Thankful for: my family

My sister.
This girl will make you laugh so much! Jill is sarcastic beyond words. But what you may not know at first glance is that under all the sarcasm she has a heart of gold, which is so sensitive to others. She is so loyal and will have your back for life. No matter what. We are only 16 months apart, so we are close in every way possible. I also don’t hate it that we can share clothes…although that doesn’t do us much good now that she lives in Boston.

My brother.
I know I said my sister can make me laugh, but my brother is by far the wittiest and funniest person I’ve ever known in real life! Justin is the owner of 3 record stores, Guestroom Records, and has a very creative and innovative mind. He is very caring and takes care of the people around him, especially his wife. He surprise visited me in Tyler and drove down just to take me to lunch one day last spring. I know that I could count on him for anything.

My sister-in-law.
I am so happy for the older sister I got in who my brother married! Julie is so sweet and caring. She may be quieter than the rest of us, but that doesn’t mean she can’t laugh and joke with the best of us! She has been such a great addition to our family and it was so natural for her to become a Sowers (and it didn’t hurt that she has a “J” name!).

My mom.
My mom is one of the most loving people I’ve ever known. She will love anyone’s socks off, but also isn’t afraid to shoot you straight. She is definitely a servant and loves to take care of people. What I have come to appreciate as I’ve gotten older is how she loves people by taking care of the details. I am lacking in this area, so I extra love this about her! My mom ALWAYS encourages me to go on adventures and I love that.  I am also so thankful for her accounting/financial help in my life…gotta love that accounting brain of hers!

My dad.
In a lot of ways, I am my father’s daughter. Most of my obvious traits, I get from him. My love for people most definitely comes from him, and this, of course, is something that I love about him! He will talk to absolutely anyone around him and has a way of putting others at ease and making them feel loved and welcomed. My dad pays attention to the details of my personality and always lets me know that he loves me and is proud of me. I feel so supported by him. And where would I be if my dad hadn't always told me these two things: "Jen, pay attention to what's going on around you" and "Don't forget to leave time to have some fun (not that I necessarily struggled with this, but great that Dad supports this)."

Giving Thanks...

I am going to celebrate Thanksgiving awareness month through a few different posts in upcoming weeks to share some of the blessings in my life. Thanks, Chelsea, for this idea! See? I am giving thanks already! It’s working, it’s working!

"Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day." -Robert Caspar Lintner

My roommates.

Where the heck would I be without these 4?! We have a policy in our house, that somehow has come about in the last few months—No Secrets. These girls know everything about me and I know all there is to know about the happenings in their lives, as well. It’s been so incredible living in such a way that they know the best and the worst about me and love me just the same. Legit.

In addition to “no secrets,” we have SO much fun together! The volume level is stuck on loud. And 9 times out of 10, there is trash rotting in our pantry. But I love it all and I would have it no other way…ok, well maybe we can work on the trash thing. The overall dynamic goes a little something like this: Hannah exclaiming some sort of bold statement. Jenn office houring with one or all of us. Ally laughing at all the madness surrounding her, while also being the steady hand of wisdom. Kyndell getting real, real fast and pillowtalking with the best of ‘em. Regardless of our individual differences, we know how to laugh. A lot. And pillowtalk. A lot.

Sooner football.

I love it. I can’t help it. I literally was Sooner born and bred. It’s so fun to have a team to root for and want them to succeed. Additionally, I love to still be connected to my school, which I love so much, even though I graduated 3 years ago. It’s a loyalty that transcends tens of thousands of strangers, and who doesn’t love that?!

Tutoring.

I recently started tutoring high school seniors in English. I am helping them with their college admittance essays and doing a little ACT prep. It has been such a blessing to be able to use what I studied for 5 years in college. I love being able to help kids develop a life skill and help them to discover their own potential. Who knew that teaching English would be just like riding a bike…

Group text messages from my family.

Hahaha, it was a funny day when everyone in my family learned about group messaging. From there, I can count on this occurrence at least once every other day…if not every day. Last night, I was hanging out with a friend, when I saw my phone had texts from brother, sister, dad, and mom. I thought that it was to update me on a family member who was in the hospital, so I stopped what I was doing to check my phone and brace myself for what update may be awaiting. Low and behold, false alarm. All my family members were just talking nonsense about who knows what. I laughed a lot about the late night discussion being had by the Sowers fam.

