May Photo A Day Challenge - Love

May Photo A Day Challenge - Someone that inspires you

Day 7 - Someone that inspires you

 

Kenny’s Salvation Testimony

I wanted to share a little more about Kenny and I here on the blog and a major part of what makes us who we are is the fact that we are both Christians. I asked Kenny to write out his personal, salvation testimony for me to post on here, so this is Kenny, my guest blogger for today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I was Born and raised in a Christian home.  At the age of seven, me and my family rode bicycles to a fourth of July fireworks celebration.  on the return trip, late at night and after dark, I began to get frightened at all the noises I heard and things I saw.  I spoke with my mother when we got home, because I was scared about where I would be if I died.  During the invitation the following Sunday I went with my mom and talked with my SS teacher about how I could receive Christ.  It was on that day that I knew I was a sinner and if I would have passed into eternity that I would have spent it apart from Jesus Christ.  So that day, in child-like faith, I put my faith in Christ.  I believed that He came to earth to die for me, was buried and rose again on the third day. The best way I knew how I asked Jesus to come into my heart, to forgive me of my sin and to save my soul.  Rom. 10:9-13

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Through the years, mostly because of my age, I have doubted whether I was truly saved.  The one thing that really confirmed in my mind that I have received Christ is an event that happened to me at the age of 16.  On that day I was going out with my dad to help him finish a roof and I fell asleep at the wheel and rolled the truck.  No one was hurt at all and that in itself is a miracle.  Needless to say something like that makes a person think and I thought of how close I came to dying that day.  I know that God has a special plan for my life or I would not be here today.  But I knew that day that if I had died that I would be in heaven right now.  I would just ask if our places were switched and you had died in that accident would you be able to say the same thing.”

So what about Kenny’s question? Would you know where you were going to spend eternity? If your answer to these questions is no, you don’t know where your going or maybe you just not sure, please feel free to contact me. I would love to show you how you can be 100% sure that your going to Heaven.

Thankful Thursday – Laugh-a-ble Moments

We’ve been rather busy this week with the teens and getting ready for RU Sunday, I’ll tell you more about that later. Today I’m thankful to be married to a man who will do silly things if it will bring a teenager to church.

Kenny, recently has started growing a “goatee” just for something different.

Here he is with his brother Wesley, so you get the basic picture of what that looks like.

Kenny has started going on Tuesdays and Thursdays to the high school during their lunch period to sit with our teens, meet their friends, check up on what they’re doing, how their day is going, etc. Brandon, one of our teens we hadn’t seen in a while came over and started joking about Kenny’s goatee, telling him he should shave it all off and just leave a “soul patch” – a small triangle patch of hair under the bottom lip. Kenny told Brandon that he would do it IF Brandon came to church Wednesday night.

Well… Brandon came to church :)

it took a couple tries to get a “good” picture…

It also took A LOT of begging to get him to let me publish the pictures on here :)

Kenny is going to see the teens for lunch today and show Brandon his soul patch. Then, he said, he was “shaving the rest of it right off!”

I know this is kinda silly but we love our teens and we’ll do silly things sometimes if it means they come to church and hear God’s word.

*If you think about it, some of our teens don’t have the best home life. Please pray for them to be faithful so Kenny and I, along with the Church can show them the love of Jesus and hopefully give them a safe place to get away from the stresses of everyday life for them. Thank you.* 

Thankful Thursday - Kenny

  Today I am very thankful for my hubby, Kenny, but I am even more thankful for what God is doing in him right now. Kenny just got back from a Bible Conference in California with a new energy for God that has encouraged and inspired me as well.

Yesterday our pastor went with  another man from our church, Jay, to witness to Jay’s dad. On their way back the car broke down and Kenny got the phone call that he needed to preach the main service. (By the way, Jay’s dad got saved!!!) Kenny had already prepared a message for the teens called “Stand up for Christ, or Shut up for Satan.” With our teens getting ready to start back to school in just 3 weeks Kenny has started a series to encourage them to do right and to stand for Christ when  temptations come. Since we were in with the adults Kenny also talked to the parents about being an example to their kids by reading their Bibles and making church a priority.

Kenny’s new passion for our teens has spurred even more fervent prayers on my part for camp next week and for the weeks to follow that we would be able to see more teens come to know Christ as their personal Savior and follow Him with all their hearts.

I hope you’ll be praying for us!

Our Honeymoon

Like I said in yesterdays post we spent our first two nights at a bed a breakfast called The Red Horse Inn and it was amazing! If your looking for a nice place to get away this place would be at the top of my list.

