Our Chapel

If you missed it...

Here is the link to listen to our chapel...well actually it's a link to Chris Woolard's blog that has the podcast on it.

So what do I mean by "our chapel?"

Well in your junior and senior year at our college, you have to plan a chapel. We have chapel Tuesday & Wednesday mornings for the student body and the staff/faculty...and anyone else who wants to join us! And last Tuesday, right before we went on Thanksgiving break, it was our turn.

Joe and I invited Jordan Clark to do worship and Chris Woolard to speak. They both did a great job (as always)! Again, thanks so much for coming you guys!

Click on the link above to hear the worship Jordan led us in and the message Chris brought to us. I'm sad to say that the part Joe did isn't on the podcast because he didn't use a microphone...(mainly b/c he's got a big enough mouth without it...haha) But, he too did a great job! I was very proud of the little bit that Joe did--he introduced Chris by talking about how Chris allowed himself to be used by the Holy Spirit to work wonders in Joe's life. Joe said that he would not be where he is today if it were not for Chris & for what God did through him (and for that I'm very thankful b/c we may not have met!). Chris joked when he stepped up on the stage that he didn't need to speak because Joe already brought the message. Great job, honey!

So...please be encouraged to let God use you! You never know when he's using your life to touch another! I hope you guys enjoy the podcast; I promise it's worth your time to listen and be challenged!

Mainly to Remember....

This blog is mainly so I will remember the post talked about below in the future and refer back to it...

I. can. not. wait. to do things like this with our kids in the future.
(Read that as: I CAN wait, but I'm terribly excited!)

Kudos to Kelly for making memories with her kiddos that will help them forever remember what Christmas really means!

See her great blog post here for their plans for the Christmas season!

Natali goes to Mali!

Will you join me in praying for a sister in Christ?

Meet Natali.

You can learn more about her plans & story here, on her blog.

But to sum it up for you: Natali is heading to Mali on a missions trip. She knew she wanted to go...but she didn't know for how long.
So, she gave it to God in prayer...and she's going for an entire year!


This is a video she made:

This video allows us to see some of the faces, the places, and the lives that she will touch.

Will you say a prayer for Natali today? 

Will you pray for those faces, places and lives that she will touch?

She will be graduating from ECU in December and leaving shortly after for Mali. 

If you feel inclined to give to help Natali financially or to

know more details about her trip, see this post. 

Natali, 

Thank you for letting God use you! I'm thankful that God let our lives cross paths, even just for a brief time...but that we can now keep up with each other online. Please know that I am praying for you, and I will be while you are there as well! Keep serving Him! 

Love, Kristi

Painting the Church

I do not claim to have written this...I do not know where it originated from, but it's share-worthy...so I'm sharing :) 

There was a Scottish painter named Smokey Macgregor who was very
interested in making a penny where he could, so he often thinned down
his paint to make it go a wee bit further.

As it happened, he got away with this for some time, but eventually
the local church decided to do a big restoration job on the outside
of one of their biggest buildings.

Smokey put in a bid, and, because his price was so low, he got the
job.

So he set about erecting the scaffolding and setting up the planks,
and buying the paint and, yes, I am sorry to say, thinning it down
with turpentine....

Well, Smokey was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly
completed, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder, the
sky opened, and the rain poured down washing the thinned paint from
all over the church and knocking Smokey clear off the scaffold to
land on the lawn among the gravestones, surrounded by telltale  
puddles of the thinned and useless paint.

Smokey was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty,
so he got down on his knees and cried:  "Oh, God, Oh God, forgive me; what should I do?"

And from the thunder, a mighty voice spoke..

"Repaint! Repaint!
And thin no more!"


:) 

Today...

...it has been FOUR years and one month

 since we became boyfriend&girlfriend 

on October FOURth, 2006.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

...it has been 2 years and 1 month since our 2 year anniversary

that we celebrated on October FOURth, 2008 at

the Melting Pot in Virginia.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

...it has been 19 months since

we got engaged on April FOURth, 2009

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

...it has been FOUR months since we got married

at FOUR o'clock on Sunday, July FOURth. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

I guess you could say 

we have a thing for FOURs...

But most of all, we have a thing for each other. 

I love him. 

I love my HUSBAND. 

He is my number ONE! 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

And...he is just so beautiful...

see?

Joseph William,

I love you baby...

I look forward to many more years...in multiples of FOUR, and ten and fifty. 

Thank you for being the best husband I could ever ask for....so good that I filled up a whole page of reasons in minutes. ;)

 And I'm glad you loved that! 

