The Bouchers

Here he is.....

2008-11-23T12:32:00.002-06:00

Joel Matthew Boucher

born November 21, 2008 at 10:15am

7lbs 1oz, 20 in

One year ago...

2008-11-14T09:22:00.005-06:00

Just hours old

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Month 4

Month 5

Month 6

Month 7

Month 8

Month 9

Month 10

Month 11

Month 12

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

Who knew...

2008-10-13T20:38:00.002-05:00

....I had such a wild and crazy husband!

Yes this was a "dare" and for a good cause. No this is not recent! I just came across it the other day and thought I would share. :)

Get Excited!

2008-09-18T21:53:00.004-05:00

side note... when I put this together, I had the sound off and had no idea how this video sounded sped up...I was just trying to make it a little shorter without thinking how it sounded, it's kind of funny though :)

Disclaimer

2008-08-24T15:22:00.003-05:00

I do realize that my previous post was a little long. After I was two pages in on word and my wife saw it and inquired what it was, and after I told her it was a blog post she said it was way to long. I did however want to share some of my experiences and thoughts for the summer, and as many of them arose out of our time together in small group I wanted to share with the people who have helped me to shape these thoughts. I am still thinking through many of the ideas that I touched on and hope to explore some of them further on the blog, but for now this is a good start. I also hope that this will be an opportunity for me to receive feedback on my thoughts and ideas. Things may seem clear in my own head, but it is only through the interaction of the community that they can be shaped and refined. This goes to say, your comments are welcomed and desired.

Thoughts on Christian Community

2008-08-24T15:18:00.001-05:00

This summer through a variety of experiences in my life combined with a good selection of reading from both the scripture and a selection of other authors God has been teaching me about his church and the nature of Christian community. I don’t often take the time to sit down and write blogs about such subjects, but I figured this would help me to reduce some of my thoughts to writing and let me share some of the things that I am learning.

This summer our life group at Meadowbrook began with the question: “What should the church be that it isn’t?” With this question we launched into a discussion that we hoped would help us to live out God’s call on our lives to be his body the church. Our desire was not to be critical of the church but to see how we could live faithfully in obedience to Christ. So far this has been a wonderful experience that has led me farther into reflection of the nature of God’s community and its foundations. I am excited to see where our discussion and actions go from here and I have developed a sense of expectancy for God to do mighty things within our group and our church at large. I’m not sure what this might be, all I know is that God is moving and is about to do things that I pray surpass any expectations that we could formulate.

Going back to the original question that we posed at the beginning of the summer, I began to wonder if we were asking the right question. This led me to see if there were any other ways that we might address the issue of the church, other ways to probe into its nature, its call, its mission in this world. Then I came to Cottonwood.

As part of my seminary program I did an internship at Cottonwood Baptist Church in Dublin this summer. Cottonwood is a unique church that has experienced the movement of God in the last ten years in significant ways. Although, it is not perfect, it is doing many things that are healthy for the church and faithful to Christ’s call to his body.

In a conversation that I had with Cottonwood’s pastor, Mike Fritscher, he began to tell me some of the history of their church and how God brought them to the place they are at now. Mike said that he spent time during the early years of his pastorate preaching on the glory of God and exploring this concept as a church. He talks about how we exist to give glory to God and this important aspect of faith has become central to the congregation’s life. When Mike invited Dr. Mike Stroope to come speak to the church about the possibilities of participating in mission, Dr. Stroope did not begin by talking about the nations, nor about the church, but about the glory of God. This he said was the foundation for the church’s life and work in the world, and it is this that is the impetus for its mission among the nations.

This theme is too big to go into here, and I still need additional reflection on its depth and implications, but in relation to the current discussion it began to make me think about how we see the church, and what we found it upon. It made me look back to the question we had in life group and the answers that we gave. I started to think that to give better answers to the question we should go back further to look at the foundations of the church. Without a proper understanding of the basis for the Christian community we cannot fully understand what it should be or be doing in this world. So I began to look back at some of our answers that we posed in our initial small group discussion and see if there was something behind them.

Two of the main themes that arose out of that discussion were the need for community and intimacy. These two are strongly related to one another as intimacy is a necessary part of developing community. As we began to talk about the need for intimacy Jacob prefaced our discussion saying that the Bible does not explicitly tell us that we need to be intimate with one another. The question of my mind then was what is our basis for the need for intimacy among brothers and sisters and Christ?

The first thing that came to mind was the Trinity. What better picture of intimacy do we have than in the relationships that exist within God himself? In the person of God we see Father, Son, and Spirit relating to one another in such intimacy that they exist as one. In the Trinity these three persons, although unique, cannot be separated from one another. God himself, then, becomes the pattern of how we are to relate to one another. God’s intimacy within the relationships that make up the Trinity become our basis for intimacy within the body of Christ.

Augustine, who was so influential in the shaping of theology and wrote the defining work on the doctrine of the Trinity for Western theology, described the Holy Spirit as the love that existed between the Father and the Son. The Spirit was said to come from both Father and Son and was that which binds them together. This same Spirit is the Spirit that Jesus sends at Pentecost, the Spirit that establishes and sustains the church, the Spirit that dwells in the lives of believers. In this way, believers and the church are drawn up into the Trinitarian life of God. The church exists not only on the basis of the salvific work of Christ, but also within God himself as we participate in his Holy Spirit. The church therefore finds its beginning and end, its foundation and goal within the God it serves. This and only this may serve as a sure foundation for the church, for God alone is eternal, enduring, and unwavering.

As God himself is the foundation for the church, the gathering of his people, it is to him that we must look for the example we are to follow. God himself shows us what it means to live in community. God shows us what it means to love, and how to love. God shows us these things in his relationship with his people Israel, and most clearly in his Son Jesus Christ. God is not hidden, but has revealed himself to us in Jesus. Because of this we may look to Jesus and see what God is like. It is because God has been revealed in Christ that we know how to reflect God.
Not only does God provide the basis for community as Trinity, but also provides the goal of community. Christian community, the church, exists not for its own end but in order to glorify God. The goal of the church is not to build up the church for the sake of the church, but rather is to become a community that glorifies God within a world of people who have fallen out of relationship with our creator.

