mighty to save

so... today was the last day with our current worship pastor at tbc (tomball bible church). he's a really great worship leader that is the whole package. great voice, amazing talent on the guitar and piano, wise insight into the words of a song and the ability to tie into the sermon. he also would occasionally share a song he had written with us. really neat guy. he's brought so much to our church through music and drama.

anyhow -- today was just an amazing worship service. we sang a song that is fairly new to us. we've sung a few times in the past few months. i absolutely fell in love with it the first time we sang it. i had previously tried to find it online, but couldn't. well, tonight i finally found it! i actually even came up with a video, also. i just wanted to share the words and the music with you. it's just one of those that makes you want to raise your hands to God and sing your heart out. the video itself is poor quality, but it's so much more powerful if you can hear the words, not just read them.

everyone needs compassion
a love that's never failing
let mercy fall on me
everyone needs forgiveness
a kindness of a Savior
the hope of nations

Savior, He can move the mountains
my God is Mighty to save
He is Mighty to save
forever, Author of Salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

so take me as You find me
all my fears and failures
fill my life again
i give my life to follow
everything i believe in
now i surrender

Savior, He can move the mountains
my God is Mighty to save
He is Mighty to save
forever, Author of Salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

shine your light and let the whole world see
we're singing for the glory of the risen King... Jesus

Jamie's Baby Shower and the Quilt Show

Yesterday, I had the privilege of co-hostessing Jamie's baby shower along with her sister-in-law Kimberly, a good friend Mary, and Julie. I think this picture is the first one since the three of us lived together in our University Place apartment in Huntsville. Oh, the memories... haha. Jamie and I manage to meet for dinner every other month or so, but I hadn't seen Julie in way too long. It was good to hang out with both of these girls... Plus, I got to see so many girls from my Sam Houston days. I swiped this photo from Julie's blog... Thanks, Julie! :)



This is a photo of the bulletin board I made for the new little guy's nursery. It's unfinished... I'm going to add his name in the upper left corner. But, that will have to wait until he makes his arrival somewhere near June 20th. Jamie and Josh have decided to keep his name an absolute secret until then!





Before the shower, I dropped my mom off at the airport -- she went to Pennsylvania to stay with my dad until he comes back in November. Then, I headed on to Huntsville for the shower. Much to my enjoyment, I had time to stop by the Airing of the Quilts, an annual quilt show on the square. My mom's friend Gloria is an amazing quilter and had many of her quilts out. Unfortunately, I never found Gloria but I had a lot of fun looking at all the beautiful quilts. I was wishing I had my camera to capture the quilts blowing in the breeze -- they were hanging everywhere along the square! -- but, I had to settle for using my camera phone.

oops!

i meant to post where the rest of my wedding pics are. they are unedited, uncut, and uncaptioned. but they are up! so, enjoy! i'll post more as i gather them from others (that's a big hint to those of you harboring pictures!) and hopefully the photographers pictures will be up soon also.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mcmullen.kelly/CaseyAndZacsWedding

casey's wedding

well, the wedding whirlwind is over! i can hardly believe it came and went already. the last couple weeks have been so full of wedding and shower plans and now it's all over!

wednesday night began the weekend of partying. those that were in town met up at del pueblo for a dinner. nothing special, but we got to meet some of the groomsmen that had come in. thursday the guys went to play golf and then pick up their tuxes later in the day. i spent the day preparing food and gifts for casey's lingerie shower/bachlorette party. i had a blast hanging out with the girls and just pampering casey. she got some really pretty things. we also got to get to know a little more about casey and zac's relationship. earlier in the week, cassidy and i came up with some questions for zac and then we videotaped his answers. during the shower, we asked casey the same questions, let her answer, then played his answers. it was quite hilarious. especially since zac couldn't just answer the questions... he had to do costume changes for each one. that night we headed to a house owned by a family in our church. they were incredible and let us borrow their house for the weekend so that the girls could all stay in one place. it was so neat to be able to do that. on top of that, they totally pampered us. it was like staying in a hotel!

friday i had several errands to run and the girls worked on folding the wedding programs. that evening we got up to ashelynn manor for our rehearsal. the people at ashelynn manor were great. they were very helpful and had us through the rehearsal in no time. we headed to the bake shoppe for the rehearsal dinner. then, it was on to the rosenbaum's (zac's parents) house for a party. we got to meet some extended family and just hang out. we then headed back to the ikel's to find beds for all the girls (we had acquired a couple new girls that needed beds). i helped cassidy a bit with her toast, hung out a bit with some of the girls that hadn't gone to bed, and then ashley and i headed back to my house and bed ourselves. however, when we got home, chris and chad had just gotten home from the rosenbaum's. (chad and ashley are chris' cousins). so we hung out with them a bit and cleaned up some of the leftover shower food. by this time it was about 3:30 a.m., so we decided to head to bed.

