Spring Fever

I now have 2 weeks of school left and the worst case of spring fever ever. I'm ready for summer!! This summer I'm taking 9 credits in order to lighten my load for my senior year.

Jed is thoroughly enjoying his new position and comes home every day a happy man. He loves the people he works with and says the time goes so quickly at work that he doesn't have to think about time anymore. I'm proud of my man and know how hard he works!

These next few weeks are going to be jam-packed with last-minute papers, extra-credit assignments, reports, projects and then of course final exams. We are a bit overwhelmed with everything to get done before the summer begins and are just truckin through. We are also preparing for wedding celebrations for our friends Janna and Adam and of course for the actual wedding. It's so fun to see a couple so ready to just BE married! They are pumped and we are so excited for them. Our neighbors (the du in duplex) are also keeping our lives lively. Kari (the younger sis) is recently engaged and beginning her own wedding preparations while Khristin (the older sis) is fixing to send her boyfriend of 2 years overseas to Thailand for a year to do missions work. We have had SO much fun with them next door. Kari and her new husband will live in the duplex next door and we will all be our own community. haha. It's fun to live like this among friends and great chefs! This will not last forever....

Enough blah blahing. The weather is warming up and we're in our shorts and tank tops some days. Thank God for this!!!!

13!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amy Katherine is 13 today! She's quite excited about being a teenager and as you can see, she's also quite mature like the rest of us. Now there are two teenage Rieves' again. On a more serious note, for all of you guys, don't even think about it. I got a phone call early this morning and got to hear her opening her gifts. In our family, on our 13th, we get 13 presents from pretty much everyone in the fam. It's a pretty fun tradition and of course AK loved it. Last night she had her birthday party with her friends. Instead of bringing gifts, AK had all of her friends donate money to Desire Street Ministries (a New Orleans ministry for boys). Mom and Dad are very excited about another teenager and have said that she's freely able to date, drink, and partake in everything. HA! Totally kidding. Seriously, I'm proud of her and am so thankful for a sweet-hearted sister (Ash isn't cuttin' it anymore). Amy Katherine is smart, giving, and sweet. Oh, and for Mom, she's also much more athletic than Ashley and I ever thought of being.

HAPPY 13TH AMY KATHERINE!!!

Congratulations Ashley!

That's my sister Ashley up above. Yesterday she was accepted into Colorado State University's childhood education program. This is a selective process (application and interview) and all she's wanted to do so it's a good thing she got in. We were kind of worried, she has absolutely no personality and nothing to offer a program like this. Ha! She's amazing with kids, LOVES being with them, and deserves this all the way. I used to think that everyone could do something like this. I mean, everyone pretty much loves kids BUT as much as I love kids, I get quite impatient with them after awhile and FRUSTRATED. Ashley, on the other hand, understands them a bit better and is so patient! Yay for Ashley!

Congratulations also to Jennifer Prather, a good friend from high school who just had little Adelyn on Thursday. Addy is beautiful and in good health and we're all thankful for a safe delivery!

I feel like this is a shout-out wall now.

Welp, we are quite busy around here lately. Jed got back from a week-long work trip in Orlando last night and he was royally missed by both Nikki and me. Today Hillary gets in to stay with us for awhile (Hill is Wes' girlfriend~Wes is Jed's brother who lives here in the Burg too). It will be fun to see her and hang out. School keeps me on my toes and Jed's learning the ropes of his new position. We also have Janna's wedding coming up and are excited about having a cook-out for her with all of her friends. We are pumped about this summer and ready to see everyone in Memphis but have a LOT of work to do before we leave. (That is the shortened version of what we are up to.)

God has been so faithful in providing for us and we are so thankful. Our families are safe, we have food in our apartment, friends next door, free school with Jed's job, Jed has amazing co-workers, we have an amazing gospel-trusting community at our church, we have wonderful friends, and clothes on our backs. I get so down thinking about all the things we DON'T have sometimes and it's pitiful. I could write the next book in the series, The Self-Driven Life. I seem to have the "whiny child disorder" and yet I have a father who is the Ruler of all things and a king! I am forgiven of an unending debt (which makes it really sad that true repentence rarely appears in my self-driven life) and He has called me out of darkness into His light in the midst of this!

SO CONGRATULATIONS ASHY~

Crazy

"I don't believe in God as an old man in the clouds-'bespectacled old Yahweh,' as the late great John Gardner put it, 'scratching his chin through his mountains of beard.' But I do believe that God is with us even when we're at our craziest and that this goodness guides, provides, protects, even in traffic.'
~Anne Lamott

Welp. I am readily able to admit that we are at our craziest, me and Jed. Maybe it's just me but I'm pretty sure he's crazy too. Little insecure children chasing after everything for our identity instead of that one Thing for our identity and I am so glad that He sees Christ when He looks at us. I love this.

Our latest news is that Jed is now the Director of Training at LU (I hope I said that right). He's excited about his new position and I feel like a proud little hen. At least what I imagine one would feel like. God has so blessed us these past 2 years (almost 2 years) and this is just one of a long chain of "extras". Jed's in Orlando until Thursday night for a business conference and I'm "bachin" it for the week (this is what Andrea Ankeney calls it and it's my new favorite word).

I'm off to my events for the day.....it's beautiful and Nikki is loving it!