TGIF Quotables!

Happy Friday, friends!  Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Here are some recent quotes that make me happy!! =)

Rach: "Kyndal, how old are you??"
Kyndal Faith: "I'm TWO!!"
Jaceman: "Mooom, you're not supposed to ask people how old they are because it might hurt their feelings; remember!?" =)

(*He's also slowly learning that you're not supposed to ask women if they have a baby in their tummy... his teacher is pregnant, so it's on his mind, and he asked a random woman at the store the other day. I kinda wish I could've been there to see Rach's mortified expression. Kids say so many cute and funny things, but little kids and cranky old people sometimes put me on edge with all their blatant, unpredictable honesty! lol)

"I'm a mean junebug!!" ~Kyndal Faith

"Uh-oh, Jace! We better run!!" ~Me

"It's just pretend. Just pretending!!" ~K-Faith, making sure I wasn't too scared :)

I love her little nurturing, sweet self!  So much so that I even shared my lipstick with her and let her put some on me after using it!! lol ...She was turned away from me, so I told her, "Can I see your lipstick?" and immediately got this duck-face reaction! Hahaha!!

"No, WAIT! WAIT!!" ~Kyndal stopping me from leaving Rach's house because there were four junebugs on the front porch and she and Jace are newly freaked out by them
"I'll be okay." ~Me saying that whilst also being freaked out and preparing to dart to my car!
"BE SAFE!!" ~Jaceman, yelling from the house as I walked out to make the 1 minute drive back to Mom and Dad's!
...Scary times!! lol

"If a bad guy comes in, I'll shoot his butt off!" ~Jaceman, chiming in on a conversation, ready to defend the Parrish household
"Heeey!" ~Rach
"...shoot his bottom off!" ~Jace, still threatening violence, but more politely! lol
"Yeah! Fist bump!!" ~Josh  :)

Not a quote, but a funny memory: Kyndal Faith was having issues with her fork, scooting her pancake around and around, not able to get it to stay on the fork. Every time she tried to stab it, she'd open her mouth wide, ready to take a big bite, then close it again when the food fell off the fork. Me and Rach watched this cuteness for a couple minutes, then cracked up when she finally set the fork down and grabbed the bite with her fingers! :)  Here she is sitting on a soccer ball and chatting with her two babydolls, both named "Babydoll." What a preshface!!

"Well, Mockey thinks this whole thing is gonna be a trainwreck!" ~Chet Lee to Karli
"So not what I said!!" ~Me to Karli :)

"You can't only be involved with the good things, Mockey! Sometimes, you have to go down with the ship!!" ~Chettles, always compassionate and reassuring lol

"Guess who's gonna be in town soon!? ...I'm really gonna try to get a selfie with him! And if I do, I'll invite him to the wedding and tell him to bring Selena!" ~JEM (talking about Justin Bieber, of course!)
"I think I have a better shot of getting Chip and Joanna Gaines to come to my open house than you do of getting the Biebs to come to your wedding!" ~Chet Lee
"I don't think either one of you has a shot at either of those things!!" ~Karli, bringing some reality back into the mix! lol

"Well, I applaud your efforts to get a selfie with J-Biebs!" ~Me

"He's my friend." ~Jeff, very matter of fact. lol

"I have a feeling there's only one memory of that plane ride, and it's yours!" ~Chet

"Well, we booked our Photographer today. They were great Christian people,and I think we're gonna go with them. The woman had kind of a funny name, though." ~Jeffrey

"Oh really? What was it!?" ~Me

"Umm, Mallory." ~JEM 

"Nice!" ~Me lol

"Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me 250 times, shame on me!!" ~Chettles, commenting on Jeff's personality
"It's funny 'cause it's true... or it's funny 'cause it's sad!" ~JEM

"All I know is there's a lot going on up there, but not a lot coming out down here." ~Chet, talking about how TK is a deep thinker but doesn't say much
"And you and I are the opposite!!" ~Jeffrey lol

