We love you, Jesus

Whenever I whip out Ruby Sue, I immediately rush to listen to the Shane and Shane album Pages. Over the past week or so, the lyrics from the song "We Love You, Jesus" have been resounding in my brain:

We love you, Jesus

For so many reasons

For death and life and freedom

Even now we love You

We love you Jesus

In and out of seasons

In valleys and on top of mountains

Even now can we sing

What manner of love is this that you would say

Your sin is mine - I'll take it to the grave (then rising)

Death oh death, where is your sting today?

Death is swallowed up in victory

We love You, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!

It is such an upbeat, joyful song- as it should be, no doubt. Yet I have not stopped thinking about and wrestling with that first part: "We love you, Jesus - For so many reasons - For death and life and freedom". Really? We love you for death? Frankly, I don't often do this. Actually, I never do this.

This past week has been a challenging one as I remembered my aunt's death on October 27, 2007. Death is not something I am thankful for, not one bit, but David reminded me - as I was vomiting my frustration and lack of understanding - that it isn't death itself that we are thankful for. It is the end of life on earth that is reason to love Jesus. It is salvation. It is eternity in paradise that we celebrate. To be honest, I really have a hard time with this. Death is so, so painful, and I haven't brushed the surface of it in my life. Even through the valley of deaths our family experienced last fall, we were so spared. And yet- I still lay awake at night and sob over regrets and missed opportunities and loss and sadness and guilt and so much hurt.

Even still- death is swallowed up in victory. Jesus conquered even death to give us life eternal. And that, my friends, is reason to love Jesus.

catching up

I got back in town last night from my workshop (which was great, by the way, more to come on that) and dashed straight over to hang out with Sarah, Becca & Kate for a little bit. I know we all have a lot going on, but that time together is a TOP priority for me.

We had a great weekend (until I left town), and of course I have a few pictures to document it. Friday night we carved a pumpkin (advice: if you plan on carving 2 things on a pumpkin, get 2 pumpkins):

(David mimicking the crooked face I drew on the pumpkin...)

And... the finished product side #1

side #2 (my side :))

Saturday, David got up before the crack of dawn to venture out on his inaugural hunting adventure. He was Patrick's "buddy" for a juvenile hunting day. The Bryant's decked him out in hunting apparel and showed him the ropes. They saw lots of animals early in the morning, but no one shot anything. He had a great day with the boys and hopes to go back out again sometime and see some action!

Precious.

Even Uncle Skeeter made an appearance at the hunting property.

So, while David was out doing boy things, I was home doing girl things :). I made pillows! Since my mom refreshed my memory on sewing a few weeks ago, I've been really excited to make some things for around the house. Thus, our new throw pillows. Don't look too closely or you'll see the atrocious errors that abound.

Tada! The finished product- a coordinated living room. I'm pretty proud of myself!

Falltastic

Man, it's been a crazy Friday. I've been working feverishly as the Employee Campaign Manager for our UTC United Way campaign (which is a pretty big job with about 1053 university employees!), and now I'm getting going on an e-solicitation that will go to our GOLD alumni (Grads Of the Last Decade). It's keeping me busy, and I like that! However, I leave on Sunday to trek the 5 1/2 hours to the University of South Carolina for "The Art and Science of Donor Development" workshop until Tuesday. I'm NOT excited about the super long drive (especially late Tuesday night), but I am looking forward to learning a lot more about major gifts- an area that I'll be working in more in the spring.


On a lighter note, I'm so glad it's fall! David and I are going to carve pumpkins tonight (even though it is super gross and rainy) and I'm so excited (you can definitely expect pictures when I get back next week). Last night David and I had a great falltastic dinner:

Happy Fall Ya'll!

a cool place to work

I work at a cool place. Yeah, my job is good and the people that I work with are great, but the actually building we work in is awesome. The Development house (clever, I know) is home to the Vice Chancellor for Advancement, Associate Vice Chancellor for Development (my boss), 4 fundraisers (I'm one of them) and 5 support staff. It was built in 1910 as the President's House. Here she is:

Pretty cool, huh? It's even better on the inside. It just has that old house feeling that is so fun to be in. Downstairs there is a conference-like room, but really- it's a living room. Serious, there's a fire place, a piano, a bunch of couches and chairs and a dining room table. We also have a kitchen (which most offices do) that everyone uses like it's their own. It's not unusual to find Matt in there at 9am frying up some bacon or everyone down there for an afternoon snack of apple pie. Have I mentioned that it's awesome?
My office is on the second floor and it was likely a bedroom. Actually, it was definitely a bedroom. It is a jack-and-jill with a huge closet (which was really rare for 1910) and french doors that lead out to the roof-top. It's pretty awesome.

Proof:

Note the rug. I've learned that I'm not much into office decor, but fortunately the ladies I work with are. While I was on my honeymoon, they bought me this awesome rug! So, this is the view from my doorway.

And to the right...

And to the left...

