Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A Year in Review

January
-Moved from Postpartum to full-time (day shift!) position in Labor & Delivery; something I'd been working towards since graduating nursing school!!

February
-Celebrated Valentines day.... what can I say? February was pretty blah.

March
-Andrews Womens Hospital opens, marking the end of the "calm" days in L&D

April
-Visited San Antonio for the first time since moving to Texas with our fab friends Holly & Wade.
-Started blogging

May
-Spent a night in the Emergency room with Jordan after he was unable to keep food down for 3 days.
-Took a trip back home to Georgia to see my older sister get married.

June
-Turned a year older; celebrated Jordan's birthday too

July
-Celebrated our 2 year anniversary with a trip to San Diego, California
-Got my wisdom teeth pulled, the first of a very long battle with my teeth (still bothersome!!!)
-Finally put a name to the problem that had been plaguing my eyes for months; Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis. That was also a long, frustrating battle!

August
-Started the last year here @ seminary

September
-Made a second trip to San Antonio with my mom- her first trip anywhere outside of DFW (in Texas, that is...)
-Started running and set a goal to run a half marathon by February 2009. Mom's coming into town again and going to run the Cowtown with me.

October
-Made our first trip to the Texas State Fair and ate some country fried bacon. Yes I had indigestion for the next 4 days.
-Spent Halloween with Cameron & Ava, who dressed up as a pirate and cheerleader, respectively.

November
-Took a weekend vacation with some good friends to a Bed & Breakfast in East Texas and spent the entire weekend eating & scrapbooking.

December
-Took only the second trip to Georgia this year to celebrate Christmas with our family

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Pics from Houston

A new jacket & an iPhone? Santa was gooooood this year!

Cameron's breaking in his new scooter

Sweet Ava

Cameron is "helping" Ava open her present

Weird face... but I love my necklace

Cameron is helping mommy hand out everyone's presents... and then he'll help everyone open their presents too. 

Monday, December 29, 2008

The end of a (short) Era

After much consideration, I've deleted my work blog. 

There were several reasons why I did it, I'm sorry to those of you who were avid readers... and dont worry- the best of stories will still be told. I love my  job and will continue to talk about it as often as people let me. 

Dont even try and click on the old links... it's really gone. 

In other much more depressing news, It's back to the dentist again tomorrow. Man, I hate that place. I think my tongue is starting to improve some more- I am beginning to feel cold things again. It's really subtle, but it's there. I've checked with my dentist again and again about whether or not this is ever going to go away, and they've always reassured me that one day the numbness will wear off. One day. So it's off for a crown-lengthening tomorrow. I still am not totally convinced it's necessary, but I cant get a crown on until this is done and I'm SO DONE with the dentist. I just want to hurry up and finish and never go back. (Not really never...) And what's the worst? I broke a tooth (a different tooth, mind you.) a few weeks ago. I am so unlucky- and my stinky husband takes horrible care of his teeth and never has problems. I take really good care of my teeth and I cant seem to stay out of the dentist! Noooooo Fair.

Today's the first day since early this month that I haven't had anything to do. No work, no traveling, no errands to run, nothing. So what did I do?? I went shopping with Samantha. It was awesome- I even meant to run at some point today and didn't do that either. Shame on me. I'm proud to say I got some really good deals at American Eagle... sweaters for less than $10? That's pretty great! After looking around the Gap, I (for the first time in years and years) had a longing for a job there just to get the discount again. I even tried a few things on, which despite being super on sale were poorly fitting and thus, stayed on the racks. 

My poor hubby is feeling under the weather, and ladies out there, we all know how sick hubbies are.... so I'm off to force fluids and push pills!

Current Song: Love Story by Taylor Swift

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Clean!!

Our bags finally arrived today around 4pm!

After going for a quick run & cross training session, I hopped in the shower, brushed my teeth, etc. etc. etc.... it was so nice!  Praise Jesus for the little things!

Catch Up

So we're home from our trip to Georgia- 1 Christmas down, 1 to Go!

This recent trip has really got me thinking about a lot of things.

