JJ Heller- New CD- Painted Red

JJ Heller is one of my FAVORITE artists. She is so transparent and genuine in all of her songs. And to top it off & become even AWESOMER (wow, I made that one up!!), she is offering her new CD, Painted Red, for free! All you have to do is download it to your computer :) So, you, YES YOU who are reading this, GO AND DOWNLOAD IT! You will not be disappointed!!! And please please please share the good news with all of your friends!
http://www.jjheller.com/

P.S. I will post her banner on this page so that you can go directly to her site :)

P.S.S. It's only available for a limited time! So, do it today!!
Am I a salesperson or what?!?! :)

Dream On

I feel like I often lose sight of my dreams. Life gets busy, time is precious, and there just isn't enough energy left in the day to do the things that you are truly passionate about.

Recently, I was hanging out with some of my lovely high school girls from our youth group, and I was reminded of a few of my dreams that seem to have floated away with the busyness. I just love mentoring. Not only does it give me the satisfaction of pouring into someone's life, and letting God use me, but it also gets me outside of myself a little bit. I stop focusing on me. One of my biggest passions in life is really getting to know people. People are so fascinating to me. There are so many layers to peel, and as you watch people come unraveled in all of their vulnerability and brokenness, you are able to see the most amazing picture of Christ. You see that person for who they really are, and who Christ made them to be.

I guess the coolest thing about having dreams is that I believe that they are God-ordained. They aren't like goals that eventually come to an end, they keep going, and eventually grow into something way bigger. And most of the time, they are self-less. A dream is making something happen that doesn't seem realistic, and from hearing other people's dreams, it's about having your spirit and other people's spirits be filled & satisfied.

I think that when we compromise on only doing day to day living, we miss out. We miss out on what we could really be capable of. We miss out on our specific purpose that God has blessed on each of us individually. We miss out on building our story.

My Dreams:

1) Starting some kind of ministry for teenage girls. Not necessarily about purity, but about character & integrity. I would love to someday have a summer camp completely dedicated to girls growing in their faith and setting themselves apart from the world & terrible culture we live in today.

2) This seems simple, but one of my biggest dreams/goal is to know and be comfortable with who God made me to be. Not who the world says I am. And completely embrace that!

3) To possibly start a church plant someday. Well not just me, with Adam of course! And effect our community in a huge way.

Those are just some of them. There are many many more.

The Middle Name Game

I was tagged by Shannon to do this fun little name game...so here goes!

The Rules:

1. You have to post the rules before you give the facts.
2. You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life that corresponds with each letter of your middle name.
3. At the end of your post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

M- Maternal. I love babies, and hope to have MANY some day!

A- Apples are not my favorite fruit. I usually take one to work with me, then leave it somewhere around the office...so at the end of the week, I have like 4 laying around! ha!...............................I had to dig for this one, if you couldn't already tell!!!!

R- Reality Television. There is something about it I can't get enough of...people are interesting, what can I say?!

I- Introvert. It seems like I'm an extrovert, but deep down, I'm actually quite the thinker & analyzer.

A- Always working. I'm hardly ever home. Whether it be my actual work, youth group, house work, whatever, I am always going.
That was hard!!! I'm not that good at this! That was for you Shannon :)

I don't have a ton of other bloggers I know, so I will do the usual :)
1. Jessica, 2. Ashley, 3.Karilee, 4. Jenny

We are Blessed!

The pictures above are from a resort Adam and & I are going to this weekend called Westin La Paloma Resort in Tucson. This is where our church's marriage retreat will be held this year. We hadn't planned on going originally since it was quite the wad of cash, AND we are in our still in our "get-out-of-debt-in-a-year" plan , so we decided to decline. FORTUNATELY, some of the people at our church offered us a SWEET discount so that we would be able to go! We really felt like we would be missing out if we didn't go, and we were totally bummed about it, but NOW we get to! Yay!!!

This will be our 3rd time going ... wow, that's weird we have been married that long!... and each time we have gone it has been amazing. We have learned some life-changing and extremely practical ways to improve on our communication, among other things, and we are just so thankful that we get to go again. The two couples that are speaking throughout the weekend are such real & genuine people, which is great because it really opens all of us "attendees" up to be vulnerable & honest. It's all about Conflict-Resolution this year, so hopefully we will bring back some good helpful tips!

Happy retreating to US!!!!