But, I'm most glad...that you love me, too. 

xoxoxoxo, 

Your Wife

Today it RAINED! :)

Today it rained....

and I wore these!

I've been looking for rain boots, for MONTHS....like over a year I think. Thanks to those of you who helped along the way in my search & to target.com for finally being the winner that I bought from because they have such a great selection! 

So...finally I found the lovely ones you see in these pictures. They are black with multi-colored polka dots! :) I purchased them online last week, and they came in yesterday.


It made me happy wearing them today. Yes, I admit I am amused by the small things! But, realistically...if you've ever walked on our campus on a rainy day....you understand.

Our "sidewalks" become rivers. Yeah...that really happens. Our well maintained lawns that perfectly frame the sidewalks (which look great, of course) also make for the perfect water collecting location.

But did that stop me today? Not one bit! Did it slow me down? Nope! Did I have to hold my pants legs up so that they wouldn't be soaking wet for the next 4 hours? Sure did not!

Did I have FUN trampsing through those puddles like a kid? 

SURE DID!!

WOO-HOO! 

:) 

So, my rain boots came in JUST in time (the package arrived yesterday) and today it rained. Good timing? I think so!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

However, there is a negative side to this thus-far cheery post....I'm sorry to ruin it but, I just have to do it.


 I must vent about stupid drivers in this town. 

For those of you who don't know a lot about our school...we have a street through the middle of our campus. Well, I guess it's be better described as our campus is on both sides of a street....ehhh, tomAtoes, tomAHtoes....

Anyways, on the river side of the street we have the dorm & apartments, the library, the gym and the chapel...and then on the other side of the street we have a building called "Heritage" where our classrooms are, the staff and faculty offices, the cafeteria as well as buildings that house the administration, admissions, student life, and financial aid.

So....how do we go about getting from where we LIVE (dorm/apartments) to where we attend classes? eat? visit teachers? visit our super cool admissions counselors? the awesome financial aid officers? or in my case, go to work?

Well in theory...we walk across one of these:

This is a crosswalk. 

However, I say that this is in theory because people driving cars don't understand how they work. Drivers think that they do not need to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. This is in fact, false.

THIS IRRITATES ME....On days that it's NOT raining.

Today, it was pouring...and MULTIPLE people drove by me on different trips across the street, as I stood there dripping. Literally...dripping!

Had I not had on a rain coat and RAIN BOOTS! (woo-hoo!) I would have really, really been aggravated! But instead I was only aggravated with ONE really. And I looked at them....like this:

Haha!

...or something like that!

None-the-less I was left standing on the side of the street until a kind driver stopped and let me cross. (Thank you kind and decent stranger who chooses to obey traffic laws; specifically when it is RAINING!) I waved/mouthed thank you multiple times to show them that I was grateful they were not punks like the TWO cars in front of them.

But...now the rain has stopped & I do not have to cross the street again and today was just a day I spent having a good ol' time in my rain boots! 

"CHEESE!"

Well, really I worked most of the day...but still I was wearing my RAIN BOOTS! 

Now for the rest of the night:

• hang out with buddies, 
• do some reading, 
• take a movie back to red box, 
• play in our first intramural bball game,
• and whatever else the night brings....

because HEYYY my 8 a.m. class is cancelled! holllla! :)

Hope everyone else had a lovely rainy Thursday! 

And next time you see a cross walk, stop and let the people waiting cross. 

Jesus will love you if you do. :)

....Okay, fine, He'll love you if you don't.

But I can't promise that *I* will like you much. 

This Day of November #2

Woke-up/Got ready/Gave Joe good morning kiss! 8:15-8:50
Work. 9:00-12:30
Lunch. 12:3-1:30
Work.1:30-3:45

Library 4:00-5:30 [[completed assignment 1 of 3 on to-do list for the day.]]

Cooked & ate dinner. 5:30-7:00

Relaxed....7:00-9:30

Prepared for/Took a quiz 9:15-10:00 [[got a 95/100, which is awesome considering my last one was a 75! I hate history! This was assignment 2 of 3 to be completed today. ]]

10:15...husband is home from bball! yay!

And now we are doing our final assignments for the evening and settling down to watch a movie. Then we're doing some reading....maybe. =]

Oh and our favorite other married couple buddies are coming over to watch the movie with us...

I heart our Brian & Annie!

This is Brian, in a play at our school a couple years ago...he was a scary character!

And my Annie, dearest! I love her so much! :)