{ la vita è bella }

Doubt not His grace.

2011-01-06T10:13:00.002-06:00

O child of suffering, be thou patient;

God has not passed thee over in His providence.

He who is the feeder of sparrows,

will also furnish you with what you need.

Sit not down in despair; hope on, hope ever.

Take up the arms of faith against a sea of trouble,

and your opposition shall yet end your distresses.

There is One who careth for you.

His eye is fixed on you,

His heart beats with pity for your woe,

and his hand omnipotent shall yet bring you the needed help.

The darkest cloud shall scatter itself in showers of mercy.

The blackest gloom shall give place to the morning.

He, if thou art one of His family,

will bind up thy wounds, and heal thy broken heart.

Doubt not His grace because of thy tribulation,

but believe that He loveth thee as much in seasons of trouble as in times of happiness.

What a serene and quiet life might you lead

if you would leave providing to the God of providence!

With a little oil in the cruse,

and a handful of meal in the barrel,

Elijah outlived the famine,

and you will do the same.

If God cares for you, why need you care too?

Can you trust Him for your soul, and not for your body?

He has never refused to bear your burdens,

He has never fainted under their weight.

Come, then, soul!

have done with fretful care,

and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God.

[c.h. spurgeon]

2 mysteries.

2010-12-26T18:11:00.005-06:00

"Here are two mysteries

for the price of one--the plurality of persons within the unity of God,

and

the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus.

It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas,

that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie.

"The Word became flesh";

God became man;

the divine Son became a Jew;

the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby,

unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises,

needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk

like any other child.

And there was no illusion or deception in this:

the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality.

the more you think about it, the more staggering it gets.

Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is

this truth of the Incarnation."

[knowing God.] --j.i. packer

-j. shae

{I will find rest}

2010-12-21T20:58:00.003-06:00

"God is God.

Because he is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience.

I will find rest

nowhere

but in His holy will

that is

u n s p e a k a b l y

beyond

my largest notions

of what

is up to."

[elisabeth elliot]

Sometimes I wonder...

2010-12-16T00:36:00.004-06:00

"Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life - well, valuable, but small - and sometimes I wonder,

do I do it because I like it, or because

I haven't been brave?

So much of what I see reminds me of something

I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?

I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the

v o i d.

So good night, dear void."

{Kathleen Kelly}

-j. shae

hope.

2010-12-09T15:23:00.004-06:00

Hope can be such a precariously happy thing.

You never know when the curtain will be

pulled away and you'll see

what you were hoping in

for what it actually is, a total sham.

[unless]

My hope is firmly attached to the

One thing or Person

that will never prove to be less than I was hoping,

but in fact will always be better

than anything I could ever ask or think.

That is, the personhood of

Jesus Christ.

["Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think...to Him be glory" -eph. 3:20,21]

-j. shae

"For He who is the ground of thy faith..."

2010-12-01T22:47:00.003-06:00

So very very encouraged by this Puritan prayer I read tonight before bed...

[Remember] O my soul,

It is thy duty & privilege to

rejoice in God:

He requires it of thee for all his favours of grace.

Rejoice then in the Giver & his goodness,

Be happy in him, O my heart, & in nothing

but God,

for whatever a man trusts in,

from that he expects happiness.

He who is the ground of thy faith

should be the substance of thy

joy.

Whence then comes heaviness & dejection,

when joy is sown in thee,

promised by the Father,

bestowed by the Son,

inwrought by the Holy Spirit,

thine by grace,

thy birthright in believing?

Art thou seeking to rejoice in thyself

from an evil motive of pride & self-reputation?

Thou hast nothing of thine own but sin,

nothing to move God to be gracious

or to continue his grace towards thee.

If thou forget this thou wilt lose thy joy.

Art thou grieving under a sense of indwelling sin?

Let godly sorrow work repentance,

as the true spirit which the Lord blesses,

& which creates fullest joy;

Sorrow for self opens rejoicing in God,

Self-loathing draws down divine delights.

Hast thou sought joys in some creature comfort?

Look not below God for happiness;

fall not asleep in Delilah’s lap.

Let God be

[all in all]

to thee,

& joy in the fountain that is always full.

- j. shae

Not my own

2010-06-23T21:50:00.003-05:00

"Know ye not . . . that ye are not your own?"

"Most of us fall and collapse at the first grip of pain; we sit down on the threshold of God's purpose and die away of self pity and all so called Christian sympathy will aid us to our death bed.

But God will not.

He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, and says-- 'Enter into the fellowship with me, arise and shine.' If through a broken heart God can bring to pass His purposes in the world then thank him for breaking your heart."

--Oswald Chambers

Trusting God: even when life hurts

2010-04-22T12:54:00.003-05:00

I'm ready Jerry Bridges book; "Trusting God: Even when life hurts" right now and while reading yesterday this paragraph jumped out and grabbed me . . .

"No plan of God's can be thwarted; when He acts, no one can reverse it; no one can hold back His hand or bring Him to account for His actions. God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, and works out every event to bring about the accomplishment of His will. Such a bare unqualified statement of the sovereignty of God would terrify us if that were all we knew about God. But God is not only sovereign, He is perfect in love and infinite in wisdom."

If I really allowed that truth to rest in my heart how much easier I would make things on myself.

". . .He is perfect in love and infinite in wisdom."

-j.shae

waiting.

2010-03-23T22:14:00.003-05:00

"Mr. Quick, I am a human being. Do you know what that means? It means I set a price on myself, a high high price. You may be surprised to know it, but I've got quite a lot to give. I've got things I have been saving up my whole life, things like love and understanding and, and jokes and good times and good cooking. I'm prepared to be the Queen of Sheba for some lucky man, or at the very least the best wife that any man could hope for. Now that's my human history, and it's not gonna be bought and sold, and it's certainly not gonna be given away to any passing stranger. . ." -Clara Varner

-j. shae

I was just really excited about the cows...

2010-03-07T14:59:00.005-06:00

I found this video today that I forgot I had taken a couple weeks ago when I was in Denver. We were on our way to the stock show and rodeo . . . and I was seriously SO pumped about it. I had not been to the rodeo since I was, mmmm, about 3? And I was ecstatic to be going, and with some of my best friends too! This was a very happy happy day in the life of Jessica :)

P.S. So sorry about my random opratic screech midway through . . . I really have no clue what that was about. Thinking about all those farm animals just does that to me I guess.

-j. shae

Now that you mention it . . .

2010-03-01T09:48:00.002-06:00

I saw this on a t-shirt yesterday:

Goodness, yes now that you mention it, I have! ;)

-j. shae

"I don't know how to say goodbye . . ."

2010-02-24T00:14:00.003-06:00

Princess Ann: I have to leave you now. I'm going to that corner there and turning. You must stay in the car and drive away. Promise not to watch me go beyond the corner. Just drive away and leave me as I leave you.

Joe Bradley: All right

Princess Ann: I don't know how to say goodbye. I can't think of any words.

Joe Bradley: Don't try.

Passing it on

2010-02-20T16:34:00.002-06:00

Read this today and was struck by the simplistic truth of it.

". . .If you have any capability whatsoever--a skill, knowledge, or a talent--and you are not actively passing it on, then you are actively contributing to its demise."

-J. Holton

What am I failing to pass on to others?

-j. shae

"Yet it hath a better side..."

2010-02-08T12:58:00.004-06:00

There are days, moments, places in life where Jesus gives me no option but to rush to him and ask that he cover my hurts, ease my bewilderment, and hold me tight because I am so overwhelmed by confusion with what He is doing in my life. Oh how grateful I am for a living, intimately real, loving Father in Heaven who know's all things, and works EVERYTHING out for my good.

Today I find encouragement in these thoughts:

"God often takes a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He brings a death upon our feelings, wishes, and prospects when He is about to give us the desires of our heart."
~ John Newton

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Joy is not gush: joy is not jolliness. Joy is simply perfect acquiescence in God's will, because the soul delights itself in God himself...rejoice in the will of God, and in nothing else. Bow down your heads and your hearts before God, and let the will, the blessed will of God, be done."
~Amy Carmichael

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
-Psalm 73:25-26

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"How beit your faith sees but the black side of Providence, yet it hath a better side, and God shall let you see it. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God; hence I infer that losses, disappointments, ill tongues, loss of friends, houses or country, are God's workmen, set on work to work out good to you, out of everything that befalleth you. When the Lord's blessed will bloweth cross your desires, it is best, in humility, to strike sail to Him, and to be willing to be led anyway our Lord pleaseth."
- Samuel Rutherford

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then, with my waking thoughts bright with thy praise,
out of my stony griefs Bethel I'll raise;
so by my woes to be
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!

And so I trust Him.

Jessica

The same spirit as the wise men...

2009-12-22T16:55:00.001-06:00

"Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space."

~Dave Barry

This made me laugh so much. I do NOT enjoy last minute Christmas shopping and yet it seems that this year it is what I am forced to do.

Merry Christmas to you all!

jessica s.

"...this has always been enough."

2009-12-10T13:51:00.004-06:00

"I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts,

and I've led a common life.

There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten.

But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived:

I've loved another with all my heart and soul;

and to me,

this has always been enough. "

-Noah

Doesn't that just make your heart happy?

Much Love,

-jessica s.

{11.29.09}

2009-11-30T21:33:00.006-06:00

Tonight I came home from running errands and dropping my little brother off at basketball practice to find a house empty of people. Now for any of you that are from a big family, you know how rare this is. Apparently my family all went to my little sister's soccer game (we like sports in this family...can you tell?:) leaving me at home all.by.myself.tonight.

I was pretty excited. Not because I don't like being around my family, but because it is really nice to have alone time every now and then. So, what did I do? Well first, I posted a status about it, asking you all for ideas on how I should spend these few rare moments alone. After reading the little (very little) bit of feedback I got, I decided I was on my own when it came to my evening planning...so here's what I came up with:

I turned on Christmas Music
I lit all my new "Christmas scented candles" in my room
I ate popcorn and hot chocolate for dinner. Very nutritional, I know.
I wrapped Christmas presents.
I did a load of laundry (ARE YOU READING THIS MOM?? I DID A LOAD OF LAUNDRY. Proof that I do work around here. So how cares that we all have rainbow colored socks now? At least they're clean:)
I finished up the last bit of work on a client package.
I got %67 of my packing done
Packing for what, you ask? O my, did I forget to tell you that I AM GOING TO DENVER IN APPROXIMATELY 33 HOURS?!?!?
Because I am. Yessir-ee Bob I am. And I think, I might just be excited about that. Let me check. O YES, I definitely am :) And I get to be there for 12 whole days. With my Krista BFF no less...and a host of other awesome friends :) And take pictures of awesome people. And meet awesome photog's. Yeah, this is one h.a.p.p.y girl right here :)
And I have no idea why I am bullet pointing my trip plans when I am supposed to be telling you about what I did tonight....O well.
I caught up on emails, well....kiiiinda caught up on emails. All the really urgent ones anyways :)
I chatted with my bro, the one that I haven't seen in 102 days and the one that I GET TO SEE IN 17 DAYS. Yes, that one.

Aren't you proud of how productive I was? I am happy. And as a friend said when I told them everything I had accomplished tonight, "isn't it just the best feeling when you have had a really productive day and you can look back and feel good about it?" Yessir-ee Bob it is :)

And a lovely evening was had by all. . .

Much Love,
jessica shae

P.S. For anyone who was worrying, I didn't really turn all of our socks rainbow colored. Honest I didn't... :)

P.P.S. The picture at the top was taken last week at Thanksgiving dinner. Isn't my fam amazing looking?!? Except we are missing Ben, you know...the brother I haven't seen in 102 days, but I get to see in . . . yeah yeah, you know all about that already :)

Remember, and give thanks.

2009-11-25T22:50:00.005-06:00

"Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name."

Psalm 97:12

This is what it is all about. This is the bottom line, the foundation of this holiday. Giving thanks because we remember what HE has done for us.

Much love,
jessica s.

I Like --> YOU:

2009-11-19T14:19:00.004-06:00

I like you and I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.

I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it’s special
And you remember it a long, long time.
You say, Remember when you told me something special
And both of us remember

When I think something is important
you think it’s important too
We have good ideas

When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I’m funny and you think I’m funny too
Hah-hah!

