Take a Left at John Lennon's Glasses

This is my dear friend, Stephanie.

Gorgeous, isn't she?

Steph and her husband Jeremy live in Nevada, and last week she came for a visit!

After I picked her up from the airport and we hugged and caught up, we sat down and listed out everything we wanted to do in our time together.

Farmers markets! Enchanted Rock and Fredricksburg! Catch some music at Gruene Hall and peruse Gruene's boutiques! And of course visit the outlet malls...she's the BEST person to shop with.

That night we went to our small group Bible study where Steph got to meet all of our dear friends and have a meal together and a Q&A session with our pastor. It was so fun for me to have my friends meet her!

That night we went to bed excited for our eventful week, and the next day we were able to cross several things off our list.

We woke up and went for a run, a new shared hobby, and got ready for a morning of shopping and an evening downtown. We drove out to La Cantera where Steph made some returns and I found a fab pair of shoes, and where we met up with Dre (SO fun for my different worlds to cross paths!)

Then we headed downtown, and after finding a parking garage, Steph stopped at a special store to buy a special gift for her special daddy. That's something she's always doing - on the lookout for gifts for people in her life. When we asked an employee to point us toward the restroom, he said, "Straight back, then take alaft at John Lennon's glasses." :)

We had noticed a sign at the Majestic Theater advertising the play Wicked and decided that since we're two girls who have really wanted to see it who are married to two guys who really haven't...that we should see it. So we hunted down the ticket booth and purchased our Wicked tickets!

Now we had 5 hours to kill. What to?

The Lord had given us perfect weather, so we took a riverboat tour around the Riverwalk. Our tour guide was hilarious, and I got to be his lookout. "You in the yellow," he said, "take a peak around the corner and give me a thumbs-up if I'm clear to turn the corner." I gave him a thumbs up, and on my way off the boat at the end of the tour he said I could come back and be his lookout any day.

After that we made our way on foot toward the Tower of the Americas. She was a trooper as I did a poor job of navigating. We took the glass elevator all the way to the top (with our faces turned toward the wall) where we had a delicious dinner at The Chart House. Stephanie is an amazing cook and a connoisseur of good restaurants, so I knew I was in for a treat. We enjoyed our creamy clam chowder and amazing chocolate and peanut butter lava cake as the restaurant slowly rotated and gave us a beautiful 360 degree view of the city and the sunset.

Then it was time to head back toward the Majestic! We waited a while to be let into the theater, then quickly found our seats and waited for the show to begin. It was so fun - neither os us knew what to expect and we both really enjoyed it, especially because we got to see it together!

The next day we had scheduled to go see my family in Austin and to introduce Steph to the most amazing pizza, Home Slice. I woke up feeling a little off, andI couldn't finish our workout video, but I got over it and we headed north to meet my fam at the restaurant.

Em got to meet Steph for the first time (Yay!! My two best girls!!) and to see my parents again. Em was so sweet and had brought a little gift for her, we all had a nice time, and the pizza was amazing as usual.

After lunch, I was really not feeling well and Steph now had started feeling funny, so we drove Em back to the house, Steph got to meet Jonny, then we decided to just drive home so we could try to sleep off feeling so ill.

What a drive that turned out to be...we both got sick and it seemed like it would never end, but God got us home safely and we went right to bed. It turned out that our whole Bible study group came down with the same thing! It was a case of mass casualty flu.

So the next 3 days we spent resting in the living room, feeling better little by little. (Even though we were miserable, we were happy to be with eachother). There went our exciting schedule! But we were reminded...

"The mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9

On Sunday afternoon Steph finally was feeling a bit better, so we ventured out to Costco where we found some great workout clothes, and then had a relaxing evening of SkipBo.

The next morning we were feeling great and it was a gorgeous day, perfect for shopping the outlet malls. Our first stop was for pancakes at IHOP and during breakfast we were reminded...


"The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail; they are new every morning." Lamentations 3:22-23


Back in the car and a few miles down the road we ended up with a flat tire! Thankfully, were were able to get safely over and the Lord blessed us with an extremely fast and integritable roadside assistance guy! We had to wait a while as he ran to the store to get some parts he needed, but we were thankful that we were together and able to laugh at it all and encourage eachother to be content with what God has for us that day and to appreciate these "pruning" times. What a dear friend to have!

During the wait poor Steph had a little attack from some friendly fire ants! I felt so bad. Thankfully she didn't seem to be allergic to them and she handled it so happily. Way to go, girl!

Finally we were back on the road, only a couple hours behind schedule, and we still had a full and fun day of shopping and we ended the night with a delicious supper at The Cheesecake Factory.

She left the next day after we squeezed in a few more rounds of Skip Bo and a prayer for safety and a calm heart.


What a trip! Not at all what WE had planned, but exactly what the Lord had for us. I'm so happy I got time with her, as crazy as it all was.


From a song..."This days been crazy but everything's happened on schedule, from the rain and the cold to the drink that I spilled on my shirt..."


I miss her already, my friend who I've known for 3 years and my whole life! Love you, Fifi!!