Mary's Story

I am finally finishing up the book "A Lineage of Grace" by Francine Rivers. Francine does such an incredible job of making people in the Bible come to life and this book has really brought to life 5 women who I have never really given much thought to before. They are 5 women in the lineage of Jesus who made some interesting choices, and one would think "Why would God choose her to be a part of Jesus' lineage" but he did, which brings me hope!

The final story is Mary's. I wasn't really looking forward to reading it because I felt like I knew her story...we hear it every Christmas. But now, I have a different perspective. I've been pregnant and I'm now a mom.

I was telling Matt some of my thoughts about why I thought it was interesting that Mary was engaged and not single when this all happened and thought I'd share them here.

• God's timing and plans are perfect! He chose a woman who was engaged to be married. I never thought how important this was until now. You see, in Mary's time, her being pregnant was enough reason to be stoned to death. The only way she (and her baby) survived is because of her fiance, Joseph, who was God-fearing and stood up for her. Had she not been engaged to be married, its very possible she would have died.
• Being pregnant is difficult and exhausting! Could you imagine being pregnant in her time? Sleeping on the hard floor, dust everywhere...AND she decided to make a long journey to visit her best friend Elizabeth while she was pregnant AND she had to travel to Bethlehem for the census. No thanks! She needed support...which is another reason why God's timing is perfect...she was engaged, then married, to Joseph. Again, had Joseph not been around she would have been killed or disowned by her family.
• Finally, I think God was creating a picture of what He desires "family" to look like. Had Mary been pregnant and single, it would have said there is no need for a man to be a part of the family unit. Fathers aren't necessary. But instead he chose a couple, in the perfect circumstances, that would parent Jesus together. He created a family unit.

I love when scripture comes alive. I would definitely suggest you read this book!

Newlywed Tip - Save some gifts for later!

Newlywed Tip: Save some gifts for later, especially when you are given double!

Last night, I was preparing my lunch for today and opened up our Tupperware cabinet only to find no matching sets. Everything was being used or had been broken over time or lost. So, I headed to our closet where I know I had some in storage. We had gotten a very large Tupperware set for our wedding three years ago and at the time, I started pulling out all of it. But then it hit me -- I don't need all of it out. I'll just pull out some of it and leave the rest in here. Now, I have brand new Tupperware in my cabinet ready to go.

We were also given doubles of a sheet set and a towel set. At the time, I was tempted to return them for something else but someone told me to keep it and save it for later. I'm so glad I listened to them. They are all in their original packaging so when our current towels and sheets start to age, I can go to the closet and grab brand new ones!

This could apply not only to Newlyweds but also to any gift!

Photos

Matt and I finally had some pictures taken thanks to Photography by Darcy.  Here are two of my favorites:

Year 3 Begins

Matt did a great job of planning a really nice and surprising evening.  I got an email at 3pm that said, "Dinner Reservations at 6, wear your dress."  He took us to a nice italian restaurant in Kenosha where we had a balcony area all to ourselves!  Then, we got home and a friend of ours had lit candles everywhere and Norah Jones was playing in the background.  I started crying!  What a sweet man I married!  As Matt said this morning when I left for work, "Year 3 begins today!"

Two Years!

Matt and I have been married two years today! Its been fun to reminisce the last few days about what we were doing two years ago at that time. These last two years have been wonderful - full of growth, challenges and joys! Happy Anniversary Baby!

The Don't Song

The Don't Song -- HILARIOUS and Great! Make sure to share with your husbands. :)

Wedding Bells

My little brother is getting married on Saturday! We are heading to Bloomington tonight for the wedding festivities. This picture was taken three years ago on a family vacation - we all look so young!

We love you Evan and Julie!

Don't Know What To Call This...

I had an emotional melt down last night...I can't imagine what was going on in Matt's brain at the time but he was so patient with me.

As I was driving home last night, I talked to my mom about Evan's wedding and how we are leaving today for Matt's hometown and when I got off the phone I had a wave of emotion hit me like a ton of bricks. Instantly, I missed living close to family. Matt and I pulled into the driveway at the same time and he opened my door only to find tears running down my face. I silently cried all the way into the house but once Matt asked me what was wrong -- a fresh wave of tears and sobs poured out. He just hugged me as I cried and cried and cried.

Matt: Let's go sit down.

Me: (As I was sobbing) No, we have to clean the house.

Me: (Taking a deep breath as I let out a loud sob) But I don't want to clean! (as a full sob session begins again -- mind you...this has nothing to do with cleaning my house and I still have no clue why suddenly that is what came out of my mouth)

I was so exhausted and emotionally wasted that nothing was making sense and Matt just hugged me again as the sobbing continued. What a guy! He stayed up extremely late cleaning my house and doing laundry as I slept. Its in the really hard times that I am especially thankful that I have such a supportive and understanding husband!

