There's no place like home...but what if you're homeless?

Just a little update on the housing situation... We have decided to build again! We looked at pretty much every house in the area and couldn't find anything that met our criteria so we gave up and decided to start from scratch. Josh spoiled me by building me my first house! We went last night and reserved our lot and talk to the builder about what we want and need. He's going to take some time this week and draw up some plans since it's going to be a custom build. We're then going to delay the start until January or February. That will put us moving in sometime in the late spring. Works for us!

One of the downfalls of building in this area is that it's a tad more than we were looking to spend so we have to save a little more first. Hence the delayed start. We're fine with it though. We're enjoying living with my folks (yes, Josh too) and just taking our time. We're going to be going on an insane budget though so all fun stuff, that costs money that is, is out until after we move!

I'm excited and freaked out/scared to death all at the same time. I tend to worry a lot more than anyone I know and I stress about everything. I'm working really hard on that trusting the Lord thing, but my feeble mind sometimes takes the reigns again.

So, there's a quick update on what's up on the home front!

OPA!!!

This past weekend, St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Euless held their Greek Fest. Carrie found out about it and I was all up for going! I love little festivals! Especially when there is food involved! We had a fabulous time!

They had a bunch of Greek music playing and some dancers doing traditional Greek dancing








I got the Mezza Platter which had a dolmathe (seasoned meat and rice in grape leaves), two Spanakopitas (cheese and spinach in filo dough), a Tiropita (cheese filling in buttered filo), and some Greek olives. They were all good, except the olives since I despise olives, but the tiropita was definitely my favorite. Carrie and I split everything so we got to try it all!


Carrie ordered the Moussaka which is a casserole of ground beef, eggplant and potatoes with some creamy sauce. Looks kinda like a lasagna. It was really really good. We also had some desserts but I forgot to take pictures of them before we devoured them. We split a baklava sundae and a Galatobouriko which is Greek custard wrapped in filo layers and covered in honey syrup. OMGosh they were both amazing!


They also served octopus there. They took a whole octopus and threw it on the grill. When it was done, they chopped it up and put it in a bowl. It looked incredibly disgusting. I totally wanted to try it, but I didn't want to pay the money for something I'd likely only take a few bites of. So, I settled for a picture


The kids got up to dance too!



As soon as we got there, they announced that they were giving church tours and one was about to start. Of course, we totally jumped on that ship since we'd never been to a Greek Orthodox church before. We figured it would be kind of a "here's our sanctuary, here's our children's rooms, etc" type of tour, but it wasn't. We sat in the sanctuary (I'm not sure if that's what they call it or not, but whatever.. the main worship room) and the guy talked A LOT about what they believe. It was so interesting.

I guess Greek Orthodox is just one of those religions you don't hear much about. We hear all kinds of stuff about Catholics, Muslims, Jehovah's Witness, etc. I wish I'd taken a picture inside, but I felt weird doing it so I didn't. It had a lot of very ornate decor in there. TONS of pictures (Or icons as they call them) depicting Jesus, Mary and the saints, though they don't call them saints. It's just the easiest word to describe it. You could also smell the incense they'd used that morning. It was a lot of info, so bear with me while I try to give a quick run down from what I remember -

There is so much symbolism in the Greek Orthodox church. In fact, it seems to be where they put most of their focus. He kept pointing out things that symbolize parts of the religion. Like, the bread, the gold, the incredibly ornately decorated Bible, the platters, etc. One thing Carrie and I thought was interesting was that they have have this ritual thing that symbolizes giving your heart (or self?) to God. It made us sad because they're so steeped in symbolism that they never actually DO give their heart to Christ.

He said that they believe Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life but that it is through Mary that we can get to God. They believe in God's grace, BUT that he doesn't dole that out until you die. You become a "Christian" when you are baptized, but that doesn't guarantee you'll go to heaven. The guy said it's a life long thing of living a good life, doing good works basically, and hoping that God decides to show you his mercy when you die. (After Mary carries you to Him....) I can't imagine living my life not knowing what was going to happen in the end. There was a lot more information, and I know I'm probably forgetting important stuff, but it's hard to remember it all.

It almost brought me to tears knowing that their teachings are so close, yet so far away from the Truth. So please, remember the Greek Orthodox Church in your prayers. They're just as lost, and it seems they're often forgotten when discussing religions (or maybe it's just in my neck of the woods.. I never hear about them). They need the Truth to infiltrate them!!

