Stitching

Last night's stitching group was great fun! Jessica came and it was great to see her, I hadn't seen her in several months and it was great to catch up. She had also just completed a beautiful bag that really inspired Jamie and I. When you see Jessica with her bag give her a round of applause! She did a great job!

The house is quiet now. Its so funny how just a week ago it was full of people, well 5 of us and now with just Ryan and I...an Brinks its so strange, and a bit lonely at times. Luckily the other night Ian stopped by and ate crab legs with us. We really enjoyed the company. I am enjoying the time with Ryan but it is kinda funny how 6 months ago the idea of living with 3 other people in one house seemed so odd and now that they are gone...I can't wait to move back in with them!

The Charles house is wonderful...maybe thats why I can't wait to move! I'm really excited about what God is going to do in our lives and in others in that house! I'm looking forward to many dinners and parties and all kinds of things. We are still praying for our house to sell, theres going to be a big ad in todays paper so hopefully that will bring some people through!

Well I think thats all I've got for now, this isn't the most exciting post but I just woke up so...its all I got! Have a good day!

Mystery

I finished reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller this morning. This stood out to me..

I think the most important thing that happens within Christian spirituality is when a person falls in love with Jesus. Sometimes when I go forward at church to take Communion, to take the bread and dip it in the wine, the thought of Jesus comes to me, the red of His blood or the smell of His humanity, and I eat the bread and I wonder at the mystery of what I am doing, that somehow I am one with Christ, that I get my very life from Him, my spiritual life comes from Him working inside me, being inside me.

This is what I strive for. I don't think I'm there. Sometimes I feel that I haven't fully fallen in love with Jesus, but maybe thats because I haven't fully accepted His love for me. I think that the mystery of Christ in me is amazing and I long to experience it and to live it on a constant basis. Maybe, well I'm almost sure of this...the way to fall in love with Jesus is to see Him in others, meaning not being so self absorbed...which I am pretty much all of the time.
So anyway, I've just been thinking today about what it would be like to live with Christ as the very thing that makes me alive...not food, clothes, sleep, or anything...but Christ. And being in tuned with Him so that daily I am changed and shaped and made alive!

For Sale

Well the house is for sale and has been for almost 48 hours. The house is very clean! (Well done housemates!) I'm not really a big fan of having the house on the market...its stressful and people are invading your space which doesn't even really look like your space when its all cleaned up. But we'll just keep praying that someone buys it quickly so we can move into the The Charles House!

I took my mom and Brinks to the house yesterday. They both liked it! I'm sure that Brinks is really going to like living downtown. He had the best time walking there yesterday. He sat outside of Caroline St Cafe with my mom while I ordered our lunch and made lots of friends.

I realized today that I really enjoy my job. I left the house this morning not feeling very well and not really looking forward to the day but when I left work I realized that I felt completely different. I really enjoy meeting new people and developing friendships with people that come in every day! Its so fun and different from jobs I've done before!!

Ok now I'm going to learn the purl stitch so I can make my brothers Christmas present and then Brinks and I will head out to get Ryan from the train!

A few things

Well its been a while so I have a few things to say!
First....I would like to be the first person to announce to the world that Ryan has trimmed his beard! however, I'm not sure that he's very happy about it so he's blaming me for it.

Second, I have finished knitting my first scarf of the season. Jamie has let me borrow a book about knitting and it has inspired me to start a knitting group in the Fredericksburg area. I know that somewhere out there in this crazy town there are lots of young people who enjoy knitting and spending time with others that enjoy knitting so therefore..I would like to knit with you! I'm thinking of getting together one night a week say around 7pm at Hyperion Espresso downtown and stitching...I say stitching because I would like this group to include crocheters as well as knitters...this way Jamie can come!!!

Third, we spent a wonderful day a Grave's Mountain Lodge with the Hypes' and Poe's enjoying the apple festival. I just had my first apple from there dipped in peanut butter. Here is a picture from the day!

