7 days and Counting!

Well I am now fully in the Christmas whirlwind! Husband and I had a fabulous weekend in New Orleans celebrating this precious holiday with his family. It was full of family and fun and fellowship and fun presents! It was a much needed weekend with his fam and we had a ball. Saturday night we ate at this fancy fancy resteraunt in downtown New Orleans (French Quarter) called Antoine's. This restaurant has existed since before the Civil War. For reals! So the menu was in French, and my sweet husband can't pronounce things like that. So when the waiter came to take Grant's order, rather than saying "I'll have the steak", or pointing at what item he wanted, my precious man just said "I'll have the $37.50". Classy.


So I am back in Baton Rouge, frantically getting through this week. I am working my little tail off, getting my house back in one piece, wrapping presents and packing up for our trip to Texas. I have sooo many errands to run this week and I feel like that countdown has begun!


I am thankful today for my employers. This is a hectic, busy, and financially pressing time for everyone, but today I was given a generous Christmas bonus. I was not expecting it and I swear I almost started crying. It was a wonderful little gift and I just truly believe that the Lord's blessings come in all forms.


Take a deep breath ladies, Christmas is one week away!

Upton

Good evening sweet friends! I must say that I have much more free time on Thursday nights thanks to the Writer's Strike. No Grey's Anatomy and No Office = No fun.

My car was in the shop today. The brakes have been pretty musical the last few weeks. The only way I can describe the sound they were making is a wicked old witch melting in a big kettle of boiling oil. That's the sound.

So I take my car to the shop this morning. Upton is the man helping me. I've never met a man named Upton before. I did pretend to read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair in highschool though. I totally used Cliffnotes on that one. Holla!

Anyways, so when Upton asks for a number he can call me at, I gave him husband's number. (Honestly, if he were to call me and tell me anything, I'd have to call Grant and run it by him and Lord knows I would forget everything he just told me anyway). My darling co-worker picked me up at the shop on the way to work and I went on with my merry morning. (Not a merry Christmas morning, however, since it was 80 degreess!!!!)

So Grant calls around 1ish, says that Upton has found the problem with the brakes and they are fixing it. However, Upton also informs Grant that there are other things wrong with my car. He proceeds to list about 9 things that need to be fixed. Sweet darling husband asked sweet darling Upton how much all this was going to cost us during this sweet darling Christmas season. Upton casually says "$870".

Now, this is why I love my husband. He had the following conversation:

Husband: Upton?

Upton: Yes sir.

Husband: I need you to do me a favor.

Upton: Yes sir.

Husband: I need you to pick the three most important things on that list.

Upton: Okay.

Husband: How much do the three most important things cost?

Upton: Around $340.

Husband: Now we're talking! Those are what we are doing today. Okay?

Upton: Okay.

:) My precious beyond precious sister in law picked me up from work and took me to get the car from Upton. I must admit, my very favorite part of this entire process is the fact that they cleaned my car all pretty. They detailed the inside and got all the food crumbs out of all the cracks in the leather. And for that I am truly grateful.

I wrapped all the presents tonight for our Christmas weekend with Grant's family. We are leaving tomorrow and I am very excited for my first Christmas with them! How wonderful that Grant & I are FINALLY spending our first Christmas in the same state! Hallelujah and amen!

It Begins...

Well hello friends! I hope you all had a very lovely weekend. We had a WONDERFUL weekend! I realized yesterday though that this will be our last "calm" weekend for quite awhile! CHRISTMAS IS BEGINNING!

This coming weekend we will be with Grant's family to celebrate Christmas with them. We should have a wonderful time and I am going to spend this week wrapping gifts till my fingers don't work anymore!

Then the following weekend we are headed to Texas! I haven't seen the twins since August and it has been far too long, I think they are speaking in sentences now and have IQ scores of 196. But that's okay. I will hug and kiss all over them! Aunt Jen will be in full form!

Then the following weekend is..... drum roll..... our one year anniversary!!!!! HALLELUJAH and AMEN! I don't know if we are going to go anywhere, Christmas is taking alot of our "play money", but just spending a weekend together will be wonderful. I cannot believe one year is almost here! It seems like just yesterday I was puking on my wedding day :)

It is time for my favorite Christmas song of the week:

Silent Night
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour is born
Christ, the Saviour is born

Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

It amazes me to think of our sweet Jesus as a little baby boy. A baby boy who cried and cooed and snuggled and sniffled and yawned. And I think of Mary, so young and frightened and then seeing her son, the Messiah, and holding Him and KNOWING that everything was gonna be okay. What a joyful, glorious night. That was the night that the Savior, the deliverer from all evil came to earth. That is why we celebrate Christmas. We celebrate Christmas because that was the day that our Savior came! Praise the Lord!

