HE will lift you up!

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet. HE WILL LIFT YOU UP. James 4:6-10

I loved the message from Passion City Church on Sunday. I have been thinking about it ever since and Louie has been posting some encouraging tweets all week that go along with it...like this one: Until our believing impacts our living we don't have much believing.

We drove up to PCC excited and ready to worship at our Atlanta church. :) We always play little games, like "Who do you think will lead today?" "What song will they open with?" "Is Louie still preaching the WORD series?". We are such nerds, but I love it! Do you see how big our smiles are?

To sum up our answers. :) I was hoping that Christy and Nathan would be leading. I sort of felt like Chris would be leading as well. Matt didn't think they would because he felt like everyone had just gotten back into town from Thanksgiving, but he thought that Nathan would be on the keyboard. We were there a little early and sat in the third row (which turned out to be pretty amazing seats). I saw Nathan first. Then I saw all boys file out onto the stage. I was feeling kind of sad, but then Christy walked out a minute later. Obviously, I was VERY happy! Then I realized that it was Chris Tomlin and band up there too. :) Later I got to see Shelley Giglio (who I also love), and also got to see Christy and Nathan sit out in the congregation to listen to the message. :)!!!!!

They started out with White Flag. I have never heard it sung with such energy! It was a joy to experience and very refreshing. I was leaning over to tell Matt something, when I heard the opening chords to "Waiting Here for You" and I nearly fainted with joy! My Christy was going to sing a SOLO! Not only was it amazing, she sang "Come thou long expected Jesus" in the middle of it from Chris Tomlin's Glory in the Highest Christmas album, then finished with "Waiting"...it sort of took my breath away. To only be taken away again by the sounds of "All My Fountains" starting up. I never in a million years thought that I would get to hear them sing my favorite Passion song EVER. LIVE. I got to do the whole clap clap, clap, clap thing in person! It felt like this at PCC. Really!! We were actually singing it that morning before church.



After an incredible message from Louie :) the band started in with another of my very favorite songs ever, "Lord, I Need You". I feel like it is one of my life songs. Y'all I was in tears by this point. I just kept saying to Matt, "Did you ever believe we would be here on a day like today?" "Can you believe that they are playing all of our songs...in a row?" Haha!

I'll say it a million times. I've been to lots of huge Atlanta churches, and lots of South GA churches. There is something special about PCC! I am so thankful that the Lord brought us to that church in May. What a treat for us to experience every couple of months! And yes, I cried after it was over because two hours just wasn't enough. I wanted to go back for both of the other services. I'm just thankful!

Seeing Blue

I have a new favorite store in the Atlanta area. Queen of Hearts Antiques. Matt is pretty thrilled with the place himself. Y'all must go if you live near one of their locations...Alpharetta and Marietta are the two that I know of.

Anyway, somehow we ended up with some pretty amazing finds...all of which are blue. :)

Well, ok, this one mirror is the exception.

I haven't even unpacked from our trip yet, but I have set all of our goodies out. Please excuse the dirty table, I'm going to clean it up soon. I may decided to paint it too..I'm not sure yet. I have been drawn to the shape and size of this table for a while now.

The chair is my favorite!

And I couldn't pass up the dried hydrangeas. Maybe this summer I will dry my own out. I love them!

I'm going to recap our fabulous Thanksgiving weekend soon...after I get back into the swing of things! Hope everyone is well!

What's in an album title?

I used to be really plain Jane when creating photo albums on my computer. But over the past year, I just name it the first thing that comes to my mind about the upcoming month. I pretty much always start with an A because then the folder is near the top...which I also like. How nerdy, huh? :)

I love this though, because I can see the name of the album and am sort of reminded of the season that I was in at that time. That's why I wanted to blog about it. So, I wouldn't forget.

Here is my year in review:

A New Year Jan 2012

Already February 2012

Merry March 2012

April 2012 Showered with Blessings

And May already...Praying for good news 2012

All Things NEW June...A month of HEALING

A Sizzling July 2012

And it begins again August 2012

Anchor Down in September 2012 (A personal FAVE)

After all, YOU are CONSTANT October 2012

Already ALL I NEED November Blessings 2012

I can't even think of what December will be. I guess I'll know when I go to upload the first picture in two weeks or so! I love so many things about the holiday season!!

Gettin' there.

We have had a busy couple of days in our house. We are almost completely finished with our decorations. I have a few things to finish up and one more small tree to decorate. I will do that next week! Our home feels cozy and merry and I love it!

I've got several errands to run today, and then I'll be cooking a little bit tonight. I am going to try to soak up every little bit of this holiday season!

My week and some pictures!

Flu Shot. Surprisingly painless. I love the Shaw Center!

