Little Visitor

The college roommates came over to my house on Sunday afternoon just to catch up. Harper came along so that her daddy could get an uninterrupted nap. She slept until about 10 minutes before they had to leave, but we got a few minutes to play with her. She was pretty scared of the flash on my camera - which made for some entertaining pictures! She's growing up so fast and looks so much like her dad. Here's some cute pictures!

DTown

This weekend was DTown - Watermark's version of a disciple now. Because of school activity conflicts and the nasty flu that's making it's way through Dallas, I only ended up having three of my girls for the weekend. It ended up being a blast, and just what I needed to have that time with those girls...and to only have three of them! The weekend's theme centered around the fact that David (our junior high director), Bode (our program director) and Jeremy (student ministries volunteer) are in the Jonas Brother's movie that came out last night as The Fake Jonas Brothers. They are quite hilarious. I don't know if they are funny to anyone else, but here is the first one, I happen to think it's pretty funny.

Here are some pictures from my time with my girls. The talks that Mike did were great and so applicable to my girls' lives. The digital camera scavenger hunt was a blast. And time just talking and riding in the car with these girls was great!

All of the Junior High & High School leaders.

Community Group Girls - Katie, Jen, Karla, me.

Silly girls...

Me, Maddie, Maddie & Amanda

Running Buddies and great friends - Kyla, Lisa & me.

Philly...part two

Not really too much to say or time to say it, but I finally got Philly pictures uploaded from my camera. All of these are from Friday when we did most of the touristy stuff! I'm still learning to use my new camera, but overall, I really like it!

Heading out Friday morning. Mom's head, Deborah & Dad's chin! :)

The City of Brotherly Love.

Liberty Bell.



Independence Hall

Our whack job tour guide at Independence Hall

Sisters.

Parents.

Rebekah, Deborah & me out to dinner for Deborah's birthday Friday night.

It was a great trip and if Rebekah is in still there next year, I hope I get to go back and visit again!

Philly...part one

This weekend my family was in Philly visiting Rebekah. My report is going to be slightly fragmented because currently the only pictures I have are the ones I took on my phone. I haven't had a chance to get the ones off my camera yet.

We spent the day Saturday seeing part of the world my sister lives in. We went up to the Mission Year office in north Philly in the morning for brunch with other visiting families, and then rode the subway and trolley back down to Rebekah's neighborhood in southwest Philly. We got to see Rebekah's house and walk around her neighborhood a little bit. We saw the school where her and her roommates do an after school program every day and where she shops for her groceries.

I think this was my favorite part of the trip. I love that I now have a visual of where she walks and serves every day. The rest of our trip was pretty touristy, and I have many more fun pictures, but it was really fun to see where she lives and spends the majority of her time. These are a few pictures of our walking tour of her neighborhood...taken very inconspicuously on my phone!

I love you because...

For all you KXA girls out there, that phrase sounds familiar and brings back some fond memories. For those of you who aren't KXA girls (the sorority I was in at Baylor), "I love you because..." is something we did at a lot of our retreats. We'd break up into groups, sit in little circles, and take turns telling each person in the circle why we loved them. These were such sweet times because some of my deepest friendships from college were in that group of girls.

Last night, I decided to transfer this little tradition into my small group. I had the lesson all planned out, but decided that the girls could really benefit from some time building each other up, as a lot of their culture is spent tearing other girls down. SO, I cut out paper hearts when I got home from work, gave the girls one for each of the other girls in the room, and told them to write something to each other that started with "I love you because...". It turned out to be particularly fun because my five girls who are the most consistent and know each other the best were the ones there. It was encouraging for me to watch them put such time into their words to lift each other up. I was just reminded how good it is for all of us to be reminded that we are loved and to hear some encouraging words. And even though one of my girls wrote to me, "I love you because you get free Chili's" I still loved the whole experience. I just hope she loves me for more than free food!! :)

Removing Wanda...

In case you're wondering who Wanda is...that is currently the best name entry for the cyst. I kind of think it works! Thank you Stephanie! Anyhow, Wanda is going to make her dramatic exit from my body on March 2nd...less than three weeks from now...which is more time than I thought I would have. I have found that this is a good and bad thing. Bad because I am still in pain and I was mentally prepared to have her out sooner, but good because I get to do things like go to Philadelphia and visit my sister this weekend with my whole family.

The thought of having surgery (and my mom and various other visitors in my room while I'm recovering) lit a cleaning and organizing fire under me this last weekend. I went through clothes and got rid of a ton I don't wear anymore, went and got Elfa shelves from the Container Store (it was all on sale!) for this awkward spot in my closet that I've never known what to do with, and just did a thorough cleaning of my room. Now I just have to keep it all organized for a couple of more weeks!

I'm so excited for my trip to Philly. I hear it's a great, super fun city. And they have H&M. And my wonderful little sister...maybe that should have been first on the list! More than anything, I'm just excited to get away with my family for the weekend...away from work, away from Dallas, away from everyday life! Another added bonus is that I will get to try out my new Christmas present that just came in the mail last week...my very wonderful Nikon DSLR camera. Basically, it's fancy, and I'm so excited to really learn how to take pictures! SO, expect some fun ones upon my return!