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Every Halloween I look forward to hanging out with my family, eating the traditional chili-dogs, and giving out candy to all the cute little trick-or-treaters. This year, my mom and I decorated the front porch with orange lights, jack-o-lanterns, pumpkins, scarecrows, cats, skeletons… you name it, we had it. It was lookin’ spppooookkkyyyy. Kinda. Most of the comments we got were about how beautiful my mom’s flower bed looked in the front yard, but hey… it was a SCARY flower bed.

Here is a picture of Romeo awaiting the trick-or-treaters.

A couple Halloween’s ago, I was introduced to a new holiday treat that I thought would be fun to share with you, especially since all the halloween candy is now on sale! It’s really simple. All you do is buy a bag of candycorn (stay with me, I don’t like candycorn by itself either…), buy a jar of peanuts, and mix them together in a bowl. Then comes the hard part… you have to eat them at the SAME TIME. Yes, I know, this takes coordination to hold peanuts and candycorn in your hand and pop them in your mouth all at once, but it IS possible! When you taste the two otherwise less-than-desirable foods together, you get a Homemade Payday. Yes, I know I could just buy a bunch of Paydays at the store… but that’s not celebrating the Halloween spooky-ness without the candycorn. So next Halloween, try the little concoction and you will find it to be a surprisingly tasty treat!

It’s an obsession really. People go crazy… yelling, screaming, chanting…. They wear their headphones to hear the radio broadcast the game as they watch it happen right in front of them. They bring their stat books and rosters to check up on the latest all-stars. They have on all the gear - Blue and Gold from head to toe. Shirts, socks, jackets, jewelry, buttons, ear-muffs… it’s all Blue and Gold. They bring their propane cans, coffee cans, and paint cans… .all filled with rocks…. shaking them to cheer the team on. Those fans are the ultimate fans. The Can-Fans. Yeah, they have their own name…. and section in the bleachers… What in the world could possibly cause such a stir?  Stephenville Football.

Yes, tonight I will be watching my Alma Mater, Stephenville, take on my new home-town Granbury. Yes, I will be sitting on the Granbury side…. I’ll be cheering for Granbury when (and if) they score, but deep down, it’s hard to shake the old Yellow Jacket Fever from inside. Good luck, Pirates. I hope you come out alive.

VS

I love the lyrics to the song “Tear Down the Walls” by Hillsong United. Hillsong is the whoppin’ huge church in Australia that seriously loves them some Jesus. I mean, tens of thousands of people attend their worships services each week. It’s so amazing! At StoneWater, we do a lot of Hillsong and Hillsong United (their Youth band) songs… so when Hillsong United was touring in America, we were PUMPED. So pumped that we totally forgot that they were coming (woops). That is, until some sweet friends from church asked us if we wanted some extra tickets they had for the concert. OH-MY-GOODNESS… did someone say “Tickets to Hillsong United”?? Holy Moly… once again we were PUMPED and this time we did NOT forget!

One of my favorite songs that Hillsong sings is called “Tear Down the Walls” and it speaks truth about how love can tear down the walls that people have formed about Christianity and Jesus. If we would just love, God’s glory and mercy would be so obvious and everyone would want to come to know God. I like how the song says “There is so much more than this.” So many times I hear people who have tried to do life on their own…. then they end up somewhere down the road, whether they are happy, sad, content, or angry… EVERYONE at one point or another thinks “Is there more to life than this?” The answer is yes. So much more.

I would love it if you would listen to this song and read the lyrics below…. They are truly incredible. And by the way, if you don’t have the newest Hillsong United CD (or any of their CDs for that matter), you NEED to get it.

Tear down the walls see the world. Is there something we have missed?
Turn from ourselves, look beyond, there is so much more than this.

And I don’t need to see it to believe it. I don’t need to see it to believe it.
Cause I can’t shake this fire burning deep inside my heart.

Look to the skies, hope arise, see His majesty revealed.
More than this life, there is love, there is hope and this is real.

Cause I don’t need to see it to believe it. I don’t need to see it to believe it.
Cause I can’t shake this fire burning deep inside my heart.

This life is Yours and hope is rising as Your glory floods our hearts.
Let love tear down these walls that all creation would come back to You, It’s all for You.

Your Name is Glorious, Glorious.
Your love is changing us, calling us, to worship in spirit and in truth as all creation returns to You.

