It's December already?

Woah.  It's our 6 month anniversary today (which I wouldn't know save for the ticker on the bottom of this blog).  How did THAT happen?  Quickest six months of my life!  

We have a friend back in Flagstaff, named Christy, who doesn't keep track of the YEARS she has been married, but knows the exact number of months.  She celebrated her 300 month anniversary a few years back, so they must be nearing 325 now. 

My parents have been married 436 months.

Rusty's parents have been married 411 months. (picture of them to left)

I have a 90 year old patient who celebrated his 864 month anniversary.

That basically puts a lot of perspective and humility toward my SIX, doesn't it?!! 

Well, I love being Rusty's wife, and this is the most challenging and exciting thing I have ever done.  So, here's to many MANY more months together!

Advent Quote #6

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us

Titus 2:11; 3:4

The Word became flesh

God became man

Light entered darkness

All-sufficient became dependent

The Ever Present Help became the ever needy baby

King of kings humbled himself among his subjects

Creator came to the created

Infinite joined the finite

Wonderful came to not so wonderful

Counselor came to those in need of his counsel

Mighty God came to the extremely weak

Everlasting entered time

Father sent the Son to show the world God

Prince of Peace entered chaos

The God of humanity has come to rescue, to bring life-saving measures that we desperately need. He comes for the sorrowful, the resentful, the depressed, and the oppressed. He’s the God of the second chance, the third chance and the thirtieth.

Jesus, God with us, is the God of all comfort, healing, purpose, meaning and life. He’s not an option, He’s not an offer to be considered, He’s the Creator, the King, the ever present One, the all-sufficient One, the One who needs no introduction and deserves nothing less than an eternal ovation, He will be worshiped and praised. One day, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is God, that the Baby of Bethlehem, is in fact the Savior of the World, God with us, God come to be in us.

                        -Pastor Mark Smith-

Advent Quote #5

Charlie Brown: “Isn’t there ANYONE who knows what Christmas is all about?!?!

Linus: “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’ ” (Luke 2:8-14)

“You see, Charlie Brown—that’s what Christmas is all about.”

Sabino Canyon

These are pictures from Thanksgiving weekend.  A little overdue, but that's my life.  We took Rusty's parents on a hike in Sabino Canyon: an unexpectedly WINDY hike, but we all made it and had a good time I think:).  Rusty and I head out to Visalia, CA to spend Christmas with his FULL family next week, and then the 28(ish) of us all head to Disneyland for my birthday and New Years! 

Advent Quote #4

"The real reason for celebrating Christmas is that it happened once. And that one time changed the world."

                                                -William Freburger-

Advent Quote #3

"The supreme trick of Old Scratch is to have us so busy decorating, preparing food, practicing music and cleaning in preparation for the feast of Christmas that we actually miss the coming of Christ. Hurt feelings, anger, impatience, injured egos—the list of clouds that busyness creates to blind us to the birth can be long, but it is familiar to us all."

                                       -Edward Hays (A Pilgrim's Voyage)

Advent Quote # 2

“The authentically hopeful Christmas spirit has not looked away from the darkness, but straight into it. The true and victorious Christmas spirit does not look away from death, but directly at it. Otherwise, the message is cheap and false. Instead of pointing to someone else's sin, we confess our own. ‘In our sins we have been a long time’ [Isaiah 64]. Advent begins in the dark.”

– Fleming Rutledge

Advent Quote #1

"The incarnation of Christ shows man the greatness of his wretchedness through the greatness of the remedy required."

                         Blaise Pascal

My Thanksgiving mistake.

I made a mistake this week.  In preparation for hosting our first Thanksgiving here, I asked Rusty to clean up the backyard.  We have a mesquite tree in the back that has a SERIOUS case of mistletoe parasite, so that was his first goal: to free our tree from the clutches of the villanous mistletoe.  Three days, many MANY wounds, and about 13 hours of work later...mistletoe still remains, and our tree looks worse than the Charlie Brown Christmas twig.:)  This picture to the left is only after a few hours of work.  The pile below the tree has since grown to about twice that height...and likewise the tree has shrunk into only the branches you see Rusty standing on.









My monkey husband








Oh yeah, I got a haircut this week.  Here it is for people who never see me.  Actually, I'll probably look different than this next time you see me.  I have haircut ADHD.  And yes, for those of you who DO see me...I took this in front of my shower curtain:).

