Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter Weekend in Austin

This past weekend was absolutely wonderful!! We left EARLY Friday morning to head to Austin for premarital counseling with the Sherman family! I will be honest and tell you that I slept half the way there. We stopped in West at the famous Czech Stop for Breakfast kolaches and muffins! It was very yummy. Coming into Austin, we headed straight for UT campus where we met up with Meleena and had lunch at Pluckers! After lunch, we met up with some girls who wanted to get soem of my UT bows! :) It was so great to meet some of Meleena's Lasso friends!! Here is my perfect model showing off one of my bows! :)
It was so much fun to be on UT campus and to hang out with Meleena! I can't wait for our girls' weekend in Austin this coming weekend!! :)

After that we headed for Marcie and Nathan's house. I can't even begin to describe the wonderful weekend and time of counsel we had with them! To put it simply, we are planning to continue this counseling with our friends for years to come! We also decided that if the Marine Corps didn't control our lives, we'd move to Austin in a heartbeat! It is such a wonderful place!! Here is a picture of us with the Sherman family after church at Providence Church (where they minister) this past Sunday:

LOVE this family so much!!! We can't wait to see them again in a few short weeks!! Can you believe we are one month away from the wedding?!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

These are a Few of my Favorite Things...Austin Inspired!

Two posts in one day! Yep!! : )

My first favorite thing for this week is a long-time-favorite! We are going to Austin this weekend to do pre-marital counseling with the amazing Sherman family! Every time I go to Austin (and I seriously mean every time) I go to Chuy's!! I am obsessed with Mexican food and could eat it every day for the rest of my life. If I could only choose one place to get that Mexican food, I would choose Chuy's. They have a FREE queso and salsa bar every day of the week and the food is amazing! We do have a Chuy's in Dallas by SMU, and there is a rumor that a Chuy's is coming to Denton this summer! :) I just love going to the one in Austin!


In keeping with my Austin theme thus far, I'm adding a little UT to the mix! Also scheduled for this weekend is some bow sales on UT campus. My beautiful friend, Meleena, is a UT lasso and I made her some awesome UT bows. Now all of her friends want some! : ) It's kind of strange for me to post my own creation on here as one of my favorite things, but I am going to.. =D


Ta Daaaa!!! These are only two of my favorites!! The one on the left is mine because Bevo has a bow on his head! : ) I cannot wait to go and show off my UT spirit!!

Gosh I love Austin! I'm excited for this weekend to spend time with the Shermans and to see Meleena! I have not tried this place yet, but Meleena says it's amazing! I'm sure it will be my favorite soon! :) It's a cupcake place-check 'em out!



Yum! I can't wait to try this place! I think we are saving this one for two weeks from now! :) Yes, I am going to Austin two weekends in a row!

Now for Yogurt Story! My absolute favorite yogurt! Trevor and I are going to meet his Dad and Beth as well as my Mom and Dad for yogurt at their brand new Denton location!

Amazingly Blessed!!

Okay people! I've finally looking at my blog. We are less than six weeks away from the wedding so don't expect too much from me!! : ) Maybe I'll be better at this in the future!!

We are so blessed to have so many awesome people in our lives! We have had three showers in the past eight days. The amazing Naughers from First Baptist Denton gave us a beautiful couple's shower last Friday night where we had a blast and received so many blessings! Here are some pictures:

(Left): Pre shower! Don't we look nice?! (Right): The beautiful display of food!

(Left): One of my beautiful bridesmaids, Brenna! (Right): We played the best game!! We had to guess each other's answers back to back! It was a lot of fun!

(Left): Alex, Trevor, and Kyle-two of Trevor's groomsmen...if only I had the original picture from high school. (Right): My absolutely amazing friend and maid of honor, Meleena! Isn't she beautiful!?


And theis is a picture of us with Greg and Jane! They have blessed us so much with their words of wisdom, love, hospitality, and generosity! Thank you, Greg and Jane, for everything you have done for us! We love you!

The very next day, Meleena (my maid-of-honor and "girlbestfriend"), held a shower for me!! She really out did herself! It was just beautiful! I was so blessed my her and the many friends that came! Here are some pictures from Meleena's Shower:


(Left): That's me. Opening a present. (Right): Beth and KJ, some of my soon-to-be family!


(Left): If you do not know how much I love Marley, you must not know me. (Right): The super cute cake Meleena got for me! :) It was so yummy!


(Left): Table decorations by Meleena and Paula! (Right): HANDMADE candle favors in tea cups made my Meleena and Emily! :)



And here she is, folks! This beautiful girl has done so much for me, and that isn't just wedding stuff! She has been my constant friend throughout the years! I love her so much! Thank you, Meleena, for throwing this shower for me and for everything you have done for me! I love you!

This weekend, my Dad's church held a shower for me! I was amazed and surprised by everyone that came and showed their support for us! Here are some pictures from this shower:
(Left): Kristen brought Confetti cupcakes for the shower! (Right): Sally, one of the ladies, surprised me with a new apron!! I love aprons!! :)


(Left): My brother and sister-in-law got us an awesome toaster oven! They have blessed us so much! (Right): I have watched these two girls grow up (makes me feel old)! Kate is about to be a teenager..I can't believe it! 

(Left): Megan, one of my bridesmaids! She is so wonderful AND we are going to be roomies while Trevor is at TBS December-May/June-ish! (Right): This is my mommy!! She has come to all of my showers and brought gifts to each one. So unnecessary-she has blessed me so much!!!


These are some of the ladies that held the shower for me! They are absolutely incredible and prayed over me before the shower began as a blessing for our marriage!! Thank you so much for all you have done!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Just. Too. Tired.

