5 Feet of Snow

The consensus from a previous post about how much snow we had on that Colorado Spring Break Service Trip, was about 5 feet.
That's a lot of snow! For short people, that's not good!

It's Not About the Rules

Here are some sweet verses:
"Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren't perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivilous. If I was "trying to be good," I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.
What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine", but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily." --galatians 2:17-21

Happy 10th B-Day Jack!

Today is my nephew Jack's b-day. He is 10 now!! Double Digits!!
I called earlier today to wish him a happy birthday and he was so excited! He was telling me all about school and how the teacher made him get up on a chair and do crazy dances in front of the class!! He said his cheeks got red!
My sister said the other day he asked her if I was going to come to his birthday party. :( That made me kind of sad! I miss him and the other kids so much!
Here are a few pics that I have of Jack!

This is when Lily was born a year ago! He is a good big brother!

He's so handsome!

Playing baseball!

Before I moved to TX, I made a CD for my family and friends of some songs. Each family got a CD, but I decided since Jack was the oldest and he is into music I thought I would give him his own copy! So turns out he told on me! He told my other sister one day..."I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but after you guys left, when Em gave us her CD before she left, she took me downstairs and gave me my OWN copy of her CD!" And this is the part that I love, he said...."So now I listen to her singing on the CD player that she gave me and then I don't miss her so much cause it's like she is right here!"
Stinker, but so cute!

New Look!

Hey there friends! I decided to give my blog a new look!
Hope you like it!

Carharts are Cool!

Here are some random pictures that my friend AJ sent to me from our Colorado spring break service trip several years ago. We worked on different projects throughout the week at a christian camp. Here is a picture of Mich, me and AJ in front of our siding project.

Here is a picture of me using a nail gun! Power!

That year we got about 3-4 feet of snow, maybe more I can't remember.
(Anyone remember how many inches or feet we got that year!?)
Here is a picture of Mich and AJ jumping from the roof into a huge pile of snow!!

I love this picture because I had completely forgotten about Brandon and his tight carharts! I don't know if you can get the whole affect, but they were way too small for him!
He wore them anyway! It was so funny!

Oh yeah! Carharts are the coolest thing ever! I'm a dork!

50 lbs weight gain

Here I am enjoying a BBQ pork sandwich at the football game. My FAVORITE!!It was kinda messy!

Okay here is a picture of my new favorite thing! AMY's Ice Cream! It is amazing! It is like Coldstone but SOOO much better. Seriously! I can't stop eating it!

If I keep eating like this I'm going to gain 50 lbs in a week! It's just so good! Chocolate chip cookie dough with m&m's. Delicious!

Go Westlake!

Here is precious Holland!
Connor and Soren are on football teams and we went to watch them play on Saturday and Holland had her cheerleading outfit on and was so cute!
She was trying on my sunglasses.
So sweet!

Stage Diving into the Bushes

Last Saturday night we went to a Tex Mex Restaurant and Soren and Conner decided to stage dive into the bushes in front of the restaurant.

After George and the kids got home Connor started screaming that something had bitten him on the neck...a little bit later he screamed again and had this thing in his hand and said, "This is what bit me!!"


Check out that stinger!! So stage diving into the bushes probably wasn't the coolest idea after all!

Waiting for the Summit...

Change of plans. It seems like that happens a lot in life. I can remember numerous times in my life where I think I know what's going on and then all of a sudden God does something to shake it all up.
It may be another way that God gets us out of our comfort zone.
I found out tonight that the family I was going to nanny for decided not to go that route for childcare. They were calculating and calculating and realized that they really could not afford it.
I was shocked and surprised and disappointed. I had it set in my mind that this was what it was going to be. This was how much I would be making, this is how I was going to spend my days. Now God has shaken things up.
I don't have a job, my money is running out, I don't know what my income will be so I don't know where to even live because I don't know what I will be able to afford.
I'm out of my comfort zone again.
After receiving this email from the family tonight(today)I lay awake in my bed crying. #1 because I'm tired, #2 because I am now jobless...again, #3 I have been put back into the lovely place of the unknown.
I really am excited, underneath the tears. I have been in this place MANY times. You would think I would know how to handle myself. I find myself once again crying, once again questioning what God is doing, once again fearing, once again doubting, once again feeling hopeless.
It's this stage that I don't really like, but I know is most important. It's the stage that is humbling, refining, it's the stage that puts me in my place and puts God back in His place. Somewhere in this process I have taken God and put Him in this box that I have and that I keep bringing out.
He has His ways of breaking through, and that is usually when He takes me out of my comfort zone and into this process of refinement.
I'm praying BIG. That He would give me a story to tell. That He would receive glory, but not just any glory. But the glory due His name and glory that will reflect His bigness and my smallness.
Here is a precious quote from a man that I admire and who has taught me so much about life, he wrote this in an email to me..."keep following God, He will not lead down a wrong path even though it may be very rough, steep, painful, the summit will be awesome!" Yes indeed! The summit will be amazing and I WILL take pictures!

