Prayer Request For Jessi

This is one of those posts you never want to write, but thankfully there's a community we can reach out to in these types of situations. Thank you everyone for your prayers.

Today Jessi was diagnosed with two blood clots in her right calf. Thankfully, they're small and not at risk to move and become bigger issues, but it's still a concern. Jessi will be starting treatment tomorrow which is supposed to last 6 months. Hopefully, by the end of that time they'll be gone and Jessi will be back to normal. We're still learning a lot about the implications and this will probably result in life-style changes.

We were tipped off to something being up when Jessi's right leg was in constant pain with no physical difference between it and the left leg. According to Jessi, it feels like a muscle ache that gets worse when iced or stretched. We decide to see the doctor and it turns out that was a smart decision.

Again, thank you for your prayers and we'll keep you posted on what happens.

Let it Snow!

I am doing a few things around the house today and I opened up the blinds to water some plants and this is what I saw:




I haven't seen snow as think as this since I was living in Colorado! I love it! I felt just like a little kid running to the window shouting, "snow!!! yay!!!" There is a little girl running around in the snow outside our window now, in fact. Brings back the memories of life's simple pleasures. *sigh*

Enjoying hot coacoa and marshmallows,

Jessi

Getting Ready for Christmas

I have decided that my number two favorite holiday is Christmas. I love Thanksgiving the most because it is right next to my birthday, or in this year's case on my birthday, and because it is so much fun to get everyone in the same place and eat really good food. Christmas is similar because everyone gets together but the traditions and meaning behind Christmas are so special.

I think it hit me when we were putting up our Christmas decorations this year and I realized that they were MY decorations and not my parents. This is the first year I have really ever put anything up for my own house. It was really fun to go out shopping with James and make our home special and cozy and Christmasy.

I am looking forward to going to Colorado for Christmas to visit my family and also to begin new traditions and carry on old ones with my new husband. We usually eat Mexican food for Christmas at the Christian household. I don't know why, I guess we had just gotten tired of turkey and ham by then...and my Grandpa really loved the extremely spicy green chili my mom made each year. This year we are going to teach James how to make tamales...homemade tamales.

Even with all the Christmas hype, buying of presents, and the multiple fun traditions of the season...I have been reminded often this year of the meaning behind everything we have the freedom to do. It is not because of anything we have done or made for ourselves. It is because God loved us so much he renewed the relationship with us through his son. It was truly the beginning of our reason to celebrate when Jesus was born.

Enjoy the pictures!

Jessi

p.s. we have a balloon tree because we will be out of town for Christmas day :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

This thanksgiving Jessi and I flew down to Los Gatos, California to visit my family. It was an awesome weekend with the whole family. My parents really liked having everyone visit especially since this is their first year without anyone in the house. The weekend was marked by three main events: lots of eating, visiting my sister's college and cutting down a Christmas tree.
	My sister, Lisa, goes to San Fransisco State University. Matthew, Jessi and I went up to SF to check it out. The campus is very nice. There's some large trees in the middle of campus that helps hide the fact that the school is in the middle of a huge city. We also went to Twin Peaks which are a set of hills looking over the city. It was a little foggy, but there were still a ton of tourists checking out the view. We then went down the winding part of Lombard Street and drove around the Warf. Going over the Gold Gate Bride is up to $5, so we decided to simply view it from a distant.

Then we went out for our annual Christmas Tree hunting trip. This is the first year we've gone without Scoter. I won't lie, it was tough not having him around to "help". I threw a big stick in memory of him - then I told Jessi to fetch the stick... let's just say I miss Scoter. One of the fun part about my family is that we have no problem doing weird things and accepting it as normal. For example, we found three potentially worthy trees. In previous years we would simply pick one, but this year we decided to put it to a vote. At first we were going to do a secret thumb vote, but some family members had trouble with the concept. So Matthew, being the president of his fraternity, decided to implement Roberts Rules of Order to the process. The winning tree had to have 50% + 1 votes to win (or 2/3 majority, or 4 votes). We started down the path of making it a secret ballet vote, but quickly realized we didn't have paper or pens. Then someone called "Roll Call Vote" which means we had to go around the circle and publicly state our vote. It took a few rounds, promises were made, deals were brokered and we finally picked a tree.
We also watched Los Gatos High School win their football game, saw friends from church and generally relaxed. For Christmas Jessi and I decided to go to Colorado and hang out with her family. I'm hopping for a white Christmas.