One Last Hurrah

At the end of July, Ryan and I had one last Summer hurrah when we went to Sandestin, Florida with his family. Glynda and Dan (my sweet MIL & FIL) have a time share there and we were so lucky to get to tag along with them! {warning...picture overload occurring in this post!}

Loaded down and headed to Florida!

We drove to Louisiana and spent the night in New Orleans. Can you believe I had never been there!? It was so nice to break up the long drive with a little layover!

We met up with the rest of the family for dinner and then went out on Bourbon Street with Lyn and Bethany (our niece and nephew...who are our age. don't worry, we didn't take 12 year olds out to see the sights :) )

Ryan enjoying something yummy!

Let me just say that I was not prepared for what occurs here. My eyes may never recover. Lord. Have. Mercy.

The next day we got up and enjoyed some beignets from Cafe du Monde (where I forgot to take a picture. bad blogger) and then walked around a bit.

We finally reached Sandestin Sunday evening and got right to work relaxin'!

Ryan had to do a little work, but with a bay view it wasn't too painful!

I finally got to read 'Sparkly Green Earrings' and it was hilarious! The perfect beach read! Thanks, KGK! :)

Ryan also was lucky enough to get a brand new background for his phone while we were there! Lucky him! #selfie

 One night Ryan and I went out for dinner and drinks and I may or may not have had a little too much fun. As in the equivalent of college fun. Well worth it though. :)

 Baytown wharf was a quick 5 minute walk from where we were staying, so we ventured down there several evenings. Ryan had to have some cotton candy and I went ahead and booked a dentist appointment to fill all the cavities he was bound to get while enjoying his sticky treat.

Glynda cooked dinner one night for all the family and it was delish!

 Ironically, we were in Florida for our engagement date, so we went to dinner at Bud and Ally's which is the same restaurant that Ryan took me to right before he proposed!

Left: me at dinner right before Ryan popped the question

Right: now!

(yes, I wore the same dress. I'm a sucker for a before and after and to be honest, that maxi is one of my faves. My sister will tell me how ridiculous I am for doing that, but I own it)

Funny story....when we sat down to dinner at Bud and Ally's Ryan and I looked at the menu and decided that nothing there really sounded good. So we ordered an appetizer and then hit up a burger stand where we enjoyed a hot dog and corn dog. No one could ever accuse me of being high maintenance when it comes to food! I'm an American food kinda girl all the way!

Here we are in the (round about) same spot where Ryan proposed! Can't believe it's already been two years. I know in the blink of an eye it will be 20.

Florida was the perfect way to end our summer.
Beaches, family, yummy food, and my favorite guy. What more could a girl ask for?

Love, Sweet Love

28 years ago these two kids got married.

They said "I Do" to love, faithfulness and a life that was sure to be full of ups and downs. 

Together, they have raised two daughters (well, almost... Macey still has one more year!), shared lots of laughs along with plenty of tears, and made sacrifices that I have only just begun to understand. 

Those bangs. Thank goodness I wised up and let those babies grow out!

I am so grateful for parents who taught me the importance of forgiveness, loving deeply, and most importantly loving Jesus. 

Thank you, Mom and Dad for giving me a curfew even when my friends didn't have one, fixing my car every time I got in a wreck (not that I've had many of those or anything), and taking me to church on Sundays when I would have preferred to sleep in. 

I pray that one day Ryan and I will be the kind of parents to our children that you have been to me.

Happy 28th Anniversary! 

...it's off to work I go

67 days. 

That is the magic number of days I have savored summer.

 ....and tomorrow it will all come to an end. 

I will miss spending days without makeup, watching marathons of Friends, completing house projects, and doing laundry at my leisure. (but who am I kidding...I don't always wear makeup to school anyway) 

And while I'm sad for the fun of summer to be over, I'm excited to begin a new school year. I can't wait to see those 22 little faces that will be mine for the year and hope that the 180 days I spend with them will be full of crayons, singing, laughter on the playground, and memories that they will always cherish. 

So on my last official summer night, I though we'd see what all I was up to during those 67 days of sweetness! 

a little organizin'

 family lovin'

 

 first anniversary celebratin'

kitchen redecoratin'

yard workin' 

(side note: we still have not won yard of the month. my patience is running thin with our HOA! ;) )

friend vistitin'

a.c. breakin'

although that's one I wish we could forget...

impulse fedora buyin'

SUMMERTIME!

It was 67 days of awesomeness and there are only 187 more school days until I can start the next one! :)

Praying Circles

This summer I began a book called "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson. I had heard several people mention it and I was interested to see what all the fuss about. I expected to learn a few things and enjoy the read, but what I didn't expect was for it to completely change the way I pray. 

