The Brother's Wedding: The Bridesmaid's Brunch

a GPS and an uncle to get us there, a 20-minute scenic drive, a bed and breakfast to accommodate, an aunt that's done everything, fruit and yogurt with pancakes and bacon and eggs, sweet syrup, happy girls, joined hands in a prayer circle and tears flowing, puppy faces, hydrangeas so blue, music playing on a pink iPhone, goodie bags from the bride to her bridesmaids, flower girls playing in the fish pond, gnats that wouldn't leave us alone, a stone wall, bright colored dresses, humid but beautiful day, squeezing on stairs to snap the pic, anticipating the laser tag war planned for the afternoon, running up to the room to change in the 5-minute time slot, winning a war with the sister and guys, getting ready for the rehearsal dinner, arriving at the lodge and enjoying the breathtaking view that God had so richly blessed us with......

The grandmothers:
Nana, Gran, and Mrs. Craft (India's grandmother)

Oh, Just a stalker picture taken out the window..... ;D

Mother-of-the-bride and niece, Riley, enjoying their yogurt. :)

Bride with her flower girls

Part of the prayer circle....*cue the tears*

Can you tell that we had just bawled our eyes out?....
Me, Alicia, Jewels, and Lori Lynn

Bride, bridesmaid's, and flower girls

Nana, Mom, India, Sister, and Me

The rehearsal dinner is next.... :)

The Brother's Wedding: The Trip to Virginia

Y'all. My brother is married.

Just so you know, I think it's pretty cool. ;)

early morning smoothie, grandparents taking the trip with us, a caravan with the sub and navigator, utility trailer filled with rehearsal dinner pretties, movies on the laptop, naps with snoring, 5 stops on a 12-hour trip, thinking that we were lost but really we weren't, asking firemen for directions, firemen being kind enough to let us drive through the fire station bay so that we didn't have to maneuver the trailer in a tight squeeze, prayers answered, power in the church building, texts galore, fireworks off in the distance, western sizzlin' for lunch and taco bell for dinner, arriving at the hotel in Virginia at 12:30 a.m., going to the fitness center with the sister at 1:00 in the morning, sleeping in late, a new and fresh marriage license, a birth certificate that isn't necessary for a marriage license, meeting a bestie at the airport, having a relaxing day before the rush of the weekend, a pool swim, singing to Taylor Swift, spending the night with a bestie and laughing too hard, anticipating the next day....

Loading up about to pull out.

Sister, Brother, and Grandaddy

Me, Brother, and Sister....
the last sibling picture we took with him as a single man. ;)

The marriage license! Agh!!! =)

Picking the bestie up from the airport...
Me, Lori Lynn, and Sister

Stay tuned.

Pictures of the Bridesmaid Luncheon are to come.... =)



This weekend....

This is it.

Memorial Day 2012

The big weekend.



Christmas Vacation to the Bears House 2010



The weekend that my favorite (and only ;) brother is getting married!!!

On his way to propose!
October 2011

So, here we are.



October 2011



Totally excited and so ready for this new phase in my family's life.

Wedding Shower at Elmore
March 2012

I love you both so much!!!

Wedding pictures will hopefully come soon.... ;)



Joyfully at Home: Chapter Five

Contributing to a Joyful Atmosphere

Jasmine Baucham says.....

Being a good daughter to your mother and father and showing kindness to your siblings are both ways to contribute to a joyful atmosphere in your home, but the attitude goes much deeper than mere actions.

True joy starts in your heart.

The crux of understanding the message of Joyfully at Home is to understand the beauty of finding your joy in Christ. This sort of joy is not so much a Pollyanna, Sally Sunshine view of life as it is an understanding of what a joy-sucking battlefield the world we live in can be.

Joy-stealers come in all different shapes and sizes, but, most often, the lack of joy starts in our hearts....

So many of us leave our best behavoir for those outside of our immediate families. We learn to put on a happy face and to control our actions. We save the fruit of the spirit for the people we truly want to impress (Galatians 5:16-27). If our joyful demeanor is a mask that we only put on when we leave the house, then it is a farce. A truly joyful young lady blesses her family the same way she seeks to bless others.

It can be difficult.

It's easy to put a mask on for people outside of your home--it's not-so-easy to fight the battle for joy twenty-four seven. As we strive, it is so important to keep the lines of communication with our parents open. As adult women living at home, there is a fine balance to strike between competence and independence.

Here are a few lessons I have learned about creating harmony in family dynamics

(Note from me: I am just listing the suggestions she gives. To get the bigger picture and to see how she elaborates on each lesson, I encourage you to buy the book :):

1. Give your parents your heart

2. Keep the lines of communication open

3. When you're at an impasse, learn to submit

4. Don't spend your discontent moments daydreaming about married life

5. Don't try to find that loophole

6. If you want to be treated like and adult, act like one

7. Set measurable goals

Be joyful.

Not because I said so, but because you know Him.

Not because you want to look good to the outside world, but because you're living for Him.

Not becasue it's what you're "supposed to do," but because He gives you all the reason you need to live life abundantly.

Not for any reason other than because it's what He's called you to do.

Check it out! =)

The Love of God

Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

Psalm 106:1

This hymn was written in a citrus packing house in Pasadena, California, by a German-born man named Frederick M. Lehman. At age four, Frederick and his family had immigrated to America, settling down in Iowa. Frederick's greatest love was gospel music, and he compiled five songbooks and published hundreds of songs.

In 1917, his finances had gone sour, and he found himself working in a packing factory in Pasadena, moving thirty tons of lemons and oranges a day. One morning as he arrived at work, a song was forming in his mind. He had been thinking about the limitlessness of God's love, and during breaks he sat on an empty lemon crate and jotted down words with a stubby pencil.

Arriving home that evening, he went to the old upright piano and began putting notes to his words. He finally had a melody and two stanzas, but almost all gospel songs of that era had at least three stanzas. At length, he thought of some lines he had recently heard in a sermon:

Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry,

Nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky.

That verse perfectly formed the third stanza, but who had written it? As Frederick heard the story, it was composed on the wall of an insane asylum by an unknown inmate. Perhaps someone did find it there, but we now know the words originally came from the pen of an eleventh-century Jewish poet in Germany named Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai.

Frederick lived the rest of his life in California, writing a number of hymns before his death in 1953. One of his most popular gospel songs, now outdated and forgotten, was based on the wonder of a new-fangled invention that was sweeping over America. It was called "The Royal Telephone."

Central's never "busy," always on the line;

You may hear from heaven almost any time....

Telephone to glory, O what joy divine!

I can feel the current moving on the line....

Taken from the book: Then Sings My Soul