Baby on board!

Move over Rookie....

We are so excited to announce that we are having a baby! We are looking forward to this new stage in our lives and this tiny blessing growing inside of me. I don't feel very tiny however! I am almost 13 weeks and our doctor says I'm very healthy and everything is going great. Drew was still in the academy for my first ultrasound, so my good friend Amy Busti went with me and we got to see the little one. It was so amazing! Drew and I went back this Monday to the doctor and heard the heart beating strong and clear. Only 6 more weeks until we find out what the sex is - it's going by so fast! I LOVE my doctor at Scott and White - Dr. Sulak. For those of you who have heard about it, she wrote the "worth the wait" abstinence curriculum for the Texas school districts. I am so glad that we were stationed close by and I was able to stay with her. My due date is Jan. 2nd which is great (deer season will almost be over for Drew :) and I don't have to endure this Texas heat with a big belly. We went kayaking today on the Colorado River and I thought I was going to die from the heat - I can't imagine being a lot further along in the summer.

With my first trimester almost behind me, I am starting to feel great. I was pretty tired which is aggravating when I'm used to being super productive! (my sister-in-law, Mandy, who helped me pack up and my mom who practically did all of my unpacking in our move 2 weeks ago know how unproductive and tired I was!) Thanks for your help - I couldn't have done it without you guys! Fortunately I didn't have any "morning sickness" - just some nausea...but that is starting to wane too. My growing appetite is not waning however! I am so surprised by how hungry I am!! I am trying to stay fit and exercise as well as eat healthy....

Thank you for celebrating in this good news with us! I am sure I was post more often now with news of the little one. We are thankful to the Lord for this incredible blessing and pray that we will be parents who are examples of Christ to our child.

Much Love,
Jessica & Drew

It's Official! He's a Game Warden

This post is 2 weeks late - but better late than never :) It's been a whirlwind moving, unpacking and getting settled in. Two weeks ago today Drew became an official Texas Game Warden! He has worked so hard and he is already such a wonderful warden. He comes home from work just grinning like a child in a toy store - he is absolutely loving his job!

The graduation was at the capitol and here is Governor Rick Perry pinning his badge on:


Drew had the honor of saying the invocation at graduation. It was such a great prayer that I wanted to share it with you all:

Father,

Thank you for seeing us safely through to this day. We are humbled by all that You have done for us in the past seven months and look forward to the time ahead as we prepare to begin our service. Thank you for the instruction and teaching that we have had during this period of our lives and for the time and effort given by all of those who have led us. We are also extremely grateful for our families. It is through their sacrifice and dedication that we are able to be here today. We also want to honor those who have served before us, especially those who have given their lives in this service. Help us to always remember them and honor them by the things we do, with the understanding that none of us are guaranteed tomorrow.

Psalm 104 says, “How many are Your works oh Lord. In wisdom You made them all. The Earth is full of Your creatures.”. Lord, for seven months we have been training our minds and bodies for this day and stand before You now, willing and ready to serve in the protection of Your creation.

We pray for several things today, Lord.
That you would watch over us as we serve through long days.
That you would guide us through the dark nights.
That you would protect us in times of danger.
That you would give us strength against our enemies and
Give us wisdom in making the many decisions that we will face.

May our integrity be beyond reproach and our behavior always without question.

Help us to remember that You are our fortress and strength and that through You we can never be shaken.

May we always strive to be, both servants and warriors, in the protection of Your creation and for the people and the state of Texas.

In Jesus name we pray,
Amen

The 54th Game Warden Class and supervisors:


Celebrating!


Drew's parents, brother - John Michael and grandparents were able to come and celebrate his graduation with us! To view all the pictures of this big day, click here:

Our New Home!

The countdown is on! Well, it's been for 7 months now...but our time apart is finally coming to a close! Drew has 1 week left in the academy. We have gotten to our explore our new area, Coryell Co. and we are so excited about moving there and seeing what God has in store for us. Some of the Game Wardens referred a place for us to rent - an awesome log cabin on a wild game ranch! We are both so excited about living there and really enjoy the landowners. I think it's going to be a great place for us. For family and friends who have been asking for it, below are some videos of the cabin and place. We are hoping to move in 1 1/2 weeks...which means I really should be packing right now :) I am looking forward to settling in and making this cabin our home.

