now for some good news...

well, this may not sound like good news at first, but it has a happy ending. last monday i took the cavalier in to the shop because it had been acting really funny. i knew something was wrong with the transmission, but little did i know i would need a transmission overhaul. pretty much a new transmission. this could cost anywhere from $1000 to $1900 depending who i had do it and what kind of a guarantee i wanted. josh and i talked it over that evening after leadership night, and we decided it would be better to spend that money on a down payment on a new car, then on fixing the red beast that had over 100,000 miles on it! so...i got a new car. we went tuesday evening and ended up getting the first car we found. we had shopped around a lot in the area online, so we pretty much knew we wanted it before we got there! :) sorry clonts'...we copied ya'll! we got a nissan pathfinder. it's a 2008 black suv, and i love it. it has lots of cool perks that i'm not used to like a dvd player in the back, a sun roof, a screen with a back up camera so i don't hit things, etc! it also has lots of perks that most people would be used to but i have never had, like cruise control, automatic locks and windows, working cd player, etc. love it! here are some pics!

thanks ike...

well...we're ok, and i just wanted to let everyone know that. we are still without power and water (thanks to living in the country). fortunately, we have not stayed at our house since sunday. we spent a couple of days with my folks in needville, and then josh's parents got power in spring so we are now living with them...again. entergy suffered some major damage and will not be back up and running for a while. today i heard on the news that conroe should be 100% restored to power by sept. 29. i pray that this is true. entergy had told us it could take 4 weeks or more, so 2 weeks would be amazing! our new home was safe through the storm. before we moved in we had the lot cleared and picked out the favorite trees that we wanted to stay in the yard...well those are all gone now. somehow josh and i slept through them all falling, but they did. completely uprooted. i'll post some pics here in a minute. josh's job is being ridiculous throughout this whole process, but he has gotten to go back to work, so we won't be completely broke! he is working out of the houston office, and having to work long hours, so he's exhausted. this is not the best situation since the mayor is telling people not to drive unless in an emergency, because quite honestly gas is near impossible to find. we found some tonight at kroger and the line wasn't too bad...thank goodness. the church finally got power back tonight, but i think we will not work the rest of the week...most likely because most of the employees have kids that are still not in school. we'll see about that. as for my family...everyone is ok. my parents never even lost electricity...what a blessing! heather and jason got electricity back yesterday. travis and rebecca are still without, like us, but they are staying in needville. we all suffered some damage, but were very blessed all in all. for some reason my school (uh) decided to reopen tuesday. they were the only university opening. i went to classes last night...simply because i was bored. i was one of about 5 people in each class, and they will reteach everything next week, so i will possibly not go tomorrow. we'll see. please be in prayer for people here. things are insane and a lot of my friends are struggling. our neighbors and their girls are staying at their house with no power or water and the kids are exhausted, bored, and irritable. pray for people in these situations that they will find relief, peace, and patience. here are some pics...enjoy.

our yard...from the street in front

one pine tree snapped and is still dangling above the house...we'll have to fix that soon

another one from the street

this is our neighbor's house...they were the only one's one the street with major damage to the house. this branch punctured the roof above their master bedroom and their carpet is now wet and yucky...with no electricity to air it out = stinky!!!

uh campus...it was a mess!

huge root systems, now sticking up in our yard

from the front porch

the tree right in front of the house...it was actually in our flower bed

amazing

oh yeah...my amazing friend michael came over to our house monday and he and josh and some other guys spent the day cleaning up our yard. they had a couple of chainsaws and lots of help, so we now have firewood until we die! crazy amounts of wood! i am so thankful for michael's help and when we get back in the house it will be one less thing to worry about. yay! hope you liked the post...i've got good news too, i'll post tomorrow! if you're from this area...let us know if you are ok!

aggie football begins...

well, yesterday was the first aggie football game. unfortunately, we lost to arkansas state 18 to 14. it was a horrible game! but the day was fun. we got to campus around 7:30 am and tailgated all day until the game started at 6 pm. we love the friends that we have season tickets with this year, so we are so excited about the season. although it may be a rough season for the team, our tailgate should be a blast! here are some pics...

here comes the team...

kimberly's adorable nephew...he's so cute!

kimberly

oh yes...this is an 8 foot reveille

kyle field...as you can see

our spot...

we were so pumped...

the student section was packed!

best daddy ever!!!

well, i am finally fully recovered and feeling way better. i would never ever recommend a tonsillectomy to anyone unless absolutely necessary...it was horrible. however, my parents are amazing, and stayed with me for over a week and made sure i was completely spoiled! :) while my mom made sure i was doing ok at all times, my daddy worked on building josh and i a deck in the back of our new house. i was so excited about this, and it turned out so great! it took him most of the week because it rained every single day, but josh was able to help him the last couple of days and they got it all done. here are some pictures of the finished (but not yet stained) amazing deck!!!

before...

silly daddy...

half way through...

after #1...

after #2...

yikes!

getting my tonsils out at 9:30 tomorrow morning. please pray! i am a little nervous...not gonna lie. if any of you have had yours out, please leave me some advise! :) i hope to update on some recent fun when i get a chance...i have a feeling i will have much down time coming up here pretty soon. i'll post as soon as i get a chance. good night.

