John-loves-me-not-so-much-my-new-sungies-montage

Surprising that I let him take these pictures considering that the previous day we took a pic of ourselves, John turns to look at the screen and says "you look kind of creepy in your new shades babe!" Is he kidding? I look obnoxious, but definetly not creepy!

St Augustine

We spent the weekend at the beach. Saturday was a little chill outside so we walked around the historic town of St. Augustine. One of our favorite spots is Flagler College. There were a number of statues . . . which to the men translates "photo op"
John loves Lions, so this is like gold to him. He looks pretty ferocious.

The men are imitating Henry Flagler, But just their faces are humorous enough without the statue.

And then finally, surrounding the college is detailed artwork in the cement of naked angel babies, so once again, their imitation, clothed style.

Few braved the water, only because it was windy and not warm enough to want to get into it. But the men claim it was warmer than the air.

A favorite stop on the beach is Beachcombers restuarant. Yum food

my beautiful sister catchin rays . . . or sand in the face, she looks great either way!

Brandon's Montage

He is risen indeed!!

We were at Vilano Beach near St. Augustine over the weekend. So our Sunday morning church was watching the sun rise with our bibles and coffee. Praise God that He is risen.

This is the reaction of John and Brandon when I said "Your Savior is risen, how do you feel?"

John and I were a little confused. Somehow we reinacted Jesus' birth rather than his victory over sin and death by playing Joseph and Mary.

New Orleans

Our Spring Break trip to New Orleans was so much fun. John and I feel blessed that we were entrusted with 16 amazing students to lead and share the experience with.
We did various service projects throughout the week. We did some gutting on one house, rebuilding on another and worked at a elementary school.
My favorite part was working with the kids. 1st and 3rd graders needed to take standardized tests and so it was our job to accompany teachers and moms on field trips with four year olds.


The collage has some of my favorite pictures from our field trip endeavors. The other pic to the left is the two kids that I watched for two days. TreVaughn and LeCynthia. They were precious but I was more exhausted after chasing them around a zoo than I was tearing down sheet rock in our gutted house.

We spent a couple of nights downtown on or near Bourbon Street and the Super Dome. It was incredible to be standing in a spot that was flooded past the roofs of buildings. We appreciated the tour of the city given by an elder of the church we were staying at.
We walked around Bourbon street wanting to start conversations with people and brought money along to buy some dinners for the homeless of New Orleans. We walked away with some stories of the flood, history of the city and a desire to see the Lord work on the hearts of men, women and children.

Our final day we were tourists to the max. We had some beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe Du Monde. The food was great, the service was horrible.
Then we took a river boat cruise that fed us some southern cooking. Gumbo, fried chicken, red beans and rice and bread pudding. However, I was perplexed by the lack of sweet tea.

The rest of the day was spent walking up and down the streets, watching break dancing shows, looking at antiques, and declining offers to buy silly tshirts and beads. If only they had some reeboks with the straps, I might have taken them up on the offer.

Vivian Joy

Well all day yesterday and today I have had my sister and brother-in-law on my mind, especially their newborn baby girl Vivian Joy. After a LONG labor of love Kristi gave birth to a beautiful girl. I just cannot wait to meet her. I am an aunt for the very first time.

Just call us aunti Melissa and uncle John. Congratulations Davis family!

Coffee Master

this is a late but very necessary congratulations to my brother David for becoming a Coffee Master at Starbucks.

For those who are unaware of this prestigious position, only those with enough hours of training and specific knowledge of coffee are given this title. And the black apron signifies his power. Congrats! All you fort collinsians can get your coffee from Mr. Teten at the college and laurel bucks.

(He is holding Casi Cielo, this yum coffee bean from Guatemala is his coffee of choice, we recently got it and it is delicious.)

Love you Starbucks, but not as much as we love David (and wifey Pamela)

my valentine

John truly made me feel like a natural woman this valentines day. I woke up on thursday to a tray being served to my nightstand with blueberry pancakes with freshly ground strawberry preserves. There was a plate full of fresh strawberries, blueberries, bananas and pineapple. And of course a full cup of coffee. What a wonderful beginning to a day with my honey.
I hope all of you married, dating or single friends and fam had a day filled with love. Sometimes Valentines day can be either sad or dissapointing because of all the hype. But for all of God's children, we have the Ultimate Valentine who pursues us daily with his unfailing love. No need to be dissapointed, because He does not dissapoint. You are deeply loved.

