courtney rebecca

To celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary, Jason and I took a little weekend getaway down to Colorado Springs at the beginning of August. Neither of us had been, so it was fun to get to be tourists together! On Thursday night we dropped Kingsley off with his friend Charlie and drove down to the Springs. We had a bit of trouble getting checked in, but once we had the right room, it was great! We went to dinner at a little French place that I saw on Yelp and it was amazing! It couldn't have been a better start to our weekend away. We also got some Black Forest cake from a bakery there, since that was the flavor of Jason's groom's cake. Friday morning we got up and drove to Manitou Springs to get on the cog railway for Pikes Peak! We rode the railway up the mountain and it was so cool. We could watch out the window the whole way. It took about an hour and a half to get up there. We got to stay at the top and take pictures for about 45 minutes, then we rode back down. ...

This past weekend, we celebrated more than just Mother's Day. Jason graduated with his Masters degree from University of Colorado at Denver! I could not be more proud of him and all his hard work and accomplishments. In just over a year, Jason has... finished a 30 hour Masters degree maintained a 4.0 GPA been published in an academic journal found an amazing job in his field been incredibly successful in his new job! This past Saturday we spent the day celebrating Jason with his parents (who were in town for the week) and his brother and Rachel. Of course, we had to start the day with an appropriately nerdy outing. It was fantastic! Then we came home for a couple of hours and I made Jason's favourite dessert for us to enjoy later! (Wish I had a picture of our actual pie, but it's almost all gone at this point!) The night was topped off by dinner at Ondo's, this fantastic Spanish tapas restaurant. Oh man. So good! I love getting to eat so...

I had a bad day at work the other day. It was incredibly stressful and I just felt frozen because I had so much to do. I made it through thanks to my sweet hubby encouraging me to take a walk to clear my head, but he wasn't finished helping me out. He came home with dinner, blue bell ice cream, and a bouquet of flowers! Best husband ever.

Jason made it through the phone interview and will be having an in-person interview on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. We're both really excited, and he's feeling positive about his chances. I'll let you guys know when we have a specific time! As always, prayers are much appreciated. This is an amazing opportunity for Jason.

Jason has a phone interview in the morning at 9 am Mountain time. For all you Texas folks, that's 10 am your time! We are praying hard and asking for another interview! Please pray for Jason to speak with wisdom and that the people talking to him in the phone interview to get to really know him for who he is. I'll post an update when we hear anything!

I don't think I had written about it yet, but Jason applied for a job recently. It would be a perfect job to bridge his ministry experience with his new career field. He's working on his masters in Instructional Design and Adult Learning. Well, he got through the first round (basically, turning in the application and getting a call) and the second round (he had to answer a few really in depth questions and email them in), so now he has an interview coming up! We aren't sure when it's going to be yet because it seems like the department is really busy, but it should be in the next two weeks. We're so excited and hopeful and very much appreciate prayers that he will get the job. I have been praying that they will see Jason with favor and that this will be Jason's opportunity to get experience outside of ministry. Thank you for your prayers during this time of waiting before the interview! When he finds out when it is, I'll post it on here.

Well, Jason and I had an eventful Friday. On Thursday night, right when we were watching our favourite Thursday show, Community (if you don't watch it, you need to get your life right. first season is out on DVD, no excuses!), and I got a really bad pain in my side. I thought it would probably go away, that I was just having a bad stomachache, buuuut it didn't. I went to bed still in pain, and I woke up at 3 am still in pain and unable to sleep. Since it was 3 am and I was already up, I figured I'd stay up and watch the royal wedding. Yup, I got to watch it live! It was nice. Until it got boring around 4:30, so I went back to bed. I woke up a couple of hours later still hurting, so I called in to work and got a doctor's appointment. The doctor ran a bunch of tests, but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary besides my pain. I had a couple of the signs of appendicitis or gall bladder problems (and the pain was in the right place) so she didn't want to send me...

I got the best surprise yesterday. My sweet husband called me when he was coming home from an appointment and told me he had a surprise for me, so I had to go in the bedroom so he could bring it in. He came back there and made me close my eyes, then he led me out to the kitchen. Where I saw my very own beautiful red KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer!! He surprised me a week early as a present for our 3rd wedding anniversary. So sweet!! I have been wanting a KitchenAid mixer for such a long time, but the sweetest thing is that my hubby has been planning to buy me one for a long time too! He's been planning it for months. I have the best husband ever. So of course, when I got it last night, I immediately had to make something in it. I made cloverleaf yeast rolls! They turned out pretty well! Tonight I'm going to make mashed potatoes in it. So exciting! So yes, the mixer was a gift for me, but J definitely gets to benefit from me having it! My mixer is just like this one!

Today is my husband's birthday!! In the list of good things about my life, he is right up there at the top. He is absolutely my favourite person in the world, and I am so thankful for him. He is a wonderful husband and is always so supportive and loving to me. Jason is 25 today, and this is his sixth birthday we've celebrated together. (The first one was two months late, but it counts. That's another story.) I look forward to celebrating many more! Me and my dearest at one of my sister's plays when we still lived in Abilene.