13 Years Ago Today...

I was fifteen - a sophomore in high school - and I went on a date that changed my life.

 It was highly anticipated.  Friends had been telling me for weeks that Rick had a crush on me, but being so shy, he had never actually talked to me about it.  He sent me an email telling me he was interested in asking me out, and was I interested back, but even after I responded in the affirmative, he was quiet.  We had geometry and a music class together, in addition to all our youth group activities, but still, nothing.

Probably our first ever picture together - first grade Sunday school party at Gage Park.  He has a patch on his eye and I'm the one with the cool cat shirt.

Finally, on January 24th, 2000, after weeks of this sort of behavior, we ended up walking to class together.  I decided to help him out.  It went something like this:

Me: "Hey, did you have something you wanted to talk to me about?"
Him: "Yeah, I, uh, I was going to ask you if you wanted to have dinner tomorrow night.  I'm sixteen tomorrow, so I can drive.  I can come pick you up." (insert cool-guy grin here)
Me: "Sounds good."
Him: "Cool.  I'll pick you up at 6:00."
Me: "Sounds good."

Fast-forward to 5:45 the next night - Tuesday, January 25th, 2000 - and I was home alone.  I'm not sure where everyone else was, but I had changed my outfit several times, applied more make-up than I ever would have normally, and was waiting calmly for 6:00 to arrive.

Bus ride to a summer mission trip the summer after our first date.

He pulled into the driveway at 5:59 and knocked on the door promptly at 6:00.  We went to Chili's and sat in the 2nd booth on the left by the bathrooms.  We ordered chips, salsa, and ranch, and then I ordered chicken crispers and dipped them in ketchup, and he made fun of me for it for the first of many, many times.  He told me he really liked me, that he was serious about starting a relationship the right way, and then he asked me if I would like to be his girlfriend.

Enter thirteen years of joys, trials, chaos, hilarity, schools, travels, hardships, and love.  Enter high school graduation, a traumatic breakup (and reunion a mere week later), and going to college.  Enter proposal, what felt like a FOREVER long engagement, and a beautiful wedding.  Enter two cities, three apartments, one rental, and one house.  And enter two, beautiful, perfect children.

Not sure when this was...junior year?

People often tell me how lucky I am to have found my soul mate as a fifteen-year-old.  I disagree.  Not about the soul mate part, but about the luck part.  Luck has had no part this story.  Our marriage, though not perfect by any stretch, is based firmly on the belief that God planned us for each other and has given us an incredible gift in the other.  And even though we may at times get frustrated with each other, we are committed to each other and our marriage.

So happy 29th birthday and happy 13th anniversary to the love of my life.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Spring before we got engaged.

Trip to OK!

I FINALLY got to properly meet my niece Emma!  I went down to see her in the NICU shortly after she was born, but this time, I got to hold her!

Look at that hair!  Amazing!

Mom and I arrived around 7:30 and enjoyed time with Emma, some delicious nachos, and some made from scratch, gluten-free cookies, (recipe here) courtesy of my brother. :)

We visited...and watched some HGTV :)

And then, I slept until 6:49.  6:49, folks.  Don't remember the last time that happened!

And then Alex made me an omelet.  Don't remember the last time that happened, either.  It was delicious.  I ate it while we watched Beethoven, one of our childhood favorites.

And then Molly and I went to get mani/pedis, courtesy of my mother, who definitely had an ulterior motive in getting Emma all to herself for the morning!

And, the place next door was giving out free eyebrow waxings! Score!

But the best thing was getting to visit with my sister-in-law.  It was so nice to have some girl time.  Oh, how I love her and miss her.  (Hint hint, move back to Kansas, hint hint.)

Thanks for a great weekend!  And Emma is stinking adorable.  Here's one more pic:

Love you guys!

Love-God Progress

In this post, I laid out my goals for 2013 in very broad terms:

1. Love God.
2. Live Connected.
3. Serve All.

I am attacking #1 first with a plan to read the Bible through in one year.  I have heard of such plans but never attempted them before.  A co-worker of mine who blogs over at Heart, Soul, Tummy is doing it and I thought it would be a good idea to join her.  Our plan has two parts - a few chapters of the Old Testament and then a section from the New.  It's chronological, which I have never done before, but I'm enjoying it so far.

She got it out of the back of her Bible, so she just made me a copy.

It's interesting how passages that you have read or heard your whole life mean something different to you in different phases of life.  I read things so much differently now that I'm a mother.  It's like there's a whole new layer of me that these stories travel through to get to my head and heart, and that layer strains out things I overlooked, or simply didn't have the experience to recognize.  Rachel's behavior in the old testament has always seemed so childish, but now that I'm a mother, I think I can give her a little (but certainly, not a lot) more credit.

