Fishing

Most people who know me know my love for the outdoors. While Erin and I were in Corpus I got to take her fishing with me. I woke her up at 5:30 on a Tuesday morning and really didn't think she was going to be able to get out of bed. Once she was up I got dressed real quick and went to pick up breakfast for her with a large cup of coffee. When I got back she was wearing her fishing shirt I had gotten for her the night before. (A fishing shirt is a shirt that has vents in the back and under your arms to keep you cool.) Once I got back we headed out to the dock to put the boat in. The place we were fishing was a whopping 45 second boat ride away. When we got there we tied up to the bridge and got our fishing poles ready and began to fish. I got Erin all set up and then set my pole up and then she needed a new bait so I gave my pole to her so I could re bait her line and she caught a trout on my pole. It was her first keeper. (A keeper if a fish that is of minimum legal length to be kept. For a trout it is 15 inches and for a red fish or red drum as some people call it the legal minimum length is 20 inches.) After her first trout she caught some trash fish and then Erin caught a 23 inch red drum. It was the biggest fish on the boat until I caught my 24 inch red. Here is a picture of us with our red fish.

I was so proud of her for holding her fish even though it was slimy. I learned that Erin is an amazing fisher woman. She caught 2 keeper trout and 2 red fish along with several fish that were not keepers. Our fishing trip was lots of fun, a large part of that was because I got to share something I have loved for the last 19 years with my wife. To see her succeed and catch all those fish was a great feeling. I decided that the feeling I had with Erin must be very close to the feeling my dad had all the years that we fished together and he baited my hook and took my fish off the line and fixed stuff i broke before I learned how to do it myself.

I almost forgot Erin wrote a song while we were fishing to the tune of 'Baby Got Back'. It goes like this:

I like big fish and I cannot lie
You other brothers can't deny
When a fish swims up with a real big mouth and some big fins on the side
You get HOOKED like a fish on a lure...

This is all we can remember right now but needless to say the song was hilarious.

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....

Moving on

Well, yesterday was my last day of work so now we are both officially unemployed! It is a little scary, but at the same time it feels pretty freeing taking some real and tangible steps towards being obedient to what God has called us to do - move overseas. We are now in the process of packing up our apartment - but it is not as simple as throwing crap in boxes....sidenote: last time we moved, from Jeff's tiny apartment to the bigger apartment, when the movers showed up we still had random stuff everywhere and as they moved stuff we were literally throwing crap in trashcans and laundry baskets to move it. I know, it was bad. So, now we have to sort through everything and try to make a wise decision about whether we will really want this stuff 4 years from now - because that's how long it will be in storage. What stuff we will need for the next 4 months and what stuff we need to sell just to lighten the load a bit. And it needs to be relatively organized so that when we come back X years from now we can actually locate stuff. So, please be praying for us as we get ready to move and as we move forward in faith that God is going to provide for us. Now that I know there are no more paychecks coming, I'm getting a little nervous. My wonderful husband assures me that we will be fine and that he will worry enough for both of us so I don't need to. Another sidenote: I had a dream last night that I was pregnant (I'm totally not) and Elyse took me to a bar to celebrate - haha isn't that funny? I was really relieved when I woke up. =)

Loosing my Passport

Not because I temporarily misplaced it, but because it is the last official piece of 'Walker' that needs to be changed to 'Priour'. And you have to mail your old one in to get your name changed and they send you a new one so you loose all of your stamps - which makes me feel like this:



I decided to take pictures of my stamps, to commemorate them before they are gone forever.


These are Turkey - I think year 1 & 2


This is my student visa when I studied abroad


Turkey & Iraq

So long former Passport - it's been real. Guess I'll have to get some more stamps!

What I've been reading

In our One Year Bible we have been reading Acts lately. I love Acts - the birth of the church, I learn so much from it everytime I read it. Paul is pretty compelling, I mean what living person today could say with integrity 'You want to be like Jesus? Then you need to imitate me, just be like me and you will be like Jesus.'? And yet Paul's life after his encounter with Christ was clearly a reflection of that. I read the passage below a few days ago and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. It is from Acts 20. This is Paul speaking to the elders at Ephesus:

18 When they arrived he declared, “You know that from the day I set foot in the province of Asia until now 19 I have done the Lord’s work humbly and with many tears. I have endured the trials that came to me from the plots of the Jews. 20 I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes. 21 I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.

22 “And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, 23 except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. 24 But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

25 “And now I know that none of you to whom I have preached the Kingdom will ever see me again. 26 I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault, 27 for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.

He goes on to say:

32 “And now I entrust you to God and the message of his grace that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance with all those he has set apart for himself.

33 “I have never coveted anyone’s silver or gold or fine clothes. 34 You know that these hands of mine have worked to supply my own needs and even the needs of those who were with me. 35 And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

I can't imagine living that kind of life, where you can say with integrity - if anyone goes to hell, it isn't my fault because I boldly told everyone about God.

I miss evangelism - not the stand on the corner with a tract kind of thing - but the life sharing/imparting with others about the transforming work of God. When I read about Paul imparting the Gospel to others he rarely confrots sin outside of the church, most of the time he is just telling other people about his encounter with Jesus and what he knows to be true about God.

It is that simple. Sometimes it feels really complicated - probably because I make it about myself and what I have to offer instead of about what God has done FOR me that I couldn't do on my own. When I haven't really felt a NEED for God I find that I have little hope or life to impart to anyone else because there is nothing bigger to point to than myself.

I don't really know what the point of this is other than mutual edification and a reminder that "my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God." - Amen

It's Official

I gave my notice on Monday and my last day with my current job will be July 25th. We are moving back to Waco! We are pretty excited about this. While we have built a home and life here in the Metroplex and it was really good for us to grow together in our first 6 months away from most of our friends and family... we are ready to be back in 'community'. I've felt pretty lost without it and I'm really anxious to return to it! I'm excited to return to a church that feels more like 'home'. And I know it is weird to some people - but I seriously love Waco!!! We will be spending the next few weeks figuring out what we want to store when we move overseas and what we want to sell, then we will be packing everything up, dropping a few things off in Waco and moving the rest down to a storage unit in Corpus until we're ready to sell it all in the fall! So, if you are looking for some random furniture, or a VW Beetle with 135,000 miles on it... let us know cause we'll be selling them soonish!

Lately

We just got back from spending the long weekend with my Dad in Houston. It was a nice relaxing weekend spent mostly eating, swimming, and watching TV - I think we needed some down time. Jeff & my dad grilled some steaks and Jeff's famous jalapeno poppers. It was goooood! I made a homemade apple pie - it was pretty good too



Also this week I decided to do something to my hair I've been thinking about for a while. When we move overseas we won't really have electricity for me to fix my hair and my hair is such that I either have to try to make it straight or try to make it curly. So, I decided to get a wave put in my hair so that it would just be curly without me having to try. I wanted the look to be more like natural even waves... instead it turned out pretty curly. The lady said the curl would fall out a little - but I guess since my hair is already naturally pretty wavy it holds curl really well. It is realllllly curly. I don't hate it - I mean it wasn't what I wanted, but I'm getting used to it. Here's a picture....(I'm feeling kind of nervous right now....)



So... what do you think? Does my hair look like it's on crack? And if you don't comment I will take that as a 'yes'. j/k You really can tell me it looks like it's on crack - especially first thing in the morning, I think Jeff is kind of scared of it, but he is too sweet to tell me that. =) haha