Christmas & married

This Christmas was our first as a married couple. It was very fun to start traditions with Ben and think about what we want our holidays to look like for us. We thought it would be fun to have a "candle night" which we decided is when you do everything by candle light. So obviously it makes for a simple night of game playing or talking. Cooking was too difficult to do by candle light - I wound up turning on the kitchen light - so I think next year we will have to prepare ahead of time or get take out...But that was our Christmas Eve Eve. We really liked it, it was fun to have a change of pace right before Christmas to hang out together, laugh, and play.

Decorating was very very fun! I bought a few things to make the house feel warm and cozy but left most of what I wanted to buy for after Christmas to get 50% off...But even with the few decorations I had the house looked like Christmas. We got a tree and put white lights on it. We have somewhere around 30 ornaments and then I bought a box of 50 cheap red ones from IKEA to give some color and coordination to the tree. I hung the Christmas Cards we got on ribbon in the dining room. I think the dining room was our most decorated room :) We were pleased with how our house was decorated. We were very happy to have a house for our first Christmas :) After Christmas sales were awesome! I got reindeer stocking holders, lighted garland, ornaments, snowflakes, bowls, tons and tons of lights to decorate the outside next year, a very pretty tree skirt, and a pretty red table cloth. After thinking about the table cloth (which was only $5) I thought that it might be good as curtains in my living room. I have some tan ones up now and I thought that it I made those panels and the red table cloth into equal widths I could have tan and red curtains. I am trying to find someone with a sewing machine so I can borrow it and try my hand at making the curtains!

Back to actual Christmas: We spent Christmas Eve with my family at my parents' house. I made enchiladas for our Mexican feast. We ate dinner, laughed, opened a present which is always fun to get a taste of what the next morning will be like. I opened coffee cups from my sister Joanna (matching ones for me and Ben), and I don't remember what Ben opened that night. It was nice to be with my family, we watched A Christmas Story and I fell asleep...I didn't even feel that tired but apparently I was! But we went home and I loved thinking that I would be waking up on Christmas with my husband!

We had decided to open our presents to each other (except for one which was already at his parents' house) He gave me a set of camel color flannel sheets and a set of cream color 1,000 thread count sheets. He also gave me a plum color, warm and pretty throw :) I gave him the movie A Christmas Story, a crock pot cook book, and with his parents bought him a 32 G ipod touch. He really wanted it but didn't think he was going to get it because it was out of everyones' price range. But we were able to split the cost and give Ben what he really wanted. And it has proved to be worth the cost and really is the "funnest ipod."

We went to his parents house at 7am Christmas morning to be with them. It was fun but different to be with them rather than my family. I was struggling with being sad but at the same thoroughly enjoying our time with them. I am so thankful that his family and I all get along well and can have fun together. They have Christmas music playing and try to make it as dark as possible to make it feel like early morning through the whole present opening.

We went to my parents' at 9 to have another Christmas morning :) My family does it later in the morning because we like to sleep in and we wait for my dad's mom, our Nana, comes over. 2 of my cousins live here now so they were over as well. 10 people made for a busy Christmas morning! We always make sure to have a fire going and coffee cups handed out before we start. We had a great time with my family but left shortly after noon to go to Ben's grandparent's.


I am so out of time...I will write about the afternoon later but need to go hang out with my sisters right now. I have like 1 more week with them living in phx before they move to tucson again :(

Arabelle

I was making chocolate white chocolate chip cookies Sunday night for a cookie party Monday night which was super fun! We had family things that evening so I didn't start making them until almost midnight. I had taken the 4th batch out of the oven and they were cooling on the cookie sheet when I totally feel asleep on my couch. My dog had never ever eaten anything she wasn't supposed to but decided that this was her night! She ate 2 dozen of the cookies i had cooling on my table! I didn't even think about them being in her reach when I put them there! So I woke up about 3am and freaked out! She seemed just fine but I know chocolate isn't good for dogs so I woke Ben up and we decided to call the animal hospital. I was ready to load her up and take her there but we decided to call first. Thankfully the vet said that she didn't have enough to be fatal because of her size :) and told me to watch her and expect vomiting or diarrhea. She slept in our room that night so that if she started making weird noises we would hear. She didn't do anything at all that night...she just slept. I had to go to work the next morning so I put her outside and prayed she'd be ok. I stopped by home mid afternoon to check on her and she was completely fine! She seemed happy! I don't think the chocolate affected her in a bad way at all. She liked it which just makes me a little nervous about anything in the kitchen she could get in to! But oh well...at least we know that she is resilient to people food and chocolate!

