A Snuggie Birthday

This past Thursday was my friend Sarah's birthday. If anyone knows Sarah, they know that she is always cold. So I figured, what better gift to get her than a snuggie! I know the commercials are ridiculous, but let's be honest - it's a great idea! Some might say "it's just a backwards robe" which is true, but the snuggie is much longer so it keeps your feet warm too. I knew it was perfect for Sarah. At first I think she was a bit unsure, but once she put it on she was in love. Here are a few shots of her enjoying her birthday gift.


See, she can even use her phone and keep warm. I accidentally got the camera string in the picture and then the battery died :( But you get the idea of her being able to use the phone with the snuggie. I feel like the gift was a winner! Happy snuggie birthday Sarah!

Fall Colors

One of my favorite things about fall is the changing colors of the trees. I don't know if its because we have had so much rain or what, but this fall there seem to be a lot of really pretty trees. My favorites are the ones that are bright red and orange. The other day I was taking Moose for a walk through the neighborhood and found a tree so pretty I had to take a picture of it and share it with you all. The sun was pretty much down when I took it, so it doesn't look as bright in the picture as it did when I first saw it, but it still makes me smile :)


Also, while I was on a walk with Moose, we passed the best Halloween decorated house in the country. It's true. Last year on one of the national morning shows (like Today or Good Morning America, I'm not sure which one) they had a contest for the best decorated house for Halloween and this one won, and it is right in my neighborhood. Have you all seen it?



It's crazy. When we first approached it Moose, slowed down. I think he was a little scared. Then as we were walking by he was mesmorized by all the stuff. Once it gets dark out you can hardly get down the street there are so many people that come to see it. Its on Tanbark, I think the address is 1144 (at least that's what it looks like in the picture, so if you get a chance you should go check it out. It looks much cooler at night!

Weddings and Pumpkin Patches

I think I should rename my blog Weddings and Pumpkin Patches because it seems that is all I do these days. This weekend included both. And don't worry next weekend, there is another pumpkin patch planned, and the following weekend holds another wedding.

This weekend my good friend Kari got married. It was an all-weekend affair and it was so fun. It started at 10 am on Friday (it's always good when you only have to work 2 hours on Friday!) when Kelly Fox and I headed over to Louisville for the bridal luncheon. I don't get to see Kelly much these days and it was so fun to get to spend the car ride with her catching up. The bridal luncheon was at Austin's. Here we all are (the bridesmaids plus me and Mimi):


Next it was off to get our nails done. I didn't really have a reason to have mine done, but I decided to get a manicure because I NEVER paint my nails and I love having pretty fingernails. The reason I never do my nails is because they always chip and here it is Monday and my nails are badly chipped - but they looked pretty on Friday and Saturday :) Here are some of the girls enjoying the massaging chairs while they get their pedicures:


Friday evening was the rehearsal dinner. I think everyone's favorite part of the rehearsal dinner was the different kinds of pies and cakes on every table - they all looked amazing. Our table got peanut butter cheesecake, which Kyle was content to stick with:


However, most people decided to go from table to table and sample all the different types:


It was a very delicious and fun evening.

The wedding was on Saturday, at Locust Grove, which was absolutely beautiful. My friend Jen has a post with some beautiful pictures from the wedding and here are a few of my own:


Beautiful girls:


Derek and I reading:


Kari and Stephen (isn't Kari gorgeous?):


LCA team + Kari and Stephen:


It was such a beautiful wedding and we had soooo much fun. I danced the entire night. I was wearing boots with heels, but I couldn't really dance in them, so I took them off, but it was real cold, so I couldn't stop dancing or I would freeze. This was the first wedding that I danced to EVERY song. So fun.

Then on Sunday a bunch of us went to the pumpkin patch! Here is a picture of us girls:


For some reason I wasn't really into the perfect pretty round pumpkins, maybe because I already have one, so I was trying to talk Derek into letting me get one of the orange and green ones with all the bumps, but he said they were ugly so we came home with no pumpkins. Here is a picture of the one that got away:

A Beautiful Wedding

So I promised that I would post twice this week, and it almost got away from me, but this wedding was too beautiful not to share with you. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

Some pictures of the ceremony:




She came in on a carriage!!!!


This is right before Wes (one of the groomsmen) passed out (which was really hilarious - happened right in the middle of them praying together - I think he overheated and had low blood sugar - not a good combination!)



Me and the good looking best man:





Some good looking groomsmen (Derek, Jeff and Wes, who was fully recovered at this point):


Everything was so fancy:


Most beautiful wedding cake ever:


A creative groom's cake for two soon to be doctors:


And here's the happy couple:




The wedding was beautiful, not just visually but spiritually. They both love the Lord and vowed to make Him the center of their marriage. I can't wait to see how God will use their marriage. Their friendship has been such a blessing to us and getting to be a part of their wedding day was such an incredible blessing.

Puttin on the Ritz

When I last left you all I was at our friend Brent's condo down in sunny Orlando, Florida, getting ready to head over to the Ritz Carlton where the wedding festivities would take place. I don't know about you, but I've never stayed at a Ritz Carlton hotel before, so I decided that in addition to sharing with you about Brent and Karin's beautiful wedding, I also need to share the Ritz Carlton experience. And, rather than having one extremely long post, I'll break it into two and get more than one post in this week. So first, let me share with you my weekend at the Ritz Carlton.

Around noon on Friday, Derek, Jeff (another groomsman), his wife Stephanie and I packed up from Brent's condo and headed off to the hotel. As we were driving up the long driveway to the hotel, Jeff said, "We do not belong here." Even just driving up the driveway everything was so perfect and fancy we felt like we were crashing some real fancy party we weren't invited to.

