Kevin Fowler

Last night Jason and I had a great evening going to the Sam Houston Race Tack with our neighbors. Kevin Fowler was having a concert in the evening, and we got to go back stage and meet him and get his autograph! Jason and I think we went to every concert he had in College Station the 5 years we lived there. We saw some of his first concerts when he was just starting to get noticed and now got to meet him as one of the biggest names in Texas Country. We had a great time, and it was so much fun reminiscing about our years at A&M and where we are today. God has blessed us so much; words can't describe how happy I feel to have such a wonderful man beside me to share life's journey with!

May Garden

Thought for the day: Have you ever noticed that when it rains, you have weeding to do? When it rains heavily, you have even more weeding to tend to. Kind of like life... God uses the storms to cleanse our souls; to grow us and mold us into who He intended us to be! When the rains pour down, the weeds of our souls are revealed. It is the time after the storms have passed that we must get on our hands and knees and pull up everything that is crowding out the fruits of our garden/soul.


These are some of our front yard blooms.

Our garden in the back is looking really good. I've been enjoying eating our tomatoes and using our herbs.

These cucumbers are looking pretty good and filling with blooms underneath. I can't wait to eat the first one!

The cantaloupe and watermelon aren't growing as fast/well as everything else, but they are still growing and staying green none the less.

The zucchini and squash are growing great as you can see!

My jalapeno plant might still be small, but it's producing fruit just the same!

The last time we went to Jason's grandma's farm, we brought some fig trees back with us (or should I say fig tree roots). All four are growing really well. We are hoping at least two will take and we'll have ourselves nice fig trees in a couple of years. I just love figs and they are so good for you too : )

Pickles and Noodles are enjoying the green grass these days and soon they will enjoy some shade the tress will produce too.

A Perfect Picture

The past couple of weeks I have thought a lot about life’s circumstances, about desires, dreams, expectations and ideals; how each one of us are shaped differently both by our Creator and by different events and people in our lives. Not only do we look different, but we act different, dream different, like different things and process/handle things differently from others around us.

These differences are what make the world a beautiful place. God created us this way so we can all serve a purpose and unit as one body. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 explains this perfectly. “…If the whole body were an eye, it would not be able to hear. If the whole body were an ear, it would not be able to smell. If each part of the body were the same part, there would be no body. But truly God put all the parts, each one of them, in the body as he wanted them. So then there are many parts, but only one body. … God wanted the different parts to care the same for each other. If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it. Or if one part of our body is honored, all the other parts share its honor. Together you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of that body.” Not one part of the body is more important or better than the other because they all serve a great purpose in keeping the body alive.

Christ’s bride is the Church and the Church is the body; the body created by each one of us uniting, embracing our given lives and gifts, and embracing the lives and gifts of others in order to glorify God to the fullest.

While these differences are what make the world a beautiful place, in our daily lives, we often see these differences as set backs and road blocks in our individual lives. Relationships, work, finances, nations, individuals themselves, productivity and all other aspects of our daily lives are greatly affected because of how we handle these differences. As a Christian we study God’s Word and begin to learn His ways, His thoughts; who He is. The more we spend time with God and in His Word, the more our thoughts, our ways and who we are reflect Him.

Through our continual growth in Christ, we are transformed from the inside out. When a situation occurs around me, I begin to understand more or less, ‘what Jesus would do’. I try to think not just what He would do, but how He would feel and what His thought process would be. Like in all relationships, we can only truly know someone when we spend time with them. The time I spend with my Father, my Lord, my Savior, allows me to better know Him, which allows me to better live for Him and with Him.

With this said, better understanding ‘what Jesus would do’, how He would feel and what His thought process might be is only the first step. “My heart is willing but my flesh is weak.” Even though I know the ‘right answers’ and I understand which path is the one I should take, doesn’t mean I always will make the right decision. I love my God and I try to follow Christ and live for Him, but I make mistakes. I fall, I stumble and I fall short every single day. Praise be to God though because every sin I make is washed away. Every time I fall, God is right there with me helping me up. I may stumble but I will not stay down. I may fail, but I will never be a failure. Through Christ we are made new!!

So here is where I am getting at (or at least trying to): If we stumble, why do we not give grace to those who stumble around us? Why do we not give a helping hand as Christ does? Why do we pass judgment that they aren’t walking with God? We all grow and mature at different rates and points in our lives. Ideally we would all be born and walk with God from our first breath on, but the fact is we live in a fallen world. We live in a world full of spiritual battles going on every day of our lives. Satan is trying to get at each one of us daily, but God is with us every one of them! And the best news is… He’s already won; the victory is Christ’s and His alone!! Amen to that and praise God!

