Eteam España~Training Week

I think I am going to do this a little bit different than I first planned...if I put everything I wanted to in one post it would be FOREVER long, and I want to be sure and talk about all the details. So I am going to start with training week!

Please let me tell you how God truly blessed us with an amazing team! We could not have asked for a better group of teens. When this team was put together, God truly had his hand in it. We became not just a team but a family!

Training week~ This week is such a vital part of Eteam, this is where you really get to know the people you will be spending the next 3 weeks with! When you first meet these people, sometimes for the very first time, or for the first time in person, it's sometimes hard to believe that at the end of those 3 weeks you will have become so close that it will hurt to say goodbye!

During training week we had classes on various things, spiritual warfare, biblical basis of missions, life as a missionary, creating meaningful relationships and many others! Damaris, Caitlin, Tyler, Emily, and Justin learned a mime and we all learned three songs in Español, Poderoso (Stonger), Sólo Dios Puede Salvar (Mighty to Save) and Dios de Maravillas (God of Wonders). We also learned face painting and balloon animals skills. Every night we had a service with unbelievable worship services and amazing speakers that challenged us in different ways. On the last day we have the concert of prayer, where you get to pray with your team about different things, and pray for the other teams!

Two of the most important parts of Eteam, in my opinion, are the team building activities and team meetings. As for the team building activities this is where you learn to work together as a team under pressure and under certain circumstances. You start to see how your team will work together not only in those instances, but also on the mission field. Team meetings are where you start opening up to one another, where you can come and ,as Uncle Neil says, "be naked and unashamed", where you can lay down those burdens that you've been carrying and let your team help carry them, where you can sing at the top of your lungs worshiping God together, where you laugh so hard your stomach hurts, and where you know moment by moment your team is becoming a family!

Here are some pictures from training week:

Stay tuned for posts on the rest of our trip!!

Update

I don’t know why it is I forget to blog!? A lot has changed since Christmas. I now work at one of the Elementary Schools where Matt and I live. I am a half day Paraprofessional; I work with children that have behavioral issues. Matt and I actually both work there and work in the same classroom. I love that we both have the schedule now, it is wonderful! Matt and I moved into Matt’s grandma’s house in the first of January. She fell in October and broke her femur; she was put into a nursing home for rehab. So we moved into her house and took on the rent while she is in the nursing home, she was getting so close to getting to come home, but she fell again and it caused her to go back to where she started. Hopefully by the end of the summer she will be as good as new and get to come home.  

Matt and I applied to be E-Team leaders in October, we weren’t sure if we would be accepted this year, because we are both quite young and haven’t been married long. When we applied we knew that if were accepted then it was what God wanted, but if we weren’t accepted it wasn’t what God wanted for us at this point. Both Matt and I went on E-Team when we were in high school, so it holds a very special place in our hearts. We found out in December that we had been accepted to be leaders but didn’t know where we were going yet. I was SO excited when we found out, it came in an email and I nearly cried when I read it! We finally found out in January that we were going to Spain! It has only been 3 months that we have known, but it seems like we have known a lot longer!! We only have 59 days until we finally get to meet our team in person. We will go to Nashville on June 7^th and stay there for a week for training, learning songs in their language and a mime. I cannot tell you how excited Matt and I are for June to get here!!

Matt will hopefully get a job this fall at a school in either the Tulsa or OKC area. He has taken one of his tests to be a teacher, but he still has more to take and we are waiting for the results from his first test. I will be really starting my degree this fall once I start at either OSU-OKC or TCC. It is scary not knowing what the next few months will hold for us, but we just have to trust God and wait on his timing to know where we will be.

I cannot wait to share with you about E-Team, and where God takes us. I will try to be better about remembering to blog. Hope you have a great week!

