The Crow's

It's Been waaayyy too long!

2011-12-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess I've neglected the ol' blog for almost a year now! A LOT has happened since the last post. Most of you that will read this know already but I'm PREGNANT! I'm 32 weeks pregnant in fact so it's pretty much old news by now. Being pregnant has been an amazing experience for me. I have loved it. Knock on wood, I haven't experienced any morning sickness or nausea or anything of the sorts. The first trimester I was EXTREMELY tired but other than that I was just thankful to be pregnant! Second trimester was great! I had a surge of energy around week 14 and that stayed until around week 28. I'm still not feeling as tired as I was in the first trimester but the tiredness is coming back! I was able to go to 7 out of 11 AR football games this season! Jarred ordered me a seatback b/c I've had some back pain and that was WELL worth the money. I couldn't have made it through the games without it. Luckily, Arkansas had a great season this year so it was fun going to all the games. We even traveled to Nashville to see the Hogs play at Vanderbilt with my family.

Jarred and I have attended 3 prenatal classes so far (Birthing/Hospital Tour, Infant CPR & Safety, & Breastfeeding) and we have our last class tonight (Newborn Care). I guess once we finish class tonight we'll be "officially" ready to be parents! :) The classes have been great for both of us. We have really learned a lot and since I haven't read ANY books I feel lots more informed than before and actually more at ease about the whole labor/delivery process! I'm getting to a point where I'm READY to meet this little girl- not so much as nervous about the labor as I am excited to be a mommy!! She does have a name too- Callie Marie Crow.

We have 2 baby showers this weekend (one from my work and one from my church) and I'm so excited! So far we have a glider (from my Mimi), a crib, and a dresser! My mom and brother painted the nursery purple (light purple) and green and mom made a curtain for the window. Other than that we're just waiting to see what we get at the shower's and we'll fill in the rest of what we need afterwards. My parents, Mimi, In-laws, 3 sister-n-laws, 3 nieces, and best friend from back home will all be coming to the showers this weekend. I am pumped to see everyone! Callie is so blessed to have such an amazing family surrounding her! She's been prayed about for a long time now and we're all excited to meet her.

There's just a little update on life as we know it these days. Callie's a mover- she's kicking me all the time but I honestly love it. We'll be meeting her soon and I'm sure I'll have more to say once she gets here. Thank you to everyone for your prayers for our family, they have not been forgotten!

~Jennifer

On my heart

2011-01-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

Quite a bit has been on my heart lately and I guess it's time I share with the blogging world. I'm sitting here monitoring a test for my residents, so I'm out of my office, done with all my paperwork, and just sitting in silence, thinking. I decided it was as good a time as any to get my thoughts out.

The past 2- 2 1/2 weeks have been a definite roller coaster of emotions. Still is a roller coaster, if I'm honest. Here's the story. Jarred and I have been trying to get pregnant since August 2009. It's been a long road but for the most part, up until recently, I feel like I've been handling it pretty well. Maybe I'm giving myself too much credit but I've tried to stay upbeat and positive about everything and to me I've done well. Maybe you should ask Jarred- he may not agree. HA! Anyways, I've had trouble with my cycle being normal- Back when we started I was doing triathlons, then training for a half marathon and it was killing my cycle. SO, after I suffered a stress fracture at the end of January 2010 (just before the half marathon in March) I decided to stop training so hard. Unfortunately, I got pretty down about not being able to do the half marathon and literally stopped doing all forms of exercise all together (I DON'T recommend this). Basically, I was wasting away (aka- getting FAT) and I was miserable but I was telling myself that I wasn't going to do anything b/c my cycle was starting to become more normal and I thought any exercise would mess me up- plus since my cycle was normal again I thought I'd just get pregnant pretty quick, have the baby, then start back to exercising. Well, as you probably guessed, that didn't happen. Not only was I not getting pregnant, I was not doing ANYTHING for my health! So, I had an apiphany (sp??) in about August or September of last year (yes, it's ridiculous that it took me that long to come back to reality) that I wasn't going to just stop living and only wait to get pregnant. It's ridiculous! It's miserable and not worth it at all. I was only focusing on getting pregnant but not taking care of myself at all. So...around September of 2010 I started doing better. I decided to try to eat right, to exercise some (not too much though, b/c I was still worried about my cycle), and just try to be more content with where we were along the journey. I have to say that it did help some but in October we decided to start doing the ovulation kits (hadn't started them earlier b/c Jarred and I both thought it would just add more stress). Well, the ovulation kits didn't seem to be working but we decided to keep using them b/c since my cycle is so weird they did help to figure out when I was ovulating (or so I thought). Well, by December of last year we still hadn't had any luck, Jarred was going to be traveling quite a bit during December and we decided to stop the ovulation kits. I was feeling like I was in a much better place with my attitude and knowing that God was in control and that whatever his timing is would be/will be MUCH better than anything that I can dream up. So, we stopped the ovulation kits. I did a "work-up" for the doctor in December, which just means, lots of blood work to tests ovaries, ovulation, etc and an HSG test, which I do NOT recommend but it shoots a dye through your falopian tubes to see if you have a blockage. Well, everything came back normal except for the ovulation tests. Basically my levels were so low they thought I wasn't ovulating. By the end of the month the doctor decided to have Jarred and I come in on January 7th to discuss clomid (sp??). This drug increases your ovulation. Well, I had really been wondering if the doctors were right. They were telling me that I probably wasn't ovulating and since we had done the ovulation kits prior I was confused. The ovulation kits gave me a positive sign that I was ovulating every month, now it wasn't the same time every month, like it is for some but I was at least getting a positive sign. So, when we arrived at our appointment on the 7th of January I told the nurse everything I was thinking and that I still hadn't started my period but that it was normal b/c my cycle is sometimes REALLY long. She seemed a little confused but asked when my last period was...I told her it was November 29th. She asked me if I had taken a pregnancy test and I told her I had the week before but it was negative. She said well, it's probably still negative but just in case, let's take another while you're here. WELL...turns out that was my first POSITIVE pregnancy test ever! So, the doctor, who thinks she's coming in to talk to me about how I'm not ovulating and to discuss options regarding clomid, comes in to find that I've just had a positive pregnancy test. Luckily, Jarred was with me at this appointment and since I was in so much shock (crying hysterically, couldn't talk, etc.) he asked all the questions to the doctor. How did she get pregnant if she's not ovulating? Are you sure this is a positive pregnancy test? We've never seen one of those before so can you just MAKE SURE it's positive before you go getting my wife's hopes up?? Etc. Etc. Well, apparently the test they took to check my ovulation was done too early in my cycle (since, once again, my cycle is so weird) and my levels weren't where they normally are for normal people. Surprise! I'm not normal! Well, anyways, she reassures us, YES, you did get pregnant! You are 100% pregnant! Enjoy this time!!! Then she tacks on, but I want you to be cautiously optimistic b/c anything can happen! Well, we leave estactic and as we leave we schedule the appointment for our first ultrasound to see our baby- Monday, January 24th!

Well, lots of things have happened since the HIGH of finding out we were pregnant. We went on a cruise with my family over the weekend of the 15-16 of January and we decided to go ahead and tell them then. We knew it was early but all I could think was nothings going to happen, we've been waiting so long for this to happen, God wouldn't let anything happen now!!! So, we told my family! The cruise ended on Monday, January 17th and unfortunately that's the same day I lost the baby. I started bleeding almost immediately when we landed in Galveston and throughout that entire week (last week) I cramped and bled. It was AWFUL. We went from being on the highest of highs to now what feels like the lowest of lows. I have struggled to figure out why this happened. I still don't really know and I guess I never will.

Jarred and I feel EXTREMELY loved. Our family, church family, friends, etc have just surrounded us with meals, cards, phone calls, texts, etc. You name it we've received it. It's something that's so hard for me to accept too. Especially the meals. Basically, I'm learning that one way of serving is actually letting people serve you. It's very humbling.

Throughout the last week I have been through every emotion imaginable. I feel very blessed that we were able to get pregnant! What a blessing!!! I mean, two weeks ago we weren't really sure that was possible and now we know it is! And we didn't have to use any medicines or anything, so YES, it's a great blessing. That is what I'm trying to focus on. I think that's been the hardest part for me, focusing on the blessing rather than the loss. I know that lots of people go through miscarriages and I feel lucky to have never heard a heartbeat or seen an ultrasound but I'm still having a hard time with this! I guess I will for a while. Jarred keeps telling me it's normal to grieve, I just don't want to be in this valley anymore!

Here are the positives (I think I need to do this)
1. WE CAN GET PREGNANT!
2. WE ARE BEYOND BLESSED WITH SUPPORT
3. JARRED AND I HAVE GROWN SO MUCH AS A COUPLE THROUGH THIS PROCESS
4. WE ONLY HAVE TO WAIT TO TRY AGAIN UNTIL MY PERIOD COMES (2 - 6 WEEKS)
5. OUR HEAVENLY FATHER HAS A WONDERFUL PLAN FOR OUR LIVES, ALL WE NEED TO DO IS TRUST IN HIM.

I'm not sure what else to say. I guess, just pray for our family right now. Pray that my period will come sooner rather than later. Pray for a successful pregnancy. Pray for us to TRUST in Our Savior!

With Love-
Jennifer

Thanksgiving

2010-12-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess this is long overdue but I'll post about it anyway!

Jarred and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This year we had Thanksgiving with Jarred's family (we alternate the holidays). This was the first year that they had Thanksgiving in Searcy at Jarred's parents house. Normally, we go to Flippin, AR to see Jarred's Nanny but as she's gotten older she doesn't do the cooking anymore and it's easier for Bernetta (Jarred's mom) to cook from her own kitchen. It was a nice change. I sat at the table with Jarred and his brothers and learned that this is the FIRST time in like 18 years, or something crazy like that, that Jarred's older brother Jeff has had Thanksgiving with his parents! They usually stay in Searcy to be with his wife's family but this year since we were all in Searcy they joined us. It was great to be with family and enjoy the holidays!

I got to help with a lot of the cooking this year! It was awesome! I made my green bean bundles, jello pretzel salad, devilled eggs (which I learned was my father-n-law's favorite!), and some cookies! I LOVE to cook so it was fun to get asked to bring something! I am sad that I don't have a picture of the spread because my camera batteries died and I've been too lazy to go to the store to get batteries...AND when I go to the store for normal stuff I ALWAYS forget! Maybe I'll get some batteries before Christmas! Guess you'll find out when you read my Christmas post!

