The Hizzy...

Here is a video tour of my house!! 


Hope you enjoy! 


Please forgive my dog, Walter... he catches dumbness every once in a while! :)


Also, I was planning for the outside tour when... all of a sudden... MY MEMORY CARD WAS FULL!!! :( I'll have to complete the tour at a later date! RAIN CHECK! 

That's my house!!! Come visit... if you aren't a creeper! 

BRAVE Study - I aM uNdIsCiPlInEd

Week 3 of BRAVE study

Are you undisciplined??? I'm sure we all are in some most areas of our life. If you answered YES... read this!!! :) If you answered no... well you probably should read it even more.


Angela asked us at the beginning of the week how we felt about the topic of undisciplined.  One of my greatest enemies is... myself. I'm very prideful at times so I suspected that God would teach me humility and the fact that I AM SO UNDISCPLINED. I was expecting to learn... and I did.  When I think of the word DISCIPLINE I get an image of a ruler in my head. My mom told me stories a lot growing up and I remember some about getting swatted with a ruler when she did nothing wrong got in trouble. So... I fully expected a ruler to swat my hand/heart a few times... I was right. 


We all struggle with some area of undiscipline. 
What's your list? Maybe they are similar to mine:
eating habits * exercise * writing letters to friends * calling people I love * cleaning * focusing  on the important things * (and more)


God can change every lack of discipline in our lives and be the strength we have not known. I loved this quote from the book because often the strength I know is MINE... not very reliable. I am weak. He is STRENGTH.


In Romans 7, Paul describes my brain - there's a war everyday about doing the things he doesn't want to do and not doing the things he wants to do... (you have to read that passage like 4 times b/c it's like the fuzzy wuzzy was a bear rhyme... just craziness but so good!)
Paul said that our ONLY rescue from the war in our flesh comes from God through Jesus Christ.  Maybe you can't stop eating chocolate. Maybe you make constant excuses for not reading the Word. Maybe you are lazy. No matter how many areas of undiscipline you can think of, Jesus is the answer. No matter how many years you have struggled, Jesus is the answer. No matter how discouraged you may be, Jesus IS THE ONLY ANSWER. 


Many of us struggle with lack of discipline because we have given control to something else. Jacob talked on this with the youth last night. Many people will pray the prayer and believe they are saved, but their lives are still about them. God doesn't have control.  Many times, we, as brave Christian women give control to other things and people in our lives. Why? We put so much trust in stupid things. Think about it, everyday we trust - elevators, chairs, cars, the people around us driving, computers, banks, etc... but we don't trust the King of the Universe who made it ALL and knows us INTIMATELY! That makes NO sense! 
We are obviously weak, but striving to be BRAVE, women. Our strength can only come from ONE source! ONE - and that's not us, or a relationship, or a job, or a circumstance... it's CHRIST! He is strength. He is bigger. He is our refuge. He is our discipline. Strength comes from humility and obedience to Him. He is more than enough.

Strength and Discipline comes from Holy Dependence:

*my favorite thing of the week*

What if on this earth we will never be completely disciplined in every area of our lives at the same time? And what if that's on purpose? A design element. A Creator component. An intentional decision by our God so that a HOLY DEPENDENCE is required for us to mature toward each new place of discipline.  

Maybe God allows my lack of discipline because it keeps me running to Him. His strength is the source by which I will grow into greater discipline.  He makes me able to take the next BRAVE step.  Maybe if I work up tomorrow completely disciplined, perfected even, I would think more about myself and my great accomplishment and less about God and how much I need Him.

I do not speak for God, and the Scriptures do not elaborate here, but what if a perfectly disciplined life was never God's intent? What if He intended HOLY DEPENDENCE for life-long growth toward Himself?

GROW TOWARDS HIM. Run to Him... weaknesses and all.

a.t.l.a.n.t.a.

So... I have been a traveling woman for the past week. I am happy to be home, but loved the memories I made in atlanta. 

My first reason in going to Atlanta was to attend the nation RID (Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf) Conference. I went to represent the Troy University's Interpreter Training Program - which is the BOMB btw! :) We were able to take 6 students - their registration and hotel being funded by the ASL/ITP Club!! It's a great program with a ton of innovation ideas and amazing experiences. I'm fortunate to work there to experience them as well.  The program director, Lynne Wiesman, has done a MORE THAN fabulous job developing the program in the past 2 years. 

This is the hotel we stayed at. It was gargantuan!! It had 47 floors. When you looked up, you felt like you were in a human rib cage! The elevators were glass, so going up to the top and then plummeting to the lobby was a past time for me. 

We had a booth and gave out tons of info about the program. Pretty exciting!! 

We also had a student, Chaeney (cool name huh?) be chosen as an RID Student Representative = she had lots of important things to do and we are proud of her!! :)  

Then... THE GIRLS ARRIVED!!!! 

