Me and Caroline

Here is a picture of me and Caroline from last week that Kim sent me....I love it! Kim, thank you for the pictures. You can also see my new glasses and haircut in the picture.

Lunch Date

Today I got to eat lunch with my best friend Kim and her sweet daughter Caroline. Caroline is only four weeks old! Check them out at their blog, One Moore Day. I have been wanting to go over and take them lunch for a while now but they have had so many people loving on them lately that I didn't want to overwhelm them with another visitor. It was such a pleasant surprise last night when Kim and I both realized that it would work for me to come over today. I had so much fun seeing them both and getting to catch up with Kim. I am really excited about getting to hang out with them both more in the future since I am not working.

Greater Things Are Yet to Come...

Yesterday (Wednesday) I volunteered at KSBJ's Share-a-thon (http://www.ksbj.org/sharathon/index.php) by answering phones and entering pledges to the system. It was a blast and I highly recommend it to anyone. I only wish I could have done again today. It was so encouraging to hear people's stories and how God was working in their lives. I was truly blessed by being there. Not to mention that the "theme" song for the pledge drive is the theme song for my life right now. The song is "God of This City" sung by Chris Tomlin. They played it yesterday during my volunteer shift and I just started bawling. I was just overwhelmed with the truth that God is the biggest most powerful force in the universe and He desires to use us to carry out His will, if we will only surrender to Him. I have truly been blessed recently by surrendering my plans to God by deciding not to teach next year. Not only did Evan ask me to do so, but God made it VERY clear to me that I was not to go back. I didn't understand it and I fought it for awhile. After I gave in (I decided I wasn't going to go back over Christmas break) it got harder before it got easier. What made it difficult was my pride. I had to get over myself and my plans. God was so faithful, and by the end of January, had really given me a peace about my decision and helped me enjoy the rest of the year. He encouraged me all semester by reminding me that greater things were in store for me. I was often frustrated not knowing what those things were, but He kept reminding me that he hadn't forgotten about me and that he had big plans for me. Honestly, He has not revealed all He has in store for me yet but so far He has kept His promise to me and I know He will continue to do so. I know there will also be bumps in the road along the way but that it is all to draw me closer to Him and that if I can focus on the big picture, greater things are surely to come. Check out the cool video on The Wallace's  blog that is set to the Chris Tomlin song.

Tidbits from earlier this week

Monday I got my new glasses! I was nervous when I went to pick them up because I kind of picked them out when my eyes were dilated and I couldn't really see. Not only that, but I obviously didn't have my contacts in (because of my eyes being dilated) and so I wouldn't have been able to see very well even if my eyes were not dilated. If you wear glasses I am sure you can relate to this issue when it comes to picking out new glasses. There really is no way around it because they can't temporarily change all of the glasses in the store to have your perscription in them so you can actually see yourself in the mirror when you put them on. The easiest way around it is to wear your contacts but I didn't have this option. This was only complicated further by the fact that I am giving up on wearing my contacts all together. I have VERY dry eyes and I cannot wear my contacts comfortably for more than a couple of hours. Therefore, I really wanted to make sure I picked the right glasses because I was going to be wearing them all the time. It turns out that I really like them and am kind of impressed seeing as I couldn't see when I selected them. The only problem was that they were too tight when I first got them. I didn't have time to go get them adjusted this week because of being so busy so I tried doing it myself. Now they are not only too loose but they are crooked. I will post pictures next week after I get them adjusted by the pros.

Tuesday I got my haircut. I am getting used to it. I like it but it is just a little different than what I expected. The only part I am not sure about is the back (it is cut pretty short) but Evan has been reassuring me that it looks great :) Thanks babe!

Tuesday we also had our small group Bible study. Claire and Roy hosted it for the first time and it was great! The food was wonderful (Claire if you are reading this....I need to get the recipe from you for the chicken and the Hawaiian sweet potatoes) and we had a lot of fun. I think we all are looking forward to meeting at their house again sometime soon.

Happy 23rd Birthday Eric!

My brother Eric's birthday was on Friday and my parents and sister came in town to celebrate. It was a lot of fun! Saturday afternoon we went to St. Arnold's Brewery (http://www.saintarnold.com/) for their tour and beer tasting. Evan and I have been numerous times with friends and have even taken my in-laws but we had not yet taken my family. One of the first times Evan and I went we knew we would eventually have to take my Dad and brother because they would get a big kick out of it. We picked up lunch at Antone's (http://www.antoneshouston.com/menu.htm) which is one of our favorite sandwich shops and met my family there. Here is a picture of us all tasting their different beers and their excellent, but really sweet, root-beer. 