Anyways, we stayed in Searcy Wednesday and Thursday night and came home Friday afternoon. Once we got home it was time to start decorating for Christmas! I LOVE to decorate for Christmas and I love to do it AS SOON AFTER THANKSGIVING AS POSSIBLE! So...while Jarred watched the AL vs. Auburn game Friday afternoon, I decorated for Christmas! I got my tree up and put all the ornaments on (except for Jarred's ornaments that he put on after the game was over), decorated my mantle, put a few Christmas odds and ends in my kitchen and on another table in my living room, and put up some lights around the entry to my house! I wanted to put up the rest of the outside lights that day but unfortunately we ran out of daylight! Our outside lights are up now though! My brother came with his really long ladder and put them up for us! They looked awesome until yesterday when one of my strands went out and now I need him to come back!!! I'm going to buy one more strand of lights to fix that one and hopefully we can get them up and running again. I LOVE OUTSIDE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! They just make me VERY happy! There is a picture of our house all lit up on my facebook page!

Saturday was probably one of our most memorable football game experiences EVER! The #12 HOGS beat #5 LSU which has now moved us up to #7 and them down to (I THINK) #10 AND...wait for it...wait for it...since Auburn beat South Carolina in the SEC Championship game...wait for it...wait for it...WE'RE GOING TO THE SUGAR BOWL BABY!!!! Jarred is beyond excited. I think HOG fans everywhere are excited about this. No one moved from their seats after the game was over. Normally the crowd starts clearing immediately to rush to their cars but not this time! They were all so excited that they (including us) stayed in their spots and sang "Pour some sugar on me!" multiple times! We ordered our tickets on Monday after the LSU game not even knowing if Auburn would win (which turned out to be a blow out!). So...on January 3rd we'll be heading down to Louisiana to the Superdome to watch the HOGS in their first BSC Bowl game EVER!

So, all in all, the Thanksgiving weekend was fantastic! I enjoyed every minute of being with family and friends and my sweet hubby! I'm so thankful for him! He's been gone to Vegas this week for his annual board meeting and he gets back TONIGHT! I can't wait to see him! As I finish I'll leave you with this verse I came upon today while reading an excerpt from a book that a friend recommended to me. It really spoke to me especially with what Jarred and I have been going through with trying to get pregnant. Maybe it will be an encouragement to you to.

Habakkuk 3: 17 - 19

"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights."

~Jennifer

Thankful!

2010-11-22T07:23:00.001-08:00

As Thanksgiving is quickly approaching I'm going to make a list of the top 10 things I'm most thankful for...just to keep things in perspective! :)

1. My Heavenly Father and the gift He has given us so that one day we'll be able to be with Him in Heaven!

2. My Wonderful Husband and how as we grow in our marriage we begin to learn more and more about each other on a daily basis. We KNOW each other so well and I'm thankful for that.

3. My Family- this includes my parents, brothers, sister-in-law, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. I have THE BEST family around. We all get along, we all love each other, we actually enjoy being together! I'm so thankful!

4. My In-Law Family- I actually enjoy Jarred's family too! I know this is unheard of but I really do. His parents are THE BEST as well and they treat me like I'm their own daughter. It's a wonderful relationship and I realize that's not something everyone can say so I'm thankful!

5. My Friends- Once again, I have THE BEST friends around. I have always known this but it's become more apparent to me lately. As I've been struggling with my own issues my friends have rallied around me and lifted me up in prayer. They are all so special to me and I'm thankful for them!

6. My Job- I really do like my job. It fits me. I have 2 amazing bosses that I really enjoy. One of my bosses I consider to me one of my best friends! She is like another mom to me and it's nice to have that when my Mom is far away! We like to call her and her husband our Little Rock parents!

7. My Home- I'm thankful that Jarred and I have been blessed with a home that is big enough to allow us to help our family. I'm posted about this earlier but we've been able to have my brother and his wife live with us since July. I'm thankful that we've been blessed and are able to share those blessings.

8. My Church Home- I'm thankful for PVCC because we've been blessed to be VERY involved. We've been given opportunities through PVCC that we may not have had elsewhere. Jarred and I were given the opportunity to work with an inner city school in NLR and have been blessed bc of it. I'm so thankful that someone saw something in us to allow us to have that blessing!

9. My Upbringing- Too often I get jealous of people that came to Christ on their own accord. I say things like, Man, that is impressive! They have such a better story than I do. What am I saying??? I grew up in the church and should be thankful that I did. I take that for granted too often! We all have a story and I shouldn't be ashamed of mine.

10. My Future- I don't know what the future holds for Jarred and I but I know that God has great things in store for us. I know that He will guide us. Whatever is next for us I wait for it with anticipation! Just like the song- While I'm waiting I will trust you Lord!

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving????

~Jennifer

Last Soup Recipe for October

2010-10-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

1 1/2 lb. plum (roma) tomatoes, halved

5 TBSP olive oil, divided

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms, Crimini if you can get them

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 can Campbell's chicken broth

1/3 cup tomato paste

pinch of sugar

3/4 cup whipping cream (I use fat-free 1/2 and 1/2)

Grated parmesan cheese and chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Place tomatoes cut side down in greased baking pan. Brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic and seasonings. Bake uncovered at 450 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes until edges are browned. Cool slightly. Place tomatoes AND pan drippings in food processor or blender and process until smooth, then 1 more minute.

In a large saucepan or skillet, saute mushrooms and onions in 2 tablespoons of olive oil 5 to 8 minutes. They need to be tender, but not browned. Stir in everything except cream. Bring to boil. Remove from heat. Stir in cream. Garnish.

SO SO GOOD!! Serve with french bread (or your favorite bread) for dipping. If you want to MAKE your bread visit my good friend Carissa's blog (http://prettyhungrygirl.wordpress.com/) for instructions on how to make some FABULOUS bread! Her bread is FANTASTIC!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

James 1:12

2010-10-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

"Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him."

Waiting

2010-10-26T13:08:00.001-07:00

A dear friend sent me this prayer that she prayed for both her and myself yesterday. We're both going through a rough time right now and I thought it was perfect. I thought I'd share the prayer with all of you.

"While I'm Waiting" by John Waller

I’m waiting I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait
I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I’m waiting
I will serve You
While I’m waiting
I will worship
While I’m waiting
I will not faint
I’ll be running the race
Even while I wait
I’m waiting I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it’s not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting
I will serve You while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting
I will serve You while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting on You, Lord

Prayer has been difficult for me recently and the Lord has blessed me with a MUCH wiser friend who has been helping me through it. I haven't shared much about what I've been going through on my blog, I'm not sure I'm ready to open that can of worms. I just want to say that I'm thankful for friends that will encourage me when I'm down, even when they are down too. This is the second prayer she's sent me and they are always perfect. I want to be the kind of friend to others as she has been to me. Let's be encouraging to others around us, even when we may be going through a rough patch as well.

Faithfully Waiting...
~Jennifer

Potato & Canadian Bacon Slow Cooker Chowder

2010-10-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

Potato and Canadian Bacon Slow Cooker Chowder

2 cup(s) potato(es), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 large carrot(s), diced
1 cup(s) leek(s), chopped, white part only
1 medium garlic clove(s), minced
4 cup(s) fat-free chicken broth
1/2 cup(s) uncooked barley
1 piece(s) bay leaf
1/4 tsp dried thyme, crushed
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 oz Canadian-style bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup(s) fat-free evaporated milk
2 oz fat-free half and half

In a slow cooker, combine potatoes, carrots, leek, garlic, chicken broth, barley, bay leaf, thyme, pepper and Canadian bacon. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or until vegetables and barley are tender. Stir in evaporated milk and half-and-half and heat through, uncovered, about 10 minutes.

This is a recipe with some ingredients I wasn't so sure about (aka leeks, barley) but I'm telling you that if you try it you WILL like it!! It's a healthy (healthier than good ol potato soup) spin on a potato soup!! Hope you like it!

~Jennifer

Chicken Tortilla Soup! YUM!

2010-10-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Soup #2 for October

1 cup onion
1 tsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2 cups chicken (1 use 3 chicken breasts)
1 cup frozen corn
1 jalapeno (remove seeds and dice)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp. Worcestershire
1/2 tsp. chili powder
29 oz. chicken broth (1 box will do)
14.5 oz. tomato soup (1 can)

Mix all together and cook! This one can also be done in the crock pot all day. Put ingredients toether the night before and cook on low all day in crock pot! YUMMY!

Enjoy!!

~Jennifer

Soup Season!

2010-10-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

I am SO excited that Fall is here and cooler temperatures are upon us! I am especially excited about this because it's time to start making SOUPS! I have so many soup recipes and I can't wait to make them all. Soups are so easy because I can put (some of them) them together the night before and just leave them in the crock pot all day while I'm at work! The best part of that is that when I get home there is NOTHING to be done except EAT! I LOVE to cook so it's not that much of a hassle to cook when I get home but there are always days when that's the LAST thing I want to do. Soups make that easier...I'm going to try to post a soup recipe every week in October. Here's the first...this one is also figure friendly (if you leave off the sour cream and chips!)

TACO SOUP

1 lb. ground beef
½ or 1 onion chopped
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 pkg. ranch salad dressing mix
1 can corn
1 can kidney beans (I prefer southern ranch style beans)
1 can black beans
1 can chili beans
1 can chopped tomato (rotel)

Cook on stove or in crock pot. Serve with Sour Cream, Tortilla Chips, & Cheese.

I put it all in the crock pot the night before and then put the pot in the crock pot holder in the morning before I leave for work. I cook it on low all day and it's WONDERFUL. ENJOY!

~Jennifer

Last Weekend!

2010-09-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

Jarred and I had a great weekend! My family came to town and we had a great visit! Here are some highlights!

1. Friday night we went on a DATE before my parents arrived! Jarred took me to Panera Bread (one of my all time favorites and a place I don't get to very often b/c we live so far away now!!) then to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt! YUM!

2. Mom and Dad arrived and we planned our Saturday (heading to the HOGS game!)

3. We pulled out of the driveway at 7:15 AM and hit the road for Fayetteville...we got to watch the basketball team scrimmage, then went to tailgate w/ some folks from Jarred's work. They teamed up with some other businesses from Sheridan and had it catered! We had fajitas and chips and salsa, YUM!!

4. The HOGS played great and had the lead for MOST of the game...the crowd was FANTASTIC...loudest I've ever heard the crowd at that stadium. We were on our feet the ENTIRE game. When we scored on our first drive of the game the place went NUTS!! I truly thought we were gonna pull it out but we threw it away during the last minutes (literally!!). It was heartbreaking! Jarred and I stood frozen in place after it was over- in SHOCK! We almost beat the #1 team in the nation...way to go HOGS for putting up a good fight...I'm SO SAD we couldn't pull it out!!

