It's the LAST post

I've been thinking about this for a while and decided that it is officially time to move on. In many ways, this particular season of life for us is about moving on and changes all over the place. So, it seemed appropriate that our blog be reflective of this as well. We heart community for life is being officially retired. We have started a new blog called Life on Purpose. We hope it will be a place to keep you updated with the changes happening in our life, stories about life, and of course lots of baby pictures. I hope it will also be a place for us to share how we are living life on purpose.
Thanks for being a part of this blog for the last 4 years, it has marked a significant journey for me (Erin) and one that isn't over yet, but has certainly expanded with the addition of family members, living overseas, and returning home again. We're excited about what is ahead and invite you to follow us on over to the new blog.

Happy Father's Day!

Baby has some special messages for her Grandpas today




Grandpa Priour hasn't picked out his Grandpa name yet. He's going to let baby pick it out!

We love you Dad's and hope you have a great day! And of course, Happy First Father's Day to my wonderful husband! You are going to be the greatest Daddy ever!

Brief Update

We are back in Waco after over a week of traveling and it has been really eventful. I'll spare you the details and just give you the highlights:

spoke at our church in Corpus. Hosted a Kurdish Tea. I turned 25. Went to Houston for Thanksgiving. Fun times with the fam and step fam. Twisted my ankle playing football. Did A LOT of shopping. Shipping the first boxes to Iraq this week. I think that about covers it. Here are some pics of the festivities... and a little Jeff surprise for you at the end!



It was fun to get to celebrate my birthday with my mom in Corpus. I haven't done that in a few years! It is weird having a cake that just says my name on it... this may have been the first time?




My dad had his knee replaced in mid October and went on a shaving strike. So, here he is sporting the beard. He went back to work today so he had to shave it. But, he had a good time with it I think. It's pretty Sean Connery no?



This is me and Jeff, my sister and her husband, and my step brother and his wife and then all of my dad and step mom's dogs! =) We had a great time getting to all hang out together. It has been a while since we were all together (and not at a wedding)

AND NOW, FOR YOUR JEFF SURPRISE....

You're gonna have to keep scrolling


it

is

totally


unrelated

to this post

but I think

it

is

very

entertaining

are you ready yet?


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does this remind you of one of those chain e-mails?

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I never learned how to make faces out of this stuff.

Okay here it is















You weren't ready for that were you? Jeff took this picture at the zoo a couple weeks ago and considers it to be his greatest photographical (word?) feat to date. I would have to agree. This one is pretty good too though





I think this is Aslan...I didn't expect to find him at the Waco zoo. Will wonders never cease?

pics from PA

we did some pumpkin carving in honor of there actually being an autumn in the northeast


Elyse & Stephen in front of their new house. Isn't it amazing?!


this was taken at a corn maze we went to. Now, I've never been to one of these before, but this thing was gigantic! If you flew over it you would see a family of potato heads which made up the maze itself. There were 15 checkpoints and it took us about 2 hours to get through it! I think Elyse & I would still be in there if it weren't for Stephen.


This is me at this crazy nursery where Elyse was getting some fall mums to decorate the porch with. Everyone in PA decorates their yards and houses for Halloween - it's like Christmas in different colors...and characters.


The happy family... actually, that is Stephen's parent's dog, Regan. But he is the cutest thing you've ever seen! And yes, he is dressed like a pumpkin. Like I said, they go all out for halloween. I failed to take any pics of the changing leaves, but I did a ton of that 2 years ago when I visted about this time. here are some of those pics from New Jersey actually

My Twins -The Results

Well, I must say - you guys did pretty good! Missy, Jeff's seen all these pictures too many times to get the wrong answer. I remember in high school before we were dating doing the 'which one am I' test with him where we would go around to EVERY picture in the house and he would have to guess which one I was. If my memory serves me correctly he was only right about 45% of the time - but he's gotten much better now! Fortunately there's never been any mix-ups on his part - although, there was that one time in college when Elyse's then boyfriend tried to kiss me because he thought I was her...awkward. Without further ado (what's ado anyway?)

Kasey: you got them all right!!!! way to go! YOU are the champion!

Jennifer: you scored a 90, you got Pic # 2 wrong, I am on the left

Chelsea: you also got pic # 2 wrong - Santa must have thrown you off.

Missy: You were wrong on pic # 1 - with the baby pictures, when in doubt - I'm the smaller one. My dad and I were talking about this post yesterday and he's like 'I always assume you are the one with the smaller head.' Elyse stole my food tube in utero so she was fatter than me and yes 1 inch taller than me (good observation Tera).

