Our Big Little Adventures: April is...

HERE! Wow... This past months has literally flown by.

Let's recap.

New job...and a bittersweet goodbye to my old job!

My co-workers with the City of Mesquite are absolutely amazing! On top of receiving the coolest goodbye cake EVER, the City of Mesquite placed a bench in honor of me at the Opal Lawrence Historical Park - a national park in Mesquite and what I helped to get certified as a Nature Explore Classroom (http://www.arborday.org/explore/) for our kids in Mesquite. What an honor!

As for my new job....Capital One has been wonderful!!! I sit on the Chief of Staff Team in the Financial Services Division and work with all of our nonprofit partners in Plano. What an amazing opportunity! I help plan special events (i.e. charity golf tournaments, employee volunteerism event), raise money for our nonprofit partners and engage our associates in volunteerism efforts. What a perfect fit - I love what I do. Praise God! :)

My goodbye cake! It is Pickle and Sundae - how cute!!!

Flowers, a gift and letters from my Board of Directors.

My bench! How cool.

Prayers going on to our grandmothers.

As several of you know, Richard's grandmother (Dad's Mom) has been in the hospital/nursing home for a long time now. This past month, my grandmother (Mom's mom) spiraled down the same path. Although, she was doing 110% better when we visited her in the nursing home this past week. Please keep both in your prayers!

CARES activities:

We've held a St. Patty's Day breakfast (and then tried to steer clear of the Greenville St. Patty's Day Parade....although we got sucked into traffic for an HOUR), hot dog night, and another yummy breakfast! We have such a great time meeting our neighbors during these events. Our property has people from all around the world and they have the coolest stories! Not gonna lie... we sometimes dread cooking for 100, but it is SO rewarding afterward! Thankfully Richard can cook...otherwise, our residents would be having game nights every month. Ha!

Preparing for a breakfast event.

The crazy raccoon!

Residents during a CARES event.

Richard shopping for an event at Sams!

Green Eggs and Ham for St. Patty's Day!

The dental saga ~

Let's sum it up. This was a 4 week nightmare for me (luckily it ended 4 days before starting my new job): 2 deep cleanings... received a porcelain onlay (basically a crown)...the porcelain onlay cracks... go in for a "fix"...the "fix" didn't hold and after the painkillers wore off (without any backup meds)...Richard stayed up with me ALL night long as I cried for hours on end and debated going to the ER....I go back to the dentist the next morning....they figure out that the that the temporary "fix" did not completely cover my tooth (really?!?!) and left a nerve exposed that went straight to my head...thus, the pain....received another temporary fix with several pain killers... while waiting for my 2nd permanent porcelain onlay to come in, I get to have oral surgery... (side note: After oral surgery, they brought Richard in the room and warned him that women can be emotional after surgery. As Richard told me later (b/c I have no memory of this), I was so confused when he walked in the room... I asked him when they were going to do the surgery...told him they took me to Antarctica (they used a cold numbing method on my hand...hence my Antarctica thoughts)....I couldn't walk so they put me in a wheelchair and then I looked at Richard with a serious face and grabbed my stomach like I was pregnant and kept telling him that I couldn't do it...it just wasn't going to happen....to which he replied, "it's ok Jessa, they took a tooth out, not a baby"....ha! I'm sure the nurse thought I was crazy)... After being on painkillers for weeks, I finally get my permanent porcelain onlay.... and heal from my surgery. I also gained 5 pounds, b/c I drank too many Ensures and loaded up on mashed potatoes. :)

TREE MASSACRE!

I just had to share this! Our apartment complex is in the process of cutting down several trees because they are about to renovate the entire property (not sure where we will go in the meantime...ha!)....as many of my neighbors, I am not happy about this either! We saw this sign of protest today... love it!

And all the activities in-between...

What a blessed life we lead! Just when we think we have a set path and plans set in stone, God redirects and shows us what His ultimate plan is...which is so much more powerful than anything we could have dreamed on our own!