i love the fall!!!!

i really am such a kid! yesterday i went running and i was watching these children from the elementary school that is next to the park that had come over to play. As I watched them i just thought about how much i enjoy doing those same things they like. i really have not grown up at all. I love rolling down hills and i love swinging and i love getting ice cream. Those things are still "treats" for me. i love dressing up at halloween and pretending that im something im not just for the night and the imagination of it. the children were rolling down the hill in their hats and big fluffy coats, and about 99% of the children were black, and it was just the cutest thing! i just wanted to do it too!

ok, so, i know im not a professional photographer or anything, but i like to pretend! So today i took a little drive to find pretty trees to take pictures of. i just love it here right now, its so cool to look off into the distance and see not only green but orange and yellow and red and amber colors all over the place, its just so neat! and it only makes it better when the sun is shining so brightly onto all of it!



well, the week has been pretty good thus far. I started working at dillards and i hate it, of course, i knew i would. I just dont like working in that type of enviornment. Hopefully a nanny job will work out so i dont have to do it any longer. also this week i attempted to make my first batch of food from scratch. i attempted to make potato salad, however boiling peeling mixing and chopping became a more difficult job when it came down to it. needless to say, i sorta screwed it up and the potatoes were a little hard, but my bible study friends ate it =)

well, i really havnt had that interesting of a week, but im so glad the weekend is here. its supposed to be in the 50's and sunny all weekend so im real excited about it. well im off! gotta get ready to go paint pots with Jenny, who is the sweetest girl in the world and is paying for me because she is just that cool people! well, tata and have a great weekend!!!!

good friends, good times

Im just sitting here watching Desperate Housewives, of course, and I felt that I would write all about my weekend o fun for you to read while you are bored at work. Well, it all started last Thursday when I got home from work and Justin and I decided to go to the care group bible study thingy with Kylifer (this is what I now call kyle and jennifer). Dont lie Kyle, you think its o so hilarious. Let me first say that I deeply enjoyed care group because well, they had some really yummy soup there and I can always go for good food! The time together was pretty good. The book we are reading is about evangelism and we sorta read exerts from it and discussed stuff. There were some really good points made and I feel that we learned a little bit from one another. There are so many times when I assume everyone thinks the same as I do or knows the same stuff as I when this is not the case. It amazes me to see how complex we all are and the way that we can all grow from one another. I really feel that the people in this group and especially our closer friends can "tell you like it is." I understand that there is a time to be supportive, however, I really feel that society is pushing this supportive thing. Its almost saying tolerate anything to the point where you always support your friends, even if you know that what they are doing is just ridiculous or wrong. As Proverbs says, As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another. I really feel that with these friends I am speaking of, that we can be honest and admonish and edify one another. I love this!

Anyway, so after bible study that night drove home and Justin and I got into bed and had just a relaxing evening watching friends and snuggling. The next day his cousin Nick was coming in town with his girlfriend so I woke up and cleaned the house and then Jen came and got me and we went running errands allll day. It was pretty fun just driving around. I like seeing all the different places in Cincinnati that I never knew existed. Also, the trees are changing so a drive is always fun because its just so pretty. Well Justin got off work and nick arrived and we all hung out at the house for a while and then we went to eat some mexican with of course, the Dinclers. Its like their our other half, I swear. Anyway, after dinner we went to bowl a couple games. It truly was like the worst bowling night of my life. We said bye to everyone and sent Nick and Kara, his girlfriend, back to Indy, and Justin and I came home and got into bed. Soon after, the phone rang and it was Nick. He got in a wreck. Justin and I hopped in the car and drove out to where he was. We felt just awful for him because he is 18 and this is his first time driving anywhere far away from home, with his girlfriend, in his brand new car. It just was a very bad thing. He was so afraid to call his dad, which i understand being in three wrecks, its not fun to call home and report to the parents what you have just done. Luckily him and Kara were completely fine and it was just a fender bender on the guard rail. After a few hours with them, we met up with Justins aunt and uncle and dropped off the kiddies and went back home and got in bed. It was a late night so Saturday we slept in.

