He is there

It feels as though during this season of life I am faced with more questions than I am answers. More confusion than understanding. More tears than laughter. 

This is when I have to remind myself that God is in control.

People wonder how believers can follow a God who allows bad things to happen to them. They say, “If God is loving and merciful why would He allow this to happen to you?” I honestly don’t know the answer to that question. I am not to the point where I can look back and see why God allowed or is allowing certain things to happen. But one thing that I know with out a doubt is that I would WAY rather walk through this time with God instead of without Him.

This doesn’t mean that I don’t sit down and just cry wondering why. This doesn’t mean that there are never times that I wish it all away or that I wonder what on earth God is doing. It doesn’t take away those feelings. But one thing that it does is help me choose how to handle those feelings.

I have to stop and give it to God. 

Although I may not understand, although it appears at the time to be more for my harm than my good, I have to give it to Him knowing He is in control. 

He loves me. What more do I need?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know it has been awhile since I last updated. I know there are still promised pictures of our house to be posted. We don't have internet at our house right now and it makes things difficult. Hopefully next month we will have it and those pictures will be put up. For today, this is what you get. :)

Christmas Photo Shoot

Coming soon - to a Christmas Card near you....

Thank you so much to Britt's sister Brooke for taking these. It was so much fun!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know that a lot of people have asked me about pictures of our house. I really am working on them. We still do not have internet set up so my access is limited but I hope to have some soon!

Ella Dawn

Please be praying for This Little Girl. She has been on a difficult journey the first 3 months of her life but has done so well considering her situation. Things are not looking great right now though so please, please keep her in your prayers as the Lord bring her and her parents to mind. This is my best friends first baby and my heart breaks for them but I know that we serve a faithful loving God who is in control.

Moving like crazy!

It's been a while.

Things are crazy. 

My living room looks like this:

Okay - it's not quite like that, this may or may not be my living room. ;) But trust me! It. Is. Bad. And the white walls with nothing on them are just sad to look at.

Question of the day: How do you pack all of your things when you STILL have to LIVE?

Getting a new house = AWESOME! Packing to get there = LAME.

Despite the craziness of life with packing on top of it all I am so excited! One week from tomorrow and the moving process will begin. By November the 13th I will be sleeping in my new home. So happy! :)

I hope to have more picture coming with the move! I also have a lot of decorating things ahead of me and plan to have Before and After pictures with instructions on what I did. So hopefully that is something to look forward to. In the mean time, hang in there with me through this move.

*Deep Breath* :)

Tonight I...

-Made a really yummy Omelet with green peppers, onion, fresh mushroom, tomato and turkey bacon. It was good!

-Watched a movie.

-Painted my toenails and fingernails

-Took my dog on a walk

-And now I a about to watch something else and take a bubble bath.

I needed tonight!

Now to tackle the rest of this crazy week. :p

Britt and I spent part of the day together at Frontier City last weekend. It was beautiful weather and even better company! :) We had a really great time being together, ridding rides and screaming at the top of our lungs (ok, maybe that was just me). :)

Here we are about to ride the "Eruption" for the first time that day. 

That's about what it looked like when we were waaaay up there!

We are on the "Old Time Cars Here. I wasn't watching the road very well... haha

Still not really watching the road....

NOW... I want to show you some sneak peak pictures of our house. The thing is that when I took these it was not "ours" yet. I guess it sill isn't officially ours ever since we are renting but it feels like it's close enough and it sure beats our one bedroom apartment.

Now: Please understand that when I took these pictures the guy that has been living there was still in the process of moving out so there is random stuff in the pictures. Once we actually move in and set things up of course I will post more pictures!

The house!

The living room when you walk in. To the right is the kitchen, straight ahead a bedroom and to the left down the hall 2 more bedrooms and a bathroom. 

The living room looking the other way. I LOVE the floors!

The first half of the kitchen...

The other half of the kitchen.

