Oh, to give THANKS! :O)

You know, I started feeling really bad just after Thanksgiving festivities, and it wasn't the aftermath of the feast that had me feeling gross. It was that I get so stressed in trying to decide what we're going to do, who we're going to see, and that instead of looking forward to holidays with HUGE excitement I feel bad that I can't do more and be more. I get lost in feelings of false guilt. It's been that way ever since my parents divorced and we had to start choosing who to see on what holiday and for how long. Gross.

SO, this year in our Father's sweetness He showed me and is encouraging me to anticipate and be excited about the holidays because Thanksgiving was and always is wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you Lord for the great sweetness that 'is' my family :O)
I am soooooo blessed to have family to choose from and coordinate with. It is glorious and I am so thankful! Gosh, what about being with people who make your heart warm isn't something to look forward to? To realize, with most of these loved ones, I only get to see them twice a year.

What a GIFT Thanksgiving is!

We spent Thanksgiving with the "Johnsons" and I am still getting to meet some of the relatives on the Johnson Family side, definitely still getting to know everyone and they're getting to know me.

Then, we went to Dallas and stayed with Ryan's brother, sister in law and niece. SUCH a good time!

On Saturday we spent time with the "Mattern" (my maiden name) side of the family and I got to see my dad, grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, brother in law and SWEET NEPHEWS!!! ... I realized with a SHOCK and a START that it had been 6 months since I've seen them! That is entirely too long as evidenced by Solomon SHRIEKING when I walked into the door... running to me at a FULL sprint ... I swept him up into my arms and he held on as tight as he could, relaxed a little and sighed, "Oh Goob." Oh gosh, I cried it was SOOO sweet! They call me, "Gooby" and in his little heart sigh all he could breathe was, "Oh Goob" and just rest in my arms. Too much, I tell ya! Here are their precious faces, my Noah and Solomon :O) Thank you, thank you Lord for these sweet times. I cherish them.

OH! though I didn't get a picture of this, a memory I want to write here so I don't forget: Noah and I laying on the carpet in the guest bedroom, me pretend sleeping, and Noah whispering singing to me every word of Twinkle Twinkle Little Start in his little boy voice. I WISH I knew some great quote about children being little pieces of heaven, or making the earth stand still, or purity and innocence being painful in their goodness... they would all apply to this moment.



SOOOOO, fun on the living room floor... Noah literally pinning me (and laughing and being SO proud! HI-LARIOUS!)

A sweet Solomon face :O) This kid laughs and smiles ALL of the time, but a photogenic kiddo he is not. I have YET to get him to smile for a camera...

Noah likes to smile for the ol' cam, but doesn't like the flash :O)

My little model :O)

Here is Solomon smiling (because he DOESN'T know I have the camera... literally hiding behind a recliner here!)

Heading into Christmas I REFUSE to live under any false guilt, and will instead GREATLY anticipate getting to be with people I treasure. YAY!!! Time with people I love and so soon!!!

Thank you, Jesus, for another sweet, sweet, sweet Thanksgiving.

Pics, pics, and MORE pics! YAY!!

Sooooo, for the cruise for our 1 year anniversary: It was 7 days long and we went to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel! A LOT of pics are on Facebook, so head that way if you want to see more :O)These were the people we got to eat with every night... we had PRAYED that God would bring who He desired and He brought an AWESOME table together! We looked forward to dinner every night! (food was great too :O) )

We had 3 days 'at sea'

Our routine 'at sea' ... wake up at 9:45, go eat breakfast, head up to this deck to layout and either read, listen to sermons, or sleep. At 2 p.m. Ryan would go and get our lunch - DESSERT TRAYS!!! Then we'd sleep/relax more, head to sushi at 5 ish and then 'real' dinner at 8:15. Yes. It WAS great!

There were two 'elegant' nights and this was the first one. Steak and lobster tails all around!! :O) THE BEST lobster I have ever had!

Quiet time on the deck with Jesus my first morning there :O) So great :O)

We got back from our cruise the day before our actual Anniversary ... I walked into our home and exclaimed, "WE LIVE IN A MANSION!" LOL! We had gotten so used to our cabin on the cruise :O) It was WONDERFUL to spend our anniversary in our home. And Ryan, being the absolute MAN that he is, STILL delivered flowers to work for our Anniversary. THEN, my sister in law and brother in law took us out to an AMAZING sushi dinner ... YUM!!!!

