I Married a Warrior

Greg announced to me this past week that he is going to participate in this.



Warrior Dash.



3.5 miles of crazy obstacles. Think 5K run meets Wipe Out (tv show).

Mud, fire, water, forests, gale force winds. Costume optional, but there is a contest. You get a helmet like the one in the logo picture.



I think this looks miserable. Greg is ecstatic. But I am going to paint Greg's chest like a warrior so I am excited about that.



The Warrior dash is coming to Texas May 1, 2010. It is in Forney, Texas (near Dallas).



Greg has started recruiting some friends to do this with him.



Ladies, if your husband is crazy like mine and wants to sign up to do the warrior dash, we can all road-trip it to Dallas and cheer on our men. Let me know!


PS- Lauren, make some room - we are staying with you! And maybe some friends too?

This post is long over due. My blogging has been very inconsistent. Jenny tagged me a while ago and I have been meaning to do this. I had to navigate through her old posts to even find the questions. But better late than never!


1. Where is your cell phone: Somewhere in this apartment. I usually just call it from Greg's phone to locate it.

2. Your hair: Bedtime-do

3. Your mother: Creative genius

4. Your father: Wise in all things

5. Your favorite food: Cafe Red Onion

6. Your dream from last night: Don't remember. But I dream all the time. Even when I fall asleep in the car on a 10 minute car ride, I will start to dream.

7. Your favorite drink: Diet Root Beer

8. Your dream/goal: Still figuring that out

9. What room are you in: Living room

10. What is your hobby: Cake decorating, frisbee golf with Greg, making crafty things, reading blogs

11. What is your fear: Being a widow

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years: A mommy!

13. Where were you last night: At Olive Garden with the Perots

14. Something you are not: Bilingual

15. Muffins: Pumpkin chocolate chip are my new fav

16. Wish List items.: furniture

17. Where did you grow up: native Houstonion :)

18. Last thing you did: Fell victim to a flying head-butt by Greg. Running dive, head meets hip. That could leave a bruise. Greg needs a son.

19. What are you wearing: A hybrid mix of church clothes and pj's. That is weird.

20. Your TV: Found out we had been receiving free premium cable for a year and a half. After moving apartment units we realized we actually only get 13 channels now. None of which interest me. Stink.

21. Your pets: None

22. Your friends: Love to be around

23. Your life: Blessed

24. Your mood: Relaxed

25. Missing someone: I guess family, and extended family. I could always use more family time.

26. Vehicle: Olivia is her name. I am very fond of her. Although she attracts door dings from other people. I think I get a new one a week.

27. Something your not wearing: Make up. I am about to go to bed.

28. Your favorite store: Target, Hobby Lobby, the Limited

29. Your favorite color: Blue

30. When's the last time you laughed: Earlier when Greg charged at me with his head

31. When's the last time you cried: About a week ago. House hunting can be emotional.

32. Your best friend: Girl: Lindsay, Guy: Greg

33. One place you go over and over: Work, Kroger, Church

34. One person who emails me regularly: Greg, usually daily

35. Favorite place to eat?: Red Onion

I said a Boom Chicka Boom!

Is that how you spell that? If you are wondering what that means, then you should go on a middle school retreat. I just got back from the Middle School Retreat at Lake Tomahawk, and I had a great time with all the kids! All girls in one bunk room, all guys in another. Craziness from morning til night. Yellow school buses to and from. Lots of singing Taylor Swift songs. Camp food. What more can you ask for? Here are the highlights:

French braiding girls hair at midnight

The perfect October weather

S'mores! You can't leave camp with out em. Some kids couldn't leave camp without 8 of them. Yeah. That is the answer I got to "What number s'more are ya on there?". Yikes. What does that equate to...like 4 Hershey bars?


Playing Zip Boing (a ridiculously funny game involving covering your teeth with your lips and not being allowed to laugh/show them)


Watching 6th grade boys unashamedly and passionately lip sync every word to Miley Cyrus "It's the climb".

Ok, girls were singing too. It was just wasn't as funny as the boys because it is more expected.

Sitting around a picnic table as my girls eagerly look up scripture verses.

Watching a "who-can-finish-their-lunch-faster" contest involving nacho cheese & lettuce coated fingers and faces.

Hearing songs I haven't heard in years. Ex: "I'm squishing up my baby bumble bee, won't my mommy be so proud of me..." and "Hi, my name is Joe, I've got a wife and 3 kids and I work in a factory". Anyone? Anyone? Those are the classics.

