In the process of processing...

For the past year I have been in graduate school for Counseling. I don't think I expected to experience so much change within myself during this process. These classes that I'm taking and papers that I'm writing force me to face my own demons and sin issues. This year has been a time of fighting for obedience in my relationship with the Lord. Many time I've felt apathetic and numb to His truth. Few times have I felt His presence in that rich deep way that I love so much. This is why I've had to battle my flesh in being obedient to my God. Many failures and few successes.

The more and more I'm counseling myself in a sense, the more I realize that all of my relationships, including my relationship with the Lord have such heavy conditions placed upon them. God, IF you do this, THEN I'll love you. Taylor IF you do this, THEN I'll love you back. Lacey, IF you do this, then I'll feel complete. I hate this realization but I'm so grateful for it because I'm now aware that I've been relying on my own love and grace to produce successful relationships. Needless to say, my love and grace are not sufficient. They grow tired and run dry. I've been constantly reminded that I am fallible and limited but my God is perfect and limitless. His love and grace are what produce relationships that bring Him glory, not mine. Although many days I fight for control in my own life and disobey my Father, the simple truth is that he still loves me and will never stop loving me. I thought I'd share my gratefulness for His faithfulness. 

I ran across this song  by Audrey Assad about two weeks ago and it has blessed my heart in so many ways. Just a wonderful reminder that He is persistent in his love for his children. 

Our God is....

Faithful. Never-Changing. Steadfast. Love. Father. All-loving. All-powerful. Protector. Provider. Savior. Redeemer. Rock. Comforter. Anchor of the soul. Good. Humble. Committed. Gracious. Merciful. Healing. Sovereign. Deserving. Creator of all things. Perfect. Holy. Trustworthy. He is the Lion and the Lamb. The Way. The Truth. The Life. Glorious. The King of all kings. He has always been and He will always be.

I ran across this video that reminded me of all that my God is. 

Anniversary Pictures

I decided that for my anniversary present that I wanted to have our sweet friend and talented photographer Meredith Bacon take our first official family pictures! Since we have trudy now, it only seem fair that she make the Christmas card! I think it's going to be really fun to watch our family grow each year. I'm hoping that one day a long long time from now, our children will either laugh at these or cherish them. If we are lucky, maybe both. Here are a few of my favorites! Please check out more of Meredith's wonderful pictures at her website at http://meredithbacon.com/ 

I'm sure there will be more on the way!

One Year of Marriage According to my Iphone

Our one year anniversary is on September 25! It's hard to believe that it's been that long! According to my iphone... here is what marriage has looked like for us! Life is good folks. Can't wait for another year with my incredible husband.

life lately

It's nice to have time to sit down and write a blog. I don't often make time to do this but it's nice when I do.  Here lately, life has been good. Busy, but good. Camp is over so things have slowed down for the Jervis' considerably. I started work back up about two weeks ago and I have to tell ya, I really love it.

I work as an interpreter for the deaf at a community college here. When I first started in January I felt totally overwhelmed and incompetent. The more I use my signing skill, the more comfortable I am with the language, culture, and people.

I interpret three days a week from 9-5 with no breaks. Well, if you count walking from class to class a break... then I have small breaks throughout the day. Interpreting is an interesting profession. Your brain is at work 100% of the time that you are working. Your hands never stop, your eyes don't close and mind never stops storing and processing information. Needless to say, at the end of the day my brain feels a little like scrambled eggs. I have come to love feeling spent at the end of the day knowing that I worked hard. 

I absolutely adore the students that I get the pleasure of working with. I find myself learning something new from them everyday and for that I am grateful to them. The more I work, the more I love sign language. 

Taylor, God bless him, he is actually eager to learn sign language. I love him for that. I'm not sure if he does it because he really wants to learn or if it's because he knows it brings me joy. It has been really fun teaching him to sign! I almost can't wait to have kids just because I can teach them a little of what I know. 

Marriage continues to amaze me. Marriage is not for wimps.... that's for sure. At times it is hard because the Lord continues to use it to draw out the sin in my heart. That's the hard part. I think I've realized that anytime I feel like marriage is hard is because one of us isn't getting what we want and most of the time we can only get what we truly want from the Lord. If only I could remember that in those moments. 

