Beautiful Blog Award?

Alex and I quickly learned that when you are on staff at a church (especially with students), it can be difficult to find and invest in friendships with those your own age.  Our Father, as always, knows what we need and has been so very gracious to us, allowing us to quickly get plugged into a small group Bible study of people our own age!!  Our gracious hostess every Monday night is sweet Rachel, who has given me a Beautiful Blog Award (sorry it has taken me a while to post this).  You are too sweet!  If you have a moment stop by her blog The Pughs and join her and husband on their crazy, frustrating, yet glorious, God ordained journey to become parents.  They are such a godly couple and Rachel is a wonderful writer.  I hope their story can encourage your heart.

Now, I must in turn select 7 nominees to pass the award on.
And the nominees are:

A Glimpse of Our Vapor: My dear cousin, Katie, always has an encouraging post.  Join her in her journey as a minister's wife raising two small children, tackling the world of autism, and glorifying the Father in all circumstances.

The Vaughn Family: My sister-in-law, Scarlotte, managing editor of East Alabama Living Magazine. She always has great pictures and funny stories about her two children who are 15 months apart.  They say and do the funniest things!!  She will also take you to places you never knew about around East Alabama.

The Vaughns: Elizabeth, my sister-in-law, always has a ton of pictures of her precious children.  They are too cute!!  She also just started a monogramming business, and I'm sure she wouldn't mind the plug.  If you are in the Montgomery area and need something monogrammed she does a wonderful job for a very reasonable price!

The Sprayberrys:  Kimmy's in-laws and my in-laws are bffs!  She a precious little boy, Isaac, who is a few weeks younger than Sterling and seems to be full of life and always into something.

At Home with the Pooles:  Kelly loves being thrifty and crafty, just like me.  I love looking at her projects and great thrift store finds.  She and her husband used to be our wonderful neighbors when they were first married.  We certainly missed them when they moved!

Soli Deo Gloria:  My sis, Hillary, always has a great story from a crazy adventure or something to convict your heart.  Here is some encouragement, because, Hillary, I love your blog!

And lastly I would like to nominate
Noel Piper:  I don't know her personally, but I have been deeply encouraged by her ministry.  Her book, Treasuring God in Our Traditions, has greatly encouraged my heart, and the Lord continues to use it in teaching me to be a better mother and wife.  Her blog is equally encouraging.  I love reading about her missionary excursions with her husband  (John Piper for any of you who do not know who she is), tales of adoption, tidbits on parenting, and so much more.  Thank you Lord for the ministry of this couple!!

Now I must give 7 random facts about myself:

1. I am a Texan and very proud of it.

2. My husband told my mom he wanted to marry me when he was in 8th grade, I was in 9th.

3. I am deathly afraid of bees, wasps, yellow jackets, ect.  I have never been stung, so that whole thing about them being able to sense your fear must not be true.

4. I am super close with my family.  My sisters and mom are my closest friends.  I am also very close to my cousins.  I always wondered as a child how people could not like going to see their cousins, because mine are all amazing.  I always wished that we were all brothers and sisters!  Then we could see each other more than once or twice a year.

5. I love baths!!  I hate taking showers and have probably had only a handful since high school.  When we bought our house there was no tub in the master bathroom.  But thankfully my husband agreed to increase the value of our home by installing a deep soaking jetted tub.  It is wonderful!!  I thank Jesus for my bathtub often.

6. I am very competitive and usually will not do something unless I think I will be good at it. Sometimes I think the Lord likes to keep my pride in check by making me utterly fail at something in which I thought I would be great.  (ex. snow skiing - or stopping to be precise)

7.  I love Disney movies!  We were raised on Disney, and I still know all of the songs to almost all of the movies (and all of the words to some of them).