Getting Ready for KENYA!!!!

Hello to all, I've been kinda busy lately with the new job :). Sorry I've been slacking with updating our blog. I really have a lot more pics still I want to add, but I've already procrastinated enough today. I'm off work today because of snow!! HOW NICE! And I really need to start packing and getting all my paperwork finished for my job. Things have been going really well. Aaron has finished another block of school, Praise the Lord. We are both really excited to be able to go on this trip together. God has provided all the money we needed to go and more! He is so faithful and good to us! We have been so blessed to see God providing for our every need. It's funny how things seem to go from "slow and boring" to "fast and crazy" in such a short amount of time!! Just a few weeks ago, I was bored silly with nothing to do. And now, my mind and body are trying to adjust to having a whole lot of things to do. It is so hard for me to keep my eyes on Jesus everyday and not stress about when I'm going to get things done or even how. It is a daily decision that I have to make to trust God with enabling me and helping me to get things done. It's funny the things I worry about and don't worry about. It seems like huge things I trust God for, but the little things, for some reason, I think I'm suppose to be in control of. Anyway, enough about all that. The point is that I'm a work in progress and I'm praying that God will make me more like Jesus everyday, even in all the little things.
A friend of mine sent me this verse and I pass it along to you....

"Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word." 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Super Bowl Party!!

Our friends KJ & Michelle had a Super Bowl Party at thier apartment complex. Michelle is a huge Steelers fan, so it turned out to be a great night! The fellowship was great too! We are blessed to have such good friends. Here is a random picture I asked Aaron to pose for........he really did have a good time!
There was a lot of team spirit here...this is a pic of Michelle after her team scored a TD!! To the left of Michelle is our pastor, Matthew Kirkland, and his son, Mac(short for Mackiah, I think I probably spelled that wrong).
Here is our pastor's wife, Heather, and Mac, and Tiffany, Derek's wife.
This is Tank!! He belongs to KJ and Michelle. KJ actually made him a jersey, which you can see he is growing out of :). He was great entertainment as always!

More pics of family

I can't believe I didn't include any pics of our cute nephew Gavin, which is Caryss' little brother. He is a cutie!! We miss all of them very much!

Caryss' Birthday Party

Thank Goodness it's Friday!! I can't believe we will be on our way to Kenya two weeks from today! I've been so consumed with my new job this week that I haven't thought about our trip very much. Anyway, Aaron and I are watching some Olympic stuff on TV and going to watch an episode of "Lost" on his computer later. So, here are some more pics of Caryss' party.........
Caryss and her mom, Laura. Laura does a great job taking care of her two cuties!
I think this might have been Caryss' favorite present......her Dora Jeep!!
Caryss opening present after present after present..........lots of fun stuff!
"Pucker up!"---Caryss giving her dad some sugar
Mmmmmm good, Caryss enjoying her birthday cake

Caryss' 2nd Birthday Party!!

Well, I must say this has been an exhausting week. It is going to take a little bit of time getting adjusted to waking up so early. As any of you who know me would understand because I am not an early bird! I am anxious to meet my two students tomorrow and be in my classroom all day.

So here are some pics of Caryss' 2nd birthday party. It was a Dora Birthday Party, Caryss' favorite person. She seemed a little overwhelmed by all the people at first, but eventually was able to enjoy herself.

Here are some pics of Caryss blowing bubbles and of her waiting patiently to eat her Dora birthday cake.



Here is a pic of Daniel, Clint, and Aaron. (Aaron's brothers).

Visiting Family in Tennessee

YES!!! I was successful in downloading pictures tonight! These are pics from our visit to TN on Jan. 27-29. We spent some time with both of our families and I will be including pics from Caryss' Birthday party next. But for now, here are some great pics of my family, mainly my nephew because he is the cutest! He likes to roar like a lion, read books, dance to music(like his aunt & uncle), and turn the tv on and off :) . Oh, and of course, he loves to eat......anything. He chugs a big glass of milk every morning. He's a growing boy for sure!! Carla and I were able to spend some more time working on his scrapbook, which is coming along great!

During this trip, Colton actually made some sounds that sounded like "Sonya", but really "Nanya". I was pretty excited!
Me and Colton decided to go outside and swing for awhile. He enjoys that too.
Colton talks on the phone more than I do. If someone calls, he insists on talking to them no matter who it is. He has actually pushed the redial button and called me on his own :). Proud Momma & Daddy! What a happy family! This is my sister, Carla, and my brother-in-law Scott. They do a great job.