So why do we judge others instead of love them? Why do we compare others with ourselves or others around us? We need to leave the judgment to God and if God doesn’t compare, neither should we. We need to learn to live our lives focused on God and God alone. We need to love others around us when they are walking, running and stumbling through the race of life. Our love needs to be the same no matter what stage of life they are in or we are in. I want to learn to respond to everything in love; God’s love.


God doesn’t compare us with others. He created us each uniquely and perfectly. As we give our life to God, He molds us to His image. God creates and molds us when and how He finds perfect. Why then do we dare judge His ways and timing for ourselves and others? Why do we compare ourselves with others, our lives with other lives? We all do it to some degree. The world we live in encourages us to want what we don’t have, to look like someone else, and to be who we are not meant to be. As in 1 Corinthians 12, if we were all an arm, how would the body function? If we were all a heart, how would the body function? If we were all the brain, how would the body function? Not one part of the body is more or less important than the others. Each part serves a purpose. God does not see one part of the body as ‘more important’ than the other, because each part serves Him in the way He knows will glorify Him the most. Whether we think these tasks are big or small, God sees them all the same. At this stage in my spiritual maturity, I believe that there is no service done through God’s request and calling that is bigger or smaller than the others.

An excerpt from a book I am reading, My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult, spoke to me strongly for some reason yesterday (it’s a pretty funny scene I thought…).

“I used to have pink hair,” I told Seven.
“I used to have a real job,” he answered.
“What happened to you?”
He shrugged. “I dyed my hair pink. What happened to you?”
“I let mine grow out,” I answered.
Seven wiped up a spill I’d made without noticing. “Nobody ever wants what they’ve got,” he said.

“Nobody ever wants what they’ve got,” that sounds about right. As humans, we tend to want what someone else has, be who someone else is, look like someone else; all the while judging others because they don’t have what we have, don’t act like we act and don’t look like we do.

I was talking to my friend Cathie yesterday about “picture perfect”. This conversation linked many thoughts I have been having about love, desires, God’s will, individual maturity, God’s timing, uniqueness, unity, one body, gifts, judgment, relationships... and all back to love. I ask myself, what is perfection? Webster’s definitions:


1 a: being entirely without fault or defect : flawless b: satisfying all requirements : accurate c: corresponding to an ideal standard or abstract concept d: faithfully reproducing the original ; specifically : letter-perfect e: legally valid
2 a: pure, total b: lacking in no essential detail : complete


We all have our different ideas of our perfect picture, our perfect day, our perfect job, relationship, family and ourselves. Our perfect picture isn’t necessarily someone else’s perfect picture. Because we live in this fallen world, we will never find the ‘perfect’ family, the ‘perfect’ spouse, the ‘perfect’ job, vacation, day, etc. We all are either running, walking or stumbling down our given road of life; sometimes all 3 at once it seems! None of us or our any part of our lives are perfect. As my friend Cathie put it yesterday, this perfection we long for can only be found through Christ. It is He that connects us all, makes us whole and allows HIS perfection to shine through our brokenness!

1 a: being entirely without fault or defect : flawless – (Through Christ we are a new creation; our sins have been washed away and we are made white as snow.)
b: satisfying all requirements : accurate (Only Christ was the perfect sacrifice; He died on the cross for our sins so that we may be saved and know the Father.)
c: corresponding to an ideal standard (see my notes below…)
d: faithfully reproducing the original (see my notes below…)
e: legally valid (Only Christ was the perfect sacrifice; He died on the cross for our sins so that we may be saved and know the Father.)
2 a: pure, total
b: lacking in no essential detail : complete (Nothing about us was left up to ‘chance’, God has fearfully and wonderfully created us, Psalm 139. Every detail of our life and ourselves God and created perfectly! Now it is up to us to allow Him to use it for good! Only God can fill that empty space in our hearts meant only for Him. Only God can make us complete and complete our lives!)

Christ is our ideal standard. Living for him, even though we stumble and fail, is living perfectly for Christ. Faithfully loving others and shining God’s love on them as we all stumble through life on earth is living perfectly through and for Christ.

Our desire for perfection; perfect lives and relationships, lies at Christ feet and ends in His pierced hands.