The heater guy came out over the weekend and said we needed this new power board....so he is bringing it today! I really really hope that it lets us have heat!

Disneyland :)

We loved going to Disneyland this year! First time back since Ben proposed. It was the one year anniversary! So I made the shirts we are wearing :) We got so many comments and then a Disneyland employee gave us "Happy Anniversary" pins. Disneyland is one of my favorite places because you can wear cheesy shirts like this and people notice and appreciate them!

I got to spend the weekend with friends that I love and have missed terribly! And I got to meet a few new people and get to know others that I really wanted to get to know!
These were the 2 roommates that I loved getting to know better! They are fun women that I could talk to for hours!
These girls Miranda and Ashley are friends that I was so happy to hang out with because I missed them! Ashley is living in PHX again finally but Miranda is leaving to go far far away soon :( But they are life friends...we'll still be there after England.

One of the most fun things about the trip was that my sister Cathy came!
This was right after Splash Mountain where we got pretty wet!

But my favorite thing about the whole day was talking to Ben about how we were each feeling last year on the trip. He was trying not to think about proposing so he wouldn't get nervous and I was trying not to think of the possibility of Ben proposing because I didn't think he was going to. And then we got to watch the fireworks show from Main Street again and it snowed and it was beautiful. It was the exact moment that Ben proposed last year and I just kept thinking how awesome it is that we always have that memory together and it is something we can share with our kids some day and can experience again every year if we want to! If you haven't gone to Disneyland at Christmas....GO! It's so magical and beautiful and special. Here are some more pictures...enjoy!
































We ended the trip the best way possible! We got ANNUAL PASSES! We can go pretty much any time of the year! So if you are going to Disneyland let us know...we may meet you there! Can't wait to use them!
We are loving married life but totally had a fun argument the other day about the christmas tree lights. We both wanted to put them on. I thought that I could make it look good and I wanted to try but Ben had been thinking he was going to do them. So we yelled a bit and then finally he put them on while I put Disneyland pictures on our christmas card. First major time that I just didn't want to talk to him about the situation! But we got through it :) and he did a great job on the lights. I love married life.

my house

Our heater is not working...which is a bummer because 3 months ago the inspector said it was fine. We have been bundling up while at home and snuggling under the blankets at night. We have a super warm blanket so at least we can sleep in peace. The heater guy is coming out Saturday to tell us what we need to do and to show Ben how to fix it in the future...oh the things you learn!

I'm home early from work so I am going to take this afternoon and clean! I don't like cleaning at night when I usually get home from work but the afternoon is fine by me! So in a couple hours my house will be perfectly spotless! Can't wait!

work and dreams

These are the amazing ladies that I get to work with every day! From left to right standing it's Jenny, Laura K, Tia (our supervisor), Me sitting it is Kortney on the left and Faith on the right. The 5 of us share an office...Tia of course has her own. We have fun together, laugh and talk about life and the clients we each have. I would not love my job if I did not love the people I work with.

I work at Southwest Human Development. It was recently voted the best non-profit organization to work for! I feel so blessed to have landed this job right out of college! It really is a GREAT place to work. The supervisors care about the team members and make sure that we are doing well and feel supported in dealing with the hard issues we have to face with our families that we serve.

Lately I've been thinking about my career and what I want it to look like. Do I want to start a family now? Do I want to keep working at my current job for a long term thing (I've been there 6 months so far)...Do I want to go back to school? What would my degree be in? Do I want to invest more in my work outside of the home or do I want to stay home with my kids?