Community for community’s sake is a dangerous foundation for the church. First off it is a selfish orientation that makes the church out to be the goal. If we develop a view of the church that makes community out to be the end then the church becomes about the church and maintaining the church becomes the primary goal. This is a blatant contradiction of the gospel as lived out in Jesus Christ. Jesus demonstrated a self-giving love and even though he had every claim to all the glory of God he claimed none of it, seeking instead to glorify the Father and love others above himself.

Reading through the gospel of John quickly reveals this dynamic of the Trinitarian relationship. Jesus says his task is to honor and glorify the Father. He keeps turning the focus back to the Father saying it is the Father’s will he has come to do. In turn Jesus says that the Father glorifies the Son. Look at just a selection of the words of Jesus: “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. (Jn 8:54), “If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.” (Jn 13:32), “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” (Jn 17:1). Then Jesus says that when the Spirit comes he will bring glory to the Son (Jn 16:14) We see that even within the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit act selflessly seeking to love and glorify one another.

The church is called to join in this activity of the Trinitarian life. The church is to bring glory to God and not point to itself. In following the lead of our Savior, the church takes on an orientation toward God. God is to be both the center and the aim of the church, the foundation and the goal. God, in Christ, stands at either end, the beginning and origin of this called out community as well as its purpose and that which pulls it forward.

Too many times the church suffers from the wrong orientation. We make it about us, the people, about our salvation, our holiness, our lives, our healing, our relationships, our families. Or we make it about the church itself, about membership, budgets, buildings, numbers, reputation. While none of these things are bad in themselves, they are not to be the basis of the church, they are not our aim. Jesus said “seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well,” (Mt 6:33). If we make the church about God and bringing glory to him, he will fill in the rest. We will see our lives changed, we will see the church transformed. Our focus, however, must not be on making these things happen but on our purpose to glorify God, for only God is able to truly bring about transformation in our lives and in the church.

As the church becomes more and more about God’s glory it cannot help but take up Christ’s mission in the world. The call to glorify God includes glorifying him among all nations. This summer at Cottonwood we read through the Psalms together as a body. The call to glorify God among the nations is one that is echoed again and again throughout this book. If we truly desire to see God glorified we cannot help but be driven into the world for the sake of God and his name.

It is important here that we mention that the way in which we glorify God is as important as bringing glory to him. Here I think of Christ and his self-sacrificing love that resulted ultimately in his death upon the cross. Christ brought ultimate glory to God through this love and sacrifice. We as the church are called to the same method of life, so that in embodying the love of Christ in the world we may glorify the God who is the author of that love. A pursuit for God’s glory then will create in us a love for others, a self-giving love that sets others ahead of ourselves.

To sum up at this point, the church should exist as a representative of God’s Trinitarian and loving nature. It should exist primarily for the glory of God, and then out of love for others. In this way the church finds its basis for community not in its own nature but in God and his call to the church that is to be lived out in the world.

Baby Boucher #2

2008-08-07T10:37:00.003-05:00

We are having a boy!

Joel Matthew Boucher is expected November 20, 2008.

We've known for a couple of weeks, but with the lack of internet access this summer we are slow in relaying news. Sorry! Hopefully things will pick up soon.

She's Crawling

2008-06-11T14:19:00.003-05:00

and it won't be long until she is walking. She is already pulling up!

babies made to order

2008-05-26T18:01:00.001-05:00

So apparently you can mail order a new baby (see above picture). No more pregnancies for me! JM may actually get the 17 kids he wants..... or maybe not. :)

Well, guess what...

2008-05-03T16:28:00.001-05:00

Chloe is going to be a big sister! Just after she turns one year old. Pretty nice birthday present, eh?

I'm due November 20th and I'm 10 weeks along. So there ya go! :)

Chloe's musical taste

2008-04-02T19:17:00.005-05:00

I have listened to several independent singer/songwriter over the past several years. Because of this I never listen to the radio anymore. Anyway today, I got a new CD from one of these indie artists, Dave Barnes. And with this new CD came the making of the album DVD. The great thing about Dave is that he is so funny! If you go to his shows, you usually get a good laugh as well as enjoyable music.

Ok so here's what I'm really getting at. JM isn't too fond of our friend Dave. He likes some of his songs, but overall he is not impressed as he is with most of my musical choices. Well when the CD came in, JM was telling Chloe not to listen to Dave and all this stuff just in fun. So I put the DVD in. Chloe was sitting with her back to the TV and as soon as the music started she started turning her head back to see. So I picked her up and held her. She sat still and memorized by Dave for the whole thing! So it looks like much to JM's disappointment Chloe will follow her mother in musical taste. Score one point for me :)

Here's a video of Chloe laughing for the fam

This is not good...

2008-03-15T14:24:00.004-05:00

Chloe is already taken with TV. I took this picture after I had set her up on the couch while I put in DVD. She was locked into the TV for a good 15 minutes. John Mark was feeding her the other day, and he had the TV on. She wouldn't take the bottle because she was watching the TV! So he had to turn off the TV and get her started on the bottle.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

2008-01-29T22:08:00.000-06:00

So here's proof of Chloe's new accomplishment....

2008-01-25T17:01:00.001-06:00

So Chloe turned over today.... but JM wasn't in the room to see it! He said she was being fussy so he put her on her stomach and then went into the kitchen to get something. He comes back and she's on her back! I don't think she really meant to turn over, but it happened!

So now we were watching intently for her to do it again. :)

Family Pictures

2008-01-23T20:46:00.001-06:00

, originally uploaded by timkingphoto.

Go see our pictures!!

www.flickr.com/photos/tking4jsu

First Post of '08

2008-01-06T18:01:00.000-06:00

After traveling A LOT we are finally home and getting into the rhythm of normal life again. Well sort of... We've never had a baby in our normal life so we're getting into a new normality. I started back to work on Friday. It wasn't too bad. We were probably missing about 1/4 of the students because all the other schools don't start back until tomorrow. And when you only have about 50 students in your school that 12 or so students make a huge difference! So it was kind of a nice laid back day for me to get back into the swing of things, although I did sit down at my desk to a pile of ungraded papers that my sub had left. I'm still trying to decide what to do about those...