Weekend in Phoenix

I have such wonderful memories of all the times my dad took us fishing and camping while I was growing up. Oh what fun I had! Whether I was catching a lot of fish, or nothing all day, just sitting in a boat with a fishing pole was wonderful. And camping was a blast. I'll always remember my catfish pulling my little blow up raft all around as I (about 3rd grade) was desperately gripping the pole (I knew better than to let go of my dad's fishing poles!), as well as the times Fallon and I would try to catch fish with our bare hands in the rivers or gather milk jugs full of crawfish from the lake on camping trips and take them back home with us... yuck... It was so much fun sitting around camp fires, despite huge june bugs (they must have been 3 inches in length...haha) creeping us girls out.

Jason and I always laugh, he can sit in a tree all day and not hunt a single animal and be as happy as can be...me...put me in a boat in the middle of a lake with a fishing pole, fish or no fish, and it's one of the best places I'd want to be! These days I'd probably like to have a fishing pole and a book in my hand though : )

At this point, Jason had caught one more fish than my dad and I had so he was taking a break... I had to catch up...

I did!!! My dad, Jason and I each caught 9 bass that morning.

My grandma and me

My dad and me

My dad, his two youngest girls and his granddaughter

Jason and me and my dad and Lynelle

Happy Sweet Sixteen Selina!!

My sister just turned 16 this past weekend, and I got to go down and visit! I had an appointment in El Paso for work and stayed the weekend. We had so much fun; lots of laughter and being silly (as you can tell from the pictures!). We went bowling, ate a great steak dinner at Cattlemen's which was fun in itself. They have a bunch of animals (goats, buffalo, rabbits, peacocks, cows, birds, etc), human mazes, and much more.

Happy Birthday Sister!

Josh and I were in the middle of the human maze; we actually made it out alive : )

The peacocks were making their funny sounds that evening as they were running and flying all around us. What a strange sound...

The 5 of us before dinner; my brother Joshua, me, my sister Selina, my mom and grandma.


The previous weekend Jason and I went to the farm. We had a blast as usual; it is so beautiful and this time of the year makes everything so great! Below is our pop-up blind we use for hunting. This is what we used when that deer walked right up to us last fall. That was so much fun; something we'll never forget.

We also got to see Nadine's new litter of puppies! Mrs. Scooter had 7 healthy puppies : )

3rd Year Anniversary

This past Wednesday, May 6th was our 3rd year anniversary! Three years... it's so amazing how time flies by! In our 6 1/2 years together, we have been blessed with so much. It seems like just yesterday we meet at Hurricane Harry's; Jason a studly lacrosse player and my name 'Jenna'! (Let us know if you want to hear the whole storey, but a short version is I gave him my phone number on my birthday in December and he was going to call me when we got back from Christmas vacation. He thought my name was Jenna, so when January rolled around, he called and asked for Jenna, not me. We hung up and saw each other the next week, realized what happened, laughed and planned our first date. The rest is history!) We love to reminisce about our years in College Station and how much fun we had.

We are so blessed with wonderful families and friends, great jobs, a beautiful home, each other and so much more. I am so thankful for God in our lives and I pray that He continues to be the center of our marriage and lives; that our relationship with Him continues to grow stronger every day!



Just Being...

The other day I was sitting on our front patio enjoying a quiet moment when I started thinking about my relationship with my husband and my God. I realized that one thing I thoroughly enjoy about marriage and find complete joy and freedom in, is the fact that Jason and I enjoy 'just being' with each other. Not just being around each other; but Just Being... period! We have great fun together; we talk and laugh together, we have serious and fun conversations, we reminisce and think about the future, we love so many different hobbies, etc. But one thing that makes me feel closest to Jason are our times we Just Are. Times when no words have to be spoken, nothing has to get done, we don't have to do be doing anything. These precious times are between me and my husband; I can't have times like this with anyone else here on earth. These 'Just Being' times are also my favorite times with God. I love to just sit and Be with God. No talking, no doing, no thinking; just alone and quiet time with God. I love to imagine myself where ever I am, but also knowing I am also sitting at His feet, leaning against Him; just enjoying Him and His creation all around. These times of Just Being are some of my most favorite times; my most cherished blessings!

Pictures of my hibiscus and gardenia blooms!

