this is where i will be tomorrow.

i love colorado and crooked creek ranch.

the weekend update...

friday night...slurpee wyldlife club.
very fun. very messy. i absolutely love the middle school kids i get to hang with.

saturday day...sunshine cleaning.
yes, i cried, yes, i laughed, and yes i loved this movie. also, emily blunt who plays nora in the movie dates john krasinkski (jim halpert) in real life. amy adams, who was also in the movie dated jim halpert (john krasinkski) on the office. what a small office world it is.

saturday night...delicious dinner.
i went to houstons with friends and had the tastiest steak i have ever feasted on in my life. here is the recipe to their amazing marinade:
6 oz. Apple Cider
1 (6 oz.) Pineapple juice
13 oz. Soy sauce
13 oz. Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Granulated Garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons Ginger
Put in a double boiler and cook. Let steaks marinate for 2-3 days in fridge.

sunday morning...service day at church.
instead of regular church services everyone went to schools and other places around dallas and cleaned, gardened, and anything else that needed to be done. i dug up weeds and planted flowers. and, i have never had a garden, but this morning made me want one. plus it showed me that i could garden, its always been a little intimidating to me.

sunday afternoon...audiko.
i downloaded a whole bunch of ringtones off audiko.net. my favorites are the veronica mars theme song, david cooks rendition of always be my baby by mariah carey, vineyard by jackopierce, moon river, and the gossip girl opener. xoxo, gossip girl. if only i could make it my text message ringer.

and, as a bonus this weekend, i fell in love with edward cullen a couple times :)

now, i am off to chuys, great way to end a great weekend.

p.s. happy birthday, becky!!!

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

i heart...

this preppy and casual cookout. (but not the guy with slicked back hair and short shorts. yuck.)


this preppy bedroom. (and the blue hydrangeas.)


this preppy outfit. (and reading outside on a blanket.)


these preppy sandwiches. (would it be weird eating pink bread?)

it is supposed to rain today. i love this preppy rainy day couple.

i love the change of seasons. mainly summer into fall and winter into spring. they are so refreshing. you can count on them (much unlike the seasons in my heart). they are relief from the extremes of the previous season (this in my heart can be the case as well, but sometimes i would prefer to stay in the extreme and not enter into the gray unknown). the transition into this spring has been especially nice (both in the weather and in the rhythm of my heart). probably because i know what to do in dallas in the spring to make the most of the season (and my heart knows how to slow down in the midst of the busyness of the spring). so, if you are going to be in the dallas area and are looking for some great ways to spend a beautiful spring day, here are my suggestions (they will hopefully be as good for your heart as they are for mine)...

{i heart yogurt} it is tasty. and, you get to serve yourself...fro yo, toppings, and all. so, if you want just a tiny bit of italian original, a lot of dark chocolate, topped off with massive amounts of gummy bears, granola, and blackberries, you can do it. also, it is a very fun place to go with a friend, have a good convo, and enjoy a treat at the same time.

{caruth park} right in the middle of hp. it has a lake, a playground, shaded grass and sunny grass, playing fields, tennis courts, and benches. doesnt get much better than that in my opinion. today it was very humorous to watch a little girl go from riding her bike, to falling on her bike, to playing baseball, back to riding her bike, then once again falling on her bike. i felt bad laughing, but just couldnt help it. i keep a blanket in my car these days so any free 30 minutes i have can be spent reading, thinking, and watching.

{st. bernard sports outlet} this is a dream store! it has outdoorsy stuff like patagonia, north face, and marmot as well as preppy clothes like lilly pulitzer, lacoste, splendid (my favorite brand of tshirts and dresses and stuff), and vineyard vines. and guess what...it is all 50%-75% off!!! they have shoes too, i forgot about the shoes. their rainbow flipflops are 50% off, plus they have reefs, bernardos, uggs, toms, and crocs (although i think those are the ugliest shoes ever made). this isnt necessarily good for the heart, but it is good for the wallet, which makes the heart lighter too :)

{chuys} fajitas. patio. 5-7 weekdays free queso. enough said. it is the little things that bring such delight.

