Mamasita and Daughter Weekend.... Away!

In the middle of November, I took some time off from work. Mom came over and we had a girls weekend! We decided to go to New Orleans for a couple of days. We stayed at the nicest Hampton Inn EVER on Saint Charles Street. We had so much fun! We walked everywhere and when we didn't walk we rode the Street Car. It was a $1.25 to ride no matter how short or long the distance and it just covered one way - mom and I both thought that price was totally reasonable. :)

I have only been to New Orleans and experienced all that the French Quarter has had to offer. This time the only reason we went to the French Quarter was for a quick visit to Cafe De Monde and that was plenty. :) We also toured Tulane and Loyola Law Schools! I fell in love with Loyola and totally could see myself as a student there.... time will tell! One of mom's old college friends teaches at Tulane and we were able to meet up with him and enjoy a nice lunch in the Faulty/Staff lounge overlooking the campus. I can honestly say meeting Benny for lunch was the best thing about Tulane! ;)

Mom and I enjoyed walking Magazine Street in the Garden District, too. Everyone we met were so friendly and helpful. We found a local farmers market in the Mid-City area and it was great. I am not a scone eater and they had some home made pumpkin scones to DIE FOR! I love supporting locals and I love eating where the locals eat. I am not a very good 'tourist' in that regards. Each night mom and I found a 'local' restaurant and dined there. For evening meals, both nights our meals were less than $20! I thought that was great! :)

Anyway, the drive to and from New Orleans was about 6 hours. We were able to catch up on life, love and everything in between. We had a great time together and seeing a 'new' side of New Orleans. I was so impressed with how clean everything was, how many gorgeous parks there are (that several people were enjoying) and dog friendly everyone and thing is! That was so great to see! We really enjoyed ourselves. If it is meant to be, I could totally see David and I spending a good 3 years there while I attend law school. If not, oh well, it was still a fun, fun weekend that I will cherish forever. It had been at least 4 years since mom and I had gone away together! Regardless of anything else, it was definitely time to spend some quality time together again! Thank you for everything you mean to me Mama - I love you SOOO much! :)


Hotel on Saint Charles St
Loyola School of Law
View of the Farmers Market
Us riding the Street Car :)

Ps.....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Love,

Anna & David

Hellooooo Fall

First things first, I am officially attending LSU Shreveport this spring 2011! I met with my advisor this morning and I already have a projected graduation date for December of 2011!!!! HOW AWESOME! I can not wait!! I will walk across the stage next year with a Masters of Science in Human Services Administration, the short version - Non Profit Management. David and I have been saving up so that we could pay for my Masters in cash and not have any student loans.PRAISE God it is really coming to be. It is crazy, I used to wander about "what I was going to be when I grew up" and thought of being everything from a female cop to a professional cake decorator. I have finally found my calling. I love working for a cause. I have bigger causes I am wanting to fight and work for one day, but I truly have been in the FOG (Favor Of God) in having Him direct my path and am finally being obedient enough to follow. I have serious problems with trying to plan out our whole life, but I am constantly trying to seek God and ask that His plan be revealed. Every time a new stepping stone is uncovered it could not have come at a more perfect time. I am so thankful to serve such a mighty God. :) He never ceases to amaze me! David and I have a very bright future. :)

Speaking of David and I - we have been super busy. (What's new!?) David is doing SO freaking well at school it makes me sick. ;) He is studying like crazy. He has already been advised for the Winter Quarter and is looking at another full force course load. The one nice thing about the Winter Quarter is that it is split for Christmas/New Year's break. David has 3 weeks left of his Fall Quarter. The one awesome thing about quarter system is that he will finish with all of his Fall Quarter finals the week before Thanksgiving, so he really can take the week of Thanksgiving as a real break. Unlike the semester system - you normally go right into finals when you return from Thanksgiving break. It is the little perks in life that we find such great pleasure in. :)David is already being asked when and where he wants to begin different internships! I just think that is so cool, because in my undergrad I had to beg people to accept me (not really, but I sure wasn't having people approach me!!). He is excited because he can really start to see that light at the end of the tunnel! He has just 2 years left before graduation. That just floors me. I hope our kids get his "smart genes". Lol.

