Life is Beautiful

A-Z 1.5 years later

2011-01-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

A - Age: 24
B - Bed Size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: a lot of them.
D - Dog's name: Kofi
E - Essential start your day item: a comb
F - Favorite color: don't have one. I love purple, yellow, orange, green, blue, white, black....
G - Gold or Silver: silver
H - Height: 5'8"
I - Instruments you play(ed): several when I was young but I did not like practicing so I quit
J - Job title: Foster Care Licensing and Adoption Specialist
K - Kid(s): are so cute as infants...oh my gosh!
L - Living arrangements: Ben, Julie, and Kofi
M - Mom's name: Arlene
N - Nicknames: Lupy, Lolly
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: never, not even for birth, my mom did home births
P - Pet Peeve: people standing in the middle of the aisle at the store oblivious that they are taking up the whole aisle and blocking me!
Q - Quote from a movie: "I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her" - Notting Hill. Makes me cry every time! *In 2011: Still my favorite quote.
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: 5 sisters
T - Time you wake up: 5:00 am-8:00am
U- Underwear: I don't discuss this in public...really?
V - Vegetable you dislike: tomato is the WORST, followed by mushroom. I like almost all the rest
W - Ways you run late: Car is out of gas, I stop at Starbucks, I press snooze too much, I make wrong turns, I spend too much time running, I spend too much time reading...there are A LOT of ways that I can run late!
X - X-rays you've had: teeth and stomach
Y - Yummy food you make: I think I'm best at salad dressings, anything with bbq sauce, cookies, and sorbet.
Z - Zoo favorite: I LOVE the exotic animals. Tigers might be my favorite animal to watch.

New Year

2011-01-07T20:24:00.000-08:00

So I just finished Surrender to Love by David Benner which took me over a month to read, Drops Like Stars by Rob Bell which took me 30 minutes to read, and now am reading Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen. All three are pretty amazing writers. All three are very different writers. But all three are passionate about God, Christ, and life lived in Christ. I'm gleaning some pretty cool stuff from them - and am enjoying my times of resting my mind from everything around me to read word by word the stories these men have written. Quotes from these amazing men: "Jesus invites us to abandon the isolation and rigidity associated with our egocentricity." -David Benner. This totally describes a place I can go with out Jesus: isolated, rigid, and egocentric. "When we try to resolve things too quickly or pretend that everyone is there when they aren't or offer hollow, superficial explanations...it's not honest and it's not right and it's not real. It's not how life is." - Rob Bell. Seriously Rob Bell has the ability to look into my heart and pick out the words it is trying to say. He also has the ability to say words that reveal the rawness and the ugliness and then point out Jesus' power in the midst of it all. "You are free to do what you want - that is if you really want it." - Henri Nouwen. That is from the first chapter and I haven't finished Henri's book...but I think I will love it! I am wanting to dream a lot right now. Dream, plan, hope, pray, and make my dreams a reality. More writing to come on those dreams I'm sure.

Tomorrow we take down Christmas in our house. I try to leave everything up for 12 days after Christmas...that was Thursday and tomorrow is the first chance I'll have. I always get sad when I have to take it all down. But I do like putting the normal decorations back up and setting things in order again.

I have taken up running as my regular exercise. I go about 3 times a week and so far have LOVED it! I go either at 6:45am...just after the sun makes it safe for me to be out :) or I go after work right before the sun goes down. It is really fun feeling my body change and become better at running. I can go for lots longer than I could when I started about 4 months ago and I feel so good! I love that my running is dependent on nothing other than me. When I would go to the gym sometimes I wouldn't want to be around other people. When hiking was my exercise I wouldn't have time to drive to and from the mountain, hike it, and still get to work on time. When I rode my bike I would get flat tires and then be discouraged. Now, all my work out depends on is my effort to get up, there being enough light to see where I'm going, and Kofi not to eat my running stuff (which so far she has only eaten shoe laces). I think I will enjoy my life as a casual runner. I'm slow but steady for the few miles at a time I can run right now. I'm adding more time to my runs each week to see how long I can go...we'll see!

I'm starting this sorbet faze I think. I made mango sorbet on New Year's Eve and I LOVED it so much! I just got some more fruit to make into sorbet...and I might do it tomorrow. But first on my agenda is cleaning my entire house, laundry, putting Christmas away, and choosing paint for our bedroom (which hopefully we can paint SOON!)

So...I think that about wraps up for tonight. Kofi is ready for bed so I'm gonna go.

Try this again?