We had a really good saturday, it was a gorgeous day and we woke up and I made a big breakfast with Mickey Mouse waffles and what not. We then went and ran some errands and then came home for Justin to go to work. Luckily, he got to work and they sent him home so we got to play all night! Kyle and Jenny came over and we got some KFC and then watched a movie. It was o so fun, as always. We went to bed and watched some more friends, of course. See, season 10 is coming out on November 15th, so Im trying to catch Justin up. So today was church day!!!! We went to church this morning and then afterwards were headed to BW3's, however, we got a call from a friend that it was sooo packed out so we had everyone over to our house. It was really fun, I always love being the host, you know how I am. I wish we had more room and more furniture, but its still fun to have all the friends over. Me and Jen basically got in my bed and watched a movie in order to avoid the testosterone in the other room. It was a good time. After all the guys left me and Jenny got some stuff to make french bread pizza and the four of us ate and watched some tv and thats where am I now, watching tv.

Well, I guess ill leave off here, sorry its not so interesting but a simple list of alll the things done over the past four days. Enjoy!

its just that simple

Right now im just sitting at my friend Jenny's house waiting for her to get home from work so we can watch Lost. I just wanted to write a little entry because today was seriously just the most beautiful day. I love driving to work on days like this. I was just thinking about how gorgeous God is. How everything he has made is perfect. The leaves are changing right now and I love driving down the interstate and seeing the hills all around me in such varying and vibrant colors, it looks so cool. Its times like these when I enjoy the simplicities of life and that I realize what its all about. This morning I was running and I was just talking to God asking Him what I was supposed to do, what my purpose is, what is the point in my existence when it comes down to what He has me here for. He didnt obviously didnt audibly speak it to me but Justins words from a few days ago echoed in my head. Sometimes i try to complicate things and over analyze them. Lately I have not been giving enough credit to the grace that we as Gods children receive. I have felt like I wasnt good enough and that I needed to work harder, or do more, or be better. I was telling Justin all of this recently and he just said, "Jill, you dont have to do any of that, Jesus took care of it all when he died for us and you know that." Which, I do know that, but sometimes I just feel like something that good has to be more difficult to obtain. I know this totally contradicts the doctrine of grace, i just often times feel this way. I feel as if I need to be doing something more with my life. To which all of this Justin replied, "All we are supposed to do is spread the love of Christ and enjoy God being God." First of all let me say that I love my husband soooo much. There are times when I wished Justin was a little more detailed or deep in some situations, but in this, the simplicity of the gospel of Christ and life in and of itself was just what I needed to be reminded of. So today while I was running this was what I was thinking about. I could just hear God saying, Jill, its not that hard, just relax, I have and will take care of everything and i love you so much that there is nothing you can do that will make me love you any more or any less. This might sound simplistic but since when does the love of God and the gospel become mundane? Never. I understand that life comes with unexpected disappointments and hurts and there are problems, but today just running and looking at all the dogs playing and the kids in the park and then driving to work and seeing the beauty of what God has made, and then tonight taking care of the kids in the nursery and seeing their smiles, it all seemed so simple. I really did just enjoy God today and the astounding grace that He offers. I know I can never be self righteous and so there is not point in pining over what more I should be doing; I am Christ righteous, and that is awesome.

Anyway, I think Jenny is almost home so we are gonna chill and watch some TV while the men play their Halo. I love you guys and hope the rest of your week is o so good =)

much fun, not so much sleep

This weekend was jam packed i tell you. We had little time to relax, but it was all so fun. Friday night we went up to Joe's Crab Shack to see our friend Darrell who got married on Saturday! woooooohoooooo! Anyway, he was a having a bachelor bowling extravaganza and of course Justin and I were not gonna miss out that! mmmmhmmmm! So we left Joe's and headed to the bowling alley. It was all you can bowl from 12 to 2:30 so we bowled like four games. It was like 3:00 when we got home that morning and we were sooo tired and had to leave for indy the next morning, but we had a great time and Justin bowled like 203 and he was sooo happy! Well we woke up the next day and just layed in bed for a little while. I just love rolling over and looking at his cute face every morning and rubbing his tushy til he wakes up, its really funny. he just rolls over and says, hey, what are you doing??? I cant help it, i love that butt! anyway, we slowly got up and got packed and ready for Indy. We left around 11 and drove straight to this little shopping area, and met our friend Adam for lunch. It was one of those upscale outdoor shopping places so we had just the best time sitting outside and eating and walking around looking at everything, it was just such a gorgeous day. After that we ran some other errands and then headed to our friend Rhetts house to get ready for the big night. We all got our fancy stuff on and headed to eat dinner. We ate at this really yummy italian place and then went and picked up our friend Aaron and his sister to head to the Conseco Field House in indy for the Heartland Film Festival!!! Please excuse my husbands ridiculous stance and smile in the pic, he is quite the nut!