On another note, we have started trying to get Chloe on a feeding schedule. I think it's going to take a little bit to adjust to it, because her night sleep is all thrown off now. JM's mom will be here this week so hopefully she can helps with it.

So that's us right now.... and here is a Chloe picture, probably my favorite at the moment :)

Chloe's first family Christmas picture

2007-12-06T12:42:00.000-06:00

Take one...

Take two, three, four, who knows??

Finally!

Our Little Pray-er

2007-12-06T12:35:00.000-06:00

The other night Chloe was laying in her comfy little papasan and I looked over to see her with her hands clasped like she was praying. So there you go our little girl is on her way as a prayer warrior.

10 Minutes to a Stronger Baby

2007-11-23T19:19:00.000-06:00

JM has taken to giving Chloe's arms and legs a workout. This picture was taken while he was stretching out her arms to the music of Scherazarde. We're thinking of making a workout video for babies and selling it.... We should be millionaires by this time next year :)

ps. Chloe is wonderful and perfect! We are loving being parents!!

37 Weeks

2007-10-31T17:46:00.000-05:00

So yea, I'm pretty fat these days.... and this picture was taken this afternoon after I got home from work so I look a little disheveled.

2 and half more weeks until I'm due, I wouldn't mind if it were sooner :)

Close Call

2007-10-11T21:00:00.000-05:00

My laptop has recently become outrageously infected with viruses and such. We downloaded some anti-virus stuff to help clean it up. Well, it found all kinds of things but my computer was still running really slow. So John Mark decided that we should reload the operating system. He's been going around the apartment trying to locate all the discs for my computer and such. All the programs that you install are wiped off your computer when you do this. He assured me that all my files including my pictures would remain. Well I just wasn't sure, so I asked him to put as many of my pictures on my flash drive as he could before he started the process. I then left for Bible study at church.

I come home, and ask "Did all the pictures fit on the flash drive?" Well it's not a very large memory, so he says no, and that he only saved the wedding and engagement pictures to it. Well guess what.... We have those already on CD! So that was pointless. So anyway, he gets the computer reloaded. Goes to check on the pictures..... And they're GONE!!! I don't know what to say at this point. All I can think is all my pictures are no more. I do have the ones I want to print from about the past 10-12 months online waiting to be printed. That's some comfort.

At this point JM feels terrible, of course. He had assured me they would still be there. So he goes hunting on my computer. And somehow, he finds all the pictures!! They were hidden away. So he's out of the dog house for tonight :)

ps. I'm going to add some pictures to flickr from the baby shower this weekend in just a little bit.

Week 33

2007-09-18T16:51:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry to say, but I don't like being pregnant right now. I have had a really easy pregnancy so far, but the past two days have been rough! I think Chloe grew like 3 inches and 2 pounds in one night or something, because I woke up Monday morning in pain! The muscles in my lower abdomen are stretched to the max and so it is hard and painful when I change positions especially going from sitting to standing or lying down to standing. Plus all the weight is pulling downward, I think she has either moved into the head down position or getting there, and my belling button feels like it could just pull apart :) So there ya go, being pregnant is no fun :)

Sorry for the downer post. I just wanted to vent. Week 33 isn't one I will look back on fondly....

Video

2007-09-03T15:34:00.001-05:00

For those interested, who have been keeping up with the blog, thanks to Blogger's new capabilities, I have uploaded the video from the barber shop of the barber doing the "black thread of death" to Michael. Check it out on the original post.

2007-09-03T08:37:00.000-05:00

I just added some new pictures to flickr from our baby shower in Alabama and our trip to Ft. Worth for our 1 year anniversary :)

25 weeks down...

2007-08-18T16:29:00.000-05:00

and a lot more to go!

Here's a look at me right now. I'm ready to not be pregnant anymore! I got my first taste of being this pregant and teaching yesterday. I thought I had spent a lot time on my feet this summer, but was I wrong! I think I sat down for a total of an hour out of 9 hours yesterday. Being pregnant and teaching before the summer was not hard at all. But this is a whole other ballgame. I'm going to have to find the stool I had in my classroom last year.....

2007-08-15T07:33:00.000-05:00

Chloe Grace Boucher will be here mid-November!

Barber Shop

2007-07-28T14:14:00.000-05:00

Last night Michael and I went with one of our Arab friends to the barber shop. Michael wanted a hair cut, and I wanted to get my beard trimmed Arab style, so our friend took us to the barber that he goes to every week. Michael went first and decided he was going to go for the buzz cut, but as soon as the barber had made it a third of the way through, Michael realized he had requested it way to short.

The real adventure though comes in the care of the facial hair. This was the first time for me to get a shave from a barber with a straight blade, so that in itself was an adventure. I ended up with some Arab style sideburns and a short beard with some great lines. The only thing is my hair is too light to really pull it off right.

All this sounds normal, but the last step is the kicker. After shaving, there is always that little bit of peach fuzz on the top part of the cheek just below the eyes. I never bother to mess with it because it is not noticeable and it is very close to the eyes. But here they have a special way of removing that hair for nice, smooth cheeks all around. My friend who has lived here a while calls it the "black thread of death." What they do is they take a piece of string a make a triangle between their mouth and two fingers. Between the fingers it is a double string. He then basically rolls that part over the cheek bringing the two strings together and pulling back with mouth and fingers to pluck out the small pesky hairs. Needless to say, it can be a very painful experience. Because of this, when my Arab friend first told the barber to do it on me, he said "No, I think it will be too painful for him." But we convinced him in the end so that Michael and I could get the cultural experience. Of course it hurt, but it was not that bad. My Arab friend even said that he thinks I am strong because I did not flinch.

Now there is no way that words can adequately capture the process of the thread, so here are some pictures to help you get a better idea:

Typos

2007-07-28T13:17:00.000-05:00

I would just like to note the importance of proofreading before publishing things online. The original version of the previous post had the title of "It's getting out in here..." and the first line of the post said, "It's not getting out, it is HOT." But thankfully for Jessica, she has a husband who pays attention to such things and within two hours of her posting, he was able to catch the mistake and lovingly correct it.

