Painting

So I have decided that I needed to teach my self how to do Acrylic Paintings. I have been wanting to take some classes but it has never worked out. I have worked with Acrylics before but just doing some abstracts. I have also worked with watercolor (which is definitely not my forte). I have decided that one of my pictures that I took in Italy would be a great piece to place over the fireplace; if it turns out ok. Here is the image that I took and will be going by:

Happy Reformation Day

Reformation Day is a religious holiday celebrated on October 31 in remembrance of the Reformation, particularly by Lutheran and some Reformed church communities.

On this day in 1517, Martin Luther posted a proposal at the doors of a church in Wittenberg, Germany to debate the doctrine and practice of indulgences. This proposal is popularly known as the 95 Theses, which he nailed to the Castle Church doors. This was not an act of defiance or provocation as is sometimes thought. Since the Castle Church faced Wittenberg's main thoroughfare, the church door functioned as a public bulletin board and was therefore the logical place for posting important notices. Also, the theses were written in Latin, the language of the church, and not in the vernacular. Nonetheless, the event created a controversy between Luther and those allied with the Pope over a variety of doctrines and practices. When Luther and his supporters were excommunicated in 1520, the Lutheran tradition was born. This in turn would later ease the creation of the Reformed and Anabaptist traditions as well.

Within the Lutheran church, Reformation Day is considered a lesser festival, and is officially referred to as The Festival of the Reformation. Until the 20th Century, most Lutheran churches celebrated Reformation Day on October 31st, regardless of which day of the week it occurred. Today, most Lutheran churches transfer the festival, so that it falls on the Sunday (called Reformation Sunday) on or before October 31st and transfer All Saints' Day to the Sunday on or after November 1st.

The liturgical color of the day is red, which represents the Holy Spirit and the Martyrs of the Christian Church. Luther's hymn, A Mighty Fortress is our God is traditionally sung on this day. Lutherans customarily stand during the hymn, in memory of its use in the religious wars of the Sixteenth Century. It is also traditional in some Lutheran schools for schoolchildren to hold Reformation Day plays or pageants that re-enact scenes from the life of Martin Luther. The fact that Reformation Day coincides with Halloween may not be mere coincidence. Halloween, being the Eve of All Saints' Day might have been an entirely appropriate day for Luther to post his 95 Theses against indulgences since the castle church would be open on All Saints' Day specifically for people to view a large collection of relics. The viewing of these relics was said to promise a reduction in time in purgatory similar to that of the purchase of an indulgence. Dr. Luther may have been shrewd in his choice of that day to post his theses.

Water Fountain

I got this in an email... It was too cool not to share!

all moved in

Well, I just dropped my mom off at the airport to go home. This week has been AMAZING! We closed on Friday, October 24th (see post below) and then moved on Saturday morning. Thank you to all of you who helped! We would have been lost with out you!
The morning started off very early. I had to send Hannah and EMily (who is VERY pregnant) up to the house before 8am to wait for our bed to be delivered. I got a phone call from them a few hours later telling us that Hannah had backed out of the driveway and into the ditch! What a way to break in the yard! haha. I had to just laugh. I wasnt going to let anything ruin our moving day! Hannah felt bad and was out there fixing the grass, but I just told her that she owed me another visit in payment!
After a long hard day of unloading and unpacking, we were able relax around our new grill and enjoy our backyard! I can not believe that she is ours! It is soooo nice to be able to spread out and have some space!
My mom stayed with me to help get everything in order this week. She was a HUGE help since I have to work from home. We were able to do some exploring of Hammond and Ponchatoula, eat out, and do some shopping. It was kinda sad when I had to drop her off to go home. I know she will be visiting soon, though.
I will be posting some pictures of the finished product once I finish some more organization.

It's finally here!

We finally close on our house today! I can not believe that it is already here. I am so ready just to get into a house; have a yard, garage, driveway, and most of all SPACE! We head to the Title company at 1:00. This ought to be interesting to see how this stuff goes. I have my real estate license in Texas (I think it has expired by now, though) but I have not been able to practice any of the ins-and-outs of the business. This has truly been a learning experience for Jeff and I. We have grown together so much and learned a LOT about each other. I will post the pictures that we take of the final product today.
My family comes up tonight to help us move tomorrow. It will be a lot of fun and we are so thankful to have so many friends and family members to volunteer their time and bodies to help us move!
By the way, I expect lots of guests once we get settled!

