Hello, "Thirty!"

I've heard for YEARS that people are typically much crazier about their thirties than their twenties, so aside from the SHOCK of thirty... I've been excited.

Thus far, "thirty" has not disappointed!

Driving to work that morning I was honestly a little sad. Ryan was at home sick and in still being feeling fairly new to Austin I didn't know if my birthday would be celebrated. FULLY silly in hindsight but that morning it felt very real .... WELL!!! My wonderful new friends BLEW ME AWAY by bringing food and treats to our group that morning, chocolate birthday cake and THEN when I got to my cube they had crazy wonderful decorated!! And, those fake flowers are staying in case anyone was wondering. I'm also thinking I'm going to put up a mini Christmas tree just for kicks and giggles :O)

Anyhow, 'thirty' continued with closing on our first home (many pics and details below) and we are now getting to play with what we want to do to make it "Ryan and Anna" as a friend so perfectly put it! This is what we're thinking for kitchen counter and cabinets... WEEEE! :O)

Ryan had said earlier in the week that we could go anywhere for my birthday dinner and in thinking and praying about it all I wanted to do was grab some sushi and wine, have a nice dinner at home with my hubs, and then write in our "Story of God's Glory" book. When we got home from the closing, Ryan told me to hop into a bubble bath to chill a bit - WONDERFUL!!! He put on candles and worship music and it was greatness. When I got out he had cleaned the entire house, lit candles EVERYWHERE, arranged the sushi on a platter and chilled our champagne. A GREAT first 'married' birthday :O)

And, apparently, thirty is the gift that just KEEPS on giving because I've been gifted with a massage from Clairie, tickets to the "So You Think You Can Dance Tour" with sweet Winks (I KNOW!!!!) and my husband is paying for me to go skydiving with Stefani... a dream all of my life in the making!

"Hello 'Thirty' ... WONDERFUL to meet you!"

Important Note: James 1:17 ~ Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. "... Thank you, Jesus :O) I love you too."

The house that God built.

To say that we bought a house just isn't accurate at ALL... God has literally given us a house and He has BLOWN our minds in the way He lined it all up!!! He has done this in such a way that it has taken me a week since officially closing to actually attempt to blog about it because it is so wild.. SO, this may get long, but I'll do my best to be as brief as possible while not minimizing the BEAUTY of it all!!! I can promise you with all confidence that it will be worth the read.

*SQUEAL!!!!*

A few months ago when I was driving back to Austin from Tyler I was in a VERY serious accident. Long story short, I was driving about 75 mph in one of those zones where the concrete walls are directly against the lanes (no shoulder), hydroplaned, realized it was going to be very seriously (possibly take my life) and I closed my eyes and said, "Lord Jesus put your hedge of protection around me, I pray that your arms will physically surround me...." and didn't stop praying until the noises stopped. What had happened was I hit one wall head on (at 70ish mph), my car spun around and hit the back of the car on the same wall and that shot me back across to the other side head on into the other wall. No other cars hit me, I was not injured in ANY way. I had one tinsy scratch on my wrist and didn't even get a bruise from the seatbelt. It was fully wild and OBVIOUSLY a miracle. So, the car was totalled. We got the money from the insurance company to replace the car, but everytime we started looking neither Ryan or I felt a peace about it AT all, so we decided that we would just carpool until God showed us what we were supposed to do.

In the meantime, our lease for our condo was is up in October, and with Ryan working full time, in school pursuing his Master's full time we had started asking God if we just needed to resign for another year, move to a smaller place to save money, or buy a home. There were a lot of concerns but the greatest was that it would just be MUCH to much to buy a home while Ryan was working and schooling it full time. So, we just laid it down and asked God to direct us.

Sooooo, one of Ryan's friend from work was leaving to go to another company and we went to his going away party. As we were leaving to go home, we went upstairs one last time to say goodbye and these girls asked us to sit down. Thinking that we really 'should' we do, they find out we're newlyweds and want to hear our story, then one girl looks at the other and says, "Kelly! You have to tell them your story." Long story short Kelly shares that she has quit her job, and is moving to DC in September to marry someone. She says, "So, all I need to do now is sell my house here and find a job." She said flippantly, "It's right next to Gateway (where I work) so if you know anyone send them myway!" Something in me perked up and I was thinking, "We need to go see her house!" But i didn't want to say anything to Ryan because I didn't want him to feel pressured at all in thinking I wanted a house. SO, I prayed that if it was okay for me to say something, that Ryan would bring up something about buying a house. That weekend we go to Ryan's brother's house in Dallas, who has just bought a new home, and on the way back to Austin Ryan looks at me and says, "Just and I were talking and telling me what they paid and we can TOTALLY buy a house." And my heart lept and I screamed, "I know and I think we should go see Kelly's!!!"