And to show that this is not a problem just for my wife, she has already made two corrections on my short little post during its composition, and I will make sure and run the spell check to catch any other mistakes that we might have missed.

I think the heat is getting to us.
Or maybe it is the city that sounds like a war zone outside. But don't worry, it is only fireworks, but it has been going on constantly all over the city for almost three hours now.

It's getting hot in here...

2007-07-28T10:42:00.000-05:00

No wait, it's not getting hot. It is HOT!

I'm not sure what the temperature was today, but tomorrow it supposed to be 107. Today we went to the Balad which is the downtown area of the city where you can buy a lot stuff for cheap (for example: I bought season 2 and 3 of Lost plus a movie for 11 JD or about $15). Anyway it was really really hot walking around down there. I had planned to go eat with the rest of the group but it was just too hot and they were going to do more shopping afterwards and I just didn't want to be in that heat. So to escape the heat B and I joined up with our husbands in the nice air conditioned van and managed to find ourselves in a few air conditioned buildings like KFC and Safeway. JM and I considered going to Starbucks just to be able to sit in the air conditioning this evening, because our apartment is HOT, but we're going to brave it and watch a movie here. Anyway, thinking about missing air conditioning made me think of other things that are going to be really nice to have when we get home.....

real milk
the freedom of my own car that has air conditioning! ( a lot time the taxi drivers don't use their air)
time to cook a meal rather than eat fast food
not having to turn on the hot water 30 minutes before you want to use it ( but now that it's so hot, we take cold showers to cool down!)
seeing our families
not having to catch a taxi
having lines you actually wait in when you are paying for something or ordering at a fast food place ( this is probably my only pet peeve of this culture. They are impatient when it comes to waiting in lines! You could be waiting to order for 5 minutes and some person will just walk up in front of you.)

flushing the toilet paper (rather than throwing it in the trash, for some reason you can't flush it here)
no water restrictions

taking showers in the mornings because I won't have to be fresh to go out at night

Fireworks in the Sky

2007-07-08T01:43:00.001-05:00

Last night Jessica and I got to bed rather late, sometime around 12:30. Just about the time we had fallen into a deep sleep, we were awakened by the sound of explosions echoing through the city up into our bedroom. Now the Middle East and explosions may not sound like a good combination, but without hesitation we knew that it was only fireworks. Arabs like their fireworks, and they like them loud. For example, on the fourth of July a friend and I sat on top of our roof and watched three or four firework shows going on all across the city. It's most likely these were in celebration of weddings. The unique thing about the fireworks last night was that they just kept coming and in great succession. So when I rolled over in bed to see if I could catch a glimpse, I quickly realized that this was not the typical small set of fireworks but rather it was something special. I grabbed my glasses from the bedside table and went to the other room to get a better view. Jessica soon joined me and we enjoyed watching the end of a wonderful fireworks show from the comfort of our extra bedroom.

Miracles in Packing (Revisited)

2007-06-14T13:22:00.000-05:00

Greetings from the Middle East. It is great to be here again and to get the feel of the city, its sights, its sounds, and smells. In my last post I bragged on my wife for her amazing packing skills, and to what end? Our wonderfully packed bags did not make it to the Middle East with us. So, now instead of hoping for a miracle to get all our stuff into our bags, we are hoping for a miracle that our bags would get here, and get here soon, and a miracle may be our only hope.

picture update

2007-06-11T11:04:00.001-05:00

I just added new pictures from this weekend....

I will hopefully have weekly picture updates throughout the summer, so check periodically for those.

Click on the badge to the right under "Our Photos" to go to our pictures.

Miracles in Packing

2007-06-11T10:05:00.000-05:00

After traveling much overseas, or much at all, one soon learns the lesson of packing light. Just try carrying your luggage through the underground, on buses, and trains all over the city of London and you will soon find out the benefit of taking as little as possible when traveling.

This summer marks a new adventure for Jessica and I: traveling overseas together. This means we got to pack together (or rather I got to watch my wife put all the stuff in the suitcase and tell her what not to leave out, maybe I should have helped more). When planning on what all to take and how to get it there, Jessica's first suggestion was that we would both pack in her suitcase. But I, knowing how large her suitcase was, and not wanting to haul it all over the world, suggested that we pack in my suitcase because it was smaller and more manageable. Well, to cut out all the gory details, my wonderful wife, packed all our clothes and other travel necessities in that one suitcase and a carry on size suitcase. If it weren't for my love of books, we might not even need to take our backpacks, but at least they are full of things to keep us entertained for those long hours in cramped airplane seats. So in the end I am very thankful that we found a way to pack so light, especially since I have a pregnant wife and I will probably be deemed the family bellhop.

We leave tomorrow, fly for a few hours, stop for a few more, fly for many more hours and eventually we will be at our final destination. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and hopefully everything will run smoothly, and the next time you hear from us, we will be on the other side of the world. What fun.

jm

Silence

2007-06-04T16:42:00.000-05:00

I have been accused of not contributing much to our blog. Although this may be only my second post in the life of our short online forum, in my defense I must say that my writing energies have been consumed by more pressing and demanding projects. However, school is now over (at least for a few months) and papers are done (at least until next semester), so here I am typing away again, but this time for the pleasure of our faithful readers, and not the requirements of my professors.

I said at the end of the semester that I wanted to spend some time reading blogs, mainly for the purpose of catching up on the culture of the day. I've spent the last semester studying the importance of culture and thought that I would engage in some hands on learning through the world of online blogs. I have made attempts to live up to my ambition, but there is just something about books that draws me in. In the time that I had set out to read blogs, I have already read two books. So even when the semester is over I cannot seem to escape reading.

I have done better at escaping writing though. I did spend the week after finals fine tuning a paper to submit for publication, but other than that, this is the first thing that I have written since the semester ended. It has been a much needed break because April was filled with papers. It really is a good thing that I enjoy writing, otherwise I might not survive school.

