D-Now 2013

This weekend was Disciple Now at my church, Kirby Woods Baptist Church.  I was a Co-Leader for 8th grade girls.  It was such a fun, encouraging, and convicting time.  My Leader was my sweet friend, Casey, who I go to school with.  This girl is such an encouragement to me.  We got to talk before bed each night and we have so much in common.  She did such a great job with our girls (she is their Sunday School teacher, so she already knew them all).  I loved getting to know our 5 sweet 8th grade girls.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Hollywood Community Center and held a block party.  This was a fun, yet trying time.  My girls were assigned to the Photo Booth.  We got an iPad and two printers (that were as slow as Christmas) and the girls would take pictures of anyone who wanted their picture taken and then print them off.  This was a trying time, because some of the people would get impatient and our printers were so slow that we would have to ask the people to come back and pick their pictures up later (which they did not like).  Our girls did a great job at staying patient with the people and at working hard to do everything they could to keep the people happy.  I was so proud of their hard work.

During my quiet time Saturday morning, I read Philippians 2:13-18.

"For it is God who is working in you, [enabling you] both to desire and to work out His good purpose.  Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world.  Hold firmly to the message of life.  Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing.  But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.  In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me."

This was such an encouragement to me on a day when we were tired and having to work with impatient people.  We had to let Jesus work through us, because we could not and should not do it through ourselves.

I learned so much this weekend that I cannot even tell you everything.  The theme of this weekend was Jesus is greater than ________?  We put Jesus behind so many things in our lives.  Jesus is so much more important than all of the other things that we put before Him.  Jesus should take preeminence in our lives and it is so wrong that we do not put Him where He belongs.  One thing that Justin (our children's minister who preached to the middle schoolers) told us in his message on Friday night was that some people say "it should have been me on the cross".  BUT we COULD NOT have been on the cross, because we had to have a PERFECT sacrifice to save us from our sins.  We could not save ourselves, because we are sinners who are not perfect.  We needed Jesus to die for us, because He was the PERFECT sacrifice.

I am so thankful for this weekend and for everything that the Lord taught me through Brother Justin, through Casey, through Keresa (my host home mother), and through my sweet girls.

Lord, change me every day to look more like your precious son, Jesus.  Help me to remember everything that You have taught me through this D-Now.

Things I Love Thursday, Episode 2:

1. Urban Outfitters Floral High Waisted Bikini, 2. YMCA Membership, 3. Crest 3D White Toothpaste, 4. Tom's Crochet Classics, 5. Cher Lloyd, 6. NYC Nail Polish "Underground Purple"

1. I am in love with this swimsuit.  It isn't too terribly expensive for Urban Outfitters.  $42 per piece.  I love a high-waisted bikini, because it is more modest than a traditional bikini.

2. I used to work at the Olive Branch Family YMCA (and Ricky still works there), so I had a free membership.  While I was working there, I started going there and I love to swim and workout there.  They have a ton of brand new equipment and a nice lap pool.  My family has kept our membership, even after I quit, because we like to (and need to) go workout there.

3. So, I am really weird about my teeth.  I am one of those people who brushes their teeth after eating anything and floss every night before be.  I love to brush my teeth.  Why, you ask?  I really don't know.  I find brushing my teeth very satisfying, because I am doing something helpful to my body and anyone who will be near me.  And I just love having fresh breath.  I don't know... I'm weird.  Anyway, so I have been using this toothpaste for a while, because it is awesome.  Most of the whitening toothpastes I have used don't leave your breath fresh, but this one does.  It tastes great and minty and it whitens your teeth.  What more could you want?

4. I got these Tom's for my birthday and I wear them all the time.  They go with everything.  I was worried that they would get dirty quickly, because they are cream colored, but they have done great so far.

5. Cher Lloyd.  She sings the song "Want You Back", which has become popular lately.  I have her album on my Rhapsody account and it is great.  I don't love every song, because some of them are real cheesy.  But for the most part, I like it.  My favorite song of hers is "With Your Love".  Her songs are just super fun and they make me want to dance.

6. NYC Nail Polish in "Underground Purple".  I am obsessed with this nail polish color.  I have two bottles of it.  It is only like a dollar fifty or two dollars and it is such a pretty color.  I have a serious addiction to nail polish, so the cheaper, the better.

Easter Weekend:

Friday, I slept in with my pup, Grendel, then went and got a mani-pedi with my mom.  After our nails dried, mom and I met dad at Steak n' Shake for lunch.  That Frisco Melt was the best.  Yum.

Then, I went shopping with mom and we found some cute stuff, like this little Elvis piggy bank at Old Navy.

After much shopping, I went home and got ready to go to Revision's Good Friday service.  Ricky's brother-in-law, Ben, is one of the pastors at Revision and Ricky's other brother-in-law, Josh, leads worship.  Their service was wonderful.  Very convicting, encouraging, and exciting.

Saturday, Ricky came over and we dyed Easter Eggs.  Some turned out good, some bad, but thats okay.  We had fun.  It has become a tradition for us and that's exciting.

These are a few pictures from our egg dying last year.

These are from this year.

 This one is dad's Storm Trooper Egg.

Our dying kit came with these fancy bowls.  Too cool.

Here's our whole dying station.

My ombre egg.

My attempt at a red white and blue egg.

Cool speckled egg.

After we finished our eggs, Ricky and I worked on our Halo costumes.  I've been trying to hold off on this subject, because it makes me seem super nerdy, but here goes nothing...

So, Ricky, Kenny, my dad, and I are making Halo's Master chief suits.  You build them our of paper then fiberglass them to make them hard.  It is going to be a long process, but hopefully it will turn out really cool.  Plus, its great bonding with my boys.  Get it, "bonding"?  Haha.

At about 7:30, Ricky and I went back to his house and ate steaks with his family.  Then we watched Rise of the Guardians with his parents.  When the movie was over, Ricky walked me out to my car and when we walked out the door, we both froze.  It was SO foggy.  It literally looked like we were inside of a cloud.  We ran back in to bring his parents out to see.  We all stayed outside in amazement for a while before I finally went home at midnight.

Once I got home, I had to bake cupcakes, because we had a few families over after church on Sunday for lunch.  Well... when you try to bake cupcakes at midnight, it doesn't always turn out just right.  So what happened?  Well, I had some batter left over after I filled the cupcake pan, and I wanted to be able to go ahead and wash the dishes, so I put the extra batter into a few cupcake liners and set them on the stove.  Well, then I went and cleaned up the house a bit, and when I came back, I found this...

The batter had spilt out all over the stove.  Awesome.  So I threw all of these little gems away.  Moral of the story: taking a shortcut can sometimes actually make things take longer.  I ended up going to bed at 3, so I was very tired on Easter Sunday, but it was still wonderful.

After everyone left my house on Sunday, Ricky and I went over to his sister, Lindsay's, house to eat dinner.  Dinner was amazing.  (Side note, Ricky's family should own a restaurant, because they are all master chefs.  You think I'm kidding... I'm not.)  After dinner, Ricky and I watched some Curious George with his niece and nephew, Jovie and Jack.

My Easter weekend was filled with fun, family, and lots of laughs.