Springing Forward to New Beginnings

House
Hi everyone! I hope you are enjoying your day. Well, last time I wrote you I announced that my wonderful husband and I were building a house. As expected, we've had some frustrating moments but we continue to pray them away and accept the things we have no control of. We knew it wasn't going to be the easiest process. Meanwhile, we met with the builder last week who showed us our house plans. We then went to the actual lot and he showed us where the house would sit.

We were supposed to break ground this week but our house would have been done way sooner than we needed it to be. So, with that being said, we found out that we would be breaking ground in early April and our closing date is now July 15.

While we wait, Dustin and I have been busy packing our apartment. We've packed the office (which took forever and it's one of the smallest areas of our apartment ... go figure?) We will be moving out of our apartment April 11 and we'll be moving in with his parents, who have been nice enough to let us stay at their house rent free, as we wait for our house to be built. What a praise! We'll be saving a lot of money thanks to their kindness and generosity. I'm also excited to live with them because they eat so healthy and I know that I'll finally loose those pesky pounds I've been trying to get rid of. :)

Upcoming Events
A week from this Saturday Dustin and I will be running the 32nd Annual Gate River Run together. For those of you who don't know what this race is here's a little blurb about it ... "Last year over 18,000 runners and walkers participated in one of the three featured events. The 15K is the main event with over 14,000 runners and walkers. The Gate River Run is the largest 15K in the United States and will once again served as the USA 15K Championship. The other featured events are the Florida Times-Union 5K for Charity and the adidas Junior River Run. Both of these events had over 2,000 participants last year." For the past two years I was running/walking the 5K. I'm so proud to be running the 15K with Dustin. This will be his 8th year running it. He is very excited to reach his 10th year, he wants to have a BIG party. If you'd like to read more about the race please go to Gate River Run .

Two weeks after that, we will be attending a wedding of one of my good friends (whom I've known since the 8th grade). I'm so excited for April and Robert. I can't believe how fast time goes by.

Please continue to pray for each other. We need to lock arms, especially in these hard economic times. It seems as though no one has job security these days. The only thing that will not change is our trust we have in the Lord. It's not always easy to think that way but we've been trying to more than ever. We keep reminding ourselves that God will always provide. "Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed." Prv. 16:3

I'd love to hear how everyone is doing! Enjoy the rest of your day and weekend. :)

P.S. Several weeks ago Dustin and I bought a camera at Target, it was on a MAJOR sale, so I will be taking a lot of pictures of the building process.

Our First House

After a lot of praying and research we've decided to build a house on the Northside of Jacksonville. We are so happy. This past weekend we put up our "SOLD" sign on our lot. Yesterday we went to the design studio and picked out everything from our shingle, brick and stone color to the grout color! We are so excited for the upcoming months. Right now we are waiting on the permits which take about 30-45 days to get approved. We should be breaking ground in March and we should be moving in around mid to late July.


We are so excited!


Our backyard is all woods and to the right is a pond

We are so happy to be in a cul-de-sac ! Great for raising kids.

True Story ...

Happy New Year!! I can't believe it's already 2009, how exciting! Dustin and I were so blessed in 2008 and we pray that God may continue to bless us in 2009. There will be many changes within the next several months, God willing I will go full-time at my job, I'll be turning 25 (dear Lord) and Dustin will be 24 and we will be moving into a house, God willing. For the past couple of months Dustin and I have been researching and looking for houses. Our lease will be up on April 29th . We all know how fast time flies so it'll be here before we know it. We are so picky as to where we want to live because we feel as though there are so many important factors we must consider: neighborhood, future schools, location etc.

On a sad note, I LOST my camera ... yes, yes I did. True story. I'm SO sad. I went to grab it on the day of my graduation and couldn't find it. I was running late so I told myself I would look for it later and I have yet to find it! I'm so sad.

Have a great rest of the week!

Love,

2008 Has Been GREAT!

Hola! I'm officially a COLLEGE GRADUATE. As I was sitting in my seat listening to all the speeches, I couldn't help but think "wow, all those years of school and in just minutes I will be walking across the stage to receive my bachelor's," it's almost like a blur to me now. It feels great to just sit here on my comfy couch watching TV and playing on the laptop not having to worry about any research proposals, projects, papers, etc.

This year has been such a blessing. For starters, I married the most wonderful man (and my best friend), we got a sweet puppy who we consider to be our little baby, I graduated from college and I just know God has much more in store.

Thank you for all your support and love!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

I LOVE Christmas, it's such a great reminder of Jesus and His birth. I'm so grateful for Him and my family. I am also very thankful that I am able to spend time with the ones I love. We are very thankful that Toni & Kim (Dustin's parents) gave us our very first tree. We were very excited to put it up and decorate it.

Our little puppy Mia is going to be six months this month! She's growing up. I think she's in the "teen" stage of dog, she's so rebellious. She likes to run around the house as fast as she can and through the tightest parts of the furniture (such as the dining room chairs) and she likes to run a lap UNDER the Christmas tree...and it drives me CRAZY that she does this. She wrinkles up the tree skirt and sometimes she just hangs out back there. If anyone has any good ideas let me know!

Dustin and I before the Jag vs. Titan game it was so much fun and SOO cold.


Our Christmas Tree :)


Dustin and the baby sleeping


Our sweet little girl


Mia under the Christmas tree

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year!

I'm so relieved that it is finally December. I finally get to graduate Friday, Dec. 12 at 11 a.m.! I'm so happy. I've been in college for several years. I've changed my major so many times (Kim P. I know you're probably laughing if you're reading this) and never thought I'd be done. Ahh ... I can't stop saying how relieved I am.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We had a great time. We played croquet in the early afternoon and played boardgames the rest of the night! The Williams family is serious about our games ... well, especially Dustin and I (haha).

The weekend before Thanksgiving Dustin and I had pictures taken with Meg Doyle. She's so good at what she does. We had such a great time spending getting to know her better. Be sure to check out her site. Now we're just trying to decide which picture we're going to use as our Christmas card.

This is little miss Reagan on Thanksgiving playing croquet.


Her "Papa" giving her some pointers ...


She LOVES posing for the camera! Especially in her pretty dress that her great grandmother made for her in just a matter of days ... "Gigi" is very talented.

Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity ... The Shack

I'm not much of a reader but for the last month or so I've been hearing about a book called The Shack that a lot of people I know were reading or had read it just recently. I would listen and just think "that's nice...I have other things to do besides read..FOR FUN!" but I finally borrowed the book from a friend and I CAN'T PUT IT DOWN! It's seriously amazing. It's filled with so much truth. Below you will see the website link you can go to that tells you more about the book. I don't want to tell you too much and give anything away. At this website you can read the Foreword and Ch. 1 of the book.


I have a very busy schedule, but anytime I have a minute I read as much as I can. Recording Artist, Michael W. Smith put it best when he said The Shack will leave you craving for the presence of God.

You will laugh, cry and repent of your own lack of faith along the way. I urge you to check this book out at your local library, or buy it. I plan on buying my own copy soon. If you DO decide to read it, please tell me what you think about it! It's one of those books you JUST HAVE to share with your friends and family.

http://www. theshackbook. com/