Well goodbye spring and almost summer :)

Hello everyone!!

Well obviously a whole lot has happened since the last time I blogged in March :) It is now August and almost football season! Can I get an Amen?! So in a nutshell since March I have been to NYC for my friend Jana's bachelorette party, to Tulsa twice for Jana's wedding as well as my friend Kate's, attended Rockies baseball games, went to Red Rocks for the first time to see Sarah McLachlan, Allison visited for work and got to celebrate my birthday with me and speaking of my birthday I turned 24 :) I have also been babysitting here and there for some extra cash. So now summer is almost gone and it really has been a great one!

This past weekend was one of my favorites. My Mom got in last Thursday and we then hit the ground running with some things that I planned for us all to do. Thursday night we ate at Famous Daves then came back to the apartment to watch Big Brother. Friday morning my Mom and I slept in a little bit and Kevin went off to work. Our plan was to head out to Red Rocks and go to the Music museum. We left and went and ate in downtown Morrison at the Morrison Inn. It was SOOOO good and then we walked around and shopped. So much fun. We headed to Red Rocks only to find out that the amphitheater was closed due to a private event. I still got to show my Mom that area though and we climbed several stairs so it all worked out :) We didn't go to the museum after all because of time. We headed back to the apartment and waited for Kevin to meet us because we were going to go see Mt. Evans...we started driving west and discovered traffic was a mess and it would take us too long to get there and get back in time for the baseball game that night, so we just went to Golden instead and walked around. That evening we ate at the ball park and watched the Rockies play! The weather was perfect and it was a fun game. Saturday morning we headed out to Idaho Springs to go white water rafting...it was SO much fun! After we rafted we went and ate in Idaho Springs at Tommy Knocker and it was DELICIOUS. Idaho Springs has a really cute main street and we shopped for a little bit then went back to Denver. We all crashed when we got home, then my mom and I got up and got ready for Canvas and Cocktails (Tulsa has to get one of these!!) We met my friends Kristina, Rachel and Kendra there and painted a masterpiece :) After Canvas and Cocktails we went and ate downtown at Rio. Sunday morning we woke up had breakfast then headed out to Breckenridge. When we got there we took the gondola up to the mountain and rode the alpine slide and played a round of put put golf :) We had a blast!!! We went into town afterwards and ate at Kenosha Steakhouse then walked around!! Then we headed home and traffic was horrific so it took us a good 3 hours. After we got home we got ready then ate at Texas Roadhouse then went and saw Crazy Stupid Love!!! Such a wonderful and fun weekend :) So glad I got to spend much needed quality time with my Momma and Kevin. Now I am babysitting and wishing it was the weekend already.

Tonight Kevin and are going to Film on the Rocks at Red Rocks to watch Jurassic Park :) Should be a lot of fun. I am babysitting most of the week, getting my hair cut on Tuesday and then hanging out with my friend Tiffaney on Wednesday. This weekend My friend Megan is having her baby shower and my friend Laura is having a get together at her house that I am pretty excited about! Summer is coming to an end and I am okay with that!! Fall is just around the corner and it is my favorite :) At the end of August Kevin and I are going to Estes Park for a weekend getaway, I can't wait for that! Hopefully we can eat good food, see lots of God's beautiful artwork and go horseback riding. September is such a full month I will just have to wait awhile till I blog about it! I am also now addicted to Pinterest! So much fun!!!

I love Friday Night Lights and have been watching it on Netflix religiously. Kevin likes it too, so that's always fun :) Its kinda like my new Gilmore Girls. Well I need to get off her and get on with the day! I will leave you with a couple of bible verse's I am memorizing.

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

"Cast all you anxiety on Him because He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7

Love- Karen

March Madness!!

Hello everybody!!!

I am so happy it is March!!! I love the month of March. Now is the time that no matter what the weather might be telling me outside I feel that it is appropriate to wear springy things. I am also thrilled because March tells me that baseball season is super close. Kevin's birthday is in March as is my sister Kimberly's birthday. This month will for sure be a blast.

