Mr. and Mrs. Kitchens

Justin and Allison were married March 8, 2008. It was a beautiful wedding. Outdoors, white chairs with pink and white rose petals completely covering the center asile, guitar player and soloist, chilly and breezy, sand for the bride and groom to sand on (she originally wanted to get married at the beach), reception at Japanese Gardens at the Botanical Gardens. The bridesmaids wore brown dresses and carried white japanese-looking umbrella instead of flowers. The groomsmen wore brown pants and white shirts. The Lord came to the wedding and truly blessed their day. The bride requested that Brent wear his pink suit!!!

Vernon and Brent

Victor and BrentBrent and the new coupleFun reception table Awesome cake

Chuys

A few weeks ago, Brent and I went to Dallas with our friends Danna and Aaron. They are expecting their first child in May, Charis Erin (Charis is Greek and it means Grace). They were going to register at Pottery Barn Kids. They invited us to tag along because they were going to eat at Chuy's! The 2nd best mexican restaurant in Texas! So good in fact that I thought it was worth posting in the blog!! If you visit Texas, Chuy's is a must. Brent has eaten at the Dallas, Austin, and Houston locations.

Reflections of Christ

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road,

when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your

fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing

cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not

provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not

plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that

you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."

Deuteronomy 6: 4 - 12

I have been reading a book by Noel Piper called, "Treasuring God in our Traditions". It's a really neat book about why we have traditions, the differences between traditions, habits, and customs, teaching traditions and what traditions teach, teaching your children, etc, etc, etc. Noel also shares a few traditions that she and her family have. In one chapter Noel poses the question, "What habits and traditions do you enjoy together that express your family's character and help you see that facet of God?" For example, their family is a 'word' family. She says: "..we Piper's are a word-oriented family.......The enjoyment of words that God gave us helps us realize how important words are. God used a book full of word to tell us about Himself. God the Son is even called 'the Word'. If we didn't have words, how would we understand God and His world? What a precious gift to be a 'word family'!" She challenges her readers to: "consider how God is reflected in your family and in the activites you especially enjoy."

It got me thinking about me and Brent and what we do in our super-small, two-person family that reflect God. It is easy to see in my family and Brent's family. My family has music, and giving and hospitality as one way we reflect God and worship God together as a family. (although one member isn't exactly using her musical gifts at this moment in time!) Brent's family uses sports, humor (a lot of humor!), and their love for all types of people to reflect God and worship Him together as a family.

I'm not sure what mine and Brent's reflection(s) are. Perhaps, this is b/c we are just starting out...sort of. I'm not very athlectic and Brent's not very musical, which we both kinda like about each other, so there must be other ways. We both love people. That could be one way we reflect God together. I'm sure as time goes on different reflections will come out in our relationship with each other and ourselves. Noel gives a few examples of ways God is reflected in familes: art, building, traveling, fixing things, working on farms or in gardens. I think cooking could be there too. :) but i'm not in that group! I think I would be in the eating group! haha!! There is one couple I know of who reflects God in their relationship to one another. I have never seen more how a husband and wife should treat, respect, and love each other than in this couple. Their relationship is a beautiful expression on how Christ loves the Church and how He desires our marriages to flourish. They definitely reflect Christ in their marriage.

Well I'm not quite done with this book. I just read it here and there. I usually read 4 books at a time and never finish them! But hopefully these 4 books i'm reading now will actually be finished. I did finish one! Hooray! Hopefully this on is next! You should check this one out sometime!

Peace,
MC

Palm Trees in February

Yes, i love palm trees in February. We recently took a trip to beach for Brent to perform my cousin's wedding ceremony. It was lovely. The wedding and the trip! We ate a Leatha's BBQ, saw our family, my adorable nephew, our true friend, Bubba, Brent got to speak, and of course, we saw palm trees, waves, dolphins, and ate beignets on the beach! Also my birthday was this month!
Here are a few of my favorite snapshots!

Sad.....