2011-01-07T07:07:00.000-08:00

So after a year and a half of not blogging, I think I will start again. Our life seemed to go a little crazy the last 18 months and I could not find anything to write about. Well, nothing that I would want to share with other people. I love jotting my thoughts down, whether they are deep or not, simple or complex. God gave us hearts, minds, and souls. I feel, think, and love with those things. I think I'll use this to write about those things...feeling, thinking, and loving. Also just to give updates on life for those we love that live farther away than we'd like.

To start, I ran this morning in the 37 degree temp, I will be getting ready for work as soon as I put this cpu down, I have no idea what to wear today, I have a pretty important meeting at 11am today, I will stop at Starbucks to get a decaf, nonfat, misto with 1 pump white mocha and 1 pump gingerbread (unless I change my mind between here and there which I do often), and when I stop at Starbucks I will see my husband :) which is always nice on my way to work. After work I will try running again because I was too cold this morning and only got 1 mile in. I'd like to go another 2-3. But we'll see because Ben will be home and we have cleaning, taking down the Christmas tree, and a get together tonight at 7.

Gotta get ready for the day, and go to work. But I think I will like to be blogging again - I like processing through words, writing them down, and learning from them.

a few facts about me A-Z

2009-05-28T00:12:00.000-07:00

A - Age: 23
B - Bed Size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: cleaning up after my doggie
D - Dog's name: Arabelle
E - Essential start your day item: alarm clock...lol...really I would say chapstick
F - Favorite color: pink, creeping up though is something I didn't expect - blue :)
G - Gold or Silver: silver
H - Height: 5'68"
I - Instruments you play(ed): several when I was young but I did not like practicing so I quit
J - Job title: PT aide and nanny
K - Kid(s): are cute but I don't have any!
L - Living arrangements: with my adoring husband, I was so thankful for him today!
M - Mom's name: Arlene
N - Nicknames: Lor, Lol, Lupy
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: never, not even for birth, my mom did home births
P - Pet Peeve: not planning something well when it affects me or people I love
Q - Quote from a movie: "I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her" - Notting Hill. Makes me cry every time!
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: 5 sisters total
T - Time you wake up: 6:00 am
U- Underwear: optional
V - Vegetable you dislike: egg plant
W - Ways you run late: If I forget my car's gas tank is on empty and I need to stop for gas...that happened this morning!
X - X-rays you've had: teeth and stomach
Y - Yummy food you make: I will say that I am a pretty good cook and I enjoy it so I make some good food! Best I think is fruit&marange, or salsa, or cookies
Z - Zoo favorite: I haven't been to the zoo in a long time - I remember riding a camel when I was little somewhere so I'll say that!

Hope you enjoyed this - now post it for yourself so I can read about you!

The "perks" of a hospital job

2009-05-22T22:44:00.001-07:00

I have worked at Scottsdale Health Care for 6 weeks now. I have been able to handle the grossness of it all until today.

I have seen a lot of really gross stuff. I have had to quickly grap a bed pan and place it under a patient so he wouldn't "let some go" on his bed and on my hand; I held a bucket for a patient as she threw up the "nothing" that was in her stomach after her surgery; I have watched an elderly patient have a BM as we walked him down the hall; I have had patients faint on me and the PT in the hall; I have seen urine very unnatural colors of amber and puce; I have seen blood drains; blood stains on sheets; BM stains on sheets/gowns; stapled up incisions; very young sick people, and very elderly people in their last days. I have been able to handle all of that fairly well. Of course some teary eyes for the sad moments, but I've handled it. Until today.

Today a patient spit disgusting saliva and whatever turned it that nasty color into a bowl and I had to wash it. I gagged and dry heaved (thankfully silently and the patient's back was to me) I had to excuse myself from the room to keep from throwing up right there. I could not handle that. After working in a dentists' office I knew I didn't like saliva but I thought I was over that after going through all the above mentioned...but I discovered today that I am not. Saliva/spit will make me gag and dry heave.

So you can bleed/urinate/throw up/and even have a BM in front of me.
Just don't spit.
Thank you.

Oklahoma

2009-05-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

I just got back from spending 6 days in Oklahoma! There is not much to that state but it is where my dad's younger brother lives and 2 of my cousins go to school in towns outside Oklahoma City. My cousin Melissa got married on Saturday in OKC so I flew out Tuesday night to help her with all the last details that come together in the days leading up to a wedding. I got in late Tuesday night to find that my poor cousin was sick with a really bad cold. She had only 3 days til her wedding! We bought echnecia drops and Emergen-C, stopped at jamba juice to load up on fruits, and she even decided to go to a clinic where they gave her antibiotics, liquid cold medicine, and to top it off: a shot of steroids. Needless to say her body kicked into high gear and fought off every ounce of sickness! She was feeling great by on her wedding day!

