Learnings from my Bible Study

On Tuesday night, I attended the first session of a new bible study group of young women from our church. There were 7 of us in attendance and we had a great time getting to know each other and starting the first lesson. We started a lesson on the book of James recommended to me by my good friend Kelsey Hency.


Throughout the first lesson, a common theme occured - opening your heart to learning about Jesus so you can spread his word. We had a great discussion how, as much as we are in Love with Jesus, it is difficult to sing his praises to others. I myself find it so difficult, more times than not, to put into words my beliefs and feelings about my savior.


So with that in mind, I am challenging myself to share my thoughts, feelings and learnings after each lesson in attempts to be a better child of God and truly showing my love for him. I am hoping to touch at least one person somewhere in the blogosphere. If I can at least make one person think deeper about their faith, I will have succeeded.


So wish me luck. Here I go.....

• Romans 15:4 teaches us the word of God gives us Hope above all else


• By insulting other people, you are insulting God


• By storing up God's Word in our hearts, we are able to learn it and apply its teachings


• God wants us to question as we learn


• Psalm 119 - God wants us to open our eyes and hearts to his learnings and we are dependent on Him to understand what he is trying to teach us

These are fairly basic insights but sometimes we all need to be reminded of the basics in order to grow in our understandings.

A Girls Night Out

I had been waiting for last weekend since March 2010! What you say? Well remember this post about one of my favorite books coming to the Big Screen? Last Friday the movie was finally released (almost a two-year wait!!) so we decided to make a girls' night out of it.

I told friends at work about the movie so they decided to read the book as well. So five us went to a new restaurant in Fayetteville and then to the movie. We ate at Posta Plata, a new fancy Mexican restaurant which was fabulous! I had the best margarita I have EVER had and they made pretty good guacamole at our table.

After dinner we went to the movie and it was hilarious! There were a few differences from the book, but overall pretty much the same. I loved it! I really hope they make another movie. There are 19 books in the serious so far, and yes I have read all of them.

Once the movie was over, it was only about 9 so we went back to Posta Plata and sat in their bar to have another drink. We had so much fun together and have already planned another girls night out.

My AMAZING drink - Habanero Lime Margarita made with all fresh ingredients

Our group, do you recognize the gal standing next to me.....

Yep, that's right. Its Bridget from Channel 5 in Fayetteville. She was their nightly anchor for years before moving to New York, and then moving back to work for Mitchell. She might be the funniest person on the face of the earth!

Me and Brandy. Funny Fact: Brandy was my RA at Reid Hall when I was a freshman at the U of A. She started working at Mitchell about 6 months before I did. Small world right?

Christina, Tammy and Bridget

Brandy had a Hibiscus Martini that had real hibiscus flowers in it.

Christina with her Mango Mojito.

Freezer Meals

A couple of weekends ago me and two girlfriends from work got together to have a cooking day. We all had been noticing a new trend of people making several meals on one day and then freezing them to eat later. So we decided to try it.

We chose 3 meals that you freeze and then dump into your crockpot for cooking, which is even easier. We made 2 meals of each of the three receipes so we ended up with 6 complete meals.

It took us about 3 hours of chopping, measuring and pouring into our freezer bags (plus a few bottles of wine might have been consumed). We had a blast doing it. We split the ingredients up to purchase as well. I was in charge of onions, garlic, honey and zuchinni. That made it nice becaue all three of us didn't have to buy soy sauce or corn starch (or any other ingredient we weren't going to use a lot of) which saved us money. I calculated it up and with the ingredients I bought plus my own meat, I spent about $24 for everything. That is $4 per meal and $2 per person (me and Ryan). Plus, no cooking involved!

We have already decided to schedule another cooking day next month. I would highly recommend it.

Three stations ready to get started

Christina mid sip and Brandy mid chop.

My Bridesmaid Luncheon

I know I am 7 months late, but I wanted to share the pictures from my bridesmaid luncheon the day before my wedding.

