Tagged

Two different tags...

1) BOOK
Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your blog along with these instructions.

Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

To Cork or Not to Cork
"Then they dropped that idea and planted new trees in areas where they had never grown before - and wouldn't grow this time either. Almeida Garrett says that inexperienced workers seriously damaged trees through improper harvesting, and some of them today still show the bad effects of the 1970s."

Not my book but Anthony said its pretty good.

2) PICTURE
Post the 6th picture in the 6th file on your computer.

This isn't the most attractive picture in the world but its a fun one. This is from our girls trip to Mexico in July. We were headed to the beach with our matching beach bags in tow. I wish I was at the beach right about now, although this cool weather is GREAT!!

If you haven't done either of these...then I tag YOU!!

Redeeming Love

I just finished a wonderful book last night, Redeeming Love. I know its been around for a while but I just got around to reading it. I had heard that it was a wonderful book, and I must agree. For those of you who haven't read it, it is a must read!

Even though this is a fiction book there were still life lessons to take away from it. Throughout reading Redeeming Love, I am reminded of God's love and how much He wants to be a part of our lives. There is nothing we can do to change that; no matter how much we screw up in life. It is comforting to know that we have a God whose love is unchanging and who longs to be a part of our lives. I was also amazed by the love Michael showed his wife, and I hope and pray that I can show my spouse unconditional love every day. What a great thing to be reminded of! Today I'm thankful I have a wonderful husband who is my best friend and loves me, and I'm thankful for a God who desires a relationship with me, won't ever give up on me and loves me unconditionally.

I'm in need of a book recommendation so for all you readers out there, send some my way.

what REALLY matters...

Yesterday was a big day for us...our furniture was delivered!! It was so fun to see the furniture we custom picked out and to actually have real, big people furniture is a new thing for us. Since we've been married, we've been using stuff we had from college (or earlier), hand-me-down stuff from our parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles/etc. or stuff we put together ourselves--its been great to us for the last 4 years+, but its time to replace most of it and pass our used things on to someone else. Our living/kitchen area is almost complete--still waiting on our coffee table and tv. Once we have everything mounted to the walls, I will post some pictures. This is the first time since we've been married that both Anthony and I can relax on the SAME sofa comfortably!! For those of you who experienced our old couch, you know how uncomfortable it was...no worries, now we have a comfortable place for you to sit when you come over!

As fun and exciting as it was to have our furniture delivered yesterday, I've been thinking a lot lately about what truly is important in life...and I realize its not whether or not you have new furniture that all coordinates or if you live with a plastic crate as your tv stand that matters. What matters in life, in my opinion, is simple. Its not things but people that matter. What we do for other people and how we treat them is important; showing them Jesus' love in everything we do, matters.

I have always loved going on mission trips and visiting other countries where life is very different than the US. I'm so thankful to have parents who always encouraged me to go on these trips, and I've been blessed by the experiences I've had on these trips--Honduras, Mexico, Trinidad, and since visiting here, have always had a special place in my heart for these places and would like to do more.

Our church supports a lot of great ministries...one in particular, Predisan, an organization that focuses on improving the lives of Hondurans. To these people, clean water matters. We all know that you need water to survive, and when we get sick we call our doctor and get medicine to help us feel better. These people in Honduras don't always have clean water to drink, which means they need medical attention...however, they don't have the ability to call a doctor and get the kind of treatment we get here. So, they are forced to live feeling bad and uncomfortable. Predisan is focused on bringing medical care and clean water to people who live in these Honduran villages. Like anything in life, nothing is free, so they also have to raise money to deliver these things that matter. For those of you who live in the DFW area, come join us tomorrow morning at the Katy Trail and walk for these Honduran people. For more information about Predisan go to http://predisan.org/. I'm excited about participating in this walk and I hope we have a good turn out--the more people who participate, the more clean water these people will have.

Helping better the lives of these Hondurans matters, and even though I'm only one walker, all of us together will get to help people less fortunate than us. I take having clean water for granted; every day I take a shower and expect the water that comes out of the faucet to be clear. I can wash my hands anytime I want, and when I'm thirsty I can fill my cup with water and satisfy my need. When I try to imagine my life without water, its almost impossible for me to do, but this is reality for millions of people around the world. I need to do my part; helping people less fortunate than me, matters.

trip to California

Pictures from our vacation for San Fran/Sonoma
In August, we went to CA for 10 days and had a wonderful time. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market in San Fran
If I lived here, I would definitely go here every Saturday morning and get my groceries. So many fresh, wonderful fruits & veggies...I saw a purple bell pepper for the first time! We went to an Oakland A's game...they happened to be playing the Chicago White Sox so we got to cheer for our team!

Rob, Tina & Tara were in SF for Kristen Backor's wedding so we go to see them a few times. We had a wonderful time at the wedding--it was beautiful (at a winery in Sonoma). If I was getting married again, I think I'd do something like this!!

On our way to wine country!! This year, we spent a few days in SF, then went to Sonoma for 4 days, then spent the last few days in SF. Jordan and Kelci Brock came with us again and of course, we had a wonderful time. We stayed in the same B&B that we did last year and had a great, relaxing time there. The owners definitely spoil their guests!

