BACK & READY... 

to be a blogger again!!

I love being a big sister.

It's like being a mom without as much responsibility :)

I can't imagine that I'm going to love my little girl MORE than I love Martha

(baby sis in the picture;)

BUT I'm going to & that's crazy for me to imagine! 

Being a mom is going to be so much fun

& an exciting new journey!!

Feeling very blessed today :)

Hope everyone is having a good Saturday!!

Favorite Time of The Year :)

I LOVE this time of the year!

The smells.

The music.

The food.

The fun.

The lights.

The joy.

& family time <3>

We always go to see our family in GA on Thanksgiving and we took some pictures!

I'm proud of my huge, giant, big ol' family, so I have to share them :)

My silly sis <3 br="br" nbsp="nbsp">

WHOLE family :)

Sisters & Cousin

Typical Browns..

The Family :) 

Whoever took this picture needs some photography lessons.. jussst saying lol

Merry Christmas errybody!!

Are You Smarter Than a Scientist?

We were all sitting at at the dinner table last night, and dad was reading the bible to us.

We were talking about rebellion which  brought up the topic of  evolution.

Cason, the family evangelist, was telling us what he tells his friends when they talk about evolution.

Cason says to them,

"When I think of evolution I picture someone scattering a box of legos, and then putting some CO2 on them and blowng the legos all up. Then once they're blown up and all in the air, they fall back down and they make a perfect little house."

Then after he says that he says

 "Order can't be made form destruction."

I thought that was a neat way he put it.

Cason said that once he says that they stop arguing about evolution. hehee

I guess in a way they see how he's right.

We were all talking about this and Kamryn looked like she was deep in thought, and she said,

"You know what! I'm smarter than a Scientist!"

My dad asked her why, and she said

"Because scientists believe in aliens."

My dad said "You're right Kamryn."

Then Cole chimed in and said,

"Well, I'm smarter than a scientist too!"

Dad asked him why and he said, in a his very fast voice,

"Because they think that there was a speck, and then that speck turned into a tad pole, and then that tad pole turned into a frong, ok I know tadpoles do that, but then they think that frogs grow wings and then they can fly. Then the scientists believe that they turn into apes, and then they turn into cave men, and then they're people with long beards."

He knew this was funny, and so did the rest of the family.

He Delights in Me!!

Oh, how I miss the blogging world! ;D

I've been so busy, but I'm going to start blogging more often!

I just have more to say on a Saturday because I have less on my mind.

Last night I totally lost track of time, and it was about 2:45am. before I stopped studying for Psychology.

Anyway, after I got in bed I was just laying there, and I was tired, but I just needed some bible reading! :)

I opened up to this,

Psalm 18:19 He brought me out into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.

Reading that just really made me feel special to think that God delights in me!

That's amazing!

Thinking about that  makes me want to glorify Him more!

 It makes me want to spread His greatness to the people I'm around who don't have Him in their lives because God is the ultimate joy!

I've had to hear from  so many rebellious hearts in both my PSY class, and especially my English class.

I have let it be known that I'm a Christian. Both classes know I'm a P.K. (preachers kid) and just today  my teacher asked me what my school day looks like because she knows I'm home schooled. I told her that the first thing I do every day is scripture reading.

 I don't regret telling her that, but I think it annoyed her  because she stopped making eye contact, and totally stopped listening to me... I mean, she asked... hehee

I know for a fact that neither of my teachers are Christian. For example, today my teacher asked the class what they thought was  a good way to relax, and this guy said "prayer" and she said "naaah, how about meditation."

She also believes that palmists are "on to something" 

Well, in my English class this girl started slamming Christians.

We were talking about things that annoy us, the girl, who I have never heard speak out in class, and so this surprized me, said

 "You know what REALLY bugs me?!? CHRISTIANS!! I mean, they are SO hypocritical!

They think they are soooo spiritual, but they're just as bad as us! They gossip, curse, dress the way they say is bad to dress, and they think they are all perfect, and that's just rude!"

I was stunned! Almost funny... ok, it was funny! But still, I was shocked!

Then the teacher went on with her talking bad about Christians.

 I didn't know what to say!

 I had just been thinking that morning about how I wanted to glorify God, and I was stumped!

I mean, in a small way they're right.