I have learned, however, that I have an uncanny ability of filling up my time with activities. Just because the semester came to an end did not mean that I got to slow down. Instead I practically bumped up to full time at the paint store and worked over 4o hours a week. Although this took a lot out of me, the paychecks look much nicer than when I was putting in 25 hr/week. I have come to enjoy working at Sherwin-Williams and I have always felt it was the practical side of my education. Beside learning about paint, I learn about all kinds of people and what life is like for them. It teaches me many valuable lessons that are applicable for ministry. In fact, I often tell my wife that one day I am going to write a book called "All I Learned about Ministry, I Learned in a Paint Store."

Work is now over for the summer. As much as I hate to leave those guys and girls to fight the summer rush, I am looking forward to going back to the Middle East with my wife. There is nothing like eating falafel everyday for breakfast and hanging out with Arabs drinking tea and coffee all evening. And on top of it all, this time I get to take my favorite person along with me. (by the way she is reading over my shoulder as I write this). Hanging out with the wife in the desert sounds like great fun. So stay tuned for the epic adventures of the Bouchers as they travel the world over. JM

2007-06-04T16:24:00.000-05:00

We leave in a week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and John Mark supposedly made some really good potatoe salad today.....we'll see in just a little bit. Jacob and Corrie may think other wise. I don't like potatoe salad so I can't say either way.....

that's all, have a great day!

School's Out!!!!!!!

2007-05-30T20:40:00.000-05:00

Today was my last day with students! Hip Hip Hooray!

But it was pretty hectic.... yesterday after lunch, we were given the task of making a video to send in to Extreme Home Makeover. You see, we are moving into different buildings next year that are on the same campus of the middle school. Well the buildings have to be renovated. The main building doesn't need much, and renovations are underway. But the Math and Science building is a different story! It needs A LOT of work and we don't have the funding for it. So basically since I'm the math teacher, I don't have a classroom next year! Great! So we have made an attempt with the makeover thing. I'm not really sure that our video is that great, but we'll see....

After filming the video all morning, we got to go bowling and that was a lot of fun.... I actually scored better than the boys playing next to us! But they are 15 and probably have been bowling once in their life!

I really got on here to say we are leaving for the middle east in less than 2 weeks!!

We'll be pretty busy up until we leave.....

great deals

2007-05-22T19:31:00.000-05:00

Don't you love it when you are shopping, you get to the check-out, the cashier scans your item, and it comes up for a lot less than you thought you were buying it for?! Well I do!

We did a little impromptu shopping tonight. My car has been in the shop over the weekend and it was ready today, so we drove down to Temple to pick it up. On the way back, JM wanted to stop in Barnes and Noble to look for a journal, and I suggested stopping by Old Navy to look for him a messenger bag for the summer.....

Well we get to the shopping center and as we are walking up to Old Navy, there is a Rack Room Shoes. I have been on the hunt for the classic grey New Balance shoes, and have had NO luck. So thought why not stop in? Of course they didn't have them either, but we looked around anyway. I came across another pair of shoes I had been considering getting for the summer, and they were on sale!! Woohoo! So I decide to get them. They were only $20 and that's half of what I wanted to pay for the New Balances. I'll just have to wear my old ones on our weekend trips this summer.... Anyway, we get to the check out and they ring up $11.99!! So with tax I ended up paying about $13 bucks for those shoes.

So we head on to Old Navy. At first we really didn't see any back packs or men's bags, so we kind of parted and looked at clothing. I come back to John Mark and he's found a great messenger bag! It's not on sale though :( But since he really needs it, and it's getting close to the summer he decided to get it. Well we check out and the bag rings up half off!! Amazing!

High five to me for suggesting a stop at Old Navy!

picture update

2007-05-14T09:18:00.000-05:00

New pictures are up on flickr.

Sorry Cody, I don't have any pregnant pictures yet. I'm not really looking pregnant yet. :)

is it summer yet??

2007-05-10T09:26:00.000-05:00

My computer is back and better than ever. It works so much faster!! I've actually had it for about a week now, but I've been too busy to post. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to add some pictures to flickr. I should take some this weekend at Jeremy's graduation too. Congrats Jeremy!!

13 more days of school for me!!
-2 days of school for JM (congrats on all A's!!)

33 days until we go to the M.E. !!!!!!!!!!

a lot of days until I have a baby.......

Speaking of the baby, we can't come up with a middle name for Chloe..... any suggestions?

this week in the life of JM and Jessica

2007-04-29T21:36:00.000-05:00

My computer is sick.... The hard drive is dying! But thankfully there is an extended warranty on the hard drive, so all we have to pay is the labor!! So hopefully by the end of this week or beginning of next week I'll have some new pictures up from recent happenings around here.

Other things in our lives....

I'm officially wearing maternity pants :( Kind of stinks because that means I have to pay money to buy them! I tried on a friend's maternity clothes but the pants just didn't work. So I've bought myself 2 pairs of pants that will hopefully take me through the end of the school year and into the summer a little ways. I have been wearing skirts to work a whole lot lately due to this issue of the expanding waist line. But I don't think I'm gaining too much weight too fast so that's good. We'll see how much I weigh at my next doctors appt....

John Mark is finished with class!!!!! He has two take home finals and then one in class. One of his papers he did this semester will probably be published in the Truett Journal. His teacher really liked it and said that there's not enough written on the topic. I would tell you the title but it's some long name that maybe only 10% of you would understand. Basically it's about the Incarnation and Missions. Maybe that's enough.

Things seem to be going well otherwise. I'm not feeling as sick as I was. It seems to be fading. I did have a horrible headache today though. And my emotions go up and down at the drop of a hat. But John Mark has been wonderful through it all! It is great!!!!!

It's time for bed. I'm out.

The word is out!

2007-04-19T17:24:00.000-05:00

We have found ourselves in yet another phase of adulthood........

We're going to be parents!! Yep that's right. Most of you who read this blog already know, but in case you don't, here it is!

I am due on November 17th. We've known for a little over 3 weeks now, but I couldn't get in to the doctor until this week. So now it's official and we're telling everyone!!

Here are some questions you may be wondering that other people have already asked.....

