reunited...

this past weekend some of my long time friends and their wonderful husbands from pine cove came to austin for a 1/2 marathon. our visit was brief but it was sure good to see them.  we met at foodheads and then later at mandola's.  i had to show them so good austin cuisine! adrianne and robyn (pictured below) were some of my first friends at pine cove when i started full time there almost 8 years ago. i can't believe it has been that long. we have some fun memories!

robby also was in town, but somehow we did not manage to snap a photo. i love my camp friends!

introducing ginger ciminello...

this weekend before i was tricked searched at the airport, i was in the hot state of arizona for my wonderful friend ginger's wedding.

ginger is one of those friends that you hope and pray the lord let's you keep up with for the rest of your life.  she is not only hilarious but she loves jesus so much that when you are around her, you can't help but do the same.  we became friends when ginger took a full time job at pine cove. our mutual friend amy was excited to introduce us because she said we were going to be great friends. and boy was she right!

well years later our friendship is going strong even across timezones and states. i love this woman and i was so blessed to be a part of a very big day in her life! about a year ago (not long after the picture above was taken) ginger met the man of her dreams, dr. david ciminello and this weekend (october 17, 2010) they were wed.  here are some pictures from the weekend. (all of which i stole because i stink at taking pictures - that is why i am a DJ not a photographer)

 and this one is just for your viewing pleasure...

quick visits from dear friends...

2 weeks ago (i am so behind in blogging - you should see all my drafts that i have started), two of my dear friends, we will go ahead call them sisters, that live across the ocean came into town for a little visit. i was blessed to be able to steal a couple of hours each with them! ashley (pictured above in a photo we took while she was here) and robin (pictured below in a picture from my trip last year to the DR because we forgot to take a picture last week) both work for makarios (an organization you know i love!). i am blessed to know both of these women.  paul's words in romans 1:8-12 sum up how i feel about them:

"First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you  always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you - that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine."

a visit to okc...

two weeks ago i took a short trip to oklahoma city and stayed with my friend staci.  it had been over a year and half since i had been back to the great state of oklahoma.  i got lots of quality time with staci, whitney, casey and mindy.  i also got to see dara and baby eli in the hospital!! what perfect timing.  one night i got a bunch of friends together for dinner at the wedge down in deep deuce and then ended the night at cuppies and joe [a cupcake and coffee place that my friends the def twins own].  i was too busy having fun to take pictures, but i did manage to take two.

eatin' at the wedge.

 obu reunion at cuppies and joe.

i think there is another pic of me, min, and dara in the hospital with eli floating around out there somewhere.  it was a great trip with great laughs and good talks!  i think my abs hurt from laughing so much.i  was sad that i did not get to see carrie and natalie while i was there. next time ladies!

buds weekend in the atx...

two weekends ago, some of my college buds came to austin to visit. staci flew in from okc. ashley flew in from tulsa. becki and her fetus flew in from nashville. and casey drove on down from the big d. it was awesome! rather than writing a forever long post (like i have before) i am just going to hit the highlights and post a few pics. here are some of my favorite moments.

1. casey's massage story.
2. the cookie lounge + yahtzee. oh and i won, btw.
3. rock band for hours and hours.
4. becki having a contraction from playing the drums during rock band.
5. staci's huge bowl of soup from vivo.
6. the sr pic photo shoot at the arboretum.
7. getting to go to church and worship with people i love so much.
8. string cheese. sunkist. girl scout cookies. and honey mustard pringles. sounds gross, but don't judge.
9. endless hours of laughter.
10. the cupcakes from becki's shower.
11. our walmart hoodies.
12. 5 friends sleeping in one room.
13. naming becki's fetus teri. thank you bass.

so cute...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cNDSPutas8

this is so cute!

singing down memory lane...

as i was driving home in that awesome I-35 traffic , i got to listen to lots of music on my ipod. there are certain songs that always remind me of certain people and certain events in my life. literally every time i hear these songs, these things come into my mind and so yesterday i was literally taking a trip down memory lane. some of you have probably heard these stories multiple times as i have a chronic story retelling problem. hopefully you will enjoy this...

man in the mirror by michael jackson always makes me think of mark garcia. we were driving back late from a recruiting trail one night and practically falling asleep when this song came on my ipod and mark came alive like i have never seen before. we sang louder and did more motions to the song than i thought possible at that hour of the night. love it mark!

american woman by lenny kravitz makes me think of my dear friend ginger morby. i am not sure how it came about, but it is basically the song that plays in my head for her.

