thanksgiving

ok. so i'm a little behind and i didn't really do a great job in remembering to take pictures. in fact, i only took pictures ONE day! (and i had help... you'll see below)

steven came in on wednesday of thanksgiving week... WOOHOO! he even got an earlier flight. how fun! we had a blast just being together and doing stuff in "my hood". :) here's a pic of us on thanksgiving day at my mom's. no... we didn't plan on matching. lol. but hey! we were supporting the 'boys!


here's sweet keely who is the photographer of the 2 pictures that follow (her daddy and mommy). she had a little help pushing the button but she did it!!! how can you resist that face?!?!?!

and an "up close and personal" pic of me and my man. these old pics make me miss my long hair!! yep. i chopped mine off. its not horrible. just not i wanted... the guy didn't listen to a word i said. oh well. it'll grow!!

i didn't get any pictures of our time with steven's family or with dad/susie. hopefully our luck with the camera will be better at Christmas!!

speaking of... its just around the corner!

No author could have written it sweeter...

this is a post that my man put on his facebook. i loved how he put "our story" down in words. its all true, of course. :) this is not new to most of you, but if you have not heard/read it, enjoy. God's a pretty wonderful author if i must say so myself...

There once were two married couples who were very good friends. They camped together, babysat each others' kids and enjoyed a great friendship. On August 7, 1977 one couple gave birth to a baby boy. On August 10, 1977, the other couple gave birth to a baby girl. The boy and girl met each other when they were about a week old. The boy and girl continued to know each other, and even progressed into kindergarten sweethearts. They continued their sweetheart status until the middle of first grade, when the boy and his parents moved to another town. The new town was only 20 minutes away, but the boy and girl didn't see much of each other after the move. So, at the young age of six years old, the sweethearts were separated. Over the next 20 years, the boy and girl saw each other only a handful of times - a couple of times at a church camp, once or twice when their parents visited each other, and once while in college. Oh, did I mention that both the boy and girl coincidentally graduated from the same college. As the boy recalls, he was walking from one of the buildings at the business school, and hears a girl's voice calling his name. It was his kindergarten sweetheart calling his name. This was the most random of their "post move" encounters. Hellos were exchanged, and nothing more came of their chance rendezvous. After a few more lonely years, the boy and girl were to meet again at the girl's-sister's wedding. The boy says he recalls an attraction towards the girl, but knew a relationship wouldn't work at that time because he lived 700 miles away. So, their lives continued to progress... separately. Then, in July 2008 (a mere 25 years after their separation in first grade) the girl found the boy on Face Book. You see, the boy's brother was getting married in August, and of course the girl and her family were invited to the wedding. So, the girl searched for her old friend, and found him. They continued to e-mail each other during the month of July, and gently re-kindled their 25 year old flame. Both wondered if there would be something more than an e-mail friendship. The boy's birthday was one day before his brother's wedding (the boy would be in Texas anyway) - and the boy took a chance and asked the girl to come to his birthday dinner with him and his parents... she accepted. The weekend continued as the girl also attended the wedding reception the following night. Even more, the girl and her family agreed to attend the bar-b-que party the night after that. The boy was excited that he could see his old sweetheart once again. The boy then took a chance... while at the bar-b-que, he asked the girl to go for a drive with him. It was on that drive that he asked the girl if she wanted to pursue a relationship with him. She was excited, yet nervous about it... but said that she was interested in pursuing him also. So, a month later, the girl traveled to Colorado (with the boy's parents) for a visit. The sweethearts were reunited once again. The connection was there. The flame had been kindled once again. Long story short... the kindergarten sweethearts (who have known each other since they were one-week old) reunited after 25 years of being apart. Love was brought full circle after a quarter of a century, and stretches over 700 miles. If you don't already know... this is story of me and my love. Brooke and I have known each other our entire lives. We were kindergarten and first grade sweethearts, and we are sweethearts again.

"I have so far to go"

I have been reading "The Shack" by William P. Young (its been a slow process)... and this blurb of text just really stuck out at me. So true in my life.

Let me set up the scene. Mack and Jesus have walked up on a dock and Jesus wants to walk across the lake, not around. Mack, like many of us, has some hesitations...

"Tell me what you are afraid of, Mack" (Jesus)

"Well, let me see. What am I afraid of?" began Mack. "Well, I am afraid of looking like an idiot. I am afraid that you are making fun of me and that I will sink like a rock. I imagine that--"

"Exactly," Jesus interrupted. "You imagine. Such a powerful ability, the imagination! That power alone makes you so like us. But without wisdom, imagination is a cruel taskmaster. If I may prove my case, do you think humans were designed to live in the present or the past or the future?"

"Well," said Mack, hesitating, "I think the most obvious answer is that were designed to live in the present. Is that wrong?"

Jesus chuckled. "Relax, Mack; this is not a test, it's a conversation. You are exactly correct, by the way. But now tell me, where do YOU spend most of your time in your mind, in your imagination, in the present, in the past, or in the future?"

Mack thought for a moment before answering. "I suppose I would have to say that I spend very little time in the present. For me, I spend a big piece in the past, but most of the rest of the time, I am trying to figure out the future."

"Not unlike most people. When I dwell with you, I do so in the present - I live in the present. Not the past, although much can be remembered and learned by looking back, but only for a visit, not an extended stay. And for sure, I do not dwell in the future you visualize or imagine. Mack, do you realize that your imagination of the future, which is almost always dictated by fear of some kind, rarely, if ever, pictures me there with you?"

Again Mack stopped and thought. It was true. He spent a lot of time fretting and worrying about the future, and in his imaginations it was usually pretty gloomy and depressing, if not outright horrible. And Jesus was also correct in saying that in Mack's imaginations of the future, God was always absent.

"Why do I do that?" asked Mack.

"It is your desperate attempt to get some control over something you can't. It is impossible for you to take power over the future because it isn't even real, nor will it ever be real. You try and play God, imagining the evil that you fear becoming reality, and then you try and make plans and contingencies to avoid what you fear."

"Yeah, that's basically what Sarayu was saying," responded Mack. "So why do I have so much fear in my life?"

"Because you don't believe. You don't know that we love you. The person who lives by their fears will not find freedom in my love. I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially the projection of those into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe I am good nor know deep in your heart that I love you. You sing about it, you talk about it, but you don't know it."

Mack looked down once more at the water and breathed a huge sigh of the soul. "I have so far to go."