saturday morning was really special. suellen plachy invited the bridesmaids over for a brunch. she and her daughter ellie served us a wonderful array of food and let us have some girl time. and of course, it was quite a teary girl time. casey shared with each of us why she chose us to stand with her on her wedding day. we also got to have a really neat prayer time with her. it was definitely a very incredible morning. and very emotional. it's a good thing i didn't bother with make up. it would've all been cried off if i had. after that, it was on to the showers and then to ashelynn manor. things just flew by after that. we did our hair and make up, barely got dressed, and then it was time for pictures. i can't wait to see the pictures from the photographer, he seemed pretty on top of things and i think he had some creative stuff going on.

the ceremony was one of the best i've experienced -- despite the fact it was 40 minutes long, my feet were dying, the sun was in my eyes, and bugs were crawling on me -- but truly it was incredible and i was so blessed to be standing up there. it was such a sweet time. casey and zac wrote their vows, they had a couple friends sing/play guitar, and they shared communion as their first thing as husband and wife. their pastor from austin did an incredible job with the ceremony.

the reception was one big party. i got to visit with several people, but there were several i missed talking to. i guess that's par for the course... casey and zac's first dance was something only casey and zac would do. they choreographed a really fun dance to a fast paced song (the name slips me) and kept it a secret from everyone until the music came on. it was simply amazing.

it was such an incredible weekend. i loved how God was woven into so much of everything that happened. i've watched casey grow up from a young girl to a Godly woman. her relationship with zac is nothing but Christ-centered. it has been so amazing to watch casey over the past years become the woman that she is and to now watch her and zac create this relationship. i admire casey deeply and praise God for what He has done in her life. after the rehearsal friday night, i took casey for one final wedding dress fitting (a whole other story completely) and on the way casey and i had a chance to talk about a certain subject. her words to me were so touching and so wise. i could hardly believe the truth that effortlessly came from her. she is so passionate about her relationship with Christ and it just pours out of her. i thank God for her and that relationship every day.

while i'm on the subject of gushing about my sisters -- i have to say cassidy and i have had a blast planning this whole thing. cassidy and i have always had a wonderful relationship and i admire her on many levels also. she, once again, showed me her wise and beautiful spirit the past couple weeks. i absolutely love spending time with her despite the fact she is 10 years younger than me. yet, in so many ways, she is if not equal, but usually wiser than i am. i just can't even imagine what i have done to be blessed with these girls in my life. but, i am abundantly grateful! my cup runneth over!

okay -- one last gush -- i've only met a handful of casey's austin friends. this weekend i got to know them better and got to meet a few new ones. her bridesmaids were amazing girls and the way they have each affected casey's life is simply written by the hand of God. i love every single one of them and only wish they lived closer!

the dog catcher, cassidy, and i. and bear.

so, it's been a very eventful day. and, you know, everything just can't go smoothly. i just had to share cass' and mine's experience with the dog catcher. yep. the dog catcher.

