Hail, All Hail, TCU!

Zach and I left Kansas City on Wednesday and drove south to Fort Worth, TX to spend a week with his family. We decided to visit TCU's campus while we were here because they've been building a lot and we wanted to see all the changes. It was so neat to be back on campus at the place where we spent four fantastic years, but the place really has changed a lot. Four new dorms are being built in the middle of campus, plus a new student center. The beloved Frog Fountain is still the centerpiece of campus, although it's been cleaned up a lot. It was never this shiny while we were there!
As we exited the freeway on our way to campus, I was reminded of the first time I visited TCU with my mom. Can it really have been almost ten years ago? If you don't know the story of how I ended up at TCU, read on. It is one of the clearest examples in my life of God leading me in a specific direction.

From the time I was a sophomore in high school, I really wanted to go to Rice University. I really, really, really wanted to go there. Rice is pretty tough to get into but I thought I had the grades, test scores, extracurriculars, etc. to get in. I applied for early admission and was absolutely devastated when I learned in February that they were deferring my decision to the regular admission pool.

I realized at that point that I was not happy with the other schools I had applied to. So, I decided to apply to TCU. Yes, just that suddenly. I had no real reason. I truly believe God placed the thought in my mind because that's where I needed to be. I know I had gotten mail from TCU during high school (along with dozens of other schools) but I had never given them any special thought. When I announced this intention to my parents, I'm sure they thought I was crazy, but being the supportive parents they are, they did everything they could to help me. They made calls to the admission office to find out how I could apply within the admission deadline (which was that week) and faxed my application for me so it would arrive on time.

A few weeks later I received an acceptance letter from TCU along with a t-shirt and a small scholarship offer. (I applied weeks after the scholarship deadline, so that was a big surprise.) The t-shirt may not seem like a big deal, but to me it represented a school that wanted me there enough to send a little token like that. Mom and I visited TCU during my Spring Break and while we were there I decided to accept the admission offer. TCU was the right size school with the right majors in the right kind of city.

I have not regretted that decision for a single minute in the past ten years. God worked in my life in so many ways during those four years--I am so thankful for the crazy decision He led me to make!

Cinnamon Rolls!

Christmas Eve in the Jones house means one thing: cinnamon rolls. Every Christmas morning for years my Grandma Irene served cinnamon rolls for breakfast when the family gathered at her house. Before she died my mom watched her make them and wrote out the recipe for the first time--Grandma didn't need a recipe. Now my mom continues to make cinnamon rolls for our Christmas brunch. It's a long process, with multiple rises and all the work of rolling out the dough, but by this time in the evening the house smells amazing and we can hardly wait for tomorrow morning, knowing what a treat is waiting for us!






Mixing the dough








Kneading in the flour








The dough before it rises








The risen dough








Rolled-out dough with LOTS of butter








Lots of butter deserves lots of brown sugar








Rolling up the dough








Slicing the dough and arranging the rolls in the pan








The finished product!

Thoughts for the Season

I read Isaiah 55 this morning and I was struck by its appropriateness to the Christmas season. My Bible has titled the chapter "The Free Offer of Mercy." Isn't that what Christmas should be: a reminder of the free offer of mercy that God is still extending to sinners everywhere?

Several verses in particular stood out to me. Verse 2 says "Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance." Millions of people have been busy this month spending their money on things that cannot really satisfy our longing souls. Only Christ offers what we really need.

Verse 6 says "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near." It seems to me that during the Christmas season Christ is on the one hand a little "nearer:" we hear songs about Him, see Scripture proclaiming Him on Christmas cards, and see images of His birth as decorations. But on the other hand, this pushes the true Christ a little farther away from us if we treat Him like the jingle bells and snowmen that also decorate our world.

I pray that Christ would be near your heart in this season. I pray that you (and I) would call upon Him to satisfy us in the midst of so much worldliness.

Oh, There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

The "home" I am currently referring to is my parents' house in Independence, MO. Zach and I are fortunate enough this year to have the resources to visit both our families during the holidays. We have been looking forward to this for months! No job responsibilities and no tuba, just lots of time to relax and frankly, to get spoiled. (If our parents are half as good at spoiling Austin as they are at spoiling us, he will be one lucky child!)