"Sell you possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Luke 12:33-34

I've been thinking the past few days about the death of Heath Ledger. The media has been calling his, a tragic death. I completely agree. But not only is it a tradgey just because he was only 28 and possibly took his own life, the tradgey lies in that there are no more 2nd chances for Heath. His life on earth is finished and from what I have seen, heard, and read about, his lifestyle conveyed no belief in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Maybe he did and the media did not show that side of him, but if he did not, then the world he is in now is far more horrific than any movie would ever be able to create.
It is so weird to think about how many 2nd chances we get on this earth to know God! Zillons! Every day! The Lord is very gracious and so patient with us! I wonder if Heath was searching for something. His last days were apparently not the a greatest. I cannot imagine what all he went through if he was indeed oppressed. It is sad that his 2nd chances are over.

His death reminds me to think about who am I living for, am I living for myself - trying to be voted "most popular", being selfish, putting others down and "beneath" me, having to have the nicest clothes, the best job, the most money, the most friends, etc.?? Am I living for Jesus - being selfless, putting other people first, helping those who are less fortunate than me, treating everyone with respect, showing love in tough situations to difficult people (this is hard sometimes!), etc., making sure that people understand their need of forgiveness and a relationship with Him??

I am sure that at times Heath was selfless, always put others first, helped those who were less fortunate, treated everyone with respect, and showed love in tough situations to difficult people, maybe he was even that way all the time because of his personality, but even in the very end, the only thing that truly mattered was the last part - did he have forgiveness and a relationship with Jesus? We won't know for sure until we arrive in heaven.

I am truly sad for the Ledger family, his little girl, and his friends. I'm sure they will always miss Heath. Perhaps his death will lead them to think about their own life and what they believe happens after you die and maybe it will lead them to the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and He will lead them to the Father.

But for now, where is your treasure?

Other hair pics

So a few weeks ago my mom came out to visit while Brent was in Mexico and she and I got our haircut! Jen at Goldwaves is so great!! :)

Here are the pics!! What do you think??

Haircuts

So some of the girls and I all got our hair cut pretty much the same week! So much change going on! It was fun! :) (usually my hair is not so frizzy like it is here!)



Jenn, Karen, Jen, and me!

Stepping Up

Well tonight I started a Beth Moore Bible study called Stepping Up. It's with some girls that I work with.

I don't mean to say I started it as in it was my idea, i just meant tonight was the first night.

So far the study is fantastic, but the first night always is, right?! We'll see how it goes from here. It's a shorter study, so this is good. 6 or 7 weeks. I get burnt out on the 12 or 13 weeks...goodness...that's a long time.

So anyway check it out. You might like it.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes.....

You might be a redneck.....

Move over Jeff Foxworthy!! HAHA!! Okay so not really, but our shower knob broke last night and the apartment did not fix it today, so it broke all the way today! Well we have a new saying for Jeff..."you might be a redneck if you have to turn your shower on and off with a drill!" HAHAHA! LOL!!! We can turn on the shower, just with the drill!! oh me...you gotta love it!!
Kinda gross looking now that it is broken! YUCK!!

Okay, the next day is was fixed, so we only had to use the drill one and a half days!! :)

Mom, Mexico and Haircuts!

You may not think that these three things have anything to do with each other, but they do!! It was my week last week! First of all Saturday Jan. 5 Brent left for Accuna Mexico for a week for a mission trip with the school. They got back yesterday. IT was a great trip! Below you can see a slideshow of some pics that Brent took. I was hoping for a different song and a few more slides, but I'm still figuring this thing out...so maybe next time!! I downloaded Rhasphody free trial...so hopefully i can get some good songs downloaded!

I went home for the weekend for mammow's 90th birthday! She had a great party! Then my mom flew home with me for a few days after that! We had a blast! Most importantly we both got our haircut!! Mine is really short and mom's is stacked in the back and angled down the side of her face! We are SO trendy!!! :)

Here's the sad thing...right now my computer is telling me that I cannot download the pics of mammow's birthday nor the haircuts! b/c it's not compatible with my computer! This is crazy, b/c the manual says it is XP compatible and we have XP!! Oh well, maybe Brent can figure it out! I wish we had an "IT" (Information Technology)group at home we could call and they would come and fix it right up like we do at work! I love the IT guys and gals, they know everything about computers!! I'm as tech-no savvy! :(

Well hopefully i'll get this figured out!
oh also Brent is meeting with the Power Team on Tuesday around 9:00ish!! Please pray for him!!!

Okay...gotta run....Brent is eating my cheese puffs!!
Enjoy the slideshow!!!

love,
Marianne