bla! Jason

I am board so I thought i would make a little reading post blog thingy! ha ha! There has been Lot's of drama at school this week! make ups break ups the usual junior high junk! In school they have been preparing the 7Th grade for leadership. This school only goes to 8Th grade and next year we will be leader's!!! That really excites me! Lately I have not been acting different at school then at home and I have actually talked to people more and made a few more friends. It has been a normal and a little extra good week for me. Having dad home all week was even better. On Wednesday Josh, dad, and I went fishing. We had a great time and I cannot wait till we go again. It sometimes drives me crazy because the fish jump out of the water and taunt you. I can just hear their little voices saying " I'm over here!!" and " NO I'M OVER HERE NOW HAHAHAHAHHA YOU CAN'T GET ME!!!!". It is just plain rude! ha ha. I also got some good news about my talents ( if you will) I am on the worship team at my church now! I am so excited! Also at school the teacher gave me a part to sing on the song by Carrie Underwood called " Jesus take the wheel". I am so excited!!! Well i gtg ( got to go)!!! Josh is not willing to share his computer!!! ha ha bye!!!

Hurricane, Or Not?!

Well, I decided I'd better post something or my kids are going to take over my blog. They really seem to enjoy it. It's interesting how you can get to know your kids by reading their blogs. Anyway, it's been a crazy year for us. We have left our home, our church, our friends, and our family. We know God has brought us to this place and we find peace in that, but it has not been an easy journey. The first week here we nearly filled our new house up with tears, really, it's true. We all wanted to turn around and go back. The day we left Nick had to pry Missy and I apart and he kept telling us "five more minutes will not make it any easier." We laugh about it now, but it was hard. Leaving Nick's parents was heart wrenching. But the hardest part was watching my kids break down. The only peace I had was knowing that God was in this and I had to keep focusing on the big picture, what big plans does God have for us now? After about a week of trying to adjust and getting the kids in school we had to go through a hurricane, well almost a hurricane. I have a whole new found appreciation for people living on the Gulf. I can't even believe they live with this every year. It is so stressful when a hurricane is coming and you watch the weather channel all day wondering if it's coming your way. Then you hear it's coming straight for us, we're in the cone of possibility, as they call it, prepare, get ready, get water, get canned food!!!! And the grocery stores are packed with people pushing, and grabbing, and it's just insane. Then you have to decide do I evacuate, wait it's not coming our way, so I'll stay, oh but wait, it is coming our way, get a reservation or all the rooms in San Antonio will be gone....but wait it's going the other way now, good, we can rest, but wait!!! here it comes so we bettere get out!! OH MY GOSH! It's the most awful experience, especially when you have no idea what you are doing. In addition to that you have to cover all of your windows with boards. Nick had to climb a 30 foot laddar, carry very heavy boards up to the second story windows, drill holes in the brick, while somehow holding the very heavy boards, and cover all of our 20 windows. It was 100 degrees with 100% humidity. It was so hot it just drained you of all of your energy, and Nick and Josh were putting the boards up with sweat dripping off of them....it took about eight hours to get it done and they literally had to take breaks to keep from passing out. When they finished that Nick had to go to work and take care of evacuation plans at Walmart. The kids and I packed and got ready to evacuate. The news announced that all roads coming into Corpus were going to be closed so that all North and South bounds lanes on the interstate could be used to drive North. It was expected to be mass chaos, but everyone I talked to was getting out, so I thought I'd better go. Nick had to stay behind with the store because Walmart did not shut down his store. I packed my bags grabbed all of our photos (and my coach purse) and prepard for the worse. So, the next morning the kids and I get up, got on the road expecting thick traffic, but to our surprise the highway is quite clear, they've cancelled the evacuation, the storm has gone the other way and is now headed for Galveston!!! But we already have paid for hotel through priceline, no chance of a refund, so we go anyway. Corpus did not even get one ounce of rain from that storm. I am thankful that we did not have a hurricane, but for all of our trouble we could have at least gotten some rain!!! Oh my gosh, I am not looking forward to hurricane season. From now on I will not make reservations through priceline and we will hire someone to cover our windows. In the meantime, we are doing so much better, God is so good. We still have not sold our house in Lubbock, so we covet your prayers for that. We miss you all so much! God Bless!

The Hallucenogen -Josh

Like a Trance or Something...

