Back from the blissful snow...

View outside our room...

Hello again. It has been awhile. I have been super busy what with the honeymoon and all. It was AWESOME by the way! I have completely and totally fallen in love with snow! I can't wait to go back and play till my hearts content.

I have always been fascinated and curious, but never would I have imagined this.

Our rental with 3 inches of snow on top of it!

We spent a glorious week together and we just loved every minute of it. We tried our hands (or legs) at snowboarding. It was fun and hard, but we will be back and we will totally dominate.

We also visited Allentown and went the the Liberty Bell "Shrine". It is the church the Liberty Bell was housed in during the Revolution. The British troops were confiscating all metal to melt down for bullets. The church housed the Liberty Bell and 11 other church bells in the area in it's basement. They had a cool replica that is the same size, shape, metallic composition as the original minus the huge crack. There are only 52 in existence besides the original in Philadelphia. There is one in every state capital building, one in Washington D.C., and then one at this small church. I got to ring the bell! It was loud and I barely tapped it. The guy that showed us around was a wealth of information. He told us things we had never learned in our history books. It was such a small and obscure place that we wouldn't have imagined that neat little museum would have existed.

Went by the Crayola Museum in Easton, PA.

We also tried to make a snowman. We failed miserably, but that's ok. We made a Jabba the snowman. We tried packing the snow and it wasn't working so well and we noticed its blob like shape so we made it a Jabba the Hutt snow figure. He was cute.

The beauty of everything was so breathtaking. I couldn't help but look outside and be joyful! God is always the best artist. Everything was like a painting in a museum. It was perfect everyday. Wow I miss it already. Shoot, I missed it when we were headed to the airport to fly back.

It's ok I will be back! Guaranteed!

Winter

I just love winter!  Of course I'm from Texas and this past month was the first time I saw snow, so winter is a big deal to some southerners.  

I think the love of cold comes from the fact that I would rather be cold than hot.  Because I abhor sweating.  

I am so excited my hubby and I will be winging it to Pennsylvania in 9 days to go ski and enjoy the winterness for our honeymoon.  I cannot wait!  I will probably be in for some serious shock when I get there because of my inexperience with real snow that stays on the ground.  I will be sure to put up tons of pics.  

In the meantime, I updated my blog layout to include some snow flakes and a pretty dove.  

Thank God for winter!

One and only rant of 2009 (AKA: Why I hate jeans!)

Ok, so this is more motivation rather than rant (because I want to complain less in 2009), but I feel that getting mad about this subject will help me with my goal of treating my body like a temple not a tavern.


I hate jeans! Denim is the worst fabric ever invented. Levi Strauss is on my enemy list (ok not really). The subject really hit me last night when I ran out of clean slacks to wear to church and had to dig out my old jeans. They fit alright, but I had forgotten how much I disliked jeans!

I have gained some weight in the last few years and I have grown to loathe jeans of all kinds. The ones that are straight denim are way too tight even if they are the right size and lead to the dreaded...

MUFFIN TOP! Dun, dun, duuuuuuuuun. Except I don't think that mine is so cheery. I know I'm not in love with it as the illustration suggests. But it does make me want muffins....

If you get the jeans with the spandex that will form to fit your body, by the end of the day they have stretched out TOO much and you are swimming in them. I don't think spandex and denim were ever meant to mix in my opinion.

I liked jeans well enough when I was smaller but was never truly a fan. Mostly because even at a smaller size I always had a larger hip area (mainly rear end wise) and could never find jeans to fit in both the hips and waist. So they end up looking weird anyway.

Ok so that brings me to my point of the rant. I want to take the weight off in a healthy way and be able to fit into a decent, correct fitting, pair of jeans and not be miserable. Which all goes back to treating my body with the care it deserves, nay needs desperately. I'm hoping that by the end of the year I can proudly wear jeans and like them. Denim should not be my enemy but my friend.