Some verses:
"You have kept track of my every toss and turn through the sleepless nights, each tear entered in your ledger, each ache written in your book." -Psalm 56:8 (msg)

"But Zion [Jerusalem, her people as seen in captivity] said, The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. [And the Lord answered] Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of my hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me." --Isaiah 49:14-17 (amp)

"The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain, and the presses will overflow with wine and olive oil. The Lord says, "I will give you back what you lost to the stripping locusts, the cutting locusts, the swarming locusts, and the hopping locusts. It was I who sent this great destroying army against you. Once again you will have all the food you want, and you will praise the Lord your God, who does these miracles for you. Never again will my people be disgraced like this." --Joel 2:24-26 (nlt)

God knows what He's doing. He is all knowing, all seeing. I'm on His hand, marked and scarred. He will provide and work His miracles so that His name will be known!

"Fire Fall Down"

Tonight at church we sang a great song from Hillsongs United called "Fire Fall Down"

"You bought my life with the
Blood that You shed on the cross
When You died for the sins of men
And You let out a cry
Crucified now alive in me

These hands are Yours
Teach them to serve as You please
And I'll reach out desperate to see
All the greatness of God
May my soul rest assured in You

I'll never be the same
No I'll never be the same

Cause I know that You're alive
You came to fix my broken life
And I'll sing to glorify
Your Holy Name
Jesus Christ

You changed it all
You broke down the wall
When I spoke and confessed
In You I'm blessed
Now I walk in the light
In victorious sight of You

Your fire fall down
Fire fall down
On us we pray
As we seek

Show me Your heart
Show me Your way
Show me Your glory"

It was such a powerful night of worship and prayer. What a dangerous prayer to pray "Your fire fall down, fire fall down on us we pray." God sending His fire down to refine us in such an intense way. You can't help but be changed by that fire. What a glorious fire it is! Making us more in His likeness!

Penguins Have Invaded

Another way someone is "keeping Austin weird" !!
Here are a bunch of penguins that are ouside of this building and it's right on the corner of a busy intersection. Usually they have pink flamingos, now they have switched it over to penguins!
Do these penguins remind you of something Shadley!?! Clue: "What kind of animal am I?"!

"Vacation" (unemployment) will soon be over!!!!!!

So as of this morning...I have a job!!!!
I am going to be a nanny!! I had an interview this morning with the family and right away we clicked! They are christians and they have two very sweet kids, a 3 year old and an 18 month old!
Right after the interview I heard back from my contact person at the agency I'm working for and she told me they wanted to offer me the position. Literally 5 minutes from when I left the house!!
God was truly amazing in how well we connected and our conversations! I'm so excited! Although my vacation will soon come to an end. My sister Laura told me this morning, before I told her the news, that she had a dream that I accepted a nanny position and then quit the next day because I liked vacation too much!!! Isn't' that hilarious!!
I hope that is not the case!!

