"just as free....free as we'll ever be"

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I am in SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, with my SISTER MEGAN and BEST FRIEND BECCA RAIN for a week!!! First time we have all been together since last year when Becca Rain got married, and two years before that!!!! I am so thankful for my friendships with these girls…. We all lived together in college, and had some of the most fun times of my life together. I never laugh as hard as I do when I am with Becca Rain and Megan. We have so many memories together….including vacations, scrapbooking together, line dancing, the church house, eating pizza, taking tons of pictures, listening to the same song over and over and over again, watching Friends, “Cinna Stix talks”, puddle jumping, racing Hope Rain up the stairs, crushing on the same boys, burning ceremonies, luring adorable kittens out of the woods, heartbreaks, phone calls, graduations, birthdays, many laughs, smiles, and tears, and moving away from each other…..The bond is incredible. I feel so blessed to have these friendships. …I pray that we spend eternity together …

I needed coffee yesterday morning…. So I convinced my sister Megan that I would be a more pleasant person with a cup of coffee…so we set out (walking) on an adventure in the pouring rain to find some coffee…. I was laughing to myself at the fact that we were trudging through 2 miles of hurricane rain for a cup of coffee…. It obviously has really become an important part of my daily routine! How about you…… How far would you walk for a cup of coffee? Would you walk in the pouring rain?

I have often heard the saying “everything is bigger in Texas” and I finally understand that saying really is referring to…… the Texas sky (haha)!!!! I don’t know what it is…but I just feel like I can see more of the sky here in Texas! Maybe because in Maryland it is much hillier and Maryland has so many more trees, and Texas is flat and open? Or maybe because Texas has a “Texas Pledge,” so they are allowed to see more of the sky? Haha jk. But for real…..God sure is using “Hurricane Alex” to show me a whole new painting of the sky….after all…He does paint every sunrise, sunset, and storm to reveal His majesty… man I can’t stop looking at it! Check out the pic!!!!! "The sky is ALWAYS blue" It's all about perspective....ya just gotta look beyond the storm and clouds that are blocking your view.....


I started summer book # 3…. Donald Miller “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.” So far, SOOOO good! This book is teaching me the importance and details of story-telling….. “If what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either.” How convicting is that???? This book really has me thinking about if someone were to write a story or make a movie about my life…. What lessons am I learning, what obstacles am I overcoming, what BIG and BOLD things am I doing for the kingdom of God that would be worth writing about????? I have learned that the point of a story and the point of life is the same…. character transformation!!! If the character in a story hasn’t changed, then the story hasn’t happened yet! I want my life to be meaningful and have purpose, I want to change and become more like HIM. I want to live to make HIM famous. “God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, ‘Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you.’”


Let’s chat about this Twilight craze for just a second…. Initially I had absolutely no interest in reading the Twilight series, and I thought it was CREEPY that people were so interested in vampires and werewolves. However….. I had a friend determined to get me hooked…… I watched “Twilight” months back and thought it was SO dumb. I hated how awkward all the characters were. Then I watched “New Moon” and became captain of Team Edward!!!! This week I saw “Eclipse,” and am officially obsessed…. I LOVED it. I am totally addicted to the story line, and I can’t wait for the last movie to come out on 11-20-11!! What do I love so much about Edward? I love the way he looks at Bella like she is his reason for existing…..I love how patient and unselfish his love is…. I love how he protects her, watches over her, and fights for her…. I love how his passion pours out when he speaks to her and looks into her eyes…… An interesting parallel I am creating as I type out what I love about Edward …. IT’s THE SAME WAY GOD LOVES ME (and you!)….. and that must be why I am so drawn to Edward…. Because it reminds me of the outrageous love God has for me.


Last night Meg, Becca Rain, Keith, and I went to COWBOY’S DANCE HALL (I love that they call them dance halls)! It was SO much fun to have a “Dusty Armadillo” reunion here in Texas! We were all trying to remember the line dances together, and had an absolute blast!!!! You see….here in Texas, they 2-step… to EVERYTHING. Even if it’s NOT a 2-step song…they are 2-stepping. So we took over a very small portion of the dance floor and recruited people that wanted to learn how to line dance…. Everyone kept coming up to us asking us where we were from because “nobody here dances like that.” Hahahaha. Love it! This is what I love about this group of friends…. We don’t care what everyone else thinks, we just have a blast doing what we love to do! “Dance like nobody’s watching”

More to come..... 😊 Thanks for reading my Travel Blog!!!

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Photos

BAM!!!
* Ashley Marie * Becca Rain * Megan Anne *

the sky is always blue...
Thanks to HURRICANE ALEX, I was able to capture this beautiful TEXAS sky on camera....

Comments

[Becca Rain]

bam
"Life's a dance" I love you Ashley Marie and feel so blessed to have you here with me, in my home :) Thank you for always being you! xoxo-Becca Rain

[Webster]

Word Police
Hillier is not a word Ash!

[LeBron James]

good blog post...twilight?
Twilight is interesting. You should do a Toy Story 3 review sometime. Keep up the good writing. PS I'm signing with Chicago.