…

…

dj and i just had the best weekend ever. even though he got back in town six days ago, with me working and him being quite parasitic, we really havent had much time to just hang out together. so, this weekend we packed our bags and headed to the omni mandalay in las colinas (thanks, mom!) it was amazing… our room was huge and beautiful and was on the eighteenth floor with a balcony overlooking the city. we ended up doing nothing all weekend, and it was incredible. aside from a few short breaks to explore the hotel and look at pictures from dj’s trip, our weekend mostly consisted of locking ourselves away from the world to enjoy breakfast in bed and watch lost alllllll weekend long. i cant tell you how refreshing it was to just get away and do nothing. amazing.

we did get out on saturday night to visit our friends trey and erin who were in from california. we went out to dinner with their family and then the four of us, plus jordan, went to chocolate secrets for dessert and drinks. it’s a cute little place and we highly recommend it for your next date night.

dj and i have a fun week planned… monday night football, wine bar, dinner with amazing people including paul, kevin, the bowmans, and mo, and finally, culture and theology on friday. you should definitely check it out. and then next week is staff retreat… booyah!

oh and ps… in  my last post, i listed off all the things i was looking forward to about october. i forgot the most important one of all: THIS IS IT. yes, i’m obsessed, and yes i am going.

and, last but not least… dj and i tried a new recipe last week and it was incredible… it’s seriously a great dinner for all the cold weather we have been having. it’s super easy (dj made it!) and super good, so i wanted to share it with you:

Taco Soup

1 lb. ground beef
1 can chopped tomatoes (we used the kind with green chilies)
1 can red kidney beans
1 can pinto beans (we used the kind with jalepenos)
1 can corn
1 package taco seasoning
1 package Ranch dressing mix
chilli powder- however much you want : )

Brown beef in skillet. After draining beef, add all cans (undrained) and packages to the beef in Crockery Pot. Cook on low 2 to 4 hours. (we cooked it for 6 hours)

it was pretty spicy, but we topped it with shredded cheese and avocados and the avocado was such a good balance to tone down the spice!

xoxo

stuff.

dj comes home today! its about freaking time… i have missed that boy a lot a lot, and am ready for my best friend to be home. these past two weeks have been a struggle and though the lord has revealed a lot of junk in my heart through it, i am kind of hoping the lesson is over after today.

it’s october! here are things i am excited about this month:

• husband coming home
• surprise date this weekend
• fall is here
• scarves
• long sleeves and hoodies and my purple sparkle shoes
• gingerbread lattes from starbucks
• staff retreat
• halloween (4 years exactly since dj and i started dating!)

ps. this is the best video over. i have probably watched it a hundred thousand times this week, and i laugh out loud every time. it is so dang funny:

photo booth prank

xoxo

remember the lord; the good works he has done.

i wasnt completely honest in my last post. i have really been struggling with dj being gone. i have been believing lies and had convinced myself that he was going to start liking a girl on his team and quit loving me. i have been jealous that he was getting to share this life changing experience with other people, specifically other girls, and that he would come home to a wife that couldnt relate to that bond. i have been fearing picking him up from the airport because i feel intimidated by his team and the things he has experienced with them that i wish he could have experienced with me. basically, i have been self centered and wallowing in self pity. what else is new?! in all of this, my heart has exposed that i don’t trust the lord with my husband or my marriage; that i fear because i dont have control; that i dont think i am good enough. the truth is that even if any of these things were true, the lord is good and sovereign still. my marriage is not for my happiness, but for his glory and if any of these lies ever come true the lord will be faithful to use it for our good and his glory. that is truth. and my heart has failed to believe it.

my friend, mallery, prayed over me this morning and specifically asked the lord to show dj how to minister to me and affirm me despite the distance. the lord answered that prayer in such a real, tangible, and sweet way. i got a text message from dj this afternoon saying that they had an incredible team meeting and went around edifying each other and two of the married women in the room told him that they loved the way he talks about his wife…. wow. of all the things he could have said, that is what my heart needed to hear the most. that my husband loves me dearly, and that others see his love for me by how he speaks of me. the lord knew what i needed to hear, when i needed to hear it, and through my husband he encouraged my weary soul.

