High Five for Friday

If you haven't found her yet, I am absolutely obsessed with Kate at The Small Things Blog. Her hair tutorials are my new favorite thing, and I'm catching myself putting together outfits like hers already :). She and her sister Lauren end every week with what they call High Five for Friday, to make sure and remember the best things from the week. (I'm pretty sure Lauren started it!) So here's my first High Five for Friday, for you!


1. I try not to make a big deal of this, for a variety of reasons, but I've struggled with my weight for basically my entire life. I'm not necessarily "obese," but I could definitely be smaller, mostly for health reasons. My family has a medical history full of diabetes, heart problems, thyroid issues... you name it! So I've been trying for a little over a year now to lose some weight and get healthier. It took a while, but I finally convinced Casey to join me! And I must say - it has been so much easier having him on board! Well, for about 6 months now, no matter how much I worked out, how well I ate, I have only gained weight. I found out that it was a medication causing it, and I have finally - FINALLY! - lost the weight it made me gain, and am back to my pre-medicine weight! I'm nowhere near my goal, but this is a small victory for me. :)

2. I started graduate school last week! It has been an insane couple of weeks already, but I'm so excited!

3. Casey and I were Belle and the Beast for Halloween! A friend and I made our dresses, and they turned out to be so awesome!

4. I made these cupcakes in honor of Halloween:

5. I got to spend all day in a library doing research today. My favorite!

The Philosophy of Blogging

"Blog": (noun) a Web site containing the writer's or group of writers' own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other Web sites. (verb) add new material to or regularly update a blog.

Why do I blog? I believe we all want to have a voice - to use that voice to make an impact on someone. Anyone.

But what makes us think that someone else wants us to make an impact on them?

Why do we assume that what we have to say will be so profound as to somehow change someone else's life, for better or for worse?

We have to believe it. Otherwise, what would be the point? If we don't believe that we can, in some way, through our lives, make an impact on someone else, why do anything at all? Even the most selfish person desires to make an impact on others (generally allowing others to bask in the glow of their perceived awesomeness).

Therefore, we blog. We are suddenly able to touch people we would never have met before. We can spread our impact far beyond our small circle of influence. And hope that in some small way, we can improve their lives through the words we find inspiring.

Therefore, I blog. I don't expect to change the world through my words. I hope to make even one person's day a little brighter, interesting, or informed.

Here's hoping I begin to do this a bit more!

Much love <3

Anniversary Pictures

C and I celebrated our first anniversary at the beginning of August - and what a year it has been! I just can't believe we're already here... We've definitely had our moments, both wonderful and awful, but I'm thankful for all of it because we are stronger now than when we began.

Last week, we asked Katie at Plaid Cat Photography to take our 1 year pictures. They turned out great! We went downtown and found a lot of great backdrops...

This one is my favorite... I love listening to him!

The wind was, as usual, causing grief, but Katie did a really wonderful job of capturing great moments.

I hope you enjoyed them!

Wearing Many Hats

What a crazy week this has been! Our Pastor is gone (vacationing in Argentina, no less!), so Casey has been wearing a variety of hats. Worship leader, youth leader, counselor, as well as preacher and being the one to take care of all the day-to-day activities. I must say, he's awfully good at his job!
In other news, I'm hearing from more students - and I've applied to graduate school! If all goes according to plan, I will start my MFT program in the spring.
Much love, readers - more to come soon!

My Music Man

Hello! My name is Jaci, and I live with a Music Man. My husband is the music and youth minister at First Baptist Church in O'Donnell, Texas, a cute little town way out in the middle of a dry nowhere! Before I continue, I need to give proper credit to the wonderful lady who inspired the title for my blog and my husband. Jenny was my youth minister's wife growing up, and is a godly and inspiration woman - you can read about her and see my inspiration at www.2ndmanswife.com.
I have wanted to create a blog for quite a while, so here goes! I hope you are inspired in some small way by what I write here, and I know that you will inspire me in return. Thank you for tuning in!

~Jaci