4th of July 2009

What a weekend! Man… we were on the road a lot this past weekend. All of our friends live in Hendersonville which is about 30 to 40 minutes away give or take with traffic. That is where we attend Church as well. So Friday during the day I went and hung out at the pool with my girlfriend in Mount Juliet. Anyway, that night we went to Hendersonville for their fireworks show with our friends. It was fun to hang out with them; we cooked out, and watched the kids play. Saturday morning we went back to Hendersonville and while Jason and Chad (One of our friends) were building picnic tables for our Church, Kristin (Chad’s wife) and I hung out at the pool. We then went downtown to the Nashville fireworks. Chad’s dad is an attorney downtown and his building is right up against the riverfront, where they set off the fireworks. We sat on the roof and watch the fireworks in the rain. It wasn’t just rain it was buckets of water. We were as wet as we would have been jumping in the pool with our clothes on! It was so much fun, though. We were definitely drenched, but it was so worth it. Nashville’s downtown fireworks show is THE BEST fireworks display I have EVER seen in my life. It was constant fireworks for a total of 25 minutes! Choreographed with the Nashville Symphony, pretty amazing!

Habitat for Humanity Home Dedication....

I got to go to the Habitat for Humanity house, I help build, for the dedication. It was a very emotional, HOT day! HCA also gave her and her family and brand new washer and dryer! It was amazing and pretty neat to walk through it after it was completed. It was great to get to see the family again one more time!

Man O Man.... where is summer going?

It has been a while since I’ve written. I am blessed enough to work for a company who wants you to go out and help the community. So I was able to take a day off of work and go help start a home for Habitat for Humanity! What a blessing, it was amazing, we started with a concrete slab and by the end of the day we had a completely framed out house including the truces for the roof! We worked out lil tails off. It was the most rewarding experience ever doing Community Service. I volunteer at the Rape Crisis Center and I get a lot out of the experience there as well, but the progress takes years sometimes to notice. With the Habitat home, I was driving away looking at what we accomplished and just felt amazing! I fell in love with the family and actually get to go back this Friday to watch the home get dedicated by our CEO. If you ever have an opportunity to start a habitat home instead of finish it… I say DO IT!! You will be so proud of yourself and be amazed at the whole process. Not only that, but you also learn a lot of skills that will help you on your own home or projects.

Lets see, so much has happened in the last couple of weeks. CMA Music Fest was here about 2 weeks ago. My cousin came in for the CMS Music Fest and the CMT Music Awards. We got to hang for a whole week, it was so much fun. And way cooler temperature wise than last years music fest. We started out the week with the City of Hope Celebrity Softball Game, which was a blast. There were so many Artists and Music stars. My cousin got us seats about 4 rows behind home plate, so we got to see all of them up close. The picture is from my iPhone so it seems like its further away than it really is. I have more pictures that I will post later. Then we went and did a couple of tours around Nashville, some of them I hadn’t done since we moved here, so it was fun and a first time for us as well. Saturday night we went to the concert and got to see The Judds play together for the first time I think they said in 10 years. It was awesome. Then Tuesday night, my cousin had an extra ticket for the pit at the CMT Music Awards. I was super excited, that was THE BEST time I have had in a long time! Her and I got on camera for about 2 minutes behind Bill Engall introducing Brad Paisley! It was a blast! We were about 3 people away from the stage and were in the middle of 3 major stages so we got to see everyone there up close and personal as well! Some of them looked like wax figures to me… just almost surreal I guess. It was so much fun.
Mom and Dad are starting to pack up their home in Qatar and will be officially back in the United States FOR GOOD July 1, 2009! The 3 years seemed like it would never pass fast enough and now they are on their way home next week! Woot! Can’t wait! Jason and I are driving back to Texas July 8th, we are not looking forward to the 18 hour trip, but we are sooooo excited to see everyone. We will be going straight to Midland because we are so hungry to see our neice and nephew, brother and sister-in-law. I am planning on meeting up with some of my high school buddies there as well. From there we are going to Lubbock to see my family there, I have a cousin who was born when we moved here and I have yet to see him… and he’s already standing up against things! How time flies! Then off to Amarillo where I will get to see my Best Friend and God Daughter for a couple of days. I am also going to see my buddy who lost his wife right after we moved… I am not looking forward to that reunion because neither one of us has seen each other since she passed away last October. It will be sad, but way WAY overdue! Then off to Pampa where I will stop and see my girlfriend’s (who passed away) kids. From there we are going to see my Nanny (Grandmother), Aunts and Uncles. I haven’t seen them since Christmas. Can’t wait. Then its back to Amarillo to pick up the rest of our stuff we couldn’t fit on the Penske truck when we moved and start back to Nashville. Making a stop in Oklahoma to see my Uncle on the way back. So we will be way exhausted, but are sooooo ready to see family and friends!
Summer has already started to fly by WAAAAY too fast! I can’t believe June is almost over! Crazy! Anyway, stay tuned for more pictures. And I will try my hardest to do better on keeping up.

Yard of The Month... woot woot!