It was a regular day at Guitar Center... or so I thought... I was sitting jamming with a Marcus Miller Jazz Bass, my dream bass customized by one of my favorite jazz artists, and I looked up and saw the most UGLY telecaster I've ever laid my eyes on... the Joe Strummer Telecaster (I don't know what the deal is about the "Artist series" guitars that draw my attention, but it must be a strong attraction because they're so expensive) and as ugly as it was, it was beautiful to me. So I put up the slick and glossy bass to pick up the the old dirty guitar and get acquainted with it. So worn-out and used-looking, but it was the most dashing guitar I've seen in a while... I began my examination. First thing was it's vintage style outward appearance. The rusted magnets on the pickups, the horrible paint-job, but I've been told the inside is what really matters. The second thing I noticed was the tag said "single-coil pickups"... Praise God... I love the way those single-coil pickups sound... If you really want to hear them, check out the All of the Above version of Break Free and indulge in the opening line and bridge... Then the third thing that stuck out was it's over-all trance that drew me in... dare I say it, like a moth to the flame... I plugged it into a Line 6 amplifier to see if what my heart was telling me was true. I set everything up- distortion, tuning, volume- and then (the moment of fate) I strummed an Am... and it was nothing short of fireworks. I began playing all of those songs with single-coil pickup guitars on that thing and I think I fell in love... It sounded amazing... The second I got home I rushed to the Fender website and checked all the specs... Perfect, just perfect... God had been looking out for me... I knew if I waited He would bring the perfect guitar for me... Osm, God! Now for the girl! (Just kidding, Ally)

But that was a long time ago and I haven't seen it around lately. (How can you have such a magical moment like that and then disappear??) I decided to google it and see what it had been up to. I found out that there was a dramatic price drop and she was available... But it's not like I can pull $950 out of my face... So, again, I'll have to wait, but I'm perfectly fine with it. I'll live these next few years without it and enjoy the single-guitar life. :)

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The Real Version of You...

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Valentines day...

I don't know what the big deal is about it. It's just a big marketing scam! Did you know that Valentines day brings in about $14 billion in the US alone? And I' m not saying that it's wrong to celebrate Love or whatever... It's just that love has lost enough value to where it's used to just pull in cash and a prayer for a fat flying baby that likes to shoot at you... (Don't worry, I'm getting somewhere with this...) Maybe there is something more to it than that?

Let's get real...

I'm reading this book called "Crazy Love" by a guy named Francis Chan. He's just some pastor at a huge church in California that founded a college called Eternity Bible College... Oh yeah, he sits on the board of directors of Children's Hunger Fund and World Impact... yep, just some guy... and he's got some pretty interesting perspectives. He says, you love your wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend and you don't forget it... You just don't. I'm pretty sure my Mom isn't sitting around one day and goes, "Oh, yeah! I've fallen madly in love with Nick! Silly me, I forgot!" Dumb right? Not really, because we do that with God ALL THE TIME. I am a master. I can go worship Him on Sunday and forget Him the next morning... guilty as charged... More specifically after a camp or something, once I get off the high or the "hang-over" of a camp experience, I tend to go back to my normal life unchanged... The thing is, when you're insanely, purely, and honestly IN LOVE with someone, you, subconsciously, leave no room for apathy. As human beings, we were created by God to fall wildly in love with Him, but since we are not perfect, we tend to give our God-given love to other things. Money? Drugs? Boys/Girls (If you know what I mean)? Maybe even "less horrible" things. Music? Other people? Happiness? Whatever it is, we worship it and love it unconditionally... But what about God? Have you ever been in a situation where you met a guy/girl and just loved him/her. You just fell for them and passionately and purely pursued them and prayed for them and gave your heart to them, but they spat in your face? Or (even worse in my opinion) they said, "Yeah, I like you, let's go out, You're an amazing person!", then they don't commit themselves to you, blow off dates, treat you like you don't really mean anything to them? IT'LL TEAR YOU APART! It hurts, don't it? What if you sacrificed your son just save your relationship with your spouse and then it still wasn't working out?

God did... And we forget about our deep personal love affair with Him? Some love affair...

James 4:8 says "Draw near to God and He'll draw near to you..." I think God was saying that we should take the first step in this relationship. He desperately wants us. He knows it, we know it. The real question is, Do we want it?

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Let's start a revolution, shall we??

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-God bless

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"When city's fall, they build them up, much taller than they ever were..." :)