Thanksgiving

Well, I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving. It was a little sad for Laurie and me as all of our family was on the East Coast this year. As many of you know, Thanksgiving this year was also our 4th anniversary. Praise God that he provided a "foster family" for the holiday. Our Pastor and his family had us over for most of the day and it was a great time (especially watching football on Bo's 53" HDTV; that was Laurie's favorite part =). We ate a lot of good food, and we passed on an tradition to a new generation. One thing that I (Joel) was sad about it not getting any of Grandma's world famous (well at least family famous) gingerbread man cookies. Growing up that is one thing that always made Thanksgiving seem right to me. We would gather at Grandma's house and she would make gingerbread men and icing for us to decorate them. Oh the great times we had around that table decorating those cookies! Thanks GRANDma! That is one of my favorite growing up memories. Laurie and I decided that we would try to carry on the tradition so we got Grandma's recipe and tried our best (of course we couldn't make them as good as G'ma, but they were still pretty good!). The fun part was that we took them too the Thompson's house with us and I was able to pass my tradition on. The Thompson's have 3 girls (8,10, and 13 I think). Bo's best friend Bobby and his family were also there and their 11 y/o daughter Emma also got to participate. It was a little different with me and a table full of girls, but it was fun, and the girls absolutely loved it! The sad part is that during the night their dog snuck (is that a word? Sneaked? whatever) downstairs and pulled all the cookies off the table and bit all the legs off and licked the frosting and the got sick and threw up on the floor...Ah memories...

We are very thankful to our Lord for ALL the things that He has done this past year. He never ceases to amaze us! We miss and love you all!!!

Here are some pictures from our Day:

The Taylor Thompson

Abbie Thompson

Dani Thompson

The girls and their cookies

New additions

Well, I guess it is that time again. I have been meaning to update the blog for awhile now, but once again have let it slip by for too long. The last month has been very busy with youth responsibilities, and all that. The last two weeks have been extremely busy because...

That's right, we added two new additions to our family. Joel and Laurie received a very generous gift, and decided to use it to buy some new decorations for their house. They got some curtains, and some picture frames, and two German Shepherds....

It took me forever to get them to pose for this picture, but on the left is Ranger (male) and right is Sydney (female). They are litter mates and are a little over 4 months old now. They certainly are a handful. We are working on training them, but they are so competitive that they always want to be right in the middle of what the other is doing.

Well, Laurie is working a temp job at the Texas Association of School Boards, and they recently told her that her assignment is going to last longer that she had originally been told. I had an interview for a part-time supervisor position with UPS (which would be ideal), but they decided to hire someone else, but told me that there will probably be more openings at the beginning of 08. I have arranged some temp work of sorts next month to help make a little extra until then. Other than that, it is life as usual. We are more in awe of God every day as He continues to surprise us with His goodness and faithfulness. Just yesterday he provide a family for us to share Thanksgiving with, which is so nice since all of our family will be over 1000 miles away this year. We sure do miss you all back East, but we know that the Lord has brought us here, and there is nowhere else that we would rather be. God is good! We are so thankful for all of you, and wish you the best Thanksgiving holiday possible. Well, here are some more pictures of the puppies =) Enjoy.

Ranger

Sydney

Ranger naping

Sydney following her brother's lead

Earning their new last name- doing what Merritt's do best!

Sibling rivalry-Sydney sitting on Ranger's head =)

Hope you like the pictures. Come visist us sometime! We love and miss you all!

