BAMS Tour '09

Allow me to introduce 3 of my best girls in the whole-wide-world...

Beth
aka B, Suki, B-Rose

Amber
aka Ber

Melissa
aka Melissa Cox, Mel

and then there's me... Sarah
aka Sarah Decker, D, Decks, Decker

Together, we are BAMS. The lovingly, semi-copied name we named ourselves at A&M. We all met our Freshman year. Beth and Amber had a class together, Melissa and I were in CARPOOL together, Melissa and Beth were counselors in Camp Brooks together, and Amber and I were counselors in Camp Danilovic together. Eventually, we all met each other and thus became BAMS. We have literally shared the best of times (weddings, boyfriends, graduations, 4.0s, Aggie sports, Fish Camp, houses, sleepovers, random roadtrips, etc) and the not-so-best of times (deaths, break-ups, heartaches, the unknown, and all that other stuff) over the past 9 years.

I love these girls so much! I can always count on them to make me laugh, let me cry it out, tell me to get over myself, give me advice and understand me. I thank my God for them and am so incredibly blessed with this sisterhood. They truly are the best!

So this past weekend, we had our first BAMS reunion since Beth's wedding in July of 2004!! We have all seen each other since then, but not all 4 of us together. It was well overdue, but totally worth the wait! We filled our weekend with no agenda what-so-ever. It was awesome!

Ber, Mel and I met up on Friday night at Chuy's... nothing like a 10 o'clock dinner to get you going! At any rate, we stayed up late talking in my bed. Which isn't unusual to find us all in a bed when we are together... At any rate, at the end of the night, I was totally fathomed about how much we have grown up! I mean, we used to talk about boy bands and Britney, now it is politics, buying cars and the economy! It semi-freaked me out... :)

Saturday, Beth made it into town and we immediately went to El Chile to eat some awesome food and just hang out! We ended up hitting up a few stores on South Lamar and South Congress (where all of the above individual pics were taken)... which is always fun! We stopped at this really cool wine bar place called Cisis Market and had champagne to toast Melissa's 4.0 at University of Mary Hardin Baylor! We are all so proud of her and it definitely was fun to do that for her!

Saturday night, we made our way over to my favorite restaurant in Austin... Moonshine! We pretty much the best waiter ever and were the loudest table there. We ate it up like we always do and made some random people around us feel a little uncomfortable! Success! After dinner we headed over to Uncorked wine bar. It's an awesome place with a spectacular view of downtown Austin. We sat outside on the patio and all loved the tastings, minus the fact that it was freezing cold and had a wind-chill factor of probably 10 degrees!

Sunday, we all said our goodbyes and promised to get together soon! Like this summer... which is really good for all of us!

I had such a blast and hope that all of you have as wonderful friends, including those outside of BAMS, as I do! God has blessed me in so many ways with them all... and my cup runneth over...

no "resolutions" here...

HAPPY 2009!!!

It is my prayer for all of my family and friends that 2009 is a year of witnessing God's love, grace and mercy in full force. Every year has its ups and downs, but I just pray that we all see these times as God just strengthening us... to fall more in love with Him and to live to bring Him glory! I pray this over all of you... and hope that in 2010 we can all look back on '09 and see how much we have been molded and pruned into being better.

On New Year's day, I woke up and got in the Word. I wanted to be guided to something for encouragement for the year to come... and it's funny/awesome to see how God definitely did so! I ended up reading Psalm 105. The first 4 verses jumped out at me and I just felt led to make these 4 verses my "battle cry" for 2009. Therefore, there really aren't any "New Year's Resolutions" or even "goals"... just some scripture to focus on daily and strive to live it out in the best way possible! So, they are written down on a card and pinned up on my bulletin board in my bathroom... that way I can read them every morning - evening - and other times in between!

Psalm 105:1-4
Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done.
Sing to Him, sing praise to him; tell of all His wonderful acts.
Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.

So... Here's to looking on the "bright side" of all situations and opportunities in 2009... always giving thanks and praise to what He has done and is doing in our lives!

grace & peace,
skd