Celebrate Good Times

So I had a pretty wonderful birthday.

Thanks to some pretty wonderful people. 

I can't believe how completely blessed I feel. 

Here is the sum-up of my day :)

Midnight brought me a few great conversations with good friends who couldn't wait to call me for sweet birthday wishes. Bree included of course. It was so odd to be without her. To those friends and family, I say thank you. 

The morning was delightful. Bordo, Gina, Travis and Sherilan (the youth staff) took me to one of my very favorite places... Panera Bread. And with my blueberry bagel and cream cheese in hand, I realized how blessed I am to be at First Colony. 

So then back at the office, the ministry staff had a cake for me... delish. 

Trisha made me the most tasty strawberry cupcakes that I was given to bring to work... so I ate those too. 

(needless to say I was getting pretty full at this point.)

For lunch, I was so blessed to spend some time with Joyce Swanson, one of the sweetest, Spirit filled Mom's I've ever met. We went to this restaurant called "The Hobbit" which was themed after the Lord of the Rings. Cyndi (my baby sis) would have LOVED it. I don't know if I felt like I was in the Shire, but I most definitely enjoyed the experience. Joyce, you have made me feel so at home here. You and Deborah are so dear to my heart.

When I returned to the office, Travis and Katie were there... being sneaky in my office, not letting me in. :) So I waited until they called me in... 

Katie walked me into the office... and with the lights turned out, balloons filling the room and candles lit, they started singing ... very loudly (haha). I just stood there... hugging Katie the whole time they were singing... and I could barely hold myself together. I thought to myself, 

"Thank you God for Katie!!! and Thank you for Travis!!! How could I be so loved?"

As they finished the song... and waited for me to blow out the candles, I said, "Oh no! we need a picture!" 

and ran to get my camera... (haha whoops!) And Travis said, "You WOULD do that."

After that, they had me open a few presents... 

get ready to freak out with me....

You wont believe what they got for me.

It's way too much.

OKAY okay... I'll tell you. 

THEY GOT ME A GARMIN GPS!!!! (AHHHHH!!!)

Can you believe that??!

How are my friends so amazing to me? ! ! !

For real... WHAT were you guys thinking?

AHHH!!!!!!

Okay, so as the celebrating continued... I was getting pretty full, and emotionally drained as well. So before our birthday dinner... I went home and sat on my love-seat for a little bit and read my ridiculous amount of facebook wall posts (one of my favorite parts of my birthday of course... Come on... don't act surprised. )

The next part of day was quite wonderful. I went over to Katie's house, and we got dressed to go out to  fancy dinner. I had no idea where we were going, and I liked it that way. Travis and Jamie escorted us... and we enjoyed a lovely dinner at an really hip Italian place called Grotto, which was in Houston. 

And we ate, and ate some more! 

(I feel sure that I ate more on Monday than I've ever eaten in one day.)

I had a perfect filet of salmon with shrimp, mushrooms and

 potatoes. Oh. My. Goodness. It was fabulous. That's all I can say. 

Dessert was prime time. We all got something different, and shared. My gelato was fancy :)

                           

Getting all dressed up is just too much fun :)

Thank you for such an incredible day Katie, Travis, Jamie, Trisha, Joyce, Matt, FCYG...

I thank my God for you guys. 

What a wonderful life I live. 

I am now a whole pack of candles...

Joyfully,

Jess

24 Years Ago...

On February 16th, 1985...

My Mom & Dad went to the hospital to give birth to a 12 lb boy, soon to be named Jesse Bryant Terry. Little did they know... they would soon have Jessica and Breanna instead. 

So, I just got off the phone with my Mom... and she was telling me that she remembers that night like it was yesterday. I've never heard this story the way she just told it to me, and I'm pretty excited about it. There is something so special about hearing the story of your own birth. I feel so much more connected to my Mom, and to my Creator when I hear about it. So here is what she told me. 

Mom and Dad were expecting to have a son on that night. She said she remembers so much about that evening. She remembered that during the ultrasound, she heard the doctor say something about a second heart beat, but then brushing it off. She said that she remembered giving birth to Bree... and being so surprised that she was a girl. She said that the midwife who was there for the delivery looked about Bree like something was wrong, and said she was too small, but Mom said she looked absolutely perfect and was sent into panic after what happened next.

She remembered...

Hearing them call for the Doctor

Holding her baby girl for a few moments, only to feel them take her away 

Hearing them say, "there is another heart beat."

and, "Dad you're gonna have to leave for this one."

