confession's is moving!

We are helping with a church plant in Kentucky, and we need some support!

God has put in on Justin’s heart for many years to plant a church. He recently had the opportunity to attend a conference full of church planters and organizations that help people do so. It rocked his world and he was ready to do it in an instant. The biggest hurdle he had to conquer was God changing Heather’s heart and making her open to the idea, which she was not in any way! Then came our visit to Louisville and our meetings with friends of a long time who were planting a church there. It felt like home, we loved their vision for church, and their passion for winning lost people to GOD! In that moment we knew that this is where God meant for us to be. Heather was even excited about the idea, which truly showed us that God was working in our lives and this is where what he wanted for us.

As the church we are moving to start is only in the forming stages and probably will not be able to pay us for a while we had also been applying for jobs and sending out resume’s and praying for everything to fall in place in God’s timing. We KNOW that God had huge plans for us, as he says in Jer 29:11, For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” We KNOW that this is what God has in store for us, so he will provide a way for us to get there and the money to survive until we get jobs! We have started an online donation fund to help, just like with missionaries we are going to need the love, support, and prayers of our family and friends to get us through this little challenge in our lives. If you can help support our call financially thank you so much, if you cant we totally understand and just ask for prayers and some extra love as we go through this! Thank you so much for everything that you do, the love you pour on us, and the prayers we know you constantly cover us with. We would not be the people we are today without people like you in our lives.

If you can help financially in any way please visit http://www.plumfund.com/pf/thecarners. All of the money we receive will be going to our relocating costs, with anything that is left over going directly to our new church home HopeCulture.tv. I encourage you to check out the church website, watch the videos, sign up for the email list. Its such an exciting yet scary time for the Carners!

Its better than the alternative...

Life is short.

Life is too short.

Do you ever truly think about it? We are only on this planet a limited amount of time, then one day... its over.

Why do we complain so much? We only get one life. Once chance to make your mark on the world. One chance to experience joy, pain, sadness, anger, excitement. One chance to work, to experience the hot of summer and the cold of winter.  Just one. Why would we take any of that for granted? Why do we hate the cold, then hate the heat. Why do we not want to go to work then complain about being broke? Why do we complain at all?

I'm pretty sure what ever it is we are complaining about, its better than the alternative. If you have nothing to complain about, well... then you are dead. Don't get me wrong. I have been through my share of situations that I didn't want to be in. I have a story that could fill a few chapters of situations I complained about. But thinking back its all relative. 

When I was little my dad did home renovating as a side job on nights and weekends. Most weekends my sister and I would work with him. At that time we HATED IT! Except for the money he paid us, and McDonalds breakfast, there was nothing good about working with dad on the weekends. We had to get up at the crack of dawn (usually before the sun even rose), wear nasty work clothes, load/unload the truck, clean up after dad all day, do the nastiest jobs, get yelled at for slacking off, then load/unload the truck again and go home. We probably complained the whole time.

The things and situations that I have been through have made me who I am today.  The kind of woman who can install a sump pump all by myself (yup, that happened today), make someone feel beautiful, be the hair cutting baby whisperer, work hard, love harder, and survive any situation God puts in my life.

My husband lost a dear friend today. He battled cancer for years, lived his life as normally as possible, and today he lost his fight. He fought a good one though. No one would say any different.

This whole thing has me thinking. I want to be able to give thanks for every situation that I have. Even if not at that moment, but looking back at it. I want to be the person who grabs life by the horns and says give me all you got! No regrets, no complaints, no worries. Because when it truly comes down to it, we never know whats around the next corner...and we have no way of controlling it.

May we all strive to quit complaining and enjoy whatever is thrown at us. One day it will all be taken away, and complaining won't make it any easier.

Rest in peace Chris Peppers. May you dance hard, skate harder, be without pain, and enjoy a Gunter or two with God.

I mean, who else cries at EVERY episode of "Extreme Home Makeover"?

Yesterday I started reading Captivating by John and Staci Eldridge. Now, I am only a chapter and a half in, but it already as me thinking, and I wanted to share my heart with you.

As women, we often feel like there is something wrong with us. We are too fat, not cute enough, too emotional, not strong enough, etc. Did you ever sit and think that we are the way we are, because that's how God intended it?