Gospel Shoes

At church today, our pastor spoke about Phillip, a man written about in the book of Acts.  Each mention of Phillip throughout Acts reveals a story of his life as it progressed in following Jesus.  Phillip played many roles in the early church, initially being only a servant and carrier of money, later a missionary to surrounding lands, and finally, settled down in Samaria for 21 years, where he married and had 4 daughters.  No matter what his role in life (whatever "hat" he wore is usually the analogy, but today it was whatever "shoes" he wore), he proclaimed the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ when the oppurtunity arose.  So the question today was: What shoes are you wearing most often right now, and how can you be a proclaimer of good news in those shoes?  Well, here they are:
                 My Gospel Shoes

These are the shoes I wear to work every day.  They don't even fit, they are half an inch too long, and my heels slip out of them with each step - but they were the closest to my size I could find.  I wear these 11 hours a day as I treat patients and interact with my coworkers.  That's my role right now.  I'm a therapist, a wife, and a Tucsonan.  And somehow, I want to be used in those shoes for the glory of God.  I don't have much more of a plan than that, but neither did Phillip.  He was just ready.

Study it-do it-teach it

Read this today:


"for the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel."  Ezra 7:10


This is pretty much a sweet example of how I want to approach God's word.  Just thought I'd share it.   

Thanks!

Give thanks with a grateful heart

Give thanks to the Holy One

Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, his son.

This song was in my head this morning for two reasons:


1. Halloween is over and it's only a few weeks until Thanksgiving!  Somehow, Rusty and I were counted worthy to hold the festivities at our house this year, which I am stoked about!  His parents and my family are joining us in Tucson for the big feast!  I have really been struck this year with a heart to celebrate Thanksgiving ,and especially Christmas, with a pure focus of actually celebrating the LORD and not coming at the holidays from any other direction. 

2. This song reminds me of Thailand and the kids I love so much at the orphanage in Chiang Rai!  We sang it all the time with them!  The exciting thing is, I got an email a few days ago from Pastor Cheah of the Agape Home orphanage in Thailand!  He says the children are still doing well on their new land (they had to leave the old place by order of the court).  Most of the older children who were there when I went have graduated high school and are going on to the universities!!  God continues to provide for them, there is much to be thankful for.

Our House is Haunted

Last night, Rusty had to sleep in the guest room ( no no, we didn't have some crazy fight.  I am ashamedly so congested the past week from allergies or something that he can't sleep through my snoring!!!  Ah!).  He came out this morning to the breakfast table with red handprints around one side of his neck.  I pointed it out to him, so he went to our bathroom to look in the mirror and check it out.  He came out a minute later and showed me that, when he had taken his shirt off to inspect further, he had a high heel type imprint on his abdomen.  He decided that our guest room is haunted and some lady ghost was beating him up in his sleep.  I thought he had staged the whole thing at first as a joke, but he swears he had no idea until I pointed it out.  Pretty weird I guess.  Here's some pictures.  The fingerprints had already faded away by the time we thought to get out the camera.  Anyway, happy halloween everyone!

Black and Orange Party

Another great weekend with family.  Rusty and I went to Phoenix this weekend for my sister's annual "Black and Orange" dinner party in celebration of Halloween.  Basically you dress up crazy and eat tons of food.  How that is different than most of my family gatherings, I have yet to discover:).

 

First, Friday night, the girls went out to see Anjelah Johnson perform at The Tempe Improv.  She is a comedian who has been on shows like MAD TV and such.  The show was so hilarious, and we got to meet her afterwards!  Britni wore her Bon Qui Qui shirt in honor of one of Anjelah's well known personas and was in total heaven when she got it signed!  What was especially cool was that Anjelah signed it with Phillipians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength."

Ok, here starts the Black and Orange Dinner:

My sister and Jeff as Chuck Bartowski and Sarah Walker from the TV show "Chuck"













I was Rosie the riveter from WW II

Britni was Bon Qui Qui from Anjelah Johnson's skit from MAD TV (click below to watch the skit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZkdcYlOn5M








 Rusty was a "runny nose".  He got a lot of groans from everyone for that.

This is the sweet graveyard scene I made with pudding/oreo dirt, coconut grass, and nutter butter tombstones.  Complete with sour patch zombies.








