Man I love my bed!

Well we are officially home again:) It felt sooo great to be back in my bed. I was very comfortable at Marney's house, but there is nothing like your own bed. Thanks to my sweet parents, we got the best mattresses ever created as Christmas gifts. They have been the best gift ever! We really enjoyed our vacation. We got to do nothing, which truly was great and needed for us. I mean we did take Jarrett to the zoo, the park, fed ducks (all with lots of pics), but it was also nice to not get out of our pj's til after lunch or just play trains and baseball with Jarrett @ the house. I am so thankful we got to do this. We feel so refreshed-and rightfully so since we slept lots! That's about all there is to write for now, but I hope you enjoy the pictures & if I can figure out how..I have a couple of cute videos too!

What a time!

Well I guess it is time to let the cat out of the bag as to where we chose to go on vacation. Many asked & we dared not tell..no point really just fun to tease! We are in NM, which we love! Many I think assumed we'd go to Glorieta. I mean we all know where else is there to get away in NM, right? Well God had just His perfect plan for us!
My Marney (my grandmother-thats what I call her) is actually in Florida for a while to help out with my new baby cousin. So, she let us stay in her house. It has been nothing short of AWESOME! Now some may say give me a break-that's a vacation? For us-YES! We have an entire house (not just a hotel room) to ourselves, we get to cook all our own food, which is great for 2 reasons. 1)we are all gluten free so it is hard eating out 2) it adds up fast! Plus, we get to do NOTHING. That is what we desired more than anything.
We didn't want to go to constant activities and such. We wanted to be able to stay in our jammies (can ya tell I'm a mommy?) all day if we want, no deadlines, no places to be and if we want to get out we can. We have really enjoyed it. So, here are a few pics for all to see of our vacationing. Jarrett has loved it. He sadly asks everyday back home "where are we going today?" Thankfully, he has yet to ask that here. He loves all this downtime too! Enjoy! We sure are:) And thanks to those of you who make this possible-marney, our volunteers back home, and our Lord for setting aside a vacation that we know will forever be etched in our memories as the best one we will ever take!

How great is God? I would have to say pretty darn great! About a week ago, I was just plain struggling. Thanks to my wonderful Savior, my sincerely sweet husband, Jarrett's kisses, and friends' prayers, I am feeling much better.

Things are busy now, but I have enjoyed it. I took 19 youth girls to an all girls' conference in Lubbock this weekend. They seemed to have a great time, and I love being a part of their wonderful lives. Now we are planning for Disciple Now this weekend. I am so excited for it. The students always look forward to it, and Shaun has put a lot of hard work and love into this one. I think they will have a blast. But more than the obvious fun;) I want our students to find Christ.

That is something I wake up reading and trying to pray everyday. That Shaun and I find Christ in the midst of everything. We want to find our lives in His hands. We want to seek His presence and His peace. I feel we are in a great place right now together. We have spent 2 different nights now up until at least 2am talking. Don't know about you others out there-but I LOVE getting to talk to my husband that long and that intimately. We were just pouring our hearts out to each other. That is from our lives with the Lord to me talking about the Duggar family (whom I adore) to Shaun talking sports-which I am learning! It has been wonderful!

It seems it is always during this time of the year, everything seems to go neutral. Students are tired of school, adults are ready for summer (some of them), the students in our ministry are tired and so are we..as I am sure our volunteers are too! This time becomes are downtime (after DNOW) to rest and recuperate and get ready for summer. Shaun and I hope to get that time just as a family. Not to visit others or go somewhere fun and fancy. We want to be alone-just the 3 of us-and search God. Have HIM prepare us for this summer. It will be hard. Shaun is gone one week, home one week, gone one week...well you get the idea..all up until August. That is a lot of away time from each other. So I pray we get that time now.

I guess we are different. In saying this I mean that we are not about travelling everywhere and doing everything. Don't get me wrong if money and time allowed we would do this from time to time. But for now, we don't want to be tired from the school year of work and go into the summer that way. We want to be recuperated and the best place and way to do that is to seek our Lord and find His peace and comfort.

I pray as the school year starts closing that you too search and find His peace. Don't buy into the world's ideas of escape-true escape and comfort is only found within Him. Love you all!