We christians aren't perfect.

We sin, but we know we need Jesus to cover our sins.

Not only would I be a sinner without God. I'd be a joy-less hopeless sinner.

That's really sad, and only gives me compassion for her!

I still wanted to say something, but... what about my grades! haha Just kidding!

The truth is, I didn't know what to say.

It wasn't that I was afraid, I just didn't think it was good timing.

 What do you think I should say in situations like that?

Should I maybe just be quiet and pray for them?

I'm really looking forward to this semester! I can't wait to see how God uses me. He might just be using this time to draw me closer to Him. Either way, its just exciting!

For I Am Not Ashamed... Or Am I?

Romans 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Although I would never say I'm ashamed of Jesus, sometimes the things I don't say or tell people about myself really show that I am ashamed.

For example, I used to babysit for a family with 4 young children  and these kids could watch movies I can't watch.

When the mom would bring home newly rented movies to her very excited children, it would put me in an awkward position.

Instead of telling the mom of the family that, out of conviction to live a pure life, I didn't want to watch Twlight or Nights in Rodanthe, I would just avoid the subject and play games with the kids.

Now, looking back on it, I wish I would have said something.

 I know they like and respect me, and it's an opportunity I missed to share my faith with them. I feel I probably could have had more influence. For example, I did share my family's beliefs on not dating and how I'm trusting my parents and God in that whole process. They were so very impressed and very interested. I really wish I hadn't held back in other areas.

Really, in a way, it's selfish not to share it all. It's me being more worried about how they might look and think of me, and that's not what I should be worried about.

 Instead of looking for loop holes to escape these conversastions, I should've been more concerned about their salvation and eternal life, and I should have been looking for natural ways to bring it up.

I'm always saying how I love this family, but if I really did love and care for them, I should've taken every opportunity to share the gospel with them even if it was just through being willing to talk about  the movies they watch that I won't watch.

It would definitely be worth it to me to have a five minute uncomfortable talk and maybe reach these people, and honor God in doing so?

In alot of my dad's sermons lately, he's made the point that if you don't feel awkward in this world sometime, at least, you've probably comformed to and really are apart of it.

My prayer for the new year is that I will not be ashamed of the gospel.

Can any of you think of ways you want to be more bold in sharing your faith in Jesus in the coming year?
If so I would love to hear!

• Books 'n Blessings •

I love it when God blesses me in little ways. I'm speaking of the  kind of blessing I wouldn't have known I was missing if He just never blessed me with it at all. 

Today we went by Trident Tech to sign-up for my three classes I'm going to be taking as dual credit.

First of all I'm just going to let you all know that I'm still home schooled. 

Although, I am going to be taking two classes every Saturday and one class online. 

My dad is actually going to be taking me to school, and he's going to be standing guard over me there, and I'm perfectly content and happy with him protecting me. He is going to sit outside my classes and have a quiet time and prepare for his sermons. Works out perfectly.

Anyway, after we finished talking with the helpful guidance counseler, he then told us we should head on over to Trident's bookstore to get the books I'll need.

I knew the books were not cheap, but I did't know how much... they were a lot. 

We're talking like $165 for my English 101 book, and I don't remember how much the Computer 101 book was, but it was even more!

Dad and I were looking around and realizing how everything was really going to add up. While we were looking and talking with someone who worked in the bookstore a 24-year-old-ish girl standing close by overheard us talking. When the lady who was helping my dad and I pointed dad to another section I was left still looking through what would very soon be my English 101 book. The 23-year-old-ish girl came up to me and asked, "Did you say you were taking Psychology 201?" and I told her I was and she then pulled out, from her bag, one of the books I would need for the PSY 201 class and she said "I took this class last semester and I tried to sell it back to the bookstore, but they didn't want it. So would you like it?" I told her how extremely thankful I was and now I have one of my books for Psychology! 

Isn't that a blessing?

And I didn't even pray that some random girl would pull the exact Psychology book out of her purse and hand it to me.

God knows our needs even if we don't tell Him, and he always wants us to give the glory to Him for the good things that happen in in our lives.

A lot of times I forget who provides me with good things in my life.... it's always  God!

I'm going to be trying harder and harder to give God glory for everything good.

Actually, I'm also striving hard to even thank God for the not so good times too because I know He puts me through hardship, so He can shape me into His image. 

