Alex's 24th Birthday

On Sunday Alex will be 24 years old.

We will be celebrating with the Mouse in Orlando (we leave tomorrow!!) so I decided to go ahead and write a blog post now.

What can I say that I haven't said before? I am eternally grateful for this man's life. He is patient and kind and loving and entertaining and hilarious. He's the perfect guy for me.

I thank God everyday that, in His infinite wisdom, He brought Alex into my life. I think anyone who has the privilege to call him friend or family is blessed beyond measure. So if you know Alex (or even if you don't) you should definitely call/text/e-mail/tweet/facebook/blog him a happy birthday message. I know he would appreciate it...and he deserves it, he's a good guy.

Bleach

Well...since Alex put the pressure on, I guess I'll blog about our t-shirt bleaching adventure. ;-)

We decided to bleach t-shirts because Alex saw someone post a blog/tutorial on it and it seemed like fun. Leslie (craft master) decided to join in on the fun. 

We each chose designs and got to work.

I think we may have used more bleach than necessary...but now we know!

 And next time they'll turn out better. 

All in all, I think they came out pretty good for a first attempt. 

Legacy

One of the questions that we get fairly often now that we're married is when we're planning on having children. 

"Uhh...I dunno," is the usual response. :-)

I used to be deathly afraid of having kids. Just the thought of raising a couple of rotten kids made me break out in a cold sweat. "I'm not having kids until I'm thirty," was a statement often escaping from my lips when the kid discussion would come up. 

Selfish, maybe? Hey, I'll admit that I'm plenty selfish and spoiled!

So lately I've been trying to re-think the whole kids thing. Afterall, kids are a blessing from the Lord. Why should I fear them? 

I'm not saying I'm ready to get pregnant now! I would at least like to graduate from seminary before we even consider it. I'm saying that maybe having a few kids wouldn't be so bad. I think Alex would make a pretty good dad. ;-) 

We've also thought about international adoption. There are so many children in the world who are orphans and it would be such a great act of love to welcome them into our family and give them a real home. 

Again, this is way down the line for us. We are not having kids any time soon (unless of course the Lord decides to work His magic, lol). I'm just trying to think biblically about the matter. That's it. 

ANYWAY... all that to say, J.D. gave a great sermon about this very subject (children, parenting, adoption) last Sunday and I think everyone should give it a listen. Whether you are single, married, a parent, or not...there are some great words of wisdom that we all need to consider and think about.  This is pertinent to our Christian lives and to properly displaying the gospel. 

Listen to it here. 

And please share your thoughts. :-)

Jenny Lewis: LIVE!

Two girl crushes in one week!

Last Monday I was able to see Gwen Stefani at the No Doubt show. And on Friday I got to marvel at Jenny Lewis up close and personal. 

I wrote a blog post once about my love for Jenny Lewis. She's fabulous and talented and beautiful...and yes, probably my number one girl crush. I could hardly contain my excitement as we made our way to Cat's Cradle for the show. 

Jenny Lewis definitely did not disappoint. The show was out of this world. I was happy that she not only played tunes from Acid Tongue but from her other projects as well. 

I was really impressed with the caliber of musicians she has traveling with her. They're just all so talented, playing various instruments and harmonizing perfectly. 

The performances were energetic when they needed to be and slowed down when the time was right. 

It was a great performance by a great artist and I'm ready to see her live again. I'm pretty sure I would follow her around the country if Alex let me. ;-) Unfortunately we have duties and responsibilities at home. Boo...

P.S. And I think it's safe to say she has the sexiest legs in show biz... Sorry, Tina. ;-)

you've got lies

A friend made me aware of this article and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. 

If you know me well you know I'm not exactly a fan of [most] chick flicks, but that doesn't mean I haven't bought into some of the Hollywood lies. 

I think this article serves as a good and necessary reminder for all women to not overlook what is truly important in a relationship.

READ. :-)

fredflare.com

A great website that's always fun to browse is fredflare.com.

They have some cute clothes and accessories for the stylish girl to covet. PLUS, they have some fun and quirky items to fill your home with. If you've got time I suggest taking a peak around the site. And if you're in NY you can visit their first "door store" in Brooklyn.

Here are some of my fav's (put together with polyvore).

fredflare by kristelfatima on Polyvore.com

NO DOUBT

Talk about dreams coming true!

I think No Doubt was one of the first bands that I remember liking. I was in elementary school when 'Tragic Kingdom' came out and I fell in love with it. I still remember watching the music video for 'Spiderwebs' with my sister and dancing around our living room. 

[side note: When we got Guitar Hero World Tour and I saw that 'Spiderwebs' was one of the the songs, I almost died of happiness!]

When I heard that they were getting together to do a tour I immediately  hopped online to buy tickets. Lawn seats were only ten bucks! [looking back on it now, I would've shelled out the eighty bucks for pit tickets, it was that amazing]

No Doubt definitely proved that they still got it. Their set list was perfect, full of all my favorite hits.  The band has so much energy and they looked like they were having fun the entire time.

Not to mention, Gwen Stefani is my number one girl crush and the fact that we were breathing the same air was almost too much to handle. ;-)  I think if we were to meet she would really like me and we could be the best of friends. Alex thinks I'm a little crazy. ::sigh::

But he did promise me that if they go on tour again he'll make sure I'm right at the edge of the stage so I can rock out right in their faces. 

Since we were in the lawn I didn't get great pictures or anything, but I'll share a few shots anyway. 

Advance09

If you follow me on twitter you know that this past weekend I was at the Advance09 conference. What can I say about this amazing conference??? It was mind-blowing. I was definitely convicted and challenged. All the information I heard was almost too much for me to handle, but I am sure glad I heard it all. I'll probably go back and listen to some of the messages again to really get the most out of them that I can. 

Basically the whole conference centered around this idea of advancing the church. The different speakers (John Piper, Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, JD Greear, Eric Mason, Bryan Chapell, Danny Akin, and Tyler Jones) talked about what the church is and how to be better leaders. The main message that I got out of it is that we have to remain gospel-centered. We need to repent of our idols and focus on Jesus Christ. 

By far the most slap-in-the-face message came from Driscoll's second talk entitled "Ministry Idolatry." Wow. You need to listen to this message...and all the other ones from the conference. They are available right here for your listening pleasure. 

houndstooth

I love houndstooth.

I just think the pattern is so interesting. Turns out this duotone textile pattern originated in Scotland (thank you wikipedia). 

Also, you could use houndstooth on just about everything and it works...shoes, scarves, dresses, coats, etc etc.

Here are some wonderful examples of houndstooth that I'm diggin'...

what a twit...

This is all Alex's fault. If he had never done it, I wouldn't have either. 

Who knew that my husband had so much influence on me??? 

I caved...I drank the kool-aid...but I better not hear any taunting from anyone!

And that's it...that's all I can say...we'll see where this goes. 

So what else is knew? :-)

A Beautiful Mess - 24 Hour Blog Party

Elsie is having a 24 hour blog party!

If you've never seen her blog or shop, you need to. She's adorably cute and amazingly talented. 

Check out these links (click the widgets below) and see how awesome she is.