Semi-sweet

It's that time of the year.....the countdown has begun. Not to the new year, but to Christmas vacation!!! Can I just say how disappointed I was when I realized we have school through the 22nd. Who thought that was a good idea!? It will be a bittersweet Christmas this year. It will be my first Christmas with my husby and I am super excited for that! Our tree is up and I have presents for him under the tree and in his "socking." Yes, socking. He somehow misplaced or lost, whichever you want to call it, the stocking my mom made him last year so I figured he would just have to do with one of his socks until he finds his real stocking. It does have quite an interesting shape and will be ideally suited for someone with cankles by the time Christmas comes.

On a sadder note, it will the first year in like four or five years that Evan and I will not be at Bear Trap. :( We are so sad and are even dreaming of it at night. Also, the school I work at will be closing in May for good. We have been told that no one is to be laid off, just transferred, but who knows what will really happen. I am also sad at the thought of leaving my co-workers because I have made some good connections and dearly love most of the people I work with. This is without a doubt a goo reminder that my provision and blessings come from my heavenly father and that He has new and different things in store for me. I don't want to change, but I am grateful for his peace and reminders to be open and ready for the things he is doing.

A bit of a delay

So this blog started out to be a New Year's resolution to help keep in touch with my bestie who is not in the states anymore, but I've come to realize how little time I spent on it lately. Instead, I have been spending more time doing projects than I have been writing about them. In all honesty, that is okay with me. My latest "finished" projects have been curtains for our bedroom! You appreciate them even more when the school that you work at is just across the street. I'm okay with my kiddos seeing seasonal decorations when they look at our windows, but that's where it stops. My second project has been the use of the di-cut machine at work. I make a leaf garland using illustrations from a children's book that I got for pretty much free at the wonderful Emporia Public Library book sale (it's one of my favorite events ever!). Now that Christmas is on its way I'm making a Christmas one using the leftover scrapbook paper from our wedding. I also have one project that is dear to my heart for many reasons. I went out of my photography comfort-zone (yay!) and did engagement photos for our friends. I have been editing them and am proud to say they are done and I am pretty proud of them! I am now officially open to doing portrait photography! Never thought that would happen! I am constantly reminded how much I love using my camera to capture something amazing. The world of art and craftmanship......it's quite lovely! So there it is folks, a microscopic glance at my life.

Settling in....

I have now been married for two and a half months and we have been in our apartment two months. It officially feels like home. We are mostly settled and still trying to arrange and hang pictures on the wall and make curtains, well at least on of us is. I was worried about my kitchen being small because I love cooking, but it has actually been fine. My big accomplishment, fixing meals that are not really processed and contain almost all fresh produce. It tastes so much better, makes you feel so much better and we haven't had very much waste. I plan my meals for the week and shop for that alone. It is amazing! We have less waste and aren't storing lots of random ingredients that just take up space. It takes a bit more effort, but is totally worth it. My dream project that might not happen is to create a picture menu with magnets that I can put on the fridge so I and ev will both know what is in store for the week. My next priority project....curtains!!!! We will hopefully be going to KC on the 16th so Evan can go to a music store and so I can go on the glorious adventure of fabric shopping!!!! So excited!

A Place to Lay our Heads

It finally happened.....we got a bed.....well no headboard yet, but an amazing mattress. We made our first big purchase as a couple. Funny enough, Evan cared more about our sheets and their price than our mattresses. Yes, I found it odd it too. It's supposed to be delivered today and I find myself as eager for the knock of the deliverer's as one would for a hot date. Yes, that seals it, I must be getting older. :)

Magazine dream

We are finally in OUR apartment. Yes, there is a bit of kitchen stuff straggling behind at the beach house, but our stuff is here. Old wood moulding, hardwood floors and some fun windows and plenty of them....YUM! A decorating dream....minus weirdly placed doors, a bathroom without baseboards, some not so hot floral wallpaper in the spare room and some little friends....no not roaches or spiders (praise the L!). Ants. They are coming from somewhere, but it appears to be nowhere because I can't find it. I love Father's creatures, but if these don't get the heck out of my apartment they'll be exterminated soon.