Also, at church we are studying the first year of Jesus' ministry and calling it "Obscurity."  So our new testament study is lining up nicely.

#1.  Love God.  Forever in progress.

2nd Therapy Session

Had another great evening at Paint Therapy Uncorked!  Check out my masterpiece:

 

Yep, that's right.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE LOVE LOVE PAINT THERAPY UNCORKED???

If you are unfamiliar with Paint Therapy Uncorked, check it out!  My first experience was so good that I couldn't wait to recreate it with these ladies:

I knew they didn't believe me when I said it didn't matter how artistic you were, but they agreed to give it a go!

I knew exactly where I wanted to hang my next painting, so I chose one that a) I loved and b) would match the room.  Here's the one I decided to go with:

 

Rick and I have a thing for trees - we already have several hanging in our house - and I liked the yellow, as it will match the room I'm hanging it in.  Alicia also chose this picture to do, so we sat next to each other in front of our beautiful blank canvases and go to work!

 

Margie (the artist/miracle worker) filled my palate with the necessary colors:

And here is the progression:

I wanted blue in the background, and I like this because it looks like the sky is on its way to nighttime.

The original had much smaller branches, but I decided to go with larger, curly-Que ones.

The leaves are green, white, and yellow.  I tried to do lots of the green and yellow and a little less of the white since the white was so bright.

Then I added just a splash of red.  The picture didn't look just right yet, so...

Margie suggested I add a swing.  Perfect!

 And viola! Doesn't it look wonderful?

Below is my painting and Alicia's painting with the original in the center.  It's interesting how different ours ended up being, even though we were looking at the same picture and using the same instructions!

 

 And here we all are with our finished products:

 I really can't say enough good about Paint Therapy Uncorked.  I love the concept, the atmosphere, and the fact that I can start with nothing, and with something to look at and guidance, I can make a masterpiece.  And the final product may not be exactly what I envisioned, but it's beautiful all the same.  At the risk of sounding cliche, isn't that kind of how life is?  You start out with a blank slate, you watch what others do, you are guided by adults, and then, even though things might not turn out the way you plan, you end up with something beautiful.

Like my tree. :)

I'm a Guest-Poster!

Isn't she so stinking cute???

Today, I am a guest-poster on one of my favorite blogs, The Domestic Wannabe!  Every Wednesday Ashley features a mom who documents her day, and today is my day!  Check it out here!  The picture is in the post...but I really just included it here because it's so adorable. :)

Thank Yous

I write thank yous after Christmas and my birthday and anytime anyone gives me something.  It's something I've done since childhood.  I have an aunt who is very particular about thank yous, and perhaps it was her voice in the back of my head that has made this such a deeply-rooted habit.  I always send them to family (even though my father-in-law teases me ruthlessly about it), and now that I have children, I want to instil the practice in them as well.

For Charlie's first year, I ordered these thank yous from Vistaprint:

 I opted for postcards.  I liked them but I had forgotten to uncheck the glossy box.  It was hard to write in the blank space.  I also ordered WAY too many - 100.  They were on special and I thought I could use them for a long time.  The trouble with that thinking is that babies grow way to fast to save something like this for future use!

For his second year, I ordered these folded cards:

 I got orange paint and had him put his hand print inside.  It was messy, but cute. :)

This year, I decided to have them send their thank yous together.  I wish I had a better picture, but I think this one turned out just fine:

I had two $20 Shutterfly codes so I made up some adorable ones there, but neither of my codes would work on the order.  I'm still not sure why.  So I went to Vistaprint and got them for a fraction of the cost I would have paid otherwise, and they are pretty cute if I say so myself.  I am going to work with Charlie to write his name on each card, or at least the C. :)

Lucy's Room

Ahh, the realities of the second child.  Of course I wanted this done before she arrived, but there was just no way this was going to happen.  With four weeks of bed rest and almost three weeks of NICU, getting the nursery fully prepped before her arrival was just not possible.  We brought Lucy home on Monday, October 22nd, and we just finished her room over break.  While do feel badly that it took so long, I am finding some comfort in the fact that I have already purchased more retail things for her than I did for Charlie in his entire first year.  It's just...there are so many adorable girl things!

 

This dresser was remade and given to us by some very talented friends (see this post) who refinished and painted it for us.  I found the changing pad cover for $1 at a yard sale and the lamp was a gift from Grandma.  You can't see it very well, but the bag hanging on the wall in the top right-hand corner of this picture says "Lucy" and was made by my friend Stacy at Ziggy Tails.  She also made the towel draped over the edge of the crib below.