"You're actually in this one!" ~Me, getting ready to take the above picture as Jeff looked back at me with a serious expression
"I know!" ~JEM
"That's a quote for the blog!" ~JEM lol :)

On a more serious note, I love the truth of this quote:

"Humanity takes what is glorious and ruins it... God takes what is ruined and makes it glorious!" ~Brian Houston

Singleness

I don't know what God has in store for the future, but this topic is strong on my mind and heart lately... so here are 10 fantastic quotes that I identify with as a Christian single woman.  Every one of these posts are very worth reading in their entirety - click the author's name for the link. (It's so good to know that I'm not alone in my "aloneness," and I'm very thankful for the thoughtfulness of my cousin in recommending some of these authors.) And thankful for all my friends (couples or singles) who go out of their way to make me feel loved and included!

1. "There’s something liberating (and slightly exhausting) about being the sole decision maker in your life... I don’t want to build a life that doesn’t allow for marriage, but I don’t want to build a life around the hope of a marriage that may or may not come. It’s a difficult place to be... I don’t really understand what womanhood - especially Biblical womanhood - looks like apart from marriage and motherhood. It’s sort of what I was groomed for, what I always assumed would naturally happen. ...I think one of my greatest fears is doing something scary, like foster care, and when I need help, no one will be there… it terrifies me to try to do anything more than what I know I’m capable of because I’m not sure there’s a safety net to catch me if I fall. ...I often hear [singleness] referred to as a training ground for marriage, a time where the Lord may be holding a husband so that he can first work out a spiritual deficit of some kind in your life. Both of these things lack any firm Biblical backing, and they’re hurtful to hear. Instead, I’d love to be encouraged in this season because singleness is significant, and the time spent in this season should not be undermined by believing that we’re only meant for preparing for the next." ~JOY BETH SMITH 
2. “It would’ve been so easy for them to say they were just doing something with couples. It would’ve been so easy for me to say I didn’t really feel like being the odd woman out. And yes, it could’ve been awkward — our party of 9, me being the only single person at the table — but it was just beautiful…As we hurried to settle the bill and move on to our little after-party, a friend’s husband leaned over and said, “your bill has been taken care of.” Their simple acts of generosity and inclusion left me overwhelmed with gratitude and hopeful for a world where we truly live as brothers and sisters in Christ.” ~LINDSEY NOBLES
3. “Being single during the holidays sometimes feels like a mess. I’m a pretty confident fun-loving gal who appreciates the life I have. But something happens during the holiday season- my friend Kelley calls it “hyper-awareness”- when my singleness just feels. IT FEELS. It’s palpable in December moments in ways it never shows in April. God knows it. The enemy knows it. And I know it. I have to take more thoughts captive, make good choices, and call it what it is- messy.” ~ANNIE DOWNS 
4. “I feel like so often, particularly single women — God bless them — they feel like the only message they get is: “Find your contentment in Christ. Isn’t Christ enough for you?” And I think that’s such a terrible response, because the desire to get married is a good desire…But like all desires, they have to be placed where they belong. I want to affirm the desire for marriage and I want to warn against the fear of loneliness becoming a desire so far up in your list that you would be willing to compromise and put yourself in a situation that would be more horrific and far more lonely for you in the future. Unfortunately, a lot of godly women get to a place where they are tired of the “weirdness” of Christian dating and the apathy from Christian men to actually pursue them, and it has led them to marry… a man who will not lead, who doesn’t really love the Lord, but who does come to church. This ends almost every time in heartbreak.” ~MATT CHANDLER 
5. “We do not long for love stories that end in divorce or in death or that, for reasons we are never fully able to understand, never get started in the first place. And yet, here we are, many of us, living stories we didn’t ask for and trying to make them beautiful and our own and living inside of them with all the gumption and passion and creativity and presence as we would have brought to the one we thought we’d have.” ~ALLISON FALLON 