Of course I don't have all the answers to these questions but I am starting to lean towards going back to school to get my masters in occupational therapy. I think I did that link right but if not it's just wikipedia's definition of occupational therapy. I really hope this next link works because it is the American Occupational Therapy Association site. Check it out...I think it is such a need with children and I would love to work with kids birth to 5 years old as an occupational therapist. So, this is my dream for now. I of course want my own children but I feel like this degree will help me be a better parent and will help me teach my kids well and I can facilitate play and love through this therapy. That would make my heart so very happy! I feel like OT is a way that God helps us, his children, cope with life when that is all we can do and also to enjoy the sweet moments and realize the beauty that surrounds us.

updates and Velvet Elvis

oh my goodness it has been so so long since I have posted something. I actually had to check and see what I had posted last to see what I needed to catch up on! Well the kitchen is painted red now - but it still needs a little bit of edging touch-ups so no pictures have been taken yet. Also I repainted the bathroom so I will take those pictures when the paint tape comes off! I got some pictures printed out of our last year together for a project that I am really excited about. The coffee table in our living room is great but I wanted to make it more personal. I decided to choose pictures and glue them onto the table along with some favorite quotes and verses. Then I'll lacquer over it to seal it all up and then we have a piece that is all about us and our memories together! I'm going to start that after Disneyland trip.


I posted the above picture because I like it - pretty simple. We were at our friends John and Vanessa Wathen's wedding (such a wonderful night!) I love weddings almost more now after my own then I did before I was married. It just reminds me so vividly of the love that Ben and I have for each other and how much love God has for me and how preciously he takes care of my heart. I love love love weddings!

I am reading this book Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I have heard a lot about it the last couple years but I had never read it. I'm borrowing it from Marcia Kuyper and I am loving it. I have been taught most of the beliefs that are in this book and I agree with so much of the book. A theme of this book is to test and probe what you are taught and what you read anywhere. I do this at times but not very often. I have the ability to deliberately think through and mediate on scripture and I do this in passing as I am driving or as I am reading the words but I don't regularly take time apart from reading to mull over what it is saying. I want to do this with Velvet Elvis because there is so much that Rob is saying.

One of my struggles in life is listening to people talk about how important counseling and therapy is and at the same time others talk about how important focusing on the positives in life is and not living in the past but in the present and looking only towards the future. Yes our past is there to teach us but what other role does it play in my life? How much should I think about how my past affects my daily life? Should I take time and think through the times that I was hurt and scarred in my childhood and adolescence or should I accept God's forgiveness, grace, and healing and then move on. Does it take more than that to heal from past hurt? I don't know - but I want to keep learning and growing.

Another theme that I am grasping is that the Bible is living and active. I have heard that sentence probably 1,000 times in my life form adults trying to prove that the Bible was important and I should read it and care about it. It never worked. I didn't care about what the Bible said until I accepted the love that God was so desperately throwing at me! Once I realized that God loves me and there is no judgment, condemnation, guilt, or striving. It's just me and my completely accepted being and the joy of living out of God's love. The journey has been amazing but what this book is revealing is how the Bible was alive when it was written. I didn't know how intentional the writers were in thinking through who their audience was. They wrote exactly what their audience needed to hear to believe in Jesus. And so many of the same verses are exactly what I need to hear to believe in Jesus. It's amazing. Every time I read a passage I hear God wooing my heart. I can't believe how blessed I am that God chose me for this wonderful journey and life that he has for me.

Shalom is one of my new favorite words. I might name a child that :) hahaha my husband would never let me do that! It is similar to the word peace. I love having peace - I love peace and quiet, I love a peaceful friend, I love a peaceful evening with my husband, I love the comfort and the joy and rest that is in peace. Shalom is like peace intensified. It is God given goodness and wholeness. I have a desire for that and I don't think I have that in my life. I still care WAY too much about what other people are thinking about me and not about God and his life for me. I am not very good at doing the day to day tasks with God. I trust him, but I haven't figured out what honors him and what doesn't. Isn't that weird? I've lived all of my life knowing God's commandments and stories about God but what about the things that being him glory and how to honor God in the minutes of the day? I don't think about those things very often. I think a lot about what God might "want" from me or what other people want from me but not about what will bring God glory and honor and what does my love for him desire me to do. Just recently I am thinking more about that. I hope that I am able to test and probe this book, the Bible, other people in my life to live this life in the most God glorifying way.

It's after midnight and I have work tomorrow. Those are my thoughts for now. I'll probably wait til after DISNEYLAND to post again.

underlining was there!