Junior Service League Meeting and then a nominating committee meeting afterwards at Grassroots. It was a late night, but thankfully hot chocolate was involved! Yum!

Dinner and 10pm Breaking Dawn Part 2 with 10 teacher friends! So fun and good! Abby went with me after school to pick up a pumpkin roll for my wing and some pumpkin muffins for Matty and I at The Breadwagon. Then she kept me company at the house for a little bit. :)

I'm so thankful to be out of school this coming week! AnnaBeth helped me decorate my pink school tree and set up my big green one before we left on Friday.

I got two surprises in the mail on Friday. A pretty package from my Aunt Lynn who knit me a infinity scarf with sparkly burgundy and burnt orange yarn. And my parents mailed me my favorite cardigan that I left in Dublin the weekend of the wedding along with a cute cuff bracelet that Mama ordered me!!! I felt very loved. :)

I volunteered Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival with JSL today. Everything there is so beautiful and plantationy...I love it! We may go back tomorrow!

Oh, all of the fall decor is officially out of the house and our trees are up...just not decorated! I'm so excited!! If I wasn't so busy all the time I would've had them done last weekend! I am just enjoying the beautiful lights and Matt is diligently preparing for the Sunday School lesson that he is teaching tomorrow. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

in our downtown at least!! I have a happy heart!

We went to a pretty big craft show in the next town over on Saturday. We got one ornament and a bench for our mudroom. Now I just have to hang the hooks! It has been such a slow work in progress. :)

We were talking Christmas Party in our Sunday School class this morning. Which I am LOVING. I'm enjoying our new teachers so much...we have about 15 couples that come and and I think at least ten every week. Our class is growing and that is exciting!

I've been playing Christmas music all day.

And I also finally put out my Thanksgiving wreath. Go figure!

I'm praying for a great week! It will be a busy one for me! Bible Study, JSL, Twilight, and all the festivities that come with teaching kindergarten! Have a great week everyone!

I love November!

November is one of my favorite months of the year for some reason! Thanksgiving is definitely one of my favorite holidays. For some reason I liked the lyrics to this song for my kitchen chalkboard in November.

We've been staying busy going to football games, voting :(, and enjoying family time.

My friend Robin took me to the Chris Tomlin concert last night as an early birthday present. We went with the womens ministry from our church. We rode the church buses and ate at Mellow Mushroom before the concert. I had the best time!! Plus, I now really like All Sons and Daughters and I only heard one song from them!

BUT, I'm in the CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!!! I listen to Christmas music as much as I can and just have visions of beautiful Christmas decor running through my head constantly! My problem is that I love it ALL. That is why each little room in my house has a different theme. I'm ready to put up my trees, drink hot chocolate, and ride around and look at Christmas lights! Anyone else?

Just what I needed...

This weekend was just what I needed. Restful and full of family time. My family arrived Friday night and we ate chili and watched a movie. Then Saturday, we shopped while Matt played golf. Saturday afternoon and evening we just watched lots of football. I was so sad for my parents to leave this morning. I always wish that we had one more day together!

I had some special visitors this morning. One of my neighborhood favorites and a favorite former student of mine from 3 years ago came to visit. :) They made my heart happy! The one thing that I have saved from my childhood are my American girl dolls/books. They remembered me telling them that a long time ago, and wanted to play with them. So they did that, played board games upstairs, drank some milk and orange juice, and made themselves each a goody bag of leftover Halloween candy. This is Molly Grace and Ashley trying a Pinterest hair technique on the dolls hair.

It was seriously a precious way to start my Sunday. Today I'm thankful for my job, and that what I do truly matters. Teaching and loving on some pretty sweet students.

I took down my Halloween decor tonight. I think it is kind of sad that I don't have any Thanksgiving decorations. I would love a beautiful Turkey for my dining room. But in about 3 weeks I'll start decorating for Christmas anyway!!! Yay!!

Matt came home with this huge lemon that someone from one of his clinics grew. It is a ponderosa lemon and it is SO BIG. It takes up our entire fruit bowl. I don't really know what to do with it. Any suggestions?

I feel like we use cutting boards 24/7 and we never use our thick ones anymore. We have a set of small colorful ones, and tonight Matt picked up a larger set. I love how pretty they are. :)

I sort of like the colors pink, green, and navy. I was setting out my lunchbox, cup, and a few other things for school tomorrow and realized this trend.

I'm really loving Chris Tomlin's new song. I hope that he sings it on Thursday!!!!


Do you listen to Louie Giglio's podcasts from PCC? We do sometimes. Tonight we are going to listen to last weeks message on anxiety, while we enjoy the rain. I need to hear it!