I don't have pics of the bedrooms yet but once we get things set up I will put them on here. It will probably be a month or so (at least) but, it will happen!

We are sooooo excited about having a house. We really love it and God has provided in SO many ways already!

For what it's worth...

I am trying out the whole blog thing again. In all honesty

Since I don't have a lot of time and I have the worlds most crappy Internet connection I am not sure why, but here I am anyway.

Catch up ='s
- No longer working at the Capitol
- Britt is no Longer at Hobby Lobby Corporate.
- We are a "Staff Couple" at the University of Oklahoma Baptist Student Union.
- I also am a financial secretary on the side and Britt is doing some grounds work at a retreat center.
- This year ='s the most crazy, hard, exciting, testing, faith building year of my life. Period.

This year, with everything that has gone on with my dad to starting a whole new adventure of going into student ministry has been a whirlwind. I am happy to report that I am still alive and here although sometimes I feel like I am hardly alive and here.

Never the less, I am grateful for everything that has happened this year. This Song has been really good for me throughout these past few months. I sing it. A lot. But the lyrics are so true, He is always faithful.

As the post title says, "for what it's worth..." I am back, at least to try this whole blogging thing again. I can't promise on what it will look like but here I am.

I am off now. We have a bible study tonight (at 9pm - College life!)

Goodbye for now...

He is always faithful

If I have learned anything of importance this year it is how precious life is and that everyday we have is a gift.


On April the 10th my dad was in a car accident that would change my families’ life forever.

On August 9th my best friend gave birth to a precious baby girl who has 2 rare heart conditions and is currently fighting for her life.

Everyday is without doubt a gift and we never know when life will end but that each day is a privilege.

I see pictures of my dad today, or talk to him on the phone, or go to his house and see him. I have tears in my eyes with gratefulness to the Lord that He spared my dad’s life.

I was able to go see baby Ella at the hospital on Tuesday and hold her little hand and see her fighting for life. I put tears in my eyes.

The one thing that continued to go through my head after my dads wreck was what my dad always says “The Lord is always faithful”.

Now, as I watch sweet baby Ella on this journey I remind myself again of those words, “The Lord is always faithful”. We don’t understand it, we can’t see what He is doing, but He is faithful. God does not force the bad things on us, He is just there for us to walk through them.

Britt’s dad reminded me of a wonderful truth. He said, “Sometimes God calms the storm and sometimes he calms the child.” I think that most of the things I have walked through this year the Lord has not chosen to calm the storm, He hasn’t taken away the circumstance but He has calmed the child. I have experienced peace that surpasses all understanding.

He is always faithful!

I don't know what to call this.

I would be VERY surprised if anyone reads this thing anymore. I didn't even bother to look at what day I last posted because it is pathetic. Here I am though. Pretending to get back into it all. The truth of the matter is that it is a slim to none chance that I am "back in it". Life is taking a HUGE turn and giving us less hours in the day. Not REALLY less hours but I know that it will feel that way. Britt and I will both be working part-time jobs and working part-time at the Baptist Student Union at OU. This is an exciting adventure that is going to be amazing and probably kick our butts too. The truth is that I couldn't care less. I finally feel like we are moving in the direction of what we want to do and it thrills me!!!

I hope that all of you (the blogging world) are doing well. In my lack of blogging I have also neglected reading other blogs. That however, is one thing that I plan on fixing. Even though I may not update as often I hope to keep updated on your life. And who knows, maybe I will have more time to update then I think.

The summer has been VERY full with job preparations, my dads accident and recovery, church, current jobs, new puppy dogs, Britt being out of town most of the month of July, etc...

Sad thing is that I don't have pictures to prove it so you will just have to take me word for it! :)

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Trying it out!

Britt and I just purchase a new computer today. We love it!!! There is this program on the computer that allows me to update my blog, add pictures and make changes and then it will publish it to the blog. Do any of you use this? If so, do you like it better or worse? I am testing it out right now so we will see how it goes!