We spent our time together finishing the programs, doing a picture/ribbon project for the walls at her reception, talking about what photographs to do, finalizing details with the vendors, and then finally....friday we were joined by our sisters and moms for pedis, manis, luncheon, packing for the honeymoon (in Maui!), and gabbing about our lives and her WEDDING! We had so much fun! There are 7 of us girls in all - and that day will hold some of the best memories we have shared together. On the day of the wedding everything went so smoothly! There were a few things that needed extra attention or work...but Melissa never knew about those things and was able to relax and enjoy her special day. Well...she was mad when the photographer was an hour late and we couldn't hide that from her...but her sister did a great job of helping her get through that.

Ben came out for the wedding and was an amazing help getting the truffle favors finished and running back to the house when something was forgotten....We didn't get much time together because Melissa needed me to be doing lots of other things. He did however make sure we danced a few dances, held hands, and smiled at each other from across the room. He is such a perfect husband for me! He let me have my girl cousin time and didn't complain once about what I was doing for the wedding to make sure it ran smoothly.

The flight back home was comical. We needed to drop off me, Julie, and Cathy a little early (8:30 for a 12:00 flight) because we didn't want our Uncle Steve to have to leave a car at the airport and he did not have one vehicle that would fit all 5 of us in! In all there were my sisters and I, Ben, and our Grandma Ceil. The rest of the got to the airport around 10:30 only to find that the flight has been delayed an hour, set to leave at 1:00pm. BUMMER. We found things to keep us busy and our uncle Steve and Nana sat and talked with us until we needed to head through security. We got through, ate at Schlotzsky's, grabbed a deck of cards to play with, and shortly boarded the plane. We were getting nervous as 1:00 drew closer because in order for Julie, Cathy, and Grandma Ceil to make their connecting flight to Tucson we needed to be in the air at 1:05. We took off at 1:02, according to Ben's watch, and as we walked off the airplane in Denver we heard over the loudspeaker, "All remaining passengers on flight **** to Tucson please report to gate ** we are ready to take off." The three of them booked it (as quickly as Grandma Ceil could go) down corridor to their gate and thankfully they made it! They were the last ones on the plane but they made it.

Ben and I had a 2.5 hour layover and I wanted to go outside and walk around. Afterall we were in Denver and it looked like the weather was gorgeous outside. We made our way to the front of the airport - security didn't look like it would take very long to get back through so we continued past it. There were actually hundreds or people in line that we couldn't see. bummer....Ben wasn't thrilled because he didn't want to have to go back through security in the first place - sorry ben. We walked over to where they had an outside patio but they had "closed it for cleaning" we didnt want to walk too far from security because we needed to have enough time to get through. We got TCBY yogurt to make up for not being able to go outside. We then got in line for the 30 or so minute wait for security...got back on the tram that took us to our terminal. We had about 30 minutes til boarding when we got to our gate so we played cards and games on his itouch. We made it home a few hours late but were glad to be back with Arabelle. She's so fun and cute.

I can say for sure that aside from seeing Arabelle, we were not ready to go home on Monday. We loved being in OK and I love my cousins. My whole family was there and we loved all the time we spent with each other. Both Ben and I loved the weather, the scenery, and everything else about OKC. We definitely will be visiting our family in OK often.

*I will post pictures when I get them from my sister...

Pictures from March

2009-04-11T18:20:00.001-07:00

We surprised my mom at a sports bar to watch the UofA game...they made it into the sweet 16!
She didn't even know we were coming to Cali and then we all got to go to Disneyland. It was a year of surprised for my mom!

We went to the beach the day we got there - windy and cold - but we still had fun and took some pictures.

It has been a long time since we were all together like this!

First ride of the day!

Me and Cathy :)

We took the train around the park

At Tarzan's Tree House...I had never been through it.

We LOVE this ride - no motion sickness in our family!!!

My mom's birthday dessert from a delicious restaurant in Disneyland!

Snow White's wishing well

My sisters with the cute dwarfs behind us

Last ride of the night - Dumbo!

Saying good bye to Disneyland...sigh...

And this is the video from my mom's surprise party for her 50th. Her sister Paulette who she dearly misses came in just for her party and surprised my mom - you'll see her reaction. It makes me cry.