It didn't transfer the underline! I swear it was underlined while I was typing....I'm not crazy!

our house as it is today :)

I don't know how to get this to stop underlining so I'm just going to post this! I decided to put up new pictures of our house. It feels like not much has changed since I posted last and the parts that have changed are in a worse state! But I hope you enjoy looking at where our house is at in the process! The next step for the living room is to buy curtains...they will be about the color of the sheet that is now giving us privacy in the living room. The blue couch is temporary. It is our friend Daniel's who is living with us for a bit...This is the vanity in the bathroom - I painted the walls taupe and didn't like it in the bathroom so I painted the walls again. I'll post those pictures with the next round...
I picked out this shower curtain - I thought it was fun and cute.
This is the part of the house that looks worse...Ben tool out a whole wall so there is drywall dust EVERYWHERE! We are working at getting the last of the wallpaper off the wall that is on the left side of this picture. Once that is done then we will texture the wall (the drywall under the wallpaper wasn't textured at all) and then paint! Right now the idea is to paint the walls orange. That pretty fall-like orange.
This is our beloved kitchen....The plans for this is to leave to doors off (we were going to paint all the cabinets and doors and put them back on with new hinges (the old ones were no good) but we decided that within the next few years we would like to completely gut the kitchen so it seemed pointless to us to buy new hardware just for a couple years and go through the trouble of sanding and painting all the cabinets. So I am thinking I will paint the inside and outside of the cabinets that are on the wall right now and then paint the walls and let it be until we redo everything.
This is our dining room - one of my favorite parts of this house is my fruit bowl - I love walking into the room and seeing fresh fruit - I love the colors and the feeling of seeing freshness right there on my table :)
So that is it - wow the underlining came back...I thought I got rid of it...oh well! I just went to Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel with Miranda to spend the last of the wedding gift cards...so I will be posting pictures of the great decorations we got there! I am definitely more excited about my house now! Thanks Miranda! I am going to paint more in the bathroom now...we have goals of what we want done by Thanksgiving so expect some more pictures by Thanksgiving!

Love to you all :)

Closer to being a home!

I am in my living room (I'm refraining from calling it my new living room so I can get used to it being mine). It is starting to look more like a home and not a storage room! More boxes got unpacked today and I actually made a meal! Until now it has been make a sandwich, don't eat dinner at all, chips and salsa for dinner, go get something out, or order a pizza. We did try last night to cook in our oven but that ended up with the house filling with smoke and very bad smells! I'm thinking we didn't clean it good enough so back to cleaning it again! So today I used the Crockpot. I am getting more used to saying our house and walking around it has been getting more comfortable. I'm hoping to feel like I'm home when I come back on Saturday. Which brings me to my next subject....my work trip!

I am leaving tomorrow for a work trip in Tucson. I will be gone until Saturday morning. I don't like leaving my husband - but I will be taking my little sister with me to stay with my other 2 sisters' apartment. All 4 of us will be together again! I could have stayed at the hotel my conference is at but I decided that this would be more fun. Joanna, my youngest sister is on fall break so she doesn't even have to miss school :)

I need to go to bed now but I will post pictures of the changes we are making to the house as soon as I find the cord for my camera - I think I know which box it is in but ya never really know!

Our New House!

Ben and I bought a house! We signed on it 10 days ago and now it is sanitized and partially painted...a work in progress. This has been such a fast process for us! We made an offer September 3rd and signed September 26th! Just 23 days after we made the offer. We first had to rip all the carpet out which Brian and Ben did such a great job! The house definitely got better after that stuff was out. Brian even took all the tack strips out all himself! That made the house safer and look so much better too! And after taking out the baseboards in one room, which seemed to be a much easier job then the tack strip, I couldn't believe he did it all! Last weekend my family came over to help us paint and we got SO much done! They were such a help! I'm going to be cleaning up the floors from all the paint supplies tomorrow so that the furniture can come in.

I am sitting on my couch tonight for the last time in our first apartment. I'm actually tearing up a little thinking about not living here anymore. I have grown to really love this apartment and I am so comfortable here. This has become our home. I have my routine of what I do here and how I do things. I like our furniture set up (well it's kinda all moved around now to make moving easier and things are boxed up) but I really love this place! I'm afraid of the house because it seems so big and empty. It is about 800 square feet bigger than our apartment (that is nearly double by the way) Thankfully God provided some circumstances where we were able to get more furniture, appliances, and things the house needed for what we could afford! That has been really cool to watch and be a part of God providing for us. God is so so good! We are excited and happy but also stressed and adjusting. I am looking forward to this new stage - homeownership. I just didn't even imagine it would come so soon! alright...I need to go to bed. Our days are long now with all the work to do at the house. I'm tired but it is a good hard tired after a day of working hard! I love it!

