ooooo. IKEA!

It was about time to blog about something in the design realm. Right before our trip I got my IKEA catalog! I actually haven't had much time to look through it, but I already have some of my fave things picked out. The pictures to your right are things that I just love the look and feel of. My wishlist contains that orange couches at the top (and they are also featured in the bedroom below it) and bascially the entire kid's room. Now I know I have to actually have a child before I can have that room, but I am just getting ideas so it will be awesome when the time comes. It is a lot of blue, but I would do a little more of the oranges and lime greens to make it unisex. Then when I have my 3 to 4 kids they will all enjoy it! I mean I never had something as cool as that room. There is even a surfboard rug and chairs that hang from the ceiling. The two bedrooms in the middle aren't really rooms that I want things from (except the couch) but I think they have really awesome vibes. I am having to work on Wade about the couches. He wasn't there when I got our last couch and it is a tight squeeze when we both lay down. He said he would have gotten a better one if he had been there. So, we have to test that out first before buying. I don't know if he is excited about the color or not. But since I am the graphic designer I will probably have the final say. Oh, and I have no idea when we would ever get this stuff. We don't have extra money to buy it so who knows. It is just really fun to wish!

Back from Florida

Some crazy things:

1. Getting lost in Tampa and having to ask the Pepsi truck guy how to get to our hotel.
2. Asking the same Pepsi guy if we were close to the hospital and hearing him say, "You are so far away from the hospital that I can't even begin to tell you how to get there."
3. The receptionist at our hotel giving us the wrong directions to the hospital.
4. Driving around for an hour trying to find out how to get to the hospital from our hotel.
5. Realizing there are two Hilton Garden Inns and we accidentally got the furthest one away from the hospital.
6. Wade having his grape sized parathyroid removed when it is supposed to be the size of a grain of rice.
7. Wade being able to go out to dinner the night after he had surgery (although he did get really tired and his throat was pretty sore)
8. Getting to feed and pet gorgeous dolphins.
9. Watching amazing dolphins, whales, and killer whales leap into the air and do tricks.
10. Witnessing Bev's radar for Dairy Queen and never passing it up.


Anyway, we are back from the surgery trip. Wade is doing great. We are SO thankful that we went to Tampa with Dr. Norman being the doctor. Thank you for all the prayers and support. Thank you for the phone calls and cards and care packages. Mt. Horeb you are amazing! Megan Venters thank you for the blog love. And thanks to Brian and Cassie (I'm pretty sure they have never read this blog) for keeping our crazy dog Scooter while we were away!

Check it Out

So I know you can look at my links on the side and see what blogs I read, but I wanted to give this new blog a special entry. My sister has her own blog now and she gives updates on my niece and she also has some little extra fun things thrown in. So go visit her blog: Baby Makes Three
Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my niece. I miss her so much. I shouldn't live this far away from her.

Unloading my Brain

So, after this weekend I need to just unload all of the things that happened since I last posted.

1. Wade gave me the rest of my Valentine presents Thursday night. I received Godiva chocolates (YAY!) and he wrote me a beautiful song. I absolutley loved it. I told him he needs to make me a CD that has all of the songs he has written me. I am so blessed!
2. Friday night Wade and I celebrated our Valentine's dinner (yes we did make it a 3 day celebration) at Pasta Frescas...I think that is how it is spelled. It was wonderful and then we headed to the movies to watch "Music and Lyrics" and I will tell you Hugh Grant is one funny guy.
3. We sent the dogs (Scooter and our pastor's beagle that we are keeping) to Wade's parents so we could head to Charlotte, NC. It was good to have a break from their crazy fighting.
4. We went to Charlotte and tried to get to Cheesecake Factory early so we wouldn't have a long wait, but at 4:30 there was a 70 minute wait. So we bought some cheesecake and headed to a pizza place.
5. Sunday morning was CRAZY. We had to be up at 5:00 am for Wade to get to the church in time to practice with the band. However, Wade couldn't fall asleep so we only got like 3 hours of sleep.
6. The service at Elevation started and the band played. It was awesome! Wade and Mack shared leading songs and it was so powerful. I was so proud of Wade. He looked really into it and energetic and was leading the people into a special time with God. I absolutely loved every second of it. We have some of it on video and I can't wait to watch it. Andrew, Michael, Brian, and Reid came to watch and that meant a lot to me and especially Wade. We also got to eat lunch with them.
7. Steven Furtick had an awesome sermon about dating/sex/love. It had a new spin on it that was very fresh.
8. We came back home and were exhausted. We went to Ignite and it had a low key feel to it tonight. Wade did some acoustic worship and Meghan did a talk on dating relastionships that was great. I barely made it through and then me and Wade headed home to get some much needed sleep. I am now rested and able to take on the week.

