Tribute To My Grandma Nellie Houck

I have spent day and night of the last week with my wonderful Grandma. I am going to miss her so much. It has been so hard to see her struggle each and everyday but I am so thankful I had each and every day with her. Her last words to me was “I Love You Jennifer” and I will treasure that always. Her last night here on Earth was just her and I in the room. She was so peaceful and I am so happy we had that one on one time. I am speaking at her funeral today and wanted to share with you what I will be reading. It’s going to be hard the days to come but I am just praying for God’s strength to get me through these days! Thank you all so much for the kind words, prayers, messages and phone calls. It really has helped me so much.

Nellie Houck
July 30, 1913 – February 20, 2010

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” from Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV.

That bible verse reminds me of my Grandmother for sure! She just loved life and all the people that were involved in her life. Inspiring… Motivating… Hero! Those three words are just some of the adjectives that I would use to describe my wonderful Grandma.

It is no secret that my 96 year old grandmother was my best buddy. I am her youngest grandchild and so you know how that goes… the youngest is the baby . She spoiled me in so many ways with all the baby dolls she would buy me or all the clothes she would buy me. It didn’t matter if it was blue plaids with yellow stripes going down the sleeves, she wanted me to wear them and I would do so with a smile! If mom and dad would jump on me, all I had to do was call Grandma. She would say now Bill and Jean, Jennifer is too cute to do that! I had her wrapped around my finger and she knew she was the apple of my eye.

I spent my summers as a little girl at her house way up in the country with no stores very near. I didn’t care, because I was with my grandma. We had flowers to water, vegetables to pick, long walks to make across the old wooden bridge and cold watermelon to get out of the cold creek behind her old mountain house to have for a summer snack. I would raise my head in the mornings and always hit the ceiling because I was jumping out of bed so fast since the chocolate gravy aroma was filling the air. There is no doubt she knew how to make some mean chocolate gravy.

Grandma and Grandpa decided to trade the country roads for the big city roads of Lenoir, NC. Once they got settled in, most Friday nights you would see me having sleepovers with Grandma. She always said she loved me having the sleepovers but she didn’t love all my kicking her . Hey, I was just trying to let her know that I loved her with all my love taps! I would wake-up to the never-ending pancakes each Saturday morning. My cousin Shana can vouch for this one as she came up and had a sleepover with me at Grandma’s. She kept bringing out the pancakes and it was all Shana and I could do was to eat them. At this point, I was wishing there was a doggie in the house to help us eat them because as we all know there was no telling Grandma you did not want anything to eat. You could say no 20 times, but she was not taking no for an answer. So you just kept on eating right?  When I was in high school and would get a break for lunch before I headed to work, I would go to Grandma’s every day. She would have the biggest lunch for me prepared each time. Food and Grandma went hand in hand for sure. The thing is though, the food was going straight to my hips and Grandma was not shy letting me know that I was getting fat. Over the years she would say Jennifer you are getting way too big and at one time asked if I was pregnant because my belly was so big. That is what I loved about Grandma, she would tell you like it was. If she thought you were fat, she would tell you, if she hated how your hair was cut, she would tell you, if she thought your clothes didn’t look right on you, she would tell you. That was just Grandma. She was blunt, but she was still my best buddy.

With all her bluntness was still very much jokiness. She could make one laugh so much and there would be so many times the things she would say, that would just make you want to roll in the floor and laugh. She would call my work and she knew my extension but every time she would get the numbers transpired and end up calling the President of our company. At times to, she would end up back at the operator and just carry on conversations with both of them. Luckily I was really good friends with the operator and she knew every time that it was my Grandma, and would just go right along with the conversation and eventually Grandma would get to my extension. She would say Jennifer, I don’t know who I have been talking to but they were the nicest people. It didn’t matter who you were, she was going to do her some talking. For example, we would be in a grocery aisle and she would just walk up to some random person and ask them about the nutrition facts on the back of the can or ask them if they ever had tried that particular food. She never met a stranger that is for sure.

