It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Our presents are wrapped, and we can't wait to spend time with family and head out to the Big Apple!!!



If you're needing any help getting into the spirit of Christmas, check out the Austin Stone podcasts from the last 2 Sundays. They're really powerful.



Merry Christmas, everyone! See you in '09!

G Bizzle

Our dog, Bella, if you know her, is a little on the friendly side. I guess she must have run into a tough crowd because she came inside yesterday with a tear drop-looking tattoo under her right eye. I think it was actually just a run in with a stick, but you never know...

Got Milk?

Last night at Community Group we had our second annual cookie and platter exchange. I don't think I've ever seen so many cookies in one place... and they were all super yummy. Thanks so much to all of our loyal group members. We love having y'all at our house every week to grow and learn together. Y'all are the best!

It would be safe to say...

that Christmas thew up in our house.

I love opening my Christmas bins every year because it's always a fun surprise as to what will be inside of them. I buy so much at after Christmas sales that I don't even remember what I have and, most of it, is still in the original packaging. It's like Christmas before Christmas!

My work of art this year is my kitchen window, but it didn't photograph very well....

Merry Christmas!!!!

Shout Out!

I'd like to give a big shout out and a big THANK YOU to my good friend, Jessica Schmale! Jess is an AWESOME photographer, and she came over this week to take our Christmas picture. Normally I don't think this would have been a huge undertaking, but with a lab puppy who we needed to sit still, it turned out to be much more of a challenge. It made me think about (hopefully) the future when we have kids and we're trying to get them to smile and look at the camera by clapping our hands, calling their name and squeaking a stuffed animal....

Jess, thanks, again! You are so talented!

Tag!

My wonderful friend, Kristin "Levrets" Fulghum tagged me in this blog. I feel so honored. Sorry it's taken me a while to get to, but this was a great excuse for me to get blogging again.

type only one word for each answer: (this is so hard! sometimes I couldn't do it!)

1. Where is your cell phone? coffee table

2. Your significant other?out o' town

3. Your hair?pony tail

4. Your mother? busy

5. Your father? chill

6. Your favorite thing? friends & fam

7. Your dream last night? non-existent

8. Your favorite drink? water

9. Your dream/goal? give

10. The room you're in? living room

11. Your fear? loss

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? content

13. Where were you last night? christmas party

14. What you're not? fearless

15. Muffins/donuts? bagels

16. One of your wish list items? scarf

17. Where you grew up? houston

18. The last thing you did? updated-christmas-card-addresses

19. What are you wearing? fleece

20. Your TV? off

21. Your pet? outside

22. Your computer? on

23. Your life?blessed

24. Your mood?productive

25. Missing someone? always

26. Favorite pastime? reading

27. Something you're not wearing? chaps

28. Favorite Store? target/ gap

29. Your summer? can't wait

30. Your favorite color? turqoise

31. When is the last time you laughed? today

32. Last time you cried? this week

33. Who will re-post this? ?

34. Four places I go over and over? school, heb, gym, park

35. Four people who e-mail me? ryan, pi phis, teachers, mom

36. Four of my favorite foods? mexican, seafood, pasta, ice cream

37. Four places I would like to be right now? beach, san fran, spain, nyc

38. Four people I tag? braids, trog, thaloj, bacardi

Bye Bye Beach House

Back in the 60's my grandparents built a family beach house in Galveston- 4th house from the water. We spent lots of really fun weekends around here as a kid and, in the recent past we've celebrated bachelorette weekends for Bradley and Lev. I wish I had some pictures of our childhood to post, but they're at my parents house in Houston, and I'd have to warm up the scanner....you know how that goes.

Bradley's Bachelorette weekend in '06

Lev's bachelorette weekend in '08

All was well at the beach house until Hurricane Ike came through.
Here are some pictures my parents took of the bottom floor when they went to meet with the insurance adjuster last weekend.

This was a room, which you can't even tell because three of the four walls are gone.

Part of the wall

from the other side

That's the toilet... the water heater, washer and dryer are no where to be found.

The shower is basically the only thing left in this room.



We'll be having a Lynch family meeting pretty soon to decide how to rebuild and whether or not we'll keep it or sell it after that. Mother nature is pretty darn powerful!!!

Goodbye to the Dog Days of Summer

Just a few of the things I love about the fall...

Decorating the house

letting Bella play outside for long periods of time now that it has cooled off

Scarves! (thanks, Lev!)

Austin High Football

Aggie Football (usually painful to watch)

blankets

getting to wear my favorite fleece

transitioning from cold to warm drinks at Starbucks

celebrating my wonderful husband's birthday. happy birthday, babe!!!

Galveston, Gustav and Guests

Labor Day was an interesting weekend for the Assunto family. Ryan and I headed to Galveston on Friday and spent the day at the beach on Saturday with Bella. It was about as gorgeous a day as it gets on the Texas coast.

When we heard the forecasts worsen for hurricane Gustav, we decided that instead of staying until Sunday night, which was our plan, we better get in the car and head back. We didn't want to get caught in hours of traffic heading back to Austin if the island was evacuated. So, we left, stopped in Houston to hang out with the Lynches, and got back home at about 1am.