Cash

I just read this article by Ted Olsen from Christianity Today on Johnny Cash, what an amazing life story!! I wanted to share it with you:

"How did the coolest man in the music industry become that way while singing about Jesus and the cross?
The most obvious answer is that Cash was nothing if not authentic. "I believe what I say, but that don't necessarily make me right," he told Rolling Stone in 2000. "There's nothing hypocritical about it. There is a spiritual side to me that goes real deep, but I confess right up front that I'm the biggest sinner of them all." (This "chief among sinners" attitude is what drew him to the Apostle Paul, about whom he wrote the novel The Man in White in 1986.)
The attitude was encouraged by one of his best friends, Billy Graham, who advised him to keep singing "Folsom Prison Blues" and his other outlaw tunes with the gospel songs. "Don't apologize for who you are and what you've done in the past," he told Cash, who was ten considering becoming a full-time evangelist. "Be who you are and do what you do."
Cash had integrity in the moral sense, certainly. Once sober, he made up concerts that he'd skipped or fudged during his amphetamine binges, for example. But Cash had integrity in the sense of being a whole. In his liner notes for American Recordings, Cash lists 32 subjects he loves in songs, from railroads and whiskey to Mother and larceny. But in all these songs he was really singing about one thing: the connection between sin and redemption. He saw that on either side of sin was enjoyment and death, and that on either side of redemption was Death and Enjoyment.
Cash never denied the pleasure of sin, and many songs reflect that pleasure honestly-but unlike those in other outlaw tunes, the subjects of Cash's songs rarely sin without consequences. "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die,' regretfully sings the blue man in Folsom Prison. "I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down," sings the prisoner of "Cocaine Blues."
Even Cash's love songs carry the theme: In "I Walk the Line," he worries about his own infidelity. In "Jackson", he tries to cover it up. "Ring of Fire", written by June Carter Cash an sung by Johnny while the two were flirting but married to others, carries unsubtle references to damnation.
But for Cash, the worst consequence of sin wasn't what happened to the sinner. Nowhere is this clearer than in the final moments of the MTV award-nominated "Hurt" video, where the lyrics "I will let you down/I will make you hurt" are illustrated with Christ's crucifixion.

In a 2000 interview with Rolling Stone, Cash compared drugs' spiritual consequences with their physical and emotional devastation: "To put myself in such a low state that I couldn't communicate with God, there's no lonelier place to be. I was separated from God, and I wasn't even trying to call on him. I knew that there was no line of communication."
Though he'd professed Christ at age 12, Cash wrote that by 1967, "there was nothing left of me...I had drifted so far away from God and every stabilizing force in my life that I hfelt there was no hope." He decided to crawl into Nickajack Cave on the Tennessee River, get lost, and die. "The absolute lack of light was appropriate," he wrote. "My separation from Him, the deepest and most ravaging of the various kinds of loneliness I'd felt over the years, seemed finally complete.
"It wasn't. I thought I'd left Him, but He hadn't left me. I felt something very powerful start to happen to me, a sensation of utter peace, clarity, and sobriety...Then my mind started focusing on God. He didn't speak to me-He never has, and I'll be surprised if He ever does-but...I became conscious of a very clear, simple idea: I was not in charge of my own destiny. I was not in charge of my own death."
He found his way out of the cave, determined to get clean and sober. He made a good start, and he's been honest about the slips and relapses along the way-and not just with drugs. "They just kind of hold their distance," he told Rolling Stone. "I could invited them in: the sex demon, the drug demon. But I don't. They're very sinister. You got to watch 'em. They'll sneak up on you. All of a suden there'll be a beautiful little Percodan laying there, and you'll want it."
"The connection with God makes it all worth it, he said: "The greatest joy of my life was that I no longer felt separated from Him. Now He is my Counselor, my Rock of Ages to stand upon."
Cash, many obituaries suggested, seemed obsessed with death. It was something he denied, "I am not obsessed with death; I'm obsessed with living," he said in 1994. "The battle against the dark one and the clinging to the right one is what my life is about."
Living, he knew, was death to self. His favorite verse, he often said, was Romans 8:13 "For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live."
A paradox? Not to Cash, who encountered death shortly before accepting an altar call. His brother Jack, two years his senior, fell on a table saw, cut from ribs to groin. "Mama, don't cry over me," he said, as Johnny and the rest of the family stood by. "I was going down a river, and there was a fire on one side and heaven on the other. I was crying, 'God, I'm supposed to go to heaven. Don't you remember? Don't take me to the fire.' All of a sudden, I turned, and now, Mama, can you hear the angels singing?"
She said that she couldn't, and Jack squeezed her hand.
"Oh, mama, I wish you could hear the angels singing," he said, and died.
Like Christ, Cash felt no shame or theological dissonance at crying in the face of death. But make no mistak: he never forgot the joy waiting on the other side.
Now, on the other side of the river, the Man in Black wears glorious white, reunited with his brother and face-to-face with his Lord."

