Love This, Part 3

I just finished reading Redeeming Love and can't think of another ordinary book that has affected me so profoundly! The book is a retelling of the book of Hosea in the Bible. I've never read a book so quickly, tears streaming down my face, and turned to the first page right after I'd finished the last! It is an incredible love story, and it is mine. I have prostituted myself to my sin and to this world time and time again and each time, He has rescued me from myself and filled me to overflowing with His grace and mercy. What an incredible and humbling book. If you haven't read it yet, you must.

"Emlily"

My nephew Orion wrote his own "to/froms" this year. Too cute!


Yep...that's a scratch ticket. We love to train him up in the way he should go. ;-) But...it is a winner, so who can complain?!

Me and My Sister

I've gotten to enjoy some really fun times with my sister, Betsy since I've been home.

Look, we're practically twins. Betsy thought she looked like an eggplant. This is us being impatient about opening our stockings.

Betsy's got a baby on board, so she finally got bitten by the knitting bug. I think she's doing pretty well. (It's a triangle because you knit it diagonally.) If you look closely, you can see the one I'm working on for her in the background. As you can see, this baby is going to be a girl in love with every shade of pink.

Aren't We Industrious, Part 3

My sister Betsy and the Rentel girls came over the other night to decorate Christmas cookies. For the most part they look like a bunch of six year olds did them...so I'm not sure the title is all that fitting, but, what can you do?

My "little sister," Annie.

My real sister, Betsy. And my annoying cat, who would not leave us alone. :)

Stephanie being very meticulous.

Steph, Annie, Betsy, Me, and Megan and our one billion cookies, most of which were decorated by Betsy.

Love This, Part 2

My church's worshipful Christmas trees is one of my favorite things about Christmas. I can hardly ever pay attention at church at this time of the year, because I can't stop looking at the beautiful tree and all of it's symbols! Each ornament represents a name of Jesus in the Bible. Love this. I've already started collecting ornaments for my own tree one day!

Aren't We Industrious, Part 2

Megan and I made Monster Cookies...aren't we industrious?

These cookies are delicious, so you should make them.

The Big Day!

Okay, a couple of things:

1. This was absolutely the most beautiful wedding I have ever been too.

2. Rebecca is a stunning bride.

3. This hotel had great finishes. :)

4. And, this was my very first beach wedding. Hopefully I don't look like the land locked girl.

Look at her! Beautiful bride! Poor Stephen, the pastor asked him if he was "about ready" for her to be his bride a couple times during the ceremony and he answered a little over enthusiastically each time, bringing laughs from the crowd. :) They are so cute and at ease with one another.

Rebecca's cute cupcake cake. The star fish are airbrushed white chocolate and were very yummy. And they didn't smear cake all over each other...so much more original.

The Smokey Eye

I really wanted to do smokey eyes for Rebecca's wedding, so I asked Erin to try it out the night before. I ended up with a black eye. Not cute. The next day was better, but not really smokey at all. :)

Interuption...Rebecca's Lingerie Shower

Rebecca's maid of honor gave a bachelorette party/lingerie shower for Rebecca a couple of weeks ago and I put together a clever little gift inspired by my church in Fort Collin's pastors' wives. I made this apron and stuffed the pockets with some fun things. :)

I included this little poem explaining the reason for the apron at a lingerie shower! The awkward thing about this is that my dad wrote this for me! My dad writes our Christmas letter every year, and it usually rhymes or follows the same rhyme scheme as a Christmas poem or song, so I knew he'd be good at it. It was a hit! *Thanks, dad.* Awkward.

By the way, I totally ripped these pictures off of Lauren Gossett, who happens to be a fantastic photographer...visit her website.

Pre-Wedding Fun

We hit the pier and John's Pass for a little pre-wedding fun.

Yena and I dancing on the pier/reliving days of dancing in our room freshman year. Did I just admit that?

Probably the two most rebellious people I know.

More later...

I Hate Jumping Pictures

For some reason, people are really into jumping pictures right now. Rebecca took one for her wedding, we took one...I mean, everyone is doing it. But I can never jump in the air. I think my vertical jump must be about 6 inches because I am always on the ground. Here is the saga of the jumping picture:

Oops, started too late.

