AS PROMISED...

I am officially retiring my "random thoughts" blog.

From now on I will be posting, along with Jes at our new blog:

www.hisandhersforever.blogspot.com

CHECK IT OUT!!

NEW BLOG...COMING SOON!!!!

I know it's been forever...I apologize!

Good news though.....

ALL NEW BLOG COMING SOON! Featuring the newly married Crisps!

Check back soon for details!

What am I up to?

So the past few weeks have been extremely crazy. I am taking summer classes...4 classes plus and internship....crazy, I know! But the good news is that I will officially complete my college education at the end of July.

So, as you can imagine, time is very limited for me these days with classes and my internship and getting ready for a wedding. It amazes me when I think back to the good ole days of summer vacations!

A few weeks ago, I spent the week in NC painting our house, which was a blast. It's very rewarding to paint. You start with something that looks ugly and turn it into something beautiful. I think it is amazing that God put in each of us the same desire to create and improve that is such an intrugal part of His nature.

As I mentioned, I am working as an Intern at RightMinds Advertising in Richmond, VA. It has been a great experience thus far, and I'm sure I'll blog more on it another time.

Jes and I and my parents were able to go to Dallas over Memorial Day weekend to visit my brother Patrick and his wife Jana (who is 8 moths pregnant)! We had a great time traveling together and spending time with our family.

I'll update more soon...I promise!

Yet I Will Praise

This past Sunday, I sang an old Vineyard song at church. The words are really powerful, so I thought I'd share them here...

"Yet I Will Praise"

I will praise You Lord my God
Even in my brokenness I will praise You Lord
I will praise You Lord my God
Even in my desperation I will praise You Lord

And I can't understand All that You allow
I just can't see the reason
But my life is in Your hands And though I cannot see You
I choose to trust You

Even when my heart is torn I will praise You Lord
Even when I feel deserted I will praise You Lord
Even in my darkest valley I will praise You Lord
And when my world is shattered and it seems all hope is gone
Yet I will praise You Lord

I will trust You Lord my God
Even in my loneliness I will trust You Lord
I will trust You Lord my God Even when I cannot hear You
I will trust You Lord
And I will not forget That You hung on a cross
Lord You bled and died for me
And if I have to suffer I know that You've been there
And I know that You're here now

10 months together!

As of today, Jes and I have been officially "together" for 10 months. Over these past months, I have changed and grown up so much. Being in this relationship has been so significant for my spiritual growth and development into the man that God desires me to be.

Jes is such an amazing encouragement to me...even without saying a word, she inspires me to grow and strive for more and better in every aspect of my life. She is an amazing woman, and I am so honored to have her as my future wife and my best friend.

As we head into the final months of preparation for marriage (only 4 months to go!), I am filled with excitement for the beginning of a new life together. There has been such a natural progression as each of us have become the priority in the other's life. Other than my relationship with God, there is nothing more important to me than my relationship with Jes. She is the person that I turn to for comfort, encouragement, support, and love. I can't wait until we are able to come home to one another at the end of every day.

During this time, I also find myself thinking about all the things that I lack and the things in my life that need so much work. It's so easy sometimes to be disappointed by your own faults and shortcomings...but God is faithful to forgive and restore, and I have faith that He is in control of my life and that he will provide all of our needs as we get ready to be married.

As I was reading today, this verse really spoke to me and where I am right now. I think that it applies no matter where we are in life. No matter our circumstances...our purpose remains the same...to do His will!

"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ..."
-Hebrews 13:20-21

Another wedding weekend...

This past weekend, Jes and I had the pleasure of attending her Aunt's wedding in Asheboro. It was fun because it was a sort of "preview" weekend of our wedding. It was held at the same church, and the reception and rehearsal dinner were also at the same place that ours will be.

I had so much fun spending time with Jes' family. It's very neat to have new family members...they even included me in the official family picture...I felt very honored!

Below are some pictures from the weekend.

Jes and Me @ the rehearsal dinner

Stealing a kiss on the golf course!

Us being silly in the car!

@ the wedding with Amanda and Nate (future sister and brother-in-law)

Today we are all Hokies...

The past days have been emotionally charged all across the nation, but especially here in Virginia, as we have watched and listened to the tragic reports from the Virginia Tech campus.

I think the sentiment that I have heard numerous times today, that on this day we are all hokies, is so true. Each of us have been affected by this tragedy, and hearts are breaking all across America.

