I hope your day is filled with soup

today has been absolutely wonderful. let me explain. I.... 

"slept in" till 6:30 

read for my Shakespeare class

went to class

enjoyed a wonderful kolache from my dear friend Becca

photographed Becca and her doggie Scout

took photos at the Benjamin Knox gallery for fun

sat and drank a nice latte

met a sweet stranger at HEB

came home and ordered wedding invitations (YAY!)

cooked some soup

....

and now I am currently doing laundry 

and eating a late afternoon snack

why is this exciting? 

WELL you see, I truly do believe God made this day so beautiful and wonderful to begin with so that later in the day, when things "didn't go as planned," I would be able to appreciate everything for what it was-- of God. so let me clarify a couple things...

I LOVE to cook. I love trying new recipes, having people over, and enjoying company and fellowship with good food. it truly brings a joy to my heart to cook. i LOVE it. and thanks to a friend named Oliver, I am recently obsessed with Jamie Oliver and his AMAZing recipes. So of course, instead of going for an easier recipe that still tastes good, I go for the slightly harder one that is sure to be amazing! Enter the butternut squash soup recipe that just sounds oh so delicious. the cooking goes well, it tastes amazing, but the last step is to put the soup in a blender and puree it, so you get this amazing smooth soup that should look something like this: 

however, something went wrong with the blender... 

horribly, terribly, painfully wrong....

and the soup therefore ended up looking more like this: 

just imagine. carrots, squash, celery, onions, and garlic-- all over the walls, your clothes, the refrigerator, the lightbulbs, cookbooks, toaster, sink... anything within a 5 foot radius. my arm is burned, my clothes are in the dryer, and I sit here eating what is left of the now chunky, definitely non-pureed soup that i had imagined making:

BUT. the kicker in all of this is-- how funny is all of this!? try to imagine yourself rushing to push the OFF button on a blender that is basically pummeling soup all over you and your kitchen. it's probably one of the greatest things that's happened to me in a while. 

my dearest roomie Ruth so graciously helped me clean up, and we both decided that God wanted to humble me with my cooking skills. I am fully aware that I am not an expert chef, and definitely not an expert soup maker.

but I sure do enjoy having fun while I'm in the kitchen :) 

who would have thought God could humble us there?? 

I hope your day is full of exploding soup. 

I promise it's better that way :) 

sneak peek ....

this weekend I had the chance the visit my Grannie Anna, her husband Carl, and my Parain (French for "uncle") in Louisiana. We had such a blast! Lots of shots to come, but this one's the favorite :)

and here are the words to Your Great Name that we lead in worship tonight at Grace... oh, how the power of Jesus' name moves! 

Lost are saved; find their way; at the sound of your great name 

All condemned; feel no shame, at the sound of your great name 

Every fear; has no place; at the sound of your great name 

The enemy; he has to leave; at the sound of your great name 

Jesus, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us, Son of God and Man 

You are high and lifted up; that all the world will praise your great name 

All the weak; find their strength; at the sound of your great name 

Hungry souls; receive grace; at the sound of your great name 

The fatherless; they find their rest; at the sound of your great name 

Sick are healed; and the dead are raised; at the sound of your great name 

Jesus, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us, Son of God and Man 

You are high and lifted up; that all the world will praise your great name 

Redeemer, My Healer, Lord Almighty 

My savior, Defender, You are My King 

Jesus, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us, Son of God and Man 

You are high and lifted up; that all the world will praise your great name

i encourage you to think about Jesus' name today :) He is good in all things. and His name is POWERFUL!! 

for those of you who have tried to read...

For those of you who have tried to read my blog... finally!! All during September I just felt like and loved writing blog entries, but then come October that desire was quite non existent. So, I apologize for my absence! 

God has been doing some wonderful and hard things in my life. I really do feel that the first few months of my engagement to Bryan have been the FUN and exciting parts of engagement-- not to say that it isn't now-- but I think now it's all the fun and excitement plus intense conversation and hard Spiritual lessons from Jesus. phew. 

I have been spending a lot of time with sweet girl friends who are so dear to my heart, some "old Chara" girlies-- we've nicknamed ourselves "ReJoys," seeing as how Chara means joy in Greek and we are "oldies" ... = Re-Joys. :-) Love it. Girls, you are beautiful inside and out. They are the most gracious, lovely, and honestly raw ladies I have ever known. They have a true joy that comes from our sweet God... PTL!! praise the Lord! Girls, how you have blessed me. 

My sweet fiance Bryan is also a blessing. In so, so many ways. Another blog to come soon (this time I promise!) alll about my soon-to-be-husband :) 

Here is a peek of what the past few weeks have been like around here.... 

2010 Fall ring day with sweet Becca and Lindsey

Chara Christian Dance Company 

 stunning graduating senior Lindsay

another day of Chara shooting... 

and some wildlife exploring in New Braunfels

:) there are quite a few things I want to post specifically about, but it will probably take a few days. enjoy, and accept God's goodness today. 

He loves you. dearly. 

lift your eyes

this morning was the Chara Christian Dance Company photoshoot. I cannot begin to tell you what a blessing these girls are, nor describe the immense work they do for Jesus every year. they are beautiful women of God who strive to worship Him and minister to the community through dance. I love seeing their hearts and new choreography every year! this is just a sneak peak from this morning, with way more to come in the future, I'm sure. praise God for these women!! 

breathing

it may seem silly, but take a deep breath in through your nose, now let it go out your mouth. a breath. how beautiful! i've come to really appreciate breathing over the past few days, as my nose has been stopped up due to allergies :) thank you, Jesus, for giving us noses. what a great thought. 

following is a little bit of my indecisiveness for a photo project... 

apparently I've been drawn to green grass and blue sky. I'm really just amazed that these colors exist in real life! 