Our hard work on the yard has paid off! Our subdivision has “Yard of The Month,” we knew that they had this, but didn’t realize that there was a perk to getting the sign in your yard. On top of getting recognized in our HOA Newsletter, we also got a $75 Gift Certificate to a nursery, which Jason and I absolutely love. So we get to add $75 worth of new plants and flowers to our yard… Pretty exciting, especially when its free money for something that Jason and I enjoy doing. We have definitely been blessed.

Randomness...

Wow… it’s been about 3 weeks since I wrote an entry. I had my surgery, it took a lot longer to heal this time, or maybe my expectations were too high… I ended up having to stay home for an entire week, it absolutely drove me insane. It wasn’t hard being home, but being home and not being able to do anything while you were sitting there looking at everything that needs or could be done was tough. The weather was nice on most days so I would go sit on the porch while Jay worked in the yard… but sitting there wishing I could do it my way was kind of hard… LOL Jason did get a lot done to the outside while we were home. One day towards the end of my recovery I had to get out of the house or I was going to go nuts. We went to a nursery here that is spread across I think 3 acres… awesome place especially if you love plants and flowers as much as we do. Anyway, we bought a spiral boxwood, two dwarf crepemrytles, a big crepemrytle, two white azalea bushes and a pink azalea bush. Our neighbor works for a landscaping company and he got us some really nice black mulch (which is the thing in Nashville), you can’t really use wood chips here because the termites are awful due to the humidity. Anyway he and our neighbor put that down and our front flower bed looks so much better. When we moved to our home, the front sidewalk was super small. Well, it was the ivy that the prior owners had planted along the sidewalk that took over the sidewalk. We got that cleared out of there and it opened up our porch. It’s one of my favorite places to be now…. AND I go out there to just sit…. No smoking anymore! WAHOO!! RANDOM I know, but… I’ve lost count of days, but I quit November 1st and have not put one in my mouth since! It actually disgusts me now!
I am rambling I know, but there’s tons to tell. So this weekend is Easter and Jason and I decided because we recently joined our Church that we wanted to be here for Easter. Well, Wednesday night I practiced with the Choir for 2 hours and after that Jason and I did our videotaped testimony that will be shown on Easter Sunday to the Church. We did an awesome job, and if it can help someone who might be struggling in this job market or in a rough time in their life then Jason and I did our job. I’m really proud of our story. Our Church is definitely worth it, but it’s about 45 minutes from our house, so we are going to be on the road a lot this weekend, but we are really excited about everything that is going to be happening. I am not only going to be singing in both services, but I am also part of the sermon. We did our cardboard testimonies as well so I can’t wait. For those of you who don’t know what a cardboard testimony is. On the front of this piece of cardboard there are words that you write down describing how your life was without God, and on the back you use words to describe how your life is now with God. Love it, and can’t wait to see what our Pastor does with it. He’s sermons are amazing; he thinks outside the box and makes you want to learn more…. God definitely blessed us with this Church.
It is definitely Spring in Nashville, its beautiful everything is in bloom around here and I love it! Well, I could do without the whole allergies that go along with everything blooming, and the scary storms that come through middle Tennessee during the spring. We have already had two tornadoes touch down here in Nashville this year! NO FUN! The second one was pretty unnerving at work, when the security guard came over the PA system and said we need you all to evacuate to the basement immediately a tornado has touched down by the airport. We will let you know when the storm has passed. Well, first of all…. my family will tell you that I do NOT DO STORMS! I’ve gotten a little better about them… but my grandparents hated it when a storm came through and I was with them…. So being that scared at work with my co-workers was not an option…. It bothered me being away from Jason as well not really knowing what was going on where he was. That night my drive home took me 3 hours, due to I40 being closed down on both side from tractor trailers being flipped over in the storm… so that’s the spring weather in Nashville…. No fun! I was a nervous wreck! The weather this weekend though is supposed to be beautiful… I don’t like that we won’t be with any of our family of course, but I am going to cook my first Easter meal for just me and Jay! I went and bought a WAY TOO BIG ham yesterday and we are going to have all kinds of starchy food…. I’m kind of excited about cooking a big meal for just the two of us. We may end up inviting some friends over because they are away from their family as well. Sorry for the book, but a lot is going on here… its spring and I can’t wait to get out boat out… we may even get it out tomorrow morning! YAY!! This summer is going to be uneventful as far as moving and buying homes, etc… so we will be able to enjoy the 2 lakes we are in between and may even float the Caney fork river a couple of times this year! Can’t wait!!
I pray that all of you and your families have a very BLESSED EASTER! And remember the real reason that we celebrate this holiday! I’m forgiven because He was forsaken!

God's Will....

