The Last of My Travel Chronicles

Well this is the last entry of my travels.... WOO HOO! It has been over 2 months and has come to an end. I am back in Dallas and really happy! I remember when this city did not feel like home but when I got in my car this past Friday and started to drive on the busy highways it felt like home. What a blessing to feel at home and full of peace, some many times I take it for granted but I think these past months have made me realize to never take "Home" for granted. Here are some pictures of my last 2 trips. First is from Nashville, TN I went to eat at the Pancake Pantry which is this famous place to eat. I got their blueberry pancakes but they are in no comparison with Papa's. I also went to J. Alexander's which is an OH restuarant I love and saw Trent Lott there... pretty cool. Of course I did a little shopping and went to this really cool vintage store. All in all I LOVE Nashville and told Adam Bayer we could live there if we needed to :). My last trip was one of my favorite cities in the USA.... DENVER, CO!!! I can't express how much I love this city. The pictures do not do it justice. I drank about 3 liters of water everyday because of the altitude, yes I get really effected by it and I drank Caribou coffee like it was going out of style. :) I met some amazing people and got to see some old friends. It was a great way to end my 2 months of traveling!

Dessert at J. Alexander's it was amazing!



The last 2 days I was in Denver it only got up into the 20's and it snowed about 3-5 inches... It was COLD!!!!

Although this isn't from my trip, this was taken in Atlanta, it just shows my love for Caribou!

Things we are pondering right now...

Well for me (Jen) it has been a whirlwind of a month, I have been all over the country and have met some amazing people and seen some amazing things. In the next couple of months we are going to have a lot of things to decide on and a question came to my mind today, I am still pondering it now but thought I would pose it to whoever the heck reads this :) mom it's just you and I : ). Do you have the faith to move mountains???? Being in Denver this week and seeing mountains everyday and how massive they are this question came to mind. While I was thinking it this verse came to mind...
"Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain 'move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Matt 7:20

We have no idea where the Lord is leading us... but my hearts desire is that I will have enough faith in HIM who created us and gave us life that he will lead us in him timing.

Please pray for us during this time, we really need your prayers. Pray for direction, passion, and our families (they are affected in this decision as well). We appreciate it!

Til next time
Adam and Jen

Words that have Touched My life

Today I have been downloading some new CDS Adam had bought me while I was gone and one of CDs was a Shane and Shane CD. If you have never heard of Shane and Shane GO RIGHT NOW and BUY A CD. Their words and music are from the Lord and are so rich in His Truth! They have been medicine for my soul today!
Anyways I was reading their CD jacket and came across these words they wrote. Ponder them, meditate on them, they have met me right where I am at right now! I pray the Bless you!

“Jesus, who seems way too good to be true, is the greatest taste we have ever known. So, may all that we hold so dear leave us appetized, at best, for HIM who created it- the Author and Fulfiller of Life and Pleasure. Who, no matter how shiny “things” become, out shines them, and no matter how cloudy our days become, outlasts them. For in Him, Clouds become glorious!(Romans 8:28) Their rain falls with Grace and we are flooded under the downpour of a Fallen world (Romans 8:20). Wet, Hurt, and ….. Satisfied. Blue skies are no longer our pursuit and sunny days no longer our reward.. HE IS!!! And HE IS BETTER!!!”

Chronicle 3: North Carolina

By far this has been the best week of the trip. I had to drive about 3 hours every day to get to the city I was assigned to and it was by far the most beautiful drive I have ever been on. The pictures will speak for themselves. Although this was the best part of the trip it was also the loneliest time of the trip. The Lord for the last several months has been teaching me perserverance, well this week was all about perserverance in my current circumstances as well as relationships. I am so thankful for the lessons he has been teaching me on this trip... there are too many to write about.

I went to the Billy Graham Training Center and this is the Chapel

The ultimate North Carolina picture! I love this state!

Chronicle 2: Dayton, OH

Well once I left Houston I was able to have the weekend off and travel to Dayton for my friends wedding. Adam got to meet me up there as well as my parents. Although it was basically a 48 hour trip it was really refreshing to be with my family and friends. I got my hair done my the famous Craig, he made me blonde again, which I know makes everyone in my family happy :). I suprised Adam on Saturday and rented him a car so he could drive to Columbus to see our friend's Bill and Amee's new baby Sam! I was really jeolous but knew Adam really wanted to see him. He took plenty of pictures for me so I was content. We then were introduced to the Wii games and I schooled everyone in Bowling, well I didn't come in last which happens most of the time when I play games. :) We had fun, thanks Henry and Cathy for letting us play! After that we got all dressed up and went to my dear friend Brittany's wedding. She looked beautiful and I got to see people I hadn't seen since high school graduation as well as some sorority sisters. It was a nice suprise. On Sunday Adam and my parents left and I got to spend some time with my friend Shannon, it was great Girl Time!!! I love ya girl!
I really don't know why I giving you all a play by play... sorry if you are bored. Here are some pics from the weekend.