But before we dig into the most recent of revelations, it's back up time. Jordan's sent out somewhere around 20 resumes now to everywhere around the country. It's exciting to know that seminary is coming to a quick end. While I love it here and couldn't be more happy to take a job up the street and stay in Fort Worth forever, I received some well-needed & well-heeded advice from Mrs. Kaye Harmon, our sweet pastor's wife. Pastor Larry & Kaye have also been seminary kids and loved Fort Worth as well. So after I told her how bittersweet it would be to leave if we were called out of Texas and she said to me, "Well, Hollie, it is so easy to stay in a place where you are continually fed and surrounded by people who build you up. But you cant stay there getting fed forever, you have to get out and be the one who builds & feeds others. It may be bitter to leave, but it's sweet knowing you're doing what God's called you to do." What a simple, sweet, convicting message. I've always hoped that God would send us wherever we were needed, regardless of our feelings of the new place. I mean, at the start of this seminary journey, Fort Worth was not my ideal location. But over the years, I've grown to love this area, God has shown His faithfulness to me in a new way. Because I know how successful we've been here in Texas, I am not afraid to go another new place- I know God will provide & protect us. So we've finally started the job hunt process. And behold! We've already gotten a call.... from First Baptist Church in Roswell, New Mexico.

This trip to Augusta has been one of the best we've had since we moved to Texas, and shame on me, we brought the camera and it never came out of the suitcase. So good, infact that I can almost see myself coming back to Augusta to serve. For so long, with everything that's happened, Augusta has slowly dropped on my personal list of ministry locations. Blame it on failing friendships, hard times with my parents, missed opportunities. All in all, I was completely disinterested in coming back to Augusta to serve in ministry. However, I'm so encouraged by my most recent time there, I am seriously reconsidering what i think about going back to Augusta. Goodness knows, there are plenty of opportunities there now- and we have maintained a great network with West Acres. I cant really put my finger on what has changed- I can only assume that God's changed my heart a little. I see where He pulled me away from Augusta- kicking and screaming- to protect me and teach me the invaluable He is all I need lesson. So now, saying that I'm actually interested in coming back to Augusta may be a little wishy-washy, but I see it differently.

What's the one thing I still hate about Augusta?

Traffic.

There were several instances that I thought I would lose my religion riding around the city. Augusta is busting at the seams and it's no wonder the traffic is so bad as many of the major roadways have not been updated in many years. And in the other hand, so much construction is being done as well. There is no easy fix for this problem and I dont see it going away anytime soon.

I learned over the week how much more fun it is to run with another person!! My mom & I went out a few mornings and ran together- which was super fun! I'm thrilled to say I've conquered 6 miles now! It renewed my spirit and got me excited to run again. I'm determined to run today if I can ever finish this post.

Our trip home was a little short of ideal. Shame on me, I didnt go to work today as I was scheduled to, only because the day yesterday was completely exhausting. Our flight from Augusta to Atlanta was delayed almost 4 hours. Being that our layover in Atlanta was only 45 minutes to start with, the delay caused us to miss our connecting flight to Dallas/Fort Worth. We were re-routed and put on a different, much later plane to DFW. We didnt get into Atlanta until almost the time we would have originally been in Dallas! I fully believe now that the Atlanta airport is the 8th circle of Hell. We sat on the runway waiting to get into the gate as long as we were in the air on the way there. Being that we sat for so long, we were rushed to get to the next gate for our new connecting flight. Anyone who's been through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport knows that there is no such thing as "rushing." Since we missed our previous flight, it was imperative that we could get seats on this next flight. Thankfully, we'd talked to someone in Augusta about this and had some "temporary" seats set aside if we didnt make our originally scheduled connecting flight. So we immediately reboarded the plane, which didnt get off the ground until after 10pm. (Again, we spent close to 30 minutes waiting at the gate and taxi-ing) So we touch down in DFW around midnight, which is now 11:00 as DFW is in the central time zone. Too bad my body hasnt been in central zone. Did our bags make the connection? No. So we sat around the airport again for 30 minutes waiting and hoping our little red suitcases would come over the little bag claim hill.... with no success. So it's now 11:34 the next day, I have no deodorant, so I stink. I have no toothbrush, so my teeth have fuzz now. We didnt have pillows. I dont have any shampoo (Maybe I should invest in some travel size goodies now!). So after filing the claim with the baggage guys, we caught the bus back to where our car was parked and made our way home. We finally settled into our homey bed (it may be small, but it'll always be the place I can fall asleep fastest), and laid our heads on our decorative pillow sham inserts around 1am (2am Georgia time). What a nightmare. And our bags are still somewhere other than here. Yuck.

I got a few new books under my belt while I was away:

Recently finished:


Being a J&K+8 fan, my mommy was smart enough to include their new book in my stocking! It was a pretty easy read-- all in stream of consciousness which read just as Kate would say it. I was very surprised to learn how deep rooted their faith in Jesus is. Equally surprising was all the hardships they faced on a regular basis with the new babies. I had started to feel some animosity towards the family, feeling they use their publicity to get handouts and freebies. I couldnt understand why a well-meaning mother & father would willingly put their children in front of a camera 5 days a week. However, I feel like I gained a new perspective on the difficulties they face, and more so, who they look to for guidance in the difficult times- Jesus. It was refreshing, lighthearted, and a quick read.


