Big Ern Turns 88!

A couple Sunday's ago we celebrated my Granddaddy's 88th birthday. Wow! 88 and lookin great! These are a few things about Big Ern in tribute of his 88 years on earth...
He's a follower of Christ
He's been married to my "Mamere" for 65 years
He has 3 children, 5 grandchildren, and 1 great grandchild
He was a pilot WWII
He worked for Mobil for years and lived and traveled all over the world
He graduated from The University of Texas (but we don't hold it against him too much)
He loves pecan pie and anything with coconut
He learned how to use email and Skype in his 80s and loves it
He is in excellent health despite his age
He has a favorite granddaughter (any guesses who that might be?)

But the most important thing about Big Ern is that he's just one sweet,amazing person who I love and admire and who is loved and admired by many. Happy Birthday Granddaddy! I hope you have many more :)

Shane and Lori's Wedding Invitation

Recently I designed a new wedding invite for our good friends Shane and Lori who are getting married on a cruise ship in November. They asked me to design an invitation for their reception here in Lubbock when they get back. Here is the result, Enjoy!

Red River Wedding Weekend

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
--Genesis 2:24

We traveled up to Red River, NM this past weekend to witness our friend Sky marry his sweetheart Katelin. It was such a beautiful day. The weather was perfect. The aspen trees were turning bright shades of gold. Far cry from the scenery of Lubbock. We are very proud of Sky and Katelin for making this decision to marry. Sometimes life takes you down unexpected paths, but it's how you react to situations which shows your true character. It something I'll never forget. Thanks guys for letting us be a part of your special day.






Ceremony Site

The Bride and Groom



We rented this bike and rode around Red River shopping. It was a blast!

A New Look for Fall

Weekend Adventures

This past weekend we went up to Amarillo to see our nephew, Trey, play his first football game of the year. He's a Senior at Lubbock Cooper HS and made the all city power team so we are planning on going to as many games as we can. Unfortunately the Pirates lost 48-9 against Bushland, and it wasn't pretty. Better luck this Friday guys. Here is a pic Kristin Bednarz took of all the Senior guys last week at the Meet the Pirates Night.



We decided to spend the night in Amarillo so Saturday we got up and went over to the Big Texan. I've driven by the Big Texan restaurant so many times, but had never been. We had the Big Breakfast buffet and was really good. We went about 10:30am and there were three guys there, one from Oklahoma, one from Pennsylvania, and one from New York who had traveled there to take on the 72oz steak. It was fun to watch and one guy did it in just over 30 minutes. Wow! We burned some more time in Amarillo and then decided to come home to test drive cars for me, and we bought one. My dream car a Saturn Vue. I'm so excited! More on that later :) Here are some pics from the Big Texan.

Bye Bye Tooth :(

When I was about 6 or 7 years old I had an accident at day care that left with a badly chipped front tooth. I had to have a root canal and a week later the same thing happened to my other front tooth. From then on out I had a lot of problems and even had to had a surgery to save the the tooth, but as with everything else in life, nothing is guaranteed. I've recently been really bothered by left front tooth and it has gotten progressively worse in the last year. July 4th weekend I was in Oklahoma, City when the tooth became really infected and I had to go see a dentist. He told me to go see an Endodontist when I got back to Lubbock. I did and he told me the news!!! He said, "I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is, we live in the world we live in, the bad news is we got 13 years out of this tooth, but there is nothing more we can do". So I'm going to have to have an extraction and implant.

Here's a pic of my bad tooth.
(Yes, these are my teeth)




Last week I went for my surgery consultation and it was not very pleasant. At first I was pretty nervous. I was really really nervous after they sat me down in an exam room alone to watch a frightening video of the actual procedure and all the complications that could go wrong with the surgery. But I felt better after talking to the doctor. So on October 15 I go in to have the tooth removed and a bone graph. Then 2 months later after that is healed I will go in and have the implant put in. About two months after that I can have the permanent crown put on.

This is what it looks like.



In the meantime I will be missing a tooth. Luckily they have these mouth pieces you can wear that are pretty discrete and you won't even realize I don't have a tooth. Still the whole things seems like it's going to be a long, painful, pricey$$$$ process. Wish me luck!