Keep us in your prayers. Wade, his mom and dad, and I leave Tuesday after I get off work to head to Tampa for Wade's surgery. It will be a nice break from the regular schedule, but also Wade is having surgery so that isn't fun.

New Additions

Wanted to let you all know that I have now added the design sites that I visit frequently as links on the side. I am sure I have missed some so it may have a few additions over the next week. Also, while I was thinking about my awesome poetry (see previous post), I managed to find this one poem that I wrote when I was in tenth grade. It definitely isn't about love, but it was probably my first real poem. See if you know what is happening in it.

Evil

The glassy surface, spots as black as sin
Awaits a young child so it can be invited in
A naive mind, a confident walk
Eliminates the danger that would make him stop
Fun and games soon end, playtime over
The surface wins
The white, the purity, the virgin color
Covers the deeds of nature's lover
The evil, unknown from that day
Lays with the boy at the bottom of his grave.

Update: After Wade read this he reminded me that this poem is kinda scary. So, I wanted to let you know that I am not some sad depressed person who writes unhappy poetry. I actually wrote this one day when it was snowing in Belton. I looked out the window while I was on the computer and saw our little pond kind of frozen and dark looking. I decided I wanted to write something that talked about how beautiful winter and ice can be but also how dangerous. So out came Evil. I guess the ice has more bad qualities than good in my head.

Valentine's Day Ends

So the day of love from our calendar is officially over. Wade sent me flowers while I was at work. They were beautiful and it had an adorable stuffed animal on the side. But we didn't get to spend much time together. We had church stuff to do and we decided to celebrate either tonight or Friday and would give our little gifts to one another. However, I tricked Wade and had a little display of his gifts set out for him when he got home. He got a card and 18 cupcakes that were valentine themed. And then the longest poem I have ever written. Wade said it made our love sound "epic." I like that.

Some serious props

I want to take some blogging time to give some SERIOUS props to my husband Wade. Now, I know some of you are thinking, "Oh no, she is going to get mushy." But I assure you this is me trying to take my brain out of my head and analyze something that is before me. Here it is: My husband is an extraordinary worship leader. He is actually the best worship leader I have ever seen. This past Sunday we got our new sound system and the praise band sounded GREAT! Wade led the people and seemed so comfortable on stage. He seemed excited to be there and was ready to lead people into a celebration of God. However, it gets even better. This past week our youth band played at our high school gathering, but normally Wade and his band peeps play and let me tell you this is AMAZING. It is one thing to just do a song like it is on the CD or the radio, but Wade and his band guys frequently change up the songs to fit different moods. I mean there are times when a song has the perfect words but doesn't fit the mood you have set, but Wade can do something with it vocally or musically and I am speechless at how wonderful it is. I am in absolute awe of how he is so talented. Also, for a long time Wade traveled with the Wade Joye Band. It has fewer shows these days because of the committment to our church, but in this band he leads worship and plays his own original songs. The songs he writes are so inspiring. And I get so excited when he has a new song and plays it for me. I know that God gave him the words to write the music. The lyrics always bring me in a moment that is solely focused on Jesus. But finally and most importantly, Wade is a incredible worship leader because of his heart and desire to follow God. I am his wife and therefore know him better than anyone on this earth. And I know that he is striving to walk as close as he can to Jesus. I think God is really using Wade and showing him how to lead His people with music. And I truly believe God is going to do something radical with him. I believe God is going to use Wade for something we never thought even possible. So even though I gave Wade some serious props, it really only matters if continues walking close to Jesus because God is the one who makes Wade awesome.

Lion Chaser's Manifesto

I know I just posted a blog, but I had to put this up as well. It seems like I have been visiting some blogs today and a lot are about taking risks and going after things with passion. So I saw Mark Batterson's blog and figured that I needed to post his manifesto.

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Grab life by the mane. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.

Chase the lion.

Open the Door

So last night I was thinking about the phrase: "If it is meant to be, God will open the door." I wondered where this came from. It seemed like I heard something like it in the Bible, but where was it. I asked Wade and in his half asleep state he said "keyword search on biblegateway." So I did a little biblegateway search and found these verses.