I like you because you know where I’m ticklish
And you don’t tickle me there except just a little tiny bit sometimes
But if you do, then I know where to tickle you too

You know how to be silly
That’s why I like you
Boy are you ever silly
I never met anybody sillier than me till I met you

I like you because you know when it’s time to stop being silly
Maybe day after tomorrow
Maybe never
Too late, it’s a quarter past silly

Sometimes we don’t say a word

We snurkle under fences
We spy secret places

If I am a goofus on the roofus hollering my head off
You are one too

If I pretend I am drowning, you pretend you are saving me

If I am getting ready to pop a paper bag,
then you are getting ready to jump

HOORAY

That’s because you really like me
You really like me, don’t you
And I really like you back
And you like me back and I like you back
And that’s the way we keep on going every day

If you go away, then I go away too
or if I stay home, you send me a postcard
You don’t just say Well see you around sometime, bye
I like you a lot because of that
If I go away, I send you a postcard too

And I like you because if we go away together
And if we are in Grand Central Station
And if I get lost
Then you are the one that is yelling for me

And I like you because when I am feeling sad
You don’t always cheer me up right away
Sometimes it is better to be sad
You can’t stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute
You want to think about things
It takes time

I like you because if I am mad at you
Then you are mad at me too
It’s awful when the other person isn’t
They are so nice and hoo-hoo you could just about punch them in the nose

I like you because if I think I am going to throw up
then you are really sorry
You don’t just pretend you are busy looking at the birdies and all that
You say, maybe it was something you ate
You say, the same thing happened to me one time
And the same thing did

If you find two four-leaf clovers, you give me one
If I find four, I give you two
If we only find three, we keep on looking
Sometimes we have good luck, and sometimes we don’t

If I break my arm, and if you break your arm too
Then it’s fun to have a broken arm
I tell you about mine, you tell me about yours
We are both sorry
We write our names and draw pictures
We show everybody and they wish they had a broken arm too

I like you because I don’t know why but
Everything that happens is nicer with you
I can’t remember when I didn’t like you
It must have been lonesome then
I like you because because because
I forget why I like you but I do
So many reasons

On the 4th of July I like you because it’s the 4th of July
On the fifth of July, I like you too
If you and I had some drums and some horns and some horses
If we had some hats and some flags and some fire engines
We could be a HOLIDAY
We could be a CELEBRATION
We could be a WHOLE PARADE

See what I mean?

Even if it was the 999th of July
Even if it was August
Even if it was way down at the bottom of November
Even if it was no place particular in January
I would go on choosing you

And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again

That’s how it would happen every time
I don’t know why
I guess I don’t know why I really like you

Why do I like you

I guess I just like you

I guess I just like you because I like you.

-Sandol Stoddard Warburg

Much Love,

jessica s.

sarah + jessica = bff

2009-11-13T20:49:00.008-06:00

When I was in California in September visiting one of my best friends Sarah, we had the opportunity to do a quick little shoot together. As a photographer, I am rarely the one in front of the camera, and it is something I regret alot. Not so much because I love having my picture taken (although my family might say that is exactly the reason ;P ) but it stems from the same reason that I love photography O-so-much. I love capturing memories. Taking a feeling, a relationship, a moment, a special occasion, and documenting that in a tangible way that will you can keep for forever. So, I hate that so often I am not in the picture. . .it almost feels like I am getting left out of the memory.

So when Lydia offered to take mine and Sarah's pictures I was so so excited, because who wouldn't want the opportunity to have fun in front of the camera with a best friend??? I was alllll for it :)

Thank you Lydia for taking these for us, they are pictures that I will cherish forever, that's for sure! :)

These next three make me laugh so hard every time i look at them :)

yep...she's def a bfffff ;)

I laugh all the time with her, like, aaaaall the time.

Love each and every one...

-jessica s.

All this nothing

2009-11-13T20:35:00.006-06:00

"I just want to say that all

this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings. . ."

-jessica s.

{ 10.28.09 }

2009-10-28T23:13:00.004-05:00

Tonight I got home after being in Louisiana for 4 days for my great grandmother's funeral.

I haven't finished unpacking from my trip.

I haven't done a full day's work in over a week.

My room is currently more messy than it has been in a long time. (Which in all reality isn't very messy because I am slightly obsessive compulsive about having even a slightly messy room, and therefore, keep it neat almost always) So now I'm not sure if I will be able to sleep with it looking like this.

I am confused by circumstances God has allowed into my life, but resting in the knowledge that He makes all things beautiful in HIS time.

I am so so SO tired, from all the late nights and long days that have been my routine for the past couple of days, and I am more excited than you could imagine to get to sleep in my own bed tonight.

And it is eleven thirty at night, and I am sitting here writing to you, my imaginary friends :) Don't you feel loved....

I am so happy for life, and family . . . and even a full days work tomorrow.

I am blessed <3

{ jessica s. }

Sick day

2009-10-23T14:28:00.002-05:00

If I've made it this far . . . might as well.

(one of the benefits of being sick I guess ;)

Friday thoughts on Fall, Football, & "Fumpkins" . . .

2009-10-16T14:35:00.002-05:00

So it's Friday and I am currently feeling the urge to forget about work and run outside to dance in the sunshine that has finally found it's way to my house. After two weeks of almost non-stop rain and gray skies, when the clouds finally parted yesterday afternoon to let the sunshine peek through, my heart did about three cart-wheels in celebration :) What can I say, I'm a sunshine and roses kinda gal ;)

But running outside isn't an option right now, there are pictures to be edited, blog posts to be written, Disks to be burned, and the list goes on and on . . . So I figured, if I can't be outside in the amazing Fall weather, I could at least have some fun writing about it ;) Hence the title of this post, I'm going to talk about some of my favorite "F" things right now. And maybe even some things that don't start with "F", because, alliteration only works to a point people.

I have to admit right off the bat, I'm a Summer girl at heart. I love love love the Summer. I love the sunshine,the sweet tea and lemonade, the cute clothes, the flip-flops, the tans, the swimming, the ice-cream, the family vacations, the way it doesn't get dark until late at night . . . I mean really, it just doesn't get much better than all of that. BUT, with all that said, there is still something amazing to me about the changing of the seasons. I love the way each season slowly creeps in, and by the time Fall decided to start to creep in a few weeks ago, I was ready for it.

Football is probably one of my favorite things about this time of year. I like watching a few select NFL teams (read: Colts and Cowboys) but I LOVE watching college ball. Aaaand, of course I cheer for the one and only, always the best, Texas Longhorns! I was born into their fanhood, with my grandfather and both parents having graduated from UT, I've been wearing burnt orange from day one :) I might even be admitting to a teeny weeny crush on our big man Colt McCoy, but then again I think I have had a crush on pretty much every single one of our QB's dating back to Major Applewhite. Yep, probably where my obsession with red hair started ;)

Our biggest rivalry game is tomorrow . . . TX vs OU! I just hope this wont effect my relationship with any potential clients that might happen to like the Sooners. I promise I will still be nice to you, really I will . . .

Another Fall Favorite is all the yummy Food that goes with it (man, I am cranking with the alliteration today ;) Seriously tho . . . I am in love with pumpkins, which in order to fit in with the theme here today have been termed "Fumpkins". Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Spice Latte's (I finally tried one the other day and fell in love!) and my adorable little Pumpkin that I have sitting out in my room.

Ok, confessions of a grandma here. I like knitting. And crocheting. But the only time I really get the urge to knit is through the colder months of the year. Scarves, blankets, and right now I am working on a pillow for my bed. It's gonna be super cute guys, I promise.

Another little tradition I have is that with the changing of each season I buy a new nail polish color to use over the next few months. So just the other day I bought this deep Purple color that I am in LOVE with. It's so so cute. So girls, if you haven't already, go pick out a new fall color to make your toes look pretty ;)

So there ya have it folks, just a few of my favorite things about Fall. And now I'm off to scurry through work as fast as possible so I can get outside while there's still some daylight left!

Go jump in some leaves, watch some football, and enjoy your weekend!

Much Love,
Jessica Shae

Making much of Christ.

2009-10-12T18:58:00.005-05:00

I have been reading John Pipers book, "Don't Wast Your Life" and loving every bit of it. I can't believe I haven't ever read this book before, but I encourage you if you haven't read it, please do! It is challenging me in so many ways right now, and I feel like I can only read a chapter at a time there are so many things I want to stop and take in.

As a lover of quotes, I have been scribbling them down every page or two it seems, there are so many things that I don't want to forget. Piper has an amazing way of taking big truths from Scripture, and boiling it down into a sentence or two that cuts right to your heart.

Some of my favorites here lately:

"The world is not impressed when Christians get rich and say thanks to God. They are impressed when God is so satisfying that we give our riches away for Christ's sake and count it gain." (pg.72)

I read that and think to myself, in what way(s) am I showing the world that I am completely satisfied with who God is? In what ways am I revealing that I am, in fact, dis-content??? Dis-content with my finances, with my situation in life, with my relationship status. What must the world think when they see me giving in to feelings like that?

And then my favorite quote so far:

"What you love determines what you feel shame about. If you love for men to make much of you, you will feel shame when they don't. But if you love for men to make much of Christ, then you will feel shame if he is belittled on your account." (pg. 65)

I want to allow that thought to shape and direct all my actions throughout the day.

". . . But if you love for men to make much of Christ . . . "

What do I love?

Much love,

{ jessica s. }

and i write . . .

2009-10-11T15:58:00.004-05:00

It is Sunday afternoon. . .
I am listening to the haunting music of Yo-yo Ma, and the weather here in Texas has finally decided to admit that it is Fall, so we have been enjoying gray rainy skies all day along with chilly temperatures.
I am loving the comfort of my warmest most comfortable pair of sweats, and the smell of my pumpkin spice candle.
I'm craving a caramel macchiato from Starbucks {non-fat,extra caramel, no whip please.}
I've been wanting to try the Pumpkin Spice Latte here the last week or so because I have heard so much about them, but I haven't had the guts to do so. I mean, who wants to ruin an already perfect experience that you have found to be tried and true? I like caramel macchiato's, and at 4$ a pop, I'm not sure I want to "experiment."
I probably will tho before the season is over . . . just so I can say I have :)

I miss writing.

For those of you who have been following my little blog for a year or more, you will know that my extended silence is very abnormal. For those of you who know me in person, you will know that silence of any sort for any prolonged period of time is even more abnormal. I talk alot. I laugh alot. I use my hands alot while I am talking alot. I have millions of thoughts and ideas, emotions and feelings, that run through my head on any given day, and I usually feel the need to express most all of them in one way or another. My dad likes to jokingly tell me when I have been talking for a long time "I think you have used your quota of words for the day Jessica . . ." or "You use alot of words, Jessica. . ." It's true.

And that is why it has been so strange for me that I have not been blogging here for so long. Blogging/journaling/writing in any form has always been another way for me to express myself. When I started this blog almost a year and a half ago, I was so excited. Here was another way for me to share my thoughts, post pictures, and keep people updated on my life. For at least the first 6 months pretty much the only people that read it were my family and close friends.

And I wrote. Alot. Things God was teaching me, funny moments from my day, what I dreamed about. Somewhere along the way as I gained more "followers" I started to feel called upon to "perform". I had to make sure that I was witty at times, and then other times show depth of knowledge on key matters. I stressed when I hadn't written in a few days wondering what people were thinking of me. It wasn't as fun anymore.

But no more. This blog is about sharing. Sharing what God is doing in my life. The blessings both big and small that He brings to me daily. The ways He makes my life beautiful.

I want to get back to that, starting now. It may end up being completely boring for some of you, I hope not, but I can no longer write with the objective of pleasing everyone who may possibly come across my blog.

So, welcome back to my blog, I hope you will stick around for a while to check out some of the new stuff I will be posting . . . but for now, I'm thinking I need to make a quick trip to Starbucks. ;)

- Happy Fall -

Much Love,

{ jessica s. }

Benjamin: Memories of the good ol' days

2009-08-22T21:31:00.000-05:00

Last week My family drove to Virginia, and dropped off my younger brother/best friend for the last 18+ years for his freshman year of college.
Now, I know I don't normally post a whole lot of personal stuff on here,but#1. I want to change that, and start posting stuff that will help you get to know me a little bit better,
and#2. This may even be a little more personal than what will be the norm in the future, but, it's my blog, and I'm super proud of my brother....so I'm allowed to brag on him.
Even on my blog ;)

It was so weird for me, having my little brother take this giant step forward in adulthood. My happiness for him and my pride in what an honor it is that he is getting to go to this elite school helped with the sadness I felt as we drove away from the school, all of us anxious for Christmas to roll around so we can see him again.

'Ben' to most, he is always 'Benjamin' to me. I have seriously tried to call him Ben, like everyone else does now, but it always comes out something like "Ben . . . jamin." We have been best buds since the day he was born I think. Only 20 months apart, we quickly became partners in crime. I was the bossy one, and he was the brain. Which meant that he came up with all the good ideas generally, and then I bossed him on how we would put our plan in action. Because, I mean, we all know that is what big sisters are for....bossing. :) We played in mud puddles together, climbed trees together, organized rodeos and Olympic competitions in which we would perform for any and all family members that were willing to sit and watch, and we even ran away together (for reals!).