Was it planned? not by us, God had it all planned out!

Have you been sick? yes, most definitely. It seems to be tailing off now, but we'll see. I'm not one to throw up, so luckily I haven't had much of that action. I did have a cold last week with a lot of drainage and that made me more nauseous.

Can you guys still go on your trip this summer? yep! We'll be traveling during my 2nd trimester, which is the perfect time to travel. And we have another praise about our trip, we have received all the money plus A LOT more than we need. So we'll be able to share and help out Jeremy with his trip cost.

How far along are you? I'm officially 10 and half weeks into the pregnancy.

Do ya'll want a boy or girl? Well we can only agree on a boy name, so a boy! No really, we are hoping for a boy. I think last night we may have agreed on a girl's first name, Chloe. Now we need a middle name. But if it's a boy it will be Joel Matthew.

Ok that's all I can think of, we'll add more later if we need to.

Here's a picture of our baby!

I'm dreaming of a White Easter??

2007-04-13T18:17:00.000-05:00

Well this is a little late, but since I haven't posted anything in a while I thought I should......
We had a white Easter here in Texas! Definitely a first for me!! It was really pretty as we drove to Dublin, although I slept most of the way. John Mark really enjoyed it though. He even got off work early so were able to get to Dublin sooner which is always nice!
That's all for now, I promise there will more next week!!

It's Official!!

2007-03-06T15:08:00.000-06:00

I just booked our flight for the
Middle East!!!!

We're leaving June 12th and we're both ready to go now!

Also, on our return flight we have a 20 hour lay over in Madrid :) should be fun!

boys need girls

2007-03-01T09:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, our class schedule was rearranged so that our students could walk over to the science fair at TSTC. So I had my two regular Algebra 1 classes combined. Normally I have one class of all boys (5) and then a class of 3 girls and 1 boy. Well the last time we had to combine the classes it was awful!! One, I'm not use to having that many students at a time (and I know what you're thinking 9 students in a class, that must be wonderful! but it's been over a year since I had more than 5 kids in a class). And two the kids weren't use to that in my class either. So anyway when I find out that I'm going to have this combined class, I get a little worried and I planned!

I sat out their work with their name on it at the spot I wanted them to sit at, so this gave me a chance to separate those who feed off each other. And it was great! I think having the girls mixed in, helped the boys stay more focus and want to be involved. So I'm thinking after this class that today is going to breeze. I can review them for their test tomorrow and they'll do great. Nope! I was wrong!

I get the boys back by themselves this morning. We start the review and they're like what are you saying?!?!?! Something we covered on Tuesday was as if they had never seen it before. Which leaves me very discouraged and thinking I have just wasted two weeks!!

So I have decided, that I never want to teach a class of all boys again! At least with this group of boys all together. They do so much better with the girls in there. And I know there are studies about this, but this is my conclusion today. Boys need girls. :)

ps. or maybe I'll just teach at an all girls school, that would be nice.....

Praises

2007-02-23T18:01:00.000-06:00

Our Sunday school class has started a small group. JM and I are kind of leading it right now. We had our first meeting this past Sunday. It went great!! God is so good! Each week someone will share their spiritual formation story, and I started us off. Next week JM will share his and I will be leading the devotional part. Be in prayer that we will seek God for guidance in how to lead this group and that he'll give the wisdom we need. On a related note..... we had a new couple visit our class and they just kind of jumped right in! They've just moved from Killeen (just south of Waco), and we were so great to have apart of our group.

My students went to the Waco Wetlands today, and we all had a blast. I'll post pictures from it tonight. I posted some pictures from San Antonio a couple of weeks ago, make sure you check those out..... just click on the picture box to the right..................................

story in pictures

2007-02-08T20:02:00.000-06:00

Saturday night I went to a Dave Barnes/Andy Davis show in Dallas with these lovely ladies...
and we rode in this beastly vehicle manned by the amazing Rebecca

We had a wonderful time groovin', singin', hollerin' with the boys on stage.
We were somewhat gypped though, because you see our dear Andy and Dave are very much loved by many and their show sold out! So a second show is added after the original show and thus our show was cut on time somewhat, but still we had fun and are left with Andy Davis songs play through our heads 24/7. By the way here are Andy and Dave....

After the show, we jumped into the Beast and headed out for some food, because we didn't get to eat before the show so we were HUNGRY! :) Elaine and Sarah navigated us through Dallas to a yummy Mexican restaurant, where we had sopa-people. Yep that's right sopa-people. Don't believe me? Well of course there are pictures.....

After finishing off our sweet little, honey-covered people, we headed home to Waco. I got to bed oh, about 1:45am and went to church extremely tired that morning.

Special Thanks to Elaine for most of the pictures, Andy Davis' myspace for his picture, and myself for the Dave Barnes picture.

Yea! for Fridays!

2007-02-02T09:37:00.000-06:00

Today, JM and I have been married 5 months, that's just hard to believe....

We're gearing up for a busy weekend! Only thing is we both have colds, and that's not working too well for JM and all his reading he has to do. So please pray for him, he's getting kind of drained out.

We're hanging out with Jacob and Corrie and their kids from our church tonight. JM is making this AMAZING peanut butter chocolate cheesecake dessert, I can't wait! Oh speaking of church, we have new pastor! He started this week!

I'm going to a Dave Barnes concert Saturday night with some of my girls!! I think I'm more excited about just getting out with girl friends more than the concert. Davey is great, but I have seen him a few times :)

Then Sunday night, our Sunday school class is getting together for the Super Bowl. I couldn't care less about the Super Bowl, but it'll be fun to hang out with friends.

Be in prayer for our summer. We need all the prayer support we can get. It's going to be pretty expensive too, since we are married now. So we can't share an apartment to cut cost and that kind of thing. So please be in prayer for us.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

ps. can you believe it's already February??