My husband also continues to amaze me. He is truly growing into an incredible man after the Lord's heart. His pursuit of excellence inspires me to pursue it with him. As my selfishness continues to be revealed, his patience and grace seem to increase. I mean really... God must give him the ability to love me in the times when I am completely unlovable. What a picture of grace. Grace..... something that we get that we don't deserve. 

All in all, life lately has been wonderful. I am continuing to learn more than I ever thought I could. Whether it be about myself, about my God, about my husband, about a class I am interpreting.... I feel like I am just learning so much. I can only laugh when I look back six years and laugh at myself when I thought I knew it all.

My how marriage changes us....

As I sit here eating ice cream with my dog, I was doing the normal phone check... email, Twitter, Instagram, and the Twitter again (just in case someone happened to post something in the past 2ms) After that I flip through my phone and see a little annoying red flag on my App Store application telling me that I have two updates, without a thought I click it to update and I just laugh because it's one of those moments that you realize you are becoming more and more like your spouse.

Lacey Jenkins would have NEVER done that... it takes too long and come on...those things aren't really serious. But now that I am married there are things that I do now because my husband has engrained it into my heart and soul.

A few things that I can think of off the top of my head would be:

1. ALWAYS update your phone and computer. After all, we must be good stewards of the things that God has given us.

2. ALWAYS flush the toilet AFTER the lid is down! Who wants "poop particles" on their toothbrush?

3. If you need to say something while in the car and the radio is on, just hit power instead of turning it down because if you turn it down you miss most of the song and that just doesn't make sense.

4. When the gas light comes on, you still have a good 45 miles left before things get serious... unless you're in a Uhaul... that's different.

I just love it when I realize that I do something because my husband does it that way and he has a good explanation for everything he does. It makes me laugh. I wonder how life will look for me after ten years of marriage. Color coded closet, shoes, and tshirts? Eh.... doubtful.

Blueberry Pickin' in Texas

You know, the more we explore east Texas, the more charming and lovable it becomes. There is a sweet simplicity here that I think deep down I yearn for. There is no importance placed on what you wear, where you live, how much money you have. I love that. People in east Texas are relational and hilarious.

I went Blueberry pickin' with some of my sweet friends and we had a blast! 

Just starting out... got a long way to go!

These make me smile!

Gettin' there!

Ta-da!! Full bucket!

7 pounds of blueberries!

full bucket for Ally too!

The quicks! All three of them :)

Father's Day

Many years I dread this day. A day to remember that my dad is gone. Throughout the past seven years the Lord has used this day to teach me about a Father who is greater than any other, a Father who is everlasting and a Father who will satisfy every need that I have. "He is a Father to the fatherless and a champion of widows, this is God in his holy dwelling"- Psalm 68:5 

Today, I am thankful beyond words for the eight years that the Lord gave me with my sweet daddy but I am eternally thankful for how the Lord has rescued me and adopted me as his child. Therefore, I go through today in joy and celebration!

Mother's Day

Because it's Mother's Day, I thought I'd share a little bit about a woman who has influenced my life more than any other woman I've ever know. This is my absolute favorite picture of my parents. So much joy right? My sweet dad passed away when I was eight from a heart attack. From that day on, my mom had a raise a child alone. I'm not even a parent yet and the older I become, the more and more amazed I am at thought of this. I could write a lot about my how incredible my mother is but just to give you an idea of how lucky I am I'll just tell you a few words that describe her. Stunning, from the heart and radiant outwardly. Courageous. I grew up thinking that my mom was literally afraid of nothing, not even grand daddy long legs. Sacrificial. If you know anything about my mom, you know she loves intensely and would give anything she had to show another person love. Growing up we did not have a lot of money, but I could have never guessed because I had everything that I could have ever wanted or needed. The Christmas after my dad died, my grandparents couldn't make it because of weather, so it was just my mom and I. I told my mom that if I got the one thing that I hoped and dreamed for, that I would know that Santa Clause was real, because only Santa could swing what I wanted.... A furby. 