I'll leave you with something I've been reading for the past couple of days:

Do you not know? Do you not hear?

Has it not been told you from the beginning? 

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 

It is he who sits about the circle of the earth,

and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;

who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

who brings princes to nothing,

and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness....

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;

but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint. 

Isaiah 40

God creates everything we see. let's praise Him for that today. 

full. stuffed. chock-a-block. satisfied.

apparently the above descriptions (thanks to Word synonyms) are adequate for how I feel. I got home on Friday night and was so distracted by a strange feeling of apathy and annoyance, even though I had had an incredible day!

We do a Bible study with Company girls from Suzannes, and they were completely amazing on Friday morning-- I felt that I learned more from them, and the challenges we gave each other were accepted immediately. let's be bolder for Jesus, and recognize Him as our creator of EVERYTHING we have, own, and can do. and more! we decided on a phrase-- "Praise God." with congratulations, with thanksgiving, with mourning, with gladness, and with struggles-- praise God.

I then went home, worked, and had an amazing brother/sister lunch date with Ryan (who, by the way, is the best brother in the world-- and I will take you on with that statement). my "bud" is all grown up and in college! so weird. yet sooooooooo good. we laughed so hard at Jason's Deli, enjoying some yummy food and great conversation.

I then made my way over to Becca-bear's house. why, you ask?! because the Fightin'Texas Aggie class of 2011 got their rings!! i was so excited to follow around Becca and Lindsey as they got their rings! it was so wonderful to finally meet their families and enjoy good fellowship.

 i then headed from dinner to first Barnes & Noble and then Half Price Bookstore, to begin a project that will remain super secret :)

and i arrive home in a sour mood. why? how is that possible after such a fun day? because satan doesn't like for Jesus to bless people, and he doesn't like for us to move and work for God. thats why. whereas my thoughts were joyful in one moment, the next i couldn't get out of a slump. Megan the marvelous roomie  saw it, and then recapping through my day brought back happiness from God that I had temporarily forgotten about.

...so why write all this down? to remind you--- you are not alone! God loves to bless you. He longs to bless you. He loves to treat us with His grace and mercy, and He loves for us to move and work for Him. but be aware-- for whenever you do anything for God, i can guarantee that darkness is just around the corner, waiting to tear down your work. BUT---

God always wins. He already has! dwell. seek. study. listen. speak to God. God hears you! He will make your heart so full, stuffed, chock-a-block, and satisfied in Him and Him alone.

"lab" time

my sweet friend and I just discovered that "lab time" for our photography class on Wednesdays is only "as needed..."  so rather than us sitting and staring at a computer screen with nothing to do, we are going to shoot every wednesday :) and what a marvelous idea it was!! today was lemontree park-- playground, trail run, wildflowers, benches, the works. my favorite shot, however, is of wonderful Alisha :) lovely friendship!!

today was a sweet day of reminiscing. God has worked wonders to get myself and my good friends to where we are today.... how glorious! 

ole, ole ole ole....

alllrighty. so other than desperately needing a zoom lens, I had a BLAST shooting at a soccer game a few days ago. it was a competitive junior high team, and man these boys are good! I have such a greater appreciation for soccer now-- watching them play and then going through my photos and seeing the ridiculous places they have to go to make a goal, and the effort with which these kids work. wow. it's a level of admirable dedication. they had so much fun as they played, it was such a blessing to capture awesome moments. 

these colors really do exist in nature?

wow. God, You are beautiful in alll Your creation!!

worked some more on the same photo assignment today, and the sky and grassy knoll on campus were just breathtakingly beautiful. do you ever have those moments when just seeing nature makes you contemplate humanity? in all our wonder and abilities... God still thinks about the grass. the grass.

and I'll admit, this last one is my first ever HDR shot!!! I'll choose a more eye-pleasing subject next time, I promise :) 

and then of Course Alisha and I had to use our extra class time to practice shooting more... and what better place to practice than Spoons?? 

I think food photography is quickly becoming a favorite

natural light and late night pick-me-up :)

I have a photography class assignment due tomorrow (which means I started and completed them today). For this project we had to pick 2 subjects and shoot them both (separately) from as many different angles and in as many different ways as we could think of. My sweet friend Alyssa and some splenda-sweetened cappuccino (all the way from South Africa!!) ended up being my 2 subjects. I haven't edited anything, I don't think I'm supposed to yet. These are just a couple shots, but I'm procrastinating on studying for an exam that I have in 9 hours. Whoop :)

I hope your night is just as "productive" as mine! 

finally.

really quick! I finally got a shot of a gerber daisy that I love :) if you don't know, I am obsessed with these little flowers. Beautiful! Thank you God for blessing us with their beauty!

Orange sun, sweet cinnamon roll, happy chai tea

I've been really wanting to go outside and shoot with my camera for quite a while, and of course every time I've had time has been in the super hot heat of the day! So this morning, at 7:15, I went to Wolf Pen Creek and Mugwallz and had some fun! Of course, there was a catch-- I was following a challenge set out by a great photographer: turning off the review screen. Basically what that means is that when you shoot in manual, all of your settings have to be pretty spot on in able to get a correctly exposed shot. Normally when I shoot I take a test shot when the situation and lighting changes, and then I can tweak my settings. But not this time! It was just such a learning experience :) Yeah for challenges! And no post-editing was involved. Here are some of the shots that came out....

What a great start to the day! I then sat down to a wonderful chai tea latte and worked through some wedding plans with two amazing women :) Now off to do some photo editing. Have a splendid day!