Signing something that allowed them to put her to sleep and cut her open

Feeling Panic for a moment...

Waking up confused

Not believing the nurses when they told her there were two baby girls

I was there the whole time, and she never knew... only God knew I existed until that moment. 

Mom said that they kept bringing her a baby to hold, but it was always Bree. By the third time, she said she remembered her Dad, my Grandpa David, being there and taking her in a wheel chair down the hall to find me and hold me for the first time. 

She said she knew then, that God would always take care of me, because He knew about me... and took care of me, before she even knew I existed. 

She said that she remembered Dad bringing her two pink balloons. 

And remembering that she had prayed for twin girls. 

Ugh... I love this story!

Happy Birthday to my amazing twin sister Breanna Jan.

Thank you God for taking care of us.... 

you are so Good to me God. 

So good to me. 

PS: My Mom and Dad went on a date last night for Valentines Day... and Mom told me tonight, when I asked her how it went... she said...

"It was good. We are doing great.  I mean, it's your Dad. We get along so well... I care about him."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOW CRAZY AMAZING IS THE POWER OF GOD?!!!!

Thank you Jesus!

All it takes.

What does it take to make a girl smile?

What does a guy have to do to impress her, show her he cares?

How hard is it to show a girl that she is special?

I don't think that guys realize how easy it really is to please us girls.  All it takes is a little courage, and some action. Thats it. 

It's kind of funny that my last post was about Love, and how I have been wondering about all that sticky stuff lately... because I've been truly smacked in the face with a pretty great Valentines Day after all. 

If boys would just be bold and real with us, instead of being cowardly and timid, (not saying that all guys are cowards) there would be so many girls out there who were a lot happier. Just be real guys. Be the Man and go for it. Stop waiting around for the girls to make the moves. We don't want to be the Man, and you really don't want that either. 

All it takes is a thoughtful gesture to show her that you think about her. 

That's all it takes.  

-Happy Girl

The way I see it...

Let's be real here. Everyone wants to be in love. That is the bottom line. Well, my thought is... if that's what everyone wants, then why are their so many people alone? What a random question. The real question is actually, when is it okay to start wanting to stop being alone? 

Ok... Jess just got real on ya. whoops. 

I'm not saying that I'm crying myself to sleep at night. The truth is, I'm actually very happy with my life as it is right now. I don't day dream of romantic nothings constantly, or even often. But, one does end up thinking about "love" every once in a while... and so I guess today is one of those whiles. 

I just saw the movie "He's just not that in to you"... and I must say... I'm kind of sad. I don't think that movie had any point really. I do agree with one part of it... and just one. That one point being that people should stop chasing after love, and start just loving others, and in return they will receive a much better love (but I don't really think they even meant for me to get that out of the movie.... I might have just been applying a spiritual truth to a worldly movie). Anyway, it was shallow and romantic, and even though I got wrapped up into the romance of it, I'm left feeling pretty low after all. What a waste of $9.50. Not to mention, my junior mints spilled behind my seat after only consuming about 6 of them. whoops. Thanks a lot AMC. 

I guess what I've really been thinking about is... I know Love will find me one day, because I know that as long as I continue to love those around me, instead of focusing on "when, how and who will find me...me...me," I'm confident that a better kind of love will actually happen on its own.  A love that will be generous and not self-seeking. At least that's my hope. 

I don't want to live my life waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet. So... I'm just not going to. I've never been of that mindset, and I'm not going to fall into that now. So there ya go Hollywood. That's what I have to say about your lame attempt at explaining Love. 

"Guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life."

I pray that I will understand this verse more and more everyday. For real... how does this work? I'm still boggled, but I think I might be getting closer to understanding it. 

The way I see it... the Lord is going to have to take care of it. I'm sure He will do a better job then I could ever attempt to. 

There. 

Now that's off my chest. 

I Love Technology

I feel like such a nerd and I love it. The website I've been working on for our "Girls Reflecting Glory" conference is finally posted. I'm still working out some kinks in the domain but it's up! I really dig it. 

girlsreflectingglory.com

Don't type the "www." in front of it, and it should work. :/

Like I said, I'm still working out the kinks. :)

I got to see Katie again today and that alone was a joy to my day. :) I had a pretty good day... but getting to hang out with Katie just made it that much better. 