5. The drive home we stuck GLEE into the DVD player and Mom and I watched (she needed to catch up from last season) and made the drive home go faster! I wasn't feeling GREAT so I fell asleep in Mom's lap and that made the drive go even FASTER!

6. My brothers and my sister in law came over Saturday night to spend the night and go to church with us on Sunday. I LOVE having my entire family together. We missed having Sierra with us but had a great time. We went to Moe's after class and then back to the house to play with the dogs, relax, look at houses (for my brother and his wife), and finish up some projects around my house (new air filters, sealing the door frames, replacing light bulbs, etc.). Mom and Dad had to head home around 3:00.

7. After church last night we all went to Wal-Mart to buy some meat to grill for dinner. My youngest brother, Jay, grilled us all some fabulous steaks and we had a GREAT healthy meal! I made mashed sweet potatoes and Kaitlin made a big salad to go with the steaks! It was a fun time. Jay spent the night with us again b/c my brothers are starting their first job today. They have started a business (Skinner Brothers) and hopefully it's going to take off for them. They can do landscaping, sprinkler systems, home repairs and projects, decks, etc...they do GREAT work and they are HARD workers!! You should give them a call if you're interested in hiring them! They've both been doing landscaping/sprinkler systems since they were little! Call 501-593-9844 for a quote today!!

Well, that's all for now! Have a fun week!

~Jennifer

Labor Day 2010

2010-09-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

This past Labor Day we had our first Butterworth Family Reunion! This is my mom's side of the family and for some reason we've just never had a big family trip or anything on that side of the family. My Dad's side goes to the beach EVERY summer. So, we decided it was time for a change and that we'd all like to start getting together every year! This year my mom took the lead on picking the place and making all the arrangements! She did an excellent job. We went to Smith Lake in Cullman, AL (or maybe outside of Cullman, AL) and stayed at a Lake House that is owned by a family from Mom and Dad's church. It's called A Slough of Fun if you ever want to check it out for yourselves! See the pictures below. It was really nice and sleeps about 12-14 comfortably...My Mimi (mom's mom) graciously paid for the accommodations and told us that her only requirement would be that we had to do some Good Eatin!! SO...my uncle Chris & aunt Susie took breakfast and dinner on Saturday and I took lunch and my Mom took breakfast and dinner on Sunday and my cousin, Annie took lunch. Let me tell ya...we did some GOOD EATIN! My uncle Chris and my Mom know how to do it! They learned from the best, my Mimi!! The house was right on the lake so we played in the water, some of us went canoeing, we had our church service on Sunday out of the dock (best worship service EVER!!), we read, sat around and solved all the world's problems, played games, and had a fabulous time! We've already decided we'd like to make this a tradition and plan a trip next year! The ball was handed off to Aunt Susie and she's gonna make it happen! All in all it was a great trip and here are some pictures for you too all the fun we had!

My beautiful MimiUncle Chris & Aunt Susie My Dad acting silly as usual! :)Annie doing what she loves most!
Jay & Sierra
Mom & Dad
Uncle Chris & Aunt SusieAll the women, except Mom (she's taking the picture)Butterworth crew minus Chet plus Jordan! Butterworth kids with their momma! Me & Jarred
Skinner crew minus Michael, Kaitlin, Jay, & Sierra plus Mimi!!Butterworth women!All the Butterworth womenButterworth crew!

Mom & Dad
Jones's (Joneses???) No clue- Annie help me out...
Cousins!!!
As you can see I FINALLY remembered my camera and went a little crazy! This isn't even all of my pictures! Enjoy!

~Jennifer

Love My Family

2010-09-09T12:36:00.001-07:00

For the past couple months my brother (Michael) and his wife (Kaitlin) have been living with us on the weekdays because my sister in law is working in Little Rock and they haven't been able to sell their house in Searcy. I have LOVED having them around. My brother isn't around as much as Kaitlin (b/c of his job he's gone for a week then home for a week, gone for a week, home a week, etc.- you get the point!). This has been so much fun for me because of several reasons but one because it's given Kaitlin and I a chance to get to know each other better. Kaitlin is extremely sweet and can sometimes be quiet (however, this COULD be because previous times I was with her was when my entire family was together and we pretty much DOMINATE all the talking- Kaitlin- we're very sorry!). Because of the loudness of my family I really didn't have the chance to get to know her on a very personal level! Having her at my house has been fantastic for our relationship. I just adore her and think she's hilarious! It's funny because the more I learn about her the more I realize how much she are Jarred are alike. They are both extremely generous, patient, loving, and never, ever want to be a burden on anyone, so much so that they will go out of their way, inconveniencing themselves just so that no one else is inconvenienced! Not sure if that makes sense but I'm telling you, they are JUST ALIKE!
Having them with us has also been great for Mine and Michael's relationship. As we grow older we get closer and closer and that just warms my heart! I love both of my brothers very much and it's always been my prayer that we'd be great friends as we became adults and have families of our own. So far, that's working out just great! My youngest brother, Jay, is dating a girl (pretty seriously) and I think she's fantastic as well. Kaitlin and I have even planned to have a girls night with her soon. I feel so blessed that my brothers and their significant others want to hang out with me & Jarred. I guess I'm just feeling sentimental today or something but it really is the best thing ever! Jarred and I have wonderful siblings and we are blessed to have great relationships with all of them! Michael and Kaitlin want to eventually move out to Little Rock and I'm SO excited they are going to be close to us! I'm secretly praying Jay will eventually do the same! Sorry Mom! Mom and Dad just need to move out this way too! :)

6 years!

2010-08-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

Well, tomorrow is our 6 year anniversary! I can't believe it's already been 6 years! It's been so wonderful so far and I look forward to many more years to come. We're celebrating tomorrow by starting off the day serving over at Boone Park Elementary school. Boone Park has become such a special school to me and Jarred. It truly has a place in both of our hearts! Boone Park is made up of practically 100% of kids that are on free or reduced lunches. We're told that the small percentage that aren't on the free lunches aren't on them only because they didn't complete the paperwork. Jarred and I, along w/ a good friend, Holly, have been in charge of our church's partnership with this school for the last 2 years. Our church is the school's Official Partner in Education. We help with several events throughout the year but the Back to School Bash (the event tomorrow) is by far the biggest. We provide school supplies for EVERY child that will attend BP in the Fall. We put on this event and invite all the prospective students and their families to come out, play games with our members/volunteers, sign up for school, eat some lunch, and fellowship. It's AMAZING! So, we'll start our day with that and we'll probably end it by having a nice dinner and relaxing at the house. Our present to ourselves was The Complete First Season of Glee!! We love it- actually was I supposed to say WE??? I guess I did though, didn't I??? Haha, Jarred likes it to but if you ever asked him about it he'd deny it, I'm sure! I'll leave you with some pictures of Jarred and I through the years!!

Happy 6 year Anniversary Jarred!! I love you more today than I ever thought possible! I can't wait to see what the next 60 years have in store for us! It's so wonderful to spend my life w/ my best friend. You're my favorite!

A couple of years ago at New Year's Eve at the Tappe's. The picture cracks me up so I had to use it!
This was at our 5 year anniversary trip to Belize last year! We were just about to repel down the mountain...LONG hike to the top, I was wasted! So much fun!

This was this year's beach trip with my family back in June. It's the most recent picture I have of me & Jarred. My aunt is such a good photographer!

What's Been Going On at The Crow's?

2010-05-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Well...Lots of things!!

1st- WE'RE MOVING!!! We sold our house on April 15th and we'll be moving to BENTON in less than 2 weeks! We've been packing (correction- I've been packing!) like crazy! Unfortunately the deal worked out where we're closing on BOTH houses (the sell and the buy) on the same day so we're moving into a U-Haul Truck and a storage facility for less than 24 hours and THEN into the new house. Don't ask how that happened! :) I can't wait to move. I have LOVED our 1st home...it's been a great place for us but now that there are no pictures on the wall and it's starting to look empty I'm ready for the New Place! I'm ready to have a "home" again. The place we're leaving doesn't seem like "home" anymore b/c everything's gone! :)

2nd- BOONE PARK! I've been working (with the help of Jarred and Holly) on planning a Boone Park teachers/staff/students appreciation reception at our church! Luckily the process has been smooth so far. I think it's going to be a fun night, we're having finger foods, showing a slideshow of the events our church has participated in this past school year, and giving out outstanding teacher/student awards! I'm praying that we have LOTS of support from our PV members and that the students and teachers feel VERY special! Please make plans to attend if you are a PV member...I know the Boone Park folks would really appreciate it and I will too!!!

3rd- TRIPS! We have some fun trips that are coming up soon! We're traveling w/ the Casey's this weekend, going to Texas Memorial Day Weekend for a Crow-side Family Reunion, and going to the beach w/ my family in June (for an ENTIRE WEEK!)!! I am ready for vacation and I'm sure after the move I'll be VERY ready for vacation!

Needless to say we've been super busy but it's been very good at the Crow Home the past couple months. Hopefully I'll have house pictures to post soon!

MARCH MADNESS

2010-03-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited! March Madness is here and Jarred and I are pumped. Especially Jarred. We both filled out a bracket and we compete every year! I'll let you know how it turns out. I was winning after the games last night! Probably won't be after today though, Stupid UTEP!!!

Great Friends

2010-02-26T08:27:00.000-08:00

I just want to give a shout out to some great friends of ours...Chris and Carissa! Since they got married and are living so close to us, we have been able to hang out with them A BUNCH. They are the type of friends that you don't have to put on a show for. They are the type of friends that you can call at the last minute to make plans. They are the type of friends that I want to be for others. I don't feel like I have to look my best when they come over (or when I go over there) b/c they've become like family to us. We can be "real" together and that's something that I appreciate so much!

I've been hanging out at their house a lot lately (b/c of open houses or b/c Jarred's working late or coaching Upward, etc. etc. etc.). I just want to say that I LOVE it. They make me feel like family. When we get together it's usually to eat, cook, or watch some LOST, The Office, or Community! It's relaxing and I'm thankful for friends like that.

I don't have much else to say today...just that I'm thankful for ALL of our friends. We've been very blessed to make all the friends that we have out here. I just wanted to give Chris & Carissa a shout out and let them know that we love them and will be very sad to leave them when we move! I pray we stay close and continue to hang out as much as we can.

LOVE YOU GUYS!!

On the Market

2010-02-24T07:36:00.000-08:00

Our house is officially on the market...has been now for a week. We've had some great activity so far and we've already had an offer. Didn't accept it but it was an offer! Anyways, if you're interested in moving to Maumelle, let me know! I have a great house for ya!