ecclesiastes says that to everything there is a season. i want to believe that seasons are good and if one season was around forever i would get tired of it, because that is not the way God designed life to be. but, much of me thinks that days of sun and 78 degrees and a slowed down pace of life all the time couldnt be all bad. so for now i will enjoy it and await the seasons both in the weather and in my heart.

springtime is here, which means open windows.

this is the perfect open window in my house to be camped out by with a good book and the sojourn music album.

i made this notecard today at work. not gonna lie, i am pretty proud of it.

ten⋅der1   [ten-der] Show IPA adjective, -er, -est, verb
–adjective
1. soft or delicate in substance; not hard or tough: a tender steak.
2. weak or delicate in constitution; not strong or hardy.
3. (of plants) unable to withstand freezing temperatures.
4. young or immature: children of tender age.
5. delicate or soft in quality: tender blue.
6. delicate, soft, or gentle: the tender touch of her hand.
7. easily moved to sympathy or compassion; kind: a tender heart.
8. affectionate or loving; sentimental or amatory: a tender glance.
9. considerate or careful; chary or reluctant (usually fol. by of).
10. acutely or painfully sensitive: a tender bruise.
11. easily distressed; readily made uneasy: a tender conscience.
12. yielding readily to force or pressure; easily broken; fragile.
13. of a delicate or ticklish nature; requiring careful or tactful handling: a tender subject.
14. Nautical. crank 2 (def. 1).
–verb (used with object)
15. to make tender.
16. Archaic. to regard or treat tenderly.

tender is probably my favorite word. i got very excited tonight when randy jackson told kris allen he sang a tenderhearted song for his tender-dawg. my bff krista does not like it when i use the word tender. she says it just reminds her of meat. but, i dont care i love it. it is the name of our wireless server at casa bonita. i use it frequently in everyday conversation. it is one of my favorite things about Jesus. it is a quality i value in a friend. sometimes i even get a tear in my eye when something is very tender too.

i was reading my book last night and there was a quote by edith stein in it, "the womans soul is...fashioned as a shelter in which other souls may unfold." then the book stated that as women we cultivate and tend to people. then, it listed all of these explanations of where the word tend is used in describing our daily routines...attend, attention, tenderness, extend, attentively, tended. "cultivating women do this tending again and again, consistently, practically working, naturally building other people--a long cultivation in the same direction" -jonalyn grace fincher.
i pray that the Lord makes me more of a woman that cultivates and tends to the hearts of other people. and i pray that He continues to put people in my life that cultivate and tend to my soul as well.

my roommate alisa has been playing all of the songs in her itunes that have "tender" in them. there are quite a few out there, you should check them out.

here is a top 10 tribute to sean mann (1 day after his birthday...oops)

10. he will still be nice to me even though i am doing this one day late.
9. he has great taste in music! (and gave me some cds, which i am very very thankful for, due to the fact that i deleted my ipod a few weeks ago on accident.)
8. he has great taste in preppy clothes.
7. he is very willing to help with sound for a yl event anytime. and is very helpful and nice in the midst of freaking out the day of banquet.
6. he is awesome at ski jump on the wii!
5. his heart is very tender.
4. he reads "oh and the world spins madly on" blog regularly and enjoys the real posts more than the shallow ones.
3. he is a really great cook!
2. he loves kids with disabilities as a full time job.
1. he loves people well. sean makes you feel so comfortable around him, and you feel you can just be yourself and nothing else.

happy late birthday sean!

p.s. if you read the blog and it is your birthday i will give you a tribute as well. just let me know that you actually read this :)

i would like to learn to play this on guitar. it is beautiful and much of my heart right now.

All I Have Is Yours

C G
Creator, giver of all things:
F G C
All I have is Yours.
C G
Accept my humble offering:
F G C
All I have is Yours.
Am G/B F C
When I was chained to greed and pride,
Dm G C
Tight- fisted, destined just to die,
AM G/B F C
You paid my debt and bought my life --
F G C
All I have is Yours.

refrain

F G Am Am Bb C Dm C G/B F C
All I have. All I have. All I have is yours.

