A Special Night

Last Sunday, Lee and I were privileged to be able to attend Sam's formal ordaination ceremony at Eastside Baptist Church. MoMo and PaPa came up from the Coast, so we were able to spend the afternoon with them, too. The night was really special. Alyssa and Sam have such a great church family who loves and supports and encourages them. What a great place to be for a newly married couple! It was so neat to watch every ordained man in the church walk up individually to place their hands on Sam and pray for him, some of them so elderly they were barely able to make it to the front of the church. As her sister, it was really special to then see them turn around and whisper words of encouragement to Alyssa. We're really proud of Sam and are excited to see the great things he's going to do!

Got It This Time...Kinda

Ok, so this year the cake had the right name on it, but the story to go with it was much funnier. I called last Wednesday to order a cake for Brittnee, my student I mentioned below. When I called, the guy who answered the phone noticed my name on the caller id and said, "Are you Jess Hill?" When I told him that I was Jessica, he said, "I talked to your husband earlier." Well, I immediately realized that Lee had called earlier and was planning to surprise me by getting an ice cream cake. Since Lee was sitting right next to me, I played dumb and went ahead and ordered the cake I needed. I left to eat with some friends and called my parents as soon as I got in the car and told my dad the whole story. I was soooo mad. I mean, no one loves surprises more than me, and, more than anything, I knew that Lee had gone to a lot of trouble, and I didn't want him to find out that the guy had exposed his secret. So I just went on about my week. Fast forward to Friday. Lee and I were getting ready to leave, and he MADE me open the gift from my mom. He was so insistent about it. There were three gifts inside the box and one said "Open first." It was Happy Birthday plates and napkins with gift cards to Bruster's for an ice cream cake. As excited as I was, I felt bad for Lee again because I was thinking about all the thought he had put into getting his own cake. He was being such a good sport and insisted that we pick the cake up on the way to Alyssa and Sam's. I called my mom on the way to tell her thank you. I got out of the car and walked up to the window with Lee to pick up the cake, and Lee just started laughing. The cake was from my mom the whole time! Lee just called and put in the order for her. So when I called my parents to tell t hem about the guy at Bruster's ruining Lee's surprise, I was actually ruining their surprise! It was and still is hilarious!

PS - The guy was so nice. He gave us the cake for free and let me keep the gift cards. I had the option of getting cash for them, but I figure I'll have a better chance of getting Lee to go get ice cream with gift cards!

What a Fabulous Birthday!

Well, the big day has now come and gone. Thank you to everyone who posted such sweet messages! I really did have a great day, and most of that is owed to my wonderful husband. All week Lee was so sweet. One day he washed and folded all the clothes, another I found sweet notes everywhere I went, I got a great shoulder rub one day, and he even took off work early Thursday afternoon so we could just hang out and spend the evening doing nothing. I was flattered but had no idea there was a point to it until Friday night when he gave me my gift. My sweet and thoughtful husband had been showing me love in five different ways all week - acts of service, words of affirmation, physical touch, quality time, and finally, on Friday, the giving of gifts. (If you've ever read The Five Love Languages, this should sound familiar. If you haven't, you need to!) He got me some workout pants from LL Bean and a great jacket with a light on the back so I can go walk at night and not have to carry a flashlight. I love it! It was the nicest thing. I cry just thinking about it! How lucky I am!

My yearbook staff girls and Ms. Patty threw me a surprise party at school on Thursday and gave me a gift certificate to Trio that I cannot wait to use. Friday night Lee and I went to eat at Walker's Drive In with Alyssa and Sam and then had ice cream cake at Alyssa and Sam's house (check the post tomorrow for the story on the ice cream cake!) where they gave me some new tennis shoes that were also from MoMo and PaPa. My sweet family went to all the trouble to mail a package to me since they couldn't be here. Lia got me a new bible with my name on it, and my mom and dad got me the Walter Anderson alligator print that I cannot wait to hang up in our house. It is going to look great! And Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Stevie and the boys sent me A Southern Palate, the cookbook by Robert St. John, that Lee and I have already tried out. It has some great recipes! I mean, for a 27-year-old, I really made out! It was a wonderful day and a great week.