Prayer and Marriage

I recently finished reading a chapter on the correlation between 'prayer and marriage' from Gary Thomas' book Sacred Marriage. A few powerful quotes I thoroughly enjoyed:

"A modern writer, Terry Glaspey, sums it up well when he writes, 'Prayer is a work to which we must commit ourselves if we are to make sense of our lives in the light of eternity.' I like that last phrase - prayer is how we make sense of our lives in the light of eternity. Prayer helps us to regain the proper priorities, discern biblical wisdom, and make right judgments. Without prayer, Glaspey might say, we live as temporal people with temporal values. Prayer pushes eternity back into our lives, making God ever more relevant to the way we live our lives."

I have read I Peter 3:7 many times, but I've never looked at it the way Gary explains in this chapter!

I Peter 3:7 "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers."

**Gary states, "We are told that if we want to have a stronger marriage, we should improve our prayer lives. But Peter tells us that we should improve our marriages so that we can improve our prayer lives. Instead of prayer being the 'tool' that will refine my marriage, Peter tells me that marriage is the 'tool' that will refine my prayers!"

I just loved that. Looking at marriage as a way to grow closer with God and become more Christ like! He also mentions that God 'views my life as a seamless garment'; he's not divided into 'holy Gary' and 'secular Gary,' and that there is no 'Gary the husband' versus 'Gary the Christian'. God wants all of us, at all times. He wants to be part of our work, our marriages, our relationships, every task, dreams, etc.

At the end of the chapter Gary says, "What I'm suggesting is that we connect our marriage with our faith in such a way that our experience in each feeds the other. The next time you caress your spouse, think about how that caress might open up new avenues for your prayer life. The next time you are virtually overcome by passion for your spouse, consider how you can offer yourself with equal abandon to your God. Don't be afraid to use all aspects of marriage - even sexual expression - to expand your prayer life!"

My Garden

Here is a quick peak at my beautiful garden! I've had lots of fun with it and am so thankful for my wonderful husband's help putting up the fence and shoveling 1,000+ lbs of mulch over the fence (2 full loads in the back of his truck); not to mention all the grass we had to dig and rotor till last year too. In it I have about 8 tomato plants, a jalapeno plant, jasmine, lavender, mint, peppermint, basil, lemon balm, rosemary, aloe vera, plumbago, a pretty pink flowered bush, yellow and orange flower plants, and a small tree in the middle. I also planted some seeds; yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon and eggplant. Everything is growing really well except for the eggplant. Those poor little guys started to sprout, but then disappeared one day.

Here are my squash, zucchini, 2 tomato plants, jalapeno, jasmine and canalillies. The squash and zucchini are already starting to have blooms on them; I personally think they are too little to produce good veggies yet, but you never know... I picked my first jalapeno and cherry tomato from these plants this past weekend; you can see a picture of them below!

My basil looks a little wilted from the heat of the day, but it looks lush in the later evenings, morning time and on cloudy days. It sure does taste great though; I just love cooking with my 'fresh herbs'!

Okay, so here is a picture of me holding up my first 'fruit' I've 'harvested'!! Talk about being 'mini'! I'm just waiting until I get bite size squash and cucumbers too! Before I know it, I'll have all the little garden gnomes harvesting my mini gnome sized veggies and fruit!!

I just love watching my garden grow. Just another beautiful reminder how wonderful and amazing God is. I've loved taking care of, removing weeds, training vines, etc. Reminds me so much of weeding and training our hearts and souls. I will have to talk more about my thoughts on this at a later date. For now, I hope you enjoy pictures of my beautiful mini-garden, haha!

Aggie Wranglers

Yesterday Jason and I headed up to College Station, TX (our old home/stomping ground/meeting place!) to help judge the annual Aggie Wrangler tryouts. Jason and I made the team in 2004. For two years we taught lessons and made performances all across the city, state, nation and yes... even the world! The years we were on the team we got to go to places like New York and Germany where we danced for a town's 750th anniversary! Multiple times we got to dance for Former President Bush and his wife, Barbara at the George Bush Library in College Station. These were wonderful experiences where we got to interact with the Former First Couple. They are absolutely wonderful people! Below you will see a picture taken of our team with the First Couple a few years ago; John McCain is also there.

Jason and I thoroughly enjoyed our time on the team. To this day we still go dancing and have a wonderful time together! It was great to see some of the alumni and we can't wait to see everyone again during the fall reunion! You can visit the Aggie Wrangler website at http://aggiewranglers.tamu.edu/ and see what we used to do and what the current team is up to! Watching them dance is the best way to actually see what we did! Hope you enjoy.