Luckily, I'm not the only one who has a hard time. Way to go Yena.

I'll exclude about 16 pictures here, but as you can see, I'm exhausted. :)

Finally. This will do. My feet may or may not be off the ground in this picture.

Pit Stop...literally

We took back roads all the way to Florida...not a great idea...except that it left us with few options other than little dives along the road for lunch. What fun! This is what road tripping is all about. We found a great little BBQ Pit to eat at.

No, really...we ate here. Some cracks were made on the way in about this place not passing sanitation codes, but no worries, they proudly displayed their A rating in this area. :)

GREAT branding. I actually made fun of this little slogan when we passed this place the first time.

Last Stop...Here we are in front of the fruit stand where the very rude fruit lady told me that oranges were orange and grapefruits were yellow. Really? Thanks. Yes, she was a little sweetheart.

Road Trip, Part 1

On Friday, my beloved interior design friends all packed up and headed to Clearwater Beach, Florida for Rebecca's wedding.

Here's me driving because I can't navigate.First stop: gas station.

At this point, the trip got pretty long. Erin (above), the self declared mom, had brought a bag of surprises that she pulled out when things got boring, including this Etch a Sketch.

Jena/"Yena" (as we like to call her) and I made excellent use of this little surprise as well. Side note: Jena was my roommate freshman year.

More to come...

I Love These Girls

Tomorrow we leave for part one of our journey to Florida for Rebecca's wedding. I'm sad she is graduating and marrying off before the rest of us...we will miss her! Here are some memories...




Long story on this one...but just for recognition of people I talk about, Ms. Martin is in the middle holding the tiny but very pricey chair. Oh, that chair... This picture made it onto facebook with the caption "You wish you were an overachiever." Which is SO true. You do, don't you?

After we took this adorable picture I thought we were so photogenic...

...until I saw this picture. This was our last ever presentation day. Don't we look professional. I always just feel like I'm playing dress up. *Sigh.* The clothes were better back in the day.

"Mary Chath's" First Quilt aka Aren't We Industrious Women?

My suitemate came back from Thanksgiving eager to learn how to quilt after seeing her aunt's handiworks. I was blessed with a wonderful grandma whose hands made many, many quilts and she really left her legacy. She passed away in October, but not before coaching me through two quilts of my own. For Christmas, I got "Mary Chath" everything she needed to make a little snuggler quilt for her niece, who will be born in April. Look at this industrious woman...
Adorable...kind of like Mary Chath. By the way, Mary Kathryn is her real name...not really sure how the nickname started, but it's pretty awesome, so we keep it. ;-)
P.S. Isn't it sad in her room without all of Ashley's stuff in there?!

Love This

Um, I love this woman's blog. I read on there that the average stay on her blog is an hour and 45 minutes...yeah, that's about right. :)

http://www.whittakerwoman.typepad.com/

Sad!

I'm so sad because Ashley is leaving us! She graduates a week from tomorrow...but I wish she could still live here and hang out with us. We'll miss you, Ashley!

What's Going On?

Tonight at church, Perry asked four questions, and I'm really wrestling with them:

1. What am I passionate about (that actually matters)?
2. What breaks my heart?
3. What am I equipped to do?
4. What am I called to do?

I really, really desire to be broken for the things that break His heart, but right off the top of my head, I can't think of one thing that really and truly burdens my heart...that I can't stop thinking about. I'm praying for a radical change of heart.

Biltmore House!

So, Lauren and I went to the Biltmore House in lieu of studying for our final exams. Here is me driving.

The Biltmore House is in Ashville...which is kind of like Breckenridge meets Boulder meets Gatlinburg.

And we are so freaking excited that we decided to make these awesome faces.
Don't lie to yourself...it's beautiful. You should go.

I Probably Shouldn't Blog About This...

So, in all seriouosness, it is completely not okay for me to blog about this...but it was SO funny. I was getting some cereal today in the cafeteria. A guy who is a little person came to get some cereal too. He assessed his cereal options, saw the Lucky Charms and exclaimed "Woo hoo! Lucky Charms." Now, seriously. Think about the irony. Hilarious.