New York and Four Texas Ladies...

One of my biggest wishes for a long time has been to travel to New York City. I'll admit, it's a place I would never desire to live but the idea of spending a few wishful days there was always captivating to me... and something I didn't think would be realistic for a very long time. Then Grace happened. Grace is one of my friends who is such a go getter. She's not one to flippantly throw around ideas hoping they might turn out. Unlike me, Grace makes. it. happen.
I went to Colorado with Grace and two of our other girlfriends, Kelsey and Rachel this summer, and we decided that we liked being around each other quite a bit and the four of us should get together for another tryst soon. I was thinking maybe Abilene, Dallas or Austin? Of course, Grace was thinking bigger...New York City. Although all of us acted excited about the idea, in our minds we were thinking...$$$....??? Not going to happen.
Soon enough, Grace found us crazy cheap flights, a place to stay, and there was no saying no.

On our first night in New York City... Hot dog, dinner, desert, late night pizza = perfection.

My first New York Broadway show... I loved it just as much as everyone said I would.







We are all one year apart, and have a unique connection... Grace and Kelsey were best friends in High school (in Abilene), Kelsey and I played basketball together at ACU, and Grace and I became good friends through Kelsey. Rachel comes in the picture when she marries our friend... (my second cousin, Grace's friend from high school and Kelsey's husband's best friend from high school) Confused yet? It just works...


We have a blast every minute we get to spend together. Love this little group so much.

 These are some of the most uplifting girls I know. Our time together is always full of laughter. I'm so blessed by them.

Grace texted me yesterday and said she wanted to look up cruise prices....

Amazing Love, How Can It Be?

Something worth your read:

"When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God loves man: not that He has some 'disinterested', because really indifferent, concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, that we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the 'lord of terrible aspect', is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not that cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for his work, provident and venerable as a father's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between two sexes. How this should be, I do not know: it passes reason to explain why any creatures such as we, should have a value so prodigious in their Creator's eyes. It is certainly a burden of glory not only beyond our deserts but also, except in rare moments of grace, beyond our desiring; we are inclined, like the maidens in the old play, to deprecate the love of Zeus. But the fact seems unquestionable."

-C. S. Lewis

from The Problem of Pain

Jody's 50 -not 100- things

Sean Hill, this post is for you... Most people will find this post rather worthless.

1. I shook George W's hand in 5th Grade. He asked me what my favorite color was.

2. I play the ukulele.

3. I hate the Yankees with a passion.

4. I've married the antithesis of a Tom Tom.

5. I'm named after my grandpa Judge.

6. My favorite candy bar is a Pay Day

7.  I had a bowl cut through the 6th grade

8. I always wanted to go to Space camp, but it never happened.

9. As a child, my dream vacation was to go to Lego Land (and still is.)

10. My name is forever written on a brick at the Texas State Fair. Thanks Grandma.

11.  At the State Fair, when I was 10, I won 2nd place in the lego competition with a three-story cafe and a state flag.

12. I tend to laugh at my own jokes.

13. I have major problems with redneck Christians.

14. Much to my wife's disapproval, my favorite outfit is a grey sweatshirt and grey sweatpants.

15. I could live in Boston.

16. I'll admit it, I love Taylor Swift. T Swift. Tay Tay.

17. I never graduated from ski school, so I hate skiing. My wife is trying to ease me back in.

18. I own a surfboard, but I'm not so great at surfing. I'm working on it.

19. My friend Sean and I used to keep stats on ever NCAA football game we played. We obviously had some spare time...

20. I often got deservingly spanked from my grandma growing up. She is now one of my favorite people in the world.

21. Also, I had a neck and wrist leash whenever my mom would take me to public places.

22. I fear for my wife if we have a son who acts like I did as a child.

23. I find too much joy in sneaking up on my wife and scaring her... Which is way too easy.

24. I love Great Danes and will never own a purse dog. Sorry Ashley.

25. Arrested Development is my favorite show.

26. I wish I was good at golf.

27. My all-time favorite author is C.S. Lewis.

28. Best book I've ever read is the Screwtape Letters.

29. I never thought I'd be writing on a blog.

30. Since being engaged and married to my wife, my facebook pictures tagged have multiplied by 50.

31. I wish my wife would let me grow my handlebar mustache out.

32. And wear my American flag bandana in public.

33. And grow my hair back out.

34. But I love her anyways.

35. If I didn't have asthma, I would probably be in the Navy right now.

36. I can't wait to have a big family.

37. The greatest thing that ever happened to me was when a lady in the grocery store saw me in my Red Sox jacket and asked me what position I played for them.