Apparently this is my future son-in-law.... Adam says we have to have a girl some day!

This isn't the best picture but this is our attempt at making a picture on the way to the wedding!

Houston Part 2

I completely forgot my favorite part of Houston was getting to spend some time with my family. The past 3 years working for Revolve I have traveled a lot but none of my cities have taken me close to my family so I jumped at the chance to spend some time with my family when I was in Houston. Here are some pics of our night! By the way these guys are very dear to my heart, Houston and Hannah you know you always will have a place at our house! Love you guys!

The Chronicles of My Roadtrip: Week 1 Houston, TX

So I am blessed to be on the road for the next 3 weeks, well longer than that, basically until December 8th. The event I work for the Revolve Tour is trying something new with our team and sending us all on the road together to talk to Youth Pastors and Parents about this great event for their girls! It has been on my heart to blog about my experience, although I am getting to go with the girls I work with there is going to be a lot of alone time which I am REALLY excited about. The Lord has wanted me all to Him self for a long time and well now it is coming true. To be honest I'm a little scared as to what I'm going to learn out here on the open road but really thankful for the experience. With that to say, here is my first chronicle... HOUSTON,TX.

I had a great week in Houston, most of my time I spent in Katy, TX which is a really cool town. Being the history nerd I am I found out that Katy was founded by rice farmers and most of the land in the northern part of town still is owned by family members of the original owners. I love that! Family and history is very important to people in Texas and that is one thing I love about the state. While we were in Houston we also got showered with gifts from people in our office. My favorited was recieving Cheryl and Co cookies... if anyone is from Ohio you know what I am talking about they are the BEST and from home which was a great comfort to me.

My bible study leader challenged me this week to ask God for Holy encounters with Him... well not sure if I had one but still asking for one! Read Exodus when Moses hears from God in the burning bush that is where this came from! I am excited to hear from Him!

Greensboro, NC here I come!!!!

Reading Material

I thought I would share with you some things I have been reading lately.... these books have challenged my beliefs in so many ways which has been really exciting! Enjoy!

Go Buckeyes!

We were lucky enough to win OSU football tickets in the alumni lottery and the game we won was the OSU v. Ohio University. OU just so happens to be where my brother's best friend Jameson aka Jamie (that is what I have called him since they were in elementary school) play football. It was SO awesome to see him play and hear his name get called by the OSU football anouncers! He played a great game!
Below are some pics from the weekend!

Some good Times!

I thought I would post some fun things that have happened over the past couple of months....

The pictures below were when we were in Florida visiting Adam's family. We went to this point in Destin and watched the sunset. Adam wasn't having much fun but I thought it was hilarious... :) The other pictures are from when we went out and celebrated my birthday. We had a lot of fun "bar hopping".

The next few pictures is when Adam got his new car. I call it Herbie and I think the name has stuck. I was a little nervous about getting this fast car but suprisingly I really enjoy riding in it. Needless to say it is Adam's pride and joy.

We got the check from the bank to pay for the car!!! He was going the next day to pick it up!

This is the first picture with his NEW car!!! He was a happy boy! Then the apple of our eye our Lily decided she wanted to get in it! She makes us smile......

Crazy Summer

Well it definitely has gone by really quickly. I feel like it should still be August but it's not. My first Revolve event in next weekend and Adam is knee deep in school. We are really excited to be entering our last year in Dallas really looking forward to where God puts us next! When things slow down around here I will post some pictures from our visit to Ohio last weekend. We had a great time visiting family, friends, and of course OSU! We were blessed to have tickets to the game and had a good time, being that it was our first game together. We got back really late on Sunday and are still recovering from the weekend. I will post pictures soon! Until next time!

Our Little Getaway to NC

This was the sunset the night of the wedding, we went home early to get ready for our 15 hour drive the next day!

Adam's friends from High School.

This is the waterfall Adam climbed!

We stopped at this stream that ran thru the trail and took some pics!

This was the view from the Chapel, I had tears in my eyes when we sat down.

A view from the rehearsal dinner, breathtaking! Look carefully that is the original fireplace of the house that use to exist there.

We pulled off the road to get this sign!