I will reach my goal of being able to wear jeans again! Lord, help me though cause I think the devil wants me fat, lol. It will be a lot of resisting temptation, a lot of hard work, a lot of sacrifices, but it will all be for the greater good. My job here is not done and I need to be healthy to finish the job that God has set before me. I will update you on my jean situation as the year progresses.

But until then, Jeans, consider us not speaking...

New Years Resolutions and Revelations

Everyone has this list and it's hard to follow, but I'm hoping that I can keep it up.  

1.  Seek God's Presence in My Life and My Family's Life - I want to know God more and more each day.  This should be my first priority everyday.  

1. a. Read my Bible more - This will help me cultivate the qualities and traits I desperately want to exhibit.

1. b. Spend more time in the prayer room - I need to talk directly to God about my circumstances and circumstances I'm being led to pray for.

2.  Be a Better Help Meet - My husband is such a blessing and I need to make more time for him.  There are so many things that try to take my focus off what matters most and I need to weed out those things and focus on what is truly important.

3.  Treat my Body Like a Temple and not a Tavern - God gave me this body and I need to quit abusing it with horrible food, too much sugar, too much caffiene, not enough nutrients, and not enough water.  This is a gift and I should treat it as one.

4.  Forgive More - I need to feel less offense and more forgiveness.  Lord help me live that out!

5.  Give More - I need to give more of my time and self to great causes.  

6.  JOY - Jesus, Others, Yourself.  I need to live in this order everyday!

7.  Love More - Lord give me your eyes to see and your heart to love.  It's so hard to love EVERYONE you come across, but nothing is impossible if you have God on your side.

8.  Complain Less - I mean A LOT less.  I am trying to be more positive because complaining steals our joy.  

9.  Seek Wisdom and Truth - See 1.a.  "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

10.  Worry Less - I worry way too much.  "Be anxious for nothing."

These are my top ten.  Of course the list could go on and on.  Some of the more minor resolutions, but resolutions none the less:  keep a cleaner house, cook more, make sure my car is cleaner, watch TV less, write more, etc...

Hope this encourages you to make your own resolutions and keep them throughout 2009.  

Thanks for reading and I wish you many blessings in 2009!

So long, farewell...

...auf Wiedersehen, goodbye! (Don't you just love the Von Trapps!) So Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009.

I was at church last night praying in the new year and I got to thinking about all the wonderful, scary, awesome, things that have happened this year. God has brought us so far. Just wanted to share...

January

We started off the year much like any other couple. He was working and I was home with two sick/injured dogs. Typical huh? January was very trying because of the end of the year/taxes. We were in a not so great financial place, but God was providing (but we didn't know it at the time). We had just started going to our church and were still unsure, but wanted to have a relationship with God. Thus begins our journey for 2008, a little scared, a little wary, a little bit of working on having faith.

February

So many things happen in February for us every year, but this year was special. The hubby turned 24, Valentines is always a nice time, and we have another reason to celebrate this year. My husband and I were saved on Feb. 3, 2008. What an overwhelming and beautiful night that was! I cannot fully express my love or my thankfulness for what God did in our hearts that night. "All I know is what I have seen and heard and only you can choose!" I do know that this year would have been a lot rougher if not for God. Thank you God for our brand new birthday!



March

Since we are brand new creatures in Christ Jesus, we are so much happier! We are still working on becoming Christ-like, and yes it is difficult (especially loving EVERYONE as Christ would love them, I'm struggling with that one!). My husband was baptized on March 30, 2008. What a glorious day. I had grown up in the church and was baptized when I was 13, but I never fully believed until now. My husband had not grown up in the church and was never baptized so this was such a special day (we even have a framed certificate on our living room wall).