Now Reading:


I've never read anything bad by Francine Rivers, but this book makes me nervous. I'm close to halfway finished and I cant help but keep reading. Maybe because it hits somewhere close to home. It's the story of a pastor and his crumbling family- falling apart under the misguided leadings of the husband/father/pastor. It's scarily real- something that I fear for my own family. A pastor's life is never his own and so frequently, the family bears the insult of this. Jordan and I have frequently talked about this, and he has so many great influences- men who are successfully able to balance their ministry and their family, that I hope this silent fear will never materialize.

I dont know what i'm reading next, but i'm up for suggestions!

Anyway. It never fails, we always run out of time while in Augusta. We got up early every morning and went to bed after 1 almost every night, and despite spending more time up than asleep, we still didnt make it to see everyone we wanted to see. And even the people we did see, were often shorted on time in order to make it to another place to see another person. I was only able to spend 2 hours with my sister! My sister!! I'm afraid people are often frustrated by our hurried time (maybe if we didnt spend so friggin long in traffic, we could fit in some more visits....) and we both hate having to spend an hour here and a half hour there. So I'm happy happy happy to announce that we ALREADY know when we'll be back in town!!! This is incredibly unusual, as normally we have no idea when we'll be able to come back into town. So can you believe we'll be back in March!??! Not only do we know for sure we'll be there by March 15, it's not 6 months past our last visit! Plus- I am thrilled to say we're coming for a wonderful purpose- my sweet husband is getting ordained at West Acres Baptist Church on Sunday, March 15. He'll officially be Rev. Jordan Mims. This is an incredibly exciting time in both our lives. I'm so proud of my wonderful husband and I am thrilled that he will finally achieve what he's been working towards for as long as I've known him. What would be considered the end of our time here will be just the beginning of what's to come.


Man, I'm really starting to smell... hurry up Delta.

Current Song: Just Dance by Lady Gaga

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Holidays = Stress

Yikes!!!

I've got so much to do before heading home next week- it's unreal. You'd think that having the last 6 days off from work would've provided me the time to get everything done and accounted for. And you'd be wrong.

What's worst? I work everyday except Sunday between now & next Thursday, which just happens to be the day we leave.... early!! So we're talking finishing the rest of my Christmas shopping between 7:30 and 9pm over the next few nights. Of course, the only people I have left to buy for are those who are hardest to buy for! I love- emphasize this-- LOVE giving gifts. I cant wait to see the faces of a few people whose gifts I'm really stoked about. I'd spend an obscene amount of money on people during Christmas if it weren't for those little things called bills. This is where my hubby keeps me in line- making budgets and being frugal is his specialty. I guess my own obsession with coming up with great gifts puts undue stress on me during the holidays. 

Aside from having lotsa gifts left to get, I gotta finish up my Christmas cards. I have forgotten over the past year how non-fun it is to dig up addresses and track down people you haven't spoken to since last year @ this time. I've still got a dozen or so cards left to address. I know one thing, I grossly underestimated the amount of cards I'd need to make this year. So, if you were expecting a card and didnt get one (or well, wont get one, as they are all still sitting on our coffee table), I'm sorry. Hindsight is 20/20. Maybe next year I'll make the list before I buy the supplies... what a concept. 

Despite all my whining and complaining, I am thrilled to be heading back to Augusta next week. Those of you who've been keeping up with my blog (or keeping up with previous year's worth of traveling), you'll know we haven't been back in Augusta since May. And even then, we were in town for Jenn's wedding, so we weren't able to do many of the things we usually do while at home. We haven't seen our West Acres family since last December! Surprising as it seems, I'm thankful that the Newman reunion will take place while we're in Augusta. Hello yellow rice  & orange fluff!! I dont think I've seen a lot of that side of my family since our wedding, so I'm thrilled to be able to catch up with those aunts, uncles and cousins. (For anyone who's planning on hitting us up for some visit time, the reunion is Saturday afternoon- so we are officially unavailable for those few hours!) 

I feel better now- a lot less yikes and a lot more happy holidays. How can anyone stay unhappy when there's so much to be thankful for? I gotta come to the realization that the world doesnt revolve around me & my obsessive nature. From here out, I choose to have a better, less stressed attitude towards the holidays, nomatterhow overwhelming it may seem right now. 

Does anyone else feel the pressure of the holidays? 


Current song: Before the Throne of God Above by Shane & Shane
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