Before Jordy and I even got married, he has been wanting a scooter. Now growing up in the world of cycles, I knew how much these things were going to cost. Once Jordy and I got married I created a "savings for a scooter" fund. Jordy would put money back until he could save enough money to buy a scooter.
Well we looked for a scooter for a while and again, we didn't want to pay a whole lot of money for one of these things. One afternoon I get home from work and he shows me a picture of this scooter he had found for a very low price. I asked him about is his fund and he told me he could pay cash for it. I couldn't be more proud.
So Jordy contacted the man with the scooter to get the 411. It was too good to be true. Great price, great condition, low maintenance and a helmet. Off to Jackson, Mississippi we go then one Saturday morning. We get there and we just knew we couldn't pass this up.
We are now owners of a 2004 Blue Kymco Scooter!!!
On the way home, Jordy and I were trying to think of a name for the scooter, since Henry (his truck) and Maxine (my car) are apart of the family, there's no reason why the scooter should be left out. Well I should explain that when Jordy and I play Mario Cart he is always his Mii character and he always drives the "dolphin dasher". Jordy has conquered the whole game and so I thought Dolphin Dasher would be a fantastic name for the scooter, not to mention it's blue. So Dolphin Dasher stuck :)
This past week has been quite the week for the McKaskle's. Let me explain.
Last Sunday afternoon, Jordy and I got home from church. I went into the kitchen, flipped the switch and no lights come on. I then look up at the ceiling trying to figure out why in the world the light isn't working. And to my surprise the ceiling is lined with even lines and circles all over. I yell for Jordy to come in there to see what the problem was and he started shaking his head. Well at this point, I knew things weren't looking good. He said, well this looks like water. Pulling up a chair he touched the ceiling and he replied with a, "yep, it's damp alright." How wonderful. So come Monday morning I give our land lord a friendly phone call. In the meantime, I start moving all my decor on top of the cabinets since I know that someone should be coming soon since it didn't look to hot. When I moved a plant, the paint on the wall looked like it was falling off the wall, not to mention the rippling all along where the ceiling meets the wall. Land lord shows up Monday morning and she tells us that our bathtub has a hole in it obviously causing it leak all of the place. SUPER! Well that same Monday, my car decides to not start correctly. So the hubs has to take that thing to the shop. All last week he is my carpool to and from work AND school, while we are praying that we don't fall through into our kitchen while we are sleeping.
Thursday comes and we still don't hear anything about our bathtub, but I do get my car back. YAHOO! But while driving home I noticed that the battery light AND the emergency brake light were on. Hmm. So I call the hubs and inform him. Come Friday morning I go out to my car to run errands and I put the key in the ignition and turn. Nothing. Seriously. NOTHING HAPPENS!!! My car had just left the shop!! So, I call the hubs. Again. He was NOT happy! We comes home with the jumper cables and jumps the ol' Nissan. Well my car is only running on Jordy's truck. As soon as he would take the cables off, my car would die. We think that the battery might need to be charged and so we let it set there for a while. While Jordy is messing with my car, I'm holding his brake in his truck (his emergency brake is broken and his truck is a standard) and then he takes off the cables and then I notice him telling me to cut off the engine. I get out and ya'll if I'm lying I'm dying, there is a flame!!!!!!! And we all know where is smoke there is FIRE!!!! People, something under my hood is on FIRE! CODE RED!!!! So Jordy and I run into the house to get water and start pouring on it. Well the good news is we got the fire out; bad news, car didn't work at ALL after that. You can only guess what happens next. A tow truck arrives.
My car is then towed to mechanic and the tub still wasn't fixed.
Until today.
Today was the day people that not only did my car come back home, but the bathtub was fixed. The downfall; we can use the tub for another 2 days and the smell of fiberglass was taking over my house!
Hopefully soon we can go back to normal around the McKaskle household.
Well today is Fat Tuesday and there's only one thing that means. MARDI GRAS is happening people!! This year I got to celebrate Mardi Gras!! And it has been SO much fun!! Since I've moved here to Louisiana I knew about Mardi Gras, but I had no idea what it included. And boy is it fun! Jordy and I went to the Monroe Mardi Gras parade. I want to go to New Orleans sometime for Mardi Gras, but Monroe will do for now. We spent time with his family and we had a blast. I couldn't stop yelling, "Throw me somethin' Mister!!" Jordy and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Jordy and I before the parade started. Thanks to my teacher at work for the necklace to get me started :) it even lights up!!
