What a GREAT "read"!

Well, we're officially Colorado residents! We left Dallas last Sunday morning, stopped in Canyon for the night with my sister's in-laws, and got here Monday afternoon. We have been working hard all week to get the new place together and it's really starting to feel like home!

Back to the lovely 14 hour drive we did to get here, to say I was worried about getting bored is a HUGE understatement. :) Being in the Jeep by myself didn't sound appealing in the least, though I was excited about the roadtrip w/ Alex and my dad. So we decided to download an audio version of a book I'd heard about and Alex and I listened to it in separate cars and compared notes. We're cool, I know.

Please do me a favor and buy this book right now. I absolutely loved it! Besides the wonderful fact that it made the drive fly by, it completely challenged the way I live out my faith. It's so easy to look through what the Bible says through the lens of the "American dream" and not stop to notice how the Lord really calls us to live.


If you want a little more info about just how life changing this book is, check out this post from a blog I stalk (she led a bible study I was in my senior year of college so I guess it's not REALLY stalking :) )
or just read the book and see for yourself.

Bye Bye Dallas!

pic found here.



Dearest Dallas,

While I'm really excited about moving to Colorado and all the adventures that lie ahead, I thought it would be appropriate to take a moment and say goodbye. You were the city where I started my first job, made that strange transition into "adulthood", had my first little married apartment, built a wonderful foundation for my marriage (thanks in huge part to our amazing FG), and spent the last 2 years surrounded by wonderful friends and family. Though your current hot weather is making me itch for Denver (especially when our AC was out earlier this week, but that's another story) , your random cold winter this last year was a little gift to me. I joked all winter that all that snow was God's way of preparing us to move to Denver one day.... little did I know that was the truth.

This time in Dallas has been nothing short of wonderful. The Lord has been so purposeful in equipping me, breaking me, and growing me in this place and the people positioned around me during all that were just what I needed. I have complete peace in the fact that our little family will thrive in our new home, so much so that I'm totally overwhelmed. I feel so confident in the Lord's guiding and am very eager to see what this past 2 years has been preparing us for!

The main things I'll miss about you, Dallas, are your abundant bounty of Tex-Mex (esp queso), living within walking distance to my sister (maybe not"walking" in this heat but oh well) and easy driving distance from my parents, knowing my way around a city/state, getting a little cred when I wear my aggie ring, all the nostalgia associated with our favorite date places and "firsts", how your seasons (or lack of) so appropriately fit with my wardrobe and love for dresses and skirts, and the people here who "know me-know me".

Thanks for making the first step of my journey as a Herndon just-right. I'll make sure to enjoy my last week here and then I'll see you over Thanksgiving (please make sure to stock up on queso before then)!


Sincerely,

Your faithful resident since July 2008

New home!

That's our home for the next year or so! Precious little townhouse B.

(Thanks to our amazing realtor for spotting it and my super helpful MIL for taking notes/pictures/etc!)

Normally, I would be more than hesitant to sign a lease sight-unseen but I'm in this "my life is SO out of my control that I won't even TRY to be in control of it" stage right now. It's incredibly freeing. The Lord has really taken care of us every step of the way and I'm quickly realizing His plans are FAR better than mine anyways. :)

So all the new home details I know you're dying to hear about... it's 1800 sq ft, 3 stories (well one is the finished basement. Growing up at sea level, basements are so new to me. Weird.), 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths (I'm refusing to think about how much I hate cleaning bathrooms with this one), a gameroom/ loft area, decent size kitchen, and it's only 10 minutes from my new work! I was a tad worried about my commute in the snow so the short drive should really help. Poor Alex has to drive to the Springs 2-3 times a week, though, but I'm vowing right now to cook super extravagant, yummy dinners those nights to make up for it (hear that, hun?)!

From what I can tell (aka google map), our new home is 20 minutes from downtown/nuggets games!, 30 minutes from Watermark Denver, 15 minutes from the in-laws, 30 minutes from the Coors factory, and an hour and a half from Keystone/Breckenridge/WinterPark. As you can tell, my priorities are the nuggets, the Lord, family, beer, and pretty scenery (in that order of course).

Goodbye, southern home-cookin'!

The Herndons have a blog!

We thought this would be a good way to keep family and friends up-to-date with what's going on in our lives as we pack up things in Dallas and prepare for what I like to call the "frigid artic" of Denver. This move is something the Lord put on our hearts quite a while ago and has now prepared a way for and we couldn't be more excited!

Just thought the precious picture above gave a little insight as to how we came up with the blog title. :) My wonderful, very southern mother actually has a shirt with this logo on it and it's absolutely precious. On top of that, when Alex and I first started dating a few friends of mine and myself began to describe all things Colorado/nature loving/all natural as "granola," (even sometimes using the adjective to decribe my then-boyfriend, now husband... sorry hun!).

Starting in September, our home will be open as a perfect vacation spot so feel free to take advantage of it! Or, if y'all can't be traveling all the time, just check our blog.

Am I allowed to still say y'all up there?

.

picture found here.