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Saturday, July 30, 2011

The Beginning and the End

The end of the week was a good, productive one. After spending the night with Rachel I went and ate breakfast with man lil man Ryder and his mom Kati. We had a great conversation about life, boys, and of course my favorite SCENTSY! Katis blog is katisgetaway.blogspot.com go check it out!! She blogs about Ryder and he is truly a one of a kind precious little boy!






That afternoon I went and had lunch with my family at Panera and then took my cousin (and miss arkansas Princess) Jessica to see Winnie the Pooh. I have been dying to see it and really wanted Taylor to take me, but when I thought about it I thought it would be a great day date for me and my little girl!! It was soo cute! She is one of a kind and has my heart!




Thursday night I drove to East Arkansas to see Taylor! We went to Genes BBQ with Papa Ron it was really good food! I have so much fun with him!! Here are some pictures of Moro! It is definitely Gods country! I love driving to east Arkansas because I love seeing Taylor and going to his house but I love seeing all of the farmland! It's fun for me.














How beautiful!!




I haven't posted about cupcakes in a while - so I thought I'd show you one of the books I found, but did not buy, at Barnes and Noble today! Instead I bought Grace of Lineage by Francine Rivers. Itdocuments and tells the stories of 5 women in the bible and how god blessed them though their circumstances. I'm excited to get started reading it.

I initially went in to see if they had Beth Moore's study Living Free. I wanted to do a short study in between moving churches to Waco. Have you done it? If so, let me know how it is! I'm excites about it.

I watched Fireproof again Thursday night and then scene skipped to the middle on Friday and watched the back half! I love it.

I have been thinking a lot lately about prayer, what I pray for, who I pray for, and if I really pray constantly. Prayer is one thing I struggle with because I usually pray for ME. that is so selfish! I've been really convicted about praying for others lately and in turn my problems don't seem so large. I'm blessed truly, and for my prayers to sound like I need this and this and change this - just seems wrong that I tell the god of the universe what I need! He knows! Instead I should be praising him. I was on my way to st Louis last night and a song came on the radio... It sang Yahweh Yahweh I shout your name - or something like that. Do I ever shout Gods name? I should. And I probably don't do it enough!

One of my biggest fears on going to Baylor is that I will be alone. I know I will miss my family and friends and this special guy ;) It's inevitable - but I find solace in the verse genesis 2:18 - it's not good for man to be alone. God wants me to find friends and o impact others lives for his glory! My mission going to Waco is to change lives and impact others. I want my time there to be worth it and to be glorifying to God.

I write my blog and share with you some intimate desires and longings in my heart because Proverbs 27:17 says we are to be iron sharpening iron and to be besides each other through life. I want to share so that you might be encouraged.

Today be charmed!

Abby

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Fireproof

I will get to the reason this post is called fireproof later on - but first, let me catch you up on my life!

In 2 weeks I am moving to Waco.  I do not want to go.  I am reluctant to go.  Most likely it is because of my last post.  It's fun dating and being with the man you are crazy about.  God has blessed me so much with him and I can not imagine life without him.  However, in 2 weeks I will be leaving everything that I know as right and comfortable and moving to a place where I know no one.  How scary is that!

There are some things that you need when you move.  Besides your shoes and jewelry, which by the way if you know of any safe, organized, and compact way of traveling with tons of shoes and lots of necklaces and earrings - pretty please post and let me know because I am at a loss for packing!  ha Anyways - you need furniture (and you need your sidekick - okay so that was cheesy - but I will miss him :)

So I went to Ashley's Furniture Homestore in Benton.  why did I go there?  Because one of my best friends Bethany worked there and there is an Ashley's in Waco and I had this fabulous idea that if I found furniture I liked here that the people at Ashley's would be nice enough to give me the SKU numbers of the pieces I liked.  Seems like I was dreaming.

Play by play.

Abby and Mom walk in.  4 Sales Reps walk up and greet us with big smiles.  Mom tells story about Waco. 4 Sales Reps FLEE.  We search for furniture for an hour and a half.  Still No help!  We ask for SKU numbers.  They say We don't know!  I take pictures.  I call Ashley's in Waco.  THEY HELPED ME!

After multiple conversations with some dude at the Ashley's in Waco - I have bought my furniture and it will be here - well in 3.5 weeks.  Guess what!  I move in in 2 weeks!  I will be sleeping on a blow up mattress for a week and a half!  WELCOME TO WACO!  So I will be driving back my first weekend in Waco because I don't have furniture and because Taylor is playing in a softball tournament and I want to watch!