Skeptical 9 year old Lacey wandered down the hall knowing that this moment would change the rest of her life. Was Santa real or had I been lied to my entire existence? OH BOYYY!! There it was!!!! A black and white furby to call my own! It was a magical moment that I will never forget because that was the moment I realized that I had a mom who loved me more than I could ever know. My mom drove to something like 3 different states to find this terrifying creature and paid an absurd amount for it (which we didn't have) because she didn't want my first Christmas without my dad to be without a little joy and magic. I never told my mom that I knew Santa wasn't real because I wanted the magic to linger a little while longer. My mom is funny. We use to have toe pinching wars. She always won, although I think I could take her today. My mom is confident. Over the years, I have seen my mom grow into a woman who is all her own and all together fabulous. I have come to know my mom as a best friend. Those are just a few words I would use to describe my mom to you. I hope that one day I can love my children the way that she continues to love me. 

Mom, thanks for everything that you've ever done for me that has gone unnoticed and for everything that you have done that has gone without a thank you. You are a woman I am honored to call my mother. You have always been and will always be my biggest fan and supporter. You love me when I am utterly unlovable. You love me in a way that no one will ever be able to love me. You're love has shown me a glimpse of how much I am loved by the Lord. What an incredible gift. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Happy Mother's Day. 

All my love,

Your Bambino

9 Hours Down, 51 To Go.

I am sitting at Panera right now enjoying the light jazz music, sipping on an iced Acacia Tea, writing a 15 page final research paper. My first semester of grad school is officially over in two days. Praise the Lord. It has been a crazy crazy 5 months. (hence why it has taken me 5 months to write another blog post).  This semester has been full of papers upon papers, interpreting for deaf students (which I loveeee), husband's softball and football games, moving from a 3,000 square foot house to a 555 square foot apartment, best friends getting married and engaged. Needless to say, it's been busy but it's been good. Marriage is still a blast and continues to be the thing in my life that drives out my sin and showers me with grace at the same time. What a picture of love. 

It's funny to look at my previous post about how excited I was to do grad school and to "do it right"....do all of the readings and assignments. It's funny because one thing that this semester has taught me is that marriage takes priority over school. Many times I missed out on doing things with friends or with Taylor because I was swimming in school work and was determined to do well. I knew that the Lord first called me to be a wife to my husband but I allowed myself to get so wrapped up in school that at times I neglected my marriage. It seems completely ridiculous right? It was more difficult than it sounds. It was hard for me to put down a 10 page paper that was due at midnight to watch tv with my husband or to turn an assignment in late because my in-laws were in town or because my best friend got married. It was a battle for me to be a wife first and then a student. In the end, the Lord has blessed me in providing plenty of time and strength to finish this semester with all A's. He is always so faithful even when I am running around like a crazy lady, trying to plan out my life so I'll have enough time in my days. He is so patient. 

First Day of School!

Today is my first day of school! Grad school that is. I have been given the most incredible opportunity to study something I love, which is marriage and family counseling! I am taking classes at Liberty University online. I'm not sure how online classes will go, but I will tell you that I'm sitting here in my PJ's, no make up and a big cup of joe just working away. Hey, no complaints here.

I am excited about today because I get the rare chance to start over. I got my Bachelor's degree in Educational Interpreting. I loved the 5 years it took me to finally finish my degree after I decided which direction I wanted to go. I'll be honest, if I could go back, I'd do things a bit differently. I didn't really apply myself as much as I should have. I didn't challenge myself to learn the way that I know I am capable of learning. 

Today, I get a re-do. Today, I get to read all of my assigned readings instead of skimming them in a hurry. I am excited to be disciplined and focused. I am excited to push myself and to learn instead of memorizing. 

Here's to another two years of school! Gulp.

I'm in business!

One of my goals for 2012 was to make and sell a bundle of my hand made cards. I love crafting but card making is my favorite. I've given bundles of cards away as gifts many a time, and so far, they've been a hit! Here is the first bundle that I'm selling! I think if I had to name this little collection it would "Simple & Sweet". I made half of the bundle very simple...(hence the name!) I just adore simple cards. They are very understated and clean looking. The other half of the bundle I used more materials such as scrapbooking paper, thread, fabric, and card stock... these are "sweet"ones. I'm super excited about them because believe it or not, these little babies take lots of time and love!

If any one is interested in buying some cards, you just let me know! You just let me know what kinds you want and I will do them! This client requested anniversary, birthday, and thank you cards!

Hope you like them!

Need new music?

Alrighty, this is my new CD. Ellie Holcomb is Drew Holcomb's wife and she has a killer voice! Her new album, Magnolia is wonderful. Wanted to share some new music with you singer/songwritter lovers! Enjoy!