It was a beautiful room with a private balcony and entrance. They put breakfast in our mini fridge – Quiché, muffins, fruit, OJ and even some chocolate covered strawberries with a congrats sign :) like I said it was very nice :)

We left the Inn early Monday morning for Panama City Beach, FL This is the only picture I took on our 8 hour drive (I slept most of the way)

We got into town at 10am (with the time change) and went to the house we rented for the week.

  It had two bedrooms(one of which became our suitcase and dirty clothes room) 1 1/2 baths a nice spacious kitchen and living room, it was like home away from home :) except for the fact that we were only a block away from the beach and our real home is in the mountains!

… This is the part were I tell on myself :S … We had signed up to get our scuba certification in Florida, it was a three day, fast pace class; we had already finished the classroom part online and just had to do our pool and open water dives. Our first pool dive was on Monday at 12 pm. After stopping by the house and grabbing a change of clothes for scuba we took off to do our pool dives. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish the dives and we didn’t get our certification – but I am planning on trying again in a slower paced class! So instead of diving for three days we rented scooters on Tuesday,

 

and drove to a National park along the beach which just happened to have a Gator Pond that you could hike around!

Can you see the gator in the water??? 30ft was about as close as I was going, I just knew he was the decoy and there was another one lurking in the bushes waiting for curious tourists!

 

 

 

We also had a lot of fun just climbing in the trees :)

 

 

 

 

After the gators we went a little further in the park to a place called the Jetty’s – basically a beach with a stone reef around one side in the water. -

  We played around in the water for a couple of hours before heading back to Red Robin for supper… YUM!

On Wednesday we took a Jet ski, dolphin tour! The dolphins would hear the noise of the jet ski and would swim right up to us, it was really neat. While on the tour we stopped at Shell Island, a very small strip of land with 2-3 mansions on it.

Here’s the Hermit Crab Kenny found, he found a lot more Thursday when we went snorkeling!

Thursday morning, before we went snorkeling, we went to this Donuts, Burgers and Fish shop just down the street from our house and it was so good we went there for lunch on Thursday and breakfast Friday morning as well!

  I had to add just one picture to make you really drool :)

Friday Morning (after another amazing breakfast at the donut shop) we loaded up the car and made the trip home. Tomorrow, or maybe Friday, I’ll start our home tour but I’m going to apologize now for not taking any before pictures of what we’ve done, you’ll just be left to wonder about what our house looked like before! Until then I hope you have a wonderful day!

Wedding Projects

So I haven’t been doing a lot of blogging lately but I have been getting some projects done that I thought you might enjoy!

Project #1 - Pearl hair pins.

My hairdresser for the wedding thought it would be nice to have flowers or something in my hair, since my dress has pearls on it I made my own designer hair pins! All I did was put a dab of hot glue on the hair pin and then set one or more pearls in place. to cool I grabbed the closest thing to me…. don’t laugh, it worked really well I thought! :)

Project #2 – Flower girl dress.

This is my Mom, a.k.a. Master Seamstress. As I’ve been playing with hot glue she has been working very hard on the flower girl dress and it is almost finished, I’ll have to post a picture of the final product.

Project #3 – Ring bearer pillow.

Believe it or not I didn’t use one drop of hot glue for this whole project! Aren’t you proud of me? My family was because I hand stitched the ribbons in place, Mom used the sewing machine for the edges, then I stuffed it and sewed up the rest. It was a lot of fun. By the way, that is not one of our real wedding bands tied to the pillow, just a cheap, silver band I had in the jewelry box.

Project #4 – Bird seed and Tulle Circles.

This is pretty self explanatory, The thin ribbon(1/8”) we cut about 7 inches long and the wider ribbon (1/2”) is around 9 inches long. When I told Kenny that I was putting these together he asked why we were supplying our guests with ammo! 

 

This last picture is (left to right) the Unity Candle, Program basket, Mrs. Spencer’s supply basket – she is the “Day-of-wedding-coordinator” and as such she needed some supplies…Final payments and thank you’s, tape, breath mints, band aids, Tylenol, handcuffs and brass knuckles for unruly guests, etc. :) and once again the ring bearer pillow. Can you tell I like polka-dots yet?

My 50th Blog Post

I just thought you all should know that I finally made it to 50 Posts! I am just going to be writing about random things today: Things I’m thankful for, favorite quotes, verses, and random thoughts. I hope you enjoy!