Hopefully sometime soon I will have some kind of a real post since it has been way too long! Britt has been out of town though and he is home now so my attention is his (Sorry blogging world). :)

Hope you all have a happy and safe 4th!!!

Chloe

Meet the new addition to our family. Chloe!

We got her this past Saturday and we are loving her! She has a great personality and is so fun! Obviously the worst part is potty training but HOPEFULLY she gets it down soon. It is too hot to stand outside hoping she will go! lol

Potty Training or not you just can't deny a sweet face like that! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is it just me or does it seem WAY too hot WAY too soon here this year? I mean, it is only June and it already feels like that "it is so hot I can't breath weather". I was not prepared for this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not a lot to say right now. My life is potty training Chloe and work. :) Hope you all had a great Fathers Day weekend though and are having a great week so far!

Seems like all I do on here is catch up.

This past weekend Britt and I had another celebration of our "1 Year" together. You see, the place that we purchased our wedding cake from has this deal where on your 1 year anniversary you can come back with a picture of your cake and they will make an exact replica of your cake topper for $10. That a way you still get to have the tradition of the "Eat your cake topper on your 1 year" and have good cake too! Basically, 'You get to have your cake and eat it too.' ;) Pun intended!

Here is what our actual cake looked like! :)

Here is the cake topper!

Not too bad! It was a lot of fun to eat and talk about the past year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other than eating cake our weekend and life in general has been filled with a lot! A few weekends ago my little brother Justin came to stay with us and it was a great time! the week following that I had work and Western Hills was having their VBS which they call "Character Week". I helped out with that some too and it was fun because it was like the 'old times'.

This week has been full! Britt found out that next Wednesday is his last day at Hobby Lobby *happy dance* and he will finally start his new part-time job. He is going to be working for a guy in our church who has a roofing company. The hours will work out great with everything going on at the BSU. This summer, until school starts, he will be able to work full-time which is great too! Although, he is going to be out of town for 2 weeks coming up because they have a work project in Tulsa. So, if anyone wants to hang out PLEASE let me know! :) And then after he gets home just a little while later he will be going to CA for some BSU training. Like I said, if you want to hang out.... :) I am available!

For those of you who did not know I am working as a nanny for a family in Norman. They have three little girls. Two identical twins who are 18 months and a newborn that is about 8 weeks. They keep me on my toes for sure but the job is a really blessing and will work out great with my hours at the BSU too! The Lord has really provided some great jobs for Britt and I both and we are so excited to began doing the work that we know God is calling us to. Our next big step is raising our support. It is not going to be an easy task but the Lord has already proved so faithful in this I am excited to see all that He will do!

Well, Happy Thursday to you all! I hope your weekend is going well and cheers to an "almost here weekend!" :)

Happy Birthday Dad

  Happy Birthday to my dad. I have never been so thankful for my dad and his life like I am today. I am thankful that he is here. The "odds" would say that he should not be but by God's merciful grace He is and for that I am so thankful.

I am thankful for the man that my dad is. The man that gets on his face before the Lord, the man who I personally saw many times in the mornings in the word, the man I know prays for me daily.

I am so thankful for my dads example. The life he leads. Forsaking everything for the sake of the gospel. Leading many people to the Lord. Acting out his faith on a daily basis, even now, lying in a hospital bed, living out that faith!

I am thankful that I am like my dad. I have three brothers and out of the four fo us I am the most like my dad. When I was younger it would frustrate me because being a girl and having a strong personality was difficult but I have learned how to use it for the Lords glory and now, looking back on my life and looking forward to the road ahead, I am so grateful and blesses to be like my dad.

My dad is one of my biggest hero's and one of my biggest fans. I am his only daughter and I love it! :) My dad was the keeper of my heart for so many years. He was my protector, provider and the person I could lean on. Even though I am married I know that he will never stop being there for me when I need him. Even now, as he lays in a hospital bed fighting everyday to get better, without fail every time I see him he asks, "How are you?"

