Hodgepodge

We stayed at a sweet Bed & Breakfast for our 3 yr. anniversary.










Us at the B & B










Just us!










Our small group hangin at the Pour House!











Me and Ben in the Smoky Mountains.










Me and Bethany!










Ben swingin Avery @ the Ogden family reunion in Tennessee!

Update

Just a quick update to let everyone know....I haven't meant to be a complete slacker with our blog....we are computerless for the time being...and might be for awhile! Big bummer...but I will try to figure out a way to get on here and post some recent pictures! We are loving life and doing well. Hope all is well in your worlds! :)

Ben's Birthday Weekend...

Ben's 29th birthday was great fun! Since his birthday fell on a Friday, according to our made up rules, he gets the whole weekend to celebrate! Friday morning, I got up and cooked him breakfast before he left for work. If he looks sleepy, it's because it was something like 5:30am. Friday night, we went to dinner at a quirky little restaurant downtown called the Grill Art Cafe. Forgot to take any pictures there which is unfortunate because it's such a cool looking place, but the second picture at the top is of us right before we left! Saturday we went to an Oriole's game which, sadly, they lost... but our seats were great and we loved every minute of it. Sunday, we went to my parents' and my mom cooked up a yummy meal of steaks and fresh corn on the cob.....also forgot to take pictures. ( I think eating distracts us! ) Thanks to everybody who called/e-mailed/texted Ben for his birthday!

Summer Days....

For our three year engagement anniversary, Ben replicated our engagement dinner as a surprise!

I married the best one!

ArtScape in Baltimore...the country's largest free art festival! How I love the city life!

Us at a Rusted Root Concert at ArtScape!

Concerts wear him out...

Ben seems to attract animals...I'll turn him into an animal lover yet!

Elijah and Ren came to visit us while we were house sitting at my Aunt and Uncle's! Much fun!

Playing corn hole in the back yard!

Elijah's turn! (Ben and I won in case you were wondering....twice!)

A beautiful sky!

A group pic! Ben is pretty good with that automatic timer...

Italian Film Festival

On Friday night we went with a bunch of friends to this year's first Italian Film Festival in Little Italy (a free outdoor movie!)....one of my FAVORITE things to do in the summer! We had a blast...they were showing the movie Moonstruck.....some of us liked it, others...not so much. They even have FREE popcorn which of course....has me hooked. :)

The evening wouldn't be complete without a cannoli from Vaccarro's!

This is how Jenn and I look when Ben takes too long to snap the picture! How unfortunate....

This is us with normal faces.

Those are our friends Brandon and Erin...and he's also the guy that Ben works for...they are super fun!

Ogden Update!

Well, we are obviously quite delinquent with our blog postings, but wanted to get some recent pics up to let everyone know how the recent move went and what we've been up to! We are enjoying MD life and are keeping busy catching up with all of our friends and family! I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story...




Ben trying to teach my aunt and uncle's dog how to play frisbee.
It didn't work out too well... Us at a free concert in Baltimore....me and Jenn (my room mate of 6 years...LOVE her!)....Ben baking a dessert for a contest (thanks Papa O!)...which he WON! Us playing with our neice and nephews....and Doug, Lige and Bethany sleeping over at our house one last time....

Back from "the Land"...

It's amazing how our preconceived notions and expectations can throw us off course. Although I had very little knowledge of what Israel was actually like, my mind had formed all kinds of ideas about what I would see, experience and even feel while I was there. After spending just a few days there, I began to realize how off-set my premature notions actually were. While I won't bore you with all the details, I want to highlight just one of these false expectations, because it ended up resulting in one of the greatest lessons I learned while visiting the Land.

For some reason, I truly expected to feel this incredible sense of awe and connection to Christ after having walked where He's walked and seen what He's seen. The expectation of this emotion is probably what I most anticipated about the trip....and very quickly, I realized that this emotion would not be brought to fruition. Much of the Holy Land has become quite the tourist trap. It's difficult to stand at the place where Christ was crucified and feel the significance of the event when you are inside a huge, gaudily decorated church with hundreds of people milling around, pushing and shoving just to have the chance to touch the rock where our Lord was so violently killed. But in the insanity of that place, with all the hype and fanfare that surrounds, the Lord spoke to me in the quietness of my heart. He taught me that while it was indeed a miracle that He came to Earth and put on human skin, the miracle of Christ is much greater than His physicality. The significance of walking where He walked and standing where He stood is quite small in comparison to the reality that His spirit has chosen to live in me....a sinful wretch - desperately in need of a savior. I'm no closer to my Lord when I'm walking through His hometown than I am when I'm kneeling beside my bed to pray. The amazing gift of Christ isn't found in the rocks and ruins from a time when He lived on the Earth in human form. The true gift is that we have him in the here and now - with every breath we take and every thought we think...He exists - alive and well- within us when we choose to invite Him. What more could we possibly ask for? This simple lesson remained with me for the entirety of our trip and gave me a fresh and beautiful perspective on everything I was able to see and experience there. It was indeed a trip I will always remember. It has certainly given me a greater understanding of the Bible and the God who inspired it. But most importantly, it has given me a deeper appreciation for the greatest miracle of all. I don't need to touch the rock where Jesus was crucified to find a miracle. The miracle is simply that He lives in me.

Leaving...on a jet plane.....

Well, tomorrow we are off to the Holy Land! Ben and I are super excited and completely amazed that we were even given this opportunity to go and spend time where Jesus lived, moved and breathed. We are completely overwhelmed and humbled by how our Lord provides for us. Can't wait to share our thoughts and pictures when we get back!

Back to the world of blogging...

Well, here we are again. The Myspace and Facebook worlds are getting out of control.... so I've decided to simplify things and go back to the basics. Funny that blogging is now considered "basic". Anyway....this is a better way to keep everyone up to date about our everchanging lives! Let the fun begin....