This Sunday, our friend Seth will be coming to Denver and we will be staying in Breckenridge until Wednesday night. I am excited to go skiing- I have not been since the beginning of February. Kevin's birthday is next Tuesday so we will still be in Breck for that :) Once I get back from that trip, I leave for Baltimore, MD on Saturday to visit my friend Kinsey!! I cannot wait to see that girl. I.miss.her! We will be doing things in Maryland but will also be staying in D.C. for a night and looking around D.C. for two full days :) I am so excited!!

Basically when I get back from my Maryland trip it will be time for baseball season :) Since Kevin and I got season tickets this year to the Rockies games we will be spending a lot of time at the baseball field, which is a-ok with me!

Kevin and I finally found a church that we really like and feel like it will be a great fit for us as well as a great place to serve our community in. Some of our friends attend there as well as it is downtown so Kevin and I walk there on Sunday mornings and walk home. Which is really nice- we get to burn calories as well as enjoy the quietness of downtown Denver on a Sunday morning. We start their gospel class next week which basically goes over what Fellowship (the church) is all about and basically gets your ready for membership.

Well, it is time for me to take the pups to the park and enjoy my mid morning coffee :) I will leave you with my 1st memory verse of this month. (I am memorizing 2 verses each month with Beth Moore and other fellow Siesta's- check out her blog livingproofministries.blogspot.com).

"Peter and the other apostles replied: 'We must obey God rather than men!"
-Acts 5:29 (NIV)

Karen

Forgotten God

Okay so I told you how I am starting the Francis Chan bible study, Forgotten God, right? Also, real quick someone remind me do you italicize book titles or underline them?! Ugh couldn't they just stick to either or?! Well I wanted to share just a bit of chapter one that I thought was very powerful. Keep in mind the whole premise of this book is how we neglect the Holy Spirit. Which is just crazy because when Jesus died and went to be with God in Heaven he clearly gave us something so powerful and useful.





"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- 17. the Spirit of truth. The World cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you."





John 14:16-20 (NIV)





Upon reading that verse I can't help but agree with Chan on this one, in the sense that my beliefs, especially about the Holy Spirit are shaped more from my experiences as a "normal" christian who has always been fed by great leaders instead of shaping my beliefs by reading the scripture and taking it to heart on my own. If I took that scripture to heart, then why would I ever feel like I am alone in this world? Why would I ever want to do anything else but praise him and give him glory? How wonderful! We get to see God every second of our lives because HE lives in us. It is a lot to think about really.





Jesus also reminded the disciples that, "It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." (John 16:7 NIV). Obviously this "Counselor," A.K.A The Holy Spirit is so powerful and important that Jesus had to go back and be with his father in Heaven for us to obtain this Counselor, Advocate, Comforter, or Helper as other versions describe the Holy Spirit.





A lot to chew on- but here are some definite highlighting material I discovered in this chapter.





Francis Chan wrote: "We don't expect the Holy Spirit to act."





"...many of us are fairly capable of living rather successfully (according to the world's standards) without any strength from the Holy Spirit."





"Yet when those outside of the church see no difference in our lives, they begin to question our integrity, our sanity, or even worse, or God. And can you blame them?"





"Have you ever thought about the significance of having "another" Counselor who is 'just like Christ?





Stay with me because my favorite part of this chapter was a beautiful analogy of a caterpillar. Funny how I am a sucker for any sort of animal comparison ;)





Francis Chan asks the question, "Have you ever wondered what caterpillars think about?" I certainly don't. He goes on to talk about how for a caterpillar their whole life as they know it consists of crawling around on the dirt and then one day they take a nap and they wake up to become a beautiful flying butterfly. Then he talks about that as believers we should act in this way about the gift of the holy spirit. Francis says, "We should be stunned in disbelief over becoming a "new creation" with the Spirit living in us." We can and should live differently knowing that the Holy Spirit is within us. I will leave you with this life altering sentence from Chan.