Pills and flowers

2009-04-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

I asked my sister about the pictures and the video - she will send them to me soon. Until then I decided to post about my vitamins and supplements that I take. A couple of weeks ago I decided that Ben and I should take vitamins. My gracious husband humored me and started taking the vitamins along with me - and he really likes how he feels with them! I really felt that we did't get enough nutrition in the food we eat and I think our bodies suffer all around from lack of nutrition. So I talked to my cousin-in-law Brent who is a chiropractor and has tons of knowledge about supplements. He has his office stocked with lots of them so these are what we bought. The group on my left is what I take in the morning, the group on the right I take at night. some pills are in both and the bottle in the middle is vitamin D drops that we take 2x per day.

I know that I was the one with the grand idea but I discovered that I do not like taking pills and I don't take them very well. I choke, gag, and have even spit them back out. Wouldn't you if you took this many??? Ben is my cheerleader who says to me over and over "Just do it" "Don't think about it" And he does it lovingly. I was the one who brought them home and he is the one convincing me to take them almost every time! I did discover that if I take them with pinnapple juice I handle it much better than with water. A couple of the pills have an awful taste. I still gag - I think I will always gag. But at least now I am not spitting them out! These are all of the bottles.

I also wanted to put a little post in about my flower garden. I started this yesterday and was so happy to finally have something pretty in there! And I think I will truly appreciate it because it took a lot of work to get the planter cleaned out and new soil in there. I love my pretty purple and white daisies - I just hope they hold up well in the sun...the papers said they would but this planter is right in the sun almost all day. I'll keep you updated with how the flowers grow :)

updates March and April

2009-04-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

My blog title "Ever Changing Life" is so appropriate right now. That is partially why I have not blogged in over a month...any time I though oh I should blog about that something new happened and I was busy with that or didn't know how to blog about it. But I thought I should just sit and write. So here I am on a rainy Saturday looking out my livingroom window listening to the falling rain. I love the sound of the rain! I am sipping on my delicious TODDY coffee (http://toddycafe.com) and eating the last of my birthday brownies. I like cake but I LOVE brownies so I asked for my mom's zebra brownies for my birthday this year. SO YUMMY!

Ok so I'm thinking back to my last blog entry....and I told you all that I had my job interview at shc. Well...I got the job! It pays about 30% less than my old job :( and is on call so they don't promise any hours....they told me to expect 2-8 shifts per month (I know what a range)! I am encouraged because most of the other on call workers are in school and I am not so I might be more available than the others to pick up extra shifts when needed. They also like to promote on call workers to part time after a trial run as on call. I hope that I do this job well and that I like it!

I decided that although I got this job I would still try to find another part time job, possibly as a nanny. I interviewed with one mom on Friday and have applied to 2 other families so we will see what happens with that! They pay almost what I was making at my old job so I'm praying that I get interviews with them. I know that God will take care of us - we are learning about trust and responsibility so much right now. I think we were spoiled to start off our marriage with both of us working in semi-good paying jobs. We were making good money. Now...I'm laughing...we are constantly having to watch money in and money out. I'm praying we don't get overwhelmed with it because it is just money.

I got to spend 4 days in OKC with my cousin Melissa! She is getting married in May and wanted help getting everything ready. We spent my time there putting invitations together, addressing envelopes, putting together decorations for the reception, looking at the reception site, deciding how else to make the place spectacular, laughing together, talking about memories of childhood camping trips, staying up til 2am, wine and cookies, seeing her college campus, seeing her cute apartment in Stillwater, going to my uncle's new property that he is going to build a house on, gathering tree branches from the property to make into beautiful decorations, getting unique and delicious bottles of "pop" from POPS on route 66, picking out her china (it is gorgeous!), and most importantly...made countless memories together! I love that even while living so far apart we grew up to be kindred spirits :)

The weekend after this my mom's sisters and I threw a surprise party for my mom. She turned 50 in March :) We had it at my cousin's house in Chandler and my aunt who lived in Dallas came out just for the party. She lived in PHX for about a year and my mom loved having her so close! Now she misses her like crazy. We were thrilled that she came out - and we have the moment my mom saw her on video...it's the best! It was a very fun night seeing my mom and her siblings together....some cousins came too and I like being with everyone :)

After that I got sick. I thought about blogging during that time but I couldn't even think straight. I was on the couch for like 4 days and then could get up slowly and walk a little but was so lightheaded I only stayed vertical for limited amounts of time. I slept, watched movies, and watched daytime tv....mostly dumb tv. It took about a week to be able to be outside and function well.

Right when I started feeling better it was time to go to disneyland again! My dad planned a family trip to Disneyland for my mom's 50th birthday :) She loves Dland and we haven't been as a family in about 15 years. So we all went. I was sad though because Ben had to work and couldn't come with us. March is Discount Tire's busiest month so they rarely let employees take vacation then - I know it sucks. But the 6 of us had fun. My sister still has the pictures I think I'll get those from her and then make another post with pictures.

