how great, is our god

I have to tell you, this past week has been one of the hardest and one of the most encouraging weeks of my little life. Losing a dear friend is not fun. Aching daily for his wife is even less fun. But this past week I watched (and was able to be a part of) a church that banded together to praise God and also cry out to God in this time of need. I witnessed a body of believers do whatever they could to pray, deliver food, and encourage a family that was hurting. And even while so many of us were screaming at God "Why? How could this happen?" so many of us continued to praise God and thank him for being so good.

God was so present on Friday at the funeral while probably 400+ people gathered together to celebrate a wonderful life. I already knew my friend was incredible, but hearing people talk about how awesome he was and how diligently he sought after God, really revealed to me just how awesome of a life he led. In just 25 years, I thought, he had already done so much with such a kingdom mindset... I have to step up to the plate! We serve the same God, but I am lazy and comfortable in my faith. This man understood the urgency of the gospel, and was all about sharing it in his everyday walk. Seriously.
The most encouraging thing was to be part of worship at the funeral. To worship God and be thankful that he brought my friend home to enjoy the reward of heaven- to know that God brought him home and said "well done good and faithful servant". And to watch his wife worship the Lord that day. Wow.

When I got to talk to her, I was encouraged by her. (me!? I should be the one encouraging her!) She was rejoicing for his life (although knowing that her life would from now on be so different, and still being sad to lose her husband, and still in great need of prayer) but, she was joyful because she can rest in the arms of Christ and she has faith that God is still so great.


And tonight we started our girl's Bible study. I am so thankful for this. I am excited to see what God has in store for us.

please pray

Yesterday, one of our dearest friends passed away suddenly. This loss is so great and so hard for me to wrap my head around... I still can't believe it.
We are rejoicing for Anthony because we know he is with our Maker. He was one of the most incredible men of God I have known. Really. He has been such a blessing to Ben and me. But it is still so hard to find peace & comfort.
I know that a few of you blogging friends know him- but I am writing this now for those of you who do not know him, to ask you to please pray for his family and especially for my dear Kristi. Kristi and Anthony have been married as long as we have, just over a year. I can't imagine the hurt. I know that she is just in need of a blanket of prayer- and I know that so many of you are prayer warriors. Please pray for her. Please pray for peace and strength.

bright shiny colors

Okay, the weirdest store of all time came to our mall recently. Just yesterday I decided to take a stroll through the mall, crossing my fingers for big discounts at Banana Republic... and I stumbled upon the newest addition: American Apparel. Before I go any further, let me just say that I do appreciate their blank, brightly colored, soft, sweatshop-free, cotton tee's. And those stretchy cotton scarves? Beautiful. They have some cute clothes.

But this store is weird folks. I have never seen so many stretchy glitter spandex in my life. And shiny leotards & bodysuits... and stirrup pants. Now, I don't like to be a critic. (I know I have poor taste in movies, and you probably shouldn't listen to a restaurant recommendation from me because I do not eat like a normal human.) So, naturally, I am no fashionista and far be it for me to judge the glitter clothes- I was just overwhelmed in this store. The thing that made this store totally bizarre to me was the gentleman who greeted me; who was wearing one of everything in the store. Yes layer upon layer of cotton- most of which was shiny and stretchy.

And to top it all off, the music in the store sounded just like the music that they play in a horror film just before the girl gets unexpectedly knifed in the back. I am not kidding, creeptastic horror film music.

from the classroom

Today I bring you an offering from my husband's 8th grade social studies class. A young girl raised her innocent hand in Ben's class and asked with the utmost sincerity, "Can you please explain the difference between the Boston Massacre and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre?"

Please Mr. P, we are all dying to know... what is the difference?!

my weekend in

This weekend tropical storm Hanna seemed threatening... but we were blessed and just got rain and some wind. Nevertheless, we stayed inside mostly, because of the weather. And, what better to do on a weekend when your stuck inside, than paint! That's right friends, I have a problem and it revolves around painting (and re-painting) rooms. When we moved in last summer the house needed fresh paint desperately- but in time, some of the colors I chose initially I regretted. So in one year our room has been painted twice (the green was so boring and I was ready for a change) and now our upstairs bathroom has gotten its second make-over as well. It was a bright blue which I just got tired of quickly. It was too dark for the little bathroom. I wanted something cleaner and crisper. The way of convincing my husband of this Saturday remodeling was explaining why a bathroom needs more of a semi-gloss finish (I am not really a fan of shiny walls so we did 'eggshell' at first, but it didn't hold up well to the everyday usage). Success! A happy new shiny-walled bathroom. Here's the end result:

Then the storm headed out in the late afternoon and left what I think is one of the coolest skies I have seen at camp. The colors of the sunset were so bright while the rest of the sky was still really dark- and this doesn't really do it justice:

race for the cure!