Even though I was POOPED from the long week of attending workshops, networking, advertising for Troy, and chatting lots I was BEYOND excited for 2 of my favorite people to be in the same state/city/room with me!!! :)

Here we are... we are lovely and I love US together... it just feels right. 
The one in the middle with the white hair is EMILY. 
On the right is LINDSEY JO.
I love them. Maybe you are wondering what we did in HOTlanta. Well.. we laughed and talked a lot. We sun bathed a bit, ate a lot, shopped (we love IKEA), cuddled, and we US! And it was good. I know I say this a lot but it's SO GOOD to have people who GET YOU. They GET ME and still like me. 

Lindsey Jo is preggo! We are excited to be aunts - Auntie Em and Auntie Ann are ready to spoil the heck out of lil' Hank.  His formal name will be Issac Henry but we like our love name - HANK! :) 
One perk about shopping with a preggo lady is the up close parking so we definitely took advantage of that and took pictures of it as well because... that's what we do! She is due in 2 months! AHH!! Her and Brybear will be wonderful parents... THE BEST actually. Me and Em always joke know that we can never let our children go to Lindsey Jo's house to eat because they will  know what pitiful cooks we are and refuse to eat our hamburger helper and chicken fajitas forevermore. I like Emily's order to LJ - if we do bring our husbands/children over LJ has to burn the dinner 1/3 of the time so they won't know she's PERFECT! (She's crafty too!)


Our second night there we went to the CHEESECAKE FACTORY - YUM!!! 
We were pooped from shopping (IKEA IS HUGE), so the cheesecake was EXTRA exciting.

Aren't they beautiful??

Well.. they are - inside and out. Their friendship is so important to me. They are the sisters I run with and I would be lost without them. I know they pray for me. I pray for them. They are my encouragement and I hope I am theirs. I know them and understand them and still like them around. We were missing our other two amigas, Becky and Ami.

One day when we are old widows (because men are the weaker ones and die off or maybe we kill them slowly) we are gonna take over a nursing home!!!! Looking forward to wheelchair races, spend the night parties, and lots of bingo! 

YUM! I got Oreo Cheesecake! 

This is a fun thing we did while there. We stole the idea from another blog. 

These are LABOR SOCKS. We tie dyed them. Lindsey Jo will wear them when she births Hank. When someone else in our friend group gets preggo, LJ will pass the labor socks to them. She will probably have them for a while if the rest of us have anything to do with it. So... she will have them as long as she's popping them out... then the socks will go to whoever is pregnant or is adopting a baby.  It's TRAVELING socks - with the babies' names being added to the socks as the travel along!!! :) I can't wait for pictures of her in a hospital gown and tie-dye socks!! 

Loved the week in Atlanta! 

How many flags are over georgia? SIX!

*Hope you like the new look for the blog.  All of this is thanks to LINDSEY JO!!! She taught me and EMILY how to be good bloggers. She claimed our swirly backgrounds were looked down upon in the blogging world! :) *

We recently took the youth to the Six Flags over Georgia. I'm a little behind on my blogging so I will catch you up one by one on the amazing events in my life.  I will also do some BRAVE Bible Study recaps - it's been really good! 

Some fun @ Six Flags:

 The fellas.

 The adults.

 The Batman. 

 A great picture taken by my hubby of some youth on Batman.

 Jacob and Andrew (the pastor) in the back of the boat on Monster Plantation - you gotta get cool somehow.

 Fun times! 

 The new ride, the Dare Devil. It's an OKAY ride. The first hill you go straight up and straight down - the rest of the ride is pretty lame. 

We had a great time. We took 17 youths. It was hot. Jacob and I got to spend the whole day together so it was good! It was fun. I enjoyed the day.  

Exuding Excitement...

So... I'm really excited right now.
I wanted use the word exuding and didn't know if I spelled it right, so I looked it up and the defintion -

1. Discharge (moisture or a smell) slowly and steadily.

2. (of moisture or a smell) Be discharged by something in such a way.

So I had to use it, for sure! :)

Maybe you are wondering - why is she so excited?? 

Let me tell you... I get to see these wonderful people pictured below in a week!!! HOORAY! 

The one with the white hair, Emily, and the brown hair in the orange shirt, Lindsey Jo , will be gracing me with their presence!! 

This is one of our favorite memories - FOSTER FARMS! 

bag pipes, porta-potties, frozen hot dogs, being weirdos, ghosty... love it! 

It's hard to find a picture of us without all of us there. I am sad the other part of us, Ami, won't be able to make it... 

This is a fantastic picture of a night gone wrong. We wrote a song, well Lindsey Jo had written a song and we perfected it. We wanted to sing it at a Coffee Night at the BCM. We thought is was MORE THAN HILARIOUS. We dressed up, acted like fools, sang our hearts out, and then listened to crickets chirpping as NO ONE LAUGHED! We were stunned... and scarred.  