I got home from that adventure on a Tuesday and Ben and I left for the marriage retreat on Friday....I told you I was busy! We LOVED the retreat. It was up at Khols Ranch just outside of Payson. It was so refreshing to hear about all the wonders of marriage and our relationship with God. I love marriage and how intricately God designed relationships - especially marriage. It is such a wonderful and powerful relationship. I am thankful every second of every day that I married Ben who seeks God's heart. We get to seek his heart together. I know that there are so many things that we are not doing prefectly or even very well right now. But we both know that we have our whole lives together to work on our marriage. We are trying to simply enjoy our time together and trust God and each other more. It is weird to trust my husband with our family...I have a hard time thinking of him as our leader because he has been my friend since I met him. Something that we want to focus on for our second year of being married is our strengths. We want to point out each others strengths and write them down every time we get. We hope that this will help us get to know each other more deeply, bring out what we are strong and weak in while focusing on the strengths, and learn how to encourage each other. I hope this will help us submit to each other strengths and help me see Ben as a leader for our family to come.

We got back on Sunday and I went to Flagstaff to visit my cousin Deja and her sweet family! I love going to Flagstaff! Both Ben and I love it but I just didn't have a job and work was too busy for Ben to take off so I got to go this time. Deja and Brent, her husband, have 2 little girls: Bella who is 3 almost 4 and Macie who is 1 almost 2. I love spending time with them, playing, laughing, and talking. I got to stay in their new guest suite and cook in their new kitchen, and watch a movie in their new man cave with surround sound and a great tv...they just did a major remodel and addition :) It was a short yet fun trip to be up in the cool weather and relax a bit. I also got to see Eden for a whole afternoon. I picked her from her NAU dorm and we went to lunch at the Pita Pit...HIGHLY recommended I love eating there! Then we went shopping for spring clothes/accessories and work clothes for me. I had a great time with Eden!

Whew...almost done...

I had my first of 2 orientations at shc on Monday the 6th. I got a name badge, parking pass, and was cleared by my medical exam to work. WOO HOO I HAVE A JOB! I have my 2nd orientation Monday the 13th...out one-year wedding anniversary!

Tuesday April 7th...my 23rd birthday. I can not believe that I am 23. And even more I can not believe that Ben and I have been married almost a whole year. Ben and I had both of our families over for dinner Tuesday night (our parents, sisters who were in town, my 2 cousins and the two little ones, and my Nana) 13 people total. Pretty packed table but I love having everyone together. We served pizza fondue which was delicious - we will totally do it again. Ben also grilled pinnapple for dessert (along with brownies, strawberries, and ice cream) and for dinner grilled vegetables. We LOVE having grilled vegetables. It was a very fun and yummy night. My parents bought me a power juicer which is so much fun and some luggage because I'm always borrowing theirs :) the Godings bought me a coach pouch and the movie Marly and Me. My sister bought me a shirt I had wanted from AE - she is so sweet to remember me looking at while we were shopping a while back. Ben bought me a clock I saw at Target and comment on it every time I see it there because it is so awesome. I have so many people who love me!

Ok so I think that is a lot of updating for one blog. I will get the pictures from my wonderful month and post those next. Have a great Easter weekend!

job interview!

2009-02-27T14:47:00.000-08:00

I got a job interview! It's with Scottsdale Health Care for a rehabilitation aide. I don't know what the pay is and the position is "On Call" so it might not be something I can do. But it will be working with patients on assigned therapies they need to do. And I would get to work under physical and occupational therapists! It might be a good way to get my foot in the door for Scottsdale Health Center! http://www.shc.org is there website - check them out! My interview is Thursday March 5th! I have a feeling I'm overqualified (the only required education is a high school diploma) but that might make them want me - because I have my bachelors and I'm planning to get my masters in a very related field! I'll keep you updated with how it goes! I'm so so excited and am praying for this opportunity...if it is the opportunity God wants me to have right now.

Disneyland - February!

2009-02-22T21:04:00.001-08:00

Pictures from huntington beach and disneyland! enjoy :)

oh life....

2009-02-22T18:23:00.000-08:00

So I haven't posted about my job yet and I think I should. For the last 9 months I have worked for a wonderful agency in a program called Healthy Families. I have loved my job and I have despised my job. It is a great program but what I see in some families is so discouraging and I was thinking about quitting about a month ago. I decided to stay at my job and that even though it was hard at times I was helping the families that I met with a little bit at a time. Also, there are some amazing families that I get to talk with and it is so encouraging to hear their stories and talk with them about their future. Well, last Friday (the 13th actually...haha) an email was sent out to all the Healthy Families staff to let us know of some budget cuts. We are mostly funded by DES (Department of Economic Security) and they were so grossly over budget and they did not plan well at all. Therefore they slashed our funding by 75%. Which means that this program which served thousands families state wide and employed hundreds of people will now have to operate on a quarter...25%...of the money that they were once able to operate on. Oh...and they gave us 2 weeks notice; the funds run out February 28th.

