A New Blog Friend

I have loved reading this woman's blog. I do not know her, but found her blog through Kelli B.'s blog. I love her heart. I thought that her recent posts have been really interesting to read. Take a look, and start on Sept. 25, "He Loves Me Anyway". Her blog is "I'd Rather Laugh Than Cry"
Right now she is in the process of getting research and writing a book on how women can encourage their brothers-in-Christ.
Let me know what you think of these posts. I think she is right on.
Another crazy thing, she is dating a guy that she met through blogging! They are such a cute couple. Read this blog entry. Scroll to the top and click the link ("this") to Mike's blog. AND he's from Australia!

Overwhelmed

Oh, guys. I was so over - whelmed the other day as I walked into my room and there were boxes every - where. I had no idea where to start. I had been without my stuff for 2 months and then all of a sudden I had all of it, all at once. It was overwhelming, and I ended up having a huge pile of stuff I threw away, or am taking to Goodwill. I have to give a shout out to my brother-in-laws Damon and Joe and my nephew Jack for helping Hilary's parents load up the moving truck. Before I left Iowa I took all of my stuff and put it in Hilary's basement with all of her stuff. Since we didn't have a place when we first came to Austin we didn't bring much with us. So once we got a place Hilary's parents brought a moving truck with all of our stuff down to us. Thanks guys for helping load up all of my stuff! I appreciate it soooo much! Thanks Jack for helping with the boxes! You rock!
And a shout out to Hilary's parents, Bill and Sharon, for also helping to load up the truck, but also for making the long trip down here in an uncomfortable moving truck. It was great having you here!

Here is a picture of all of my books. I was over - whelmed as I was unpacking all of them and realizing, first of all, how many of them I had, and then how many of them I have actually read. I'm sad to say that the majority of them were ones that I had never read or had not finished reading. I love books, I love the idea of books. The knowledge in these books. What is funny is that I desire knowledge, to be smart, to know stuff, to learn...here it is...right in front of me, but I don't take it in. Why is it, that I seem to never finish things like this. I'm searching for the answer to that question and searching for the deep parts of me that have remain hidden and come out in strongholds in my life. I have a lot of them. Strongholds. Thing that I am tied to and won't let go. Bondage. My heart is turning, desiring to be free from these things that keep me weighed down and leave me unsatisfied. Although, why is it that in the moments when I am so under the influence of these strongholds that I think that it will be better if I just satisfy my flesh in that moment. But afterwards, it leaves me nothing but emptiness again and with that same yearning to be satisfied. I am living for earthly things, living in "ME". I want out.
Jesus, only YOU can satisfy. I need YOU tonight, and nothing else. I need YOU to break me free, to take this bondage and this weight that I am feeling and take it away. Jesus, fill me with a desire for YOU and only YOU. Help me to have eyes that see things unseen. I know that YOU have water for me that is unlike any water I have found myself. It is different. YOU are different. YOUR water is everlasting. It quenches my deepest thirst, I am dry. Fill me up, so that YOU overflow out of me. Set me free from the sin inside of me. Cleanse me and bring my heart and its deepest parts, the parts that are hidden even from me, out and to YOU. I want to run with my arms in the air, up to YOU and say, "I am finally free!". These chains are broken, and I am free to be who YOU have created me to be. I love you JESUS!

Some Randomness

So here are some random funny pictures...
I am nannying for a family right now before I start my new job, and they have this dog. His name is Nick. He likes to "smile". When I first met Nick he came up to me and "smiled", but I didn't know that this was his way of "smiling" and I thought he was going to bite my hand off. It was kind of scary at first! Then I learned that he was happy and that he was "smiling"! So I took a picture because it was hilarious!


I drove by this church and saw this billboard! Wow! Welcome to Texas!









This is one of my new favorite things! I was babysitting for a family and the kids kept asking..."Can I have some booty!?" I was thinking to myself...what in the world are they talking about? "I want some booty!" I had no clue what they were talking about, I couldn't figure out if they were being naughty, or if they were wanting something that I didn't know about. Come to find out that they were talking about this snack! You can find it in the natural foods section or a Whole Foods Market. I bought a package and the Stephen's boys ate most of it. I was about ready to say, "Stay away from my Booty!" but I thought that might have been a little inappropriate!

Living in Boxes

WE HAVE OUR OWN PLACE!!!! YEAH!! Here is our new place! We officially moved in yesterday. Hilary's parents came with a moving truck all the way from Iowa with all of our stuff! We LOVE our new place.





Here is the courtyard.









Here is the pool!! I'm very excited about this!

Hilary's parents drove all the way from Iowa with a moving truck full of our stuff! They got here yesterday, and we unloaded...it's official...we've moved in!

Jake came over and helped us move heavy stuff!
Hilary looks cute with a good sized crock pot in her hands!!

Do the Hula

Last night after we got everything unloaded, unpacked a few boxes, and got cleaned up, we met The Stephen's family at Hula Hut. It's a TexMex place that sits out on Lake Austin. It was a beautiful night and we had so much fun hanging out!







