Christmas Traditions...

As I sit here on the 19th of December, I feel quite weird. I'm in Kansas. Just a few days from Christmas. The thing that seems odd about this is that I've never been away from home this close to Christmas. As John and I prepare for marriage we begin forming our own Christmas traditions. Some of them are silly, such as cutting out snowflakes, not using things that have santa on them, putting up Christmas lights. Others are more serious, decorate and choose the tree together, purchase gifts that mean something to other people, not just more useless junk, buy the minimum amount of gifts needed. Making peppermint bark together, having dinner together, attend midnight mass, go Christmas light looking. Right now it's just the two of us, so a lot of these things are together things. Things for the two of us. Then there are things that are for everyone, visit some of the older people from church, be assisting ministers during the holiday season, call our family more. I'm lucky I got him. Even on the days when I wonder how this is going to work, I'm thankful for a wonderful, gracious God, and a fiance that's the same. The unconditional love that is exhibited towards me is amazing.

Any Christmas traditions anyone cares to share?





Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

"...and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us."
Matthew 23:1

Busy Bees...

Things have been quite busy lately! It's nuts. Since the last time that I posted a lot has happened. I got sick and it was difficult to do anything. Work was especially painful. It turned out that I could not work due to the pain and sickness. After days of bloodwork and scans, I found out that I had an inflammed small intestine and my small intestine doesn't take anything that my stomach puts into it. I don't like it at all. We prayed and looked at everything, and in the end it turned out to be a better plan for us if I didn't work. I'm now looking for a part time job, something that I can do while also going to school 15 hours a week.

I got the opportunity to go home over Halloween weekend. It was so nice to see my family! I miss them a lot being up here. We got some time to just hang out and do family stuff. Dad took us out to dinner one night and it was wonderful! Dad and I also got a changce to talk about some wedding stuff, and to hang out with just us, I really enjoyed that.

Coming home was nice as well. I miss John and Miss Bee when I'm gone. The animals around John's house are getting cabin fever, I fear. Stubby went outside yesterday for the first time and he was quite excited, I think. He was a bit fearful at first. As he was walking down the back steps he would take a step and meow, take a step, meow. He's a good cat. Here are some pictures of the animals, Bee is the dog, Stubby is the cat.

Bee waiting patiently for a treat. I snuck a picture in instead!

Stubby looking out the window in the kitchen

Stubby outside for the first time!

Hope that you enjoyed the pictures of the animals. More pictures and posts soon. Have a great week!

Wedding Dresses

Today and yesterday we went shopping for Kels' wedding gown! It's tough. I'm quite thankful that I lived in Houston and could go shopping here. There is just not a lot here, and we have to find the perfect one, so not a clue what we're going to do about it. Oh well. keep hoping and praying...

An Engagment Ring

As I look around at my friends and family that are engaged, married, and whatever's in between we talk about things that we are excited about. We discuss things that people talk to us about, and it seems that everyone always asks the girls the same question, "Can I see the ring?!?!?". As us girls sit around and talk about our proposals and our rings nobody is ever disappointed in their ring. We talk about how neat it is that somebody picked out a ring, and spent the time and money on it just for us. We are amazed that there is a man that loves us so much that he went to these stores, shopped around and for some of them planned for the first time ever, just with the hope that we would say yes, and agree to spend the rest of our lives with them. Then, as our engagments progress, we wear our rings to show everyone that we are committed to someone. We have an outward sign that there is only one man in our life. One man that loves us so much that he is willing to do near anything to keep us safe and keep us his. I've been thinking on this a lot lately. I never cease to be amazed that John loves me that much. As I kept dwelling on this love that he has for me my thoughts shifted to that of God. I got to thinking that I've had somebody that loved me that much my entire life. God has always had those strong feelings of love for us. What if all that excitement that we have for our engagments and weddings was channellled into praising Him? What if instead of asking our girlfriends how their wedding plans were going we asked how their faith was going? If we focused our energy of keeping up with wedding plans into keeping up our faith. Think about how our relationships with our friends would change. Do we have the guts to do that though? Do we have the guts to ask challenge our friends to be accountable for their faith? As we finish our engagment process I pray that we would hold each other accountable for our faith as well as our engagments. Staying accountable to our fiances and to God.

