2010- A Look Back

I realize that I am a little late, but here are some highlights from 2010. It was a fabulous year!

*To start 2010, Brian and I went down to watch the Auburn Tigers play Northwestern at the Outback Bowl in Tampa. Who would have thought that a year later we would be watching them play in the National Championship? Crazy. It's still sinking in.

*Also in January, Brian and I began our third semester in graduate school. I began the first of three one-hundred hour internships.

*In February, we saw Brad Paisley in concert! Check out here and here to read more!

*At the end of February, we served with other members in our church for GIC (Global Impact Celebration) 2010. This was an opportunity to look at the missions goals our church made, celebrate, and offer a time of worship for the missionaries. We saw lots of our friends who have left for the mission field and started new friendships that have grown through the past year. Such a blessing.

*In March, Brian and I took our Spring Break and went to the Marriott Grand in Fairhope, AL. We spent a fabulous and relaxing 5 days sleeping late, riding bikes, watching sunsets, and just resting. Totally needed. Totally wonderful.

* In April, Brian and I got a new dining room table!

*In May, I completed my first year of teaching with my school. It was a fabulous experience. More exciting, for the first time in three years, I had job plans for the next school year! Brian celebrated his three year anniversary at the Power Company.

*At the end of May, I began the second of my three internships with a high school in the area.

*June was a gigantic month! Brian and I packed, planned, and prepared to head to Israel with 18 of our good friends from Sunday School. We were blessed with the opportunity to serve the Bedouin people and to see the place where our Jesus walked. It was incredible and life changing. Check out the Israel label on the side to read more about the trip!

 

 

*In July, Brian and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary by going to Ross Bridge and hanging out at the pool all day. It was the perfect, romantic relaxer coming off of our big trip.

*In early August, I began my second year of teaching second grade at my school. I also started my final internship for my graduate program.

*Labor Day weekend, Brian and I headed down to the beach with our friends Rob and Ginny and Jared and Ashley. We had a blast and loved watching Auburn win the first game of the season!

*In September, Brian and I attended our first Auburn football game of the 2010 season against Clemson. We went with our friends Jase and Elizabeth. Auburn beat Clemson 24-21 in overtime.

*In October, Auburn was ranked #1 for the first time in the 2010 season.

*The 2nd of November was the Gifted Women's ministry event. I worked with Beth Allen, a fabulous encouragement and friend, to do the major planning. It was hard work and exhausting, but the Lord was glorified in the end!

*In November, Brian and I headed down to the Plains again to watch the Auburn play UT Chat. for Homecoming. We spent some time with our friends Wesley and Rebecca and their sweet baby Eli. Overall, it was the perfect day. We didn't have much of an agenda, so it was super nice. And Auburn won again!

*In late November, Brian and I went to Auburn once again for the Georgia game with the Vanns and the Wilkes. We never actually made it into the game, but enjoyed the game at Brian's brother's tailgate. Auburn, of course, won the game, and we enjoyed great fellowship!

*In December, we joined some friends and went shooting at the Vann's farm. I have never seen so many firearms in one place. In the end, I hit 3 clays with a shotgun and hit the target with a handgun. 

*Right before Christmas, Brian and I took another trip to the Grand. Once again, it was a great time to relax after a very busy fall! We have fallen in love with the hotel and with the little town. So much fun!

2010 was a fantastic year! We are excited about what's to come in 2011!

Have a blessed New Year!

Same Kind of Different As Me

Last June, as we headed out for Israel, my sweet friend Sarah let me borrow the book Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. The trip ended up being MUCH more exhausting than I originally expected, so I didn't read... well.... anything. 

After we got home, the book sat on my bedside table, beckoning me to read it. 

Only, I wasn't  interested.

It wasn't that I thought it would be a bad book- several people in our Sunday School class had read it and talked about crying over it, men and women alike. It was just the fact that I couldn't find the time to make it a priority. In retrospect, it was really God preparing my heart for it.

This fall, our good friends Rob and Jared started working with a ministry called Urban Purpose. This ministry was started by a man in our church who had a heart for the homeless. As he was driving to work one morning, he stopped to help a homeless man. The man made a comment that he was just like the others- it would be the last time he saw him. This sparked an opportunity to serve differently. Since then, he has been working with Urban Trek to provide meals for the homeless each Sunday. Sunday school classes provide the food while different men (and women), like Rob and Jared, meet the people and build relationships.

