We're back.

We have arrived in Minnesota!!! Needless to say we are done driving 15 hours for a long time. Moving couches, tables, and beds takes a lot out of a person. Or maybe I'm just weak.





Chris and I packed the entire truck in Nashville. Thanks to Penske's handy dandy dolly Chris hauled pretty much everything including the washer and dryer into the truck by himself. Good job-honey!





Can't wait to see everyone!

Good bye Mike's Ice cream

We went downtown yesterday night one last time and I had to say my good byes to my favorite ice cream shop in Nashville, Mike's Ice cream. Their Peanut Butter Fudge ice cream is yum, yum, yum!!!! You will be missed Mike.

Packing fun...

The packing has begun. We kicked it off with a good ol' bag of funyuns and some pop. YUMMY! It's all going well. Mr. Orange is making sure we don't forget him either.

See everyone very soon!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

With great lessons, growth and obsticals learned here in Nashville our time has come to an end. With no regrets we happily follow God's plan for us and travel back to Minnesota. We were so blessed with the time spent here and are looking forward (with new prerspectives) to the path God has mapped out for us in Minnesota.

We are looking forward to being with family and friends again and settling back into Minnesota. Just in time for winter. Yeah!

We love you all,
Chris and Whitney

Minn-e-sota trip!

We sure had a grand ol' time this week in Minnesota. I did take a few pictures with the Optic 3.5 (lame-o) I will say that it's c-o-l-d there already and you do all talk with "Oh yeah's" "Uh hu". Very pronounced after hearing "hey y'all" in Nashville. I can't say that I don't have an "oh yeah" accent because I'm the Queen of "Oh yeah". I think I'm going to take dialect classes to correct my tone.

Anyways...Here is the Minnesota fun that we had this last week.






DRUM-OFF!!!! And yes Kevin, I totally won!!!

Mama Furst's Garden-- per-tee!

I was inspired to take a few pictures of my Mother-in-law's garden. The garden was on it's way out for the season so I captured a few pics before it was gone. Shockingly, my Optio 30 3.5 mega pix took some good shots.
Chris made the garden photo shoot picture cut too he he.

mr. peek's hiding place

look close!

Date night!!!

Saturday night we went to see "Burn After Reading". Recommended by David Furst. If was shockingly good in a weird way. We had decided to see the 7:45pm showing and arrived at 7:30pm. The theater was 80% sold out and we were given the choice to go ahead and find a seat or wait 2 hours for the next showing at 9:45pm. We took the risk and checked out the theater. To our disappointment it was packed. We changed tickets and waited outside for the next showing.
It wasn't half bad for the first 30 mins. It was a gorgeous 90 degree Saturday evening. What more could you ask for. But our drinks that we had planned on smuggling into the theater were quickly getting luke warm. Gross! The heck with it--we drank the cokes. The waiting period was getting harder and harder... So we started snapping boredom pictures. Those are always the best pictures. Right? It was an eventful evening after having a very boring day.

cwfurst in Nashville!

What?

I have to vent a little about craigslist. Not so much about the company but the buyers. We have several items for sale on craigslist where we have clearly stated how much they are selling for. Tonight a guy came over to pick up the small tv that we were selling for $15. He says that he only has a $20 or a $10. Then he proceeds to ask us which one we want. Chris looks at me. I motion to him, whatever. We're to nice and we tell him to decide. He gives us the $10. We walk away thinking, "did we just get taken advantage of?" Then later this evening another guy comes to take a look at the coffee and end tables and offers us $50 less than what we were originally asking. We counter offer $15 less than our asking price. He says he'll take them for $50 less. We buckle and agree. At this point we just wanted to get rid of them.

I hope those people are blessed with the items. But seriously-- if the seller has a price on the listing that is probably what they are selling the item for. But I understand negotiation.

Mr. Orange's treat

We bought Orange a little cat nip this evening. Not only was it a treat for him it was entertainment for us.

Mr. Buddy-man

Is he smiling at the camera?

obsessed a little...

We are at the frothy monkey coffee house... yum. yum. yum.
There about 12 people here and all of them including Chris and I are on computers. How awesome is that. Not to mention we will drive home later and have access in the car; cell phones. Then we'll surf at home. You could say we're a little obsessed. Hey when you've lived in our shoes the internet is a social network.

Have a rockin' day!

Crafty

I was inspired today to actually make a craft. I have been surfing etsy.com and the people on there are amazingly talented. I thought to myself, "self you need to get creative and do something other then sit around the house and drink coffee." So Chris gave me a little spending money and off I went to Michael's. I bought a few buttons, beads, and felt and this is what I came up with.

What do you think? It's a broach! We will see what else I have up my sleeve. Let me tell you what-- my back is killing me from stitching on those beads.

In Christ Alone...

In the midst of Chris and I learning to find joy in Christ alone and not with what people identify us to be this wonderful song came to me. It says everything that I want it to. Chris and I both want to be identified as people who share the love of Christ and are in love with him and not by the music we may play or by the clothes we wear.

In Christ alone will I glory
Though I could pride myself in battles won
For I’ve been blessed beyond measure
And by His strength alone I’ll overcome
Oh, I could stop and count successes like diamonds in my hands
But those trophies could not equal to the grace by which I stand

In Christ alone
I place my trust
And find my glory in the power of the cross
In every victory
Let it be said of me
My source of strength
My source of hope
Is Christ alone

In Christ alone do I glory
For only by His grace I am redeemed
For only His tender mercy
Could reach beyond my weakness to my need
And now I seek no greater honor in just to know Him more
And to count my gains but losses to the glory of my Lord

In Christ alone
I place my trust
And find my glory in the power of the cross
In every victory
Let it be said of me
My source of strength
My source of hope
Is Christ alone

Richwood Plantation

Sunday Fun Day!

Church this morning- lunch at home. I burnt the already cooked ham in the skillet. Way to go, Whitney! We made up for lunch and went and treated ourselves to Starbucks. Green tea frappucino! Yeah I know, they have like 1000 calories. But I got a tall (small) so it made me feel better.


We went home and FINALLY cleaned out the second bed room. We are getting rid of a twin bed if anyone is interested! No mattress. Check out the.generous.closet for pictures.
This is how productive we were.=0)


Okay so the pictures don't really do our productivity justice.

What do you find your joy in?

Psalm 51:10-12 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

This mornings sermon was on Joy. Where do you find your joy?
The pastor made a great analogy of joy. He related it to the movie CAST AWAY. The scene where Tom Hanks and his great friend Wilson (the volleyball) are on the raft sailing away to be rescued and Wilson becomes detached from the sail. Tom Hank was devastatingly distraught because his only friend was gone. He saw that in order to rescue Wilson he needed to let go of the rope that was keeping him safe and swim after Wilson. The pastors question to us was, "How long are you going to keep chasing after the Wilson's in your life?" Tom's character found great joy in Wilson. When really we need to find our true joy in the Lord. He will never let us go.

Where do you find your joy?

Chris and I were discussing this question. I think I find my joy sometimes in my clothing and being trendy. But keeping up with the trendes will always let you down (as it has-- not being content with my clothes) because you will never being to keep up. It was an interesting questions that I am still chewing on in my thoughts.

Plantation shoot

Ya'll been asking how the shoot at the Kentucky plantation went a few weeks back. Well I took A LOT of photos and am finally getting through editing them. Here are a few of my favorites.

Artist photo shoot

Here are a few shots I took for Chris' profile the other day. It was really fun to take pictures of him and be comfortably creative with someone familiar.