Girls Nite (yes, another one lol)

Hey all you fellow bloggers out there,
So what can you expect in a family that has 3 teenage daughters? Lots of girl time with friends and what does that include? Pictures of course! hehehe (yes I am putting you all through this yet again).
The other night we have Jaquie and Nini over for some serious fun. Nini is from the country of Georgia (she is back for 2 months b/c of the war) and we decided that she needed some cheering up.


Me doing Nini's makeup:


The end result (doesn't she look perty? and yes I meant to mispell that!):



What do 5 girls do in an empty church at night that has a great sound system AND spotlights? Dance of course! :-p








Glamor Shots (Why? Because it is me!) This is Jaquie:








Jaquie and Nini...they are like sisters but didn't really have great pics together...heh, I took care of that! lol:







The 5 of us. Gotta love the last one :-p Jen had the brilliant idea to jump over the piano bench and have me get it in mid-air. Well...she got over the bench, it was when she was coming down that she kinda had the problem. Of course we couldn't miss the chance to document it so we all got around her and tried to act like we were shocked but then Jaquie started laughing cause of the expression on Abby's face and then I started laughing cause she was but hey, it was fun :):







Then Jen left and us girls were left to ourselves :( Actually it was still fine anyway, so we all got creative (and boy was it hard to get out of those pews lol):


Hah! Notice the expression on my face :-p Danny (our amazing photographer thanks buddy) snapped it just as I completely slid down in the pew, I didn't know my eyes got that big!










So yeah, just thought I would share those with ya'll :)
Other then that not much has been going on...these past 2 weeks have been incredibly stretching for me both spiritually and physically. I had been making some really stupid choices and I started getting really sick as a result. Mom and Dad called me on some stuff (thank the Lord for parents that care) and I admitted I had been being stupid and decided to change. As a result, I have felt AMAZING and am so much more alert and happy :)
So what has God been teaching ya'll lately? I would love to hear what has been going on in your life! I am off to bed but I am praying and thinking for all of you :) Blessings and Good Night :)

Fun, fun, fun, and pain?

Hey all you fellow bloggers out there :)
So, this past Tuesday our family and JD and Jackie and then Brandon and Jamie went to Darien lake :) It was so much fun! My friend Laura ended up coming and hanging out a little bit to...so that made it even more fun for me! So, yes it was a ton of fun BUT I ended up getting this crazy horribly like out of this world sunburn and coupled with the fact that I could barely move because I had taken this aerobic class monday night I was in alot of pain! Which like reached its peak yesterday! I have never felt so sick in my life! lol :) ANyway, it is better now But i thought I would share some pics that I took with ya'll :)

Coming up to Darien Lake :)



Of course the 1st logical thing to do when going to a theme park is to buy a huge gummy snake :-p For once I had nothing to do with this! I was on the phone with this weird survey guy who was asking my questions like "Are you single? Why? Is it because you have a special someone but aren't official yet or have you just not found the right one?" HOW WEIRD IS THAT???? Anyway! Us and our gummy snake (which was consumed about 3.5 seconds after these pics. were taken lol):






On some rides:




And everyone...except me, Jackie, and Jamie...eating dinner with this baptist pastor we met and his son:










And after like a 10 hour day there...we got home! Jackie and JD spent the night at our house which was really fun :) (don't worry dan and jd were downstairs and us girls were all the way upstairs!) We were tired can't you tell? lol:





I wore flipflops and this was what my feet looked like after walking around all day BLECK!



And FINALLY!!!! Den din din...our sunburns! And yes THEY ARE AS PAINFUL AS THEY LOOK!!!!!





And then...we went to bed and slept very late :) And after a movie with the fam :) That is what I am off to do! Blessings to you all and the next chapter for my book will be coming soon :)

When God writes your life story: Chapter 2

In a nutshell:

"God created us to experiance vibrant daily intimacy with Him and to constantly pursue even greater depths of relationship with Him. But too often, once we scratch the surface of knowing Him, we pitch our tent. We stop pursuing Him. We stop seeking Him. And instead of having a daily, passionate relationship with our God, we settle for an imitation. We become trapped in the shallowness of the Christian game. We sing songs about His love and read books about His grace, but we rarely experiance Him in our daily lives.
To experiance the soimething more that each of us longs for, we must put away the Christian game, reject our imitation versions of Christianity, pack up our tents, and embark upon the adventure of TRULY KNOWING GOD. We must shake off the settler's mentality and become pioneers, passionately persuing more and more of our King."