We got downtown to the fieldhouse and went in and it was decorated really pretty. We went into the actual stadium and sat on the front row. It was so neat, I felt so special. Anyway, basically what this festival does is it awards film makers who have made inspiring or emotional type movies money in order to make more. We saw a lot of movies that have been released or will be. The films were often times hilarious because there was actually a story about a lady who loved Nuts and it was the story of her life. Then there were some like that movie coming out Dreamer, with Dakota Fanning, that were just movies maybe based on a true story. Anyway, it was interesting to see what these filmmakers had come up with. Afterwards there was a party outside in the lobby area and we had some snack type things and mingled. The only person there that we really got to see was Bill Paxton, ya know, the guy from Twister. haha! oh yea and Patricia Heaton, the wife in Everybody loves Raymond. Well, we headed back to Rhetts house and got all our stuff and said goodbye to the boys. They were so fun to play with all night, they make me laugh so hard. me and adam got really tired and started acting reallllly stupid. We always have so much fun!

So we got to Justins aunt and uncles house and went straight to bed. It was like 2 am and we had to get up the next morning for church and then get back to Cincinnati. We woke up and apparently Justins fam had left for church and wanted to eat with us when they got back so we just hung around the house til they got home and then me and his aunt made brunch! I made personlaized pancakes with everyone's initial! hehe, it was much appreciated! anyway, we had a good time with them and then had to head to Aarons to watch the Jaguar game, of course. Well, it was actually a very intense game, and I could not handle all the emotion, but in the end after and crazy overtime, the Jaguars won. Go Jaguars!

Well, we headed back into Cincinnati and headed to straight to Kyle and Jennys and the boys went and worked out and we watched Desperate Housewives. when the guys got back home we spent the rest of the evening laughing so hard we couldnt breath. I have so much fun with those kids! They are so funny and so full of love! Just what i like =)

It was good to get home and get in bed. I really just wanted to sleep a good nights sleep and o i did. I did however wake up to a freezing cold morning. Its nice, but it makes me not wanna get out of bed. Well, im off to run errands. hope everyone has a great weekend and has an awesome week!

the Jane Fonda Honda

I have yet to make an entry giving all those the insights into the car accident that was Tuesday. It really sucked, basically. For those of you who havnt been told the story, here is the jist.

I was driving to work, I was going through a construction zone where there are only two lanes and then they split back to four. I was in the right hand lane and the guy in front of my was sweerving to maybe or maybe not go around the city bus in front of him that was stopped. He then got back in the right hand lane and so I went around him because he was being retarded and then the left hand lane stopped suddenly and boom, there went my front end.

So, my neck still hurts, and the honda looks rough. Its gonna take $4300 to fix it all so thank the good Lord for insurance. Nobody else was hurt and the other car only had paint damage to the back bumper.

After learning of the expenses from this, like the ticket and the deductible and all, I decided the career hunt is over and the whatever I can get hunt has begun. I had my friend jenny come pick me up from the crime scene, shes a doll. We then went to target and I applied there. The next day I went to dillards and was offered a job in cosmetics, which Im really excited about! So I start there in two weeks. Im going to keep the other job since its only 12 hours a week, I can obviously work both. Im just really excited because now we wont be stressing over money, hopefully. ill be working about 35 at dillards and then the 12 at the gym, so its all good people! The stress is slowly fading! Well, since the wreck I have just been hanging out around the house. I also have been looking for a pretty dress to wear to this Film Festival Justin and I are going to tomorrow. i found a beautiful one at parisians yesterday and justin thinks it is o so sexy so im excited about wearing it with all the fancy people and my cute little husband in his suit! Anyway, I also get to meet Dakota Fanning at this thing, and im super excited about that as well!

