The Old Spanish Sugar Mill

The weekend before my final exam, after almost two weeks of straight studying, and with many hours of studying ahead for the rest of the weekend, I desperately needed a break from the four walls of our hotel room! My sweet hubby planned a fun little surprise date for us on Saturday morning and we headed to DeLeon Springs State Park.

In the late 1870's, the site of the State Park was home to Spring Garden plantation, where a long line of planters cultivated cotton, corn and sugarcane. A natural spring is the main feature of the state park and feeds beautiful lakes connected to the park. In the days of the plantation, a waterwheel was built that harnessed the spring flow to grind sugar cane.

Our real destination within the park, though, was The Old Spanish Sugar Mill, home of all-you-can-eat pancakes! The rustic interior features elements of the sugar mill, but the most unique part of this restaurant are the griddles built into the middle of each table.

Large pitchers of homemade pancake batter, both traditional and a five grain stone ground blend, are brought to the table, and you can order a variety of mix-ins from fruit and nuts to chocolate chips to add to your pancakes. Eggs are brought whole and bread comes untoasted, and you prepare your pancakes and breakfast right on the hot griddle in your table.

Our favorite pancake creation was the multigrain batter with bananas, pecans & chocolate chips. Yum!

I love discovering little unknown spots that are favorites of the locals whenever we are traveling! A very fun way to spend a sunny morning...

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

On one of our free Saturdays while we were in Daytona Beach, we took an afternoon trip 15 minutes south to Ponce Inlet. The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse was completed in 1887, is the tallest lighthouse in Florida, and one of the tallest in the nation. There are several outbuildings surrounding the lighthouse, including the homes of previous lighthouse keepers and their families, which have been turned into a museum detailing the history of the lighthouse. Both Truman and I really enjoy history and visiting historical landmarks, so this was a fun way to enjoy the sunshine (which was a little too rare!)

We had to climb 203 steep, narrow metal stairs winding up the lighthouse to see the view from the top! By the time we reached the top, my legs were mush. I definitely paid for it the next day!


Views from the top! It was extremely windy up there...

It was SO windy that it blew my sunglasses right off my shirt and I couldn't grab them quick enough as they skidded across the observation deck floor and right off the side. We weren't sure we would be able to find them at the bottom, or if we did, we doubted they would have survived unscathed. But, sure enough, I spotted them in the grass in one piece and just as good as before the fall!

Coming up for air....

Gasp. Gasp. Deep breath. The last six weeks have been a crazy ride!
We arrived back in Austin late last night and I slept in my own cozy bed for the first time in 6 weeks. ahhhhh. We were away from our "new" home for so long that I forgot some of the little idiosyncrasies about our house, like the fact that the hot and cold handles are switched on the sink in our master bathroom. It took me a few minutes of standing at the sink this morning waiting for the water to warm up before I remembered. The one thing that I didn't forget is all the mess and boxes still waiting to be unpacked and organized. Time doesn't erase all things.

For those of you who have forgotten (in the gap of entries the past 6 weeks!) what we were returning from, we ventured down to Daytona Beach, FL where I joined over 125 other new staff for our New Staff Training conference for Campus Crusade for Christ.

I had every intention of writing updates while we were away and sharing the progression of my experiences at New Staff Training. As those of you that have clicked on my blog in recent weeks in search of an update know, I wrote exactly zero entries while we were away. I wish I could say that my blog is the only thing I neglected these past six weeks. But, in addition to getting reacquainted with our house, I need to get caught up on the lives of some of my friends! I have been so consumed with the intense schedule of New Staff Training these past weeks that I didn't have time for anything much beyond classes, eating, and not enough sleep! It was a full 5 weeks of training, learning, and development. I completed two graduate level seminary classes in two weeks: Doctrine Survey and Bible Study Methods. For those two weeks, I was in class for 4.5 hours in the morning and the rest of my day was filled with 6-7 hours of reading and assignments. I definitely saw more of my books than the beach! It was week three of training before my toes even touched the sand. For those of you who are wondering if I came back tan, the answer is definitely not! We actually had a lot of rain and chilly weather to go with our busy schedule. But, we did do a little bit of exploring on our few free days and I look forward to sharing some pictures of our adventures throughout the coming week! Though we did lack for warm & sunny pool worthy days, we did not lack for beautiful sunrises and sunsets over the ocean. There is always a peace that stirs the soul in beholding such beauty. "The created universe is all about glory. The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God. The universe was made to show it, and we were made to see it and savor it. Nothing less will do....'The heavens are telling of the glory of God.' (Psalm 19:1)....We are all starved for the glory of God, not self. No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self-esteem. Why do we go? Because there is greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self." -John Piper

