A homemade holiday!!

The past few years me and my friend Christy have made a tradition of baking tons of holiday treat for family and friends and putting them in cute Christmas tins. This year however I really wanted to do something different. I just wasn't feeling the Holiday treats. I have come to love homemade gifts and so this year with help of some very creative friends Christy and I are getting crafty this year!! We went out last night and bought our supplies and will be having our Christmas craft day next week!! I am so excited! And I was shocked at how much cheaper all our supplies were compared to what we spent last year for all our baking supplies. I am a fan of thriftiness! I am feeling the baking itch a little though. And I am so glad my friend Amanda is having a little girls night tonight so I think I am going to whip out my spatula and mixer this afternoon and bake something yummy for the party!! If anyone has any cool holiday treats ( Morgan I am sure you do!) I always love new recipes!!

Christmas Swap!

This is my first blog swap to participate in and I am very excited!! I dont want to ruin any of the surpises that my secret swapper will be getting so I will refrain from posting pictures til after she recieves it. It was such a fun experience putting together all the little packages and adding some of my favorite Christmas things into the gift. If you ever get a chance to be apart of a gift swap I recommend doing it! Plus you have someone else out there putting together a little package for you! I will let you know what I get when it arrives!

Laid to rest...

It has been a very busy week for our family. My grandfather passed away on Saturday night. It was very peaceful, and you could feel a sense of relief come over my family after he was gone. I cant imagine not believing in heaven at a time like this. I think I would be in despair had I not had complete faith in knowing my papa was in Heaven right now with Jesus. I actually found myself a little jealous. I cant wait for the day when I get to meet the Lord! The funeral was very nice they made the emphasis much more on celebration of life with God then on death. I got to meet a lot of people that knew and loved my granddad, and listen to some very funny stories. All in all my first funeral experience although sad was not to bad. After all of that was over we went and had a really nice dinner at a new french restaurant Brasserie Max and Julie with my immediate family. It was actually my step mothers birthday and we tried to make it a special day for her too. The next weeks and months will be very interesting to see how my family comes together in the absence of my granddad. I am praying that God would do a work in all our lives and teach us more about Him through all of this!

8 Miles!!!

Julie and I ran 8 miles this morning!! The longest both of us have run. It was quite a feat. We started off early this morning, the sun was just peaking out over the horizon. The first two miles were a little rough, but we hit our stride and by the fourth mile we were both feeling great. Julie and I have been running buddies since this Summer. We are training to do the Houston half marathon in January. Our runs have been so amazing for me. I don't think I could have stuck with this had it not been for my sweet running buddy. We hold each other accountable to keep running and push each other to run further and faster each time. I remember about a month ago we were running and laughing really loudly. All the other runners on the road were staring at us with these puzzled looks on their faces like these girls are crazy! But our runs are so much fun. We talk, laugh, and have great fellowship. This training period has mirrored exactly what is said in Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." There have been many early mornings that I have wanted to stay tucked in my cozy bed, but God gently wakes me up and reminds me why I love to run and how good it is for my body. Just like he reminds me how good it is to read His word and how good it is to share the love he has shown me with others!

Currently reading...

I heard a sermon out of Nehemiah this past weekend while we were visiting our dear friends Jared and Robin and their church Paradox. Their pastor Scott did such a wonderful job going through Nehemiah that I have not been able to stop thinking about it. I have been thinking a lot about what it is to have a vision for your life, and to be a visionary person. And to take from Scott's sermon, He talked about how Nehemiah saw what was and saw what could be. I feel like I get caught up sometimes in the small details of life that I cant see the bigger vision that God wants me to see. So I have been asking myself the last few days about what God's vision is for my life, and am I following that vision? I am still very deep in processing my thoughts, and dont have much clear direction yet, but I am so thankful that God uses these simple things in life to cause me to pause and step out of my cookie cutter Sugar Land life for a moment of reflection. More to come as I continue to process!

Christmas Gift ideas

I am already getting into the Christmas spirit and its not even Thanksgiving!! I feel a little behind compared to some of my firends who have already started decorating their houses! Every year I try to get really organized and plan out my gifts months in advance but I always feel stressed during December. I usually pick some sort of theme for all my gifts and then personalize it to fit each person. For example a few years ago I was promoting literacy so I got everyone books that fit their personalities and had significant meaning to me and packaged them with a little something sweet to enjoy while reading. This year I have been collecting ideas as I go so I have several to choose from. My latest idea find is from Emily (who is an amazing blogger) on homemade beeswax candles. I am going to order the beeswax this week hopefully!! I am always looking for new Christmas gift ideas, so if you have them send them over!!

A french lesson

This post is actually really for my wonderful friend Erin.  She has been asking me to figure out how to pronounce the French word for "Arm Chair."  It is spelled "Fauteuil." And just looking at that you could come up with some pretty funny ways to pronounce it.  Well I have checked my sources and the correct pronounciation of "Fauteuil" is basically saying the word "faux" and "thoy" together quickly in your best French accent!! I love practicing my french, and hopefully we will be going back to France next summer so I better keep practicing!!

Run Much?

I am looking for a treadmill. Does anyone know someone who is selling one? Or does anyone know of a good one to purchase? Thanks!

Hollywood here we come!!

We are headed to Los Angeles on Thursday to visit our very dear friends Jared and Robin, and to celebrate Robin's and my birthday. We are bursting with excitement to see these guys and spend some time in LA. I know we have a few fun things planned, but if anyone has any must see places to go in LA let me know! We are also getting to go to their church on Sunday, and Mike is leading worship for them. It's been almost a year since Mike and Jared have played together and I know they are very excited to get to do that together. Robin has informed me that she and Jared are scheming on ways to get us to move there, so stay tuned! I could see myself in California! I will post pictures of our adventures next week!

Fun Find!

Sorry for the lag in posting lately. I dont know if this has happened to anyone else when they first started their blog but I was finding myself writing a post and then half way through hitting delete thinking to myself who is really going to want to read that. Anyway I am trying to get over my silly self and post some fun things! For those of you out there that like the finer things in life but really dont have the money to pay for them I came across this website called Bluefly. It has a ton of great designer clothes, shoes, and bags all for about 40% off what you would normally pay. I have not actually bought anything from the site yet, but I have been eyeing a few things! And when you sign up for their email updates they send you coupons all the time! Let me know if you have ever purchased anything from this online shop.