These are some pictures of what the house looked like when we bought it...I will take a camera tomorrow to take pictures of the work in progress.

In Sickness and In Health

Last night I just went down and a head/chest cold took over my body. I had been loosing my voice all day but after dinner my chest hurt, head hurt, throat was then on fire, and congestion had finally gotten to where I could blow my nose (before it was all in my sinuses behind my nose and I could not get it out). On our way home he stopped at his parents to get their humidifier for me - and oh my gosh that helped so much! So anyway....we got home and I just laid down on our couch. That is pretty normal but when I'm sick this also involves moaning and constant needs. Ben set up the humidifier and did whatever I asked of him with absolute love and care. Made me tea and wasn't frustrated when I then fell asleep. He simply waited until I woke up and offered me the tea. He made sure I had Kleenex right there, water, and tea. When I asked for my blanket he got it. When I asked for a cough drop he got it. I had everything I needed and felt so loved and taken care of! When I went to sleep for good last night I could hardly breathe and my head totally hurt but I knew I was loved and taken care of. It was one of the most safe feelings ever and I love my husband for being so so so good to me! I only hope that I can take care of him that well when he needs me. So - this post is for you my love!

Freedom

"In my distress I prayed to the LORD and the LORD answered me and set me free!" This is how I have been feeling lately. I feel like there are so many ways my life could turn out and I so badly want to live a life out of grace and love and freedom. I have witnessed lives that are lived for God but out of fear. I hate fear.

1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love for perfect love casts out fear. Fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." I want to be made perfect in love! I know that I will never be perfect on this earth but I believe that I am righteous and that is enough for me.

I feel that my husband and I are living this life so well right now. We love each other, we talk, we fight, we reconcile, and we aim to see each other as Christ-in Laura and Christ-in Ben even when we are having our worst days. We are incredibly happy and feel so blessed with what God is doing in our lives and what he has provided for us. We definitely are not perfect - we are learning what it means to be a wife and a husband.

As I read my Bible more I am finding myself falling more in love with Jesus. I decided a few months ago that I need to set time for me and Jesus. That our relationship is not going to just "be deep and meaningful." I knew that I would need to put an effort into the relationship. Spending time with Jesus is deepening our relationship and therefore making mine and Ben's more full. I am just scared of who I can be without Jesus. I am afraid that I will try to control my life. I am afraid that I will hide myself from others instead of being real and truefaced. I still pray to Jesus and ask him to keep me humble and trusting him. But I still worry about what other people think of me. I hate that about myself but it is true and I think that if I acknowledge it in myself I can start letting God change me and take that fear away from me. I am done with it.

In my distress I prayed to the LORD and the LORD answered me and set me free.

Getting Ready for work

I am blessed to have a job that doesn't start until 9am at the earliest. I wake up around 7 so I have almost 2 hours - and a lot of times I push it and go in late so I have more time all to myself! (My husband has to be at work by 7 so he is up and gone before I wake up)

I usually start with a glass of OJ :) sometimes I make coffee but other times I just enjoy sweet orange juice. I usually see what is on the news...if it's a good story I'll watch it (NBC Today show is the typical). I am reading through the book of John in the Bible and am loving reading this in the stage of life I am at. A morning read helps set my day at a good pace.

I always like to delay getting ready for the day. Partly because it means I have to change out of my sweats and partly because it means that I have to leave my house. In the morning I want nothing more than to stay in sweats and take it easy. Right now I'm in the keep delaying the inevitable and watch the news part of my morning. A story about infertility and that maybe eastern medicine can help it.

I love my little living room and the cozy couch I get to snuggle on every morning as I read, watch the news, send emails....whatever it is I choose to do.

I'm looking at my schedule for the day - my work lives only in a schedule. It's not too busy, not too full. So hopefully I will come back and write about how it went or how my evening is going. I need to clean my floors while my husband gets his hair cut so I will be alone again. Ok...I kinda need to leave in 30 minutes and I'm not ready. :)

This is my morning, my second favorite part of my "everyday" day.

First Blog

I never really thought much of the whole blogging thing but after reading posts by some friends I'm thinking I'll give it a shot. I have a lot of new things happening in my life and I think it will be fun to document them here since I don't write in a journal much. So...I'll go create my profile and see how I like this blogging thing!