Recapping 2008. Looking to 2009

Wow!
I don't know about any of you, but I think 2008 was a definate crazy year. Really and for reals.
A year ago at this time I never thought that I would have done the things I have down or even gone to the place I have gone. I never expected to be where I am right at this very moment. It never in a million years entered my mind that I would be engaged and living in Texas.
A year ago I was just thinking about Reagan. A year ago I was thinking mostly of the Bahamian cruise I was going to go on in the spring.
I can't say that I loved every minute of this year. It was very hard for me to decide whether or not I was supposed to go to Texas or stay in New York. It was over month before I realized it was what I was supposed to do.
Saying goodbye was even harder to do. Saying hello to more family that would one day be a part of me was very special. Not being able to see my nieces grow or even see my niece Emily Grace after she was born in October has been even harder.
All the days when poor Reagan has had to just hold me in his arms and let me cry . . .
Then there are all the good things about this year.
Isabelle Mae being born in March, going to the Bahamas in May, meeting Reagan and getting engaged in June, seeing strange new lands west of New York state and learning to live in Texas in August, Emily Grace being born in October.
All of these things in between the hard days helped to soften the blow of the hard things.
God has really blessed this year. Not every blessing that I see what a fun blessing either. Some blessings don't show up when you are having a good day. Some show up when you least expected or when you are having a bad day. The Lord has given me many.

Looking to 2009!
Wow! Tomorrow is the very last day of 2008. On Thursday we will be trying to remember to put a 9 at the end of the year instead of an 8.
I'm looking forward to and dreading what the year 2009 is going to bring.
On April 25 I am looking forward to becoming a wife. Also looking forward to seeing my family again after 8 months.
I am also looking forward to what God has for Reagan and I in the future.
At this moment we are not really sure what He has planned for our lives. For all we know we may not be in Texas by the end of 2009. If that be the case, we will be going where God wants us to go.
I look forward to it, but I also dread it.
There is sure to be loses of good friends and introductions of new ones. There is sure to be good times and bad times. There will be times when confusion is all there is and times of understanding.
What ever the case may be I do one thing that is never failing and will always be. It is that God is incontrol and He will always be with me no matter what.
A song that I used to love as a child went something like this.
"Don' be afraid. Jesus is watching you in the dark night. He is protecting you. Talk to the Lord. Ask him to make you brave. Jesus will hear when you pray.
Jesus is caring for you. Jesus is helping you too. Jesus is always there keeping you, for he Loves you. Jesus is caring for you Jesus is helping you too. Jesus is with you whatever you do.
You're not alone. Jesus is there with you. He can't be seen, but he is there it's true. He is your friend. He'll keep you in his care, he goes with you everywhere."
Ah! A good song to remember during the year ahead.
Happy 2009 Everyone!

My Crazy life between Thanksgiving and now!

Merry Christmas to all of my friends that are reading this.
My life has been crazy since the last time I wrote. Of course that is nothing really new because my life has always been crazy.
I have a lot to be thankful for this year, but nothing more so then the night before Thanksgiving when Reagan and I were smashed from behind by a truck. Those of you who know me know that I have never been in an accident when I was driving the car so this was a very tramatic time for me. Neither of us were hurt although my car had a smashed in trunk and rear bumper along with a few small dents from the front where I smashed into the car ahead of me.
Right now my life is pretty much going to work every day. Although this past week offically kicked off the beginning of our house renevations. Reagan's Papa Kenneth has come to help Reagan's dad put in our new kitchen and our doors. In the mean time Reagan's mom has been busy scraping the wall paper off the walls. (Steamers are wonderful things for getting tough wall paper off the wall.)
Reagan and I took advantage of the Christmas sales and spent money on the wedding.
Wait how many of you with a show of hands can believe that we have only 4 more months to go!
I am so not ready!
We have our invitations. Yah! Now to the gruling task of picking out who we can invite to the wedding, who we have to invite to the wedding and who would come and murder us in our sleep if we didn't invite them to the wedding. It's really hard when you have enough room in the church for about 150 people.
Reagan and I have a lot of dicissions to make in the next few weeks. Around the beginning of November Reagan lost his job. He has been looking every day for something, but it hasn't been easy. Not only that, but because he has brodened his search from just here in the city we live in he has spread it across the country. There could be a very big possibility that moving is in the forcast. (And we just bought the house too)
We keep having to be reminded that God is in control no matter what is going to happen to us.
Keep us continually in your prayers. We need all the prayers we can get right now.

