All the way my Savior leads me...

All the way my Savior leads me
Who have I to ask beside
How could I doubt His tender mercy
Who through life has been my guide

All the way my Savior leads me
Cheers each winding path I tread
Gives me grace for every trial
Feeds me with the living Bread

You lead me and keep me from falling
You carry me close to Your heart
And surely Your goodness and mercy will follow me

All the way my Savior leads me
O, the fullness of His love
O, the sureness of His promise
In the triumph of His blood
And when my spirit clothed immortal
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages
Jesus led me all the way
Jesus led me all the way

All the way my Savior leads me
All the way my Savior leads me

This song is very special to me.  We sang "All the way my Savior leads Me" in church the day that Bradley and I started dating and it was the solo in our wedding.  When I hear it, it's always a sweet reminder of how the Lord brought our lives together and how He is continuing to lead us.  Thankfully, some mornings when I've turned on Pandora or the radio in my car this song has came on;  it usually occurs when I'm having a rough morning, feeling discontent, or distant from God.  It opens my eyes and reminds me of "the sureness of His promise", "the fullness of His love", and that He has and continues to be my guide through life.  Friday night I went to a women's event at ECBC.  Laurie Tackett shared her poetry and a little about her life.  At the end of the night, a woman in the church sang "All the way my Savior leads Me".  It was a perfect song to go with what Laurie had shared and got my mind turning even more.  A few things that she said that stood out to me were "His paths are beyond tracing out" and "He sets the course and knows the end".  To me this is both comforting and a little scary.  It's comforting to know that I serve a God who graciously calls me His daughter and who created me to live out His name--that I have a purpose in His kingdom.  On the other hand, it's a bit scary because it reminds me that life is so uncertain and there's no way to plan out what's ahead...it's like the line in that country song, "if you wanna hear God laugh tell Him your plans".  Even though there's uncertainty in what will be tomorrow, or 10 years down the road...the beauty in the uncertainty lies in the fact that God is certain and His promises are true.  No matter how uncertain life gets, I'm certain that my Savior will lead me all the way and walk with me through it all.

Two years ago...

About two years ago, Bradley took me on our very first "date".  It's very amusing to look back on.  You see, if you've read our story you know that I had been interested in Mr. Bradley Mishue for a quite a while.  Two years ago was the second semester of our senior year in college...his last chance to take me to a Citadel dance.  I had contimplated ENDLESSLY with my closest friends whether or not he would take me...being good friends, they assured me that surely he would take me to his last Hop but to not get my hopes up, he may not even be going.  Two weeks before the Hop, I was laying in my bed painting my fingernails and thinking, today is the last possible day he could ask me...what guy would give a girl less than two weeks to find a dress?  & of course thinking he's not going to ask me...when my phone rang and yes, it was Bradley:)  He nervously asked me if I would go with him and I of course said, "yes". 
For the next two weeks I went shopping everywhere for a dress.  I bought two and ended up taking them both back, then found the perfect one in Quinn's closet.  The joy of college--lots of closets to choose from!  Not only were those two weeks consumed with finding a dress, but also with if this was really a date (just me and him) or if this was a group date.  He had, the previous Fall, taking me to a dance with a group of people.  My girls did some digging and found out that this was in fact a just 'me and bradley' date....gracious!  The Friday of the dance came and I was driving over the bridge back towards downtown and all of a sudden my stomach sank.  What if we don't have anything to talk about?  What if we've both liked each other for all this time, but then tonight decide we don't?  I instantly started praying for smooth conversations. 

That night was so fun.  As I've said before, I really do have the best friends.  They all got me ready (pictures at the bottom).  It was actually a very humorous time and then HE arrived...about 6 or so heads (all my sweet friends) popped out the windows of the Charlotte street house--poor thing he had to greet me with all my friends watching.  I got in the car and "Sweet Thing" by Keith Urban was on the radio...which I thought was quite providential considering the lyrics....