Adam and I were lucky enough to get away this summer for a couple of days to the mountains of North Carolina. The reason was for Adam's high school friend Jill's wedding but to us it was more like a vacation. We decided to drive the long 15 hours to the mountains instead of flying and boy was it interesting. On the way there we decided to split up the drive in to 2 days, which was great!!! I blew Adam out of the water by driving the majority of the way our first day! I really don't know what got into me other than the Lord giving me the willingness to drive. For those of you who don't know me very well I rarely ever drive longer than 2 hours at a time when we are on a road trip. When we moved to Texas I didn't drive at all, my sweet husband did it all!!! So he would say the trip to N.C was my pay back to him. Anyways we arrived in the N.C Friday afternoon around 4pm, quickly showered and changed in our adorable little cottage and we were off to the rehearsal dinner. Little did we know it would take us over an hour to find the place. Let me tell you when we finally got there it was on top of a mountain that over look the Blue Ridge Mountain Range, I mean it was breath taking! We were in awe and were so glad to be there. The groom's family is from France so all weekend long I enjoyed French wine and champaigne, it was great!! :) The next day the wedding was early in the morning and again it was on top of a mountain which was again breathtaking!!! The Lord was definitely showing His Creation to Adam and I all weekend. I think we both really enjoyed being outside. On Saturday after the wedding we went hiking, Adam planned the whole adventure, it ended up being my favorite part. We were driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway which we highly recommend seeing if you can and finally found the trails we were going to Hike. We sprayed some bug spray grabbed some water and we were off. I complained about how fast we were walking, Adam climbed the waterfalls, and we talked the majority of the time about our future dog. It was great! I recommend always making time to get away for while together!

Trip Highlight- Boston 2007

Typical New England Picture!!!

So Katie and I spent a couple of hours in Boston it was a great time, we ended up in Little Italy in the midst of a street carnival this pic was taken before we got to the carnival

A view from where we were all week in New Hampshire!

My feet after a 15 hour day outside.

I got my World Vision Kid!!! He is from Africa and pretty AWESOME!!!

Boston 2007, Although we all look very different now this was an awesome trip. We were operating on about 2-3 hrs sleep all week long, had great conversations, and formed some cool friendships. I will remember this trip always.

Baptist Churches

So with my job I travel to A LOT of different churches in A LOT of different cities and although I think I am still processing alot of what I have been thru but I do know one thing. ALL BAPTIST churches smell the same. You think I'm kidding but it is true, they all have the same smell. Since I grew up in a Baptist church as soon as I walked in to my first baptist church 3 years ago it was like walking back into my childhood. Memories of Wednesday night dinners, GA meetings, and of course cutting my head open all came back to mind. Although I hate the smell I have found that it kind of makes me all warm inside and wishing I was a kid again. Life was easier back then and now I thank the Lord for those times that he brings my childhood back into my mind it makes life easier for a little bit.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame.....

So the other night Adam and I went to our first professsional "TEXAS" sporting event, a Texas Rangers game. The tickets were free, we were going with our Brazilian friends, and the Rangers were playing the Indians a perfect night!!! So we got there in great timing, not a lot of traffic and for those that don't live in Dallas traffic is a part of life. Our Brazilian friends were great, making us laugh there wasn't a dull moment. We get to our seats, and let me just say the Ranger's stadium is NOTHING like the Indians stadium or my first love The Red's stadium. There is something great about an old baseball stadium... I was so pumped to be there, not only for the game but for the hot dogs.. I mean you can't go to a baseball game and not get a hot dog. I think Adam was just excited to be in the presence of people that were from Ohio. So back to game, we sit down and of course the Indians start scoring... so like any fan we stand, scream GO Indians, and the looks begin. I mean people were looking at us like "you are in Texas and cheering for another team?" "How dare you!". Well you know me, I cheered louder! Our Brazilians friends were right there with me! I mean I was shocked I'm aware of how dedicated Texans are to their sports teams, but do they really think that there won't be fans for the other team at the game??? Even me an Ohio State Buckeye fan knows that when I'm at a football game there will be fans for the other team there, and of course I realize they will cheer. I think it makes the game more interesting! People usually start yelling at each other and a couple fits may be thrown but it's all in good fun right????
So the moral of the story is beware of those CRAZY Texans at their sporting events and CHEER Louder!!!!

Oh by the way, the Indians won!!! Go TRIBE!!!!

So I'm a Little Nervous

If anyone knows me you would NEVER think I would ever start a blog.... I have always considered myself not a writer or even good with words but it's been on my mind for a while. I have some things to say so here goes nothin' !