Elaine: Good job! You got pic # 2 wrong and Pic # 9 wrong, It's me, Elyse, and my mom.

All in all, great job friends! You guys are clearly not the ones that go up to my sister or my mom and talk to her like she's me. Last weekend at the garage sale someone thought my mom and Jeff were married....awkward? Yes.

I'm going to PA to visit my sister and her husband this weekend! I'm pretty excited! I haven't seen their new house, and the leaves will actually be changing, I can't wait!

garage sale update

I'll give ya'll a few days to do the picture guessing, but I wanted to update you on the garage sale. It went really well - thanks for your prayers! I went down to Corpus Thursday to start going through the attic, storage unit, my mom's garage, and our stuff at Jeff's parents house. At first I thought I had just inhaled too much dust and my allergies were going crazy, but by Friday evening I conceded that I was in fact sick - really sick. I made it through the morning shift of the garage sale and then had to go lay on the couch and try not to move. We met our goal of how much money we wanted to make and got rid of all of our junk!

If you can't read the sign it says 'Welcome Mate! I'm Joey, you can take me home for just $2"... But nobody did, he's at Goodwill now.


Turns out the Christmas tree really did sell the clothes it was wearing - kind of like seeing stuff on mannequins...only not so much.



I was pretty disappointed at the timing of the illness, but then I got to thinking last night - and maybe it was the nyquil (I'm still kind of under the influence) but I was thinking about all those things that make me think 'Why would God create that?!' Things like infectious mosquitoes, raccoons, cockroaches, disease causing bacteria, bats, ants that don't bite but eat your food, armadillos, ants that do bite and it feels like fire - things like this. And I realized that all of these things (or maybe just most of them) cause me to have to depend on God and usually produce in me an attitude of humility or a general acknowledgment that I need help. It's good for me to look back on this weekend and KNOW that there is no way I would have been able to have a successful garage sale without God's grace. I'm feeling much better today, and hopefully Jeff & I will not acquire enough stuff for another garage sale for at least 10 years!

My twins

I don't know what the deal is but lately everyone (particularly people who aren't around me very much or who are really close to me) keeps telling me that I look just like my sister, or that I look a lot like her today. I mean I know we're twins and all and look alike but not THAT alike...right? I mean I always thought that as we got older we looked less alike. Also, I am apparently looking increasingly like my mother - to the point where people approach her and talk to her thinking she is me. It's kind of weird to have so many people that look like me. So here's the challenge - look at the pictures below and guess who is me, who is Elyse (my sister) and I'll even throw some mom pictures in there.

First, this is me and my sister. I'm on the left and she's on the right


Now, you're on your own... I have a few pics of us growing up so you can help me decide if we are in fact looking MORE alike as we get older or less alike.
Picture 1

This one's pretty hard - I'm only 92% sure I know which one I am

Picture 2

We did a lot of the matching outfit in alternating colors thing

Picture 3

Okay now for the getting older pictures...

Picture 4


Picture 5

Notice my mom in this picture as a reference for future pictures

Now, for the current pictures. I'll throw in some of my mom too, so you have to guess which one is me, which one is my sister, AND which one is my mom....good luck!

Picture 6


Picture 7


Picture 8


Picture 9



Picture 10


Now it's your turn! Just tell me what side I'm on, and in the ones with my sis and Mom tell me who's who by saying what side everyone is on. Mom & Jeff you don't get to guess

*****update*******

I'm taking Kasey's suggestion and adding individual pics of me, Elyse and my mom so now see if you can tell who's who...

Picture 11


Picture 12


Picture 13

Whew...

We made it! We are finally back in Waco, moved out of Bedford, all our stuff in a storage unit in Corpus and my sister is married. So, mission accomplished.

This is our apartment we were moving out of in a state of disarray for about a week. See if you can find me - it's like where's waldo without the stripes.
We had a good time in Corpus, it was nice to reconnect with our church there and lots of friends and family. We went on a mad fishing excursion - but Jeff said he wants to tell you that story - so I'll save it for him. But just to make sure he tells it right, it should be noted that I caught more fish than him. =)
Elyse & Stephen's wedding was beautiful! They are in Costa Rica now enjoying their honeymoon. I'm pretty glad that she is only getting married once and I have no other siblings. I mean, it was really fun but kind of stressful. Here are some pics of the event:

with the bride before the ceremony

The first dance

us with Jeff's parents

It was a really fun wedding and I'm so thrilled to have Stephen as a brother in law - he is pretty cool.

