I'm baaaaackkk!

Well it has been entirelyyyyy too long since I've been on here and I've decided to turn over a new fall leaf and start posting again! 

It has been a crazy, busy, exciting, fun filled few months! Jacob & I bought our first home, celebrated our 1 year anniversary, my "little" brother graduated from high school & headed off to college, my two amazing sister in law's both have baby girls on the way, Jacob celebrated the big 1/4 of a century birthday and I am just trying to keep up with this crazy life! We spent an amazing weekend back in good ole' Lubbock, Texas (Wreck em!') with some amazing friends & family where we were able to revisit all our favorite spots from college and celebrate Jacob's 25th birthday. It was quite a nostalgic weekend for us. We also spent a week in Houston for a work training and I was able to catch up with one of my longest, most special friends. It is truly amazing how we can go months/years without seeing each other and pick right up where we left off...friendships like that are 1 of a kind and I feel so blessed to have a sweet friend like Ashley in my life. 

On a completely different note, for our 1 year anniversary, my amazing husband got me one of those fancy pants Canon Rebel T3 and I'm really loving learning all the ins & outs of it...however I stillll use my iPhone for 99.99% of my pictures...as seen below! But another "fall leaf" turnover is to start doing "mini-shoots" with people in Covington to practice...so if you know of anyone please send them my way, Lord knows I need all the practice I can get! 

I'm still rotating and have less than a year left...yippee! Jacob & I just booked a November trip to Vegas and a *drum roll* Christmas trip to NYC! I've wanted to go to New York around Christmas time since I was a little girl and now I get to go spend time in that beautiful, magical city with my favorite man in the world! 


I've also been reading this truly life-changing book, Love Does by Bob Goff and I would absolutely recommend you go pick yourself up a copy! It has completely changed the way I view my relationship with God, my relationship with those around me, and interactions with complete strangers. He is such an inspiring, exciting, dynamic man and I am so grateful this book fell into my lap at the time in my life that it did. The biggest thing this book has opened my eyes to is this huge, scary, exciting, ever-changing world we live gives us a new opportunity every day to make a change...make a difference, and if you're not where you want to be...tomorrow is a new day and God will give you absolutely everything you need to make the changes, if only you'll open your heart and your eyes to what God wants for us and not what we want for us. 

In our lives it is so easy to focus on the things that we are going through and not step outside our own bubble to put ourselves in someone else's shoes. We all have heartache, we all have pain, we all have struggles. But it is how you handle those struggles that defines you, do you let it consume you? Do you let it consume your friendships, marriage, work, your relationship with God? In a world where so many go to bed hungry, I need to constantly remind myself that God has given me more than I could ever need or want and I am blessed...so blessed. God's grace and mercy constantly inspires & amazes me to go out into the world and be a shining example of His love. 

Until next time, 

xoxo Amanda