Teenybopping

you better believe that tonight mandy, joanna and i will be heading to see breaking dawn, part 1. and who's that coming with us? oh, that's right. joel, robbie and david. heck yes.

as joel was saying the other day "harry potter is about the triumph of good over evil. twilight is about the importance of having a boyfriend." hilarious. and true. and i don't care.

come on. 'fess up. you know you love it...so who do you love? edward or jacob?

Happy Birthday, Joanna!

today is my sweet friend joanna's birthday! joanna (or as i have lovingly nicknamed her - jojie) is SUCH a fun person. she makes me laugh pretty much all the time. she loves justin beiber (or as she calls him, "justin beaver"...because english is her second language and she says funny things like that, which is another reason i love her so much.) she is a super talented hair stylist as well as photographer and just all around pretty great girl. sorry dudes, she's taken.

jojie, i'm sad you're in phoenix and not here to hang out on your birthday, but when you come back we will party and i will buy your ticket to see breaking dawn. have fun with your family and come home soooooooon!

Yard Sale Success

the yard sale went so well on saturday. thank you so much to all the people who donated, who came by to visit and especially those who bought stuff. we actually got to talk to some people who have adopted, who had siblings who were adopted and even one woman who gave up a child 10 years ago. they were all so encouraging and sweet. we are just so ready to have this little baby home!

hilarious story...at one point a police officer pulls up and david walks over and gets micah. all i can hear from the porch is "did you get a permit?" to which micah told us he replied, "yeah, i got one from the mayor." micah thought the guy was joking, and then he said "well, i need to see it." so micah starts to back track saying he thought it was a joke. he really didn't have a permit. the next thing i see is the cop start laughing and saying he was just messing with us. he was there to shop. julianne told him he had to buy something after that.

julianne made these super sweet onesies to sell at the yard sale. thankfully, i was able to snag one.

so i have to say a huge, gigantic, enormous thank you to julianne and micah who had the idea in the first place and who did pretty much all the work. we are so thankful that they are our friends. we love them and their two sweet babies so so much. sadly, we didn't take a picture together either so i borrowed this one so i could show their sweet faces. (photo)

We're Sad...

...but rejoicing. today, david is headed to panama city to be with one of his best friends, jordan. jordan's dad, chip, passed away very suddenly friday night. it has been such a shock to everyone, but we can rejoice in the knowledge that he is with his Savior today. Our hearts and prayers are just completely with the lloyd family.

picture: chip (far right) with david's dad, chuck (middle) and our friend walt's dad, sam (far left) at a wedding a couple of years ago.

Rule and Subdue

i saw this picture on one of my favorite blogs and it immediately made me think of my husband and our friend joel. they talk about opening a restaurant that is literally on a farm that we would own. they talk a lot about ruling and subduing the earth. it's awesome.

i imagine this would be somewhere in that restauraunt.

War Fun Weekend!

sometimes i wish i had a tumblr account so i didn't have to come up with blog titles. anyway, this weekend, we headed to auburn for a couple of things...obviously, the auburn/georgia game but also because courtney and steve came aaaaaaaaalllll the way from austin (you see, steve is awesome and for courtney's 42nd birthday he gave her a trip to this game). it was one of the happiest weekends i've had in auburn. (thanks steve for the pictures!)

we met steve and courtney friday night. we definitely gave steve an auburn campus tour. oh yeah.

best sign definitely was "breaking news: alert the media! cam newton stole my heart!" david's favorite was "cam newton eats chick-fil-a on sundays"

and just for fun (and because it's awesome), this was the video they played on the jumbotron at the end of the game.