Knock Knock joke

Holland absolutely LOVES Johnny Cash and June Carter! She has these princess plastic shoes but they aren't princess shoes they are June Carter shoes!! She knows the songs and sings them all the time, it's really cute. She has a knock knock joke that she likes to do..
"Knock Knock"
"Who's there?"
"Johnny Cash"
"Johnny Cash who?"
"JUNE CARTER!!!"
then she laughs really hard!
Yeah, it doesn't makes sense, but she's 3 and it's so cute!!

Elvis does Tex-Mex

This post is dedicated to Kinsey who is bored at work and would like something fun to read about!
(sorry Kins, that this didn't get to you yesterday!)
Hilary and I were craving some good Tex-Mex and it was suggested to us to check out a great place called Chuy's. It was a fun little Tex-Mex diner.
We walked in and it was so random, there were Elvis' all over the place!! I think it's a sign!! (check out my previous posts!) Just kidding! So when they first opened there was a hole in the wall and they put up this big poster thing over the hole and it was a picture of Stevie Wonder. Then they replaced it with a picture of Elvis. (random I know!) People kept commenting when they would come in to eat that they loved the picture and one thing lead to another and pretty soon people started bringing in all of this Elvis stuff to contribute to the restaurant! So now it is filled with tons of Elvis stuff. On his birthday they bring in an Elvis interpreter (!!) and they also serve fried twinkies, which was one of his favorites.
This little shrine was in the walkway into the place!

I thought this was interesting, this was underneath the statue of his head that says Elvis LivesHere are some more random Elvis things that I saw...

There were also some random Dr. Suess pinatas hanging from the ceiling! It was great, definitely a place to go when y'all come and visit!!

Johnny Cash - Hurt

I watched Walk the Line for the first time today. It is such a GREAT movie!! I also watched this music video that Johnny Cash did just before he died. It is so moving and so powerful. I know that he is rockin' out in heaven!

Arise and Be Comforted

Tonight the Lord healed parts of my heart using this song:

"Arise and be comforted
For the Lord, He is good to the weary
And even the young heart can tire and fall
But He knows them all
For the Lord, He will renew their strength
And they will soar on wings as eagles
And they will run and never grow weary
They will walk and not grow faint
For the Lord, He is good

Lift your eyes to the heavens
For the creator is living in you
Come surrender as you are
And know that you'll never stray too far
Let His power within you heal your heart
Lift your eyes to spacious skies
Let Him chart your way to flight
Spread your wings and fly
For the Lord, He is good

Isaiah 40:31(amp) "But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in him] shall change and renew their strength and power, they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun] they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint or become tired."

sweet verse

"For this I labor [unto weariness], striving with all the superhuman energy which He so mightily enkindles and works within me."
-Colossians 1:29 (amplified)

Texas sized Cockroach

It has happened!! I had my first encounter with a Texas sized cockroach! I was sitting in the living room and it started crawling out from underneath the entertainment center! I was by myself and I almost ran out of the house. The boys were at school, George was at work, Denise ran Holland to gymnastics, Hilary was at a meeting. I was by myself!! A refrigerator guy was coming in 20 minutes to fix the refrigerator and I debated on whether to wait for him to get there so that he could kill it for me. But then I decided that I needed to suck it up and get after it...after I took a picture of it of course! So I grabbed one of the kids shoes, which didn't seem big enough and whacked it! It was nice that it was on the carpet so the crunch wasn't as bad. But it was still crunchy. Ugh!!
So I did it, I conquered this creature, and hope that I never have to see one again! I'm sure there are bigger ones, but this was big enough for me to think about running out of the house! Or calling in some help!

Happy Anniversary!

