Get a Flu Shot People!!

I was just discussing with one of our students about the flu shot and whether or not I should get one. As my last words, I commented that, "I haven't had the flu since middle school." Then Saturday morning I woke up feeling achy and coughing with a terrible headache. By the end of the day I had a fever and aches and chills. I got no sleep that night after sleeping most of the day on Saturday. I had to miss church and by the end of Sunday I was miserable with a temp of 101. I could only keep the temp down for a couple of hours before I would get terrible chills and it would go up again. I would wake up at 3 am in a terrible coughing fit and would toss and turn most of the night. I tried not to keep my husband up. I was not myself and probably not very appreciative of my husband's ways of serving me and making me "comfortable". I was a bad patient. Finally I went to the doctor's office on Monday morning which is thank the Lord is only a minute from my house. He said, "Well I think you have the flu." He did give me some Tamiflu which is antiviral medicine to help you get over it faster. Since the flu is a virus and is always changing strands, it just helps if you get it within the first couple of days and doesn't cure it. I have been coughing my head off, laying around, dealing with a sore throat and haven't had a good night's sleep yet! I realized that I spent about $65 on drs visit, medicine, and other sickly goods. A flu shot would have cost me about $20 and saved me several days of sickness. So I tell this tale to say, get your flu shot if you can. I know you can still get the flu even if you get the shot...but it is soooo worth it!

Although I do have to say that my poor sister-in-law, Audrea, has had it with all her 10 plagues and her funny story on her blog, makes me appreciate that all I have is the flu!

Our First Year Together!

So on January 27, Austin and I celebrated one year of marriage together! I cannot believe that we have already been married a year. It went so quickly! Of course, we were quite busy. Austin graduated from seminary, we got married, Austin moved into my apartment and two weeks later we were packing up to move to South Carolina where we lived for a month and a half. Austin graduated from Chaplain School and I was there bursting with pride! Then we moved back to Dallas and lived with my in-laws for month while we were waiting for everything to go through for us to move to NY. In May, we made the cross-country move (a very long three days!) to Oswego, NY. During the summer, God used us to begin to plant a collegiate church at Oswego State University! WOW!!

So much has happened, but I think the most awesome thing is that we got to do it all together. God has strengthened us not only in our walk with Him, but in our relationship. We have learned so much about relying on each other and our friendship and love has grown immensely. We have the joy and privilege to spend our days working side by side. Austin has shown that he loves to serve me and that he is always working at being a better and better husband! He amazes me every day! I have gotten to watch him grow into a pastor, a preacher, a great discipler and evangelist! We laugh everyday and never go to bed without a goodnight kiss! I know most of you more experienced married people may say, "Oh you're just newlyweds!" But I hold out hope that we will keep working at loving each other and laughing a lot. Our first year has not been perfect...we have had our shares of trials and challenges, but we have learned to fight through them together! I'm just blessed! I waited 27 years for the love of my life! I am so grateful to my God for bringing the person absolutely perfect for me. Someone who encourages me, but challenges me to be more like Jesus everyday! I love you Austin!! Happy One Year!!!

Thanks to all for letting me share this sappy stuff with you!

Things I love about Oswego...or will appreciate when I leave!

1. That I can get anywhere in about 10 minutes...or less.
2. I never worry about getting a parking space.
3. The word hurry does not exist.
4. The beautiful lake.
5. The wonderful relationships we have built.
6. Snow...ok I love snow. I complain about it sometimes, but deep down I really do think I love it. And I get winter amnesia after every winter...so I know I will miss it!
7. Being able to wear wool sweaters and winter boots and other cute winter clothing!
8. Summer...as great as winter is, nothing compares to summer on the lake, bike rides to get ice cream, long not too hot summer days... and did I mention ice cream!
9. The Outpouring Church. I love doing church with our people...truly wonderful! And getting to work side by side with my hubby rocks!
10. Being right where God has you...nothing better!!

Flip Flops in January

For those of you who are in Texas or anywhere south for that matter, flip flops in January does not seem that crazy of a notion. But for upstate NY it is really not believable. I should have taken a picture to memorialize the occasion, but I was too busy enjoying sunshine and warmth in January. On Tuesday, the temperature in our area reached 69 degrees!! I was amazed and had to break out the flip flops and toe nail polish. We took a trip for a campus minister's meeting down to Jersey in the NYC area. It got a little cooler on Wednesday due to wind and rain, but I still needed no heavy coat. I just thought I would rejoice in that moment, because next week we will get regular snowy weather. I hope you all are enjoying your January...and Texans...appreciate the flip flop wearing days in January that you get!

