date night

unfortunately this is a cheesy picture and this post is going to be very short, because it is date night and i have to get back to the movie... but i did promise you a picture so here it is.

and in case you were wondering...

 outback was delicious.

the redbox was free.

and i love my husband. 

hope you all are enjoying friday night!

day one.

here we go! 

are you excited? 

because i am!

and the picture of the day...

what does this picture mean to me you ask?

well this morning i had an appointment so i didn't go to work... also why i am posting this in the middle of the day- im going at 12:30... so i got up to go to the bathroom at 7:30 and i saw a flicker. normally being the chicken i am i would have gone and woke j up, but i just stuck my head around the corner and this is what i find. oh my! yes! a burning candle. when did we light it you ask. well we had company over last night and to make the apartment seem inviting and smell nice... oh i'd say around 5:30. 

so all these facts mean that this lovely candle was burning for over 12 hours. 

(now obviously i didnt take a picture of it at 7:30. this was staged.)

okay so what this really means is that our precious Lord had His hand on us and our home and i guess all our neighbors too. He protected us and kept us safe. this is so comforting because as i mentioned above, i am a chicken and anyone who knows me knows this. i am always terrified of a robber or a fire or just something that will harm me. and my dear Savior is the only one who can protect me from that. i know! its shocking that my handsome husband cant. well, he can, but by God' strength. so again it is ultimately God. i consider myself abundantly blessed to be covered in His grace and mercy. 

so today, i live my life to honor and glorify Him for the simple fact that i woke up this morning because of Him.

oh and a treat because this is the first day...

and because i really really want to.

maybe the candle didnt get blown out because i was taking pictures... ehh.
i dont really think we should place blame, should we?


happy thursday, friends!
enjoy greys anatomy tonight!

brilliant idea

i had a brilliant idea today... as you can tell. :)

in april one of my best friends lesley ann has asked me to be her second shooter for a wedding she is photographing, which im totally beyond excited about. i started thinking about this and how i could prepare. there is alot of emotion in weddings and important things to capture, right? well i have decided until the wedding i will post a picture a day of something that is very important, meaningful, or just stuck out to me that day.  it will help me capture small things and also things that i wouldnt normally think about, and it will help me to be more grateful. it will also help all of you get to know me more and see our everyday life. 

so starting tomorrow... haha... i will post a picture. 

i hope this inspires you to come back!

the official bachelor recap

i need to start this by saying i used to think this was somewhat lame, but i watched the bachelor by myself last night and im going to pretend that you are my sister in law and we are going to talk about it. 

(disclaimer though, this is not the official recap. 

it is not going to be detailed and is totally my opinion.)

for starters, whoa drama mama! have you ever... these girls are nut-sooo! you dont get an opinion if you didnt even get a one on one date orrrr if all you talked to him about was drama in the house. period. 

let me just tell you, the "new ash" looks amazing. i LOVE this look on her. she looks so sophisticated and grown up. and i do believe brad liked it too. i think she carried herself very well last night and had a lot of class. she did not participate in the "bashing" of the other women and she was kind. she never had anything to say that was negative.

did anyone else notice that shawntel never said anything? 

if she did, i missed it. but im pretty sure she didnt say anything. 

next, the show definitely would not have been the same without michelle and her "sarcasm" every week. i cannot say whether that was her or her being fake because obviously i dont know her, but the girls that had things to say about her last night were some of the ones who spent the least amount of time in the house. 

just sayin...

but you NEVER mess with someone's child. NEVER. no matter what kind of person she is and what she said, they had no right to comment on her parenting because a) they never got to know her on a deeper level as a friend and not as competition and b) they dont know her daughter. dont get me started.

i have thoroughly enjoyed this drama filled season and im not sure what im going to do on monday nights now. im sure i will find something though,

 like maybe sharing the tv with my husband. ehh...

so anyway, that was monday night,

i laughed, 

i cried... maybe,

and i said OMG!

but all in all im totally ready for next week 

when he proposes to emily to one of the two wonderful girls left. :)

ill leave you with the little side note of...

my husband is cleaning the kitchen and picking up the house while i blog. 

LOVE IT!

a special day for a special man.

this is the third time i am posting in a weeks time. ahh so exhilarating!

well today is my absolutely wonderful, amazing, and irreplaceable grandpa's birthday.

just a little background on this amazing man...

i have always been his "doll". he was the one that would sit on the floor and play barbies and pretty pretty princess with me- oh and believe you me, he wore the jewelry! my grandpa and grandma would take me to claires sometimes on sunday and let me get that magical basket that you could carry around. i came home with so much jewelry. this explains my love for costume jewelry. my grandparents would have done anything for me and they did almost everything i asked or wanted. 

yes, i will admit i was spoiled, but never a brat. 