My Sweet Cougar Connection

This is my sweet little homeroom class! This is the only group of kids that I see on an every day basis, and I see them each day for 30 minutes. They are a motley crew, but I love these kids. My group is all seniors, so we do a lot of college preparation work. Last week was Brittnee's birthday. Brittnee just moved to our school this year - her 15th school in 11 years - and is moving back to Texas in a week. My class heard her talking about the fact that she'd never had a birthday cake with just her name on it because her little sister's birthday is the day after her's and her mom's is the day after that, and they sprung into action. They secretly took up money all week to get her her very own birthday cake...we got an ice cream cake! We surprised Brittnee on her birthday by singing Happy Birthday as two of the girls brought the cake in. I'm pretty sure she had no idea it was for her until we sang, "Happy Birthday, dear Brittnee!" It really was the sweetest thing. The kids were so proud! I've really been trying all year to get them to understand that they need to take care of one another and support each other, so it was neat to see them really "get it" first-hand. It was a day that I will surely never forget, and I don't think they will either.

The countdown has begun...

to February 23, my birhtday. I love my birthday. Poor Lee. I really started counting down a month ago. He makes fun of me all the time because I make the whole month of February "my birthday." And he's so sweet, he puts up with me. Anyway, I don't love it because of the presents or parties or anything. I haven't done anything exciting for my birthday for years. Last year we ate at Soulshine...just me and Lee. I guess I like it because it's just my day! Last year Lee looked all over for an ice cream cake and finally found one at Marble Slab. So he called to order it and told them to put "Happy Birthday, Jess." And this is what we got! It was hilarious, and we're still laughing about it. Who knows what we'll do this year? We've talked about a few options, but it's still too early to make definite plans. I'll probably be so tired I'll want to just come home and go to bed!

It's Grease Lightning!

This weekend was Rankin County's Junior Miss program. This is my second year to help with the program. I like it because I believe in what the program stands for. Girls are judged on physical fitness, talent, interview, scholastics, and self-expression, which is the onstage interview question, and are awarded scholarship money. There are no bathing suits, and it's really not about how pretty anyone is on the outside. See now how I was involved? I was Jackson County's Junior Miss in 1998, so I enjoy giving back to the program. I made so many great friends at the state program, and I still run into people all the time I met there. Of course, since I'm involved, I manage to drag Lee in the middle. He didn't mind too much last year, so I knew he would help this year. I did not know, however, until the day before the program, that he was going to have to dress "in costume!" The theme this year was Grease, and the directors decided that the backstage guys needed to wear the white tshirt and jeans and black shoes. I knew Lee would not be happy about this, but he reluctantly put on the goods. He was in charge of getting the piano out on the stage along with Smith Boykin and Jason Kackley. They did a GREAT job, and the girls loved them being in the wings. They made for lots of good laughs! What sweet guys...

After the program, we went to an engagement party in Bridgewater for our friends Kara Servov and Brady Davis. Kara is in grad school with me at MC, but she's also from Ocean Springs. We got to the party kinda late, but we had a really good time.

So it was a long weekend. We seemed to cram a lot of stuff in a little time. We went to church this morning and both came home and took a nap before going to small group tonite. What a fun weekend!

A Reunion of Sorts...

Lee and I had the greatest time tonight. We went to eat at Mellow Mushroom with Henderson and Rebecca Jones. Lee and Henderson graduated from high school together and have seen each other sparingly since graduation. We did get to go to Henderson and Rebecca's wedding. Rebecca is from Houston, Texas, so we went to the wedding and then stayed with my parents. Anyway, we had such a good time. It was fun to listen to Lee and Henderson catch up and reminisce and solve the world's problems. Rebecca is wonderful, and it was fun to have a partner in eye-rolling as Lee and Henderson went on and on about how perfect Pontotoc is! And we found out that they love to play games!! We're so excited as we are game fanatics! We're already making plans to get together for a round of Cranium. We're so glad that they live close and that we have new old friends!

Back in Starkvegas...

Lee and I are in Starkville this weekend. He had a House Corp. meeting at the Kappa Sig house, so we decided to come up for the basketball game today. Then, at the last minute, Commissioner Hall invited us to stay in his condo in Browning Creek for the weekend. Of course, we took him up on that. And it couldn't have come at a better time. Things have been just nuts. So I turned my big project in Thursday night, and we left on Friday. The condo is soooo nice. We want to live there! We ate with Benjamin, Lee's brother, last night and went back and watched tv. I'm sitting in the new bookstore on campus right now while Lee's in his meeting. It is amazing! The whole campus looks really good. We hated all the construction while we were here, but it was worth it. It looks like a pretty college campus now...very inviting. (I hope it will invite Lia!) We are still going to the basketball game this afternoon. Who knows what we'll do tonite?! Probably go to bed early! These pictures are of the Halls' condo. It's so cute. They were created with the feel of the Neshoba County Fair. The one we're staying in is the yellow one.