It's that Time of year again

I don't know about you, but I think this year has gone by really fast. Last year at this time I was trying to figure out how to tell my family about Reagan. As crazy as it sounds, I wasn't even sure what I was going to tell them. I didn't know if they were going to believe me or not.
But even so, we have once again come around to my favorite time of year. This year however it is going to be totally different.
This year I am going to Earth, Texas that is, instead of celebrating it with the Westcott side of the fam.
It going to be very strange, but I can tell you that I am really looking forward to celebrating it with my new family. It is just as big and just as crazy as my other half of the family.
I really love Thanksgiving. I don't really know why. It might have something to do with celebrating it with family althroughout my growing up years. I can't say that I can remember a Thanksgiving I didn't love to go to.
But most of all as I have said in the past, I really love Thanksgiving, because the retailers haven't picked up on to how they can commercialize it. Sure they can sell their turkey's and food for the dinner table, they can even think of nothing else but football, but let me tell you, Thanksgiving doesn't have the same tone that so many other holiday's (Christmas most especially) seem to have developed over the years.
Christmas isn't Christmas anymore, it's Greedmas or Xmas (YUCK!!!!!). Easter isn't Easter anymore it's Bunny day. People find any way they can to make people want to buy buy buy and forget what the real meaning of the season is.
Of course I am not going to stop here with out mentioning my biggest pet peeve of Thanksgiving. Turkey Day! No WAYY! Thanksgiving never had anything to do with Turkey's in the first place. As a matter of fact, if I remember correctly they didn't even have Turkey on the first Thanksgiving it should really be called Seafood day or Deer day, because that it was they ate. How about this one happy Berry day!
See, none of those kinds of sayings work, so why in the world would Turkey Day work.
It's more of a case that a punch of Turkey's got together one day and thought that someone ought to celebrate them so they stole the real meaning of Thanksgiving and twisted it to celebrate themselves. Pooh on them. Theirs a reason the Bald Eagle was made the National bird and not the Turkey like a lot of people wanted.
So to all of you out there who love Thanksgiving as much as I do, Happy Thanksgiving.
For all of you out there who call it Turkey day, Happy Thanksgiving. I don't plan on mincing any words just to make you happy. It was Thanksgiving, it is Thanksgiving, and it always will be Thanksgiving.
Let's all thank God this Thanksgiving that He has helped us through another year. I am sure it wasn't easy for anyone. I know it sure wasn't an easy year for me, but as I told Reagan. "I don't want my life to be easy. If my life was easy I would look back ten years from now and not see myself change. With the Challenges that I know God has put before me this year I know without a doubt that next year at this time I can look back and say I have changed. With the many challenges and hardships I know God will send my way this coming year and can look back at my life a year from now and now that God has changed me and that I have changed for the better."
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A Word of Hello

I am exited that I have a day off today. Reagan and I are on our way to check out flooring and other fun stuff for the house. We start our remodeling on Saturday. It is both a very exciting time and very scary all at the same time. I am not really sure what is going to happen through all the remodeling. I do know that I am going to have a whole new kitchen and the walls are going to be painted throughout the house. I also know that doors have to be replaced. It now comes down to what we are going to do about furniture and stuff like that. We have a few things including a washer and dryer, but that is about it. Reagan is going to be living as a minimalist by the end of the year. AKA he is going to have a bed to sleep on in the house.
As the wedding gets closer and closer the more we are both realizing that we need every prayer we can get. We are realizing there is some much more happening to us then just getting married. We need your prayers as we make life changing decisions and attempt to let go of our singleness. It is so easy to sink back into being single instead of doing things as a couple. We know God has His hands in everything we are doing and will lead us where ever it is that He want to take us. It isn't fun to have no control of circumstances. I know because I am a perfectionist and I like things to go my say, but I am learning that I have to let God be in control and to sometimes let Reagan do it his way.

Dusty winds and tumble weed.

Yes there really is such thing has tumble weeds and we are talking those things that are made up in the movies. Okay so maybe they are something taken out of the movies, but let me tell you one thing, they hit it dead on when it came to the wind.
I came home from being at Reagan's house tonight and the wind was whipping something up that I wasn't so sure about. It looked like either dust, fog, or maybe even rain that wasn't acutally hitting the ground. Whatever it was, it is a sign that we are in for colder weather. I guess I am going to have to start wearing my jacket again. It was cold for a while, but I finally came to the conclusion that I didn't need it so I stopped wearing it to work. Now I am think I might.
For those of you who were wondering, I am doing well learning my job at the bank. It's by no means as easy as the Tellers make you think. You have to continually aware of everything as it comes in. Fake checks are the hardest thing to find, but we found one!
Friday is the big day! Reagan is going to be signing papers and closing on the house Friday and the house will finally be ours. I think Nana Joyce is happy about that. I am too!
Now we can have fun.
Of couse now that I have a job, I am able to buy things again for the wedding. I had the opportunity today to do some searching and I find some good deals. I think I am going to go with them because I don't think I could get a unity candle with the two candles for 29.99 in too many places. Maybe I'm wrong.
They tell me I should look in Hobby Lobby so maybe I will wait until the sales come, but I am iching to get more stuff for the wedding. Especially the invitations.

