A Grandparent's Love

Ted always had a soft spot for Court and I. We were his first "granddaughters." We were two lucky girls to have a grandpa like Ted next door as we grew up! Through the years I've learned that it isn't blood that makes you family. It's love, devotion, commitment, loyalty. Ted epitomized all of these and more. He was a wonderful, loving man. Always ornery, especially to those he loved most. He always was the life of the party. He didn't know a stranger. He was involved in our lives, even after we both moved from Byron Lane. There are very few memories of my childhood (really my life in general) that don't include Ted. We spent lots of time at their house coloring in coloring books, playing in yard, celebrating birthdays and holidays together. His son gave me my first piece of Aggie gear: a bib that said "Future Aggie Class of 20??" He was there for all of our milestones...our births, first steps, kindergarten, middle school, high school, college, graduations, weddings, and many more. We were both very honored that he and Mary Helen sat as grandparents at our weddings. I'm not sure what he's telling her here, but I'm sure she'll never forget.

You Love Me Anyway

I can't believe that it's been over 6 months since we've last posted. We've had SO many changes in our life, which I'll share soon. (No, they don't include a baby Cain. Maybe soon, but not now:) )
I've been struggling recently with a few things. It's a very stressful time of the school year. I'm sad that the year is coming to an end because I will miss my kiddos a lot. At least I'll get to see them next year:) My grandfather died right after Christmas and I still haven't really allowed myself to grieve. (Working on that one.) One of my former coworkers lost her father this week. Several friends are hurting from different situations. It just seems like one thing after another....
The biggest burden on my heart is that we're searching for a church again. It's always tough and we left a church last week knowing that we wouldn't be back. It was one of those situations where we didn't even have to discuss it. We both just knew. We'd only been a handful of times. Everyone was very friendly and we were starting to feel comfortable. You know when you really want something so badly that you block out the little voice that's pointing out the flaws in your plan? That's where I was.
I don't know why it was so tough for me, but I was really heartbroken over the whole thing. I'm so thankful for a husband like Derek because he is such an amazing leader of our household. He truly seeks God's will for our family. What a blessing! I am one lucky girl to have him:)
I know that God has plans for us. I know that we will find a church home. I know that if we seek Him with our whole heart, we will find Him. I've discovered that I'm a micromanager. I didn't realize that, but I am. (I'm sure that's not as surprising to you as it was to me.) I've learned that it's difficult for me to let go and trust other people, much less God. In his heart a man plans his course, but God determines his steps.
I've been focusing on truly seeking God's plan. It's not easy for a Type A girl like me, but I'm working on it. In my efforts to find some praise and worship songs for our Christian group at school, I found this song by Sidewalk Prophets. They have several songs that I like, but I heard this one for the first time and I can't stop listening to it. It's called You Love Me Anyway. Here are some of the lyrics:

Still You call me to walk on the edge of this world
To spread my dreams and fly
But the future's so far, my heart is so frail
I think I'd rather stay inside.

But You love me anyway.
It's like nothing in life that I've ever known.
You love me anyway.
Oh Lord, how You love me.
How You love me.

It took all of my strength to simply be still
To seek but never find
All the reasons we change
The reasons I doubt
And why do loved ones have to die?

But You love me anyway.
It's like nothing in life that I've ever known.
You love me anyway.
Oh Lord, how You love me.

I am the thorn in Your crown.
But You love me anyway.
I am the sweat from Your brow.
But You love me anyway.
I am the nail in your wrist.
But You love me anyway.
I am Judas' kiss.
But You love me anyway.