First Christmas

Our First Christmas went great! We had 3 Christmas Celebrations. The First was on Friday Night with Matt’s Family, his Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, Parents and Brother. We ate dinner, played Minute to Win it, and exchanged gifts. Our Second Celebration was with Matt’s Dad, Mom and Brother on Christmas Eve. We had a fun time; we had a late present exchange because Matt’s Dad had to work until 830! The Third Celebration was with my parents on Christmas morning; we opened presents and then went to Church. Church was great. We sang Christmas Carrols and had a message and then we got to partake in Family Communion. My parents came down here for Christmas because Matt unfortunately had to work from 11-7 on Christmas. I guess technically we had 4 Christmas’ because when Matt got off we had dinner with his and my parents and brother. It was a lot of fun, we had dinner and played games!

On December 15 Matt Graduated from East Central University with his Bachelors in Biology with a concentration in Education. He started shortly after as a Para for 2-4 grade kids. He is going to start applying for teaching jobs in the summer. I am so very proud of him!  

We are going to be spending New Years with my parents, I am very excited to go to Tulsa, this will be the first time in a little over a month, too long! Mom and I are going to do our annual baking Monday! Can’t Wait!

I hope you enjoy the pictures, just a few of our Christmas Decorations…I had forgot and took my nativity scene down without taking pictures, oops.

Happy New Year!!

Fabric Christmas Tree Tutorial

This is my first shot at a tutorial, so bare with me. I found this in a magazine to do for my photography class. We were assigned to find a magazine and re create a item with our own idea with pictures. So I immediately wanted to do something crafty, and since Christmas is right around the corner there was a Holiday Craft magazine. So here we go. . .


Step 1:
Gather all your materials, here's what you'll need.

Materials Needed:

-Canvas (I used an 8x10, the bigger the canvas the bigger the tree and smaller canvas smaller tree)
-Christmas Fabric (I just got like 9 inches of each one)
-Brown Fabric
-Buttons
-Red and Green Thread and Needle
-I found some super cute little lights in the craft section of Walmart that came in a package.
-I had some red star buttons so I used that as my topper (you could find angel buttons or use whatever you wanted to us.
-Hot Glue gun
-Different size circle items (I used a milk jug lid, ibuprofen lid, and a water bottle lid)
-Scissors
-Pencil

Step 2:
      I started by picking my favorite fabric and tracing my circles. I did 3-4 circles on each fabric. I   always find it easier to use the back to trace on, that way if you don't cut right on the line it won't matter, and your line is usually easier to see.

Step 3:

     

     Once you have several circles cut out, its time to start placing your circles on the canvas in the shape of a tree, its really up to on how close together you want the circles. This is where you'll want to add you buttons and if you get the little lights put that on there also. Take a picture of what you decide so you can go back and look at it, because you'll have to take everything off to sew the circles and buttons on.

Step 4:

     Then start your sewing!! It's always sew much fun, hahahaha. When you are all done sewing you'll need to put your lights on, I hot glued my lights on, also the star and bottom on tree trunk was where I couldn't sew, so I just tied thread through my star then glued the star and sewed half the trunk and glued the rest.

 Tada, the finished project.

I hope you enjoy making yours!! 

Short and Sweet

So it has been awhile, once again! I no longer work at Scraptopia, I now work at Bath and Body Works. I had orientation last Thursday and I have register training next Friday night! So for now I am being a substitute when needed and going to class! Oh and making stuff! :) which makes me very happy! I think I will post some of those pictures. I finally got a camera! Its a Nikon D90!! I love it, it really has me in the mood to shoot some pictures! I want to shoot some portraits outside! I am really looking forward to taking some pictures with Matt this Fall! :) He doesnt know about it yet haha! So we live in the Married Student Apartments, and there are a bunch of little kiddos around, and I am hoping that they go trick or treating here haha, I am looking forward to that! Yeah so this post is super random! This weekend Matt and I are going to Tulsa, my cousin Jake and his wife Sommer are coming to visit from North Carolina! He just got home a couple weeks ago from Afghanistan, he was there since Feburary! I can not wait to see them!! Well I think thats all for now!