The past month we have really been enjoying teaching our kids at church. The class is like 30-40 kids every Sunday, but now that they know who we are and they really are starting to get into the activities that we have planned, etc. We love being with the children and just watching their young minds absorb Truth. It is awesome to watch the innocence of a child and see first hand what it means to have a child-like faith. We constantly wonder how and what our children will be like.

Work for me has been ever crazy, we are officially in our "busy" season and the phone calls, emails and daily work load reflects that. The last quarter of the year is the biggest giving time for most non profits. The donations are great but it always amazes me how much greater the needs are. Because of the federal grant I work with, I see it first hand. I just have to keep reminding myself constantly that I only have "X,Y,Z" tools and if the person/family is in need of "A,B,C" tools that I can refer them, but that there is nothing else I can do for them. Luckily, the Shreveport Bossier Rescue Mission has great contacts with other agencies in the community so a lot of times we are able to refer someone to help elsewhere if we do not have what they need. It is a hard place to be when you know the needs are great of so many, but it is the most unbelievable feeling in the world when you can assist someone/family. It brings an indescribable joy that you can not experience any other way. This holiday season I would encourage you to research what kind of opportunities are in your local community that you could help out - and make it a family event! What better way to show your children how blessed you/they are than to help someone first hand, right in your own community! I think sometimes we think of "needy" individuals in foreign places or the wrong side of the tracks, but all too often they might just be your neighbor or the person who sits next to you on the pew each Sunday. Give back, doesn't matter how great or small, give back - it DOES make a difference!

Ok, off my soap box. ;) Did I mention I love what I do? Lol.

Things that David and I are looking forward to this November:
*Starting another running program (got some new extra bouncy shoes this past weekend!) :)

*Finishing up "odd and in" projects around the house. (Not looking forward to doing them - but looking forward to the finished result and being able to check it off our list!)

*Getting to take a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday off from work! We are not going to be able to go any where for Thanksgiving so we have peeps coming to see us!

*Seeing family

God is so awesome and I can't wait to see what other great surprises He has in store for us; knowing full and well that He has had the 'surprises' planned the entire time. SO COOL.

Last thing, here is a recent pic of David and me. He took me on a hot date night for sushi!

Playing Catch Up

I left off with the birthday party celebrations of August! The last weekend in August David and I went with some dear friends to the lake! We rented a house right on the water. It was perfect. We went fishing when we wanted to, we slept when we wanted to, we laughed non stop - it was great. That weekend we were celebrating yet another birthday - April's!! It was such a great way to end the summer. We had a fish fry on Friday night and grilled out Saturday night. We caught over 50 Brehm (or something like that) and yes, I caught the biggest one!!! :) Everyone said it was just beginners luck - I would like to think of it as skill. Haha.

Labor Day weekend David and I spent working. My family has these old stores that used to be a grocery store, general store, feed store, etc. Basically my family had the Walmart of the 1950's. :) Anyway, we got to clean out one of the stores - Durrett Bro General Store. It was definitely an experience that we hope to never repeat. :) However, we still have a long way to go to get it how we want it. We are hoping to get the stores registered to the National Historic Registry and see what happens from there - basically, LOTS of paperwork to be filled out. :)

The month of September has been busy as usual. David started his 2nd year of college!!! He is taking Accounting, Business Law, Biology 2, and Econ. He LOVES school! Tonight I get to go with him to his Business Law class and I am super pumped!!! In the past year that I have been at the SBRM, I have been really starting to contemplate law school. I am getting some crazy awesome networking connections and experience - so we shall see! We are talking a good 4 yrs before anything would be official or I could even attend.... A lot could change between now and then - but if it is God's will then I will go! David's bus law professor is excited for us and has no problem letting me sit in on some of his classes to see if the content would really be something I am interested in doing. Pretty cool if you ask me! His professor is the retired D.A. for Ruston. I can't wait. :)

At the beginning of the month I ran my 2nd 5K! It was at Brookwood Baptist Church in Shreveport and the proceeds of the run went to support the SBRM! Naturally, I represented the Mission. It was really neat though, because David's brother Tim got to do it with me. I really enjoy running, however I do not enjoy shin splints. I have had to take 2 weeks off from running because of them. :( I hope to get back at it this week.