27 Dresses - Reality Check!

Preparation for Girls small group has been looming in front of me for several days. Through different circumstances, I am now the only person leading for the summer, so prep is all on me. I began to really dread it, so I just decided that last night was going to be a "Girls Night". I rented 27 Dresses and got Ice Cream and toppings. (You can't have a Girls Night without junk food!)

It was a lot of fun hanging out with my girls and watching the movie. It sparked conversation and brought out the girly side in all of us. A funny thing started to happen at all of the romantic parts - a collective "AWWW!" would erupt throughout my apartment. The "AWWW!" said so much more than, Isn't that sweet!. Each girl has a desire to be pursued like that - but many times how we dream of it happening - and how its portrayed in movies - is perfection. Perfection isn't reality.

"It doesn't happen like this in real life" I yelled out. "Says the girl who got proposed to on the Eiffel Tower" one of my girls said. Sure, that moment was awesome and Matt reminds me often of what a great job he did. But that incredible moment lasted seconds, then back to reality! How do I talk to my girls about this and make sure they hear me? I couldn't come up with anything brilliant (How did my youth pastors' wives do that? They always came up with something brilliant that would challenge me in that moment and stuck with me forever!) but at least the conversation was started.

Matt and I are pretty transparent with our students - we don't fake perfection. Several of our students don't have parents that have healthy relationships - so ours is the only one they're exposed to. We've talked with them about how hard relationships are and that they take a lot of work. It was pretty cool when I heard through the grapevine that one of our students had said she wanted a marriage like ours.

Whether we realize it or not - teenagers are watching and listening! Let's just hope that what they are soaking up isn't perceived perfection - but hard-working-and-rewarding reality.

Sniff Sniff

That has been the sound I have been making all week - I have a summer cold. It has been extremely frustrating as it has zapped all of my energy and all of the kleenex in the house!

Matt has been wonderful as I have been less than functional. We are leaving for BigStuf on Friday (at 4am!!!) and I am not prepared for the road trip to Florida. I laid awake last night sniffing and thinking of everything that still needed to be done - who can room with who and not create drama, need to call the hotels, can't forget the box for all their cell phones, and the list went on and on.

I finally walked out into the living room where Matt was playing college football and informed him that I could not sleep. He put down the controller and turned to listen to me list everything off. It was amazing how much that helped to clear my head!

I went back to bed, still sniffing, but at least my mind was at ease...for the moment!

Baseball Games

I really enjoy going to baseball games with Matt. Any time he asks me to go with him to a Brewers game - I jump at the chance. More for the company than the actual game although I am finding that more and more interesting.

I especially enjoy going to baseball games with other couples. Our friends Erick and Bekki asked us to go to a Brewers game last weekend (with some great tickets I might add - Thanks guys!) It was really awesome to just hang out with friends on a beautiful day in Milwaukee!

We Are Back From The Hearts At Home Cruise!

*Sigh* Just a few days ago I was relaxing on the deck of a ship in the middle of the ocean! It is wild to think about. We had a wonderful time! I would recommend cruises to everyone. It was so nice to be able to go to so many different places and only have to unpack once. Matt and I came home relaxed and rejuvenated!



Here are some highlights from the trip:

1. All of us were on five different flights because we booked our flights with points. You can read more about my dad's flight adventure on my mom's blog.
2. You have the same room attendant, waiter and assistant waiter all week.
3. They clean your room twice a day!
4. The boat was a little rocky. I could always feel slight movement but the second to last night was the worst!
5. Food! Food! Food! 24/7!
6. Did you know that sunscreen expires? I didn't! This is what happens when you use expired sunscreen. He wasn't smiling like this the next day when we were in pain!:
7. Grand Cayman was a little boring because we didn't do any excursions. But we were so burnt and tired that we slept most of the afternoon away!
8. Snorkeling in Cozumel was incredible! What a great experience!
9. We went to the Men are like waffles, Women are like spaghetti workshop. Matt really liked it!
10. Great time with the family!
    

Au Revoir!

Matt and I leave tomorrow for our cruise and I am very excited! I can't wait! Hopefully I will quickly get my sea legs. We get back on July 3.

My parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary yesterday! Congratulations Mom and Dad! My mom wrote a really cool post on everything she didn't know before she got married. I would encourage you to go read it! My dad also posted about their 25 years.

My brother sent me this video from his mission trip to Romania. Its quite a long video - but the second song that is played (starting at 4:20) is Evan singing - he has a gorgeous voice! Enjoy!

Matt's Home and 50's Diner!

Matt finally came home on Friday! I got a lot accomplished while he was gone:

• Cleaned my house
• Organized the guest bedroom
• Put together a bookshelf and got a black toe because I forgot the shelves weren't attached
• Hung out with a lot of great girlfriends
• Put up a light (yes I did the electric work and everything - except one of the wires popped apart when I was in the final stages of attaching the light and didn't realize it until I was done. Have to go back and fix that - but after two hours I was ready to be done!)

