Texas our Texas Part 3

I continue with Ryan and my favorite places in Austin. (I promise that I will start writing about Lancaster soon :)

5. Tree House Italian Grill

http://www.treehousegrill.com/

This place is so yummy and has a very cool atmosphere. They have a patio with a very large oak tree growing in the middle of it. I love Italian food and it has a romantic feel. Honestly, we have only been here a couple of times, but it is very special to us. We went on our first "real" date here. It was a double date with Les and Nicole Williams. It was a very interesting and funny night to me. A couple funny memories:

1. As I am looking at the menu trying to decide what to order, Ryan very awkwardly turns to me and announces that he will pay for my dinner. He hadn't made it very clear if this was a date or a "hang out" so he wanted me to know he was paying, which in turn was suppose to clarify to me that it was a "date." He is so smooth :)

2. I had no idea, but Ryan wanted this night to be special and he wanted to dress nice. He had texted Les asking him what he was wearing. Ryan has many, many gifts and talents, BUT when it comes to fashion he is pretty clueless. Apparently, Les and Ryan had decided he should dress nice for this date. Ryan asked his roommate Steve Husmann if he could borrow something nice to wear. Steve let him borrow a very cool tan sports jacket. The only problem is that Steve is a few sizes larger that Ryan. I remember walking through the door and realizing he was trying to dress nice, but his jacket was very large on him. It was really funny!

Les and Nicole. We love you two!

6. Mozarts

http://www.mozartscoffee.com/

One of our favorite coffee/hang out spots for sure. Mozarts is located on Lake Austin. They have an awesome wooden deck and great coffee and desserts. We didn't have internet at our apartment while we lived in Austin, so this was one of my favorite places to go do internet stuff and read. The view of the lake is beautiful.

Texas our Texas part 2

This is part 2 of a series about our favorite places in Austin, TX. As we made the list of our favorites, we quickly realized most of them revolved around food. We do enjoy food and especially bakeries and coffee shops. However, I am proud that our next place has nothing to do with being unhealthy but the complete opposite!

3. Town Lake (Lady Bird Lake)

The reservoir was formed in 1960 by the construction of Longhorn Dam at its easter boundary by the city of Austin. The western end of the lake is bound by Tom Miller Dam, built in 1939. The lake was created for several reason, including the need for a cooling pond for the Holly Street Power Plant. The reservoir was also envisioned from the beginning as a recreational venue for the city.

I think it has done a great job as a recreational venue! There are miles of trails to walk, run, and bike. We have also gone kayaking a few times and love that. The trees and lake are beautiful. Although you are in the middle of the city, you still feel like you are surrounded by nature.

Here is a link explaining more fun things to do around Town Lake if you happen to be in the area and want to make a day of it:

http://www.texasoutside.com/townlake.htm

4. Austin High School (AKA Austin Stone Community Church)

We love being a part of The Stone (that is what the locals call it :) We have learned and grown so much while being a part of this group of believers. When I (Kristin) moved to Austin, I started going to the Stone and then after Ryan and I got engaged we decided to go there together. They have really great pre-marital counseling and that was a big deciding factor for us. The Stone's vision for combining truth and being a catalyst for renewal in the city is also something we feel really strongly connected with.

Here is the Stone's website. I love how passionate they are about Jesus, the city, good teaching, the world, and community.

http://www.austinstone.org/

More to come.....

"Texas our Texas"

I have realized a strange phenomenon happens when a Texan leaves Texas. It seems that their love and devotion increases. I (Kristin) have left Texas before and experienced it myself, but now I am experiencing it in a new way through Ryan. For example, before we moved he didn't really show that much Aggie pride, but the last few weeks I have heard more A&M chants and songs than I have in our entire relationship! It's been crazy. Anyways, in honor of our love and longing for Texas, we wanted to dedicate a few blog posts to some of our very favorite places in Austin. So here are a couple. (Disclaimer) Most of the destinations include food and beverage. These are in no particular order.

1. Whole Foods

http://wholefoodsmarket.com/storesbeta/lamar/

I never imagined that one of my favorite places in Austin would be a grocery store, but oh this is no ordinary grocery. Everything here is fresh and organic. I could wonder around this store for hours. I also love watching the people who shop there. Most of them seem fit and organic and there are always many, many cool tatoos. I would love to know their stories.

We started a little ritual of going to Whole Foods on Sundays to get tacos after church. They are so delicious. Here is a picture of them. If you have never been to Whole Foods, you should!

Yummy produce section!

2. Upper Crust Bakery

http://www.theuppercrustbakery.com/index.cfm

(Excluding Mr. Youngblood's cinnamon rolls, which I barley remember because it has been so long!) Upper Crust has the best cinnamon rolls I have ever tasted. They are unbelievable. Upper Crust is a cute little bakery with all kinds of cookies, cakes, desserts, chai and coffee(according to Ryan). We started a little ritual(also on Sundays) of going to Upper Crust in the mornings and getting cinnamon rolls and drinks and reading scripture together. Great times!

I was trying to take a picture that would look so good you would have to go there and taste it! I hope it worked.

Austin, Texas we do miss you and your delicious food! However, we ARE discovering some very cool places up here in Lancaster...stay tuned to hear more!

Hello World (from ryan)

Well, this is it! My (Ryan's) first blog post EVER! I'm a little nervous because Kristin is an EXCELLENT blogger - it's really fun to read her stuff - so feel like I've got to live up to the bar she has set.