Here is the whole group.  I love my family.

October is Great

Now that Rusty and I have been living here a few months, we actually got to start enjoying ourselves the past few weeks!!!  We've been ringing in the fall season with as many festivities as we can...probably because the weather here is still like Flagstaff's June and we need to convince ourselves that it is almost time for the holidays!  Rusty spent some time last weekend lighting up the tree in our front yard with white lights, which turned out really well.  Plus he had way too much fun climbing the tree.  

Cool Sunset last week from our yard.

This weekend we went apple picking as a family in a nearby town called Wilcox.  You can pick your own produce like apples, chili peppers, pumpkins, squash, you name it!  We also enjoyed delicious homemade apple pie and kettle corn.  Excellent trip.

Jeff picking apples in his sweet farming hat.










Sunflower Crops.













The Crew.











Rusty picked apples in style.











Mom and Dad doing American Gothic.








Saturday we carved pumpkins with friends at our place!  We had a dozen or so friends come over and had a great meal together.  This is my pumpkin on the left.








This one is Rusty's.  He kicks my butt every year.  He also takes two more hours than everyone else every year.:)








Here are most of the pumpkins from the night displayed.







The mess that was our living room.   It was a fun time!  We hope to have many more like it!  Now to gear up for my sister's Halloween party in two weeks.  I LOVE FALL!!!!!!!!!!  Hope you all are enjoying it as well.  Peace!

your soul for an hour and a half and a large popcorn...

Just got back from the movies and sees that Satan is at work in the world today..."the invention of lying" is a blasphemous work spitting in the face of God but is dressed up in a pleasant movie that is almost enjoyable to even those that know God. Thus, if holding a discerning eye, one will see Satan making a plea, a bargain for you to SELL your SOUL for an hour and a half of enjoyment and a large popcorn. Just as in the garden of eden, Satan is trying to cast doubt on that which God has laid before us manner that is appealing...think about the fruit and eve "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and PLEASING to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it..." (Genesis 3:6). This movie is nothing more than Satan going for a pleasant looking movie to the eye in an effort to plant doubts in the heart of mankind and distance God from his people even more. Pleasantry and Doubt, the seeds of Satan...yet this time he isnt planting the seed of "did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden" but rather attempting a more direct approach: attempting to uproot the existance of God altogether.




May you all see God and the truth and not be blinded by seeds of doubt just because something is pleasant and appealing to the eyes, intellect, etc.

God Bless you,

-rusty

Trip to Flag, friends get hitched!

Over the weekend, Rusty and I went for a quick trip to Flagstaff for my good friend's wedding!  The weather was beautiful and fall-y with lots of clouds and drizzling and cool, crisp air.  Praise God that he blessed the outdoor wedding ceremony with a perfect pause in the rain for just the right amount of time!   It was a great time with friends and celebrating Rachel's marriage to Phil!  I hope we get to visit Flag again soon!!  Now it's back to our real world in Tucson!  Week 3 of work, here I come!

First Week of Work, and Is it Fall Yet?

My first week of work is complete!  It went well, though they are starting me off slow, so I am nowhere NEAR the caseload I will actually be handling.  I think by my third week or so, I will be in the full swing of things.  Hopefully, I will be able to keep up with the busy pace of this clinic! 

My coworkers at the office are fantastic.  They got me a new desk and fancy office chair so I would be welcomed, but they are RIDICULOUSLY larger than all the other therapists' desks.  I look like I'm the queen sitting on my throne..and they all agree, ribbing me with comments every time I sit down there.  Anyway, it's a fun place to be.  I have included the traditional "first day" picture to the left.  It must be ingrained in me from all those years of standing on the front porch with my backpack on getting my "first day of school" picture taken against my will by my mother.  I am well trained now.

I jumped the gun a little bit this weekend and decided to decorate for fall at our house:).  It's still 97 degrees outside, but I know it's starting to be fall in other places, so I thought we would try to convince ourselves here in Tucson.  Fall is my favorite time of year by FAR, and I pretty much jump the gun on it every year.  Here are some pictures, because some people asked to see the house anyway!!

This week, Rusty and I are looking forward to a trip to Flagstaff for my friend, Rachel's wedding!  Maybe we'll encounter some actual fall weather up there!  Have a great week everyone!