38. I hung out with Michael Irvin at the World Premiere of "Friday Night Lights" in Los Angeles.

39. I was 50 pounds bigger in college.

40. I'm trying to talk my younger brother-in-law into being a Wildcat.

41. I'm trying to turn into a long distance runner.

42. I beat my wife in basketball. And I'm proud of it.

43.  My kids better go to T Bar M instead of Kanakuk, the kult with a k. :)

44. I can't stand a limp handshake.

45. Nothing beats Texas High School football.

46. I hope to finish writing a book by the time I'm 28.

47. I love my Sunday afternoon naps

48. I never drank coffee until I went to Law school.

49. I married a fox.

50. I would never have made it to 100.

I should be studying...

Mom's 50th!

Due to my prolonged laziness in the blog world, it's going to take a few posts to get caught up. This past month has been packed full of family and friends and we have enjoyed every minute of it. Hence the laziness. I'm not one of those people who are glad to be "back in the swing of things"... I'm not gonna lie, I'd rather still be on vacation. :)

Here is the first highlight of what's been happening in the past few weeks.

My MOM TURNED 50!! You've got to start with the milestone right?  I know she doesn't look it, but Susan L. (you'll never guess her middle name) Davidson turned the BIG 5-0!
 I get comments all of the time that my mom could be my sister, which is hard to imagine since I look like a 16 year old half of the time, but I'll take it as a compliment.  Jody's secretly praying I inherited these same genes.

Her best friend Cindy Sickles and I planned a little get together to celebrate in Amarillo, and my mom was so surprised! One of the many things I love about her is how she truly appreciates the simplest gestures. You'd have thought we flew her to Martha's Vineyard, first-class, for a dinner party on the beach with fireworks. It was so fun for us to see the look of surprise on her face when we were all there waiting for her, and she was genuinely excited.
 Of course, we had to have an old lady cane for her to walk around with.

With Memolly and my beautiful aunts

The whole fam together!!

There are few people in this world who consider their mother to be one of their best friends. I'm lucky to be one of them. Hardly a day goes by that I'm not on the phone with her...  She always has a listening ear, gives the best advice, and we are constantly laughing when we are together. I envy those people who get to live in the same town as their parents.

I need to start keeping a list of all of the things she did growing up that I want to copy exactly when I become a mom. She was patient, loving, incredibly laid back, didn't stress about trivial matters, and always found a way talked to us about Jesus and what this means in our lives. She also spoiled us like crazy at times. (i.e. letting us chose every night whether we wanted to be woken up the next morning with either tea or coffee) Spoiled.  Oh yeah, and she woke us up with her prayer journal every morning so we could read her daily prayers and scriptures for us as we got dressed. This a memory I treasure and definitely want to copy someday...
She loves her kids well. She loves her husband well, and she has an unrelenting and admirable love for Jesus. Whenever things don't go the right way (which is often),  she is the first one reminding us that God is faithful and good in all circumstances. She lives this out. I could go on and on about her integrity, and all the things I see in my mom that I strive to be, but I'll save that for a personal note. Your welcome.

Love you Mom! You are a blessing to all who know you!

" You make known to me the path of life; In your presence is fullness of joy; In your righthand there are treasures forever."       Psalm 16:11



Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Many more blogs to come in the next week. I think.

Thanksgiving praise

In honor of Thanksgiving, and reflecting on the undeserved blessings in my life that keep me going day after day and fill me with ample joy, I came across this weighty reflection by C.S. Lewis on the Psalms. It reminds me of the most important thing in my life that I often neglect to show gratitude or praise for...

"But the most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or anything – strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honour. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. The world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses [Romeo praising Juliet and vice versa], readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, even sometimes politicians or scholars. . . . Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to be inner health made audible. . . . I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: 'Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that magnificent?' The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about."

We praise what we care about.

Worship of God is showing our enjoyment of Him. I have no problem laughing at something funny, smiling around someone or something I love, gushing about how wonderful a certain friend is, or cheering at a stadium (I'm actually pretty reserved here, but I'm married to a loud mouth in the stands so I'll add it). BUT, I want to enjoy God in this same way. Enjoy His scripture, His presence, and His promises and blessings in the same way I enjoy food, sports, nature... or shopping. Call me cheesy, but these are my thoughts today, and this is what I'm going to focus on this week as school starts back up.

Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!


"You have made known to me the path of life; In your presence is fullness of joy; In your right hand are pleasures forevermore."
Psalm 16:11

A late post about Wurstfest

SOO, we went to something called Wurstfest. Heard of it? Jody, being from New Braunfels and adoring his home town, thrives on opportunities to visit good ole NB. I'm a fan too.

Wurstfest  aka "Sausage festival"

If you are not aquainted with this lovely, 50 year old party, here it is: "A unique celebration rich in German culture and full of Texas fun located in beautiful New Braunfels, Texas! Enjoy good fun, food, special events and the finest in Alpine and Bavarian Style Entertainment."

