Birthday Fun

So last week marked the half way point through the summer for Joey. He finished his internship in Houston and had a week before he started his new internship here in Waco for the second half of the summer. We are SO glad to have him back home!!! Since he wasn't working and my birthday was Thursday, I took Thursday and Friday off work and Joey and I went to Austin for a little vacation. It was so wonderful to get away for a couple of days!

For my birthday Joey surprised me by taking me to the zoo in Austin. (We love going to zoos!) It was surprisingly quaint, but still a really fun time.
These peacocks were just walking around the grounds at the zoo... so beautiful!!!

Hand-feeding these things was not my favorite... they are very slobbery eaters!
The does were much nicer eaters. Also, notice the new purse I got from Joey for my birthday. :)
Joey's new buddy
This is how close we were to these animals! Very cool, but EWWW!
Joey's favorite animal. This guy was huge and was ejoying a big bone. You could hear his tounge like sandpaper licking it.
Sic 'Em Bears!

After that, we went to Marshall's to spend some of the gift cards I got for my birthday. I was in heaven as those who know me can imagine. It was a succesful shopping spree. I got a new pair of sunglasses, new pumps, a dress, and a blingin' baby blue collar for Harley. :)

After shopping we checked into our hotel and got ready for dinner. We went to a neat restaurant near the Austin Arboretum called Z Tejas. It was delicious and the view was incredible. We kicked ourselves all the way to the car when we realized we forgot to have our waitor take our picture at dinner, but here's one I found of the patio we sat on so you can get the idea.


After dinner we went to the movies and saw Knight and Day. Not such a great movie... actually really bad! But, nevertheless I had a fantastic birthday and am so thankful for a great hubby who spoiled me good! I also received cards from lots of friends and family wishing me a happy birthday. I felt very loved. Thank you!


Friday we spent the day laying by the hotel pool soaking up sun and reading John Grisham books -- we are both hooked reading them for the first time. Friday evening was Joey's cousin's, Loren's wedding. It was beautiful and really great to see lots of our family there.
Loren and Blake at their outdoor ceremony overlooking the beautiful hillcountry.

Me and Joey at the reception

So on a last note, I am trying not to be one of those people that talks about their dog and all the funny things they do all the time, but this is too funny not to share... We went on a walk tonight because Harley has been bouncing off the walls and didn't get one last night because of the rain. Well, about halfway through our walk (when there is no turning back) it starts pouring! Joey and I were laughing so hard we could barely walk. Harley kept looking up at the sky like "Who the heck is pouring water on me? -and cut it out! She picked up the pace and we just had to enjoy the shower and the giggles the rest of the way home. Here are a couple of pics of us when we made it back to the house.

Sweet Friendship

This past weekend Lauren and Kristin came to Waco for another friend's wedding and stayed with me and Joey. I met Lauren, Kristin, and Dana for lunch on Friday at a new tea room in Hewitt called The Mix and it was so yummy! It reminded me of our college days and the beginning of our friendship when we would meet for lunch at a tea room in Waco on Friday's for lunch after class. Lauren, Kristin, and I met while pledging Tri-Delta at Baylor. We became great friends and even lived together for 2 years. We have many fun memories together, and I really enjoyed spending time with them this weekend. I love that you can spend time apart from girlfriends and pick up right where you left off when you get to be together again. There is something very special about the bond that girlfriends share. We meant to take a picture together at lunch, but got carried away catching up and forgot. So, here is a picture of Lauren, Kristin, Dana, and me at the rehearsal dinner before my wedding last summer.



Here is another one of Lauren, Kristin, and me on one of our Room-Mate Dinners. Yes, we are at Chuck-E-Cheese! :) It was one of our favorites... Who says big kids can't like great pizza and fun games too?

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Harley's new nickname around here has become TROUBLE! Today I let her out in our backyard to do her business while I stayed inside making my lunch. I usually leave the door a little cracked so that she can come back in when she is done. Well, it had been awhile and she was still outside, so I went out to check on her and found this:


What is she doing you may ask? She is digging in my newly planted flower pots on the back porch!!! When she saw me she just looked up with her face covered in dirt like, "Look at this fun new thing I just found out how to do!" I wanted to laugh and scold her all at the same time. After I took a few pictures I made sure she knew that this was not a cool new game, but we'll see how well she learned that one. So, our trouble-maker's new mischievious accomplishment is DIGGING... great!



Yes, that's a plant in her mouth... Shameless!



Mouth full of dirt - Yum!

Holy Fruit

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." - Galatians 5:22-23

This verse reminds me of Vacation Bible School and the song that I learned to memorize all the fruits of the Spirit. Come on- how many of you are singing that song in your head right now? I am thankful for that song and the fun of VBS, but I know that this verse should mean something more to me than a rhyming song at this point in my life. It is easy for me to look at all of these qualities a Christian should emulate and model in their life and truly desire them for my own life, but I quickly get overwhelmed. I think to myself, "I could probably tackle a couple of those today, but I want to demonstrate Christ in my life in all of those ways." The only conclusion then is- "God help me."

In a devotional my mom gave me called, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, she writes as if Jesus is talking:
"I am creating something new in you: a bubbling spring of Joy that spills over into others' lives. Do not mistake this Joy for your own or try to take credit for it in any way. Instead, watch in delight as My Spirit flows through you to bless others. Let yourself become a reservoir of the Spirit's fruit.
Your part is to live close to me, open to all that I am doing in you. Don't try to control the streaming of My Spirit through you. Just keep focusing on Me as we walk through this day together. Enjoy My Presence, which permeates you with Love, Joy, and Peace."

I am comforted by these words because they assure us that we are not in this alone. God doesn't give us a list of qualities and expect us to get their by our own hard work and effort. We are to rely on Him and let Him do a work in us. I hope this gives you the kind of encouragement it gave me today!

Welcome to the world of blogging

I am by no means an avid blogger. I simply enjoy keeping up with friends on their blogs and decided that I would give it a try. For a long time I wondered how people had the time or expended the effort to post happenings and thoughts on a blog. But after I began following a few, I found that it became a daily habit for me to check their blogs to see if anything new had been posted. So, I hope that my ramblings won't be too random or boring, but wanted a place to share some of our Hance Happenings with friends and family.

So, for our first post I will share a little about our latest addition. No, it's not a baby- though sometimes I feel like she could be. Our siberian husky puppy, Harley, is a little more than 3 months old. I wanted a husky puppy ever since I was a little girl and first saw one on a family ski trip in Colorado. The discussion between Joey and I about when we could get one started even before we were married, and those that know the completely opposite way that Joey and I process and rationalize will understand the drawn out process. So, after following a breeder that we liked for awhile, on Easter weekend we visited and picked out our Harley girl.




She has been an entertaining blessing the past 3 months and I know that she will bring lots of joyful laughter over the years. Her latest trick is escaping her kennel that we keep her in at night and when we are not home. Last week I put her in her kennel to go have dinner with some girlfriends and returned to her dashing out of the house when I opened the front door. Needless to say, after chasing her down and getting her back in the house I was a bit confused and concerned. I found the bottom lock on her kennel undone and thought maybe I just didn't fasten it correctly. This weekend, Joey and I returned from dinner to the same eager puppy running out the front door showing off her escape. We spied on her later that night to learn how she was accomplishing this seemingly impossible feat. Our little houdini puppy can undo the lock from inside her kennel and then squeeze herself out of a little opening she creates. We now stack some of Joey's law books up against the lock so that she cannot undo it. We have out-smarted her for now, but I am slightly concerned about what other mischief our puppy will discover... Here are some more recent pictures we took with Harley this weekend:

My, how she's grown!