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So we are on to chapter 2 and let me tell you! WOW! This book has been such a huge challenge to my own personal walk with Jesus already and I haven't even read the 3rd chapter!

So, I realized that i have been settled in my walk with the Lord. I have let so many things slide. Like: books I read, movies I watch(big one), the words that come out of my mouth, the things that I allow certain people to see in me and don't show other parts of me (like my faith) to people that really need to see it...and the list goes on and on. I DON"T WANT TO BE LIKE THIS ANYMORE!!! I do not want to be a settler! I want to be a pioneer for JESUS. I want to live EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE for HIM!!!!
Has it ever occurred to you that the next breath any one of us takes could be our last? That some of us could NOT HAVE tomorrow to tell that person about the Lord or really spend time getting to know Jesus better?
Have you ever dreamed about reaching for the impossible? Are you discontent with living a mediocre life for Jesus? Are you ready to make a difference for the Lord and have a passionate, vibrant relationship with Him? It is a relationship and it does take effort...
I don't want to be an ordinary run-of-the-mill christian any longer...I WANT OTHERS TO SEE JESUS WHEN THEY TAKE JUST ONE GLANCE AT ME. Please listen to this song...it is right above the about my on the right of my page. This so has challenged my heart so much this past week...i am sure it will challenge yours as well.

The Bible talks about how as Christians we are like a mirror and what we should be reflecting is Jesus Christ...is that what we are reflecting?
Settler or pioneer...the choice is yours and mine...we only have one life to live...lets make it count!

I am so proud!!!!

Hey all you fellow bloggers out there :)
So yeah I AM SO PROUD RIGHT NOW!!!!! Well, in a good way of course :p I will let her tell you in her own words :)

ABBY GOT ACCEPTED TO INTERFACE AND WILL BE GOING TO PNG FOR 6 WEEKS NEXT SUMMER :) :) :) :) :)

She found out today after we sent in her prayer card pic (that I took ahem lol):



I am so proud of her and so excited for her :) God has some amazing stuff in store for her!

This is another picture that I took and NO JOKE I did not do anything to the picture except enhance the color:



Dude! She has got like a PERFECT heart on her forehead! A coincedence? I THINK NOT! hehe :)

Anyway, as you can tell I am sure (lol) I am so excited for her and please check her blog out: http://pngbound09.blogspot.com/
She would really appreciate prayer and support as she prepares for her trip :)
Blessings to you all!

When God writes your life story

Hey all you fellow bloggers out there :)
So, I have been reading a book by Eric and Leslie Ludy entitled: "When God Writes Your Life Story."

I thought that I would start kindof a new series on this book and just share with you some of the things that I have been learning as I go through each chapter (I am going to try to do a chapter a day).
Why do you ask am I reading this book and why am I doing this series?
Well, the Lord has really been working in my heart lately to challenge me to live unashamedly for HIM and to not let anything in my life get in the way of serving Him 110%.
Some personal things have been happening in my life lately and I have been being challenged over and over with the fact that I may not trust the Lord enough to hand Him the pen to my life story and trust HIM to write it. See, I have said that I will and have given Him the pen but then it seems like I have to take out a pencil and start making what are (in my mind) corrections to what He is planning. Let me tell you...that does not fly with the Lord :)
So, last night I decided to pick up this book and was bowled over with what the 1st chapter had to say.
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Part one: Dreaming the Impossible-Passionately pursueing a God-scripted life

Chapter one: The Endless Frontier-awakening the inner pioneer

Basically this chapter was talking about how we as Christians have stopped dreaming the impossible and have instead just kinda settled into our own little Christian bubble and are content to just stay there and not see all that God could accomplish if only we trusted Him enough to take a step of blind faith.

"What happened to our little kid passion for achieving the impossible? When did we stop shooting for impossible goals and start aiming for realistic targets instead? As little kids, we dreamed of a bigger-than-life existance. But eventually we grow up. We lose our "oomph" to keep aiming high. We settle for everyday mediocrity. We stop trying to be heroic and finally accept being average."