2008 prayer and discipleship conference

it's here!!! i can't believe it! my life has been so hectic the last few weeks with moving in the house and getting ready for this conference. when my boss presented it to me over a year ago, i remember how ridiculous i thought it was to be thinking so far ahead. but now the conference is monday and i feel so unprepared. we have about 420 registered and will probably have quite a lot register on the day of. please just be in prayer that everything comes together....speakers and attendees getting to and from hotels, church, and airports...that we have plenty of volunteers to greet, direct the parking lot, serve food, handle registration, drive attendees wherever needed, etc...that the sermons and breakout speakers will have a unity in their messages that can come from nowhere else but straight from God...that people will realize the importance of prayer and discipleship ministries in order to see revival in our nation. all of these things are so important. also pray for our speakers...mark estep, hayes wicker, jimmy draper, frank page, t.w. hunt, frank turek, jay johnston, jim kinnebrew, glenna heidt, elaine helms, tracy jaggers, mark harrison, steve baird, audrey pratt, andy harrison...i think that's everyone. thanks so much, and i will try to blog more once my life settles down.

one year, really?

josh and i recently celebrated our first wedding anniversary!!! i can't believe that it's already been a year! it has flown by and has been the greatest year of my life. so much has happened in just a year. i can't wait to see what the Lord has planned for this next year. we are officially moved into the house and we love it! i will try to post pictures as soon as possible. but this post is to show you pictures of our wonderful 1st anniversary. since it was our "paper anniversary" we spent the weekend doing lots of fun things. josh kicked it off by getting me tickets to a super chick flick that i had been dying to see. what a sport, huh? it was fun. these first pics are of us eating our wedding cake...i'm not gonna lie, it was not all that great! :)



then on friday night we went to an astro's game, and we won! every friday game they do an awesome firework display, so we stayed to enjoy that.


then we just walked across the brand new park in down town houston and stayed in an amazing room at the hilton. the hotel was so nice and we had an awesome view of minute maid park. it was such a great night to just get away, just the two of us.


saturday morning we headed back to spring to a going away party for are friends michael and shelah. they moved to colorado, and we miss them a lot. but the evening was fun hanging out and saying good bye. then we got to go meet baby carly for the first time since cindi and logan came home from arkansas. then after church on sunday i gave josh my gift. since it was our paper anniversary i wanted to surprise him with tickets to a dynamo game. but, being the little punk that he is, josh asked lots of questions throughout the week before, and he totally knew what we were doing. he didn't tell me what it was, because he felt bad for ruining the surprise, but i made him act surprised!




we were only 8 rows from the field, so it was stinkin great! it was a totally different atmosphere that i expected. the fans are crazy and they play music and scream the whole 2 hours! and when dynamo scored there was confetti and streamers everywhere. it gets all over the field and then they just keep playing with the field a mess. it was insane. and we won that game too! we were good luck that weekend! we had so much fun, and really enjoyed just hanging out together. we stay so busy lately, we don't get to do that a whole lot.

well, i will post about the new casa soon. be praying for josh's grandma. she has been in the hospital for weeks now. she fells and broke 6 ribs and punctured a lung, so they have her on breathing machines now. she has parkinson's as well, and she has gotten pretty sick. she's running fever and all that stuff. pray that God will bring her comfort, because she really hasn't felt comfortable in a while. i will update soon on that as well.

if you are reading the blog, leave a comment so that i know you're there. a lot of you have told me that you're reading, but i haven't heard from you yet. let me know you're here so i know i'm not writing this blog to myself! :) thanks! have a great week!

my silly garrett

memorial day weekend

wow, so i know this is over a month old, but i am now going to attempt to post about the month that i lost while in summer school! memorial day weekend was a blast! this awesome couple from our sunday school class, drew and tara, invited the whole gang up to their parent's cabin in huntsville to fish and hang out. so josh and i expected a tiny little cabin in the woods, but no, this was an amazing house that was so beautifully decorated inside. i loved it. it sat on hundreds of acres and had a fishing pond on the property. we had so much fun! we fished, played frisbee golf, made hamburgers, the girls killed the guys in a game of scene it. it was great! the most important thing we all learned from the weekend...texas DOES have a state rock, and it IS petrified wood! palm wood to be exact. (sorry guys, i had to throw that in there!) ha! here are some pics of the day...

josh caught a fish!

drew being crazy

hank and kelly

isaac and kimberly

the guys played horseshoes, and it was quite hilarious!

this day was actually a couple of days before memorial day, so on memorial day we went to my parents house in needville and had a family get together. not only did we celebrate memorial day, but we gave trav and rebecca a long overdue wedding party! also, my cousin stephen is leaving for the military, actually he left yesterday, so it was good to see him before he took off for bootcamp. here's some more pics...

my great grandma...love her!!!

travis and rebecca...embarrased that we are throwing them a "shower"
10 months after the wedding...you know we love you!

my dad built a new deck...it looks awesome!

we swam a lot, but that many people
in a small pool = not a good idea!

great weekend! i will post again soon.