early morning

Good Morning!

I woke up at 6am this morning...and only pressed snooze once. My thoughts this morning are on...


Grace


"your worst days are never so bad that you

are beyond the reach of God's grace. And you best

days are never so good you are beyond

the need of God's grace."

-Jerry Bridges





A gift we will never truly deserve but we receive everday nonetheless.

Pumpkins

The pumpkins we carved...

(and Ellie's favorite infamous joke)

Why were are the basketball players holding their noses?...
Because they...

A good weekend.

Monday morning is here again. Thankfully I got a good 7 hours of sleep so crawling out of bed wasn't too difficult. A recap on the past weekend....

FrIdAy: Ben Folds Concert! It was a fun night. I big group of us went which made it even more great. We finished up the night with some games at our place.

SaTuRdAy: Slept in......perfect. Then, went to lunch with Bekah and Ellie to visit Ben at work. He gave us free ice cream. Then we traveled to the thrift store and bought a random selection of books, christmas ornaments and glassware. Next we traveled to walmart to pick up pumkins for everyone to carve that night. I think we ended up buying 8 of them. We had to dig to the bottom of the bins to get the good ones with stem still intact. We also managed to buy a lot of food for the night. The menu included Pizza, Spinach and artichoke dip, pumpkin bars, candy corn, and roasted pumpkin seeds. Needless to say we didn't starve. We carved our pumpkins and then finished off the night with the movie "What Lies Beneath". Good stuff :)

Sunday: Went to church with everyone and then made our way to subway for lunch. Then a little cleaning, homework, and baking of banana bread before some girls games over for Women's Time.

Overall, it was a great weekend. I haven't been here for a full weekend in awhile. It's nice to stick around and relax. Now off to work!

Lee & Sara

My roommate asked me to take some engagement pictures for her and her soon to be husband Lee this past summer. It was my first try at engagement photographs. We had a fun day! Thanks Sara (and Lee) for being so patient with me as I learned on the go. I can't wait for your wedding next month :)

Flowers

I have homework I could be doing right now, but I haven't really done that much wedding planning this last month besides having our engagement pictures taken. This being said, I decided to take up a little of my Saturday afternoon with some wedding details. I change my mind on a weekly basis about flowers and other little details. Like I mentioned in an earler post, I love the red poppies, but I love the blues and greens as well. These pictures are all random boquets that I like different aspects of. Next week I will probably like something different. Which is why planning these types of things so early seems pointless. The more time I have to change my mind the more likely I will do it regularly. I am glad that at least all the major plans are confirmed....

1.) The ceremony and reception site

2.) Caterer

3.) Photographer

4.) DJ

5.) Groomsman and Bridesmaids

We still need to do a lot, but I am enjoying the planning. I love planning a small dinner party with friends so planning such a big event is great. I am forcing myself to be very organized througout the process. So far so good :)

I am trying to be very patient while waiting for our engagement photographs....They said it will take a couple weeks maybe. It will be one week tomorrow. So I wait. Meanwhile checking their blog everyday. Once I get those photos I can start with the Save the Dates. Which will require a lot of writing with all the addresses. I would like to get those sent out before Christmas. That used to seem so far away, but now it's really only two months. My roommate Sara is getting married on Novemeber 27th and that is coming up quick! I have loved being able to hear about her wedding plans. She has also been great for me to bounce ideas off of as well. It's a blessing to have a roommate going through the same process. I am so excited for her wedding and marriage, but I will also miss her dearly when she moves out. Ok well off to a lunch date with Ellie and Bekah! We are going to visit Ben @ work and then go find some pumpkins to carve. I will post the results!

A video before bed....

This video always makes me smile....Thinking about Jack Johnson makes me realize that summer is gone. Why? because Jack Johnson falls into my "summer music" catagory and rarely does he make it to my winter playlists.

Thursday

Thursdays are so much better than Tuesdays. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are pretty much identical. I have all my classes on these days. The thing is, Thursdays are so much more enjoyable because I know that the weekend is so close. As I sit in an hour long lecture I can think about what I need to get done over the weekend, how I can sleep in on Saturday, how nice it will be to go to church on Sunday with my friends, etc. And on Thursdays it doesn't even it matter if homework is assigned because it wouldn't be due until Tuesday anyway. That's a long time to procrastinate between Thursdays and Tuesdays. Well there is my try at being deep for the day, ha.

Lately I have loved looking at photographers' blogs. Most of them are across the country, but it is so interesting to see their work. I have been considering buying Photoshop. I realize that my work is far below that of professionals, but I think I would enjoy playing around with it. It's not too expensive, but it is more than I usually spend on an editing program.

On another note. I am searching for flowers for the wedding. I can't help but love these red poppies. But, my colors don't exactly include red. I had to post this picture anyway for some type of inspiration to get the same style but in our color scheme.I am so glad God made such beautiful things. Hmmmm...

quiet mornings

I woke up a little early this morning for work. If I have a few minutes to relax in the morning the entire day seems to go by less frantic. Just me, a cup of coffee, toast with raspberry preserves. Perfect. I need mornings like this to get me through a 10 hour day with two year-olds. Don't get me wrong, I love the kids, but days always have their stressful moments. Usually they occur about the entire hour before nap. The kids are crabby and ready for nap, and it's all you can do just to get to nap time. Then you take a deep breath and listen to lullabies while rubbing backs. Patience is rebuilt during nap time, and trust me- Patience is a must. I am going to miss my kids so incredibly much when this semester is over. It will be a new experience not working there during school. Yes it's not the most carefree college job, but I've grown to love it. There is always something to make you laugh or smile most days. Even on the crazy days in toddler land, I still love to sit down and play with the kids. Back to my coffee and quiet time. '

To the Cities we go...for Pictures!