This makes me wonder why? Why do we all feel the effects of an event that happened in a small town in the mountains of Virginia?

There is such a beautiful sense of community that arises out of tragedies such as this. Across the country, we mourn with those who mourn. My wish is that those directly affected by the shooting at VA Tech will feel our embrace as we mourn their loss with them.

I pray that in this tragedy many people will come to know the hope that is only found in Jesus. In this very hopeless situation in which evil is so obvious, may eyes be opened to see the grace, strength, and peace that give us hope in Christ.

Pictures up...

Very Classy!
Originally uploaded by random thoughts photography.

As promised...I posted some pictures from the wedding in GA a few weekends ago on my Flickr site.

There aren't very many, cuz most that I took on my friends camera were really blurry....but there are a few good ones.

I edited them a little more than I usually do. I think some of them turned out pretty neat!

New Day

I found this pretty cool video on YouTube....I love the song. It's "New Day" by Kate Havnevik.

This is the Girl that I Love!

A long, long weekend

This past weekend, Jes and I traveled to GA for our friend Laura's wedding. Jes was a bridesmaid in the wedding and I sang.

On the way, we went somewhat off the normal path and stopped by the resort that we are looking at for our honeymoon. We really liked it and will most likely be staying there. It is Chetola Resort in Blowing Rock, NC (it's one of the red dots on the map above)!

We loved the privacy and gorgeous atmosphere that the resort offers. The rooms are great and it is such a pretty location and a neat little town.

So from there we traveled through the mountains of NC and TN and then south to GA where we met up with some of our closest friends from when we were at Southern Wesleyan for the wedding. We were able to spend some really fun time with our friends on Friday night and then the wedding was on Saturday afternoon.

There was plenty for us to do, and we really enjoyed being able to help out with everything. I ended up helping to set up some for the reception and got to spread out rose petals and such. It was fun! The wedding was really nice and It was such a neat experience to be at a wedding with the woman that I will be marrying in LESS THAN 5 MONTHS!!!

Unfortunately, I was a slacker and literally have no pictures from the wedding. I forgot my camera in the car, plus I was running around too much to have taken many pics. A friend is going to send me some though, so I will upload those when I get them.

After the wedding we traveled up to SWU and stayed the night there with some friends. It was fun to be back for a few hours, but also kind of strange to be back after so much change has occurred in my life. It was really good to see some good friends, even though it was such a short stay.

Then it was back to NC where Jes had an American Cancer Society fundraiser on Sunday afternoon. That was fun! It was a Biker's rally and ride, so we got to check out some pretty sweet Harley's!

Monday morning it was back to VA for me, and back to work for Jes. It was a very long and tiring weekend, but it was great fun. We were able to spend a lot of time together talking and singing in the car, really just enjoying one another's company.

(According to MapQuest our trip this weekend totaled 1366 miles and 24 hours!!!!)

What's on tap...

I leave in a few hours to travel to NC where I will be welcomed by my beautiful fiancee.

Then, on Friday we will head down to Georgia for our friend Laura's wedding.

I am excited about the trip because it means that Jes and I will get to spend multiple hours driving together which means good conversation, singing, and dance parties in the car!

I am also excited because we will get to see some of our good friends during the weekend that we haven't seen in quite a while.

I will upload pictures to my flickr when I get home next week.

Oh...and Congrats to Candice and Daniel, who got hitched this past weekend!

Spring is here...

Dew Drops on Grass
Originally uploaded by Matthew Clark Photography.

I decided to give my blog a face-lift in honor of the arrival of spring. Let me know what ya think!

I thought this was a "springy" picture...enjoy!

Revive Me...

I was in the mood for something different today, so I put in my Shane & Shane "Psalms" CD on the way to school. I hadn't listened to it in a really long time, probably a year or more.

I was struck by the lyrics to their song that comes from Psalm 143. The song really spoke to me where I am today. Sometimes I find myself very distracted from God and don't really know why.

It truly is my prayer to be revived, and just like the song says...NOT FOR ME, but for HIS NAME! May my life reflect his righeousness, because I have none on my own.

"PSALM 143"

Hear my prayer, give Your ear
In Your faithfulness answer me
In Your righteousness do not judge, for no one is righteous

Teach me to do Your will Lord for You are my God
Your Spirit is good good good
lead me on level ground Lord for You are my God
Your Spirit is good it is good

Revive me, revive me
Not for me but for Your name
In Your mercy, deliver me from my enemies
Revive me

I rememebr days of old
Your works I meditate, oh Lord
I consider all the works of Your hands
I lift up my hands to you my soul longs

GO RAMS!!!!

