Life Happens.

I had such a fun trip to New York with Madi and her mom!

Day One:

Early plane ride

My first taxi ride alone

Subway

Lunch at Jekyll and Hyde

Rock of Ages on Broadway & meet the cast

Times Square

Late Dinner at Virgil’s

Day Two:

Hop-A-Bus Tour

China Town

New York Pizza

Shopping

Sunburn

Day Three:

South Street Sea Port

Central Park carriage ride

The Plaza hotel

Getting on the wrong bus, getting off in the middle of the street, and chasing down a cab

Lunch

Serendipity’s famous frozen hot chocolate

Promises, Promises on Broadway & meet the cast

Late dinner

Day Four:

Shopping

Lunch at Famous Dave’s

Wicked on Broadway & meet the cast

Dinner at Stardust Diner

Night tour on the Hop-a-Bus

Day Five:

Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum

Lunch at John’s Pizzeria

Caught an earlier flight (only to stop for fuel)

Check out her birthday party!

I had the amazing privilege of going on the student choir/mission trip to Boston with the high school students from my church.  These students amazed me with their hearts for service and worship.  265 students were divided into 17 family groups who were spread all over Boston doing construction, painting, yard work, VBS, food bank work, prayer walking, and more.  These same students would gather together in outdoor venues all around Boston and sing.  I loved seeing the students worship our Lord instead of merely performing for these people.  After our concerts the students would talk to people, share Christ with them, and pray for them.  I am blessed to have been a part of this trip and to have seen these high schoolers truly proclaim the love of Christ throughout Boston!

North Campus

Family Group 17 – My awesome kids!

Madi and me working at our mission site

Our family group at our completed mission site – Hope Fellowship

265 student choir

Leading with one of our leaders – we love Carol!

I turned 26 on July 6th.  I officially feel old.  But I have the best friends ever to grow old with and we had a lot of fun celebrating!

My special birthday-celebration-with-Jen/Bachelorette-watching-and-making-fun-of-party!

My birthday dinner at Brio with some of my favorite people (WE MISSED YOU JEN!)

Thank you, sweet friends, for such a fun birthday!  Here’s to many, many more years of celebrating life together!

My family spent the 4th of July at the lake and enjoyed some quality time together.

Having fun at the pool with my niece, Alli!

Alli loves playing in the water

Kisses for mommy

Kisses for Aunt Cat Cat

Got my shades on like mommy

Strike a pose!

Blowing kisses!

Muah!

Celebrating my birthday with my family

Blowing out the candles – I think Amy wanted to help!

My mom and me

(Bright flash + loud fireworks while taking a picture at night = deer in the headlights look – at least for me!)

Me and my big brother

Hope you had a happy 4th of July weekend!

I have the cutest niece ever.  I love her.  A lot.  I don’t get to see her as much as I used to, so I miss her.

Bluebonnet pictures in the Spring

Summertime at Mama Jan and Pop’s house

How cute is she?  I can’t believe she’s almost 2!

I spent the week with nine girls who just finished their first year of high school.  Nine girls I barely knew before camp who now call me “mommy”.  Kinda weird.  But endearing.

The lovely girls in my condo!

God showed up big time.  Over 20 students were saved at camp.  Many students surrendered their lives to the Lord, let go of sin, pain, and unforgiveness in their lives, and discovered the truth that only Jesus can fill the void inside of us.  What a powerful week it was for these students.

Some of my camp girls from last year!

North girls (and Justin) on Black Light Night!

At the end of the week over 30 students were baptized in the ocean.  What an amazing picture of being made new in Christ!

And did I mention I went with the best group of leaders ever?

Rachel, Me, Steph, Mel, and Kristin

Justin wanted to be in our pictures

*Funny Story: my camera was on video mode half the time, so I had to download the frames of the videos to get pictures! (The laughing ones were my favorite!)

Some of my best friends in our best highlighter shades!

It’s summer and I have lots to look forward to!

• First up, Beach camp!  I can’t wait to spend some quality time with some of my favorite high school girls on the beach.  More importantly, I can’t wait to see what the Lord does in our student ministry!

• In July I’m going on the student choir tour/mission trip to Boston.  I get to be the 10th grade family group leader for the North students and I’m so excited!  I loved these trips when I was in youth, so I can’t wait to go back as a leader!!!

• On July 24th I’m going to hear Rascal Flatts perform in Frisco!  I don’t go to many concerts, so I’m excited!

• In August I will be going to New York with one of my high school girls to hang out and see Wicked!!!  Can I tell you how crazy excited I am???

• And the summer will end with the best trip yet…Girls’ Cruise!!! 5 days of fun in the sun with some of my favorite girls!!!

I’ve been growing my hair out since August to donate it in honor of one of our sweet students who has been fighting leukemia.  On May 28th my hair was cut at Spirit Day in front of the whole school, along with almost 20 students and 4 other teachers.  Not gonna lie, it was pretty inspiring!

My nine ponytails!

“If I acted crazy, I did it for God…Christ’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first & last word in everything we do” – 2 Corinthians 5:13-14 (The Message)

This weekend was the Junior High Girls’ all-nighter at church.  We had 92 junior high girls, 15 high school girls helping out, and 8 adult volunteers.  It was CRAZY, just as the name of the event suggests!

The night included dinner, a crazy relay game, a hula hooping contest (while wearing tutus of course), a hot pink chocolate fountain, a huge feather pillow fight, a modesty fashion show, and most importantly, a great message about God’s crazy love for us!  The girls really opened up to what the Lord was teaching them, and 2 girls came to know Jesus as their Savior on Friday night.  Praise the Lord!!!

We LOVE the tutus Kristin made!

CUTE table decorations!

Rachel’s Relay Game – CRAZY!

Kitchen Crew!

What do you do when you have all the chocolate in the fountains and they don’t work?  Stick you hands in there, take it apart, and figure out the problem!

Both fountains up and running finally!!!

GIANT feather pillow fight!!!

The brave leaders

Rachel and Erin’s duet – “A Whole New World!”

Sweet Lily

92 Crazy Girls!!!

We made it!

And funny story… Rachel and I were going to run and jump off the stage for a picture.  Well we ran.  And Rachel jumped.  But…I forgot to jump.  So, I just ran off the stage and fell!  It was pretty funny!!! (And yes, we look like we were temporarily released from the crazy house!)

PRAISE THE LORD  for such a fun-filled, life-changing, God-glorifying weekend!