I am a girlie girl to the core (with a bit of rocker chick dying to come out, lol). I love sparkles and twirly dresses. I love make up and hair and chocolate. I cry at sad movies, happy movies, sappy commercials, and television shows I am emotionally invested in.  I think its sexy when my husband does manly things, or "rescues" me, and for my entire life I though this made me weird, weak, and crazy. I mean, who else cries at EVERY episode of "Extreme Home Makeover"?

This book is making me see that who I am is exactly who God wanted me to be. I (and every woman out there) represent the softer, emotional, beautiful side of God. My heart is God's heart, and my emotions are God's emotions.

I also believe this is why I love my career so much. I love making women feel like women. I love doing their hair, waxing their brows and making them feel pretty again. When a woman feels beautiful there is a certain power she posses, a certain strength she carries that is breath taking. She may sit down in my chair feeling ugly and worth less and leave feeling beautiful and powerful. I can't even count how many times someone has said to me "I feel so much better" or "Thank you so much I feel great." If you read those carefully neither one has any sort of visual aspect. They don't look better, they feel better.

So, all of this out of a chapter and a half I am sure I will have lots more to share with you guys as I get deeper into the book. So if you'd like, pick up a copy and read it with me!  Leave your thoughts and ideas below! I love comments and discussions!

What a Man, What a Mighty Good Man!

The other day a man and his wife came into the salon. As I greeted them and asked how we could help them I was bluntly interrupted by the wife saying that "he" needed a haircut. Before I could even speak she ordered him to sit down and she pulled me over to the haircut chart and showed me how "he" wanted his haircut. Her husband then spun around in the chair and was objecting with how she wanted his haircut. I go back to the chair and although he couldn't fully express how he wanted his hair cut he did know he did not want it as short as the picture and wanted it cut with just scissors, not clippers. She kept interrupting him and barking orders at him... and it made me think...

Why do women do these things to their husbands?  Why can't you let your man be a MAN?

Now before you all go on and think into this at all I am NOT saying that your man should yell, hit, scream, bark orders, control, or anything else like that. That is NOT a man.

It makes me incredibly sad to see a man controlled or beat down to the point where he is no longer a man. When they hold their head low, let their wife bark orders, tell them what to do and how to do it. That is not the way a man should act, or the way a man should be treated. In fact its not the way a woman should be treated either... but that's not what this blog is about.

Man was created to be the head of the household. To be the spiritual leader, to make smart decisions for the family, and to be a MAN! He should be strong, confident, and able to make his own choices on how he would like his hair cut!

Now, don't get me wrong. Being married for three years I have learned a tiny little bit about being the neck of the relationship! What does that mean? Although my husband is the head, I am the neck. I support and move the head in directions that I want... just not in a bossy overpowering way. I kindly make suggestions or plant ideas until what I want is accomplished. He will eventually think it was his idea to do whatever it is that I have been nagging about, thus I will get my way! But I will never de-masculine-ise my husband. He is a MAN. I didn't marry a woman, so I would never want him to act like one.

Being a hairstylist I may complain about how he wants his hair cut. He likes it short, I like it longer. I try to do a 3 instead of a 2, I try to get him to do something to it... but alas I never win and my husband sports a short fade.

I guess its better than him having pig tails and wearing the skirt in the relationship...

5Bc (brown copper) Should Be a Leaf Color!

Fall has to be my favorite season.

I love so many things about the perfect fall. I love the crisp weather, I love the leaves changing colors, I even love the look of bright yellow, red, and orange leaves fallen on the road and in yards. It really makes you look at your neighborhood in a different light. I love pumpkins, and apple cider. I love football games and the smell of burning leaves!

I love fall hair. Redken has this newer line of Brown Copper that is beautiful. If you come into my salon in the next month and ask me to do what I think will look good, you will get brown copper or brown red hair! The colors are rich and beautiful, they are just like the beautiful leaf colors.

Fall has to be my favorite season.

Ah, seasons...

Most of the time now, when I hear the word season I don't think spring, summer, fall, winter. I think a patch of someones life that is good/bad/indifferent. I think of someone telling someone "oh, its just a season... you'll get through it." Most of the time I don't mind this use of the word. Sometimes "season" is a good way to describe what you are going through. Most of the time this "season" of your life will pass quickly, within three to four months, just like a regular season.

What if it doesn't though?

What if this "season" lasts through fall, winter, and then heads on into spring and summer. What if this "season" loops through a second year and it has still to pass. Good for us if it is a good season, not so good if it is a rough one. A few of these bad seasons are the type of thing that can push people away from their relationship with God. When its rough patch after rough patch you begin to wonder if God truly DOES love you.