6. “In a nutshell, there are a lot of nice, well-intentioned Christian married people who say cruel, insensitive, or misguided things to and about single people… Married couples with children need and deserve support — but so do singles.  We’re practicing celibacy in a culture that can scarcely comprehend the concept. We’re struggling with the idea that, thanks to various cultural factors and trends, our desires for marriage and children might never be met. We’re trying to ward off loneliness and live good, responsible, fulfilling lives. And in the midst of all this, we’re dealing with the misperceptions I’ve described above. This is where the church should be a lifeline for us instead of an anchor weighing us down.” ~GINA DALFONZO
7. “I am well acquainted with the unique challenge of traveling life solo… I fully know what it is to feel out of place in the church and like the lack of a ring on my finger and a stick family decal on my minivan make me less than.  But Mother’s Day is difficult for so many women for so many reasons other than extended singleness, and I certainly cannot claim to understand the particular anguish of infertility or the loss of a child.  If this day is not a day of celebration for you, I am so, so sorry, and I hope that you will feel it in your bones how radically loved, cherished, and whole God has made you.  I hope that as you wait eagerly with me for the day when everything will be put to right that you will thank God with a simple and heartfelt prayer for blessing you with the gift of womanhood, the gift of reflecting His tenderness.” ~LAURA BOWER
8. “Courtney was a gifted, well-liked student who had already secured an exciting post-graduation job. But despite this reality, Courtney was in my office sobbing about the fact that she was set to graduate in 3 weeks and was not engaged… And she said to me, “Dr. Cleveland, I appreciate your effort but I feel like I shouldn’t be taking advice from you. I mean, let’s face it: You’re my worst nightmare. You’re 29 and alone.” …I ultimately held my tongue and responded with compassion because as a social psychologist and someone who has grown up in American Christian culture, I understood that her anxiety, hopelessness and fear about singleness were primarily the product of her culture. She was reacting to the prospect of being single exactly the way she had been socially programmed to do. Indeed, her distress was an indictment on the dominant theologies in the Western church in which marriage is seen as more holy, more valuable, more fruitful and mature than singleness.” ~CHRISTENA CLEVELAND
9. “After interacting with the church, many singles start to wonder:  Is there something wrong with me? Is God working in my life? Am I as valuable (to God, to the church) as married people?  Does God love me as much as he loves married people? Does God have good things in store for me as a single person? …In a Church that was founded by a single guy, singles are terribly marginalized. There’s something wrong with this picture. So without further ado, here are my tips on how church people (pastors, leaders and other influencers) can turn this barge around and begin to create communities that honor the image of God in single adults.”  ~CHRISTENA CLEVELAND (All so worth reading!)
10. “It’s not that you don’t feel loved right now — it goes further than that. You feel unloveable… It’s easy to spiritualize the getting-dumped-recovery-process, so that what looks like relying on God is actually just isolating yourself from love. Prayer, Bible reading, and spiritual disciplines are great, but you need people to help heal what’s broken inside of you. It’s not unspiritual to need the love of friends and family to heal — in fact, it is the way God made you …God is in control. His love has not ceased to be what guides your life, your heart, your circumstances. Though you feel the sting of death in your soul, God’s resurrection life is what sustains you when you feel crushed, defeated, and hopeless. Your life and your heart are not ultimately in your hands. They never were, and that’s terrifyingly beautiful news.” ~PAUL MAXWELL

Weekend Update

Made this little chalkboard sign... there was some debate (between me and Chet Lee) about which side was better, so we switched it back and forth a bit. lol

Strawberry Merritt's cake with cream cheese frosting... Engagement Party for Jeff & Kelly at Foolish Things Coffee Co.

Jessica and Karli made tons of delish cupcakes, and they made two great banners and cut the cake and kept everything running smoothly!

Jay, Eden, and "Uncle Mossman!"

The Diving Deeper LifeGroup ladies with our leader, Kelly Marie!

JEM popping in for a pic by the note writing station! lol

The view of the coffee house from the street, just for fun.

