Desilea Boutique...

A couple of month's ago, my friend Malea and I began the task of putting together our own business. It was about time we put our craftiness to good use. :) We began making a few things and wearing them ourselves as we worked on getting things together. I was able to make and sell 5 flower pins over Thanksgiving. It was pretty exciting to be able to do something I love and actually make some money. We now have an etsy shop together and hope to have it completely up and running by the new year. My new form of advertisement in this is the use of business cards. I made some gifts for Christmas this year, so I am placing the business cards with them to get the word out. I designed some candles for a hostess thank you gift for our first shower tomorrow night. Here's a picture:

It's just the beginning of exciting things to come from our up and coming business!  As soon as we get some stuff posted on etsy, I'll post the link!

The Busyness Continues...

December is such a busy month!  Almost everyday since Thanksgiving, my email devotional has been on busyness.  As nice as it is to know that I am not the only one with this problem right now, I still see it as a problem, but can't seem to find a way to remedy it.  I guess God decided to just give me that way last week.  I got a nasty head cold.  It's been a long time since I felt that sick.  It came on Sunday, kept me home from work on Monday, had me sent home early and to the Doctor on Tuesday.  Then Wednesday and Thursday, I was feeling pretty good. I was gearing up for a super busy weekend.  We had multiple things going on several days.  Friday morning I woke up and was worse than I had been on Monday.  What in the world???  I ended up leaving work early with the hopes of getting a decent amount of rest and being able to participate in at least 1 of the 3 activities we had going on Friday night.  No such luck.  I spent all afternoon and evening in bed.  I missed activities.  Ones that I really wanted to be at.  And you know what???  The world didn't end. (Even my own world didn't end.  I told mom it would.)  By Saturday, I wasn't at 100%, but was about at 85%.  I was able to participate in the Ensemble Christmas Party, which included caroling at a Nursing Home. (And yes, for those of you who know me, as usual a random thing happened to me while I was there.  This time it was a sweet old man who decided to flirt with me while I was taking pictures of the kids singing.  It was FUNNY.)  Afterwards, we all headed to a friend's house for chili and a gingerbread making competition.  These kids are hardcore.  They plan in advance for what they were going to build.  Some of it was quite impressive and some of it was just plain funny. 
We have had quite a week of "winter weather".  It has been SOOOOO cold!  We have had some snow and some ice.  Wednesday afternoon my car was a sheet of ice.  Then Thursday, it was about 58-59 degrees and now its back to the typical cold spell.  I'm over winter and its not even winter yet.  haha...
I've been combing through my new Stampin' Up kit.  I can't wait till it all comes in.  I want to play, play, play.  I've got to work on booking my first workshop.  They have a contest for 2010 recruits to make a card out of the kit.  I've got till December 31 to finish it.  Ideas are flowing... I'll post a picture when I have it done. 
The next week has much more in store.  Winterlude, Christmas Shower, Family Christmas and Texas... It's gonna be another busy week, but a super fun one!  Life is good!

What a weekend!!!

Friday afternoon I headed to the much anticipated Deeper Still Conference in Birmingham to hear Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer and none other than THE Beth Moore with Mom, Mrs. Adams and Tonya.
The first night, Kay spoke.  Can I just tell you how AMAZING that woman is to be 77 years old and still speaking (and rocking skinny jeans and boots)???  She took us through the book of Matthew in an hour and a half.  No joke.  I have been blessed to do her studies since I was in middle school.  I also have to say she's a fellow Tennessee Temple Alumni.  : )
I had never heard Priscilla speak, never even done one of her Bible Studies before, but I tell you what, she ROCKED.  My book list grew after hearing her. 
Then that time finally came... the moment Tonya and I had been waiting for... it was Beth's turn.  That woman did NOT disappoint.  I was so challenged to find that Treasure in the midst of the disappointment or just in the little things cause it is there.  Luke 2 was brought to life in a new way for me.  We watched her walk out of that room and as she did, she stopped and I watched a woman tell her that she had been through the same thing has Beth.  Beth just hugged her.  It was such an incredible moment to watch.
The 3 of them got together for a panel session which was a question and answer time.  It got pretty funny, but it was neat to see them being so real with everyone.  The poor handful of men that were there were probably ready to get out of there by this point.
It was also a blessing to get to worship with Travis Cottrell again.  He did an amazing job leading the worship for the almost 14,000 women that were in attendance of this conference.
I was so ready to get out of town for the weekend, but I was so ready to come home.  I was ready for Hanging of the Green... ready to see Matt... ready to be back with the High Schoolers.  Hanging of the Green did not disappoint this year.  Matt did a great job pulling it all together.  The kids sang and acted well.  It seemed to go by really fast this year.  Like I think we blinked and this whole semester has flown by. 
I'm home sick today.  The sinus issues have finally done me in.  I fought it all weekend- determined to get through it- and by late last night I had to just give in.  Hopefully a day of recouperation will do me some good and I'll be back to at least half way normal by tomorrow.  We have a week filled with Christmas parties, banquets and concerts.  The last part of this week I'm going to be cooking a lot... Anyone out there got any good Christmas party recipes???

