NEW BLOG!!!

I've got a new blog!  I plan on discontinuing writing on this one, so please follow me on my new one:
http://www.chicinspirations.blogspot.com/.  You'll find lots of crafting ideas, links to tutorials, as well as the things going on in our lives.

I hope you'll follow me over there!!!

1 year ago...

I planned on getting this posted on Thursday, but better late than never right?

1 year ago (January 6) was my 27th birthday.  On my 27th birthday, I got a present that changed my life.  That present was Matt.  He brought me a bouquet of 49 hot pink roses and a gift card to Little Rosie's. He took me out on our first real date on that day (to Chili's).  That day was the turning point in our friendship.  He told me that he wanted a relationship.  He wasn't playing games that he was looking for a wife.  I got a boyfriend for my 27th birthday.  I'm so glad we had that conversation that night.  Cause now, 1 year later, we are planning our wedding.  Planning our life together. 
He has brightened my life in so many ways.  He pushes me to be better than I am.  He encourages me to pursue my goals and dreams- even when he doesn't understand them.  He allows me to be an active part of his ministry.
1 year ago, I wouldn't have thought we'd be as close as we are now, but I am so glad things are the way they are.  I can't wait to see what we'll be doing 1 year from now.  I love him & can't wait to see what the future holds!

Christmas 2010- Texas

2010 Recap...

I love sitting back and reflecting on the past year- the good and the bad, happy and sad.  It's been a wild year, so here's a recap of what happened:
January- got an amazing boyfriend for my birthday, got a new car (well a 2007)
February- celebrated Valentine's Day at PF Chang's and at the movies w/ that boy
March- Spent Spring Break on a Choir Missions Trip with 109 high school students and sponsors from my church. 
April- Went to Knoxville, TN on middle school Choir Missions Trip.
May- Went to a pretty awesome hot air balloon festival and brunch with that boy then we joined my family for a day on the boat.  :)
June- That boy got ordained, his parents came to visit, I got to see/meet Mandisa at a concert, wrecked my car
July- That boy and I put an offer (contingent on the sale of his condo) in on a spec home in South Huntsville and put both of our places of residence on the market.  We also got to sing with Travis Cottrell which was AMAZING!
August- That boy popped the question in front of 130 or so students and 20 or so adults.  I of course said YES!  Two days later, we got the call that someone else put in an offer on the spec home, so we had to let it go, but they offered to build us the same thing in another lot.
September- spent a lot of time working on things for the new house.  So much to pick out!!!
October- After training for 4 months, we ran a 5k- The Liz Hurley Ribbon Run.  I beat my time from last year by about 4 minutes.
November- Malea and I decided to start our own crafting business- Desilea Boutique.  Look for us on etsy.com!  :)
December- Busy month with the Deeper Still Conference in Birmingham, Hanging of the Green, concerts, parties, etc.  We had our first wedding shower- a Christmas themed one.  It was fun.  We are blessed with such amazing family and friends.  We lost the house we were building to someone who put in a cash full price offer.  We are still deciding what to do about that.  I missed Huntsville's first white Christmas in MANY years, to spend it with Matt and his family in Texas.  Definitely worth it.  I had a great time.

God has been good to us this year.  It's been a crazy, crazy year, but I'm looking forward to 2011 and all the craziness to come! 

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!!!