Families Matter...

The past few days have been a whirlwind of emotions. The house stuff is going good. We're continuously finding more issues which is frustrating. I gues when you have a house that was built in 1865, you kind of agree to that.
Another thing that has been difficult is a death that we are dealing with. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?n=brianna-nichole-becker&pid=133609333 This is the obituary for a girl that we grew up with in church. She was just a month younger than I am. Her funeral is today. This makes the second death this year of a kid our age that we know. Please keep the Becker family in your prayers.
We are also facing my sister's deployment. She has been on the short-list for quite sometime now. Yesterday they told her that she will ship out on January 16, 2010 and will return February 2011. This also creates some problems as far as our wedding goes. She wants us to move the wedding so that she can be in it. I realy want her to be in it, but am worried about moving the wedding date, again. Ugh!

Hope that everything works out soon. Praying harder.

Today is my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mama! Love you and miss you lots!

The Night

The night is darkest just before the dawn. Through life, and working nights I have come to see this as a true statement in two ways. Through life I have come to see it as how God gets me through tough times. I know that when things seem the darkest, the good is coming through. Something that comes to mind happened two years ago. John, Aaron, Kels, and I were all working at the same camp. John quit, quite suddenly, in the middle of the camp season. I felt as though I had just lost a part of me. Then, when I felt as though the bottom was near God brought me closer to Kels, a friendship that I am eternally grateful for. Next, He also took the relationship that I had with John to a new level. We went from doing everything together to having to take the time to get to know each other on a deeper and more personal level.
On the other side of things, I have the privilege of working nights currently. I mean privilege with all sincerity. I get to see the sun set, and the sunrise everyday. Please believe me when I say that the time just before the dawn is some of the prettiest time of the day. Usually I take this time to go out to my car. I can see the stars, feel the cool breeze, and hear the silence. It is moving to know that God created that moment in time for me, knowing that I would be outside to enjoy it.

The reason that I thought of this was because it reminds me a lot of our walks with God. We walk just fine with him until we realize that we are in a dark spot. We are scared of walking through or towards darkness. But what if we all walked through darkness knowing that the dawn is going to be the most glorious of all?

This Week...

This week has been one of a different color, that's for sure! Anyone who has ever bought a house knows that it's not going to be easy. But sometimes you end up with a house that looks worse than it really is. John has been living in our new house for a while now. Seeing everything that has already been done, and everything that still needs to be done is overwhelming! We know that we need to get furniture, and a washer and dryer. Now it looks like our water heater is out :( the boys have been living without hot water for a while now. They go back and forth from K & H's house to shower and stuff. Our little dog, Tucker, has had a rough time adjusting to the new house so far. He does not like being without the other dogs.

On a much more positive note, I got my schedule for nursing school today! I'm excited and nervous. I think that this will be good. It's a bit scary, but it's good. I feel as though this is what I am really called to do, and I sure hope it works out! The three people that I hang out with the most just know what they want to do. It's so clear what they are meant to do, one is a teacher, one a music man, and one a pastor/business man. I hope that I find what I'm supposed to do.

God has really blessed me with an amazing man that I'm lucky enough to get to marry soon. I don't know that I say it enough, but I am so grateful that I have John to join on this journey through marriage, family, faith, and life.

It's me, surprised?

Okay, so chances are if you're following me on this blog, you already know me, or at least, you should. I decided to create this blog because I was getting so tied up in everything, and working nights, it's sometimes hard to talk to everyone about what's going on. The goal of this blog is simple, keep people informed about the wedding details, record my thoughts of praise to Him, and post general happenings in my life. So here it goes...

• My two best friends, Adam and Kels got engaged this past week! What a blessing! They are looking at a June wedding.
• Adam and Kels asked John and I to be in their wedding! Knowing that people love you enough that they want you up there with them, now that's a cool feeling!
• John and I set a final date and have things in motion. March 20, 2010, WEDDING TIME!
• The weather has become beautiful and cool in the past few days, another huge blessing!
• John is mostly moved into our new house
• Working nights is difficult. I sometimes get frustrated because I feel like I don't have time for everyone around me
• I start nursing school next month, please pray for me!