Here's a video of the outside of the cabin...the lawn really needs work, so just ignore that :)



Look at the little elk that came up to the backyard - so cute!!



Last video - this is of inside the house for all family and friends who have wanted to see it. I can't wait to get in and make it our home. You can see it here on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6eomIMkM7Q

We feel so very blessed and thank the Lord for providing such a wonderful place to live and work!

Our new station!

As many of you know, we found out where Drew is stationed!! We are going to Coryell County which is west of Waco.



We drove through there this past weekend and the area is just beautiful - lots of character to the land. Rolling hills, creek bottoms with pecan trees, grassy field with big oaks trees. A beautiful mix between the post oak savannah area of Texas and the hill country. We will still be fairly close to our beloved hill country.

We also had the privilege of meeting Drew's co-workers and Captain at a kid-fish event this past weekend. While Coryell is a single warden co (meaning Drew works by himself) these are his co-workers in surrounding counties. Everyone was so welcoming!

A great blessing is that it is only 45 minutes - 1 hour from where we are now and it's only 3 hours from each of our families. We were really nervous that we would be put on the border - which is pretty dangerous right now. My heart goes out to those wardens and their families that were placed there. We knew that God has a purpose for wherever we would be placed and could completely trust in His will. We are excited to discover what purpose He has for us in Coryell.

The main city in Coryell is Gatesville. Growing up in Huntsville, the prison capital of Texas, it seems like I can't get away from prison cities :)! The women's death row maximum security prison is in Gatesville!!



Here are a few other interesting facts:
Boasts the "last drive in movie theatre in Texas" and the largest spur collection in the world!



Part of the large Fort Hood base is in this county.
There are a 15 small towns throughout the county. You can click here for some interesting pics of them: http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsNorth/GatesvilleTexas.htm

We are in the midst of finding a place to live. Only 4 more weeks today until Drew graduates!! We cannot wait to live together again!

Thank you for all of your prayers, we'll keep you updated with pictures of our new county and new home.....once we find one :)

Dear Family & Friends,

It has been a while since I have written!

Drew and I are excited that our time apart is soon coming to a close. He has 2 1/2 more months left in the academy! Woo hoo! I can't WAIT to live with my husband again. We have wonderful times on the weekends, but it's still not the same. In early April we will be able to pick our top 3 choices for him to be stationed (doesn't mean that we'll get them) and late April we should know where we are going.

We have had a lot of change these past few months with moving, now moving again, living apart - a different season of our lives -- but the Lord has been very gracious and compassionate to us during this time. Time and time again, the Lord is reminding us to put out hope in Him - not our circumstances. Drew can't wait to be done with training and really start his job!

For our 4th anniversary (Jan. 22nd), our good friend Amy, took pictures of Drew and I -- she did an AWESOME job! You can check them out here:

Click on this link to see them all: Drew & Jessica's 4th Anniversary Pictures

As many of you know one of passions is nutrition & healthy eating. Some wonderful ladies, Lori Martin & Jacki Nyberg in Tallahassee taught me a lot (especially about the benefits of grinding your own grain) as did a wonderful nutritionist Krystal Gray. I believe and research shows so many illnesses and problems we experience can be helped or cured with eating whole foods & not processed foods. I LOVE experimenting in the kitchen and making healthy recipes. At the beginning of marriage and my experimentation things didn't always turn out ok...but Drew was always gracious!

Here's a compilation of some of my most recent creations:

Homemade Chicken pizza with fresh stone ground wheat

McDonald's Egg McMuffin has nothing on me! Fresh spelt biscuits with flax seeds, eggs and deer sausage


Yummy salad with roasted asparagus

I have learned so much and am continuing to learn a lot about nutrition -- if any of you have good books you'd like to recommend on nutrition, I'd love to read them. Luckily, Drew is as interested in healthy eating as I have become --- and he sure doesn't mind eating whatever I make (now that is)! I am SO excited about the yummy cake I made today that I had to share -- here is the receipe for anyone that wants to try it:

Carrot/Pineapple Cake

(I doubled this and it made 2 9" round cakes that I stacked and put icing inbetween)

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I used fresh ground)
3/4 cup sugar (I used Sucanat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or more to taste - I like LOTS)
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
2/3 cup applesauce (I made mine with older apples I had in the fridge)
2 eggs (I used my mother-in-laws eggs from her chickens!)
1 cup finely shredded carrot
1/2 cup juice packed pineapple (with juice)
1 teaspoon vanilla

The cake is so healthy but it's the icing I used that KILLED it!

