It's starting to feel like Fall!

One of the joys if home ownership is I get to finally put all those Pinterest ideas to use in decorating it! I've always admired how Disney managed to make a whimsical yet slightly spooky haunted mansion and I took inspiration from that and mixed it with fall to make this fun fireplace decoration-scape (is that what we call it these days?).

All finished!

A couple of frames from the Dollar Store and some points at Walgreens provided a way for me to share my favorite fall photos for cheap!

Inspired by the haunted mansion, we used some black lace to wrap mason jars that will hold our little tea lights.

Walmart had these adorable pumpkins for cheap!

We found this candelabra that matched the haunted mansion theme perfectly. This raven was made to go on a wreath but we thought he could look out over a mason jar too! And our little decor set up wouldn't be complete without one of our homemade signs from our shop!

I finally have a spot to show off some of my favorite shots from our Disney trips! Costumes + Tower of Terror goes great with the whimsical Halloween theme!

My favorite? Hard to pick but these little burlap ghosts are high on the list!

Best part of the set up? It looks awesome at night!

So happy for the fall season. While I will miss the warm sun, it sure is fun to decorate for the season! Now excuse me while I go make me some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

Too busy to run...or am I?

Good morning everyone! I hope you all slept well and are beginning to enjoy the weekend before the 4th!

This morning I woke up and the first thought in my head was, "Ugg." That pretty much summed up how I felt this morning. Problem is, I had a bunch of things to do this morning, including a long seven mile run. That was pretty much the last think I wanted to do this morning.

I gave myself a ton of excuses to not go. I've been really good with my running schedule this week. I am tired. I had a ton going on this weekend already. I never gave myself a reason to go.

But I ended up going anyways. And when I returned to the house at the halfway point to drop off the dog, I managed to get past my excuses and go back out to finish the last three miles.

And as I'm running, I was like, "What got me out here in the early Texas heat?"

I really can't give you an answer on why I went. I can't give you a reason on why I finished. So the only answer I can think of is, habit.

Whaaaaaa?

Yes, I believe running has become a habit to me now. I just went and did it, Nike swoosh style. Yes I'm busy. I work part time, help my mom with jobs around the house on the side and run a ministry. I don't have a ton of time. But I am proof that if you do something with dedication over a long period of time, you will make it habit and it will soon become a staple in your lifestyle. This goes for working, reading your Bible, eating healthy, being intentional in communicating with family and friends, anything!

Now excuse me while I sit on the couch doing nothing until I have to go into work!

Security

Howdy everyone! How's your Thursday morning going?

Mine's been a little tough. I just had to drop the hubby off at the airport for a few weeks of intense training on his part. I don't know exactly when I will get to see him again although I know I will at some point. It's always tough for me (or anyone for that matter) to drop someone I love off at the airport. First off, I'm going to miss them. Second, I'm jealous because I want to travel too! I hate saying goodbye no matter how long it will be before I see someone again.

This time however, was a bit different. Today was something that's been looming in front of me for a few weeks now and I would always get sad when I thought about it. Same for Jared. But yesterday we sat down and talked about how were feeling and how we would deal with everything going on. What we discussed coincided with something that we heard this weekend and it really helped. I thought I'd share for you in case you need to hear it.

This weekend we went to Fellowship Church Dallas, our future home church, so that we could see what it was like. Pace Hartfield gave the message. He's someone that I've always looked up to since my high school years since he was the youth pastor when I was attending the Mix. I still look up to him and what he had to say really spoke to my heart.

He talked about how we all need a reminder sometimes. That's why we have things like Memorial Day. In the Christian's case however, we also need a reminder that God loves us, no matter what. So many times, we get caught up in what we do and let that define us. We let circumstances define our identity and what the world says about us define our self worth. It's an outside-in flow of information and unfortunately, it's not the way to live.

I do this all the time though. I mean, if I go look at my Facebook, it's got all sorts of stuff on it that defines me to the world. I'm a Children's Pastor. I volunteer on a weekly basis. I like to craft as evidenced by my Pinterest posts and I am constantly running as exercise. Even my exercise has become a means for me to help others thanks to the Charity Miles app. I like to watch crime solving TV shows and I like to read. I'm married to the most amazing man ever and if you look at my pictures, I'm usually acting slightly goofy. So if we were to define me just by my Facebook page, I'd be pastor, runner, crafter, wife and volunteer.

But you know what runs in my head often? Questions like, "What happens if I can't run anymore?" "What happens if I don't volunteer?" "What happens if my husband is gone?" "What do I become if I ever leave the ministry?"

You see, if I define myself by what I do, those things can change and I experience identity crisis. I've experienced it once before, right after I got married! I mean, when you change your name and move to a different city, it's really easy to feel like you are a totally different person. But what I learned after I got married, and was reminded of after attending church this weekend, was that I am not defined by what I do, but who's I am. This blog is titled "The King's Daughter." That's not by mistake. I am the daughter of the one true High King. God is my heavenly Father and someday I get to spend eternity with him. He loved me so much that even before I was born or learned about Him, He died for me without any guarantee that I would love Him back.