REALLY... thousands of people gathering along the Comal River celebrating their lack of German heritage in a German created town spending more money than they should on beer, more beer, interesting / disturbing / hilarious costumes (see pictures below), and rocking out to really loud music.

??????

What I loved the most about it obviously revolved around food (And of course people watching extreme)...it had the most delectable foods OF MY LIFE. Dozens of  booths offering well more than 100 kinds of food, from fried Oreos to goulash, funnel cakes, sausage balls and potato pancakes with apple sauce on top. Uh-mazing. I recommend going, if not for this reason alone.

For those who know about Wursfest, the most important part of the entire celebration are the prestigious men and women of NB who dress up as opa and opas, ("Grandparents") and volunteer to help out with the 120,000 + attendees. I know a couple of Jody's friends (Uh hem, SEAN) have making opa status a life goal.

Apparently it's quite a big deal in South Texas. Jody has gone every year since 6th grade I believe?? A German celebration / loud, fun music / The greatest food found in the state of Texas. We had a blast with my cousin Daley, and I'm thankful for being introduced to this tradition my husband loves so much.

Daley, Chelsea and me.

Jody's favorite people to go to Wurstfest with. Love his sweet parents

.

How could I forget! We also ran in the Wurst-run that morning... By the look on Jody's face, you can guess who won. :) Of course he has his own story but.... That's all I'm going to say. (We're not competitive at all....)

If you dont' know me by now...

I keep seeing these "100 things" blog posts popping up, so I thought I would do one as well... some of these might surprise you!

Jody's "100 things" will be coming shortly. Or maybe "10 things."

100 things:

1. Amy Grant was, and still is my favorite.  Specifically, "House of Love" and "Songs From The Loft." My cousin Daley and I have this in common.

2. I'm OCD about the STRANGEST things. Ask Jody... If only I was OCD about a clean kitchen or bathroom. If only.

3. I am completely terrible at hand-eye coordination sports. i.e. golf, tennis, softball...

4. In college I never thought I'd say this, but I really miss playing basketball.

5. If I could be one place right now, I'd be in Greece. And I'm not ashamed to admit that this desire pretty much stemmed out of my viewing of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants pt. 2.

6. I wish I could be Faith Hill's friend.

7. My 6th Grade kiddos say something hilarious, without meaning to be funny, every single day. One of the many reasons 6th grade is a blast to teach.

8. I wish Jody was out of law school so we could have a baby. TMI?

9. I might be the worst singer of our lifetime, and if I don't know the words to a song, I'll make up my own, much more creative, lyrics.

10. When I was little, I read for hours every day. Anne of Green Gables was my favorite. I probably read it ten times.

11. My favorite season usually depends on whatever is right now. So, Fall is my favorite. I'm a lover of change.

12. I still love to read and wish I more had time for it.

13. I have a bad case of undiagnosed ADD. Wish means, at all times I'm in the middle of 3 or 4 books.

14. I'm not a fan of tattoos.

15. Halloween is my least favorite holiday.

16. My friend Abby and I used to be obsessed with gymnastics, and wanted to go to the Olympics, and be like Shannon Miller. I'd be the tallest gymnast ever.

17. I'm a twin. With Kalee. And I love her more than anything in the world.

18. I had a horrendous amount of bangs growing up. Thanks mom.

19. I have a unibrow. Kinda. I have one solid hair that always pops up right in between my eyes. I somehow don't ever notice it until it's either pointed out to me by my laughing husband, or it's long enough to be extremely noticable.

20. It's stressful at times, but I absolutely love my job.

21. I wish I could re-run my whole wedding weekend. It just went by way too fast.

22. Christmas is my favorite holiday. Possibly because of the Amy Grant Christmas CD?

23. I'm not a foodie. If you ask me about a restaurant, I'll probably tell you I liked it. And I think most food is GOOOOD.

24. I could eat Mexican food everyday. Or Sharky's.

25. I was sent to the principles office in 4th Grade.

26. My mom was my 4th Grade teacher. She wasn't the one who sent me to the office...

27. I've never really been a dog person, but Jody is hoping to change my mind so we can get two great danes whenever we get a house... someday. We'll see.

28. We haven't had cable since moving to Dallas. Thank the Lord for Hulu. The Office, Modern Family and Glee are our favorites.

29. Sometimes I refer to ACU as a cult (lovingly of course), but I absolutely adored my ACU days more than anything. I hope my kids want to go there someday.

30. I miss college.

31. My grandparents were "Mr. And Ms. ACU."

32. I'm not very domestic, but I want more than anything to be a pro at cooking, sewing and crafty projects. I need to take some lessons or something.