See I am the man that called out from the crowd
For Your blood to be spilled on this earth shaking ground
Yes then I turned away with this smile on my face
With this sin in my heart tried to bury Your grace
And then alone in the night, I still called out to You
So ashamed of my life....
But You love me anyway.
Oh God, how You love me anyway


Go listen to the song on You Tube. It's great! I hope it touches your heart as much as it touched mine. God will never give us more than we can handle. Sometimes He has to break us to make us more like Him. This world is not our home. We must cling to the One who promises us eternal hope. This world will constantly disappoint and hurt us. We constantly fall and sin. But God constantly loves us despite our failures and shortcomings. Thank goodness for the cross!!
My prayer every day is that I will be a light in a dark world and show others who God is through my actions. Oh Lord, how You love me even though I'm the thorn in Your crown, instead of the shining light that I should be! Show me Your plans and the path You want me to walk.

Courtney and Michael's Wedding Weekend

My baby sister got married last weekend! We went and got our nails done on Thursday afternoon. It was my grandma's first pedicure:)The ceremony and reception were in the beautiful hill country of Austin. The weather was perfect and everything went really well. Here are some pictures from the rehearsal.

My dad and Court did great coming down the stairs! They're pretty steep and the wedding coordinator told them not to look down because it ruins pictures. At the actual ceremony, my dad grabbed the handrails to steady himself. There were flowers along the rail and my dad knocked one off as he walked down. Being the quick shortstop that he is, he caught the flowers. It looked like they both had a bouquet as they walked down the stairs! Everyone laughed:) It was much needed comic relief because my whole family was crying. Michael was crying too. It was very sweet!

Father Matkin married Derek and I, too!

The reheasal dinner was at the Iron Cactus, which is a neat Mexican food restaurant. We ate out on the patio. Derek and I sat at a table with all of my cousins! My one of my girl cousins got a Shirley Temple and two of the boys were making fun of her. Derek ordered one for each of them! Needless to say, he gets along well with my cousins:)

My aunt did my sister's make up. (She did my make up at my wedding too!)

The beautiful bride before the ceremony.

We went upstairs and took pictures of the reception hall before the ceremony. Their colors were purple and green.
The Head Table
The flowers were beautiful!

Court's bouquet was really pretty! She especially liked the white and purple calla lilies.

Michael gave Courtney a diamond heart necklace as a wedding present, which of course she loved!
Relaxing in the Bride's room with a little champagne and snacks!

Mom helping Court get dressed.


Family Pics
Matron of Honor with the Bride
Father of the Bride
My grandmother let my sister borrow a ring as her something borrowed, old, and blue. It's an opal, which is my sister's birthstone, with sapphires around it.

Three Generations Picture

Being the Matron of Honor, I didn't get many pictures at the wedding and reception. I'm sure I'll add to the post when my fam emails their pictures.

We had a mini family reunion this weekend as well because so many of our family members were able to come down! We hadn't been together since my wedding four years ago, so it was nice to see everyone. On Sunday we went to brunch at Chez Zee to celebrate three birthdays. My youngest cousin, Samantha, turned 10 on Sunday, my Aunt Vicki turned 50 last week, and my dad's dad, Grandvati, will turn 80 in November. Here's the group after lunch:

All of the "kids" have grown up quite a bit. Few of the cousins taking pics on the computer.

Tanner and I were really tired on Sunday after all of the events of the weekend!

We had a wonderful time and we can't wait to see everyone again this summer!

The Lost Get Found

Each year God lays a different purpose for the school year on my heart. At the beginning of this school year I heard, "The Lost Get Found" by Britt Nicole and knew it was my "school song." Here the the lyrics:

The Lost Get Found
By Britt Nicole

Hello my friend, I remember when you were
So alive with your wide eyes
Then the light that you had in your heart was stolen
Now you say that it ain't worth stayin'
You wanna run but you're hesitatin',
I'm talkin' to me

Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out'
Cause somewhere
Somebody needs a reason to believe
Why don't you rise up now?
Don't be afraid to stand out
That's how the lost get found
The lost get found

So when you get the chance, are you gonna take it?
There's a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it
There's a girl on the streets, she's cryin'
There's a man whose faith is dyin', love is callin' you

Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out'
Cause somewhere
Somebody needs a reason to believe
Why don't you rise up now?
Don't be afraid to stand out
That's how the lost get found
The lost get found

Why do we go with the flow
Or take an easier road?
Why are we playin' it safe?
Love came to show us the way
Love is a chance we should take
I'm movin' out of the way

Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out'
Cause somewhere
Somebody needs a reason to believe(Stand out)
Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out(Stand out)
'Cause somewhere
Somebody needs a reason to believe
Why don't you rise up now?
Don't be afraid to stand out
That's how the lost get found
The lost get found

So when you get the chance
Are you gonna take it?
There's a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it


I tried to find it on for my playlist of songs that play on the blog, but I couldn't. It's new-ish, so maybe it will be on there soon. I did find other Britt Nicole songs to put on my playlist, so you could hear this amazing artist!

This year I have been co-sponsoring the school's Christian organization called CIA (Christian's in Action.) These kids have amazing hearts for the Lord and are truly seeking Him with their lives! They lead each other in song, worship, praise, and Bible study lessons every Friday morning. I am so blessed by these kids and hope to be an encouragement to them as well!

Two Cars?!?

As nice as it would be to choose between a white car and a black car each morning, I do not have two cars. I wish that was the reason for the new black car though...it would be a lot more fun!

Here's the story of our new, new car:

My white car was totaled in an accident back in July. I was stopped at a light and a drunk driver rear ended me going about 60 mph. (Obviously it wasn't a normal street. It was one of those farm road highways. Hopefully no one would be going 60 on a city street!) My car was sent flying across the intersection as the other car spun around in the middle of the intersection. Definitely ranks up there as one of the scariest moments of my life! Of course the police and ambulances came to the scene, so my poor husband drove up to the accident with tons of flashing lights. (I'm sure it was one of the scariest moments of his life too!) Here is the damage to my car:

I am so thankful that my injuries were overwhelming minor! I spent the rest of the summer recovering from my sore muscles, whiplash, and a concussion. It definitely made for an interesting start to the school year! The only long term affects that I'm still dealing with are headaches from the concussion and weakness in my hands. (I can't open anything with a twist top, like water bottles or pickle jars.)

Even though Derek deals with car accidents every day, it has still been a stressful and confusing process for us. We were finally able to go buy a new car a few weeks after the accident. We decided to buy the same type of car because it was so safe. In a way, we did our own crash testing. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone though. Leave that to the professionals;) I LOVED my white car and wanted a new one just like it. Derek wasn't thrilled about the idea because he could only picture the damage to the white car. So we decided to avoid white. I really like the dark gray Accords, but we didn't like the interior choices. After MUCH debate we decided to go with black. The interior is the same as the white car, but D isn't as weirded out when he sees me driving it! As we were signing and dating all of the papers, I realized that we had been at the same car dealership exactly three months earlier buying the white car! Derek got me A&M license plates, which look really cool on the black car. I also have a Former Student license plate holder. There's no mistaking that I'm an Aggie!:)

Lori's New Car

Here are the pics of Lori's new car. Instead of white, this time we went black. Isn't it purty?

New Crafts

I've been looking on Etsy at all the cute things people create. I decided to try to monogram my own kitchen towels. I used a really cute font to print a template because I'm so not the girl who can freehand a bubble letter. Not even a C! After finding really cute fabric, I struggled for find a white towel. You would think that Bed, Bath, and Beyond or Target would have a nice white towel, but no! Thank you, Walmart! Even though I hit a few bumps in the road, I managed to finish the towel in one afternoon. Here's the final product:(Please ignore the brightness of the flash....I'm still figuring out my new camera.)

I had intended to machine stitch the C, but the fabric of the towel is too stretchy and I had a hard time turning it. So I took a few hours and stitched it by hand. It's definitely not perfect, but I think it's pretty good for my first one. Thanks to my parents' awesome Christmas gift (a fabulous sewing machine) I think I've found a new craft....sewing!