Before November Ends

I haven't written on my blog in forever, and I promised myself that no matter what I would get at least one post done for the month of November, and seeing that it's the last day of the month, I suppose today's the day to get it done. (I just realized that was a seriously long sentence, ha.) It simply isn't fair for me to try to condense my whole life from the past few months into one small post, so I'll just give some highlights and write further about said highlights in separate posts!

November 2012 marked Jeremiah and I's first Thanksgiving that we celebrated as a married couple! :-) We decided to have our own little dinner together before heading to my parents' house to celebrate with them and the siblings. 'Twas very fun. Here are a few pics from the Husband and I's dinner.

Our turkey didn't fit in our oven (we use our toaster oven as our oven! Works out better than it sounds ;)) So the Husband came up with the idea of putting our deep fryer to use for half the turkey, and then putting the other half in the oven! We didn't want our apartment smelling like deep fried turkey for a month, so the fryer ended up on a chair outside until it was done! Turned out tasty, by the way. 

That first item is cake. The Husband woke up early just to make it. And he ate the whole thing himself. That's a normal occurrence in our household, lol.

Days and days and days and days and days and days of LEFTOVERS!!!

Awww, I smile just by looking at it. We enjoyed putting it all together for ourselves. We ended up eating around 5 something pm, which is late for him, early for me! We probably would've eaten earlier, but we took advantage of his day off work by have a nap together before getting too into cooking. :-)

Blurry, but I love it! And we matched! I have the best husband.

And again.

And again.

And, yes, again.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures while we were at my family's house, but we had a great time there too! Plus my padre was in town from work, so it was truly a family celebration. After the eating and talking and fellowship was done, me, my older sis, her husband, one of my younger bros, and my younger sis headed to the mall for the Black Friday festivities. I guess it wasn't so festive for my little sis since she had to work... But I must say it was rather freeing for me this year to not have to worry about rushing from Thanksgiving dinner to the mall to work retail! 

Anyways, while at the mall, my older sister and I went to TJMaxx (yes, the one store with no sales on Black Friday because everything is always on sale...go figure!). We browsed and browsed and ended up in the baby section, and she blessed me and the husband with our first sets of onesies for baby girl! Yup, I'm pregnant, 23 weeks today :-) I wish I had pictures of the adorable little outfits since they're so freakin' adorable (so nice, I said it twice!..lame, ha!! You loved it though.), but I shall share some other time. Here I am on Thanksgiving Day:

Anywho, that's all for now! Much has happened over the past few months, but that's all I feel like writing about at the moment. Don't worry, I won't disappear for another five months. Maybe just five days. :-)

Alive again on Daddy's Day!

No, no one died. Though I guess for a while I'm sure it may have seemed like my blog died off due to me not posting for months on end. But hey, I'm a newlywed! Surely you can't expect that anything besides enjoying my new hubby would be at the forefront of my mind. :-)

I haven't the slightest idea where to begin with all that's happened the past few months, so I suppose I'll begin at the present day, then in future posts share snippets of stuff that's been happening. With that being said...

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! I am super blessed to have grown up with a godly man leading our home. My dad has been an amazing example to me and my sibs of what a man who follows God looks like. I wouldn't trade my dad for any other father out there! I think as I've grown older I've realized more and more of how much my dad has sacrificed for me, my mom, and my siblings, and how much he loves us and more importantly how much he loves God and wants to honor Him in how he leads his home. Such a blessing, right!? So the more I realize it, the more I thank God and truly appreciate the fact that my Heavenly Father saw fit to order my dad's steps to come to know Him personally and raise his family in the ways of the Word and the Lord. Plus, my dad provided a great example of what qualities to look for in a husband, like the one I have! :-) My dad's out of town right now, but I'm glad we got to chat, and hopefully Skype later :) And in honor of Daddy's Day, I shall share pictures of me and my padre that happen to be from my wedding! (courtesy of For The Joy Photography)

My favorite :)

Daddy and his newlywed daughter. :)

Daddy talking with me before we went down the aisle!

With me before we went down the aisle!

At the rehearsal :) Best daddy ever.

Going down the aisle!

I absolutely love this! Going down the aisle :)

I definitely won't be gone as long this time, so expect more posts from me soon!

Engagement Photo Shoot - Teaser!

So the Favorite and I went the non-typical route and ended up taking our engagement pictures a month before the wedding instead of right after the engagement (which was in April) like most people. We just gotta be different ;-) Anyways we had such a fun time, in spite of the fact that it was around 35 degrees outside! Brrrrrr!!!! By the end of the photo shoot, our faces and hands and toes and everything was frozen, but we celebrated the fun time with soup, salad, and sandwiches at Panera :-) Our photographer, Treneka, is absolutely amazing and definitely has a God-given talent! I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future, and we'll definitely be using her again ;-)

I love how candid this is! The Favorite definitely started tickling me,  hence my expression. Thankfully my typical reflexes didn't kick in as they normally do... I can get kinda violent when tickled! 