Matthe 7:7-8
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Now there may be some other place that this phrase comes out of in the Bible, but I am just going to assume since nothing else jumped out at me that this is all we have. Now, I have said, "If it is meant to be, God will open the door" many times. And the best way I can think to tell you how I use that phrase is to think back on my old track days.
Here is the scenario. I ran the 800 meter race (half a mile). Now I was pretty good. I usually came in the top two places that is until one of my bestest friends Ashley started running track. She ALWAYS finished before me. So for awhile I was jealous, but then I just accepted it. I probably said something like this, "She is just faster than me. There isn't anything I can do about it. I will just be second or do something else that maybe I am good at." I don't know if you have made a connection to the phrase yet or not, but I use the open door phrase as an "oh, well" statement. I am not going to go above and beyond to make a dream happen because, you know what, God is in charge of it and he will open the door for me. But the verse says KNOCK and the door will be opened to you. I think of that as being really involved. I mean there are times when I have knocked A LOT on the door because I know someone is in the house they just haven't come to the door yet. Maybe God just wants to see how much you want it. How hard will you knock for it? What things will you knock out of the way to get a chance to push open a door that is only open for a few seconds. At least then if the door still doesn't open, I know that I did everything I could to show God how serious I was about it. God does control the doors. He isn't going to open it unless it is right for us, but I can't use the statement anymore to get a free ride. I have to do my part. I have to knock.

More of Baby Pressley

And here are some more.

Here I am with my new niece!

And Wade gets to hold her too! She loved Wade.

Proud dad holds litttle Pressley.

The funniest face I saw her make. I think she was kinda squished against Benjamin's arm or at least I hope so.

Well, that is all of the really good pics of my new niece, but since I am getting more into photography I am sure Pressley will end up on this blog a lot. She is so adorable. I can't believe I am an aunt.

Baby Pressley

Here she is in all her glory!

This is of Pressley right when we got there. She was sleeping soundly.

Here is mom and daughter. My sister looks at Pressley with such love.

And her tiny toes. They are actually really long and she was grabbing my finger with her toes.

I MUST wait

If you haven't seen Wade's blog yet, then let me be the first to tell you I am an AUNT! I am so excited, but as you can see the title of this blog is "I must wait." This is because I have some beautiful pictures but not with me!! So I will wait until I get home to tell you anymore of my little niece so then you can see the baby girl's precious face.

Instead, for this blog I am going to answer some more questions about myself so that if you want you can answer them on your blog as well!

I'd never...at least I don't think I would ever:

1.List two items of clothing you would never wear again.
a. First, it would be the double mismatching socks that I would wear when I was in like 3rd grade. It was hot pink and black and you would have to switch which one was on top for the other foot.
b. The bodysuit things. The snapped at the bottom. Kind of like a adult onesie. That is weird. Although I am seeing them again.

2.List two food items you would never eat again.
a. I don't know if I would never eat it again, but I threw up after eating some Chunky soup and now I have a taste aversion to it. I mean I can't even stand smelling it if Wade heats it up.
b. Carraba's calamari. They say it is supposed to be good and it isn't bad, but it was just chewy.

3.List two types of music you would never intentionally listen to again.
a. I am not proud of it, but I listened to ghetto rap in high school. People could hear my jeep coming into school because my rap was so loud. I would never get back into that. So many things that are too sinful in that music.
b. I would actually listen to it, but just to make fun of it. This is for Wade: Stings solo stuff.

4.List two TV shows you would never watch again.
a. I used to like Real World, but something about it made me stop wanting to watch it.
b. I used to LOOOOVE America's Next Top Model. Well, actually only the first season. After that it seemed lame-o. It was probably lame-o first season, but I refuse to believe that.

5.List two beverages you would never drink again.
a. Coke Zero. Gross. I felt like I was drinking salt. It was so nasty.
b. Hot tea. I don't remember where or when I had it, but I remember thinking why would you choose this over sweet tea?

The Scoot

I know I have been posting a lot of pictures lately, but I like pictures! And since my gorgeous husband got me the Canon Rebel, I am now going crazy taking pictures of whatever I can.


Now some of you may not know our dog Scooter. The reason for this is he is so psycho when people come over that only those who can get passed his crazy hyper self make it through our door. Now Scooter is only like this because he gets so excited about having new friends come in. So I have some pictures of Scooter to share with the world in case you haven't seen him.

While waiting on 24...

We all know that Jack Bauer is the coolest person on TV and it is hard waiting an entire week to see what is going to happen next. Even though you can't watch the new episode right now, you can check out some Jack Bauer's gear. Some of it is from previous seasons while others are this season. And best of all Uncrate has links where you can buy some of it!!! It doesn't get better than that!