gone with the wind...

I know, I haven't posted in months. But those months have seemed like weeks or days to this Bible student. I suppose time flies by if we're not careful enough to stop and take some time out once in a while. I apologize, especially the part of me that is the writer, for not keeping up with my blog. Hopefully, I will have better time management this term. At least, that's one of my New Year's resolutions.

Speaking of, Happy New Year everyone!!! Hope your holidays were fantastic. Ours surely were! 4,000 miles and 15 states later we were tired, but so encouraged. We spent Christmas with my entire family in West Virginia. It was so much fun! The day after Christmas, however, I got sick and had a high fever. Fun, fun! I got better after a few days and then we drove down to my parents house in North Carolina. We stayed with them a good week and a half and visited our home congregation of Roosevelt Drive in Jacksonville. It was so uplifting to see everyone. We stopped at my grandma's house in Wilmington, NC and then my other grandparents home in Atlanta. We spent a few days there before heading to Dallas and staying with Robin's sister and brother-in-law. We had a great time.

Now, we're back to the grind, or as my teacher says, back to the joy of being at school. It honestly is a joy! We just love our classmates, our teacher and most of all the amazing things God is teaching us. We are so very blessed!!

This term, we have Acts, Matthew, Scheme of Redemption, Effective Bible Study and Evangelistic Methods. Robin has preaching and has his first sermon on Monday already! Pray for him. I have public speaking 3, which focuses this term on leading small group studies.

Please pray for us this term, as it will be quite a challenge. We have a lot of memory work, including ALL of Matthew 5. We also ask for your prayers as we prayerfully decide where to spend this summer. Of course, you all must know we're considering Scotland, North Carolina or doing a mission trip to somewhere new. Please let us know what you think!

We love you all. Thanks for your love and support. Have a blessed weekend!

Yes, it does snow in west Texas!

There are always sooo many presents at my grandma's house every year!

(From the left) Joel (my future brother-in-law), Ashley (my sister), Michelle (my cousin), me and Robin showing off our scarves that my cousin Steph knitted for us.

A pretty view of West Virginia on our drive.

Our cat, Amica. She's so good on long trips.

The view from one of our favorite restaurants in North Carolina.

Us at our favorite restaurant

Me and my Dad at one of our favorite hiking spots in North Carolina on the salt marshes.

Gotta love North Carolina! :)

the stars stand out

I am sorry for not posting for so long! Our computer has been giving us Internet issues for a few weeks now. We are finally back up and running, thanks to Laura's laptop, which we are borrowing. Thanks sis!

First of all, the most exciting news of the year, for me anyway -- my sister is engaged! HOORAY! This is wonderful news. Ashley and Joel have been dating for about 3 years, so we've been patiently waiting for this blissful moment! Joel is a wonderful, wonderful man and we are so blessed to have him in our family. I can't wait for the wedding, it's going to be wonderful! Please pray for them as they venture on this blessed journey together!

Well, things have been busy this past few weeks for sure! We have had much school work to do interspersed with illness and a lot of activities! I got sick first, then Robin, but we are both better now. School is going great, just lots of studying and papers. Our finals begin next week, so this weekend is slated for writing a few papers and study, study, study!

We were blessed to have taken a day off last weekend for a 'double date' with Jenny and Jeremy Aaron. We had so much fun! We went to the Science Spectrum, our first time there! It was fun to explore all the neat stuff. It was nice to have some time to kick back and relax.

Robin and I are off to study before Hale Center's homecoming football game! One of our youth is marching in the band, so we are going to show support. Hope everyone is having a blessed week! Take care!

approaching the throne

This is just a quick late-night prayer request. Robin and I are doing well, but we would like to ask for your prayers for the family of Cpl. Travis Woods. Cpl. Woods was the first Marine lost in combat within Marine Special Operations Command, of which my dad is the seargent major. Please pray for his family as they deal with his loss. My dad will be traveling to the funeral in California on Sunday, so please pray for his safety. Also, my mom will be now taking a planned trip alone this weekend, so please pray for her safe travel.

Please continue to pray for the troops regularly. One of our best friends, Kyle Prichard, is serving in Iraq and will be returning home soon, Lord willing. Also, we have a large number of men and women from our home congregation at Roosevelt Drive Church of Christ in Jacksonville that are currently deployed. Please remember them all. Thanks so much! Hope everyone has a blessed weekend!

trains in the night

I am taking some time out of my evening to give everyone a quick update. Things have been pretty crazy with school work this past few weeks. Our lives have consisted of sleeping (and not enough of that), eating, studying, writing papers and going to church -- for about two weeks now! We did take two evenings off this past week -- one was to go out for dinner for my birthday and that was fun! Robin even got up early Sunday to bake me a bake. What a husband!

But despite the heavy load of work we are doing, we are both feeling so encouraged and uplifted -- more and more every day. God is truly blessing us in our studies here. It seems like God reveals something new to us in his Word every single day. Today, we were greatly challenged and uplifted on the topics of singing and prayer. Our instructors opened up familiar passages of scripture to us in a whole new way. I don't understand how they do it! :) It must be years of study and prayer. God is truly working through the people here.

Also, we are really blessed by our new friends. We had the chance to go to dinner and a $2 movie last Friday with Jenny and Jeremy Aaron from Wichita Falls, TX and our new Chinese friends Ken and Debbie (their real names are Xia Li and Li Jing). Both couples are such an encouragement to us and we don't know what we'd do without them now! We are thankful God put them in our lives. Please pray for all of us as we get into the heart of the semester with the heaviest workload! Please especially pray for Ken and Debbie, as they often struggle with the language barrier.

Well, I am off to get some things done before the evening escapes me. We love and miss you all! Have a blessed weekend!

Sunset-bound

Well, we're officially residents of West Texas! Believe it or not, we actually love it here. The scenery isn't too great without trees and hills and ocean, but the skies are great and so are the people! We've been in school for 3 weeks now and are currently on our first "research week" break. We get the whole week "off," though not really because we have 4 papers to write and a test to study for, along with tons of reading. But hey, that's what we're here for!!!

We are absolutely loving the school so far. The teachers are amazing and so are our classmates! We love them all. It's a lot of work, but we are learning so much!

We spent this past weekend in Dallas and Conroe visiting Robin's family. Pray for his Nana who isn't doing very well. Also, pray that his Dad has a safe trip home to Scotland.

Well, other than plumbing issues (a flooded bathroom), this wee hoose is perfect! We got the plumbing fixed twice, so hopefully yesterday was the last of the problems. But hey, with a free house you can't complain! We are so very blessed! We love this place!

We're off for a walk before digging into more studying. Love you all!