Getting to know lots of kids I didn't know before.

Camp games. Who comes up with these things? Pelting the opposite team with flour filled socks? 1 part pain, 2 parts fun!

Learning more about the fruits of the spirit and hearing all the kids recite Galatians 5:22-23.

Overall, an awesome weekend. I just woke up from a 2 hour nap to tell about it. That feels better :)

Here is a picture of some of the 6th grade girls.

C'mon girls, picture time, try to form a clump.

There we go!

The Bright Side of Moving

Well, we moved apartments this weekend! We are now the proud renters of a first floor apartment in the same complex. It wasn't the worst thing ever. In fact, it was a pretty easy move. Mainly due to the fact that...(drum roll please)...we got movers! It was absolutely worth it. We were planning on moving ourselves until the boxes began to accumulate, and accumulate, and accumulate. Granted, it is only a one bedroom apartment, but still, it seemed like an overwhelming task. Plus, we were on the third floor. I now LOVE getting movers. They did a great job, and got the whole thing done in under 2 hours. We still had plenty do as far as unpacking, organizing, and cleaning the old place, but things went so much faster with movers. We are pretty much all organized in our new place, and we have cleaned out the old. All in one weekend! I am so happy about that.

So to look on the bright side of moving apartments, here is a list of the good things that have come out of this move.

1) We are now on the first floor- no more carrying groceries up stairs!

2) We have wood floors. I love them! Some apartments in this complex have them, some don't. We didn't realize until we moved in that this one did. It makes the fact that we have cardboard boxes everywhere just a tad more classy. Yep, the boxes are staying like that. Since we are still hoping to find a house soon, we are not unpacking all of our boxes.

3) We are closer to the parking garage. I know this sounds lazy, but it is nice :)

4) Since our new place is the same layout as our old, when unpacking, I didn't have to decide - hmm...where should the bowls go? I just knew. To the right of the microwave, of course.

5) We got rid of some old stuff; such as tylenol that expired in March of 2007, and some old flip flops.

6) We are partially pre-packed for our next move. We are saving all our boxes and packing material so we will be ready to go at any time.

7) Greg and I are getting to practice patience, and contentment. We are fine where we are, and will wait on God's timing for when/if he provides us with a house.

8) We get a chance to be in our third "love nestle" together. That is Greg's phrase. No, not "love nest", "love nestle".

The Stinkertons

We are going on night 3 of an unusable shower.

After several months, Greg and I finally got tired of taking shaths (the dreaded shower-bath that results from a slow/clogged drain where you are standing in 4 inches of water but actually taking a shower).

Greg tried some draino, but to no avail. Actually, things came to a complete halt. Water no longer draining, and actually coming up from the drain. Not a good sign. This took place on Saturday night.

Night 1 solution: Hope the water is gone in the morning.

Water not gone in the morning. Wash hair in sink. Convince self that yesterday's shower still has 5 more hours before it wears off, enough to get you through church. Double up on deodorant and perfume.

Night 2 solution: Maintenance can't come til Monday. Pack up shampoo and towels and go to the Brandenbergers house to shower. Fresh and clean. Thanks guys!

Night 3 solution: I guess maintenance didn't have time to get to our request. Greg and I take different approaches.

Greg's approach: Pre-soap loofa, hop in shower for no more than 13 seconds, hop out and remove all of the accumulated water by means of bucket and cup. A sink hair-washing is scheduled for the morning.

My approach: Decide my lunch time post-workout shower at our work gym is enough to get me through tomorrow. Do a sink hair-washing and call it good enough.

If maintenance doesn't come tomorrow and you are friends with us...and live within 8 miles of us...and have a working shower...and we are close enough friends to where it is not awkward to come over to shower only...you might be getting a call...don't screen our call.

**Ok, I know this is not actually a big deal. Many people do not even have running water, so this tiny inconvenience is nothing. I just needed something to blog about, and this was the current event in our household.

Momentary Marriage

Today as Greg and I were listening to part II of the Matt Chandler sermon we started this weekend, he used in his teaching the parable in Luke 20 where the Sadducees ask Jesus about marriage in Heaven. Here is the passage in Luke.

Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question.

"Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"

Jesus replied, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage... Luke 20:27-35

No marriage in Heaven? This is a hard teaching to think about.