Daddy, I love you so much and I pray for you daily! I am hoping and resting in the Lord during this stage of life and I can hear the words you always say over and over in my head, "He is always faithful!" I know that is true and I am so thankful for the legacy of faith that you passed down to me and that I will pass down to my children. I love you daddy!

Christmas 2010

Africa 2007

Wedding day, 2009

Update on the month of May

Wow! Life has been CRAZY and has not slowed down. I think that I am finally in the clear and might be able to actually take a breath here and there for the next few weeks.


We have been out of town the last 2 weekends and we were busy both weekends before that as well. That has taken up a lot of time not to mention everything that we have done in-between.

I am home though and able to actually update the blog.

Here is a picture of Britt and his two best friends from the second week in May. I just had to put them up here, I think they are really good pics!

I don’t have a lot of pictures from our trips but will post the few I have. Our first trip was to Dallas, TX and we celebrated my birthday and our 1 year anniversary. My birthday is on the 29th and our anniversary the 30th but we decided to celebrate a week early. While we were there we mostly swam, ate and shopped. It was nice to just relax and have a good time together. :)

Britt in the car on the way there...and half of me. :)

Here I am! haha

And again. :)

Our room! I loved the bedding!

Another view...

The bathroom...

The outside. - I did not have a picture of the outside so this is from the hotels website. :)

The swimming pool. Once again thank you to the Hotel website.

Downown Dallas.

I love this building!

This past weekend we went to St. Louis, MO to see Britt’s best friend Todd. We brought Todd’s girlfriend with us and had a great time hanging out and just having fun. Todd is leaving to go to North Africa for the summer so it was good to see him before he left.

Britt and I at Crown Candy. GREAT place to eat! :)

Katie and Todd!

The counter! haha

The outside.

Again.

I did not take many pictures this trip other than this day. We were really busy the whole time and since we had been to St. Louis before we didn't do a lot of the "tourist" things.

Now we are home and it is good to just take a deep breath, let it out and then of course tackle the massive pile of laundry. ;) Seriously though, this week SHOULD slow down a bit and it will be nice.

The main thing going on this week is that my little brother, Justin, is coming to stay with us for a few days. It should still be pretty chill though. If you did not know Justin was in the car accident with my dad and busted up his right ankle, right shoulder and two fingers on his right hand pretty bad. He has been in a wheelchair since the wreck but last week he was able to graduate to a pair of crutches so he is now able to climb the stairs at our apartment. We are going to have some fun this weekend but with his injuries most activities will be pretty calm so I think we will be hanging out by the pool, going to see a movie and eating lots of yummy sno-cones! It should be relaxing and I am looking forward to it!


I am going to jump back a moment here and talk a little more about Britt and my One Year Anniversary. I would have really liked to write a post on the day of our anniversary but we were out of town and it would have been crazy so consider part of this post the “One Year Tribute”! :)

When I look back over the past year it has FLOWN by. I never knew time could go so quickly. People always tell us, “Wow! You made it through the first year; it is always the most difficult year!” If that is truly the case then I am excited beyond words because this first year of marriage has been a joy and not even close to a struggle! I personally believe that marriage will get more difficult when kids come into the picture but for whatever reason a lot of people say it is the first year and that was just not the case for us.

It is probably because I married one amazing man! Seriously! He is so great and I am beyond blessed to have Britt as my husband. Until you are married and actually share your life with someone it is hard to understand exactly what people mean when they say they love their husband/wife more and more everyday. I can truly say that I love Britt at LEAST 365 times more then I did last year at this time. ;) So it is true, you do love the person more and more each day. Is marriage always perfect? No, in fact it can be quite difficult. Am I always an angel as a wife and Britt always a Saint of a husband? No, not quite. But the thing is that the Lord is the center of our relationship and because of that we have a great marriage that is full of lots of love, laughter and fun! I am so thankful to be married and there is no doubt in my mind, in fact one year later I know even more, that I married the perfect man for me.

Here’s to another year and then 60+ more!