Holland decided that since she was going to be meeting Hilary's parents for the first time, she wanted to wear her ballerina outfit to dinner! I LOVE her!













Since we had about a 45 minute wait the boys were getting restless and doing things like this...they are so funny! Very entertaining!











This is Denise. I am amazed by her everyday. She has taught me so much. I think back 4 days before Hilary and I were going to move here and we still didn't have a place to stay. CRAZY! Denise and her family took us in, hardly knowing us, but willing to open up their home and their family to us. I have developed such a love for her and her family. It is sad that we won't be living there anymore...for many reason...the laughs, Denise's home-cooking, Duck, Duck, Goose...sardines...hokey pokey, Connor and Soren and their goofiness, George and his "If I were a rich man..." song and dance, the talks about Jesus, sharing a bathroom with two little guys, "Friends forever...awwwe!", boys running through the house, a little girl riding her bike through the house, George reading the paper, me almost peeing my pants, Hilary's face mask.
I will cherish that time spent there, and I'm thankful that we are only 15 minutes away.

Jake and Connor at dinner. Jake has been such a sweet friend. He and Hilary grew up together and lived kiddy corner, not caddy corner, to each other. Now they are living in the same place! Some of you probably remember the story about this friend in our story about coming to Austin. It has been great having him here to look out for us!




Sweet, sweet Holland!
We have this thing that we do together, and we look at each other and grab each others hands and say at the same time, "Friends forever...Awwwe!"







George, Soren and Denise. Soren is "on" all the time. He likes to entertain!










Hilary's dad is a beekeeper! So he brought some Iowa honey for the family. Here is Soren giving it a kiss!
It was such a fun night!





As we were leaving Holland asked me, "Are you coming back to my house?" and I said, "No, Hilary and I have our own place now, and we are going to go there to sleep now." She said, "Well, you can come and see me at my house." and I said, "Yup! We'll come back and visit you at your house!" It was so precious!

Celebrity Look-alikes!

My friend Kelly did this and though it would be fun! It sort of reminded me of when the band and I took the celebrity love match. I got matched up with Will Smith and Russel Crowe...one of the other members of the band...I will keep her name anonymous :)...got Danny DeVito! Why is he even an option, I'm not sure!

Rockin' Night with Tomlin

Tonight was an AMAZING night! Instead of having church we had a night of worship. Our worship leader Chris Tomlin just released a new CD last Tuesday, "See the Morning". He will be starting his tour this week and he decided to have a night of worship with his church family as a send off into his tour. For two hours we worshipped God. I could have kept going! I think my body is going to be sore tomorrow! If you get a chance to see him on his tour, check it out! His music is incredible and he is so humble, it's not about him singing, it's about worshipping Jesus. It has been so humbling to be a part of this church and to think that the songs that Chris is singing and recording started out here at this church. It has been an honor to be some of the first ones to be blessed by them.
At the end of the night our pastor, Matt Carter, and also a close friend of Chris', Louie Giglio (Lou Gigs) came and lead us in prayer over the band. It was very cool. Spending the evening singing to God, made me much more in love with Jesus. It was such a great night. I wanted to pray right now for Chris and the band...join with me and keep praying for these guys!

Lord, I pray that Your glory would abound across the nation! Lord, be powerful, and use these guys to proclaim Your name. Thank You that You have given Chris words to sing,thank You for the songs that You have given him that have been instruments in the church, and thank you for the impact that he has had all across the world, take these guys and move people's hearts to know You more. Lord I pray that Your Spirit would be evident and that He would move and dance in those places where they will be worshipping You. I pray for strength for Chris and the band, that You would give them endurance to do show after show. Lord, I pray that they would cry out to You, knowing that You are the one singing and playing through them, Lord I pray that they would be dependant on You and not on themselves. Lord I pray that lives would radically change, that people would come to these concerts and that the power of Your Spirit would break down walls, and strongholds, and that people would come to know You and experience You in freedom. Lord thank You for their ministry. Bless them in abundance, and I pray that when people see them that they would would be small and You would be BIG!! Great are You Lord! I pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ for Your glory and Your will to be done!
AMEN!!

**the picture was not from the concert tonight, it was a picture I found online.**

Fondue? or Fondon't?

The other day I had to be to work by 7:30, which means I was leaving the house a little before 7:00. It was a beautiful day and this was the picture as I looked out over the hills as I was driving!
I am so not a morning person, but this picture makes me want to be one!!

I had a previous post about this place that puts out tons of lawn ornaments. The started off with flamingos, then to penguins and now back to famingos! So random!

Here is the Capital Building at night. It is so cool!

Hilary and I just got an apartment and we move in on Monday! It is only about 6 blocks from the capital! So when you are going down the street to get to our place you can see this!!
It's GREAT!!

This is one of my favorite things...
HEB's version of Dr. Pepper! LOVE IT!

