New House Pictures

Here are a few new pictures of our house. We met with the official "house people" yesterday and we are shooting for a June 15th closing. Yeah!!! :)

Oh, by the way, my hair looks a little different (better I think) now that I have actually fixed it, instead of the hair lady. I will post better pictures soon.

Before and After...

After 3-4 weeks of internal debate on whether or not to cut my hair, I went to get my hair done today. I took a picture with me of a hair style that I thought I would like if I decided to go short, but, I was nervous about making such a big change. My hair has been long for a while now!! Here are the pictures that we took before I left (I didn't fix my hair this morning, so it doesn't look great)

Daniel was all for going short...he said he thought it would be fun for a change. Here is the final result!!

It will defnitely take some adjusting!!

Daniel's poor ambulance

Just thought I would post a link to a video with a picture of the Denton ambulance that was most likely totaled in last night's rain storm. This is the medic that Daniel normally drives (and was driving on Monday) but he was not in it when it went off the side of the road. He said that there were three guys in it who had to swim out to safety and they are afraid that they are going to have to replace all of the equipment in the back of the box as well as the actual ambulance. I am sure that will not be a cheap shopping trip!!

It is kindof a long video and you can only hear one side of the conversation...apparently the guy in the helicopter is talking to the news anchor but you can only hear the chopper guy....I just thought it was crazy that there was that much water!!

To view the video click here.

Glad everyone made it out okay...I wonder what Dan will drive when he is at work tomorrow....

Updated: We were looking around for some pictures and found some great water rescue pics from last night. My favorite is number 11 in this slide show...click here....The guy doing the rescue used to be at Dan's station before he was moved to B shift...I think it is kind of fun to know the people in the pictures!!

What a storm!!

Last night's storm packed quite a punch!! I hope that everyone is safe and sound and dry this morning!!

Dan was supposed to be off yesterday but he got called back in around 5 because the flooding in Denton was so bad. He didn't get back home until midnight. He said that they were super busy with lots of water rescues. I kept seeing the video on Fox and they were showing some of the rescues that were happening. It is kind of fun to try to figure out if you actually know the firefighter that is doing the rescuing!! There are some great pictures and videos at www.myfoxdfw.com - at least they were up last night.

All but two of the firestations in Denton were flooded and everybody hired was supposed to report last night. D and some other guys were even trying to rescue people using one of the suburbans the fire department owns, just because they ran out of other firetrucks/ambulances.

One of the ambulances even got into some trouble last night. I was surprised that something that large and heavy would still get swept down a bridge by some water....luckily they did not have a patient in the back, but the guys did all have to climb out a window and swim to safety. Dan said he thought the medic would probably be totaled out....it will not be the only vehicle needing some sort of repair!!

Hope that today is a much sunnier day!

I am so blessed....

I am not sure that this post is going to make much sense....I just wanted to write some things I have been thinking in the last hour....I wasn't going to actually post it, but....

I am an extremely blessed person. I grew up in a loving home; I was able to attend a 4 year (okay so maybe I took 5) college and then a graduate program to become a PA; my parents did everything they could to make sure I was able to attend school without having to work full time as well; I met and married the most wonderful man in the whole world - I am truly blessed to have him...he is an amazing person and so perfect for me. When I truly look at my life, I have probably had it fairly easy. Of course, there are things and times in my life that I would say were difficult...challenges that I had to overcome and things that I still struggle with on a daily basis...

And then, I start looking at random blogs on the internet. I love to click on the links to other blogs that people have on their sidebars. I think today, more than any other, I was blown away by how many blogs are devoted to keeping people updated on some family member's illness or struggle. Wow...

There was one in particular I read today that has really resonated with me. Maybe it is because the lady's name is Heather...there is nothing like hearing her talk about what is going on in her life, when she has the same name...I cried as I read her story....

I am not sure how I came upon her blog...I think it may have been a trail through several blogs, but, her words and situation have really made an impression on me. In summary, she is a 32 year old mother of three who just found out she has a brain tumor. She and her family have already had to go through all of the medical trials of her 5 year old daughter (heart transplant). I think it bothers me because I can see this situation from two different perspectives. I feel for her and her family and all that they are about to embark upon...what a journey that you pray you never have to go through...

