Thursday, March 11, 2010

God had settled on you, as the focus of His love

I was reading The Message Bible this morning and was overwhelmed by a very timely reminder God had waiting for me in Ephesians 1. This one phrase communicated God's pure love and devotion for me in such a real way. "Long before God laid down the earth's foundations, He had you in mind - had settled on you as the focus of his love…to be made whole and holy by His love.”

Do you ever just need a reminder of God's unconditional, unfailing love? I found myself in that place this morning and the Lord was right there, just waiting to speak to me... to remind me of His perfect faithfulness that goes far past my understanding.

He truly is so good.


(Here's the passage I was reading in Ephesians, for some context.)
Ephesians 1:3-14

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Cruisin

So John and I took our first vacation (just the 2 of us) since our honeymoon. I’ve always wanted to go on a cruise and John told me several months ago that he wanted to take me for my 30th birthday (which isn’t until June – I’m still 29 for several more months!!!). We picked a Royal Caribbean cruise to Cozumel, Mexico and it was SOOO wonderful. We relaxed a lot, but also just had a blast together. It was real blessing.


Click below if you wanna see some of our pics!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jshaida/CozumelCruise#


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Terrified by Kara DioGuardi

So last week on American Idol one of the girls sang a song I IMMEDIATELY fell in love with. She said it was called Terrified and was written by Kara, one of the Idol judges. (For the record, I'm personally not a big fan of Kara - but I won't get into all that.) But in the 2 minutes this girl sang part of the song, I knew I wanted to track it down. The show continued on... and I probably fell asleep on the couch or something, cuz I totally forgot about that song after that point.

Fast forward a week to Valentine's Day. We decided on a romantic evening at home, and my adorable husband has made me a gourmet dinner, complete with candlelight and music. (He loves Gordan Ramsay and got recipes for his Salmon en Croute, Minted Basil Potatoes and Garlic Broccoli Saute - you have no idea how good this food was!! FOR REAL!) So before we sit down to watch a movie (Paper Heart with Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi - so cute), he brings out his guitar and has a surprise song to sing for me. Sure enough - he had tracked down "Terrified" and figured out the chords to it. I sat there squealing, grinning and tearing up as my favorite voice in the world, sang my new favorite song to me.

So have you heard the song?? Apparently Katherine McPhee covered it on her new album (another chic I'm not a huge fan of). But her version is a little different than the acoustic version John did.

If you wanna hear it, here's a video of Kara performing the acoustic version with the guy she wrote it with (Jason Reeves who writes for Colbie Calliat). Some "witty" banter before and after - but feel free to skip that. :)





Saturday, February 13, 2010

Free GREAT music

Just found this today and wanted to share it with you all! Rarely do I find a free full music playlist that I really enjoy... but - just did. This is a playlist of trendy, new songs compiled by a new "Love" line that Cartier is promoting. These are unique songs I haven't already heard a million times - which is refreshing. I like some of the songs more than others but there's a few artists that I love (Sol Seppy, Thomas Dybdahl & Dan Black) If you're looking for something new and different, check it out!


http://love.cartier.com/ - You'll have to click on one of the artists/songs and then to download, fill out a short form with your info. Then just click on the next artist/song to download the next song (you have to do them individually, but it only takes a few seconds each).

Saturday, January 30, 2010

The Holidays Out East



We spent Christmas and New Years with John's family out East and went allll over the place. But we had so much fun together! We started out in New York first and met John's mom, dad and brother in the city. We stayed there a couple of days and had a blast shopping, eating and seeing the Christmas sights - Rockefeller, Macy's, Times Square. Christmas in New York City is so magical :D

In the Candy Shop at Macy's -it was like Willy Wonka's factory!

Visiting Santa at Macy's


















































While we were in the City, of COURSE I wanted to see Tiffany & Co. Well that stop turned into a all-time favorie memory when John walked me up to the doors and said to me that he wanted to buy the "K" necklace for me for Christmas. I've wanted this necklace for years and had shown it to him once a couple of years ago. (Isn't my husband the greatest??? Sooo romantic.) So I actually got to walk out of Tiffany's with that little turquoise bag - I was NOT counting on that!

On the stairway at Tiffany's... love the turquoise carpet

 


Then we were in New Jersey to celebrate John's Grandma's 80th birthday. She had a huge surprise party and loved every minute of it. Grandma Shaida is just too darn cute :) She's the young lady in the middle...

Next we headed to Connecticut for Christmas at John's Aunt Mary's house. We made - and ate - tons of great food. Then we had lots of fun just hanging out, watching movies and playing games. Oh the yelling that took place over COUNTLESS rounds of Catch Phrase!!

 

Lastly, we ended up in Vermont for New Years (told ya we went allll over) and I had my first attempt at skiing!! My choice of the word "attempt" is quite fitting, seeing as how I only got down a real (not the bunny) slope once before they closed for the day. If it weren't for Grant, I never would have gotten off that stupid bunny slope. On New Year's Eve we "partied all night" at a ski lodge there that had a casino, dancing and even fireworks at midnight!

We came home with a lot of fun memories together. Hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season too!!