Love Worth Fighting For

2010-02-19T07:34:00.000-08:00

So while I was driving to work this morning I was listening to KLOVE (this is becoming a regular occurrence b/c I like starting the day off on a positive note and remembering to be thankful for the day first thing) and they were interviewing Kirk Cameron! You know, Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains. They played the theme song to the show and now I'll be singing it all day long! Anyways, Kirk Cameron is heading up this Marriage Conference with singer Warren Barfield (whom I've never heard of) called Love Worth Fighting For. I'm intrigued. I really liked the movie Fireproof and I just really appreciated the message. Something that Kirk said this morning on the radio really spoke to me. He said:

"If you are trying to make this divine thing (meaning marriage) work without having God as the center of your own life it will never happen."

He said that MUCH better than what I just paraphrased but you get the point. See, I guess I don't think enough about how marriage is a DIVINE relationship that God WANTS for us. He designed the marriage relationship. It's almost like when Kirk said that a light bulb came on for me. It was an "AHA" moment. Jarred and I don't have major marriage problems but we do argue and fight, we're selfish, we're human...I just think that if you think about Marriage as something GIVEN to you from God it can change you. If you think about how you can make your marriage better just by having a personal relationship with your Heavenly Father you'd want to do it, right? I mean think of the blessings that would come if you and your spouse were trying to be more like Christ and one with him individually- it would naturally bring you together as a couple. I heard (at a marriage conference a couple years ago) that you can picture a pyramid. You at one corner and your spouse at the other, God being at the top...as you each grow closer to him you grow closer to one another as a result.

This is just something that hit me this morning, I'm still trying to gather all my thoughts on the matter but I wanted to put it out there for comments...I want to remember that my relationship with Jarred is a gift from God. I want to remember that sometimes if I'm wondering why we're not on the same page or wondering what's wrong, maybe before blaming Jarred for whatever it is I should look at myself first and wonder what my relationship with God has been like that day/week/whatever.

Looking for Something to Read??

2010-02-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

I have recently (meaning in the last 2 years or so) become a reader. I would have to say that growing up this was NOT something I enjoyed doing. I don't know if it was because my parents really didn't push it on me that much and I just didn't think about it, if it was because I had no interest in the books my school wanted me to read, or because I had a cousin who was reading CONSTANTLY and I knew I could never keep up with that so I just didn't care to read. What I know now is that if I find something I really like...oh my goodness, watch out b/c that's all I want to do until I've finished it. I understand her love of books now. My affection started with the Harry Potter books. I read all 7 (see I started after they were all out) in about a month. Around the time I got really into the series we took a beach trip with several of our friends from church and they can all testify that that's ALL I did, that entire week. I think I read 3 of the 7 in that one week. Since then I've read the series all over again. I just LOVE it. I never thought I would get into something like that but I did. I also got really into the Twilight Series! I read the first book in 2 nights...it was ridiculous. Anyways, I'm learning that I enjoy reading. I don't necessarily like self help books or non-fiction books but anything that I can get lost in I enjoy. I like books that I can read and not have to think to stay with them. You see, about a month ago I tried to get into Jane Austen books...I LOVE the movies so I thought I would probably love the books. However, my simple mind couldn't do it. There were too many people named "Thomas" and "Edmund" or "Edward." I couldn't keep all the characters straight and when you don't have time to read every day it's hard to keep it all straight when picking the book up 3 days later. So, I've decided to stick to teen fiction! :) I know this probably sounds pretty lame but I'm telling ya, I'm in to it! I'm not afraid to say it! Here's the two books I just finished...they were so fun! They are both part of a series so I've got to borrow the next books in both series b/c I'm dying to know what happens.

I finished Maximum Ride not too long ago...here's a picture of the cover. Yes, it's about mutant kids. And Yes, it's good. Trust me on this one.

I also just finished (on Tuesday) The Hunger Games. Yes, it's awesome, it's set in the future, it's got a little love story (kind of) and I loved it...I'm dying to get the second book!

If you trust me, you should try these books out. Last night I started The Lightning Thief (based on the movie that just came out- or is coming out this weekend, I can't remember). So far so good, I'm only 3 chapters in. Here's the cover of it...I'm interested in seeing the movie but I wanted to read the book first. I'm new to this whole "reading the book before you see the movie thing" but so far I'm enjoying it! At least I'm enjoying it when the movie is good and doesn't leave out too much from the book. That makes me mad! Aka...the first Twilight movie! I thought they did a great job on the 2nd book though. I was happy about that. Hopefully it will just get better with the 3rd and 4th and not worse.

Well, that's what's been going on with me lately. I hope you don't think I'm crazy now- since you know I enjoy teen fiction, don't judge me till you try it!! I bet you enjoy it. It's fun reading!

Until next time...

Getting Ready...

2010-02-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

So, since Jarred's new job is an hour away from where we currently live we are in the process of getting ready to put the house on the market! There is SO MUCH to do! We've already had several things done but my list isn't completely finished just yet! We've had painters come and paint and now the house looks better and brighter!!

We have a few more items that we're going to finish before we put the house on the market but the official date is FEBRUARY 16th!! I'm pumped! We meet with our realtor to talk about buying tomorrow. We're heading out to Benton/Bryant...somewhere over there. Not sure EXACTLY where but it'll be in that area. That will make for a much more pleasant drive for Jarred and we'll get to eat dinner together again (at a decent hour). Jarred's loving the job! We are SUPER happy about that. Things are going well at the Crow house just need to make it through this move and we'll be good to go! :) I am excited about a new house though, it'll be fun to get it organized and fixed just the way I want it. I LOVE organizing things so this is right up my alley!

Anyways, that's a little update for now...more to come later!

NEW JOB!

2010-01-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

Thank you for all the prayers, notes, encouraging words, etc...we now have great news that Jarred got an offer last Friday night. He'll be the new Controller for a company out in Sheridan Arkansas. So, needless to say, we've started the process of trying to figure out if we should put our house on the market and move out to Bryant or Benton. Maumelle is REALLY far from Sheridan! Anyways, I'll keep you all posted on what's to come but I wanted to thank everyone for all the prayers. God is good!

Family Weekend

2010-01-11T13:16:00.001-08:00

Jarred and I had a fun, relaxing weekend. Mom and Dad came down for my sister-n-law's basketball game at Harding. It was their first conference game so it was a good one to come to. We got to hang out with some great friends of ours, Zach & Emily Cheatham, on Friday night before Mom and Dad arrived. We had a great time w/ the Cheatham's, ate some good pizza and watched one of the Harry Potter movies! I think it was the 3rd one (Prisoner of Azkaban). Zach and Emily are watching them all so we decided to join them for one. I am a huge Harry Potter fan...I've read all 7 books twice now.

Mom and Dad arrived around 11:15ish so we stayed up talking to them a little and then we all crashed! Side Note: We are currently teaching our dogs to stay on their bed when they come inside. As you probably can guess, they aren't trained very well. That was a big mistake we have now learned from. So, since we have delinquent dogs (whom I love VERY MUCH even though they aren't very smart) we are trying to be better dog owners. Anyways, I bought them this really big bed from Sam's (only $21) and they are really doing such a great job. Since it's been so cold Jarred has graciously let them sleep inside the past couple of nights...if you know Jarred you will know this is a HUGE deal. Anyways, it takes the dogs a while to actually go to the bed but once we get them there they will stay...at least for a while. Yesterday mom and I were cleaning the kitchen and the dogs stayed on the bed the ENTIRE TIME!! This is a big deal b/c it wasn't just a "put the dishes in the dishwasher" kind of cleaning, it was a deep cleaning! We cleaned the oven, stove, microwave, everything!! Mom is very serious about her cleaning, she does a great job! I really appreciate her helping me with this! She did WAY more of the work than I did. Anyways, that was very random but I needed to say that my dogs are slowly become smarter (I'm sure of it) and my husband is being so nice to let them stay inside...it's so cold! So, I'm grateful!

Anyways, back to my story...Saturday morning Dad and I had planned to run. We're both training for the half marathon in March. Remember in my last post I said that we did a triathlon together? Well now we've moved on the half. I've NEVER been a runner and before I started training I think 4 miles was the farthest I'd ever run, in my entire life. So, now I'm up to 8 miles. Saturday Dad and I ran 8 miles. This was the second time I'd done 8 and I felt much better this time than I did last time. I don't know if any of you remember Saturday but it was COLD! I was so proud of us for doing it, even with it being so cold. Unfortunately now I have a cough (probably b/c it was so stinkin cold) but it was still worth it. Hopefully I won't get sick.

Mom and Dad left around mid-afternoon to head to Searcy to watch the Harding basketball game and Jarred and I stayed home to be lazy and just enjoy not doing anything for one night. We did have a visitor come over to watch the Cowboys game with us but since we were at home it didn't feel like we had anything going on. Last week was jam-packed so we needed a night of nothing. I am playing in a women's volleyball league on Tuesday nights and Jarred is coaching an Upward basketball team (senior high boys) on Thursday nights.

Sunday was a good day of being with our church family and my parents. I made dinner for us so after church we came home for lunch. We've been trying to eat at home more to save money! I really love to cook so that has worked out pretty well for me. I made Chicken & Broccoli Divan with Baked Potatoes and a Caesar Salad with Garlic Bread. It was really good, if I do say so myself! :) Anyways, after Mom and I (mostly Mom) deep cleaned my kitchen appliances they had to hit the road. We had a really good visit!

Jarred and I went to Sunday night church after that. I teach the 10th grade girls Platoons group. I have been with these girls since they were 7th graders...I can't believe they are in 10th grade now and I REALLY can't believe that some of them are driving now...man, things have changed since they were in 7th grade. I have really grown close to them and I will be so sad when they graduate! Anyways, enough of that mushy stuff...after church we got to hang out with some of our other great friends, Chris & Carissa Casey! We love having them so close to us and have enjoyed growing our friendship SO MUCH! Anyways, that's basically what the Crow's did this weekend...I'm trying to keep this blogging going...sorry no pictures! I know that's the fun part!

2010!

2010-01-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm going to try again at this blogging thing! I'm terrible at it but I love the idea of it. We'll see how long it lasts this time. 2009 was a good year for us. We were able to do a lot of cool things. We are blessed to have wonderful families who like to get together and were lucky enough to get to go on 2 cruises last year for FREE! Jarred's Pappaw took the entire family (all 32 of us) on a cruise to Grand Cayman and Cozumel in June and my Granddad took the entire family (all 18 of us) on a cruise to Cozumel and Progresso in December. My grandparents were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Both cruises were a blast and it was so much fun to have everyone together. Here are some pictures from my family's cruise. The pictures from the Crow family cruise are on another computer so I'll have to get back to you for those.

