Off to Albuquerque for the weekend..

We are about to leave to go to Albuquerque for a family conference. We are waiting on our associate pastor, his wife, and 3 girls to pick us up in one of the church vans. We think this will be a good FINAL trip of the summer with the Osburn family. Two other couples from church staff are going as well but we are meeting them there. We will stay at the Marriott Resort and hopefully get to do some things around the city while we are there.

Snorkling

We had a such a fun time snorkling together. We both had never snorkeled before so it was pretty neat to get to do it together for the first time. We loved every minute of it, just being out in the middle of the ocean and getting to see underwater at all the colors and designs that God puts on things is remarkable. We hope to get to do it again someday.

More CANCUN...

We had 24 hour room service so we ordered breakfast in our room almost every morning...Tyler really enjoyed that...this is a view from our room of the lagoon...

CANCUN, MEXICO

We made it back to the states safe and sound. We have been in Cancun since last Monday on vacation. We had an amazing time! It was so nice to spend time together away from normal every day work life. I know Tyler needed it. Our hotel was very nice, the beach was beautiful shades of bright blue, the people were friendly, snorkeling was awesome, and the food was delicious. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we hope to someday go back to the same resort. Here are a few pictures and I will post more later.

Ask Pastor John- How does eternity shape mothering?

One of Tyler and mines favorite preacher/teacher/theologian is John Pastor. I go to his website often and read these articles he writes on people's questions they want to ask him. Today I found this one on mothering (which anything to do with mothering interests me nowadays, so I am trying to study and read to gain as much wisdom as I can before the task comes). So, I hope all you girls are encouraged as much as I was. It's never too early to start learning and seeking wisdom on biblical mothering, or (Megan) after you're a mother .
Here's the link:

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/AskPastorJohn/ByTopic/104/2988_How_can_eternity_influence_a_mothers_daily_tasks/

What is a pastor's wife?

http://9marks.org/CC/article/0,,PTID314526%7CCHID598014%7CCIID2427244,00.html

This short article is meant to give away a study guide to a book, but within it is a very important point for me to understand and I just wanted to share it.

Here in the mountains of Glorieta, NM

The mountains are one of our favorite places to be. The Lord has given us such a sweet time here with junior high kids at Centrifuge camp. He is not only teaching our students but has been working on Tyler and I as well. We have had a lot of free time since Centrifuge takes most the responsibility of keeping the students occupied throughout the day. I just finished the book I have been reading for the past several months: "When People are Big and God is Small". What an extraordinary book! I enjoyed every bit of it. I would highly recommend it to everyone. It deals with the fear of people vs. the fear of God. We are so self-preoccupied as people and are always seeking the approval of others and getting even just a little glory from what we do from others. I have learned how often I struggle with this myself. I need to "need people less and love them more" as Edward T. Welch would say in the book. Tyler is in the middle of reading "The Courage to be Protestant" by David Wells and loves to read sections out loud to me that stand out to him (which is practically all of it).
Well we are about to eat dinner at this little place called the Chuck Wagon..I will write more later. Please be praying for our students and us as we finish out this week at camp. We will get home Sat. evening and then will have a night and a day to do laundry and re-pack, then we will leave for Cancun early, early Monday morning. We are looking so forward to the beach and relaxation!

Mom, these are for you.....I love you!

These are our new wall decor from Hobby Lobby that I mentioned in the previous post. I really liked these stars. They are very unique and I knew they would add some color to the living room. And the rot-ironed design thing above our couch I just really loved. It's really hard for me to spend money on house decorations since I know it's something we don't technically "need" so to say, but I ventured out Wednesday to Hobby Lobby (one of the neatest stores I know, now that I'm married and have a house of my own to decorate) and I just wanted to get some coasters since that was something we have never had since we've been married and didn't get as a wedding gift, but then I somehow made my way over into the wall hangings area of the store and noticed it was all HALF off. I saw these stars and other thing and really didn't want to spend the money even though I knew I would save a lot if I did, and we did need something to hang over our couch and loveseat, so I made the decision and bought them. It was a great deal and after hanging it all up I was happy I went for it.

Mom, these pics are for you, I hope you think I did good! :) You're my decorating inspiration! And the pics of me are for you and Becka, just in case y'all have already forgotten what I look like on a normal summertime Saturday. :)

My first party at our house....So much fun!

I had my first little party last night at our house. It was a Beauty Control Spa party. My friend Crystal sells Beauty Control and asked me awhile to host a spa party and I thought it would be fun since I had already been to one in the past and loved it. I spent practically all day yesterday preparing which consisted of cleaning (a very good cleaning that our house needed anyways), preparing some snacks, hanging some new stuff in our living room that I got from Hobby Lobby 1/2 off :) , and helping Tyler fix our door handle to our clear front door (which we didn't get fixed in time for the party because his drill rain out of juice and we had to charge it). I didn't really care about the door though, I was just excited to have girlfriends over and enjoy my home with other people in it! It was a blast! We had such a great time getting spaaed (is that a word?) Here are some pictures of 3 our my friends that came. There was 11 women in all that came, some of my co-workers and friends from church, even a girl in our youth group came (Summer)! She's the one sitting on the loveseat with me. Cristy Cross is the one by herself rubing some kind of cream on her face. She's hilarious! And Amy is the other one sitting with me on the couch. She volunteers for Tyler at FUEL on Wednesdays. The Lord has blessed me with sweet friends here and I am excited about getting to know them more and more. If you want to order anything from Beauty Control just let me know and I can order it from my friend Crystal. It's all great stuff. I got a free neck wrap that heats up in the microwave that's awesome. Tyler really liked it too. I also got some other stuff for free and some stuff for half off, so if you're interested in hosting a Beauty Control Spa party I would highly recommend it!