There is so much to be thankful for...Always.  No matter what.  These are just the tip of the iceberg; stay tuned...

An update in numbers:

1: The number of new jobs I accepted. I am going to be the Woods Family camp Guest Relations Coordinator! I am so so very excited about this! I think it will be a job that will develop my strengths, as well as prepare me for jobs later in life. Can’t wait!

7: The number of months until I start the Woods position. I will start in April or May.

2: The number of trips that I am currently daydreaming about, while simultaneously hoping like crazy that they will become reality.

8: The number of girls in my college small group. I started helping with the college ministry at church and…I love it! We meet every Tuesday night at 9pm…Yes, I remember the days when meetings started at 9pm instead of 9am. Oh, the glory days!

3: The number of games won by my Sooners!

1: The number of times I have gone longboarding in Tyler and the number of times my car key flew out of Jordan’s frocket (front shirt pocket) into the black hole known as Ms. Simmons’ front yard...never to be seen again...

5: The number of girls living in our house this year! It’s been so fun so far; the more the merrier!

2: The number of new membership classes I attended before officially becoming a member of Grace Community Church. Just makin’ it offic, you know!

3: The number of pumpkin spice lattes I have had. And oh my gosh, are they YUMMMM!

100: The number of degrees outside tomorrow. Fall, where are you?!

2: The number of times I have played volleyball since summer ended…We’ve all quickly realized that sand volleyball was just a summer fling. Bumskies. But a summer fling is a summer fling—so fun while it lasts, but then soon forgotten when the busyness of life happens again in the fall.

Beach Volleyball. That's what's up.

For the past several weeks, beach volleyball has taken over.  There is a group of us that ranges from no less than 8 to as many as 19 that plays beach volleyball 3-4 times per week.  We found two sand courts that sit right on the edge of a lake and we have never had a problem scoring at least one of the courts when we want to play. 

We have routinely played on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and then some random other nights.  We play 8-10:13pm until the lights go out, wash off in the splash pad, and then head over to Sonic.

This has, by far, been my favorite summer activity!  I love the game, love all the people that come, love the tradition, love summer time.  Good times had by all. =)

The Element of Surprise

The element of surprise has taken on a new meaning for me. What I have realized is that the “element” is actually God's love for me.

So get this. After the Owner's Box at Fenway surprise event, I was really thinking through all of these random surprises that seem to happen very consistently in my life. For as long as I can remember, I have always had this kind of "luck." There was a period of life that I would find money on the ground about once/month. Once upon a time in college, with all my best friends, I randomly got to see two of my favorite bands for FREE at an intimate concert in the mountains, right after skiing all day and a hole-in-the-wall pizza place, complete with a full moon and fireworks (I mean...are you kiddin me?). Another time, in New York, my friends and I got to lead the whole studio audience of "The View" in singing the Oklahoma state song. Then there were the dolphins on a jet ski tour. Or when I arrived at the Grand Canyon just in time for sunset. Time and time again, I have had these completely random blessings. And these aren't even the tip of the iceburg.

Every single time something like this has happened, I can't help but laugh because these blessings are so outta control, but each time I have been somewhat perplexed. I have always known that every blessing comes from God, but I could only wonder why? Why am I so lucky? Why did He bless me with front row seats? Why did He let me win Bingo? I didn’t need the money. I didn’t need the front row view. I don’t get it. I didn’t get it. But now I get it.

These blessings from God are simply because He loves me. He knows that I don’t need these things. But He also knows how much I LOVE surprises. And how much I LOVE adventures. God is just such a loving God that has an intimate, unique, personal relationship with his daughter. This lesson was obviously huge for me to learn and very perspective-giving. I am so breathtakingly thankful for God and how much He loves me. Sheesh.

Travel Bug

It's summer time, which means that camp is in full swing!  We are almost done with week 4, which is just crazy!  It's FLYING by.

My summertime life: working. laying out at the pool. repeat. 

Since I don't have weekends during the summer, I am in Tyler until at least mid-August.  With that said, I have the travel bug...and I have it bad!!

Good news is I am going to a friend's lake house with a group of girls on Tuesday, where we are going to ride jet skis, have girl talk and just lay out all day!  Best.  I LOVE the lake.