Last night we had one of our last dinners with the Stephen's family and we had a fondue night! It was wonderful!

Don't Mess With Texas

The "Don't Mess With Texas" slogan won with over 400,000 votes as the best-known litter prevention slogan in history, and has joined the ranks as one of the best slogans of all time!
YEAH!

Grab A Loop, Battling Tops

So I was on this website the other day looking at old vintage games and toys and I came across this classic!!!! Oh yes...Grab A Loop!!
My sisters, cousins and I would play this game in our grandparents basement every Christmas when we would all get together. It consisted of these belts that you would strap on and each belt had a certain number of loops attached to it and the goal was to try and grab people's loops! We would SCREAM!!! The excitement and also the terror of someone grabbing your loop caused us to let out the most horrifying scream! My Grandma would come running down thinking that someone had been killed. She finally got rid of the game. We were all very sad. It is still topic of conversation when we all get together!

Another game that we enjoyed in our grandparent's basement was Battling Tops.
The battle to see who's top could remain standing! You had a little white launcher with a string attached that you would wind around your top. You would put it in your little launch station and pull so that your top would go at maximum speed to win the battle. The tops would go at it for awhile sometimes spinning around the arena, or sometimes bumping into each other...I can still hear the sound! Sometimes if you were daring you would take your launcher and with the string you would play "jumprope" with the top. Yeah, you were cool if you did that. I think one of the coolest parts of the game were the names of the tops...each one had their own name... Hurricane Hank, Twirling Tim, Smarty Smitty, Dizzy Dan, Tricky Nicky and Super Sam. My grandma eventually got rid of this game at a garage sale...but wait...good news...I bought it back for 25 cents! It's living at my sister's house!

Carrie, Gret, Jill and Laura- I wish I could be with you when you read this post!!

'How Can I Keep From Singing'

Chris Tomlin's new CD came out yesterday, GO and get it! It is fabulous!
One of the songs that has been amazing in church is "How Can I Keep from Singing"

"There is an endless song
Echoes in my soul
I hear the music ring

And though the storms may come
I am holding on
To the rock I cling

How can I keep from singing Your praise
How can I ever say enough
How amazing is Your love
How can I keep from shouting Your name
I know I am loved by the King
And it makes my heart want to sing

I will lift my eyes
In the darkest night
For I know my Savior lives

And I will walk with You
Knowing You'll see me through
And sing the songs You give

I can sing in the troubled times
Sing when I win
I can sing when I lose my step
And fall down again
I can sing 'cause You pick me up
Sing 'cause You're there
I can sing 'cause You hear me, Lord
When I call to You in prayer
I can sing with my last breath
Sing for I know
That I'll sing with the angels
And the saints around the throne!"

OH I LOVE IT!!! As I was typing these lyrics I just felt joy inside of me!! I LOVE the line that says..."I can sing with my last breath...sing for I know...That I'll sing with the angels...And the saints around the throne!"
I am caused to sing when I think about what God has done for me and how He has rescued me, comforted me, cleansed me, healed me, LOVED me at the cross!
Good stuff people!

"That girl Emily with the curly hair."

I got an email yesterday from my friend Shadley and she sent these pictures and said that her little girl Eden, who is 3 almost 4, drew. It's a picture of a family and as she was listing of the names of the people in the family she came to one and said, "That girl Emliy with the curly hair". She is so sweet!! Here are the pictures, one of the whole family and one close up on me!! LOVE IT!

Saturday Night at The Gristmill

This last weekend I got together with some old high school friends who are now living in San Antonio! We met halfway in New Braunfels and had dinner and walked around to some old shops. It was so much fun! We ate at the Gristmill, it was in an old barn-like place and they had big wooden tables to eat at and we first ate outside, it was a beautiful night until the rain came! HARD! So we picked up our plates and ran for shelter! We ended up sitting at this table with a bunch of other people! It was fun!

Here is Katy and Ellen!
Beautiful girls! It was so fun to catch up and talk about life.We went into this old General Store and we started being goofy!

This is one of my favorite looks! Look how HUGE my glasses are!!

Again...BIG glasses!

We had a thing for the sunglasses!
I was almost peeing my pants we were laughing so hard!

This pictures is for my sisters...do you remember playing this on our family vacation roadtrips?! AUTO BINGO!!
Here is a picture of the largest dance hall in Texas!
We tried to get in but the tickets were sold out!

Some more... cute pictures!

Laura asked the boys what they wanted to show me and then she took a picture of it and sent it to me with all of the other pictures. This is what Noah wanted to show me...

He can write his name now!! Way to go Noah!

He did a good job sharing!

And he also wanted to show me the grass stains on his pants!

Here is a sword that Jack drew and colored. He is an amazing artist!
He must have gotten that from his grandma!!

I gave Jack a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble
for his birthday and this is what he got! He's so sweet!

Some More Incredibly Cute Picutres of Sweet Lily