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!

boogie your Gluten Free buns

Have you ever considered or have you already decided to go gluten free? Eating gluten free has become popular in the last 5 years, and it has been discovered that it can help with numerous health issues ranging from Autism to Eczema. Gluten is found in almost everything now a days! Bread is an obvious culprit but did you know cheese has gluten in it? Crazy right?

Thanks to House Party  I got to host a Udi's Gluten Free party for our friends and youth group here in Ohio! We got a rootbeer keg, a ton of hot dogs, and some awesome Udi's Gluten Free hot dog buns! We live in the middle of no where so I had to travel about 20 mins away to find the buns, and I had to ask a store clerk because they were stored in the freezer, but once we got them all the work was totally worth it! Unlike regular hot dog buns the Udi's buns were very big, which was great because they could handle lots and lots of toppings for our hot dogs!

The buns were texturally different than a regular buns, but the taste similar to what a bakery bun would taste like! We didn't tell the youth students they were gluten free until after they had tried them, and their response was favorable! They kept on enjoying the buns even after we told them they were gluten free! They didn't even know such products existed or that there was a need for them, so it was a great opportunity to explain the products and why there would be a need for them! I LOVE having a reason to explain different things to our youth group students so this was lots of fun for me!

As you can see they also enjoyed some pool time at our Boogie Your Buns Udi's Gluten Free party, and the buns kept them full and energized long enough to play games, be in and out of the pool, and just be kids for over 5 hours!

They loved dancing and playing rootbeer pong with one another, which is one of our favorite youth group outreach activities! Its a great way to show them they can have fun and play "popular" games with out having to consume alcohol! It was so great to open their horizons to all of these great things, and all 30+ students had
a ton of fun! Our adult youth leaders had fun and enjoyed the Udi's buns too! A lot of our leaders are very health and diet conscious so they were very excited to try an alternative to regular bread!I told them about all the other cool products I discovered like the BBQ sauce, chocolate chip muffin tops, and even pizzas that Udi's Gluten free makes!

If you are interested in trying out some awesome gluten free products you can check out Udi's website for products and a location near you where you can find them! I would also suggest just keeping your eyes open at your local grocer because I found the products at stores near me that weren't on their store locator!

They WANT you to be their friend

My husband is constantly telling me that I need friends, or maybe just one really good friend. 

He wonders why I don't talk or text on the phone constantly or go out and have "girls nights." He thinks there is something wrong with me that I don't have people in my life. Besides my customers, my co-workers, and women that are involved with his friends I would say that there aren't any constant figures in my life.

Lets start this out by defining friend, as it applies to this situation. Friend, noun, a person of the same sex whom you can talk to about life, hang out with on a regular basis, share fond memories and grow with. Someone who loves you, and would be there for you in the drop of a hat. Someone who knows you and understands you. The kind of person that you would share clothes with, adorn matching jewelery with cute sayings, or even be crazy enough to get a matching tattoo with...

I attribute not having friends to a few things. First thing that may cause my friend-less-ness its being 28, married, no kids. Being an older married person without kids is a rarity. Its also a very strange place to be socially. I don't have children to talk about or take on play dates, and people who have kids either don't relate to me, think I won't relate to them, or are so intimidated by my ability* to not procreate yet that they can't stand to be around me, thus eliminating a whole plethora of potential friends. Just being married knocks out an entire group of the population too. People who aren't married really don't like to hang around us married folk. It gives them the willies.

(*I say ability because it has been my choice to not have children. No ooops, none what so ever. You can read about that thought here.)

The second thing that may have caused me to not have friends is being a christian. That's right, I said it! Before I became a christian I had TONS of friends. We would drink, dance, go to clubs, shop, party and hang out all the time. My inbox was always full, my datebook fully scheduled, and my social life in full swing... but the minute I changed my life people stopped calling. I have even had people say to me "oh, you've got God in your life now, I'm not talking to you." Apparently being in good graces with the big man upstairs is offensive to people. Most of these "friends" probably weren't friends in the first place. They were just people that I went out with 4-7 nights a week. Once you take away the dimly lit rooms, loud music, and adult beverages there wasn't much holding us together.

The MAIN reason I believe I no longer have friends is my profession. Being a hairstylist drops you into this special category of people. They WANT you to be their friend, but only seem to call when they have a hair question, need their hair done, want to pick up product at the supply store etc. You no longer get the "guess what happened" or "hows your day going" calls or texts, its only when your skills and services are desired. Don't get me wrong, I truly enjoy conversing with each and every one of my clients, and love seeing them... but if my dog died would any of them be there? Probably not. It may be my mistake, in crossing the line from friend to client in offering to do new or old friends hair for them, but every time, in every situation, it has lead to only being called when their hair needs me.