Adventures in New Clothes

2007-01-21T21:15:00.000-06:00

One of the adjustments to married life has been no longer having a say in what clothes are purchased for me. Seeing as how in the past I normally relied on Christmas gifts for the recycling of the wardrobe, this has not been a major adjustment. I find no shame in letting my wife dress me, rather, I quite enjoy it. One I don't have to go to clothes stores and pick out what I think I might like, I have someone who goes to the store for me and picks out what she likes, therefore two birds killed with one stone. I no longer have to give consideration to how I am dressed, one less thing to worry about amidst the other concerns that fill up my plate of daily decisions. And on top of it all she has much better taste than I do when it comes to fashion.

I have found, though, that there can be a few downfalls in such a system that may lead to moments of temporary embarrassment, not with regard to outward appearance but to other matters. For instance: after Christmas Jessica went out shopping with a friend from church (having fun while I was working extra long days in the paint store) in order to get bargains during the after Christmas sales. Finding such anticipated bargains she came home with two shirts and a pair of pants for me to add to my closet.

Always when getting a new pair of pants I pay careful attention to the removal of all tags and stickers on the outer surface of the garment in order to ensure that there will be no embarrassment from the lingering piece of in store identification signifying price, size, or any other pertinent information. With said task completed I sought out to break in the new pair of jeans. The first day I wore them, I put them on after work to wear because we had company coming over. In the midst of cooking dinner I realized I had forgotten something so I had to run to the grocery store in order to pick up the needed item. When I walked into Brookshires the security alarm went off. I thought to myself this is rather odd. After I paid for my lone grocery item I made my way out and set the alarm off again. Now I was really perplexed, but passed it off quickly to return to cooking my meal.

The next time I wore the pants I found that the grocery store occurrence was not an isolated event. My activities for the day were a bit more extensive than the time before and I ended up setting off alarms at the post office, Mardel, and the Compass (a local Christian book store). At the post office I was quite confused as to what would make the alarm sound and I quietly bore the stares of the people in line as I waited to pick up my textbooks (which were running late). Finally I made the connection with the grocery store and after assessing the situations in my mind came to the conclusion that the only common factor in the two different days was the jeans. Finally when Jessica and I got home I took off the jeans for an investigation of the inner parts in order to find out what was causing the repeated disturbances with the retail security systems. It did not take long to find a little tag sown on the inside that said "remove before washing or wearing." From now on I will be sure to check not only the outside of my clothes but the inside for items needing to be removed before sporting the new goods.

JM

Baby, It's cold outside

2007-01-17T08:22:00.000-06:00

No school today! We are iced in. As a kid and even in college, I longed for these days as most kids do, but things are a little different now. I'm a teacher, and I'm actually a little disappointed we're not in school today. I mean we just had a two and half week break, and not to mention we had MLK day off as well as last Friday for Parent/Teacher conferences. I'm ready to get in the swing of things! I've got this new teaching strategy I'm trying out and I'm ready to get it started.
At least, I have JM at home today too. Baylor is also closed. He is disappointed as well. What can I say, he's not your average bear :)

The Holidays are over....

2007-01-08T16:38:00.000-06:00

Well John Mark and I made it through our first holiday season as a married couple. It was a new and different experience.
The day after I got out of school, we left for Alabama and stayed there until the day of Christmas. It was so great to be back there! I didn't want to leave, but alas Texas was calling and we drove the 12 hours back to Dublin, TX. We just spent a day with JM's family and came back to Waco, so JM could put in some hours at the paint store. And man, did he rack up some hours over the holiday! It was nice-we were able to pay for all those gifts we bought! :)

We went back to Dublin for the weekend of New Year's, and had a lot of fun with some families from the Bouchers' church. JM and I had our first New Year's kiss :) On New Year's day, we went to visit the couple that we will be working with this summer in the Middle East. That was really neat and makes me even more ready to go!

This past week was soooo nice! I didn't have to do anything! Sleeping in and taking it easy. Oh I learned how to crotchet, and I'm making a scarf. So I've been working on that. We had some friends over and had a Lost Extravaganza :) We watched the first disc of the first season, trying to get some of the guys who came in late to the show caught up a bit. In case you didn't know, we get together with JM's old roommates on Wednesday nights to watch Lost. So since that night, I've watch way too much Lost! I haven't seen much of the first season either, so it was neat to watch it.

On a more serious note, JM's grandad is in the hospital and not doing too well. He has Parkinson's, but he went in for pneumonia and kind of gone down hill. So remember him and the family in your prayers please.

How Great is our God

2006-12-08T10:39:00.000-06:00

Well it's been a little bit since I last wrote....

Things have been somewhat busy. John Mark finishing up finals, spending time with friends, getting things moving for starting a small group at church, etc.

John Mark turns in finals for two of his classes today! and then he has to touch up one and finish another for Tuesday and he'll be finished with this semester! 3 down about 20 to go :)

We had a great time last Friday night with a big group of friends over at Rebecca's house ( JM goes to Truett with her and I know her from my friend Heather from this summer). Then I got to spend some time with Heather and Rebecca and some of their A&M friends on Saturday. I got to have coffee with some of my girlfriends from Rapoport this week. JM and I went over to our Sunday school directors house and met with them and our Sunday school teachers about starting a small group. We're both really excited about this. It looks like we'll have it on Sunday nights and it'll focus on young couples but is open for anyone. JM and I were given the task of getting the first few meetings organized, so that should be fun.

So that's what's going on with us these days. Just ready to be out of school and have a break! And we are looking forward to making a trip to Alabama!

So it's the Christmas season, and this year more than any other I have really spent more time thinking on the incarnation. It's been really good. I think it really helps that we haven't gotten into all the hoop-la that comes with Christmas. We don't have a tree, just a nativity. We do have a very beautiful poinsettia courtesy of JM's parents. I even went to Hobby Lobby to see if I could get some deals on Christmas decorations and it just made me sad, because this season is just not about that. Who cares how well my house is decorated for the season? Do I really realize what I'm celebrating? What it means for me and the whole world?? This is God coming to live among us, to be apart of us! This is what is important.
We went to see The Nativity Story. It was really good and thought provoking. I really loved how they showed Mary and Joseph's relationship; it was very sweet and inspiring. The faith they had was amazing.
I pray that you'll take a moment and forget about the gifts you have to buy or the decorations you want to put out, and think about what it means for God to come and be apart of us. What does that say about God?