Spring Conference

We are back and slightly rested from our busy but fun weekend. Everything went so so well. We brought 28 students to our gathering. And everything from the speaker to the discussions to the free time was sweet. Each night ended around 2am and we started early at 7 in the morning. So we still feel like there is a day of napping to do.
this is the first night. John and I are on stage holding up flags from each campus to get everyone excited and obnoxious. In Florida there is no shortage of school spirit so our job was easy.

we also had 80s night. SO FUN. Here we are listing the top 5 you know you grew up in the 80s if . . . statements. Which was followed by having a couple of students sing the fresh prince of bel air song and the clapping rendition of miss mary mack mack mack . . . .

here are some of our girls dressed to impress at 80s night. gotta love teased hair and hot colors. We look like we just came from jazzercise.

These precious gems are in my bible study. This semester we meet at 10pm on tuesday nights. It is the only time everyone has open to meet. But they love the Word and each other enough to sacrifice boyfriend phone time and sleep.

My husband, doing what he does best, anything! He schooled some fools on the court, I am not surprised but very turned on by his athletic skills.

these men are mostly from UF as well. they had the opportunity to play paintball sat afternoon and here they are before going into battle

our speaker: Drew Frasier (weeks before the conference)

John: "Yeah man, its sweet, we can paintball on saturday afternoon"

Drew: "Good I am gonna mess some kids up"

Before and after messing some kids up, Drew lead us into a great discussion of how big our God is, and how easily we stuff him into a box. He also challenged us with claiming the promises that scripture has for us, and he dared us to move closer to Jesus. He threw down hard and it was amazing to see God transform people. Praise Jehovah.

La Croix Dreamin

john and I are about to head into a long and anticipated weekend with our students along with Nav students and staff from across the state. we are very exicted to be bringing three times as many students we did last year. this just confirms what we know to be true: that students at UF are hungry for relationship with their Lord and with each other. john and I are the emcees for this conference, so if you think about it, pray for us that we are not attempting painful humor but that we can provide a bit of laughter and excitement for the weekend ahead . . .

we have done so much already these past 4 weeks. we have enjoyed going to our very first gymnastics meets, playing tennis with our new racquets, planning our spring break trip to New Orleans and our summer in Branson, Missouri.

John spoke at the college meeting for our church. he was asked to speak alongside the pastor on the relationship between the church and the parachurch. he is SO good in front of people, most especially in front of college students. I enjoyed it so much, and can not get enough of hearing him teach.

finally, this semester if it pleases the Lord, will be my final one before a most anticipated graduation from CSU. it could not come any sooner. at the end of this semester, I will have completeted 36 credits from a distance, using online classes and transfer credits. Wowser. it is silly for me to put so much effort in to having something to hang on my wall, it will be the most expensive piece of artwork we will ever invest in. I should start looking for a frame to fit.

funny sidenote, people in Florida, or maybe just Gainesville, are crazy about this drink called la croix, it is like a flavored carbonated water, and John has jumped on the seltzer wagon. grocery stores cannot keep these babies stocked. I am not a fan and will stick to my favored diet coke. well . . . good day!

to some up the good news, I got a hair cut that I will not attempt to get ever again, and I purchased a cute little number of a handbag, it has been a while since I perused the aisles of purse glory. it makes me think of summer, yet summer is so far away, January is not the best time to gear up for summer, but here I am.

Favorite Christmas Gifts Part Primo

my husband and wonderful parents-in-lawThe gift of 23: My Birthday

Gift of brothers who's stashes made your skin crawl if they looked at you too long.
Gift of awkward pictures and those willing to take them.

Gift of one fun couple

The gift of one cute sister who schools everything she touches, except for me right?

Gift of Grandma to share the joys of puffy warmth in bitter cold

in this picture there is one delicious gift of a stuffed poblano pepper in my belly.