Here are the pieces I ordered:  Hope you like!








The other night I went out with Ashlee, Aaren, and Caitlin to Zaxby's and the Movies.  We went and saw Friends with Benefits.  Well, they watched it.  I left after 5 minutes and came in just in time to see the credits.  Let me tell you one thing - if you liked that movie I am praying for your soul.  I was so mortified, embarrassed, and violated at that movie.  I should have known not to go into an R rated movie that was titled Friends with Benefits - I was stupid.  Tomorrow I will se Winnie the Pooh with Jessica!  So excited for that day date with my princess.  Surely I will take tons of pictures!!


Philippians 4:8 (NIV84)
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.





I went to Moro last night to see Taylor.  We went to eat with his mom and let me tell you, I have been craving Ameca - and you can only eat it in Forrest City so why not go there.  I just wanted their Pollo Fundido!  Mrs. Lisa (Taylor's Mom) introduced me to Don Jose's!  Oh my goodness, it is easily in top 5 best Tex Mex Fat Food Restaurants Ever!  It was so good!  So if you are ever in Forrest City - go to Don Jose's it's on the Left side of the Freeway coming from Little Rock.

After dinner we went to Dr. Perkins house and watered his flowers because he was out of town.  He had so many flowers - but they were beautiful!  I had so much fun hanging out with Taylor and his mom.  It's so nice just to be around him.  We have been long distance for 5 months, now that we are together it's very BLISSFUL!



This is what I found in my passenger seat when I got in the car!  Isn't it beautiful!  Taylor is such a sweetheart.  Sorry if I talk about him too much - but he is really amazing.  And since he hasn't really met anybody I am trying to introduce him and keep y'all updated on us until you do get to meet him!

Today I went and got my hair done by Robin - we always have the best talks!  I look forward to seeing her every time.  Today we talked about life and moving to Waco and of course... Taylor!  Steven, her husband, and she dated for 6 years before getting married and now have a precious baby named Raffi!  She is a chunk, but rightfully so - she is adorable!

I went to babysit my 2 favorite little girls in the world this afternoon.  They made me do Dance Dance Wii - whatever it's called and they "tricked" me by saying oh these are the easiest ones.  Yah, they were rolling on the floor laughing at me doing the russian dance and then the iko iko dance.  If you are familiar - just picture a very uncoordinated girl dancing to them.  Umm... bad!




Tonight I came over to my friend Rachel's house in Conway.  I LOVE CONWAY!  anyways, she lives by herself and i came to keep her company.  After catching up, watching new episodes of our favorite ABC FAMILY tv shows Switched at Birth and PLL - we worked on Taylor's homework.  No, we could not answer all of them infact, we called 2 lifelines - Bethany - who was a help and Daddy Tab.  Oh Daddy Tab knows the answers to everything!  Finished 2 tests, a pop quiz, and worked on Taylor's Term Paper due tomorrow... It's still not finished even though I choose to blog - it will get done don't you think?  oooo gotta love procrastination!







Funniest moments while writing the paper =

"rachel, I think that Alexander the Great and Steve Jobs are the same person"
"Why?", asked Rachel
"Well think about it - Alexander had a great nation and he built it up with Alexandria and his libraries, his successful army, and his intellect was above all others.  BUt when he died successors just couldn't fulfill his shoes and it eventually died and Greece took over - therefore ROME.  Steve Jobs has created a great empire called Apple.  He has built it up with his iphone, ipad, and isoftware - but think about it - does he have any successors?  Does he have anybody in his footsteps getting ready to take over?  NO.  Steve Jobs goes on sabatical and comes back with the ipad - seriously!  How do you do that!  When he dies... i predict Apple will die."

I am currently on a Mac - so I hope i am not a great philosopher and predicting the future - but I could write a thesis on that one day.  Getting my doctorate in Philosophy.  Not!  I am done after Baylor.

We then watched.... my favorite movie of the week.... wait for it wait for it!

FIREPROOF!



I have watched it literally almost every night for the past week.  okay well i've watched it 3 times since returning from the beach Saturday.  It has such a good message and I love the music!  I downloaded the soundtrack :)

I cry on key every single time.  It is just such an emotional journey to see his life transformed.  What if we lived like that.  What if we lived everyday focusing on one thing to change or to impact.  Would people be able to see a difference?  What they start to see Christ in you?  Sometimes I wonder what impact I am making on other people.  I can be good at a lot of things - we call can.  But God calls us to be good stewards of his word and make sure that everyone knows the Gospel and about him.

