LAURA + BRETT = MARRIED

This past weekend I had the pleasure of standing next to my only sister as she married the man God made for her! What an honor and privilege it was to be apart of such a sweet and God-honoring ceremony. God gave us a beautiful day with PERFECT weather! I was just noticing as I was driving down my street yesterday that the leaves have really begun to fall off of the trees, but this past weekend those same leaves that are now on the ground were on the trees to make a beautiful back drop to the wedding ceremony. We had such a great week last week preparing for the BIG day and such a fun time celebrating Laura and Brett! So many special friends and family came together and helped to make this day special for my sister and I am so grateful to each and everyone one of you who helped make her day wonderful! We have some pretty amazing friends! Now they are off in St. Thomas for some much needed rest and relaxation enjoying being husband and wife! I cannot wait to see the photographer's pictures from the day, but I will leave you with some taken from my camera and iPhone.

This was from bridal portraits....isn't she stunning!

Up close shot!

The photographers never make a picture, but I snuck one of them doing their thing!

The pumpkins used for decoration!

All of the decor boxed up and ready to be put out for wedding day!

Benches used for the ceremony are delivered by WONDERFUL AWESOME AMAZING friends!

Last time as an engaged couple!

The mode of transportation all weekend! My family LOVED these....maybe a little too much!

Rehearsal dinner decor....beautiful! Their wedding invitations were rolled up inside the glass vases!

Sweet friends!

Every detail..........beautiful!

She was such a relaxed happy BRIDE!

Outside the tent, where the ceremony was

Close up

Pumpkin topiaries lined the entrance to the tent!

The AISLE

The reception area with food tables.

Cookies and milk table and area!

The Bride's cake table!

The Love Birds sign my dad made by gluing bird seed on the letters!

The gift table/area.

The favor table with magnets, apples and pears! They make the PERFECT PEAR! She is the APPLE OF HIS EYE!

The favor and gift area outside the reception area.

One of the table centerpieces.....the flowers were gorgeous!

MY SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED

Two weeks from today, I will be standing by my sister on her WEDDING DAY! I feel like these last few months of wedding planning for her have flown by and I cannot believe the time is almost here! I am so excited for she and Brett as they begin their lives together. Marriage is such a wonderful thing! I am constantly learning and growing from my own marriage and I can so testify to how God uses marriage to sanctify us. I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR MY TO GOD FOR MY HUSBAND!

The last few weekends have been FULL of showers to celebrate the upcoming wedding. We have had such a FUN time celebrating and honoring them. Laura and Brett are so blessed and have really gotten some nice things for their home. Here are a few pictures from the Couples Shower last weekend...

Dish towel "cake" I made with all kinds of cooking utensils attached to it!

Wreath wrapped with an extension cord with various HIS/HER items on it!

Sorry this picture is so blurry, but we mod-podged a pumpkin with her new initial!

The SPREAD.....the food was fabulous and included stuffed french bread, spinach shells, brownies, AMAZING pumpkin cupcakes, apples with caramel dip, layered Mexican dip, and black bean and corn salsa.

Julie made these cute pumpkin picture holders! They were so cute and I will be using the idea again!

Cute paint can that was spruced up to be the vase. Julie picked the most beautiful flowers! (And we got good use out of these flowers as Laura used them in her bridal portraits on Tuesday. OMG people, LAURA is the most beautiful bride you have ever seen!!)

Laura and Brett's chair marked by their "tools!"

Julie's mom made these pumpkins that each had a word from a Bible verse on them. SO SO SO cute!

Gift time!

Well I am off to breakfast with Pudge today and to help mom conquer some wedding to do's! Have a great weekend!

Change, Recipe, and Fun

I know my life lately has all been about CHANGE. I am becoming adapted in my new job with Four Corners Ministries, starting a new year in BSF with new responsibilities, and desiring to follow all that Christ has for me, which means dying to myself and desiring change for my life to be more like Him. While change is a good thing, it is also are hard thing! Change is not "normal" for humans, as we are creatures of habit and it is often painful and hard. One thing I am learning is that all of the changes in my life are making me depend on God more. I certainly do not do it perfectly, as I still try many times in my own power to do things. But God is gently reminding me that when I depend and trust in Him for wisdom, power, and strength in all of my new roles and changes, He will give me what I need. I am thankful for the changes in my life and am welcoming them, as I hope they will themselves CHANGE me to be more like HIM!

Now, I wanted to share a quick recipe......

I got this recipe about a week and a half ago and I have now made them twice! You must try them, they are addicting!

Rolo Cookies

1 pkg. Rolo's

1 box Devils Food Cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 c. oil

Mix cake mix, oil, and eggs. Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around the rolo. (Only use enough dough to cover the rolo so it can spread through the cookie.)

Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes. Yields about 3 dozen.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

Lastly, this is what I am getting ready for this weekend and I couldn't be more excited or happy to be honoring my sister! I am excited to get to spend time with family this weekend honoring my sister's life and celebrating her upcoming marriage!

Hope you all have a great week!