So I feel like I would miss the point if I never shared with my audience, if I even have one, the reason why I do everything I do. I love God with all my heart, more than anything. From that love I begin to love the things that God loves, which includes teaching children about him, helping others in need, taking care of the body he gave me, and enjoying life to the fullest.

As I go into this next phase of my life, changing cities once again and changing churches and learning a new lifestyle as my husband starts his next part of his career, I am choosing to remember the fact that no matter what, I am the Lord's. Instead of the world and what I do defining me from the outside-in, I'm allowing my identity in Christ influence my world from the inside-out. And honestly, it looks a ton more exciting!

Musings

Hello everyone. Happy Monday (and yes, that is a legitimate thing to say. You CAN be happy on a Monday)!

I am lacking in any one big thing to share so I instead, am going to expound on a couple of small things I've had rolling around in my head. I hope they help you. :)

1. Life is always going to be crazy. What changes is the type of crazy and how much. What we can do however, is learn to keep it at a minimum or embrace it for it's fullest potential. Take Bilbo Baggins for example. He was offered a choice to sit on his behind in Bag End or to go on a journey. No matter what choice he made, we find out what kind of hobbit he was. But with the latter, we get an inspiring story of perseverance, loyalty and courage that has inspired generations. Imagine the Hobbit if he would have stayed. We would have had a short book and none of the Lord of the Rings.

2. Stop picking at scabs. We go through life and because of the chaos, we get hurt. We get some scabs. For example, I got scratched by a cat at my in law's house and I have a small cut on my arm now. It's been there for a week and now starts to itch. However, if I keep picking at it like I have, it will take even longer to heal much less bleed all over the place. If I do that with my mental or spiritual scars, I keep picking at them, bringing up the raw feelings again by thinking about them a lot, they will take longer to heal and will leave a more lasting scar.

3. What you put in is what you get out. What I eat is going to directly affect my performance while running. What I think about is like food and is going to directly affect my actions. When I feel something, I need to stop and think, "Why am I feeling this." Then pray. Then meditate on God's answer. The most important step is action. Why would I learn something from God and then not put it into action?

4. Don't undervalue hard work. Many people in my generation try to find the easy way to things. What they don't realize is that you often never get to the best things in life by trying to find short cuts. Some of the best places to see in the world require hours spent uncomfortably traveling. Fitness is never achieved through sitting on a couch. Without the hard work, you will never appreciate the end result or learn what you learn along the journey.

5. Don't wait for tomorrow. I just finished teaching my 5th graders who are about to become 6th graders. I had them write down their dreams and aspirations for their lives. Thing is, when you look at what they wrote down (learning a new language, helping people, learning how to take care of animals, becoming a better student, athlete, etc) I was showing them that they don't have to wait until they are "older" to do any of these. God gave them life now and they can make a difference now, no matter their age. Same goes with us. We shouldn't wait for the "opportune moments." It will never come and you will have wasted all that time that you were given.

Then I was looking through my Pinterest and I was reminded about some things that I really loved.

I think this is so true in my marriage. I hope I show Jared that I love him every day.



This is me with my friends. :)


Stop trying to be someone else. God made you, you. No one else! You never know who wants to be you!


Yes!

Our God is amazing. I hope to do this someday! Like...Alaska!

Last day booster...read Romans 5. It's my favorite!

God gave you today so let's make it amazing!

The Importance of Song Choice

Hello everyone! I was really worried about the weather today as it was still cold and rainy when I left out the door this morning. I went in and gave a presentation for Redeemed for the lovely ladies at Lakewood United Methodist Church (thank you everyone for having me!) and when I came out, it was sunny and beautiful! It's days like today where I truly appreciate my eye surgery. The colors in the full sunlight are SO vibrant and when I look around the details still astound me. Don't know if I will ever get used to it. Don't know if I want to. Thanks Mom and Dad. This surgery really has changed my life!

Now like any other presentation I give, I get really nervous before hand. I definitely suffer from "waiting in the wing" syndrome. But one thing that I learned from running is that everything seems better with a good song you can belt along to. So as I waited in the Starbucks drive through to treat myself to some dark roast coffee, I turned on Fellowship Creative's "All About You" album and sang all the way to the church. It not only put me in the right frame of mind for the event, but I also felt so much better about giving the presentation. Again, if you didn't read my post from yesterday, we really do magnify what we focus on!

When I got home this afternoon, my first priority was to get my computer back in order. First of all my computer's name is Mic (stands for "Made in China"). So Mic the Mac had to go to the Mac computer hospital to get a new logic board. But the good news is, Mic is back and kicking again. Hopefully Mic will last me a whole bunch of years more!

Part of the process of getting Mic back in working shape (because he basically came back factory new) was to get all my songs back and organized on my iTunes library. Thankfully, I had most of the files on my Time Capsule AND iTunes lets you re-download any song you purchased ever if you ever lose the files. Hallelujah!