2 Months 2 Long!

It has been so long since I have posted!! A lot has happened in 2 months! Matt and I’s wedding went wonderfully! It was everything I dreamed it would be! We also got our engagement pictures taken, haha they were a little late, but at least we were able to get some! We had a lot of fun doing that. Karla, my mom’s friend took them for us! After we were done with our pictures my mom and dad met up with us and we took some Family pictures!

Matt had planned out honeymoon and it was a surprise, He told me during the ceremony! You know when the Bride and Groom does the unity candle/unity sand/ or in our case the Unity Cross and then they stand there during the song and talk? Well that is when he told me that we were going to San Antonio! I was so excited!! We had a blast! We stayed right on the River Walk, it was so beautiful! We went to Seaworld, I LOVED Seaworld! That night we ate with some friends that were going through San Antonio at Hard Rock Café, it was quite tasty, and it was fun to catch up! We and took a tour of a Cavern, it was really pretty, but so incredibly hot! It was I think they said in the 80’s with 99.9% humidity! We came out looking gross! On our way back from the Cavern (while I was taking a little nap hehe) Matt saw a restaurant called “Texas De Brazil” and told that he wanted to pick dinner and told me what it was and that he wanted to take me! Oh My Goodness, it was amazing!!! In Brazil they have this drink called “Guarana” and it’s a pop, kinda like sprite, but so much better! Luckily they ladies next to us had it setting on their table because I almost missed out on having it! After dinner we went see Cars 2! It was really good! On the last day we took a river boat tour, which was neat and interesting! We also went to the Alamo; it was nice to see, but not much to see. We checked out the big mall, and then headed home! We stopped at the Tanger Outlet Mall and then in Dallas we stopped and had Rainforest Café for dinner, Yummy!!! We had a great time!! We are hoping to go back in November, when we bought our tickets for Seaworld we had a coupon and we were able to get in for kids price and a second visit free, but it expires on January 1,2011 so we have to go soon if we can! And around Christmas they decorate, and from what I have read they have a “Polar Express” theme, and if you know anything about me you know that I LOVE Christmas and The Polar Express!! So I really hope that we are able to go! Since we have been married we have been just trying to get our apartment all in order. We cleared out our spare room for when my parents came down and brought us my bed for the spare room, but when they brought that they also brought the rest of my junk and we still have to go through that! Yuck! Someday (probably when we are moving out) we will get it all organized!

So I have a new obsession, Pinterest! Some of you may know what it is, I didn’t until Friday afternoon and I am already hooked! I love making things!! So it is right up my alley! Pinterest….let me try to explain it. When you become a member you are able to make these boards, which you pin pictures on….they have categories that you can look at that other pictures that people have pinned…my favorite section in DIY & Crafts! When you see something you like you can repin it to one of your boards…the pictures are usually from someone’s blog and you can click on the picture and it will take you to their blog where you then learn how to make whatever it is! Brilliant! You can also be browsing the internet and see on someone’s blog something you would like to have on your board, once you have downloaded the pin it button you can pin away! I haven’t yet tried that, but it sounds easy! So if you haven’t seen this amazing website, you should check it out…you don’t have to be a member to browse!!

Well I think that is all I have for this post! I’ll try not to wait 2 months to post again! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the Big Day!

I Love Stevies Face in this one!

The Strong Guys

Matt and His Mom and Dad

I Love this one!

Me and My daddy Walking down the isle!

With this Ring

Michael and Stevies Faces are Priceless

This is our special pose

Like Father like Daughter

My Wonderful Girls!

Our Cake

This was such a special moment!

Sommer had a letter my cousin Jake,

who is in Afghanistan, wrote for Matt

and I, and she read it to us.

Our First Dance as Mr. and Mrs.

Father Daughter Dance

Me and Mom dancing the night away

Matt Grooms Cake