I struggle to accurately summarize all of the challenges, thoughts & experiences of my time at NST. But, there are two highlights that I want to share....two times that stand out in my mind as I think back over the last 6 weeks.

During our first week, we heard a series of talks from national team leaders within Campus Crusade. It was a week of encouragement, inspiration, developing a clearer vision of our calling to campus ministry and getting our hearts in tune with what God had for us in the following weeks. On Friday night, the week wrapped up with a Heritage Night full of pictures and stories that shared the rich heritage of how God has used Campus Crusade for Christ for His kingdom work over the last 56 years. Our guest for the evening was Vonette Bright, who co-founded Campus Crusade with her husband, the late Bill Bright. Bill & Vonette started Campus Crusade in 1951 at UCLA and took huge leaps of faith as they trusted the Lord, selling Bill's successful candy business to embark on a new journey of full time ministry and depending on God to meet their needs. Through an interview, Vonette shared her amazing story of how God has used and blessed her ministry with Bill through the years. I remember thinking as I sat there and listened to her story that she has experienced more in her lifetime than many people dare to dream. There are a handful of people that we meet in life that instantly endear themselves to our heart, and Vonette is definitely one of the unique few with a sweet spirit that makes you fall in love with her in minutes. She is honest and frank, funny, strong willed yet humble, extremely wise in both life experience and the Word, and quite with it for her age! It was such a blessing to hear from Vonette and have a chance to hold her hand and speak with her following the session.

We also had an opportunity later in the training to visit the Campus Crusade for Christ headquarters at Lake Hart in Orlando for a day. During our tour of the headquarters (which I had no idea were so large!) we had a chance to visit the offices and studio of the Jesus Film Project. The goal of the Jesus Film project is to reach every nation, tribe, people and tongue, helping them to see and hear the story of Jesus in a language they can understand. The Jesus Film has been viewed more than 6 billion times since 1979, is the most translated film in history with translations for over 1,000 languages, and has been seen in every country of the world. We saw a demonstration of the in-depth process they use to dub over the new languages keeping an incredibly accurate voice to lip match, as well as the laborious process that is involved to have a native speaker of each language or dialect record the script. In many remote villages, it is the first movie or first exposure to media that the people have experienced. During one viewing, the people were so moved by the sight of Jesus' torture & crucifixion that arrows and spears began flying through the projector screen as they responded, not fully comprehending that what they were seeing in that moment was only a film. During our tour, we watched a video about a couple that financially sponsored a translation to an African dialect and their journey to the village to experience the first showing of the Jesus Film in that language. Tears came to my eyes as I watched the faces of the tribal people respond to the life of Jesus as it unfolded before their eyes. Even in full time ministry, it is far too easy to forget, amidst the busyness of our daily lives, that God is working in huge & miraculous ways across the world each and every day.

I returned from New Staff Training with a lot of books & knowledge, a better understanding of the ministry God has called me to be a part of, quite a few pictures, and some new friends. The one thing I am missing is a t-shirt reading "I Survived New Staff Training." Now, it's time to tackle another thing that was neglected while we were away....

Locks of Love

As of this afternoon, my head is 10 inches lighter! It's been over a year and half since I have had a significant length of my hair cut. I began growing it out because I was ready for a change, but once it reached a certain length, I decided to continue growing it out in hopes of donating to Locks of Love. There have been many times that I've been *so* tempted to chop it off, but the temptation would taper and I'd let it keep growing. Just a few trims here and there. About a month ago, I found a special reason to donate this month and was excited when I took a ruler to my hair and it was long enough to meet the 10 inch requirement and leave me with some to style!

