As I mentioned in my last post Mark and I spent the week (including Thanksgiving) in the big ol state of Texas!

Here are some pictures of some of my favorite memories from our trip...

My cousin Tim and my Aunt Beth practicing their mother/son dance on the deck of the house we stayed at. I had the opportunity to sing the song for this dance for them while my other cousins played the guitar. Practicing the song while they practiced their dance is a precious memory that I'll cherish forever.

Tim and his bride Leah were married at a beautiful historic villa in the "Hill Country" of Texas near Austin. This picture shows nothing of the beauty of the place, but unfortunately its the only picture Mark and I got that day.

We stayed in Austin the day after the wedding... our favorite stop? Dickies BBQ... which originated in Texas.

We got to take a tour of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium 2 days before the game. The tour ended on the field where they encouraged you to play on it as much as you want. Mark was in his element. What Cowboy fan wouldn't want to catch footballs in their end zone?

Of course... what Redskin fan wouldn't want the chance to rub some bad "juju" all over that same end zone??? :)

One thing we can agree on... we both enjoy watching the NFL. He's a lucky man, yeah???

The Dallas Steak House that was a must on our "to-do" list. We ate there after the stadium tour.  We are red meat lovers thats for sure!

Our other Dallas food "to-do"... try the local fast food. Okay, that wasn't really on our to do but we were sort of in a rush to eat before we took the above tour so Whataburger made it on to our food destination list. But we don't have Whataburger in Virginia so we counted it as a win. :)

Fuzzy Photo :( BUT! I was so excited to go inside of an American Girl Doll store! I loved American Girls growing up and they still have a special place in my heart. I had never been inside the store so this was my little girls dream come true!

On Wednesday we spent a little more time with our family. My cousin Kelleigh and her husband and sweet baby Brileigh! They are leaving the country, today actually, to continue their missionary journey. They won't be back for 18 months so we were happy to spend a little more time with them! They took us to some favorite local places in their little town of Tyler, Texas. Stanley's BBQ! So good people were lined up outside of the door to get some on their lunch break!

We visited the Tyler Zoo! (I love Zoo's!) Brileigh Ray wasn't quite as impressed as I was, and she especially didn't like the funky smells, but she DID cheer up when she saw the elephants behind us. We bonded over our love of elephants. :) Our last local spot of the day... Orange Leaf! The Texas version of Skinny Dip. LOVED IT!

And of course.... GAME DAY! We enjoyed a great game. People around us were very good natured and we enjoyed some fun football rivalry joking between all the Redskins and Cowboy fans around us. The Redskins won (woohoo!) much to Mark's disappointment, but it was definitely worth the memories that we made.

While our Texas trip may not have been the most financially frugal/wise decision we've made since being married, we feel it was 100% worth it. We made some excellent, lifelong memories of our first Thanksgiving together.

Mark and I are breaking all Thanksgiving Tradition this year by spending our first major holiday as husband and wife at the Redskins vs. Cowboys football game in Dallas, Texas.

We are grateful we had the opportunity to stay in Texas after my cousin Tim's wedding in order to see this game. I'm a Redskins fan and Mark is a huge Cowboys fan! Seeing a game in this stadium is one if his dreams!

We know we are blessed whether we had this opportunity or not but we are very Thankful to have the privilege of seeing dreams realized.

We don't plan on making a habit out of missing out on our families or the delicious food they'll be consuming today but we are pretty excited to be doing something that is just "us" for Thanksgiving!

We hope you are celebrating Thanksgiving with ones you love and are praising God for His blessings because as Americans we can all find plenty to be Thankful for, even if its just being Grateful for who our God is!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today Erin and I discussed our character of the week, Miriam, in our Wednesday bible study.

Miriam would prove to be one of the great women among the people of God, but she had to learn to trust and follow God according to His ways and not hers.

