sad eyes.

Poor baby Jovie.
She knows we are leaving and is moping around with her sad eyes.

Little does she know, not only will we be back, but she will also have her cousin David, Jack, and Grandma all over to keep her company while we are gone!

Indifferent?

As I am preparing for our trip to Venezuela a very common questions has been asked. "Are you excited?!". I usually say Yeahhh, and a little nervous, but really I always feel like that is a lie. I don't really feel anything about it. I just feel indifferent. I don't know why. I don't know if that is a bad thing (shouldn't I be excited?) or it is a good thing (i'm not super nervous?). I just don't know. It is like my heart is numb to the concept that I will be in a foreign country shortly.

I wish I was excited, although I have yet to be "excited" about any trip I have taken to a different country. (Even a 5 star resort in Mexico!) I am very grateful that I am not hyperventilating scared like I was before Mexico.

God has plans. I know I would not be going on this trip if He wasn't expecting me to be obedient to this call. Ryan and I both felt very strongly that we should not miss out on this oppurtunity. (As I was just writing that sentence I did actually get a few butterflies.)  So ready or not, excited or not, nervous or not, Venezuela we are coming!

Fabulous Finds!

Thanks to one of my fav's Young House Love, I stumbled across Joss and Main. It is a store that puts home decor items on sale all the time! Not only does it have great sales, it also has a pretty good reward program! There is  a bit of a catch, access is restricted to members only so here is an invitation to join.


Here are a few items that are on sale!!

Every girl wants.

Obession might be too small of a word for my relationship with Pinterest. If you don't know of the site, beware. It will be one of the things that when the site is gone, I will think of it and be brought back to this summer. I spend alot of time on browsing on it. Enough about that, here is one my latest favorite finds. It is just what a every girl wants.

*pic from here

Craftastic Friday!

My "big" summer project was redoing three chairs. I bought the chairs for like $9 total from Good Will. They sat in my garage for a few weeks and I finally finished two of the chairs. I ran out of paint so the third is about a coat or two away from being finished. Soooo here they are!!

Before:

During:

After:

School's out for...

A few more weeks.

It is so funny how fast my feelings can change about teaching. Literally last week I was feeling sick about starting school again. I felt like I was not refreshed and I was terrified. I felt like I wasn't capable of teaching again. Weird I know. Then I went and visited my friend's new classroom, and BOOM! I was in teaching mode again! I am still definitely not wanting to back any sooner than I have to, but I am not dreading it. I am pretty exciting about being a sponsor again and knowing the ropes with that position this year. I have the drive and desire to be the best teacher I can possibly be. The fear is gone and has been replaced with excitement.

All that being said, I am still soaking up the summer! We are getting ready for our big Venezeula trip! It is almost time for me to allow myself to start to think about that. Yikes. I always get super nervous about going out of the country,so far I have been pretty relaxed about this one. Prayers would be greatly appreciated for peace :)

Once was dead, but now I live...

I am now alive in a way that I had never felt alive before. Every breath has meaning, and every part of life feels so different. I can’t really explain in words how it feels except that I feel I have been made alive. Sure, I was living before, but now I am alive.

Today while I was stalking browsing the blogs I read I came across a new blog. I clicked on it because the girl's name seemed familiar. I am sure I don't know this girl (which is really weird if I stop long enough to think about that), but her story seemed very familiar to me. Probably because she had a similiar story to mine about how she pretty much grew up believe in the one true God, but just didn't really "get it". As I was reading her story I just kept thinking "I totally understand what she means!".  She posted the quote above and I don't know if she wrote it or where she got it, but that is exactly how I feel.

That is exactly how I want my closest friends and family to feel. That is why I want to people to fall in love with Jesus. He will bring their lives alive.

It reminds me of the song And Now My Lifesong Sings by Casting Crowns.

Craftastic Friday :)

Today I actually completed (successfully) two crafty projects. My favorite would be my wreath! I got my inspiration from Pinterest.

My next project was an idea from my friend. Coasters basically made from scratch.

Christmas gifts? I think so!

 

Next  up should be the three dining room chairs I got for 2.99 for each.

Maybe I can tackle that this weekend! 

Are you ready for this??

Our big exciting news is that my hubs has decided to follow his heart and enroll in seminary. Yep. Ryan is pursuing a pastorial degree. Pastorial degree?? Is that correct termiology? IDK. But, what I know is that  he is going to school to be a pastor. I honestly cannot really believe that one day I could be a pastor's wife. That seems like lala land to me!

So already I have seen God's hand all over this decision. Let me just take you back to the end of last year. Around September the hubs decided to take over the college ministry at our church. He had already been seriously  transformed  at Super Summer and this was just another new step. He took over and I might or might not have thrown out something along the lines of..."sure we can do this, just don't leave your day job to be  pastor". I had some serious attachments to my comfy life as an engineer's wife. I'm not sure when, but sometime between then and last weekend God starting opening my eyes to a new life, and here we are!

Last weekend Ryan "broke the news" that he was being called to the ministry. I was not surprised at all, I felt totally okay with the decision and up for the adventure. Peaceful in fact. That in itself is a miracle.

This Wednesday Ryan met with our new pastor and assistant pastor, and they both were very encouraging to him and made him feel good about this decision. They told him that we need to get approval from the church at a business meeting to apply for seminary. Would you believe Wednesday our church had the monthly business meeting? We went the meeting and about 50 people were there and approved Ryan's decision, no backing out now!

He is almost finished with the application and will be sending it in shortly! We have no idea what this will look like for our life, all we know is Ryan will still be working full time for quite a while. Therefore, it will probably not seem any different to me.

I am excited and looking forward to where God leads our little family.

Before the business meeting :)

Interesting Turn

This poor blog has been very lame lately, and I am fully to blame. I haven't felt like there was much going on in my life to write about. That is all about to change I believe.  I have updated my look a little bit to more appropriately reflect me. I am entering a stage in my life where I have nothing to be but faithful. Also, I rarely ever wear heels anymore, therefore I am Faithful in Flats. (Yes I was inspired by Pregnant in Heels).

Be ready, fun announcements are coming, none that require me to change to pregnant in heels though.
(atleast not yet :) )