Also, funny story...while we were in NYC we went to this pizza place that is actually in A.W. Tozier's old church. It was a really cool place full of people with lots of atmosphere. So we order our pizza's and begin to chow down on our garlic bread when the fire alarm goes off. It's so interesting the way people react to a fire alarm. Some people ignored it, including the wait staff, and others were looking around and trying to figure out what is going on. I was looking for any clue from the restaurant as to what we were supposed to do. Finally, a manager or hostess said there really was a fire and we needed to get out. So we flooded out to the street many people with pizza in hand, while the people at the bar and in the waiting area seemed not to be disturbed by the mass exodus. There is not much place to go on a NYC sidewalk once you are outside and within a few minutes the fire trucks came...so we figured there would be an indefinite delay on our pizza order. So that was our visit to the little pizza place/old historic church! We ended up getting pizza at a little place in Little Italy.

Thought this was kinda fun!

The World Wide Gypsy Holiday Tour!

So I finally talked myself into sitting down and writing my long needed blog entry. Austin and I have literally been across the country and back. Austin called it our World Wide Gypsy Holiday Tour---and that it certainly was! We left a couple of weeks into December in order to make it to see everyone on our itinerary. We drove 14 hours the first day. The excitement of a new journey, seeing family and friends, and taking a little break was so great that getting up at 4 and only stopping 3 times until we got to Nashville seemed like a breeze! We saw my grandparents in Mississippi, Austin's parents/siblings and some friends in Dallas, my parents and sister in Houston, other Vann siblings in Atlanta and then finished up our tour in D.C. just for fun!! Let's just say that driving 4,000 miles and over 40 something hours, sounded like a better idea in theory than in reality. We had a blast seeing everyone, but by the time we were done we were ready for our own bed and to not have to live out of a suitcase any longer.

One of the best things about our trip was time spent with our family especially the two new editions, nieces- Makennah Grace and Scarlett Lucille! We were truly blessed. God allowed us to be able to travel not only for time with our loved ones, but to speak with a few of our supporting churches. We were blessed with the ability to go and with the gifts that we received. God has truly provided! We hope that we are able to be as generous in the future. We had lots of laughs with so many people. We were sad that Audrea had to go through so much over Christmas and that she and Jeff didn't get quite the Christmas they expected...although I have a feeling 2008 is going to be an awesome year for them!! So now that we have begun to get back our routine of sleeping in our own beds and trying to recover from eating a lot of holiday food and resting a little too much...we are glad to say Happy New Year and a big thanks to all who hosted us this holiday season. We love you all. Hear are some pics. New Years resolutions should be the next of my hopefully more consistent blog entries!! Enjoy!!

Almost a whole year of wedded bliss! Merry Christmas!!

Crazy Uncles!! What are they doing to you Raegie Roo!!
Christian displaying her beautiful Barbie horse!
Little Ethan showing off his Cars on Christmas Eve!
We love all our nieces and nephews...she just lets us cuddle her the most!
Hanging out in DC in front of the Washington Monument.
Raegan is so sweet...she gets lots of Unkie's attention!
Our first Christmas as a married couple!!

Me and my sister celebrating my dad's birthday!

Gideon posing for his pic!!

We were not prepared for the snow!

So this beautiful winter wonderland was the scene yesterday (Sunday) morning when we woke up for church. It was so amazingly serene and peaceful and I remembered all the things that I loved about winter and the snow. Austin was loving his first snow here in NY and we banded together to get everything (sound equipment, stuff for church set up) into the SUV and ready for take off! It was cold, but it was calm. We were enjoying the winter!

Then today came...

I'm looking out the window right now and I can't see past our parking lot...all there is is blowing white mist. The wind is blowing so hard that as I was walking across campus, I was literally blown forward or to the right or left depending on wind direction. It was insane! The wind was blowing the car and it is so cold and snowy that I was afraid I might die in the Land Rover on the way home! I'm trying to cancel some other appointments I have this afternoon because I don't think I will be able to see to get there. Let me tell you it is not a pretty sight! What happened to our winter wonderland. It's like someone got the snow globe and shook us all up!