Benjamin is one of the funniest people I know. His dry humor can keep me laughing all day long. I'm going to miss this guy, but I am so excited and proud of all his accomplishments. Most of all, I'm just so glad that he is my brother, and my friend.

Weren't we adorable??? Sometimes you just have to wonder what happened.

The quality of the picture is horrible, but it is probably one of my favorites of us when we were little. Isn't he so adorable, with that big ol' grin plastered across his face?

Um...Yes, we are die-hard Texas Longhorn fans, and yes, I do believe Benjamin is wearing boxers in the place of shorts. You can get away with stuff like that when you are little, k?

People were always asking us if we were twins we looked so much alike and for so long were pretty much the same size. That is definitely not the case anymore in regards to size!

The day that our next sister, Rachel, was born.

This is my all-time FAVORITE. aagghhhh...we look so cute (and like complete nerds) in our matching uniforms, and like we really do like each other alot.
(p.s. I also have to point out hiked up shorts and my awesome "scrunched-down socks" It was all the rage back then with the little league baseball teams....didn't you know? Lets just say that my style has grown a little bit since then. At least I think it has :)

I wasn't able to scrounge up as many recent pictures of the two of us as I would have liked, but here is one from my graduation a couple of years ago.
Still love his grin....

And last but not least, our last night together this week, I told him we had to take a picture together and he had to "smile good." He decided to be a smart aleck and gave me this for the first picture.....

THEN I got the smile :)

I know that when Benjamin actually reads this, he will be horrified at my utter sappiness on the subject, and probably even more horrified at me for posting pictures of him in some of his more undignified days . . . but, O well. I think I can handle it.

I just wanted you all to know how awesome he is, and how much I already miss him.

Much love,

Jessica

sweet nothings...

2009-07-21T23:05:00.002-05:00

I love all the random pictures and quotes you can find these days . . . I wanted to share some of my most recent favorites.

much love.

jessica

Sweet Sixteen

2009-07-09T13:11:00.004-05:00

*Rachel's birthday was two days ago, but better late than never, right?*

Rachel is my sister, but she is also one of my best friends. We laugh together, scheme together, and she puts up with all my crazy antics in between. Making her laugh has become a hobby of mine, it doesn't take much usually, just a little retarded craziness on my part and she is cracking up.

I love how determined she is, she never gives up, and always gives her very best effort to whatever the job may be. We are so very different, but it makes life more interesting that way. She keeps me motivated to workout, to be diligent, and daily encourages me with her example to become more of a minimalist like her. She does not understand my need for 25 different pairs of shoes, or why I feel that packing for a trip with less than at least 5 full outfits would be a crime (no matter how long the trip). She is good for me, this sister of mine that God hand chose for me.

Rachel is my best bud, and I can't believe she is getting all "growed-up." God bless you, Rachel with a heart that thirsts more and more for Him, and may you find the satisfaction to all of your desires rests in Him alone!

Happy Sweet Sixteen Rachel!

~Jessica Shae

I don't have a title for this post.

2009-07-03T23:32:00.004-05:00

Sooo, I kinda bombed the posting every day thing this week. oops. ;)

Ah well, life goes on I do believe.

I can't believe it's Friday already, and so I think that means it is time for a "This Week I'm Loving . . ." post, and it wasn't until this very moment when I sat down to write, that I realized that little fact.

This is called "flying by the seat of your pants". Or maybe you prefer to describe it as an "Off the cuff" presentation.

Lemme think . . .

I love the fact that circumstances do not have to determine attitudes. What is going on around me does not have to affect what my attitudes and actions for the day are. I think Grace factors pretty heavily into that.

I love swimming. With temperatures reaching over 100 degrees this week, I take any excuse to escape to the grandparents for a swim.

I love comments on my blog. I have gotten more comments this week than I have in a long time. They make me happy :)

And one of the biggest things I love about this week, is that I was finally able to finish up designing my photography blog! It took alot of time, and quite a bit of patience that I didn't always have, but it. is. done.

I think that's about it for now folks. I'm pooped after a long day, most of which was spent at my Mimi and Papa's house swimming and having a big celebration dinner for my dad's birthday. It's almost midnight tho, and I have to be up before 7 tomorrow to get ready to head out to our 4th of July festivities. I'm wondering why this is though, aren't holidays about sleeping in, relaxing, and enjoying the long weekend? O well . . . I'm looking forward to it anyways!

Happy Independence Day!
~Jessica Shae

yes yes yes.

2009-07-02T00:23:00.001-05:00

~Jessica Shae

"She opens her mouth with . . . ?"

2009-06-29T22:58:00.004-05:00

"S o m e t i m e s the thoughts in my head get bored, and take a walk in my mouth. O f t e n, that is a bad thing."

- Author Anonymous

HT: Brooke Martens

So very very true . . .

~Jessica Shae

This week I'm loving . .

2009-06-27T12:15:00.002-05:00

My new desk

I have been looking for a desk for my new room on Craigslist for 2 weeks now, and just yesterday I found one, with an accompanying chair. Love it, it is simple, old, wooden, just exactly what I wanted. (You will get a picture later, when I have my room finished and looking the way I want it)

Reconnecting with old friends

Last night we had some old old friends over for dinner spur of the moment, it was so much fun catching up with everyone. The daughter who is my age was my best friend when I was about 11 or 12 years old.

Let It Be Said Of Us (<-- click to listen)

We sang this song in church on Sunday, and I LOVED it! The words and melody are so powerful.

Avocados

I am seriously like an avocado addict. I love them in pretty much any way shape or form. My two favorites are sliced avocados on a grilled chicken salad, and guacamole of course!!! mmmm....so delicious.

Cold showers after a good workout

I have been working out on the elliptical machine every morning and nothing feels better after a good workout, and lots of sweat than jumping in a semi-cold (I don't go for the whole polar bear freeze thing . . .) shower.

Sonic happy hour

I don't know how I would get through the Summer without it. SERIOUSLY. I go there several times a week, and since I am on a soda/pop/coke/carbonated beverage (WHATEVER you call it) fast this month, my favorite pick is their sweet peach tea. And lemme tell ya, it is sweet! (*their strawberry slush is a pretty good second choice*)

Plane tickets to DC

I bought my tickets to DC this week, for my internship with the amazing Kristen Leigh. I am officially counting down the days!!! *15 to be exact*

My new lilac scented candle

I love having candles burning in my room, and I love seasonal candles. My scent for the month (and this also happens to be one of my favorite scents in the whole world) is Lilac....mmm, I light it every night while I am working, or getting ready for bed, and it makes my whole room smell lovely.

~Jessica Shae

What if it happened today . . . ?

2009-06-24T14:41:00.007-05:00

"What if today was your last day on earth?"

A question that we hear ever so often . . . we all listen as someone passionately begs us to live life to the fullest, to love harder, to forgive quickly, to laugh more often. I think that it probably moves all of us to really try and live as though every day were the last one we had with those we love best. But too often that only last for days, sometimes just hours, and then we are back to taking for granted the things that we will someday regret not enjoying more. For me it's things like my 7 year old sister wanting to cuddle with me, or asking me to come and kiss her goodnight. Things like the laughter around our dinner table, and all the inside jokes we have as a family.

We are not guaranteed one more day, one more moment even. Why do we allow ourselves to get caught up in the things of life that distract from that which is most important? Why do we get angry, or irritated, with people? Why is it that I allow myself to rush past my little brother/sister as s/he is asking me to take them to the park, because I have other more important things planned?

I have been reminded of this problem several times over the last few days. After hearing of people who have recently lost a loved one, others that know they will soon be facing that loss themselves with a chronically sick family member.

I want to live B I G G E R, in every way. I don't want to waste a minute, no, a second with pettiness. I want to take time to do the things that will matter the most in the end. I am far from doing that now.

My most recent reminder came when I read a post written by David Wenzel this morning. David, about a week or two ago through a stroke of luck (actually more like God's providence) found out that he has a large brain tumor. He shares his story of what he has been going through for the past few weeks while trying to figure out what they can do to take care of this problem.

His post today struck home for me. I would encourage you to go read it, and think about what he says. These are words coming from a young guy who has a young wife, and what he used to think as his whole life before him. Now the doctors are telling him that could be otherwise. His attitude is awesome, and reminds me of this song that I saw the words to recently. It is about a man who has just found out he is dying, and his friend asks him what his response was to the news.

He said:

"I went sky diving I went

Rocky Mountain climbing

I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu

and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter

and I gave forgiveness I’d been denying

and he said someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying.

-----

He said I was finally the husband that most the time I wasn’t

and I became a friend a friend would like to have

and all the sudden going fishin wasn’t such an imposition

and I went three times that year I lost my dad

well I finally read the good book

and I took a good long hard look at what I’d do if I could do it all again."

-----

I finish with this - One of the most important aspects of living like you are dying is to make sure that you know where you are going after you die. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says - "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

You are guaranteed no tomorrow. Do not put it off, today is the day to make sure you know who you will spend eternity with. Our God anxiously waits to welcome you.

Make it count . . . Give someone an unexpected smile . . . Take nothing for granted.
~Jessica Shae

*Edit* I would love to hear what you are doing to make each day count. Make a memory and then share what you did with all of us! Leave your ideas in the comment box below :)

Did you know . . . ?

2009-06-23T09:02:00.000-05:00

1. If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on your right side. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side.

2. If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. For when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.

3. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

4. Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.

5. The Mercedes-Benz motto is “Das Beste oder Nichts” meaning “the best or nothing”.

6. The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.

7. The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.

8. The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.

9. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

10. The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.

11. Dalmatians are born without spots.

12. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

13. The ‘v’ in the name of a court case does not stand for ‘versus’, but for ‘and’ (in civil proceedings) or ‘against’ (in criminal proceedings).

14. Men’s shirts have the buttons on the right, but women’s shirts have the buttons on the left.

15. The owl is the only bird to drop its upper eyelid to wink. All other birds raise their lower eyelids.

16. The reason honey is so easy to digest is that it’s already been digested by a bee.

17. Roosters cannot crow if they cannot extend their necks.

18. The color blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones.

19. Every time you sneeze some of your brain cells die.

20. Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.

21. The verb “cleave” is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.

22. When you blush, the lining of your stomach also turns red.

23. When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red.

24. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle was built in 1903, and used a tomato can for a carburetor.

25. The lion that roars in the MGM logo is named Volney.

26. Google is actually the common name for a number with a million zeros.

27. Switching letters is called spoonerism. For example, saying jag of Flapan, instead of flag of Japan.

28. It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it.

29. The attachment of the human skin to muscles is what causes dimples.

30. There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

31. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.

32. Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.

33. It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.

34. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

35. Most soccer players run 7 miles in a game.

36. The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air.

37. Every day 200 million couples make love, 400,000 babies are born, and 140,000 people die.

38. In most watch advertisements the time displayed on the watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch (and make it look like it is smiling).

39. Colgate faced big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries. Colgate translates into the command “go hang yourself.”

40. The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning its head are the rabbit and the parrot.

41. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

42. The average person laughs 13 times a day.

43. Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are:Mizaru(See no evil), Mikazaru(Hear no evil), and Mazaru(Speak no evil)

44. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

45. German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog.

46. Large kangaroos cover more than 30 feet with each jump.

47. Whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound.

48. Two animal rights protesters were protesting at the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two hapless protesters to death.

49. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural cause.

50. The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet!!

You learn something new everyday . . .

~Jessica Shae

.: Rachel :.

2009-06-22T21:59:00.004-05:00

I don't plan on making it a habit of posting my photog shoots here, (since that is what my photography blog is for) but these were a little more personal than just a shoot with a random person, and besides, I just couldn't help not sharing some with you. I am in LOVE LOVE LOVE with these pictures. It seems that each new shoot I do, I am more in love with than the last.

You get to see these two here, and then if you would like to see the rest (and believe me, you DO!) you can check back on my photography blog in the next day or two and I will have the rest posted. Rachel did an amazing job modeling for me (I tell ya, it helps as a professional photog to have good looking siblings) and put up with some rather 'off the wall' ideas I wanted to try out on the shoot.

~Jessica Shae

"happy, fortunate, enviable . . ."

2009-06-21T12:38:00.004-05:00

{ "The righteous man walks in his integrity; blessed (happy, fortunate, enviable) are his children after him." }

Proverbs 20:7

I am "happy, fortunate, and enviable" because I have been blessed with a Father who walks with integrity. I love you daddy, I hope to someday find a man to spend the rest of my life with that loves God and honors Him with a whole heart like you do!

Love,

Jessica

Honor system

2009-06-19T23:54:00.002-05:00

So tonight I was at Sonic, getting food for some of the kiddos, and when I went to pay for the food their little credit card machine wasn't accepting my card. I pushed the button and told the lady and she said not to worry, that when the car-hop came with my food she would swipe it for me and make it work.