One of my favorite books growing up was Amelia Bedilia.  She took everything so literal.  If she would have read the bible, I suspect she would have gone up to everybody she saw and asked, Do you know the Gospel.  I want to spread it to the ends of the earth.  And she probably would have been our storybook version of Forest Gump (you know the part where he walks everywhere).

God can have such an impact on other people through us if we let the Holy Spirit move.


You know this song/verse gives so much hope that good things can come out of the trials.  And they do..  Take Fireproof for example.  His wife served him Divorce papers after he had completed something like 30 days of the Love Dare.  Wow!  Would you have kept fighting?  He cried.  He wept - he laid his heart on the line and with God, that is very important, that WITH GOD - he completed it and led his wife to Christ.  Get it?  Got it?  Hope you do because that's truth right there.  


And with that truth you have to and must trust God.  When I see quotes like this it always reminds me that God speaks to us.  I feel like everytime I read that God is actually saying that to me - Abby, Trust me.  Dugh!  I mean are you silly or something!

It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. (Deuteronomy 31:8)


God goes before you.  Always!  He knows the road, he knows what bumps and bruises are coming up and he is ready to be there for you when you fall.  He WILL be with you.  He doesn't ever leave your side.  So don't be scared.  Face it and go for it.  


I am convicted in this verse because I know that God has gone before me to Waco - he has prepared my place.  He knows what will happen this semester and this year.  L Y I am ready for it!!

Don't be scared. But instead have Bliss.

Be charmed,
Abby

Monday, July 25, 2011

Introductions are in order

I was saving this blog for later until I actually had a picture of us together. But if you are reading my blog you are getting to know me and my family very intimately. So why not know the one other part of my life: the man behind my inspiration and the support and encouragement that I receive Spiritually. Let me show you how:


This is how I feel about him :

Song of Solomon 3:4
I saw my lover and knew he was mine.

There are certain qualities that I look for in a man, perseverance, godliness, leadership, love, patience, and most importantly compassion.

This man is all of those things! Not too mention he is a stud. I mean he is so fine!

God has blessed me so much with this guy. I mean I can't believe I am able to date him.

So here he is::









This is Taylor Clark! He is one of a kind! As you can see for yourself he is quite a handsome man! And he is an amazing one too!

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

(Deuteronomy 4:29-31 NKJV) "But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

James 1:25
New International Version (NIV)
25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

These bible verses reflect Taylors heart. And I will be the first to tell you that leaving him in 2 weeks is goingto be tough. I'm crazy about this boy. But like these verses above say... God is in control and if we constantly seek Him, he will let us in on his plan! I know that Taylor has been praying about this and he is in Gods will. We have been dating for 5 months before he felt Gods go ahead in our relationship. Isn't that encouraging to know that he is seeking and seeking constantly for Gods will in our relationship!! I love it! And it's what I've prayed for.

So as you read this blog: you might think it's crazy that I'm talking about him, or that I sound too serious... But I hope you read this and are inspired to live these verses out in your life! And to examine who you are and to know that just as Christ loves you for your mistakes and imperfections, there is someone out there that will do the same thingto you because God calls us to love others as he (Christ) has loved us!!

Taylor is amazing!

Please pray for our relationship that God would have complete control over us and that when we are 8 hours away that distance would not hinder our relationship but help us grow stronger in Christ and each other.

God bless!! Taylor always leaves me with this verse!! Phi 4:3

See ya!
Abby


God, do your thing!

I have had the most fun time at the beach! Destin is by far the best place to relax and rejuvenate the soul. Preacher at church last Sunday said that he was at Yellowstone National Park and God said - look at what I created. Without any man made interference - I did this. This is what I can do when you let ME DO MY THING. Wow! That is kind of how I felt when I saw these sunsets at the beach. No, they do not even begin to capture the magnitude of God's beauty - but it does make you sit back and think. Hey, what if I didn't interfere with what God was doing in my life - What do you think would happen? Would you begin to see miracles, would jobs line up, would sicknesses begin to heal, would troubles seem to leave? Life might be a little easier - if we just let GOD DO HIS THING.

Yah, okay - now that I look at it - It's pretty disgusting! haha but here is a better picture from the back porch looking onto the Bay side (not ocean front).



And then here is one of a prettier day at the beach!

If you haven't been reading my blog Miss Cupcake Queen (Here) then you probably don't know about my obsession and insane craving for blueberries. After my diet for Miss Arkansas I have been craving blueberry ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING! I am pretty sure I showed you yesterday the blueberry cake thing that Bethany and I made, so today I am going to show you the blueberry things I ate.