Then next Saturday, I am meeting the rents in Dallas for the day.  It's been about 3 months since I have seen them!  Hopefully, I will get to see sister too for a split second before I head back to Tyler.

Right after summer, I think a Tyler group is going to go on a float trip/Schlitterbahn/Austin/San Marcos outlets.  Duh I am pumped for that.

After that, wedding season commences BIG TIME.  YAY!  I love people in love! :)

Then in the midst of that, hopefully I can swing a big trip.  Disneyworld?  Hawaii?  We shall see!

From Bingo to Baseball

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to win the blackout round of Bingo at our local Bingo hall. Needless to say, it was one of the most shocking things ever! I mean, who really wins Bingo, and especially the most prized round? Due to the rarity of this event, I decided I needed to use my cash winnings on something worthwhile…and what always seems the most worthwhile in this traveler’s brain? A trip, duh! So with that said, I purchased a plane ticket to Boston and a Red Sox baseball ticket.



I won! I won!



At the Bingo Hall with our lucky trinkets


Beantown bound!

I traveled with 4 of my best friends to visit my sister in Boston! The city itself was so AWESOME. If you think of a “cute downtown” area for whatever city you live in, imagine that on every street and building. And on top of that, there were historical and/or famous sites around every turn. In addition to just loving the city, it was so great seeing my sister! I miss her so much! It was cool to see her life there—her house, the 3 year old that she nannys for, her bank (hahaha), etc!

Just to name a few of the adventures: We walked around the Hahvahd Yahd. We ate real clam chowdah at the oldest restaurant in America. We drank a beer in the oldest pub in America. We climbed aboard the U.S.S. Constitution—an undefeated battleship. I drove a DUK across the Charles River. We ate crepes and cannolis. (to see pics, check out my facebook album that will be posted soon)

I loved the whole trip, but hands down my favorite part was when we went to Fenway Park for a Red Sox game. Just in general, this experience was cool because Fenway is legendary. We only had standing room seats, which wasn’t a big deal, but it just meant that we leaned against a railing and stood on our tippy toes to try and see over the crowd to the field. At least, that’s how we started the game...

About halfway through the game, 4 of the 7 of us went to get Fenway Franks. The other 3 of us stayed to guard our spots on the railing. Lots of time went by before I received a text from the other group telling us they had found some seats and they would switch out with us after a few innings. After a little while, we found our own seats that were pretty decent—they weren’t great and weren’t bad, but they were fine so we “couldn’t imagine that the other group had better seats.”

More time passes, more texts from us go unanswered, until finally we hear Mike shouting our names from atop our section. We are full of questions—where have you been? Why didn’t you respond to all our texts? Where are your seats? Tell everyone to sit here; there are plenty of seats! But all these questions fell on deaf ears. They were all smiling and just motioning us to come up there. It was then I knew…I knew that something great had happened. You see, there is something inexplicable that takes place when our group takes trips together—the most amazingly lucky things happen. Something big, shocking, and surprising always happens. And I. LOVE. IT.

This trip was no exception as we get to the top of our section for our friends to hand us the tickets. The tickets read “Row 1.” And where on Row 1? THE OWNER’S BOX. Apparently an usher had randomly asked them if they wanted free tickets. They said, “sure!” He hands the tickets over and says, “don’t tell anyone I gave these to you and don’t embarrass me. Have fun!”

Time for us to freak out—aas;ldkjfa;slkdfj;aslkdjfa;lskdjf;aslkdjfa;ksdfj--only for our friends to yell, “Go! Hurry! We’ve been trying to text you for so long so we could switch, just get down there!”

So off we ran. Past all the other sections. Down the stairs. Through a security guard ticket check. Lifted a chain to the Owner's Box. And down we sat. On row 1. Seat 4. To our right: the Red Sox dugout. And the Red Sox owner. To our left: a sport’s photographer. To our front: a door that opened to the field. The on-deck circle. And the best view I’ve ever had at a sporting event. EVER.

It was one of those moments when you are acutely aware that this will never happen again. Truly a once in a lifetime experience. This goes down in the books as easily one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to do. So, that’s the story of how we sat front row in the owner’s box at Fenway Park.

From Bingo to Baseball. Another epic trip. I couldn’t be more thankful for random blessings!!!