Best Friends

this is one of my favorites. love joel and mandy busby so much.

photo: a bryan photo

Visit to Austin

i really tried to come up with a wittier title. it just wasn't happening.

this past weekend, david and i got away. and man, was it nice. i decided to surprise david with a pre-birthday present - which really didn't count, because it was just as much a present for me as it was for him. we went to stay with our friends steve and courtney miller. it was our first ever laid back, non-touristy austin trip ever and it was my favorite by far.

i guess i'm old, but being home by 11:30 and not sharing 1 bathroom with 15 people was awesome. we got to spend time as we are - as friends. just talking, getting great food, sharing some beers on the porch. pretty much a most fantastic weekend. sadly, we have no pictures of the weekend because we just forgot. (seriously, for everywhere steve had to carry the flower camera pouch, there should be more than this.)

this first picture is stolen from steve and court. this was at the draught house our last night. i look a little too laid back in this picture. yikes.

and this was our table at salt lick - this redonkulous bbq place outside austin. yes, it was byob. yes, we waited for an hour and a half in the pouring rain. and yes, it was so delicious, your mama better watch out (...cause she might get slapped).

My Friend Courtney Shares My Brain

i love my friend courtney more than words can describe. and we have always joked that we share a brain. seriously, it's freaky. and today, when i was reading her blog as well, there was just a hilarious picture of her sitting on her couch.

and i crap you not, we are dressed almost identically. i love my jorts. i don't even care. i thought it was hilarious. so this post is for her. get out of my brain.

also, i am well aware my hair looks like that of a drug addict. i had to lean forward to take the picture and there was no getting it fixed in 3 seconds.

My 26th Birthday

saturday was my birthday...yeah! i still love birthdays so much. christmas has lost it's magic as i've grown up, but birthdays...birthdays still get me. it's probably for really selfish reasons, but i just do.

the best part about my birthday this year (other than my awesome thoughtful husband who made sure i had a weekend o' fun) was SNOW! everyone wants snow on christmas but no. snow on your birthday is infinitely better. too bad it didn't last the whole day. it was gone by the afternoon (except our sad little snowman was holding on til this afternoon). anyway, we had fun playing in it as we waited for liz and jd to come pick us up for a movie. (the pictures are really dark...our camera was dead and we were snow blind so we couldn't really tell)

the only waterproof shoes i own.

our tiny snowman. i tried to help but then my hands were burning and i didn't know where my gloves were (clearly, snow is not the norm here). the sad thing about snowmen in the south is that once they are made, they sit on a bed of grass.

he thought about starting a snowball fight. he wisely chose not to.

we went and saw valentine's day. i am normally not the person to go see romantic comedies in the theater, but i really wanted to see it. it was ok. nowhere near as good as love actually which everyone has been comparing it to. but i didn't hate it. glad it was a matinee, though. finished up the night with wings and cheese fries from mafiaoza's. yum.

also, happy valentine's day. i wish i had a picture of my outfit i wore today. i killed valentine's day. and apparently, no one wears pink or red anymore so i looked kind of ridiculous. but it was awesome.

Sunny Austin Wedding

on november 1, i had the privilege to fly to austin and be in one of my best friend's weddings - court miller (better known as fat bottom hurst). how do i describe court? she is one of the most genuine and selfless people i've ever met. and we share a brain. and our future as of yet to be adopted children are already betrothed. she is one of the few (maybe the only) girls that david will call his friend. i'm so happy she found steve. he is equally amazing. so, to let you all share in one of the greatest, most fun weddings i've ever been to, here is my homage.

yes, that is my husband doing the worm on the left.

and they had this awesome photobooth (which is apparently all the rage these days, but i swear they started it in austin). don't you like the way i made it look like a real photobooth strip? yeah? yeah?

all wedding photos © two pair photography and all photobooth pictures © trevor ray thompson photography

Weekend with Friends

this weekend we went up to birmingham to get together with david's three best friends from childhood/growing up. walt and his wife april live in birmingham, jordan lloyd and his wife ellen live in jackson, tn, jordan christie and his new fiance rebekah live in pensacola and of course david and i live in atlanta.

it is so much fun when we are all together and it doesn't happen enough. i have been extremely blessed in my marital situation. i have in-laws that i love and absolutely adore. and also, david's best friends have wives (and future wife) that are absolutely amazing. when the four of the boys are together it is seriously hard to remember that they aren't brothers. anyway, it doesn't happen enough - them being together, that is. and we have all become one big family. i love it.


this time we got together to celebrate two glorious events: jordan and rebekah's engagement and the birth of walt and april's baby boy, charlie - the first of the next generation.

here are some of the highlights:

True Best Friends

wednesday night mandy and joel came and stayed with us. they were on their way out of town and were just crashing for the night. they are two of my favorite people in the world (i would hope so, because they have been my best friends since i was 12 or something). i just love that they have welcomed david so fully into the circle of trust.

it can be hard coming into a friendship that crazy. not only dealing with your wife's best friend but with her husband who is also your wife's best friend. that can be intimidating. but it's not. we sit and dream of how we want to change the world together. and i know we will some day. i just love them more than words can describe and it makes 8 hours on a wednesday night the best time i've had in months because we don't get to see each other that much anymore.

anyway, love them to death. that's all.

