Sunday, August 29, 2010

a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

Seriously… sometimes I am so in awe of God.  I don’t understand how some people do not believe in Him, the creator of all things.

I’m pretty sure if ever I doubted the awesomeness of God or His love for us, those doubts would melt away when looking out of my back door.

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Tonight Justin and I were both just amazed at the beauty of the sunset.  And how blessed are we that we have such a view every evening from our living room.

Oh how He LOVES us.  He really does.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

brain dump

Well… As much as I want to get dressed and do some shopping, I know it’s tax free weekend and the stores are going to be crazy!  So instead I figured I would write a blog post.  But nothing in particular comes to mind… so this is going to be one of those random thought posts.

-First thought on my mind today is that it’s my fabulous friend’s birthday.  Happy Birthday, Lacey!!!  I know you are going to have a great day celebrating with your family on the lake.  I love you and miss you and wish I was there!

-Speaking of missing people… I miss my family.  Living away from them has definitely gotten easiER, but it’s still not easy.  I’ve been talking lots about going home to visit lately, and Justin just doesn’t understand.  I know we were just there in June, but I’m having family time withdrawals!  :(

-Even my family that lives close (Candice, Dom, Ava) I rarely see.  I hate that.  I thought surely once they moved closer we would hang out all the time.  But nope… life is just too busy.  I hate busyness.

-I did see Candice and Ava for lunch not long ago though.  We met up at a Chili’s halfway between us and had such a good (but too short) time.  Every time I see Ava I am just amazed at how much more she looks and acts like a big girl.  No more baby.  That makes me sad.  But I’m super happy and proud that she is growing up into such a healthy and smart little girl.  My love for her makes my heart hurt.

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-Thinking about my love for Ava makes me ache even more for a child, actually children, of my own.  I know the time is coming soon, but it just can’t come soon enough.  Lately I’ve been getting teary-eyed and emotional just thinking about what it will be like to find out we are expecting and then to finally hold that little blessing in my arms.  I have been praying over our baby that doesn’t even exist yet in this world.  I have been pouring over baby girl names in my head trying to find something I love.  It’s not working. All I can say is, I hope it’s a boy the first time.  We have two boy names already.  :).

-On October 31st of last year while I was at OneVoice, our college and career service, I heard God speak to me so clearly. I was surprised, really, because I rarely ever hear Him in such a distinct way.  But what I heard that night was that I would have to long after God like I long for children—and only then would I be able to have them.  To be honest, that scared the mess out of me.  I knew how deep my desire was to have kids.  And at that point I was pretty apathetic about my relationship with the Lord.  I was going to church and staying away from all the “big” sins, but I wasn’t walking with Him.  And I surely wasn’t longing for Him.  I thought that night that I would never get to have children because I would never long for God as much as I longed to have a family of my own.  Amazingly enough in the last couple of months, God has worked a miracle in me.  He has rekindled the fire in my heart for more of Him, for ministry, and for praying.  He has given me dreams and has started showing me a little piece of my calling.  I have been learning about intercession and what it means to be an intercessor.  It’s all very exciting!  Not to mention… I know now that I get to have babies!  Yay!!!  God is good <3

-I just realized I totally forgot to blog about it, but my honey turned 23 earlier this month!  His birthday was August 13th.  We didn’t really get to do much because he was in school and had to work that night… but I did make him a birthday cake and took it up to his school.  It was a pretty sad decorating job, but it was my first attempt.  It tasted good anyway.

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I had no clue what to get him as a gift.. but after talking to a few friends, I ordered him two books from Amazon that will help him study the Word.  He has been wanting to look up the original meaning of words from the Greek, and now he can!

-I’m back in school.  My first day will be Tuesday.  I said I didn’t ever want to go back to school, and here I go.  But this is different.  I’m going to be taking a night class that is only one night a week on Tuesdays.  One of my favorite pastors from Heartland, Pastor Al, is teaching it.  I can’t wait!

Monday, August 9, 2010

2 years

Yesterday, 8.8.10, marked two years of marriage for us!

We celebrated on Saturday by having dinner, going to a movie, and having cheesecake for dessert to top it all off! 

Dinner was at a Chinese restaurant that some friends had told Justin about.

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Here is what my fortune cookie said….  I think it’s pretty right on!

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We saw Toy Story 3, and it was so good!!!  I almost cried towards the end.. seriously.

 (from here)

I think my favorite part of the night (besides being with my man) was the dessert. Anybody that knows me could probably guess that!  We had some new Reese’s Peanut Butter cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory.  Yummm…  No pictures this time ‘cause we pretty much inhaled it.  :)

 

Then on our actual anniversary yesterday we went to church as usual.  But unexpectedly the sermon had to do with marriage and family, and we got to renew our wedding vows to each other at the end of the service!  It was such an awesome and on time thing that truly was a gift from God to us.  Loved it!

We didn’t buy gifts or cards this year.  I’m not sure we ever will.  I like that we just take the money we would spend on gifts and spend time together.  Anyway, instead of buying stuff we wrote each other letters.  It’s so sweet to read my hubby’s heartfelt words about his love for me and expectations for our future.  <3  I am so blessed and do not take it for granted!

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I wouldn’t say that this past year has been easy.  But it was easier than the first.  I think we have both grown and changed in many ways in the last year.  We are beginning to figure each other out.  I really believe that this year coming up will be a great one for us.  I can’t wait to see it all unfold with Justin by my side.  I love that boy.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

my new favorite app

The other day while I was at work Justin sent me a text to download an app called HeyTell.  His parents had just told him about it.

http://heytell.com/

Justin and I have had so much fun using this.  It’s an instant voice message from phone to phone.  We have found it a very nice replacement for trying to text while driving.  With this you just hold down one button and speak into the phone like you would if you were talking to someone on speakerphone.  It’s sorta like a delayed walkie talkie.

date night!

I can’t believe I’m just now blogging this, but this past Tuesday Justin and I had a little date night.  We have always said we wanted to make this part of our weekly routine, but for one reason or another it hasn’t stuck.  We are really hoping now that school is about to start back up, we will get into a routine and establish once a week “date nights”. 

For this particular date, we decided to try out a new (to us) restaurant.  We went to Fish City Grill.  I usually don’t eat much seafood, but Justin loves it.  Well we both loved this place.  There were plenty of non-seafood options, but I had a crab cake sandwich that was super yummy!  I told Justin we will definitely have to go back!

(picture taken from website)

After the movie we were headed home to watch a movie and were both just blown away by the rainbows that we saw.  Not just one, but two rainbows!  And this was my first time to see a complete rainbow… from one end to the other.  Very nice addition to our little date :) I had Justin stop at a green light so I could try to snap a picture! haha

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When we got home, I was super excited to watch Toy Story 2!  I know that the third one is already out, and I’m behind the times… but my hubby isn’t a big movie fan!  I loved the movie, though, and cannot wait to see Toy Story 3 now.  Maybe our next date??

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To make the movie even better we had two of my (many) favorite candies… 

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I love my husband so much, and I love these date nights.  They really do make a difference in our marriage.  It’s so nice to just get away from everything to focus on each other.