I am really glad that my parents still live in the house I grew up in because so many of my holiday memories center around this house. Here are some of my favorite things about Christmas in the Jones house:

• making Grandma Irene's cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve
• admiring all of my mom's beautiful decorations...she really inspires me to try to make my home as beautiful as it can be for my family
• listening to Christmas music both serious and not-so-serious...my mom just reminded me of the first time we ever listened to a "Cow Christmas" tape...pretty hilarious. We'll pull it out in a few days for old times' sake
• listening to my sister or my dad (no one else could do it justice) read aloud "The Christmas Tree in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith. This short story is probably supposed to be poignant and touching but is so funny (at least to us) that we can hardly get through it.
• doing crossword puzzles or having long conversations with my dad...he is so intelligent and I love how many different subjects on which we can converse
• enjoying our traditional Christmas brunch and then relaxing for all of Christmas afternoon

Book Group

I posted a few weeks ago about joining the Women's Club of IUP. Since then, I have gone to Craft Night, Game Night and Book Group. All of the events have been really fun and I've met a lot of women of all ages. Today I went to Book Group for the first time. We discussed The Memory-Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. Here's a brief synopsis:

It's 1964 and a young woman is giving birth for the first time. Because of a blizzard, she gives birth at her husband's clinic (he's a doctor) with only themselves and a nurse present. A healthy baby boy is born, then an unexpected twin girl is born. The husband recognizes that the baby has Down's Syndrome. While his wife is recovering from the sedative she was given during the birth, he tells the nurse to take the baby girl to an institution for the mentally disabled. When his wife wakes up, he suddenly decides to tell her that the girl died at birth. Once away from the clinic, the nurse decides to take the baby and raise her as her own daughter.

The book follows all of these characters' lives over the next 24 years. Maybe this book captured my attention so much because I'm expecting my own child and can somewhat put myself in the mother's shoes, but I think I would have found it compelling even before. It describes so well the tragedy that comes from a relationship based on lies, but you sense throughout the book that there is hope if only the truth could come out. Plus, for someone my age, it is really thought-provoking to read about how children with Down's were treated only a few decades ago.

If you're looking for something to read over the holidays, you might want to give this one a try.

Merry TubaChristmas!

TubaChristmas took place in Indiana last night. If you've never experienced TubaChristmas before, it is a national event that takes place in cities all across the country. Tuba and euphonium players of all ages get together and play Christmas songs for the public to enjoy. In Indiana, it takes place at the Indiana Mall. Zach has participated in TubaChristmas before but this year was his first time coordinating the event. Yesterday was a very busy day for Zach but everything went smoothly and we had a huge turnout. Here are some pictures of the fun!

Registering

Zach and I went to Monroeville today, the 40-miles-away location of our nearest Babies R Us, to set up our baby registry. Wow--what an experience! I don't think I have ever made so many choices in one day before. It certainly added to my "I don't know what I'm doing" feelings as a mom-to-be. I mean, a fifteen foot long aisle with nothing but bottles and pacifiers! How in the world are you supposed to choose what is right for the child you haven't met yet?

But...we had fun, despite the sometimes overwhelming nature of this task. It was nice to do something parent-ish with Zach--I was blessed (and am blessed every day) by his enthusiasm towards being a dad. I realized all over again today just how well we complement each other.

So our registry is complete, for better or worse, although not necessarily in final form. Thank goodness for the online accessibility that Babies R Us offers. Zach and I have already made several changes since this morning as we came home and read reviews of some of the products.

The news we've been waiting for

Baby Collins is a BOY! Nobody in the family was too surprised about that--we are just adding to the large number of Collins men! Zach and I are thrilled to know his gender, though, and to see him for the first time. Our ultrasound (my first) was a truly amazing experience. Our little one waved at us a few times and we saw his little mouth open and close. I'm not sure how long he is but he's measuring almost 20 weeks. (I'm almost 19 weeks along.) God truly works a miracle every time a baby is conceived!

As many of you know, we have been planning to name our boy Austin Zachary. Here are a few of Austin's first baby pictures!

Here he's on his back, looking up, with a little hand in front of his chest.

And here, as the ultrasound tech put it, he's "showing his stuff" so we know who he is!

Here I Grow

After my last post several friends requested a current picture of me and my preggo belly. Here you go! This is the first week I've felt like I'm actually "showing." I finally feel pregnant and it's pretty exciting.