i went to counseling today. dang, i love counseling. we talked about how i give myself too much power.if i say something hurtful to dj, i sit in guilt and fear that i have destroyed his soul and that the wounds will be irreparable.  i sit in fear that my words will destroy and tear down, but i forget that i have a lord who redeems. i apparently also give satan too much power… i think he is out to attack my husband and my marriage, when the truth is that job 1 says that all things- even satan- are under the dominion and authority of the lord, and nothing happens outside of god’s ordination. if the lord ordains for hardship and trouble to fall upon my marriage or if he allows torment from the enemy, he will work it for my good. hard hard lessons. but oh so good.

on a lighter note, the weather has been incredible!!! yesterday, i sat in my backyard for a while and then my staff met up at nestle tollhouse and had our meeting on their porch. then my friend amy and i went walking in dallas… and even better- today i wore long sleeves! fall is here and that makes me happy. i had a great lunch with a dear friend today, spent some more time in the backyard, and then had cookies and milk with another sweet friend. as hard as the past week has been, there has been joy in the last two days that has been sweet and sustaining.

god is good. please be praying that i dont sit in fear for the next five days.

xoxo

titleless

welp, the truth is, i miss my husband. i knew i was going to be worried about his flight, but i thought i would be okay once i knew he was on dry gound. i was wrong. i am sad and i miss my best friend. ive kept myself busy, spent a lot of time with friends, visited family in austin, and gotten to text and email dj a lot, but at the end of the day, i am aware that my other half is nowhere near me. in fact, he’s 8,749 miles apart, and thats too dang far in my opinion. i have been struggling with a lot of fear and am having a hard time keeping my mind clear. bah!…. but enough of my sob story…

(but do check out his teams blog at http://kenyablog2009.blogspot.com)

i went to austin this weekend to hang out with my mom and greg, and my grandpa. and.guess.how.i.got.there. i took the freaking train, what what! i didnt even know people still rode trains, but lo and behold the second i found out, i bought myself a ticket and trucked it all the way to austin:

i spent most of the seven hour trip sleeping, eating peanut m&m’s, and reading an echo in the darkness. ahhh so relaxing. and to top it off, this is the beauty that i arrived to in austin:

my mom cooked dinner at the hotel on friday night and then we just laid around and watched friends… yesss. what a relaxing way to end the day.

we woke up on saturday, had waffles for breakfast and then drove out to blanco to see my grandpa, who i hadnt seen in over a year. here are some pictures of the day:

my mom and i ended the day by going to see love happens. super cute and gets my props for not being inappropriate. i love my momma.

husband

dj leaves for kenya tomorrow evening. please be praying… for safe travel, good health, unity among his team, and mostly that he would experience the lord in beautiful and mighty ways.

some of you know that dj and i went to zambia last summer and the lord absolutely changed our lives on that trip. he took himself out of our box and revealed more of himself than we had ever seen or known and we have never been the same since. it was hard. terrifying. beautiful. and has lead to more praise and love for god than our hearts were ever capable of before. pray that the lord would continue to reveal himself to dj and that through this trip my husband would grow even more in his knowledge of and love for the lord.

pray for me as well… that the lord would protect me from fear (yes, my mind has convinced me that the plane is going to crash) and jealousy, because honestly it is hard for me to not be discouraged at the thought that he is about to have a life-changing experience that i will not be able to share with him. pray that the lord would burden my heart for my husband in his absence and that he would show me how to pray for him and his team. pray that i would trust the lord with my husband and not sit in worry while he is gone.

tonight i made dj his favorite dinner (meat loaf: not as sick as it sounds) because africa sucks at ketchup and i wanted him to enjoy it before he left. we also sat on the porch and enjoyed the thunderstorms, talked, followed the dolphins football game, and cuddled on the couch watching lost. we took tomorrow off work to hang out before he leaves… dang, im gonna miss him.

he sent me an email this afternoon of things to do while he was gone. it’s too cute not to share:

• Please write a check to xxxxx for $xxxxx
• Please miss me terribly
• Don’t worry about mvelopes – I’ll do it when I get back
• If the grass is real bad after a week or so, maybe see if you can get someone to mow it for like $20. Otherwise, it will just have to wait until I get back
• Love how sweet Marmalade is to you
• Pay whatever bills come in the mail (everything else is set up for automatic withdrawal)
• Think about how sexy I am
• Pick me up from the airport

cute, huh? i really do think my husband is way better than yours.

here is my favorite picture of him from zambia last year:

goodbye, husband. i will miss you.