I have told these little stories to make you smile and remember Grandma, but there is one thing everyone knew for sure. Grandma, was a huge believer in the word of God. Growing up she would read me to me from the Bible and the Guideposts magazine. Just last month I started my own subscription to the Guideposts and going to pass that tradition on to my girls. She was a big believer in prayer too. I have definitely learned from her that prayer works and God has a plan for all of us. We need to make sure we follow his lead and stay on his path he has for our life. Grandma would not want it any other way.

I am going to leave you today with a little poem that I have written just for my Grandma Nellie Houck.

G is for the greatness you gave to me all through my life.
R is for all the rejoicing you would give me with every milestone that I would hit in life.
A is for amazing me so much.
N is for the noteworthy Grandma you were always to me.
D is for the determination you had each and every day.
M is for the magnificent legacy that you left behind and I will carry with me each day.
A is for the angel that I now have always looking after me!

I love you Grandma! You are my hero!

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Inspiring Motivating Hero

Those three words are just some of the adjectives that I would use to describe my wonderful Grandma. She is a wonderful 96 years old and just loves life and all the people that are involved in her life.

She is going through a rough patch right now and it really breaks my heart. I worry about her all the time. My grandma and I are super close and always have been. I love that I can still pick up the phone any time and say hello to her and carry on a full conversation. Sometimes just hearing her speak is what motivates me to have a better day.

She is such a sweetheart and is always worrying about me. She doesn’t like me traveling on airplanes and she just told me yesterday that she worries herself so much until I get back home. She is such a gem. She is a believer in our almighty Christ and is always praying for everyone. That warms my heart so much to know she has me in her prayers.

Like I said she motivates me! She stayed on me and stayed on me to go back and finish my degree in college. I made that step last year and will soon be done with my degree this year. I wanted to do it for her as much as I wanted to do it for me. She loves to motivate us to do better all the time.

The above picture was taken at this past Christmas celebration. She was worrying herself so much over my gift. Jennifer she would say “I just wasn’t able to get to store and get anything, it is worrying me so much that I do not have you anything.” I told her… Grandma please do not worry. You just being here celebrating with us for Christmas is the best gift I could ever wish for. She got a smile on her face and turned to her freezer where she whipped out a loaf of banana bread. Growing up, she has always given me banana bread loaves and oh my goodness does it make me smile. Her loaves are so delicious and I always keep them all to myself to eat when she gives them to me.

Even at 96 years old she is still warming my heart with the things she says and the banana bread that she makes sure I have all throughout the year.

It has been on my heart and mind lately since she has had some health problems, that I am going to be faced one day that she is going to cross those pearly gates and be with our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ forever. It just brings me to tears. Yes, I am selfish and always want her hear with me, my girls, my family! I want to keep those thoughts in the back of my mind and just enjoy her each and everyday I can. She inspires me, She motivates me, She is my HERO!

I love you Grandma…always and forever, Your Youngest Grandchild – Jennifer

We had a real rarity too this Christmas…. we have 6 generations in our family now. I just love our Houck Family and just will always treasure this picture!

6 Generations in the Houck Family

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Its Been 2 Years Baby

January 2008

December 2009

Together 8 years… Married for 2 Years! Happy Anniversary to the love of my life Scott .

It all started here on the blog and then a year later I blogged about how could we honestly make it through that first year? Now, here we are January 2010 and I have to say the 2nd year of marriage ROCKED. We had the best year.

Random Thoughts of 2 Years of Marriage

We are much cuter since we are carrying around less pounds now

We still had our tiffs, but we didn’t let it stop us from still showing our love for each other

He is really my best friend!

We can so tell when we are pushing each other’s buttons, and will give each other that smirk

He has made me into a huge coffee drinker

He will have coffee waiting for me in the mornings!

