Easter Weekend 2013!

Happy Easter! We had a great time celebrating this weekend. My brother and sister were both home from college, and my best friend Stephanie was home from DC! It was so great to see everyone!

I had Good Friday off from work, which was really nice, so our weekend started on Thursday night! Kley and I watched Despicable Me and ordered Olive Garden takeout. It was so cute. Agnes was my favorite. The minions were pretty funny too. :)

Friday we hung out with my family and watched Unconditional. (Most of my family originally thought it would be bad and didn't really want to watch, but it was so good! You should watch it- it's the newest Christian movie from Provident Films that just came out on video. They are the same people who made Fireproof and Courageous.) Then we went to church, and went to Godfather's Pizza after with the Groens! They are family friends of ours from way back before I was even born. (Steph is in that family, for those who don't know.) It was great!

Me, Steph, and Kayla at Godfather's.

The whole gang.

Kley and I.

Some lovely shots. My brother, Keaton, his girlfriend, Rose, and Kley.

My mom and dad. (Kayla had taken my camera for those beauties.)

Saturday we hung out with my family again, ate a great supper, and played games, but I have no pics to prove it. We played The Game of Things, and if you don't have it, buy it! It's so hilarious. It's like Apples to Apples, but you write your own cards.

Easter Sunday! We went to church with my family, and then my parent's hosted the celebration at their house with a bunch of church friends. It was so great to see everyone again and celebrate that Jesus is risen! (My dad was taking this picture, and the camera strap blew in the way. Bummer. I cropped it on my computer, but when I uploaded it, it took the original image.) All of my great siblings (and Kley and Rose!)

Kley and I!

Sister love. :)

Steph and I!

Easter egg hunt! Even though we don't have any young kids in the bunch, we still have a hunt. This year, anyone under 30 could participate. Yay!

My candy collection. 

 Kley and I's Easter baskets. Yes, we are 25 and 24, but my mom still gives us Easter baskets. We aren't complaining! Thanks, Mom!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Struggling.

The LORD your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17

I love this verse. It is a great reminder to read at all times- whether on the mountaintop or down in the valley.

I know a lot of people that are down in the valley this week, so I have been praying this verse for others a lot recently. There is a lot of pain out there- personal issues, death, sickness, disappointment, fear, etc.

I am thankful that we serve a BIG and GREAT God, who intimately knows what we are going through and will give us the strength to endure it. It doesn't seem momentary when we are in the middle of a trial, but I'm thankful our earthly trials are but momentary compared to the vast eternity spent up in Heaven! No issues. No death. No sickness. No fear. No disappointment.

That is a beautiful beautiful thing.

That's what happens.

Sometimes Kley and I joke about the "that's what happens" game. I told him awhile ago that's a common phrase I use at school, and it's been a joke to us ever since about those simple life lessons everyone needs to learn, but two-year-olds haven't mastered yet.

I warned you that leaning back in your chair is not safe, and then you fall over, hit your head, and cry. That's what happens. (Of course I console them first, but then have the "you didn't listen, I am trying to keep you safe" talk.)

You picked your nose and got a disgusting booger on your finger, and now you are whining for a kleenex. Well, we've talked about not picking our noses. That's what happens. (This is what my daily life is like...ha.)

You were running so fast that you couldn't stop in time, bonked your head on the wall, and now are crying. Well, do you remember the three warnings I just gave you to use your walking feet? That's what happens.

I could go on. It's a real life phrase I use at school, and a funny joke at home. You burnt the bottom layer of the food? That's what happens when you don't stir it enough. The shower drain is clogged? That's what happens when you don't take the nasty hairball out. (That is directed towards myself. Eww.) Your phone is dead? That's what happens when you don't plug it in.

Normally, it's a funny joke about things that aren't a big deal. I learned a not-so-big-of-a-deal "that's what happens" lesson at school today. We were making jello and going to make cute jello jigglers for lunch with Easter cookie cutters. On the back of the package, it says to put in one cup of boiling water, and one cup cold water. Well, I just put in really warm water. The jello never fully solidified, and we ended up sticking it in the freezer and had a really weird popsicle sort of concoction that was way too grainy.

So, for all of you out there, when jello says put in boiling water, they mean BOILING. That's what happens. (Thankfully, the kids didn't know the difference and ate it up!)

On a bigger, not so funny, note- Kley left his wallet on the plane while coming home from Florida. (At least we think so- we can't find it anywhere.) We've called Allegiant Airlines so many times, but their customer service is stinky and they never called back. After 6 voicemails. So we cancelled all our cards and are getting new.

That's what happens. The phrase can be used a lot!

Vacation Read- Feel the Zeal.

My vacation read was Feel the Zeal by Dr. Ron Cline. It was recommended to me by my dad, and it was a fabulous read. I would recommend it. A convicting, challenging book that stirs up a lot of thought and desire to follow Jesus more whole heartedly and actively. He is involved with HCJB radio, lives in Ecuador (which is the head port for their radio stations, and so cool because I've been to Ecuador on a missions trip before), and helps get Christian radio programs broadcasted all over the world in as many languages as possible.

The whole premise was based off of the verse "...and the zeal of the Lord will accomplish this." (Isaiah 9:7)

It was so good. He included so many stories of God working throughout the world- stories that are so incredible, and only explained by God that they leave you with goosebumps. I love hearing stories, so I really loved this book!

