My Sister's are Cool.

My sister's are precious! They wrote out 27 things they appreciate about me for my 27th birthday today!
Check it out here...The Brown Boy's also made some amazing videos for me! They are precious!
Laura made a list too with sweet pictures! So sweet! (minus one silly one!)
I love you girls!!! Thank you so much for your words and for making me laugh and cry!
I LOVE sisters!

News Video

Tornadoes

Tornadoes hit Iowa and the midwest yesterday. I know several families who live in Parkersburg and who were affected by this storm.
Please keep them all in your prayers.

Happy Birthday Laura!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!

I'm so thankful for my sisters. They are great. I can't imagine my life without them.
To be goofy and laugh with until we cry...or...pee...over stupid pictures where I don't even look like myself...
How they handle me when I'm being silly, and, I'm sure, annoying....you just keep saying to yourself..."I love her...I really love her...I do..."
And when we can talk on the phone over my lunch break...or breakfast taco runs...I'm thankful for your life sister. Thank you for blessing me over and over again! I love you!
Happy Birthday beautiful!

Rat Update

I realized that I never ended the rat situation.

We've been rat-less for over a month now!!! The workers came in and patched up all of the holes and we had someone come in and deep clean everything! And we actually signed a year lease to stay here. (long story...but cool story)
So we are staying here and we actually feel really good about it! (considering we were living in other peoples homes for a few weeks!)
Some highlights...
A friend sent us the game Mouse Trap and the movie Ratatouille. I just now got enough nerve to watch it!
"The Austin City Tour". Thanks to all of you who opened up your homes to us!
Making a lot of people laugh with the stories and videos.
Learning to be thankful in hard situations.

Hopefully this is the end.

Kite Flying

Melody and I went to Zilker park to fly a kite last week. Random. But fun! Both of us thought for sure we had been kite flying when we were kids, but we had no clue what we were doing!

Here are some pictures:I love Austin!

And Melody does too!

Maria

In Memory of Maria

SCC

Pray for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. They lost their little girl in an accident.
I have always felt a strong connection with SCC, since his concert 11 years ago was where I gave my life to Jesus. My heart hurts for him and his family and the brother who was driving the car. Please, please pray for this family.

My Truck Apparently Had Several "ouchies".

So an interesting thing happened today at work.
Around 3:30pm my co-worker shouts from the conference room window..."Emily! What are those pink things on your truck!?"
I immediately thought, maybe it was debris leftover from the storm...petals from a blooming tree or something.
I said, "WHAT?!"
She said, "You have pink things all over your car!"
Being in an office our immediate thought was "post-it" notes, it looked like post-it notes (from where we were looking on the second floor.)
So I went down to check it out....
Band-Aids, folks.
I got "band-aid-ed"
Pink hello kitty and Barbie band-aids. Stuck all over my truck!
I immediately busted out laughing. It was great!
I was trying to figure out who would do such a thing...Hilary?! I knew she was helping Abdullah move some stuff and the two of them together would do something silly like that...but no. It wasn't them.
The only other person that knows where I work is MELODY!
Sure enough. Melody decided to decorate my truck with pink girly band-aids.
I called her and all I heard was laughing. I KNEW IT!
We just laughed for awhile and then she told me how she was trying to be quick with it and so she stuck them all on her arm and then got out quick and stuck them all around my truck.
Classic! I wish I could have gotten a picture of it!
The ride home was interesting. 2 blew off. But the rest made it!
It was also a little interesting driving home because I had to drive through 2 areas of construction, they had the lane closed off with orange cones, and construction workers were standing all along there, holding a "slow" sign. So here I come with my ghetto truck with pink Hello Kitty/Barbie band-aids stuck to my truck. I just tried not to make eye contact! Just doing my part to "Keep Austin Weird" right?!
Then as I pulled onto my street an old guy was walking down the sidewalk and he just kept looking at me! I kindly waved and kept going! It was great!
Here are some pictures!
It was a little difficult to get the full affect on the pictures. But you get it. HILARIOUS!
Thanks Melody! It made my day!