"I don't want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly."





Love you all and praying you seek out this great gift God has left for us,





Karen

Better Day :)

We are all due a day like I had yesterday right?! :)





Today is much better. I walked downtown had lunch at one of my very favorite Denver restaurants, The Delectable Egg, with my honey and friend Seth. It was a lot of fun! Then I decided to go to Barnes and Noble and pick up a couple books that I am really excited about reading. I walked about 3 miles so I'm just going to do a Jillian video later and call it good on the workouts for the day.





Kevin and I will probably go skiing on Saturday if the weather is okay, if not it might be nice to be lazy and do things around here :) I think I will try and find a teacher workshop or some other type of class (bible study) I can attend that I find interesting around Denver, or maybe even at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, so I'll let you know what I discover...other than that I have a LOT of books I need to read and workouts to press through. My friend Laura who also lives in Denver told me about a school that needs substitute teachers so I might do that 2x a week, we shall see.





This Sunday Kevin and I will try out another church, please pray that it goes well. So tired of looking. I'm just praying that God will speak to Kevin and I both about preparing our minds to be like His in the sense that we need to be at a church full of believers that want to help others in His name. Period. This does not mean everything about that church has to be showy, or self seeking or brand new. Francis Chan said something that just stuck with me when I was listening to one of his podcasts. He said that so many Americans pay for the kind of church they want to go to...what I mean is they give their offerings at that church and simply hope someone else does the dirty work in terms of having relationships with those struggling, feeding the poor, building houses, etc. They simply sign the check and put it in the offering plate. I am so guilty of that and I do not want to be. Also people will go somewhere where they know their kids will be entertained and they can chat with their friends. Again, that is not a bad thing. But I do believe when that is the only thing we are doing as a church it is wrong. We as a church need to exist for believers and non believers but we need to be a church of out stretched arms. The church simply needs to be a body of believers who want to live out God's word and be a light and help to others. So believe with me that we will be at that church soon, and I can start being apart of different mission outreaches. There are a couple that I am very interested in. Most of them have something to do with kids of course, like tutoring, watching little ones while their mom's go to school/work, etc.





Does anybody have an healthy recipes they would like to share?! I LOVE cooking, especially Pioneer Women things..but God bless her the recipes might end up doing more harm than good if I eat them all the time :) Also feel free to share workouts that you like or classes that are fun I can look into!

I miss my sisters, and this color on my hair ;) This is my next hair color move.

Love,

Karen

I am not.

I am not working out today. It has been a crappy day and I do not plan on making it crappier by working out. Sucks when you work your butt off for a week and NOTHING reflects that on the scale. So I am throwing the towel in today and giving myself a day off.

Frustrated-

Karen

In the Month's to come...

Hello friends!!

Not much has been going on lately...just working out, reading, studying my bible, and skiing :) I love skiing and I'm not ready for the season to end, but I am ready to be able to walk the dogs outside when it's not dirty from snow and slush. sick. I usually skip the walk because washing the little cuties tends to be a big task.

This year I have committed to memorize 24 scriptures through Beth Moore's Siesta Scripture Memory Team :) I love it. I know I am only 2 scriptures in, but it gives me something to do that is more than worth my time. I follow her blog (http://blog.lproof.org/) and I really love her posts. Beth Moore is for sure an inspirational women and I aspire to have her love of the word. Also, I am starting a new bible study by Francis Chan called, The Forgotten God. I am very excited to start it.

