Board Games

Being young, married, and in college, Cale and I have forgone the luxury of owning a television. Life has been so busy and thanks to Hulu.com, we don't really feel like we're missing out. But due to this specific "lacking" we have discovered something that we enjoy even more: board games! And no, I do not mean Monopoly or The Game of Life. We are talking about colorful, challenging, and exciting strategy games like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Blokus. Friendships seem to blossom (and at times are challenged) over a board and cups of coffee.

I am very thankful for this season of life where Cale and I have the true luxury of genuine fellowship with family and friends. May we never be too busy or caught up in a show to play and talk and laugh and even compete with each other!

Rock of Ages

I know it's an old hymn, but it is fairly new to me.  We sang it at church tonight and that combined with the sweet testimonies of new believers in our church, I about cried my eyes out in thanksgiving and joy in the Gospel.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

Jesus saves. Jesus alone.
May our only boast forever be in who saves!

"Nothing gives the believer so much joy as fellowship with Christ. He has enjoyment...in the common mercies of life, he can be glad in God’s gifts and God’s works; but, in all these separately, yea, and in all of them added together, he doth not find such substantial delight as in the matchless person of his Lord Jesus."
-C.H. Spurgeon

Round Top, TX

Kettle corn, face painting, antiques, fall weather. Ahhh, time to go to Round Top!  As a child, my mom, Nana, and other important women in my life would let my sister, Jill, and me to tag along for a day trip to the Round Top Antique Festival.
What fond memories I have of those little trips!  The excitement of waking up early, making the Shipley's doughnut run and passing through all of the fun booths once there.  I'm pretty sure after one particular trip my mother swore she'd never let me get my face painted again.  (I was terrible about scratching off a $10 paint job after about thirty minutes of wearing it.)  

Our friends Zach and Mallory Troyer, who moved to Texas from Illinois, were told that going to Round Top was a cultural must here in the lone star state.  When Mallory asked if we would accompany them on this day trip, I played it cool.  "I'll have to check my calendar and get back to you, but we would love that," I said.  Inside I was doing a victory dance.  The child in me was so excited to relive some of the memories made so long ago.  We even drove through Shipley's for breakfast on the way.  But of course, trying to recreate a memory is like eating day old french fries.  They never taste quite as good and it would really be more enjoyable to make a new batch.

Yep, that was what this trip was for me: enjoying the new experience for what it was and having a blast creating new memories.  We actually drove to Warrenton, TX just outside of Round Top.  We walked through all sorts of booths that ranged from expensive home decor to impaled baby dolls that looked like they had been in the hands of the demented Sid from Toy Story.  Though I didn't see any face painters and somehow left without buying kettle corn, we still very much enjoyed the exhilaration of the cool and breezy, sunny day and each others company.  In the end, we left with little in our hands.  The Troyers bought a cool frame, and we walked away with a bag of buttons.

All of that being said, if and when we go again, here are two things we would do differently. 
1. Pack a lunch.  This way you can splurge on the fun snacks (like kettle corn or a funnel cake) without feeling guilty for already spending twenty plus dollars on lunch.
2. Go with a mission and a tape measure.  Cale and I had no idea what we were looking for, and though we saw some cool things, we would see things and think, "We like this, but what in the world would we do with it?"  Sometimes the best finds are discovered when you aren't expecting them, but in a festival as big as this, you need to narrow down your search and have a way of figuring out if it would fit in your house..

We didn't take a lot of photos, but here are a few from our fall outing. Thanks Troyers for a such a great day!

Cale amongst all of the knick-knacks.

 Mallory and I amongst all of the impaled dolls.  So weird. 

 Nearing the end of our first round of shopping. 

Sorry Zach, this is the only one we got of you!  Haha

Oh and here is a fun pic of the buttons Cale and I picked out.  No, I don't know what we'll use them for just yet.

Love Tap

This video reminds me of our story.

When I met Cale in the early fall of 2009, it was love at first sight - a shallow version of the term for sure, but nonetheless, I was captured by him.
While my heart yearned for him, he was busy pursuing other interests.  Fear of rejection shackled me for months, and while I longed for us to be friends, I also ran from him.  No joke, once I walked into a coffee shop, saw he was there, panicked, and walked right out.  "What if he knows I know he is a regular here and thinks that I am coming just to see him?" I illogically thought as I ran to the car.
But the cross, oh the sweet mercies bestowed upon me at the cross of Jesus, changed all of that.  Slowly over time the grace of God displaced fear with confidence and turned despair into joy.   I felt free to be myself and love people courageously as brothers and sisters.
Before the summer of 2010, a group of us (including Cale) went on a road trip to a conference called NEXT, and it was there that Cale became captured by me.  Shortly after that, we started dating, were engaged in a few months, and then married March of 2011.  What a crazy but wonderful year it has been!

