Memory Lane and Worship Music

As I was driving the other day and had my I pod on shuffle a worship song came on that I haven't listened to in ages and it brought back a lot of great memories. My i pod currently has over 240 hours of music so it's really rare to come across certain songs. To tell you the truth, I really don't have much worship albums on my I pod. Don't get me wrong, cuz I like worship music and I never said anything about "Christian Music"(that's a whole other story I could get into). The point is that I have have a valued few that make it onto my I pod like David Crowder, LeeLand, and so on. There is one particular band though that I really enjoy, and if I still enjoy when their song comes today on then it must be true. After listening to so many of their practices and concerts, I feel like I've listened to the songs almost as much as the band has. They seriously had some talent when they were all together and I'm so glad that they were able to make their CD so we can still go back and listen to them. Even though they've all gone their own ways now, there's always a part of me that has that hope of them getting back together and making another album.
When David and I used to live in a studio apartment at CAOG church back in the day, I used to open all the doors between our room and the stage where they would practice just so I could hear them a little better. Just to clarify, David played drums, and my BIL, Chase, sang and wrote a lot of the music. I remember he would stay up WAY past a decent hour when he was on a song writing spree and just sit on the stage and write until he was done. Those are a few of the practicing day memories and I have many MANY more from the touring days. You might know by now, that I'm talking about the worship band Chamberlynn.

Their was many-a-touring days, but their was one  tour that was a particularly LONG one. We went  as far east as Knoxville, TN and stopped at so many other places for shows like Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, even one in Nashville, if you can believe it. They had a show every day except one that I can think. And we had such a blast stopping every where to explore the cities. I can write a LONG story for all of you about everything that happened, but I will save it... maybe for a different time. It's weird how just one song you hear can suddenly bring back a rush of memories!

You can see more photos on my Face Book album Chamberlynn. xo -Liz

How We Met V.4

I'm so happy to share with you today this lovely story from MK Wise. She is such a great writer and this story defiantly shows that God will always lead you in the right direction and has a plan for every thing. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did. She writes her own lovely blog Here. Thank you so much to MK!

The unit of Dustin and Kate Wise all started back in the summer of 2006, I was living in Brisbane, Australia staffing a Music Arts & Dance School with Youth With a Mission. Myself and my fellow staff mates had just began looking over the list of mere names of students we would recieve that October. I remember going onto Myspace, snooping around to see if I could put any faces to the list of names. There was one kid in particular, just a boy-like kinda guy playing guitar named Dustin. I didn't think much of him other than, 'Hey he plays guitar, thats kinda cool...hmm". October came around and Dustin arrived and my only thoughts were "He's tall, that's neat". A few months into the school, I found out that Dustin would be a part of the team I would lead on missions to Japan. So, we started hanging around each other more in preparation for the outreach. Dustin and I got along super well, we even called each other our twin because it was crazy how much we thought on the same level. But he was just an 18 year old "boy" so I never was too attracted to him (I'm 2.5 years older, so at the time, it seemed like a big gap). I even remember saying to one of my girl friends "We are soo close but it's crazy that I don't have a crush on him!" She just looked at me skeptically! haha. She must have known something I didn't. Well, we went to Japan and as soon as we got back, one of my friends told me she had a dream that Dustin and I got married. That got my mind thinking and by now, Dustin's looks had rapidly changed from boy to man. It's crazy how fast he grew. I started looking at him differently, the only problem was that as staff on this school, I wasn't allowed to date a student. The final weeks started wrapping up and it came time for grad night. I was soo nervous because I knew that this was one of our only chances to establish our relationship, as he was about to fly back home to the US. The night passed without a mention of his thoughts towards me. I was freaking out. The next day he told me his plans to go to New Zealand the following Monday for three weeks before going home. I knew a retired couple who lived in Mount Maunganui, NZ and so I emailed them and asked if they would want to host Dustin. They were thrilled to, so once it was all planned, I told Dustin how I wished I could go too. He replied "Oh, you will...I think God will provide a way for you to go too". I was like "yeah right" in my head and played along. I didn't actually think it was plausable since I didn't have money to get a ticket seeing that I was a missionary full time. So, the following day I said a very very sad goodbye, wishing he would have said he liked me, but didn't. I found myself really really sad for the next few days so to gain control of my emotions and surrender my heart to God, I stopped using email for a day. I had been looking far to often hoping for an email from Dustin professing his love for me. Didn't happen. 


However, when I got back online, I got on my email and to my surprise, my friends from Mount Manganui messaged me requesting to call them. I gave em a call and they said "Hey, since your friend Dustin is here, we went down to the travel agency and bought you a ticket to come next Friday for 8 days! We'll pick you up at the airport, see you then!". Half shocked, half crying with excitement, I ran to my leaders and asked if I could be released from my work for those days. They were thrilled for the blessing and let me go.The following Friday I found myself un-boarding a flight from Brisbane in Auckland airport. I could see Dustin waiting for me in the lobby. I was soo excited by the way God was orchestrating our romance that I just stood and starred at him for a few minutes before I built up enough courage to walk into our new relationship. Ha, funny how I thought we had a relationship. The rest of the trip went as this...my friends were busy with their own lives so they gave Dustin and I not only each our own separate quarters but an entire section of their beach-front mansion to hang out in and said here's a bunch of toys...go have fun! We watched movies, hiked, surfed, kayaked, went out to eat, ate in, went on little adventures around the island. It was brilliant except for one fact, Dustin was still NOT saying anything about whether he liked me, and I was falling harder for him with every day that passed. I was thrilled that God was even more into this love story than I was, but I was more and more frustrated that Dustin wasn't saying anything. 