He is such a great hands on daddy that loves taking the girls to Chick-Fil-A

He is so humorous and sometimes he can be over the top but I still love him

He hates talking on the phone!

He loves Fox News

He hates when I let the gas get to right on empty

He loves to do laundry (haha or maybe he just wants clean clothes to wear!)

He is my biggest fan with my work

He builds my self-esteem up so much since I don’t think I’m all that

He loves God and shares his faith openly!

He loves to sneak up behind me and give me the biggest hug (heart melts)

He loves to drive (thank goodness since I love to travel)

He loves to surprise me with my special foods!

He LOVES my cooking

But Most Important: He LOVES me and our girls!

Happy Anniversary Scott. What, Where and How will our 3rd year of marriage will bring us? I for one, cannot wait to find out.

I love you Honey Bunny (he so hates me calling him that). Here’s to an awesome year :::cheers:::

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Mommy Jesus Brought Him Back

Last night in the super cold weather, our little Kingston decided to dart out the door when I was bringing in groceries. My girls immediately started crying. L said, mom we have to think about this. She went and got me the flash light since it was pitch dark outside.

So we go trekking through the snow and ice down our road to see if we can grab him. He is super fast but
1) It was too cold for him to stay outside (below zero wind chills)
2) I was afraid he would get hit by a car

We all three are walking up and down the road calling his name. I hear M behind me whispering something but couldn’t make out what she was saying. All of a sudden we see car lights… thank you Lord. Those car lights were shining into a yard and there was our precious Kingston. He came running straight to us.

We hurried and got inside and M said “Mommy, do you know who brought Kingston back to us? It was Jesus. I was saying a prayer while we were walking.” Melt my heart. That was the whispering that I was hearing behind us. She said see mommy prayers really do work. Yes, they do indeed my beautiful girl!

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And This is What December Is All About Right

You know this is truly the most wonderful time of year, but even in all the hustle and bustle we simply cannot forget why we celebrate this time of year.

This month has been a month of craziness for sure. As most of you know, I took on the task of going back to school full-time since the girls were both in school (something I am debating now having them in school). So the last two weeks have been up very late nights studying and putting the finalizing touches on end of semester projects. I am so thrilled and happy that I made it to the end of semester. I cannot say it was easy, but I can say I put my whole strength and heart into my work. Well, I can say that work has definitely paid off. I have completed the semester with a 4.0 GPA. I am a bit of perfectionist when it comes to work and I will stress and stress about things. I have cried some tears this semester but now, I can sit back and breathe. I can enjoy the season. I can celebrate with my family Jesus Christ’s birth. I can enjoy seeing the girls smiles on Christmas morning. I can enjoy time with my extended family. I can just take it all in now without any worries or stress. Now… that my friends is what December is all about.

M was in a Christmas play at church last Sunday. I will share video and pictures of that soon. It went soooo well and was sooo funny and cute! I want to leave you though now with this short video. It will move you for sure. This was an act put on right after the play. Enjoy

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Its Not Always About The Material Things

During this holiday season, I want to make sure we are all remembering the reason for the season… Jesus . I try to instill this in my girls and two separate events in the past week has assured me… I must be doing something right!

M came home last week with all her Thanksgiving projects she had done at school.  One of the projects brought tears to my eyes. I’ll post a picture here:

Look at all she is thankful for! I had to show this off to everyone in our family. I have always said she is such an old soul and really cares so much for others. She is thankful for Family, Dad, Mom, God, Jesus, Freedom, Home and Food. Is that not awesome? There are no material things listed and that just warms my heart so much.

Then, this leads me to this past weekend. I was creating all my lists for my family this year for Christmas. I asked L what she would like for Christmas this year. She sat there for a minute and put her little fingers on her chin, like she was thinking. She said ummm… then said I know Mommy. All I want for Christmas this year is for daddy to love me, mommy to love me, my sister to love me and my doggy to love me. Oh I just swooped her right up and hugged her so tight. There was not one item she could tell me she wanted… all she wants is love. Is that now just the coolest thing?