I went to my "one-to-one" Apple training today at the Apple store and I learned a lot. I learned how to publish my site, and all about the new iLife 09! Do you know about it? Oh my goodness its incredible. In the new iPhoto, there is this thing called "Faces" that detects peoples faces, recognizes and tags them by name for you, loads them to facebook, tags them there, and also organizes your pictures by who is in them... creepy and yet amazing at the same time! What will Mac come up with next? A software that finds you the perfect man and plans your wedding for you?! Oh wait... thats ridiculous Jess. Chill girl. 

I am working on a photography website. AHHH! I'm freakin' pumped. Maybe then someone important will see my photos and give me a job that allows me to travel back to Europe to photograph beautiful and awesome things, with all my best friends, while we are all on their tab! Ok Ok... got carried away. Chilling out.

...

...Chilled.

My friend Matt Johns was on the Food Network this past weekend. Check it out online if you get bored. It was a show called "my life in food" and the episode was called "This city is going on a diet". He was fabulous. :) It was a blast watching... you'll love it. Pinky swear. 

Alright... that's enough babble. 

Later Playas.

New Chapter

Today I moved to a new home. 

I now live with Rick and Trisha Clark, a lovely couple whom I've grown to love and admire very much already. Trisha is a dear friend to me and I am so blessed to get to live here for the remainder of my internship. 

Moving is so disgusting to me. How do I have so much stuff? I feel like I just got rid of so much when I graduated and we had our big garage sale... but I seem to still have a butt-load of stuff!! While packing, I came across clothes that I haven't seen nor worn since before I moved here. I think that may be a sign that I should get rid of some things. I almost feel heavy because of all this meaningless STUFF I have. I feel like simplifying, and maybe even gutting my stash of stuff. It's time to clean out my closet. 

American Idol started tonight.... 

& my heart is so glad!!

I cannot help it. I am one of those American Idol fans that believes her opinion is the best one. So I apologize in advance for being so right, and being crazy about AI. :) Rick didn't want to watch it. He says its trash, and a waste of time... but I think he enjoyed it a bit. I even caught him laughing a few times. Trisha was cracking up with us. It's just too good. Just too good.

On the ministry side of my mind...

I've got a situation on my hands, and I'm feeling pretty anxious about it. Basically, something that some of my teens told me in confidence was leaked out to some of their parents because I had to take the matter to other authorities... and now one of my teens is in big trouble with the Rents. I'm worried that the Parents are going to be upset with me for not telling them about the incident. I know parents want to know everything that goes on in their teenagers life, and I know they deserve to know. But I also know that the situation would have only gotten worse if the parents were involved, and the teens chances of repenting would not go up either. Mostly, I'm wondering if this kid is ever going to confide in me again now that he is in so much trouble. I know I did what I had to do, and I know it was right. But I guess I'm just struggling with it. Probably because I know how hard it is to get through to teens... and how distant most parents are... and how close I sometimes get to be. And I'm just scared I might be losing that trust from some of my kids because I had to do what was best for them. Anyway, I know that is all vague... but thats what has been on my mind. 

I pray God convict the hearts of my teens, 

and that they will come to Jesus.

They need Him so badly.

Jess 

Holiday

My holiday was such a great couple of weeks. I had an awesome time with my best friends in Charleston at Celeste's wedding... oh man it was beautiful. The Fam was great in Savannah, but we have so many dogs barking around the clock, it's almost impossible to sleep. I did love being with Koko and Cheif (my chihuahuas). I miss them already. Koko is getting to where she gets mad at me when I leave. :( I wish I could bring her here to Htown. Anybody want a puppy?? We have over 50 now!

YIA in Nashville was such a blessing and the class I taught was a huge success thanks be to the Lord! I love my job so much! I mean, gosh... I get to let the Spirit speak through me and watch teenagers lives change! How awesome is that?! Memphis was fulfilling as always, and I'm finally home in Houston.

I will have to say though... I am literally exhausted! I guess I haven't yet learned what a holiday is supposed to be like. It seems that around this time of the year, I always find myself flat on my back in my bed, surrounded by a pile of tissues, vitamin C, and a box of Nyquil. Yuck. I need to learn how to have a holiday.

In other news...

Though my body aches and nose runs...
I am overwhelmed by the peace and joy of my Lord!!
I can't wait to write more about my break.
I have seen his glory!
I have been blessed in so many ways to see his glory.

I'll write more once I'm not ill.
Love.