last may, my wonderful grandma who i am named after passed away. it was sudden and not expected. it was also two months before my wedding, which i thought i would never get past. but God was glorified in it. you see, she was in the hospital for a biopsy. the morning she passed away they told her she had breast cancer, but it was totally treatable. a few hours later a blod clot dislodged and hit her heart. it was like a ticking clock and could have happened anywhere, thankfully she was under the care of doctors and nurses- see, a God thing. she had a heart attack. she had also been suffering from Alzheimer's for a couple years. it wasnt severe yet but she asked me the same questions alot and i answered every time. there was a few other serious illnesses that she was dealing with that they never knew. God knew and had a perfect plan because this amazing woman didnt suffer except for a few minutes of pain. she would have faced many hard times and painful years. He faithfully held her in His hands and protected her. because of this i grew closer to my family than i thought i would ever be. especially my grandpa. from that day on i had lunch with him every day of the week to make sure he wasnt lonely. i thought i loved him before but i had no clue. my grandpa is one of the most important people in my life and i thought when we moved i couldnt imagine not having lunch with him everyday. and yes, it has killed us both. i never knew how much i missed eating sandwiches. :) 

i miss my grandma so much, words cannot express how much, but i am so grateful for the awakening God provided me and how i have used these past months to strengthen this relationship with my grandpa. i cannot imagine the hurt he faces everyday knowing his wife of 58 years isnt with him. but he is so strong and i am so thankful for his example of a Godly man and husband. he took care of my grandma and answered her many questions too. he loved her and honored her. he treated her with kindness and respect. he was wonderful to her and everyone else.

he is just amazing. 

as simple as that.

so, happy birthday grandpa.

i pray you have many more.

i love you.

such good intentions

yesterday i found out that my husband had to work all night and my dear little mind immediately thought oh what will i ever do to entertain myself. i thought all day about my plans for my evening. and this is what i came up with. first i was going to work on my blog and make it more cute, of course while listening to pandora. then i would post like a good little blogger, and it would just be wonderful. 

but, i found this lovely little thing on my iphoto that recognizes faces. oh my dear heavens! i was sold after a few clicks and im still not sure why. but i couldnt stop naming people! and the next thing i knew j was calling me asking if there was tea made because he was almost home. oh where did the time go. 

so here is my "my husband is working and im alone on a friday night" post.

and since you all are wondering who has the most photos in our library...

that would be this lovely darling

 and the total count is 380!

guess thats what happens when your sister in law gets married.

love you L!

hope you all enjoyed your friday night...

and were more productive than i was.

i will do this...

posting is terribly hard when you feel as if no one is listening... yes i like to think you hear my voice or some type of voice when you read this. but i will do this... i will. so as i listen to pandora again (they cut me off because i reached 40 hours of listening time... i need friends if i listen to music that much, at least it was mostly the shane and shane station) im going to tell you friends what is on this mind of mine.

so a quick recap...

our shower did not work, and when i say shower, i mean the faucet worked but not the head so this is what we "got" to do for a couple of days until the maintenance man could come by... because of course this happened on a saturday when he doesnt work. we took baths the five year old way. (sorry matthew and lauren, j grabbed it.)

 next, i did the laundry- always a good thing. but i washed j's wallet. oops. and the poor thing just isnt the same anymore.

sorry this isnt much... we havent mastered a social life here. ehhh...

we have officially been in this city (i will use no words to describe it) for 39 days. the weather for the past week has been rainy and no sun- which absolutely kills me- and then progressed to flash floods, winds strong enough to pick my car up, and tornados. but thank our dear Lord we are safe. and also something else to thank Him for, the sun came out today!! imagine my excitement. i wore my long forgotten sunglasses again. it was oh so magical!

well when i got home, my lovely mother had sent me a package... 
you see... when you decide to order something from ebay you need to first check and make sure the shipping isnt 30 dollars and then you need to make sure it didnt process your order even though you backed out. i did one of these things. can you guess which one i didnt do? well because of my "carelessness" (i call it fate), my mother got a wonderful email that said she won her bid- of course she said "What bid?" So my mom received this lovely gem below in the mail and being the wonderful woman she is, she (of course!) monogrammed it and added a bow for me and sent it on its way to KY. i was so excited when i got home from work today and opened it.  my husband was even more excited about it than i was... okay we all know thats not true. about the 5th time i pointed it out to him he said "it's great sweetie". haha. obviously he doesnt appreciate a good monogram and bow. 

but another fun fact is that we recieved a package yesterday too... 
my mother in law sent us my husbands bible that she accidently took home (i feel so bad that she had to pay shipping for the gigantic ESV study bible- 8 dollars in shipping to be exact) and many spices for me to cook with and a cute little umbrella... 
i guess she watches our weather too. 

this week is just full of many fun surprises from home... including a tentative date to visit our favorite state at the end of this month. thats right, you guessed it. we are making our first trip home and this girl could not be more excited. we just miss our families, friends, and home church more than we can imagine. 
oh you want to see pictures of them... im so glad you asked!

my absolutely precious sisters in law and cousin in law!

the "band of thieves" as we like to call ourselves.

my dad and my grandpa. :) two of my favorite men.

my lovely momma!

my wonderful in laws.

amazing women from our church... 
wish i could show you all the amazing women 
but apparently i dont take as many pictures as i think i do.

and their super super cute kids! 
they look just like their mommas.


there are so many more, but like i said... where are the pictures? :)


okay sorry friends, this was terribly long and maybe i shouldnt post all this. but i am. or maybe i should just post more often... yep thats definitely it. and of course, thank you for reading! :)