Also, I have been hard at work getting ready for our annual Got Heart for the Homeless Benefit. We had co-author Ron Hall of Same Kind of Different As Me and What Difference Do It Make? as our guest speaker. It was an incredible night! We had a total profit of 95K! Not too shabby and there still could be more coming in the mail!

October is vastly approaching and we have a jam packed month, but here are some of the things we are looking forward to:

*COOLER weather!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*David's Best Man in our wedding, Big Rob, is getting married again - and we get to see lots of old friends from Dallas at the wedding. :)

*Getting to go to Dallas, not one but two weekends!!

*Spending time with the padres. I know it is really sad that I will be 25 in March, but I do miss them.

*getting ready for SBRM's next event October 16 - Wheels for Meals Car Show and Chili Cook Off and we will be introducing a COOKIE CAPER (basically a cookie sale!)

*Aunt Nancy and Mike are coming to visit....

*My BFF from high school is getting married on 10/10/10 in NYC!

*Bonfire SeAsOn

*My girlfriend April is going to teach me how to make red beans and rice, gumbo and other traditional southern Louisiana food! Can NOT wait!!!!

Those are just to name a few. We are truly enjoying each other's company and finding pleasure in the simple things. We are making strides in our Dave Ramsey Financial Peace plan and looking forward to being debt free!

Happy Fall Everyone! <3

Boss Birthday Surprise

Happy Birthday Babylove!

August 15, 2010 my handsome hubby had his 32nd birthday!! It was a wonderful weekend that my parents were able to come in town to help celebrate. We had a great time. Saturday night we had a party for David at his favorite restaurant here called JR's Place. It is just a little dive that unless you are a local - you wouldn't ever know about. :) We had our friends April & Philip, Mom & Dad, Myself, Aunt Lennis and my 2nd cousin's Sue & Paul join in on the occasion. It was a fun time had by all! David was blessed with several cards, money, clothes, and a few other items. He isn't a huge fan of celebrating birthday's but this year he really was able to just enjoy it. I know this coming year will be an amazing one and I can't wait to share it with you! Love you punkin pie. :)

Weekend of The Cross 2010

The last weekend of July, David and I took off from work and spent our weekend volunteering for an event at our church called Weekend of The Cross. This event has been going on for about ten years and it is kind of like a "staycation" but instead in a mission trip version. What I mean is, we stay in Ruston, La at the Louisiana Tech dorms and helped people all throughout North Louisiana. There were several churches that came together and made up 32 groups of youth and adults. We had groups all the way from down south in Slidell, to as far west as Texas. Everyone was randomly placed into a group and given a job task for the weekend. I was placed with two other adult counselors and five youth. David and I both stayed at the Tech dorms too. Below is a picture of our lovely accommodations! (SOOO KIDDING). :) It was fun though, my roommate was one of my good friends, Missy.


Once our group gathered that first morning, we drove to the work site. Our group was given the task of building a wheelchair ramp, lucky me, I have never built such a thing. I was in charge of pictures, and talking and helping the kids build a relationship with our lady. When we arrived, right off the bat we hit a glitch. No one was home! What?!?! They knew we were coming didn't they? There were a couple of numbers on our sheet of paper and so we called. Come to find out our lady, Mrs. Loyd was unexpectedly back in the hospital. So, naturally, I suggested we go see her! Hello! What elderly person doesn't like company?! We called the family and they gave us the go-ahead to go. Right then our group decided we would work for 3/4 of the time and spend the rest of that day at the hospital. I was pumped.
In the mean time, we got busy!