1. This is my Nephew Austin and my niece Mikaela.
2. The number one thing I am thankful for is my salvation but after that it is that I was able to grow up in a godly environment with Parents and Grandparents who encouraged me to serve the Lord with my life.
3. I have always wanted to work with teenagers in some way, I guess its a good thing that God brought me a Youth Pastor to marry.
4.  I dislike working in the church nursery, at the same time, my favorite age group for Sunday School is the 2~3 class. Some people think this is strange.
5.  If its going to be cold it should snow and if its not going to snow it should be 78~80 degrees, is that too much to ask?
6. My two best friends… pondering something important I’m sure!
7. Psalm 57:7 – My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.
8. I have developed road rage since dating Kenny. Let me explain, southern drivers do things like stopping at yield signs, or pulling into a parking space that is on the opposite side of the road. I never paid attention to these things until Kenny pointed them out. Now I find myself yelling through the windshield at the idiot in front of me!
9. Peach is the best flavor for a sucker or slushy.
10. When Kenny and I first met we didn’t like each other at all! I thought he was hot on himself and he says that I was a spoiled teenager.
11. My Grandparents along with my mom, on the left and my aunt, on the right. It was my Grandparents 60 something wedding anniversary! (I do know the exact amount of years they’ve been married, I just can’t post it because they just don’t want anyone to know how old they are!)
12. Pastor Camp did a series on Ruth several years ago, after he read Ruth 1:17~18 he made the statement that those two verses would make great marriage vows. Ever since then I’ve wanted to say them to the man I was going to marry in my vows to him.
13. Romans 8:39 – Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
14. I love my job as a barber. When Dad had his hot dog stand he would ask people if they could figure out what I did for a living, I don't think anyone ever guessed right.
15. In my job, I run into people from all over the place, Ireland, London, Cuba, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida. Its quite an education!
16. My brother Stephen, I think he’s adopted. 
17. Bowl cuts look cute on little boys but when your 27 with one its not cute anymore. At the same time, Mohawks and mullets never look good on anyone!
18. Why is it we drive on a Parkway and park on a Driveway?
19. I don’t have a favorite color, only favorite patterns – polka~dots and certain plaids.
20. The name of my blog, “Life in the Big City,” is just a sarcastic way of saying that I live in a small town that tries to do big things. Sometimes they succeed: Hot Nights and Cool Rides is one of the largest car shows in the Southeast; however, sometimes they fail: Dairy Goat Festival and Parade…. what is that?!?!?!?
21. Kenny and Austin playing “Twister.”
22. Vanilla scented candles and a rainy day go hand in hand.
23. Random facts, quotes, and corny jokes are the greatest!
24. Esther is my favorite book of the Bible. God’s name is never mentioned but you can see Him working throughout the story. That idea reminds me of unsaved people, they may not have God in their life yet but you can see Him working so don’t give up!
25. “God grant me the serenity to accept the people I can not change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know its me.” ~Author unknown, variation of an excerpt from “The Serenity Prayer” by Reinhold Neibuhr

I hope you got some enjoyment out of my ramblings for today. Maybe I’ll have something exciting to post later this week.

Marriage Counseling

I feel kind of bad because I haven’t done any real blogging lately, we’ve been busy but not with anything really worth blogging about.

~Kenny drove up to Fredericksburg, VA to buy a Honda CRV. Dad said it was “Fire Engine Red” perfect color for Kenny!

~Matt and Missy are planning on coming home for Spring Break in March {[(very excited)]}

~We went Late Night Bowling with ABC Friday night, Kenny won three categories, Highest score, Most Spares and Highest score for a couple, I helped with that one. :)

~We also went bowling with Emmanuel Baptist Church Sunday night. All the teens were in our lane or the one next to us so we did Infirmity bowling :) It was hilarious watching the teens bowl with fake injuries such as broken legs, broken arms or even blind! All the kids enjoyed playing, even the “cool” kids got in on the fun, it was a great time.

Now on to my topic for the day!

Kenny and I have been doing Pre-marital Counseling with Pastor Camp on Friday afternoons for the past 3 weeks. I have really enjoyed our time together with him and have learned A LOT! I’ve also been able to share some things with some of my co-workers which has been fun.

First, let me tell you a little about where I work. I work at a Barbershop that has only Lady Barber’s in it! We are NOT stylists or hairdressers, even though that is how we are licensed, we are Barbers. I am the youngest of the 11 ladies and 1 of 3 planning a wedding. However, I am the only one going through counseling so I’ve had the chance several times to share what I’ve been learning about having a Biblical, Christ-centered marriage. It is especially neat to me since one of these ladies has clearly told me that she doesn’t want to know anything about my religion or my God but she asks me what my Pastor talks about in counseling. I love how God can open doors that seem to be bolted shut! I hope you’ll remember to pray that the Lord would give me wisdom in this area.