I will post more details of the week later....

Restless

That has been my life... our life for the last month or so. It is not that we do not like to rest, it is just that there is no time for it, or we are not making the time for it. Anyway, this restlessness is spilling over into all areas of my life and kind of driving me crazy. Even when I should be able to rest - like last night in bed - I couldn't make myself slow down to go to sleep. So, I got about 2 hours of sleep last night - I'm TIRED.
It was good to be in Oklahoma and say 'good bye' to my grandparent's house. We got everything ready for the estate sale next month and even had some people come by and look at the house. It was sad and yet it felt good to make some time to remember. I spent time in each room of the house just remembering... remembering my Papa in the kitchen always pretending like he was going to eat a bite of whatever I was eating for breakfast. Remembering sitting by the fire in the living room watching our grandparents open presents we got them for Christmas - only it would take them like 11 minutes to open each present! =o) Remembering sitting outside on the swing in the summer drinking root beer floats with my grandma and Elyse. There are so many memories there and it was nice to end on that note. When they were still living I used to DREAD going to see them because it was so hard to see them in so much pain. It seemed like they were just these old, broken relics of who they used to be - and I don't want to remember them like that. Doing all that reflecting helped me realize that I don't want to be going so hard and always thinking forward that I don't take the time to enjoy what is before me in the present - restless.
We drove the U-haul last night back to Dallas and driving through the rolling hills of Oklahoma for probably the last time for a while I was just thinking about why I can't seem to find rest lately. It isn't because I'm working and busy, it isn't because Jeff is gone (to Arizona for candidate school), it isn't because I'm living in Bedford, and it isn't because there's a lot going on ... it is because I've been dwelling in the 'far country'. I've been reading this book by Henri Nouwen (one of the GREATEST writers on the human condition and Jesus) called 'The return of the prodigal son'. It is about Nouwen's own journey as inspired by the famous painting by Rembrandt.

Nouwen was a professor at Harvard, a preist and scholar when God called him to quit his position at the college move to a home for the mentally handicapped and minister there. He talks about this transition and how difficult it was for him and the ways he let his insecurity lead him into the 'far country' just like the prodigal son - in search of worldly things to fill him. As he described this time for him something in my heart tightened and I knew - 'that is me, that is why I feel so restless.' Nouwen went to see this painting in St. Petersburg and spent 4 hours just sitting there looking at it, seeing the way different light changed the images, and gaining a true understanding of what it means to be the Beloved. See, we can find rest in the midst of business, stress, transition, etc. if we make our home with Christ as he has made his home in us. But that is hard to do when I am always leaving. I am constantly looking for you to love me, for Jeff to be pleased with me, to know that you (world) think I'm worthy, and everytime I turn my gaze to the world and I allow my heart to go after those things - I leave my Father. I scorn the home God has made for me, take of the cloak of identity he has given me and find myself restlessly orbiting the world insecure and unable to make a home anywhere. I need to go Home. Recognizing this and identifying the source of my restlessness does not solve the problem - I need to run and fall at my Father's feet regardless of the consequences, to humiliate myself in all of my filth and failure and go home. I just needed to process all of this - to admit my restlessness and return. I am the Beloved - and so are you.
That's all... and if you like to read (and even if you don't) you should go pick up this book by Henri Nouwen - other recommendations of books he's written are: Life of the Beloved, In the Name of Jesus, and The Way of the Heart. You can't go wrong with any of his books - but these are some of my favorite.

My New Family

Last weekend we went to Jeff's annual family reunion. I've never been to a family reunion before - unless this past Thanksgiving counts - cause there are only 8 of my family members still living and it would be a pretty small affair. So, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it was SO fun!!! We had a great time and it is crazy how huge Jeff's family is. His dad is one of 8 siblings and his dad's dad is one of 7 - so you do the math. I think there was something like 105 people there! They had a skeet shoot, Johnny (Jeff's Dad) won 1st place and Jeff came in a very close 2nd!


This is Jeff's Dad & Paw Paw at the shoot

Then we went to a big dinner and there was a dance and everything! It was really fun!

Playing with the fake sheep at the restaurant


cow roping....pulling


Me & the Hus


The Priours! =)


me & Jeff at his Uncle's house on his birthday!!! He's a quarter of a century old now!