P.S. Ben eat some pie and gingerbread men for me... ;)~

Back from another adventure

Well we just got back from a jr. high retreat at our church. This is my first event as the student pastor at our church. It is becoming apparent that I have trouble going on youth events without sustaining injuries. This trip was no different. On Saturday while playing the camp game I once again decided that it would only be right that I expose the camp's safety hazards by demonstrating how dangerous it could be. Of course being the dramatist that I am I wanted to make sure it was convincing so I just went ahead and made it real (aren't I a good youth pastor). Ok ok so what really happened? As usual I was too caught up in the game and tried a last second heroic effort to save my team from loosing the game and was so focused on the goal that I didn't notice a dip in the road and so I tripped fell right into the middle of a rock road. I always say if you're going to go, go all out. So in just a fraction of a second I managed to mess up both hands and both legs. I got cuts on the insides of both my hands pretty bad, and I got about a dozen cuts on the outside of my left leg and hit my right knee straight on the rocks. You might remember that on my Mexico trip I had a construction accident and cut just below my right knee pretty severely and had to have the first stitches of my life. So when I fell, I hit the knee pretty hard and got one bad cut and a lot of little ones, but I think I must have bruised it pretty good as it swell some, and is pretty stiff. Thank the good Lord for a fairly high pain tolerance. I am getting quite a reputation among the students for being accident prone, but also for being very tough which is good as it makes the more likely to obey my instructions since they think I am really tough (maybe I'll write a book on how to get your youth group to listen, a few injuries handled properly and they'll think you're really tough. Haha I have them all fooled). Anyway, that was exciting. The trip went pretty well, but I do have one "special" child that I know is going to be a challenge. All in all the trip was very good. Laurie has been kind of sick for the last week, but really wanted to attend the trip so she wasn't feeling well today. If she doesn't make some improvement soon, then it will be a trip to the doc to see what's up. And before any of you ask, no she isn't pregnant.
Yesterday after church one of the older ladies was leaving and fell going down the steps outside of the middle school where we meet and shattered her femur. I am told that it was pretty bad, and she is going to have surgery today I believe. She is old and has been having other health problems as well, so if anyone would pray for her, her name is Gail.
There is a lot of things going on. I am still looking for another part-time job. Also car troubles recently have been causing a little bit of financial strain, but we know that God is faithful to take care of all our needs. One thing that is really exciting is that God has provided a discipler for me. Bobby Pruitt who was Laurie's youth pastor when she was a teenager has agreed to meet with and disciple me. I praise God for providing such a wise man to help not only train me to be a better youth pastor, but also a better man of God. Thanks for your prayers. We love an miss you all! If anybody wants to come visit just let us know =)

Pictures continued

Artemis-our baby Colombian red-tail boa is about to shed again

Joel's new pet

Entry way

More Livingroom

Some More Pics

Another angle of the living room.

Yep it's big and I like it that way.

One angle of the living room

Laurie's kitchen

Our dining room

Sorry, no pictures from the outside, it is raining today, plus the outside pretty much looks the same anyway.

A picture or two

Here is a street view of our new house!

Honestly we haven't taken and recently so I will need to take some pics and then will post some more. Hopefully soon!

If anyone is still reading this...

Hello all! If you are still checking this thing for updates, then I guess it means that you really love us. I know I have done a terrible job of keeping this thing up to date, but it just doesn't seem to come naturally to me. I am home right now with at least my 4th or 5th outbreak of shingles so I figured it is about time I just did it. I keep getting e-mails and comments about needing to do it so here it goes. Laurie and I moved into our first house in the beginning of June. God has really been leading us on a great adventure of faith and trust. During the Summer Laurie and I went to Mexico to help lead a mission trip. While on the trip Laurie's temp job ran out of work and so she came back to no job. Shortly thereafter my Summer job ended and real estate has been really slow. We decided that I needed to look for a real job that would pay money immediately instead of 2 months after selling a home...
Anyway the most recent news is good, in fact it is great! Laurie found another temp job that will keep here at least through the end of the year. For me things have gone a little differently, and the Lord has fulfilled a dream for me. About a week and a half ago, the senior pastor and the elder over student ministries at our church asked me to meet them for lunch, where they asked me to come on staff part-time as the Student Ministries Pastor. The church was not expecting to be able to hire a SM pastor this soon, so it was kind of unexpected. After much consideration and prayer Laurie and I accepted the position and I started last week. This is something that I have been waiting for for a long time, and although only part-time, there is nothing else I would rather be doing. The sad part is that it was announced this past Sunday that I had been hired, and I missed the announcements, because I was at home with shingles which we discovered Saturday evening. So now I am looking for another part-time job that will have insurance benefits. If you guys would pray for God to provide that for us it would be awesome. You all are awesome too! We really miss all of you back in South Carolina and surrounding areas. If anybody is planning a trip to Texas, just let us know we would love to see any of you. If you don't know how to get in contact with us I will put it in this post. I lost a lot of your phone numbers because my cell phone died while on the Mexico trip and they weren't able to retrieve the contacts. Our home number is 512-538-1888; (Joel's cell) 512-417-6357; (Laurie's cell) 512-417-7041.
An our new address is: 131 Flinn Street, Hutto TX 78634
We love you guys! Let us know how things are going.
Joel and Laurie