Here are a few pictures of the floats! They were so cool! Hubs says that it's way better in New Orleans!
This is the Mardi Gras Queens float. She threw out white pearl beads!
I'm thoroughly enjoying myself, can't you tell :)
I even got to taste my first King Cake and let me just say people it is DELICIOUS!! I didn't even know what it looked like. But here it is!! The delightful tasty King Cake!
So far my first Mardi Gras experience has been super fun!! Look forward for more Mardi Gras fun to come!
Well this past week has been interesting. Jordy went to Annual Staff Retreat in Houston and had a blast with the rest of the staff; however, when he got back he started feeling horrible. By the end of Wednesday night, he was sweating and I just knew that he had a fever. We got home and low and behold he had full blown fever, cough, runny nose the whole 9 yards. So by Thursday night I was up since 2 am with him coughing, restlessness, you name it! I knew that was it, Jordy was really sick. I stayed home with him come Friday and by this time he had every symptom of the flu. That's right, the FLU!! I have NO time to get sick people. Zipola, none, zero. So I had to do what I had to do. I put Jordy in our bedroom with tissue, gatorade, ESPN and the whole season of The Office season 5. Then, nurse Jessika would come in with meals and medicine (every 4-6 hours of course). Once I entered the room I would bring my friends in. Lysol. I had Lysol wipes, surface spray and bacterial disinfectant for the air. I just couldn't risk it. So I took Jordy to a clinic, since our Doctor's office was closed, and they determined that he had an ear infection in one ear and the other ear was not looking good. So off to the bed he went.
In the meantime, I had nothing to do. So one of my very good friends told me about a show called Army Wives. I had heard about it before, but I wasn't up to the current season so this would be a perfect opportunity to for me to see if I like the show. Did I like the show?? Well hello, I LOVED THE SHOW!!!!! I mean I watched the whole first season in one day!!! I just can't stop watching it. I on season 2 and it's just so good. My friend Jessi had been telling me about this show forever and man was she right!! It's so good!! I can't wait for season 3 to come out later this month, let alone for season 4 to start in April!!!!
Yesterday Jordy felt so much better! He was free of fever and he went back to work and then I cleaned EVERYTHING in that bedroom! So as of now, I'm swimming in laundry and I'm successfully on Season 2, disc 2 of Army Wives, but everything is germ free thanks to my good ol' friends, Lysol :)
Well school has officially started and let me just say, it's TAKING OVER my life! I am taking a full load this semester and don't get me wrong, I'm glad I'm in school since I want to be DONE and taking classes is the only way to do that. But seriously, I read I study and blah, blah, blah. It's no bueno. For reals. On the contrary, I am taking a few classes with a friend from church and I am in my major classes so that is a good part. But life is good.
Yesterday was the NFC Championship game last night. As you all know it was the battle between Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints. All day yesterday, that's all you saw, Saints fans were everywhere! I mean it was even "blackout" Sunday at church to support the Saints!!! So at church the whole schedule was flipped because of the game and so things got rolling around 4. We had 2 tvs setup at the student center, great food and lots of friends all ready to watch the game. And let me just say, It was SO much fun!!!
Here is me and my new friend from church supporting the Saints!
After every touchdown, we had a student run around the student center with this flag!!
After the field goal by Garrett Hartley, former Sooner I might add :), the Saints beat the Minnesota Vikings!!! We are headed to the SUPERBOWL!!!!!
Here is Jordy and I after the big win!!!
We had SO much fun last night!!!
Who dat think they gonna beat dem Saints...WHO DAT!???!
Yes, I do realize that it's January 9th and I STILL haven't updated about Christmas or New Year. But I do apologize, I will try and do better at updating more frequently.
So onto Christmas Break. The week started of not well. My dad called and told me that MeMaw had passed away. Devastated at first, yes; but then God showed me how glorious she is living now and her funeral turned into a celebration filled with many many memories. Oh how I miss you MeMaw. It was a great time that my family and I got to spend with ALL of the Stowe's. It was so much fun to catch up with everyone, whom I love and miss so very much. God does "work out all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) He is so mighty in comfort and joy!