New Zealand

One day, we were taking a hike up Mount Mangaunui. I was walking behind Dustin when he suddenly threw back his hand for what I thought was to hold mine. Overjoyed that it was FINALLY happening, I placed my hand in his and melted. What happened next consisted of Dustin's face suddenly freezing, shaking my hand and dropping it! I was mortified, he was only reaching out for a high five at our achievement of reaching the top. Welp, the trip came to an end, with the torturing two hour drive to the airport sound tracked by you guessed it, the Love Songs Radio Station. Dustin and I flew our seperate ways that day without one word of our feelings towards each other.

Dustin and I continued talking on the phone for months and months every other week until it was time for me to head home to the US for a five week break. God had really worked on my heart and I had totally surrendered the relationship to Him and I was feeling good at my ability to overcome my hearts desire to date Dustin. And what do you think happened next? I was only in my parent's front door less than five minutes when my mom reports to me that Dustin left a message wanting me to call him ASAP. He wanted to fly me out to Colorado in the next week. Leaving all my emotional control I worked so hard on to the dust, I replied "YES PLEASE!!". So there I was five days later, walking out of the Denver airport with Dustin! It was again, another movie-like weekend. I accompanied him to a wedding, met his family, met his friends, went hiking and simply had such a fun time! So, I knew, if this guy was going to pay to fly me out to Colorado, introduce me to his family and friends, surely he will profess his love to me now! But, that time never came and we were on our way to the airport. I am not one for profanity, but this kid was walking on thin ice and sometimes, it's the only type of words that will make a point. And so I asked Dustin, at the point of no return along our journey to Denver, "What are your intentions for me?" To which he replied, "You're a really great girl, I love being your friend..blah blah blah!". That's where the conversation went up a few octaves until Dustin finally said "OKAY I LIKE YOU, I just don't see how it could work with you living in Australia!". Aha, the TRUTH!!! 

Well, I flew back to Australia and he started college and we kept each other on reserve until we figured out what was next.  And, in true style of how things were going, we kept that up for SEVEN MONTHS!! I didn't know what to call him. I tried "special friend", but that ended when someone asked me "Oh, really?? What's wrong with him?" Oops..not that kind of "special". haha We like to call that span of time our international skype dating phase. Then, finally, a few days before my 23rd birthday, we called it what it was, we were Boyfriend and Girlfriend! Everything else happened rather quickly from there. I decided to move back to the states the following summer. His sister helped me move to Colorado, we dated for another year, got engaged and got married three months later. We just celebrated our two year anniversary in October! Thank the Lord for his persistence in providing a way for our relationship to work out when all odds were against us, we are soooo thankful for each other!

Sundays

Sunday is my absolute favorite day of the week. It's the only day of the week we both for sure have a big chunk of the day free so we usually take advantage of it the most we can. I really love having this one day to just hang out, have fun, and do whatever we feel like together.
Here are a few pics from the last two Weekends. xo -Liz

Loft Dreams

For as log as I can remember I've always wanted a bedroom loft in my house. What is not to love about them? They are SO dreamy! I can't wait to get my own!

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Halloween Weekend!

We had such a fun weekend dressing up and stealing the little bears candy loot! Our friend Tim was hosting a halloween party where we went as Edward, Bella... *SPOILER ALERT* (post vampire) and their baby. There were SO many creative costumes that I didn't get pictures of, but one of our friends happened to dress up as the same couple, but Bella was pregnant (pre vampire) (I feel like such a nerd explaining all of it). They glued Robert Pattinson's head on a baby's body and put it under her shirt(pictured below). Ok, so I'm really not a die hard fan of Twilight, (even though I really enjoy watching the movies with my friends) we dressed up just for laughs.

The next day Down Town was hosting a Spooktacular for the kids with activities and lots of candy. The little bear went as Charlie Brown, my little niece went as super girl, and my nephew Isaiah and his friend went as ghosts. It was quite a zoo down there so we did A LOT of walking around. After that we went to David's family's church's Harvest Festival that my SIL Danelle and BIL Stephen helped put on. It was a ton of fun for the little kids. There was bean bag tossing, golfing, basketball, a black light maze, and the list goes on! (Oh, and Amazing apple cider).

Happy Halloween!

 I think The husby and are are just going to order a pizza, watch a movie, and take it easy tonight since we did so much during the halloween weekend. 

The picture is of me and my sister dressed as indians when I was two. Here's a little Halloween playlist I made. I hope every one has a great halloween! xo -Liz