Here is the light fixture I put up:


Yesterday was our third-annual 50s Diner at church. This is an awesome fundraiser we do for our high school students. They dress up in 50s costumes and then we serve hotdogs, hamburgers, brats and root beer floats to people from the church. 50s music plays in the background. It happens right after church is over so a lot of people stay - we had a great turn out this year! Here are pictures from the 50's Diner:

Home Alone - Again

Matt left yesterday morning on a mission trip with our Jr. High students. They are spending the week in Cincinnati, OH working with Know Sweat. Please keep them in your prayers!

You know what this means! Yep, I was awake until 1:30 AM last night! I got 3 loads of laundry done and started to dissect the piles of clothes on my floor pick up my bedroom. I shook out a shirt and noticed something black was quickly finding its way across the shirt and towards my hand! AAAAA!!! A BIG BLACK SPIDER! I panicked! I was home alone and Matt wasn't there to kill it! I started throwing things at it hoping that my aim would suddenly become perfect and the thing wouldn't know what hit it. After the third shoe, I finally squished it!

An hour later I went to bed and thought for sure that the spider's family was going to have its revenge and climb all over me all night long. I couldn't take it! I went and took a shower and washed my sheets.

Tonight I am going to finish dissecting the pile of clothes on my floor picking up, and I am praying that there are no spiders or any more bugs! The joys of living in a basement!

Robots, Friends and a Sunburn

This is going to be a long post but I have to blog about everything from this weekend! :)

To start off I have to share something hilarious that happened last night. Matt and I have been going and going all weekend so we are exhausted. We laid down last night and I realized about five minutes later that we hadn't said, "Good night". So I turned over and this is how the conversation went...

Me: You forgot to kiss me goodnight!

Matt: I was concerned.

Me: What?

Matt: I didn't know about you.

Me: What are you talking about!?!?!

Matt: I have been seeing robots all night. (Seriously I am not editing a single thing he said!)

It was at that moment that I realized he was talking in his sleep!! I started laughing so hard. I just talked to him and he said he had no clue that we had that conversation last night!

Back to our weekend. We had a spaghetti dinner Friday night that went very well. We got home about 9:30pm and had to quickly pack and start driving to Bloomington. We got into Btown about 2 am. We then had to meet some good friends for breakfast at 8:30 am. It was so nice to see Mandy and Eric and meet their new little guy Sully. (Yes Eric, you made the blog!) :)

At noon, we went to a mini reunion with some of Matt's friends who were celebrating their little guy's 1 year birthday. Some of our other friends are moving this week to Kansas (I think) so we won't be seeing them any time in the near future. So it was really good to see our friends!



Then, we headed to a graduation party with our friends Eric and Mandy. It was great to see some old friends and students of Matt's old church. I did a little photo session with their little guy Sully.



These are some of my favorites:



Then, my brothers Austin and Kolya had a debut concert with their band Cypress Road. It was all set up in my parents' barn and I think my ears stopped ringing by the time we had driven home to Northern, IL at 2am! What a crazy busy weekend! But it was so nice to hang out with friends and family even if it was just for a few hours!

Engagement Scrapbook

I have really enjoyed sharing my scrapbook pages with all of my blog friends! So I thought I would share some more...

I made an entire scrapbook for our engagement. Matt surprised me in Paris on the Eiffel Tower (I thought I was going to a party for friends). I had no idea that he was even in the country - I thought he was in an intensive week at school! He then got to spend 8 days with me!

Wedding Is On My Mind!

As you know, I've been scrapbooking my wedding pictures and Evan is engaged and they are planning their wedding so weddings have been on my mind! I was browsing wedding pages when I came across these awesome wedding invitations from 1st Class Wedding Invitations! How cute are those! They are called Cotton Candy Wrap Invitations. They look like invites you could use for a Sweet 16 party too. So there you go girls in my youth group - cute invites for your Sweet 16!

I know this is completely random but I really thought they were so cute! We got our wedding invitations for free because they came in our tux rental package so we did not have much of a choice - who knows...maybe we'll have to renew our vows so I can have fun invites like these! :)

Speaking of renewing your vows -- Matt brought up the other day that I will have to probably change the title of my blog soon because we aren't really newlyweds anymore. I was kind of bummed to think that we aren't considered newlyweds anymore -- I still feel like a newlywed! I still make mistakes like a newlywed! :) I don't know...what are your thoughts?

More Wedding Scrapbook

Having this new desk in my living room is dangerous - I might actually complete my wedding scrapbook! Although I was up until midnight working on one page last night!


It looks like it might be a nice day outside - at least up here in Northern, IL - so I hope you all can get outside and enjoy it!

Wedding Scrapbook

I spent part of this weekend getting a few more pages done in my wedding scrapbook. Matt set up my new scrapbooking "station" in our living room. I love it! Its so nice to be in the living room with Matt while each of us can do our own thing! You can click on the pictures to get a larger view of the pages.