My First Thanksgiving as a Boucher

2006-11-27T16:25:00.000-06:00

So I had my first Thanksgiving away from my family. But thankfully John Mark's family is a great substitute. It was really nice just to relax and take a break. Here's a recap of the weekend for us....

Wednesday, 6:37pm- Leave Waco!!
6:52pm- out of Waco and life is already nicer
9:12pm- in Dublin with the family
11:22pm- go to sleep in a twin bed, not too comfortable with a 6'2"guy in the bed too

Thursday, 7:30am- get up, and Debbie (mother-in-law) tells us she's taking Mark (father-in-law) to the emergency room! He had a kidney stone, and so he's ok!
8:33am- Jeremy and I make pancakes and bacon for the siblings and ourselves.
9:24am- John Mark and Danielle make some good food to take to the Boucher Thanksgiving meal.
11:03am- Leave for Pa and Charlene Boucher's house and stay there for a few hours
4:45pm- Josh makes us play Apples to Apples ( I think I use to like that game ;) )
7:42pm- Watched the DaVinci Code
10:55pm- JM and I go out to look at the stars
11:06pm- JM and I come back it because it's too cold! and we go to sleep again in the twin bed :)

Friday, 8:00am- Wake up and do nothing but relax!!!

Saturday, 8:12am- wake up and have some good breakfast as always
9:15am- decorate the Christmas tree (see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessyb)
11:20am- JM and I go to get his tires rotated and I get a hair cut
1:13pm- get back and eat lunch, and start cooking to for Turley Thanksgiving (Debbie's side)
4:25pm- Pa Buddy shows up :)
5:30pm- Everyone else gets there :)
6:00pm- We Eat!
8:30pm- Everyone's gone
10:21pm- bedtime finally

Sunday, 7:30am- Wake up and get ready for church!
9:05am- go to church
1:34pm- eat lunch from Rio Grande!! yummy!!!
2:15pm- NAP!
5:00pm- head back to Waco :(
7:30pm- eat some yummy rice :)

So it's a little more than recap.... maybe I got a little carried away :)

Restful Sunday afternoons

2006-11-12T16:09:00.000-06:00

He can't make up his mind whether he's cold or hot! This is what you'll find John Mark doing on most any day. Sitting on the couch reading a book minus the toboggan. We basically have the Baylor library in our living room. One day I'm sure we're going to get a call saying they need their religious department back! But it's better the books are here than him at the library.

I thought I would post a picture of myself since I seem to be absent in all my pictures on flickr and the last post was pictures of JM. Anyway, here I am, all is well. Just trying not to gain weight! I don't understand it!! We eat the same as we did before we were married but we are both seeming a little pudgy in the middle area. I think all the blame goes to the Kitchen Aid mixer for making such yummy cookies.... :)

Who knew!

2006-11-03T19:30:00.000-06:00

No you're not looking at 2 different people, this is a before and after shot. I cut John Mark's hair tonight. This was my first time to ever cut hair! Needless to say, I was pretty nervous, but it all turned out well. We used hair clippers so it was pretty easy. No biggie.

before

after

Here we go....

2006-10-27T13:37:00.000-05:00

I've been in Waco for 10 months now. Kind of crazy! John Mark and I have been married for almost 2 months and it's been absolutely wonderful! It's hard to remember what it's like not to be married, but we have these moments all that time where it's hard to believe that we are married. God's way of bringing us together and working in us has been truly amazing. I definitely recommend marriage, but not just with anyone. Patience is the key, not really an attractive thing but it's the best way. Just remember

Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
-Song of Songs 3:5

Great advice there.

So the past few months we've been adjusting to the married life. It really hasn't been too hard! We finally found a church! We searched all last semester with no luck. We joined Meadowbrook Baptist about 2 weeks ago in Robinson which is where we live. Robinson is basically Waco. It's on the south end of Waco. I guess it's a suburb?? If Waco can have suburbs. If I were a suburb, Waco would be my last choice of cities to be connected to. How about Portland? That sounds nice....

We've been helping out on Tuesday nights at the Baylor BSM with the International Table. We go and help set up and prepare the meals if needed, hang out with internationals, and enjoy a great ethnic meal. It's been a lot of fun. I've also been helping out with the children's ministry at church on Wednesday nights. I help out in 5th and 6th grade GAs. I've really enjoyed it.

I'll give a highlight from the past two months and then I'll be finished.

At the beggining of the month, JM and I went to Austin to see Jars of Clay and Matt Wertz in concert. Now in the spring we made a trip to see Matt Wertz play in Austin and it was a disaster! I wore the wrong shoes and we ended up walking all over Austin. We had planned to eat at Stubb's BBQ (this is how I got JM to go to a Matt Wertz show), but it was closed for a special event when we got there. So thus the walking all over to find somewhere to eat. After we ate, we headed over to the venue for the concert. Waited in line just a little bit. During the wait, there was a sign posted of when each person would play ( 2 openers and then Matt Wertz). Well Matt Wertz didn't come on until 9:45 and it was 7!! It was only standing, so we watched the first guy ( Mat Kearny) and then went to Starbucks until Matt Wertz played. We didn't really like the venue and Josh Hoge sang with Matt Wertz which I wasn't much of fan of that addition. Then to top off a bad night, it poured rain all the way home. It was like a monsoon. OK, sorry for the long preface, now this trip to Austin was great! It was on a Sunday so we came home from church and had lunch, took our Sunday afternoon nap and decided to head out a little early to stop by the new outlets in Round Rock (just outside of Austin, and really nice!). Walked into Startbucks there and it was like I was in London again, internationals everywhere! Went to Stubb's from there to have dinner then the show. Luckily the concert was at Stubb's so it was open this time. The food was really good. The venue was really nice. It's outdoor and it was a great night for a concert. We were able to be pretty close and have something to lean on or sit on if we got tired of standing. Matt Wertz redeemed himself (it was just him and Justin Rosolino on guitar, much more my taste). Jars of Clay was really good too. I've just began to really listen to them this semester. I really like their new cd. Anyway, we had a great time. Hopefully we'll make it back for another show....