Potato Peel Pie!

I recently finished a book for the book club I am a part of at my church.  We tend to read NY times best sellers and I have really enjoyed being apart of this group.  The book that we have just read is called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer.  This book was a good read and very different that many books that I have read. It is told entirely through letters. Juliet Ashton the main character receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins the tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name!  This book has a little bit of everything, history, romance, humor and literature! If you are looking for something fun and a bit different to read I say you should give a read!  I hope you enjoy!
PS: At the end of the book club meeting we made a potato peel pie just to try. While I reccomend the book, I do not recommend the pie!  It was not good at all! Kinda tastes like paste! I do have the recipe should you feel the need to try it out yourself!

Under Construction and Best Friends!

Just in case some of you were wondering.......you may see some different designs on our blog over the next little while.  This is because we are trying to spruce things up for your viewing pleasure, and when I say we I mean my best friend Heather is taking care of me on this one! I seem to lack the skills that it takes to make it look amazing so I have called in an expert to get us looking ship-shape!  Many of you my know my BF Heather Bryan, formerly know as Heather Tittle, she is amazing, loves the Lord, beautiful, tons of fun, and so stinkin funny!  She is truly a blessing to me and only God could have put the two of us together...let me tell you the story of just how we became true best friends.....

Heather and I had both decided to pledge Sigma Alpha Omega sorority fall of 2000 at App. State where we were at school. While we were in the same pledge class I didn't really get to know her until the weekend of our pledge retreat/ initiation.  What you must know about this retreat is that it was top secret.  We didn't even know where we were.  The older sisters "kidnapped" us with blindfolds and took us off for a weekend of sisterhood at a very nice home outside of Boone.  In fact most of the sisters didn't really know where it was either.  It was shortly after our initiation that we decided to have a movie night before we all turned in.  We all lined up our sleeping bags in the basement of the weekend get away home we were at and hit play on some super girly movie!  About 20 min into the movie the phone at the home rang.(mind you this was before cell we all had cell phones.....crazy right!?)  One of the older sisters answered the phone and on the other line a male voice answered her back and asked her  if all of the ladies we were enjoying out movie?!  How freaky!  It was soon after that, that we heard footsteps out side of the house running along the wrap around porch and knocking on windows. It was right out of a scary movie! 

Well as you can imagine 40 some odd girls began screaming and crying and having panic attacks etc!  How did anyone know where we were? Was someone really going to get us?  These two questions never really seemed to bother Heather or myself.  The two of us by chance ended up laying next to each other. As girls on either side of us were shaking and crying Heather and I rolled over and faced one another and started to giggle.  There we were 38 girls crying and Heather and I laughing!  I laughed even harder when Heather look at me and said "Well Avery...what ever this is, all I can say is that I sure am glad I ate that second bowl of ice cream!"  I laughed so hard that one of the older sisters had to hush me and that I needed to be sensitive to the others who were upset.  For some reason Heather and I both knew it had to be a prank and we both love a good prank! In fact I have tons of stories about the two of us an pranks too...but I will save those stories for another day!  As it turns out we were right and it was just two of the boys from Campus Crusade who knew allot of the girls.  They knew went out driving around a few on the Mt's outside of school in hope of finding where we were,,,,and they got lucky and found the house with all of your cars outside of it. It was too good to be true and so they just had to pull a prank!  After finding the phone number to the house via 411....the prank began and ended just after the police showed up! What can I say, Heather and I thought it was funny but the other girls were scared and called 911. Yikes!

What you must know is that ever since that night back in 2000 Heather and I have been the best of friends.  We went on to live with each other in summer school one year at App, live together in seminary for two years and were eventually in one another weddings! What a Joy it has been to have her in my life and I am just so thankful for her.  She is truly a gift from God!!

Above: Heathers wedding in Oct 2006 f

Below:  A pic of Heather and I at our Wedding in March 2007

What if.....?

"And i pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together will all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3 :17b-18

Did you ever stop and think just about how much God loves us? While I realize this may sound very narcissistic to sit around think about how much we are loved, that is not what I am getting at. I am sure we have all met someone who gets on our nerves because all they do is sit around and think about how much they are loved by others. But this is different, this is Gods love!

What if we stopped to think about how much God loves us everyday?!

That was one of the question that was brought up at the Bible study that I am leading this fall. What if I really stopped everyday to ponder Gods love for me...what would that look like in my life? Would I study His word more? Would I talk to him more? Would I loves others better? What would that look like?

It sounds like such a simple questions. God's love is something that if most of us are honest, we take for granted allot of the time. The truth is, I don't sit around thinking about how much I am loved by God. While it seems strange to ponder how much someone loves us it is certainly necessary in all of our relationships. When I think about how much my parents love me, I am driven to make them proud or to show them my love for them. When I think about how much my husband loves me, I am compelled to show him my love for him in return and be the wife God has called me to be. This same principle is especially true of our relationship with God. It is when I loose sight of how much God truly loves me, I am not really able to show Him my love in return. I don't talk to Him as often and I don't read his word like I should, and I definitely don't treat others with love either. I know that we will never ever ever be about to comprehend His love for us, just how high and deep and wide and long that love is, but I do know that if I really made it part of my daily life and really thought about how much God loves me, I think....make that I KNOW that my life would look much different.