The Last Encounter (for real)

so today was a long day. last night david and i drove to auburn to go to the last encounter. if you know anything about encounter, you know how late it starts/gets over. so that made for a late night coming home and then chasing 2 year olds around all day today. but it was worth it. for my reminiscent thoughts on encounter, check here.

but anyway, it was an awesome night. it was almost surreal to be there, with a completely different band in a building that wasn't even finished when we moved, much less had ever been in before. we thought it was fitting that encounter started in one of the oldest buildings on campus and ended in the newest.

we also had a lot of friends from birmingham, atlanta, etc. to come. it was great to see everybody all in one spot again. it was a great 6 years and we will miss it greatly but hong kong will be gaining something amazing. i'm excited to see what will happen there.

this picture was taken 3 years ago before an encounter. we were talking about this exact picture while we were taking this one...

probably one of the more awkward pictures ever taken. but i love each of them.

all the girls. memories of all the small groups. all the monday night dinners at dan's. all the musical roommates. it was good times.

I Miss Friends

so i was just surfing the book of faces and i saw that a buttload of my friends were tagged in a bryan johnson photo album. i'm clickin on through expecting it to be my friends that work for bryan (and because i enjoy fun photography). then i come across this picture. 4 of the people i hold dearest to me in the world (among others). and i haven't seen them in months :(. 

i miss living near friends...agggghhhhh! thursday canNOT come soon enough!

Farewell, Encounter

tonight is the night. encounter comes to an end (on this side of the world) after 7 years. for those of you who don't know, encounter is the weekly meeting of grace campus ministries in auburn, al. my sophomore year of college, i started going with my roommate carol. the next 3 years, i enjoyed one of the greatest communities God put on this earth. upon graduation in '06, david and i went to work for grace. for 2 years we worked with our friends who became a family. we will miss encounter. it provided something for the campus of auburn that was not there before, and i'm afraid will be sorely missed.

in honor of the awesomeness of encounter and what God did through it, i have compiled a top 8/bottom 4 and a montage of pictures...so on with the first...

top 8:

1. learning what grace was really about

2. meeting david...and coming up with bogus "events" to tempt him to hang out

3. mine and carol's cupcake fight (back when encounter was small enough that we provided snacks for everyone afterwards)

4. leading 21 college students to swaziland and meeting some of the most amazing people i have ever had the privilege of knowing

5. getting so hot in the middle of december (back in the au chapel) that you would be dripping sweat from jumping to crowder tunes (hey! it was '03)

6. ice cream socials at the crayola house

7. counting the donations the night invisible children came

8. waffle house after encounter

bottom 4:

1. all the awkward moments that happen when 12 people share one office and one bathroom (which happened to be behind my desk) - this really could be a top 8, though :)

2. the summer that me and courtney were the only staff in town for girls (there is a reason we had desk jobs...awkward)

3. the day we rode our bikes to the office and almost died

4. getting home from encounter at 11:30pm and getting up at 3am to drive to phenix city every week of my internship

matt and josh @ a softball game...josh was just a wee thing

the aforementioned cupcake fight

ahhh, my husband

karen, me, hanna, carol, diane, and erin: 2004

encounter fall retreat: 2005 - i think...whichever one jason morant played

passion '06

remember caleb's baby shower?

josh took this picture

oh the band trips...

did i mention the band trips?

swaziland with kriek and dennis

walking home in swazi

in honor of the happy couple getting married on saturday!

our last encounter...

despite what the freshmen might believe, this is and always will be the encounter drummer

...

what are your encounter memories?