xoxo

happy family

my mom, greg, and dalton are in granbury for the weekend, so dj and i drove out there today to hang out on the lake and join them for dinner…. here are some pictures of our oh so lovely family:

my mom and i on the boat... bright colors for bright girls. aren't we cute?!

perhaps a little too close, but cute nonetheless....

are you getting tired of seeing the same picture over and over??!?!

me and my favorite boy.

ghetto: making dj jump into neck deep waters to hold the boat into place.

also ghetto: making greg wade through the water to get into the boat.

my awesome step brother and even more awesome husband.

my lovely mom and her wonderful husband

dalton rocking out as captain

how did i get to be so lucky?!

god's artwork.

me & dalton being silly

we look good normal too.

hanging out on the porch.

i adore him.

she should get the prettiest mom award...

oh greg.....

our happy family

thank you lord for fun and family.

xoxo

dj and jesus… my two favorite things.

dj and i had a much needed date night this weekend. we went to the holocaust museum, which probably classifies as the most depressing date ever. my favorite part was the video testimonies at the end… just getting to see the faces and hear the voices of those who lived through the holocaust was heart wrenching. every story was powerful, but my heart especially went out towards a man named walter kase. wordpress is being dumb and wont let me link to the video, but alas, i loved him a lot.

afterwards, dj and i went to twisted root for dinner, and then spent the night at a hotel in dallas, only to wake up and have the best breakfast ever: sprinkles cupcakes. dj and i suck at taking pictures, but we managed to capture at least one….don’t be deceived- i am most certainly wearing a shirt in this picture. why must tube tops always fail to make it into the picture?!

on a completely seperate note, i was encouraged by two things in scripture this week that i wanted to share. first, a little background. in the past year i have grown to learn and believe with all of my heart that the lord speaks personally and intimately to his children and that we can learn to hear and recognize his voice. i also admit that i don’t always know how to hear him, though i strive to learn and hope that he will bring me to a place of hearing him without a doubt. two encouragements on this front:

numbers 12:5- Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.  Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds  the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”  And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed.

from this we learn that moses was more humble than all the other inhabitants of the earth. we also learn that the lord spoke with him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles…. might there be a connection between humility and learning to hear the voice of the lord?

1 samuel 3:  Now the young man Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the young man. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle… “

several things encourage me in this passage…. one, that samuel is a young man…roughly twelve in this passage. he is not old or wise or super holy. he has not been to seminary, is not a pastor, and is not elite among religious figures. samuel did not yet know the lord and the word had not yet been revealed to him. he is young, and simple, yet the lord chooses to speak to him. secondly, the lord spoke so dang clearly, that samuel thought it was a real live tangible voice! it makes me laugh to think that he kept getting up and running to eli, convinced that he was the one calling his name. third, it says that eli was the one who perceived that the lord was calling samuel… which means that sometimes god may speak to us, and we just dont recognize his voice. it also means that we can learn, and that other people can help us to discern his voice.

so, i know it’s long, but that encouraged me this week, and i hope it encourages you as well.

xoxo.

.goodness.

a friend recently told me that she thought i was entering into a season of experiencing the Lord’s goodness in a new way… here is some of that goodness.

• my best friend mackenzie is in town. love love love her. the lord used her as an instrument to draw me to himself back in college and we have been friends ever since. having her in town makes life feel more like home, and i have enjoyed her company immensely these past few weeks. here is a picture of me, kenz, and amy at a wedding last weekend. the only thing missing is mary.

• i deactived my facebook. it had gotten to the point where i would get online just to waste my time. i didnt like that feeling, so i am taking a break. and it feels nice.
• dj and i had a spontaneous date night on tuesday. we drove to oklahoma and looked for waterfalls. we won. we found a seventy foot waterfall. we kissed in front of it and we were cute. oh and we definitely rocked out to eminem and taylor swift on the way.