Today was George and Denise's anniversary! This last weekend Hilary and I watched the kids so that they could get away to a spa/resort place. It was fun to serve them in this way. We had a fun time with the kids, although they know how to work it since we don't know all of the rules!
One of the highlights of the weekend was playing sardines! They have a good size house, so it was fun to run around in the dark finding hiding places and getting scared!! Holland and I were a team and we hid in the dining room behind these tall drapes. Pretty soon Connor found us and jumped in the curtain with us, and then Hilary found us and jumped behind the next drape down. After about a minute I realized that it was really quiet and that we hadn't heard Soren walking around. Hilary felt something next to her and it was Soren!! So for a good minute or so we were all hiding behind the curtains, thinking that someone was still out there trying to find us!!! We all laughed so hard! It was hilarious!
Another funny moment was as we were driving back from CHICK-FIL-A (!!!) there were these sprinklers on the side of the road that were spraying out into the road. So Hilary pulled up really close next to it and said, "Hey!!! Free Car wash!!!" Soren yells out from the backseat, "Redneck car wash!" It was so funny!!! I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff, he is 9!

A little more serious than my other posts....

Tonight at church Chris sang a new song from his new CD called "How Can I Keep From Singing?" He and Matt Redman worked together on this old hymn and came up with a sweet version. Tonight it hit me as I was worshipping during this song, that lately I have had a wall up in my life. There was a point in the song that talked about shouting out, that being filled with the Holy Spirit will make you shout out to Him, and sing to Him and give Him praises! That no matter what the circumstances, keep singing. When you see all that God is and what He has done, how can you not keep from shouting and singing!
I realized tonight that I have felt like this wall has kept me back from shouting out and singing. I desire to be filled so full with the Spirit that I can't help but shout! I feel like I haven't felt that in awhile. I miss singing and using my gift to lead others in worship. Tonight as we were singing about no matter what the circumstances are keep singing, I just kept thinking, "Lord you don't want me to stop singing, there will be a day when I will be singing at your throne and it will be for eternity!" The sweet thing is, is that I am full of the Spirit. When I asked Jesus to take over my life, He gave me His Spirit to take full residency in my body. God is full, there is nothing in Him that is empty or lacking. I have that in me. His Spirit to the full. That should cause me to shout out and sing. But why is it that it's not happening?
Am I just going through a "season"?
I know that since being in Austin, God has been doing amazing things, and I love being a part of it. But also, since being in Austin, my weaknesses and my feelings of being inadequate have crept up on me and are suffocating me. I know that it is not from the Lord. It seems that being in a new place, around new people who I don't know and who don't know who I am, are magnifying all of my weaknesses and are feeding me lies more than God's word and His promises. Tonight at church the Spirit also hit me with the fact that I am being so self-focused in all of this. I need to take my eyes off of myself and put them on Jesus. But it has been overwhelming to have this wall that keeps coming up when I am hit with all of these lies, and it's a wall that keeps telling myself "I CAN'T do this." "I can't talk...I can't make a decision...I can't make waffles...I can't...whatever" It seems like in every little situation this wall comes up and then I shut down. It's weird because I don't feel like I have ever been this way in this intensity. I don't know if it is because everything around me is new or what. I know that it is not from the Lord.
I'm learning so much through this time, and I really think that God is refining me. His Spirit in me is more powerful than any personality flaw I think I may have. His Spirit in me is more powerful than any wall that comes up to keep me from being who God created me to be. His Spirit is full and that fullness is in me. I have to surrender and trust, let it go and breathe in the freedom.
He is great and He is the one that breaks strongholds, He is the one that restores and heals, He is the one that captivates our hearts and puts His love inside.
He is filling me up, and I will be full.

Two new pastimes!

So we have a couple of new pastimes. The Stephens got their boat back from the shop and we went out yesterday on the lake. It was so much fun! They have a double tube that was great! Here is Connor and Soren....

And here is Hilary and I....
Our other pastime is Chick-fil-a!!!

They are everywhere here in Austin, and what is cool is that it is a christian organization (although that means they are closed on Sundays) but they play christian music, so it's been fun to sit and eat in a public place with christian music playing!
Here is my dessert last night and it was amazing! Yes there is a brownie in there!

"That's What it's All About"

Here are some fun pics of the Stephen's Kids!

Soren giving his "word" pose

Miss Holland finishing up her cookie!

