Jacob David Reyes!!!

On February 12 my nephew, Jacob David Reyes, was born. He is the most handsome baby boy ever! I got to stay in San Antonio with them from the 13-18. I had a friggin blast. I got to play with Abby and Jacob. Naomi and Matthew are incredible parents. I hope I can be as fun, flexible, and giving when I become a parent. I love you guys! Here are a few pictures of my beautiful niece and nephew...

Such a beautiful face!

Abby is such an amazing big sister, always making sure he is OK. She calls him sweetie a lot.

I absolutely LOVE holding him!

We are going to have a nephew in just under a week!! We are so friggin excited! We are absolutely in love with our niece, Abby. She is one of the loves of our lives and it is such an incredible blessing that we get to add another love to our lives. We cannot wait to meet him next week. We will definitely miss being a big part of his life like we have been with Abby, but will look forward to their visits to Nashville and our visits to San Antonio.

It will be weird not having the whole family all in one city. Until a year ago, we all lived in Dallas and saw each other at least once a week. Now Matthew and Naomi live in San Antonio, Scott lives in Italy, and Mindy lives in San Fransisco. Crazy how big a difference one year makes. I know that we are all experiencing new things being on our "own" and I do believe that these experiences are bringing us closer together, even though we are further apart in distance. We are slowly learning and becoming more like Christ and I would not want it any other way.

I am, however, trying to convince, at least, Scotty to move to Nashville when he decides to come home from living his dream. I think it's working. AND I am slowly convincing my best friend, Laura, and her husband to move there too, eventually. Again, I think it's working :)

Oopsies!!

Well, I promised to write on a regular basis, but clearly, I lied. I have not written in 5 weeks. My bad. Things have been ridiculously crazy at the Munselle household. And I hate saying that, because I cannot stand being busy. I do not like it when people can never make time for other people because they are too "busy". What does that mean anyway? They don't have enough time in their day to call a friend and let them know what is going on in their life? I'm not asking for an hour, maybe just 10 minutes. But alas, it still happens that people are too "busy" to make a phone call on their way home from work. Obviously this has happened to me and it bothers me so I don't ever want to be that person who doesn't have time for a friend. End of my rant.

The days are slowly approaching towards our move. February 27 is almost here! But it still seems so far away. There are so many things we need to do before we leave and so many people we want to see. But it's just not going to happen. Chris and I often talk about just leaving now, with all our loose ends still untied. We can always get movers to get our stuff to us, right? We are just so ready to move on with our lives. Start living our future together. Begin an adventure all to ourselves. It's so exciting and we just can't wait. But we will. We don't have another choice. I'm sure February 27 will get here fast enough, I just wish I could speed time up :)

If we don't get to say goodbye to you, please don't get offended (even though we are clearly avoiding you). We love all our friends in Dallas and it will be weird not seeing the same people we've been seeing since high school and college on a regular basis. But we will always have an open bedroom (or 2) for you to stay in when you visit.

People... by Kristine

People I miss in my life (who, by means of moving to different states, are no longer accessible to hang out with all the time):

1. Allison Cunningham... hilarious, beautiful, Christ follower, learner and leader
2. Matt Howell... gifted, poetic, random, matty matt sax
3. Matthew, Naomi and Abby Reyes... best family a girl could ask for
4. Scott Reyes... dreamer, traveler, explorer, smart, tall skinny monster
5. Sarah Protzman... creative, thoughtful, engaging

People who are new to my life that will have to visit me in Nashville:

1. Erin Chaney... pensive, pursuer of dreams, talented, kind, giving
2. My Bible study girls... thought provoking, encouraging, accountability


I just wanted to throw a shout out to those of you who I miss and love.

Well, I apologize for the over-a-month delay in posting again. I finally got a job!!! Yippee! And I love it. I was in such a state of "I'm not good enough because no one wants to hire me" that I didn't know what to do with myself. I came to the realization that it doesn't matter if I do or do not have a job, Christ thinks I'm worthy, therefore I am. I don't understand why the world puts so much emphasis on what you do instead of who you are. Some people think you are what you do. I think you do what you are. Not that I'm saying I'm an administrative assistant at heart, but I like organizing things, helping people, and finding short cuts to things, and that makes me great at my job. However, I wish I could get paid for loving on children that have no one. That would be the greatest job ever. I wish I could run my own orphanage (obviously with Chris' help). Hopefully that dream will come true one day... in like 20 years or so.

Chris and I are still anxiously awaiting our move to Nashville. The months have flown by. We are down to just 3 months left in our count down. How crazy! I feel like I've been waiting forever, and it is going to be here before I know it. We've been looking at places to live and I think we've settled on either La Vergne or Smyrna; both are just 20 minutes south of downtown Nashville. The areas are gorgeous. Out in the county, next to a lake, lots of land. Nothing like Dallas. Last night Chris and I went to my work Christmas party. It was at Iron Cactus. As we were driving around downtown Dallas, we both were amazed at how we no longer have a desire to be "big city folk". We were frustrated with the traffic, the crowded parking lots, and the people that seemed to be everywhere around us at 730pm. I never in my life thought I would say I wasn't a city girl, but I'm not anymore. Crazy. We both desire so much more than what Dallas has to offer. We are excited to see what Nashville and the "country" can offer us. We need your prayers that what we find the country offers brings glory to God.

So nearly a month has gone by since my last post. I apologize. I told myself if I started a blog I would frequently write, but clearly that hasn't happened. A lot has happened in the last month. Chris and I went to Nashville for my friend's wedding and to check out places to live, since we will be permanent residents soon. Nashville is absolutely beautiful. The weather was fantastic, the streets and highways were surrounded by hills, and traffic was almost non-existent. Chris and I drove around the city for hours just amazed at how beautiful it was and how thankful we are we get to move there and start/raise a family there.  We are going back in three weeks. Chris's manager is setting him up with some co-writing sessions and I am going to meet with a realtor. It is all finally happening. As much as I love Dallas and love calling it home, it is time for us to move on. A little less than five months to go. I meant to take pictures and had my camera in my purse the whole time, but forgot. I am horrible at that. I promise in three weeks I post pictures of our new home. 

Chris and I love our new home group. We are studying Ephesians, my favorite book in the Bible and the verse my tattoo reads on my back. We are excited to be diving deeper into the Word and better understanding our God's purpose for our lives and the way he wants us to treat people. As much as I wish I could say I am real nice to everyone, I'm not. It's a huge area I struggle in and am really trying to become more Christ like in those situations. Especially now I figure since I'm moving I don't need any new friends so I'll smile and chat with no intention of making it something more. I confess this because I want to be better at it and if you see me doing that... stop me!!

I promise pictures will follow soon. Chris and I have been married a year and probably only have 15 non-wedding pictures together. Sad, huh?

Chris and I have started going to a new homegroup in Richardson. It's not that we stopped liking our old one, it's just that, since we will be moving soon we want to see how the start of a new homegroup looks like. How do we decide what to study? Time frame? What does the leadership role look like from the beginning? All we know is that once we do move, we want to find a great church to belong to and after becoming members be leaders in the church. Not meaning on staff or anything, just really involved. We talk a lot about how we are tired of just sitting back and absorbing information. We want to take on a position where we can build up disciples for Christ, and as well be covered in Jesus' dust ourselves! 

I start leading a Bible study tonight with 4 other women. I am so excited. I have never lead a Bible study before so I am praying that I know the right things to say. I just can't wait to pour into other people's lives by spending time with them and getting to really know them. Isn't that what the body of Christ is called to do?