Ryan's parents, brother and his wife left Beaumont because of mandatory evacuations at about 11:30pm and arrived at our house at 5am. Over the course of the rest of the weekend we had 12 people and 4 dogs in and out of our house. Basically, we ran a refugee camp. It was a fun time to catch up with family! We just wish it didn't have to be under such stressful circumstances for them!

"Back to school, back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool." Adam Sandler, Billy Madison

I could swear to you right now that time actually goes by faster during June and July. I just don't know where the summer has gone. But, alas, the time has come for another school year to start. I can't believe that this senior class is the class of 2009! And, what's even weirder, the freshmen are the class of 2012. I'm getting old.

I love the school where I work. It's full of lots of history and tradition- It's actually the oldest high school west of the Mississippi River (don't worry, we're not in the original building). It's also the high school where the Bush girls went and, a few years ago, Rick Perry's daughter was on my cheerleading squad. I love, love, love the teachers that I work with, and the kids are extremely diverse, which is ideal for me. As long as I continue teaching, I want to be at Austin High.

My classroom is just about ready to go, my lesson plans are made (for the most part) and my student teacher is fabulous. So here's to a great year of teaching and learning, and to keeping up my summer workout routine even after an exhausting day on my feet.

Money Matters

Over the last three weeks, our church has been doing a series called "Money Matters." Matt, our pastor, has been talking about finances on Sundays, and we've been discussing it in our community group. It has been powerful and life-changing, without a doubt.

Here are the top 5 main points that I've gotten out of the last few weeks. Some I had known and understood, some things I thought I knew, but now they really make sense, and some were totally new. It's easy to know and understand this stuff on a head-level, but my prayer is that I can really take these truths and live them out. It's easy to sit around and talk about stuff. It's a lot harder to put it into action.

1. Everything I have belongs to the Lord.

2. I couldn't do anything and wouldn't have anything without him giving it to me- intelligence to work, sight, hearing, gifts, talents, ... I couldn't earn money if I didn't have what he gave me.

3. My finances are a heart-issue, not a formula. Giving my tithe at the beginning of each month and then not praying or being active in stewarding my money in other ways is not what the Lord desires from me.

4. I don't need to feel guilt when God blesses me with material things and money. My response should be to give him the praise and the glory for it and steward it well.

5. Where my treasure is, my heart will also be. If my treasure is my things, my heart is in the wrong place.

For some good listenin', check out the Austin Stone Podcasts.

"What a Mighty Good Man" - Salt n Pepa

My husband, Ryan, is one of the most kind, pure-hearted and Godly men I've ever know. He's a great fit for me, and I'm so blessed to have him as my husband.


















Sunday was my birthday, and he made the weekend so special- especially with a big surprise for dinner and a super fun birthday present.


















Just a few of the many things I love about Ryan are-


how he helps out around the house...



that he's a guy's guy (minus the tights!)



that he has become friends with my friends...



that he loves to serve and give of his time and gifts...















that he's a hard worker...















that he's fun to travel with...















that he always pooper scoops our yard :)

Anthro, you're breakin' my heart

If you know me well... or at all, you probably know that my favorite store on earth (besides, of course, Costco) is Anthropologie. I love the smell of the store, the colors, the patterns, the style... pretty much everything BUT the price tag. I've always thought that the stuff at Anthro was insanely expensive, but it's fun for a cute gift or a splurge item every now and then, although I certainly can't justify buying anything there on a normal basis.

So, when Ryan agreed to let me paint some of his old furniture- a chest and a nightstand, I thought hard about what I could do to make it bright and fun. I decided on painting in turquoise and getting some fun knobs from, where else? Anthropologie. So, in a weekend, the furniture was transformed from wood stain to "Fishing Hole" from the Martha Stewart paint collection at Lowes. (If I had known I was going to have a blog when we did it, I would have taken a "before" picture.)

The next weekend, Ryan went with me to Anthropologie for moral support (and because there's an REI next door). We picked out 4 different knobs to try. My wonderful husband was even nice enough to drill holes and install all of them on different drawers so that I could pick. What a man!

The top 4 choices were...

After a tough decision beween #2 and #3, we decided on #3, and resigned ourselves to the fact that this was gonna be a little pricey because we needed 14 of them. I still didn't feel right about droppin' all that cash on knobs, but I decided it could be part of my birthday present, which Ryan reluctantly agreed to.

But, my friends, if that was the end of the story, I wouldn't have written a whole blog about it. This story has a magical ending. (ok, magical is a stretch, but it will save you a couple bucks)

While dining one night with my friends, Rubey and Fulton, I was given the tip that Hobby Lobby sells some of the exact same knobs as Anthro. Wha?! How had I never heard that before? So I went and, not only were they right, that tons of the knobs were EXACTLY the same, but they were also on sale for 50% off. (Knob #3 was not sold at HobLob, but I found one very similar.)

In conclusion:

Anthro 14 knobs x $10 = $140

HobLob 14 knobs x $3 = $42

take off 50% = $21

total savings = $119