summer rewind #2...sisterhood

Before I post about the present, I thought I'd play a little bit of catch-up...

ScrapMania!

All of you scrappers out there....LISTEN UP! This is the way to do it.

Back in July, Jacquie, Lauren, Emily, and I headed up to Oklahoma City with one goal, to SCRAP our hearts out! Dean and Dorothy, Jacquie's in-laws were very sweet and let us take over their house for the weekend and scrap to our heart's content. Our husbands thought we might get tired of scrapping, but we did not! It was a marathon and it was so much FUN!

Keith used to suggest I scrapbook for a couple of hours here and there while he watched a ball game, but by the time I drag everything out and get organized, the ball game is over and we're ready for bed. Unless you have a crafty room where you can keep everything spread out, and if you do, I'm totally jealous of you :), the scrapmania weekend is the way to do it! These three girls are my new scrap heros!!! After a little time with them, I realized what an amateur I am:)

I was inspired with each of them for a different reason:

Jacquie is "super speedy scrapper," she seriously finished almost 100 pages in one weekend, and they were all cute!

Lauren is "super scrap planner," because of her quantity of creative pictures. She is always prepared with her camera and does lots of fun picture-worthy things!

Emily is "super expert scrapper," because of her creativity and patience in making each page extra special!

They also had cool equipment to share. And, though they were my "scrap heros," they were more than that, all three of them are sweet women who love God, and are working to live out their faith in different ways each day. We enjoyed having time to visit with and encourage one another. Jacquie has been my bff for several years, but I'd never before met Emily, and had mostly only hung out with Lauren in big groups, but the four of us had a great dynamic. So, find a free weekend with some girlfriends (old, new, or some of each) grab your pics, paper, and glue, and scrap away, you will have fun, capture old memories, and make new ones!

Women of Faith

In August, just before school started, I was able to attend Women of Faith in Dallas. If you've never had a chance to attend a WOF conference, and you get the opportunity, you will be blessed. There is something special about being with thousands of women, from all walks of life, and from all different kinds of churches, in one place worshipping God together. For several years now, my mom has organized this trip for a group of women, mostly from her church and community, and even within our group of 30 women, we have such diversity in age and life experiences. I love when a group of people can come together, and with or without prior relationship, have an immediate bond through Jesus. Throughout this weekend, I laughed and cried. I heard testimonies of faith, inspiring stories, incredible singing, and received lots of hugs and encouragement. Women of Faith is something we look forward to every year.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

There's nothing like the most wonderful time of the year right around the corner to motivate a blog slacker like me. I love the holiday season so much! Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away, the weather is getting chillier, and "Christmas in November" is this weekend! If you've been sipping cocoa in your fuzzy socks and making holiday lists, you probably love Christmastime as much as I do, and I'm sure you're already thinking about this year's Christmas card. The very talented Sharon has recently started redbud designs and is giving away a free custom Christmas card design, and it's guaranteed to be super cute:) Leave a Christmasy comment on her design blog and you might just be the lucky winner!

song lyrics

Tenth Avenue North
Love Is Here

come to the waters, you who thirst and you'll thirst no more.
come to the father, you who work and you'll work no more.
and all you who labor in vain and to the broken and shamed:

love is here.
love is now.
love is pouring from
his hands, from his brows.
love is near, it satisfies.
streams of mercy flowing from his side.
cuz love is here.

come to the treasure, you who search and you'll search no more.
come to the lover you who want and you'll want no more, no.
and all you who labor in vain and to the broken and shamed,

yeah:

love is here.
love is now.
love is pouring from his hands, from his brows.
love is near, it satisfies.
streams of mercy flowing from his side.

yeah

and to the bruised and fallen,
captives, bound, and broken hearted.

he is the Lord
he is the Lord,
yeah

by his stripes he's paid our ransom
from his wounds we drink salvation

he is the Lord
he is the Lord

love is here.
love is now.
love is pouring from his hands, from his brows.
love is near,it satisfies.
streams of mercy flowing from his side.
streams of mercy flowing from his side.
cuz love is here
love is here.