SO, now come the bullet points to TRY to sum this up:

• We go see her house... it is PERFECT for us: 3 bedrooms, 2 full bath, it's on a green belt so noone will ever have a house right behind this one, it is blocks from a community center and an elementary school and it is less than half a mile from the church where I work (Hello!! Remember, I still don't have a car and could literally WALK to work!!)
• She bought it as a repo and has COMPLETELY gutted and redone the house so EVERYTHING is brand new as of two years ago.
• Before leaving she tells us we HAVE to meet her neighbors, we go over and the guy is someone Ryan had met at church and really liked!
• We tell her to pray about the price, commit that we won't talk her down from whatever she thinks is fair, she gives us a price that blesses our face off and THEN suggests that we just buy/sell ourselves without agents and that she will just rent from us until she moves in September.
• The house never had to go on the market (Blessing for her in not having to deal with that AND blessing for us as houses in this price range are snapped up in almost 7 seconds in Austin)
• We are given an amazing interest rate on the loan and get a SWEET down payment deal since I'm a first time buyer.
• We were able to buy Homeowner's Insurance at HALF the going rate through Progressive! (crazy!!)
• ANNNNNNNNNddddd, we only saw the house two times before we told her we were in. We never even had to stinking look at another home! We just KNEW because of all of the things we had prayed and God lined up that He was telling us to keep walking, so check THIS out. As we leave her house after telling her we are going to buy it, I ask Ryan how his day was and he said, "It was a good day, but I went to register for the summer semester and I missed the deadline by two days." YOU GUYS!! During this ENTIRE house buying process Ryan has been out of school, we signed on the house and he starts school again next week! I KNOW IT!
• We were scheduled to close last Thursday and it got bumped four times. It was weird because it was the ONLY thing that had gone 'wrong' in this entire process.... the ease of this process has been jawdropping, everything from inspectors to appraisors to neighbors, to sellers, EVERYTHING. At every step we have told God that if this wasn't His desire to just close the doors and that would be okay. So, when closing kept getting pushed back we went to Him again and said, "this is still yours, just let us know." Wellllll, the day we walked in and ACTUALLY closed? MY 30TH BIRTHDAY!!!!! As we are signing the closing papers, I start giggling and said, "God just gave me a house for my birthday."
• Another 'kicker' and with this I really will close as we have now come 'full' circle... When we started praying about buying a house we didn't have the money for a down payment, we just knew God would make it happen if it was supposed to. ... The money we were given from the insurance company for my car was the same amount we used to buy this house.

Amen and amen and PRAISE THE LORD!!!! Thank you!!!!!!! We are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO eager to see what You will do in and through this home. It is Yours.

"Booby"

Who knew this could be such a beautiful word, but when screeched with great delight from the lips of my nephew there have been few sweeter sounds. No, no sicko here... My nephew Noah calls me Gooby, his precious younger brother Solomon (2 and just now learning how to speak) is OVER come with delight when he sees me and in a way that only a two year old can screams, "BOOOBY!!!" and it brings tears of joy to my eyes. I mean, really, does it MATTER what they call you as long as they are saying your name with a screech of glee? I didn't think so either.

SO, this past weekend in Tyler was beyond all that is 'sweet and wonderful'! It was PERFECTLY timed in that Ryan was going to Tijuana for a missions trip and we needed to get our car fixed in Tyler. SO, we thought it would be perfect timing for me to go get it fixed, and skydive with my best friend, Stefani, for our 30th birthdays. BUT, it turns out God was just working to get me there :) Neither of the above happened, but what did was an amazing weekend provided by my Savior in ways that only He could:

• The people my heart needed to see, God completely arranged one on one time with: My mom, Lisa, Veronica, Jimmy (step dad), Stefani, Betsy (came in from Dallas), Claire, Heather, Becky, the boys ... wonderful!


• I got to go to Girls Night In at my old church, which marked one year to the weekend that I said, "Yes, God I will be your girl" and He changed my life in every way... He is glorious! I will literally be standing in our kitchen washing dishes sometimes and just start crying thinking, "I could have missed this" if I hadn't said "yes" to Him.


• At Girls Night In I got to hug the necks of most every woman at Grace that was SOOOOO precious to me. I missed out on a couple, but only a couple :)


• I spent Friday night with some of my very best friends 'winning over' our waiters at Cheddar's. Waiter, "Would you like this on separate checks, or do you want it on one check?" Anna, "Yes." And there we go...


• Veronica and I at Cafe Tazza: Veronica, "I would like something cold and chocolate."


• Mom, Veronica and I at Villa Montez: Veronica, "He texted me and asked if I wanted to hang out today." Anna, "When it rains it pours! WOOOOO!"


• Stef and I at Starbucks, "This is perfect! It even LOOKS Africa!"


• Bets, Stef and I at BBQ: HYSTERICAL LAUGHING ... "They have this crazy wall that you can climb..."


• Brian Brandt... someone who means SO much to me, preached on Sunday!! NOT NORMAL! (timely message for me, by the way. shocking)


• The Noah Face, "Gooby's my friend." and "Pop goes the weasel!" and "You take care."