Lucky for Brian and me, Rob and Jared are Brian's accountability group members. After several weeks of going to serve, Brian started to join them. He changed. The men on the street were no longer people who deserved it or people who made bad choices, now they were real people with real personalities. They were people with a story and people who needed Jesus.

Enter me. 

As Brian was going every Sunday afternoon to build relationships with these men, I was making excuses. Grad school was too much. I had just finished with the Women's Ministry event and needed a break. I needed to focus on my job. Excuse, excuse excuse.

At this point, my good friends Ashley and Jennifer had been going to The Village to lead Bible study with some of the women in the ministry since August. But my excuses kept me away. It was outside of my comfort zone. Then some things started happening with my family and the Lord began to draw me in. He began changing my heart and my desires. I started going to the Village and building relationships with the women and my life has been changing. Praise the Lord.

After going to the Village for a couple of weeks and hearing awesome stories from Brian, I looked at my nightstand and saw Same Kind of Different as Me. This time, I was excited about it.

I read the book and got a whole new perspective. God has changed my heart. The book is eye-opening, heart changing, and tear drawing. 

Check it out. Your will love it.

Have a blessed Tuesday my friends!

Snow Day!

We woke up Sunday morning to snow on the ground!

We got dressed to head to church, but after starting to drive, realized the road on the way to the church was iced over.  After hearing that the church planned on closing due to the weather, we headed to Waffle House for breakfast with our friends Rick and Tiffany who were two cars behind us. Rick and Tiffany are home on vacation from their job in Africa, so we haven't spent time with them since this past summer. Though we planned to go to lunch, the unexpected surprise of breakfast was a great treat.

After breakfast, we met some friends to go sledding at a local school. It was SO much fun! 

I love snow!!!!

Have a blessed day my friends!

Merry Christmas 2010!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Brian and I had a different experience than we have ever had before. His family was out of town, so we spent Christmas Eve together then spent Christmas Day with my family.

We started the night with the Candlelight Service at our church. It was an amazing time of worship and focus. We were blessed to see so many of our friends and hear truth from the Word.

After the service, we headed to a local Mexican restaurant for a Feliz Navidad dinner! The place was surprisingly full. It reminded me of A Christmas Story except I didn't burn the turkey. :) We drove around and looked at Christmas lights afterward.

When we got home, we set up the air mattress in the living room to spend the night. This tradition started last year so we could sleep under the Christmas tree lights and watch a movie (we don't have a TV in our room.) Brian surprised me by renting the new Jim Carrey A Christmas Carol, which I have wanted to see since it came out last year. It was so good. The animation was incredible- technology is pretty cool.

The next morning, we woke up and opened gifts to each other, then headed to my parents house for Christmas brunch.  As we were driving there, it started snowing. It was amazing- I have never seen snow at Christmas.... I have barely seen snow when it's not Christmas. Needless to say, we were excited. For brunch, we had the most delicious hashbrown casserole I have ever eaten, then we spent the rest of the day relaxing. 

Me and Granny- Sorry for the bad quality, my iPhone screen is a little fuzzy.

Early in the afternoon, we went to see my Granny in her assisted living home. She was in especially good spirits and really enjoyed  opening her gifts. My favorite part of the visit was when she introduced Brian to her dead cat... which was actually one of those funny breathing cats that were popular about 3 years ago. 

Later that night, we had a gingerbread house competition. The teams were me and Daddy versus Brian and Mom. The funny thing was that none of us had ever actually made a gingerbread house before. Overall, they turned out great! We didn't actually have a judge, so we were just competitive for the fun of it.

It was truly a magnificent Christmas. We are so blessed by our precious friends and family. We have a Savior who loves us enough to come live on this Earth and die to give us freedom. Now THAT'S a reason to celebrate.

Merry Day Late Christmas my friends!

Life is Grand..

Wednesday morning, Brian and I headed down to Fairhope to stay at the Marriott Grand. We have been there several times and have sort of made it "our" place. We love the little town and shops, but simply adore the hotel itself. The Christmas decorations were beautiful and the weather was great!

The view from our room.

The sunset Wednesday night.

Part of the amazing Christmas decorations around the resort.

 The scenic view from the boardwalk near the hotel. The houses along this walk were absolutely incredible.

The sunset Thursday night.

You Capture- Kindred

This week's You Capture photo challenge is the word kindred. 

Auburn's victory over South Carolina today brought together these kindred spirits- true members of the Auburn family. This celebration was brought on by Cam Newton's hail mary down the field to Darvin Adams the last 12 seconds of the first half. 

War Eagle! We are headed to the National Championship!