I absolutely love this one! I love the photo effects and how she had us pose and everything...  Love and happiness :-)

Treneka is an absolutely amazing photographer! I will share more of this awesome photo shoot in the days to come :-)

The Month To Surpass All Months

It's here! It's here! We are officially in February and I am too hype, because that means my wedding is in just over three weeks! Ahhhh! Excitement, man. Excitement. So many awesome things are happening this month, I just have to share...

February 4

Bridal Shower! My maid of honor, who's been my best friend since like...forever!, has been totally enjoying herself by not sharing ANY details with me about the shower. Grrr! Oh well, I know I'll enjoy it :-)

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February 5

 The Favorite and I's 3 year dating anniversary! (Oh, you thought I was gonna say the Super Bowl?! I didn't even know it was on the fifth til my brother told me a couple days ago. Shows how much football I watch!)

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February 14

 Valentine's Day! Not even one my favorite "holidays," but I'm always down for chocolate :-)

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February 18

 Spiritual Birthday! On this day of 2001, Jesus drew me to Himself, opening my spiritually blind eyes to see my need of Him and His grace and mercy! No longer am I among the walking dead, but the alive in Christ!

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February 25

WEDDING DAY! "And the two shall become one..." It's so surreal; I'm marrying the love of my life! My first boyfriend is also my last, and I have the honor of being his wife! (And he has the honor of being my husband! hehe) Definitely pray for us, that we'll truly have a wedding & marriage that honors the Lord!

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February 26

 Cruise!! DEFINITELY looking forward to the honeymoon, ya'll. Nobody better try to contact us! ;-)

Do you see how much LOVE is in each of these days!? From the beginning of the month with people showering love and gifts on me and the Favorite, to the beautiful union we'll have before family and friends, love, GOD's love is so real and present. And with that in mind, I already know that there are probably more things that are going to arise during this month, some great, some not so great, but in the midst of it all, whether good or bad, I choose to rejoice, and I choose to count my blessings because they are MANY and my great God has been doing, is doing, and will continue to do a great work! 

Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you 

will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.

~Philippians 1:6

Gourmet Pizza, Friends, and Fun

At the beginning of the year, there was one thing on the minds of me and several other ladies: Action. Each of us have different stories; whether individually or collectively we'd been seeking to know the Lord more and more. Books, Bible studies, accountability, church activities, and more had been apart of our lives We all want to be examples to others of Biblical womanhood, but standing alone, attempting to become the Proverbs 31 prototype can all too often begin to feel dreadful and burdensome. Where was the joy? (Or maybe that's just me...?)

Either way, on January 2nd, me and four other ladies gathered around my best friend's table and tossed around different things that personified biblical womanhood to each of us (Biblically based, of course). We also shared goals for the year, both spiritually and otherwise, things we want to learn, and prayer requests. Once all of this was laid out, we submitted it all before the Lord in prayer, leaving our goals and desires at His feet for Him to do with them as He saw fit during the year of 2012. Though we weren't sure how it would all play out, we knew one thing. We were actually going to ACT. We collectively determined that by putting feet to our faith during 2012, this year, even more so than previous years, would actually be one of action. Actually. Action.

Photo credits go to Treneka,
who needs to make a website for her awesome photography!

One thing that was a general consensus is that we all gotta work on our cooking! Haha. So it's set up where each month a different person will "host" an event or outing that coincides with something we discussed early in the year. What better way to start than by food and fellowship!? My best friend (who's also my Maid of Honor! sidenote, hehe) hosted the first one, and made it a Chicken Pizza Night. It was a great turnout, and we ended up being able to catch up with some we haven't seen in years! We each brought an ingredient and made everything but the dough from scratch! We ended up making three pizzas! They were DELISH. We got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman, who we all know (or...anyone who knows who she is!) is an amazing cook!

Photo credits go to Treneka, who needs to make a website for her awesome photography!

 There are so many more things we want to do together to grow as young women to the glory of the Lord, and I think this was a great kick off! Actually Action is actually happening!

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant or to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God,

 who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 

Command them to do go and to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.

 ~1 Tim. 6:18-19

How are you ready to Actually Act this year?

Marking Time

We're almost an entire month into 2012, but I'm still going to say it, for posterity's sake: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Time is FLYING, and for obvious reasons, I'm very excited. Oh, did you miss the obvious reason? I'M GETTING MARRIED NEXT MONTH!!! Woohoo! It's so crazy how quickly time has passed; one day the Favorite is proposing to me in DC, the next day I'm 27 days away from being a bride and a wife! Excitement!

