boldness.

I am being refined.

I am learning to be patient with this process.

I know this will take time.

But I will still proclaim my God. 

Because He pursues me relentlessly.

Because I am loved. 

Because I am a child of God. 

And I believe.

(Beautiful Things- Gungor)

Memories!

Tonight I rode with some of our closest friends, Steven and Nicole up to our other friend's (Jeff and Whitney) wedding reception. Jeff and Whitney are the couple who's wedding we went to in Mexico. I truly miss hanging out with Steven and Nicole, as they are sooo much fun to be around. We enjoyed some desserts...

 (missing from this place is the fruit pizza, and two halves of cheesecake)

(Steven and Nicole enjoying some chocolate dipped strawberries!)

Needless to say, the food was delicious. And the company was even better. It was so great to see Jeff and Whitney! I knew Jeff before Whitney (kind of) and I am so glad that Whitney is a part of my life now. She has been such a great friend, and I hope soon we will be closer than 10 hours!!

(Whitney, looking gorgeous, as always!...and me sporting a hunchback!)

While we were at the reception, the table behind us had a few young and old souls playing skip-bo. I was instantly reminded of the time I spent at my g-ma and g-pa Kirkpatrick's house growing up. They watched me quite a bit in the evenings, and on the weekends. I loved playing games with my Aunt Florence, and watching my grandma meticulously wash/dry and hang up clothes on the clothesline. My grandma used to scour the carpet and pick up anything visible. (I once saw my mom do this and we laughed pretty hard about it) Anyway, long story short, my grandparents have all passed away. Oddly enough, my maternal grandma and paternal grandpa both passed away on the same day. I remember sitting in ole' Cougar Village working on some nursing stuff when my mom called me about grandma.....I'm pretty sure it wasn't more than 2 hours later that she called me again about grandpa. Now, I don't mean to make a sob story, but it was pretty difficult for my family. I haven't had grandparents here on Earth for a few years, and seeing the game of skip-bo earlier between a grandpa and his grandkids got me pretty choked up. Needless to say, I hope our kids can enjoy having grandparents around in their lives.

Whew! Now that I've got that out...we also had guests last night! Justin's sister and her boyfriend came to visit! We took them to the Soulard Farmers Market this morning and nabbed a few items.

(Dani and Chance with their cherries, and Justin and I with some pasta that looks AHHH-mazing!

As you can tell it was a pretty busy day. I came home and cleaned up the house since I have to work tomorrow night. We have a pretty early morning tomorrow, since Justin has to set up for church and I have City Babies duty. I hope tomorrow you see at least a glimmer of God in your life!

Ham and rice skillet hodge podge....

For lack of a better title, this is the dinner I've made twice in the last two days. I know, it's lame, but we are still kind of out of sorts around here. Really, I just threw a bunch of stuff in the skillet yesterday because we had no bread, or any other fixings, really. Justin's dad had brought a pre-cut ham "loaf?" the other day, and we've been chowing on that. We've made breakfast sandwiches, breakfast tortillas, you name it. The latest creation was this skillet thing. I made it the other day but added just one thing this time to make it better.

I started with some olive oil, and sauteed some green and red onions, peppers, and broccoli. I added the ham all sliced up and then some rice from Trader Joes (we love their frozen rice, because you just pop it in the microwave and it's delish.) The last ingredient was Justin's favorite hot sauce.

NOTE: I typically hate anything hot, but the last few months I have been trying to branch out.

I tried a little of this on my creation last time, but it was just a little too much. So, I put just a dash into the skillet after everything had been mixed up and cooked it a little. It added a great flavor without making it TOO spicy. Yum!!

All in all, it took about 10 minutes, and made quite a bit so I can enjoy more for dinner at work tonight!

Yuck all around

Today is my "day off" this week...even though I'm on call tonight. So, amidst the few errands I have to run over on the IL side, the next few pictures are what I'm about to tackle.

I'm not going to tackle this guy...he's just so cute.

  

Yuck...

 More Yuck...

Sucess!!

Well, we are moved! Praise the Lord! Thanks to our very awesome friends..

• Brad and Hannah
• Mike, one of our pastors (who I knew was leaving for vacay today and I was so humbled when I saw he was also preaching today. Thank you so much for sacrificing that time, Mike!)
• CJ and Keri 
• Brenden B.
• Justin's dad, Duane

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! We truly could not have had such an "easy" move without all of your help!

Things we learned from the move:

• We are staying here as long as possible because the thought of moving our washer/dryer again makes both Justin and I (and I'm sure justin's dad) want to be sick!

I am still pretty bummed that I haven't been able to post any pictures from our trip or the move (unless they are from my phone) because of the cable situation. So...tomorrow after I clean the old place, my first priority is to put my pics on a DVD at walgreen's so I can do a little blogging! Until then, enjoy a couple of pictures from my iphone!

 A few friends ready to welcome us, and sting Justin the first day!! :(

 New kitchen with a gas stove! New to us!

 Justin enjoying our first meal in the new place...thanks, Cindy!

 Manning loves our new backyard! (kind of..haha) But he does love our new park that is one block away!

 A view looking into the dining room/office and living room! We love the tall ceilings!

 We have a love/hate relationship with our huge windows! We really really love them, except for when we have to buy blinds!

Jacuzzi tub!?! WHAT WHAT!!

Hope you all had a great Sunday!

Renew

Wow! What a whirlwind the last two months have been. May was crazy, and June was equally exciting. Lots of details I will post soon, as we just got back from a Mexican wedding vacation, and are preparing to move this weekend!

During the craziness, I found a few hours to do a couple of restoration projects. I bought both of these from an antique store on Cherokee street in the city. I got a pretty good deal on both...$15 for the chair and $30 for the glass mirror. I sanded down the chair, spray painted both primer and color on it, and it turned out pretty well. I'm going to have to find some sort of pad or cushion for the seat as it's a cardboard-like material and is pretty worn down.

The frame started black, and the glass was kind of worn down so I painted a chalkboard paint on that surface (thanks, Mary Susan, for the paint!) and spray painted the frame. This is definitely my favorite of the two!!

I feel like today was a success, I was able to run through our finances for the next couple of weeks and change our address for all of our bills/accounts. WOW! I forgot what a chore that was. Now, it's off to finish packing up the bedrooms. I was able to do most of the kitchen last night, which I'm glad to have out of the way. Moving day is almost here! So exciting!