This is Beautiful

I read something absolutely beautiful in God's Word today:

For the LORD will comfort Zion; He will comfort her in her waste places, and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song... Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my instruction. Do not fear disgrace by men and do not be shattered by their taunts...And the ransomed of the LORD will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy. Joy and gladness will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee. I--I am the One who comforts you. Who are you that you should fear man who dies, or a son of man who has given up like grass? ...I have put My words in your mouth, and covered you in the shadow of My and, in order to plant the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, "You are My people."

Isaiah 51: 3, 7, 11-12, 16

Yep.

Today was our first snow in Fort Collins and look! It's accumulating! This calls for fuzzy slippers, a turtle neck, and a scarf. So fun!
He says to the snow, "Fall on the earth," and to the rain shower, "Be a mighty downpour."

Job 37: 6

One More Catch Up Post

My sabbatical from blogging was mostly triggered by laziness...it's not like I've been busy or anything. I had kind of forgotten about these pictures. The Rentels took me to this great little local dessert place called the Chocolate Cafe to celebrate my graduation. It's got a cute atmosphere and the people who own it are really proud of what they make. It's cute, they kind of watch you while you eat. (When I say cute, I of course mean slightly creepy, but charming nonetheless to see people so proud of what they do.)

When I ordered the Chocolate Lava Cake, the waitress told me I just HAD to try the first bite with my eyes closed and that it would change my world. Well, I humored her and did so since she was watching me and this is the very unattractive look that resulted. I thought all of the bites tasted about the same, eyes opened or closed, but it makes for a good story, I suppose.

This Very Fullfilling Job I Have

This is kind of old news, but...

I've been working at Macy's all summer until I can find some legitimate employment within my field. Lucky for me, Annie stopped in to surprise me on a very slow night wearing her mom's homely-made prom dress from back in the day (a source of a lot of laughter that week for some reason!). She jokingly asked me if I could find her a shoe for it...and tragically, I could. Thanks, Annie for making my job just a little bit more rewarding. :)

Brave, isn't she?

Scary, isn't it?

Girl's Weekend

All of the guys went out of town this weekend for our church's men's retreat. They had a great time. We were bummed! They add so much spontaneity and fun to our evenings! So...we set out to have a great girl's weekend together.

We started out with a late night of movies that the boys would have objected to (While You Were Sleeping and Confessions of a Shopaholic). Only Monica made it through both of the movies, but it was really fun to stay up into the wee hours watching chick flicks. ;)

The next day we all dressed up in black and white and went to Cafe Vino for desserts. It was fun and the desserts were delicious.
We were sorely disappointed that our weekend didn't even begin to top the fun that the guys had during their retreat...but, I have to say that Sunday night was the best night. Dan asked Steph if he could pursue her and she said yes and that resulted in a debrief of the whole conversation until 5am. Needless to say, we were excited! :)

Hmm...maybe I should have titled this "Steph's a Girlfriend Now."

Third Wheeling.

Steph, Dan, and I all went to see Tenth Avenue North in Denver the other night. Great concert! Here are a couple of pictures:

I know this makes me seem like a five year old, but I got a chuckle out of this as we stood in line, Steph and I both boycotting these at all costs. :)

Legos

I haven't been super into blogging since I've been back in Colorado, but couldn't resist sharing this story.

I've been helping with VBS at church all week being a crew leader for second graders. I've had a pretty great group of kids that together make up a nice mix of sweet, inquisitive, adventurous, and strong willed. :) My strong willed little guy has been giving me a preview of parenthood this week, but is finally starting to listen and obey and is having more fun because of it (I'm sure!). This morning they shared the gospel with the kids in a way they could understand. To help them understand sin, we passed around a black trash bag for each child to think of something he or she thought was a sin and confess it to Jesus. While most of my kids asked if "being impolite counted" and if sin was Adam and Eve's fault, one little boy tugged on my leg and said, "Teacher? I have some Legos in my pocket and I'm sorry." I thought he just had them from home so I told him to just keep them there and he could play with them when he got home. But he said, "No, I stole them from downstairs and I'm sorry I did that." I was touched by his little conscience being affected by the message!

You never know how a heart might be softening. I have memories of visiting AWANA with a friend as a little girl and raising my hand when they said "Is there anyone here who hasn't ever done anything bad?" I thought I was that girl! Later, of course, I realized that I was a sinner. It's easy to give up on those kids, but I'm glad the people there didn't push me away.

His mercy covers it all (even Lego thiefs!).