I was worried though because that was the only form of payment that I had with me, so if it didn't work I wasn't going to be able to pay for the food. The car-hop came, tried it swiping it, it didn't work. She took it inside and swiped it, it didn't work. She came back out and said, "How about you just go ahead and take your food home, and then you can come back later and pay?"

I was in shock. Was she kidding me??? I had never heard of such a thing.

So, I took my food home, ate dinner and then 2 hours later went back with cash. The same girl came out to take my cash, and was like, "We appreciate so much you coming back to pay!" I knew they hadn't expected me to come back, most people would have thought that they lucked out and got a free dinner!

It felt good driving home . . . like it used to be when people actually trusted you to keep your word. And you valued having an honest reputation.

Wish we could go back to living like that . . .
~Jessica Shae

"What do you make of this?"

2009-06-18T22:18:00.002-05:00

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend." . . . "I have called you friends." John 15:13, 15

"Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said - "I will lay down my life for Thy sake" and he meant it; his sense of the heroic was magnificent. It would be a bad thing to be incapable of making such a declaration as Peter made; the sense of our duty is only realized by our sense of the heroic. Has the Lord ever asked you - "Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake?" It is far easier to die than to lay down the life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling. We are not made for brilliant moments, but we have to walk in the light of them in ordinary ways. There was only one brilliant moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration; then He emptied Himself the second time of His glory, and came down into the demon-possessed valley. For thirty-three years Jesus laid out His life to do the will of His Father, and, John says, "we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." It is contrary to human nature to do it.

If I am a friend of Jesus, I have deliberately and carefully to lay down my life for Him. It is difficult, and thank God it is difficult. Salvation is easy because it cost God so much, but the manifestation of it in my life is difficult. God saves a man and endues him with the Holy Spirit, and then says in effect - "Now work it out, be loyal to Me, whilst the nature of things round about you would make you disloyal." "I have called you friends." Stand loyal to your Friend, and remember that His honour is at stake in your bodily life."

~Oswald Chambers

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PS: I was going to post my dream list today, but I think I will save that for tomorrow, today was pretty hectic. But I do have to share just this one thing.... I joined our choir at church tonight!!! I love love love singing, and I haven't sung in a choir in about 2 years, which is quite the switch after singing in choirs all through High school. I had the time of my life tonight, and was practically walking on air when I walked back in the door from practice. Can't wait to actually sing in church!

::Live like you are dying::

2009-06-17T17:05:00.012-05:00

I was going through some old files of mine today and came across this quote, and it seemed to fit right in with what I have been thinking about most these days.

-----------------

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the things that you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore. Dream." - Mark Twain

------------------

I don't want to have a lot of "I wish I had . . ." kind of regrets later on in life. I know there will inevitably be some, but I want to do my best to make the most of every moment.

I recently read one girls *dream list*. It was a list of all the things that if she could choose do do anything she would choose to do those things in her lifetime. Some of them were over the top. Some of them were things that most people only dream of doing. But that was the whole point, this was a *DREAM list*. But more than just writing them all down she was actively working on checking them off the list. I loved the idea, and so started writing one of my own.

Hmmm. Maybe I will share it with you tomorrow. . . ?

living the abundant life.

~Jessica Shae

Today I am loving . . .

2009-06-16T13:43:00.004-05:00

That I took the time to handwrite two letters to friends. Why did we ever leave this beautiful and wonderful form of communication?

That My room is clean, and while my room is usually generally clean, today it is sparking. I dusted, and vacuumed and finished unpacking all my boxes.

This picture I found . . .

It just seems so whimsical and happy.

The Amplified Version of 1 Peter 3:11 -

"Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it, and let him do right. Let him search for peace (harmony; undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts) and seek it eagerly. [Do not merely desire peaceful relations with God, with your fellowmen, and with yourself, but pursue, go after them!]"

What are you loving about today?

~Jessica Shae

One Word

2009-06-14T22:06:00.003-05:00

Just say hi today . . . who knows, "you may marry them."

~Jessica Shae

New year - New look.

2009-06-14T14:31:00.006-05:00

So, as most of you have probably given me up for lost at this point, I am here to tell you that I am alive, and officially back in the blogging world!

I have not been blogging for several reasons over the past few weeks, one of the main ones being that we were so busy! We are officially moved into our new house in Frisco, TX, and are settling into being near grandparents (loving this:) and a new church, which we are soooo very happy about!

Another reason I haven't been blogging is because I have actually been debating on whether or not to continue this blog. Since I have started my photography business, it seems that all my time was consumed with it and my photog blog. I originally created this blog (exactly one year ago this week:) for my family and close friends to keep up with my life, since I lived so far away from all of them. But over the past year, we have moved closer to family and while I know that some of my family still does read my blog, I think the majority of my readers are friends, and other like-minded people, a lot of whom I have never met!

Basically I felt like I had lost all purpose for this blog, and the few posts I was writing here and there were turning into long boring monologues on my daily life, which I am sure that none of you (save my grandmother) were finding any interest in!

SO, after mulling things over for a while, I have come to a conclusion. I love to write, and blogging had become an awesome way to keep me writing. I read something the other day that said "If you write every day you will get better at writing every day." First goal of this "New and Improved" blog, I want to post something at least five days a week. I would like for that to be Mon-Fri, but we will see how it evens out, I doubt that I will be able to keep to a really strict schedule on here. Some of you may be wondering how I am planning on going from posting once a month, to posting almost every day, but it will happen I tell you. They will be different sorts of posts. Maybe just and interesting picture I found or took. Maybe just a quote (btw: I LOVE quotes, like...REALLY love them. So plan on seeing a whole lot of them around here from now on) or a bible verse that impacted me that day. It will be somewhat random at times I am sure, but while I want it to be interesting to you, my reader, this is my blog, and I want to use this little piece of cyber-space to reflect on the little moments of life that make me smile the most. I am also planning on 're-posting' alot of stuff on here. I am constantly coming across different articles or messages that I think others would find interesting or encouraging so now I will share them with you here!

Another change that I am sure you have already noticed is the name. I agonized over this little change the most I think, because I have wanted to do this for a while (I love the phrase "life is beautiful") but thought that it might seem ... um, weird to change the name from a phrase that means "to God alone be glory" to "life is beautiful". Please don't read into that at all folks, I am not meaning for this blog to give any LESS glory to God than it did in the past, it just seemed to fit the theme of what I wanted my blog to look like. One of the reasons I love photography so much is because I love capturing the little (and big!) moments in life in a way that can be kept and treasured forever. I am blessed to have a beautiful life because of Jesus Christ, and what he did for me so many years ago on the cross. It is because of His shed blood, which covers all my unrighteousness, I know that I can live with Him forever in eternity. It doesn't get any better than that folks!

So, I think I have explained enough . . . for the rest you will just have to come back and see what's up from day to day!

Living the beautiful life!

~Jessica Shae

"How do I love you? . . ."

2009-05-11T00:22:00.002-05:00

". . . Let me count the ways."

My mom . . .

is amazing at making things special for us kids. Birthdays, holidays, random summer fun days...she can make any day amazing. And usually on a small budget too! She is amazingly good at thinking of all the little details that make a day special for us.

There is no one else I would rather have around when I am sick or hurting. From scraped knees to sick tummy's she can fix them all. She is so good at making me feel better, and has spent countless nights over the years by my bed rubbing my back, and praying for me until I fall asleep.

My mom is HANDS. DOWN. the best listener...EVER. When I am excited about something, I know that there wont be anyone more excited about my news than her. When I am upset, I know she will hurt for me, sometimes more than I am hurting myself.

My mom is funny. She really is. You know how in a lot of movies there is always this "cool" mom, and she does all kinds of funky stuff with her kids? Well, that's my mom. Never afraid to do something a little crazy or funny, to make us laugh. I love that about her :)

My mom is flexible. Since marrying my dad, she has lived in...at least 13 almost 14 different houses, and 8 of those were in the last 7 years. Somehow she has managed to make everyone of those houses cozy and beautiful.

My mom is completely selfless. I mean, I know in order to be a mom at all, you have to have some level of selflessness about you, well, my mom is off the charts on this one. Seriously, she will give up anything in order to make one of us kids (or dad!) happy.

My mom takes time for each one of us. I know one of the biggest concerns that people have with having a big family is, "How do you make time for them all?" I can honestly say that I have never felt like my mom did not have time for me. She seemed to almost be this omnipotent presence in my life all these years, practically always being where she was needed.

I was blessed to grow up with a mom who was always around, and always serving. I got to learn about life from my mom, and now she has become my biggest hero. Her heroism is something that I am coming to see more and more these days. I know they say that you will never really appreciate what your mom was to you until you are a mom yourself. Well, I am sure that is in part true, but right now, I want to say that I think you are amazing mom, and I hope that I can be a mommy just like you someday.

I love you.

Jessica

We are wanderers . . .

2009-05-07T12:11:00.006-05:00

My poor little neglected blog.

I have not been neglecting you because of lack of material to write about, no, quite the opposite in fact :)

Let me update you all on several points of my life of late.

I did three photoshoots over a period of four days last week, and all three were somewhat unexpected :) But I was so happy to do them, I am always looking for an excuse to take pictures!

I now have all my brothers senior pictures taken, and a lot of them are edited, so I will be finishing them up in the next 24 hours (hopefully *crosses fingers*) and I can post them for you to see.

If you want to see pictures of the photoshoot I did last Saturday of two sisters, then go here to my photography blog and let me know what you think!

I have two more shoots scheduled over the next week, can't wait to see how they turn out! Both of them are families that have asked me to take pictures for them, so this will be the first time that I have done family pics for someone other than my own. Pray for me that they go well!

AND...the biggest news of the last few weeks in our family is....

We are moving, AGAIN, and this time we will be settling in N. Dallas. This will be our 6 house to live in over a period of two years. No we are not in the witness protection program. Or, maybe we are, but if I told you, I'd have to kill you. We realized the other day that my youngest sister Emma in the first seven years of her life will have lived in eight different houses after our next move. My brother Ben laughingly made the comment the other day that "it is getting harder and harder in this family to answer the simple question of 'So, where are you from?'" Soooooo true :) "Ummm, Plano, Celina, Verona, Elmont, Denver, Ft. Worth, Austin, Cedar Park . . ." take your pick, we've been there. We live an exciting life, an adventurous life.

With that said, the next few weeks of our life look like . . . well, lets not even say what they look like. Busy would probably be an understatement. You would think that having moved so much we would be pro's , and even though we have joked about starting our own moving company (Garner and Family Movers) it still seems to take an inordinate amount of time and work to get nine people and a house all packed up and ready to go. Add to the mix that this is the busiest time of my dad's ministry as we enter into the last month of session and everything is getting busier and busier up at the capitol, I am guessing that these next few weeks have some pretty long days mixed in there somewhere. I have to say though...My MOM deserves pretty much like 99.9% of the praise for making all this happen around here. She has to work overtime to get it all done, and somehow manages to home school, do laundry, cook, clean, and do all those other mommy things in between the packing up of all our stuff. Pretty amazing, huh?

.....................................................................................................................................
My dad was reading to me last night from some of his study notes, and he read a part of Mclarens Commentary on 1 John. The whole passage that he read was very powerful, and convicting, but one statement in particular stood out and stuck with me.

He said: "You cannot make yourself like Christ but you can fasten yourself to Christ and He will give you power which shall make you like Him."

Wow, that's all I have to do, fasten myself to Christ, and HE will conform me into his image. I love it.

Mclaren also said this in that same paragraph: “Even clouds themselves as suns appear when the sun pierces them with light.”

If I can stay so close to Christ that his righteousness pierces through me, I will begin to look like Him, even though I am a dirty sinner. The imputed righteousness of Christ . . . what a priviledge.
.....................................................................................................................................

Never one to leave you without giving a little "eye candy" here are some pictures from my life.

April happenings . . .

2009-04-17T20:36:00.005-05:00

I know, I know, I haven't posted in a while. Honestly though, things have been SO busy around here, and what little time I do have for blogging and such I have spent in working on my photography blog. If you haven't been over there in the last day or so, hop on over and check it out because I pretty much completely re-did it all. I LOVE the new look, I had been feeling for weeks now that the way it did look just wasn't right. I was glad to finally be able to sit down and figure out what I wanted and make it look that way:)

Other than that, I have been doing everything from, work for my dad, work for photography, went to the Texas Longhorns Spring game, traveled to San Antonio to visit a friend that I hadn't seen in almost a YEAR, went to Dallas for Easter, and now we are going back to Dallas spur of the moment tomorrow for the weekend.

Life is never dull around here I tell ya, and I am sorry to say that this is all I have time for right now. I really and truly and planning on doing a long update soon, but for now I will leave you with a bunch of random pictures from all of our recent activities. Some of them probably won't interest all of you, but I put them in there because my little siblings have been asking for me to post them for a while now :)

Oh! One last thing, another reason for you to go to my photog blog, is because I did a shoot with adorable Emma about two weeks ago for her 7th birthday and I posted them all over there. They are SO very cute, she makes an amazing model :)

April '08

He is Risen INDEED!

