Week 13: July 23

Signs, signs, everywhere there are signs!  Walking into any store you will find decorative wall signs.  Some are silly, some are cute, some our spiritual, and some are just funny.  This week's blog is dedicated to signs that I saw and liked.

So, here's your sign!

 

Week 12: July 16

My Aunt Donna came down from Idaho for a work conference this week.  It was her first time to come to Texas (and in July!)  She asked if I would mind driving her around and showing her some of the sights.  I said no, that it would be fun to do all of the tourist stuff.  Our adventure began!

My sister Khara and I took her to downtown Fort Worth and than to the Stockyards.  Dinner at the Blue Mesa with my brother and his family, and Khara and her husband.  We than went to historical downtown Grapevine for shopping and lunch.  Our last trip was to Southfork Ranch (where the TV show Dallas was filmed) and shopping at Sam Moons followed by dinner at On the Border.  It was a whirlwind trip but great fun!

Here are a few photos highlighting our time together.

                                                                                              Fort Worth Stockyards
                                                    

                                                                                                                  Billy Bobs

                                                                                                      Inside Billy Bobs

                                                                                                               Aunt Donna

                                                                                                 Bail me Out

                                                                                                        Southfork Ranch

                                                                                                             At the Ranch

Week 11: July 9

Food brings people together.  There is nothing better than cooking a meal for family or friends, or going out to enjoy fellowship at a restaruarnt. 

Saying that, I love food.  Maybe a little too much!  I love cooking and I love going out to restaurants.  This week's food blog is dedicated to food.  Form the simplest to the complex. 

                                                                                                               Mixed Grill

                                                                                                                         Pizza

                                                                                                               Guacamole

                                                                                                      Onion Rings

                                                                                            Smoked Chicken Pasta

                                                                                                      Chocolate Cake

                                                                                                                Hamburger

Week 10: July 2

In honor of the 4th of July, here are 7 reasons why I love America.

1.) The freedom to express myself in my speech, the way that I dress, my actions, and the people whom I choose to hang out with.  But most importantly the freedom to praise and worship God. 
2.)  I love living in a nation that is a melting pot where every nation, race and color is represented. It is this diversity that has helped to make us a strong nation.
3.) We live in a nation that is filled with wonders.  From the rolling plains to the rocky mountains.  From dessert landscapes to tropical delights.  America is beautiful.
4.) We are very patriotic. We are a proud people who are proud of their country. 
5.) Southern hospitality.  You are never a stranger in the south, just a friend waiting to be made.
6.) Yankee pride. I love that northerners are a proud people who are proud of the way that they helped to shape this country.
6.) The food.  I love the diversity of our food and how we integrate other cultures food as part of own.  And then, how we can take that food and make a new food out of it.
7.) The endless possibilities awaiting you.  You can do and be anything that you want in this great nation.  The circumstances of your birth do not effect where you go in life.

Let Freedom ring! Happy Independence Day! Happy 4th of July! This weeks photos are dedicated to celebrating the 4th of July, and all the fun that comes along with it. 

                                                                                                                   Old Glory

                                                                                                     American Hot Dog

                                                                                          Denton 4th of July Parade

                                                                                                                       Friends

                                                                                                                   Fireworks

                                                                                                                Watermelon

                               Men and Women who Protect the People and this Great Nation

Week 9: June 25

This past week I went through a LTS (Life Training School) through my church, the Bridge.  It was one of the most life changing and challenging expereinces of my life.  In a nut shell, the leader (Graham) took the basic truths of the Bible and who God is and helped me to better understand them, and Him (God).  Through this school I was able to better understand God, on a level that I have never done before, as well as to better understand who God created me to be, and how to truely forgive people so that I can walk in the freedom that God intended me to walk in.

Here are a few of the truths that God reveiled to me this week.

1.) God LIKES me.  I know that God loves me, in fact I take that for granted (but will not anymore).  But God LIKES me.  He created me just the way that I am because He wants to spend time with me.  He wants to be my Father as well as my friend. 
2.) God is my Father first. And then he is a creator, judge, redeemer, and king. Everything that He does in my life He does first as a Father and then as a _____________ (fill in the blank).  And God longs to be my Father, my Daddy.  He LOVES me as a daughter.
3.) Forgiveness is the key that will set you free.  God has intended for me to walk in freedom.  Through this class I have been able to forgive people for wrongs and percieved wrongs in my life and forgive myself.  I have been able to break free from the lies that Satan has keep me in and am now able to walk in truth and in freedom.
4.) I am not unloveable.  I am loveable!  God loves me and made me in His image.  He made me to be the person that I am.  I am no longer going to hide who I am from the world but rather use who God made me to be so that I can be a light to the world.  

God is amazing!  I have found a new found love and desire to get to know God better.  When asked before if I was a Christian I would say yes.  But I think that I am just now beginning to really understand what it means to be, not a Christian, but a child of God.

In honor of all that God has done this week for me and in me, this week's photos are dedicated to Bible verses that God has brought to my mind and Bible verses that are dear to my heart.