There is one thing about me not having friends that is MY fault (well not really mine, but that of the people that have cause it to be my fault). I'm a pretty tough brick wall. I've been hurt, hurt bad by "friends", especially ones in the Best category, so I don't open up easily. No one really knows me anymore besides my husband.  I finally got so tired of being used and mistreated that I started piling up the bricks until it truly became a full blown wall up. Part of me doesn't regret it, because it has kept it from happening for a while, but the other part of me does because I just don't feel the love I used to when I had a BFF. I am working on this though, and I may need to relearn how to be a friend.

If I had to break it down I would say that 75% of me is okay with not having any friends. I like the drama free lifestyle. I like having my alone time and being able to do what I want to do. I'm surrounded by people all the time, the boys are always around and I have fun with them. Sometimes they have a wife or girlfriend that I enjoy spending time with, and that is that.

But sometimes I just want someone to go to lunch with and talk about everything that is going on in my life...

Love, Patience and Kindness

Some days it is just so hard to love people.

As a christian I believe that we should love everyone who crosses our path. So I try to treat everyone as the godly creation that they are. Some days it is impossible though, today was one of those days.

(Warning : the following may contain hairstylist jargon that you may or may not understand)

It all started about eight months ago with a client that we will call crazy bus driver lady (CBDL for short). Well CBDL is one of those clients who talks non stop as you are doing their hair. She is on her later 50's and per her alias drives a Rockford school bus. CBDL likes to ask me questions that I would have no idea as to the answer (for instance: were did Angelina and Brad conceive Shilo), and she will ask me about 20 of them through out our 90 mins spent together.

Alas, today's story is NOT about CBDL. CBDL referred another bus driver to my salon to get her hair done. She is the one who I found impossible to love today.

So, CBDL's friend (who we will call C2) is also crazy, which I should have figured out when she mentioned who referred her. The first time she came to see me was just for a trim. This was six months ago. Well she stopped in yesterday saying she wanted her hair trimmed and a color. It was about 90 mins before close so I figured I could squeeze her in. That's when she became Crazy #2. She first started talking about low lights, and how her hair does not hold color well. I told her I could handle that. Then she said she wanted high lights too but not white and not gold. Then she mentioned that she wanted Reese Witherspoon's hair. I explained to her that Reese typically has a beige base with platinum (as she was calling white) highlights. What I should have done was explained to C2 that coloring her hair to look like a 30 something beautiful movie star was NOT going to make her ( a 60 year old ) look like the 30 something movie star. Well, then c2 decided she did not want a color, just the cut. I was okay with that at that point cause I was just fed up with debating color with her.

Then, about 2/3 of the way through the haircut she goes "Okay, go ahead and color it". So I pull out the swatch book, we talk about colors, we pick colors, and I go mix. We chose a light brown (level 6) neutral low light, a beige blonde (level 10) highlight, and a dark golden blonde (level 8) base. I apply, process, and blow dry. C2 checks it out in 3 different mirrors (for different lighting, of course) and says "i like it". She pays, tips me and goes home. I sigh a sigh of relief and go home for the night. I was just glad to be done with her for six months... or so I thought.

At 11ish this morning I am coloring another clients hair and c2 walks through the door. She asks if I am there and sits down. I excuse myself for a moment and grudgingly go see whats up with c2. She tells me that her hair looks NOTHING like Reese Witherspoon and that its ashy. I kindly inform her that there is NO ash in her hair, in fact it is gold based, and that we agreed that Reese Witherspoons hair was not the tome she was looking for, and that SHE picked the colors. Well she goes on and on about Reese Witherspoon to the point of looking through the gossip mags for a picture of her. I explain to her that I could tone her with a gold to knock out anything that may be ashy or neutral once I am done with my current client. C2 says "Well how do you know that is what to do"... I looked her straight in the eye and said with full attitude "because I spent $15,000 on beauty school, and that's what they taught me."

Now normally I wouldn't have said something like that, but this lady had taken every last ounce of love out of my system and I couldn't even stop the words from coming out of my mouth. I still feel bad for addressing her with such attitude, but there was not one ounce of patience left in my soul. I obviously need to continue to work on this part of my life. I want to treat every person I come in contact with as Jesus would have treated them. I want to reflect Christian values and treat everyone with love. Someone once said to me "you may be the only bible that person ever gets to read", and that truly hit home in my soul. If I am the only exposure to Christ that someone has I want to make sure that it is positive and reflective of Jesus' light and love, even if they don't know that is what it is.

C2 didn't have me "fix" her hair. She said she would come back later but didn't, which I am kind of thankful for. My patience level will not be recharged until after my day off tomorrow.