This offering is a means of grace.
All I have is Yours.
You show me this to grow my faith:
All I have is Yours.
The more I give, the less I need.
I learn that You'll provide for me.
'twas blind to this but now I see --
All I have is Yours.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done.
All I have is Yours.
You'll finish all that You've begun.
All I have is Yours.
That You would use the gifts I bring
In service of the coming King
Is reason now to praise and sing:
All I have is Yours.

-sojourn community church music

listen to them on myspace here

this is great: olivia on the city vs. blair on gossip girl <--click to read

whenever i have longish hair, i love to wear braids. it is getting long and i am loving wearing braids. if only i was talented enough at hair to have mine look like some of these pictures.

"MOSTLY WHAT GOD DOES IS LOVE YOU. Keep company with Him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but EXTRAVAGANT. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of Himself to us. LOVE LIKE THAT!”
-Ephesians 5:1-2 (The Message Bible)
this is what i want my life to be about.

that and of course carving i love you into trees.

this is a blog that is very much worth your time: donmilleris.com
through reading it i found out that donald miller and i have the same taste in music. maybe he should be my husband or i should be his personal assistant. the latter is probably the most probable of the two.

i have lived in texas a year and a half now. and, i must admit, i never thought i would like it this much. i am a southern girl tried and true. everything about the south is just wonderful...the weather, the people, the college football and basketball, the croakies, the mountains, the beach, the pearls, the lilly pulitzer, the barbecue, the accents (well, some of them), i mean and i could keep going and going, but i will stop. but, i love texas too...the people, my church, my job, the big city, the ranches, the river, the weather, the restaurants, the kolaches, the cowboy boots, the brisket, the i heart yogurt, and i could go on and on. i never thought the Lord would bring my heart to this place so quickly. i miss my family more than i thought i would too. i honestly didnt realize not seeing them as often would be this hard at times. some days i wish i could just hop in the car drive to my moms, or dads, or brothers and see them in person and hear what is going on with them and see the expressions on their face and not just imagine what they look like. but, for now, i am confident this is where the Lord has me and i am so glad. He is doing some great things in my heart and if i had not moved here i dont know if i would have seen Him in the same ways as i am right now.
my favorite place besides dallas (and dallas only wins because it is home and feels like home) is austin. here is a collage i found of austin while blogstalking at amyfree.com. enjoy!

today would be a good day:

to be doing this.

to be eating these.

to be wearing this.

today is my roommates birthday. so in celebration of her here are the top 10 reasons i love alisa: (drumroll please)
10. she has a great wardrobe and even lets her roommates (1 of whom being me) borrow items!
9. she loves the disney channel and constantly has it playing in her room...suite life of zach and cody, hannah montana, witches of waverly place, etc.
8. she loves bubbas chicken and she loves chuys and will split fajitas there any day of the week.
7. she introduced me to the deliciousness of refried beans at chuys :)
6. she has a kicking air guitar dance move.
5. she cares about kids in high school, jr high, and elementary school and wants them to know Jesus.
4. she puts up with me as her roomie and even listens when i come lay on her bed and ramble about my day.
3. she is a-mazing at nertz.
2. she loves gossip girl and veronica mars and unashamedly will watch either with you whenever you want.
1. alisa+chase=lo-lo-lo-l-o-v-e! and she lo-lo-lo-l-o-v-es Jesus in a very real way.

‘Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the Lord’s purpose prevails!’ -Proverbs 19:21
my heart has felt so angry with the Lord and His plans for my life vs. my plans for my life. it feels as if there is some miscommunication between me and God and we cant quite seem to get on the same page about some things. i love where God has me in life, but i do not understand what He is doing sometimes. i see people around me get what they want and lead healthy normal lives and others suffer or wait patiently for things they desire. Gods timing is such a mystery and one that i have a hard time trusting Him through. and i must remember that the Lord looks at the heart, not at the outsides which the world sees. so much of the way i value time and timing is by the worlds standards. but the Lord looks at the heart. Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the Lord’s purpose prevails.

my latest musical obsession.