This past weekend while at Target, I found a comforter I love (and Evan likes it too.). I came up with an idea for a desk I'm excited to try. I started curtains for our living room and have a simple rug ready to be placed. My head is filled with beautiful visions of our home and all my ideas......but then I look around me and reality exists. Boxes of leftover wedding decorations. Boxes of stuff we need to unpack. Boxes of random stuff that wasn't unpacked from the last move and probably won't be this time either. Boxes of some kitchen stuff that I don't have space for because I only have four drawers and one set of decent cabinets. It's going to be an interesting year. So many beautiful things, so many beautiful ideas, so much crap, and so little space. Oh well, deep breath, one day at a time. One box a day.

A disgruntled path

Today I was reading in Exodus when I got to this

"17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." 18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea."

It really made me think. Definitely during wedding planning there were many times where things came up and they were so aggrivating and then just tiring. Then there was our whole slumlord apartment owner situation. Now we are in the middle of moving and unpacking where I literally cleaned about a cat worth of cat hair just from behind our fridge. I won't go into the dusty nastiness and the bathroom. I feel like my attitude is really pretty positive now because 1) I'm excited to settle into married life in my husby's and I's place 2) Wedding presents! Who wouldn't be excited to open awesome gifts from really awesome people? 3) Good helpers have been around us through all stages to make things go faster and easier.

When I was thinking about the verses I had never paid much mind to the path Father put the people on. He specifically made them go the longer way to avoid really bad stuff. Now, me being like most people, if I had to go the long way and no one told me why, I would try to use rationale to make a case for why we should go the shorter route and complain in my head when it didn't work. But maybe the shorter and easier path isn't always better. Right now if I had to take away my 3 morale boosters, I would definitley be griping and complaining about wher4e Father has me. But why? Would I rather be in a good apartment but with a scummy landlord? No way! Would I rather settle for easy comfort than work for something that could be a lot better in the end? Yes! Hopefully you can think about the road you have been traveling and are currently traveling. No it will not always be easy or fun. But think about the fact that Father planned it and realize there are tons of things He has you taking the long way around so for your good you don't have to deal with those. It is amazing to think about all the things He faces for us and how big they are, but we don't always realize it.

So, in conclusion, I hope and pr that you and myself will choose to serve, love and praise Him where we are at and not just when we get to where we want to be.

Reaping a hundred fold

So as all of you (the ten people who actually read my blog) know, I did it! I just got married. The process of planning was some fun, but mostly stressful and frustrating for me. However, God did not fail to amaze me. Time and time again from the beginning of our engagement to our wedding day itself, I can't tell you how many times I looked at things and thought, "How are we ever going to do this?" Whenever I needed provision, our beautiful father always came through......through you!!!!! From setup to showers to painting pots to preparing food to taking pictures, in abundance there were friends and family ready and more than willing to tackle the task. To all of you, I am still in awe and completely humbled by your servant's hearts and the loved you have shown us. We know who each one of you are and are so very thankful to have you in our lives. You have taught us so much and add so much joy to our lives. Thank you.
Now, one more thank you and shout out is necessary to my bestie. I love you whorts! I think nine or ten is the number of times I have cried thinking about you, watching a video you made for us, reading a card you have sent, and just plain seeing you on our big day. My heart felt so bittersweet that you weren't able to be here in person for all of this, but I feel honored that you can offer that as a sweet offering to father for what you are willing to do to follow him and see him glorified. I was so excited to get your letters because it felt like part of you was coming home. Thank you so much for your creativity and all your sentimental-ness, I really loved it. And thank you skype for making it possible to my friend to see, at least some of it all! So now, I will dry my eyes and eagerly wait for our next skype date, whorts. Love you and love all of you!