(I am about to bear my heart to you here. Please be nice to it)

Since getting married things have been hard for my husband and I. He got hurt at work three weeks after we got married, and after being on disability for six months, he lost his job. Pile this on with traffic issues, a bad economy, and constant physical pain... lets just say it was hard for him to find steady income.

Finally he found a job in the career of his choice (youth pastor) and we packed up our stuff, our lives, and our puppies in a U-haul and moved to OH. I'll leave that story for another soul bearing blog, but just suffice it to say that it didn't work out. We were hurt. We moved back to IL. I was able to jump back into my salon, but again my husband had a hard time. That was a year ago now, and although its not perfect yet, things are looking up.

I truthfully believe that with God all things are possible. I have been the majority of the income for us for the last 3 years, and although when I think about it I don't understand how I could ever do it... somehow it works out. We have a roof over our head, cars to drive, and food in the fridge. We even find a little extra money for Internet so that I can share my life with all of you!

I just want you to know, whoever you are, whoever I needed to write this for that it WILL be okay. Whatever it is that you need, whatever it is that you are going through, God will provide.

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:10-12

We have made it through financial struggles, break-ins, legal woes, multiple moves and relocations, encounters with pure evil, and the strain that these things have put on our marriage. We aren't in the clear, at all, but I can see the light. Things are looking up, and we made it.

Although not on our own at all. God has held our hands through the entire "season".... long as hard as it may have been.

To me!

On Thursday I will officially be another year older, and hopefully another year wiser.

This year really isn't bothering me. I dislike odd numbers, so in a way turning the next even number kinda makes me feel better. I don't know if this is a coping mechanism for getting older, or if somewhere in childhood it was instilled in me that odd numbers were bad, but either way I like even numbers better. Always have. Remember when you were in school and they would number you off for groups or games? Most people would move to be in the same number group as their friends. I would move to be an even number. Maybe its just the names, odd and even, that formed my opinion years and years ago.

Anyway, back to the looming age. I think I am doing pretty well for myself at the ripe old age of 2_*. I have been married almost 3 years. In management in the career of my choice. Living in a nifty loft.  Not to say that this may be my perfect life, but God's timing is always the right timing and we will soon see what he has in store for us. Children, ministry, relocating, ballin' out of control... these are all things that may or may not come in our near or far future.

Don't go getting all excited now, we are not trying to conceive... but I do want children some day. I just don't feel the tick of my biological clock. Which, again, I believe is God's timing and knowing when and where we should settle down to start our family. In fact, child birth and pregnancy are my biggest fears in life, but that is a whole nother post!

I really do think that I have learned a lot in these years though. I have lived a lot of life, witnessed and felt a lot of heartbreak, and experienced pure joy. I have drawn close to God, and also pushed him away at some times. I have been a good influence, a stick in the mud, and a crazy person. My thought about this all though, is what is left? I know its a whole lot but sometimes its too much for me to fathom. To think that what I have done and been through are just the beginning. I am still a kid in most people's eyes. 30 is the new 20 and I haven't even reached that yet!

So what will I wish for when I blow out my birthday candles? Happiness, Health, Love, Courage, and Strength. I can't tell you more than that or my wishes won't come true. I can tell you this though, ever sine I saw Alice in Wonderland this year I have been wondering where my muchness went... but believe me, I won't be missing for long if they all come true :)

*8

The reappearing nose bling

I don't know how it happens, but I lose my nose ring quite frequently. I have had it pierced four times over the last seven years (having to take it out for such high profile jobs as Media Play, etc have caused the numerous healings and subsequent repiercings) so you would think that I would be used to it by now. Yet somehow I frequently take it out at night or get it caught in clothes or towels and can not seem to relocate it immediately...

...but somehow it always turns back up.

I lost it once in a towel. I wiped my face off and there went the nose ring. I searched the bathroom and every inch of the towel for it and could not find it! I figured that was it, time to retire the face bling. About a week later, as I am folding my load of towels I hear a clink on the floor, and there it is. It made it through the washer, and drier, and back into my nose!

I was thinking about this today and how it reminds me of answers to prayer. Sometimes we search so hard and pray so long for something, and yet we feel like we don't ever get our answer from God. We expect an immediate answer, something right then and there. What we need to remember is that God is in control, and he WILL answer our prayer. It may not be in the time frame we wish for, or even the answer we wish for, but he will always answer...

... maybe we just need to fold a load of laundry or two before we realize that he has.