"When I picked you up

For our first date baby

Well your pretty blue eyes

They were drivin me crazy

And the tiny little thought

That was so amazing is

They were lookin at me

I held open the car door for you

Then you climbed inside and slid on over to the other side

I thought my oh my"

Jordan and Van took pictures of us on the dock of the duck trail before our night really started.  After that we went and had a wonderful dinner at Virginia's on King.  It was AMAZING how smoothly our conversation flowed.  We had a great time at the dance...and then ended the night by meeting our dear friends Brad and Rachel for coffee.  Bradley was so cute when he dropped me off.  I could tell he was nervous and wanted to ask me something.  He very quickly asked if it would be okay if he started calling me and taking me on dates to get to know me...UMM YESSS!

That Sunday he called...now, I thought it was a bit to soon for Mr. Mishue to be asking me on another date...but, none the less I was super excited he was calling.  I picked up the phone, calm and collective of course, and he enthusiastically says, "Guess what!? I found your earring back!"  To preface this, my earring back fell off my earring somewhere on the duck trail (a dirt path).  I wasn't too concerned, Jordan gave me hers and we lose earring backs all the time...no big deal.  Well, Bradley went out to the duck trail on Sunday and started walking down the path and prayed that the Lord would help him find it, he looked down and there it was!  This clear little earring back on a dirt path!  The Lord is faithful and answers even the smallest, sometimes crazy prayers.  It made my night that he was thinking about me enough to go out there and even attempt to find something so tiny.  That answered prayer was another small way for the Lord to lead us to each other.  Kaylee, who I lived with at the time, had a good time with that conversation!  We all thought his persistency to return my earring back was a little crazy...but, Kay was just excited for the day we would start dating so she could tell Bradley just how awkward and crazy some of our little convos were in those first days of his pursuing me. 
I say all that to get to this past weekend...we celebrated two years since our very first date by going back to where it all started...Virginia's on King.  We laughed over dinner about that night two years ago and thanked the Lord again for how easily conversation flowed that night.  The Lord has definitely blessed me with a thoughtful man who honors the Word of God and amazing friends who patiently walked with me through my college years, those months before Bradley was my boyfriend, and graciously continue to be by my side. 

Getting me ready for the big night!  Love Kay's face in this one, she's making sure my hair doesn't move...and Jo's giving me the pep talk:) 

sweet moment at the hop



two years later...a lot has happened in a little bit of time...couldn't be happier!



best friend married. check.

Gracious...it's been a while, my last post was a recipe, random huh?  Soooo, the best friend is MARRIED (for about a week now)…Chafin Emmerling, love it!  I couldn’t be happier for her.  The biggest lesson Chafin ever taught me was to never settle and I’m so thankful that I could stand by her side last Saturday and confidently know that she didn’t settle.  God gave her a man who is perfect for her...a man who slows her down, shows her forgiveness, and reminds her that simplicity is beautiful.  

 

Their wedding ceremony was wonderful and it was beautiful to see their love for each other and the Lord come out through their interactions and vows.  Chafin looked absolutely stunning.  Her wedding dress was perfect and the theme of the wedding fit Chafin & Ray wonderfully.  You can see a glimpse of her wedding on this video (link below) by the AMAZING Sean Lyon. http://lyonpictures.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/congratulations-mr-and-mrs-emmerling/

The Emmerlings just got back from Jamaica last night and it made my night to talk to her...sure have missed her this past week!  & can't wait until this Wednesday...the Fab Five is reuniting to hear all about life so far as Ray's wife:)

Tortellini Soup...YUM!

This is my new favorite...thank you Quinn for the inspiration!
I've had this for lunch the past two days and I think I could seriously eat it everyday.  I love it!  It's one of those dishes you just feel good eating and Bradley loves it too.  In the days of living with Stacy and Quinn, before Bradley and I tied the knot...I would eat tortellini or some type of pasta almost every night.  It's super easy to cook for one person and I never got tired of it.  Well, with Bradley in the picture I've learned that men NEED meat and variation, so I've had to compromise on a few things and spice up some old recipes!  Quinn made this soup a few weeks ago and I thought with all the tomatoes in it Bradley may actually eat this (he's all american, so I have to be careful)!