All the grandkids w/ my grandparents

The entire family

Skinner family

The entire family (the way we really act!!) :)

We celebrated our 5 year anniversary in 2009! We celebrated by taking an adventure vacation to BELIZE! It was incredible. Not your typical luxury vacation, we definitely were in the middle of the jungle. I think if Jarred had to choose his dream vacation, this was it! It was right up his alley. I mean, don't get me wrong, I had an awesome time too but this vacation was MEANT for Jarred. We got to hang out w/ the locals, see some awesome animals, go repelling, canoeing through caves, hiking & swimming in caves (dark ones mind you! Apparently I'm a lot more adventurous than I thought!), etc. We went repelling in the Black Hole. It was the coolest thing I've ever done. Extremely scary for me since heights aren't really my favorite thing but I can say I did it and I was so proud. It was a 300 foot drop. Hardest part was taking the first step over the edge of the cliff...crazy! The resort we stayed at was a new resort called Mystic River. It was fantastic- it the middle of the jungle, excellent food, and great staff. Since the resort was so new not many people know about it yet (we just lucked out) and we were the ONLY guests they had the week we were there. We got the entire staffs undivided attention. Here are the owners...

Tom & Nadege

They had dinner with us most nights. Such interesting people. We had a great time. If you are ever interested in going to Belize you should stay at Mystic River. They were still building and growing the place when we were there so it's only getting better. We hope to go back someday! Here's a picture of us on the hike up to the drop site the day we went repelling...it was an hour hike, straight up!

As you can see, we are wet and beat!! So much fun though. If you look REALLY close through the trees there is white...that is the "wall" we repelled down on the other side of the mountain. We were halfway there at that point.

I also got to travel to some neat places with my work in 2009. In February I got to go to Colorado Springs, CO and stay at The Broadmoor! That was the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in...it was more like a resort. I had an awesome time, just wish Jarred could have come with me. One of my favorite people from the office got to go as well so we had a good time. Her name is Audra...here is a picture of us at dinner w/ some of the other ladies that we met at the conference.

Audra is on my right.

Me & Audra

I also got to stay at the Texas Gaylord Hotel in Fort Worth for another conference and then in October I got to go to Chicago for a conference. The Chicago trip was really fun b/c my mom got to come with me. The conference was on a Monday so we decided to meet up Friday night at the airport and have 2 days to site see before my conference on Monday. We had never been to Chicago before so it was a blast to see it together! We went to the John Hancock Observatory, Navy Pier, Millenium Park, Grant Park, Shedd Aquarium, walked Michigan Avenue and the Magnificent Mile, ate Chicage style deep dish pizza- we did it all! In 2 days! Needless to say, I was beat by the time my conference rolled around on Monday. Mom left me on Sunday night and flew back to Alabama and I stayed Sunday by myself for the conference. I flew back Monday night once it was over. No pictures on this computer of that trip but check out my facebook page and they are posted there.

Apparently I decided to become athletic in 2009. I participated in 2 triathlons!! The first one was in Bentonville, AR in June! BTW, if you didn't already know it's HOT in June! I didn't prepare for the heat as much as I should have so I didn't do as great as I would have liked. I did finish however and I was proud of that. The distances were 800 yard swim, 16.4 mile bike, 4.2 mile run. The run almost killed me but I did it!! The 2nd triathlon went A TON better than the first. It was in Heber Springs, AR and I did it with a bunch of friends from church and my dad! It was so much fun and I felt SO much better after the race than I did after the first race. I was completely wiped out after the first one but I trained a lot better plus it was in October so it wasn't as hot! In fact, it rained the ENTIRE race. Here's a picture of the girls that participated in the race with me. Everyone did a great job and we all had a great time together! I'm currently training, as is my dad (he's doing SO GOOD), for the Half Marathon in March of 2010! So far we've been training since November 1st and we're still going strong! Hopefully that will continue and for my post in 2011 (since, let's be honest, I'm doing good to get one post in per year) I'll be able to say I ran a half marathon!

Sarah, Courtney, Jessica, & myself

I wish I had a picture of me & Dad from the race but for some reason we didn't get one...that was dumb! Next time we will! Dad did an excellent job!

2009 was the year of weddings! I was in one of my best friends from home's wedding in July in Decatur. The weekend after that my brother got married in Florida at the beach and Jarred and I were both in that wedding. 3 weekends after that we drove up to Kentucky to see my cousin, Dustin get married. Then 3 weekends after that Jarred was in the wedding of one of his life-long friends in Springfield, MO. As you can see, we really did some traveling in 2009!!!

2009 also brought us some trials...On September 28th Jarred lost his job. This has actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise! Jarred was unhappy at that job and getting let go gave him an easy out (that's the way we look at it). Although we still haven't found anything else we aren't down about it. Yes, there have been times we've been down but luckily we haven't both been down at the same time. We are truly blessed to have gone through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace class a couple years ago and have been debt free (other than the house) for a couple of years!!! Because of that class we've been able to make everything work w/ my salary and Jarred's unemployment $$ we're still able to save a little every month. We did go through the Dave Ramsey course again this Fall (I'm a BIG nerd and really love the course) and although we didn't have to worry about the debt part it was nice to have a refresher w/ the budgeting section and know EXACTLY where all our money goes every month. I LOVE Dave's budgeting software. It's the best thing ever. I know, I really am a HUGE nerd, very type A. Oh well! Anyways, things are looking up. There is a job in Sheridan, AR that seems like a good possibility for Jarred and we're praying that works out. I'll keep you posted...hopefully! :) In the meantime, I've REALLY enjoyed having Jarred around all the time. He's been very helpful (after a couple disagreements/arguments) around the house and with getting dinner ready on occaison! We've gotten to hang out A TON and even go to lunch together some since he's been out of work. I am almost nervous about him going back to work b/c I've been so spoiled w/ his presence all the time. :) I know he will be glad to get out of the house b/c he's pretty bored so we're still praying for the job. :) I know that we were in a great situation to have to face this type of challenge and that's made it a ton easier to face. I thank God for that!

Anyways, as we start a new year I am looking forward to the Project 4:4 that our church is involved in. We're all (the entire church) reading through the Bible this year. The sermons on Sundays will go along w/ the reading and so will our classes. It's been the coolest thing so far to be involved in something that everyone is doing together. When we've gotten together with friends (already this year) we've talked about the reading. That just doesn't happen that often...talking about what you read in your Bible with your friends outside of church...but since we're all doing it and reading it together it's become a topic of conversation and I think that's awesome!

I'm excited to see what 2010 holds for us...please pray for us as we continue to look for a job. That's all I have for now...

It's Been A While...

2008-05-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I feel kind of awkward having this blog w/ no kids and really hardly any pictures of us!! But, oh well, maybe some of you are still interested in hearing what all we have going on in our life! This past weekend my brother, Michael, graduated from Harding!! I just wanted to give him a little shot out and tell him how proud I am of him. He's in the process of trying to find a job now and he's got some different possibilities...I just want him to know that we're praying for him and thinking of him often. I know he's going to find what the Lord has in store for him and I know he will succeed at whatever it is that he decides to do. So, Michael, way to go...we love you more than you know!!

Also, my other brother Jay, has just finished his sophomore year at Harding and will be starting his last semester at Harding in the Fall. He's there on a soccer scholoarship so he'll stay one last semester for Soccer then transfer to UALR (we think). Harding doesn't offer his degree (Construction Management) so he'll be transferring for that. I didn't want to leave Jay out of this post so I want him to know that we are equally as proud of him. He's going to be staying in Searcy this summer (poor mom...) and working full time w/ a Construction company out here in AR. He loves it and I'm just happy he's found something he really enjoys doing. Jay- good luck this Fall w/ your last Soccer season, we know you're going to do great!!! We love you and pray for you often as well!!!

I guess I can't post about brothers without including something about my brother-in-law, Jordan!! Once again, we're VERY proud of him as well. He graduated last December from Harding and is teaching in Cabot. He took over mid-school year for a lady who took leave for the entire semester. Like Michael, he's in the process of looking for jobs. We are praying for him to find something he'll truly enjoy. We both think he's a great teacher and does an excellent job w/ kids (we've seen him in action w/ his youth group- he's been the youth intern for the past 2 summers and will continue this summer as well). He's truly got a gift for working w/ the kids!! Good luck Jordy in your job search!!! We love you too!!!

Here are some pictures from Michael's graduation weekend!! Enjoy!

May graduation- CROWDED!!! December graduation- much better!

Mom & DadMichael & Kaitlin (above, this is his girlfriend- isn't she cute!!)
Jarred & I below...BAD picture!!

All the kids...Isn't Jarred looking cool in those shades??!
Mom, Dad, Grandma, Granddad, Michael, & Jay- Grandma & Granddad came in from Nashville!

Well, not that much has changed w/ the Crow's! We're currently really involved in working w/ a new class that's going to be starting up June 1st at church. We're one of a group of 10 leaders that will be heading up the new class. We are really excited about the start of something new. Our current class has over 100 people on the roster and we feel very strongly that by making the class smaller it will bring in more people and allow them to feel more comfortable coming in. Hopefully it will go well...there has been a lot of work put into this so it should!! Thursday night we're having a dinner w/ a couple we're hoping will join us in the class as a mentoring couple. They are older than us and have started their family so we know they will have lots of good advice for us. Pray that they will be interested in helping us...we're very excited about this possibility!!!

We're also still very involved w/ the Volleyball League at church, we are LOVING our Life Group, we have girls/guys nights most Mondays and that's been awesome!!, we still have both our dogs (aka our kids for now, well, at least MY kids for now, Jarred isn't as fond of them as I am), still in the same house, still not ready for real kids yet!!, counting down the days till we leave for Disney World w/ Jarred's family!!! It's coming up soon so I'll post more about that when we get back!!

I've Been Tagged!

2008-02-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

Here are the instructions: Pick up the nearest book with at least 123 pages. Find page 123. Find the first five sentences. Post the next three sentences. Tag five people.

"But what did Mary and Martha think at the time? What did the disciples think? And what about my life- and yours?"

This doesn't tell you much about the book but I think it's GREAT so far...I haven't made it to page 123 yet but when I do I'll be sure to explain what the sentences above mean! It's from the book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver! Anyways, I know it's been FOREVER since I've posted anything but I haven't had any pictures recently and I know no one wants to read about the life of Jennifer & Jarred w/out pictures...right??? Haha! Well, I'm going to tag...Laura, Shannon, Hilari, Kelly H., & Kelly B. Have fun girls!

Remembering 2007!!

2008-01-09T14:35:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's already 2008!! It felt like 2007 just flew by! 2007 was a great year to us! Here are a few memories I have of the year (I'm going through the year w/ my calendar so I don't leave anything out- I write EVERYTHING down!)...