Tomorrow...

I talked to my sweet Lily Margaret on the phone during my lunch break today. She jabbered a bunch of stuff that I didn't really understand and then at the end she said, "I love you! Bye Bye! See you tomorrow!"

OH!!! how I wish that I could see her tomorrow! Can we somehow make this happen please!?!?

I love this little one.

Another Storm In Austin

Last night Austin had another major storm. This was huge.
I woke up at around 12:30 to the loudest noise. It was quite scary. I looked out my window and have never seen anything like it. It was pouring down, hail, rain, the wind was really bad. I really thought we were going to blow away.
Hilary woke up too and then our power went out. It was out from about 12:30 until 4:30am.
It was crazy.
When I left to go to work the streets were a mess. Trees, branches, leaves everywhere. Traffic lights were out, it was all a mess!
Here are some pictures that I took.

This was what all of the sidewalks looked like.

This is what the streets looked like

I thought this was a cool picture...lots of green!

It was intense. I told Hilary that I was thankful that she didn't open the door to check out the storm (like last time...when the rat situation all started)

I Have This Funky Outfit...

I was re-reading a quote from Spurgeon that I love and it hit me again. I've decided to split it up and share with you some of the quote and then my thoughts as I read the words.

"Mourning Christian, why weepest thou? Art thou mourning over thine
own corruptions? Look to thy perfect Lord, and remember, thou are
complete in Him; thou art in God's sight as perfect as if thou hadst
never sinned; nay, more than that, the Lord our Righteousness hath put a
divine garment upon thee, so that thou hast more than the righteousness of
man-thou hast the rightousness of God."

Why is it that I weep still, that I mourn for the way life is, for the way I feel when I mess up, my soul hurts when I hear or see or think and I don't understand why I feel this way, it's something in me stirring and I can't figure out what it is.
My Lord is perfect, I know that over and over again. He is perfect, I am not. But what I can't seem to understand, over and over again, is that He sees me as perfect. He looks at me and his gaze upon me is something that is not human, and it is as if I had never tasted the fruit.
Why is it that I still allow myself to taste the bitterness?
He has given me new clothes to wear...perfection...an outfit so amazing, so beautiful and so funky, a garment worth a price so high that I cannot afford it, a garment of righteousness very different than the rags I continue to put on.
He has given it to me to wear proudly, to wear beautifully, to shine, to wear with confidence and joy.
It is His covering on me and it is what He sees and loves when His gaze is upon me.
It's from him and it is divine!
It is nothing from man, but it is all from Heaven, and it is good!
Somehow I am complete in that. Nothing more do I need, than this funky outfit that is His.

I'm a Little Out of Control...

I can't stop. It's so much fun. Now I have Hilary hooked. We sat on my bed and did this for awhile. I cried and wheezed and snorted. It was great. The last picture you can see the reflection of a tear underneath my eye. Good times!I think we look like old men in this picture...check out my eyebrows...whoah...
I hope that y'all don't forget what I actually look like!

Thunderstorms

We had a lovely thunderstorm really early this morning.
I woke up to really loud thunder. I loved it!
It was a lot better than waking up to little rat feet running through the walls and ceiling!
Anyway, on my way to work this morning I shot a couple of pictures of the sky on my phone. I loved the contrast of the colors. Everything is so green here and then with the dark blue sky.
It was lovely.

Ridiculously Good-Looking...

Ok...so I'm having a lot of fun with my new Mac. A little too much fun!

The pictures you are about to see are a little disturbing...
proceed
with
caution....

Hours of fun in the photo booth. Seriously.
I about peed my pants, I always find myself crying from laughing so hard!!!
How frightening are these pictures?!?!?

HOT!!!!!

uh....it's hot. REALLY hot.
Austin News says that it is 96 degrees...feels like 103.
I sort of forgot I was in Texas until today. I think I need the pool.