This was our friend, Lulu. She was supposed to be a "police dog" for Mrs. Loyd and bite and be scary. Needless to say, she was by far the WORST "police dog" ever and in fact wouldn't stop licking everyone! :) Too funny. We told Mrs. Loyd and she just shook her head like "great." lol.

Anyway, did I mention we had two INCREDIBLE adult men on my team?!?! Mr. Bruce was from FUMC Monroe and Mr. Billy is from Trinity UMC in Ruston. Both had experience out the ears of how to build a wheelchair ramp! It was soooo cool to not only learn but watch as the youth just absorbed their wisdom. *Just in case you are wondering, I did in fact work, but the adults had strict instructions to INSTRUCT and not just do the project and let the kids watch.* ;) I did learn how to "toe-nail" a screw. :) See, told you I did work!

By the second morning the group was ready to knock the project out so we could go see Mrs. Loyd! We finished by noon. It worked out perfect, because we were able to complete our project, but do it BEFORE the peak heat of the day hit! After lunch we went to Mr. Billy's house and made a quick slide show to take to Mrs. Loyd so she could see what she had to look forward to when she came home! We also stopped by Walmart to print a picture of our group, get a frame for the picture, and a couple of night gowns for her to have. This woman was precious. She is the mother of 10 children, over 20 grandchildren and several great grands. She just glowed when you spoke of Christ. She shared her testimony with us and how she was saved and baptised. She prayed with us and by the second day, she claimed us as 'friends'. This woman is a jewel. The best part was listening to her lead our prayer the second day. She could hardly get the words out, she was so overwhelmed with happiness. She said that her husband had passed just a year prior and that he constantly prayed for her to get a wheelchair ramp in fear of her falling. It was by far one of the most amazing experiences to know in that very moment of time, no matter how each one of us got to the Weekend of the Cross, God had been planning for that answer to prayer for years. When I think about it, I can hardly understand! OUR GOD IS SOOOO INCREDIBLE! It is THE most amazing thing to know YOU are part of answering a prayer, even better - when you had NO idea. :) Overall, the trip was definitely impacting. David and I were both thrilled to sleep in our own bed come Sunday night, but it was definitely an experience. I truly believe, Mrs. Loyd will heal faster now and be able to enjoy her home knowing she can get in and out freely because of the wheelchair ramp.

Summer Fun

This summer has been a total blast! After getting home from Aly's wedding we have had something going on every weekend. :) 2 weeks after the wedding on June 26, 2010 I ran in my first 5K ever! It was awesome. I finished 3 mins under the time I had set for myself, and I can't wait to run in my next 5k. I plan to run September 11th's 5K in Shreveport to help support the Shreveport Bossier Rescue Mission (where I work)!!! It is a great way to start your weekend and dang, talk about a sense of accomplishment! HELLO!!!!! Anyway, 5 of us ran together at the Peach Festival 5K in Ruston, La.

David and I attended our 3rd Takin' It to the Streets outreach ministry that the Rescue Mission puts on for lower income areas in the Shreveport community. It was blazing hot, but we had fun spreading the love of Christ to others through - SNOW CONES - of all things! :) I love more than anything I have married such a Godly man that supports me in all that I want to do to help others!

These are just some random pictures of us. We spent 4th of July in Dallas with my parents, celebrating Fathers Day with my dad and just getting to spend time enjoying family on our 3 day weekend. We also went to see Toy Story 3 with some friends of ours - if you know me, you know that I LOVE Disney! Since as far back as I can remember I have collected Disney movies and of course, I hope to share them with our kids one day! Toy Story 3 was so cute. It was a great triple couple date night! :)

Other than the craziness that I have already spoke of, we have just been doing the usual - work, school, church, etc. :) We stay busy and love every minute of it. God is good and is blessing us more than we deserve. When you seek Him first - He not only gives you the desires of your heart, but also funds the way for His plan to be fulfilled!

Lil Sis Ties the Knot!