2009-04-09T08:04:00.004-05:00

"Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy, cast off that I might be brought in, trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend, surrendered to hell's worst that I might attain heaven's best, stripped that I might be clothed, wounded that I might be healed, athirst that I might drink, tormented that I might be comforted, made a shame that I might inherit glory, entered darkness that I might have eternal life.

My Saviour wept that all tears might be wiped from my eyes, groaned that I might have endless song, endured all pain that I might have unfading health, bore a thorned crown that I might have a glory-diadem, bowed his head that I might uplift mine, experienced reproach that I might receive welcome, closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness, expired that I might for ever live." (The Valley of Vision, "LoveLustres at Calvary)

This is the day that made all the difference.

HE is RISEN indeed!

~Jessica Shae

Happenings of my week:

2009-03-30T16:52:00.007-05:00

A lot of you know that a little over three years ago I went through a two month long girls program in Dallas. I was there with 74 other girls, and was on a team made up of eight girls and a team leader, and rooming with two of those girls on my team.

Well, two of my teammates were a part of the leadership team for this semesters class, so one of my roomates, Daphne, and I decided to go to Dallas for their class graduation. It was a short trip, but it was so much fun to see old friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in almost two years!

Elisabeth and I on the very first day of EXCEL over three years ago.

Over three years later . . .

This is a picture of my two roomates and I 3 and 1/2 years ago, the very first day we arrived in Dallas for the semester.

And here we are together again this last weekend.

Rachel and I

My team the day we graduated.

The five of the nine from our team that were there this last weekend.

I grabbed these shots the other night while we were out on our front porch. I am sure you all are probably getting a little tired of pictures of Emma, but she is so photogenic, and the most willing of all my siblings to have her picture taken.

Her eyes are so beautiful . . .

On Saturday night we had Luke's long awaited birthday party. He had a bunch of his friends over and the all went out to the woods behind our house and had an airsoft war. How's that for a guy party for ya?

Luke

All the guys . . . armed and ready for war.

And the last little exciting thing, is that I got to take some of my brothers senior portraits this weekend. I say some, because we are planning on doing at least one more shoot. Between his busy schedule and my somewhat erratic one, we are having to do a little here and there when we can. That's what you get when your sister is your photog.

Anyways, I am not going to post them until we have taken them all, but here is a little teaser :)

Other than that, just looking forward to another happy busy week!

~Jessica Shae

Today . . .

2009-03-23T20:31:00.009-05:00

. . . was a good day.

I got my 50mm lens that I had been waiting for, for what seemed like forEVER, but in fact was more like, a week and a half.

I was able to accomplish a couple of projects for my dad, yay :)

I took alot of pictures. I must say that I have instantly fallen in love with this new lens, it is utterly amazing, or as my dear friend Mandy would say "uber cool" :) Pretty much all these pictures minus the B&W ones are totally unedited, it just takes amazing pictures! I love the way it makes the colors pop, and everything is so sharp and clear.

I am completely satisfied with my purchase, and I think I have a new favorite lens ;)

Washing up for dinner

Lawson watching the fish he caught in the creek behind our house.

We had CANTALOUPE with dinner! A sure sign that Summer is just around the corner :)

And delicious spaghetti . . .

I caught Lawson upstairs reading his bible and writing down verses, what a cutie he is!

And now, I must say goodnight, because I should have been in bed quite a while ago. . .

~Jessica Shae

Announcing

2009-03-22T15:56:00.007-05:00

Jessica Shae Photography

I am so excited to be announcing the "official" start of my photography business! I wasn't really planning on starting this soon, or things moving quite as fast as they have, but I am happy that it has turned out this way!

I want to tell y'all about my new blog, that will be specifically for my photography. I don't have the resources right now to have an official website, so I am starting off with just a blog, and then will hopefully be moving to something grander in the near future! I would love for all of you who have been so faithful to read my personal blog to stop on over to my new one and tell me what you think :)

The web address is: http://www.jessicashaephotography.blogspot.com/ . . . check it out!

I will be adding some new features to it in the coming weeks, it is taking me some time to decide exactly what I want on there, but at least the basics are up, and I am pretty happy with how it looks!

I am so happy with all the opportunities that are opening up to me, and I thank God for His blessing the work of my hands so much.

I have a shoot this week with a State Representative who is updating his website and would like some new pictures to put on there. I am a little bit nervous about that one, because it will be kind of different than anything I have ever done, but I know him pretty well, and he is a super nice guy, so I am pretty sure it will go well :)

I am also excited because a friend of a friend of Alex (the girl I took pics of a couple of weeks ago)
saw the pictures and would like me to do her senior portraits for her in the next couple of weeks. YaY!

AND, some family friends of ours just asked me to take a family picture for them this month. I almost can't keep up with all the business that seems to be dropping in my lap these days :)

I am looking forward to doing a couple of shoots with my siblings, Ben is a Senior this year, so I am doing his portraits in the next week or two, and I want to do some "brothers" pictures with my three littlest brothers. I also have an idea for a most ADORABLE shoot with Emma, and I can't wait to try it out!

As you can see, I am just ecstatic about everything that is happening, and sometimes I wonder if maybe I haven't jumped in over my head, but I am having so much fun . . . I can't stop!

Some other little exciting news . . . I got my business cards in the mail on Friday, and I am expecting my new 50mm lens in the mail tomorrow. Happiness!!! I got my business cards through mini moo and they are so cute!

~Jessica Shae

Sunrise

2009-03-21T21:59:00.007-05:00

It was so hard to drag myself out of bed the morning I shot these pictures, but O so worth it once I was done. It was beautiful that morning, so quiet and still. I love how you can see the sky and water come alive a little bit more in each picture as they go along.

All these pictures are straight out of the camera, no editing needed! The handiwork of my God is amazing!

"I am the LORD, and there is no other;

There is no God besides Me.

I will gird you, though you have not known Me,

That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting

That there is none besides Me.

I am the LORD, and there is no other;

I form the light and create darkness,

I make peace and create calamity;

I, the LORD,

all

these

things."

Isaiah 45:5-7

~Jessica Shae

Family Vacation

2009-03-21T13:31:00.006-05:00

We had an amazing time at the lake house (actually there were four different houses that we were all spread out in, so I guess I should say lake house-ES). We stayed up late hanging out around the fire and playing games, slept in every morning, ate delicious foods like, blueberry pancakes, grilled chicken, and fajitas, went canoeing, laid in the hammock, went fishing, made smore's, swam in the lake, got tons of sun . . . it was just all around a DEE-lightful time!

I was able to do a lot of reading, but I still didn't get through even half of my "stack" of books I brought along . . . my eyes were bigger than my stomach apparently :P For those of you who had recommended "The Heavenly Man" to me, I was able to get through about half of that, and I LOVE it! I can't wait to finish.

One of the highlights of my week was getting to shoot a gun for the VERY first time! That was one of the things on my do-before-i-die-list, and finally I got to :) It was so much fun, I got to shoot a 410 shotgun, and a 22 pistol. I also got to do my sunrise shoot on the lake, and they turned out really good! I will be posting pics from that one in a later post.

I took almost 800 pictures during the week, so you know I was happy :) I am posting only a minuscule amount compared to how many I actually took, but it is still quite a few pictures. :)

My favorite little girl in the whole world.

Daddy and Emma

The makings of a great vacation

About the only way that you would ever know that I was even on this family vacation is from the few self portraits I was able to get. I really need to teach one of my siblings to use my camera!

I read aloud Prince Caspian to Emma while we were there . . .one day we read while laying in the hammock on the dock.

Emma and Callie

We had a fire every night in their little outdoor fireplace.

Lawson and Emma got to fish. Poor Lawson was so determined to catch one, he even got up early one morning to try when he heard that they bite more early in the morning. But he never caught anything :(

We got to have REAL Dr. Pepper while we were there. One of the only DP plants that still uses real cane sugar in their soda is located in Dublin, TX near where we were all week. It is WAY better than the stuff that they sell in the stores these days.

Shooting!!!

I got pretty good at these by the end of the week :)

Group picture right before we all left to go home.

(Dad and Ben had to go home a few days early and get back to work)

~Jessica Shae

Spring Break!

2009-03-14T23:16:00.005-05:00

My family and I will be leaving to go to Lake Granbury tomorrow afternoon. We have some friends whose family owns a house on the lake there and they have invited us to go out and stay with them during spring break.

I am so excited!

We will be there for 4 whole days, and I cannot wait for all the fun I know we are going to have :) I am already planning a sunrise shoot on the lake and hopefully I can catch a lot of other fun pics throughout the week!

Today has been packed with errand running, house cleaning, and packing. It is no small job to get a family of 9 packed up and out the door! I must say that my mom does an awesome job of organizing us all so that we get there with everything and everyONE that we need :)

I am looking forward to getting away from all the busyness around here for a little while and doing a lot of reading and journaling. O yes...and taking pictures of course ;) Doesn't that sound heavenly??? What better combination could there be?

My Bible, journal, and reading material for the trip.

Can't wait to tell you all about it when we get back!

~Jessica Shae

pieces of my life . .

2009-03-11T21:08:00.008-05:00

So, if you all haven't already noticed this . . . I like photography. No, make that I LOVE photography. It is more than a hobby, it is more than a job I hope I can have someday. . . it is one of the most enjoyable things I could ever choose to do.

I have seriously had to make things up for me to shoot over the last few weeks. My dear family is so kind to model for me, but even their patience has a limit. So, I have had to get even more creative with what I can take pictures of. I love that I get to attempt to show off the handy-work of my Amazing God through the lens of my camera. What a life . . .

Anyways, These are just little snippets of my day today . . . in picture form :)

It rained all day long. And it rained HARD almost all day long. I decided that it was a good opportunity to use my new-ish rain boots, and dragged my sister and brother outside to take pictures of me, in my rain boots, in the rain. The sister took the pictures, the brother held the umbrella over the camera and sister taking the pictures :) Thank you Rachel and Luke for standing out in the freezing rain and looking like "dorks" with your sister :)

So, yes...this would be me jumping in puddles. It was fun...what can I say?

A few minutes after I got inside mom and I look outside in time to see this...

He had asked mom if he could go outside earlier and she had said yes not knowing how hard it was raining. He was thoroughly enjoying himself, but got called in quickly after this :)

My most favorite mug in the whole world :)

~Jessica Shae

"Snaps and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails . . ."

2009-03-10T22:18:00.006-05:00

". . .That's what little boys are made of."

This afternoon Lawson (and Emma tagged along for part of it:) and some of the little boys on our street went down to this little stream that runs behind our house to catch tadpoles.

I commemorated the occasion with my camera :)

The last few I took of Emma the other night around sunset at a friends house. The light was so pretty I just couldn't resist.

Spring Forward

2009-03-07T20:59:00.005-06:00

Don't forget to change your clocks

Forward an hour!

~Jessica Shae

::Alex Loden - Photoshoot::

2009-03-07T20:30:00.006-06:00

Here they are!

I really really loved so many of them...so it was hard to pick just a few to post. There are alot of pictures, but I would love to hear all of your comments and any critique you may have.

~Jessica Shae

::Alex Loden::

2009-03-04T18:15:00.003-06:00

I had my first "real" photo shoot (meaning with someone outside of my family:) today, and It was SO fun! Alex was so much fun to work with and willing to put up with my un-sure-ness throughout the whole thing :)

I am still working on all the pics, but I am so excited about them that I have to post at least one for y'all to see while I work on the rest!

This one is one of my favorites from the day...

~Jessica Shae

Sunday afternoon . . .

2009-03-01T21:32:00.003-06:00

I took Emma and Lawson to the park this afternoon.
I was so starved for models that I made a bargain, they play, I take pictures :)
I thought it worked out pretty well . . .

~Jessica Shae

James A Barrie

2009-02-26T11:30:00.005-06:00

“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another.”

-James A Barrie in "The Little Preacher"

~Jessica Shae

:: Two Heartbeats Rally::

2009-02-25T17:29:00.003-06:00

There was a pro-life rally on the Capitol steps yesterday. I didn't know anything about it until I got there yesterday morning to work. I was so glad that I have made it a habit to bring my camera with me most everywhere these days :)

This one is probably my favorite of the whole day.

My dad, Cody, and my brother Ben

Rep. Hughes: My bro's boss and an amazing man of God.

Governor Perry

Cody, playing with the kids

Gotta love the Texas kids...already have a good pair of cowboy boots :)

This little guy was such a cutie, his name was Jonny Reb...not kidding.

