In Case You Haven't Heard...

Andrew Goolsby and I are getting married.

I think from early on in our relationship, Andrew and I have known that we were headed toward marriage. In the Fall of 2009, we started talking more seriously about making plans to get married. We celebrated one year together on November 2nd, and soon after we started shopping for an engagement ring. As Christmas got closer, I was really hoping that Andrew would take advantage of the holiday to propose, but he had me convinced that it would be a while...

Our Christmas vacation started off with a trip to New Orleans for my seminary graduation. On the morning of my graduation, I was running late to pick up Andrew for breakfast. When I came to pick him up I was stressing over every little thing. We switched seats so that he could drive and he handed me my graduation present and convinced me to calm down and enjoy the day.
He handed me a pink bag and said "Open the gift first and then read the card." I took out a pretty journal and an iPOD arm band (which he gave me so that I could keep my iPhone with me during the graduation ceremony.) Then I said "Can I read the card now?". He said "Nope...there's something else in there." In the bottom of the bag was the little ring box holding the most beautiful ring ever. I took the box out and I was like,

"What are you doing?!"
He said "Well, will you marry me?"
I, of course, said"Yes"And then the tears started coming.
As I read the card, I saw that it said "I love you" which was something we had been waiting to say to each other. I looked at him and he said "I love you, Lauren." Through a muffled hug and tears I said "I love you too" It was a really sweet moment that I'll never forget.

Throughout the entire graduation ceremony, I was distracted by the sparkle of my ring. It was so fun to go through that day knowing that Andrew and I would soon be starting our life and ministry together. I think he picked a great weekend to propose because both of our families were in New Orleans and we got to celebrate with everyone after the graduation ceremony. It was a great day!

If you haven't gotten enough of us, you can read every single detail of our story and pick out gifts for us at our wedding website http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/laurenprice&andrewgoolsby

Pumpkin Personalities

Joy making perfect polka dots on her colorful pumpkin.



Tessa dressing up her stylish little pumpkin in black and white.


Crystal and her pumpkin making silly faces together.

Kate showing off her artistic caricature in her mini-me pumpkin.

Loren concentrating hard on her creative skills (and making us laugh in the process).

Me sittin pretty with my pretty little pumpkin.

I'm Dreaming of a White Pumpkin

Here in Houston, we're having what my friend Emily and I like to call, "Faux Fall". We'll enjoy a couple of days of lovely fallish weather followed by a couple of days of sweltering heat and humidity. This fickle fall forces us to grab on to any moments we can to celebrate the change of seasons.

In honor of the cold front coming in this weekend, some of us girls are going to have a little fall party tonight. We're going to enjoy some fun fall foods and try our hands at pumpkin carving/painting. If our pumpkin projects turn out to be as cute as I hope...I'll share the results here. In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy these yummy fall recipes.

WHITE CHILI
Yield
Makes 4 quarts
Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 skinned and boned chicken breast halves, cut into bite-size pieces
3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
4 (15-ounce) cans cannellini or great Northern beans, rinsed, drained, and divided
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can chicken broth
1 (16-ounce) package frozen shoepeg white corn
2 (4.5-ounce) cans chopped green chiles
3 tablespoons lime juice
Garnish with cilantro sprigs

Preparation:
Sauté chopped onion in hot oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat 7 minutes; add garlic, and sauté 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in chicken pieces, and cook, stirring constantly, until chicken is lightly browned. Stir in 3 cups water and next 5 ingredients; reduce heat, and simmer, stirring often, 10 minutes or until chicken is done.

Place 2 cans of beans in a blender; add broth, and process until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides.

Stir bean pureé, remaining 2 cans of beans, corn, and chiles into chicken mixture in Dutch oven; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat, and simmer, stirring often, 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in lime juice just before serving. Garnish, if desired.

Note: Use a handheld submersion blender to pureé the beans and broth, if desired.
Southern Living, JANUARY 2002

PUMPKIN CRUNCH CAKE
1 pkg. Duncan Hines yellow cake mix
3 eggs, beaten
1 16 oz. can pumpkin
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pecans
1 cup melted butter

- Spray bottom of 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.
- Preheat oven to 350-
- Combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, spice, and salt; mix well.
- Pour into 9x13 dish
- Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over the pumpkin mixture.
- Top with pecans
- Drizzle melted butter over the top.
- Bake for 1 hour until golden brown & bubbly - it sometimes needs longer.
- Cool completely before serving.
- Serve with Cool Whip topping.