Have an awesome Thursday!

our other family

One of mine and David's favorite things to do is spend time with the Bryant family. And eat at Amigo's. So last night we combined the two and had dinner together! Granted, this is not an unusual occasion... especially since we did the same thing on Thursday :) But this time...
Look who's home for fall break! Mary Shelton is a freshman at Samford this year, and we miss her so much! It stinks that she moved to Birmingham at the same time I moved to Chattanooga! We love MS and have loved being friends with her over the past three years. It's so fun to watch her succeed- especially at soccer right now! I've already mentioned how she's a baller in a previous post, so I won't bore you with those details again, but know that we're still super proud of her. I hope she comes home for Jan Term so we can hang out :)

HayHay has always been our cuddle bug- especially with David. They are BEST buds, but she loves me too :). I'm hoping she'll stop growing and fail 5th grade so she won't have to go to middle school and grow up. Yeah, that sounds good.

And in other Bryant family news, Patty's driving!! We haven't ridden with him yet, but based on his skills as a boat and ranger driver, I can imagine he's pretty decent. Again, it's been great to watch these kiddos grow up and conquer exciting new times in their lives. We love the Bryants so much and are SO, so blessed that they have welcomed us into their family!

I didn't take any pictures of John last night, but he's awesome too. Johnny-boy does have a girlfriend, Lizzie now... so that's big news. Well, as big of news as an 8th grade romance gets :).

it's fall!

It is 44* in Chattanooga right now. Holy cow! No wonder I'm cold! I do LOVE the fall weather and it made for such a fabulous weekend. You can always count on a great Monday morning post of our weekend happenings :).

Friday: Nothing.

Saturday: Morning errands, a little baking, and FAMILY! My mom, dad and Greg got into town around 12:30 and it was SO great having them here. We missed Ashley big time though! Saturday we ventured out to Whitwell for the Ketner's Mill festivities. Since David and I are new to town, we thought we'd check it out. We all had a great time since the weather was absolutely perfect and it was good just to be outside. It was a bit of a bummer that we spent more time driving than we actually did at the mill and that it cost $5 to just get in. It probably isn't something we'll do on an annual basis, but it was fun to check it out.

When we got home, Dad and David scoped out a potential "man room" addition that has become David's newest project, and Mom and I (Greg watched) worked on my newest project- sewing! She brought me one of her sewing machines so I can polish my [few] skills, and she refreshed my memory on the whole thing. We made Brianna this cute Halloween pillowcase dress and hair bow (it's going in the mail today, Beth!):
This Saturday is Greg's 17th birthday, so we celebrated early with the peanut butter cookies I made:We went to dinner at Big River and headed home to watch a movie. Unfortunately, the movie of choice was Saw 4, so I opted out. The rest of the fam tortured themselves through the entire thing though!

Sunday: We had a lazy Sunday morning, complete with Dunkin' Donuts that came all the way from Newnan, GA. Man, I miss Dunkin' Donuts... When I finally got ready to go, David and I took the fam on a little Chatty outing. We went back to Renaissance Park and enjoyed the gorgeous day, great company and a beautiful city with fun photo ops!

Two of my favorite boys:

Greg and D climbed to the top of the landfill hill:

Lastly we drove through the National Cemetery, which we all enjoyed, but especially my dad :).

All in all, it was SUCH a fabulous weekend (well, day really) with my family here! I'm glad they aren't far down the road so they can come back and visit soon!

After everyone left, we watched some of The Office (of course) and then headed to the Rochas! We just hung out with Becca, Keith and Kate, watching football and doing stuff around the house and then we ventured out to enjoy the great outdoors! Again, the weather was perfect and our night was just as good. We went on a walk and threw the football and it was a perfect fall day! It quickly turned cool(er) and we made a fire and sipped on hot chocolate. That baby is just durn perfect, and it was so fun to pass her around and love on her all night.

What a wonderful weekend!

good for your soul

I didn't get a chance to blog about Wednesday night before Kate came- and she was WAY more important and exciting to talk about! So now you get to hear about our date night :).


Wednesday morning David told me he had something planned for us to do after work, but he wouldn't tell me what it was. I was super excited and anxious all day because I love surprises! So, I got to his office (we carpool and I drop him off and pick him up... it just works well that way) and he popped the trunk to reveal a change of clothes for each of us, a picnic blanket and dinner stuff! I was pumped. We went down to Coolidge Park and walked along the river and all through Renaissance Park. Neither of us had ever explored down there and it was SO fun! We are planning on taking my mom, dad and Greg through there this weekend. The weather was perfect and so was the company! We finally walked up to Subway, got sandwiches and made our pallet on the grass. It was wonderful. I smiled from ear to ear the whole night because it was just wonderful to be outside and be with David. Nights like that are good for your soul.

Big ol' zit and nasty-ness, but loving our time together :)

How could you not LOVE this city?? Seriously- check out the blue sky and the green grass... ahh... outdoor perfection