We were discussing this topic with Greg's family the last time we were in Waco. It a strange thing to think about. But I think Greg's mom said it well when she said that there is no purpose for marriage in Heaven. Marriage on earth is a picture of Christ and the Church. When we are in Heaven, we will no longer need a reflection of that, because we will have the real thing. That is hard to understand though. More along the lines of impossible...at least for me. It is hard to imagine what relationships will be like in Heaven. Will we just be so consumed with being in the presence of Christ that we will not be concerned with others? Or will we in our perfected state have perfection in all relationships with others? For a newlywed, it doesn't sound like the most awesome idea to have no marriage in Heaven. But who am I to question God about His knowing what is best and most wonderful? If there was marriage in Heaven, what would you do if you were married to more than one person? Or what if you were single your whole life but wanted to be married - then for eternity would you have to be single? That doesn't sound fun. I guess it is just going to be completely different in Heaven and we can't understand it until we get there. Greg said we could just be BFFEEs (Best Friends For Ever Eternally) and high five each other.

Matt Chandler didn't go deep into this passage since it wasn't really the point of his sermon series. However, he did mention that John Piper wrote an excellent book on this topic titled, This Momentary Marriage.

I immediately looked up the book and guess what.....you can download it for FREE on John Piper's website! How cool is that of him to let anyone download and read his book for free! Go here for a preview of the book, which has a link to download it as well.

I am only a few pages in to the book but I can tell already that I am really going to enjoy it. I am tempted to stay up really late reading it, but I think I need to put it on hold tonight, and get some sleep.

I'll end with a quote from what I just read...

"There is no human marriage after death. The shadow of covenant-keeping between husband and wife gives way to the reality of covenant keeping between Christ and his glorified church. Nothing is lost. The music of every pleasure is transposed into an infinitely higher key." John Piper, This Momentary Marriage.

Weekend Report

This weekend was nice and relaxing. Nothing too eventful. Friday Greg and I relaxed and started on season 7 of 24 (once again, some sweet friends let us borrow it!). I love this season already. I also did a little furniture shopping...although I'm not really sure why since we just signed a 4 month lease at our apartment complex! Yep, that is right, we are going to stay here for a while longer while we continue the house hunt. But staying in the same unit is just too boring so we are switching it up. Who doesn't love packing up all their stuff and moving out of a 3rd floor apartment? Since we did give our 60 day moving out notice, someone else is already scheduled to move into our unit. That means we have to be out. But, we are so grateful that there is a first floor apartment we can move in to. YAY! We thought we were going to have to move to another 3rd floor apartment at first, but this is so much better. And even though it is not the most convenient thing to do, it is really not that big of a deal, and we are still trusting that God will lead us where he wants us in His perfect timing. We are very thankful that our complex worked with us to get a decent rate on a short term lease (and again, one that is on the first floor), and we will just wait to see what happens next. Maybe we will find a house soon, or maybe we will sign another lease after that. Either way, it is sort of a fun adventure.

And just for the record, this will be the THIRD unit that Greg has lived in. He lived in this complex several years ago before we dated, but had moved out since. I told the leasing managers we needed a frequent leasers punch card. Maybe something like sign 4 leases get the 5th one free? Well, it is unlikely that we will be getting free rent but at least we have been getting plenty of free candy from the leasing office. They always have big bowls of chocolates everywhere. Sometimes I just want to find an excuse to get more Hershey's special dark. Hey it's me again...just thinkin about signing another lease, got any good deals? oh I guess I'll just take a few more candies while you get me that quote. Anyway, back to this weekend.

Saturday Greg and I went out to eat with some friends at Canyon Cafe. That place is so great. The best part is those frozen white chocolate things they serve in the tamale wrappers (what are those called, corn husks?)

Today Greg and I enjoyed a great morning at Church, then played disc golf. This is one of my new favorite things. I love ultimate frisbee, but had never played disc golf until a few months ago. Now Greg and I play fairly often and it is so much fun. Then we came home and I tried out a new recipe - Turkey cutlets with roasted potatoes and mushrooms. It was really good - although I don't think I did the turkey exactly right. I know for next time though. My friend Lindsay gave me a whole stack of theses cooking magazines and I am looking forward to trying out lots of new recipes. I may post some in the future. After dinner I made a few fondant flowers while Greg and I listened to a Matt Chandler sermon. He is the pastor at the Village Church in Dallas which Greg and I have been to several times and really like him. All his sermons are online so sometimes we like to listen to those. Now it is time to go to bed early and get a good night sleep :)