Keep me in your prayers. Because I have started working after two months of no work, my body has gotten out of the grove and I have been very tired lately. I get home from work and my brain shuts down and I have to close my eyes and "reboot".

Oh I didn't tell you! I'm an auntie again. Emily Grace was born on October 27 to my sister and brother-in-law. From what it sounds like her two big sisters are very proud of her.
Unfortunately this little sister hasn't seen pictures yet and she is wondering where they are. I really should get my sister to send me some.

The news you've all been waiting for!

I finally have a job!
Thank you to all of you who have been praying for me to find a job. I got the call I have been waiting for and that is the job that says "We have a job for you. Would you like it?" Yes YES, a thousand times YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will be a teller at a bank. I am really looking forward to doing something diffent then retail. Anything, but retail!
It will be nice knowing I don't have sit reading or writing all day. Now I have something to do while Reagan is working.
I will also be able to sleep at night now, too! That will be a wonderful thing.
That was just one blessing that happened to me today. We also got the email we have been waiting for. It is the one that says that our house is going to be offically ours probably by this weekend. That means we get to start tearing out rugs, pulling of wall paper, paint over walls and going to the store and picking out what we want for the house. I am so excited!
I don't know about anyone else, but I can tell you that I am very excited to be able to offically go into the house and say "This is Our House" (in the middle of the street. . .)
The Lord has truely blessed us today.

Okay Okay! I'm writing in my blog!

I really still am here. I haven't gone anywhere. I am still alive and kicking in the wonderful wide open space of Texas.
As a matter of fact the President is supposed to be going past the house at any time now. We just saw a helicopter flying the route and we are waiting to see if Air force 1 has landed yet or not.
Hey that's what I get for living in the home town of the President. What can I say!?
The reason I haven't written in my blog in a while is because I haven't really had much to say. Life has been pretty normal.
Every day I drive Reagan to work and stay their the entire day and read, write, and look for a job. No job yet. I am able to drive around a lot better than I did when I first got my car. Road are looking familiar to me now.
I am an official Texan now. I received my driver's licence in the mail yesterday. That was pretty exciting.
I have been to a Symphony since I have been here. That was pretty neat. I met the man who taught Reagan how to play the trumpet. Cool!
I have been to several Football games. Okay I understand football a lot better now. Doesn't mean that I enjoy watching it, but at least I know what is going on when I have to watch it.
I have learned where the best Milkshake in town is and I have also found out where the best place to eat is. Yeah Cracker Barrel!
Last week the ladies of the family went to a craft show and then ate out. It was a girls day out! Then Reagan and I had our pictures taken around the city in which the mosquitoes found me and ate me alive. I have never had so much problem with mosquitoes. I guess they like my hand lotion. We came to that conclusion when we went for a walk last night and I was wearing the lotion and got eaten alive again.
As to the wedding plans in case anyone was interested. We are working on Registries, musicians, and photographers. There is still a lot to be done so your prayers are much appreciated. We are also still trying to get our house. We have the house, we are just having problems getting the loan. Prayer there is wonderful, too.
Okay because you are all forcing me to write in my blog and am going to gloat. While all of you in the East are preparing for winter and watching the mercury fall in the thermometers, I enjoyed a nice cool day of about 90 degrees yesterday. Okay so the mornings are cool and I have to wear my Orange Texas Longhorns hoodie, but by the afternoon I am sweating and in need of air conditioning.
Next week we will be celebrating Reagan's birthday. He has is birthday off so we may be going on a road trip, it all depends on houses and whether Alicia thinks she can drive 5 hours in one day and still feel awake enough to celebrate when she get back. We see.
Come see me sometime. I would love you to see this amazing state where you can sit in a field and see stars you didn't know were even in the sky or stand on a small hill and see 30 miles away. Or for that matter drive toward the city at night and see the beautiful twinkling of the city lights. I have to say that although I miss my mountains, the sights I see in Texas are amazing!