(Especially good with the "French Vanilla" flavored cool whip!!)

Recipe from: Jennifer Mills

Fall Riot..."in their own words"

For the past few months, our staff has been praying and preparing for an event called "Fall Riot". Last night over 1800 High School and Junior High students from around Katy showed up for that event. And while the turn out was amazing, it's what God did in the hearts of those students that was even more amazing. Today I sat down to a list of about 30 names...only a small portion of the 250 students total who said God was working in their heart last night. While I normally am not a fan of calling through lists, this one was different...it was a joy to hear the sweet stories of these students who wanted more of God in their lives.

As I read through the notes students had written in their own words about the event last night and about God's work in their heart, I was moved. One student wrote: "This was my first time at church." Another student wrote: "Tonight was really fun." Another confessed: "I need help with my life...I've never really understood until now." On the phone later, I heard several students say "I've never gone to church" or "My parents don't go to church". Many of them said, "I want to start coming to church, but I don't have a ride." How heartbreaking to think that many of them want to be here, but they don't have the support of their parents.

One thing I always try to do when I'm counseling a student is to give them an opportunity to tell me what God did in their heart, rather than asking them if it was "this" or "that". Most of them struggle to put it in to words. Some of them don't even know why, they just know that God was telling them something. They'll say things like "I just don't feel like I used to with God." or "I just want to get closer to Him." When I asked one student why he walked back during the invitation time he said, "Well they said if you wanted to follow Jesus Christ as your Savior to come back there, so I did." Plain and simple. Another said, "I've just never known God like I did last night."

I love hearing these stories because it's a way that we see God working in the lives of the students we have the opportunity to minister to. It's not just about feelings, but it's also not all about knowing the exact right words to say. It's about God drawing their hearts to Him. And we get to share in those stories, when we hear them put it "in their own words".

A Window Box as A Window to the Soul?

When I was a kid I thought I wanted to be a farmer. I liked “working” in my Granddaddy’s garden and I thought that meant I was destined for the fields. Fast forward 21 years, and you’ll see that I’m definitely not a farmer material. I don’t have a green thumb, finger, or toe anywhere on my body. I have planted herbs only to get dirt. I have I have killed more flowers than I’ve planted, but I haven’t given up.



Every now and then, I get the urge to put something pretty in the window box that hangs off of our apartment balcony. This summer I was determined to grow something that I wouldn’t kill right away. Summers in Texas are pretty hot and dry, so as I shopped, I read all of the labels and looked for something that liked sun. I picked Petunias because they were bright and cheery.

I took them home and planted them in the little box. Every time I walked by the window, their bright color caught my eye. At first, I checked on them and watered them every day. I thought I had finally gotten the hang of this gardening thing. But as time went by, I didn’t notice them as much. I began to neglect the flowers in the window box. I’d get busy and forget to water them. And then when I went out of town, I just forgot about them completely. No longer did the flowers catch my eye when I walked by the window. They were shriveled, dry, and brown. I felt like a failure again; I was ready to throw in the gardening gloves.

And then one day, late in the summer, we had a downpour of rain like we hadn’t seen in a while. Soon after, I walked out on the balcony and I saw my little flower box again. The flowers were still dried and shriveled, but in the midst of the deadness was one little green shoot-a reminder of the life that was once there. It gave me hope that that same life could be there again, so I began again. I pulled off the deadness and threw it away. And I began to water the flowers just as I had before. Sure there were days that I forgot, but there was a lot more rain falling in the late summer so they weren’t getting completely dried out. Finally a couple of weeks ago, I looked out and there was a flower. A few days later, there were two flowers, and then three.




Yes, it’s just a little box with three flowers, but it’s my little box with three flowers. My flowers that were once dry and dead are now beautiful and cheery again. They remind me of myself. There are a times in my life when my walk with God is thriving. There are days when I spend every day studying God’s word and journaling, walking through the day in prayer, meditating on scripture, and just feeling full of life. But there are other times, when I unintentionally neglect those spiritual disciplines because of busyness or circumstances of life. Then there are days when I just feel like a failure because of my neglect or sin. It’s on these days that I feel like I can’t go to God because there are too many dead weeds in my life.