(From front left to back left: Evan, Kim (my brother's fiancee), and Eric (my brother). From back right to front right: Dad, Mom, and Lisa (my sister))

That night, we went to Murder by Chocolate for dinner down in Kemah. It is a comedy/murder mystery that takes place in a dinner theatre atmosphere. None of us had ever been but Eric and Kim have been wanting to go for some time now and we figured it would be a good time if we all went. It was A LOT of fun! Going as a big group is definitely what made it. All the roles were assigned at random by the emcee of the show and I thought he did an excellent job with the casting. You didn't have to memorize any lines but it was still a lot of reading and "acting" in-front of complete strangers. My Dad, brother, and sister all had major roles in the play and they all did a great job! Here are some pictures:



Dad as Mo Jo the Medicine Man



Dad rehearsing his lines as Mo Jo the Medicine Man



Mo Jo the Medicine Man is shot by another character!



Eric, the birthday boy, as Sting Key the rock star



Lisa as Ivonna Tip, the head waitress describing a clue she found.

Going Greener

This was the sight on our kitchen table Friday afternoon after I came home from the grocery store.

The night before we were at Walmart and Evan pointed out that they had re-usable shopping bags for only $1.00. I had told him that I was thinking about getting some but didn't know how much they would cost. Since they were so cheap, I bought four of them to try out. 

Evan wanted to take a picture of them as we put them in the car since the checkout lady put the reusable shopping bags...in a plastic bag.  I guess that's what we get for shopping at Walmart.

When I went to the grocery store today, H.E.B. had them for $0.99 each and a coupon for buy two and get one free! Their bags were a little bigger than the Walmart ones so I got three of them to bring the grand total of re-usable shopping bags I now own up to 7! I didn't even use all of them on this grocery trip but I think that I have the perfect number when I will need to make a full trip next time.

I have to be honest that it felt really good to use them instead of the plastic bags. Not only am I helping out the environment, but it was easier to carry in all the groceries because I could put the bags over my shoulders using the straps. I am looking forward to using them at all kinds of places.

Recycling

Please know ahead of time this post is not an attempt to convince you that you should start recycling, analyze your carbon foot-print, or hug a tree. BUT if it does, I'd love to know!

I decided last week that we were going to start recycling when I was going through all my old papers from teaching. I have wanted to recycle for some time now but we haven't because of the inconvenience factor. Our neighborhood doesn't provide recycling pickup along with trash pickup. Even so, every time I would go to the grocery store and see their huge dumpsters for recycling I would think "I could bring our stuff to H.E.B. when I come to the grocery store." While I was teaching, it never became more than an idea because I didn't have time to get organized so that I could make it all happen. However, last week when I went to H.E.B. I stopped by the dumpsters to see what all you could recycle. They have dumpsters so that you can recycle paper, plastic, and metal! Yes, the exclamation mark appropriately implies that this variety made me very excited.

I started just putting things in bags because we didn't have any receptacles to put stuff.

However, today I got three bins to put in our kitchen for us to collect the recycling.

A special thanks goes to our small group who helped us move the kitchen table on Tuesday night when we had 10 people over for dinner. We wouldn't have had room along the wall in the kitchen with the way the table was originally set up but we had to move it so that we could fit a card table at the end of it to accommodate all 10 people. This morning when I was taking the card table down, I thought to just leave the table as it was and put the bins in their new location.

Theoretically, now that we have these bins, we will officially start recycling. Evan has been really funny about it all so far. I think at first he thought I wasn't going to really do it because I have been talking about it for almost two years now and haven't done anything. On Monday he saw my bags for metal, paper, and plastic and said "You are really into this recycling thing aren't you?" Honestly, part of getting the three bins is to motivate him to recycle too. He jokes about how he "hates the earth" and that he would recycle if he didn't have to sort anything and we could just put it out with the trash. Like I said earlier, it is the convenience factor that has kept us from doing it. I think the convenience is what keeps most people from doing it. I just figured, now I have the time, I should do what I can to help out. I know that I am not going to single-handily stop landfills from filling up, but every little bit helps.

The Last Six Months....

As of this month, I will be taking over the blog....it's me Amy :) Evan has been so wonderful to keep up with the blog up until this point but since I am the one with all the free time now, I am taking over.

Some of you might be saying to yourselves "Evan didn't do such a great job of keeping up with the posts!" but in his defense he was spending most of his time either working or helping me do school work or housework because I was always doing school work. The other thing you must know about my husband that will help you understand the long spances of time between posts, is that he is an excellent writer but also kind of a perfectionist when it comes to his writing. Those of you who have kept up with our blog have realized the excellent writer part. So in all honesty, while the blog will be updated more frequently with me taking over posting, you may have to lower your expectations for quality. I love to write but there is a reason that Evan proofed all of the recommendation letters and speeches I wrote while I was teaching. Don't worry, I will have him proof most of my posts so there will be some level of quality control.

Now you may be wondering why all of a sudden I have all this free time. While yes, it is summer time so school is out, the biggest reason is that I am not going back to teach in the fall. What will I be doing you may ask; I will be a housewife! This may or may not be the long-term plan but it is definitely the plan for the next year. I will post later about this whole subject for the sake of trying to keep this post brief. All I will say now is that while I will miss teaching and I hope that I will have opportunities to do so in the future, I have a peace about our decision and am loving my new life :)