* On a side note, later that night Derek said when Jeff said that as we were driving in, he thought that this is what it will feel like when we get to heaven - everything will be so beautiful and perfect and we will feel like we don't belong there, that God's perfectness and holiness and beauty will be so much more than we deserve or ever could have imagined. I kept this thought with me throughout the weekend, reminded that as beautiful as this place is, it will pale in comparison to heaven one day. Derek also made the point that the only reason we did belong there was because of our relationship with Brent, and the only reason we will belong in Heaven is because of our relationship with Christ. Anyways, I thought that was also cool to think about.

So, continuing, we pulled up to the hotel and apparently at the Ritz, parking your own car isn't even an option. Nor is unloading your own luggage, taking it up to the room yourself or unloading it from the luggage rack into your room. Needless to say it is important to have plenty of cash on you when you arrive. We checked into our room, even though it was only about 1:00, apparently it is never too early to check in there. Our room had a balcony overlooking the pool, the lake and the golf course. Below are a few pictures. They don't do it justice. Also, the weather was in the mid 80's, sunny with low humidity, which made everything even more perfect. I will just let the pictures do the rest of the talking here.

View from our window:



The Ritz pool:




A few of the lazy river (my favorite!)























More beautiful scenery:


I didn't take any pictures of the room and I should have because it was gorgeous, especially the bathroom. I love fancy bathrooms, that may be weird. But here I am lounging in the robe and slippers they provide you. Getting ready in that robe on Friday and Saturday nights was a treat, I would have been happy to just hang out in my room in the robe all evening.


So I think I will finish the post here. Stay tuned for even more beautiful pictures of the wedding. It was such a beautiful wedding I can't wait to share it with you all!

Florida!!!

I'm in Florida!!!! One of Derek's best friends Brent is getting married here tomorrow!!! So naturally we took a few days off of work and came down early to hang out with him and enjoy sunny Florida. This is also why I have been absent from blogging for a while. (I forgot the cord to transfer pictures from my camera to the computer so I don't have any photos, but I will post some when I return. The one below is stolen from flickr here.)

Derek and I arrived here Tuesday and mostly helped Brent run some wedding errands and hung out at the pool a little bit. Wednesday we went to Cocoa Beach and enjoyed the sun, sand and waves, and Derek's friends from high school Wes and Jeff (and Jeff's wife Stephanie) got in late Wednesday evening. We all headed to the Universal Studios theme parks yesterday and rode lots of roller coasters, and today we are heading to the Ritz Carlton Grande Lakes (which is where the wedding is) to hang out and relax for the day. They have a lazy river which I am super pumped about - so once everyone is packed up and ready to go we will be heading over there and hopefully I will be on an inner tube enjoying the lazy river for much of the afternoon! Then, let the wedding festivities begin! I'm so excited! I will post fun pictures when I get back and of course wedding details. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday!!!

The Gospel of John

This year our Bible Study is reading the gospel of John. Our first assignment was to read through the whole book to get a feel for it. I just finished reading and as most of you probably know, John ends with the death and resurrection of Jesus. And I always feel guilty when I read about this. Not for the obvious reasons of feeling guilty about the fact that Jesus had to die for my sin, but guilty because I read it as a historical account. I already know that Jesus died and so its hard for me to read it with fresh eyes and a fresh heart. I read through it and think, "Thanks Jesus" and that's it. And I HATE that.

I remember when I first learned of the horrible death that Jesus died. I was at Young Life camp at Rockbridge Alum Springs in Virginia, and it was the summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school. I grew up in church and was told that Jesus died and that now he is alive, but I never understood why he died or how it happened. I remember the speaker at camp describing his torturous death and explaining that he willingly did that so that we could have a relationship with God. I remember realizing for the first time that I am a sinner and that I deserve death and eternal separation from God but because of Jesus I can be saved from that. And I remember that as soon as I heard that I cried and cried and cried and was so thankful and couldn't give my life to Jesus fast enough. And so now, when I read that account again, I feel guilty that I don't have that same reaction. Now that I have heard the story so much it doesn't hit me anymore. And I wish that it did.

In his book Crazy Love, Francis Chan writes about being totally in love with Jesus. I want that so bad. I know in my head that Jesus loves me, and it's easy to say that I love Jesus, because I do. I choose to love him everyday. But without being able to see, audibly hear and touch him, its so hard to really love him the way I love so many people. I feel like if my dad, or if Derek sacrificially died because they loved me so much, I wouldn't be able to talk about it without tearing up because I know them and I love them so much. I want that kind of relationship with Christ, where I tear up when I think about how much he loves me and what he has done for me.

One of our questions for Bible study this week was what would we like Jesus to change in our life. Usually when I think of this question I think of some sin that I struggle with that I would like to no longer have. For example I would like to be less materialistic, or I really want to be better about not gossipping. But all I really want, is to be totally in love with Jesus, in a way that changes everything. As we read through the story of his life, I don't want it to be just a historical account, so I can tell people, "yeah, Jesus heals" or "Jesus has control over everything" or "remain in Christ and he will remain in you". These are all truths that I know. I just really want the story of his life to become real to me, and I want to fall more in love with him as I find out more about him. I'm sure there are tons of things that I could be convicted of and want to change about myself as I read, but I feel like I've spent the last 10 years of my life getting those kinds of things out of the Bible. I want to enjoy getting to know Jesus the way I enjoyed getting to know Derek when we first met. I want him to reveal himself to me in a way that changes who I am and the way I see him. I want to fall in love.