Turkey-less Thanksgiving

2 posts in one night? My heart is heavy, I cannot sleep and I just feel blah. And Jared has already gone to bed so I'm in no rush to get in bed.

Thanksgiving... oh Thanksgiving, you are a great holiday. Thanksgiving is probably a bigger favorite of mine than Christmas. This year was our first Thanksgiving with our families. Last year we were on our Honeymoon. I was determined to see both sides of our families for Thanksgiving. I don't like to split up holidays. So we started out in Saginaw with my Dad then drove to Denton to see my Mom and then finally we made our way to Aledo to see Jared's parents. I planned out the time perfectly so that each parent(s) would get the same amount of time with us. We ate THREE TIMES that day... I don't mean like we just nibbled here and there -we ate three full meals, but good thing that Jared & I like to eat! :) I ate everything, but Turkey. I went the entire day without eating a single piece of Turkey. Lately, I've become more and more of a no-meat-eater. It's not that I think it's wrong, I just think it's gross. Ever since Jared & I got married I cannot stand the sight of meat, especially raw meat. It's mostly chicken, pork and turkey- I can stomach fish easily and beef is becoming easier. Now, this would not be a problem if I hadn't married who I married. Jared is a meat kind of guy. He doesn't do salads for dinner. So I haven't been making dinner lately. I just can't stand the sight of it and my gag reflex is super sensitive. I'll try to eat chicken and I'll start gagging. It's ridiculous, I know, but it's the way it is.

So all that to say I ate everything else but meat on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was really sweet this year. I have so many things to be thankful for and I just feel so overwhelmed. God is so good and His love never fails.

This post is kind of scrambled, but it's past midnight and I started feeling tired once I started blogging.

Cheers.

Call to Prayer

Matt Chandler, Pastor of The Village Church in Texas has a tumor on his frontal lobe.

Here is what was written on the Facebook page:

Matt will undergo surgery Friday afternoon

Pastor Matt Chandler will have surgery Friday afternoon to remove a tumor located in the frontal lobe of his brain. The surgery will be performed by Dr. David Barnett.

Dr. Barnett told Matt that he was positive about recovery but won’t know the full results until the surgery is performed. The doctor was uncertain about the malignancy of the tumor, and a biopsy will be performed as part of the surgery.

The outpouring of support and prayers from all over the world has been overwhelming to Matt and Lauren. Continue to pray and fast on behalf of the family. The church’s monthly prayer service will be Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Highland Village, Denton and Dallas Northway worship centers. We encourage you to fast throughout that day and join us to pray that evening. If you cannot join us, pray wherever you are.

We continue to rest in the knowledge that Matt is in the sovereign hand of our heavenly Father who loves him immensely more than we can comprehend, and He alone understands the reasons for this trial. Along with your prayers, continue to give Matt and Lauren and their family time and space for their continued rest.


I think I may have met Matt once. I feel like I've known him for years. He's just that kind of guy. Real, genuine, honest, loving, to the point, hilarious, but most importantly he is a servant of our Gracious Savior. I  know that we serve a great God who is capable of miraculous miracles. I ask that you join me and literally hundreds of others in prayer for Matt & his family. 

1. Jesus, Savior, pilot me,
   Over life’s tempestuous sea;
   Unknown waves before me roll,
   Hiding rock and treach’rous shoal;
   Chart and compass came from Thee:
   Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
2. As a mother stills her child,
   Thou canst hush the ocean wild;
   Boist’rous waves obey Thy will
   When Thou say’st to them, “Be still!”
   Wondrous Sov’reign of the sea,
   Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
3. When at last I near the shore,
   And the fearful breakers roar
   ’Twixt me and the peaceful rest,
   Then, while leaning on Thy breast,
   May I hear Thee say to me,
   “Fear not, I will pilot thee.”

To check for updates on Matt Chandler you can go to: 

Matt's Twitter

The Village's Twitter

The Village Church

Momma said there will be days like this...

Our Housewarming party is this Saturday so Jared & I are trying to tie up all the loose ends with the house. This weekend we started painting the trim and got sick of it quickly and stopped. So today I really needed to finish it. It started out great until I got to the bathroom... I was truckin' along until I realized some spots on the bathroom door that needed to be touched up. That bathroom hadn't been painted in years! I started dabbing on the door and figured what the heck, I might as well paint the door. Good idea, right? Nope!

I took off all of the hardware on the door (I have no idea how I'm going to get it back on there) and this black dust stuff came pouring out of the door hole. It looks a lot like gun powder. I figured that I could just paint over the black dust stuff and the paint would cover it. Well the paint didn't cover it. It made it worse. My white paint turned gray. I grabbed a paper towel and started to rub off the grayish color and it came off nicely. Then I started on the backside of the door and it needed to be a different color than the front side. I rinsed off my paint brushes and grabbed some new ones and started to paint the backside of the door with the different paint color. Once I finished I thought... How am I going to get out of the bathroom? I had painted over everything on the door and I couldn't touch any of it.  I had to stick my fingers through the door hole and gently pull the door toward me. It was a lot funnier then than it is now. Now, it just sounds like a pointless story, but to me it was funny.