I will start from the beginning….as my last post went, I was going into have a laparoscopy, hysteroscopy, and another type of procedure I am not sure of the name. This was on March 5, 2008, we went into the hospital I was admitted. I had the IV in my hand and the nurse was about to bring me my meds for the surgery and she went to double check my lab work. She came into the room holding a piece of paper to her chest and said, “honey we are going to have to cancel your procedure, today.” I started to cry because my husband and I with my female history had an idea that this would be the only option to help us to conceive. So I was really upset, like my dreams had just been crushed. Well, she laid the piece of paper on my lap and on there in highlighted marker was a positive pregnancy test. We were ecstatic, we started to cry and laugh all at the same time, and FINALLY we were going to get the baby of our dreams. So I asked the nurse I think 4 times, are you sure? She said, “Yes sweetie!” Its positive… well my family was waiting on Jason to call them once they had taken me back into surgery. So on our way out of the hospital we both called our parents simultaneously to tell them the great news. This would be my parents 3rd grandchild, but Jason’s parents 1st grandchild. Well, as it goes that whole entire day we could not wipe the grins off of our faces! Anyone who knows us knows this has been what we have been dreaming about forever…. I literally believe I knew I wanted to be a Mommy when my brother was born. Anyway, I was to come into the Dr.’s office that next morning to get more blood drawn to see if my pregnancy hormone had doubled since my last blood draw. Well, this was on a Friday so we didn’t get the lab results back until Monday morning. So all weekend we were just ecstatic, we couldn’t help but want to tell all of our families and friends that awesome news. Monday morning, I get a call in the morning saying that my pregnancy hormone had increased but it hadn’t doubled??? Right then and there I started to doubt that this pregnancy was going to make it to baby form. So I asked her at that point, am I pregnant. The nurse said, “The test keeps coming back positive and your levels did increase but didn’t double. We want you to come back in on Tuesday morning to get your blood drawn again to see if they double this time.” My gut told me, that this wasn’t ok to be excited about yet. I got my blood drawn Tuesday morning, yesterday morning on my way to work, I prayed about the outcome of this test. And I just had that feeling that the phone call I would receive in the next couple of hours wouldn’t be a good one. Well the nurse called me and said, Jennifer, sweetie your pregnancy test came back negative. I am so sorry for all of this, I know this whole situation has been very confusing for both you and Jason, but we just couldn’t go through with the surgery if you were possible going to become pregnant. These were just words; I kind of went through the motions of listening to what she had to say. I know it’s not anyone’s fault, but had they presented it to me differently at the hospital, we may not have been so quick to call all of our family and friends. We thought it would be an awesome story for the little booger once they got here.
I am thankful for my faith in God, I am so thankful for all of our friends and families. I am thankful that I didn’t have a whole lot of time to completely get used to the idea. I am thankful that it wasn’t 3 months down the road, and this happen. I know that God can see the “Big Picture,” when I know I can’t. I think in my heart of hearts that my “environment” wasn’t ok to carry a fetus to full-term, yet. It may have been God’s way of letting me know that Jay and I can get pregnant, and we just need a little help with the surgery. I do have a lot of questions, but I’m not questioning God for any of it. He knows whats in our future, Jason and I don’t necessarily. We have started back at square one. I am going back in for surgery next Thursday, March 19, 2009 and pray to God that it will help us get the baby of our dreams. Thank you all for all of your support and love, in the last week, we have felt more love than we have felt in a very long time. We had some of the biggest highs I think you will ever experience, and we have also experienced the lowest of low all within a week’s time. We just have faith that it is all for a reason, and we are thankful for every minute of this last week.

“To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.'
When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better. Concentrate on this sentence... 'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.”

30th Birthday...

My 30th Birthday started out awesome! My team, told me to come into one of my boss' offices. I went in there and they had a bouquet of Gerber daisies (one of my favorite flowers), and bagels with a card. I opened the card and in it they bought me a gift certificate to one of the best spas in Nashville. I can't wait to go and have my very first massage. Then I went to my desk and it was covered in really cute confetti and balloons with a super cute box filled dove chocolates!! My girlfriend "A" drove all the way downtown after work to decorate my desk, it made my day....







Then I got an email from my Aunt that had a picture of me when I was a baby, I hadn't seen a baby picture of myself in I can't remember when. My day was so awesome and my friends and co-workers made me feel so loved. When I went home, Jason wouldn't tell me where we were going. To back up a little bit all my girlfriends and their husbands all had plans that night and honest to goodness I didn't think anything about it... They just kept asking me what we were doing, and jay wouldn't tell me. Well he took me to a really really nice Italian restaurant. Well when we got their our hostess grabbed alot of menus and I was thinking well she must have another group behind us. Then she started taking us to the table and there sitting there was 6 of our really good friends! I was so excited and surprised! I love my husband and the fact that he is a romantic and thinks about what would make me smile.... I just adore him and thank God he blessed me with him.
Mom got to come spend a week with us over Valentines day and we celebrated my Birthday then also. Her and Dad bought a lot of new work clothes that I love. Thanks Mom and Dad, love them!
Next Thursday (March 5th) I go in for another laporascopy (3rd one in the last 11 years) for my endometreosis. Jason and I have been trying to have a baby for a year now, and we are praying that this will help the process.... We are both so hungry for a family and have been praying for that for awhile now.... So even though it's surgery, I'm pretty excited for the end result....
We will let you know how the surgery went after it's over... We pray that this is all it will take, but are willing to do whatever it takes to make our dream come true.
May God continue to bless you and your families!