Random Note...

I was reminded by my sister last night that my dad played the cymbals in the band back in the day.
It made me giggle for some reason!
Today I was imagining him playing and I could picture him doing a silly dance along with it, with a goofy look on his face and I giggled some more, but also teared up a bit too.
It's weird how the smallest, silliest thing can make me miss him so much.

Shrinking God

I liked this article from "Stuff Christians Like" entitled "Shrinking God". Check it out here.
Here is a little blurb...

We’ve taken his grandness and washed him in the hot water of fear and logic
until he’s manageable and wee. God is bigger than we can grasp. He has a soccer
field the size of the universe for us to explore. He wants us to play. I want us
to play. I want run through every inch of his soccer field. I hope you want to
run too.

Melt My Heart...

My new favorite quote:
"Melt my heart and slap it on a biscuit." from this post.

I am God's Child

I AM GOD'S CHILD. --john 1:12 but whoever wanted him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves.

Blessed Posture! Blessed Assurance!

A word from Spurgeon--

"Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation." (Psalm 62:1)

Blessed posture! Waiting truly and only upon the Lord. Be this our condition all this day and every day. Waiting His leisure, waiting in His service, waiting in joyful expectation, waiting in prayer, and content. When the very soul thus waits, it is in the best and truest condition of a creature before his Creator, a servant before his Master, a child before his Father. We allow no dictation to God, nor complaining of Him; we will permit no petulance and no distrust. At the same time, we practice no running before the cloud and no seeking to others for aid: neither of these would be waiting upon God. God, and God alone, is the expectation of our hearts.

Blessed assurance! From Him salvation is coming; it is on the road. It will come from Him and from no one else. He shall have all the glory of it, for He alone can and will perform it. And He will perform it most surely in His own time and manner. He will save from doubt, and suffering, and slander, and distress. Though we see no sign of it as yet, we are satisfied to bide the Lord's will, for we have no suspicion of His love and faithfulness. He will make sure work of it before long, and we will praise Him at once for the coming mercy.

psalm 143

Listen to this prayer of mine, God; pay attention to what I'm asking. Answer me-you're famous for your answers! Do what's right for me...I remembered the old days, went over all you've done, pondered the ways you've worked, stretched out my hands to you, as thirsty for you as a desert thirsty for rain. Hurry with your answer, God! I'm nearly at the end of my rope. Don't turn away; don't ignore me! That would be certain death. If you wake me each morning with the sound of your loving voice, I'll go to sleep each night trusting in you. Point out the road I must travel; I'm all ears, all eyes before you. Save me from my enemies, God-you're my only hope! Teach me how to live to please you, because you're my God. Lead me by your blessed Spirit into cleared and level pastureland. Keep up your reputation, God-give me life!

Audrey

I watched this video the other night and it's an amazing story. It's the story of Todd and Angie and their little girl Audrey. Todd is from the group Selah. They shared their story with their church, Cross Point, in Nashville. It's long, but take the time to watch it. It is amazing! Angie also has a blog where she writes about life. I watched this beautiful video of pictures and a song that Angie wrote. The lyrics of the song are amazing. She has the lyrics written out below the video. Audrey's little life has left an amazing legacy. She had 2 1/2 hours of life and God has used it and is continuing to use it for GREAT things!

Einstein and I Are Buds

So, I have a new favorite thing.
Einstein's Bagels.
It's just a couple of blocks down from our apartment so it's convenient...and yummy.
So it seems there have been a few mornings (especially with the craziness of the rat situation...) that I have had some extra time to stop by and pick up a bagel for breakfast on my way to work.
Well, yesterday I get up to the counter and order and the guy goes, "Emily, right?".
Whoah.
That may be a sign that I am going there a little too much. They know me.
I'm becoming one of their regulars.
Pretty soon they will know that my favorite is a chocolate chip bagel toasted with strawberry cream cheese. It's truly amazing.

Don't Fret

"Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life." -Philippians 4:6-7