happy Easter.

"He is not here, for he has risen, as he said." Matthew 28:6 (ESV)

"as he said,"...Jesus always fulfills His Promises. The greatest of which was dying on the Cross, paying our debt and then defeating death by rising and Living! 

We have everything to be thankful for as we reflect on this Gift that Jesus gave to us freely, without price. This Gift is the absolute perfect picture of humble sacrifice. We, as followers of Christ, should live out the same humble sacrifice in our daily life. Constantly remembering what Jesus did for us and for every generation to come.

Imagine with me for one moment if Jesus would have chosen to be disobedient to the Father. What if Jesus would have said, "God, are You crazy? I'm fully divine and You're asking me to make myself fully human and die on a tree?? And do all of that for FREE??" Can you imagine what the implications of that choice would've been? We would have no opportunity for healing. No opportunity for salvation. No opportunity for sanctification. No opportunity for Eternal Life. 

Oh, but Jesus chose obedience!!! Because of Christ's obedience to the Father we have Life. We have Freedom. We have Salvation. We have Santification. Through, Mary the Mother of Jesus, Eve's sin was crushed! Through Jesus Christ, Adam's sin was crushed! 

Now we have the opportunity to live as healed men and women through Jesus' Ultimate Sacrifice! Free from the bondage of Original Sin. 

Get excited about this, y'all!!! Let Your Spirit be filled with Joy & Hope today (and every day) as You walk this Life hand in hand with the One who chose to Love you! With the One who chose to Save you!

raw-stin.

I love March for many reasons. One of them being it's my birthday month! Stephen surprised me with a little trip to Austin, Texas, for some adventuring. I stayed on top of the weather forecast the entire week before hoping the anticipated rainy weekend would change to sunshine. It didn't. So we planned for inside activities.

Now... we didn't realize until after we planned on going to Austin that SXSW was still taking place. We knew there were going to be a lot more people in town and lots of music. We were hoping to check out a few bands, but didn't (mainly because I knew none of the bands performing!). On Saturday morning, we had brunch at the coolest restaurant, Hillside Farmacy. In the 1950s the building served as a pharmacy and still has all the original pharmacy cabinetry. It was really neat and the food was delicious. I got their Bangers and Eggs and he the Big Brekkie.

After brunch, we headed to SoCo also known as South Congress. This is a fun strip of shopping and restaurants. I had previously been to SoCo a few years back and everything still looked exactly the same!

Shortly after checking out SoCo, we went to the Texas State Capitol. Somehow we managed to hop on a free tour just as soon as we were walking in the front doors. I'm glad we did, otherwise I wouldn't have known what we were looking at. Fun fact: The Texas State Capitol is 1 foot taller than the Capitol in DC. The builders purposely made the statue on top to be the tallest in the U.S.! Everything is bigger in Texas....

This is the view, looking up, from the middle of the TX Capitol.

After seeing what the Capitol had to offer, we drove around the outskirts of town and made a stop at HEB grocery store so that I could stock up on my famous Texas Pecan coffee. While checking out of HEB, I noticed quickly they weren't bagging my very precious coffee. After ringing me up, I asked if I could have them bagged...turns out Austin, Texas, is anti-bags. They're a green city and no where will you find plastic bags for the taking. You have to bring your own re-usable ones to the store! I told them us Dallas people must be bad. So I walked out with an arm full of coffee.

We then traveled to one of the famous Austin Overlooks. I'm not exactly sure what the name of it is...it may not even have a name. I'm actually trying to remember how we even pulled this place up on Google maps! It was okay. I'm sure when there isn't rain and fog, it has way better visibility. It was short hike to reach the top. Let's just say hiking in grip-less booties and mud is not fun.

It was getting close to eating time so we breaked at Hula Hut. It's a mexican/hawiian type place. Is that a strange combo? Kind of sounds like it now that I think about it, but the food was delish! After lunch, we headed back downtown to have afternoon coffee at Halycon. I'm so glad we did this because it was located in the heart of SXSW. There were hipster peeps everywhere and we were able to listen to some bands from afar.

After caffeine and rest, we freshened up and went back to SoCo for dinner at Perla's. SoCo was very much alive on Saturday night! Luckily, we were smart enough to make reservations and were seated just as soon as we arrived. Perla's is known for their fresh seafood. Cue blog title post now: raw-stin. Stephen insisted on getting raw oysters. I had never had them before and he really likes them! So I was really brave and tried them. OMG. I like all food. I do NOT like raw oysters. Horribly fishy!! Have you seen the movie Unbroken? Do you remember the scene when they were stuck in the tiny boat out at sea and ate a raw fish? That is what it's like to eat a raw oyster.

Now, Perla's was still amazing even if I don't like oysters. I had the Red Fish and Stephen the Tuna. We got the sharing size of the dirty rice. Superb. The Cab wasn't too bad either. I would definitely recommend this place! On our walk back to the car, I had Stephen snap a photo of me in front of the famous "I love you so much," sign. I can now mark that off my bucket list (kidding).

We had a wonderful time despite the rain and amount of people. Thank you, Stephen, for loving me so well! 

P.S. Here's to celebrating my 100th blog post!!! Crazy to think I've had this little website running for almost 2 1/2 years!

*The title of this post is brought to you by Stephen*

girls downtown.

Over Spring Break, my mom AND sister were able to come visit! We had a girls weekend for the first time in a long time.

On Saturday, we got up, had coffee together and then went to get pedicures. After pedis, we got ready and headed for a day in downtown McKinney! I hadn't even considered that it was St. Patrick's Day Weekend. That being said, there were a lot of fun festivities going on.

We antiqued shopped and my sister racked up on some cute clothes! We had lunch at the famous, Spoons, and indulged in their "special dessert" -- a chocoloate covered waffle. Mmmm sooo good.

It was also opening weekend of the new movie, Cinderella. I pre-purchased our tickets for the 7 o'clock show. I made everyone be ready by 6! I just knew we wouldn't be able to get a seat. Haha. Let's just say not every other young adult was as excited about Cinderella as I. We had plenty of seats to choose from. Omgsh, Cinderalla was AMAZING! Such a good, wholesome movie. My mom and sis loved it too!

We crashed pretty early Saturday night. Probably due to the amount of sugar we consumed at the movies.

On Sunday, we made it to the early service at church and had brunch at Company Cafe. I love this restuarant because there are so many healthy choices to choose from. I got the Deep Bowl which is a combo of beef, sweet potato hash, salsa, and avocado. :)

Later Sunday afternoon, we took the three "kids" to play in the park. I was in charge of walking Skylar. Skylar actually just celebrated her second birthday, but you would think it was her 22nd. She is so SLOW, but I love her to pieces!

We had a fun weekend...that actually almost ended in me buying a puppy! But...Stephen didn't support the idea entirely. Haha. I'm definitely glad he helped me not make an impulsive decision.

So glad my mom and seester were able to come down for a good visit - love you both!