Happy Anniversary!

On March 29, 2008 my sister and her long-time boyfriend finally made the leap into marriage.

I can't believe it's been a whole year since that beautiful day! They were married at the Church of the Little Flower in Hollywood and had the reception at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. I believe they are staying there this weekend to celebrate their first year of marriage. How romantic. ;-)

Congratulations, Danibel and Manny! I pray that the Lord continues to bless you and that your marriage will thrive as the years pass on by. Love ya!

It's also another important anniversary. Today Alex celebrates four years working with Apple! That's a long time! I am truly thankful for this great job that he has been blessed with. Apple has been good to us and Alex has been a faithful employee...I think this calls for a raise! 

Congrats, love. 

(this is Alex when he first started working with Apple...check out that baby face...glad I came along and made him grow out that beard!)

puma

Anyone who knows me knows that I love and appreciate the arts and creativity. No matter where I see it...when I see something innovative and different I just have to share.

A while ago I couldn't stop raving about this commercial:

NEW SHOES!! from First and last name on Vimeo.

Well, Puma has done it again. This commercial is amazing! The man and woman in the ad are in their underwear and the clothes are projected on to them. !!! 

 

Puma - Lift from rndm on Vimeo.

ethics as worship

It's midterms week here at SEBTS. 

I spent the better part of Friday and Saturday cramming my ethics notes into my brain. I was memorizing Scripture, deciphering the difference between ethics and morality, studying the five main components of a worldview. I just wanted to make sure it was all in there because I really wanted a good grade on my ethics midterm. 

Then on Saturday night Alex and I attended a concert with our friends, Allison and Bobby. The concert was kind of an introduction of this project a young girl is working on.  I wish I could remember her name...Jessica something?? She's recording her first album and it's all about the Gospel. Good stuff. After she and her band played some songs off her album they did a praise and worship set. It was so great. For some reason it really touched me and all my ethics notes came flooding into my head. Except this time, I wasn't just worried about memorizing it all. I was really internalizing it. The Scriptures we studied meant so much more.  The truth about God's grace overwhelmed me. The fact that God has been so gracious with us and has freed us to live a life of holiness...it moved me. Read Ephesians 2:1-10, it'll do you good. ;-)

(photo by: Merari Teruel)

flea market!

Last weekend we had some of the most beautiful weather I've experienced since moving to North Carolina. The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze, the temperatures reached the 80s! We just had to head outdoors. 

[unfortunately we're back in the 50s this week...boo]

We decided to go to the flea market located on the North Carolina fairgrounds. It is HUGE and there are so many neat things to look at. They sell just about anything you could imagine. Vintage cameras, vintage furniture, vintage toys, vintage records...vintage everything basically.  I wish I could have bought so many things buuut we just don't have money to be wasting away at the flea market. We couldn't walk away empty handed though. After walking around the entire flea market and visiting every table we went back to the very first table we stopped at to buy the very first item that caught my eye.

 

Check out my awesome bowl:

Well, I think it's awesome anyway. :-)

Here are a few more interesting items that caught my eye:

(I remember reading these books when I was a kid!)

(Love this desk)

(Whaaaat?!?!?)

(We totally had these when I was growing up!!!)

jealousy

It's not something most people readily admit to...at least it's not something I readily admit to. 

But it's true...I'm a terribly jealous person. I often have to close my eyes, breathe, and remember all the ways the Lord has blessed me.

Lately I'm jealous of people who are DONE with school. I've been in school since I was three years old! That's 20 years of school. I've studied, read books, written papers, memorized formulas, worried over exams. I'm kind of ready to be done with all of this. It's not the learning that I mind. For the most part I love learning. I'm just tired of being obligated to read books and memorize facts. I want to read for fun. I want to learn for fun. I don't want to stay up all night writing papers or studying for tests. ::le sigh::

I know, I know, education is a privilege. Believe me, I'm aware. And I am beyond grateful to live in a country where I am allowed and encouraged to increase my education. I am ever so thankful to be in a school where I am enjoying my classes and professors; it just gets a bit tiresome. Really I've got just about a year and a half to go, I'm sure I'll make it through. :-)

women's ministry

I've been having conversations about this topic lately (and other related topics).