So let me ask,

has God blessed you lately in anyway?

If so, then will you please share it?

Isaiah 25

  O LORD, you are my God;

       I will exalt you and praise your name,

       for in perfect faithfulness

       you have done marvelous things,

       things planned long ago.

• Thy Mercy •

I love this song, and I know it'll always bring back sweet memories when I listen to it even when I'm not living at home anymore. When I listen to it, of course it'll make me think of how merciful my God is, but it's going to also remind me of my daddy. I love that man so much. When I listen to it I'll picture my dad in his Toyota Tundra singing this song... really loud. I can't tell you how many times I have been in the car with my dad, and he says, "Karis, listen to one of my favorite songs." and I sing it with him. This has happened so many times since we first started listening to Caedman's Call. I was just thinking about this today when he was bringing me to swim practice. We were listening to this song in his car, and we were singing along with them. Just for everyones information, he has a really, really good voice. I mean, I would prefer to listen to my dad's voice over the guy on the CD, but he could have a terrible voice, and  he'd still sing it loud. =)
Love you daddy!

Thy mercy, my god is the theme of my song 

The joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue 

Thy free grace alone from the first to the last 
Hath won my affection and bound my soul fast 
Without thy sweet mercy I could not live here 

Sin would reduce me to utter despair 

But through thy free goodness my spirit's revived 

And he that first made me still keeps me alive 

Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart 

Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart 

Dissolved by thy goodness I fall to the ground 

And weep to the praise of the mercy Ive found 

Hallelujah 

Hallelujah 

Great father of mercies thy goodness I own 

And the covenant love of thy crucified son 
All praise to the spirit whose whisper divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine 
All praise to the spirit whose whisper divine 

Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine


I love his voice!
You can listen to this song HERE.

• Drivers Ed. •

Well, I did it. I have completed Drivers Education! I am now educated in the art of driving a car! I took an eight hour class and I had three two hour sessions driving with an instructor.

I now know lots of interesting facts about driving, but I still can't drive squat!

The last guy I drove with, the most awkward person on this planet, said "Now, you aren't a bad driver, you're just too slow, and you don't execute like you should, and I can tell you're  nervous while driving, and we still need to work on parallel parking and six point turns more, but you're not bad, and here's your certificate. Good Job Karis!"

Okay people, those all seem like qualities of a bad driver, BUT I got my certificate, and I can now go get my drivers license! hehehee

I'll probably be doing more driving with my parents now. ;)

Here's the A-DORE-A-BLE little car I drove.

Hope you are all having a blessed day!

•Thankful•

For some reason I'm particularly thankful today. I'm very happy, and it might just be partly because of circumstances,but I think it's probably because God has just given me so much and I'm very thankful for it all. He has given me so many reasons to be thankful! I do pray that even though I feel so extremely blessed at the moment, I'll stay focused on God. When everything in life is pleasantly going my way it's so much easier not to be focusing on the one who has given it all to me. I need to make it my top priority to focus on him even when I'm feel'n chipper. ;D

I'm so thanksful for all the things God has given me to be thankful for!

So, we went to the beautiful beach of IOP today. It was beautiful and perfect today. Even though it was cloudy most of the time although at the  beginning it was sunny. It became cloudy just in the nick of time. It started getting too hot and 'bout that time it started getting cloudy. It actually even rained a little bit. I LOVE the rain with passion!!! :D  One of my favorite things is rain on the beach. BEAUTIFUL! 

I'm a watcher, and I love watching people at the beach when they don't know they're being watched. Well, I might not realize that they realize I'm watching them. It's just such an entertaining thing to occupy your time! You can learn so much from watching people interact with their families. 

Is that wrong? 

I'm so thankful for the beach! 

I also just got back from a run with my beautiful sista Kamryn. We had such a fun time, and it wasn't a long run this time. ;)   It was kinda dark so we didn't go too far. We stayed in the light so we could see where we were going. I only went for a 1miler and I'm pooped! Probably crash'n from the caffeine I had earlier! HAHA!

I'm so thankful for my little sister who just adores riding her bike beside me while I run.