I know that one thing I have been really struggling with lately is what and how and when and were God will use me. I will be starting a 12 month LPN (liscensed practical nurse) program and my desire after that is to go on a few short-term missions trips and minister to those in need. But yesterday and the day before especially, it was like all these doubts filled my mind of whether or not I would be able to afford it, what would happen in the meantime-we have about 40-45 people in our church presently, no teens and not having fellowship with teens my age has been really hard lately-wondering about stupid things every girl wonders about like what if I never meet that special someone and never have the chance to get married and have my own family. Just things, doubts, like that but I have come to realize that I need to dream big, reach for the impossible, and just trust the Lord to carry me the rest of the way.

"Now-a-days most of us gravitate away from difficulty. Sitting in a movie theater, we are thrilled when Arnold or Tom ends up in an impossible situation because we trust the movie's director to somehow turn it into a happy ending. But we melt in fear when we find ourselves in an impossible situation in life, because we don't trust God as our life's Director to come through for us and create a triumphant ending. We don't know our God as the God of the Impossible.
For life to be fully lived, it must wrestle the impossible and win. For life to be fully lived, the God of the Impossible must be fully trusted with the writing of the script."

The God of the Impossible...isn't that amazing to think about. What we would consider impossible to Him it is nothing. I wonder what would happen if we learned to trust Him for the most impossible things (in our minds) in our lives at this very moment. If we trusted Him to write that part of our life story...I wonder what things would start happening, how God would use His children, how many people could and would be reached with the Gospel.

"Modern Christians have forcused so much on God's loving us in our weakness that we seem to have forgotten that He wants to build each of us into walking, talking, worldshanging demonstrations of HIS amazing grace. God designed us to become true modern-day heroes-men and women who are devoted, courageous, fearless, immovable, and marked with uncompromised integrity.
God is in the business of making heroes: heroes that Hollyworrd is incapable of imagining. He is in the business of writing amazing scripts for our lives. Not Hollywood scripts, but HEAVENLY scripts that shape us into His real-life action heroes."

Talking about the whole Christian Bubble thing...I know in my own life that I have gotten very comfortable were I am and with what I am doing. But I also know, that the Lord wants me to be so much more and yet I am so afraid to take that step of faith into the unknown....

"But don't be satisfied with just one step. Don't settle for just being above average. NEVER pitch your tent."

"The adventure begins with SIMPLE FAITH-being confident that God is who He says He is; realizing that we have only begun to know Him; resting assured that He will reward those who diligently seek Him, and believing that He will be found by those who desire to find Him.
WHen we approach God with a childlike assuranc that He is exactly who He claims to be, the adventure begins and never ends."

I guess that pretty much sums it up...I have decided personally to take a leap of faith and start trusting God to give me oppurtunities to do hard things for Him and not just that but give me the strength to do them...I want to live completely sold out for Jesus but I am tired of saying that but not having my actions back up my words...is anyone else tired of riding the line of Christianity? Is anyone else tired of limiting God? Will anyone else join me in this endeavor to live 110% for the Lord?

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." ~1 Corinthians 2:9

Are you ready to give up penciling in corrections and once and for all truly trust God to write your life story?

Fears...

So you know when little things, insecurities, fears, etc...crop up from your past and just kinda bowl you over? Had one of those nights last night. Well, actually not last NIGHT more AFTERNOON :p Anyway, I was struck again by how so many times when we are in a vulnerable position the devil takes that oppertunity to attack us. Another thing that I was so struck with was God's grace especially in those times.
So last night was a very interesting night :) I got home from work and went to the livingroom, then went upstairs and kinda fell across my bed and was asleep almost instantaneously and didn't wake up till around 6am this morning so I got about 12 hours of sleep :) It was definately from the Lord and was very much needed!
So yeah, wanted to share these pictures with you of my little boys that I babysit:







I am so blessed and I don't really know if this post made any sense BUT I really just want to get across through this how AWESOME our God is...I wanted to share some quotes with ya'll:

"God often takes a course
for accomplishing HIS purpose
directly contrary to what our
narrow views would prescribe.
HE brings a death upon our feelings,
wishes, and prospects when
HE is about to give us
the desire of our hearts."
~John Newton

"Eye has not seen,
nor ear heard, nor have entered
into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those
who love Him."
~1 Corinthians 2:9

Blessings to you all :)