Nice Day

As my day comes to a close I can say that it was a nice day. Work was good...busy but good. The Pecan Round Abouts (which I named) are selling well, which is exciting! Ryan and I spent some time at his parents house this evening enjoying a fine home cooked meal of sloppy joes, prepared with love by Grandma Rowett! Laura went to a birthday party so we didn't get to see her much. I was noticing how much older she seemed tonight and then I remembered that she is in 5th grade now...which makes her a lot older than she was just a few weeks ago!
Then we went downtown to Hyperion and enjoyed a good mocha...Ryan had tea...and we had good conversation outside on the bench...luckily we had the coffee to keep us warm...and each other I guess...!! Now I'm ready for sleep and I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning when Ryan and I get to sleep in a bit together...anything is later than 4:15am...
so good night!

This makes for 5 posts on my blog...please be on the lookout for a link to appear on Ryan's blog!!

Brinks' First Bath

This afternoon I gave Brinks his first bath. This should make his grandparents and housemates very happy...its not that he really smelled bad but I think his "itchy" dry skin may have actually been a flea problem...so hopefully the bath helped. He just finished his rawhide treat that was meant to distract him from being so wet and it worked...now that he's done I with it...I'm pretty sure that he is rolling around on our bed upstairs in an attempt to get all the "wet" off of him!! If I had a camera and knew how to get a picture on here I would put one on of this...its a funny sight!

I would just like to take this time to let Ryan know that the time is quickly aproaching when he will have to give my blog a coveted link on his blog!! This is very exciting for me!

The Great House Hunt...almost done?

So we finally got in to see this house on Charles St. today, pretty much in the heart of historic downtown, well maybe the outer wall of the heart. Its right across the street from the Mary Washington house, theres nothing like living in history!! Anyway, it was very cool and the good thing is that we don't have to leave Brinks out on the street. I think it will continue to be a stretch giving up privacy in pursuit of a simpler life but it will be a good stretch.

Now we will once again prepare to get our house on the market..I still have one room to paint, luckily its the second smallest room in the house so it shouldn't take too long, however I am sick of painting. And then there is the garage to tackle...I might leave that one to the boys since I have no clue whats out there... So if anyone is interested in a house please let us know...we have one for you!!

untill next time...

trying to understand

I've been trying to understand something lately in light of some recent events in my own life and in the life of my family. How is it that a church can become so consumed and desire such control over their mission that the have little to no support for someone carrying out a similar mission somewhere else. Are we as followers of Christ not here to love others and share the Good news? I believe that God has called each of us in some way or another to do this but in each of our lives it looks different. So then who are we to say that someone's calling is not right or to be unsupportive of it. If what God has called them to do is spreading His Word and loving others why not join together in it. Why not be about the Kingdom of God more so than about the walls of a building.

This has really been on my heart lately. I just find it sad that as the Church we can't all be about the same thing even if it doesn't look the same or have the same name or whatever. If we are all about the mission of the Kingdom then how can we say that one is doing it wrong or disagree with it. One person/church can't reach every person or community so why not be supportive of what another community of faith is doing in a different community.

Perhaps this is the way its always been and I'm just waking up to reality. Or maybe I just don't understand the bureaucracy of a church. But I hope that I can be more about loving God and loving those in my community and more concerned about the Kingdom of God then about one building and one way of thinking. Please feel free to comment and let me know where I may have missed something...I'm open to your thoughts!

Attemt 3

Ok, so this is my third attempt to post on my blog. I think that I finally found a template that I like although I think its the same one that my father-in-law uses on his Phlog, but thats ok.
Today is my day off from work at Eileen's at the Chimneys, an amazing bakery in downtown Fredericksburg that you should visit if you have not already. So far today I have finished painting the doors to our bedroom, vacumned and done some laundry. I most likely do not have the most exciting life that you might read about on a blog but none the less its mine.
Tonight we are going to look at some houses downtown, hopefully some that will be good candidates for the nameless church house. Its somewhat insane that is will be my third house since Ryan and I got married almost 2.5 years ago but I guess that keeps things exciting. I'm also thinking about pursure a career in real estate and may be taking the liscinsing class this spring.
I am most certainly rambling on here but this being my first official post and all, I'm not quite sure what exactly to post about. I think maybe we'll leave it at this for now and hopefully there will be more to come!