Newly Weds

Charlie and I spent a fun Saturday with our newly married pals Kati and Adam! They have a beautiful new apartment and glowing smiles on their faces. Adam made us some YUM-O pancakes...the back one was the pretties of them all!

Then it was off to see "The Dark Knight". Super creepy but still awesome! Wall-E sweetened things up though

Doubt

I have been struggling with this lately...I know God's love for me runs deeper than my wisest ideas of what that even means. But sometimes the language between the head and the heart gets scrambled. Charlie and I have been studying the book of Exodus with his church. Exodus, not one of my favorites because it always seemed so far-removed from where I am in my life but it is turning into exactly what I need right now.
Moses was born to a Hebrew woman, Jochebed, during the rule of cowardly king who demanded all Hebrew boys be put to death when they were born because the Israelites (i.e. Hebrews) were becoming too strong. However, the midwives who delivered Moses "feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt told them to do...Exodus 1:17" And so Moses' mother kept him with her for about 3 months and then when she could hide him no longer, put him in a papyrus basket and placed it among the reeds in the Nile river.

Moses' sister watched as her brother drifted down that powerful river. Through divine providence, Pharoah's daughter was bathing in the Nile with her servants when she heard the baby cry. Overcome by mercy she did nothing to harm him despite her father's wishes. Rather, she sent her servant girl to bring the baby to her. At that moment, Moses' brave sister stepped out of her hiding place and asked Pharoah's daughter if she should find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. Pharoah's daughter tells her that she will pay the girl if she does, and the girl goes to get her mother (if you are following this little synopsis, you will realize that this is also the mother of baby Moses). After she has weaned the boy, he is brought back to Pharoah's daughter, who raises him as her son. She names him Moses, which means "drawn out of the water." That is how this baby boy, the Hebrew who should have been killed at birth, becomes royalty.
Moses' mother was a woman of faith and believed in listening to the voice of God. For me this isn't always the easiest voice to hear much less submit to so completely. But this is an image of hope for me; this woman trusting and taking the heavy weight of obedience and and looking forward with trust. Through Moses's life he sought the Lord as a friend, and God spoke to him through many difficult years. The book of Exodus records many of his "wilderness wanderings" with the Israelites, and one of my favorite scriptures comes from Exodus 14:14, where the Israelites are complaining about their journey. Moses says to them, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still..."
And I believe the Lord walks beside me, He fights for me and He knows me by name. He loves me, and I love Him. I try to delight myself in Him and I still feel like the desires of my heart have been answered. But here I am. Choosing to worshipping the God who allowed it.
I know. It appears to be an unbalanced courtship.
I am not ashamed to say that I believe in the truth of the Gospel. I believe Christ died for me, that He knows the number of hairs on my head, and that He keeps track of my tears. I believe there was a real man named Moses, and that the Lord really parted the Red Sea. I believe in the scarred hands and feet. I believe in the providence of God, even when it feels contrary to what my heart desires. But the hurt still stings.
But it stung. I am disappointed with God.

Do I praise Him? Yes.

Do I love Him deeply and with abandon? Yes.

Do I trust Him? Yes.

But God isn’t intimidated by my disappointment. It doesn’t make Him turn his face away from me because I wish that things were different sometimes, in fact, it makes Him come nearer.

The Tax Office

The time had finally come for me to put the car my dad gave me into my name. Sounds simple enough, right? Nopers (as Michael Scott would say). He had given it to me a few years ago but during that time I was living in "college mode" where nothing really mattered in the real world. After waiting in an incredibly long line that snaked around the room I made it to the counter. I stood across from a 20-something girl and explained that I needed to transfer my vehicle title, get my new registration, and get new license plates. She nodded her head, and then spent two minutes in silence clicking around her computer. There wasn’t much for me to do in those awkward moments except to size up the gravity of the moment. She noticed that I didn't have my dad's signature on an obscure back line of the title. A.K.A. I have to drive across Houston, get the signature, come back, and wait in the snaking line again. Ah, the frustration. But, alas the government is "the man" and "the man" sometimes has to win. I took care of everything that needed to be done and went back to that dreaded place. All of this travel time gave me time to think...I honestly feel sorry for the young people who work in the tax office. If you are in your 30s or 40s and you work in those offices, somehow it doesn’t seem that bad. But if you’re in your prime and young enough to still want to be a rocker, then working at the tax office seams to be a general admission of defeat. I know this because I grew up watching The Simpsons where Marge Simpson’s repulsive twin sisters, Patty and Selma, work at the DMV (pretty much the same place as the tax office). They were chainsmokers by day and lusted over McGyver by night. They are the epitome of uncool.

