Living Proof

Heather and I had the privilege of attending an amazing event this past weekend. We waffled over whether or not we should spend the money and go; in the end we decided we wouldn't regret going. If you haven't heard of Beth Moore, you need to change that immediately. The event this weekend was incredible. Travis Cottrell led worship and Beth Moore taught a one-of-a-kind and life-changing Bible study.

This woman is an inspiration! Beth has a beautiful heart for the Lord. She shared a beautiful and touching message. I truly believe God spoke through Beth to every woman [and man] this weekend. She speaks unique messages to each city she visits. In Boise she spoke about "Hinderance."

The verse of the weekend was from Hebrews 12:1 [ESV], "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race set before us."

The NIV translation it says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us THROW OFF everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" [My emphasis added].

What would it look like to live our lives the way they were meant to be lived? UNHINDERED! We are to THROW away everything that hinders us! We have a choice to throw it off. I can refuse to let it hinder what I can do before Christ.

John 16:33 says, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

We can't live our lives without hurt, but we can lives our lives unhindered.

There is so much that I'm still processing from this weekend. It was pretty incredible! If you have a chance to see Beth Moore you should definitely do it! Check out the events schedule [HERE] and see if she's coming to your city [or somewhere close]! Also, check out her store for books, devotions, etc. [HERE].

Music Monday: Tyrone Wells

One day about a month or so ago, I was driving home from work and someone on the radio mentioned something about Tyrone Wells coming back to Boise. I was annoyed because by the time I got home they still hadn't announced any of the details.  I hopped on the computer and found out that he was going to be in Boise on March 21st.  I instantly tweeted about how excited I was and heard back from Tyrone a little bit later.  Heather and I ended up being able to do merch for him again.

It was nice to be back at The Knitting Factory because there's a lot more room for the merch.  We met some great people.  Joe Brooks opened for Tyrone. He was great and we ended up getting his cd.  Tyrone's set was amazing. He played a little bit of something for all of his albums. It was great to hear him play from his new album and share about the different songs. We were able to chat with him before we left and congratulate him on his new baby girl. He's such an awesome guy; it's always great to see him!

Be sure to check out his tour schedule and see if he'll be in your city anytime soon.

See my previous posts about Tyrone Wells [HERE].

Check out a couple songs from his new album Where We Meet.

adoption

Hello sweet blog readers! I wanted to share something a little more personal with you all today.

I am super excited to say that my cousin Kristin and her husband recently announced that they have decided to adopt a baby! They have gone through all of their home studies and are currently waiting to find their baby. The program they are doing involves more networking and searching out a birth mother.

On the 4th of July they gave us letters to announce their wonderful news and these awesome pass along cards to share.

You can see their adoption website HERE. I absolutely love the letter on their homepage. Please take the time to read it and pass this website along to anyone you know who might be interested. Thanks in advance!

Music Monday: The Civil Wars

You may remember THIS Music Monday post from two weeks ago. I thought I'd do a follow-up post and share how amazing the show was. Heather and I got to the Egyptian right when the doors opened. We stopped at the merch table where Heather bought Barton Hollow on vinyl. We made our way to our seats which were in the very front row. We were so incredibly excited! Rayland Baxter opened and he was great. We ended up buying his cd on the way out of the show.

There were a couple annoying drunk girls at the show, but luckily they ended up getting kicked out part way through The Civil Wars set. Besides that, the show was amazing. I loved how intimate and raw it was. It was just Joy and John Paul with a guitar and occasionally a piano. It was so beautiful.

After the show we hung around, waiting and wondering if they were going to come out for a meet and greet. Luckily we didn't have to wait long as they were escorted out front of the theater. We were already close to the doors so we were some of the first people to meet them. We got a picture with them and they signed Heather's new vinyl. It was a little rushed since there was a line. In all the chaos we didn't hang around long enough to find and meet Allister Ann. I was pretty bummed because I absolutely love her photography so much. She's one of my inspirations. I guess there's always next time. :)

Here are some gorgeous pictures and tour videos that Allister Ann shot.

Check out The Civil Wars:

Youtube

Tour diary with photos by the amazing Allister Ann!