Fabulous

I am a little bit in love with these:

Okay, I am alot in love with them.



This is my Grown-Up Christmas List.

Glory

It's time for Jen's favorite Christmas song of the week! I am LOVING the words to this beautiful hymn! The 3rd verse gives me chills :) I've heard it and sang it umpteen jillion times but it still moves me!


Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"


Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"


Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

A God Given Passion

Just a warning: this is going to be a very sappy blog. But it needs to be written!

Last night, husband and I went to see "August Rush". I had high expectations for this movie, despite all the negative reviews I had read. And let me tell you, my expectations were met and far exceeded. However, I do understand the negative reviews. Allow me to explain: If you are NOT a musician, there is a good chance you will not like this movie. I think non-musicians don't understand the real message of the movie.

First of all, you need to understand BEFORE you see it that there are fairy tale elements to this movie. There is magic and unrealistic circumstances. But also remember that it is a MOVIE and it is allowed to have fairy tale elements! But the reason I said that non-musicians may not like this movie is because some people who are non-musical don't understand the power of music. And that is really what the moral of this story is: Music has power.

I was on the verge of tears the entire movie, and not about the storyline. When we walked out of there, Grant and I talked for the next hour or so (as I wiped tears from my face!) about what music means to us.

This is something I know for certain.... the feeling I get when I hear music performed with perfection, when I hear two notes in harmony that seem like they have been waiting and waiting to come together, when I hear a 100 piece orchestra all make different noises that come together to make one glorious sound...the feeling I get when I hear that.... I KNOW that it is from Jesus. I believe with my whole heart that my Lord wired me to have an intense and joyous passion for music.

I can think of several times in my life where hearing a certain symphony, or a certain song, or even one singular note has taken my breath away. It overwhelms me. I feel like it is the Lord speaking to my soul.

Some people look at creation and say "Look at the mountains! Look at this earth and the galaxy! How can you see these things and not KNOW that there is a God and that He loves us!?" That is how I feel about music. How can you hear those sounds and not KNOW that there HAS to be a higher power! Music has always just been there. No one invented it. No one created it. It simply existed. It has no boundaries and no rules. Music is what you make it.

I also found myself to be very sad last night. As a child, my love for music consumed me. I started singing as soon as I could talk, I started piano when I was 6 I believe, I sang in the children's chorus starting at 9 and never really stopped. When I was in junior high I decided I wanted a new challenge and took up french horn. Then after eigth grade I knew it was time for me to start musical theater. Musical theater seemed to encapture all my greatest loves and tied them all together, and I did that on into college.

But now, I look at where I am today. I am no longer in Houston, so all my avenues of performance and music are no longer here with me. I am married and I would rather not spend every single night of my week in a rehearsal. I don't desire an intense career in musical theater. And the children's chorus is too far away for me to pour myself into and release my creative juices there anymore.

But as I said to Grant last night, "I have this overwhelming feeling of joy when I am surrounded by music, and I am doing NOTHING with that passion. NOTHING". I have ignored music for the past few years. I have no idea why. I am not singing anywhere except my car, I am not playing piano because I don't have one. I am not doing anything with this God-given passion.

I have go to do something! Last night I started praying that God will show me a place, or a way that I can start feeling that feeling again. Grant is actually an incredible guitarist, and last night we decided that we are gonna start making music together. In the 3 1/2 years that we've been together, I can count on one hand the number of times we have done that. How sad is that! I was remembering that when my now sister-in-law, Ronda, was telling me about Grant and why she wanted to introduce us, one of the reasons was because "you are both very passionate about music". Music is one of the reasons the Lord led her to bring us together! And we are IGNORING IT!

I'm sorry about this rant, and if you think I'm a little freaky now I apologize. :) I just know that music was put into my soul and that is something I have cast aside for so long now, because I felt I needed to "grow up" a bit. But it is a part of me. And I am bringing it back to the surface!

Deep breath. I'm okay now. :)