Anyways, Kenny and I like to pick at each other and have fun together and Pastor Camp has picked up on this and added to the fun. One thing he says to us over and over again is; “I can see you both have fun and laugh together, don’t lose that. 35 years from now you should still be laughing together.”

It has been neat to realize not to take anything for granted or to think that Kenny thinks the same way I do. I’ve gotten myself in trouble over this one a couple times! That’s all I’m going to say about that one :) lol

I’ve also learned if you don’t know the answer to one of Pastors questions, say “communication!” chances are your right or very close.

Does anyone have some “Marriage Counseling” you’d like to offer? Or maybe something I should ask about in our next counseling session? I’d love some feedback in this area!

Blogging

Ok so I’m defiantly one of those people who thinks half the fun of having a blog is decorating it! I kind of feel bad for Kenny because I have the same philosophy about a house! I love the change in seasons and holidays because it gives a good reason to re-decorate. Having said this I just remembered we need to take down the Christmas decor at Kenny’s… :)

I don’t really have anything major to blog about today just random happenings.

~Kenny and I picked out our invitations, wording, font, colors…. He was doing a really good job at pretending to be interested, I like that he is so involved in all of the planning because its not my wedding its ours :)

~Have any of you ever read some of the wording you can chose from for reply cards? I laughed so hard at this one:

Let's hear back from you
on or before MONTH DAY, YEAR
Name__________________________
___Shoot yes, we'll be there with spurs on!
___Dangnabbit, we can't make it!
I tried to talk Kenny into this wording but he just wasn’t going for it :) *just kidding*

~Saturday I went for my wedding dress fitting, a couple more minor adjustments and I think it will be just right!

~Pastor has started a series on marriage on Sunday nights. This past Sunday evening he picked on Kenny a lot! He asked this question of several people,“How’s your love life?” meaning how is your relationship with your spouse, or future spouse in our case. As he was doing this Kenny leaned over and asked me what to say when he asked him, I just laughed and said “Well I don’t know, how is your love life?” The point of the message was that your love life with people, namely those closest to you, will only be as good as your relationship or love life with God. It was a very good message, one that has caused me to ask myself several times “How is my love life with my Savior?”

~Tax season has just gone into full swing which means the Shahan family basically drops off the face of the earth for 3 months – don’t worry we’re not tax evaders who go into hiding! My mom, Sandy, owns a tax preparing business, and my two brothers and I help her out through the busy time. Pretty much, we all go to work and come home and occasionally show up at the grocery store or fast food restaurant but only when food is a necessity. :)

~I’ve been doing fairly well with getting things organized and de-cluttered. My only major issue is knowing that I’ll be moving in a couple months and will have to re-organize it all, this is a little discouraging but exciting at the same time because of the reason I’m moving.

I hope you don’t mind but everything in this post, except taxes, has had something to do with Kenny and/or marriage…is that normal?

Year in Reveiw

Last week I started Blogging about Blogs because I like to learn about other blogs that I might be interested in following and thought maybe you would too… maybe not but I’m enjoying doing this anyways!

This week I was reading Casual Blogger Caroline, the writer for Casual Blogger, also blogs about blogs, and does “Good News Minute” on Sunday mornings where anyone can post some good news they want to share on her Blog. She did this survey about herself on her blog for “All about me Monday” I thought it would be fun to do this myself so these are my answers to the questions not hers.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?

I did a lot this year that I’ve never done, I went to Africa and Colorado, two places I’d never been before and I’ve eaten more weird things that I can mention! I also got to go to a Broadway Musical – I guess that’s what you call it -

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t even remember making any resolutions last year, so…. I’m thinking the answer to this one is a no! I made the resolutions to read more, serve more, and get more organized. So far the organization one is going well!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes my friend Lara had a beautiful little girl this year and then two ladies I work with also had little girls…. Oh! and my sister-in-law Jessica had a little girl as well! she just started crawling on Christmas Eve so we all got to watch her!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Well, I wasn’t so close to her necessarily other than the fact that I know she prayed for me as a student in her husbands classes. Mrs. Childs, AKA: Tiger. She passed away just before Christmas to be with the Savior she loved so dearly. 


5. What countries did you visit?

Ghana, West Africa!


6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?

A Husband! That will happen June 4th for those of you who didn’t know!


7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

May 7th – The day my work threw me a party because I was finally done with school but they were going to miss me because I was moving to the new Barbershop instead of staying with them.