Twitter:
The Civil Wars
Joy Williams
John Paul White
Allister Ann
Rayland Baxter

Facebook:
The Civil Wars
Joy Williams
Allister Ann

Music Monday: The Civil Wars

Heather and I are going to see The Civil Wars tonight at The Egyptian Theater in Boise! We're both really excited because we'll be in the front row! I'm hoping that we'll have some fun pics to share from the show. Here's their music video for Poison & Wine:



Check out The Civil Wars:

Youtube

Tour diary with photos by the amazing Allister Ann!

Twitter:
The Civil Wars
Joy Williams
John Paul White
Allister Ann

Facebook:
The Civil Wars
Joy Williams
Allister Ann

source

HOME

First of all I just have to say, it's so nice to be home! Right as we were crawling into bed last night Heather said, "Maybe we should just pack up and go home right now." We were all so tempted, but also so tired.

As I've said during the whole trip we've been getting up every morning at 6:00 am and leaving at 7:00 am. This morning we were all so ready to get out of there and get home that we didn't eat breakfast and ran out of the hotel at 6:45 am. We looked up the closest Starbucks, but it ended up being in a strange outdoor mall. There were a bunch of homeless people wandering around and we walked forever and up some stairs before we found it.

We finally got out out Salt Lake and on the road around 7:15 am. It was nice to finally see Boise on the road signs!

We got to the Idaho border around 9:00 am or so and stopped to take a picture. Right after that it started to rain pretty hard. We made it to Burley around 10:00 am and stopped for fuel and a snack. We ended up getting french fries at the A&W connected to the Sinclair. Then I took over driving for the rest of the time. We finally made it home around 12:45 pm. It was so nice to be greeted by my mom (my dad got sent to Texas yesterday on a fire assignment) and see our kitty babies! We talked for a little while and then mom took us out to lunch. We came back home and just relaxed for the afternoon, watching Better Off Ted.

This evening we went to Boise Fry Company for dinner. From 6:00 - 9:00 pm tonight Boise Fry Company is donating 20% of their sales to my uncle's non-profit Wish Granters. Wish Granters is an Idaho non-profit that grants wishes to adults 18+ with terminal illness, currently serving Ada and Canyon counties. If you feel called, you can donate to Wish Granters HERE.

We had a great dinner and a fun time. Right now we're back home and we'll be relaxing for the rest of the night. Heather and Jenny are sitting next to me with wash clothes on their faces. They're trying an oil cleansing method, which I'm going to partake in once I'm done with this post. It's something they wanted to do earlier on the roadtrip, but we didn't have the oil. From what they've said it feels amazing. I'll let you know how it goes.

Anyway, Jenny is going to be staying with us tomorrow and then leaving on Thursday to head up to Seattle/Arlington. I think we might go see Bridesmaids tomorrow and maybe go to The Matador for dinner. I'm so NOT ready to get back to real life. I'm working Thursday and Friday and then will be going out of town for the weekend to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday.

I'm hoping to have some fun blog posts over the next couple days and in the next week. Maybe some roadtrip recaps and some other fun stuff. I can't wait to get my film developed from my HOLGA. Keep a lookout because I'll definitely be posting some of those photos.

Okay, time to oil my face, pour myself a marg and enjoy The Voice. Goodnight!

Roadtrip - Day 5: Boise

It's our last day! We have a [relatively] short drive today. Jenny will stay with us for another day once we get home, before she drives the rest of the way to Seattle. We're excited to get home and see our kitty babies and have dinner at The Matador, of course. I'm hoping that at the end of the week I'll have a roadtrip wrap-up blog to fill everyone in on anything I may have missed while we were on the road.

Music Monday: Tyrone Wells

You may have already seen Heather's post HERE about when we went to see Tyrone Wells, but I couldn't NOT post about it too. I knew for a month or so that Tyrone was coming back to Boise so I sent him a tweet asking if he'd need help with merch again. He said yes and Heather and I couldn't wait! It's a great way to see a show for free, especially being very broke right now.

