Austin- Amy's Ice Cream and Shady Grove

So, our 3 favorite places in Austin are Kerby Lane Cafe...BEST pancakes EVER! Amy's Ice Cream and Shady Grove...so when we go to Austin...we always go to each place at least once. The kids LOVED all of the places. Here are some pics...

Quiet Time

Just thought I would share my quiet time from Thursday night...when I finally crawled into bed at 11:00, instead of reading one of my many devotional books that I usually read from...I just opened my Bible...not to anything specific. I just opened it.

I don't remember the specific chapters (I marked them at home), but I turned to Isaiah and Romans as I was reading, I wrote down things that stood out to my heart.

You must decide what you really are by the amount of faith

God has really given you.

Your offering must be only for God.

Your love must be real.

Do not let evil defeat you, but defeat evil by doing good.

No one can explain the things God decides or understand His ways.

Not any big revelation, but just GOOD reminders from God...which was just what I needed...what I always need!

All I have to Say about That!

Two words...HOMECOMING DANCE!

My son went to the homecoming dance last weekend

and first of all:

1. Don't you have to be at least 21 to dance that close with someone of the opposite sex??

2. Is the homecoming dance really necessary??

OK...so maybe I need some therapy, but I am just not ready for this scene...seems like he just turned 11. He has tried to tell me like 100 times how many girls wanted to dance with him! But, I will hear nothing of it!

In all seriousness, my prayer is that JB dates a good Christian girl when he finally

decides to get serious!

Here are his pics...he is so cute! As he put it..."woo wee I sure am fine"!

For now, I will enjoy the days that I am the only girl in his life!

The Good ole' days!!!!

Scarecrow Festival

SO...this last weekend was the Scarecrow Festival. It is our family tradition that we always go.

It was one of those weekends that we have been looking forward to for weeks and it was a MUCH needed get away! BUT...God had different plans...

VERY LONG story short...Jason and I were real distracted with "something" and that something made the drive up not very pleasant...AND to make matters worse, we turned the wrong way and ended up going almost an hour out of the way. By the time we got to the festival...it was closing in 20 minutes.

But, ya know, instead of continuing the bad day...we decided to enjoy the time we had. The kids had a good time and we got some really cute pics.

Me and the GIRLS!!!

I LOVE this pic of the kids!

My BEST friend, who I LOVE with ALL of my heart! Could NOT do any of this without him!

GREAT picture of Vincent and Lisa!

This picture of the beautiful sunset is for JB...he insisted on me taking a picture of this sunset, so I did it just because...BUT it turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL picture...so thanks JB!

Happy Fall!

The fall is my favorite time of year...I married my best friend and love of my life in the fall!

My handsome son...I can't believe he is so big. He is playing Varsity ball and turning into quite a young man. Every once in a while he gives me a glance at who he is and I see that a little bit of me and his dad have rubbed off on him!

When we all got dressed this morning, I realized that we all kinda matched...

so we took some pics after church today.

The goof balls...they are two peas in a pod!

Royalty Came to Visit!

The boys went to the football game and the girls stayed home with mom...I put some make up on them and let them play dress up...they were so stinkin cute!

Here are some of the highlights from the day...

For the Record

Today I don't have any cute pictures to post. But, I do have something that I can't quite get out of my mind.

Please know that there is NOT any part of me that thinks I have it all figured out. There are some days that I feel as though I have NOTHING figured out!

I think sometimes people sit back and look at other Christians and say "wow, so and so must really love God". But, the second they do something that is "not so Christian", they think...and she or he is a Christian?

Please know that if you are going to be a part of my life, there are MESS ups that I make every single day and I am ALWAYS going to let you down when compared to other people's "perfect" vision of the Christian life. Only Christ is and was perfect! I was reminded today that He was God's perfect lamb that was sent to earth to be slain for us...for our sins.

I DO love God with ALL of my heart and try to follow after Him every step of the way!

Recently, if you have spent anytime with me...you know that I am struggling with something that I really don't know what to do. God has asked me to do something I didn't and some days, don't want to do. He made it very clear to both Jason and I that it was what we were supposed to do...BUT it was not my idea nor my picture for what I thought my life was supposed to look like.

To be honest, I don't even have a vision for what the outcome should look like. In my life, when things get difficult, I always try and vision what it will look like on the other side of the "storm" and that is what always seems to get me through. But, this time there is no picture...I feel as though I am just blindly following. For me...Mrs. Bossy pants, always in charge...that is scarier than seeing that I am about to hit a brick wall.

The same thing has played in my head for at least 6 months now...it comes to me at the oddest times..."How long will I trust God, if He is not answering my prayers fast enough or He is not answering them the way I thought they should be answered?"

Do I have faith like Sarah and Abraham? Do I have the faith of my grandma who prayed for my grandpa to come to church for over 20 years? Has my Christian walk been ok because I have trusted God? Or has my walk been ok, because God has not truly ever challenged my faith?

This last year or so, Jason and I have both felt as though we were being sifted like wheat. Yes, we have come out better, but when is the sifting going to cease? I guess the answer to that is... when are we going to truly rest in our relationship with God?

I am reading a great book right now and last night I ended with... "Jesus' call to commitment is clear: He wants all or nothing. The thought of a person calling himself a "Christian" without being a devoted follower of Christ is absurd."

Devoted is a strong word and today I just don't know how I am measuring up.

By the way, over the past 5 days, I have begun to let go of my ideas for this situation and through that, God has shown me some cool things.