But anyway...

We have lived in Lancaster for 3 weeks now. Here is our new home - sweet huh?!

Notice, it is a beacon of MAROON in the middle of two poor, burnt orange homes - surely a symbol of hope in the midst of despair! People live in row homes (or terraced houses) up here. So neighbors are VERY close and we love it.

We also went to NYC this weekend to see my sister and her husband. Here we are in front of the Rockefeller Center

As it has been said: "Each man reads his own meaning into New York." (Meyer Berger) From my extended experience in NYC (2.5 days), I agree. I read into it this: it is the most amazing mixture of cultures I have ever seen! In fact, Jessica and Matt (my sister & her husband) live in Astoria - home to the largest population of Greeks outside of Greece! And there are many other cultures clustered throughout the rest of the City.

One other interesting cultural thing we got to see is the location of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. If you haven't seen it, here are a couple of pics:

Welp, hope to see you back here often!

How cleaning a nasty aparment reminded me of Jesus...

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:11

Last Tuesday we moved into our new apartment. The first time we saw the apartment it smelled like dog poop, the bathtub was covered with dirt and stains, the toilet was green, and the kitchen floor was brown(it is linoleum floor that is supposed to be off white with a little squiggly line 1970's design in it). This was almost enough for us to say no thanks, however we kept looking at it. We were looking at two different apartments and weren't sure how we would decide between the two. Well, it turned out that the other one was given to someone else. So in a way this apartment chose us :)

We got the key to the apartment and started cleaning as soon as we could. At first, I just felt disgusted and wondered if I would ever dare to take my shoes off in this place. (those of you who know my Mom, know that she is a bit of a clean freak. I am no where close to her level, but she has worn off a little on me.) I worked and worked on the toilet and bathtub. I got the toilet looking good, but could not get the bathtub clean. I gave up after a while. (Luckily Jordan Tardy came over and cleaned it until it shined!)

I decided to move on to the kitchen floor. I swept a few times and then began the first of many moppings. The water had to be changed every few feet and I kept wondering who lets a place get this bad and why. As I mopped something crazy began to happen in my heart. I started to fall in love with this kitchen and this house. I wanted so badly for it to be clean and different than it was when we found it. Then I began to be reminded of how we all come to Jesus like this; nasty, dirty, and smelly and we need someone to clean us. We have no idea how dirty we are and we have no idea how to clean ourselves. I never really understand why God loves us or cleans us when we are so nasty...but then I thought about this apartment and how I cleaned it because it was mine and as I cleaned it my love for it grew. I think God is like that, because we are his he cleans us of our nastiness and he loves us with a great love. This love is so great, he sent Jesus to be the one to ultimately cleanse us for good!

If some of you came to visit our apartment(esp my Mom) you could probably still find a lot of areas that need more cleaning and might even say it is not that great of a place.(still has a dog odor because our neighbor has TONS of dogs). BUT, I know what is was before it was cleaned, I know how far it has come and that is a LONG way. If we could see people the way God sees them/us, how dirty they/we are before being cleaned and how far they/we have come as far as cleansing, we might have a lot more grace and love for one another.

These are just some random thoughts about a nasty apartment, hopefully you didn't get bored in this extremely long post. I just wanted to share and I am so thankful that my disgust for a nasty apartment began to remind me of Jesus' love for me/us and how wonderfully he has cleansed me/us.

Little Austin Friends

While living in Austin, we were able to live in an apartment complex where many refugees are resettled. We LOVED living in these apartments and loved the people we lived with. Ryan and I both feel strongly that as followers of Jesus we are called to love refugees. This is one of the reasons why we feel in love with one another so quickly :)

Anyway, this is a picture of Ryan with our friends Lily Pa and Pai Lai. This picture was taken on the day we were moving out of our apartment. Lily Pa and Pai Lai are brother and sister. They are Burmese, but have never lived or even visited Burma. Their parents had to flee Burma and lived in a refugee camp in Thailand(where they were born.) After many years, they were able to come to the USA. Every year the USA decides how many refugees they will allow from each country and then they usually partner with non-profit or state agencies to resettle these refugees. In Austin there are a few of these resettlement organizations. The one we know the most about and worked with is Refugee Services of Texas. RST settled many refugees in our apartment complex. They were mostly from Burma, Burundi, Iraq, Nepal, and Somalia. If you ever have a chance to hang out with refugees they will inspire you. They all have such amazing stories of pain and loss mixed with perseverance and hope.

Pai Lai is one of our favorites. He spent more time at our apartment than any of the other kids. He loves Ryan and loves being around him. He always wanted to come over and watch Spider Man on our computer or color in our coloring books. He is a really smart little kid and one of the reasons leaving Austin was so hard.

I am so thankful we were able to spend our first year of marriage living with people like this!

Lancaster

First of all, I am so so sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. I promise that our blogging is going to become more regular now that we are in Lancaster. Ryan is about to join me and write some blogs of his own....stay tuned :)

We made it to Lancaster on Thursday night and have been looking for an apartment and exploring the city since we arrived. It looks like we have found an apartment, there are just a few details to work out. I am so excited about getting settled into an apartment. The buildings downtown(they are called row homes) are over 200 years old! We will be living in a house older than TEXAS!! CRAZY! I will post pics as soon as possible.

We are really excited about what this next year will hold. We love the feel and culture of this city and pray that we will be like sponges and soak up everything we can.

hanging out at a coffee shop downtown