Tonight Sally (the dog) knocked Holland down, a major knockdown, and she fell back on the ground. She started crying so I picked her up and hugged her and was comforting her and she cried and cried with tears and everything. I asked her if she needed anything, or if I could do anything to help her and she looked at me and said with tears in her eyes, "The Hokey Pokey"! I asked her if that would make it all better and she said, "yes"! So life lesson:
Do the Hokey Pokey and turn yourself around, you'll feel all better!

Connor after his football practice eating pizza

The kids had their first day of school today and this was Connors homework project. He was supposed to draw pictures that represented his family and what they like to do. He put this ear of corn, with a fro, rocking out on a guitar that looks like a tennis racket,
to represent Hilary and I!!! It was really sweet!

11:11

For those of you who know me well. Check out the time of my last post!
11:11. I ALWAYS look at the clock at 11:11!!! Isn't that weird!?

HOT!

I just checked to see what the temperature is going to be for Friday in Austin.
The temp is going to be 100 degrees, but it's going to feel like 112 degrees!
wow.

Houston, Saudi Arabia, Austin....cowboy?!

One of the highlights of our trip to Houston was meeting up with a couple of Hilary's students from the summer, Ibraheem and Yahya. It was such a fun evening. They made us a traditional Arabic dinner, followed by some traditional Arabic dancing. It was such a wonderful evening. These guys were so sweet and so generous.

Here is a picture of Hussain, he was a quite the character! He would come out of the bedroom each time with a different hat on!
He had two different cowboy hats and also a Davy Crockett hat!!
He was hilarious! He made the Kabsa. (the dish we ate for dinner)
So here he is with his Arabic robe, his cowboy hat, drinking his tea!!

They also treated us to some cake! Before the meal!

Here is the Kabsa. The traditional way of eating it is on the floor. They set up a rug with plastic laid down and they bring out the meal and set it on the floor. You eat on the floor and you use your hands! It was a mixture of rice, chicken and vegetables. It was very good! And it was fun to use your hands, no utensils!

Here we are eating with Ibraheem. I made a mess!

This is Abdul, he was so funny! We had the same hair!!

Yahya and Ibraheem. (the cowboy hat got passed around during the dance!)

At the end of the night they wanted me to sing them a song! So Hilary and I got to sing "Amazing Grace", "Faithful" and "I Cannot Hide My Love". They all got their cell phones out to record us singing! It was funny!
Then they sang a couple of songs to us! It was so precious!
Just before we left they gave us each a rose. They are so sweet!

It was fun to meet new friends, eat new food and learn a new dance! These memories I will cherish!

Trip to Houston

Since Hilary and I are still on "vacation" (unemployed) we decided to take a roadtrip! So Monday evening we took off for Houston. We have a friend that lives there and is getting married this weekend. We are not able to go to the wedding this weekend so we thought we would head over there early in the week to help her with things that still needed to get done and just to spend some good quality time with her and her fiance. It was a great trip and we have lots of stories!!

Here is a view coming into downtown Houston!

The bride and groom!! Nancilea and Matt.It was so great, on Tuesday night we got to pray with Nancilea, Matt and Nancilea's mom. It was such a sweet time of lifting them up to God, praying for their new life together and that their marriage and their ministry together would glorify Jesus. It was a powerful time!

We were originally going to go to Galveston on Wednesday to check out the ocean since we were so close, but then we decided that it would be too much driving and not enough time in the sun. We were also planning on meeting up with a couple of Hilary's students that she taught over the summer who were in Houston visiting family. Random! So we knew we wouldn't have much time.
So, we decided to go to Splash Town instead, a fun waterpark. As we were looking for the hours online we find out that it's CLOSED! So...another option...we would go to their neighborhood pool. Well...come to find out...it's CLOSED!! Sooo....last option...the WAC. Nancilea is an Olympic Contender for diving and the training pool is located in Houston! So she hooked us up by giving us some free passes! It was great to be out in the sun and to jump in and get cooled off. Although I sort of felt like I needed swim a few intense laps instead of doing my little doggie paddle swim. It was great, even though I got FRIED :)! I love being in the sun, even when it is 107 degrees out!! (yes it was that hot!)