But He has shown me that confession is like pulling off all of that deadness and throwing it away. It’s a step toward being renewed in Him. Spending time with Him in scripture study, prayer, and meditation is like pouring water on a dry soul. Yes there are days when I get busy or forget, but that doesn’t mean that I am a failure at the Christian life. God is faithful when we are faithless. And just like He sends the rain to water my flowers even when I forget, He continues to pursue me when I don’t pursue Him.

I may not have a green thumb and I may not be the most disciplined Christian, but I haven’t given up on gardening and God hasn’t given up on me.

Singly Selfish

Last week I read "The Five Love Languages: Singles Edition".

A lot of people including me, read this book wondering "What is my love language?" We're so obsessed with self-help and personal improvement. We want to know "How do I receive love?" and how should other people be loving me, but truly that's not the point of this book. Over and over again, Dr. Chapman draws the reader away from a selfish look at love to a lesson in chosen sacrifice.

This snippet from his love languages website sums it up:

Jesus taught an important lesson about relationships. Essentially, what He
said is that if any of us tries to improve a relationship by getting the other
person to change (working hard to get the speck out of the other person’s eye),
energies are being expended in the wrong direction. The place to begin is with
our own failures (the plank or beam in one’s own eye).

Love is something you do for someone else, not something you do for
yourself. Most of us do many things each day that do not come “naturally” for
us. For some of us, that is getting out of bed in the morning...And normally, before the day is over, we feel good about having gotten up. Our actions preceded our emotions. The same is true with love. We discover the primary love language of [someone we love] and we choose to speak it whether or not it is natural for us. You might not love the language itself, but speaking it will clearly communicate love. Love is a choice. And either [person] can start the process today.

Love is not about knowing what we need from other people. It's not about making sure we're comfortable or getting our way. It's about learning how to love others in the way that they need to be loved...even those that we may not get along with.

I've been learning a lot about my selfishness lately...and I think a lot of it comes from my singleness (not being married). On an average day, the only person I really have to worry about pleasing is myself. I eat what I want to eat when I want to eat it. I do what I want to do when I want to do it. I don't like being told what to do because I'm my own person. In a way, I think I'm entitled to this...as though it's the reward I get for still being single or something. When someone else comes into the equation and messes up my plan, I feel that they are inconveniencing me. I sound awfully selfish, don't I? But that's the truth and that's one of the many things that God's working on in me.

I'm learning love-not just romantic love, but a love for family, friends, and co-workers. This book really challenged me to pay attention to the way people around me respond to certain gestures of love and I've been secretly studying a few people in my life over the past week. But if you want, you can help me out by letting me know your love language. You can take this 30-second assessment or search the internet for a version of the love language assessment. And of course, all of the love language books include the assessment. You should read one if you get a chance!

Nora Nancy

Happy Birthday Nora. My neice was born at 2:33 am on Sunday July 12th, 2009. She has dark red "spikey/curly" hair. She weighed 8 lbs. and 4 oz. And she's beautiful. I haven't been able to meet her yet, but I have seen pictures and cannot wait to see her in person!

I've been excited about her since I first heard that Teresa was pregnant, but I never would have expected to feel the way I do about her now. When my mom called the other night to tell me that she was finally here, I couldn't go back to sleep for an hour. I was excited she was here, but I was sad that I wasn't there. I cried out of relief, love, and longing. When I saw her first picture yesterday, I cried again. I can't explain the feeling...I am overwhelmed with love for this little person that I have never met.

Her name, Eleanor Nancy, is a combination of my grandmothers' names. Although we have been given permission to call her Nora, it seems that my brother is determined to use her full name. Eleanor is of Greek origin and means sun ray, shining light, or compassion. Nancy is from Hebrew origin and means grace.

My brother, Ryan has done a great job keeping everyone updated on the pregnancy and arrival on his blog. You can check it out at http://www.dokteryan.blogspot.com/. He and Teresa are missionaries in Haiti and are planning to return at the end of the summer. But not before finishing out their tour of the states complete with a trip to Grandpa Tom's Cabin in Alabama at the end of this month.

Andrew and I will be making a road trip to Alabama on July 30th-August 5th to meet the newest member of the Price family and to spend much needed time with the rest of my family, a few friends, and his grandparents. I can't wait!