1 stick butter

1 pkg creme cheese

16 oz box of powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

(I didn't make either of these recipes up, I found them online)

Well, I hope life is treating you and your family well. I encourage you as Drew and I are discovering more and more to rest your hope in Christ.

Much love,

Jessica

January

Here are some of our highlights from January:

Drew enjoyed a field trip to a small town outside of Abilene, trying to catch illegal hunters. He loved it & can't wait to "get in the field":
Courthouse in that small town.....

It was open country...at least they took advantage of the wind power out there! If only I had one of these next to my house, I'd have electricity galore with all the wind where I live!

We also celebrated 4 wonderful years of marriage in January! We feel like we're still newlyweds on a great adventure! We have a blast together and feel so grateful to the Lord for these past 4 years. To celebrate we went to Austin (such a cool city!)......walked around the capitol building:

Went to the massive whole foods store (we were like kids in a candy shop!), ate at a delicious Greek food restaurant downtown and went for coffee at Mozarts on the lake to top off a wonderful day!

Since we were unfortunately not together on our actual anniversary, I mailed Drew this yummy cookie cake and he sent me beautiful flowers! What a wonderful husband!


Let's see...the next weekend, I attended an awesome Arbonne VP conference in Oklahoma City. I love these ladies that I have the privilege of working with including my wonderful mom! She looks so young and trendy!


and Drew went hiking at one of our favorite Texas State parks...Enchanted Rock. This huge rock with caves and peaks that you can climb all in and over. You can actually see Enchanted Rock from our deer lease and that's where Drew spent the weekend with his dad & youngest brother, John Michael.


Towards the end of January I was cooped up trying to keep warm from the ice/sleet storm -- my car got covered!

This weekend we decided to kayak a river that fed into Lake Georgetown, about 30 minutes south of where we live. So we found a spot to park, Drew wheeled the kayak to the water and we were ready to go! The river look a bit low, but not impassable for a kayak.....


That water quickly dried up...but we were not deterred by having to "portage" the kayak over the dry spot, because it led to this beautiful part of the river...

We would not even be deterred by 2 more portage spots...even after the kayak falling off the wheels repeatedly & Drew having to rig it up with his fishing stringer, until we came to this spot!

So much to our amusement we had to HIKE over a mile out of the river on the biking trail! Drew got some good speed on the downhills!

No matter what we always have a grand adventure!

What a great start to 2009!

Small town.....

Doesn't my blog look pretty now? My great friend and blogger extraordinaire, Amy Busti made my blog look so beautiful which inspired me to post just to show it off! Thanks Amy!

While I grew up in a relatively small town, I have not wanted to live in any town smaller than my hometown. On the other hand, Drew loves small towns....actually I think he could live out in the middle-of-nowhere (Little House on the Prarie) and be perfectly fine. Tallahassee was great, I loved the size, friends, "small town type of feel" and everything at your fingertips, but at times I didn't always feel safe at night in my own house (especially the time when Drew was on patrol, told me to turn the lights on and get armed because there was a break -in in progress a few houses down from us & he was heading our way fast! That's not a fun way to get woken up in the middle of the night!).

I thought I didn't care to personally live in a small town...that is until Salado. This town is SO cute and I feel so safe here.
Who wouldn't feel safe with a red barn right off of the main street?

Or love having a little creek running through your town....I love to walk here with Rookie or sit and read a book....


Salado has tons of bed & breakfasts....this is one on Salado Creek - everytime I go here I get the urge to wade across the river just to enjoy a few peaceful moments in that hammock. This picture reminds me of the mountain streams and little cottages we loved so much in North Carolina.

Another bed & breakfast....yes, this is Texas - wagon and all!
Drew trying out his new camera during our Sunday afternoon stroll around the town. One of the historic bed & breakfasts behind me.


Again...so cute (a secret flower garden behind one of the gift shops)! I think I've come to believe that small towns are wonderful...if they're cute! I am adjusting to small town living (although I drive 20-30 minutes to even grocery shop!). There are great perks like....the post office clerks already know me! This may be my training grounds for whereever we move next with Drew's job...could be a really small West Texas or border town....which I have a hard time believing will beat Salado on my "cuteness" scale.