Here we are looking pretty normal. 

I like us. 

They are wonderful friends. The best any girl could ever ask for! 

And I get to see them soon!

That is all I want to say right now.

I plan to blog some tomorrow - more Brave Bible study, pictures of  the house, and more thoughts from my feeble mind. 

HaPpY bIrThDaY aMeRiCa!!

This is how we celebrated the birth of our country:

 We celebrated the birth of Johanna that is RAPIDLY approaching!!! Yes, there's a baby inside of that woman! CRAZINESS! Jared got a Daddy Do belt  because he will be a daddy. They read a cute little poem when they knighted him with the belt... but I didn't memorize it. Sorry.

Then, we went to the lake with the Mannings. Walter came with us. 

He's pretty much adorable! 

Now... this was the first time Walter had been to the lake. If you haven't met him, HE'S A SPAZ! So, we figured if any dog could drowned - it would be Walt. So, we bought him a life jacket! haha! 

He loved it. He had a blast and he didn't drowned because of his handy-dandy like jacket! 

We swam and tried to ski and wake board. I got up on skies the first time I tried- the first time ever! I was pretty pumped! but then... I fell. Oh well... life goes on! 

At linner (not a typo... it was after lunch and before dinner), we went in for some yummy ribs and sides. 

Then there was a storm.

Then, this happened:

The was the dock at the marina where our friends' boat was! YIKES!! There boat was okay. The dock wasn't. 

Then we came home. Walter was POOPED:

I didn't take a picture of this, but when we got home - Walt got sick. 

He barfed ALOT. He had the squirts ALOT. Because he ate the yummy ribs too. Ooops.

We had a wonderful time. Walt is all better now. 

Yay America! 

OKAY, okay... the Sabbath

Sabbath rest... WHAT?

 

So... I know this might be random, but it's not to me.

Ever since I started learned how WORN OUT I am, God started showing SCREAMING at me the reality of the Sabbath Rest. I know some of you are thinking - well that's Old Testament. we don't do that anymore. isn't that like one of the 10 Commandments... so old school.  Yes, yes... that's what I thought. The Sabbath was something they had to do once upon a time... not now. Our "Sabbath" is full of going to church (which is not so restful sometimes), going to eat with friends, business, and whatever else we find to fill our time. 

So... where is our rest?

I'm not saying our Sabbath rest has to be on Sunday or any day for that matter. Honestly, I'm still working through what the Sabbath rest is and what it's suppose to look like for me, my hubby, and our lives. I really haven't even talked to him about this... just been chewing on it. I should probably talk to him. 

All I know right now is what Hebrews 4 (yep, the NEW Testament) says about the Sabbath:

p.s. this is the Message version. I don't usually use the Message when I'm studying, but I thought this translation of these verses made sense to my feeble mind. 

^1-3For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God's goal for us, we need to be careful that we're not disqualified. We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn't do them a bit of good because they didn't receive the promises with faith. If we believe, though, we'll experience that state of resting. But not if we don't have faith. Remember that God said,

   Exasperated, I vowed,
      "They'll never get where they're going,
      never be able to sit down and rest."

 ^3-7God made that vow, even though he'd finished his part before the foundation of the world. Somewhere it's written, "God rested the seventh day, having completed his work," but in this other text he says, "They'll never be able to sit down and rest." So this promise has not yet been fulfilled. Those earlier ones never did get to the place of rest because they were disobedient. God keeps renewing the promise and setting the date as today, just as he did in David's psalm, centuries later than the original invitation:

   Today, please listen,

      don't turn a deaf ear . . .

 ^8-11And so this is still a live promise. It wasn't canceled at the time of Joshua; otherwise, God wouldn't keep renewing the appointment for "today." The promise of "arrival" and "rest" is still there for God's people. God himself is at rest. And at the end of the journey we'll surely rest with God. So let's keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience.

THEN... THE PASSAGE THAT WE HAVE READ AND RECITED AND WROTE AND GOTTEN EXCITED OVER MANY TIMES COMES DIRECTLY AFTER IT. HOW I HAVE FAILED TO SEE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ENTIRE CONTEXT:

^12-13God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it—no matter what.

(You know... The word is active and living and cuts deeper than a double-edged sword...)

SABBATH REST IS OBVIOUSLY IMPORTANT TO GOD AND THE WORD OF GOD! 

This is CRAZY to me. I have never really READ this passage. 

REST is so important. I don't think it means to sleep all day, be lazy, and unintentional.  

I think this REST means destroying all distractions, focusing on what matters (the Lord, family, friends), and stop with BUSINESS. 

I want to learn and live in Sabbath rest. 