April

April was so busy. We were in the process of planning our wedding (our big one, we were already married in a small ceremony on Sept. 14 2007, but had started the planning process on our big wedding so we had both, yeah its a little confusing). Also, my sister-in-law was getting married she had such a cute vineyard wedding. I was one of the bridesmaids and I only wish I would have stayed out of the sun a week before the wedding. I had a HORRIBLE sunburn. It was April so it wasn't hot and I sat outside Starbucks too long chatting with an old friend. I was burnt and red for about two weeks (which her wedding fell right in the middle of that).

My chest was horribly red! But what a beautiful wedding!

The makeup artist had to work miracles with my makeup! They pratically had to spackle my face so that I didn't look like I had a skin disorder, lol... It turned out wonderfully and I was so happy for her and her now husband. They were so cute!

May

This month was filled with nothing but running. I felt like we were drowning at some points in this month, but God pulled us through. "The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not sustain you." Truer words have never been spoken! We were in the process of moving, downsizing from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom apartment, working non-stop, trying to fit in family time as much as possible, and just trying to spend some time with the Lord and each other. I feel we didn't meet any of those requirements with the patience we should have, but God is doing a mighty work in us and for that we are thankful!

June

Another hectic run arround month. My mom turned 50 and demanded a party, lol. Not really, she just wanted to celebrate her "over the hill"-ness with everyone. It was a great time and I think she enjoyed herself. She is so cute! I wish I had had a camera at the time, but I did not and can not provide pictures =(.

July

First off, Happy Birthday America! Woohoo, land of the free and home of the brave! Thank God for the inquisitive and exploritive minds that wanted to know more about our world. July is always fun, even though I'm a winter person over summer any day of the week. July just has something about it that makes you so happy to be apart of this great nation. Maybe it is the blowing up of things? Secondly, the end of July will now always have a bittersweet memory to it. My grandmother passed away a year ago on July 27th. I was so sad and broken hearted because she raised me and I had lost a mother instead of a grandmother. I was not saved on July 27, 2007 when she passed away suddenly and could not wrap my brain around what was happening. Everyone had tried to comfort me with "She is in a better place." But what if I didn't believe that? Now looking back a year later and being a child of God, I can safely say she is in a better place and I'm so thankful God placed her in my life for guidance and wisdom. I have a new outlook and the anniversary of her death was more of a comfort than I thought it would have been. Thank you God for a renewing of mind!

August

My lovely bridal shower! I love my cousin, Jennifer, she is by far my best friend and sister from another mother. I have often thought that we were cousins cause our mothers could not handle us as sisters, lol. We are quite the team! She threw me an awesome Alice and Wonderland themed bridal shower in Galveston and then that night we went out for dinner and drinks at Rainforest Cafe. We had such a great time that weekend. We were worried that Tropical Storm Edourd had other plans for us, but he went to the north, unlike a certain hurricane that will be mentioned in the September portion of this blog. Jennifer also turned 21 in August, it was a momentous occassion that I sadly could not make it down for, but I was there in spirit and was wishing her all the best birthday blessings!

September: AKA Ike take a Hike!

Dun, Dun, DUUUUUUN! Hurricane Ike of course happened in September. Our one year anniversary of marriage was two days after it hit. We had planned this whole awesome anniversary weekend and were stoked! Concert on Friday, hanging out and going to the movies on Saturday, and picnic in the park we got married in on Sunday the 14th. Well Ike came and moved our plans around, but my husband had off that weekend so we could flee to the College Station "compound" (as we like to call it), together! God worked it out so that we could be together and I would not have to worry about him being in The Woodlands working during the hurricane! What an awesome God is He! A large portion of my family lives in the country outside of College Sation. They own a good portion of acreage and have a few houses on it (hence the name compound, lol). My aunt and uncle, their 4 kids, and two sets of grandparents live out there. I was expecting it to be packed with all the family from League City and Webster, but they opted to stay home which worried us to no end! My aunt and I stayed up until 4 AM and the worst had past over their areas. We prayed and they all were safe. In College Station we barely got any wind or rain and the power blinked out for about 30 seconds. We called College Station the hub of power because EVERY town around us on all sides were without power. People flocked to the area for supplies. What did we do with our blessed electricity? Had a Heroes marathon and ate like crazy! I gained about 7 pounds in a week because of all the junky non-perishables. Not a good idea when you have a wedding at the end of November. Yeah Ike took up a good portion of our time and probably gave us all a few gray hairs.