Dinner at ZIN...one of our favorite places in Healdsburg, CA

Jordan winery

Hawk winery

our B&B The Honor Mansion

view of vinyards

back in SF...Giants game

dinner with the Brocks in North Beach (Italian neighborhood)

Outside Lands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park. We love listening to live music and Anthony is always finding concerts or music festivals for us to go to when we're on vacation. This was a lot of fun...however, it was quite chilly!

This part of the country is one of our favorites and we can't wait to go back--hopefully we'll get to go in 2009! Posting all these pictures of our vacation definitely makes we want another one...too bad its the middle of the school year and won't be for a while.

FINALLY!!!

I couldn't get this picture to move down where it should go...oh well! I just thought it was so cute of all the kiddos...5 of the 7 nieces and nephews. I'm a very proud aunt!

Well, it has been over a month since I've posted. We finally have internet up and running at our house along with our computer, so I have finally been able to upload my 357 pictures that have been on my camera since July! I'm not going to write about everything we've been up to over the last few months because we have been so busy, but I did promise I'd post pictures, so that's what I'll do for now. Pictures from our San Fran/Sonoma trip will have to wait for another day because there are too many other pictures to post for now.

our front door to our new home

the kitchen

the view from our roof-top patio

living room

I will post more pictures of our house soon...we should be getting our living & kitchen furniture in a few weeks, so once its in, I'll take pictures of the almost finished product. The bedroom furniture is still a work in progress so pictures of that will have to come later.

September was the month of celebrating for us. We went to Houston for my Dad's 60th birthday party, went to New Orleans for a wedding, had a wedding here in Dallas and went to Austin for the Austin City Limits Music Festival. It has been so fun traveling all over the place and enjoying seeing family and friends but I was thankful to be home this weekend. I've never been so excited to clean!

My whole family--all 17 of us at my Dad's party
John & Lindsay's wedding
Anthony and John met freshman year at ACU and have been great friends ever since. Kevin came down for the wedding and stayed with us; it was great to hang out with him and see lots of old friends at the wedding.
We flew to New Orleans one weekend for another wedding and had a wonderful time. The food was fabulous and the wedding was adsolutely beautiful. We had so much fun dancing all night at the reception. If you've never been to N.O., its worth a trip just for these...It was so windy the first day we were there because of hurricane Ike. Check out Anthony's hair!!
I loved walking around the French Quarter and looking at all the old houses and restaurants.

We walked around the Garden District and saw lots of old mansions. The picture above is the house Peyton and Eli Manning grew up. I believe the parents still live here.
We had brunch on Sunday morning at Commander's Palace and it was wonderful. N.O. is such a food town, so we tried to take advantage of eating and drinking as much as we could!John Goodman's house above
and of course...another picture of us eating out!!I know I've been bad about blogging and I'm not sure I even have any readers left. I really am going to try and be more diligent about posting more often. Pictures from CA to come soon.

We still don't have internet hooked up at our house so unfortunately, I still can't post pictures. I think I'll resort to going to CVS, making a CD, then uploading them at work. Work has been super crazy that I haven't had time to do anything else internet while I'm here...except for now :) We had a WONDERFUL trip to San Fran & Sonoma, and it was so hard to come back! It was so relaxing and a great time spent with our great friends, the Brocks. We absolutely LOVE this part of the country--the weather is perfect year-round, SF is such a fun city with lots going on and you're only an hour from the wine country! No wonder it's so expensive to live here!! We still haven't given up hope that we might be able to live in SF one day. It was great to be back in a city that is pedestrian-friendly and has a public transportation system that people actually take advantage of, and it made me realize even more that I am most definitely a city girl. Dallas has been good to us, but we'll see where we live in the future. Now we're trying to figure out when we can go to Chicago. We want to get up there before it gets freezing cold but who knows.

We went to a wedding in Sonoma while we were there and it was so beautiful. I've never been to a wedding held at a winery. The wedding was outside (just stunning scenery) and the reception was held inside the cellar room. It was great fun and nice to see old friends!

Things with our house are about the same; pretty much as settled as we can be without having much furniture to put things in. We are still waiting on our living & kitchen furniture to arrive (still have another 2 months) and need to get walls painted, etc. I think we finally decided on which color green to paint in the living area...Asparagus...which the name probably doesn't mean much to any of you but thought I'd share anyway.

I'm going to do my best to post pictures soon and stay more up-to-date on blogging.

life

Things have been crazy around here and we still don't have internet at home so I can't post pictures of our new place. I have taken pictures of it empty so once we get our internet hooked up, I'll post some. We've started ordering furniture, and its still going to be a few months before we have most of our living room stuff. We are really enjoying our new place and have already had a few over-nite guests. We are pretty much unpacked so that is a good feeling, but most of our books are still in boxes because we don't have our storage units yet. We're getting there though.

My new job is going well but is keeping me very busy. I am learning a lot and now that school is about to start, things around the office are picking up. It's been a little stressful and I'm ready for a vacation! In fact, Anthony and I leave Friday for San Francisco. We are there for a few days (going to Kristen Backor's wedding) then heading up to Sonoma for 3 nights, then back to San Fran for another 4 nights. We come back on Sunday, the 24th, and I cannot wait. It will be a nice getaway for us both since we've both been working a lot recently. I will post all about our trip and pictures once we get back. We went here last year and absolutely loved it, so we decided to go back again this summer. We hope to get up to Chicago at some point but probably not until October or November. Our good friends, Jordan and Kelci Brock, are joining us again for our vacation.

Once things settle down, I hope to do better at this blogging thing.