My aunt and grandmother hosted it at the Springdale Country Club for us and it was beautiful. It was a great way to thank my friends and family for being a part of my day.

The room. My mom, aunt and grandmother decorated the tables and they looked great!

My place setting and menu

I loved the centerpieces. Limes and flowers - so simple and gorgeous

Me and my mom and MIL

All my bridesmaids. I love them and they truely made my wedding special! Front row sorority squat! yes! Ryan's grandmother, me and my grandmother

The Hostesses

This was a great way to kick off the wedding weekend and I am so thankful for everybody that made it happen!

Happy 7 Months!

Today we have been married 7 months! Wahoo!!

How COULD He?

Warning: I am about to go on a Bachelor rant so if you don't care about that show, you might want to move right along.

I watch every season of the Bachelor and Bachelorette and LOVE IT. I am not ashamed to admit it either. For some reason, it is just so entertaining watching women, and men, "fall in love" in 0.2 seconds and then leave crying when they get their "hearts broken." After every episode I am reminded of how lucky I am not to be in the dating world anymore. But I digress...

This season I was not excited about Ben, the Bachelor. I didn't care for him on Ashley's season and never saw what was so great about him. I mean, he turned down Jennifer Love-Hewitt and desperately needs a haircut. There must be something wrong with him right? Well my point was ABSOLUTELY proven last night.

Most seasons there isn't a girl or guy that I truly love and root for the whole season. The ones that come to mind are Ryan (who won Trista's season and who are still married) and then Emily who won Brad's season but we all knew that probably wouldn't work out. Have no fear though - she is the Bachelorette for next season! Again, I digress...

Well this season I picked out a girl that I loved from the first night. I loved her "numbers" intro and thought she was the cutest little red head from Oklahoma ever - JENNIFER! Last week she had a great one-on-one date with Ben and this week she didn't get much time with him but when they did speak at the rose ceremony, Ben basically assured her she was safe.

Jennifer (abc.com image)

So needless to say I was SHOCKED when she was the only girl left without a rose. And what was even worse, there was no explanation from Ben - no reason why he sent this winner home.

I just knew from the beginning that these two would be so cute together, I was wrong. I guess now I will have to root for Kacie B. She is my next favorite - very cute Southern Belle that seems to be one of Ben's favorites. He better not upset me again!

Kacie B. (abc.com image)

Candle Making 101

I LOVE candles. I have one burning almost every day at my house. To me, they make a home more "homey." So, needless to say I spend a lot of money on the smell-good home accents and lately it was getting hard to justify, even though I love them so much.

Over the holidays I was browsing some blogs and I found one on how to make candles. I tried it out a couple of times and I've got to say, its pretty awesome. Its a great way to use all that left over wax once your candles have burned their whole wick.

I thought I would share my money-saving, candle-making ways with yall. Hope you enjoy!

1. After you have burned a candle to the very bottom, put the whole thing in the freezer. Freezing the wax will make it easier to remove from the jar. After you have taken out the left over wax, save it in a zip lock bag. Don't forget to save the jar! During Christmas, I go through cinammon candles like they are going out of style so I got a pretty good stash going.

2. Put a pot of boiling water on the stove and place a tin can in it with the wax you want to remelt. The tin can will save your pots from getting "waxy." The tin can and wax will want to dump over so I put the jar on top of the can to hold it in place while the wax was melting.

3. If you don' thave enough scented wax left over for a whole candle, you can add plain, unscented wax to be melted as well. The added plain wax will make your scented wax last longer. I got my wicks and wax at Hobby Lobby both for half off. The wicks come in a pack of 10 and the wax has 4 bars to a pack. I used half of one bar for this candle. So both of these supplies will last you a long time.

4. Next, place a stand-alone wick in the bottom of your jar.

5. Once the wax is melted, simply pour it back into your candle jar and WA-LAH you have a brand new candle.

Told ya it was pretty simple. I estimate that for the extra supplies I bought, this new candle only cost about $0.35! I think that savings definitely helps me justify my candle obsession!