ho by ludacris makes me think of maziel dani. i am pretty sure we used to listen to this driving around campus all the time. we both know all of the words, or at least we used to. raising a glass of sunny d to you maz!

wanna be by spice girls reminds me of fabs harford. fabs was paid to make appearances at different high schools as one of the spice girls. she still knows every word and motion to the song. too bad she won't speak with that british accent around us!

country grammar by nelly will forever make me think of stacy mcclure and danielle smith. i have vivid memories of them singing this our sophmore year of college in a style that only they can pull off. i can still hear it! love you girls.

gangsta's paradise by coolio screams kimberly ginnings to me. i believe this is her all time favorite song. we listened to this so many times in her car on the way to sonic. thanks for reviving an awesome song for me kimberly!

you give love a bad name by bon jovi makes me picture robby mayne with a tie tied around his head on the dance floor! i can't tell you how many weddings i have been at where i have seen him killing it on the dance floor to this song. keep it up robby!

all i want for christmas by mariah carey always makes me think of all my college buds. we sang and danced to this song all the time and we were usually up to some kind of mischief when were were doing it. we made priceless memories that only cost us some donuts. oh and kenan, have you ever done your dance for jerry to this song?

more than you'll ever know by watermark brings to mind meagan munday. this was our song when we were roommates my sophomore year because of her broken collar bone. a blessing in disguise.

lose yourself by eminem and awnaw by nappy roots makes me think of butta, our college flag football team. these songs were played A LOT when we won the regional championship and competed in the national tourney as well.

beast by tech N9NE makes me think of bobby austin because he is a beast...or because we listened to it to get pumped on the way to our softball games. this song makes you feel like you should hit a homerun. a lot of rap songs make me think of bobby. he is such a thug.

mayberry by rascal flatts will always remind me of mindy goff. her maiden name is mayberry and we used to sing this song to her all the time, especially when she made great flag football plays! i do miss mayberry!

thank you traffic on I-35 for allowing me to sing down memory lane.

we pulled it off...

Ginger , Bobby and Robby came to Austin this weekend for a reunion. Needless to say it was awesome! I laughed harder than I have in months. Ginger flew in Friday and we got to catch up before the boys got here. Once the boys got here and checked in to their scary hotel, they came over and we ate chili and then went to see Master Pancake Theater's Forrest Gump.

the vienna sausage stand down on 6th street. i'm so tall.

eating at kerbey lane, an austin staple. this couple showed up with their parrot. that's right, they showed up to a restaurant with a parrot. only in austin.

then we went shopping at the round rock outlets and then yes, we played laser tag. we totally dominated those middle school kids.

after laser tag we went to the salt lick, an awesome bbq place outside of town.

me and robby. waiting outside for our table.

me and the fellas.

the guys recently got iphones and this was a common scene all weekend.

finally a picture with all 4 of us!

after the salt lick we came back to my place, got some amy's ice cream and played 2 rivoting games of clue, which bobby barely won. then on sunday they all came to church with me and we finished out the weekend at shady grove. ginger got to stick around until monday before she left for phoenix. i love these guys and it was so fun to be with them this weekend. we pulled it off in '08!

another wedding, another sweet reunion...

So last weekend on August 10, 2008, in the year of our Lord, Amanda Parsons became Amanda Isaacs. It was such a fun wedding weekend. So many good friends reunited (and it feels so good). It was so good to see my friends. Some are mommies, some are soon to be mommies, some we tease about becoming mommies and then there are some of us that are still holding out. I love my friends! No matter what stage we are in, we are able to reconnect and pick up where we left off. Here are just a few pics from the weekend. I have more on facebook if you are interested.

All of us at the rehearsal dinner. Bottom row from the left: Stacy McClure, Amy Milner, Julie Harris, Denise Farris, Danielle Smith (and her bun in the oven). Top row from the left: me, Minday Goff (and her just about done bun in the ove, Amanda Isaacs, Leslie Janssen, Dara Steward (holding Evan Steward)
Amanda and her cute aisle attendants. I had fun with these girls.The beautiful bride.


The bridal party. We are great at creating candid moments, but not great at fake candid pictures.
There are no words. Well maybe awesome.Harris n Farris picture.


I love Mindy. I can't wait for her to be a mom!
Life is always fun with Danielle!
Just outside the church.
there is nothing like ending the weekend with the Bison Mobile. Carrie rolled up in this and of course we had to jump in the back and take an alum pic. Zip Bang OBU!

more summer updates...