A few weeks before my 4th birthday my mom lost her battle with breast cancer. In an effort to remember her and join in the fight against breast cancer I have tried to do lots of things; I buy pink clad kitchen-ware, handbags, and various other items that fund breast cancer awareness and education (and of course finding a cure). I even make my husband eat crazy organic foods and I try to stay away from shampoo with sodium lauryl sulfate- blah blah blah... all to (minimally) reduce my risk.

But I think I am taking my most proactive step yet in fighting this cancer. I am going to participate in the Komen Race for the Cure. Woo Hoo! I am really excited... I have looked at information on the race before but I have never just jumped in and decided to do it, until today. Ben is also going to run with me, because he is great & supportive. He is also 10 times more capable at running a 5K or any amount of "K" for that matter, so he will force me (lovingly) to make this happen. I think I can do it though. I am going to run with him, often-ish, and I will get there. I am not motivated to work out, but I am motivated to run this race (and I can walk/run it too, thank you very much).

So, my race is October 19th- and sadly, I admit I have a long way to go in order for these 3.1 miles to go well. So maybe pray :) that I can finish. And only if you want, you can check out my personal little website- but even better, let me know if you want to do it too and we could even make our own team!

it's alive!

I kill plants. It's what I do. I try to have plants around the house because I love them... but all I do is kill them. I have the furthest thing from a green thumb.

A beautiful purple orchid from my sister-in-law: dead.
A lovely white Lilly from some friends: dead.
Our first marital plant purchase of an umbrella tree: dead.
Fresh herbs from my mother-in-law: dead.

The only thing I have been able to keep alive is one of those ivy-type vines that grows for miles. You know what I am talking about, it's green, it grows long and viney, and you can't kill it.
So, you can imagine when I got a beautiful hanging plant with what seemed like hundreds of tiny pink flowers all over, I killed it too. I don't know how it happened, but everything turned brown. I was very sad. I thought outdoor plants were a bit more resilient. Wrong. Just as I was about to throw its lifeless brown sticks and wilted blooms into the woods, my husband stopped me. There were tiny green leaves deep inside of the brown mess. He watered it (and probably whispered some encouraging words to it or something) and then told me "you can save it." ME!?! I don't think so.
But, in spite of myself I cut off all the dead leaves and brown wilted flowers and watered it daily. I was proud of my little green stems. I noticed within a few days the green started to spread a bit... but it wasn't until this afternoon that I really noticed... I had saved the plant! It's back and quite beautiful (if I do say so myself). I can't believe it. I killed a plant and then revived it-- amazing!

a visit to philly

This weekend one of Ben's friends and college roommate got married in Philadelphia. Ben was there all weekend but I just drove up Saturday for the wedding. Admitting to my hatred of being alone, I begged my aunt to come with me Saturday morning and enjoy a day in the city before I had to go to the wedding that night. Brilliant! So she and my 12 year old cousin, who needs a little culture, drove up north with me bright and early Saturday morning to do a little sight seeing of the city of brotherly love.

We first took him to see the Liberty Bell- of which he was not all too impressed. His words: "That thing is definitely fake."

So here he is, begrudgingly posing with the phony Liberty Bell, a symbol of America's freedom...

Then I showed him a fake bell. This under-scaled touchable plastic bell gave him a little appreciation for the bell we saw earlier. (The real one...duh.) He became a little more excited about our PA visit as the day went on. Here he is with my sweet aunt posing in Independence Hall where they signed our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. (And if you look really closely, you will notice his shirt has changed to a snappy tourist tee with Philadelphia written down the side. He really isn't as miserable as he seems.)We ate lunch at an authentic Philly Cheesesteak restaurant (where I ordered an eggplant parm sandwich) but my more normal cousin got a "prov wit' out & hots" steak. Then, they headed out for the day and I was off to the wedding. It was in such a pretty location. I drove through this great little town called Chestnut Hill and loved every minute of my drive.And then I arrived at our friends' wedding at a park in the city.
With a very cool sparkler send-off at the end of the night.

It was a really nice wedding weekend, and now, back to the daily grind. Happy September!