Well, the muffins are done so Im off to get them out of the oven. have a great weekend everyone!

cinnamon rolls, friends, and jaguars

I seriously just had one of the greatest weekends since moving here. Thursday night me and Justin went and ate at Kyle and Jenny's and then headed to get some ice cream. AFterwards we met up with our bowling friend Darrell and we all went bowling. I just have so much fun with all of them! Kyle makes me laugh so stinkin hard that I want to pee my pants! Anyway, i ended up bowling really badly. The next day Justin got off work and came home...with a treat for me! The night before when we went to Graeters for ice cream i saw a cinnamon roll that looked soooo good and I said, "Justin I want that!" and he said, "You just ordered ice cream." So I said ok dad! Oh yes, you guessed it, the next day on his way home from work he went and got me that cinnamon roll and I ate it up and it was so yummy! He has just been so sweet lately I cant take it. He always ask me what I wanna do and where I wanna eat or go hang out, and last night everyone came over and when they left he cleaned up everything. He is just the sweetest boy!

Anyway, after my amazing cinnamon roll, there was a knock at the door. Kyle and Jenny had stopped by to bring me a card and some gerber daisies which are beautiful!!!! They are just such amazing people. I love that God gave justin and I the two coolest funnest sweetest people ever to start a new friendship with. They have only known us for a short time, but they give love to us as if we have been their friends forever. Its so cool because everyone knows how I felt when we first moved here and I just thank God for the blessing of this friendship. The card they gave me was just to encourage me and to say they were praying for my family and my sister. Its so cool that God can do that. He is the common ground on which we all have our foundation. Therefore, these people that we just met can encourage us and pray for my family who they dont know, because of the faith that we all share.

Well, after they left Justin went and got us a yummy pizza and we hung out at the house for a little while until the night of Dorks began. Apparently there is a professor at the Seminary who loves Halo2. This professor also happens to be Darrells' future father in law. So Darrell calls up Justin to play with them. We drive out there and this guy, who has a doctorate, is like five feet tall with white hair and glasses is sitting in his basement playing XBOX live. Justin and Darrell sit down and they all get hooked up playing the halo with like people all over the country and Im just sitting there thinking, you guys are losers. Its insane how sucked in they get. Well, we ended up not leaving til like 1 am and we came home to no toilet paper, so this was not the funnest night of the weekend.

Saturday came, and I love Saturdays! Justin and I just get to hang out allll day. Except Kyle called him and wanted him to help move a lady from the church into her new house. They were gone like alllll afternoon so Jenny and I hit up the mall! thats right, window shopping! I HATE BEING POOR! We had a good time just trying on clothes and looking at cute stuff, but it really can get depressing after a while when you have no money. Well we ate some lunch and then headed back home to find our husbands sitting in my living room playing hockey on XBOX. i really am going to throw it out the window one day. So, me and Jenny went to the store and bought some stuff to make enchiladas.

Our friend Rhett from Indy was in town on some sort of trip for the church he works for so he stopped in. Its always good to have friends from back home visit! HINT HINT!!!! We all ate the yummy enchiladas and then everyone left for the evening. Justin and I ended up getting in bed early and watching lots of friends episodes! I LOVE THOSE NIGHTS!

Sunday rolled around and we were soooo late for church. It was a good day thoughl. we ended up going yet again to the Dinclers house for a yummy lunch. Jenny can cook people. Then Justin and I came home and I definitly took a FOUR hour nap while he did homework. I woke up totally in a daze and we got ready for Refuel. Refuel is this once a month thing up at the church for all the youth kids. Justin had to play the bass for it so I went up to hang out and watch. Afterwards everyone headed to our house to watch the Bengals Jags game.