this morning, i head over to pick up the paper for the programs from scott and viv's. cassidy was there alone, so she decided to head to the printer's with me. we walk out of the house, get to the truck and realize the paper is inside. so, we walk back in, get the paper and try to leave. bear decided at that very moment to snake by our legs and run out the door. well, when bear does that and the gate is open... he's gone. we see him directly in front of the neighbor's house and are on our way to go call him in, when the animal control truck pulls up. at this point, we have no idea why he's even in the neighborhood. but, i'll get to that in a minute. so, jerk-face dog catcher says to me (because i'm closest to him) is this the same dog we picked up a couple weeks ago? (let me just say, that yes, bear did get picked up and was put in "jail" for the night until vivian drove downtown to rescue him) anyway -- i stall because i am not about to admit that. finally, i say i don't know. he very rudely says "you don't know if you own dog got picked up?" by this point, i'd had enough of his rudeness, so i said back in the same tone "i don't live here." cassidy tells him she does. she says "can we go get bear now?" he says "if you don't, i will." cass says "well, you're blocking the driveway." he doesn't understand the problem. so she says, "bear runs faster than i can, we need to take our truck." so, he asks for her drivers license and says he'll "wait for us." very sweet of him, hm? well, by this point, we have no freakin' clue where bear has gone. if the jerk hadn't grilled us we could have had bear back by then. 10 minutes of searching later, we found bear. we pull into the driveway, make a big show of shutting the gate, putting bear in the house, climbing in the truck again, open the gate, and pull out. then he grills us about the rabies tag, or rather lack of, on bear. which is why he is there. he was coming out to check up on that today and just happened to arrive when bear darted out. impeccable timing. then, he drags meshack into the ordeal. poor meshack is laying peacefully on the porch. but, he doesn't have a collar on, so jerk-face has to ask about him. he wants proof of rabies papers on the dogs. well, of course, cassidy has no clue where those are and says as much. he finally relents and says he's writing her a warning, not a citation since her "parents should have taken care of it." such a thoughtful guy, he is. he sits in his truck for what seems like 5 minutes to write his little "warning." gets back out and "explains" the warning to us. he wants to know "how do you spell meshack? m... e...?" cass says "whatever, it doesn't matter." he didn't like that much. good thing i didn't say what i wanted to -- "you know meshack? like in the Bible? meschack, shadrack, and abednego?" then he goes into "why" she is getting the warning, because "when we got home, our dog ran off." WHAT?! i'd had it at this point -- so i say "we hadn't left yet! we opened the gate so that we could leave! and he was right in front of the neighbor's yard! we would have had him back in if you hadn't blocked the driveway!" he looks at me and says "if you don't stop right now, i'm going to write you a ticket." WHAT?!?! the DOG CATCHER is going to write me a TICKET?! he can do that?! i literally bit my lip so as not to say the words i wanted to -- "go ahead, make it legible though, because i want to frame this one!" he finished his little bit, cass signed, and we got in the truck. and preceded to die laughing. if he only knew how much he's been mocked this evening. oh and he was parked behind me so i couldn't pull my truck out and i am convinced he would have sat there longer if a car hadn't needed to get by. so he inched forward and blocked 3/4 of the road so that i had to drive in the grass to get around him. he also checked out my plates as he pulled past me. what a loser! i'm sorry he can't get a real job, but it certainly was no reason to start the whole exchange with complete rudeness and accusations.

so that began our morning. and really i could go on, because that wasn't the only issue in this crazy day... but i just really had to share my dog catcher story. anyway, it's been a long day and tomorrow is going to be just as long. so i'm headed to bed!

new picture and a busy week

so... i finally posted a picture. i'm pretty displeased with most of the pictures of just me or just chris and i right now, which is my own my fault because i try to stay out of pictures as much as possible. so, when i go to post pictures on facebook, myspace, or here i get annoyed at the selection. but i will remedy that this week! there will be many photo ops because tomorrow begins the wedding week whirlwind (say that three times fast!)...

the partying begins wednesday night and will last until saturday night. i may need a week to recover! and even before then, monday and tuesday will be busy as i wrap up last minute errands. i'm abandoning my little darlings at school to a sub on thursday and friday. that in itself is something to look forward to. now, i just have to structure my week so that they will have plenty to do rather than drive the sub mad.

anyway, probably won't be much new this week, but definitely check back after the wedding. i'm quite sure i will have plenty of stories and pictures to share!

climbing down from my soapbox...

alright. let's move on to a much lighter subject! what's going on in my life?! many of you are probably reading this because i sent out an email saying that i've started a blog! skip down to my first post to read about the reasons. i'm going to use this post to update some of you that i've been out of touch with for far too long!

the most exciting upcoming event is one miss casey mcmullen's wedding. casey is chris' oldest, younger sister -- for those of you saying "who?!" the big day is april 28. we are in full wedding mode these last days before the wedding. the actual ceremony and reception is at a wedding facility called Ashelynn Manor. they have taken much of the work out of it for us! which is a totally new thing for me. i'm so used to be in control and having 25 dozen things to do at this point. a little strange for me. ha. but, despite that, i have found something to be in control of. cassidy and i are planning the lingerie shower/bachelorette party. we've got some great things cooked up and we are very much looking forward to it!

other than that -- it's the same old thing. chris is working mostly in mcallen these days. he heads down there for about a week to 2 weeks, depending on what's going on. he comes back to tomball for about 2 - 4 days -- again, depending on the work and what we have going on. he's also doing a lot of roping and still enjoying that.

i'm in my third year at hildebrandt teaching keyboarding. i take advantage of chris being gone during the week and try to catch dinner with friends or just have some "me" time. i'm all about that "me" time. ha.

we've still got the ranch in trinity with my parents. we have around 20 some head of mama cows and calves right now. and one bull. he's a happy bull. ;) we're up to 4 dogs these days. it's an absolute madhouse sometimes with all of them. 2 chocolate labs and a blue heeler/border collie mix -- which all live inside. and a black mouth cur that lives outside. 3 of the 4 are males -- so we have more dog testosterone than we need.

and that's really us in a nutshell right now. like i've said, i plan on just using this to keep everyone updated on my random thoughts and our more interesting activities. this post should catch everyone up on us for now. especially for those of you that haven't had an update in way too long. as usual -- ask questions, leave comments, tell me what you think!