Uncle Jamie

My last real grandparent passed away about nine years ago. But Misty and I were blessed with a third set of grandparents in Aunt Marie and Uncle Jamie. They never had any children of their own, but they filled the role of parent and grandparent to many nieces, nephews, friends, and neighbors. Last week we got to say good-bye to Uncle Jamie before he passed away. It was really different from other deaths and funerals that I've been a part of. Uncle Jamie has been ready for a long time. He hasn't been complete since Aunt Marie, his wife of 58 years, died three years ago, so it was all quite peaceful and just felt right. My sweet mama took such good care of grandma and Aunt Marie in their last few years of life, and Uncle Jamie was no different. I have learned so much watching my mom love on and care for elderly people all the while helping them maintain as much dignity as possible. She would take Uncle Jamie to Dairy Queen to get a hamburger and milkshake and sit with him and visit for the hour and a half it took him to eat. Throughout the last couple of years, Uncle Jamie referred to Mama as his best friend. When everyone else was driving him crazy, he knew that she loved him and trusted that she had his best interests in mind. Recently my mom started visiting and befriending people who are in hospice. I love and respect my mom so much and I love her example of loving people like Jesus, without expecting anything in return. This is the kind of love that we are all expected to give as we strive to be Christ's ambassadors. Thank you Mama for your sweet and humble example of love. We're going to miss Uncle Jamie but we're thankful for the full life he lived.

Keith and I with Aunt Marie and Uncle Jamie at our wedding.

Celebrating Uncle Jamie's 90th birthday in June

wordle

summer rewind #1...vacation

As you can see on Keith's arm, the spray on sunscreen is not all it's cracked up to be. We both had blotches of burn after day one at the beach:(

Back in July, Keith and I had a vacation! It. was. so. much. fun. We went to Gulf Shores, Alabama and we LOVED it! Here are a few pictures from our week of fun!

our nice, comfy, relaxing condo!

hanging at the beach!

our camp

big outlet mall!

date nights!

with lots of YUMMY seafood!

deep sea fishing

the serious fisherman...his less-serious fishing buddy got sea sick:(

before

after...we fried Freddy

and grilled Greta.

sporting our souvenir shirts for one last delicious blueberry biscuit at our fave place

If you ever get the opportunity to go on a beach vacation, GO! It was so much fun, so relaxing, so wonderful, we loved it!

Hi Friends!

Hi internet friends!!! I've missed y'all:) I'm excited to be back to blogging! It's taken me a while to catch up on all of your blogs; but I had fun doing it! I just didn't feel right about blogging until I'd read the last couple months on your fabulous blogs! Sorry for the lack of comments!

The end of the summer was busy with a super fun vacation and some home renovations (two reasons I got behind), so I'll have to do some summer rewind posts to catch up, but for now I wanted to show you my new toy! Our desktop was on her last leg (the other reason I got behind), she lived a good life, and I had lots of fun blogging with her, but it was time to say good-bye, so instead of getting another desktop, we decided to get a laptop, and if we were going to get one, I decided it might as well be cute! So, now I'm blogging in style and having lots of fun! It's a pretty purplish-pinkish color with flowers! I can blog in bed, on the couch, at the table, and even in the floor, no more desk for me!

I told you it was cute!

In other news, Keith got a new job! In addition to his job in enrollment marketing at ACU, he is now working part time with spiritual formation and young adults at University Church of Christ. He's been official for a month now. Keith interned there for a couple of years, before preaching at Maryneal, so it's been fun to go back and feel at home. Everyone has been very welcoming, and we're really enjoying getting to know the young adults. We have class with them on Sunday mornings, dinner and fun on Sunday nights, and this week we'll begin visiting home bound members on Wednesday nights. It is a blessing and we are thankful for the opportunities at University.

Finally, I just started my sixth year teaching first grade! It's off to a great start so far! I have a smaller class than usual, only 17 kids, so I'm enjoying that. The kids are really sweet and I'm having fun getting to know them.