Time is just a flyin' by...

It's almost the end of the 2nd of December.  We have already been through 2 Tech Rehearsals and Dress Rehearsal for this year's Hanging of the Green.  The end of this year is really starting to fly.
Life is just as crazy as ever.  Thanksgiving was spent at my parent's house with some family friends.  We had 4 little girls under the age of 7 running around.  It was lots of fun... and a little chaotic.  :)  Matt was new to them and boy, did the 2 year old fall in love.  Can't say I blame her though.  :)  I worked the day after Thanksgiving and watched the Alabama/Auburn game with a few co-workers.  Saturday I had a bunch of the teenagers over for what is known as "The First Annual Pancake/Waffle Breakfast", which will undoubtedly become an annual event.  Hopefully next year we will have a little more kitchen space.  I'm pretty sure I made around 60 pancakes and Kevin & Rachel made around 10 or so waffles.  We have such a great group of kids in our student choir. 
Of course, all this led into Hanging of the Green week, which is always fun, but also a little chaotic.  Sunday afternoon was spent setting up for HoG.  Monday through Wednesday brought rehearsals.  I spent 5 hours working on a seating chart for the event.  The hard thing was I had to guess their heights.  All went well though and we only had to do a few moves.  This year's Hanging of the Green will be this Sunday, December 5 @ 6pm.  Its going to be awesome!  Everyone should come.
I am now officially signed up as a Stampin' Up Demonstrator.  I'm still waiting on my kit to arrive, but I'm excited.  I had prayed that there would be a special deal for the sign up if I should do this.  Sure enough, for the first time ever, they were offering the kit at half price!  HALF PRICE!!!!  So, I'm nervous, but I can't wait to get it and get started.  I also sold 5 of my frayed fabric broaches last weekend.  They have become quite popular.  Our etsy shop set up has been delayed, but stay tuned cause it's coming soon!!!
Whew... That's a lot.  Really that encompasses one week.  December is another busy month.  Lots of fun ahead!!!

Grandma

Today is the anniversary of my Grandma's death.  She was killed unexpectedly in a train/car accident when I was 7.  I remember so vividly when my dad woke us up very early.  I knew something was wrong and I knew it was Grandma.  I've been told I am a lot like her- in the good ways of course.  We both love bright, fun colors, designs, etc.  She was a bit crafty, a bit crazy, and I remember her as being fun.  On this anniversary of her being gone, I find myself sad that she isn't here to share in our wedding and everything leading up to it.  I also found myself extremely thankful that I still have my mom.  I know she's missing her mom today.  I'm glad I've got her around cause I know I wouldn't have made it without her.

Here's an old picture of Mom and me with both of my grandparents who are no longer with us:
 And this is a picture at my kindergarten graduation.  It's the last time I remember seeing Grandma.

Love you Grandma and we still miss you...

It's November?!?!?!?