~Jessica Shae

IPS - Institute of Photographic Studies

2009-02-25T16:31:00.009-06:00

I had the last minute opportunity to go to San Antonio two weeks ago for a Photography workshop that I have wanted to go to for some time now. I had an AWESOME time, learned so much and came back loving photography even more than I did before I went. The instructors were so great, I loved just getting to talk to them on breaks and during free time and pick their brain with all the random photography questions I have.

The workshop went something like this...

It ran Monday morning through Friday night, and we usually spent most mornings in "class" listening to lectures from our instructors. After lunch and maybe one more quick lecture we would be sent out with an assignment of what kind of pics we were supposed to be taking that day, and then . . . on to the most fun part, taking pictures!!!

After taking pictures most of the afternoon and then dinner, we would get to sit down one on one with an instructor and they would critique our pics. I learned so much from this part of the day, it was always so awesome to get the instructors perspective!

Here are some of my favorite pics from the week, the rest you can see by clicking here.

Probably the coolest part of the whole week for me was getting to meet and watch Alyssa Welch work. She has long been my favorite photographer, and I love keeping up with her blog. My class had the opportunity to go and watch her do a photo shoot with her kids, it was AMAZING. I was practically giddy I was so happy the whole time. I wasn't able to get very many pics because I was so busy watching HER work, but here are a couple of shots I grabbed.

The pro herself...I was so happy to be there :)

Two of her adorable little guys, Christian and Caedmon.

Another Welch boy, Shelton. They are all going to be little heartbreakers in a few years :)

~Jessica Shae

Purposeful silence.

2009-02-19T15:43:00.009-06:00

I have not written for quite some time now. But, in case you were worried that this was going to become a trend, and that I was going to become like alot of other bloggers who have a blog but rarely ever update it, that is not the case.

It was purposeful silence.

I decided to not write for a while for several reasons, but the main one was because of a train of thought that had been running through my head ever since reading this blog post. Really, why is it that I feel so free to share all about my life with you all? With the entire world? Is it healthy? To spend so much time writing about ones self? Is it God honoring? It only strengthened in my mind that maybe I should think more about it when about 3 weeks ago my dad asked me some of those same questions.

So, I decided that the best thing was for me to take some time off from blogging and think about it. It was probably just as well because out of the last three weeks I have been out of town for two and so probably would not have had a whole lot of time to update anyways :)

I cannot tell you that I have come to any definite conclusions. I do know that I have decided that it is time for me to start blogging again, and we will see what the Lord says from here on out.

Now, seeing as I haven't written in over three weeks, and those three weeks have been VERY eventful, I have quite alot to catch you up on.

I will probably have to do so over a couple of different posts, so I will start where I left off.

I was able to go to Chicago for a week at the end of January/beginning of February. It was so much fun to be back and get to see lots of old friends. The main reason I went was because a friend of mine is a speedskater and he made it to nationals this year, so a group of us went to cheer him on at his race.

I had a total blast! I flew into Chicago and spent a few days there and then drove up to Milwaukee WI to watch Blake race. He did AWESOME and out of five races won 2 bronze, 1 silver, and 2 golds. And then to top it all off, he won the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP for his division! We were all so proud of him :) Now the next goal is 2010 Winter Olympics, we all hope that he makes it!

I went ice skating in downtown Chicago while I was there and it was SO much fun! Talk about cold though, I think that the wind chill was about -10 that night :)

Here is the rink that Blake skated on, it was HUGE! They had two hockey rinks inside the one track that he raced on.
Here he is . . . winning one of his races!!!

After the races we all headed over to Devils Head WI for a day and went skiing. I didn't get any pics of that day, wish I had, but I haven't forgotten the memories! The whole trip was so much fun. I loved hanging out with a bunch of old and new friends, and I was so happy to get to go back and visit CHICAGO, my most favorite city ever!

I think that is enough posting for now, I will have to tell you all about the trip I made to San Antonio last week for IPS in a later post.

O, and in case you had forgotten, I turn TWENTY in just two short days!!! Aaaagghhhhh....It is so scary! Anyways, more on that later :)

Hope you all are having a fabulous day!
~Jessica Shae

Happy Birthday!

2009-01-28T00:47:00.003-06:00

Sarah: God's princess

Today is my sweet friend Sarah's 20th Birthday. She is not quite a month older than me, and earlier today I was teasing her about how she will always be OLDER...and there is nothing she can do to change it ;)

I just wanted to take the time to say happy birthday here, to one of my dearest sweetest friends.

I love you Sarah, and I treasure all the memories we have together!

The Three Amigos

Sarah, Me, and Amanda

About two weeks after we had met...

This, to me, pretty much epitomizes my Sarah girl...

Fun times ;)

Snow "Warriors"

Working together

And dweebs together forever... :)

Happy Birthday sweet girl, sorry I didn't get this posted sooner!

(but hey, it is still actually her Birthday where she lives, so it still counts, right?!?)

Grateful for your Friendship,

~Jessica Shae

The things I did

2009-01-23T20:18:00.005-06:00

When I said that I might post some memories and other "stuff" from my growing up years, or whatever you want to call it, the first thing that came to mind was the letter that I am posting below.

I have to give a disclaimer lest you come away thinking that I spent alot of my childhood with a screaming mother, because I didn't. I don't remember the circumstances that led up to me writing this letter, but I am sure that it had just been "one of those days" and mom was frustrated, so I being the very precocious firstborn that I am - I mean WAS :) decided to write her and help alleviate her stress.

I wish you all could see the actual letter that my mom saved, the handwriting is atrocious but I will at least copy it down here with my exact spelling and punctuation.

..............................................................................................

"Dear momy, I'm sorry that today has been a hectic day,

I no how you feel,

I no That I havent been as good as I no I can, I no thats a

littel frustrating when we dont pick

up behind ourselves, and dont

Listen to you. I love you a lot,

Love Jessica.

I Love you, and God Loves you even when you screem, and are wrong."

..................................................................................................

What a blessing I must have been to my dear mother.

This makes me laugh every time I read it :)

~Jessica Shae

Girl Scout Cookies

2009-01-23T16:46:00.004-06:00

I bought my first box of Girl Scout cookies this afternoon, from a neighborhood girl. I say "first" because I have this sneaking suspicion that it wont be the last that I purchase this season. I was so proud of how self controlled I was this afternoon as I calmly purchased only ONE box of Tagalongs, all the while really wanting to grab another box of Thin Mints.

It is such a hard decision to make. I LOVE Thin Mints, and I LOVE Tagalongs. How is one to ever decide?

You can always do what I do, deceive yourself into thinking that you are only going to buy ONE box of cookies this season so you make your choice between the two. . .or three. . .or four. . .that you really want, usually based on what your craving is at that exact moment. And all the while you are trying to ignore the fact that you have already decided in the back of your mind, that it really doesn't matter, you will be buying another box in the next few weeks, in the flavor(s) that you did not allow yourself to purchase today.

And then you can feel relieved. Because it is ok. . .really, you get both.

Eventually ;)

~Jessica Shae

And again.

2009-01-22T21:30:00.006-06:00

It is late, and I should be in bed...but my heart is full and I need to write this now, or I will enter my crazy busy day tomorrow and it will end up being another day and a half before I can post this.

My God is good.

But what, is "good" exactly? It is a word, that is used numerous times in a day, and so to use that common word to describe my GOD, the Great I AM...seems a little boring.

But He is...he is, "satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree", "of high quality; excellent", "right; proper; fit", "genuine; not counterfeit", "honorable or worthy", He is all these things and more.

And today, I was once again overwhelmed by it all. Not only because He has done GREAT things for me, but also for the little things that he has done for me. It is the little things that usually awe me more. Who am I that HE would care about the little tiny details of my day, and love me enough to interject His goodness into them?

Today, God gave us a suburban.

Yes, GAVE.

We did not pay a single penny for it, and yet we are now the grateful owners of another suburban.

We are so grateful for the sweet couple at church that were sensitive to the Lords prompting and have blessed us beyond measure, by giving it to us. I pray that the Lord gives back to you ten fold what you have given today.

Mmmmmhhhmmm. God is good in the big things...but that is not it.

Yesterday afternoon I was in my room and realized that one of my earrings was gone. I was so sad, it was one of my favorite pairs, and I hated to have lost it. I knew I would never find it, I had been all over that day, running errands, outside doing stuff...it could be any where. All the same, I whispered a quick prayer to my Jesus, and just told Him "how much I would love to be able to find that earring and I knew that he knew exactly where it was, so if it was ok with Him could he show me?"

Less than five minutes later, Emma, my six year old sister comes running in the house and up the stairs yelling my name. She ran in the room holding out her little hand to me, saying..."Jessica! Look what I just found on the driveway!"

Uhuh. My earring.

Yeah, my God cares that much for me. I was so happy to have the earring back, and didn't even care that the back was lost, I told God, "Thank you soooo much! You are so amazing, and I don't even care that the back is lost, I have lots of those I can use with this one."

But God wasn't done.

This morning I came downstairs and was talking to my dad in the living room, and as he was sitting down in one of our arm chairs he says..."Oh, look. Here is the back to someones earring."

I feel special.

The God of all the universe knows me, and loves to make me smile through the little things in life.

Like the guy who bends over backwards show his "special someone" that he loves her, doing everything from taking her to big fancy dinners, to sending flowers or calling just to say "I love you", So the Lover of my Soul, woos me with sending me exactly what I need, exactly when I need it. No one else can do it quite like Him, because only HE, knows my innermost parts, and hears my every thought, and knows my every need.

Yeah...I am in love with Him. How could I not be?

I have been looking for a while now for a new cute jean skirt. Attractive, modest, jean skirts are hard to find these days, but a must have in my opinion, to have a well rounded wardrobe :)

I have been looking for one for a while and God knew about it, and so I was just kind of keeping it on the back burner, hoping I would find one soon.

And again...today I was at Goodwill, not even looking at clothes but in fact was there hoping to find a bookshelf for my room. I looked through all of their furniture and after deciding that they didn't have what I was looking for, was turning to leave, but a skirt hanging at the very end of a rack near me caught my eye. It was a jean skirt. That just happened to look brand new. And just happened to be very cute. And just happened to be in my exact size.

One last thing that I have to add...today, God spoke to me in a very unexpected way. He chose to use someone that I don't know extremely well, but have met only once and then have kept up with her a little and gotten to know her better since then. For whatever reason, she opened her heart to me today, and shared one of the most precious stories I have ever heard. A true story of a life experience that she has recently had. It blew me away. It will take days, weeks maybe to process what God said to me today through that.

Thank you friend.

For being sensitive to the Lords leading and gracious enough to allow the Lord to use you in my life today.

I am heading to bed now....

May the Lord bless you with the same sense of awe and wonder of who He is, of who He wants to be to you, if you will only let Him in.

Good night.

~Jessica Shae

::My blue eyed girl::

2009-01-21T21:34:00.004-06:00

Although this is probably not what you were thinking when you saw the title of this post, isn't she a cutie?!?

She is all into wearing her play makeup these days, and this evening came down to dinner with a beautiful blue bow in her hair and bright blue eyeshadow smeared all over her eyelids.

She was stunning. In my opinion anyways.

I love her little girl innocence. She is so much fun to be around. She is our little drama queen and although she has no younger siblings to boss around, she manages to boss us quite well :)

Lovin' these days...

~Jessica Shae

Two decades old.

2009-01-21T19:07:00.006-06:00

Exactly one month from today I will no longer be apart of the age group classified as 'Teenagers'. Scary. Weird. Can't quite get a good grasp on that whole idea.

All you 21 year olds, 30 year olds, and well...those of you who can't even count how many years it has been since you were a teenager, I am sure are laughing right now.

Laugh away.

I know I have melodramatic tendencies, but, this is a big deal guys. I remember when I turned ten, a whole decade old! "Double Digits!" It was a HUGE deal (in my mind anyways) and I felt such a weight of responsibility in my 'old age'. Not kidding guys, you think I am dramatic now, I was waaaay worse then. I remember initiating a very serious talk with my mom right after my tenth birthday, and I told her all about how old I felt now, and how I didn't feel like people treated me old enough. Yep. I was serious too. I think there were tears shed ;) And now to think that I have doubled that number, I am about to be two whole decades old.

It is sad, scary, and wonderful all at the same time.

I am sure that when the day comes I wont feel any different, but my mindset is already changing. I can't imagine what it will be like the first time I have to tell someone that I am TWENTY years old. It sounds ANCIENT. (yeah, I can hear the laughter for sure now :)

But, enough of my melancholy wanderings...I was just feeling my bones creak tonight and decided to share my feelings with y'all. If you all have any ideas of things that maybe I should do before I turn twenty please let me know, and I will try and work it into my schedule.

Maybe I will post some memories and funny things about my 'growing up' years over the next few weeks or so. I am laughing already as I think of all that I could tell you about :)

......................................................................................