So here were my goals for this blog in the last few days/last week:

1. Write about the amazing sermon that was delivered on Sunday!
2. Rant about my melt down and how the Lord is working through my struggles.
3. Share about our TWO showers this past weekend-Saturday and Sunday.
4. Write a new favorite things list.

Here is what I have instead:

1. I promise to write about the absolutely, amazing and convicting sermon!
2. I'm going to skip over my melt down, because I'm over it and the sermon is so much better!
3. I AM going to share about our showers, because we are extremely blessed and the weekend was amazing!
4. I'll make sure to have an awesome favorite things list for next week! :)

Guess who has not:

-written thank you notes! Yep. Me!
-organized the many many gifts we received. Uh huh. Me!
-finished my to-do list from last week. Well, I said "my" so I pretty much gave you that one! ME!
-watched Extreme Couponing yet! You're catching on...it's me again!
-booked our honeymoon hotels. AH! I got you! That one is Trevor! :) Hehe I'll add a reminder to remind him to make reservations to last weeks to-do list!

Until I get more sleep!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

These are a Few of my Favorite Things...

Happy Sunday everyone!! It was such a beautiful day today!! I am loving this weather we are having!! I'm praying that it will stick around for several more months! : ) So this week we were so busy with school that the week just flew by! Yesterday we went to my nephew, Eli's soccer game! I am so proud of that kid! He has really stepped out of his shell and has gotten extremely competitive! I love seeing him right in the middle of a bunch of kids trying to get the soccer ball or looking our way to make sure we are paying attention! How could we not?! I mean, look at this kid! Isn't he cute?!

I did look away for a few minutes to get a picture of this little drop of sunshine!! I am one proud Aunty Kiffidy! I truly do not know how I could love them all more!!


Anyways! Without further delay, here are my favorite things for this week!!

My first is something that I just learned about at lunch today! I adore reading! What I love even more is Christian books! They are so encouraging! Today I learned about a girl named Akiane. Her family were athiests and she was completely secluded from the world. All she knew was the athiest lifestyle. When she was very young, she began having extravagant dreams about Jesus, heaven, and a life with Our Lord. She says that God taught her how to paint and she began painting the pictures that she saw in her dreams. Her paintings are gorgeous, but I was covered in goosebumps when I saw her painting of Jesus! Absolutely amazing!! Here is her book:


I will be adding this book to my nightstand this week! I cannot wait to read it! Needless to say, Akiane and her family now are Christians! Here is a picture of her painting of Jesus:

To find out more about Akiane or to get her book or copies of her paintings, click here.

Of course, I have to have something on here about food! There is just no way of avoiding it! :) This week on the favorites is Crooked Crust Pizza.  I haven't had Crooked Crust in awhile, but I am definitely craving it today! Crooked Crust is located in Denton on Fry Street, though they have other locations. You can get pretty much ANYTHING on your pizza and you can order a quarter of a pizza (2 slices). Let me clarify--you can customize two pieces of pizza. They will prepare it and cook two slices of pizza. It is awesome! I love the spinach, pesto, artichoke, and chicken pizza. I love the mix of the spinach and artichoke together as well as the texture of the pesto! (Sounds like I'm hungry, huh?) The last time we were there, Trevor added ricotta cheese to his pizza, and I must say that it completely changed and complimented his pizza! You should definitely try it sometime! :)

And my last favorite for this week is quite simply something that I stumbled upon while I was bored, but I now love it!! This is the brand new spring Juicy Daydreamer Bag!!! Quite simply-I love it and want it! :P Too blunt? Maybe!

Isn't it awesome?!?! Yes, yes, I know! It is so perfect for Spring and my upcoming birthday (May 2nd-hint hint!)!! Yes, my birthday is coming up and I will be twenty-one! Yes, I agree-it is perfect for my birthday! :) Here's the link if you'd like to get a closer look...or whatever :) Click here.
Anyways, enought digging! :) I hope everyone enjoyed this weeks favorites! I hope your week is absolutely fabulous!!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Counting my Blessings Instead of Sheep

Once again, I have neglected my blog for a few weeks. I'm telling you, they are really cracking down on this school work stuff! ;) Actually, school really hasn't been terrible, but I've been quite busy none the less. This week has been really nice! Though it was dreary and cold for part of the time, I felt God's presence around me throughout my week. It's amazing what God is doing throughout my life!! With all of the world news that has been flooding through our televisions, radios, and newspapers, I've been a bit down in the dumps. A lot of the violence going on throughout the world frightens me to some extent. I often have a hard time sleeping at night thinking about what's going on in our world and where things are going in our society. It's sad to think about everything that is happening and how society today lives. I have been so blessed to grow up in the Bible Belt of America and to have such an amazing family! I can't even imagine where I would be today.

Today, I am simply counting all of the blessings God has given me! He has placed me in an amazing family that has supported me from day one. I was raised in a church where every one treated me as a part of their own family, and therefore made sure I was on the right track. While included in my family, I was blessed with an older brother (and now a fabulous sister-in-law and kidlets!) who has been straight with me and comforted me when I've needed it most. I've been blessed with mentors, teachers, and friends who have pushed me to succeed. I've been given a great Christian education. I've been blessed with a man who loves me unconditionally and who encourages me. I've also been blessed with the opportunity for higher education.

This is just a small portion of the many blessings that God has handed me! So tonight while I've been lying awake thinking and stressing about the current issues of this world, I've decided to lull myself to sleep with the blessings I have been given! :) Maybe you'll like the idea (I can't take credit for it though. I owe it all to Bing Crosby in White Christmas) and try it as well!