All The Pretty Things

Since the day is gloomy and cold I'm going to think of happy and pretty things!  Some of my current favorite things.  So here are just a few of the lovely items that fill my day with better looking skin and fru-fru'ness!

 

My skin is super sensitive, acne prone, oily, and I've developed some rosacea on my cheeks.  This cleanser by Philosophy is my new favorite.  It's not drying or irritating.  It can be used on most every skin type.  I've been a big fan of Philosophy products for years, but I don't know why I haven't tried this before!  But a great tip from my dermatologist...always wash your face TWICE at night!  Once to take off all your makeup, and a second time to get down and actually cleanse your skin.  It's made all the difference in mine!  

You can find Philosophy products at any Sephora or Ulta...or HERE!  

While I'm on a Philosophy kick..my new favorite fragrance is Amazing Grace!  

 

This is such a light and delicate scent.  It's perfection!  It is a very lady-like scent.  I slather myself in the awesome "firming body emulsion" aka rockin body lotion after every shower.  And layering the light perfume helps the scent stay all day.  I really believe this scent is perfect for everyone from 10 years old to 100!  

And what's a day without a good shadow?  

My all-time favorite/go to is...

 

The good 'ol Naked 2 palette from Urban Decay!

It's 12 shades of nude perfection.  I reach for this before any other palette I own.  The shadows are finely milled and are wonderfully pigmented.  I actually do like the brush it comes with, but I still use others to crease and blend.  It's kinda pricey at about $50 at any Ulta or Sephora...but I use it almost everyday.  You can also check out the Naked 2 and the other Naked palettes at their website HERE  

Hope y'all enjoy and try out a few of these awesome goodies! 

Happy Thursday :)

~Heather 

Welcome 2014!

Wow!  I can't believe we're already into 2014!  I have been neglecting my blog because sooo many things have happened in my life over the past 3 years.  Lots of bad things...lots of good things...lots of things I have learned from...but I welcome in 2014 with a great deal of hope and promise!

The sweetest thing I am truly thankful for is my little boy (my sweet Monkey) turned 2!  I can't believe my baby is TWO!  Time truly flies by when you are talking about your children.  My tiny preemie is now a tall and sassy boy who loves all vegetables (thank you Lord!) and Thomas The Train!  He is a rough and rowdy ray of sunshine, and I can't believe he's almost 2 and a half.  Somebody hold me!

 

Our photo session at the pumpkin patch! He's getting so big :)

*Who doesn't have a meltdown during a photo session! Lord help me with this rowdy child!*

But I am very thankful for all that God has brought me through in the past 3 years.  I would never wish to go through those trials again, but I am sure that it is only by His grace I'm here today!  Maybe someday I'll write down all that I've been through physically and otherwise, but for now I'm just thankful for a new year.  :)

~Heather 

Wonderful News!

I can't believe it's been so long.  I have my food blog I update regularly....but I have seemed to totally neglect my poor PINK blog!  I have been running crazy busy this year.  Time has just seemed to fly right by.  It's now the first day of June, but it's been a wild ride so far.


Back in January the hubs and I took a quick trip to CA.  His uncle had been very sick, but we found out he was dying of cancer.  We took a little of M's vacation time....and my off week....and headed out to San Diego!  We ended up having a wonderful time, despite the sad circumstances. We stayed in Ocanside...and it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! M got to spend a few nice evenings with his family.  He ended up with lots of wonderful old pics of his great grandparents.  That alone made the trip worth it all for him :)  It was only 4 days...but it was the most wonderful trip we have ever taken together (for more than one reason)! 

*Looking over our balcony at the Pacific Ocean!


We finally got back home and got back to our normal *boring* lives.  I had been back at work for a few weeks.  I had been feeling just horrible.  I had been sick at my stomach and tired all the time.  Some of my sweet friends kept nagging me that I needed to take a pregnancy test.  HaaaHaaa!  Yah right....me pregnant....no way!  What famous last words!  
I finally broke down.  On the way home from work I stopped and picked up a test.  Oh, and let me tell you how embarrassing that was...!  I'm a married woman and still blush at the thought of buying one.  lol
Well, after one short minute......and many, MANY second looks........it was POSITIVE!!  
I can't believe that we are going to have a baby!  I still could not believe it was true.  I even left my house and went to visit my mom at her work.  She did a quick ultrasound and sure enough...there was a tiny little yolk sac.  What would eventually become my sweet baby :) 

It was the best Valentine's Day present I could have ever given my H!  It has been four months since I found out.  I am nearing 21 weeks.  Pregnancy surely has it's ups and downs.  I have worked through the morning sickness (which mine was all day long) and still struggle with overwhelming fatigue.  But it's been one of the strangest.....and sweetest experiences of my life.  I can't believe I'm half way there.  On October 14th we should be expecting our first baby.....a precious baby BOY!  