Meet sweet Noah Graves & his mom Adrienne, dad Jason, and sister Emily. I first met the Graves family during the 5 months that they were "living" at The Children's Hospital in Denver. They were a part of my Red Rocks Church Family and our church community was providing them meals at the hospital. I was blessed to take a meal to them on December 13, 2006 and had a chance to visit with them and share dinner together in Noah's hospital room. We spent some time getting to know each other and we prayed over little Noah together. I was so touched and inspired by this amazing family and how marked their lives were by God's hand. The grace and transparency with which they live their life, especially their journey with Noah, has touched my heart and impacted my life. On January 12, 2006, at 7 months old, Noah went to be with the Lord. But, in his short little life, he touched more lives than most do even when they live to be 100. Adrienne recorded in detail the family's incredible journey on her blog and continues to share her insights into God's love and grace in their lives, after they were forever changed by their son, Noah. I have to warn you though, if you start reading their story, you probably won't be able to stop! Be prepared for your heart to be changed too!

On January 12th, the one year anniversary of Noah's arrival in heaven, Adrienne and 8 of her Denver friends will be donating their hair to Locks of Love in his memory. She invited others across the US to join them, and I decided it would be a perfect time for my cut, to honor Noah with my donation. Since I am leaving tomorrow for Daytona, FL for my 6 week long New Staff Training with Campus Crusade for Christ, I decided to cut a week early.

Here are some before shots:

The cut!

My new do!

This was the first cut I've had in Austin, but I went to a hairdresser highly recommended by my sister in law Carita and friend Jocelin. They both always have awesome cuts, so I trusted their stylist to take me short! My sweet and very cooperative hubby shot some pics for me of the cut. I'm so happy with my new hairstyle...it might just be one of the best cuts I've ever had. It feels great to have a lighter head of hair and a little more bounce. It was time for a change! I'm looking forward to experimenting with different ways of styling it, especially since I have naturally curly hair.

I'm even happier to package up my ponytail for donation and drop it in the mail tomorrow. Sweet Noah, in your memory, may another precious child of God have a tangible need met in love.

A Bit of France

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior! Several times throughout the holiday season, I intended to post, but just never got around to it! I guess I was having so much fun enjoying quality time with friends & family that I was too busy living life to write about it! Truman and I had a wonderful first married Christmas! I enjoyed some much needed time at home with my family, and all of the Christmas tradition that came with it! I am thankful that I was blessed to grow up in a family with many traditions, especially around the holidays, that hold sweet memories for me. In addition to all of the fun Christmas festivities like driving around town to check out Christmas lights, baking Christmas cookies and watching some of my favorite holiday movies, we ate a lot, played my brother's new Guitar Hero until our fingers were tired (mine at least, not Trumans!), and pulled out some old family movies (which Truman got a real kick out of!)

Another fun and unexpected surprise came of my time in Ohio! Back in 2001, I spent part of my summer studying in Europe. I saw 5 countries and numerous cities and loved every second of it! Paris was one of my favorite parts of the trip, though with only a couple of days, my stay there seemed much too short! The afternoon that I visited Notre Dame, I spent some time wandering along the River Seine and checked out some of the local artists that set up along the river to paint. I purchased a black and white oil painting on canvas from one of the artists to take back home. Since I was living with my parents at the time, I didn't have a place to hang it and we stored it in the basement with some of my other belongings until I moved out and had my own blank walls to fill with art. When the time came for me to pack up and move, we were unable to find my painting. I knew it was somewhere in the house, but even after several years it hadn't turned up. While I was home for Christmas, my mom came up the stairs and said, "I have a surprise for you...guess what I found?" It didn't even occur to me until I saw the rolled up canvas tied with a black ribbon that she had found my painting. It fits perfectly with the colors and decor of our new house and I can't wait to frame it and find the perfect spot for it!


The same day that my mom gave me the missing French painting, I headed out to finish up some last minute Christmas shopping. While searching for gifts, I happened upon this t-shirt and it was too perfect to pass up. This girl loves all things French & vintage, so it was an obvious must-have, on a very appropriate day!


I have some fun things to share coming up this weekend. I took a few before shots today and am looking forward to sharing the "after" shots tomorrow! I also have a little project I've been working on this week that I'm looking forward to blogging about. Stay tuned...