33. I have the baby name app on my iphone and already have my list narrowed down.

34. Jody secretly loves when I talk about babies, baby names, etc. He would never admit it.

35. I tried to dye my hair brown last year. Didn't work out so well. My students informed me it was more of a seaweed color and wanted to know when I was going to dye it back blonde.

36. I've developed a severe case of claustrophobia in the last year or so.

37. Traffic and crowds kind of stress me out sometimes. Maybe that's why I love Graham so much.

38. I love writing / receiving notes.

39. I can be forgetful. If I neglect to call or email you back, forgive me. And try again.

40. I wanted to go to the Kanakuk Institute after college.

41. I usually assume the best.

42. In my ideal world, I would live in the same neighborhood as my family, or girlfriends from college.

43. Sour straws and swedish fish are my favorite candies.

44. If you received a wedding invitation from us, you realized that we have the most TEXAN names. ( I refuse to say hick). Judd Jody and Kristee Sue.

45. Because of this, we should probably give very sophisticated names to our children. I'll look into it on my app.

46. I wake up at 5 o'clock most mornings.

47. I think I would love teaching elementary and coaching High School. Inconvenient.

48. I played 5 sports in High School.

49. I love Jesus, which makes me a Christian. But Christians confuse / annoy me a lot sometimes.

50. Large hoodie sweatshirts are my fav.

51. I can't wait for us to own a house.

52. Breakfast is my favorite meal to eat at a restaurant.

53. I probably won't decorate my house for Christmas until we have kids.

54. When I laugh really, really hard... it's not pretty. I usually slobber.

55. I can usually fall asleep any time, any place.

56. But I wish I could make myself go to bed early.

57. I love going to weddings.

58. For some reason, talk radio is very entertaining to me.

59. Sometimes I wish we lived in Abilene.

60. I have the greatest cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents in the world.

61. I love grammar, but I always get confused between then and than.

62. Salty is better then (than) sweet.

63. I wish I wasn't a pack rat. I'm admitting it, I get too emotionally invested in "stuff."

64. I'm 5'11. Jody is 6'3. We wear sizes 11 and 13 shoes. I'm guessing we will have some pretty large, but cute, children with ginormous feet.

65. Jody and I both have football coaching dads. One of the many reasons we love the fall.

66. I love picture frames, books, and shelves.

67. I love music. Thankfully, I've matured out of my "I only listen to country" days.

68. I snack. A lot.

69. Rain makes me happy.

70. I want to run a marathon with my mom (who will probably beat me.)

71. I wish I was a really good writer like my friend Lauren. When I was little, I wanted to be an author. I think that would be such an ideal job. I'm willing to say, that's not my gift.

72. I love everything about being married.

73. I'm a blog stalker more than I am a facebook stalker.

74. Loose leaf tea is my favorite.

75. I would like to have friends over for dinner more often.

76. I lived in Orange County, California for a year and wish I would have taken more advantage of the ocean.

77. Road trips are also my favorite. Lots of great memories.

78. I love company, and I absolutely love dinners that drift for hours...

79. I've never had braces or glasses. I tried to lie on an eye test in 6th grade because I REALLY wanted glasses / contacts.

80. I'm very proud of my Marine Brother who is going to Embassy Duty Training in January. He is such a stud.

81. I talk to my mom everyday.

82. My American Girl of choice: Samantha, of course.

83. To say I get lost a lot is an understatement.

84. I would love to travel more.

85. I can't remember the last time I wore shoes with a heel.

86. I'm perfectly comfortable speaking in front of Middle School students, but I freak out a little when I'm speaking and there are adults in the room. I wish I was a better speaker.

87. If I'm taking on a new craft / project, I really need my friend Becca to be there to make sure I'm going it right. Too bad she lives 3 hours away.

88. I'd rather be cold than hot.

89. I was born in Amarillo, and most of my extended family lives there. I could live in Amarillo.

90. I hope I get to coach my kids someday. And I hope they like sports.

91. My weeks are kind of exhausting, so there is nothing I love more then a lazy, relaxing, Saturday / Sunday afternoon. I wish I hated doing nothing. But I don't. I love it WAY too much.

92. We want 4 or 5 kids, and possibly adopt?

93. Jody takes care of all things money in our household. Thank goodness I got married when I did.

94. I love spending time in coffee shops, but Jody is not a fan of coffee or coffee shops.

95. I can't wait to meet little June Jeffrey.

96. My husband and I dated for four months before getting engaged.

97. When I played basketball for ACU, Jody loved to yell at the refs if they made a bad call. Embarrassing.

98. I have a deep admiration for people who do ministry in foreign countries.

99. Constant complainers annoy me like none other.

100. My favorite book at the moment is "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. So simple, but so incredibly profound.