M's early Valentine's Day present.  It was a small glove and baseball.  I left a note inside the glove that said "Our sweet baby will be here in October"!  His other coaches helped me set up the surprise after practice on a cold Friday afternoon :)

WOW!!

Ok..Ok! I know that most of my posts lately have been about worship and music! Well...what can I say....music just moves me :)

I stumbled across this song a few weeks ago...and it just blew me away!! I was browsing around on iTunes and it literally just left me saying "WOW"! What an amazing thought...."what do I know of Holy"?!? "What in the world DO I know of Holy? What on earth do I even begin to understand of such an amazing..perfect...all sustaining love? The perfect love of a perfect God! It is just imaginable! Even when I think I have a small understanding of Him...He reaches down and touches peoples lives in ways I have never imagined :) Just like the song says...I have only caught a glimpse of who You might be....and I am awe struck..and amazed by just that glimpse! So what Do I know of Holy?!?

Healer!

Over the past few weeks I have been walking around with this song in my head! We rocked the walls of the church with this song on Sunday morning worship....and I know several other churches have lifted this up as well! I look on Facebook and it's on peoples status updates....it is everywhere...and I LOVE IT :) The words are so true......! HE is all we need!!

I believe You're my healer
I belive You are all I need
I believe You're my portion
I believe You're more than enough for me
Jesus You're all I need

The Bride of Christ (GREAT blog post)!!

So I have been a little excited over the Tenth Avenue North concert this coming Monday! I checked over on their website today (just passing time) and I ran across the band's blog. Wow! Some of the entries really blew me away. I am lovin this blog entry....so I thought I would pass it along to everyone. It was written by Mike Donehey (lead singer). Hope you all enjoy :)
**You can find the original link to the Tenth Avenue North blog HERE **



The disciples must have thought Jesus was crazy.
Seriously. I can only imagine their faces.
So confused, so perplexed, uncomfortably glancing back and forth between each other,
wondering if they had misheard, wondering if someone could help them understand.
Meanwhile, you got Jesus, unnerved, unfazed, just sitting there cooly,
looking them dead in the eyes, asking them to marry Him.
Yes, you heard me right…marry Him.
With nothing more than a cup of wine, no less,
the Lamb of God was proposing. So you can imagine their confusion right?
“Wait. What? Come again? Jesus, you feeling alright brotha?
I mean, I don’t think that I’m exactly what you’re looking for!
You want to think about what you’re saying for a minute?”

Of course, we don’t see it that way, because we’re not Jewish.
But they were, and they did. See it that way, I mean.
“Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
We hear these words and we think Communion, Eucharist, Last Supper.
The disciples heard this and they’re thinking wedding bells.

Apparently,

“In those days,” when a Hebrew man decided to take for Himself a Hebrew woman,
he’d go to his father and say, “Her, Dad. I want to make little rabbis with her.”
So then the dad would go to her dad and they’d talk camels, or sheep,
or whatever the payment was going to be, and after they’d settled on a figure,
the groom would call in all his friends and family, set a table in the middle of a room,
set the aforementioned girl down in front of said table,
break out a cup, fill it with wine, and set it in front of her saying,
“This is my covenant with you, take and drink it.”
And if she did, that was her answer. With a simple gulp and swig,
she was saying, “I do,” and that was it. No rings, no fancy songs or dinners,
just a cup and an invitation.
And oh yeah, all their relatives sitting in the room watching.
I mean, talk about pressure. But yeah, that was it.
Her lips to the glass was the same as saying,
“I accept your life, and I give you mine in return.”

Now, If the girl said yes, “in those days,” she would then go immediately back to her home,
where she would be known as, “one who was bought with a price.”
It’s true. That was her name. Kind of long and tedious, and extremely hard to shout out in
a game of soccer, but that was it. And with her new identity, she would go back to her town,
and start preparing for the wedding. And really, she’d just start waiting
for future husband to finish what he had to do and come and get her.
What was he doing? Well, during the engagement, the groom’s primary responsibility was
to build a mansion for him and his bride to be.