Point of it all- The bathroom is finished for now. There's still a lot I want to do, but for a while I'm done with it. Jared & I decided yesterday that anymore painting projects were going to be done professionally.

We're almost Housewarming party ready!!

Take me back to Cabo!

A year ago Jared & I were in Cabo... and now I'm sitting on the couch with a sinus infection/cold. Man, I'd love to be back on the beach! Even though our honeymoon was a disaster, I'd still love to be back there now.

We were on a shuttle from our hotel to get onto the plane to Cabo.
The most awkward morning of our lives.

 

This was banana milk... It was amazingness in a glass.
We drank this every morning! I tried to make it at
 home and it was a major fail.

  

This was some famous spot in Los Cabos. I don't remember

why it's famous. I remember there were sea

 lions all over the shallow parts though.

Even though Jared & I could not stand each other on our honeymoon, I'd love to back there right now with him. We're already planning honeymoon #2. Who says you can only have one? Not us! Alaska has been thrown in there along The Virgin Islands and maybe (hopefully) going around Europe galavanting like fools. I'm pulling hard for the Europe one!

Now, I'm back to stuffing Kleenexes up my nose and watching reruns.
Cabo, thank you for the memories. I'm sure you would have been much more enjoyable if I liked my husband back then like I do now. :)

One Year Anniversary!!

Jared and I celebrated our one year anniversary on Saturday and it was soooo fun!!!

I had it perfectly planned out in my head how the day would go:

• Sleep in late and then have a huge breakfast
• Go for a drive in East Texas and find some cute little lunch place
• Get some yummy food at Central Market
• Come home and cook the yummy food and have James Taylor in the background while wearing my cute anniversary black dress.
• Eat the wedding cake and have a glass of the same champagne that we had at the wedding

Here's what really happened:

• Slept in too late and all the breakfast places were packed so we settled for Whataburger's breakfast which was pretty good!
• A 2 hour drive one way to find a cool spot turned into us eating at Carl's Jr. (nasty) because we couldn't find anywhere cool to eat and turned around and drove back to Fort Worth.
• We get to Central Market and we're picking out foods then Jared walks over the meat section and says, "Go away, seeing this meat will make you nauseous." I think No, it wont! I'm past that... I definitely was not past that. I saw the raw, bloody, nasty meat and began to gag!!!
• We came home to cook the food and got into an argument because we forgot things at the store and it was already 8:30pm and we were starving! There was no James Taylor because my iTunes wouldn't work. I didn't put on the little back anniversary dress because I was too cold! The food did come out amazing though!
• Jared sliced up the cake, but by that point I was already stuffed and I really don't like icing... so I ate one bite of the cake and that was that.

Overall, we had a wonderful anniversary! I just loved being with him. We sat out by the fire and talked for probably 2 hours about life and where we are now. It was so awesome and I know that God has richly blessed us! I cannot wait to see what year 2 brings!

Quick Update!

Well, lately Jared & I have been up to our elbows in house projects and getting things just the way we want them. So many people have told me that you are never really finished with a house, and while that's true, I still want to get as much done as I can before Jared cuts off of my funding and before I lose the ideas. And no, I'm not going to write down my ideas on a piece of paper because I'll lose the piece of paper!!

Not a lot is too new around these parts. Jared & I will celebrate our anniversary on the 21st and I am just beaming with excitement! And I just watched our wedding video for the first time today and I could not stop crying. It was so sweet and, ah... I just love being married to the man I'm married to!

I just finished the last major house project for awhile. I've redone just about every room in the house and I love the way they have all turned out. Jared & I definitely picked some daring colors that probably don't go together, but we love them. This sweet little (big) house has been such a blessing to me. Jared & I have already made some wonderful memories here and I cannot wait to make more!

Cheers.

We're Home Owners!!

We bought a house!! :) I just can't begin to tell you how happy I am that we own a house!... And not just any house, but a wonderful house! A quick rundown of the house: 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 living areas, dining room, big kitchen, & plenty of green grass to play in! Jared's beloved grandfather lived in this home before he unexpectedly passed away in December '08. This home means a lot to us not only because it was Papa Kesler's but also but it's now ours.

There was a lot to be done in the house when we got here. Not anything too major, just mostly cosmetic changes (i.e. LOTS of paint). We've already made a lot of changes like taking the top cabinet doors in the kitchen, replacing the chandelier in the living room/formal dining room, and painted just about every room. It may not sound like we've done a lot, but trust me it's been a very l-o-n-g process.

One of the days that I was painting the master bedroom I spilt a little bit of the paint on the door and I had no rag or anything to wipe it up with. All the shades were up and the windows were open so I looked around to see if any neighbors were around and I didn't see any so I just took off my shirt really quick to wipe of the paint. About the time I have the paint wiped up I looked over and saw our neighbor pulling in his driveway!!!! He could probably see right in our bedroom!!! I dropped to the floor and quickly put my shirt back on and stayed on the floor until I heard his garage door shut! I thought it was funny, but Jared didn't.

Right now I'm in the process of putting our things away and getting organized. I seriously didn't know we had this much stuff! I finish up in a room then find more boxes that need to be put away in the room I thought I had just finished! Hopefully this week I can get everything put away and start hanging things and get to the fun stuff!