In just a few weeks we are meeting up with our good friends Seth and Jenni and going skiing in Keystone for three days and staying together at a condo. I. cannot. wait. I love them so much and cannot wait for bouts of hysterical laughter and good talks and good food :)

Have I mentioned before that I am ready to move back to Oklahoma?! Well I am. I am still working on being content with where I am and trying to make a difference but I am struggling at it for sure. Kevin and I still have not found a church home, and since I am not working that means finding friends is a true struggle. I find myself talking to the dogs more than any healthy human should ;) Denver does have a lot to offer, but again I miss having friends!!! I might try and sub a couple days a week...I'm still not so sure yet though because last time I did this in Oklahoma it did not go so hot. I also do have things to look forward too though so that is helping pass the time. After our ski trip with the Hutchins in February I might go back to Tulsa for a little bit and then in March it's Kevin's birthday so we are going to try and plan something fun for that. Also, in March I am going to Maryland to visit one of my best friends, Kinsey. We are going to visit D.C. while we are there and I cannot wait. Baseball season will start in April and since my husband is the greatest and got us season tickets we will have a lot of date's at the ball field, which I am so happy about. Also in April is one of my best friend Jana's Bachelorette party in NYC!! Which should be an absolute fabulous occasion. Hopefully by that time we will know more about when we will be back in Tulsa for good...Oh pray with me that we know something, could ya?! Then in May it's Jana and Jake's wedding!!! Yayyy! SO...I do have lots of fun things that will be happening. I am just slightly ready for winter to end so I don't feel like all I do is stay in the apartment or walk two doors down to the gym- this gets old fast. Have I ever mentioned how much I also loathe Denver traffic? Also a hindrance for keeping myself busy.

I feel silly saying that I have plenty of things to look forward to, in order to pass the time and make it go by quicker when I need to be making a difference here in Denver today. I am ready to start helping others and loving on other people in the community so basically I need to find a cause and just start volunteering. Which is scary when your in a city...but it's not about me.

Tomorrow I will start my bible study and post notes on here :)

Oh Suburbia...how I miss thee...

Love you all!

Karen

2011...

Well, let's see Christmas in Tulsa was fantastic. Kevin and I really loved being home of course and enjoyed much needed family and friends time. It was a great Christmas in the sense that I felt more encouraged than ever to be in touch with the true reason for Christmas. I have been doing a bible study on rediscovering the true meaning of Christmas and I think everybody needs to keep it all in perspective. We celebrate Christmas because Christ was born. Thank you Jesus. Thank you God for sending your son to forgive us of our sins and to be our teacher.

I did get some awesome gifts that were so generous. Kevin got us season tickets to the Rockies :) I am soooo excited. I love baseball and the best part of this gift is that Kevin and I can be assured 81 dates that consist of each other and baseball :) Very exciting. I bought a super cute purse and some Miss Me jeans with some of my Christmas money. I also bought two books that I am SO excited to read, BONHOEFFER Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxes and The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. This year I want to immerse myself in reading. I also got many more things from my family and friends, so generous and I have really loved all of my gifts.

Today my workout/diet will go ahead FULL force. I have been lax these last 3 weeks, which puts me behind in losing weight. I have to get serious again so I can obtain my goal before my best friend Jana's wedding. So of course I am avoiding working out by writing this blog...but rest assured when I'm done I will head to the gym and then do a glorious Jillian Michael's video...oh happy day. I would love to be outside today doing things but there is too much snow and it is frigid out! I want to take the dogs on a walk but poor little Farah has to keep her paw dry because she split it open and has stitches. They come out in 12 days and I cannot wait.

Kevin and I are going to go skiing this Saturday. I am praying to be patient with learning and to keep getting better!! :) We are also going to try another church this Sunday. I am praying that God will show us where we need to be. We desire to be apart of a church that is actively discipiling others. So many churches do a great job of feeding themselves, but do a less than good job of feeding their community. Literally and figuratively speaking. I want to be apart of a church that you can simply feel their need to bond together through service because they love God. So I am hoping the church we go to on Sunday fits that description :)

Kevin and I are going to go to the store tonight, we really need to re-stock the fridge. I am also excited for new episodes this week on TV!! I am really into Parenthood right now, it is a great show!! Well I guess I should just go work out and get it over with!!

Check these books out!!




Love to all!

Karen