I love my girls so much and often wonder if I am doing a good job at this mommy gig… but I think I couldn’t receive a more better answer than this do you?

So remember as we go into this wonderful Holiday Season, its not all about the money. It’s all about the thought and love!

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Day 8 Thankfulness for a Job

I am truly thankful for my job.

These times in the economy, I think everyone that has a job can get on their knees and show how thankful they are. I will gladly stand-up and show how thankful I am for my job. As many know, I have worked at home since M was born almost 7 years ago now. I did not return after my maternity leave with her as I just could not leave her. I always have worked full-time during the whole process except last year. I had took time to take a step back since it was a rough beginning of 2008 for us. That is the year I made 6 trips back and forth to Florida with the girls and there was just no way to keep down a full-time job. Well the tables turned upside down, due to heart complications of my husband he was in a terrible car accident. This put him out of work on medical leave in which meant no money until insurance claim came to fruit which took 3.5 months. In the mean time, I new I needed to do something. I needed to take my part-time wages and up them to get our family to survive.

I sent out resume after resume and I finally got the call I had been really wanting. I went through 3 interviews and landed the job. It could have not came at a better time, because we were really hurting financially. We were having to live in my parent’s basement and had no idea how we were going to get Christmas for the girls. God showed us, that we did not need to worry. He had a path for me and I just know that is why he gave me this job opportunity. We ended up having a very Merry  Christmas .

It is coming up on a year with my job, and I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. All my co-workers are true gems and are so supportive. It’s been an awesome ride and I’m so excited to see what Year 2 has in store.

My husband is still unemployed so I am now the breadwinner in the family, so that is just another plus to having a job I adore and can support my family with!

Here is a picture of my co-worker and I. I’m so thankful too for the big opportunity she gave me this summer to add on more work.

And here is a group shot of some social media co-partners that all actually enjoy Starbucks.. so we call ourselves the Starbucks gals. We need to reunite and do a Starbucks run soon!

I love my job! Thank you Lord for landing me land this wonderful and grand opportunity.

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Day 4 Thankful For My Better Half

I am enjoying doing this each day. It really helps to sit back and think all about your life and how thankful for the many blessings I do have. You hear so much bad news all the time it seems, but if everyone would sit back and just take a few minutes to see the many blessings we do have to be thankful for, we would all be in a much better place.

Today I want to say how thankful I am of my husband Scott. We all know that unfortunately, I had been down the road of  marriage before and it was just not meant to be. I was too young and didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know about counseling or church guidance.. I just did the easy thing and walked away. Not my smartest move, but that is all behind us and the dear Lord had another plan for me. He brought my best friend into my life.

We have had one more journey but it is one journey that I do not regret. I love my husband and the times that we do have. Oh you better believe, we can have some major disagreements, but those are what makes us stronger. We are two totally opposites, but hey they always say opposites attract right? The last 8 years have been so much fun despite all that has been thrown to us. We each have leaned on each other to get through those times and climb the mountain to be able to scream at the top, we made it. We have made it and the Lord has guided us through each time.

You can see us one minute dancing in the house, one minute driving down the parkway to spot deer, one minute taking a last minute road trip, one minute in the floor playing games with our girls, one minute out in the yard trying to act like we are 10 again skipping, one minute blasting loud music, one minute discussing fox news, one minute trying to solve all our problems over Dr. Phil show, one minute moving, one minute hugging our girls and one minute sitting on the couch watching football!

There is never a dull moment, that’s for sure.

He makes life fun not only for me, but for our girls as well. I do have to give him props as well for stepping up and being the dad taxi. Since he has been out of work a year now, and I work and go to school, he picks the girls up from school, he takes them to sports practices, he takes them to dance lessons, he takes them to PTA school nights at our local Chick-Fil-A, he takes them on park dates with their friends and he takes them for daddy dates to our local ice cream parlor. He is such a hands on daddy and that is just one of the great features that I love about him! The girls absolutely adore their daddy too .