As I was leaving the parking lot, I headed over to HEB to return a plastic basket Charlie accidentally brought home a long time ago. It has been sitting in my back seat for nearly a month and we've been using it off and on as a laundry basket; consider for a moment how uncool that really is. But married life has made my life hectic and things like this just don’t seem important....

Perfectionist

Recently I've noticed how much my need for perfection steals my joy away. I don't want to be wrapped up in trying to find a perfect place for everything in our new apartment because I know I can't - it's too time consuming! That and it will NEVER be perfect! Or more specifically, I will never be perfect.
I think back to all the time spent in "The Upper Room" on Wednesday nights at Hearts Afire and Ennie telling us all not to be so hard on ourselves. The saints fell, they made mistakes but only by God's grace were they able to turn those imperfections into praise! After all, I know my worth isn't found in having a perfectly laid out and designed home/life/career.
I know I will constantly have to remind myself that faith in Christ alone grounds my perfection/holiness and through his example I now have a foundation for and the proper motivation to continue on in my Christian journey! Speaking of journeying please keep me in your prayers as I prepare to run my first marathon this coming January for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS. I am super excited but apprehensive of all the work it will require. Here's a pic. of me gettin' movin' from my "Donation" website.

We are running in honor of Matthew Maultsby and Christine Bencivengo who are battling blood cancers. They may be running the half or full marathon with us depending on how their treatments are going. They are my motivation. If they are able to complete this run then I surely should be able too. But still...keep me in your prayers.
I will leave you with a verse that God has brought to me many times in the last few days, and it has brought me great peace. I hope it does the same for you.

M.P. and Beyond

On our way home from the wedding we stopped off in good 'ol Mount Pleasant for some tennis... Charlie thought we could be Gatorade spokes people...

How did we do?

I don't think we're quite intense enough

We said hello to Boe and Henrietta

saw a pretty cool and old fire truck some where along the way back to houston

Artsy fartsy shot

a nice embedded liscence plate on the back of this truck...

We met up with the Lloyd's for a quick "hi/goodbye" on the Lorena exit

So I realize there are a number of liscence plate shots but this one is giving a shout out to SJP!!
Totally worth it :-)

Kati and Adam's Wedding

Our wonderful friends got hitched this weekend! We are so excited and blessed by their friendship.

The beautiful bride to be

Kati's newspaper lingerie made by her sisters in honor of Grandma

The best friend a gal can have

Kati proudly donned her homemade wedding veil like a champ!

"Laugh out loud, it makes life sweeter!"

What's a Lingerie Shower without a little embarrassment?

Click To Play

First Dance
"Now my feet turn the corner back home
Sun turns the evening to rose
Stars turning high up above
You turn me into
You turn me into
You turn me into somebody loved..."

What can I say? We had great inspiration :-)

and bubbles are always a good thing

Fun "get-away"car

The handcuffs are being passed down...

Let the Tour Begin...

...with a more "suitable" apartment. Don't get me wrong, the ghetto was nice for a while but, sometimes there can be too much of a good thing. Check out the new place!

Our comfy living room

We're still trying to find a place for our crosses. Notice the record player to the far right; we now have a new hobby to go along with the new apartment: collecting records. So far the best record we've got is the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever

The dining nook/library

Books and food. All I need to live!

The kitchen where we cook it up.

my kitchen stool is invaluable!

I laff...

These guys crack me up! Here are some pictures from our excursion to McDonald's today...

Last Christmas Uncle Charlie made a funny face while he was driving and it still "haunts" them to this day :-)

Exhibit A

Are we having fun yet?
"You're a booty boy Aunt Kristin"
huh?

Bowling for U.S.

Charlie and I said, "Happy Birthday U.S.A." with a night of bowling and fireworks at Times Square in Katy, Tx. I love spending holidays with him. They are little treasures that I love because I would miss him so much when we were dating and apart.

Charlie dominated the bowling lanes...well I sure was impressed by his skills. He scored a 120! And me...

I was just happy to get the spare!

Vous et Nul Autre

So after nearly a year of being married Instead of "What I've Found Out"

about our marriage here's...

"What Our Marriage Is"

It's playing cards in bed.
It's laughing hysterically at parts of a movie no one else thinks are funny.
me looking up from my book to see Charlie waving at me from the kitchen.
Its dragging him to one more store looking for the perfect gift.
It's burnt dinner (which he would never complain about), clean laundry (which most likely, he did), and staying up until 3 a.m. watching The Office.
It's telling the truth, even when it hurts.
It's spending your nights in a hospital room holding his hand.
It's ordering take out and singing along to terrible Kansas music.
It's believing what God does with what we give Him is far greater than what we could have done with it ourselves...
Looking at my wedding ring as I type, I remembering the night Charlie proposed to me. I stood in front of him while he opened a ring box and I knew that I loved him more than I ever thought I would love somebody.