On .... to SADIE!! Our new dog! Very tragically the week before we left for the cruise my dog Caedmon (who has been staying at my in-laws for the past year since we were in the condo) was hit by a truck and killed. Very sad because he was going to come home to us when we got back from our cruse (now that we have a house and backyard). SO! We really prayed for a dog with the same personality as his: Docile, gentle, not a huge barker, just a laid back dog that wants to love and be loved. We also prayed that we would 'just know' when we saw the dog... and that is what happened! YAY!! Sadie is 2 years old and some kind of retriever mix. Feel free to share your guesses as to her breed because we have no idea. I am sure MUCH better pics will follow but here are a few for now :O)

She is NO FAN of the flash... crack me up! BUT, one of my favorite things about her are her ears :O)

LOL! This was the first time she saw the flash... totally startled her :O)

Soooooo, that's how things 'are' in the Johnson household these days :O) (Oh my gosh, we're a "household"!!!) We are loving our new home together, our new dog... Christmas is almost completely up and we're starting a new habit of turning everything off by 8 p.m. to start winding down by studying, listening to teaching, getting in the Word... all of the things that are SO important to grow into who I want to 'be' but don't do if I don't make time for them :O)

It's a new leaf :O)

OH! Also, we're going to have to intall a doggie door ... any suggestions?

LIFE has happened!

WOW! It's been a while since I've blogged and it's because LIFE has happened... in such great ways!

I don't have the pics 'on hand' right now so I'll just give the sneak preview here and post some pics sometime this week.

1. We took a 7 Day Cruise for our 1 Year Anniversary! ONE YEAR as of Nov 10. Can you even believe it?! Man! I don't even know what to say about this year, except that God really can and DOES and HAS done this past year exceedingly abundantly more than all we could have asked or imagined!

2. We're all moved into to our abode (well, not FULLY decorated, but close) and loving the heck out of it!! We had MUCH debate about the color the accent wall would be in our living room and went with a deep blue. I only mention it because it has FINALLY, in the third week of November, gotten cold enough to light a fire and it is breathtaking against this color!!! I got a little tear in my eye the first time we fired it up. (shocking that I would tear up, I know). So, we are LOVING the blue and LOVE LOVING a gas fireplace with no prep or clean up.

3. Ryan finished his 2nd semester of his Masters last week and is KICKING BUTT! He would be embarrassed that I put that, but he just IS and I have to give him public accolades for it :O) I am SO proud of him. If he stays on this track, he will graduate Nov 2009. WOW!

4. We are leading a small group and LOVE IT!! This is our first chance to lead together and it is great... also, our small group is just so good! The people God has brought together, well, we just have a really tender spot in our heart for them :O) It started as an 8 week commitment, but we're going to keep going. There is NOTHING like doing life with other people!!

5. Being that it is still CRAZY hot here, I didn't really put two and two together that Thanksgiving was this week. When I did, and realized I had time this Sat but none after this, I decorated for Christmas this weekend!! YAY!! So now we have our tree up and Christmas Decor... it is almost all I can even STAND! I have ALWAYS wanted outside lights (and never had them) so this week they're going up. ALSO, since we're in a house, I realized I can GET MORE CHRISTMAS STUFF!!! WEEEEEEE!! :O)

6. As of Saturday we have a DOG! She is TOO precious and we named her Sadie. I have already come to call her, "Sadie Lady" and I'm pretty sure she likes it :O) She is a 2 year old golden retriever mix and is so docile and gentle, which is exactly what we wanted. For those of you who knew my sweet Caedmon, she is an exact personality match :O)

Like I said, I'll post pics sometime this week. Let me just sum it up by telling you that yesterday around 4:30 it had started getting dark, and I walked in the living room to find football on TV, our windows opening to the greenbelt behind our house with the Christmas tree in front of it, my dog sleeping on the living room floor, and my husband sleeping on the couch. Is this really my life?! This SWEETNESS?! We walked our dog for the first time together last night around 9:30 and I got a little emotional because it was the fulfilling of a YEARS long girl's dream. To walk at night with my husband and our dog.

Oh man, God is GOOD. He is SO sweet. There really aren't words to give Him enough glory and thanks for all He has done and continues to do. What am I THANKFUL for this Thanksgiving??? Where do I start?

Love to you,
Anna

Making the house our home :O)

Hey everyone :O)

I just posted OODLES of pics of our new home on Facebook... we aren't nearly finished decorating yet, but I wanted to let you see it because we are SO HAPPY with the way it has turned out. I JUST LOVE IT!! Thank you Jesus! :O)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=82014&id=648660305

Do you know I am here with you?

Oh my goodness... walking back just now I didn't know if I would be blogging about this and was praying about whether or not I should. For one there is no possible way I can adequately express what just happened to me, also though it was so good and tender and sweet that I was wondering if it should just be between me and God, but as I was walking back I remembered that I needed to email my Soul Revolution Group to remind them of some stuff. As I was emailing them it just poured out of me so I am going to paste below what happened:

My hands are frozen right now because I was just outside for a couple of hours taking a walk with God. Can I just encourage you in this... whatever you felt God talking to you about last night in our group or lately, please take a couple of hours in the next few days to meet with just Him. What He just did in my heart and the renewing of my spirit is nothing short of amazing.