So that's it, that's my question...What if you really thought about how much God loved you everyday? What would your life look like?

Barkley

I know that I had mentioned a few blogs ago about our dog Barkley passing away. I just wanted to share a few pics and share a few words about our Bark. Sr. Charles Barkley the Dog came to live with Joe 11 years ago at the age of two after a good friend just couldn't care for him with her two small children. They were a match made in heaven and Barkley loved Joe more than anything! He followed Joe everywhere and had to be next to him at all times. He was sweet and obedient (for the most part) and was the joy of many stories around our house. We loved talking in our best "Barkley voice" and give commentary on what he may be thinking at times and we loved horsing around with him on the floor and listening to his funny sounds (that was mostly Joe). I loved that I had a built in garbage disposal since we don't have one in our sink and that my floors never had a crumb on them! He pre-washed every dish clean as could be and always helped me clean out the fridge every Saturday! He was such a good boy! He brought so much joy to our house despite the massive amounts of dog hair that he left behind. Bark kept me company many nights when I first moved here and was always very protective of both Joe and I. Since loosing Barkley the house seems just a little bigger, a little more empty and allot quieter and it has taken some getting used to. We loved Barkley very much and we are so grateful that God gave a such a wonderful dog to love and who truly loved us back! We will always remember our Barkley with joy in our hearts and thank the Lord for the time we had with him. Our Christmas card just won't be the same this year ....we will always miss Mr. Barkley! Here are some of our favorite pics of the B-man! Enjoy!

Freedom!!!!!

And they're off!! 22 months ago I received a wonderful yet painful gift...braces! Joe works for an orthodontist so it made sense to take advantage of the opportunity to perfect my smile without have to spend the thousands of dollars that it would typically coast. While the idea of having a perfect smile was very appealing, the idea of getting braces at 29 was not. I did however decide to go through with it and last November went to Dr. Berts office to receive my braces, and walked out looking like a 13 year old again. It has been quite a challenge having braces an adult, my teeth just didn't want to move like they did when I was 13 and had braces for the first time. My mouth felt like it was in prison and I couldn't wait to get them off. But with much hard work and and wonderful Dr. I was able to reach the goal of that perfect smile and this past Wednesday the braces came off!! What a great day! Here are few pics from the big event!

Happy Grandparents Day!

I just want to wish a happy Grandparents day to two of the the most wonderful people I know, Joy and Carl Markey! We would also like to wish a Happy grandparents day to O. F. Bengtson Joe's Grandfather. We are both so lucky to have such wonderful relationships with our grandparents and we are so thankful for all that they have done for us over the years. I can't imagine my life with out them. They are a pure source of joy in my life and they always make me smile! I love you Grandma and Grandpa, thank you for all you have done and for always being such a big part of my life and all of your grand kids lives! We are so lucky that God gave you to us!
I would also like to wish a happy first Grandparents day to my mom and dad Marty and Peggy Hawks. They became grandparents for the first time this year when my nephew Fletcher was born.
Happy Grandparents day everyone!

My dad marty...aka...papa......with Fletcher

My mom Peggy....aka Nanni with Fletcher when he was born!

Joe and I with my grandparents Joy and Carl and my cousins wedding about a year and half ago!

God knows what I need and when I need it!

The past few weeks have been kind of a blur in my world...hence the lack of blogging that I have been doing! I have been fortunate to have a lot of extra work which has been such a blessing financially however, doesn't leave time for much else. About two weeks ago, the family I work for went on vacation which meant that I had a week off. Talk about perfect timing! Just as things were starting to get out of hand, the Lord knew that I needed some time off. I was able to get some work done around the house that I had been putting off and run errands that were long over due. I got a painting project out of the way (it had only been on my to-do-list since I moved in .... over three years ago!) and I was able to spend some extra time with Joe and Barkley. This last part is so critical because this was the last week that I would spend with Barkley. Last week was a sad week for us because we had to make the choice to put Barkley to sleep it as just awful! I am planning on writing another blog about Bark....so stay tuned, this is more a less a catch up on what is going on my life.

As I am looking back now, I think it is quite amazing that the Lord knew that I would need to be at home with him that last week. Not only was I able to get a lot of things done for myself, I was able to comfort Barkley and Joe those last few days they had together. What a wonderful gift God gave me. The Lord has been so faithful to both Joe and I the past few months. He continues to provide for us is so many ways and I am just amazed at the work he is doing in my life and in our home. Through our loss we have been able to draw closer to one another and to the Lord and we are reminded that the Lord knows our needs and is always faithful to meet them. I know this is something that I will learn over and over again, but today it is fresh on my mind and on my heart and I just thought I would share this simple truth that has once again been revealed to me through unlikely circumstances. How wonderful know that God knows what we need and when we need it... can I get an Amen!