Scripture Collection

Life is very BUSY right now and full! Therefore the blog has really taken a back seat! I wanted to share with you something I bought this week:

by Jones Design Company

You can order your own set here! They had a special running this week and I took advantage of it! I cannot wait to have these scriptures on the walls in my home!

Cooking with "My Main Squeeze" Round 3

So this week has been a long and BUSY week! Pudge was out of town the beginning of the week, which means I was staying at my parent's house, which by the way if I haven't mentioned here I LOVE! (I mean I hate that Pudge is gone, but who better to spend that time with than family!) Since my little brother has moved back home, we have such a fun time hanging out and it really is like old times (prior to marriage). Mom not only cooks meals (sometimes we tag team the meals), she also does my laundry!! She is an amazing woman whose goal in life is service to there, not only her children! Ok so moving on, by the way, I don't think I have mentioned this either, but I started a part time job in June working for Four Corners Ministries. My "job title" is Projects Manager, which entails lots of various jobs, from producing newsletters, to keeping the website update, to planning events, to coordinating short term mission trips to Uganda and South Sudan. Needless to say, life is super busy. Plus I started back to BSF this last week. I have a new set of responsibilities this year that I am so overwhelmed and privileged to have! Ok so that was a long intro for this post.....

Pudge and I decided last night as we were headed to Target (to get some BSF essentials) that we would buy the ingredients to cook together tonight! Pudge called up one of his co-workers (Adam) to get a recipe that he had made a few weeks prior. I am so glad that Pudge decided on this one! It is a dish I probably would have never tried, had Pudge not tasted it from Adam at work one day. It was awesome and we will be making it again. So here goes....

Turkey Sliders (you can print the recipe here)

1.5 lb ground turkey

1 avocado, half sliced and other half goes into turkey

1-2 tomatoes, half sliced and other half goes into turkey

1 purple onion, half sliced and other half goes into turkey

1 egg

salt, pepper, and garlic powder

crumbled blue cheese

Hawaiian rolls

Place ground turkey, half of avocado, diced tomatoes, diced onion, egg, and seasonings in a bowl and mix with your hands. Form this mixture into small patties (slider size). Cook on medium heat on stovetop or on the grill. Slice open the Hawaiian rolls and put blue cheese crumbles on half of the roll and toast in the oven. Bring rolls out and put the slider on the roll and top with sliced avocado, tomatoes, and onion.

Sweet Potato Fries (you can get the recipe here) These were just ok, not our favorite and the dip for the fries wasn't the greatest.

Pudge did most of the chopping!!

Turkey and tomatoes..

Pudge did the YUCKY job!!

The turkey for the sliders!

Cooking the turkey sliders.

The rolls about to go in the oven!

Sweet taters all peeled

Shaking the taters in a bag to coat them with corn starch

Be careful not to make a mess like me!

Sweet potatoes with corn starch on them.

Coated in olive oil and ready for the oven.

The sauce for the fries.

Our plates...

And for dessert, a little something I have been wanting to try for a while from Pinterest.

Apple Nachos (you can get the recipe here)

Caramels...

Butter...

Marshmallows....

And the healthy part....apples....to make....

It started out healthy, then....

Adding on the caramel and marshmallows....

Apple nachos, yummy!

After we finished, we were both soooo full!

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Being Stretched

Sorry for the blogging break folks, LIFE. IS. BUSY. I want to leave you with a short post today that will hopefully challenge you as much as it has me!

While we were in Uganda, one morning on the bus, one of our team member's led a short devotional time on the bus. He started with this:

This was what his talk went like:

I love rubber bands. They are one of the greatest inventions ever! They are simple, practical, and useful

What is a rubber band used for?

While there are many uses for them, one of the most basic functions of rubber bands is to hold a group of objects together.

Rubber bands are pretty useless unless they are stretched. When they are extended beyond their standard form, they can hold things together and accomplish their purpose. I began to look at my rubber band as a reminder to be flexible and have rubber-band faith.

Think about it. Faith is much like a rubber band in that it is useless unless it is stretched. Our faith needs to be tested, because when we step out of our comfort zone, it is expanded. Scripture tells us that Jesus was astonished only twice—once for a man’s great faith (Matthew 8:5-10) and once for a group’s lack of it (Mark 6:4-6). The Roman commander in Matthew had so much faith that he asked Jesus to just speak words of healing and his servant would be made well. Jesus’ response was, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” (Matthew 8:10). That’s rubber-band faith.

When we are willing to step out and stretch ourselves, God shows up and does what we can’t do. We need to keep putting ourselves in situations where we whisper and pray to God, “God, if You don’t show up, I am bound to fail. I can’t do this in my own strength.” It’s hard to have rubber-band faith because we rely too much on our own abilities, but when we have this rubber-band faith, we will immediately respond, “God did it!”, instead of “I did it!” Ask God today to stretch you beyond what you thought was possible. And today if you are in a situation that seems out of your comfort zone, remember God is stretching you and building faith in you and we need to thank Him for that!

True faith begins at the edge of your comfort zone. Be bold and courageous and step out, letting God extend you. Trust me, you were made to be stretched.

I hope this will challenge and encourage you like it has me!