June was an exciting month. We stayed super busy, but had so much fun!
On June 12, 2010 my little sister was married to the man of her dreams. They had a unique wedding in Southern Indiana. It was everything Aly had dreamed of and more. They were married in the oldest United Methodist Church still holding services today in Indiana. It is a one room church building; with no AC and wood framed windows included. The best part about the wedding location was that our only living grandparents were able to attend. That made the trip and wedding perfect. I took several pictures but here are some of the highlights. :) Enjoy!



David, Me, Mom & Dad after the wedding

David being... well David! :)

Us :)

Aly and I with Granny

The 2 son-in-laws. my parents are so lucky. :)

Sisters.

Thompson's Chapel

Ohio River - view from our B&B

My precious Grampsie-poo :) (yes, that is what I call him)

David and I at Rehearsal Dinner

Childhood friend Jennifer (she was in my wedding) - I love her!

Mommy and Me :)


We had a great weekend with friends and family. I love my family and am so thankful for the time to get away and catch up!

Living Life

So if you haven't figured out by now, David and I stay super busy! I have every intent of updating this thing more frequently, but somehow a month has come and gone before I even think twice about my blog. :( I am better than I was last year, and that's all that counts, right? Lol.
Anyway, David has completed his first year of college! He made the Dean's List for the spring quarter and got his name in the local newspaper. Can you tell I am one proud wife? Well if you can't, I AM ONE PROUD WIFE! I wish I would have focused and studied that hard when I was getting my undergrad! Ha, my parents were praying for me to just finish. Truth be known, now that I k'now what I want to do when I grow up' (or kinda of an idea) finishing my Master's Degree has some how allowed for me to get much better grades. I know, I know, imagine that - my social life isn't as important as I once thought it to be! Back to David - he completed 34 hrs this past year and is scheduled to complete another 6 through summer school. He is taking his second English in summer session 1 and some Math in summer session 2. He stays incredibly busy between school, mowing the family properties and working at the public library. The best thing about the library is that it has AC, and for those of you that know anything about Louisiana summer's - THAT is definitely something to be thankful for! :)
As for me, I am working like a mad woman. I have more comp time than I know what to do with, but what can I say, I LOVE MY JOB!!!!! It is by far the most incredible thing I have ever done. Helping people is exactly what I plan to do for the rest of my life; I simply love it. I am over a federal grant and it is in full force. Naturally, that means that almost daily guidelines change and people disqualify from the day before or qualify when yesterday they didn't. How is this you ask? IT IS GOVERNMENT MONEY, what did you expect?!?! :) But for those that do get in the program - it is amazing.
The ladies at the Mission that are in the Disicipleship Training Program (we offer a rehabilitation program) get the opportunity to have me (I know, woooo hooo) teach them in Phase 2 Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace course!!!! And y'all it is the COOLEST thing in the whole world when a homeless individual feels HOPE and realizes that they too can have independent living! SUCH a neat thing to see. We are currently in week 6 with a total of 13, so half way through! Some of these women are over the age of 50 and never had a checking account before, pulled or even read a credit report, or to get really basic, budgeted. That is insane to me. Luckily, I had a mom and dad that were in banking and accounting - I had it whether I wanted it or not! :)
Everyday isn't a fun day at work, but days that I get to see one more, just one, have that light bulb go off makes it so worth it.
Did I mention comp time? :) Next week, is Aly's wedding. We are going to be in Indiana from Thursday until Sunday. I am super pumped to get some time away from work, but also to get to see family and most of all spend some good ol' fashion quality time with my grandparents! Aly will have the unique wedding she is after and I am sure there will be picture galore. After all, I think all but myself in her bridal party are photographers! :) Fun times.
Last thing, in the month of June, June 26th to be exact - I, Anna June Adams, will be running my very first 5K!!!! I could not BE more excited! Everyday I am running a little more, a little faster. I don't think this first 5K will be very pretty, but I WILL DO IT! The next 5K I am scheduled to run is in September. It will benefit the Rescue Mission and well I was nominated by the board/staff to be the rep for the group. :) Fine by me, gives me yet another goal to work towards getting and staying healthy. YA!!!

