Misc. Pictures from February & March

Here's a nice batch of random pictures from February and March...

 

First up, I work with four-year olds. There's this one girl who is UH-dorable, and she's from Brazil. Her grandparents were visiting, and they brought her this awesome gift.

 Some of our neighbors built a snowman on their front steps...

FOOD! We love making pita pizzas! 

Brent and an awesome picture we found at the Salvation Army.

We had this conversation. I swear, I'm so much better with finances than I used to be! This was a one-time thing!

We SOOOO love our new friends, Jordan and Amanda! They're like, our twin couple!

Jordan makes his own techno music, and wants to be a DJ. He was showing Brent some of his stuff.

I got a bit spray paint happy....

I painted a side table I bought at an estate sale, and I made my own jewelry hanger with an old picture frame and some hooks from the Dollar Tree!

An old heirloom. :)

BBQ at Ty & Jenni's!

 

St. Patrick's Day!

Surprise Facetime call from Jim in Australia!

YUM!

One of the kids at the daycare had an awesome jacket, so one of my coworkers took advantage...

During Spring Break, I worked with some of the older kids. This is the girl from Brazil's older brother! It was his 10th birthday.

His parents! They're third year students at RBTC.

I made cherry pie wontons!

Mikayla and me, after a study group. Her sisters, mom and I were waiting in the Walmart parking lot for her dad and another friend to come out.

Got up early to get my driver's license renewed, only to FAIL my written exam!

I know...I know.....I didn't study the driver's manual.

Sister-in-love, Kera, got all of us Butler girls the same necklace. It's an owl, because we were all so wise for marrying Butler boys! :)

Our blue bathroom!

Sunset on our campus...

Rhema Bible Church at sunset!

Rhema Bible Training College at sunset!



Finally, Brent eating dinner!
 



BED!!!!!!

OK, so we FINALLY got a bed! Awesome story. God is so good!

So, we haven't had a bed since we moved to Oklahoma, and we've been sleeping on a futon for nine months. It's been fine, but we were both ready to actually sleep in our own bed, in our own bedroom. Mid-January, we decided to exercise our faith and believe God for a bed. We were believing that God would bring us a bed, and that we'd have to pay either absolutely nothing or extremely little for it. So we were believing and believing and still, no bed. We had more than enough money to buy one, because we had received our financial aid return, but we had committed to not spending it on a bed, because we were believing God for one.

One day, I was starting to get impatient and frustrated, because we were SO ready for a bed, and a bed just didn't seem anywhere in sight. I really wanted to decorate and organize the house, and I really wanted our apartment to feel homey, and it just didn't without a bed. Our church has what they call a "We Care Center," where people donate all kinds of stuff to help out the church members and the community in times of need. I decided that I was going to apply for a bed, because if they had a bed in and we got it, I figured it would still be free and therefore, it still would have fit within what we were believing God for. So before work one day, I picked up an application. However, as I was filling it out, the Lord spoke to my heart saying, "The We-Care Center isn't how I'm going provide. That's putting your trust in something besides Me. Even if it's free, you're going after it, instead of letting Me bring it to you, like you asked Me to." I put the pen down, threw the application away, and went to work. I knew I needed to keep believing that I had already received what I had prayed for, whether I saw it in the natural or not.

So after work that same day, I got home and went to check the mail, and guess what!!!! Someone had sent us a check in the mail, specifically for a brand new bed!!! I was all smiles, and praised the Lord for His faithfulness!

That week, we had a brand new bed AND we found an entire bed set, in the exact color scheme that I wanted, for half off! God is so good, all the time! We've slept better ever since. Thank You, Lord!



Sorry it's messy, but I just loved the orange tint when the sun shone through the curtain!

3 Days Spent Celebrating 25 years!

I TURNED 25!!! As of March 8th, I'm now a quarter of a century. Woo hoo! I actually really love getting older. Sometimes, I'm nostalgic for the things of my childhood and all that jazz, but truth be told, I like being taken more seriously (well, at least by those who don't know me very well :) and I like growing being at a point where I finally feel like I really know who I am, and I'm not trying so hard to "be someone" anymore. It's nice not living to try and please people. Not that I'm perfect in that arena, by any means, but every day it seems that I feel even more comfortable with who I am. And honestly, I love myself and the young woman I've become...and all the glory goes to God! Honestly, He's brought me out of so much nonsense and has set me on solid ground. Being here in Tulsa, even for these short nine months, God has taught me so much about Himself and about myself and about loving others and about living an unlimited life. He has even more ahead, and I love living this life every day for, with, and through Him.

The week of my birthday, I received an amazing bunch of letters from my family!

Celebrations actually started the night before my birthday. Brent and I had a study guide thing due on Friday (my birthday) that we, um...didn't start until Thursday night. We went to IHOP to finish it, where I had Chicken & Waffles for the first time, and I'm not going to lie: DELICIOUS. (Though, I sadly have no picture.)

Over the next three days, we celebrated my birthday, which was great! On the day of my actual birthday (a Friday), we just went to school and work, but the day was still great! Brent got me a writing book from one of my favorite literary agents, that I'd been wanting for months. Yay! We went to Starbucks before class that morning (I had to try their new hazelnut macchiato!), and my sweet friend Amanda brought me a gift to class!

I had tweeted the picture above this one, tagging Mary Kole (the author) in it, saying my husband got it for my birthday...and Mary Kole tweeted back!

So that was Thurday night, before my birthday. Flash forward to Saturday (after my birthday) Brent had to work in the morning, so I went to my friend Jenni's house, and she helped me do my taxes!

 

Then, Brent and I went to Los Cabos, a cool Mexican restaurant on a waterfront!

 

They open the patio in the summer time!

Probably the best guacamole EVER.

 

Then we headed next door to Outdoor World, which is basically Bass Pro Shops. It's pretty great.

 

 

For only 25 cents, you too can shoot the varmint!

Brent found a different hunting game, one for the Wii, which we ended up buying later!

Thanks, mystery woman, for offering to take our picture!

So, this is me being a stalker. This little old woman was just TOO gosh dang precious to not photograph.

 

The next day, our friends Tyrone & Jenni, as well as their three girls, took us out to dinner at P.F. Chang's. It was delicious! We had a great time of food, fun and fellowship!