Yay! We beat Duke tonight 79-77! It was a good game and VCU proved their come-back ability and their amazing defense stole the show!

For all of you who underestimated us Rams when filling out your brackets....you snooze you lose!!

A weekend of packing...

Yet another wonderful weekend with Jes this past weekend.

I was able to leave Richmond on Thursday afternoon, despite such a crazy week last week. It was wonderful to start the weekend early. Last week was the end of the Virginia General Assembly, so my class reporting on the legislature was in overdrive!

This weekend we started working on the house that we will be living in when we get married and that I will be in as soon as I move to NC.

The house was Jes' grandma's house, and so to start off, we have to clean out all of her old stuff. It was fun to look at the belongings of Jes' grandparents, who I will never know, and feel as if I can get to know them as we clean out the house.

It is a daunting task, but we are really looking forward to the many hours that we will put in getting the house ready for us!

On Saturday, we helped Jes' church, Central Community move out of their old building. We packed up the entire church and took a bunch of stuff to a storage unit, and started loading the moving truck.

It was a lot of hard work, and on Sunday morning, our muscles were quite sore, but it was really a lot of fun!

It's so exciting for me to already feel as if I am a part of the church and that I can provide some service to them even though I am not attending there yet.

Ok...so now I want to talk about Grey's Anatomy. Yes, I admit, I am a shameless addict!

So...I think they were really stupid in the way they handled the past few weeks' episodes. First of all, it is almost unheard of that someone could be brought back to life after the amount of time that Meredith was down...especially without severe brain damage.

I think they could've done the same thing, but just in a way so that when she was brought back only a matter of minutes had passed. I think this would've allowed them to bring in all of the same plot elements without ruining their medical credibility.

Clearly, I am still going to watch the show, but I hope in the future they stick more to the medical drama and try not to come across like a glorified soap opera.

Any thoughts?

New York, New York!

You Belong in Soho

Although you may not be a professional artist, you do dabble in one form of art or another.And you indie culture of all kinds - from little botiques to art house films.

Where should your inner New Yorker live?


I thought this was fun...I snagged it from my friend Stephanie's myspace page. I used to dream of living in NYC, but now I just can't wait to live in Greensboro with my future wife!....194 days to go!

A Valentine's Video: Moulin Rouge Love Medley

When thinking about Valentine's Day, I thought of this song....enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

vintage love
Originally uploaded by NádiaRD.

A day to celebrate love.

I am blessed to have known such great love in my life.

The love of my family. The love of friends. The love of my future wife!

But most importantly, I have known the love of a savior.

This Valentine's Day is so special to me because in 200 days I will be married to the love of my life.

What's funny is that Jes and I were each other's "Valentines" last year before we were even dating! Who knew?

Check out this link to learn about the history of Valentine's Day:

http://www.history.com/minisites/valentine/?page=history

Weekend update...

I had another incredible weekend with my beautiful fiancee.

On Friday, Jes took me to a vineyard and winery. We shared yet another new experience and participated in a wine tasting. It was a fun experience and we even bought a bottle as a keepsake. Neither of us are huge wine fans, but we both preferred the same kind. Red and not too bitter.

On Saturday, Jes took me to the circus. We met her friend Jennifer and her boyfriend Zac. It was another great experience to share together. I had only been to the circus twice before, so I felt like a little kid full of excitement and anticipation.

Sadly, I had to come back home on Sunday and it was back to real life. A harsh and dreaded reality, but one that must be met for the coming months.

We were able to go to church together on Sunday afternoon at Jes' church, which will be where we will attend after we're married. It's always such a pleasure to worship together and just take in the experience of a Christian community together.

Another road trip to NC!

Tomorrow I will take a drive down 85 to spend the weekend with my beautiful fiancee.

I am so thrilled to be able to be together for a few days. We are planning to do so much in the short time that I will be down in NC. I'll update about the weekend when I get back.

I made a purchase this week in preparation for my trip that I have held out on up to this point.....I got the Justin Timberlake album. I have to say, this white boy sure can make a pretty fine beat. I can't help but 'bust a move' as I'm driving down the road listening to his stuff.

I've enjoyed all of the singles on the radio, especially "What goes around" that has been playing for a few weeks now. I decided that if the singles were a good representation of the album in whole, I needed to check out the whole thing.