It's November... already... Not only is it November, but its also mid-November.  Where in the world is time going???
Here's a brief catch up to what is going on:
1) We had engagement pictures taken by the fabulous Katie Dye (Katie Beth Photography).  We went to the new house, Earlyworks (for the awesome big red door), and to the back part of Big Spring Park.  The pictures can be found on Facebook.
2) We haven't been to the house since we took engagement pictures, but they had already put in the electrical and the ductwork.  They even switched out the master shower like we requested.  Can I tell you how excited we were about that?  We had some good leads on the sale of the condo this past weekend.  We are really praying that something will come of it soon.  I'm planning on putting my house up for sale with a realtor in the next couple of weeks.  It'll remove a little less stress and get the info on my house out there.  Not that I have had a lack of calls.  We've decided to make renting it out the absolute last resort as we don't want to have anything extra to deal with.  Trust me we don't need anything extra.
3) Wedding stuff is really coming together.  We have over 300 (out of 500) boxes completed thanks to the help of Mom, Katie, and some of our wonderful SWAT sponsors.  I've been making my thank you notes too.  I'm done with about 170 or so of those.  I met with the wedding coordinator at Whitesburg so we know have all that reserved.  It was a bit overwhelming, but I'm slowly adapting to the craziness.
4) Matt is starting his doctorate.  It's going to make things sooooo much crazier, but hey, adaptibility is one of my "core" strengths (or so the work test told me).  I'm pretty sure I'll see even less of him, but I'd rather him get it out of the way now then when we have kids.
5) I have now dropped every extra ministry I am involved in that has nothing to do with SWAT.  I realized that I do NOT under any circumstance be super stressed out with all this wedding stuff.  I was starting to feel a lot of pressure with my various ministries, so something had to give.  I still attend/help out with high school Bible study as I feel it is important that I am there for the kids for more than just Sunday's in SWAT.  I felt a big sense of relief when I dropped the last one.  It'll give me more time and opportunity to help Matt, be with the kids and plan the wedding. 
6) I did however add a new business (maybe two) to my list as well.  My friend Malea and I have gone together to open up an etsy shop.  Once we get the debit card for our account, we will be officially set up.  Desilea Boutique will officially open- hopefully- next week.  I'm also hoping to sign up to sell Stampin' Up products to earn some extra money.

Lots and lots going on right now.  I'm not sure it will EVER calm down, but you know what? I'm ok with that.  Is it stressful? YES.  But I don't think I'd know what to do with the calmness.  I love our crazy life!

House Update

The house has been coming along quickly!  I drove by last Friday morning and the brick was about 1/3 of the way finished.  By Saturday, they had almost completed bricking it!!!  It's going to slow down soon, but I'm looking forward to it getting finished!

Front of house

Back of house (Lake View)

I love that the number is IN the brick!!!

The house weathered through a multitude of storms yesterday.  I think its going to be pretty sturdy!  Now, if we could just sell the condo... 

A New Adventure: Race Day!!!

As if Matt and I weren't doing enough, we have spent the last 12 weeks training for a 5K.  We have been a part of the Run for God program at our church, where we have trained with a large number of fellow church members. 
Here is our group shot:

I have attempted running/walking the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run for the past 3 years- each year beating my time, but not yet running the whole thing.  This was Matt's first 5K experience.  He did an INCREDIBLE job finishing with a time of 27:30!!!  My time was 44:42- which was around 3 minutes off my time from last year.  I still couldn't run the whole thing, but I was happy with that due to everything that I have dealt with throughout training.  Matt has been my biggest encourager all the way to that finish line.  I'm so thankful God gave me him.  I had planned on this being my only 5K for the year, but we're all discussing running a few more that are coming up to keep ourselves going until the next Run for God training program begins in March.
Here is a pic of Matt & I before the race:

We have been all about "adventures" in our relationship.  So, this was OUR first 5K together.  What a great adventure it was!

Our New House...

They broke ground on the new house about 2 weeks ago.  Since then it seems to be going up rather quickly... ok, scratch that, it doesn't just seem to be, it is!!!  It's hard for us to keep up and get pictures as it goes by, but i thought I would share where we were at with it on here as well...
                                          

                                                               This is our backyard!!!

                                                                       October 1

                                                                        October 2

October 5

October 7

All that was done in less than a week!!!!  I drove by yesterday, and was like "WOW!!!  It actually looks like our house!!!"  I'm excited!!!

We are still waiting on his condo to sell, so it's not really ours till that happens, but we're trusting God to sell it at the right time.

