Weekend Fun

Do you three faithful readers (ha!) that I have ever get tired of hearing about where I've been or how busy my life is?!?!  Well... it's finally caught up with me!!  I. Am. Exhausted.  Physically, emotionally and mentally.  In fact, I'm so exhausted that instead of coming home after spending a week in NOLA at school, that I hit the road again and went to Jackson and Oxford last weekend!! 

I got to spend some much needed time with the Ricker's and some of my other Clintonian friends over Follies, dinner, game day and my new favorite, frozen yogurt!!

 And we watched Ole Miss play a good game, but suffer a tough loss!!  

 Last week I got to have my new favorite dessert at Tutti Fruitti in New Orleans, Yog'n Fruit in Clinton and NOW @ YOO YOO'S IN MERIDIAN!!!  Yes, ya'll--- we FINALLY have an ice cream shop!!  

 A loonnngg time ago we used to have a TCBY in North Meridian and I LOVED to get a waffle cone with strawberry yogurt and rainbow sprinkles.  Oh how I missed that place!  We haven't really had a good yogurt shop like that since... Until Now!!

  Look at this wall of frozen yogurt choices... cheesecake, chocolate, peanut butter, strawberry and so many more...

 and all of these toppings.... 

It is SO good!!  I highly recommend you making a visit.  I'm picking up Harper from school next week and we WILL be going for her first little visit!!  

Little Big Sis!!

Sunday afternoon I got to spend some time out at Harper's house lovin' on her and the newest addition, Charlee Kate!  Harper was LOVING all this attention and wanted to be silly!  Hope you've had a great Thursday and that your weekend will be so fun and relaxing!

Mega Church

Last Thursday night I went to Memphis to a HUGE Christian concert at Bellevue Baptist!!  The Afters, Sanctus Real, Lindsey McCaul and Casting Crowns!!  It was fabulous.  

Two weeks ago when I was at Catalyst, my friend Peyton invited us to dinner and to go to First Baptist Woodstock!!  Oh. My. Word. Talk about a Mega Church.  This place was massive.  They had almost 600 youth in their Wednesday night service.  Their worship center is round.  If you walk around it 10 times, then you will have successfully walked ONE MILE.  It's big.  

So, last Thursday was the second time that I had been to a mega church.  Now, I'm not so sure which one is bigger, because they were both 15 times the size of FBCM, but they were both huge.  Anyway, as  we were looking for our seats, one of the greeters looked at me and said, "Now, mam, you can go in this door, or there are eleven other doors to the lower level of the sanctuary just down to the right of this one."  I totally just laughed in her face.  Anyway, it was such a great night!  Had so much fun :) 

Jesus Calling

Just thought I'd share this with you today.  This came from the Jesus Calling devotional that we did this morning in class.  It was something that I needed to hear today. 

"Go gently through this day, keeping your eyes on Me.  I will open up the way before you, as you take steps of trust along your path.  Sometimes the way before you appears to be blocked.  If you focus on the obstacle or search for a way around it, you will probably go off course.  Instead, focus on Me, the Shepherd who is leading you along your life-journey.  Before you know it, the "obstacle" will be behind you and you will hardly know how you passed through it.  

That is the secret of success in My kingdom.  Although you remain aware of the visible world around you, your primary awareness is of Me.  When the road before you looks rocky, you can trust Me to get you through that rough patch.  My presence enables you to face each day with confidence."  

"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me- just as the Father knows me and I know the Father- and I lay down my life for the sheep." John 10:14-15

"The path of the righteous is level; O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth." 

Isaiah 26:7

Be Present

As most of you know, I'm in my 4th year of Seminary and HOPE to graduate next year with my Master of Arts in Christian Education degree *fingers crossed!!*

A big part of my degree program is to travel to New Orleans and to the hub campus in Atlanta to take workshops.  As most students do, I put all of these hours off until the very end... all 30 of them.  HA!  You see, I spent the first three years of seminary driving back and forth to Clinton, MS every Monday for class and I've been working the whole time.  So needless to say, adding additional workshops was the last thing on my mind... until NOW!  

My friend Ashley & I loaded up last week and headed to Atlanta to the Catalyst Conference.  Of course we HAD to visit The Varsity for dinner the very first night we were there.  I'm not sure why, but this was first visit.  I wasn't all that impressed with the food, but I can say that I experienced the whole "What'll You Have" fun that everyone has when they visit this landmark!!

I'll admit, I went in blind for this conference.  I was just thinking that it was going to be boring ole school and that I'd be bored most of the time.  BOY WAS I WRONG!!  We joined with 13,000 other "leaders" in the Gwinnett Arena and listened to names like Andy Stanley, Dave Ramsey, Priscilla Shirer, Francis Chan, Mark Batterson, Joel Houston and Hillsong, Mark Driscoll, Jim Collins, Blake Mycoskie (the TOMS guy), Katie Davis, and my new personal favorite, Judah Smith.  Ya'll.  Oh my word.  I can't even begin to tell you everything that I learned from spending three days with these people.  We were able to worship.  We were able to spend lots of time in prayer.  We were able to escape from our "real world" of answering emails and texts and worrying about school and work and were able to listen to the One who matters the Most.  I came back from the conference with a whole new meaning of what it means to truly "BE PRESENT" in every little thing I do.  It's not going to be easy, but I'm having to learn to get rid of a lot of stuff in my life that doesn't matter anymore so that I won't experience burnout and most importantly that I'll be able on focusing on the calling that God has given me in my life.  

Not only were we able to listen to all of these speakers, we were part of a record breaking experience.  We read the entire Bible in 60 seconds.  Yep, all 13,000 of us.  We each were given a postcard with a portion of scripture and on the count of 3, we all went to reading it aloud.  It was actually a really awesome experience!  

Jeff Foxworthy also made an appearance and talked about his volunteer work with Mission Atlanta.  This is a shelter for men that are struggling with addiction or don't have a place to live.  Jeff leads a Bible Study each Tuesday and brought two of the men he mentors and disciples with him to the conference.  They have broken away from the chains of addiction and they are actually on the streets, helping bring men into the shelter so that they will be able to know the Lord too.  One of the problems they were faced with is that they didn't have transportation to get to certain parts of Atlanta.  Catalyst surprised these two men with a brand new Ford Focus and I'm pretty sure that there were 13,000 people with tears flowing!  It was an absolutely overwhelming experience!!

We had great seats, so I was able to get some really good pictures of some of the speakers! 

She's Here!!!

The day that my family had been waiting on for the past nine months finally arrived last Wednesday when my sweet cousin Erin went into the hospital to be induced so that we could meet our sweet new baby cousin!  

 Well she's here!!!  

 Charlee Kate Miller

October 12, 2011

6 pounds 6 ounces

20 1/2 inches long

 and she is ABSOLUTELY perfect in every single way!  We thank God for her and for her health and know that she will bless our lives greatly in the days ahead!!