Oh for all the sons and daughters who are walking in the darkness You are calling us to lead them back to You.
We will see Your spirit rising as the lost come out of hiding.
Every heart will see this hope we have in You.

Cause I don’t need to see it to believe it. I don’t need to see it to believe it.
Cause I can’t shake this fire burning deep inside my heart.

This life is Yours and hope is rising as Your glory floods our hearts.
Let love tear down these walls that all creation would come back to You, it’s all for You

Your Name is Glorious, Glorious.
Your love is changing us, calling us, to worship in spirit and in truth as all creation returns to You.

Here are some pictures I took at the concert a few weeks ago! It was BY FAR the best rock/worship concert I’ve ever been to.

This was their countdown! Sweet!

Hello amazing lighting.

And just for funzies, another Hillsong United video that ROCKS MY FACE OFF.

AND, since I’m posting pictures of bands… I thought I would add a couple from last night’s StoneWater youth preview service Elevate. Eric is training up some younger musicians and so he led worship last night. I think it’s appropriate that their first song was the Hillsong United song posted above!

Our youth are a wee bit timid… but they’ll come around!

I love that my man loves Jesus more than me!

Long post, but hope you enjoyed it! New pictures from a wedding up soon!

It’s almost been 6 months since Eric and I bought our first home. Still, even tonight, we talk about how huge of a blessing it is that we have a house at 22 and 23 years old. We know that we know-that we know-that we know…. God gave us this house as a gift and a tool to use for ministry and we are so incredibly humbled and thankful for him entrusting us with a home. We don’t deserve it. We didn’t earn it. But we couldn’t be more proud to be the stewards of this earthly gift.

When we moved into the house, we were well aware that it was an old fixer upper. It was build in 1972, the first house on our street. When we first saw it, we had VERY open minds and the ability to see past so many “opportunities” that buying this house would bring…. So, in the first 6 months of living in our new home, we have slowly been working on enhancing its “inner (and outer) beauty.” We’ve mostly done decorating and painting, but it has made the ugly duckling turn into the pretty swan and we are so incredibly proud of our house! So, I thought I would show some before and after pictures so you could see what it looked/looks like! Also, I want to give a HUGE thank you to my mom and dad for helping us paint the outside of the house. It was no easy task, but they stuck it out with us outside all day in the heat, and what amazing results it yielded! Thank you soo soo much. I have the best parents in the WORLD. So… enjoy the before and afters! (I LOVE Before and After… I think that’s why I’m addicted to HGTV!!)

Outside of our house when we were getting it inspected in February. Can you say, “Hidden Potential?”

Our house TODAY! :)

The paint is not quuiiittteee finished… but it’s an amazing transformation!

Our walkway to the front door! Can you spy Hazel?

The front room BEFORE: (Notice the green AND purple in the room)

The front room AFTER: It’s now my Photography Studio!

There was a cute round rug in the room to cover up the ahem… interesting floor. BUT, Hazel was quite the stinker her first week in our home, so we had to remove it. Literally. She was a stinker. Oh, well.

Our kitchen BEFORE:

Another view with little Romie!

Our kitchen AFTER: It’s GGGGRRREEEEEENNNNN!!!!

And don’t you like the little Bistro table in the corner that Eric brought home for me one day?

And finally, our living room BEFORE we even moved in:

Same view AFTER (today):

Here is another view with the furniture we had when we first moved in…. the apartment furniture didn’t quite furnish our home the same as it had before! lol!

Another shot of our old furniture. I can’t help but have sweet thoughts of our $100 table from walmart, 2 hand-me-down couches, and ottoman that was half off at Target because there were a couple rips in it…. it’s all we could afford when we first got married and it was PERFECT for us while we were trying to finish up school. Such sweet memories.

View with our new furnishings!

Do you spy something cute hanging on the wall???? I DOOO!!!

Here’s a close-up of the 20X30 Canvas Gallery Wrap print I got of my precious niece and nephew. I LOVE this picture!

Also, I thought I’d throw a picture up of our bedroom. It hasn’t changed much, but I wanted to share it. If you want a tour of the upstairs, I guess you’re just gonna have to come over and let us fix you dinner!

That’s it. That’s our home. We are so thankful. It’s perfect for us and we are determined to give back out of the overflow of what God has given us!