Wedding Mayhem

It has been a crazy month since we got engaged.  Two days after, we lost the house we put the contract on, which brought us to a place where we had to decide to let it go and pull his condo off the market or let them build a new house on a different lot.  We opted to go ahead and build.  Crazy???  Yes.  We are.  : )  So, we've spent the last month previewing, researching and FINALLY choosing everything for it.  When completed, it should be an absolutely BEAUTIFUL house with a great view ON the LAKE!!!  We are so excited!  It's so much more than either of us ever dreamed we could have.  God is so good!  They should break ground in the next couple of weeks.  Now we are just trusting Him in the sale of Matt's condo.
Needless to say that because of all of this, we have been wrapped up in house plans and haven't had much time for wedding plans.  However, after 3 weeks of scheduling difficulties, we have finally chosen a date.  JUNE 18, 2011!  Now to get everything else going...
It's an exciting time, but also a busy one for us.  We have a lot to juggle and the strength to do it all is solely coming from God.

He Popped the Question!!! :)

August 15 was planned to be like any other Sunday.  I went to church and sang with the choir.  Matt made faces at me from the piano.  Ate lunch with the fam then headed to home to get my house ready to show.  I was pretty excited about SWAT starting back.  I sure have missed seeing all of those kids on a weekly basis.  It was during SWAT that things took a bit of a change...
I helped register new students then sat in the rehearsal for a little while.  I sang on praise team that evening so I had to leave early for rehearsal, which normally isn't a big deal, but Matt requested me to come back in around 5:50 for sponsor prayer time.  I thought that was odd, but he is always trying new things, so I just let it go.  I made it back in the room right at 5:50 and he asked me to get all the sponsors in the room.  So, we lined up in the front of the room.  Matt asked Jess to pray over the sponsors, but asked the kids not to leave because he had one more announcement.  After the prayer, Matt says, "You kids know I love you right?"  After some loud screams from the kids, Matt goes, "Well there is someone in this place right now who I love more than you guys.  And I need to ask her a question."  The kids were all SCREAMING!  I am stunned.  Matt turned and looked at me and said "Are you surprised?"  The next thing I know, he is down on one knee.  He takes my hand and tells the kids to be quiet.  He says "I have loved you since the day I met you and God knew that we would be together. I am just so thankful that you are in my life.  Will you marry me?"  Then, he asked me if he could kiss me.  So, we had our first kiss in front of everyone. 

It was a perfect night.  One I'll remember forever.  We even have video (which I probably shouldn't mention how many times I have watched it). I am so glad God brought him into my life.  I can't wait for all of the "adventures" we will have together.

Generation Rising- 2010 SWAT Choir Tour

"I will sing of the Lord's great love forever; with my mouth I will make Your faithfulness known through all generations." Psalm 89:1

It's hard to believe we've almost been back from the 2010 Choir Tour to New Orleans for a week. We took a total of 109 people- 85 teens and 24 adults. It was such a blessing for me to watch God work in the lives of each of these kids and have Him work in my life. The kids performed a total of 9 concerts. The final concert being the Homecoming concert at Whitesburg on Sunday night. We participated in every kind of mission project you can imagine. The concert at the correctional facility I would say goes down as the most interesting. We did quite a bit of prayer walking, cleaning, and other random work projects. We picked up trash in Covington, LA. I got to go with the senior girls to help at a crisis pregnancy center too.

We had bus issues as well. It started with a cracked bus window on Saturday on our way to the camp in MS. Then on our way to the 2nd church on Sunday, I was very, very asleep and felt a thud. I opened my eyes to Matt turned around in his seat looking at me with his eyes VERY wide then we smelled this wretched burning smell. We had blown a tire. If that wasn't enough, Monday on the way to the correctional facility, the other bus got stuck pretty deep in some mud. Never a lack of 'adventure'.

I had a great evening devotional group. Maybe I should rephrase that. I had a "SPIFFY" group. I was paired up with our music minister, Martin, and we had 9 of the kids plus our team mascot- Gnomey. Each of the kids had such different personalities, but they all flowed together so well. I want the same group every year!

We read the book "Forgotten God" by Frances Chan. We learned about the Holy Spirit. It was such an amazing book. So often, we squelch what the Holy Spirit is doing. During the Wednesday night service, we saw the Holy Spirit move in an amazing way. God is so good!