July 22nd – The day we got to Africa.

September 3rd – The day Kenny proposed.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Paying off my car was pretty big!

9. What was your biggest failure? 

Almost not being allowed to travel with the Ensemble for spring tour because of having too many demerits :( I’m so glad Doc took the time to reprimand me and give me a second chance even when I didn’t deserve it.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I’ve always been pretty fortunate in the health area except for some minor back troubles because of my job I can’t think of anything.

11. What was the best thing you bought? 

My ipod touch, I bought it during the after Christmas sales but technically still in 2010! I’ve been able to get so many things done a lot faster and more efficiently with it. 


12. Where did most of your money go? 

Bills and Walmart…. I hate walmart. 


13. What did you get really excited about? 

Getting engaged, the musical and going to Africa are at the very top of my list.


14. What song will always remind you of 2010? 

What Wondrous Love Is This. I learned to play this song on the hand bells and my melodica while in Africa. 


15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

• happier or sadder? Happier.
• thinner or fatter? No change.
• richer or poorer? Richer but not financially, more in family, friends and experiances 

16. What do you wish you’d done more of? 

Taken more pictures, made more out of the everyday things 


17. What do you wish you’d done less of? 

Less being lazy and procrastinating. 


18. How did you spend Christmas? 

Kenny and I had two Christmas’ that were both special, we spent the week before Christmas with his parents in CO and had a great time and then we spent real Christmas with my family. I learned a lot about him being home in CO and hopefully he enjoyed my family as much as I did his. 

19. What was your favorite TV program? 

I try not to watch a lot of TV because I already don’t have enough time in my day but I do enjoy watching CHUCK, He is a civilian spy for the CIA its hilarious!

20. What were your favorite books of the year? 

The Three Mrs. Judson's – its about Adiniram Judson’s three wives that he had during his ministry. You very rarely get a good look at the missionaries wife, this book includes some of their diary entries so you can see where they struggled with everyday life just like we do. Sometimes I think we lift these people up like they never had doubts about going to the mission field or troubles once they got there I guess that’s why I like this one so much.

21. What was your favorite music from this year? 

Kenny is always listening to sound tracks from different movies I really like “The Man From Snowy River” after falling in love with the music I got to see the film while we were in CO and loved it as well!

22. What were your favorite films of the year? 

The Princess and the Pea – Disney

The Man From Snowy River

Knight and Day 


23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 23, we were in Arkansas on the way to my cousins wedding and spent that particular day going to flea markets and thrift stores (which I love doing!) I also got my first free birthday Starbucks coffee! 


24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? 

I can’t say that I would change much other than my attitude about certain situations which would have made things go smoother. I had a pretty good year as a whole!

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? 

I just like to be comfortable, defiantly jeans and a nice shirt are my “Go To” outfit of choice. I typically don’t wear a lot of jewelry as a matter of fact I’m wearing the necklace that Kenny got me for Christmas and I have been since he gave it to me :)

26. What kept you sane? 

My parents keep my feet on the ground and Kenny always has my back.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010. 

To trust in the Lord and give Him glory for everything! He knows my needs and He cares about my wants too.

Fun Stuff

This morning I woke up to a winter wonderland, and not just on my blog. So I’m sitting at home (I love living in an area where everything shuts down for snow!) blogging about our weekend. First, this is downtown Forest City today

Friday, Kenny and I went to Concord Mills Mall so he could get some things from Bass Pro ©. As we were walking around Kenny spotted a Lego Store ©! We went in just to look around and ended up sitting down at one of the tables to build something. :) Anytime we start doing something “kiddish” Kenny and I look at each other and say something along these lines; “This is why we’re in youth ministry, so we can still play with toys and no one thinks anything of it!”

How do you like our Groom and Bride?

Saturday after I got off work Mom and I worked on cleaning and taking down the Christmas decorations that evening I started working on some things for church.

Our youth group gets “Ninja Points” for bringing their Bibles, handing out tracts, doing devotions, bringing a friend to church or a youth activity, and other such stuff. We break the year down into 4 month sections and Emily won the last section (that’s why she has a star next to her name). In this picture, left to right: Elizabeth playing with her hair, Dakota peeking out from behind the wall, Brock looking over the top of the wall, and Emily throwing Ninja stars at the boys. I had a lot of fun with this project.

Sunday I was supposed to start teaching the children’s Sunday School class every other Sunday but I was sick and the weather was bad but I’m looking forward to getting back into children’s ministry!

That pretty much wraps up our weekend. I hope you had a great weekend yourself!