Lake Tawakoni

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Today we were invited by some friends at church to come and enjoy their new retirement lakehouse out about an hour east of Dallas at Lake Tawakoni. We had a blast riding around on the boat, eating brisket, steak and sausages, and even watching a few movies with the kiddos:) Heather showed us all her mad sailing skills and navigated a few willing passengers around the lake.

It’s too bad that I have to work tomorrow! We were invited to stay the night in one of the spare bedrooms. Apparently, another huge crowd from St. Seraphim’s is headed out tomorrow, including the Archbishop and Father John! Nothing like Memorial Day to bring people together;)

Here’s a few pictures. The rest you can see, once again, in my Facebook folder.

From left to right: Dan, the Connelly’s adopted son from Russia, Murray Smith (the father of the family who owned the lakehouse), Mr. and Mrs. Connelly (Jenny and Carissa’s parents) and Heather and Josh.

Pictures of St. Peter’s

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Today Jesse and I finally had a little bit of time to travel down to Fort Worth and take pictures of the school that I will be working at next year. Amazing that even with Friday evening traffic we were able to travel the 30 miles back in less than 45 min. That’s one thing I will NEVER miss about LA!!!

Okay, so here are the pictures. Get ready, I was feeling a little camera happy.

The school and it’s front yard. The wall with the vines borders the inner garden courtyard.

The gate and the inner courtyard of the church. This is where they take Kindergartners and make them sit for half an hour without saying a WORD, teaching them to contemplate and not have to be entertained all the time.

More of the church grounds and courtyard overhang (I love the ceiling fans they chose!). This is a Western Rite church, which explains the lack of iconostasis in the front.

The church flag and backyard. They are planning on building a huge outdoor amphitheater next to this little gazebo so that they might hold more classes outdoors and maybe even a few plays!

This is the creek behind the church where Father Anthony walks every morning. Apparently the school also takes frequent nature hikes through here. Being in places like this remind me of why I love Texas.

This first picture is of the prestigious residential area surrounding the school called Benbrook. Just a mile or two more and you hit the big and beautiful Benbrook lake. The second is one more picture of the school from the side.

And last but not least, we have a rare moment of love between Jesse and Mirabelle. This was the first I’ve been able to snap because normally they don’t last long enough for me to grab a camera! She really missed us while we were in CA this weekend, which is why she’s being abnormally sweet.

New Years Resolution…starting NOW!

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So, back when 2008 said ‘sayonara’ to 2007 I made a New Years resolution to eat healthier. It’s a hard thing to admit that you eat like crap, and I do. Heck, if I limited myself to eating Macaroni and Cheese only once a day I’d be doing better than I am now! I have to admit that I’ve been binging a little since Lent ended:)

So here it is- I started a new plan to eat lots more protein, fruits and veggies and less….mac and cheese. I have all of Monday and Tuesday mapped out, including my exercise plans with our apt. complex fitness center and my trusty exercise Pilate’s band. We’ll see what happens! No Mother, I’m not in it to lose weight (it’s hard to hear from your own mother that you “look good” because you gained weight!). I just would like to stop eating my massive amounts of cheese and pasta in silent shame knowing that my arteries are probably crying out in distress.

How are any of your New Year’s Resolutions faring? I really want to hear feedback- make me not feel so lazy and unhealthy, please, anyone?!

Definition of a Blessing

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Last night Jesse and I ate at 7 Salsas– one of the very first places we ever ate at in Dallas. This was the first time we’d been back there since that fateful day in August, and it was a good time for honest and brutal reflection over this past year. It was interesting to compare us now to then.

We were so scared and anxious. The future was wide open ahead of us in an exciting yet terrifying way. Jesse had no idea what it was like to be a grad student, and I had just taught my first horrendous group music class at Castle Hills. We didn’t know anyone, nor did we know where we were going to live. We were in a brand new state without even a knowledge of which freeway would take us back to our temporary sublet apt. I remember us pulling out our brand new Dallas map in the parking lot and deciding to take a scenic drive through downtown Dallas….only…..we didn’t know where that was! All I have to do is refer back to previous posts on this blog to remember how hard living was.

Now, we are part of a wonderful church body with more friends than we have time for. We have a nice comfortable apartment, and we’ve only used our credit card once since November of last year (a small personal victory for us!). In a few weeks we will be getting a huge 5.5k tax return that we can then settle almost all of our debt (excluding school loans!), put $ in savings and even have some left over for our long awaited wedding album!

On top of it all, Jesse’s grad school experience, has, thus far, been a positive one. He has gotten excellent praise from his professors about his papers and presentations (of which there have been many!), and is considering applying to the ISF PhD program to finish things out here. Even Greek, which is ferociously difficult and time consuming, has been a good learning experience. As far as I am concerned, if all goes as planned with my application, I will also be at UD this summer, taking Latin 1,2, and 3 all in a row. YIKES! It’s a good opportunity though, language classes are free for MA students, so tuition won’t be a problem. I will also be taking one night class in the Fall, probably a class on Milton or a Creative Writing workshop.

I guess the only way to put it would be to borrow Trenna’s words when I told her about my recent job offer. She said, in her sincere Trenna-way, “Kelly, you guys have been sooo blessed!” Even if everything goes wrong starting tomorrow, up until this point I would have to wholeheartedly agree.

But it does beg the question- how do we determine whether we’re being blessed or not? What are God’s blessings, and how are they made manifest? I say this because many times blessings seem to come in the form of hardships or trials. What do you think the definition of blessing is? Let’s hear 🙂