Anyway, the Greek fest was awesome and I definitely want to go again next time! I had so much fun checking it all out and also, just hanging out with my seester! I consider myself so lucky and blessed to be related to such an awesome chick!

Fair Day!

On Saturday, Josh, Carrie and I headed out to the Texas State Fair. We had a great time. When we left that morning, the forecast said it was supposed to get up to around 70 and be sunny. Well, I don't think it ever got above 60 and I certainly never saw a single ray of sunshine! So it was freezing, but that's ok. I still got my corn dog and we still had a blast.

This year, they are running the DART right to the front gate so we decided to take advantage of that. BOY HOWDY is that the way to do it. It was $7.50 per person for the TRE and DART passes and all we had to do was sit and ride. No ridiculous fair traffic. No walking a mile to the front gate. It was great. We parked at Centerport and rode the TRE to Victory, then hopped on the DART and ended up RIGHT at the gate. Perfect! In the future, we'll definitely be doing this again.

Here is Carrie and me waiting for the train to get there. We were coooold.



Josh being goofy on the train. I told him to smile and this is what I got :)



Yeah, I dunno what we're doing



Big Tex says "Welcome!"



Big Tex is really kinda freaky and spooky looking up close.

The African Acrobats (who were really Jamaican, but whatev) I was impressed with this dude's limbo skills

Carrie had a polish sausage while Josh and I had the customary Fletcher's corn dogs

In all the years I've gone to the fair, I'd never tried one of the specialty fried foods. I always say I'm going to but then take a look at the prices and change my mind. Not this year! I've officially tried my first fried Fair food! Josh and I split the fried pecan pie. It was surprisingly really good! We wanted to try the fried peaches and cream, but the line was OUTRAGEOUS.

We stopped by the petting zoo. This guy looked so smug. He was super cute. Or was it a she? Who knows. In my book, animals are always male by default... unless they start popping out a baby.

And speaking of.... this brown llama was DEFINITELY female! We were looking around and Josh says "hey, that llama has an extra set of legs sticking out her butt". Um, sure enough! I look over and see two little hoofed feet kicking around. At first, I think we were the only ones to notice. The mama llama was sitting down just chillin'. The only clue that she was about to have a baby (other than the butt legs) was that her ears were back. Anyway, she stood up suddenly and a few seconds later, "plop", out dropped this disgusting looking, long legged, long necked ball of goosh. It was bizarre. But sooooo cool! I have a vid of it happening, but I don't know if everyone wants to see it so I don't know that I'll post it! it's awesome though.

I LOVED watching all the other llamas in the pen. They were so curious. Nosy little suckers.

This guy was peeling off the....gook. Or something. I'm no expert on animal births, especially llama births, but it looked like the sack or something was covering it. Very weird. He very gently peeled it off the baby's head so that it could breathe easier. All while concerned new mama llama watched ever so closely

The nosy llamas again. Good grief, can't a girl get some privacy?!

Sorry, I know this is kind of gross, but it was awesome. The baby kept trying to hold his head up, but couldn't yet. It was pretty funny to see it flailing around because of the weight. I guess if I had a neck that long, I'd probably be flailing too. Especially 2 minutes after birth. Those llamas have high and lofty expectations for their newborns. I mean really "hey you've just been through major trauma by come out of the birth canal. There are tons of people staring at your gloppy, messy self and taking pictures, so hurry up... stand up and look cute!"

No pressure or anything.

The whole deal was pretty cool. There was also a goat in there that had just given birth and still had another one in the chute. It was definitely a birth day at the state fair. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not a llama. Or a goat.

More pictures:

The Dodge section of the car show was giving out these goofy red and orange beads with their logo and either OU or Texas on the other side. Of course, I had to get OU. Not because I care a lick about OU (sorry fans) or football for that matter, but I think if I'd grabbed the Texas one, Josh might have divorced me on the spot.

Regardless, Carrie and I took off the dorky medallions and I made an even better fashion accessory out of them.

The only downside (and it's not really a downside) to riding the TRE/DART is that the TRE only runs every 1 1/2 hours or so, so you really have to plan your departure from the fair or else you'll be stuck waiting at the train station for awhile. We got to the TRE station about 30 minutes early so we walked around Victory Park. Not that there was anything to see. Except this....

SNOW!!!! WAHOOOO!!!!

Oh wait.. that's just ice that someone dumped on the side of the road. Darn.

All in all, it was a great day at the fair. If you've never been to the Texas State Fair, you gotta go!