• The Somonon (Solomon), "BOOBY!" and "Zeba" (wanting to watch the Zebra Video). and "Booby, run!"


• Taco Bueno, I pull up to the drive-through speaker, roll down the window, and a red wasp the size of a BIRD flies into my face. I SCREEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMM! and roll up the window. It flies away, Claire is crazy laughing and says, "You just screamed in the ear of whoever is working the window!" and I'm like "NO WAY! She hadn't greeted us yet..." and I roll down the window and ask, "Um, did I just scream in your ear?" And a girl leans in from the background and says, "THAT was ME." Apparently she had yanked the headphones off of her ear when I started screaming and relinquished window duty. Have to admit, I screamed for many a second. Poor thing.


• Seriously SO many other 'sweets' of the weekend and it culminated with my being with Claire at McDonald's back in Austin on Sunday night. We walked to McDonald's and I was thinking, "I sure would love an icecream cone, but I don't need one and I'm not going to ask Claire for a dollar for one." Then Claire ordered and ordered a cone and said, "And you're going to eat it with me!" and I was like, "Thank you, God! I didn't even say anything!" then, we're waiting for our food and talking and the girl doing the ice cream cone turns around and she has TWO in her hands... ONE FOR ME!!!!!! I was like, "God, you are AWE-SOME!" I walked out of that McDonald's in GREAT triumph, icecream cone held just like Lady Liberty.

Perfect end to a fully providential weekend. Thank you sweet, sweet, sweet, Lord. Your love notes amaze me. You amaze me :)

For more pics of the boys head to my Facebook page. For a GREAT little clip, click below :)

I'm not gonna lie...

I love me some American Gladiator!

A few fun things :)

Soooooo ... VERY random, fun, wonderful things going on in these parts :) Wanted to share a bit with you.

1. I'm in HEB the other day with my hubs... we divided to conquer and while he's snagging fruit juice I realize they have 5 CHEWY COOKIES on sale for $1!! While I'm standing there, I look up to see my AMAZING husband walking up grinning with red roses! I squealed out loud (of course) and declared, "Roses AND cookies!?!" I can't even BELIEVE it! (okay, I just noticed that this pic of roses is when he brought home roses two weeks ago. Seriously, this guys is UN-believeable. But the HEB story is great too so I had to leave it :) ).



2. Basically, I was a professional baseball player today ... almost. I DID get to walk on a professional field and it was super cool. While the guys Betty Blake and I were with were talking about how they wished they'd brought a ball and gloves, all I could think about was a soccer ball on that amazing grass! Either way, super fun :)

3. The last pic is a sneak pic at a potential HUGE event... Yes. This is an official "teaser."

love to you all

Both sides ...

Something that God has REALLY been impressing on my heart (and spoke DIRECTLY to me through someone else) is that in order to have consistent intimacy in my relationship with God (and truly in any relationship in general) I have to be honest in sharing both sides of the heart experience.

First Key: Actually bringing my heart to God. This is absolutely critical in having an intimate relationship with Him. I have to bring my heart to Him... and in bringing my heart, I have to bring ALL of my heart. Which is the 'second key.'

Second Key: Both expressing praise/thanksgiving/rejoicing about life and all that is happening, etc, etc and expressing despair/pain/confusion/frustration/anger in the same way. If I am only doing one of those, or am heavier in one than the other, I am going to be out of balance in my relationship with God and stifled in consistently feeling connected and intimate with Him. I was told that, “The American Church in general is great at the Praise Muscle, but needs to grow in the Lament Muscle.” I would venture to also say that a lot of people stuck in consistent heart pain who don’t feel connected/intimate with God anymore may be great at the Lament Muscle, but could use some work with the Praise Muscle.

For me, I need to grow in the Lament Muscle. I am NOT good at the expressing despair/anger/frustration to God. A book someone just told me about that I want to mention to you is, “A Sacred Sorrow: Reaching out to God in the Lost Language of Lament” by Michael Card (http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Sorrow-Reaching-Language-Lament/dp/1576836673/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216405304&sr=8-2). There is also an “Experience Guide” to help you start walking this out (http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Sorrow-Experience-Guide-Reaching/dp/1576836681/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216405304&sr=8-1). I don’t know which I’ll get yet, probably both :)

Anyways, one of the things we see in Psalms 91 is that God LONGS to show us that He IS our covering and our safe place, but our hearts have to come to Him in order for us to be confident of/feel His protection and covering. I think this is also confirmed in Psalms 107:13-16.

Anyhow, if you want to dig deeper, here are some passages to work through.
Jude 1:24; Psalms 107:13-16 (all of 107, really); Job 28:18; Psalms 34:18; Romans 8:26-39; John 16:7-15; Acts 17:24-28

Feel free to share your two cents… I’d love to hear it :O)

I’ll ‘end’ with a verse sweet Bets shared with me today, "And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating -to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Amen! (Jude 1:24-25)

Helps?

How do I 'subscribe' to friends' Blogs so that there will be a list on my profile?

What are 'team members'?

Thanks! :)