Thank you Scott for being YOU. I know I am not the easiest person to put up with haha, but you do. I LOVE you and so looking forward to the path God is leading us on. It’s been such a fun ride and I am ready to take it to the next level .

Love and Forever,

Your Wife,
Jen

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Thankful Day 2 Operation Christmas Child

Today I am thankful for the gift of giving! I have always lived by the mentality of it is better to give than to receive. I love giving gifts and trying to make people smile. I often get asked, how I can just go up to someone and start a conversation. I definitely get this from my dad. I do not meet a stranger and I can do me some talking . I love to talk and try to bring an smile to one’s face. I definitely can do some klutzy things at times, so I can get quite a bit of laughs out of people. I am just thankful that God has given me this personality and I hope that it will always shine.

This evening we were invited to the Veggie Tale’s Screening at Samaritans Purse. We are heading into the Operation Christmas Child season. There is a new Veggie Tale DVD out this wonderful Christmas season named Saint Nicholas. We were able to watch it tonight and my whole family was so intrigued. (Make sure to read all the way to the end of this post for a chance for your family to win their very own copy of Saint Nicholas.)

It presented such a great message and is actually based on the concept of Operation Christmas Child. My girls were glued to the screen the entire time as well as hubby and I. It really captivated what Christmas is all about. Quoted text from the Big Idea website about the new DVD.

“A Story of Joyful Giving! Find out as the Veggies discover the true joy of giving to others — at Christmas time and throughout the year!

Laura Carrot’s Christmas stocking might be empty this year because her dad is in danger of losing his job. While Larry thinks a letter to the North Pole should fix the problem, Bob knows what will really help … and tells the story of a little boy named Nicholas who made a discovery in Bethlehem that changed Christmas forever. But what did Nick learn and how can it possibly help Laura and her family?!”

Also at the beginning of the screening, we were shown a short video of kids receiving their shoe boxes last year. Seeing these reactions first hand was priceless and would bring you to your tears. I had told the Human Resources Manager last year, that the song “I Can Only Imagine” comes to my mind when I think of these shoe boxes being given out overseas. I was right… when I got to see first hand in the video tonight. The smiles and the joy these kids show by opening up their shoe boxes is what makes the gift of giving worth it all. We are making these boys and girls day by a simple shoe box of goodies. I took some pictures of the kids reactions:

We are going to fill a shoe box this year for every family member in our family. We are actually honored to live in the same town as Samaritan’s Purse where Operation Christmas Child takes place. My dad is a yearly employee and my mom is a seasonal employee, so as you can tell this really touches deeply to my heart. I am so happy to get the girls involved and we are actually going to participate in family day this year so our girls can see firsthand what all goes in the cycle of the shoe boxes. Hubby and I are also going to volunteer one night to help on the shoe box line at Samaritan’s Purse.

I am going to challenge you this Holiday season to pack just one shoe box in your family. If you can do more, that would be awesome as well. Here are the directions of what you need to do. Now, remember make this a family affair. Let your whole family be a part in picking the items. I would make this a yearly tradition as well so your kids can pass this tradition onto their kids as well. Here in America, we are very spoiled with lots of material possessions. Can you imagine what a kid overseas will do when he opens just a piece of candy? Even a notebook to draw on? Or a little pocket radio to listen to tunes? All these things we take advantage of and don’t realize how a small child is sitting and yearning for the chance to experience these things. Please pray about it and my hope this Holiday season is you will make one special little boy or girl the happiest person on Earth . Here is a video from Operation Christmas Child that is very touching and will let you in on the excitement of these boys and girls!

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

I would like to giveaway one Veggie Tales: Saint Nicholas DVD to one family courtesy of BigIdea.com. Please leave me a comment below if you would like to win. I will pick a winner next Monday, November, 9th, 2009. If you tweet this post, I will give you an extra entry. Please leave an extra comment below if you Tweet .