As Long as You're Meeting my Needs...

Since Brandon and I've been married we have been on the hunt for a new church home. We had been attending a church for a while, and why we loved the pastor's messages and the worship every Sunday we never really felt at home or that we were being plugged in. Probably because we weren't making much of an effort, but we also didn't feel like there was much of a ministry to people in our stage of life. Young, newly married, no kids but out of college and career oriented. My aunt and uncle call us the lost generation of the Church. Anyway in search of a new home, we have been visiting several different churches in the Lubbock area. For the past couple of weeks, however, we've been going to Experience Life. At first we weren't so sure about this whole "casual church experience." We both come from pretty traditional backgrounds when it comes to church. So attending worship in a Sportsplex, while wearing shorts and flip flops, and praising our God "rock band" style was a little scary at first. Experience Life is different though. It feels like a safe house to worship freely, and it's encouraging to know that there are people of all stages of life in attendance. I feel there are a lot of people, including myself, who are hungry for what this church offers. It's relevance to everyday life has started to fill me up in ways I haven't felt in a long time. Bottom line, we are really liking it.

This Sunday, pastor Chris Galanos began a new series called Redefining Marriage. I think it's a really relevant series even if you've never been married or if you been married for 40 years. Or in my case 4 months. Anyway, this past Sunday's message was called "As long as you're meeting my needs." Before he even started talking, pastor Chris told everyone that we all would be offended at some point or another during this series. As he opened the message I could feel my heart sinking a little. He said that most of us had been affected by divorce in some form or fashion, but divorce is not God's plan for marriage. Ok I know this. But if you get a divorce and marry another person it's committing adultery! (Matthew 5:31-32, Matthew 19:3-9) He went on to say the only biblical reasons for getting a divorce (not that you should or have to get a divorce for these reasons) is if you spouse 1. Cheats on you or 2. You are a follower of Christ and your spouse isn't (1 Corinthians 7:10-15) That all other reasons for divorce God says are not good enough reasons to check out of the covenant you have made with your spouse. Society tells us that if we get married and things get complicated it's easy just to quit and find someone new. That being true to yourself is always best and if this whole marriage thing is just not working out then it's ok to leave. It's ok to leave if you don't love him/her anymore. It's ok to leave for any reason. But with this mentality comes DANGEROUS CONSEQUENCES.

Then he gave us these stats: 1/2 of all 1st marriages end in divorce, 2/3 of all 2nd marriages end in divorce and 3/4 of all 3rd marriages end in divorce. Wow! What that tells me is that being married to a different person doesn't solve the problem you had in the 1st marriage. Obviously the "as long as your meeting my needs" mentality was being used in all 3 marriages instead of God's plan for marriage which is "Till we are separated by death". That the grass is not always greener on the other side. It was really eye opening to me and I really got a lot out of the entire message. To conclude, he challenged us that if you were single and have never been married, DON'T RUSH INTO MARRIAGE. If you are single and divorced: DON'T RUSH INTO MARRIAGE AGAIN. If you are married MAKE DIVORCE NOT AN OPTION. And if you are divorce and not because of the two biblical reasons then pray that God would start to open your heart to RECONCILE WITH YOUR SPOUSE! That challenge blew me away! Literally my heart fell out of my chest. I mean that seems so impossible to me. That maybe my parents could reconcile their marriage after all they/we have been through in the past 3 years. I mean as far as I know neither committed adultery and both are Christians. The reasons for their divorce were most definitely complicated to say the least and there is so much pain still there, but if God could some how open their hearts to find love for each other as husband and wife again that would be truly amazing. I know it would have to take some pretty powerful God strength to heal their broken marriage. But impossible? Nothing's impossible with God. The Bible doesn't say some things are possible in Christ Jesus, but "ALL things are possible", and I truly in my heart of hearts believe that. I want to express that I'm not saying any of this is easy and that it happens automatically. I do know however, that God loves his people and forgives his people. We are all sinners, but through Christ Jesus we are forgiven. His blood was shed so that even divorce can be forgiven. Next week the message is called, Marriage? Forget That!