First Doctors Appointment

We took our little Nellie for her first doctors visit. She is a whopping 3.6 lbs and received a clean bill of health from the vet. She took the shots, temperature (you know how that gets taken) and the stool sample (wowzers) like a champ. However, we encountered some problems when her nails got clipped. She was doing great until one got clipped a little too close. Needless to say, the next 16 nails were a little more difficult.

She will have one more round of shots in three weeks. The only other visit in her near future will be to take away any possibilities of motherhood. No little Nellies running around here!

Here are some pictures of our little girl...After her first bath.

On a leisurely stroll with Tim.

Playing with Grandma while she was in for a visit.

Waiting outside of Tim's office. She just knew there was someone suspicious in there!

Neighborhood watch. Don't mess with the Mac's house!

The new adventures of the old Macs

We are finally starting to get settled here in Brownsville. Everything was a little bumpy at first. As some of you may know, we started out our time here in Brownsville with a water leak! Fun, I know. It actually happened before we even got here. Our first night in town, we actually slept at the Music Minister's house. Tim and I both deeply appreciated the soft bed after a long, hard journey (a whole other blog Tim will have to do about being a "Good Samaritan").

We are finally starting to get the house back in order. The last step is getting new carpet in our living room which should occur this week. We got the new carpet for the dining room last week.

As if we didn't have enough going on already...we (Tim and I) have decided it is finally time to expand the McPherson clan. We are looking forward to welcoming that adorable face, those eager eyes, an adorable personality and the funny looking body of our new dachshund puppy into our home. (Sorry, I just could not help myself!)

Tim and I have been longing for a puppy ever since we got married. I guess we could have technically had one at the first two homes we lived in our first year of marriage. However, seminary did not allow pets in housing until our last semester there. By that point, we decided not to pay the huge pet deposit and wait until we were settled into our new home (wherever that would be).

Now that we are getting settled in our new home, we are taking the plunge. I figured if nothing else, it would give us good training for later on in life! :) Here are some pictures of our new addition:
She is a miniature dachshund puppy. We have not come to an agreement on a name yet.

Unnamed puppy is an isabella color (similar to a weimaraner) with tan on her face and paws.

This is the litter she was born with. Her mom is an isabella dapple. Our puppy is the darker puppy at the bottom of the picture.

Before I close out this blog...if you would like to throw a name into the hat for consideration, please leave it in the comments section.

Laziness+No Internet = Lame Bloggers

For those of you wondering if Jill's hair has grown long enough to do Locks-of-Love again since our last blog, you would not be too far off. Yes, it has been a long time since we have posted a blog, and we have no one to blame but ourselves... and our lame internet provider who decided to jack up the prices on us. I am writing this post from the Southwestern library, but a day is coming soon when we will have internet access again!! How that takes place is still yet to be determined.

We have been in contact with a church recently and it is very possible that this becomes the place we serve as pastor. One way or another, we have to be out of campus housing by July 31st. If things do not work out with this church, one of you lucky readers may win the privilege of having two drifters wondering onto your lawn and working their way into any spare bedroom you may have. We will keep you posted... or we will show up on your lawn with all of our things... whichever comes first.

Locks of Love

For the second time, I grew out my hair for Locks of Love. There are several reasons why I have donated hair. First, I am not the type of person that is emotionally attached to hair. There is nothing wrong with individuals that are, I am just not one of those people. Second, my hair grows reasonably fast. I did this for the first time in Fall 2007. Third, I like trying new things. I like to experiment with different cuts, etc. When my hair was cut today, I told the hairdresser to do whatever he thought would look good as long as I could fix it myself when I got home. And last and most importantly, it is for a wonderful cause. If my hair can go to help someone else...why not!

So...without further ado, here are the before and after pictures:
This morning at 8:00am

For use in a wig, your longest layer must be 10 inches from top to bottom (made the cut, whew!)


This is what my hair looked like at 11:00am



If you or anyone you know is interested in donating hair to Locks of Love, you can get all the information on their website http://www.locksoflove.org/.

Reasons we love Texas

Just to clear the air, Tim and I do realize that we have been Blog slackers for the past two months. We give you our deepest apologies. Things have been very busy on the Mac front. We had the joy of being in Knoxville for two full weeks over Christmas and New Years. Since being back in Fort Worth, it feels like we have been going nonstop.