Every month Gateway gives every staff member a day of Solitude to just be with you and God. Today is my day of Solitude and this morning my plan was to walk to Starbucks, grab my favorite drink and just take a walk and talk with God. This weekend Ryan and I are moving out of our condo and moving into our house and so I wanted today to be about thanking God for this first amazing year of marriage and all that He has done. I wanted to take a walk and celebrate everything and also say "good bye" to living in this area. There is a little church near our house that has always intrigued me when I've been walking and I thought that this morning I would walk, grab my Starbucks and just walk over to that church and linger, you know? Just take it slow.

So, as I'm walking over there, I walk around outside and I just keep walking deeper and deeper into their property which is set back with lots of huge, beautiful trees. I walk up to a labyrinth on the back of their property and just start walking it slowly ... all of the sudden I am remembering last night when we were doing that exercise and sensing God asking me, "Do you want me to do that again?" and I responded yes because I felt He was asking me about the weight and peace and rest I felt in doing that exercise. As I am walking slowly, leisurely I just feel that weight and peace come back and it was so good. For minutes I was walking in stillness and then would just talk to Him about whatever came to my heart. I was talking freely to Him about things that had been on my heart/burdening me and then I would just continue to walk in stillness and 'clear mind' … Then I felt Him ask, "Do you know that I am with you? Do you feel me with you?" It was the SAME thing I felt He had said to me last night when we were all being still and I felt then that Jesus was saying, "I am with you. I am right here." So, today when He said that, He just kept saying it and I was weeping openly and thanking Him for wooing me to this place to walk with me and show me that. I had forgotten that He literally walks with me EVERY day. I hadn't forgotten that He hears my prayers and is powerful, but I haven't been walking knowing He is physically right there with me.

So, I keep walking slowly, aware of His nearness and when I got to the end/middle of the labyrinth there is a stone and I just fell to my knees and wept. I poured my heart out about everything that was there and I just really sensed in my heart He was just stroking my hair and welcoming me back to Himself.

You guys, it was so good. There is no way I can adequately describe what happened except to say that He fully guided my coming there this morning to come back to walking with Him. When I was 'done' crying and being with Him I went inside the church and asked to borrow a Bible, pen and paper and went back out to the rock to sit and read and write. I had a Jesus story in my mind, but couldn't remember where it was, so I opened the Bible and this is one of those Bibles that has side notes that better explain whatever is being said on that page, and I just started WEEPING because this side note said, "What joy for those you choose to bring near, those who live in your holy courts. What joy awaits us inside your holy temple." That is EXACTLY what God did with me this morning!!!

I am still processing how God Himself would be so tender and specific and sweet to draw me near to Himself like that. There is NOTHING that I have done to deserve that kind of love…. His love for me says to me, "Though you may feel you have lost Me, I never lose you. I always know where you are, what you are thinking, what you need and why you are not walking with Me or talking to Me."

Again, I can't even begin to express the depth to which He touched me in this. (my beeper just went off :O) ). He was so gentle to draw me to Himself like that.

Anyhow, that verse was in Psalm 65 if you want to read it later. All of that to say, please take some time to be with Him in the next few days and be willing to walk out whatever you feel He is doing. For me, this morning was just me walking out what I was wanting to do and having the time to walk slowly and walk as I desired. … it led me to an amazing encounter with God. I long for that for all of us. I pray we will give Him the freedom to talk to us/do in us whatever He is working to do. HE IS GOOD and we can trust Him.

As I am wrapping this up, I feel Psalm 16:11 - You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

My Chance...

http://www.gatewaychurch.com/AboutGateway/ListenOnline/tabid/147/Default.aspx
Click on "Moving Toward Others"

Do I even KNOW you?

So, here I am, sitting at work, typing along, talking to a new dear dear friend, and her phone rings. She answers and all of the sudden is speaking FLUENTLY in German. WHAT?!?!?! I had no IDEA she spoke another language! INCREDIBLE!!!

ARRGGH!!! I love languages and was JUST thinking either yesterday or the day before how I really do want to be fluent in Spanish. So.

1. I can't even BELIEVE she's just ripping it out in this long conversation and I had NO idea she spoke it. (She's STILL talking and I am just SOAKING it in and and enjoying the heck out of this fun surprise!)

2. I wonder if it's time for me to start REALLY pursuing becoming fluent en espanol... I took 5 years, but just never used it to make it mine, you know?

Anyhow, that was a VERY fun surprise! I have never heard German for any length of time and it's a really fun language!!! Beautiful :O) I wonder what it was like at the Tower of Babel when everyone just started speaking other languages... that probably wasn't beautiful, more scary, but either way it's interesting to think about how this all started :O)

Here's to hoping you get to overhear great conversations that you don't understand today :O)