Well, just to let you know my job is going good so far. I went to my school for the first time today. It takes about 45 minutes to get there, but it is a beautiful drive through the mountains on a 4-lane highway most of the time. I observed a Kindergarten class today and will observe 2nd grade tomorrow. Then on Friday I will be in my classroom, 3rd grade and will meet my 2 students!! Say a prayer for me learning and adjusting to this new position. I am so thankful for this job and I pray that God will use me to be a Light to my students and co-workers. I know He has put me in this position for a purpose. I am also praying about and working on not worrying about things like how I will know what to do or how I will do all the paperwork. It is a daily choice that I need to make to lay it down at Jesus' feet and trust Him to provide for what I need. I know that when I am stressed and feel burdened and weighed down that I am not resting in Him. Aaron reminded me of God's word, which says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take MY YOKE upon you and LEARN from ME, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30 and of course in Matthew 6:25-34, I love these verses. I pray that God would use these verses to help you not to worry about things, but to "seek FIRST His Kingdom and His righteousness, so that all these things will be added unto you."

Update- Lots of News!

Hello everyone! We have lots of praises to share and lots of pictures also. Unfortunately, our computer is not wanting to cooperate with our camera and the pics are not downloading. So...keep checking, I have lots to add. Our first praise is that I have a job!!!!!! A full-time job in my field!! Today was actually my first day, but all I did was watch orientation videos and read through manuals and notebooks. I will be a third grade counselor in Giles County. I'm actually working for Family Preservation Services, which is a private agency that works with the school. I will have between 3 - 6 kids usually, but I'm just starting out with 2. I actually go to the school on Wed. to start observing and then I will be in my classroom on Friday!!!! WOW! I'm a little nervouse, please pray for me! I'm excited to see what God has planned for me in this job.
More good news and an answered prayer is that we have raised all $6,000 dollars for our Kenya trip, thanks to God providing lots of "cheerful givers". We are very excited about this opportunity to go and share the Good News and also provide medical care (Aaron, not me :)).
Aaron is doing well in school, but is looking forward to a break. Please pray that God would prepare us for this mission trip. Well, I think I'm going to head to bed now. I'm quite frustrated that I couldn't download pics of my cute nephews and niece, and our super bowl pary!! hopefully soon! Goodnight!

Weekend Highlights

Well, it's Monday night and I'm bored and I really like to write on my blog! Sometimes I just don't have anything to write about, or at least anything "exciting". So just thought I'd share about our weekend. Friday night we spent a couple of hours sitting in front of the tv trying to decide "what to do"...... we only get NBC and CBS and Fox and maybe some weird station. Needless to say, there is hardly ever anything good on tv to watch. FINALLY, we were rescued by a surprise visit from our friends KJ & Michelle, and Aubrie & Jason. Aparently they couldn't find anything fun to do either. After we all put our heads together, we decided it would be a good night for "Spoons!". YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most of you probably don't know this, but I developed a little bit of a reputation for being aggressive when it comes to playing spoons. So we played for a while and had a lot of fun, but still weren't satisfied with our evening plan. Someone mentioned Karaoke and all agreed that was a great idea. Unfortunately, when we got to the restaurant it was standing room only. And we were the only people not smoking or drinking. It was a big disappointment after experiencing Big Mama's Karaoke Cafe in Knoxville. After a few minutes I volunteered to ask the door man for our money back since we couldn't find a seat. Now it's about 10:30 and we are working on Plan C for the night, which was to come back to our house and have our own karaoke contest. We passed around the hairbrush (aka microphone) and listened to all kinds of music.....Vanilla Ice, Kenny Chesney, Arethra Franklin(my favorite), and many more. It was a lot of fun just being crazy and silly.
So that was our Friday night adventure, and then Sat night Aaron and I just watched a movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", believe it or not, neither one of us had seen it before. It was an ok movie. I didn't quite understand the ending, but a lot of good action scenes. We were also able to have our neighbor, Brenda, over to eat dinner with us. This was an answered prayer because I had been praying really hard that day that God would open up a way for me to talk to her and just befriend her. I was so excited when I drove up my driveway that afternoon and she was standing in her backyard letting her dog out. That is about the only time I see her so I know it was a divine meeting. I've been inviting her to go to church with us, but she doesn't really seem interested in joining us. I pray that God would give her a hunger for Him and for fellowship with other believers. She told me she used to go to church and teach Sunday School, but hasn't been involved for a while now. It is hard to know how to reach out to her, but I just keep praying that God will open doors.
OK...well, yes, I should stop now. Hopefully I will have news about my job tomorrow. Oh, and Praise the Lord, God is faithfully providing the funds that we need to go to Kenya. I'm just praying that I will still be able to go even if I get this job. Goodnight.

Welcome to our home!

Welcome to our home in Virginia!! This is our half of the duplex we live in. We love our garage, but our driveway can be a pit of a hassle when it snows.We are very fortunate to get to watch the sunset over our field next to our house. I LOVE sunsets, so you will probably see many more. I really think we have one of the best views in Christiansburg right from our front door.
This is the "field" that is next door to us. I really like it because it reminds me of home. Sometimes there are cattle grazing there too.And this is where Aaron puts in the long hours in front of his laptop. He's spends the majority of his time in his office when he is at home. We are very thankful to his old co-worker, Julie, who gave us this desk! It fits perfect in our office.
More pics on the way! I'm going to give you a virtual tour of our home!!

