My Latest Project

As if my life wasn't busy enough already... I decided to take up gardening. I have no idea what I was thinking.

To make things worse, I decided to start from SEEDS. I mean really, I have no idea what I was thinking.

Anyway, I planted an herb garden.

From left to right in the grey planter box is ciltantro, oregano, basil, and green onion.

The front left pot is more cilantro because cilantro is basically impossible to grow indoors and will bolt to seed in no time.

The front right is what is left of my orchid after my mom and sister tried to kill it in my absence.

I also planted lots of different types of flowers.

I started with these little pod things about 3 weeks ago, and about half of them have already outgrown them, so this is what is left. The pink pot is more basil.

Here's what I did with the other flowers... I just hope they actually bloom!


And finally... I bought a hydrangea. It was just so beautiful. I couldn't resist. I rescued it from its tiny pot and replanted it.


I've also been working a lot in the backyard pulling weeds and figuring out how to get rid of these ugly bushes by my patio. I bought a couple of rose bushes but I haven't planted them yet.

If anything ever blooms, I'll be sure and post more pictures :)

Videos!

Bethany has been asking me to record When the Rain Comes for forever, so the other night I decided to finally sit down and just do it. It was 3 in the morning so I look pretty sleepy, but at least I actually did it.

I'm still trying to figure out the whole imovie deal, as it cut off my hands and guitar when I exported the videos...

For now, you can enjoy these first round videos of me in my bathroom at 3 in the morning, singing sleepy songs :)








I'm working on recording some of my own music, but it may take me a while to work up the courage to actually post them somewhere.

Love you guys.

Goodbye Scott

I had to put Scott down today.

I cried like a baby in front of the vet.

I made my mom drive all the way down from Houston to go with me.

She took him home to bury in the yard.

So goodbye Scott.

Thanks for being the world's best gecko.

Whitney and I will miss you dearly.

Don't Hate Me...

Ok so I'm pretty sure I have become the worst blogger ever. Things have been kind of crazy since rotations started back up - I was on psych (I told you things were crazy) and now I'm in the HIV clinic, which I love.

To catch you up briefly since the last post...
Nicaragua was incredible. We saw around 550 patients in 3 days and many of those patients came to know Jesus! We had members from the church working alongside us to share the gospel and pray with the people as we ministered to them by meeting some of their medical needs. I promise to devote an entire post to the trip as soon as I get the rest of the pictures from Linda!

I went traveling. I drove to Baton Rouge to visit Sarah and Jared, and then to Fort Worth to see Lauren, Jen, and preggo Rachel! I had so much fun catching up with everyone!

Scott (the gecko) had surgery. Yes, I paid to have surgery performed on a GECKO. Go ahead, laugh. I know how ridiculous it sounds, but you haven't had him for 8 years! More about that later.

That's pretty much the skinny on what's been going on lately. I promise I will eventually get around to blogging more about the Nicaragua trip and Scott's surgery. Until then, here are some great links to keep you occupied. I would love to take credit for finding them, but really I stole them all from Liz Seay (Robbie Seay's wife and Jen Bacak's sister-in-law).

This is a music video by Brooke Frasier that I absolutely love. I just had a conversation about how you can't really understand third-world poverty until you've seen it with your own eyes.

I can't describe the smell of a slum, piles of burning garbage everywhere and sewage flowing freely through the streets. I can't explain the emptiness in the eyes of a child living on the streets who lost both parents to AIDS, now high on glue to escape reality. There just aren't words.

In the song Brooke says "now that I have seen, I am responsible - faith without deeds is dead." Well said, Brooke.


Here's a video about an orphanage in Bulgaria. I came across this on Liz's blog a few months ago and stayed up half the night watching it. My heart just broke for these precious children. How can we be silent in the midst of their suffering?


Finally, here's a link to a blog of someone who actually blogs. Her story is incredible. The Ripple Effect
Read the whole blog if you get a chance.

Ok, one more Brooke Frasier video!

Peace out, Texas!

In just 4 short days I will be boarding a plane to Nicaragua.

The story of how I ended up on this trip is worth mentioning, so I'll start with that.

One night a few months ago I was reading Revolution in World Missions (an amazing book) on the Spicer couch and I had this strange desire to go on a mission trip this Christmas.

Ok now I know all of you LH people just went "did you actually READ the book?"

I know. The whole book is about supporting native missionaries.

Like I said, it was strange.

Anyway, I just put the book down and asked the Lord to open a door if He really wanted me to go.

The next day I emailed asking for info about a trip I had been getting emails about through the school. I got an email back from a girl saying she thought that the trip was full, but I could email another lady if I wanted to double check. I didn't.

So that was that.

A few weeks later I got an email from a girl that was supposed to go on the trip, asking if I was interested in going. She and her husband had some family issues come up, and she really felt like she wasn't supposed to go on the trip and had heard that I was looking for a spot.

I emailed her back and got some details, and then she tells me this "they need a decision by Friday." This was Wednesday night.

I prayed about it and then I started calling people who could help me think through this.

Rachel Rogers... how I love this girl. She always has such wise advice. She reminded me that I had prayed for a door to open, and that this might be one of the only times in my life where I will have the ability to just pick up and leave for a week.

I emailed back and accepted the spot.

Looking back, I think it's so funny that I asked God to do something, and then when He did, I questioned Him. I kept praying for Him to tell me yes or no, when He had clearly already answered me by opening the door.

I need more faith.

Seriously.

Anyway, I am going to Managua for a week with doctors, nurses, and students to run a clinic with a local church.

There are around 15 of us total, and we'll be staying in a mission house that the church owns.

I'm really excited about being able to team up with the local church, helping them establish relationships with people in their community. We can provide medical care for these people, but the truth is they need Jesus way more than they need to be free of worms.

Members of the church and people from the community will be able to come to the clinic in the church for free healthcare, and the church will have volunteers there to share the gospel and pray for them.

We will also be spending a day in La Chureca, a landfill in Managua that is home to around 1500 people.

Please pray for us while we're on our trip! We leave this Saturday (the 15th) and get back on the 21st. Pray that God will move in big ways on the trip, and that we will be able to help the local church in Managua reach out to the community.

Love you guys!

I'm So Proud

Who knew this skinny kid from Crosby, Texas would turn out to be such a big deal?

Ok so maybe we all kind of thought he would. Seriously JJ was that kid in highschool that made the rest of us quit playing musical instruments. We'd all be jamming out in Jacob Blizzard's garage (Ben on guitar, Jacob on bass, me on the drums because no one else wanted to play them - and no, I can't play the drums) and then JJ would come over and gracefully blow us all out of the water without even trying. Always gracefully.

I used to make JJ come over and play piano and sing to me for hours. It's no wonder I was slightly in love with him at the tender age of 15.

But for real you guys need to go listen to his new cd and buy it! It's so good.

Go!

http://www.jjworthen.com

P.S. Yes Allison, same guy.

Oh Whitney...

My sister just told me about something that happened the other day, and I felt the need to share.

We have a dark-colored rug in the living room at home, and apparently the dog decided to leave a "present" on it.

Being nicely camouflaged on the dark rug, my sister didn't see it and stepped in it.

She of course started freaking out, and Whitney (my 2 year-old niece) came running to see what it was. My sister told her "yucky poop" and hobbled off to wash her foot and get something to clean up the mess with.

Mandy came back to find Whitney standing in the living room, holding the poop.

As Mandy looked at her horrified, Whitney said "I like poop" and started petting it.

Mandy screamed.

Whitney threw the poop.

Much hand-washing followed.

Ridiculously funny.