It was great to see Tyrone and Mark again! They're both so friendly and genuine. It's always refreshing to meet people like that. The show was great and the merch table was close to the stage! It was at a bar, so unfortunately there were the annoying drunk people that got too loud. Tyrone ended up stopping one song because no one would quiet down, which was unfortunate. Heather and I were just glad we had the merch table as a barrier from some of the crazies because I don't like dealing with crowds like that. Anyway, Tyrone played some new songs and I'm really looking forward to his new album coming out, in hopefully the near future. I look forward to attending many more of his shows!

Follow on Twitter
Tyrone Wells
Mark Chipello



Note: See my previous posts about Tyrone HERE.

Ignite Boise

You may have seen Heather's post about Ignite HERE. Please forgive any duplicity.

I had heard Matt Pipkin mention Ignite Boise on twitter about a month ago. I’m sad that I missed his presentation at Ignite 5! I investigated to find out more about it.

5 minutes, 20 slides, What Would You Say?

Ignite Boise brings together an inspiring and unexpected blend of thinkers from business, art, technology, government and academia. All with ideas. And all willing to share them.

Still not sure what it is? Here is a little more info about it:

WHAT IT IS:
Ignite Boise is a 3 hour-ish idea feeding frenzy that brings together artists, geeks, entrepreneurs, academics, government officials, and others to share their ideas in fast-paced, bite-sized presentations. It’s a great opportunity to meet smart, interesting people (if we do say so ourselves) and maybe even learn something.

THE GOAL:
Bringing together embers of big ideas to spark a blaze of creativity in Boise’s business and creative community –leaving attendees more educated and just as importantly, more inspired.

HOW IT WORKS:
Presenters each get five minutes and 20 slides (automatically rotating every 15 seconds) to talk on a topic of their choice. Everyone is invited to participate, though due to the limitations of space and time, only a handful will be selected to present at each event.

COST:
Zero. Zip. Nada. Ignite Boise is brought to you by a group of volunteers and sponsors.

Like it says, tickets are free. They released a bunch of advanced tickets Monday, March 28 at 9am and by noon or 1pm they were all gone. I was lucky enough to snag two (of course I was going to drag Heather along to this). But just because all the advanced tickets were gone didn’t mean it was sold out. You could arrive at the door and be let in at 6:30 pm instead of 6 pm.

Heather and I arrived downtown right at 6 pm. We walked right in and were some of the few lucky ones who got free shirts. Hello new pj shirt. Anyway, we got great seats. That's the back of us in the lower right corner.

[Photo by Boise Weekly]

You would think waiting an hour for an event to start would be boring, but up on the big screen they had Tweetdeck opened searching for #IB6 or #IgniteBoise6. It was fun to see everyone’s tweets and Boise got their first swarm badge on foursquare that night. Probably the only time that will ever happen. I had to go out of Idaho to get mine. haha!

After going to this event I realized this is why Boise is ranked in the top 20 social networked cities in the United States. See article HERE.

So even after reading the website, I still wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I had read what some of the speakers would be talking about, so I was excited to see how it would play out.

That would be me and Heather grabbing our free shirts.

There were some great speakers. My favorites included:
Kelli Ryder'sStop Shop: She went a year without shopping. One of my favorite lines from her presentation was [in reference to Miley Cyrus and clogs]: “Girlfriend was river dancing all over town.”

Bri Clark's I’m good at poor, it’s prosperity that got me: She spoke about her experiences with both prosperity and poverty, as well as choosing priorities in her life.

Travis Porter's No I’m @travisporter: He became the victim of online identity confusion. His presentation was hilarious and he ended it by asking for advice as to what his next steps should be. #whatshouldtravydo

It was a great night! I thought it was funny to see so many of my Boise twitter friends there that I had never met before. Unfortunately, 1: Heather and I were sitting in the very middle so it was difficult to get in and out and 2: I’m a big chicken, so we didn’t actually talk to anyone.

Afterward, Heather and I went over to The Matador (hello butternut squash quesadilla!) and talked about how much fun the event was. What would you talk about for 5 minutes? I’ve been asking myself that question ever since and I still don’t have an answer. What about you? If you were given the chance to talk about anything you wanted, what would it be? Is there an event like this in your city?