Below are just some random, silly and fun pictures of us. :)

Bass Pro Shop trying on Hats ;P

Date Night at an amaZing place called NEWK's - LOVE IT!!!! One of my new favorites. :)

Lunch date with David- celebrating him completing his 1st yr of college and he was able to come to work with me that day! ya!! :)

Tag... You're It!

I have no idea how the month of April has almost come and gone! Where the heck does the time go?!?! Seriously! Lots to update on....

Since coming home from Dallas at the beginning of April, I have been working out 3-4days a week hard core and just focusing on eating healthy. I don't really have specific weight or work out goals in mind - I am just striving to be the healthiest person I can be. :) David and I have found we REALLY love to cook! We actually get excited about what our meals are going to be during a two week period. We plan out all our meals; one - we know we have the ingredients, two - I can feel like we have a plan and the question of "what's for dinner?" isn't asked, and three - because we are in budget mode!

We have officially completed our Dave Ramsey's class on Financial Peace. We LOVED it!! We have already started chipping away at our debt and will be debt free as soon as we know it! We can not wait to get there!!!! This course is 13 weeks, for 2 hrs per week. It is intense and we actually had a couple of couples drop out during the duration of the course, but I am here to say it literally has changed our marriage. We had a great marriage before, but now we are on the same page about our finances and have the tools at our finger tips to get any problem solved. That in and of itself is a great accomplishment. Not that we weren't before, but Dave's plan just puts it in such simple steps that is almost fail proof. The only thing you have to do is: DO IT! I will say, being on such a tight budget is HARDDDDDD. Actually both of us hate it, but each time we hate it, we go and read testimonials that people who have already become debt free and what they are doing with all that 'extra' money they have each month and how they are impacting others! We SO want that to be us. We want to be smart with the money we are given so we can in turn give it to someone else to be a blessing. :) Working at a homeless shelter only amplifies that for me! I see the poor and needy everyday, and not just the stereotype, "druggie, with the long, white, mangled bread" but real people, real women, real CHILDREN, that they call this place home. Like I said, it definitely helps to keep you motivated. By no means do we think we are going to be able to change the world, but if we are able to just help put a smile on one person's face - our mission will be accomplished!

In the midst of all the budgeting and our debt free dreams, we are still living a life! :) lol. I know it is hard to believe. We have friends over to cook and have bon fires with instead of going out to eat. It sounds cheesy, but you would be surprised at how much fun you can have not having to "go out".






David has done VERY well this quarter and as of May 21st will be a SOPHOMORE!!!! I can't believe it. He will continue on for summer school, however with less hours as we have Aly's wedding and lots of weekend trips planned. :) We want him to get a little bit of a 'break' for summer too. He only has two test/papers due in each class and he will be well on his way into his 2nd year of college. This year has literally just FLOWN by!

Work is crazy busy for me, which is always a blessing. David and I are getting to attend a Ball tomorrow evening at Sam's Town to represent the Mission. LSU-Shreveport is putting it on and we get the net proceeds! How cool is that!! That is the best kind of event :) One you just show up to all "prettied up", get your picture taken, and collect a fat check. Lol. We are totally looking forward to it, because our friends, Doug and Missy got tickets to attend with us! I am also on the Golf Committee - we are planning a Golf Tourney in June and then we have begun the prep work for our HUGE event in the fall with author Ron Hall of Same Kind of Different As Me. If you have NOT read this book - READ IT!!!! It will change you life. (or maybe just your stereotype that you have towards the homeless!) It is an incredible story. In May, I am going to begin the 13 week course of the Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University here at the Mission!!!!! I am beyond thrilled and know that God has GREAT plans for each one of these woman that find themselves "homeless" for one reason or another - able to get the tool they need in order to find 'financial peace.'

God continues to bless our life one day at a time. We are so excited for summer to be here and all the craziness that it will include. We will definitely be outside doing home repairs, painting, making new brick paths, etc. - all the FUN stuff that David and I both love to do. We will also be spending lots of time with friends at the lake and getting tan. :) Hope all is well with you.
Loves.