We spent our "fun" day in New Orleans. We started on a 2 hour swamp tour, where I found myself holding a baby alligator. EW!!! Then we headed to Jackson Square for the big group picture and for lunch. The kids were given the option to tour St. Louis cathedral, get beignets at Cafe Du Monde or shop for souveniers. Matt and I were considered the "old people" as we chose to lead the group going to tour the cathedral. It was GORGEOUS! The next tour was of Mardi Gras World, which is where the floats are made for the Mardi Gras parade. It was a crafty person's dream come true. Holy Cow!!! It was so, so, so amazing! Such intricate detail! Papa Waller (our bus driver) took us to the 9th ward to see some of the damage. It was very sombering. Our last tour was of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Such a beautiful campus! The staff was super friendly. We even got to see the piano Jesus Loves Me and Just as I Am were written on.

I was completely exhausted by the time we got back. However, I found myself missing the kids a great deal. I really enjoy them. I can't wait for next year's choir tour/mission trip.

Getting caught up...

It's been so long since I posted, that I don't even know where to start. To summarize the end of the year, I went to the beach with Matt to see Sara. It was a great relaxing weekend. I needed it before worked kicked into full gear as we had "system enhancement" coming up. I went to several concerts by the Huntsville Community Chorus. One of the highlights of the fall was the Madison County Parade of Homes. Matt and I wouldn't visit any houses that were less than half a million dollars. Like either of us could afford that. The best one was the 2.2 million dollar house we saw out in Madison. It was HUGE and BEAUTIFUL! Both of us are obsessed with houses and HGTV house shows. I actually had to ban myself from the mls site for a while. We also had the Middle School County Fair where we dressed up as Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables. "System Enhancement" at work came right after that. I was working 6 days a week and working 12 hour days. We had an early family Thanksgiving with Matt, the Adams' family, and Destinee's boyfriend, Chris. My family and the Adams' were all out of town for Thanksgiving, so I spent Thanksgiving with Matt at the Bandy's house then went back to Matt's to watch the first Lord of the Rings movie. After that, things really began to pick up because it was Christmas time. The whole first week after Thanksgiving was filled with Hanging of the Green set up and rehearsals. It seemed like there were concerts and parties all the time. We spent Christmas in Indiana with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It was fun, but I was ready to come back and sleep in my bed. New Year's Eve, Matt hosted a party at his house, which meant I cooked. haha... It was really fun to just chill, watch movies and watch the ball drop. Now to start 2010...
Birthday week began and was the most marvelous week ever. I love the week, the month, etc. I still don't really care for cold. I was actually kinda dreading my actual birthday. It was on a Wednesday and that meant everything was super busy and rushed. I woke up and decided to make the best of it. I got to work to find that Stacey- one of the Executive Asst.- had picked up Chick-fil-a for breakfast for all of my bosses, him and our V.P. to celebrate with. Way to start things off with a bang! Yippee!!! Lisa and I celebrated with cupcakes. I met my parents for lunch at Cheddar's (super yummy) where I recieved my birthday gift (a GPS). After I left work, I stopped by my parent's church to see everyone there. I was headed to the church for choir practice when I got a text from Matt asking me to stop by his office before I went to the choir room. When I got there, he handed me a bouquet of (49) pink roses. I was so surprised. He also gave me a gift card to Little Rosie's. The plan was already to go out to dinner after choir, so I wasn't expecting anything else. He took me to Chili's, where we had the "DTR" or defining of the relationship. So, it was official... we are dating... It was a GREAT birthday! It snowed the next day causing us to get sent home early from work and a delay the morning after that. My family decided to celebrate my birthday on Saturday (1/9). So, Matt and I joined them at PF Chang's, then headed to my parent's house for cake and games. Kim, Rebekah and I did our usual girls birthday celebration. We did dinner PF Changs and a movie. The rest of January has almost been a blur. We've had 3 snows that have caused the credit union to delay opening or send us home early (very, very rare occurences). This was the first Valentine's I have gotten to spend with someone, so that was pretty exciting. We went to PF Changs then to see the movie "Blindside". Excellent movie! I guess that pretty much catches me up to the present. I'm planning on posting some of my scrapping, card making and other crafty things soon.