We have had three new babies enter the world, school starting back, Habitat's big event is going full force, and then to top it off... a Texas ice storm. Fort Worth is very similar to Knoxville in this way. One day, it could be warm and the very next day you can have freezing temperatures. Except, it is much more exaggerated here. One day you can be at 80 and the next 32. Here is the perfect example:
This is the view from our back door this morning. It doesn't look so bad except the layers of ice that you can't really see. Thanks to the Fort Worth ISD, I am off from work this morning. The most fun experience of ice in Texas is the traffic reports.

The news stations position cameras at all the bridges and overpasses and let the cameras roll. I feel just a little bad calling it entertaining but not bad enough to stop watching. They have all been warned not to get on the roads but having so much confidence in themselves, they try anyway. For the rest of us who choose to stay inside, it is the best reality tv. People couldn't make this stuff up.

Tim and I are inside, warm, and enjoying each others company. Of course, I can't sign off without posting pictures of our new additions:
David, Stacy and baby Joshua who are in our Sunday School class


Austin (not pictured), Lindsey, and baby Brady who are also in our Sunday School class


Kevin, Mandy and baby Eliana who are our neighbors. This is our last Texas baby for awhile.

Now that we are back in the swing of things, we will be more faithful to our blog updates. Scout's honor!

Traditions

tra·di·tion: an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior

Many individuals and families have traditions, both large and small. Recently, it seems that Tim and I have been carrying on old traditions, participating in other families' traditions, and creating some of our own. At the beginning of this month, we had the opportunity to go to Waco to watch a Baylor Bears game with the Brackeens. Robert grew up in Waco and is a huge fan (understatement)! Since we knew this was going to be a day of traditions we decided to kick start the day with a McPherson tradition...Cream of Wheat (Mike McPherson's secret recipe).
Mike's Cream of Wheat recipe is a little different from the box...think less healthy and more sugary. It is really delicious.

After breakfast we headed down to Waco for the game. We took a driving tour of the campus, went to the bear habitat, and saw some of Robert's old stopping grounds. We got to the game in plenty of time to see the opening band, player warmups, helicopter fly-over and of course the Kickoff (ahhhhhhh, sic 'em bears). Here is an example of the sic 'em bears pose:
If we are still in Texas during next year's football season, we may be invited back since we helped inspire the team to a victory over the Texas A&M Aggies. Here are a few more pictures of the day:Yesterday, we got to participate in several traditions that we have started for our own family. For the last couple of years, we have had the wonderful opportunity to serve others on Thanksgiving morning. Through Mission Arlington approximately 1,500 people are able to receive a Thanksgiving meal. It is amazing to drive up to the building at 8:00am and see hundreds of individuals and families willing to give up their morning to help serve others; others who may otherwise not have a Thanksgiving meal.

After arriving back at home we cleaned up and headed to Greg and Chenille Gaumers. This is the last tradition I will blog about today. Being so far away from home, it is not feasible for us to spend the money to go home for Thanksgiving. With flights being so expensive and me having to work at the beginning of the week, it makes sense for us to stay in Texas. The last two years, we have spent the day with other friends at Seminary that also stayed in town (2 years ago with the Gormans and last year with the Moots). We branched out this year and went to an aparment on the other side of the street.

A few words to sum it all up....yum, yum, yum. Needless to say, we did not go without.
And last but not least, we must include some pictures of Ethan (Greg and Chenille's little boy) . I think he is one of the cutiest babies ever and pray to God (seriously) that Tim and I have a baby as low maintanence and happy as him.

Count your blessings name them one by one...

(You were supposed to sing the title to the beat)...

Tim and I are continually blessed by family, friends, and sometimes people who remain purposely anonymous. Our most recent blessing came from our Sunday School teachers Jackie and Debbie (and their daughter and son-in-law). They sent an email to the entire class early this week about a desk that they were wanting to give away. Tim responded that we were interested in looking at the desk. On Friday, we were out in Arlington so we stopped by to see the desk. Oh my goodness!!! It was gorgeous. I kept thinking and possibly even saying out loud, "Are you sure you are giving this away?" Sure enough, they (particularly Jackie) just wanted it out of the garage.

We brought the desk home and rearranged our office last night. We were up until 1:30am working on it and then did a little more work this morning. It is a little oversized for our current office but it will be perfect for Tim down the road. He told Jackie and Debbie that the desk would be the place where many sermons will be completed.

Here are some pictures of the beautiful beyond words desk and our new office arrangement...

Tim's old desk became my desk. My old desk from college is going to be donated to Trinity Habitat for the new AmeriCorps house we are trying to get furnished.