My dear friend, Kelly Vaughan, who I have written about many times is struggling to find the meaning and application of Sabbath rest too. Her family came up with the 5 Sabbath S's to define what they desire from the Sabbath. I want it to:

SEEK

Fight to seek and worship the Lord in new and fresh ways

SURRENDER

Surrender our plan, agenda, chaos... our norm unto the Lord

SHARE

Share our time, meals, laughter, and life

STORY

Share our story with each other, speak life into one another, remembering that it's His story we are in.

STOP

Cease, rest... savor unhindered and unhurried time as we battle against chaos.

Such sweet words. I want to be teachable in moldable. 

I long for Sabbath rest. 

I am excited about what this could look like in my life and I yearn to know it.

Jesus, INVADE our new home!

(more pictures of our HOME coming soon)


I have been praying over my home this morning. This is the song I prayed over our trailer. It's powerful and I long for Jesus to INVADE every area of our house. To protect it. To have mercy on it. To use it for His glory ALONE. To bring people into it. To heal people through hospitality. To be a place of brokenness and humility before the Lord. To be a place that offers hope, comfort, and joy. 


Here are the lyrics that I have prayed and will continue to pray over our home. I invite you to pray alongside us (Invade by Watermark):

Come, come in, invade all You see of us

Any man, who'd walk Your road is welcomed here

And You're the only one

Oh Jesus, come and walk the halls of this house

Yeah tread this place and turn it inside out, oh with Your mercy

And Jesus teach us the prayers that open these doors

Until Your light floods in and illuminates these floors

And let Your truth be on our steps and in these rooms

Jesus invade, invade

And reach, reach in with the hand that heals all our suffering

Conquer all that is not of You, bring Your spirit through

As we fill these walls with Your praise

And I call for angels

And I call for mercy

And I call for freedom

In the name of Jesus

In the name of Jesus

Come, come in, invade all You see of us

Any man, who'd walk Your road is welcomed here

And You're the only one, You're the only one

And You're the only one

Oh Jesus, come and walk the halls of this house

Yeah tread this place and turn it inside out, oh with Your mercy

And Jesus teach us the prayers that open these doors

Until Your light floods in and illuminates these floors

And let Your truth be on our steps and in these rooms

Jesus invade, invade

As I call for angels

I call for mercy

In the name of Jesus

ThE hOuSe!!!! FiNaLlY!

My husband and I are finally purchasing our first house... TOMORROW!!! 

It's been a crazy ride! I am thankful for a wonderful husband who has put up with me for months and months of house hunting, broken contracts, and LOTS of questions!! 

God is FAITHFUL and His plans are WAY better!! Wow! 

We had been trying to do it our way and our time... of course! God said wait... we didn't listen. 

We found this house about a month ago.... maybe a little longer. It's WONDERFUL! It's the first house we had a true peace about. The other houses we made OKAY in our minds and forced ourselves to think it was "THE ONE!" I said that about every house. Ha! Jacob was a little more rational! boo logic! 

So... this is how it played out:

I became full time July 1st

Jacob got a raise starting July 1st

The owners' of OUR house closing date was July 1st

We are closing July 8th!!! 

God is insane.

Why don't we just listen? I don't know! 

This house was also one of the least expensive, in GREAT condition with character, and the owners offered to pay the closing cost - YES! 

So... without further ado, here is where the Morgans will be residing:

OUR cute house. Yes... there is no FRONT door. How unique are we?? It has a side/front door.

Here is the pretty side/front door.

OUR gold living room!

The cutest built-in shelves I have EVER seen! 

The precious kitchen! It's quite cozy.

The view from the second living room - it's very open and i like it.

The second living room - this will be the Bible Study room :)

The cool cabinet/picture frame holder in the kitchen/living room area

A cute valance I hope the old owners leave! Cross your fingers! 

Appliances...

One guest bedroom - this will be a black and white and grey room! 

another view. 

The other bedroom - this will be the goldy room! 

Em and all BFFs - you can pick which room is yours!!! :) can't wait for you to visit me here.

The cute guest bathroom - already painted GOLD b/c God knows what makes me smile! 

The foyer with a strange wire... who knows! 

Another cute shelf thingy!!! I love them! They are my favs! 

A window! EXCITING! 

Our bedroom with his and her closets!! AWESOME! 

Our bathroom! 

The carport -so the outside needs some landscaping and some TLC. Just give us time! We are excited about the work... well we are excited about the result! 

The future patio and flowery/garden area! 

Another shot! 

Our romantic deck from our bedroom.  We will be adding stuff to that to and planting some COLOR in the yard! 

Walter's BIG back yard!!! He's PUMPED TOO!!! 

The washer and dryer's home!! 

I can't wait! I'm so blessed. Can't wait to see what God has in store for this house! 

Kinda sad to say bye to the trailer... :)