Unfortunately the Favorite and I weren't able to bring in the new year together because he was sick :-( He was the first person I called though! :-) My family and I went to our church's annual NYE gathering with food, games, worship, and testimonies about the Lord's working over the past year! It was a blessing. My last time having a New Years Eve with my "maiden name"!! :-)

Life is definitely busy right now, as anyone who is married, has been to a wedding, or has at least watched a wedding show can imagine. (Hence the reason I'm saying Happy New Year 29 days into the year! hehe) But I don't want to neglect to share the awesome things that the Lord has been doing from day one of 2012! I will definitely be having more posts to give a glimpse of these final weeks as I go from being a Miss to a Mrs.

How have you seen the Lord work so far in 2012? Are there things that you are anticipating happening during the upcoming months? I'd love to hear :-)

...And Who Am I To Think Otherwise?

In 59 days I will be a "Mrs." ...Incredible, right? I am so very excited; time has flown by faster than I ever could have imagined!! If 200 days went by this quickly, then I can only imagine how fast the last 59 will go, ahhh!

Anyways, there is a LOT of stuff that needs to get done still. Wedding related, life related, etc., etc. And I know myself. Sometimes I get overwhelmed, because I'll sit there, and I'll stare at the circumstances, and you know what happens? The longer I look at it, the bigger it gets, the bigger it seems, and then I begin to feel crushed and perplexed and frustrated... My emotions go haywire and I start to freak out and I think I just can't handle it and I wonder where in the world is God working in this? and why me? and why can't it just go easy for my like in such in such person's life? and on and on and on and on and ON go the questions and complaints. Then I hole myself away and bawl my eyes out and sleep and sleep, and bawl my eyes out again, then I vent to the Favorite and then, THEN I do what I should've done at the very beginning--opened up my Word, poured out my heart to Him in prayer, and let those burdens go from my heart and shoulders to His.

It's really quite unfortunate that this is the case, but by no means do I desire to purport myself to you guys like some kind of perfect Christian who isn't in need of some serious growth. Because clearly, I'm not! But amazing things happen when you really confront the truth about yourself instead of just ignoring flaws like they'll just disappear over time. (Trust me, they just magnify!)

Now, to switch gears for a sec...James is such an awesome book, man! I love it. As I'm writing, I just opened up my Bible to chapter 1, and there are like fifty billion sticky notes with stuff written on them from that chapter alone! Not to mention most of the verses in the chapter are either circled or underlined. All that to say that this is a well read chapter in my Bible. Even still, I think this is a good time to go over it again!

Now I'm no Bible scholar, but as I read there are three main things I can pull out that James predominantly talks about in chapter one: Trials (v.1-12), Temptations (v. 13-18), and Adherence to the Word (v. 19-27). ALL of it is good and convicting and essential to the life of a believer, but I'm gonna focus on that last one, adherence to the Word. You know, for a while I was in complete denial that I'm the type of person that lets life circumstances affect my emotions and relationships. I think I got really good at hiding it from myself by saying things like, "Oh, I just learn to adapt quickly," or "I'll be okay," or "Things could be worse." Now all of these things are actually true, but deep down I was using those cliches to smother this fear and doubt that this time the change would be too much for me, and I won't be able to handle it, that things could only get worse from here.

My relationship with the Favorite has played an integral role in me admitting that what I believed about myself was not actually the case. (I mean, it's always easier to think better of ourselves than we actually are, right?) Well this is a rough comparison, I'm gonna reference the section where James talks about how we are not merely to be hearers of the Word, but also doers.

Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

Now that was me. Just as though I were looking in the mirror to see if there were any flaws in need of correction, I was confronted with the fact that I really don't trust God with situations (I'd just allow them to overwhelm me until I reached some sort of breaking point). But upon realizing there was something wrong, you know what I would do? Walk away, and completely forget that there was ever anything wrong and in need of fixing. Is the problem gone because I ignored it? Absolutely not! If anything, I am worse off than before because those sins and doubts and lack of trust begin to fester and grow and swell into something uglier and even more self-destructive than before.

Thank God the scripture doesn't end there! I don't have to muddle through my life with false truths about myself and a lack of faith in God. James continues by saying,

But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.

There is so much freedom in allowing God to show us what's real about us and to transform us from the inside out!! I stopped letting what God was saying to me go in one ear and out the other; I stopped and listened, then I acted upon what He was saying.

So now, back to all the gazillion things I need to get done between now and the wedding day. Why sit here stressing my little mind about what could be and what might happen and so on? If it doesn't fall under the parameters of what God says in Philippians 4:8 (thinking on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, praiseworthy), then I need to cast down those imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ! As I actively DO what God is telling me in order to have better responses to life's situations, the unhealthy and, dare I say, sinful habits and negative responses I've grown accustomed to begin to take a backseat go in the trunk go out the window!

There are a ton of unanswered questions in regard to how some pretty important details are going to work out for the wedding and life after the wedding. However, I know my God, and He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, and before I was even formed in my mother's womb He knew me and knew I'd be getting married in February 2012 and that I'd face situations and struggles outside of my control. This same God who knows all this also has ALL power to work all these things together for my good! That's what He said He'd do, so who am I to think otherwise?