The Tuesday Night Pizza guys! :)

All the pink roses were from Melissa (Karli's mom's) garden... so pretty!! :)

The party hosts, minus Tall Kyle and Jay and Bethany! lol There were a lot of us.

Major subject change...

This = a hilariously random pink and purple unicorn at Lori's Sweet Sinsations, a quaint little tea room in Sapulpa where I had lunch with Laura and K-Foster last week! :) I feel like you can't see that and not get a picture.

Happy news: They've finally scheduled my Mom's back surgery.

Sad news: It's during Jury Term. Praying and hoping ahead of time that our cases will all be over by the 16th!

A pretty pic of the Creek County Courthouse, my workplace for the past 9+ years! My office is on the third floor, looking out at the flags and Dewey Street. Yay for office windows!

Celebrating Babah's Mother's Day at JoBug's house on Saturday... Chick-Fil-A, cupcakes, and hot tub time for the kids! (Totally bringing my swimsuit next time. I know it's still cold, but the water looked so tempting!)

:) Lucy Lu hiding to stay cool under JB's new chairs (new cushions, at least)!

Jaceman wrapped in his towel coming to hang out with Mamaw and Grandad!

GiGi's Cupcakes... if only they tasted as good as they look!

Jaceman was a fan!

Miss K being a little preshface, as per usual.

Jace was so excited to show me their aquarium and some of the new fish! :)

J taking his medicine... praying he gets in to the dentist and gets better ASAP. 

Sammers so happy to see me again (I boarded them at Woodland West for the one night I was gone).

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful Mom!! I'm so thankful to have grown up with a mom who loved, cared, listened, made sacrifices for us, taught us about God, led me to Christ, helped out with school stuff and every big project, enjoyed our friends, hosted great parties, and delighted in knowing about our lives! I love you so much, Mom!!

I'm glad I got to spend the night there Saturday and go to church and lunch with all the fam today. It's good for my soul to be around my niece and nephews. :)  I'm gonna do a separate Quotables post soon because there are several saved up on my phone...

These video links never seem to work, but this is a movie google+ created from my pics at the Engagement Party:

Hope it's been a good weekend!!

All That's Best of Dark and Bright

My latest painting (the fourth or fifth thing I've tried on this canvas in my kitchen) ...I think this one will stick, as it feels much more "me" than the screaming bright colors of the one before. I had a friend say it made him think of "hope, refreshing, fresh start, and God's glory." So that was a meaningful compliment. Without getting too dramatic, it portrays light and color shining out of darkness, and in the midst of my current emotions, it's a really hopeful reminder.

"She walks in beauty, like the night 

Of cloudless climes and starry skies; 

And all that’s best of dark and bright 

Meet in her aspect and her eyes..."

~Lord Byron

I love that poem, and it kind of fits, so I threw it in!

Anyway, I hope these verses strengthen and encourage you (and me) today:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

“Now may the God of peace… equip you with all you need for doing His will. May He produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to Him. All glory to Him forever and ever! Amen.” –Hebrews 13:20-21

“This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust Him.” ~Psalm 91:2
                                                                                            
"You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." Psalm 32:7                                                                                                                                                                       

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” ~Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30)
                                                                    
"Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God." -Psalm 42:11
                                                                    
"When I said, “My foot is slipping,” Your unfailing love, Lord , supported me. When anxiety was great within me, Your consolation brought me joy." -Psalm 94:18-19
                                                                    
“I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” -Psalm 139:14

"In just a short time, He will restore us so that we may live in His presence.  Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know Him.  He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring."  ~Hosea 6:2-3

“We who have fled to Him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” ~Hebrews 6:18-19

Monday Memes

Random stuff from Facebook, Google, or Pinterest that made me laugh lately:

(The rest of these are specific to my personality, so they may not seem funny to others, but they sooo cracked me up!)

Love this... fascinating! :)

Hahaha!!  Okay, that's all for today! :)