GO JAGUARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There were like 10 bengals fans and then me and Justin who were rooting for the jags. It was an emotional night, but it ended on a very good note, well, for us anyway. I also won like my first fantasy football game in a while. Which could be alluded to the fact that Jo forgot to replace one of her players who was on a BYE week, but I still would have kicked her butt anyway! Mwahahahha! well I just went running so I must shower off! have a great day everyone! i hope yours doesnt invovled peeing in a cup =)

glory baby

so I finally talked to my sister Beth today. She said everyone is just so incredibly sad that there are no words to describe how everyone feels. Leah and Dick came home from the hospital today and B said it was just so sad. The screen saver on the computer said "It's a Boy!' and the nursery was all ready for little Asher. I just feel awful for them. My heart is with them and my knees to the earth for them. I really dont like being so far away now. They still dont know what caused this or how his heart just stopped beating. They arent planning a service of any kind but they are burying him this week. B said that she had him natural delivery and they cleaned him off and bundled him up and let Leah and Dick hold him and be alone. I just cant imagine what was going on in that room. The emotions, the hurt, the questions, the wondering of what he would have been like. Im so incredibly heartbroken for her. My sister also told me that our other sister Rachael who just had a baby feels so much guilt. She just had Claire a month ago and feels awful being able to love her and take care of her and be with her. Having her newborn and yet Leah feeling robbed of something she created with her true love to enjoy, yet she has to bury him. Please continue to pray for my family in Florida, they are in so much pain right now. Please pray that they find peace and contentment, and maybe some joy soon.

the picture is the only one of Leah on my computer. Its a pic of the fam at the wedding, I promise no more wedding pics after this! Leah is the one on the left in a Pink shirt. Just thought Id put it in here.

"baby let sweet jesus hold you, til mom and dad can hold you...
you'll just have heaven before we do."

sad news

uh, today was such a good day. It was gorgeous outside, I was basically just pumped about life and so happy to be driving down the road to work. My mom had called me earlier today and so I returned her call. She asked me to call her once I got to work and I was confused as to why she wanted me to call her once I got here. I asked her about my sister, Leah, and her baby because I knew today was the day that Leah was having her little boy. She said she his hair was long and black and he weighed 9 pounds and 6 ounces and they decided to name his Asher Graham, so cute! Then she told me that he however had no heartbeat and was delivered this morning at 9:30 still born. I was in shock, I didnt know what to do. I immediately wanted to turn my car around and go south to get back to Florida and just hug her. It breaks my heart. So much planning and anticipation and excitement all taken away by such an interuption. I can remember just touching her belly at my wedding and talking to him and at one of my showers her lying on the bed saying I gotta sit down he is going crazy in there. I just wish she could have had her little boy, she would have loved him so much. I know Jesus gets to hold him first now and that is so cool. I cant wait to meet my little nephew in heaven one day. Im sure he is really cool! Please pray for my sister and our family. We are all so heartbroken over this and heartbroken for her and Dick and Reagan.

the triple x church

"its not the darks fault for being dark, its the lights for not shining on it."

Church was awesome today, as usual. We are still on the series of Sex. today was xxxchurch day, and one of the two men who started xxxchurch.com was there to talk about it all. He explained to us how his friend Mike one day was taking a shower and God spoke to him and basically said, "porn." he said that Mike felt God drawing him to call up this friend of his, Craig, and start a ministry centered around helping out those with the problem of pornography. The story is really neat, and if you want you should check out the website, its actually titled the #1 Christian Porn Site. They started the ministry by traveling out to Vegas with their wives one year and setting up a booth at a porn show. They felt that porn wasnt something that people necessarily talked about when discussing their weaknesses, but that it was a very damaging thing to relationships, family, and souls. They wanted to create a space to learn how to deal with the addiction or desire to view porn and some where that people could talk about it, anonymously or not and get feed back from people who care and want to help them. It also has a thing that you can actually have all the websites you view sent to two people that are close to you that will help keep you accountable. I thought it was really neat that these men werent afraid to address this issue or openly talk about it, because it is an issue and needs to be dealt with. i think its awesome how God used these two men to start such an awesome ministry to help the struggling men and women out there who have been too ashamed to talk about porn or tell someone they are pornographic actors. As humans and christians we can be so judgemental and look at these people who take part in this and think, they are perverted, they have issues, blah blah...and these men looked at these porn stars and porn addicted people and thought, Jesus loves Porn Stars =) i thunk of this whole xxxchurch to be neat!