bits of my wednesday

cookies for a friend.

salmon. 'garlic bread.' whole foods veggie noodles.

college station sunset & a flag football game.

"but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life" - american beauty

sic 'em

{spring 2007}

a few days ago, i recieved comment on a post inquiring about what it is i love(d) 

about baylor so very, very much (by the way- thanks for asking!).  

though lack of skill & eloquence prevents me from truly putting into words my experience, talking about it is one of my sweetest pleasures. 

i'm currently working on my response,

 and i'll promise to answer you as soon as i can formulate a decent description! 

take me out to the ballgame

ross & i drove to houston yesterday to enjoy the astros game with some of our married friends, jordan & krystal. star dogs, peanuts, drinks, and great company made for a great night, despite a disappointing performance by my beloved team.  hunter pence did make me proud with a home run though. he's such a cutie. 

for 20 years my family and i lived in a suburb just north of houston.  i remember the first time i watched the astros as a tiny girl at the astrodome, and how happy i was with the night because i scored a teddy bear, complete with a baseball cap.  

in seventh grade, my dad started getting free tickets through his job- and we took advantage of the sights & sounds of enron field (now minute maid park) as often as we could.  around this time my best friend stephanie parent's became best friends with my parents, and the strong relationships were set in stone over cotton candy and home runs.

 our little middle school hearts were set on making it on the big screen, and we did at least three times with the help of homemade "let's-go-astros!" signs. and every night at the end of the game we would beg our parents to let us have a sleepover.  

it's hard to believe that the little seventh grade katie, all decked out in abercrombie, doc martins, and incredibly frizzy hair, is making road trips with her husband & hanging out with married friends.  somehow i seemed to stumble into the near grownup phase of life. 

and even thought the don't win sometimes and my dad wont get any more fabulous tickets to the games, the 'stros will always have a special place in my heart, and i am truly grateful for all the tickets my dad shared with us through out the years. 

 and for everything else he's ever done ever, for that matter.

and we couldn't leave the city without a brief & silly 

walk through of whole foods this morning. 

so begins our quest for out first married jack-o-lantern. 

he's even cuter than hunter pence.  

ya, i said it.

favorite meals, lately

date night last week.

fish tacos, margs, and the yummiest strawberry-heavenly-disappearing-tart.

three words: first class rocks! 

first time to enjoy the pleasure of big seats, a real meal, warm cookies,

free drinks, and tiny salt & pepper shakers. 

in&out burger. yesssss.

but tonight's meal was extra fulfilling. our kitchen sink was full of dirty dishes, 

but that means one happy thing: lots of people eating off those dishes. 

pot luck dinners are the best.  everyone contributes, everyone shares.

forever grateful to my tiny college roommate for teaching me

the beautiful of community. 

i'm starting to remember how it feels to like where you are

because of the people you have around you. 

that's a good feeling. 

b&a no. 3 (for you, mom!)

also per request of my mom, here are some b&a pictures of the study makeover that took place last week. it's been really grey and rainy here, which makes for great staying-inside-and-working-on-projects weather... and i only took one before picture for fear the photos of the awful red would break my camera...

{before}

{after}

some cape cod artwork & a baylor bear = instant happiness

the paper clip sketch on the left is my mom's from a college art class. 

she got a B+... but tina, i would give you an A!

handmade pillows, inspired by chuval, are my new favorite hobby.

fun, easy, unique, pretty, and cheap.  so long, pre-made pillows. you are too lame. 

ross doesn't love the tiny flags. but they make studying more fun, right?

literally stole that clock from my parents house before they moved.  like, i packed it in my suitcase in between layers of clothing. sorry mom! kind of, hehe

ramble alert

"the best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer somebody else up."

mark twain

and on that note, the best way to cheer anybody up is naturally through cookies.  chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter, m&m cookies that is.  thanks to a beautiful cookbook wedding present from an even more beautiful friend, i've got gorgeous glossy pages to pour over which will inevitably inspire messes in our kitchen & happiness in our bellies. 

we brought some of these monster cookies to our young married's bible study last night, and everyone graciously indulged.  thankfully, we are slowly but surely gaining more & more friends to bake for. between coworkers, classmates, and a new church community, ross and i no longer have an excuse to split a whole batch between ourselves. unless they aren't good enough to share, of course...

anyway, one perk of working a job like mine is all the random days off.  since i worked all day saturday and sunday too, my weekend came on tuesday & wednesday this week.  i indulged in several of my vices, like baking (mostly so that i could snack on cookie dough), watching a whole disk of felicity (season 4-senior year, soo good), sleeping in, roaming through craft store isles, and {in the interest of honesty} playing on blogger. 

