wordless wednesday

must have new camera

a sad thing happened in New York...

my ol' faithful point & shoot fell to its near death. I have to use my fingernail to turn it on & off, the flash is busted & my pics are coming out grainy & blurry. This is making me sad. I love taking pictures way to much to NOT have a camera...

My friend brought her Rebel with her when she visited last week (which went really well & I already miss her lots). She let me play. I had a 35mm Rebel way back when... so I naturally want the Digital Rebel. I just need to research the different kinds. I was sitting next to a guy @ the ball-game & drooled over his Nikon the entire time. He said Nikons are better than Cannon. Of course anyone is going to say their camera is best.

Anyone have any personal experience or knowledge about Canon Rebels vs Nikon or the major differences between all of the Rebels?

take me out to the ball-game

I got extremely discounted tickets to the Orioles vs Red Sox game through the student life department at my school. We took a charter bus up to Baltimore...

It was a great date day with Madison.

Although we love the Cubs we decided to root for the Sox... in honor of our neighbor & good friend.

Sox won! I felt kinda bad for the Orioles though... it was their home game, but the red fans were much greater than the orange.

I was the odd ball in the hippy hat. I wear it on my bad hair days.... I have a lot of those. I should have reached for the ball cap instead.

Back home & back to being a Cubs fan... Unfortunately it's not looking great this year.

Go Cubbies!

Nursing School Journey Log 3

I saw a group of nursing students in the parking deck the other day wearing their college scrubs & sporting their fancy stethoscopes.

I got a little giddy.

Almost as giddy as when I saw this picture on Facebook...

Soon to be "Nurse" Drea...

My really good friend who moved away to Florida a couple years ago. She graduates this spring!!!

She's coming for a visit next week. I couldn't be more excited!

wordless wednesday

just because you gotta

David Crowder Band has a new album coming out this month.

I snagged it early...

& I've been jaming all afternoon.

Just promise me, with no fingers crossed, that you'll get it on September 22nd... really, you have to!

I really hope I can go....

oopsy daisy

Madison has been helping out with lunches.

Olivia found this little note in her lunch box....

(interpretation: have a great day. stay on "1".

Love, sis... kissy kissy kissy....)

I found this little note in Olivia's folder....

oopsy daisy

labor day 2009

We decided last minute to take advantage of the long weekend & head to Kentucky for the holiday. We had a great time, as usual. 

Stephen is from a small town in eastern Kentucky called Jenkins. It's so beautiful & peaceful. 

Stephen's mom decided to have the family over for a cook out. So glad she did. 

(Stephen's mom... aka Nana) 

(Stephen's dad... aka Pappaw) 

(Stephen's bro... aka Bubby) 

(Stephen's aunt DJ) 

(Stephen's little cousin) 

Pappaw's theory was that Reece would become a country girl by wallowing around in the grass. 

What is it with grandpas anyway? 

No trip would be complete without a rock out session, obviously... 

("The Tuckies" is what Olivia used to call KY when she was younger) 

I even managed to get a little study time in. 

We stopped on the way home @ an over look in Virginia. 

Traveled 8 hours both ways to enjoy a fantastic labor day... it was certainly worth it. 

How was yours? 

all about the small things

Stephen finished the NYC trip documentary! He is still working on breaking it down into 10 minute segments for YouTube... but he pulled my interviews for me & you can watch it here.

When I got back from New York I was ready to conquer the world with the love of Jesus. I got a better understanding of His love while I was there. The awesome thing is that it seemed to be a central theme for the entire team. Although I have this intense feeling to want to change my world, I'm a bit overwhelmed... not knowing where to begin.


Then I was reminded that all I need to do is listen & comply. He will lead & guide me. The first thing we knew we had to do as soon as we got home was start a small group about the love of God & practical hands on ministry training for the young adults. Check... we began our "Reach for the Scars" launch last night with a movie called The Cross (a MUST see for EVERYONE). I asked the member analyst on our church staff to pull all young adults who have attended our church in the past 6 months & we did a mass mailer to about 280 young adults. I created the postcard & included the movie night date as well as a blurb explaining what YAM is & how they can get connected. We had some new faces last night... not as many as I had anticipated, but that's OK because I know God will bring who needs to be there. It started last night with the movie & we will begin a book study on October 2nd.

We also knew that we wanted to have some sort of city outreach in September. This worked out lovely... before we even got home from New York our ministry coordinator sent Stephen a text letting him know our Pastors wanted the young adults to be involved in a big outreach effort that will be taking place on Sept. 18th downtown! Woo hoo! It's going to be held at a large park in the city. This is a great location because there are a lot of homeless people (it's the same place we did "30 Hours of Hunger" earlier this year)... it's also a place where a lot of college kids hang out... there are fraternity & sorority houses near the park. We are promoting it with a flyer blitz that will take place next Friday. The YAM band will play music and then our pastor will share the gospel message. The congregation will help by serving free food & just loving on people. That worked out great, huh?


Last night was perfect! We were struggling to find the right movie to show. It came down to the last minute & our coordinator suggested "The Cross"... we hadn't even seen it yet. We watched it for the first time with everyone last night & it could not have been more perfect... it expressed everything that has been on our hearts! Awesome how God worked out those details!

Some of the ideas we have for the upcoming months are... a homeless winter coat drive, nursing home visits, streets dramas, children's hospital visits, half way house visits... another thing we got from the trip is the importance of relationships. A lot of our "most memorably moments" had a name attached to them. We met so many wonderful, precious people there... and I can't wait to meet some more. It's just so awesome to see how God is moving in this ministry.

After the movie I shared a little from my heart with the young adult. Some of what I talked about...

I was reading in Mark the other day where Jesus said... "if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mark 8:34) I've heard that preached before & I get the gist of what He's saying, but I prayed... "Lord, show me what that really means. I want to know exactly what you mean by this because I don't want to miss it!"

Then I thought about what the cross must have meant to our Heavenly Father. The cross held His dying, beaten, wounded son. A son that He sent for that very purpose... to die for us! I realized that to God the cross must represent sacrificial, unconditional love. God so LOVED the world that He GAVE His only begotten son. That gave me a better understanding of what the cross needs to represent in our lives. We need to love people with the love of God... self-sacrificing, unconditional, non-judgemental love. After all we are God's hand's & feet here on earth... right?

I ended with this quote from Mother Teresa... "We can do no great things, only small things with great love"

We may not be able to conquer the entire world... but we certainly can make a huge impact in OUR own individual worlds!

What small things do you have for us today Lord?

1st day of school- 2009

Olivia's first day of kindergarten &

Madison's first day of middle school...

(please take note that unlike last year... there are no pictures of Madison in her classroom & there are no pictures outside of the school either... I was not "allowed" to take pictures at the school this year... I obliged... grudgingly! The thought did cross my mind though to run into her orientation & give her a big fat kiss in front of all of her friends & affectionately let her know how much I was going to miss her today... but I resisted...)

I'm not sure if Olivia saw it on TV or read it in a book, but she was persistent about buying her teacher an apple for the first day of school...

Who was I to tell her no?

How was your first day of school:

Madison: It was the best day ever! I love middle school. I can't believe I didn't want to go... I have the coolest teachers in the entire world. I even have a top locker this year... that's the whipped cream on the ice cream!

Olivia: It was good. I stayed on 1 (no red light / green light this year. It's numbers 1-5) & my teachers are nice.

I'm so glad to be home with the kids these days. I feel empowered this school year & I have great expectations!