Now girls, before you get too excited, let me explain. “Mansion” in Hebrew means, “apartment.”
And what’s even better is that this apartment was actually more like an addition,
because the groom would build it onto his parents pre-existing house.
Yes. You heard me correctly. Their first home would be with the in-laws.
And right now, I can just imagine how many girls are thinking,
“oh please don’t let me marry a Jewish boy.”
It’s true though. He would build his “mansion” onto the family “insula,”
which is what they would call the family dwelling.
You see, the entire family would just keep building on and building on
until you had what was basically a city block, all comprised of one big bustling Jewish family.
(And you thought My Big Fat Greek Wedding was bad) Crazy, but also true.

Well, as you can imagine, this process could take quite a while.
I mean, it’s a house for crying out loud.
Some scholars say it was six months, or even a year before the poor guy was finished.
And get this, the only one who could decide if it was finished was the father.
So he’d be working and working and working, and every day looking to his dad,
saying, “Are we done yet?” And I can just imagine the father messing with him.
Taking his time, looking it over, and then just saying, “Almost.”
Could you imagine? Oh, the agony!
And to top it all off, the groom and the bride weren’t even allowed to talk to each other.
Nothing. Nada. Zip.
They couldn’t see or speak to one another during the entire engagement, except for one outlet.
The best man. He’d be the instant messenger if you will. Taking notes back and forth between
the doting couple. And those moments were probably pretty funny.
“Here’s your note, ‘one who was bought with a price.’ Check yes, no, or maybe.”
Unbelievable.

But you know, how much more beautiful would that day be when the father finally approved?
That day when the groom was finally finished, and he could gather up his homeboys,
or ‘groomsmen’ as we westerners would say, and imperiously march into his fiance’s town?
Oh it was sweet.
And that’s just what he’d do. He’d get his bridal party together and they’d come to her house,
and without any prior announcement or advanced warning, they would blow a shofar,
which was a ram’s horn that served as a trumpet,
and upon hearing it, the pining bride would come bustling out her front door and practically
straight down the aisle, and into her beloved’s arms.
The period of waiting and wanting would be over,
and the two would be united at last to consummate their long-awaited union.
Joy. Happiness. Little Rabbis… You know, all the good stuff.

So then,
Back to the dinner table with the 12. Can you sense where this is going?
Jesus breaks into this marriage proposal,
cup out, wine-filled, offering his covenant with them. They accept.
“I do” to Jesus. Gulp, gulp. “I accept your life, and I give you mine in return.”
So then, what does Jesus do? He explains how they have to spend some time apart.
Naturally. Only this is going to be longer than a year. However, the best man was coming.
His name? The Holy Spirit. So when Jesus leaves,
off to get busy preparing a “mansion” for them, (“in my Father’s house there are many rooms”)
He doesn’t leave them alone, but instead sends His own mediator, the Holy Spirit,
to keep the messages going between Himself and his Beloved.
Meanwhile, the bride is left behind in her town, keeping watch, day and night,
not knowing the day, time or hour that the bridegroom will appear.
Until finally, after a long-awaited return, and we’re talking seriously,
long awaited; centuries and milleniums waited people,
after this much awaited consummation,
the Father alone will announce that the time has come,
and Jesus will be coming back for all His faithful, all who are His bride.
With a posse of angels and loud trumpet call of their own, He will take us home,
to the marriage supper of the Lamb!
And we will share in ever-increasing joy and intimacy with Him forever and ever.
As C.S. Lewis so brilliantly articulated, “Further up and further in!”

And people still want to insist that Christianity is no more than a religion.

I don’t know about you but in light of this information, it puts Jesus in an entirely different light.
He’s no longer an ideal, or a belief system. He’s a person.
And to put it more precisely, He is a groom in love with his bride.
And not just any bride, but a wayward, adulterous bride.
A bride who is half-hearted at best, chasing other lovers and other interests more than Him.
And still, He keeps on loving. He keeps on being faithful,
He keeps his promises.

In the Old Testament,
He tells his prophet Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman,
to show everyone the way He loves his people. (see Hosea 3)
In the New, He tells us that divorce will never be an option for Him. (Phil 1:6)
Over and over and over again, From Isaiah, to Ezekiel, to Ephesians,
He tells us that we are not just his children, but we are his bride.
Faithless though we might be, we are His, and He is ours.

And like I said before, this changes everything.
It changes the way I view prayer.
It changes the way I view marriage.
It even changes the reasons that I obey.
As Donald Miller once said,
“it’s a far different thing to break a rule, than it is to cheat on a lover.”
I only pray that it changes things for you.

Tenth Avenue North!

This is one of my new favorite bands...Tenth Avenue North! They will be at Outcry this Monday July 12, 2009! Outcry starts at 7pm with the concert shortly after. It's a free event....so if your in the area check them out!!

This video touches my heart....I hope you all enjoy it as well :)