Mom's birthday and Hillsong.
For my mom's birthday, I went with a group of friends to the Hillsong concert. Yes, you read that right. Instead of spending the Friday evening with my mom I choose to go to a concert. But it wasn't just any concert; it was the HILLSONG concert!!! [I did call and make sure it was okay with her that I attend the concert. We were all 5 able to celebrate the next day. Unfortunately, I don't think we took any pictures.]
Hillsong is an UH-MAY-ZING praise and worship group from Australia. They write and record many of the praise and worship songs played on the Christian radio stations and sung in church. These guys mix entertainment, testimony, worship, and the Word into two jam-packed hours of awesomeness. It was so cool to see the venue absolutely packed out for a Friday night of praise and worship.
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| This guys is NUTS!!! He has the most energy I have ever seen in a person. |
Pass!on.
For the past year, I have been involved in a Thursday night Bible study, Pass!on. It has been a tremendous blessing as I transitioned into my new, post grad-school life. The class primarily consists of people who have other obligations on Sunday morning i.e. teaching, attend another church, work schedules. It draws a huge and dynamic mix of people.
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| Chinese! Most people are able to stay and go out to dinner after class. |
Unfortunately, at this point in my life, I feel that I am being called away from this group. I have recently [and finally] chosen to admit that I have too much on my plate. In efforts to maintain those obligations that I cannot withdraw from-
and to sleep more than 4 hours a night-I am having to close some doors in hopes that the new found 'Me' time will result in a more clear-thinking, well-rested, and fewer trips-to-the-gas-station Ellen.
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| John, Jihye, Micheal, Stephanie, & Kay-Kay |
I still look forward to being able to go the the class when I can, bringing lost friends who may be too busy or intimidated to come on Sunday morning. I will miss the people of the class but know that I will still be able to see them at other times.
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| Sweet girls! |
no more teenagers?!
My baby brother turned 20 in March!?!?!?!? I cannot believe it. I also don't want to believe it as this means I am only getting older :(
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| Pretty much the only dessert that Pearl will eat: COOKIE CAKE!!! |
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Mom, Dad, and I drove to meet Emily and Andrew for a birthday celebration. We went to Texas Roadhouse [I think that is the name]....YUM-MEE!!! As the Birthday Boy, Andrew got the extreme privilege of straddling a horse and saddle while flapping his 'To-Go Box' wings and water cup 'beak' in his mouth while we serenaded him with rendition of
Happy Birthday that you most probably will not find on iTunes. Ha!
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| He always did want to fly! |
a night [and day] on a ranch.
I have joined a Sunday morning Bible study class at my church. I have enjoyed it very much and am grateful to the members of the class for accepting me with ready and open arms. I have also appreciated their understanding my occasional absence as I am still in transition.
My first big adventure with the group was just that: adventurous. The family of one of the guys in our class owns something like 75 [+/-] acres about an hour outside of the city. We had a great time getting to know each other better while camping, cooking, fishing, and shooting things. Yikes!
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| Our community of tents. Aren't they cute?! |
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| Some of the girls gathered 'round the campfire before heading off to our tents. |
We were up and at 'em at some crazy hour like 7:00 or something. We had to get the day going! These lovely girls made sure that we had a delicious breakfast spread to help get us going.
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| Tiffany, Stephanie, Amanda, & Lindsay |
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| The Coffee Crew: Joseph, Me, & Nathan |
The primary thing on our agenda for Saturday was the shooting range. As you can see below, there was no shortage of big, fat, and scary weapons. We had a safety meeting at 9:00 a.m. to go over the shooting range rules and to meet our Safety Instructors [seen in the navy shirts].
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| Ready?! |
There was a ridiculous amount of armor, ammunition and decibels flying around all morning. Thankfully, we each came back in one piece!
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| Range Master |
I am not a fan of guns and had no intentions of picking one up...
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| Drill Sargent Will! |
...but I had to show Will how it was done.
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| Don't recall my record, but I do know it was good! |
Some people chose fishing...a wise bunch of people if you ask me.
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| Courtney caught a fish! |
final four.
One particularly relaxing Saturday afternoon I found myself sitting with several girlfriends on the patio of Berry Hill. We sat there for hours, taking the day in and kept saying things like, 'Wow! When was the last time I didn't have to run off somewhere? Or
make time to see friends?!' Lindsay and I sat there for
5 hours, I think!
During our camp-out, a certain someone joined us for lunch...
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| Blue II, Butler University's mascot! |
I had Lasik sometime just before this. As you can see by these pictures I was in glasses for the entire month of March and out of make-up for most of April!
mud bugs!
Raise both hands if you are excited to get your hands on some crawfish! [
You can put your hands down now.] I have gotten several face-to-face run-ins with the little guys and hope to have several more before the season is over!
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| Some people like to pause and take a moment to take it all in... |
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| Lindsay prefers to entertain hers with a kiss first... |
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| ...and others were never told not to play with their food so they make Crawfish Families! |
pseudo birthdays.
As if we don't do enough birthday celebrating in our family during this time of year, Emily and I decided that we needed to have one more last curtain call before the commencement of Birthday Season. Because life here was crazy and demanding Emily never really got a birthday party. She has become kind of attached to some of my fabulous friends that she now calls them her own. I mustered together a group of people to enjoy a night at
The Chocolate Bar and several rounds of pool.
I was so glad that Amanda and Trey were in town that weekend and got to come hang out with her. We miss them :(
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| Amanda, Emily, and Me |
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