but free time here also offers a chance to escape into my newly discovered and already beloved world of jane ayre, study for the GRE, and spend quality time in my studio.  and by studio, i of course mean the floor...  

it's a big adjustment between my life now and the life i led at baylor the past 4 years.  every hour of the day was jam-packed with class, meetings, intramural games, bear trail dates, study parties, sing practices, picnics, service opporitunities, happy hours, and countless hours to bask in our community on our couches.  life was go, go, go all the time... those were the days.  but just like God taught me volumes while at Baylor, there is still much to learn through countless new means and methods. 

ross and i are thankfully very blessed with old and new friends here, but it's not like living on 10th street with 3 other girls & a million friends less than 5 minutes away. so even if i keep busy and set up lunch dates & dinner plans, my thoughts are what keep me company during the day. it's weird to be alone so much. to be still.  maybe i just need to pray for more courage to explore and open new doors.  in the words of my former pastor's benediction, to "go out into the world in peace, hold on to what is good. help the suffering, support the weak, honor everyone..." learning how to wait for God's plan to be revealed, but also have the boldness to seek and find it. 

i'm incredibly grateful that the other day at sbucks a girl had been in tune enough with the holy spirit to act upon what God was telling her to share with me.  her apparent dedication to Christ was beneficial to her because of how, at least in our interaction, she could share love with another child of God. 

 

"The LORD will fight for you, you need only be still." Exodus 14:14

so, in a very round about way, i guess i'm trying to get out of my head and start being a still, quiet listener of God; to try and get out of the way.  He had to go through a complete stranger at sbucks to get my attention and to finally calm my soul.  all the time i spent agonizing about my situation was time i could have been listening to His message on how to better love Ross, my neighbors, friends, and even strangers.  there are so many people are there to love & lift up, how can we waste time on worrying about ourselves?

what i'm really trying to say is: thank you to everyone for all your encouragement. especially to ross, who constantly tells me all the time how proud he is of me (for what, i do not know). the past few months have been incredibly full of transitions and question marks, but God is still good.  He has a plan for all of us, and i have a pretty good feeling that said plans include abundant encouragement. 

b&a no. 2

when my parent's moved out of the kingwood house after living in it for over 20 years, there was much to be sorted and cleaned out. every closet, cabinet, and corner had to be emptied, and even the buildup of clutter that defined our attic had to be reckoned with.  since i was usually off galavanting around texas working on wedding plans and moving out of waco and into bcs, i just got to play with all the salvaged treasures.  old frames, my mom & grandpa's long forgotten paintings and sketches, and even furniture are now valued and showcased in our tiny first home.  art work aside, everything else we found & inherited was in major need of an update.  which leads me to my second official before and after (as requested by my silly mom), the chinese screen: 

{before}

{after}

people are starting to make fun of me at work for always having paint somewhere on my body. 

haha; such is my life.

angel in sbucks

usually, my attitude towards working as a barista embodies a hope that i might share God's love through a warm smile & encouraging conversation during the brief encounters over whatever drink a customer chooses to brighten up his or her day.  my job is at times very humbling (i.e. cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping around people, etc.), challenging (remembering a bajillion different drinks, which regular gets what, etc.), fun, and often very uplifting. 

but today was an exceptional blessing.  there i was, standing behind the counter, taking drink orders & ringing each up on the register, trying to move the line along quickly.  while i was charging one particular woman $2 for her pike's place coffee, she looked up at me and said, "i know this might sound strange, but I really feel that God wants you to know that He has a plan for you here, even if it doesn't seem like it, and that He wants you to be encouraged, know that He loves you, and feel confident in His purpose for you."  it took everything in me to hold it together and simply say, "thank you very much, i really did need to hear that. have a nice day," before handing her a cup of coffee and helping the next customer.  

guess college station isn't so bad, after all. 

need to read her diary again

"think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy." 

-anne frank

california dreamin'

we found our way to san jose! so happy for my family; 

they are enjoying a beautiful and fresh adventure. 

the rolling hills straight out of a dr. seuss book, 

vineyards with orderly green rows spanning for miles, 

perfect weather and countless new experiences to unfold 

are all part of my family's new home.

we're back in our home now, newly determined to to be positive about the place we're living... and looking forward to the places we might get to call home in the future. 

...and ready to go back to san jose.