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Thankful Day 1 God is Good

I am starting a challenge for myself for the month of November. Since this is the wonderful month of Thanksgiving, I wanted to take each day to do a blog post of what all I am thankful for in my life. It really helps me to actually sit down and think this month for all that I truly am thankful for!

Today is the 1st of the month and I want to say how thankful I am for being a child of our Jesus Christ! He is awesome and I love serving my Lord. I will be the first to admit, I am not perfect by any means. I make mistakes all the time. I try not to, but no one is perfect so mistakes are going to happen. That is what is so great about our wonderful Lord, that he will forgive us and lead us into the right path. I am so thankful for accepting Jesus Christ into my life back on that fall day in November when I was in the 1st grade. It was an amazing day and so thankful he has steered me back in the right direction for my life and my family!

This has been on my heart all weekend. My family celebrated Halloween this weekend and its so sad that I had to read messages that were trying to question my relationship with my wonderful Lord! First off, we do not celebrate evil. We take this time to celebrate some good ole fashioned fall fun with our families and friends. The girls loved picking out costumes and let me tell you… I got brave for the first time and created M’s costume. Let me show it off to you

and my beautiful L wanted to dress up as Cinderella. Can you tell she was a little excited?

Mommy and her happy girls!

Do you see any evil? I don’t . I see some good family fun. We went on Friday night to a Church fall festival in our town and then Saturday we went to our local library and then to our Church Fall O Rama. We had so much fun just letting the girls play great and creative games… then eating lots of good food/candy as well. I promised myself that I ate the last piece of candy tonight.. tomorrow is back to counting points . They girls got to hang with their friends and just seeing their smiles was worth it all. We are not bad Christians at all for celebrating this weekend. I do not judge others that do not participate.. that is their wish. I should not be judged either and told that I am not following God’s Holy word. It’s all in the fun and how your family treats it. My family chooses to celebrate it as we do, and the girls have always celebrated it this way. We will in fact continuing celebrating it this way as well.

My good friend Sarah at Real Life posted a blog post about this topic and I wanted to share with you a portion.

How is Carving a Pumpkin Like a Christian?

First, God picks you from the pumpkin patch and brings you in from the field. The Bible says He selects us out of the world. We are in the world, but no longer of the world.

He then washes all the “dirt” off the outside that we received from being around all the other pumpkins. All the outside influences of our former life must be cleaned up. Old things are passed away and all things are become new.

Then, He carefully removes all the “yucky stuff” called “sin” out from the inside. Look at this! Yuk! Sin will not have such internal power. He then changes us from the inside out by the Power of His Word. That’s why it is important to go the church and learn about God’s Word.

He carefully removes all those seeds of doubt, hate, greed, and fear. He replaces them with the seeds of faith, hope and love. After Jesus is invited inside, you begin to experience the changing power of God’s love in your life.

Then He carves a new smiling face. Our countenance is changed by the power of His presence in our life. We then become so grateful. It can even show on our face!

Now we are going to light this candle inside. Look! This pumpkin now reflects the light from inside out. So too, when Jesus, who is called the Son of Light, lives inside of us, He shines through our life for all to see. We can let His light reflect through us to reveal His presence. “Let your light so shine before men that they may be able to see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in heaven.”

So you see, we Christians are really like this pumpkin! We will never be the same with Jesus inside of us. We can say like this jack-o-lantern, “Thy presence, my light!”

Isn’t that awesome? My light is in full presence indeed

I am not going to judge anyone. It all comes down to how your family chooses! How does your family celebrate?

This weekend was just a very fun weekend and I’m so sad to see it come to an end… but we are going to push this great weekend all into the week. Hey… by the way… aren’t my girls just so adorable dressed up?

This post included in Real Life’s Your Life Your Blog!

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