"When I am sixteen I am going to wear my hair up, just like Alice Bell." ~Anne

.......................................................................................

Practically an "old maid"...

~Jessica Shae

Reckless Reliance

2009-01-21T16:20:00.006-06:00

Oswald Chambers is, if not my very favorite writer, at least among the top 5 favorites I have. I love quoting him, he has the most amazing way of condensing the deep truths of scripture and making them so understandable without losing any of their impact.

I came across this quote today while reading some of his writings. . .

"Natural ability has nothing to do with service; consequently there is never any thought of, 'Oh, well, I am not fitted for this.' . . . Is He (God) going to help Himself to your life, or are you taken up with your conception of what you are going to do? God is responsible for our lives, and the one great keynote is reckless reliance upon Him." -Oswald Chambers

Learning to live that "reckless reliance" he speaks of...
~Jessica Shae

Capitol Ministries - Texas

2009-01-17T20:43:00.006-06:00

I haven't written much of late about the ministry that my dad has become a part of and the role that I have in it. Most of you know that I am working as my dad's assistant, but not much else beyond that.

Well, as of the beginning of December my dad is officially full time as the State Director of Capitol Ministries Texas. That is a huge development, one we never expected to happen so quickly. It is quite clear that this is the timing that the Lord had planned for us all along. His hand of blessing has been so obviously evident in the past few months, we have been overwhelmed.

But first, what is Capitol Ministries?

The goal of the ministry is to reach every legislator, at every level of government, every year with the gospel.

Basically, we exist to make disciples of those working in the political arena. Reaching elected officials and leading them toward maturity in Christ are our primary focuses.

Another way of putting it is to say that we are missionaries to those working in the state government.

What we do NOT do, is lobby, or try to affect the way that the legislators are voting. Instead we are there to nourish and encourage their walk with the Lord. We pray that out of that will spring lawmakers who are striving to please the Lord with the laws they are passing.

The ministry is Headquartered in Sacramento, CA. We are working to put a minister of the gospel in all 50 state capitols. As of 2009 we have established 21 ministers in capitols all across the US, are working on starting a ministry in the nations capitol of DC, and just this year have started our first national expansion in the capitol of Argentina.

So, how we make disciples . . . the main way is through weekly bible studies in the capitol that my dad leads. One for Legislators only, and another for staff and lobbyists. My dad prepares bible study notes the week before each study and then a couple of days before the bible study, I then pass out a copy of them to every legislators office in the capitol. With 181 offices in the Texas state capitol, it is a big job. My dad has the legislator Bible study every Thursday morning at 7:30 and then the staff study we have scheduled for every Friday afternoon at lunch.

My dad's first legislator bible study was this last Thursday morning and we were shocked and excited to have 14 Legislators attend. This more than exceeds our hopes for our first study!

His staff/lobbyist bible study will be starting up next Friday, and we have already had alot of the staff taking initiative in showing interest in the study.

The ministry is support-based so part of our time is also spent in raising the money needed for the work we do. God has shown His hand of provision time and again in so many amazing ways over the past month and a half especially, there is no doubt in our minds that we are where He wants us to be!

We have been doubly blessed with a sponsor who has taken on this ministry as if it were his own, and done everything in his power to see that it is successful. He has been such a blessing as he has come alongside our ministry and given encouragement and support whenever needed. We are extremely grateful to have a sponsor in the legislature that is such a man of God. A man who truly is a living testimony of God's love and humility in the capitol.

This is a very busy time for both my dad and I. Since the ministry here is launching alot faster than most ministries do, and faster than was expected for our state, we have been in a full sprint to get everything running and off the ground.

I work alongside my dad, doing as much office work and organizing as I can. This frees him up to spend more time meeting those to whom he desires to minister and that he might build relationships with them.

We are excited as a family about the new vision that God has placed before us. We feel that the ministry is a vital one, and we take up the charge first given to Paul, as found in Acts 9:15 " But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel."

We too have been called to bear the name of our Savior Jesus Christ before those in authority in the State of Texas.

Please pray for us as we launch out into this new ministry, and strive to make disciples of the Senators, State Representatives, and their staff in the Texas state capitol.

For His Glory!
~Jessica Shae

"Now it shall spring forth . . . "

2009-01-15T08:18:00.010-06:00

15" I am the LORD, your Holy One,

The Creator of Israel, your King.”

16 Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea

And a path through the mighty waters,

17 Who brings forth the chariot and horse,

The army and the power

(They shall lie down together, they shall not rise;

They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):

18 “ Do not remember the former things,

Nor consider the things of old.

19 Behold, I will do a new thing,

Now it shall spring forth;

Shall you not know it?

I will even make a road in the wilderness

And rivers in the desert.

20 The beast of the field will honor Me,

The jackals and the ostriches,

Because I give waters in the wilderness

And rivers in the desert,

To give drink to My people, My chosen.

21 This people I have formed for Myself;

They shall declare My praise."

Psalm 43:15-21

This is what My God has done for me. Today my heart is singing with the Psalmist "I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High."

He has done GREAT things!

~Jessica Shae

"My determined purpose . . . "

2009-01-13T20:29:00.011-06:00

I love the beginning of a new year. I love the feeling of starting anew, of looking out into a new year "with no mistakes in it . . ." as Anne Shirley would say. I love the feeling of wondering what tomorrow, next week, six months from now, holds for me.

The unknown.

It is always amazing to me at the end of every year to look back on where I was a year ago, and see how much has changed since then. Most of it change that I would have never seen coming. I wonder . . . where will I be twelve months from now?

I don't like making resolutions at the new year. Everyone makes them, and then three weeks later promptly breaks them and continues on with life just as it had been three weeks before.

Instead, one of my favorite things about starting a new year is seeking the Lord about what He would have me focus on in the coming year. Every year for the past 5 or so that I have been doing this, He has never failed to press upon my mind a certain area of my life, subject, character quality, or bible verse that illustrates what He wants me to focus on. And this year has been no different.

But before I share the vision that God has given me for this new year, let me say a few other things.

This year, more than ever before I have felt that the year ahead of me is going to be BIG. Admittedly, every year walking with my Savior is big, how could it not be? But I mean even bigger than normal. This year more than ever I will be faced with the challenges that come from making unpopular choices and not doing the "politically correct" thing with my life. I am now a nineteen year old soon to be twenty year old girl, who is single, and not dating anyone. I am not going to college, and have no plans to do so in the near future. I am not pursuing a career, but am content to be at home where God has me right now, serving my father.

I am not doing it the "right way" according to what most everyone around me would say. I am not making the most of the opportunities that I have, to be someone great, to do something amazing that will impress many. I am not a "success" in the basic sense of the word.

But, whose standard am I living by anyways? In the end will it matter if I have satisfied others sense of political correctness, or, if I have brought joy to the heart of my Maker and Savior by pursing his desire for me and for my life?

The verses that the Lord gave me as my main focus and passion this year, I am more excited about than I could say.

They are Phil. 3:8-12. I love it in the Amplified, so that is what I am posting it in here, and I would ask that you please please please, read it in its entirety, and slowly. Take it all in and read it as if you had never read it before. I know it is a little long, but really, it is amazing.

..................................................

8Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One),
9And that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law's demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One), the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] faith.
10[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [[a]which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]
11That if possible I may attain to the [[b]spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].
12Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own.

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Isn't it amazing!?!

I count everything loss when compared to the priceless privilege of becoming deeply and intimately more acquainted with Him. (paraphrase mine)

To know He who speaks, and waves are calmed. He who breathes, and life is created. He who paid the ultimate sacrifice by laying down His life for me while I was yet in my sins, unaware of what He had done, in order that I might have eternal joy with Him.

This is my "determined purpose".

To know and be conformed to Him.

"When You said, seek My face, my heart said to You, Your face, LORD, I will seek.” ~Psalm 27:8

~Jessica Shae

All the pictures.

2009-01-13T19:38:00.004-06:00

Here are the promised pictures from Sarah's time here at my house. I am not going to post much other than the link because I am insanely busy right now. I am hoping to post more later, there are alot of exciting things happening around here!

But for now I leave you with the link to the pics, (click on the blue words below) enjoy them and let me know what you think :)

Sarah and Me

~Jessica Shae

All things girlie. . .

2009-01-05T20:28:00.004-06:00

"Sugar and Spice... and everything Nice... That's what little girls are made of."

"Chasing kite tails, painting her nails... that's what little girls are made of."

........................................................................

Today Sarah and I went and got our nails done, then headed to the mall and got facials and makeovers, then, to top it all off, we went and tried on all kinds of formal dresses. We had so much fun . . . definitely a day full of "girl time" :)

~Jessica Shae

And the Winner is. . .

2009-01-03T19:33:00.002-06:00

I am so very sorry to have made you all wait so long before I announced the winner of the Christmas tradition contest I posted about a month ago. I enjoyed very much reading all of your fun and creative traditions, thanks to all of you for sharing! But, I had to pick one and it was from. . .

Hannah, in California.

"Our family has many traditions but I think my favorite would be on Christmas Eve, after everything else is done, right before we all turn out the lights and go to bed, my mom concocts her secret recipe of "Sleeping Potion" and gives us all a nice, warm cup full. It tastes delicious! Then off to bed. Of course I know it is mostly psychological, but I used to think it made me so sleepy I couldn't even walk to bed, so my daddy would pick me up ( me pretending to be sleeping) and carry me to my room."

I thought this was the cutest idea, and think that someday I will make it a tradition of my own when I have my own family :)

So Hannah, let me know what your choice would be in a gift card (either Starbucks, Jamba Juice, or Coldstone) and I will get it to you.

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas guys!
~Jessica Shae

Shopping. . .

2009-01-03T17:52:00.003-06:00

I took Sarah to an outlet mall near us today. We ended up not buying much but it was fun all the same :) The picture was taken in the dressing room of GAP, I am really regretting not buying that shirt :(

I meant to say this yesterday, but, we really miss you Hannah and Jean. It would be ten times more fun with you guys here!

~Jessica Shae

le mieux des amis = the best of friends

2009-01-02T21:07:00.003-06:00

As most of you already know, my best friend from California came to visit me yesterday and will be here for TEN whole days! I am so happy :) I thought that what I would do is add a picture a day of our time together and then after she leaves I will post a whole album of her time here for those of you who are interested.

I won't be doing very much "normal" blogging for the next week or so, and you will have to bear with the Christmas theme for a little while since I don't know when I am going to find time to change it back.

Today Sarah, Rachel and I went to this little town called Georgetown that is about 20 minutes away from us, and had fun walking around, going in all the quaint little stores, and most of all, taking lots and lots of pictures.

Here is one of my favorites.

"True friendship consists not in the multitude of friends, but in their worth and value."
- Ben Jonson

~Jessica Shae

New beginnings...

2009-01-01T00:46:00.004-06:00

"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"
~Anne of Green Gables

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I really did have high hopes of having my new years "post" ready by tonight and having my blog theme all switched over from the Christmas one, but it isn't going to happen. It is now officially

2009

(that was my very first time typing/writing it, how fun:) and I am tired and ready for bed. My best friend Sarah is coming from California tomorrow to visit me for ten whole days! So today was spent in taking down all the Christmas stuff around the house, and cleaning in preparation for her coming. Hopefully there will be a post coming soon, I have so many things I want to write about. . .it is a little bit overwhelming! I am super excited about this new year to say the least! But for now, I would leave you with these thoughts.