More Mission Mexico Pictures

The family that we built the house for cooked for us one day, which was cow intestine. As you can tell, Tyler was more excited about eating it than I was... we were very grateful they cooked for us though. It was good, but knowing it's intestine just makes it not so good...

Cancun here we come!!!!!!

It's official. We are going back to Mexico. We will have spent most of our summer in the great country. We decided awhile back that we wanted to take one last trip with just us before we start having kids. So then we decided that we wanted to go to the beach together since we have not ever been to the beach together before, and we both have never been to a beautiful, blue water, white sand beach ever. So then....we decided it would be Cozumel. Well we never really found a resort there that was in our price range and that we were both really excited about. So then....I got to looking online after many days and nights already online of searching and searching and comparing and comparing....and I found one in Cancun that was cheaper and everything we wanted. So, we made the final decision and booked a 5 night stay at Golden Parnaseuss Resort and Spa in Cancun, with a pretty nice room that has a jacuzzi in the room right by the windows that look out over either a lagoon or the ocean. We are hoping they don't rearrange us and give is the wrong room when we get there, so I am praying it all works out. I was pretty concerned about this trip, to be honest. I wanted to take a trip with Tyler, but knew that the money we have saved for it all year could also go towards other things that we need or want, or even to missions! The Lord has given me peace about it though, and our intention is to go and grow nearer to the Lord and strengthen and deepen our relationship with each other. We want to go to Cancun for the glory of God! It's my hope and prayer that that's exactly what we do and that the Lord will use this trip to bring Himself glory in our marriage and through the joy we get from being with one another and enjoying his great, big, beautiful sea. The Lord has provided us with this gift and helped us save our money for it. We are def excited and can't wait to go!

This next week we will be going to a youth camp in Glorieta, NM with some of out students and the week after that will we be going to Cancun. PLease pray for us as we travel with students and travel with one another. Please pray also that students will be saved this week and lives will be changed for the glory of Jesus.

Getting Away to Snyder

For the 4th Tyler and I ventured out to the wilderness with his family. We always love going to the "Cary Place" as they call it in Snyder, TX. We drive through Lubbock to get there so we stopped and did some shopping last Thursday before heading out to the sticks. Tyler finally found some Chaco sandals that he's been wanting since we got married. We went to this place called Hideaway Mountain where they sell camping/Outdoors stuff. We love places like that (Gander Mountain, etc..) and we pretend we are really people who live in the mountains and roam free camping and exploring rivers. Haha.. it's fun to pretend. :) Then we went to Bed Bath and Beyond, which is where I pretend that I am the best housewife and discover new things I think I need for our house, but really would never use. As you can see we turn into the perfect "American Consumer" when we do this to ourselves (taking ourselves shopping). We told each other that we had a list and we were sticking to it and that if one of us got sidetracked and wanted to stay in one store longer than we intended then we would guide each other along and head for the door. It worked quite nicely I will have to say. We had to get Tyler a new pillow since he left his accidently in the hotel they stayed at on the Dallas Daze trip. But we found his exact one on clearance so the Lord is good. We then headed to Mardel's where we probably stayed the longest gazing at tons of books we want to read on top of tons we already have at home that we havent read. Our mission: get Mitchell a birthday book and get out. We did accomplish the mission at hand. We decided on Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscol and some other man. I think he liked it. I started to read it while in Snyder and it was very interesting.
Next, we headed to TJ Max which was right there by Mardell's. This time we just wanted to get new swimsuits for our vacation to Cancun. We got em and got out. (I love TJ MAX, Ross, Marshall's) It was good for me to leave right when I decided on a bathing suit and not look anymore. Tyler does not like those stores. He thinks they are like gigantic garage sales because they are so unorganized and messy.
After that we were done! We were tired and ready to get out of the city. We headed for Snyder!
We spent 3 days in the good 'ole middle of nowhere and it was very relaxing and fun to see family. Blake and Brooke came with Hudson and Haddon and that made for lots of excitement! Tyler enjoyed fishing as always with his dad and brothers and I enjoyed visiting with Brooke and Peggy and going on long walks watching for wildlife. It was sweet seeing Haddon (the baby) and cuddling and kissing him. Hudson is a sweet 2 year old now that loves to talk, play, and watch cartoons. We went and watched fireworks on Friday in Snyder at the park while sitting on blankets in the grass.
The weekend was great and like always we can't wait to go back.
Please keep Tyler's mom and dad in your prayers. A tornado hit their house in Denver City and took off the upstairs roof. They are both fine and living in a rent house while they do construction on their home. The Lord kept them in His hands through it all and they are doing ok.
Here are a few pics from the weekend.