So with the help of my BOSE sound system and some good music, my drive should be rather painless tomorrow.

Oh yeah...Don't miss the Grammy's this weekend!

New Pictures on Flickr!

I have added a bunch of new pictures on my Flickr page.

Some are from a while ago, so I appologize for not getting them up earlier.

New pictures include:

Canoeing at my house

Jes' graduation

Making our gingerbread house Christmas

My B-day

The night we got engaged

Check 'em out!

Cell-phone press conference

I had a press conference this morning at the Virginia State Capital dealing with teenage cell-phone use while driving.

A 16-year-old girl was there to share about a tragic experience. In 2005, this young woman was riding in a car with her best friend who was driving and talking to her boyfriend on her cell-phone. Because she was distracted by the call, she pulled out in front of a dump truck. The driver was killed in the accident and the girl who spoke today spent a whole year in the hospital recovering.

The purpose of the press conference was to gain support for a bill that is before the state legislature that would outlaw the use of cell phones by teenagers while driving.

I'm not sure what my opinion is on the bill, but I think that issues like this really make you think about the effects of your actions on other people. Sometimes things that we do so routinely and seem like such a part of our everyday lives can have very major impacts (negative and positive) on the people around us.

What seemingly insignificant decisions do we make everyday that have eternal implications?

Maymont Park

So Cute!, originally uploaded by random thoughts photography.

Jes and I went to Maymont Park in Richmond a few weeks ago, and I just added the pics to my flickr site.

Check 'em out!

If you're ever in Richmond, Maymont is a great place to spend a few hours. It was an old estate that has been donated to the city and turned into a park. They have lots of neat gardens and a nature center. Very fun and educational. A great place to spend the day with someone you love!

A pretty sad looking gingerbread house....

These pictures are from over Christmas break when Jes and I made a gingerbread house togehter.

I love making new memories together!

This one's for you, Jana...

So, over the weekend, I talked to my brother Patrick, and his wife Jana, and she commented that I hadn't posted in a long time and wanted to see some pictures. Well, unfortunately I haven't taken any in quite a while, but here is a pic of my family the night that Jes and I got engaged.

Also, here is a link to our page on "The Knot". Check us out!

http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/view/co_main.aspx?coupleid=7029044818375315&MsdVisit=1

It's been a while...

Right now, I am sitting in my Communications Law class listening to a debate about 1st Amendment rights.

This is not as exciting as the rest of my life.

It's been a little while...okay, a long while....since I've written on here, so I just want to give an update on all of the amazing things that are going on in my life...all of the extravagant blessings that the Lord is pouring out on me.

As of today, Jes and I have been engaged for 1 month. Time has flown by! I guess to sum up the past month of my life, I will quote Charles Dickens.

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times!"

The past month has been the best time of my life. I have felt such love, direction, security, acceptance, excitment and numerous other emotions. Jes and I have had such fun planning the wedding, the reception and the honeymoon. But mostly we have enjoyed planning our life together after we get married. (By the way...214 days and counting!)

On the other hand, the past month has been so hard for us. Each time we have to leave each other gets harder and harder. It makes living day to day life so hard knowing that so many great things are awaiting us. But I have to keep reminding myself that God's timing is perfect and that He still has a plan and a purpose for this season of my life.

So...in other areas of my life...

School is in full swing, and is taking up a lot of time. I am doing a lot of writing, but it's not as bad as I was expecting.

Worship team is going great! Our guitar player has taken over some of the administrative duties that I was handling, which has been a great help with so much school this semester. The past few weeks, we have really felt the Holy Spirit's presence during our worship service, and I have been so humbled that God is using me as a part of this amazing group of musicians and worshipppers.

Well, that's it for now.

I'll try to update soon.

We're Engaged!

On Saturday, December 30 my beautiful girlfriend Jes agreed to marry me.

We got engaged in Richmond overlooking the downtown buildings and then met our parents for dinner at Maggiano's.

This picture was taken when we walked up the stairs at the restaurant. I surprised Jes by asking her parents to drive up from North Carolina and meet us after I proposed. Jes was so surprised. It was such a special time to share with one another and our families.

Less than a week into our engagement we already have quite a few plans made, I am very excited as we move forward and progress into a new stage of life together.

We are planning a September wedding, which seems like a lifetime away, but will allow us time to get things ready, and for me to finish school and move down to NC.

I just wanted to share my exciting news!