Our Christmas Mantel

I was very pleased with how my mantel turned out this year! 

My MIL gave me a wreath holder several years ago. I love the way the wreath looks between the two mirrors. 

I lined the lighted garland with red berries, which gave it a festive, fun look.

I got our stockings at World Market at the end of last Christmas season for $1 a piece! Who knows if they will hold up WITH gifts in them- but they are pretty leading up to the big night! 

After Saturday and the SEC Championship, my "War Eagle" will come down and be replaced with something Christmasy, but until then it's just part of the decor.

I can't wait to see everyones mantel! I have been looking forward to this party for ages!

Have a blessed evening my friends!

Decking the Halls

Black Friday

Brian and I were both up early this morning for some Black Friday deals! 

My friend Jennifer and I hit Belk to do some shopping for our husbands (and maybe a little bit for us.) The shoe section was a complete madhouse. I have never seen anything like it. Women were fighting and cussing- the word "lady" didn't seem to cross their minds.

I managed to almost finish shopping for Brian and got a few cute sweaters for me. 

After the mall, we headed to Lifeway. They have fabulous deals on ESV Bibles, Beth Moore Bible studies, and The Blind Side. I think I spent more money there than I did at the mall! If you are interested, their sales go through tomorrow, so you should check it out!

While I was browsing the mall, Brian was hitting up HH Greg. We managed to get an awesome deal on a new flat screen TV. It was a great treat and a fabulous way to start the bowl season!

After a couple hours of shopping and a short nap, the Edwards, Bensingers, Danny, and his girlfriend, Margaret came to our house the watch the Iron Bowl (on our new TV no less!) 

The game was A-Usome! After a disappointing first half, Auburn led us to a stellar victory against our biggest rivals, the Alabama Crimson Tide. Next step, the SEC championship, then hopefully the BCS National Championship!

War Eagle!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gifted

After several months of hard work, a tiny bit of frustration, and several AWESOME new friendships, the SMBC Gifted event went on without a hitch. Okay. Well, a couple of hitches, but I have heard that we are the only ones who know about them so they are no big deal. :)

The night was such a blessing. We had between 150 and 200 women gathered together for the event. Women with different backgrounds, from different families, from different church bodies, and on different paths in their lives with Christ. It was an awesome picture of outreach and of the body of Christ.

We began the evening with demonstrations and homemade desserts from ladies in the church. Each demonstration came with step by step instructions on how to do the demo at home using inexpensive supplies or supplies you may have lying around your house. Our demonstrations included snowman wreaths, cake pops, ornament wreaths, and peppermint/ hershey kisses trees. Each dessert included a recipe card to try the recipe at home. Several of the wonderful and incredible girls in my Sunday School class volunteered to bake for the event. We had cowgirl cookies, tiger butter, chocolate cake, pound cake, saltine taffee, Reese's peanut butter cookies and cookie dough cupcakes. Yum- I am wishing I had leftovers of pretty much all of it...

Next, we gather in the conference center for the main event. Taryn and Kristi were our speakers for the night. Both ladies spoke from God's Word and talked about how we as women as are gifted not only in crafts and in tangible things we can do, but are gifted to share the news of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection with others and gifted to be some part of the Proverbs 31 woman where we can glorify God through our servanthood and love. I knew both ladies would do a good job, but I was blessed by the Truth they presented and was amazed at their calmness in speaking openly and with love to such a large group of women. 

Though she was not a speaker, amazing Beth transitioned into the next part of the evening with a reminder of the opportunities we have to glorify God with how we buy gifts for Christmas. Our event had women from all different age groups selling their crafts. Some were selling international crafts to help believers in impoverished countries, some were using their money to go on a mission trip, some were using the money to pay off debt to become a career missionary, some were stay at home moms saving money to help support their home, and some were ladies who hope to one day be stay at home moms saving money to be better prepared for that day. These women all had one thing in common- they hoped to glorify God with the time they spent preparing and selling, they hoped to bless other women by offering their "gifts", and they hoped to glorify God with the money they earned during the evening. Beth's reminder was to simply be considerate of where you spend your money during the holidays and be mindful of the opportunities we have to give personal gifts that don't just come from a department store, but have thought and heart behind them.

The final event of the evening was shopping! We spent the last 2 hours browsing the tables and tables of wonderful crafts. There were women selling hairbows, knitted items, jewelry, Christmas ornaments, bags, stationary, painted items, children's clothing, picture frames... it was great.

Check out a few websites/ blogs from the event!

Freeset- Wonderful bags for a great cause!