• i am starting a women’s bible study on wednesday. it is called “he speaks to me” and is about learning to discern the Lord’s voice from the world’s and discovering His language, tone, and character so we can recognize when he speaks. i am pretty pumped.
• dj and i had the missions department over last week for a dessert night. kristy made orange brownies and they are freaking amazing. they taste like ten pounds of butter and i LOVE them. you can find the recipe here.
• Tuesday is my 2 year anniversary on staff at The Village. I am so incredibly blessed…. i love my boss and my staff. I love getting to work with not just co-workers, but good friends. i love that i work with kids and for kids and that i learn so much about god in the curriculum that we teach them. i love how the lord brought me to this place and i love that he lets me be a part of all he is doing there. i love getting to work with my husband. i have no idea why God sees fit for us to be there, but i am so thankful that he does. here is a picture of half of my sweet staff…i apparently do not have a picture of all six of us on my home computer:

• the weather has been incredible. dj and i are thinking about camping out in the backyard soon since the nights have been so crisp. we have been enjoying many conversations on the back porch as of late.
• i am getting to see the greatest love story of the century (besides mine and dj’s of course) unfold right in front of my eyes!
• and life in general has just been good lately…..

xoxo

our gun-filled week

don’t judge, but dj and i own two guns… i hate them and am scared to death of them, but dj has them for protection. in the whole two and a half years since we have been married, not once have we needed to use them, but in the past week, he’s had to pull it out twice. TWICE.

last week, the doorbell rang at 3:00 in the morning. being the light sleeper that i am, i shot right up and freaked out, assuming it was a bad guy…. you know, because bad guys always politely ring the doorbell before entering. i immediately woke dj up and said, “babe! someone is at the door. wake up!” if you remember from a previous post, im quite the sleep talker, so dj didnt think anything of this… he just said that no one was at the door and rolled over to go back to sleep. i nudged him harder and said, “no i swear, someone rang the doorbell. marmalade heard it too. WAKE UP!”…again, he thinks im crazy, talking about marmalade hearing the doorbell. i wasnt crazy, the second the doorbell rang marmalade woke up and looked towards the door all alert-like. at this point it had been over a minute and i’m telling dj that i’m scared someone hit my car out front and is ringing the doorbell to tell us. just as he is about to tell me i am just talking in my sleep, the doorbell rings again, and dj shoots straight up all freaked out, realizing i am telling the truth, and wondering who the heck is at the door at 3:00 in the morning. he grabs the gun and tells me to stay in the bedroom. disregarding submission alltogether, i grab my crutches and start hobbling after him. he said, “what are you doing? get back and stay in the bedroom” to which i reply no, because if it’s a bad guy and dj gets attacked, i can beat him away with my crutches. i am not even strong enough to get my cat off me when he attacks, yet i think i can protect my husband from a bad guy. i am an idiot.  anyway, i continue following dj and as we round the corner to get to the front door, dj stops dead in his tracks and says, “crap. this would be a great time to have a peep hole.” dj had been meaning to install it for like a month, but alas, there sat the peep hole on the window ledge right next to the door. dj begins to peek his head out the window to see who is at the door, only to realize he has about six inches of afro and forehead that sticks out before he can see anything. all he is doing is giving himself away to the bad guy outside. we see a huge bright flashlight beaming into the house, realize its a cop, and dj quickly dashes the gun against the wall and out of sight. we open the door and have a friendly conversation with the neighborhood cop about how we left the garage door open and if anyone were to break in, they would do it between the 3:00 and 4:00 hour. he wanted to make sure that the door from the garage to the house was locked and to remind us to close the garage door. whew! no bad guy, no car accident outside, no one’s dead. just a sweet little cop who was so concerned about our safety that he was willing to wake us up at 3:00 to tell us to close the garage door. i really appreciated it and so i thanked him and told him how glad i was that he was willing to risk waking us up if it meant we could prevent the house from getting broken into. his response was priceless: “yea, well i’m always scared to wake people up in the middle of the night because i just know one of these days i’m gonna get shot….” uhhhhh yea. the only response we had was nervous laughter as our eyes quickly dodged to the side to make sure the gun was out of sight!

and then AGAIN this morning… i woke up at 8:00 to find that our back door was WIDE open. What the heck?! here i am crutching into the living room to see that the house has seemingly been broken into. i half-run, half-hobble back into the bedroom and wake dj up and tell him he has to go search for a bad guy because the door is open and someone must have broken in. dj grabs the gun and searches the house.. nothing has been taken, nothing is missing… although marmalade did wander out into the backyard. the only thing we could think of is that we didnt close it all the way last night and so the storm must have blew the door open- and yes, there was water all over our floor from the rain. lame.

but YAY for no robbers any for not needing the gun-again!

and that has been our exciting week : )

john piper and the prosperity gospel

this is really powerful.