I said I was going to post pictures of my new (and 

adorable) baby kittens. I have not yet done that and they are now about 15 days old. The kittens have gotten a little bigger since these pictures but just imagine them a little bigger and a little less cute... haha just kidding. They're still preeeetty cute. ;)

The Triplets

Moma cat (No Name)  She just showed up on our door step about 7 months ago, and claimed us as her new family... bad pick if you ask me. Max just ain't the most loving owner. hehehe

Moma cat (No name) and the baby kitten (Charlotte)

I know it's a little bit blurry, but it's just so sweet!

I'm so thankful for our New (and adorable) baby kittens!

Hope every one will have a blessed week!

Proverbs 6:8

she prepares her bread in summer

   and gathers her food in harvest.

If any one is wondering why I always put proverbs, it's because this is the lucky book we picked for our bible study we're doing with some girls in our home school group. I also just love Proverbs. =)

•Fixat'n My Eyes On God•

Most every night, or at least my dad tries to do it most every night, we have family worship. Last night's bible passage was especially helpful in my everyday life. I love it when I hear those verses that apply so well. I guess all scripture is kinda like that, but there are always those verses that come at the perfect time. My dad was reading Psalm 28, and it was a prayer from David. My dad was explaining it to all of us and he was saying if we fixate our hearts on daily life and not on God, then we will always be going from happy to sad, happy to sad. If we focus on God, and all that we have because of God, then why should we really ever have a reason to be unhappy? Focusing on God makes us stable. When my dad was reading it to us, I was thinking, "Gosh, life would be so much easier if I were unwavering!" I'm not a particularly unhappy person ,but as we all do... I think, we get in those moods or have moments. If I'm ever in one of those moods it's usually because somethings not going my way, and I'm not focusing on God. I'm focusing on something going on around me instead. There's probably something that I want to happen or something I wish didn't happy, and it's not happening my way.

This morning in my quiet time one of my prayers was that I would fixate my eyes on God and not what's going on around me. I was put to the test today. I know most of you have met my precious little 7 year-old sister Kamryn, who at the moment has a bunch of bubble wrap and is popping it right here beside me and it  seems particularly loud. Little miss Kamryn isn't always very easy to deal with and this morning, at about 8:00am., I decided to go for a longer-ish run, and Kamryn, "REALLY REALLY wanted to come!" so I let her. I wanted her to come too... so I thought! ;D  I could tell, from the beginning, that the 3 miles that were ahead of me were going to  seem a little longer than just 3 miles. HAHA! The entire time Kamryn was yelling at me to run faster so we could get to the park, and she was laughing at me because my face was red from being hot. She was also trying to throw her sweater on me, and remember I was HOT, while I was running. She has a sweater because she has a basket on her bike and she brought it "just in case" it got cold, but between you and me... I think she brought it because she wanted to fill her empty basket. haha! Well, anyway it was a very long 3 miles. I was thinking the entire time about that bible verse and how I just need to stay happy, but wishing God could have made this... a litlllllllle easier. hehehe. If I had indulged in focusing on "daily life" I probably would have shoved her into her little basket, along with her un-needed sweater and on into the woods. Instead I used it as a somewhat easy opportunity to be a blessing to her and to practice fixating on God and correcting her sweetly. Anyway, I got through the run just fine... but for future reference, I'll only bring Kamryn if it's a little shorter run, and if I run 3 miles again I'll eat more that just a yogurt for breafeast.

Well, Hope everyone is having a blessed day so far!

Karis

Proverbs 3: 5-8

  Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

   and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways  acknowledge him,

   and he will make straight your paths.

Be not wise in your own eyes;

   fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.

It will be healing to your flesh

   and refreshment to your bones.

Proverbs 2: 2-5

Turning your ear to wisdom

       and applying your heart to understanding,

 and if you call out for insight

       and cry aloud for understanding,

and if you look for it as for silver

       and search for it as for hidden treasure,

then you will understand the fear of the LORD

       and find the knowledge of God.

Mom and Dad

I think this is a sweet picture of my mom and dad. = ) They love each other so much, and they give such a great example of what a Godly marriage should look like. = ) My mom has been helping me the past few weeks on homemaking. Like laundry, keeping my room organized and cooking, I really need help with cooking hehehe! I'm getting better though.

Well, I just wanted to put a pic of my parents, I didn't have any of them. Hope every one is having a good week. = D