I was on a visit when my coworker called me 2x in a row so I excused myself to take the call. She told me of the emial that was sent out and my heart dropped, my stomach turned, and I had to fight back tears. I couldn't believe that they were doing this - we knew that with only 25% of the money coming in we were both going to be laid off. I went back into the visit, finished up quickly and went home to let my mind race freely as to what this means. I called Ben and told him and he responded so well...exactly how I needed him to respond: encouraging, sympathetic, and positive. When I got home I started searching for jobs (I forgot how overwhelming that feels!) I updated my resume and posted it on 3 online sites, careerbuilers.com and jobbing.com and monster.com! I think I felt so overwhelmed that I needed to know that I was doing everything I could do get a job. We hadn't even been told yet for sure that I would be laid off but I just knew that it was over.

I spent the weekend thinking about what I could do and where I should look for work...with all the thoughts in my head racing like...we have a mortgage and bills....will we make enough to get by?! There were so many layoffs in my program and other like it that were funded by DES that there will be tons of people applying for the exact type of job that I would be applying for! I started to panic a little bit...but I believe that God knows and sees everything - and that includes me and my job. I knew God foresaw this and He had another job waiting for me - I just needed to be led to it! I prayed a lot and thought about what God could have in store for me.

I got the news on Tuesday the 17th that for sure I was laid off and my last date of employment would be February 27th. I was prepared for this and was able to now tell all of my 13 families that I served that we needed to stop services. Those were some HARD phone calls. I'm not looking forward to this week of meeting with them for the last time :(

Ben and I had been planning on taking Eden to Disneyland for her birthday which was Feb 19th. We took his youngest sister Hailey in January and we had so much fun we knew we wanted to do the same for Eden. I was nervous to spend the money and would have rather added that to our savings account (although some reservations had already been made so we would have lost that money...) but we knew that the time with them on this trip would be priceless and we had been looking forward to this trip so so much! So...we left the next day and took them to Disneyland...such a good decision! I know that we will just need to sacrifice a few things this week and in the coming weeks so that we will get by - totally worth it! I'll post pictures in a new more positive blog.

Okay so Tuesday I decided to post my info and resume on a couple nanny sites online. I didn't know if anything would come it but I thought it could. I had just finished listing my info and kind of job I am looking for and less than 30 minutes later I got an email about a job description that matched what I was looking for. It was for a family that needed someone 2 days a week for a 2 month old baby - that was it - one baby! It was part time, yes, but that's ok! It was something and it was a 2 month old! So I emailed them my phone number and email address and let them know about me and why I would be great to hire! 3 days later I get a phone call from that family and we had a phone interview...40 minutes long! I didn't realize that it was the parents at first (I thought it was like the nanny agency calling) so I was really nervous and was shaking a little bit. The more we talked the more comfortable I felt and at the end of the conversation they invited me over to meet with them in person at their house. I set a time with them for Sunday at 1:30.

As I started to think about being a nanny long term I got a little sad about not having vacation time or sick days to be able to call in (for benefits I can switch to Ben's so that isn't a big deal). I also thought about the fact that I do want to go back to school in the next couple years and it would be great to work somewhere that helps to pay for further education. So I knew that I needed to tell this family that I'm not sure about long term anymore but that I still needed a job for right now. Surprisingly they were so understanding of my desire to get my masters and that working somewhere that helps with tuition makes a lot of sense. They also need someone as the mom goes back to work tomorrow. They offerred me the job as a kind of temporary thing (so far we have the month of March scheduled) and I will keep them updated with how my job search is going and they will let me know if they find a premenant nanny (although they didn't seem anxious to look for someone else). When I said that I was looking for a job in a hospital they were like, "We might know someone who works at Mayo...we'll have to see for you!" I was thinking "Are you kidding me!? These people are offerring to help me find a job that would take me away from them?!" I felt so amazing walking away from their house! I felt like God just handed this to me as if to say, "Here is a job! This is what I had waiting for you, this is perfect for your needs and perfect for you and perfect timing. Dang I'm trustworthy aren't I?" God is trustworthy - He had a plan for me and I feel so blessed and honored to be a part of His great Plan.