I can also see the situation from a medical professional's point of view. I have had to tell two different people that they have a tumor that could possibly be cancerous. One lady has had surgery and chemotherapy to treat her Ovarian CA and one man has had surgery to remove the tumor growing in his brain. That is definitely not a good conversation to have with people...I hate having to be the one to shake their world. I am remembering how I thought about the conversation for days after they leave our office....

Now I have read all the thoughts that Heather and her husband have had in the days following her initial diagnosis...She has since decided to do all that she can to fight this...and I pray that she is successful. She sounds like someone who truly believes that God can do anything...

God is such an amazing God. He is so powerful and He does have the control and the ability to do anything that He desires. I think back to both of the people I have had to have the dreaded conversation with....her chance of survival at 5 years was less than 20%, but following her surgery and the first two rounds of chemo, she was considered almost cancer free. She has had to finish out a year and a half worth of chemo, but she is still doing great, and praising God for all that He has done. The man with the brain tumor had the tumor removed and was back at work within 2-3 months. He had some initial speech problems that quickly resolved, and he is now "normal"

What an awesome God that we serve!!

Sorry if this post was so random, I was just thinking about how blessed I truly am in my life to have never had to suffer through some of the hardships that other people have...but I am also thinking about how overwhelmed I am by God's love and power....

God, I pray that you continue to amaze us, and please help us keep our eyes open to see all that You do!!

Whirlwind Weekend

What a busy, but extremely fun weekend!! McKinney to Lufkin to McKinney to Stephenville to McKinney - all in 3 days!!

We had a lot of fun in Lufkin. I don't know the last time that I saw 1:30 am because I had not gone to sleep yet...we talked and talked and talked and talked. Saturday, we had breakfast with Clayton and Jerel (Brittney's one year old son and her husband) before heading to the mall to do some shopping.



The funny thing about our mall experience - we sat at a table in the middle of the mall and talked for another two hours. Who knew we had so much to say to each other? Mitzi introduced us all to cheese on a stick and actually convinced Julie to try one....let's just say that neither one of them actually finished their lunch and went to Chick-Fil-A instead. This was not your standard mozzarella cheese stick...yes, that is a block of cheddar cheese inside the batter they put on a corn dog...what do you think? Sound appetizing? Mitzi decided that was something you only liked when you were less than ten....


Mitzi and I left right after Brittney cooked us all dinner (with Clayton's help in the cookbook area) so that I could be back in town to meet my parents on Sunday morning.


I wish we could have stayed longer and I cannot wait until we can get back together again! Soon there will be two more little ones at our gatherings!!

On Sunday morning, I met my parents and my grandmother in Frisco, where they had spent the night, and drove to Stephenville for my cousin Leslye's wedding shower. The man she is marrying lives there and the church had a potluck/shower after services. It was a lot of fun, and I even got to see one of the girls who was in my cabin when I was a counselor at Camp Blue Haven...she is married and pregnant now...that made me feel a little old :)

Leslye and Joey are such a cute couple and I was glad I got to go to their shower. I somehow got roped into being the scribe, but it is going to be fun for them to write thank you notes when they cannot read what I wrote down. They should have known better than to ask someone who works in the medical field to write down who gave what gifts.

Here are some random pics of me and Gran and me and Les.

I will have to put some updated pictures of our house on here soon. Things are really starting to come together and we will probably be moving before you know it!!

Maybe later this week I will tell you the fun story of me driving my mother and grandmother to Stephenville while my dad followed us in my car....it was quite an adventure!! I'm not really sure why they think I am such a bad driver.....

Lufkin Bound!!

I am so excited about our weekend plans!! Brittney, Mitzi, and I got together in October of last year when B was in town with her husband, but I have not seen Julie in forever!!! We were all really good friends all through A&M and M and J and I all lived together when we moved to the big city! (B had already gotten married so we couldn't convince her to move up here!)

We really don't have any plans, which I think is fun. We can just hang out, talk, and enjoy being with each other. They are all such wonderful, Christian women and I miss them sooo much!

Keep all of us in your prayers as we drive all over TX...I'll post pics when I get back!

(I got countertops in the kitchen and garage doors put in this week at our new house...we are making progress!!)