Baby shower #3

Actually, this is #5 I think for Emily, just my third to attend. She still has 2 to go! I can't get over how blessed they are with so many friends and family members that care for them so deeply! Annelise will truly be loved!

New Furniture!!

I got to buy these pieces yesterday! I can't wait to put them in the house!

Zach and Tanya are getting married!

My cousin Zach and his long time girlfriend Tanya are getting married on November 8th! We are so excited that they are finally getting together! We through a family shower on Saturday after the baby shower and i would guess that there were close to 150 people there! WOW! It was great to get to have these get togethers to be able to see some family that we don't get to see that often. Tanya got lots of presents and is even more anxious for the wedding now. We are looking forward to the 8th!

Baby Shower #2

Emily had her second baby shower last Saturday. It went off GREAT! Her best friend Stori was supposed to throw it, but due to unexpected circumstances, she was unable to make it. We missed her dearly and I know she wished she could have been there, too. We had a blast and Emily got lots of goodies.

My Senior Year at Texas Tech

I made a video of a few of my favorite highlights from my last year at Tech. I have really been missing my friends lately! I love you all dearly and think of you often. This song was kind of our sound track our last few weeks together. Here's to you!

The Secret Life of Bees

I am reading this book right now! It seems like Hollywood is tracking what I am reading and making a movie out of each one... The book is really good so far, but I am only half way through with it. I need to hurry up and finish it.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi437321753/

Baby Shower

Emily had her first baby shower in Nederland this weekend. It was very nice and great to see all of the goodies that she got. Annelise is going to be one of the most spoiled children in the world! She will be very loved by so many people. We are blessed to have such a wonderful family! Only 2 more months to go until she graces us with her presence. There are 2 more showers coming up; the next two weekends in October, so I will add more pics from those showers at that point.

VP Debate

Unfortunately, I missed the first Presidential debate last weekend. I am going to make sure that I really watch and listen to the issues that the VP Candidates have to talk about tonight. I have to say that this is the first election that I have tried to stay up to date with. I am not an economic or foreign relations expert by any means, but I do have to say that everything that Palin has said so far has really made me excited about her potentially being VP. I can't wait to see her rip Biden apart! I hope all of you can vote this year. I am still waiting to get my voter registration back in the mail... hopefully by November 4th!

"Religulous"

I received this from my Pastor here in Baton Rouge, Pastor Bahr. He has some great insight on the new movie "Religulous"...

Suffice it to say that "Religulous" does not hold religious faith in very high esteem. The title for the movie says it all: "Religulous"‐a combination of "religious" and "ridiculous." The premise is that nobody really knows anything about God; so to say anything with certitude is simply to express unfounded faith in the ridiculous. To the film's credit, there are entirely too many Christians that do not know why they believe what they believe, and those Christians were all too available for Bill Maher's interviews.

While Maher questions all religious belief, it is the Bible which irks him most of all. Because he was raised a nominal Catholic, he recalls hating church and viewing it as boring and irrelevant. This, if anything, should be instructive to us about how important it is to positively engage kids in their Sunday school classrooms, if we ever hope to have them value and retain their faith into adulthood. His gripes about the inability of believers to respond to his simplest of faith questions should remind us how important it is for every generation to be prepared to revisit the old questions and to have good answers for them. If Maher would focus in on biblical scholarship and seriously be open to answers regarding Christian faith that our congregations espouse, he might actually find himself believing what he now denies.

Should thinking adult Christians see the movie? If anything, it will put your faith into high gear as you seek to answer its challenges. The movie is the world's playbook, opened for our understanding and subsequent response.

Pray that God would work through even this evil to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ. If you have questions about this or any movie, please don't hesitate to ask your pastors. Remember that the best way to know why you believe what you believe (and not be the kind of Christian whom Bill Maher found for his interviews) is to remain active in worship and take advantage of educational opportunities!