The other totally awesome thing and what I am very thankful to God for is that this family is Christian! They go to a community church, wanted a trustworthy nanny, and were thrilled that I am a Christian! They are laid back and yet knew how they wanted their little baby cared for. They love that I have child development knowlege and want me to do those activities with their baby.

I am overwhelmed tonight but not with the stress of finding a job...I am overwhelmed with the amazing love that God has for me and that he has a plan for my life! I still can't believe it but it is coming true before my eyes! I am so happy and can't wait to see what God has next for me!

If you actually read this whole blog until now THANKS! I don't know if anyone actually reads my blog and this one is so long and wordy! But thanks if you did - I don't blame you if you didn't! I'll post more about how my first days go with this family (I start March 3rd) and what God puts on my heart as to what I should pursue right now.

My first hockey game!

2009-02-12T22:02:00.000-08:00

First I needed to post a picture of my new hair! I got it cut and colored and I have never felt better walking out of the salon! I can not wait to play more with it and see what it can do!

Now for the hockey!

Ben's work, Discount Tire, gives sports tickets out to their employees for every game that goes on (Suns, Cardinals, D-Backs, Coyotes...and several other teams) Ben won the seats on the glass for the Coyotes hockey game tonight! I was really excited to go because I have never been to a hockey game in my whole life! So...I need to write down all my thoughts on hockey and some of my experiences tonight.

~ There is a "puck drop" at the beginning where someone from the community walks out on the ice (but they lay a carpet down) and they drop the puck. It doesn't start the game...the players fake hit it after the drop...there is no point to this "puck drop."

~ There are no quarters or halves...they have 3 periods! Why do they have these odd numbered things? What happened to half time? ....it doesn't exist in hockey.

~ The puck switches between teams so so often that the term "turnover" or "interception" have no place. Whoever gets the puck gets the puck.

~ They have cheerleaders! Can you imagine wearing a cheerleader's outfit on the ice? They are crazy in my mind.

~ I have never heard to much yelling and cursing at a sports event in my life! Hockey fans are potty mouths! hahaha

~ To be "checked" looks really painful and I got to see it right infront of me a few times!

~ The puck makes a really loud and startling sound when it hits the glass

~ Tonight a puck came down between the net and the glass, hit the wall, bounced over me, and the guy sitting next to me caught it

~ You encourage and cheer on fights between players

~ A lot of the players really do have gaps in their teeth where teeth have been knocked out!

~ I was on the big center screen

~ The seats we got were also passes to the "club" which means we got special passes to wear around our necks and go to this great room under the stands

~ In this "club" there is an amazing buffet with everything from rice to corn and black bean salad (YUMMY!)...to pizza to hot dogs to beef tenderloin carved from the bone (gross).

~ There was a whole ice cream bar! That was delicious!

~ We went to the club first and ate a little dinner. Then I got to get a free pinnapple and malibu (just about my favorite drink!) and free popcorn and went to our seats

~ I also got a free coffee/hot chocolate during the game to help keep me warm and awake

~ I wasn't as cold as I thought I would be

~ I could not believe how close we were to the action!

~ There was this kid...probably about 6 or 7 years old yelling at the players. He would yell "Hit 'em where it hurts" "Take 'em down!" "Come on, get up! Get him!" It was hilarious to see him be so intense about the game!

~ Most importantly Ben and I had a fun evening together and just played and laughed and joked and loved each other. I love being with my husband!

It was a really fun night - I am a total fan of going to hockey games now. I don't know how much I'll like it when I'm not in the glass seats or have a pass to the club to get free food and drinks. But I will definitely do it again!

new art work!

2009-02-05T20:22:00.001-08:00

I saw a picture in a magazine and thought - oh I could do this at home! I LOVE doing that! What I saw was a piece of canvas with a word painted in lots of different languages. I absolutely loved it and wanted to do it for my livingroom. I decided to do 2 canvases: 1 with the word PLAY, the other FAMILY

Last week my friend Morgan came over to help me paint the base coat on the canvas. The background is taupe (the color on most walls in my house) I had a great time getting to know Morgan better as we painted. Thanks Morgan!

Carly Lynch came over tonight to paint the words for me! After thinking about my writing I realized that I really can't do this and I knew Carly has great writing and is creative so I asked her if she would. She has such a wonderful, giving heart; she said yes right away! We grabbed JAMBA on our way home and Carly got started! Carly did all the work - all I did was keep the paint supply up and conversation going. I am so blessed to have people in my life that are willing to do these things for me! I thought it would be more of a team effort but it was not and I am so glad it wasn't! She did such an amazing job - I can't believe that it is going to be hanging in my livingroom!