January highlights: Started back up w/ Silver City (the inner city ministry our church supports), Had our first Honeymooner's Class Retreat at Heber Springs, Shelly Dahl had her baby shower at church, and I was able to get a little closer with the girls in my, at that time, 7th grade Platoon group!

February highlights: My Mom, Dad, Mimi, & Papa all got to come to our house and spend the weekend w/ us, we even went up to Fayetteville for an AR/KY basketball game (AR is our team and KY is my Mimi & Papa's favorite team), My college roommate Holli got married!, Jarred got his wisdom teeth pulled out, and last but not least our great friends the Dahl's had their baby, Eric!!

March highlights: This month was great b/c one of my best friends from high school came all the way from Alabama to visit me! Tracie got to meet all my friends...we took her bowling and to Senor Tequila and to Cheeburger Cheeburger! It was a great visit and it was so neat to have someone from home come see what I'm up to in Arkansas! We house sat for the Gilliams at church for the first time-that was great b/c their house is wonderful and it was fun pretending it was ours for a week!! We took our Silver City kids to a Rim Rockers game, went to see my brother play baseball for Harding, had a sleepover w/ my 7th graders, went to many CAC games to see our Platoons kids play, and at the end of the month we went to my home in Alabama to just hang out for a weekend!!

April highlights: In April one of Jarred's really close friends from college, Kevin Staples, came to visit w/ his wife Laura, who I've become friends w/ now and their 2 kids! It was great for us to spend time w/ them and get to know their kids some, they are so GREAT!! We also started our volleyball league at church, helped the Connett's move into their new house, & we went to a Family Life marriage conference w/ the Tappe's, Connett's, & Dasher's in Tulsa, OK! It was a blast and we really enjoyed spending time w/ good friends! I also had what I think is going to be my future sister in law come stay w/ me for a week while Jarred was traveling, she's great!

May highlights: May was a busy month for us. We did a lot of traveling! Jarred got to go to Seattle, WA for a week, we both went to Searcy for Mother's Day, we had our annual family reunion in Texas over Memorial Day and then Jarred and I flew out from Dallas to go to Las Vegas!! It was a spur of the moment trip but it was great! I also got to go to Branson to meet up w/ my college roommate Tina and spend the weekend w/ her and her daughter! That was so much fun and we're hoping to do it again this year! The sad thing that happened this month was that my dog Sydney got heartworms but the good part was that after surgery she was okay and is still rid of them to this day...note to self...don't get your heartguard medicine from Pet Meds online!!!

June highlights: As every month, June was busy too! We started the month with a Girls Sleepover at Sarah Smith's house, our friends, the Bland's had their baby boy!, We went on a camping/floating trip w/ some folks from church for a weekend. That was awesome!! Jarred and I didn't tip over the entire time...I was very happy with that b/c the water was FREEZING!!! Our life group did a birthday party for the Southern Children's Home in Morrilton, I celebrated my 24th birthday, we went to a Travelers baseball game w/ a group of church friends, & I had a pool party/grill out w/ my 7th grade girls!

July highlights: Well we started July by heading to Pensacola Beach w/ my family (we do this every year). We were able to stay this year for 5 days and that's the longest I've been able to stay since I've been in the working world. The rest of my family stays for an entire week but we didn't get to this year, part of our 5 days had to be thrown over a weekend! We had a big Game Night up at church for everyone in our class. I hope we can do that again sometime, those are always fun! We house sat again for the Gilliams- and it was even better this time b/c they have a pool and it was summer time!! Great fun! We got to go to Atlanta w/ the Connett's & the Tappe's for a weekend of shopping, hanging out, & going to a Braves game! That was a very fun trip...thanks to Melea's parents for letting us stay at their house! We had our nieces (3 of them) spend the night w/ us one Friday night and that's when I learned I'm getting older b/c I can't stay up all hours of the night anymore!! SAD! We also took the Gilliam kids to see a Twisters game w/ a group from our Sunday morning class! Once again, a very busy month but fun!!

August highlights: This month we started off w/ another trip! We went to Destin, FL w/ the Robinson's, Mullin's, Cheatham's, DeJoseph's, & the Miles. It was so much fun!! We left on the 3rd and didn't come home until the 11th. It was great! During that trip Jarred and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. When we got back we learned about the death of Brian Dahl and went to Mississippi with a big group from our church to be with the Dahl's during that difficult time. We still think & pray about/for their family often. I also started teaching the 2 year olds for my annual 3-4 month rotation w/ Amber Mullins!! We had a really good time together. Jarred & I got to go to my home again to visit the fam for a weekend. We started our NEW Life Group that we co-lead w/ the Cheatham's over at the Robinson's house! Jarred also celebrated a birthday, he turned 26 and we had a celebration for him at Cajun's Wharf w/ a bunch of friends from church!! Thanks to all you guys that came!!

September highlights: Finally a month that we didn't have as much going on...not that I don't enjoy all that stuff!! We started this month by going to the FIRST Razorback game of the season...we get season tickets b/c Jarred's a DIE HARD fan! We attended the Family Life Conference at church (I was one of the committee members planning it so we didn't really have a choice). I had my first garage sale...made about $150...not too bad I guess!! PLATOONS started back, which I LOVE!! Our ladies Bible study started back (we're doing a Beth Moore study...it's great! The study goes through May). We threw in a couple more Razorback games and at the end of the month we house/kid sat for the Harris's at church. It was a great month b/c we were able to be at home most of the month!! Good times!

October highlights: Well, as I look back on the month of October I'm filled w/ mixed emotions...this is the month my Papa passed away. I was blessed b/c the weekend before he died Jarred and I were able to go to Montgomery to see him and say goodbye. We left on a Saturday afternoon and then on Monday morning Papa went to be w/ the Lord. It was a blessing from God b/c all the grandkids were able to go see him and say their goodbyes. We were all thankful for that. He died on the 15th and we had his funeral on the 18th. I'm thankful because I know one day I will see him again in Heaven! On another note, I did the Race for the Cure and RAN the entire RACE!! I was so proud of myself...if you know me at all you know I'm no runner so 3.1 miles was kind of a big deal for me!!! My goal for 2008 is a 10K (aka 6.2 miles)...I'll keep you posted on my progress.

November highlights: I got to start November off by meeting one of my FAVORITE cousins in Memphis for a get-together/shopping for Christmas trip!! This was WONDERFUL and much needed since I hardly ever get to see her! (By the way, she just got engaged Monday night so I just want to give her a shout out and say YAY!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!) I got ALL of my Christmas shopping done that weekend except for Jarred's parents...they are hard & Jarred always likes to help w/ them! I went to the Women's Retreat at church. Sara Barton was the speaker and I thought she did an excellent job! We had our monthly Life Group birthday party for all the birthday's in November & we had a big Thanksgiving Feast joint w/ another Life Group. We had Thanksgiving w/ my family this year (we rotate every year) so we went to Decatur and had a big meal w/ Mom's side of the family and then to Nashville the weekend after Thanksgiving to see Dad's side of the family. Needless to say we had LOTS of food. Last but not least I celebrated my 2 year anniversary w/ Stevens-Dell!

December highlights: Well every first Saturday in December we go to Jarred's parents house for the annual Christmas breakfast. This breakfast is INCREDIBLE! I mean his mom makes a spread and it's all good!! I LOVE that tradition. We went to dinner at Loca Luna one night w/ the Bennett's & the Northen's (who at the time weren't married yet). We had our Honeymooner's Retreat at Petit Jean. Our speakers were Mitch & Shannon Wilborn and I thought they did an excellent job. Petit Jean was great and I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time! We house/kid sat again for the Harris's. We went to Searcy to see Jarred's brother Jordan graduate from Harding and we also went to Benton to see Greg & Janice get married! YAY! We had a Class Christmas Party at the Clary's house. ALSO, out of the blue we get a call on Friday the 14th from the Tappe's to see if we wanted to go to COLORADO with them...well if you've read my last post you know we decided to go. It was definitely a last minute decision and it was a good one!! We celebrated Christmas at several places. Christmas Eve we celebrated at Jarred's sister's house, then we spent Christmas Eve night at Jarred's parents house and had Christmas Day w/ them. Then Friday after Christmas my family came to our house and we celebrated at home w/ them. They even stayed through New Year's and we brought in the New Year w/ my parents, my brothers, Michael's girlfriend Kaitlin and her best friend Catherine! All in all this year was very good to us. We've been very blessed w/ friends and family! We look forward to what 2008 has in store for us!! I'll keep you posted!

COLORADO!!!

2007-12-28T13:03:00.000-08:00

The girls on the trip...

Jarred and I in front of the pretty Christmas tree.
At the Lodge, these are some of the slopes...you can kind of see the Gemini lift on the right.

View from our Condo, we stayed at Beaver Village.
Christmas tree outside the shopping center we went to.
This is the town of Winterpark, some of it anyway
This is us on the top of the mountain where the restaurant is...

Here are some pictures from our "Spur of the Moment" Colorado Trip we took last week!! The Tappe's called us on Friday the 14th to see if we wanted to go to Winterpark, CO and we were on the road driving on the 19th!!! Crazy!! I LOVE being able to pick up and go at the drop of a hat...I guess that's one reason I don't have kids yet! This was my first trip to Colorado and I had a blast. This was also my first time skiing (unless you want to count skiing when I was 8 in West Virginia, which I'm told is NOTHING like Colorado). Well, if you know me very well you know that I was very timid and scared going up on the mountain. I had no clue how I would do skiing and all I'd heard were horror stories about altitiude sickness, falling, etc. Well, luckily, I didn't have the altitude sickness too bad...I think I had it for a little bit the first morning on the mountain but after I ate lunch I was fine! Let me just take you through my first couple runs down the mountain. Okay, so Jarred, being the wonderful husband he is, was going to stay back w/ me and go slow down the mountain for the first time and just be supportive. We take the easy run and for the most part it went very well. I was feeling really good about myself after that. We decided to do it one more time and then try something a little harder!! The second run went great and of course by that time I'd grown a HUGE head thinking man, what in the world was I worried about. I'm athletic...skiing, no problem!!! HA! Was I wrong???? (Side note: we decided I didn't need ski school, Jarred thought he could just teach me, another side note...he's only been like 3 times before) So he takes me up the mountain a bit further...we get off the ski lift and I'm searching for the Greens...umm...where are the greens honey??? We go left and I look down at what at the time seemed like the biggest drop of my life!!! Straight down too, if I remember correctly!!! Well, Jarred takes off and flys down and gets to the bottom as I'm starting down...at this point, I'm not to happy w/ good ol Jarred!!! I get maybe a fourth of the way down and end up flipping (not on purpose) about half way down. Skis over my head, etc. So now I'm half way down this mountain and I'm upside down and stuck. By the way, it's not easy to just push yourself up on a slant! I know you put your skis sideways on the mountain but it's still hard...plus no ski school, remember??? Well, I finally get up (without Jarred's help b/c he's at the bottom, great right??)!! I'm going again and once again there I go, rolling down the mountain! I've made it to the bottom by now but I'm mentally done and I'm just at the bottom of that drop, not the bottom of the mountain!! I remember falling at least 4 more times down the mountain and on one I heard Jarred say "Good fall honey" at that point I'd had it. I was done falling, all I wanted to do was Get the Heck off that Mountain!!! I can look back now and laugh but at the time I was not a happy camper. We decided to go in and have lunch after that. I needed a break!