4th of July
I got to celebrate our nations birthday not at camp or in Costa Rica this year. It was weird. I was not sure what to do. I was not watching my guy friends almost blow themselves up in front of campers. I wanted to grill and play out on the lake, which is what i ended up doing. Rachel and I went over to our friend Travis's house, played some ladder golf (which I was pretty good at, or not) and went out on the lake. We didn't know hardly anyone, but it was still fun. We ended the evening by catching up with Wendy and Mary and watching some fireworks out at Zilker Park. We weren't close enough to hear the symphony, maybe next year. But it was still a fun day!


my boys...
Aren't these guys the cutest!! They belong to a family that I have grown to love here in Austin. They actually have 3 girls too! One night the boys and their parents joined us at Rudy's for dinner. The boys saw some policemen (their heroes) and they were in awe!! The policemen gave us police tattoos and we of course had to put them on right then. It took some convincing before the boys thought it was okay for a girl to be a policewoman. But we worked it out.

3rd roomie
That is right. I have a third roommate now. No, Cassie and I did not move. We are still in the same awesome 2 bedroom. Rachel just moved her stuff on into my room. It is like being in college all over again, except this time rather than 2 twin beds, there is a double and a queen bed in our room. It has been fun learning to share a room and bathroom again, but it has been really fun so far.

Just Another Day at The Austin Stone...
Our church is going through a money matters series. MAN is it good!! You should check out the podcasts!! One of the best sermon series on money that I have ever heard. It has really revealed where my heart's affections lie.

But on a lighter note, we are teaching the kids about stewardship too. We are trying to give them a practical way to give above and beyond the normal tithe. So we are having a school supplies drive for Community New Start. Well to build excitement, I of course needed full size costumes. So my friend Holly whipped some up and they are awesome. Bradley and I LOVED wearing them all day Sunday. Don't be jealous of my job.

Nebraska lovin'...
Carrie came to visit last week!! It was an awesome surprise!! I only wish we could have spent more time together. I took her to Freddie's and had a surprise waiting for her at the restaurant. Michael Fermier! It was awesome!

fun lately...

Went to my first Round Rock Express game with some new Austin Buds(wendy on my left, rachel on my right). It was no Ranger's game but it was still fun, they won, and they had fireworks after. Friends, baseball, hotdogs, and outside, what more could I ask for...We had a cookout and party one night in the park for our friend Janelle. Here I am being pious and teaching my friend Rachel how to pray. She has awesome facial expression.


Rachel is one of the friends I hang out with the most (aside from the fact that I make her serve in KidStuff all the time). I am blessed to have her as a friend for sure.


I made Whitney take this with me because I like her headband. and I like her.

i also just celebrated my first memorial day weekend in like 7 years. it is a great holiday that i had forgotten about. i have always been being trained or training our summer staff at pine cove. this year i got to relax at a lake house. still no 3 day weekend, don't think too crazy. i still got to work on sunday, but boy was it nice to have monday off!

old friends...

I have been blessed to catch up with some old pine cove friends the last weeks. It has been so fun to laugh about old times and catch up on new times. It was definitely encouraging for me. Lauren came in for the weekend on the way to her next rotation. I have missed my time with Pidge!

I went to Atlanta for a conference and got to see a dear friend! We had a sweet impromptu picnic at Moe's. I love that our lives still intersect. I hope that the Lord allows us to be life long friends.

friends are friends forever

This past week was full of visits from friends! Ginger flew in from Phoenix to spend a few short days with me. I had all these fun Austiny things planned, but it was cold and rainy the whole time and all of my ideas were outside. So we ate at a few fun restaurants and had some good quality talks. I only wish she could have stayed longer and that Phoenix was not so far away.




Then later that week I went to Dallas for a conference. I literally stayed in a hotel next door to my college roomie. It was so good to see her. We found out that our other college roommate was coming to Dallas for the weekend. She called Casey and asked her if they could have dinner together. Staci had no idea I was in town, so Casey agreed and I went with her to surprise Staci. I may have hidden in a trunk to scare her, but the night was great. We spent many hours at a classy restaurant catching up on life. It was so refreshing and good for my soul to talk to my dear friends! I miss them so much!




Staci came into town with some other good friends, Carrie, Kim and Stephanie (and Stephanie's unborn child). It was so good to see them. It was also hard because our time was so short.




When I returned home, my long time Pine Cove roommate came to Austin to recruit for Pine Cove. It was so great to see her and talk with her. I was like on cloud 9 on Sunday. It was so refreshing to run into so many of my dearest friends. These women have all walked with me at some point and it does my soul good to see them. There is something to be said for old friends coming to visit. I am blessed.