We didn't have time to do the other canvas which will say Family...in about 7 languages! Carly wants to do that one too and I am so so glad because this one looks SO good! I hope we can do that soon. I'll definitely be posting pictures about that as soon as it happens!

a little re-arranging!

2009-01-25T20:38:00.000-08:00

This is our living room...newly arranged! Ben was gone all morning for work and then went out in the evening with his friends. So I decided that since I didn't like how it was arranged before that I would move everything until I liked it! I'm learning to love my house for what it is and it helps that we have plans now that will allow for it to feel way more like a home!

We are going to take all the tile out in our house and stain the concrete so we can save the money we would have put in the flooring into other projects. We are going to redo the shower in the master and get new toilets and vanities. That will probably all take place in the next 6 months so I will post about those as they happen. So...this is the living room for now but when Ben got home he said he hated it so we'll see how long it lasts!

Birthday in Disneyland!

2009-01-15T17:43:00.000-08:00

A little over a month ago Ben and I got annual passes to Disneyland! We were so excited to make 2009 be a year of playing together and taking trips to Disneyland :) We got the idea to take our sisters to Disneyland on their birthdays as it worked out for each one. The first sister to have a birthday is Hailey so we thought it would be fun to plan a trip and surprise her with it! We decided to wake her up at midnight on her birthday and tell her we are taking her to Disneyland so pack and let's go! The few people that I told...the ones that needed to know Ben or I or Hailey would be gone...all were so excited for her and said how much fun it would be. Ben I just took that as affirmation that we were doing a great thing. We set everything up with her parents and were really excited to go wake her up.

Ben and I snuck into her room, turned her light on and slowly nudged her awake. She was NOT happy at all to be woken up and did not want to talk to us at all. Ben and I kinda looked at each other not knowing what to do and he started to tell her that she was going to Disneyland...that we were there to take her Disneyland right then. She tells us that she does not remember any of this but when she finally sat up she just kept shaking her head like "no, I'm not going to Disneyland." We were like.."Actually you are...that is our birthday present to you."

Then she kinda woke the rest of the way up and realized that this meant she wasn't going to school to get the balloons and a cake from her friends, she wasn't going to see Sean, her boyfriend, and that she wouldn't be with her mom and dad. She started crying and saying...but I was going to go to school!

What Ben and I did not think through was that Hailey does not like it when the plan changes, she does not like change at all. If the furniture is rearranged she gets upset! We didn't think through that she had planned what her 16th birthday was going to look like and although we were taking her to her favorite theme park we were changing her plan. And that was really upsetting to 16 year old Hailey who was woken up from her sleep.

We were kinda holding our breath as Brenda talked to her about how change is ok and that she will have a good time...Hailey slowly packed and we were on our way soon enough. We decided to pick up Hannah Kleven, her best friend, so that she would at least see one friend on her birthday. Hannah was excited to get a call at 1am inviting her to come...and 20 minutes later we were at her house to take her with us.

We...actually Ben drove through the night (he had slept from about 1pm-8pm) and I who normally can sleep in a car did not sleep hardly at all! I think I slept for about 20 minutes at a time but only a few times. Man was I tired!

We got to Anaheim around 6:30am and went straight to IHOP, Hailey's favorite breakfast place, where I had about 5 cups of coffee and we had a delicious breakfast! After that we went to our hotel (they let us check in at 8:30am!) We were able to set all of our stuff up instead of leaving it in the car! We decided to head over to the park eventhough it didn't open until 10am. After getting the girls' tickets we went to the gate and they let us in for the Magic Hour! We got in early! That allowed us to see the characters and get pictures with the ones we wanted and we were able to walk around such empty streets of Disneyland! So cool!

Here is Hailey infront of Sleeping Beauty's Castle...
Hailey and Hannah :)
Hailey decided this would be her new car!
Yummy yummy Disneyland Ice cream!
On Thunder Mountain...they screamed at the top of their lungs and at the top of their range for the whole ride! I got a video of it and will try to post it at the end of the blog if you care to hear their ear piercing screams!
On the monarail taking us to dinner at the Rainforst Cafe!

The trip was a great one and I think Hailey did enjoy her birthday afterall! We just will never wake anyone up and surprise them with anything ever again!

I can't figure out the video but if I do I will post it!

Christmas & married

2008-12-31T08:38:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-23T06:52:00.001-08:00

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 :)

2008-12-18T22:25:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-17T14:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-15T22:11:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-01T22:03:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-16T20:02:00.001-08:00

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 :)

2008-11-16T19:34:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-10-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-06T22:16:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-26T07:19:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-09-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-07T07:41:00.000-07:00

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!