Ingredients:
frozen tortellini (19 oz)
frozen chopped spinach (10 oz)
can of diced tomatoes (28 oz)--like I said earlier, Bradley LOVES tomatoes
can of chicken broth (or chicken stock if you prefer)
shredded carrots (approximately 5 oz)
salt & pepper of course & sometimes I add a pinch of minced garlic

You can tweek the amounts of each ingredient depending on what you like or use fresh tomatoes and spinach.  This is one of those things you can throw together in about 20 minutes...which sounds fabulous to me!  First, pour chicken broth, tomatoes, and spinach (I normally thaw this out a bit before) in a large pot.  Cook on medium high heat for about 10 or so minutes (come to a slow boil).  I normally throw in the carrots about half way through.  Cook the tortellini separately.  Start the water boiling for the tortellini before you start cooking the other ingredients.  After water boils, the tortellini will only take about 2 minutes to cook.  Then drain the tortellini and put it in with the other ingedients.  Stir it all together and let simmer for about 5 more minutes (stirring occasionally).  Then you have a nice big pot of wonderful!  Yields approximately 6 servings....hard to tell Bradley eats a lot.

the finished product

Chafin

This past weekend, Chafin's closest girl friends got together for her last weekend as a single woman.  We're all so excited for her and Ray!  

Chafin and I have been best friends since high school...she showed up on the first day of 9th grade & one of my first thoughts of her was that she had long beautiful hair and I noticed that she was carrying a hot pink book bag, yes hot pink!  For those of you who know her now, her style has obviously changed!  I didn't quite like her to begin with (back then I wasn't much for change)...but the next semester we had PE together and became best friends after we dominated in pickleball.  Ever since then we have been inseparable....we flew together for the first time, straightened our hair with a real iron (what did we ever do before straighteners?!), we ran down the hall of our high school carrying a disected pig, I survived being pushed off of steps into a bush by Chafin of course:), she held my hand and made me jump off of the front end loader of a tractor into a pond because she knew I'd regret it if I didn't, she talked me into jumping into the blue lagoon, she never let me settle, we went to college together, roomed together, prayed together, laughed together, got scared out of our wits together, went through the biggest decisions and life changing parts of our lives together, pulled a few too many pranks (our brains weren't fully developed), ended up with a dead squirrel in our room (more specifically in Chafin's bed) due to the previous statement, traveled across the world together, I got chased around the streets of Shimla, India with peanuts dangling over my head in hopes that the monkeys would attack me (she has a strange way of loving me), we got to be a part of aiding the other's boyfriend in deciding on an engagement ring, we managed to marry people who have the same characteristics that drove us crazy in our own friendship (I guess the Lord was preparing us), she stood by my side when I married Bradley, and now I get to stand by hers as she marries Ray...the Lord has been so faithful to our friendship!

This is a glimpse of my best friend Chafin and a few of the many memories we've had together...she's confident, beautiful, strong-willed, adventurous, and one who can light up a room...I couldn't be more happy for my best friend:)  You'll hear more about her after her wedding...which is a little over a week away!!!!

old high school pic...

couldn't find a better one, but notice mine and Chaf's matching flipped out hair...we were 15...give us a break.

Our all time favorite pic and the start of our pose.

My wedding day...

Some things never change...Chafin smashing snow in my face.  I ended up with a nose bleed

Our Henna experience in India...If you notice Chafin's hand says Ray in the middle, traditionally an Indian woman will hide her significant other's name on her hand and make him find it on their wedding night.

Looks are deceiving, these little critters are mean.  Chafin would try to get them to chase me...they climbed in one of our rooms once and stole everything yellow (true story).

It pays to have a confident and sneaky best friend...we snuck to the front row...great concert!

and most recently...her bachelorette weekend!