Moving into the Christmas Season

Well Christmas Season is upon us! I love it!

Thursday (Nov. 23) - John and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with his family (new extended family included - his dad's new wife's family). We had lunch at 1:00 at their new house and the kids all played together outside because it was beautiful weather. We left there after visiting and then went to my parent's house for dinner with my parent's, my sister and niece. After eating, we looked over all the ads for Black Friday and Andrea and I made our game plan.

Kerr/Rice Family Thanksgiving:

Our newest nephew - Grayson: Gillaspie Family Thanksgiving Dinner:

Andrea and Camryn - trying for a picture for their Christmas Card.

Friday (Nov. 24) - John worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Andrea, Camryn and I went shopping. We even took Momma's small SUV so that we could fit all our treasure's. First stop, Kohl's, who had the best deals, apparently...the lines were from the front of the store to the back. Since they were out of the Christmas tree they advertised...we left. 2nd stop, Circut City-out of the digital camera Andrea was looking for...we left quickly. 3rd stop, Dillard's to drop John's name badge off....success! We went to Old Navy and Camryn got a new outfit that will be cute, when it gets cold outside. There were a couple of more stops (Linen's and Things, Best Buy) that were a bust. Then we made it to Hobby Lobby....we both found things there that we needed for Christmas...I got a new tree and Andrea got lots of things to decorate her tree. After this we were tired and the Hogs were playing at 1:30 p.m. We had lunch and went home! I did start decorating and cleaning our apartment. Finished it up on Saturday. Pictures posted below.

As you can see we had fun on our Thanksgiving Break! Now it is time to concentrate on Christmas!

Reflecting over this past year

As I think about this past year there are many things that I am so thankful for, but for now I will list the main three things I am thankful for. These are the three that have continually played over and over in this past year in our lives.

1. I am so thankful that the Lord can break the shackles of bondage on a person's life.
2. I am so thankful for JEHOVAH JIREH - God my Provider
3. I am so thankful for family and friends who care so much and hold you up in prayer when you feel like everything is falling apart.

This past year has been a year of new beginnings for me and John. We have had the chance to become best friends again. As we enter this time of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am excited to spend it with family and friends.

I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us this next year!

National Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

Most of you may not be aware that November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. In August of 2005 my mother-in-law lost her battle with Pancreatic Cancer. This is a terrible disease because most of the time it is not caught until the cancer has spread to other organs.

My brother-in-law has done a lot of research to find out what research is being done for pancreatic cancer. There is not a lot but he did find Pancreatic Cancer Action Network that puts their funds to good use in searching for a cure/earlier detection of Pancreatic Cancer. If you feel that you can give even a little bit to help us raise the $2,000 goal, please do so!
http://www.firstgiving.com/annkerr

Also, here is the link to the PanCAN website:
http://www.pancan.org/index.html

It is during the holiday time that I really miss my Mother-in-law! She was always so excited to get all her family together at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since she loved Christmas time so much, she always liked to come over after I got all my Christmas decorations up and see what I had done. She would go on-and-on about how I had everything decorated so pretty. Even though she always said it (and frankly, got on my nerves sometimes), I now just wish she were here to say it to me again.
Always treasure the time you have with family. Don't waste time arguing and fighting...spend your time loving each other with all your heart! You never know when you might not get to tell and show that person you love them.

A Few Pictures

You will probably not see as many pictures on here as those blogs of parents, but here are a few photos so you can see us recently:

This is John and I in front of the Grand Teton Mountain Range in Jackson, Wyoming. We were blessed enough to be able to go on this trip in May 2006 with John's middle brother's family (Keith, Janna, Kristi, Zak, Lauren and Grayson (in utero)) and his dad (Bobby). We had a great time.

Here is a picture of our "child" Gus. We adopted him from Faulkner County Humane Society in February 2004. I picked him out and John was totally against it, but now...Gus and John are attached at the hip...literally...Gus makes John share is recliner and Gus lays right beside John...I'll see if I can get a picture of that soon.

Might as well join in the Fun!

Well it seems this is the new way of communicating to family and friends the going's-on in our lives. So I thought I would give it a try.

So far I am enjoying my new position at work. I am training so I spend a lot of my day reading and trying to get a grip on the new lingo and acronyms involved in this job. I'm thinking that although I enjoyed the Basic Statistics class in college (because it was a lot like Algebra) I might be getting a Statistics for Dummies book soon to help understand some of the aspects of my job.

John started working at Dillard's last week in the Housewares department. He really likes it and even made the choice to work on this day off to help us out in the finance department.

Yesterday during the day I worked with my headphones on listening to Christian music. I forgot how much I enjoy doing that...I used to do it all the time when I worked in Claims, but my jobs since then have not afforded me that luxury. Anyway, yesterday was slower, so I listened to Shane and Shane. I do not know how many times I listened to their song "Yearn" but it struck a cord with me and I want you to be able to see the words to this song:

"Yearn"
Holy design
This place in time
that I might seek and find my God
My God

Lord I want to yearn for You
I want to burn with passion
Over You and only You
Lord I want to yearn

Your joy is mine
Yet why am I fine
With all my singing and bringing grain
In light of Him (Chorus)

Oh You give life and breath
(through Him You give all things)
In Him we live and move that's why I sing

(Acts 17:25-28, Hebrews 12:28-29)

I hope this is your heart cry as well.