In the second part of the book he talkes about Christian character traits, stories about those traits, and Biblical characters who displayed those qualities. It was such a cool way of writing, and connecting the zeal concept, in a way I wouldn't have thought of. I also learned a lot about people from the Bible that I didn't know before. He wrote about:

Philip finding zeal in Availability

Stephen finding zeal in Character

Elijah finding zeal in Consistency

Barnabas finding zeal in Compassion

Joseph finding zeal in Forgiveness

Peter finding zeal in Obedience

Elisha finding zeal in Confidence

Noah finding zeal in Righteousness

Paul finding zeal in Tough Times

Nehemiah finding zeal in Vision

Here are some thoughts I found really interesting:

1. Dark and Light- Jesus is so powerful because He is light, and light ALWAYS overcomes darkness. You simply cannot put out light with darkness, but you can always put out darkness with light. Think about turning on a flashlight in a pitch black room- one tiny light breaks through the darkness! Light always overcomes and is more powerful than darkness.

2. Listening to God's voice. So often people think about doing something without waiting for or even asking God's direction. We too often think that this is what God would want, or that it's a "good" thing, so we don't have to talk to Him about it, when we always should. Too often we ask God to bless us and our activities, when that might not necessarily be the path He wants for us, even if it's a good thing. We need to slow down and listen for God's voice. He will always lead us and has a great path set out for us. It's usually different than what we might want or expect, but always better! He also talked about how to decipher between God's voice and Satan's.

3. Taking action. Too often Christians are mediocre and don't look for opportunities to share their faith, or don't take the ones given to them. This is a really convicting point for me, and something I want to develop more boldness with.

4. Tough times- He talked about Paul's tough times, and he had a lot! Way too often, we think that we don't deserve troubles and think we are being treated unfairly, but God never promised an easy or trouble free life. We need to praise God even in the midst of trials, for in our trials we can learn to depend on Him more, and trials shape and grow us.

I could go on for awhile, so you should just read it!

Florida Spring Break 2013- Day 7, Part 2 (Epcot)

We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening at Epcot!

Some pretty flowers on the way in.

Mickey, Minnie, and the gang in the flowers.

Kayla, Kley, and me!

Welcome to Epcot!

This was one of my disappointments of the day. Soarin' was my favorite ride last time we were at Disney, when I was 16. We got to Epcot right around 4, headed right there to fast pass it, but all the fast passes were already distributed and the wait was 100 minutes. We decided to wait and come back later, and we came back around 7:30 and the wait was 85 minutes, so we couldn't do it because then we wouldn't have any time left and we would have been late for the fireworks. Huge bummer- and Kley had never been, so I wanted him to experience how cool it was! (If you don't know, it's a ride where you are hang gliding over beautiful sights.) Oh well- next time!

Living with the Land ride. This ride was next to Soarin' with a grand wait of 0 minutes. Kind of understandable, since it's a slow, very educational ride, but still is interesting (at least Kayla and I thought so!). It goes through different nature scenarios and how animals survive in those habitats, how agriculture has changed over the years, and how they grow a lot of plants/veggies/fruits on site and take you through their garden. My Grandpa Schut would have LOVED this ride so much- he's a farmer. Wish he could have been on it with us!

A Cinderella and Snow White sighting! This Snow White was the best character we've ever seen- she was dancing around and hamming it up big time. You could tell she loved her job!

It started to rain, so we headed inside and saw some characters! Us and Mickey!

Photo with Pluto!

A shot with Minnie!

We also took an ice cream break. I tried a frozen banana covered in chocolate/nuts. It was very interesting! A good try for a one time experience, but not something I would order again. It wasn't bad, just the texture and hardness of a frozen banana is strange.

Spaceship Earth- a cool ride that takes you through how the world has changed over time, mainly with writing, books, and communication. In the end they plug your pictures into a personalized story you create by answering questions. Kley and I were making hilarious scary faces, because we were pretending it was a roller coaster and Kley was terrified, when we went past the camera that we didn't notice, so our weird faces were broadcasted to the world when the ride was finished. Lovely.

They had lots of flowers everywhere! They had a flower celebration of sorts, in celebration of 20 years last year.

Lion King in flowers/plants.

Monster's Inc.

At Epcot, they have a large circle around the lake that is set up in different stations, each a different country. It's really cool to walk through. The first was Mexico!

Norway.

China.

This was the ceiling inside the building.

Germany.

Had to try out the soccer hat, while speaking in a German accent (came out much more Scottish). I'm so glad to be married to someone who is light hearted and laughs easily! :)

Snow White in flowers.

Italy.

A gondola- one of my favorite things I've ever done was a gondola ride in Venice!

Lady and the Tramp.

United States.

The Guess Who band was playing (never heard of them).

Japan.

Morocco.

France.

The Eiffel Tower- one of my favorite sites!

United Kingdom.

Beauty and the Beast in flowers.

Had to capture the Fish & Chips sign.

Along with the red phone booth!

Canada.

We ended the trip with the fireworks show- I LOVE fireworks, so this was a fabulous way to end the trip!

They had it around the lake, so you could also see all the countries lit up. So neat!

A great Spring Break! High energy, spending long days at the park, but very fun. We are so blessed to be able to take a vacation and have some time away from the norm!