We have a camera!

Just wanted to say that we finally received our digital camera in the mail today. So hopefully I will educate myself on how to become a great photographer tomorrow. I would really love to be able to take pictures of couples, babies, families, whoever just for fun, and to help them make good scrapbooks. So, just let me know who wants to be my guinea pigs :) . I know I have some super cute nephews and niece that would work great! Anyway, it's been a pretty uneventful day. Days are so long when you don't have a job, but hopefully that will be changing soon. Tonight I made some chocolate eclaire stuff, with pudding and graham crackers. It was a substitue birthday cake for my friend, Aubrie. Today was her birthday and all our husbands have a test tomorrow. So we hung out together and looked at each other's wedding pictures (good girly stuff). We are really blessed to have found such great Christian friends so soon here.

I'm so proud of Aaron, he studies so hard, and it is unbelievable how much they expect them to learn in such a short amount of time. I know he would much rather be watching tv or hanging out friends, or even helping me clean the house. But God just keeps enabling him, and encouraging him, and teaching him how to become a great doctor. Tomorrow is his last test for this week, so that is good. His brain needs a little rest. Well, I guess I'll go now. Be looking for some pictures coming soon!! Goodnight

It's Sunday afternoon here in VA. Praise the Lord we haven't blown away in these winds between 30 - 60 mph the past couple of days. I just prayed that God would not let any trees fall on our house! and so far so good :) My interview this past Friday went well, I'm suppose to find out something hopefully by Monday Jan. 23. I'm so glad that God is in control of this, but it's still hard to wait, not knowing. IF I don't get this job, I think I might start selling Mary Kay. There are a lot of perks with it if you can really get into it and get a lot of customers. That would be the hard part here since I don't know many people. But at the same time, I think it would be a great tool to use to meet new people and build relationships. So......who knows. Aaron is studying hard today for an Anatomy test which is tomorrow. Then he has a Physiology test on Wed., it will be a hard week for him.
I did get to see two movies this weekend that I hadn't seen before. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "The Notebook". Both were really good. I think The Notebook was my favorite though. Everyone told us we would be crying our eyes out, but it actually wasn't that bad. The only bad part to both movies is the whole "sex before marriage" part. I REALLY wish they could just leave that out and it would be a lot better!! and I might consider purchasing it. But, oh well.

Aaron and I are waiting to get our digital camera...it was suppose to come Sat. but apparently something is messed up in the shipping. I'm so anxious to post pictures on here!!

have a good week

Good News

First of all, I would like to share what a great day I had Monday. I was praying that morning about my job situation or lack of job situation, and I just earnestly told God that I needed to hear something from Him that day, some kind of encouragement or guidance as to what I'm suppose to be doing. Around lunch time, I received a phone call to set up a job interview for this Friday!! I WAS SOOOOO Excited!! It was a direct answered prayer from God. Even if this job doesn't work out, it was just so nice to be reminded that God hears my every word and He knows my every need. Don't be afraid to let God know how much you need Him today. I'm sure He loves it!

Hanging out in Virginia

Hey everyone, we just wanted to keep you all updated on what's going on with the Jones'. Right now we are living in Christiansburg, VA. It is a really pretty place and we have a nice view of the mountains. Aaron is working hard in medical school, VCOM, and i am looking for a job, as always. :) We have bought a home here, which was a huge answered prayer, and we love it. We are planning on getting a digital camera soon with our Christmas money and I will post some pics for you all to see then. Christmas was good. We spent a week in TN with our families. We always love to play with our niece and nephews.(Caryss, Gavin, and Colton) I was excited to get to work on my nephew, Colton's first scrapbook. It was a lot of fun and i look forward to doing some more sometime. i wish i could get a job scrapbooking for people, now that would be a cool job. anyway, we were very excited that all the snow and ice had melted when we returned to VA last weekend. I could write a lot more, but i need to figure out how this blogspot thing works first.

Oh, and i almost forgot to say that we are going on a medical mission trip to Kenya on Feb. 24th for a week with aaron's med school. we are very excited about this opportunity and are already seeing how God is going to provide for all our needs for this trip.

Hope you all have a great day tomorrow at church. we are very thankful to have found a church home here in VA that is excited and sincere about serving, worshipping, and pleasing God. oh, and if any of you all would like to hear some good sermons, i recommend going to www.fbcpowell.org and check out any of Pastor Phil's sermons (aka Aaron's Dad, my father-in-law, who i never know what name to call:)) anyway, just click on "broadcasts" then "audio". you can even download them to your ipod.

well, time for dinner. bye