Cale sent me this little video the other day in an email.  In it he said,

"Thanks for not letting love pass you by.  Who knows what would have happened had you not decided to come on the NEXT road trip with me.  I am so thankful that you are my wife!"

I hope this video brings a smile to your face and encourages you to love courageously.
-Jessie

Cale's Ride Home

This is how my husband rode home tonight.

I laughed the whole way.

"What is Cale sitting on?" you might ask... Well friends, if you've spent anytime hanging out at Cale's bachelor pad of sorts, you might have (by choice or because the nice couches were taken) sat on and may recognize the old futon that previously resided in his living room.  Once school let out for the summer and the other guys moved out, a few sweet girls moved in to the house Cale's dad owns.  As you can imagine the futon didn't quite fit with their "fung shui" and it was time to for it go.  One of Cale's old roommates will be taking it off of our hands at the end of the summer, but we felt it would be best to rid the girls of this beast as soon as possible.

I didn't think we would even fit half of it in the car, but of course, Cale managed to make it work.  We were not even out of the neighborhood when we realized that the back hatch was bouncing around like crazy. Worried that it would be hard on the car and lacking the rope necessary to tie down the hatch, Cale used the only thing he could think of to keep it down.

Himself.

(This isn't the first time Cale has jumped at the opportunity to ride in the back of a car to keep a piece of furniture down.  Once, as I was going to the grocery store before his parents came to town, I passed his dad's truck with Cale sitting on a couch we had just purchased).

It was slightly awkward for me at red lights when a car with two girls kept staring, Cale hammed it up by lifting the hatch a little and peeking out.  Then I started to see random flashes of light.

"Is someone taking pictures of you???" I cried.

"Yeah, I think so." He said calmly.  He just chuckled lightly and paid them no mind.

So now we've got an old futon in our spare room and a great story to go with it.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the many reasons I love my husband.

My Husband is a Carpenter

I didn't know this when I married him, but Cale can build things!  When he was in class one day, he drew up a sketch for an entertainment system/bookshelf to build from scratch for a blank wall in our apartment.  Once summer started, we spent several weekends at his old rent house so he could have plenty of room to build it.  At first I was slightly annoyed because I felt like it was taking away from our "time together," until it hit me that I could pout about it, or I could enjoy building with him.  I'm pretty sure after our first trip to Lowe's I was hooked - we had so much fun picking out trim, handles, paint, knickknacks etc. After weeks of hard work we are the proud owners of a super cool entertainment system; we  make a pretty good team, I think.

The following is a photo montage of the process.

 My handsome husband and his work of art.

My mom and sister came to College Station to help me paint it.  We had so much fun and knocked it out in no time!

 Cale checking out the painted product after he got home from work

 Cale had so many books!

 Adding the finishing touches :)

 Ta Da!

 (Frontal View)

As We Go

Cale and I have been married for over three months and life has been an amazing whirlwind ever since.  Marriage is a beautiful mess and so many things have happened, so many lessons learned, and not enough documenting, picture taking, etc has occurred.  We've been talking about making a blog for months now and the biggest hindrance to its creation was the title.

One night when I couldn't fall asleep, a series of thoughts entered my mind until the title came to me.  I woke up Cale to tell him, and he mumbled in response, "yeah... sounds good,"  and fell back asleep.

Life with Cale is more fast paced than I could have imagined - it seems we always have somewhere to be or a project to complete.  I love this about being married to him.  The Lord has taken this content-to-read-a-good-book kind of girl and yoked her with a passionate, energetic let's-try-something-new kind of guy, and since our first date I've never looked back (...well maybe a few times).

Recently, the Lord has been teaching us about what it means to live gospel centered missional lifestyles.  Our aim is not to go and make disciples, but as we go, to make disciples.  I'm sure that future posts will discuss in more detail what this means and how it looks as we, by God's grace, begin to live it out.

So as we go on with our daily life, as we go on our little adventures, as we go on with making disciples, we hope to slow down enough to share our life with you and one day look back and see how much we've grown and how gracious God has been to us.

Happy reading!

Sincerely,
Cale and Jessie