Weekend Festivities

It was fun to wake up to several inches of snow on Saturday morning! As usual, our local weathermen were a tiny bit off in their predictions, so I was surprised to see a winter wonderland of white outside the window. We didn't have to venture out, which I think makes the snow even more enjoyable....watching the snowflakes fall from my warm & cozy spot inside! We don't get the pleasure of snow often in Texas, so I'm thankful a blanket of white arrived during our time in Ohio.

This weekend, we had our family Trim the Tree get-together! Our whole family was together and we had a fun afternoon of appetizers, decorating our tree and making gingerbread houses. I had forgotten just how tempting it is to lick your fingers when they are covered in icing from trying to add the candy decorations to your gingerbread house. I think we all made the mistake of licking out of habit, only to be reminded that royal icing tastes more like the cement it functions as, and less like the sweet goodness decorating our annual tradition of sugar cookies! We'll have to bake up a batch of the yummy icing soon because playing with all of that icing made me hungry for sugar cookies that taste as sweet as they look! It's always fun to see the individual creativity of our family come out in our houses. I think our gingerbread village is a festive addition to the dining room table for the holidays!

Happy Birthday Truman! (and a short house update...)

The last couple of weeks have been busy with taking care of as much post-surgery unpacking as possible & preparing to leave for Ohio, where we are spending the holidays with my family. We are making progress in the process of settling in, but we have plenty of boxes & work waiting on us when we return to Austin! I was hoping to share some pictures of our house before we left (I'm not ignoring your many requests!), but it wasn't exactly photo ready yet! I thought I would share a sneak peak instead. Tru spotted this rug at Bed Bath & Beyond a few weeks ago and it perfectly ties together the colors and style of our kitchen & living area. It has found a spot in front of our kitchen sink. Below is the "inspiration" photo we played with to choose our paint colors from Behr.com, with the color palette we chose for our kitchen & living room. (You can see some of the blue wall peaking out in the rug photo.) I can't wait to share some actual pictures from our house once we are little more settled. We are really happy with how the colors came out!

Before we left, we received a sweet gift from our realtor, Shannon Williams, as a little housewarming surprise! I headed out to get the mail one afternoon and found this fun gift basket of goodies on our front porch....complete with personalized "We've Moved" postcards with a picture of our house.

Shannon is the owner of Tribella Realty and I would highly recommend her if you are ever looking to buy or sell in the Austin area. She is extremely knowledgeable in her field and cares a ton about helping her clients find the perfect property for their needs. Anyone that can make a tour of 30 houses in two days not a complete chore has to be a fun gal!

Yesterday was my handsome hubby's birthday and we had some fun celebrating!
If you know Truman, you know that he loves to eat and he loves good food. This year's birthday was appropriately filled with yummy eats!

The party started last Friday when some friends in Austin got together for a Celebrate with Chicken Party. Let me tell you, my husband loves him some Popeye's Chicken & biscuits!!! (I guess a year in Nola will do that to you.) We figured a Popeye's buffet was the perfect appetizer to some chocolate cake & ice cream.

We were back in Cincinnati yesterday for his actual birthday and the celebration continued! Two of Tru's most favorite foods are steak & sushi, so we headed to Carlo & Johnny's for a special birthday dinner. It was my first visit to one of Jeff Ruby's steakhouses and we enjoyed the unique atmosphere of this venue, along with some delicious steak! In the late 1940's, the building was a casino with strong Mafia connections, and the decor is reminiscent of that era.

After dinner, we headed back to my parents' home to have dessert with my family. What Tru didn't know is that there was a little dessert party waiting for him at home! My family, grandparents, and some family friends surprised Tru and we enjoyed some chocolate turtle cheesecake & banana cream dessert homemade by sweet mom. (Unfortunately, my camera skills have a LONG way to go before I can even begin to compete with Tru's. Especially on his fancy camera! Since I was manning the camera for the night and everyone scattered at the mention of a group picture, most of the action shots came out blurry, so I don't have any fun people photos to share. Sad...)

I am SO thankful for my husband and what a blessing he is to my life. Yesterday, I wasn't celebrating how old he was, but how wonderful he is! I hope he felt as loved and celebrated as he is! I missed out on sharing in the first 30 years of his life, but I am excited to share all of the future ones together. I hope you had a memorable and fun 31st birthday, babe!