Miriam is well remembered for her role in watching her baby brother Moses as he drifted in the reeds until Pharaoh's daughter drew him out of the water. We know how she bravely offered to find a nurse maid for baby Moses without regards to what consequences she might face for speaking up. But later on, after the Isrealites left Egypt, she had a moment of rebellion against Moses that led to public shame and punishment.

Miriam is referred to as a prophetess and a leader of the people of Isreal during their time in the desert, Micah 6:4 says she was sent by God to be a leader in the same sense as Moses and Aaron were sent, but at the same time not the same as Moses. Miriam's fall is found in Number 11 and 12 when she begins to be concerned with Moses marrying a foreigner and also when he chooses elders to help him lead. Up until that time the leadership had been primarily Moses, Aaron and Miriam and once Moses chose the elders it became a fundamental shift in the leadership of Isreal, Miriam (and Aaron) were basically by passed in favor of these elders and it didn't set well with her. She became haughty in spirit and she exclaimed that God had spoken to her the same way he had spoken to Moses and so she and Aaron spoke out against him.

I love how God immediately addresses the situation by calling the three siblings into the tent. As a father would say to his three children who were in a squabble "get in here you three!". He reminded Miriam and Aaron that even though they were prophets and He spoke to them in visions/dreams... He spoke face to face with Moses and Moses was the leader. Because of Miriam's rebellion God struck her with leprosy, and despite Moses prayer for healing, God still let her suffer for 7 days outside of the camp until she repented and could then be restored to fellowship.

The amazing thing about this is that no one remembers that Miriam. Despite her rebellion and her public humiliation of being put out of the camp, everyone remembers the brave young girl who helped save her baby brother from the Nile. Where am I going with this??? I'm just saying that Miriam is remembered more for her honor then her shame. Even in her human frailty, where jealousy and power got the best of her, she is still a God-given example of how to follow God. If some one as Godly as Miriam (she was a prophetess after all) can be caught up in power and criticism of her leaders so can we. If we don't watch closely over our own hearts, we can easily fall into the same traps. Often our criticism of other people (even if they are correct) are motivated by an incorrect attitude of the heart. But if Miriam can come to repentance, healing and restoration of fellowship, then so can we.

Miriam also gives plenty of life lessons in learning to submit to authority, but I've written plenty. :)

We did a light Pilates today - for my sake - that just focuses on back and lower extremity flexibility. My post marathon body appreciated the stretching thats for sure! I'm hoping to start a little bit more vigorous exercise plan for Wednesdays the week after Thanksgiving to help battle some of those extra holiday pounds I'm sure I'll add.

I totally bailed on my sister last Wednesday when we were supposed to do our bible study and work out because I was desperate to get one last long run in before my race this weekend. But we got back on track today!

We continued our study on the Women of the Bible with Sarah. Even though she had mistakes and failures along her journey, she demonstrated enviable faith. She followed her husband out of her home country...knowing only that God had spoken to her husband and not even having a bible to refer to. After her initial disbelief, she did come to believe God that she would conceive and acted on that faith. I liked how this study pointed out that the conception of Isaac was not an immaculate conception... Abraham and Sarah, in their old age, had to act to conceive a child. I guess now that I'm married I have a better understanding of how that might have gone down ; ) and can only wonder if part of the reason for naming their son with a name meaning "laughter" was because of the laughter that might have ensued as two elderly lovers worked to conceive a child.

On a more serious note... Sarah made it into the New Testament hall of fame as a leader of the faith along side her husband in Hebrews 11. Even though she lied on two different accounts about her husband, took things into her own hands by encouraging Abraham to produce an heir through her servant, treated her servant harshly when her own idea became a reality and then laughed at God when His messengers told her she would conceive a child. All of this and yet God still considered her to be faithful. It is good to know that God doesn't discount us when we mess up, and He continues to be faithful to us as we learn to trust and follow Him.

We did some Pilates Hip and Thigh toning today for our work out. We might have accidentally picked too much of an advanced video so we pretty much spent the whole time laughing at ourselves as we failed miserably to do it right. Oh well. Maybe I should just count today as another ab work out from all of the laughing???