But nevertheless, we celebrated the Birth of Jesus with all of our family and what a joy it was! We started off the week celebrating with Jordy's family. I went to my sister-in-laws house to join in on the annual Christmas cooking extravaganza. We made lots of cookies and Christmas treats! It was so much fun! Here is Jesse Brian and I decorating and eating every gingerbread man we touched :)
Checking on the cookies!
This is just a little bit of what we cooked.
Jordy and I spending time with ol' Daisy girl...we miss her!
Some of the gals.
The McKaskle Crew!
We then packed up our bags and headed to Oklahoma to see my family! When we got there it was SO cold! And Christmas morning we had a white Christmas. I haven't seen Jordy so excited. He's never had a white Christmas before and I'm so glad that I got to share this with him. We even went sledding and it was SO much fun!
God has truly blessed Jordy and I with a wonderful family and we are forever grateful!
So this past week we had our adult Christmas concert at church. At North Monroe (our church) we have some incredible vocalists. A friend of mine, Valerie, is the female vocalist and she has a beautiful voice. Anyhow she sang this song by Faith Hill called "A Baby Changes Everything." When she sang this song my mouth dropped open at how incredible the lyrics are and God has changed my heart so much since.
The first part of this song says "Teenage Girl, much too young. Unprepared for what's to come. A baby changes everything. Not a ring on her hand. All her dreams and all her plans. A baby changes everything."
I can't help but to think how true these lyrics are. I can not imagine how my life would turn upside down if I was merely a teenage girl pregnant and all my dreams would have to be put on hold so I could care for this baby. I can't imagine what Mary is thinking when she finds out that she is giving birth to a baby, let alone Jesus Christ, THE Savior of the world! It keeps getting better.
The next part of the song says, "The man she loves she's never touched. How will she keep his trust? A baby changes everything."
This part just takes my breath right out of my chest. Since I have ever heard the story of Christmas and the birth of Jesus I have NEVER thought of this before. Mary didn't even know Joseph. They didn't date. They surely didn't meet each others parents. They probably never spoke to each other and now Joseph is supposed to be wed to her. This makes me think of Jordy and I. I would already be horrified that I would be pregnant and then I find out that some man I don't even know is supposed to be my husband. How glorious the Lord works out his plans!
"And she cries, Ooh she cries" is the next part. This shows me how real and human Mary is. Something that I would do many times during all this change in my life.
"She has to leave, go far away. Heaven only knows that she can't stay A baby changes everything. She can feel it coming soon, There's no place, there's no room A baby changes everything."
Being pregnant as a young woman, set up with a man she doesn't even know and now she has to travel 65 miles on the back of a donkey to a different town because they feared what King Herod would do to there first born son (since he had declared he would kill the first born son as it talks about in Matthew 2.) What!! I'm not sure you could ever convince a pregnant woman who was about 8 months pregnant to jump on the back of a donkey a flee 65 miles to a destination that you didn't know what to expect once you got there. But Mary STILL followed God's direction and she went anyway.
"Shepherds all gather 'round Up above the star shines down A baby changes everything.
Choir of angels sing, Glory to the newborn King, A baby changes everything, A baby changes everything, HALLELUJAH!!!"
Just like every mother Mary is overwhelmed of how beautiful her newborn son is. The newborn baby who was born to live as a man, human and to walk the earth, and then die to make a way for us to be with Him eternally in Heaven!! I get goosebumps every time I hear this section. An army of angels are rejoicing at the birth of Jesus. Now the baby has changed the world and not just Mary's life.
"My whole life has turned around, I was lost and now I'm found A baby changes everything!"
Glory to God who chose Mary to carry the Savior of world, Jesus to take on flesh and to change the WORLD!!
Since Jordy and I have been married we have seen lots of our friends with newborns and how their lives are so different because they are now taking care of a small baby. We look around at mom's who just go to and from activities that their kids are apart of or even how a young teenager is looked upon if she ever got pregnant out of wedlock. I can't imagine how my life would be changed if I were carrying a child. Thank God He knows and He ALWAYS has perfect timing. Jordy and I do want a baby and a family, but we know that we want to be married for a while first and many other things to play out as well and when we do have a baby our lives will be forever changed. Glory to God for giving me a new perspective on Mary's life.
Here is the video of this song, Faith Hill does an excellent job!! Merry Christmas!
I'm just an average gal who is blessed far beyond what I deserve. I am newly married to the most wonderful man in the entire world. We are sharing an adventurous love story together