I'm so thankful that we had gone when God told us to go and we were in a Goshen area. That radio station was down for about a week, and we were without power at our house about the same amount of time. We were so blessed and we do not wish to make light of a devastating situation for many. This was our experience with the storm and many of our family and friends were affected by it.

Our roommate Carrie who had been staying with us during the week while she went to school and went home to her parents house in La Porte, their house did not fair so well. 3 feet of water and pretty much everything was ruined. They did a great job renovating as quickly as possible though and they were back in their house by the beginning of December. Praise God!

Just a small portion of the damage in Webster/Friendswood area...

My heart goes out to those who have lost their homes, a loved one, anything to this hurricane. The devastation was unfathomable in a lot of areas. I will continue to pray for everyone affected by this storm, and those that will continue to feel the effects for a long time to come.

October

What amazing changes we have made in less than a year. This was our first year to not celebrate Halloween. We felt convicted and will not participate in pagan rituals again. I know this may sound weird to some, but it is where God is leading us and we will follow. Also this was our first year to celebrate Jesus' birthday close to his real birthday. Scholars have narrowed down his birthday to either the day before or the first day of Sukkot. We were so excited and can't wait to start that tradition of remembering his birthday closer to when it happened! So Jesus' birthday in 2008 was on Oct. 13 or 14! Yay Jesus! This coming year it will either be Oct 2 or 3. It is hard to pinpoint exactly but it fell around the Feast of Tabernacles...

November

Love November and Love Thanksgiving! I like Thanksgiving for many reasons: its not commercialized, its about focusing on how thankful you are to God for his blessings, and I have a history with the Puritan people...lol. I am a direct descendant of a couple that met on the Mayflower and they later fell in love after her parents died from that first harsh winter in Plymouth. He was their indentured servant and was released from his contract when the parents died, but he fell in love with their daughter and they married and had 15 children. Sounds like a cheesy romance novel huh? I think its sweet though. This was also a big month because we finally had the BIG wedding. We had a baseball wedding at Union Station at Minute Maid Park. I did forget to mention we are Astros fans... well we are Astros fans. The day was PERFECT! It was the best wedding I have ever attended...and it was mine! Our small ceremony with just us and a few other people was special because it joined us as one forever. This was fun and we could understand the vows more because we had been married for over a year. And what girl doesn't want to wear the wedding dress? We could vow to each other again and let everyone witness our vows to each other. It was just fun and little to no drama (which is rare for our families, lol).

Us leaving Union Station to go take a nap! We were so tired, but so happy!

Thank you to everyone who made that day special for us. You are so near and dear to our hearts. We are always and forever grateful!

December: Finally!

My birthday is December. I turned 27. Wow, 27. Yeah my husband is younger than me, but he has always been so mature that it doesn't seem like he is younger. We had a great time going to dinner with some friends. That next week it SNOWED in TEXAS! It was the first time I have ever seen snow! I was totally flipping out.

Isn't he so romantic! Best husband in the world!

Also Julia and I went to the Nutcracker and I said I would post those pics so here they are...

Julia and I in front of the huge tree at the Wortham Center

Coolest Gingerbread house ever!

There were more pictures, but I am still new at the camera having business and lost two of my favorite ones. I got a pic of Julia with one of the rats and a picture of the set. Oh well, more reason to go back next year....

So that brings us to today, now that you have read my life story for the past year... I will post later today about my goals for 2009. I pray that God blesses us even more than he has this past year. I want to seek his presence in my life!

Thanks for reading!