When I saw this post it made me smile. 

Maybe some day soon I'll elaborate on the subject...for now, read this. 

the single life

I've been married for almost ten months now...and I'm still not totally used to it. There are still some things that seem strange and foreign to me. 

I've loved getting to know Alex in a whole new way. I've loved setting up our apartment, making meals together, going grocery shopping, working side by side in the office. It's been really great. 

I can't lie though, there are some things that I miss about the single life. I think it's mostly because I never really enjoyed being single. I got into a "serious" relationship when I was 16 (I am now convinced that is too young to be dating!) which wasn't over until I was 19. I spent about a year being somewhat single (it's complicated, lol) and then I met Alex at the age of 20 and we've been together ever since. Now believe me, I love Alex and I would rather be married to him than not, but all you single ladies should enjoy being single! ::insert Beyonce tune here::

I didn't enjoy the freedoms that came along with being single. Too many Christians girls (and boys) are desperate to find the ONE and get hitched. Paul certainly understood the value of singleness. When you're single, you don't have to worry about anyone but yourself and God. When you're single you can go to McDonald's at one in the morning with your girlfriends and do donuts in the parking lot of the church when "Hey Ya" comes on the radio and sit around in Barnes & Noble drinking Starbuck's and reading magazines and art books. You can plan to go to the movies without checking in with anyone and make an impromptu trip to IHOP afterwards. You can drive to Orlando for the Cornerstone Festival and jump in the mosh pits. You can sit on the couch with your best friend eating Captain Jack's Buried Treasure (the best dessert of all time) and crying over when Harry finally professes his love for Sally. 

I didn't enjoy these things as much as I should have when I was single. It makes me a little sad that I probably neglected some great girl time because I didn't realize how special it was. [sorry, loves]

I suppose I could still do many of these things now that I am married...except all my best of friends are in Miami. And sometimes I miss them. Sometimes. ;-)

And making friends in a new place is harder than I imagined. Not that I haven't met some great people...but it's not as familiar or comfortable, and it feels as if "married girl friendships" are different from "single girl friendships." If that makes any sense. When you're married everyone has a busy schedule and making plans to hang out seems to be a more difficult task. 

The point is...being single is a beautiful thing...and being married is a beautiful thing. You should enjoy where you are in life instead of lamenting over what you don't have. Maybe I didn't enjoy the single life as much as I could have, but I am thoroughly enjoying married life! And I hope that I will be able to find a way to incorporate some meaningful girl time into my life. 

[some single girl fun]

[and the day I thought this guy might me someone special...lol]

planting

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the future lately. It's hard for me to focus on the present, and I know that I should...but I think it's nice to ponder over what God is calling you to do.

When I began my seminary education, I had NO clue what I would do upon graduation.  Now that I'm seven months into it, I'm still not absolutely certain about anything, but Alex and I have some ideas. 

I've been thinking a lot about culture, big city living, and church planting. I briefly shared my thoughts with Alex one day and he said I just had to listen to one of the talks that Mark Driscoll gave at the 20/20 Conference last month.  When I finally did, it blew me away! It was exactly what had been on my mind the last few weeks. Here's a summary of his talk written by someone who was there. The podcast is available on iTunes if you want to hear it for yourself. Just search for the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary podcast and download Mark Driscoll's talk entitled "Seven Views of Culture." It's dated February 6, 2009 and it's free!

Anyway, I think hearing that podcast really confirmed many of my feelings and clarified a lot of things for Alex as well. We're really thinking seriously about church planting somewhere. Nothing is set in stone yet. We're not sure when or where. But we're headed in that direction possibly. For now, I'll just keep studying and learning all that I can in seminary, and Alex is getting his papers in order to join the College at Southeastern. Big move for him, and I'm proud that he's taking this step. Pray for us to keep seeking God's direction. I want Proverbs 3:5-6 to really be true in our lives. I want it to be something we live and not just something we say.

Believe

Here's a little video from our church. It talks about the new mission expansion project we're doing now. Pretty exciting stuff.

The Summit Church : Believe Mission Expansion Project from Chris Baker on Vimeo.