Prayer is an everyday part of my life. I usually send up prayers throughout the day (a lot of time for patience in my class) and always end the day with prayer, but after reading "The Circle Maker" I realized that my prayers had been less than fabulous. When I'd pray at night I'd ask God for protection, favor at work, blessings, and so on and so forth. But I never BOLDY asked God for anything. Like mentioned in the book, perhaps I had never asked boldly for specific prayers because I was worried that God might not come through. I mean, who am I to ask for such things from the Creator. 

I am His child. 

And that is why God not only wants us to ask Him for things, but he YEARNS for us to present our deepest desires, goals, dreams and hopes to Him.

One particular paragraph really struck me:

"The more faith you have, the more specific our prayers will be. The more specific your prayers are, the more glory God receives. When we pray for specific things, God has an opportunity to reveal more shades of His sovereignty. But, when our prayers aren't specific, God gets robbed of the glory He deserves because we second guess whether or not He actually as answered them. We never know if the answers were the result of specific prayer or general coincidences that would have happened anyway."

Good stuff, right?

The book of Matthew tells of two blind men who approached Jesus when he was leaving the city. "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!" they shouted. Jesus stopped and asked the two men, "What do you want me to do for you?" (Matthew 20:32) Of course, He already knew. He knew that they men were blind and wanted healing, but Jesus asked them to spell out exactly what it was that they wanted.

Ironically, shortly after I began reading "The Circle Maker" our church started a series on the book and also encouraged members to purchase the devotional that goes along and commit to a 40 day prayer challenge. Ryan and I started the devotional and began trying to decide what it was that we wanted to circle in prayer.

"Most of us don't get what we want because we quit circling. We give up too easily; we give up too soon; we quit praying right before the miracle happens."

This is certainly not a "name it and claim it" type of thing, but more of a prayer that if it is according to God's will it will happen.

Two big things we began circling in prayer were our future children and Ryan's job.

Ryan has a great job and enjoys the people he works with, but after several years he still hadn't received a promotion. Repeatedly his bosses promised he was first on the list, but with budget cuts it just wasn't coming. I knew he was discouraged and so we began praying for favor. Favor with his bosses; for God to open doors and for us to have the discernment to know when He did.

Two weeks ago Ryan got an email from a girl in another program. She said that a friend had mentioned his name as someone who might be interested in a new job and asked if he might want to send her his resume which she would then give to her boss. {Enter God}

We thought about it and decided to go ahead. The next day the manager contacted Ryan and asked if he would come in for an interview. I wish I could say we both immediately knew he should, but it was a struggle for us. Would Ryan's current boss be upset? Was this new job going to be as secure as his current? Would he like his coworkers?

After praying about it we realized that this was exactly what we had been asking God for. Had we not repeatedly prayed for Him to open doors? Were we going to tell God, "No, thanks" and ignore this simply because we were afraid to take a risk?

Ryan went for the interview and a week later got the job offer. Not only was it a promotion, but it is about 3 miles from my school and it cuts his drive time in half.

What a mighty God we serve. I fail daily. I sin. I want my way and not His.
But, every single day He loves me. He is so, so faithful and I am immeasurably grateful that I don't have to live this life without Him.

Keep praying. Keep circling those things that God has placed on your heart. He hears you. Maybe He hasn't answered yet, but His timing is so much better than ours anyway. 

"Darling" Destination: San Francisco Part II

I'm back! Sorry for my little hiatus, I know all 3 of you that read this really missed me! :)

Since our second day in San Francisco was also our last, we had lots of things planned! After getting dressed and grabbing some breakfast from Starbucks (where I pouted because I don't drink coffee and wanted a Diet Coke-feel free to call me high maintenance) we headed over to AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. I will admit that I was not super excited about this tour, but after getting one look at this beautiful stadium I quickly changed my mind!

There is not a bad seat in the place and we learned lots of interesting info! 

Ryan and I started a (Pinterest inspired!) tradition of taking a picture of our feet during each vacation  while on our honeymoon. I can't wait to look back one day at all of these pictures and hopefully see more feetsies added along the way too! :)

After our tour ended, we grabbed some lunch at a Mexican restaurant (nothing beats Tex-Mex, y'all) and did a little more walking around the city.

That evening it was time for one of the highlights of our trip-a catamaran tour around the bay! There were about 30 people on the tour and it was the perfect amount. Not too crowded, but not awkward like it can be with a really small group of strangers. Because, I mean, who doesn't want to be on a boat miles from shore with foreigners.

It was a beautiful evening, although once we got away from shore the wind picked up and it got chilly!

Sailing under the Golden Gate!

San Francisco shoreline.

That's Alcatraz in the background...unfortunately, that's the closest we got.

Love this guy!

Our Darling Destination 2013 came to an end the next day, but I'm so thankful for the wonderful memories we made and the even better company I got to make them with.