It was kinda hilarious going back and seeing songs I had downloaded all the way back in high school. This included all the Spanish songs I had to download for Spanish oral projects (Juanes!) and several hits from the early 2000's (Smash Mouth anyone?). I also found all the songs my mom and I had downloaded in the Alamodome waiting on my brother's high school marching band to perform for State. Old School Rock and Roll Classics! Then I hit a period in my life where I wasn't too careful about the types of songs I was downloading, much less the lyrics. They weren't even on par with the old school rock and roll musically. They were really just junk. I remember what a dark period in my life that was too. I was a very negative, skeptical person. I knew all the answers God had to life, but I was too prideful to let him in and actually work in my life.

And then, even more recently, I was looking for running songs! I saw a pin on Pinterest about some of the best running songs around. Most of them are things from like...Maroon 5, Beyonce, Pitbull etc. Needless to say, even though they are not uplifting songs, I bought them because I thought they would help me get pumped during my run.

But you know what I realized? One of those songs would come on and yea, I would nod my head to the beat and enjoy the "pop-i-ness" of the song. Then I would get tired of it halfway through because the artists are singing about stupid things or don't even make sense. But then a song like Stellar Kart's "We Shine" would come on with much more musical drive and meaningful lyrics and I would have a REAL boost of mental and emotional energy to go faster or longer on my run.

So as I went through my iTunes library today, I had to make some choices. Do I really download those songs again, or leave them off? I'm glad to say I deleted some. Others, I haven't heard in so long I don't remember them. I'm going to reevaluate as I hear them. But I'm going to really be strict on myself. Running is something that I find so positive in my life. It changes my mood and helps me de-stress. I need to make sure my music helps me focus on those things that are important and more than anything, glorify the one who I'm running for!

If you are looking for new music, I highly suggest going to air1.com. They are a positive, Christian rock radio station. They really have some songs on their website that I love! You can even head bang to some. Others come on and make me just dance in my seat! Plus, any station that plays Switchfoot on a regular basis definitely has my vote!

Cue the Olympic theme on my iTunes as I finish this post! God has a sense of humor people!

Happy running everyone!

Pinterest fun!

Today's blog is a little different from normal. Normally I post about how our training is going and not "how to" things. But today I finished a weekend project that I am so excited about I decided it was worth sharing!

So this weekend we had our 5K race and this surfaced a problem I have never encountered before. Jared and I have been amassing a small pile of medals. I can instantly see that if we continue to do races like we are planning to, I am going to have no where to put all these medals and race bibs.

Like any good woman, I know Pinterest has the answer!

So I search "medal hangers" and several pins came up. I paroosed for a little while and decided to use a combination of a couple of pins along with my own ideas. You can see the pins I borrowed ideas from here:

http://diddledumpling.blogspot.com/2010/05/tutorial-vintage-looking-painted-sign.html
http://pavementrunner.com/diy-medal-bib-holder/

Credit where credit is due! I couldn't have done this without these ideas and how to's!

So I love rustic "Texan" looking decorations. After all, I am born and raised in Texas! So I went to Lowes and bought some cedar planks. Not only do they smell amazing, but they made me reminisce about the summer my parents decided to rebuild our fence by hand. So many cedar planks!

Did you also know that Lowes cuts wood for you? I picked out two planks that were 6" wide and one that was 2" wide. They cut the 6" wide planks into four 16" pieces and two 32" pieces. They cut the skinny plank into 6" long pieces.

From there I used wood glue, nails and two skinny boards to join two fat boards. As seen below...

I repeated the process with the other four fat boards. I used three skinny pieces instead of two for the 32" long pieces to add extra stability.

Then I went to my computer and found a font I liked. Then I typed out everything I wanted the sign to say and flipped the words on my word document so that everything read backwards. Then I printed on an inkjet printer.

Then I cut out my pieces and arranged the papers where I wanted the words on my boards. Ink side down!

Then I started the ink transfer process. I used a spray bottle to saturate the paper. It's best to wait a couple of minutes to let the water start to release the ink from the paper.

Then I used the cap of the sharpie and basically scribbled over the paper to let the ink transfer. You can see the first blog link above to get more detailed instructions.

Once you have done this for each word you can remove the paper and ink should stay on your board! Do this for all the boards you want to do!

Then my husband so graciously used a wood burning tool to outline the letters. He got one at Michaels when he was making a time capsule box for our wedding. I think this looks very rustic and "Texan-y" hehe. It also helps the letters to pop!

Then I painted in the letters with pretty cheap paint. It looked more like a stain than paint which I thought made it look cooler. 

Also at Lowes were some cool looking tacks. I thought they looked like they could have been made by a blacksmith in the 1800's so I got them. They were only $2  for a whole bunch! I took the two smaller boards and measured out the holes for the running bibs that I was going to hang on it. You can click on the second blog link for more ideas too. I had two sizes like she did so I staggered the hangings so they would all fit!

Then on my long board I hammered a bunch of tacks to the bottom to hang our medals on!

Attach some rustic farm-looking string to the corners (with tacks of course!) and you have a sign! Hang your medals proudly and stand back and admire (this is a very important step lol). I'm pretty happy with how mine turned out!

Now we have a very big reminder for why we run every time we enter our bedroom as well as a reminder of all the faithfulness God has shown us in the past!

Now on to our next race...the Houston Turkey Trot!

Happy running everyone!