That's probably my best story of the trip...the rest went a lot smoother. I didn't fall much after that. I was able to go to the top (where the restaurant is) and ski down multiple times and I thought I did pretty great!! I'm no pro but for not doing the ski school I was pretty proud!! I've never been more sore in my life but it turned out to be worth it!!! I would LOVE to go back someday! Winterpark was beautiful...I don't think I'd ever seen that much snow in my life! OH- you should ask me about Jarred jumping off the ski lift too...that's a good one!! NOT! He did jump off though. I don't have time to write about it now but if you ask me later I'll let you know all about it!! Thanks to everyone who let us borrow all their ski stuff...at least we looked like we've been doing this all our lives!!!

Retreat Picture!

2007-12-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture Amanda sent me from the retreat!! Thanks Amanda!

Honeymooner's Retreat Dec. 07 and more...

2007-12-10T13:08:00.000-08:00

Well, it's be FOREVER!! Life has been crazy! I finally feel like I can breathe again though. Most of you don't know but for the last 4-5 months I've been planning our Sunday Morning class's Honeymooner's Retreat...Honeymooner's seems like a funny name b/c most of the folks in our group are no longer Honeymooning but oh well! We went to Petit Jean State Park on Friday night and came back yesterday around noon. I had such a good time! It was fun to hang out w/ friends and just enjoy being "away from it all." On Saturday we went hiking down the the Falls and it was great!! I've never been to Petit Jean, I know, I know, crazy, but I haven't! It is such a neat place and MOST of the staff there are very nice!!! I had some problems w/ one of the guys in the restaurant that tried to take charge once his manager left every afternoon but other than that it was fun! It's pretty stressful putting something like that together b/c you don't want people to have to pay too much money but EVERYTHING costs money so trying to keep the costs down was my biggest worry! Now that it's over I'm sleeping A TON better! :) I just pray that everyone enjoyed their time there and that they were able to grow a little closer as a couple and as a class. There's SO many of us in that class that smaller group trips are needed just to get to know people! I'm thankful for those that signed up and let me plan their weekend together!! Sorry I have no pictures from the weekend to put up!! Such a bummer! Hopefully Amanda will put hers up sometime soon!! Thanks Amanda for taking so many pictures!!!

We're now house/kid sitting again for a couple from church. We started yesterday around 3:00 so not too much of a break from the retreat to kid watching!! They're pretty good though, old enough to pretty much take care of themselves other than the driving part! It's fun, we really enjoying hanging out with the kids. It's fun to pretend for a while and then go back to our quiet home w/ our dogs!! Jarred calls it my "birth control" until we're ready to have our own family. I guess I'm selfish right now. I LOVE having Jarred all to myself and being able to pack up a do whatever without having to worry about anything else!! Don't get my wrong, one day I want to have a family but for now I'm perfectly happy with it being just me & Jarred!

One more thing before I sign off...I can't WAIT for the holidays to get here!!! We're having Christmas w/ Jarred's family on the actual DAY of Christmas but then my family will all be coming the weekend before New Year's. HOPEFULLY my Mimi will be coming up w/ Mom, Dad, and the boys. I LOVE having people over to the house and decorating, cooking, etc...can't wait!!! It seems like most of the time we get together Mom and Dad end up having to go back and forth from Little Rock to Searcy (my brothers both go to Harding) and so it will be nice to have them in LR the ENTIRE visit this time! Once again, I can't wait!! Anyways, there will be more info on the Holiday celebration later so be looking for that. Mom and Dad- make sure you tell Grandma & Granddad and everyone else we wish we could be there this weekend, hope you all have a good Christmas celebration together and give them all our love!!

It's been a LONG time!

2007-11-16T14:11:00.001-08:00

Well, just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive in the blogging world...we haven't had much to write about here lately but I'll be sure to post some pictures from Thanksgiving, hope everyone is doing good. Jarred and I are staying busy as usual...we're looking forward to a restful holiday break.

How Great is Our God!

2007-10-16T13:08:00.001-07:00

So this past weekend was my visit to Montgomery to see Papa. We drove down to Birmingham to my best friends house Friday night. We got there around 11:30 (b/c of some CRAZY traffic, we should have arrived around 10:15!!). Anyways, we stayed at my friends house so that we wouldn't be in the way at Mimi's. Saturday morning we got up and left for Montgomery right after lunch. When we arrived Papa was awake so we got to go right back the bedroom to see him. When we walked in I could tell immediately that Papa knew who I was. I bent down and gave him a hug and said hello. It was hard for him to talk b/c at the time he only had one lung and it was almost completely covered in cancer. So...he mostly just nodded and turned his head to look at us while we were in the room. He seemed very content painwise but he did say that he wanted to fall asleep and not wake up. It was amazing how at peace with death he seemed to be. He was ready, his body just needed to catch up with him. Jarred and I spent about 30 minutes with him and then left the room to let him rest some. I was so happy that I got to see him and talk to him one last time.
Most of you know already but for those that don't we got the news yesterday that Papa had gone on to be with the Lord. It was incredible how fast it happened from when I was with him to the time we got the news yesterday. Saturday, when we were there, I remember talking with Mimi and Mom about how we thought he could live like this for a while, we knew he didn't want to but he seemed so content that we thought he would. Apparently with all the pain medication that he was on it was masking how bad he really was. By Sunday afternoon Papa had been put on liquid morphine (which I'm told is the most pain medication you can be on) and he became non-responsive as well. Hospice came in that afternoon and told everyone that it would be within 1-2 days. Although Papa was non-responsive Hospice assured us that he could still hear. About an hour before he died my Uncle Chris sang hymns to him. Mimi came in after Chris had finished to sit with Papa, she noticed that his breathing had changed and called my Mom in the room. Just before Papa breathed his last breath Mom and Uncle Chris both assured him that Mimi was going to be okay and that they were going to take very good care of her. After hearing this and that they both loved him very much Papa breathed his last breath and went on to be with the Lord. We had been praying after I left (After my visit, all the grandchildren had been able to see Papa and talk to him one last time) that God would take Papa home as soon as he could. God really does answer prayers. Mom, Mimi, & Chris are all very sad but they are also relieved that Papa is now in a better place. They are going to have a family viewing on Thursday morning and then the funeral will follow Thursday afternoon. We appreciate all your thoughts and prayers so much. I wouldn't have been able to get through this without all of you! I've really been strengthened throughout the entire process. God is working through my family and friends and I've been so blessed because of it. Thank you all.

Last Weekend

2007-10-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

Well this is long overdue but I wanted to put pictures w/ this posts and I've just remembered to load them on the computer so here you go...

Last weekend my parents came to town to see all their kids! It was a much needed weekend for my mom, who has been extremely stressed lately with the "stuff" going on with my Papa. My youngest brother plays soccer for Harding and he had two games this weekend so it was the perfect weekend to come! Friday night I went up to Searcy (without Jarred b/c he had to work late) and met up w/ Mom and Dad out at my in-laws house for dinner. I didn't get to their house until 7:00 (Jay's game was supposed to start at 7:30) so Mom and Dad had already eaten and they basically gave me a hug and ran out the door to Jay's game. I stayed and ate a burger (My father-in-law makes the world's best burgers!!) w/ my in-laws and once I finished I went on to Jay's game. It was such a great game, Harding lost in the last 9 minutes 1-0. Of course, I think this was the coaches fault b/c he pulled Jay out w/ 20 minutes left in the game b/c of a slide tackle that he didn't think Jay needed to do and then w/ 9 minutes left the guy Jay had been guarding the entire game scores their ONLY goal!! Stinks, I know! Anyways, that night I stayed in Searcy at the in-laws house w/ my parents. That was a lot of fun to have both sets of parents together. I really enjoyed it!

Saturday morning I woke up WAY TOO EARLY for a Saturday and went apartment hunting for my brothers with the entire family! Dad took us to Burger King, of course, it's his favorite place to eat! Then after looking at my brothers top 3 apartments Mom, Dad, & I headed for Little Rock to go out to my house! They helped me design what I want my landscaping to be around the house. We've been struggling with this since we moved in, now we're just waiting for some money to fall in our laps so we can afford to do it!! Hopefully we'll be able to have most of it done by next Spring, we'll cross our fingers! Anyways, that night I went to watch the HOGS play w/ Jarred while Mom and Dad hung out w/ Michael and his now (as of Sunday night) ex-girlfriend. The Hogs game was definitely a waste of our time! The only good part was that it was our nephew's first college football game to go to (He's 5) and it was histerical watching him. I think at halftime we were up like 17-9 and Dawson came up and sat on Jarred's lap for a while and told him all about how we were "Killin them!!" Seriously, he's a hoot!!

Sunday I did an amazing thing...something that never happens at the Crow house, at least not for me...I woke up at 6:10 and went running w/ my Dad over the River bridge...it was great but oh my goodness it was early!! I'm not what you call a morning person AT ALL! I mean you can ask those closest to me, I prefer the night hours!! My college roommate and I had a deal where she didn't talk to me in the mornings until we were on our way to chapel and we DID NOT turn the lights on for at least 30 minutes after we got up!! It worked quite well. Jarred doesn't have very much sympathy in this area...he always tells me (much like my parents) that it's just a choice whether or not I'm going to be happy in the mornings...so, being the sweet husband he is, he go around turning lights on in the mornings just to aggravate me!! He seems to think this is funny...I do not! So after we went running, which I must say was an excellent start to the day, maybe I should do this more often...I'll let you know if this happens, we got ready and went to church! I was so bummed b/c Jerome wasn't there on Sunday, not that I didn't enjoy the singing but Mom and Dad hadn't been there to experience Jerome before I was so excited...OH well, next time!! After lunch we drove to Searcy, yet again, and went to Jay's other soccer game. Jarred and I made a stop at the hospital to see his Mammaw for about an hour and a half then went over to Jay's game. Mammaw is doing great and it was such an encouragement to go see her! Well, that's about all my weekend, we got to see about an hour of Jay's game then had to get back b/c we both do Platoons w/ the youth group on Sunday nights. I'll tell you all about that some other time...anyways, keep praying for Papa, Jarred and I are going this weekend to see him so I'll have more news on that next week! Thanks for all the comments and prayers...Here are some pictures from our weekend w/ the fam.