I hope that I’m around for Ignite Boise 7 on October 20, 2011! Who knows? Maybe by then I’ll think of something to talk about.

Music Monday: Barcelona

To summarize, last Wednesday night was awesome! Heather and I got to see our friends Barcelona play a show in Boise. It's probably been a year and a half since we'd seen them last. We got the the venue early and ran into Brian and Chris. They weren't going on for a while so Heather and I headed over to The Matador. As soon as Heather and I walked through the door the owner said, "Hey! It's our two biggest fans!" We got seated and he brought us over complimentary shots. So sweet! The Barcelona guys showed up right after that and we had a great time catching up.

After some drinks, chips and guacamole we headed back over to the venue. The guys were fabulous! They played some of my favorite songs and a couple new ones. They were down in Los Angeles recently recording their new album which will come out in the next couple months. I can't wait for it!

Keep up to date with Barcelona on Twitter and Facebook.

Here are two songs from their album Absolutes that they played at the show.

#21: Go to Tablerock

Last week two of my friends came to visit. Jenny and Megan's trips overlapped one day so we made the most and explored Boise. I thought going to Tablerock would be a great way for the girls to see the city and I could also cross it off my 25 before 26 list. Luckily the fog lifted just for us and then it settled back in after we left. Heather and Jenny didn't enjoy the trek up to the top (the road was partially closed), but I thought it was worth it.

Music Monday: Sara Bareilles

Music Monday: Hanson

Last Tuesday night, Heather, Jessica and I lived out a preteen dream of ours. This dream was 13 years in the making. We saw Hanson!!! Please don't laugh or mock, we had enough of that in middle school.

I can't even begin to explain how much fun we had! Every single girl in that room was transformed back to her 12 year old self. We were dancing, singing at the top of our lungs, screaming and laughing with the boys we loved many years ago.

I felt like I flashed back in time: I'm in my bedroom, walls COVERED in posters of Hanson, music blaring, dancing and dreaming that one day Taylor would be mine. Haha! But seriously, every girl in that place was exactly like me. I wanted to laugh at the girl who was crying or dancing like a weirdo, but I couldn't, because that was me too. I'm so thankful I was able to experience this with Heather and Jessica. It couldn't have been a more perfect night....well, except if Taylor proposed to me. Maybe next time...

For posterity, I have to included one of the funniest quotes of the night. I'm sure it's only going to be funny to Jess and Heather. :) "I want to be Taylor's tambourine."

Heather, Jessica, Me

SHOUT IT OUT Tour 2010

Zac

Issac

Taylor

Music Monday: Sara Bareilles

I can't wait to see Sara in November at The Knitting Factory!

Tasty Tuesday: The Matador - Part 2

I guess I think The Matador is so amazing that it needs another Tasty Tuesday post. You may have seen my post from two weeks ago. I tweeted about the post and got a message from The Matador inviting me to their launch party the Thursday before they opened. I was surprised and excited!

Heather and I got off work that Thursday, rushed home, got ready and headed downtown. The place was packed when we got there a little before 7pm. The wait for a table was 45 minutes, but we found a place at the fireplace.

We had Matador Margaritas, Tex-mex Spring Rolls and their AMAZING nachos.

Everyone was so incredibly friendly and not just the servers. There was a man who accidentally hit me in the back pretty hard when he went to hug his friend. He apologized quickly right after it happened, but then came over a little later and apologized again. Besides that, we had so much fun!! It felt like home! The atmosphere and decor was fabulous like their other locations. I love their huge mirrors with the ornate frames. The bathrooms are awesome, especially the sinks. Haha, I'm a nerd.

I'd like to thank The Matador for inviting me! We had such a great time. Since then we've been there two more times with friends. I'm already dreaming of going there again. I want to try the crab cakes and grilled stuffed jalapenos.

I figured, I'd also share the outfit I wore this night.

Top: Forever21

Shorts: Mossimo at Target

Shoes: Report Signature

Black Bangle: Forever21

Other Bangles: JCrew

Bag: Forever21