"This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “ Therefore I hope in Him!” The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him." Lamentations. 3:21-24

~~~~~~~~~~~

“ For I am the LORD, I do not change. . ." Malachi 3:6b

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And with that in mind, I can face anything that this year may hold for me.

Good night to you all, and a very Happy New Year!

~Jessica Shae

Christmas Eve

2008-12-28T17:36:00.004-06:00

Christmas Eve

These are some pictures from our Christmas Eve spent with grandparents and aunts.

~Jessica Shae

Christmas time is here!

2008-12-23T22:34:00.005-06:00

Here are some pictures I took last night of all the beautiful decorations around my mimi and papa's house.

Their "baby grand"

The Christmas tree

And all the presents beneath it.

And then a self portrait of the photographer

*This is about the only way I ever acutally get in pictures since I am usually taking them all*

~Jessica Shae

Christmas traditions: part 2

2008-12-23T21:36:00.004-06:00

I was planning on having several posts of this nature and posting recipes and other random traditions that we have, but, the last few days have been so busy. They have been packed with shopping, cleaning, packing, practicing singing, working...and a million other things that have all led up to us being here at my grandparents house in Frisco, TX (but more on that later).

So I am just going to post one more tradition that we have and you will have to be satisfied with that :)

This is a tradition that we started about ten years ago. Every year after Christmas we all go shopping during the after Christmas sales and everyone gets to pick out an ornament. Then my mom packs it all away in our own boxes that she has labeled with our names.

And the point of all of this?

Well now, once we are all grown and married, we will each have a box of our own ornaments that we have collected since we were little to put on our own Christmas tree, and we won't have to start from scratch. I love it, and can't wait to use my ornaments on my own tree someday!

So that is all the traditions that I will be posting this year probably, and I want to remind you all that if you have any more traditions that you would like to share...you have until the 25th of this month to write me about it and then I will be picking my favorite and awarding them with a gift card of their choice :) (For more info on this go here to read my post about it.)

Also, we are at my grandparents for the rest of the week, and are already having a wonderful time! I will be posting pictures all throughout the week so be looking for them a little bit later :)

A Very Merry Christmas To You All!
~Jessica Shae

Christmas Traditions: part 1

2008-12-16T20:10:00.005-06:00

So I said that I would be posting some of our family traditions over the next few days, so here is the first one.

Movies:
My family has several movies that are clearly marked for Christmas ONLY, and we watch them in the few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas day. I thought I would share the list with you, and while we have watched these, I want to say that we have a TV Guardian (it takes out any bad or dirty language that might be in the movie, I HIGHLY recommend it for every family). And I rarely ever "recommend" a movie to anyone, because every family has their own standards and preferences for movies and I wouldn't want to offend anyone with these. But overall these are family friendly movies and probably you all have seen most of them :)

Favorites that we have been watching for as long as I can remember...

It's a Wonderful Life
Miracle on 34th Street
Charlie Brown Christmas (I think this is my favorite!)

Others that have become favorites over the last few years...

Elf
Polar Express
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Home Alone 1,2, and 3
A Christmas Carol

And a new favorite that we added just this year that I will recommend... :)

The Nativity Story... This one was so good and I think it will quickly become my favorite. It was very well made and followed the biblical account almost perfectly. I have never seen such a moving portrayal of the birth of our Lord, if you haven't seen it then I will recommend this one and say "Watch it!".

Do y'all have any other movies that you love to watch this time of the year? Let me know!

Merry Christmas!

~Jessica Shae

Christmas traditions

2008-12-14T18:09:00.003-06:00

Tradition: the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice

~~~~~~~

Christmastime more than any other time of the year is the time for remembering the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, laughter, friends, good food, special parties, and traditions. It is a holiday that comes alive for each one of us in different and unique ways through traditions we have practiced for as long as we can remember. Over the years my family has developed alot of our own traditions of things that we do every year during the Christmas season. They involve certain movies, music, food, and activities that we all love.

But I am always curious to hear what other families/individuals do to make their Christmas time special. So, let me know what traditions your family has, write it in the comment box below this post and then I will also be posting some of our own traditions over the next week and a half. Also, as a little incentive for y'all to actually participate in this activity, I will be choosing a winner of the most creative, fun, and original post and the winner will get a Starbucks, Jamba, or Coldstone gift card, whichever they like best. You can share anything from your favorite movie to your favorite food/recipe or anything else you can think of.

I can't wait to hear from you all!

~Jessica Shae

Smart Blonde. . .

2008-12-14T17:56:00.002-06:00

And no, that is NOT an oxi-moron.

~~~~~

A cop pulls over a blonde, and says, “Ma’am, you were speeding. May I please see your driver’s license?”
“Oh, well, you see officer, I don’t have a drivers license,” the blonde replies. “I never really had the time to go to the DMV and stand for hours in line…and anyway, all you get are terrible pictures.” The slightly taken aback cop says, “Well, then, may I see your proof of registration?"
“Well, officer,” the blonde says, “this isn’t my car. I wanted to borrow it from my neighbor, because it’s so much faster than mine and I was late for a wedding – that’s why I was speeding – but he said no really rudely, so I hit him over the head with a tire iron and stuffed him in the trunk.”
The horrified police officer backs away and calls for backup, and the police chief himself comes out, along with a squad, to see about this.
“Ma’am,” says the chief, “may I see your driver’s license?” The blonde hands it to him and it hasn’t expired or anything, everything’s okay. “May I see your proof of registration?" The blonde hands that to him, and it’s her car, and everything’s okay. “I hate to bother you,” the chief says, “but may I look in your trunk?”
So she pops the trunk and there’s nothing in there. The chief comes back to her window. “We’re sorry, ma’am. The officer over there said that you didn’t have a driver’s license, this wasn’t your car, and that you’d killed a man.”
“You know what,” says the blonde, “I bet he told you I was speeding, too.”

~~~~~

~Jessica Shae

2008-12-13T16:31:00.008-06:00

My Christmas "Wish list". . .

Pink Converse All Stars
Do Hard Things (the book)
Camera Bag
"Possibilities" (the perfume)
Cowgirl boots
"The Day I Was Crucified: as told by Jesus Christ" (the book)
Clothes
Jewelry

The season for wishes is here. And as a friend said, "Isn't it so nice that wishes don't actually cost anything!?!"

I agree :)

But even more than that, I am so glad that have been given the ability to be totally and completely satisfied in my Savior. Although it is not always that I live with this mindset, He is All in All to me.

~I have no good outside of Him.

~There is no friend that sticks closer than Him.

~He has given me his Living Word, and has allowed me to live in a country where I have ready and easy access to It.

~He supplies my every need, and then goes beyond that, and satisfies my every desire as well.

~As my Best Friend, He is always there to listen, encourage, and counsel.

~As the Lover of my Soul, he daily wins my heart with the acts of love he displays for me, sunsets, flowers, speaking to my heart from His Word.

~It is in His presence that I can find lasting joy.

~He orders and establishes my steps, when I seem to have lost my way.

~When I am overwhelmed with discouragement, fears, or anger, He leads me to a quiet place, and restores me to a right relationship with Him.

~~~~~~~

. . .What are boots and perfume in comparison to all that?.

So, the biggest thing on my "Wish list" this year is. . .

To know and be conformed to Him. Phil 3:10

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"So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the LORD your God has given to you and your house. . ." Deuteronomy 26:11

~Jessica Shae

2008-12-09T22:35:00.002-06:00

I saw this today and thought is was so funny....because it is so true :)

~Jessica Shae

Grant me O Lord. . .

2008-12-05T17:33:00.005-06:00

"Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know You, a heart to seek You, wisdom to find You, conduct pleasing to You, faithful perseverance in waiting for You, and a hope of finally embracing You.

Most loving Lord, grant me a steadfast heart which no unworthy desire may drag downwards; an unconquered heart which no hardship may wear out; an upright heart which no worthless purpose may ensnare.

Impart to me also, O God, the understanding to know You, the diligence to seek You, a way of life to please You, and a faithfulness that may embrace You, through Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen."

~Aquinas' Prayer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May this be true of our hearts and attitudes as we honor HIM, the True reason for the season.

~Jessica Shae

The 12 days of Christmas

2008-12-05T11:06:00.004-06:00

I found this clip this morning and was so impressed/laughing so hard that I thought y'all might get a kick out of it also :)

*You will have to scroll down and turn off the music before you listen to it.*

Laughing. . .

~Jessica Shae

My Insatiable Curiousity

2008-12-03T19:53:00.003-06:00

Anyone who knows me very well, or even those who only slightly know me will tell you that I am an extremely curious person. Some might even say to the point of being a bit nosy :) I respond to remarks like that by explaining that as the oldest girl in a big family were there was always so much happening SOMEone had to keep track of everyone and everything, and for some reason that responsibility seemed to naturally fall to me! It probably helped a little that I seemed to have a natural flair for it. So from the age of about 5 on...I made sure that as much as possible, I knew about EVERYTHING that was happening :)

Most of you have probably noticed that I have a site tracker at the bottom of my blog. Yes, my habits that began at age 5 have continued to this day. You might even say they have been "refined". So, I can see how many people get on my blog each day, how they get there, and where they are from. Some of them I automatically know who they are, one of my best friends is from Georgia...so whenever I see that "Adel, Georgia" has visited, I know who it is. Another best friend visits from Sacramento. But, I must admit that it has been driving me CRAZY trying to figure out who some of the others are. I have noticed that there are a few of you who visit on a regular basis, and I want to thank you so much! It is so encouraging to know that people are actually reading my posts and like it enough to return!

I would love to get to know YOU my reader a little bit. So I am kindly asking...no make that...BEGGING you to leave a comment and introduce yourself. All you have to do is click on the little comment link at the bottom of every post and write a quick line of introduction. Or if you don't want to write where everyone else will see it you can email me at solideogloria.blog@gmail.com.

I am especially curious to know who visits from (or somewhere near). . .

Owosso, MI.

Brackney, PA.

Denver, CO.

Montrose, PA.

Pittsburgh, PA.

Sherman, TX.

Scottsdale, AR.

Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

I know some of you I may have never met, and some may be friends that I don't even realize are following my blog, either way, I'd love to hear from you!

~Jessica Shae

It's begining to look alot like Christmas!

2008-11-30T20:18:00.003-06:00

I have my own little Christmas tree that I put up every year in my room and last year in my stocking I got the most ADORABLE ornaments...

I took a picture of one of them on my tree today and had to share it with you it makes me so happy :) I love Starbucks!

Merry Christmas. . .

~Jessica Shae

Rethinking the "gift" of singleness.

2008-11-29T18:47:00.006-06:00

I recently read this article and found it very interesting in it's viewpoint. It is not very often that you find someone who writes in such a straightforward fashion, I love it!

I would ask that you read this with an open mind and then please, Please, PLEASE, comment and let me know what you think! I would love to hear all of your thoughts whether you agree or don't agree, I'm interested to hear what you think about this issue :) I am planning on writing some of my own thoughts on this issue in a later post, so look for that in a couple of days!

I can't post the whole article here since it is copyrighted, but I am posting a little excerpt from it to get you interested and then you can go and read the rest here. . .

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By Debbie Maken

"Is singleness really a "gift"?. . .

. . .Contemporary Christian teaching on this subject blurs the line between celibacy and singleness and leaves singles mistakenly believing that the two are the same. God is often painted as capriciously willing singleness for some and not others. Consequently and sadly, many Christian singles resign themselves to this less-than-ideal state. A more thoughtful and critical examination reveals that today's singleness is not some sort of divinely ordained, interminable state for a quarter of the population, but the result of a string of systematic impediments to marriage:

male-friendly mating structure that is not geared toward marriage, but toward low-commitment, short term, shallow cyclical relationships
a low view of marriage, with the process to achieve it reflecting its value: the casual nature of dating ultimately reflects the casual nature with which we treat our marriages
lack of male leadership in the home, with parents bringing up boys to remain boys
a protracted education system that doesn't really educate
the removal of shame for indulging in the Indian Summer of one's adolescence or for being a perennial bachelor
a privatized version of the meaning of marriage
a diminished expectation of marriage from the divorce culture, and
a redefinition or a defining downward of healthy biblical adulthood?. . ."

~Jessica Shae

{ la vita è bella }

Doubt not His grace.

2 mysteries.

{I will find rest}

Sometimes I wonder...

hope.

"For He who is the ground of thy faith..."

Not my own

Trusting God: even when life hurts

waiting.

I was just really excited about the cows...

Now that you mention it . . .

"I don't know how to say goodbye . . ."

Passing it on

"Yet it hath a better side..."

The same spirit as the wise men...

"...this has always been enough."

{11.29.09}

Remember, and give thanks.

I Like --> YOU:

sarah + jessica = bff

All this nothing

{ 10.28.09 }

Sick day

Friday thoughts on Fall, Football, & "Fumpkins" . . .

Making much of Christ.

and i write . . .

Benjamin: Memories of the good ol' days

sweet nothings...

Sweet Sixteen

I don't have a title for this post.

yes yes yes.

"She opens her mouth with . . . ?"

This week I'm loving . .

What if it happened today . . . ?

Did you know . . . ?

.: Rachel :.

"happy, fortunate, enviable . . ."

Honor system

"What do you make of this?"

::Live like you are dying::

Today I am loving . . .

One Word

New year - New look.

"How do I love you? . . ."

We are wanderers . . .

April happenings . . .

He is Risen INDEED!

Happenings of my week:

Today . . .

*Announcing*

Sunrise

Family Vacation

Spring Break!

pieces of my life . .

"Snaps and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails . . ."

Spring Forward

::Alex Loden - Photoshoot::

::Alex Loden::

Sunday afternoon . . .

James A Barrie

:: Two Heartbeats Rally::

IPS - Institute of Photographic Studies

Purposeful silence.

Happy Birthday!

The things I did

Girl Scout Cookies

And again.

::My blue eyed girl::

Two decades old.

Reckless Reliance

Capitol Ministries - Texas

"Now it shall spring forth . . . "

"My determined purpose . . . "

All the pictures.

All things girlie. . .

And the Winner is. . .

Shopping. . .

le mieux des amis = the best of friends

New beginnings...

Announcing