Going home to Ben's house this weekend. We are taking our engagement photos on Sunday! It should be fun, but interesting to be on the other side of the lense. I get so used to taking the pictures that I'm not sure how comfortable I am in front of the lense. Oh well :) Should be a good day. The weather is supposed to cooperate I believe! There is only one thing standing in our way. My left eye. It's pinkish...but according to the doctor, it is not pink-eye. I am trusting that he knows what he is talking about. This happened before on my birthday last year. (I guess my eyes like to rebel on non-ordinary days). I'm hoping some eye drops, cool rags, and a few days will bring it back to it's usually color. If not, hopefully the photographers have some good editing skills, haha. I'm not going to worry about it too much yet. Maybe it's just allergies or something. Worse case we can reschedule the photos and just enjoy the weekend with Ben's family. Well I better get to bed since working @ 6:45 is looming closer and closer. I have given up on getting eight hours of sleep on thursday nights. It just doesn't happen, so why force it?

"Everything" Tim Hughes

Just got back from a Spirit-filled weekend :) Retreats are such a refreshing experience. The weather was pretty cold and brisk, but that didn't keep us from having fun together. It is hard to believe that the first time I went to the fall retreat was three years ago. It makes me feel a little old, but all the while blessed to be given the opportunity to year after year. Most of the sessions dealt with how God isn't looking to improve our lives, but instead he wants to transform them completely. Jesus is our substitution atonement. A payment had to be made for our sin and Jesus made the payment for us. There is no "sin calculator" that will tally up our sins when we reach the end of our lives. There is no score you must pass to get to heaven. All because Jesus Christ died for every sin we will ever commit. The gift of salvation is ours if we ask for it. Basically we have two options. First, we can self atone which will ultimately mean n life separated from God. The second option however, is to Jesus-atone. He has already taken the hit for us. Each one of us has the choice to accept him or reject him. We also talked about idols, and how each one of us, we are our own biggest idol. Moment by moment we will take care of ourselves and worship ourselves. There will be times we will follow the Lord, and times that we fall away from him. The amazing thing is though, God will breathe life into us.

Ezekiel 37
The Valley of Dry Bones
1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

(we can be spiritually dry just like the bones. Alone they will remain dry, but with the breath of God they can be restored)

4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "

(We can be "bone-tired", weary, and dead spiritually...But Jesus can change all of that. We were given the Holy Spirit so that God was always with us. We were never supposed to always have Jesus here with us physically. You cannot be a Christian without the Holy Spirit. We were never meant to do it alone!)

This was only a small picture of things we learned this weekend. As much as it was spiritually filling, the sleep side of it was less fufilling :) It's always too hard to make yourself go to bed when everyone else is up having fun. Thankfully I have only a half day of work tomorrow and then no school tuesday. Rest is good.

Topics of Discussion (in my head)

Good Morning :)

Topic 1:The more and more I look at engagement pictures the more I realize that I want to wear a skirt or a dress for one of the outfits. The things is...it's not warm anymore. So, I would have to wear a more "fall'ish" dress/skirt...which I don't own many of. Hmmmm.....Maybe I will change my mind in a couple days but for now I would like to find a nice skirted option. It's difficult to find an outfit that I won't look back at in a year and be like "ugh, why?" haha. Oh well I guess that is bound to happen anyway. I usually just wake up and put something on, so to plan a single day's outfit this much is ridiculous!

Topic 2: For school I have to read a number of novels and textbooks. This has become very annoying for me because while I pour over books that I have no desire in, there are stacks of books waiting to be read on the bookshelf. Books that I actually want to read. School seems to take away all my ambition and free time to read for the enjoyment of it.

Topic 3: I have a few photographs to upload from this weekend. I am purposely holding myself back from putting them up however....because I will want to edit them etc, and before I know it I will have spent an hour on this blog instead of studying for my test today. Patience :)

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas...

what?

yep. chance of snow on sunday.

What happened to autumn?

rain.

Its been raining for most of the day, and most of my time was spent in the classroom. Now I'm free from listening for awhile to teachers talk. I'm thinking a nap is in order. What is better then a nice afternoon nap on a rainy day? The test went well today, when the question came up about what Contantinople is called today I had to laugh a little to myself. My academic week is done, just one more day of work to finish off the week. Then (sigh) it's the weekend. I plan on going to the family cabin this weekend to help take out the dock and boat lifts. Hopefully it won't be too cold, and I hope that I'm not the one in waders while standing in the cold lake. I am going to bring my Nikon with so hopefully I will be able to take some great fall shots. Weather cooperating of course. Either way it will be a cozy weekend curled up with my homework, camera, coffee, and scrapbooking stuff. I think we all need a weekend to make us slow down sometimes, but for now an afternoon nap will do.

"Istanbul not Constantinople"

Studying for Byzantium test still....was a mildly productive day. Worked 7:30 to 6....and then had a nice dinner with a friend. I attempted to study at Bekah and Ellie's tonight but that didn't go so well. Way too many distractions, but entertaining always. "Homework Parties" are my weakness.

Ane now a little inspiration for my test tomorrow.... and just in case you didn't know it...BEFORE Constantinople it was Byzantium. Constantine felt a need to create a new Rome with his name included.