French Christmas

Each year at Christmas-time, some of my closest frineds and I get together and have a wonderful afternoon of gift giving, food eating and game playing.

This year we met at our house in Georgetown, and had a ball!! We ate pizza (not a traditional Christmas food, I know) and played Farkle, and made about a million jokes.

I love my friends and the times we spend together.

Here is a picture of the gang:

-Carly

Exciting for me, maybe not the rest of you

So, I got a call last week confirming that I would be a judge for the Miss Mary Hardin-Baylor Pageant.

I was super excited! It is November 5 and 6th.

I was the director of the Miss MHB pageant in college and really enjoyed. I also secretly wanted to be a judge someday.

So, I am planning my approach as a judge, and of ways to make sure I choose the right girl. Its gonna be hard to see through who is being genuine and who is just putting on a front for the pageant.

If you do not watch "Parks and Recreation" you should, b/c there is an episode where Leslie Knope judges the Miss Pawnee Pagent, and she is very serious about it. I think I am totally going to be like that, except she makes a speech at the end, and I dont think I will do that. I really hope not.

Thanks for reading.

-C

Takin Care of Business

After some nudging by my friends Brook and Leslie, I realized that I do have something exciting to blog about.

I am starting a business!!

Set to open Novemeber 2, 2009, The Exchange at Annarella is an upscale consignment boutique and design studio, on the Square in Georgetown.

We will be accepting brand name mens and womens clothing, purses, shoes, accessories and furniture.

I have never run a business before, and frankly feel like I am too young to actually OWN a business, but I am so excited!!

So, here's to being a business woman.

Home Sweet Home

We now are living in our Georgetown home on River Bend.

I believe we checked off most everything from my previous "to do" list I posted.

I am so happy to have a home I can call "ours". With long hours or painting, cleaning, and moving we are able to cook, sleep and eat in our humble abode.

I am going to post the best pictures I have of our home, granted there are no decorations...I am slowly waling out to the garage and grabbing what I need to make a dish or dry off from a shower, but as far as finding a place for everything, that has not happened yet.

We are planning a house warming party, once we can park our cars in the garage. I will keep you posted.

This is Brook's car in our driveway. She officially has a room in our house.

Friends

We (Jen Norman, Jacob and I) went to OKLAHOMA this weekend to visit our friends Any and Jenny Campbell. Let me tell you, it was a blast!

A quick synopsis of the weekend was Riding Trikes into OKC, 4-wheeling, mountain-boarding, and ziplining at Camp WOW, late night POKER, and to top it off, spending the day at the lake- wakeboarding, and wake surfing.

It was so much fun, I dont know why we havent been sooner. Jenny and Andy have 2 precious kiddos, Kai and Kennedy. Andy is a fireman and has a trike shop named: Trinity Trikes. Jenny has a new business named "Scraphappy" and she makes cute headbands and baby blankets, as well as other neat stuff.

I was reminded of those lasting friendships that you will always have regardless of how far apart you are. We are lucky to have great friends who LOVE to have a great time!

Pray for Jenny, she was feeling sick this weekend. What an awesome mommy she is. I admire her a lot, especially b/c her husband is a big KID himself.

Our House, is a very, very, very fine house.

That's right we are buying a house!!

I have to admit I am not as freaked out about this house as I was about buying the last one. Maybe because I know the process this time, and I see it everyday at work.

Anyways...we are going to close on June 26th, and have a whole LOT of work to do once we get in.

New Carpet
New Countertops in kitchen and bathrooms.
New fans and other light fixtures
Painting
Yard work
New knobs and pulls
Retexture the ceiling
Make the fireplace be "not ugly"

......
Lots of stuff

Luckily Jacob has the summer off and he can work on it all day, everyday.

But, hopefully all the hard work will be worth the effort. And very soon, we will call the house, "Our Home".

I will post pictures of the finished product.

I Weep for You, My Friend

As I knelt to pray today, I couldnt help but weep for you. I had just finished hearing a sermon on being SLAVES to GOD. You, my friend, are the epitome of a slave of Christ. You have shown me more strenth than a thousand men, more endurance that a marathon runner, more obedience than I have ever seen from anyone ever. Your dependence in the Lord has humbled me.

I weep for you because I am not there with you...because you are going through the most painful experience ever. "Worse than death" I have heard it described...but yet, I stand in awe.

I am in awe of your constant prayerful attitude...I am amazed by your teachful spirit...I have never respected anyone, EVER, as much as I do you.

Please know I pray for you...I hurt for you...and I weep for you, but most of all...I LOVE YOU!!!

-C

P.S. I lit a candle for you.

Beach Trip 2009!

We went to the beach last weekend in DESTIN, FLORIDA!!

It was so fun!

I cannot do it justice- Just enjoy these pictures!

Sydney loved playing in the sand

We got so tan!

Our group on the beach

(I am married to a giant!)

The Allmans came to visit and buried their children...in the sand

Clark Elliot Allman

(so cute!!)

Chillin in the sand

Pappy, Sara, and Sydney

My Favorite Picture

(Connor Gantt Skaggs-my choice of a name for him)

Until next time...

Celebrity Apprentice

I dont know why, but last night, I could not keep my eyes and ears off the TV. The Celebrity Apprentice Finale was on, and I wanted to see who won.

I thought Donald Trump made a good decision in choosing Joan Rivers. She was really compassionate about her charity, and honestly I respected the fact that she didnt talk behind anyone's back, she was honest the whole way through.

Now, there was too much bickering, between Joan and Annie, which made me just want it to be over, but I watched the whole 3 hours (while playing cards with mom and GiGi).

Way to go Joan!!

Epiphany

OK. This is the first of hopefully many posts.

WARNING- I have ben contemplating starting a blog for a while, so I will probably spill a lot of info in this first post. I hope you will bear with me and read my ramblings. I have never thought that I had anything especially interesting to say.

For this post, I will share what the Lord spoke to me yesterday, in my car.

Most of Texas is aware that it has been raining lately, A LOT!
As one of many downpours came upon Georgetown, I was listening to the song, "God You Reign," by Lincoln Brewster on KLOVE. The Lord not only reigns over our lives, He also provides much needed rain to our land.
God was reminding me of all the storms I have been a part of in the past year. It almost seems as though He has put me in a place to experience hardships on the sidelines, while my friends and family are the real ones going thru the "faith-testing trials."
What does that mean for me? That there is some trial awaiting me that He is preparing me for? OR...that He has gifted me with a spirit of comfort and is placing me in the lives of those people for a reason...I choose to focus on the latter. Needless to say I MUST be fully relying on God for wisdom each time I encounter a friend in need.

I guess my reason for saying all that, is that I hurt for my friends and family. BUT praise God for the way it changes our relationship, as well as, the way I can see Him working in their lives.
AND...Even as I type, I am getting encouragement seeing MY GOD being ever faithful to those who put their trust in Him.

Each day we must allow God to REIGN over each thought, decision, and situation.

Currently, my husband and I are in limbo when it comes to the direction the Lord wants us to go. We LOVE Georgetown, but there are a lot of items that are in the "air" or more appropriately in God's hands, that may cause us to move further north.
BUT, to describe where our lives are...the word would be FULL. Full of Love, Full of Possibilities, Full of Hope and FULL OF GOD's Provision.

I hope this is a good intro to my blogging career.

Enjoy the rain, and I'll see you later.