This is a blueberry pancake my dad made for me. I grew up eating powdered sugar and butter on my waffles and pancakes - call me weird, I know! But I love it! In fact, everyone was making fun of how much powdered sugar I had put on my Pancake in ratio with the actual BLUEBERRY pancake. Let me tell you - it was so good. Dad put real blueberries in it. It was delicious. He told me a trick that I will share with you: Heat the blueberries up in a ziplock bag before putting them in the batter - that gets some juices out of the berries so that they will mix in the pancake batter and give a fresh berry taste! Nom. Nom. Nom.




For lunch we went to Panera Bread and then got FRO - YO at 32 degrees. It was really good - of ocurse I got the Blueberry Cheesecake yogurt with real berries on top. DELICIOUS!





A picture of the Fro- Yo bar. It is actually a really cute place - but it was legit 32 degrees in there. It was a freaking ice box! yikes! we sat outside.



Girls Night Out! We all went to the Back Porch for dinner.

1. took Molly Anne forever and a day to eat her 1/2 pound of crab legs - we had paid and she had cleared our table before Molly Anne was finished. ha

2. Our waitresses arm muscles were ripped = we eventually asked her if she was a gymnast. She said yes, when I was younger! What! I wish I had arms like that good grief!

3. We no lie - sat down at 9:30, food at 10:15 and did not leave until 11. late night. yikes! still fun oh and we got t-shirts out of the meal!








After dinner - we stopped by Alvin's Island.

1. the most perverted shirts I have ever seen - i will never walk back in another one of those stores.

2. my sister got a cute destin shirt - (last picture)

3. Molly Anne won $2 in quarters out of this gambling machine.

NOTE TO READERS: she lost it all trying to win MORE! GAMBLING does that to you - don't waste your money. Okay, off the soap box. :)










Last morning there - Bethany And I made a spread of breakfast! Everybody was happy :) it was a good day. Cinnamon Rolls, Bisquits and Jelly, Eggs, and Sausage. Wow! Just call us IHOP!






This catches McKenzie in Action! She was spitting off of the 12 floor and trying to hit the man doing yard work. after about 5 tries.. she actually did it! No worries, he had a hat on.



Then, finally our last night - we had picture time! Here are some of the best!













This is my family!


All of the girls that went! We had a blast can you tell!















Then we went to the Mellow Mushroom and had some pizza!

Remember that no matter what happens - the same God that puts the stars out at night, and the same God that created sunset and waters the earth - cares for you!

He loves you. Be blessed in that and Thankful and have bliss in your life.
Abby

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Beach fun - more like chill time!

Bethany and I are having a blast at the beach!!! And we have created a phrase "it's all about the blog!" so I have been taking good pictures all day and thinking I could so blog about this! Enjoy these pictures!!! And there is a surprise ending!!

My dad is good at a lot of things especially lawyer stuff, but one thing a judge wouldn't know he is good at is cooking breakfast! This is an egg sandwich he made for himself! No worries I made my own breakfast... Rude! Haha just kidding, we are having oatmeal most mornings!







Nom nom nom: holy cow we were watching just married this morning and they said nomnomnomit was so random but hilarious because we havebeen talking about it all week and using it!!! Funny huh!


As promised pictures of our hollywood gym!! Amazing!















There are big screens everywhere!! Today on the elliptical I was watching 3 different sports channels ::: Heaven!!!



The bathroom! I was in love with this leather ottoman!



Me working out!!!



A stretch limo hummer truck thing! Dad said for
Me to tell you not to ever ride in these because they are built on 3 frames and if someone were to t-bone you, it would split the limo in half! Dad said he had a case were 2 people died from that! YIKES!



My Mickey mouse family stickers!!! Love it!



Our dinner tonight!!! Fries and burgers!! Love it!



Watermelon by the gallon! Haha whole new meaning!



My dad throwing up the deuces! He is the craziest ever!!! But he is the greatest cook ever! He makes the best shrimp too.



Beth and me eating cheese dip! Again my dad makes it! He adds sausage! It's amazing!



Laura Leigh jumped in someones fountain on our golf cart ride. Haha it was so funny we dared her and he actually did it!





Tomorrow we are waking up to see the dolphins at 6 am and then running to Starbucks and then headed to the outletsto shop!! I'm so excited!! Polo here I come!

Here is your surprise!! My boyfriend (it is so fun to say that) Taylor with his cousin Harper! Adorable!! I love it!










Have a great day!!