World Crafts- Handmade crafts from all over the world. Wow.. there is so much.

Knit So Simple- Knitted scarves, hats, everything. She is so talented.

A Pig and Paintbrush- Amazing handpainted items.

Adrienne's Custom Canvas- More great handpainted items.

There were SO many more, but because I had a table as well, I didn't get to shop and grab cards as I would have liked.

I left the evening encouraged. God is consistently faithful. He will not give us more than we can handle. And He created the body of Christ to be just that, a body. This event taught me about follow-through and organization and so many other things that will help me in life. But the things I most valued were the sweet women I met along the way and the relationships I was able to build. I was shown once again the value of meeting with women to gain a better view of the world around us and to have a better understanding of who God is. God is faithful indeed.

Have a blessed evening my friends!

Gifted- A Women's Ministry Christmas Event

This fall, I have been blessed to work with several ladies from the women's ministry at my church to plan our holiday event. The theme is Gifted, focusing on the gifts God has given us and how we use them to glorify Him. We will have demonstrations with directions, provide desserts with recipes, and have vendors from our church selling homemade crafts. On top of that, we have two wonderful women speaking about the gifts God has given them specifically and share the Word. 

Basically, I can't wait. 

If you are from the Birmingham area, I would love for you to check it out! Shoot me an email or comment for more information!

Garfield lives in my garage.

I am a big fan of cats. Aside from my time in Auburn and our first nine months of marriage, I have never NOT had a cat. I like their independence and spunkiness. I like the fact that they can sleep in any situation.

But several months ago, we were visited by an orange beast that almost changed my thoughts on cats completely. This cat would come through Bodie's cat door, eat Bodie's food, mark his (and we KNOW it was a HE) territory, beat Bodie up, then leave.

It got to the point we couldn't put things in our garage anymore because of the marking problem and Bodie was afraid to go outside. Not good.

Brian and I finally got fed up. I still liked cats too much to call animal control, so we took matters into our own hands. We used my parent's squirrel cage to trap the cat, then brought him to a lake several miles and a major highway away for him to torture some other cat loving family.

And we lived peacefully.

For a month.

Wednesday night, we got home from church and three cats ran from our garage. Three. One of them was orange.

This morning, we got home from church and an orange cat ran from the garage.

He's back.

We are at a loss on what to do at this point.

My hope is to catch him, fix him, and pray his aggression goes away.

Brian's plan involves a gun.

Surely we will come to a compromise.

Busy Month

Since we have been back from Israel, we have done A LOT! The following are major events that have happened since we got home-

*We went to a Baron's game with Rob and Ginny. Not only did the Baron's win, we saw really pretty fireworks!

*Brian and I went to the Renaissance Ross Bridge for the 4th of July. We hung out at the pool for hours, ate pizza in a giant king sized bed, then watched Toy Story 1 AND 2.

*We saw Toy Story 3. I cried the last 15 minutes. That movie confirmed every fear I had as a child. It also explains why I haven't had the heart to give up my favorite stuffed animals. If you haven't seen the movie, you MUST! But be prepared- it's kind of sad!

*Brian and I had our 3 year wedding anniversary! We ate a SCRUMPTIOUS dinner at The Melting Pot, then came home and watched our wedding video. I love Brian WAY more today then I did 3 years ago. I can't imagine life without him and can't wait to experience it with him.

*Brian turned 25 years old! I think he is even cuter now then he was when he was 24!

*We went to Brookhaven, Mississippi to see Brian's grandmother. She gave us a lesson on southern cooking and took us to the Brookhaven Exchange Club Fair.

* After a long time spent comparing and contemplating, I joined Sam's. I can't decide if it was good or bad for our checking account, but we are now members!

*Brian and I went to Pensacola for the weekend. It was H*O*T, with a heat index of 115*, but the water was crystal clear AND we saw dolphins.

*Finally, today is my birthday! I am 25 years old- a quarter of a century. Brian keeps telling me that if I do this three more times, I will be 100. He's a genius, but I love him!

Have a great night!

Life is Grand..

Spring Break has been fabulous thus far.

Brian and I are finishing our stay at the Marriott Grand in Point Clear, AL. It has been glorious and relaxing. We haven't had a schedule for 5 days. We have slept late, read ALOT (well, one of us has), watched 3 beautiful sunsets, and kind of done a lot of nothing.

We are heading home today, but are well rested and ready to face the world! Or at least University of South Alabama and UAB.

Have I mentioned how much I love Spring Break?

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!