I got the idea general idea for this wall from here (I adore this nursery!).  I found the frames at Hobby Lobby (more expensive than I was hoping for).  We had the mirror cut to fit the frame (it was only $10!) and then I made the L like I did for my niece in this post, though all the curves in the L made it more challenging.  The hair-bow one is simply chicken wire hot glued to the frame.  I think the whole wall turned out quite nice!

We used Charlie's old crib but were given new crib sheets by Grandma.  The crib skirt came with the bumper (that we will probably use eventually) that I got at a garage sale before Charlie was born.  The curtain was a labor of love for my mother.  I got the idea from this, but of course, I didn't want it to be so pink.  Since I was on bed rest, my mother made several trips to the store, cut, hemmed, trimmed, ironed, sewed, and resewed to make this perfect curtain for Lucy's room.  On the other side of the curtain is a little sitting area, complete with a TV and toys, but we didn't want Lucy to have to share her room with this space, so the curtain was a perfect choice.  Thanks, Mom!

The lovely wall hanging is courtesy of Caroline - isn't she so super crafty?  I love love love this!

This shelf also belonged to Charlie.  We moved it out of his room when he went to a big-boy bed because we didn't want him climbing it.  It's more for storage than appearance.  But at least the iPod dock is pink. (It was a gift from a student from last year - what a great end-of-school gift!)

I am so pleased with the way the room turned out.  A huge thank you to all who helped!

Stuff and Things: My 2013 Goals

Stuff and things is the perfect phrase for this time of year.  So much revolves around stuff and things.  Christmas shopping.  Present-wrapping.  Gift-giving.  Food-preparing.  Snack baking.  Stuff, stuff, stuff, things, things, things.

At the Temple of Heaven in Beijing

Seven years ago I spent the holiday season in China.  I can't tell you how drastically different Christmas has become for me since that experience.  If you aren't up on the situation of the church in China, crash course: as a communist nation, the official religion is atheism.  In the best of places, Christ-followers are frowned upon, and in the worst, they are imprisoned or worse for simply following Jesus.  You would think, therefore, that this would discourage people from following Jesus.

Wrong.

We spent Christmas of 2007 among believers who met in secret, among those who could be arrested simply for owning a Bible, among those who have only a fraction of the stuff and things we have simply by being Americans.  One of the folks in our group encountered a woman who was working on memorizing the Bible.  The entire Bible.  Yup - the whole thing.  When asked why, she responded "Because someday I will likely be in prison.  How will I read the Word of God then?"  Seriously?  I'm a Christ-follower, but if a prison sentence is eminent, I'm quite sure memorizing scripture would be pretty far down on my to-do list.  I think I'd be trying to figure out a way to stay out of prison.  But you know that passage in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says:

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." - Matthew 5: 11-12

I have no experiential knowledge of this passage.  Sure, I've had people say hurtful things about my being a Christian, or criticize decisions I make because of what I believe, or make assumptions about me because of my faith that simply aren't true, but that's about the extent of my experience with persecution.  This woman and the millions (and more every day) like her are literally risking their lives for the sake of the Gospel.  Persecution?  Um...yes.

Understand something - the underground church in China is flourishing.  While we were there we visited (at night, under cover of darkness) a body of believers who were training up missionaries to come to America.  America?  The nation under God?  Yes, they said, because it is so very dark there. Wait a minute - you live in China, a place where to even speak the name of Jesus can land you in prison, where owning a Bible is a capital offense, where you have to meet at night in secret, and you think America is dark?  We have religious freedom.  We can speak the Name of Jesus whenever we want.  I probably own at least ten Bibles.  We have hundreds of thousands of churches country-wide and people go to them in the daytime.  How can you say that America is dark? 

Stuff and things.  We are lured away from the things that are truly important by those that aren't.  We focus on things that have no eternal significance.  All our stuff and things distract us from what really matters.  These people recognize that their lives are temporary.  Stuff and things don't matter - loving Jesus matters.  This trip hammered this point home to me in a way that sitting in church never has.  The world is going to end for each one of us.  It may not end the way the Mayans predicted, but each one of us will expire.  What, then, will our stuff and things mean?

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." - 2 Corinthians 4:18

In 2013, I want to make an effort to live life for what is unseen.  I want to have what I need, but ultimately I want to invest in those things that are eternally important.  My basic to-do list is this:

1. Love God.
2. Live Connected.
3. Serve All.

Not one of these elements involves stuff and things.  Instead, it involves a heart that is free of the clutter of this world and impassioned with the love of Jesus.  I stole this list from our church.  If you were to come by on a Sunday, you would hear this, read this, see this over and over and over.  This mantra has forever been hammered and carved into my brain.

2013 is the time to write it on my heart.