God: The blessing of a vacation

God:  Mat and I went on a mini vacation - he called it the "Epic Family Weekend Trip to Fredericksburg" which got me really pumped up about it :)  We drove up to Enchanted Rock on a Thursday evening and stayed until Sunday.  This was probably the HOTTEST weekend in Texas that we have had all summer - Every day was at least 100 degrees or more.  So why would we do something insane like go hiking in 100 degree weather??? Well....because it was the only weekend we could go and we didn't expect it to be this hot!! YIKES! 

 This is my most favorite part of Enchanted rock.  I absolutely love lakes near mountains and this is one of the prettiest sites at the park.  I know its not a mountain and its not much bigger than a pond, but it works :)

 We had some wonderful visitors while we were at the campsite too.  These deer came by quite a few times and the squirrels came to hang out too.  We didn't see many animals while hiking...we saw them all at our campsite!

 I wore my Vibram toe shoes for the hike on Friday which was exhausting.  We went about 8 miles total and by the end of it, i had some really bad blisters from rocks getting stuck in my shoes!

 Mat and I about to start our hike on day one!

 A map of the park - you can see two distinct large circles - we looped around the one on the right in the morning (it circled the little brown circles too) and then the other brown circle in the afternoon.

 This is my favorite rock in the whole park! It is being weathered down every year and we have pictures of it from the last time we were in the park in 2008 so i'm going to compare them!

 Feeding the squirrels, they loved me and Mat really enjoys playing with them lol

I want to add a picture of him from 2008 later.

 I wish i got that tan! Most of that is dirt!!

 Sitting on top of Enchanted rock!

 Someone cut this out of the cactus!

And sadly, I did not want to leave....this is me pouting because we were about to get in the car to drive back to Houston :(  vacations fly by so fast but it was wonderful being able to see God's marvelous creations!  What a blessing to be able to even take a vacation!!  I will post more pictures from Saturday too which includes peach picking and wine tasting with Mat's parents!

God, Money and Love: "The Ability"

God:  I heard something on 89.3 KSBJ the other day on my way to work.  They have started advertising for "Share-a-thon" which is the once a year fund raising event for the radio station to fund their efforts through the year.  They do not advertise or play crappy commercials so they rely upon listeners for funding.  I love this radio station and ever since a friend at work told me about it, I have been listening to it non-stop.  Anyways, the point I wanted to make was that they said that God has given us "the ability" to donate (i.e. by blessing us with our jobs and income) which is 100% true!  If it weren't for God working in my life and Mat's life, we wouldn't have "the ability" to do all of the things that we do on a daily basis.  I am so grateful that God has blessed us with great jobs and steady income.  He gives us "the ability" to donate not only to KSBJ but also to the church....because technically, its God's money and not ours.  It does not belong to us which is why its so important to tithe to the church you are a member of.  Once you start treating His money like its yours and no one else's, good luck trying to manage it and make it multiply!

Money: Since God has graciously blessed us with jobs, we have "the ability" to put extra money towards our debts each month.  Thanks to God, we have paid off a significant amount of our student loans (we paid off all of Mat's) and we only have one loan and the car to pay off next.  Thank you Lord for blessing us so much.

Love:  Over the past few weeks I've been getting this funny feeling in my heart and stomach.  I haven't felt this way in a while but I think that I am falling madly in love with my husband more and more each day.  I love him very much but its like the last few weeks, I've been admiring him and hanging on to each and every second we spend together.  He is my very best friend and I love him so much!  Every week in Sunday school we go over different readings in the bible and we learn how to love each other the way that God intended.  I feel like my love for Mat has grown so much deeper and stronger and each day gets better and better :)  I have an amazing husband who loves me!  How did I get so lucky??!?