Announcing the starters at Sunday's game. Jay is the second from the end of the white jersey's!

This is my Mom and Jarred. Jarred is cracking me up in this picture...he never really smiles but I got him on this one! He's cheesin big time!!

This is my Dad.

Michael and Kaitlin (at the time of this picture they were dating, at the time of this post they are no longer dating...they were cute huh??)

Action shots...I totally need a new camera...I can't get it to zoom in enough and it's just old! Jay's #20 in the middle.

I've been tagged!!!

2007-10-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Amanda Dyniewski! Thank You.

So here it goes:
1. Who is your man? Jarred Crow
2. How long have you been together? Married a little over 3 years, dated 2 1/2 before that!
3. How long dated? 2 1/2 years (engaged 1 year of that)
4. How old is your man? 26
5. Who eats more? I guess Jarred but I'm a good eater myself!
6. Who said "I love you" first? ME
7. Who's taller? Jarred
8. Who sings better? I think we both sing pretty good, Jarred would say me though
9. Who is smarter? OH no question, that's definitely Jarred
10. Whose temper is worse? No question again, that's definitely Me
11. Who does the laundry? Me
12. Who takes out the garbage? Mostly Jarred but I do it occaisonally
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Jarred, I'm the same as Amanda, don't like to sleep by the door
14. Who pays the bills? I do
15. Who is better with the computer? Jarred
16. Who mows the lawn? Both of us, lately it's been me
17. Who cooks dinner? I do
18. Who drives when you are together? Jarred but he hates it b/c I'm a passenger seat driver...sorry honey!
19. Who pays when you go out? It's been me now b/c we're doing the envelope system and I have the envelopes!
20. Who is most stubborn? Oh that's me again
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Jarred
22. Whose parents do you see the most? Well, it probably should be Jarred's since they aren't far away but it's mine b/c all three of the kids are in Arkansas
23. Who kissed who first? Jarred kissed me! Wouldn't have been me, I was terrified...he was my first "real" kiss! :)
24. Who asked who out? Jarred asked me out
25. Who proposed? Jarred did and it was great!
26. Who is more sensitive? Me, I cry kind of a lot!
27. Who has more friends? Since we've been married we have a lot of the same friends
28. Who has more siblings? Jarred
29. Who wears the pants in the family? Jarred (most of the time! :))

Thanks Amanda! I will now tag The Blands and Jeni! Enjoy girls! You have one week to complete. Hah!

House/Kid Sitting

2007-10-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

Well, first I'd like to start by saying thank you to everyone who has left such sweet comments for me about my Papa...Jarred and I are going to Montgomery in 2 weekends to see them so I'll fill you in more after that trip. Please continue to keep them in your prayers...

So the past 5 days have been VERY interesting...Jarred and I have been playing Mom and Dad for three kids at church while their parents went to Colorado for some R & R! We really enjoyed it but it definitely was an eye opener! I mean we went from just the two of us to having 3 kids quick!! It was fun to stay at their house, which was awesome & now my dream home, and I enjoyed pretending I was "Mom" for a couple of days. We had two girls and a boy (9th grade, 7th grade, & 3rd grade). So our responsibilities were to make sure the kids got to all their functions (volleyball games, babysitting clinic, birthday parties, etc.) and make sure they got fed, did their homework, went to bed at a decent hour, etc. I gained so much more respect for my parents from this weekend. I mean these are really awesome kids and they are pretty self sufficient but it was still crazy! I mean I don't know how my parents did it with the three of us...they both worked and still were able to come to all our of games, practices, plays, etc. They even acted well rested the next day for the most part. Sunday afternoon I was SO tired and worn out and I really didn't do that much! Jarred helped out a ton b/c he's great w/ kids and so the 3rd grade boy LOVED him. Jarred's got a great sense of humor and he's got a crazy imagination, kind of like he's still in 3rd grade himself. So at night after homework was done he would play legos w/ him...they even recorded some silly stories they made up with the legos and the kids thought it was hilarious...well Jarred went to the Hogs game (YAY, we finally won!!!) on Saturday w/ 3 boys from Silver City Church, the oldest girl went to her volleyball tournament, and the middle girl went to a babysitting clinic so it was just me and the little boy for most of the day on Saturday. That poor child...I'm not as good or creative as Jarred is with him. I mean I tried but it just didn't work out so good!! He wanted to record another lego story (about Star Wars, which I have NEVER seen) and in his words..."It was a complete failure!!" He was nice about it but I could tell I was NO fun at all!!! Needless to say when Jarred was back with us he was on Cloud 9!!! I relate much better with the girls! Anyways, you'll be glad to know that Jarred & I still want kids one day just not now!! We are enjoying our alone time too much! Plus, I get to keep my friends babies pretty often so I live vicariously through them every once in a while, and for now, that's enough for me!!

My Papa

2007-09-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

Well, seems like the news just isn't getting any better. We found out yesterday (Sunday) that Papa's cancer is in Stage 4 and that he's not going to be able to beat it. The doctors said that if he does the treatment he will have an average of about a year left and if he decides not to do it he has around 4-6 months average.
I am overwhelmed with so many emotions right now, it's crazy! Everything came as such a shock because it all seemed to happen so fast. I mean, one day they are in Rome on vacation for 10 days and a week later he's got cancer in 3 major areas!! The whole family has been a bit overwhelmed! The amazing part of the whole thing is that I've seen God more through this experience than I probably ever have. Maybe it's because I've really had to lean on Him to get me through this and I wasn't doing that as much when I didn't "have" to. I'm ashamed to say it but it's true. It seems that's God's showing me now that I really do NEED Him. He's the only one that can bring me peace. I'm sad when I think of how many times I've probably not noticed God working in my life just because I wasn't in tune with Him. It's amazing to me how "real" he has been in the past week.
I'm so thankful for the family I have and how each one of them is turning to God at this horrible time. My mom was down in Montgomery with Mimi and Papa most of last week and I got to hear lots of different emotions coming from her. Just to give one example, my mom and uncle Chris had been at the hospital all day one day last week and were feeling pretty down about Papa's condition. He seemed very weak and wasn't eating and it was just a very depressing day. Uncle Chris had told my Aunt Susie (his wife) all about this and after they hung up the phone she began to pray that when Mom and Chris got back up to the hospital that night they would receive some encouragement from the situation. Well, when they got back up to the hospital Mom said Papa was a completely different person. He was sitting up in bed, had a little color, and seemed in a better mood, though he still hadn't eaten. They had made little goodie bags for the nurses who had been helping them at the hospital. When Papa saw this he told Uncle Chris that he wanted some candy! Chris said "Okay Dad, what kind would you like?" Papa said "Snickers." After he got done with the snickers he looked over at my mom and said "I want another candy!" Mom said, "Okay Dad, do you want another snickers?" Papa said, "No...I want something different...I don't want to get bored!" (Mom- I paraphrased what you told me, hopefully it's pretty much the way it all happened) Isn't that hilarious??? I was so excited to hear that Papa hadn't lost his sense of humor completely! It was just the laugh that Mom and Chris needed to keep them going. That's the power of prayer!! I thought it was such a good story I wanted to share it. There are many others but I don't have the time to write them all out. It's definitely been highs and lows of all different kinds of emotions but I'm blessed to be a part of a family that puts its trust in God. He will get us all through this tough time. I'm thankful for all the friends who are praying for our family. Keep it going we definitely will continue to need it.

Please Pray...

2007-09-20T07:44:00.000-07:00

We found out on Monday of this week that my Papa, my mom's dad, has been diagnosed w/ lung cancer and it has spread to his liver and his adrenal gland. At this point we aren't sure what the treatment options are b/c they aren't sure as to what kind of cancer it is. They did a biopsy yesterday and we're hoping to get those results back later this afternoon. Please pray that it is a type of cancer that can be treated and that Papa will be determined to beat it. Please pray for my Mimi (his wife) and my Mom and uncle Chris as they are down in Montgomery now with him. Please pray that God will bless them all with strength and peace of mind. To be honest, when we found out it came as quite a shock b/c at the time we all thought he had pneumonia. I took the news pretty hard at first but since then I've been thankful that God is giving me a peace about this situation. Papa is a godly man and I know that if anything were to happen to him he'd be in Heaven receiving his reward.
I want to thank my Life Group for having a special prayer for Papa last night. It meant a lot to me and I know my family appreciates it as well. God has surrounded Jarred and I with wonderful people and I'm so thankful for that. I'll keep you all posted with more news as we receive it. Thanks again to everyone for praying!!

This is new for me!

2007-09-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

Well, this is my first time blogging! I've been an "anonymous" user for quite some time now so I decided to go ahead and start my own blog. Hopefully this will be a great way for my family members to keep up with what's going on in our lives. It's been hard to stay close since we all live in different states (my side of the family anyway). It's even hard staying close to the family we have here in Arkansas. Isn't that crazy? I mean we live about 15 minutes from Jenn & Scott and about 45 from Jarred's parents & Jeff & Terrian but we hardly ever see them. Jordan will be moving in soon so we'll get to see him all the time!! But for those we don't see often enough, this is my solution...we'll see how it works!!

Here are some photos from the summer...just to catch you up on what we've been up to.

Those above are from my trip to meet w/ my college roomie (Tina) and meet her daughter for the first time. We met in Branson and it was great. Isn't her daughter adorable??? Congrats Tina on #2, Carter is so cute, I can't wait to meet him!

These are my awesome parents! Aren't they cute?These are a couple of the crazy amounts of pictures we took on my family beach trip this summer. We always go to Pensacola Beach around the 4th of July. It was so much fun! I don't have a group photo of the entire group b/c we didn't take one this year but it's my Dad's entire side of the family...his 2 sisters and their families and his parents. We had a great time!

We missed this picture b/c Jarred wanted to walk around the entire stadium...oh well...These were all from our weekend trip to Atlanta w/ the Connett's & Tappe's (this was mid-July). We stayed at Melea's parents house and saw the sights! This girls picture above is taken at Stone Mountain, the guys didn't make it. That Saturday we went shopping and to the Cheesecake Factory and then to the Braves game that night! Great trip.
This cute little guy is Eli...he's our good friends Curtis and Alison's little boy. They live in Fort Walton Beach so we never get to see them except for when we go to the beach so we try to go as often as we can! :) Eli is wearing Jarred's sunglasses but he's poked out the lens...too cute!
These were all taken on our beach trip to Destin w/ 5 other couples at the beginning of August. We stayed RIGHT on the beach and it was wonderful! Well, I guess I will end my first blog ever...there will be more to come...