to do with the couple of days I have off for spring break. Originally we wanted to try to go camping, but that fell through and we were struggling to come up with anything fun to do. Sam mentioned going to visit his family in southeast Texas and when we could think of nothing else we agreed on this. We agreed, so you may be asking, "where's the conflict?"
Here's the problem... we agreed, but not exactly on the same thing. His thoughts were to leave Friday and stay through Tuesday (We're off work Mon & Tues), but my thoughts were to leave after church on Sunday (I really hate to miss church) and stay through Tuesday (these were the originally planned dates for camping). This is when I realized marriage can get complicated (in case I haven't learned that already). What is the balance between putting each other before our extended families (what I wanted Sam to do for me) and giving sacrificially to make each other happy (what I wanted to do for Sam)? It is really my desire to be selfless, but I was really struggling. Finally I agreed to go on Friday, but I was not happy.
There were a lot of emotions going on inside and, although I'm good at communicating my needs, I'm not very good at communicating my emotions. It takes me a good 30 minutes alone in the room just to figure out what's really going on inside of me between all my thoughts and emotions. I realized that part of my sadness was due to the fact that originally this weekend was supposed to be centered around having fun with friends or maybe even just me and Sam and now we would be hanging out with family (nothing wrong with that), but not spending any fun, quality time together. I guess I was feeling disappointed.
Sam is a really great husband, but he isn't so comfortable with discomfort, if you know what I mean. He came into the room where I was laying on the bed silently crying. He said "what's wrong, Love?" When I looked up at him through my tearstained eyes, he's grinning from ear to ear (if I didn't know him better I would definately be offended, but his little smile just tells me he's uncomfortable with the situation). I was finally able to tell him how I felt. I was getting ready to make a compromise when my wonderful husband did something very sacrificial. He gave in... I wasn't crying to try to get my way, I promise. It just kind of happened that way... Thank you Sam for really loving me.
So now I'm pretty excited about this weekend. On Saturday we're going to go to the Palace of Wax and Ripley's Believe it or Not. And then we're leaving Sunday after church to go down to visit his family. It was exactly how I wanted this weekend to be. Some time for us, getting to go to our home church, and getting to spend time with his family. I can't wait!

Hope you have an amazing weekend too! God Bless You!

Beautiful Morning

Wow, it is a beautiful morning in Arlington, TX! Jill and I just wrapped up another week of working the grind...actually, we both have really good jobs, and we are thankful that God has blessed us with the opportunity to positively impact others.
In other news...
- Jill is working on school today, whilst I am tasked with getting the AC fixed on the Prizm and getting the Corolla washed.
- Hopefully, Jill's new glasses are in, so looks like a trip to Eyemasters is coming up! Maybe they can fix mine too, I have already noticed some flaking and stress lines at the bottom of one lense, and I don't think that is right, since I just got them last weekend.
- We're about to go walking to Rise and Shine for breakfast...our first time to eat out together for breakfast, I think.
- It would be nice to go fishing or geocaching, but it probably won't happen this weekend :-(
- Jesus is the Savior of the World and God is still on His thrown!

Many blessings to all of you!
Sam

Times are changing...

Well, Sam has been accepted into the Psy.D. program at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL. Since we'll be moving away from our long time home in August, we decided it was a good time to start a blog. This way those who are interested can stay posted on what we are doing. Sam and I just got married in November, so this will be a fun new adventure for us to embark on together. We're both pretty excited about it. We know this is where God is taking us so we have a lot to look forward to, but it will also be very hard. We're pretty close to our families and pretty connected in our church so it will be sad to leave... But that's why we are starting this blog. Two of my best friends recently moved away from the area, one to Colorado and the other to California so maybe this can help us stay connected to them as well. Well, that's it for now...