Happy End of May

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What a great weekend! We had a fun birthday dinner/get-together on Friday. The sweet hostess had decorated with a bit of a Wizard of Oz theme, and the poppies looked awesome! We got to watch Ultimate Frisbee, and shop and look after kids - which was really busy! We picked out our honeymoon location :) My mom finished up teaching her preschool year and she's ready to go full steam ahead with wedding planning, which will be a huge help. It'll be a good summer :)  

May Books

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Ever After by Wendy Loggia
The Story Jar by Robin Lee Hatcher, Deborah Bedford, and Angela Elwell Hunt
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Beastly by Alex Flinn
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Rainy Friday

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Sure would be a great day to cuddle!

A few of our Save the Date pics

 

We were blessed. We have a good friend who took some photos for us. It was great to have a pre-session to get warmed up with before our engagement session. She was patient and creative. She used her natural talent, with talent that she's developing through her interest. I feel really fortunate to not only have her support throughout this planning process, but also her help with ideas, sources, these pictures, and being our contact for our ceremony. Thanks Kara!

change my ways

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I want to ask more questions, listen more, care more, give more, encourage more, 

but I need help to do it.

"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:3-4 ESV

be yourself

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Sometimes, there are moments in life that have almost nothing to do with you. You're not the main character, but your role in a situation will be more important than you ever know. Staying yourself is sometimes the best thing.

Summer days

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Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer`s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. 

 Alissa Johnson

I'm kinda hoping for a slow week :) 

Hunger Games

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I was intrigued to see that Jennifer Lawrence will be Katniss of the Hunger Games movies. Much better than some of the actresses I heard of interested in the role. Even more exciting.. a town in North Carolina had been chosen as a filming location! I feel like I might need to reread the books again before the first movie comes out next year!

Life Begins

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We're taking our engagement session with our photographer tomorrow. I'm mostly excited, but a little bit nervous. I'm hoping that we'll be comfortable, and that we'll get pictures that we'll cherish. What if we don't? It'll still be okay :)  

Bliss

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We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, “Why did this happen to me?” unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way.

Unknown

Inspiration exists

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We got our table this morning :) The people we bought it from were nice enough to drop it off for us. We'll have 2 chairs of one kind, and 4 of another, and I'm kinda excited to mix them. There is so much that I want to get done and accomplished, and it's mostly fun. I have a "grand list," theknot(dot)com list, a mental list, a work list.. I know I want to fully rely on God's timing and plan. I want to want what He wants.

Whoa

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Audrey Hepburn once said, "If I get married, I want to be very married."

Just realized.. 4 months to go - from today! 

Photos and Love

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We reserved a photobooth for our reception :) 

Actually, the way it worked out was a real blessing. 

123 days left :) 

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I particularly love the first three answers.

New Week

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To Do items of the day: Pick out Engagement Session clothes (!) and go for a run. It was a good weekend :) Good friend time, good Sunday message, good productive and hang-out times with fiance. Happy Monday to all :)

"If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you have not planned enough."

-meddigo message

Happy Friday

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I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.

— Anais Nin

Happy Friday! We got a kitchen table last night :) And tonight we're having date night at the restaurant that we use for our rehearsal dinner. Tomorrow is a very good friend's birthday - and I'm looking forward to celebrating with her!

Lose sight

Man cannot discover new oceans 
unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore

— Andre Gide

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Yesterday I got to attend a seminar essentially about managing your time and priorities. Nothing extraordinary, but reminded me about  how different we each are, in how we work and how we perceive things. Well, and how fast time goes by. Slightly unrelated, we've picked our DJ, and I feel like we've made more headway. :)  

130 days

Q: WHY DO BRIDES AND GROOMS KISS AT THE ALTAR?

A: IN ROMAN TIMES, A KISS WAS LEGALLY BINDING. THEY ALSO BELIEVED THAT WITH A KISS THE COUPLE EXCHANGED PART OF THEIR SOUL.

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We have 130 days left until our wedding! 22 days until I can starting moving stuff over to my future house/ starting making the home we'll share after September 17th. I think I'm feeling slight anxious trying to balance both get things done and enjoying each day. Work seems a little too busy, and my personal to-do list feels a little too untouched, and I'm a little afraid to look at the big picture of all that will get done in the next 4ish months. I know God is sovereign, I know many stages of life are busy, and my timeline should be God's.  

Lamentations 3:2:2, 23 - It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

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Guest House

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More of thee, less of me. 

Happy Mother's Day

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“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…I could walk through my garden forever.”

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

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“Mothers and Daughters”

There is a cord between us
not yet cut
On it we move
like tightrope walkers
novices
uncertain of the net
Take tentative steps
across the gulf
toward one another
Careful
not wishing to turn back
Hopeful
that keeping balance
we can meet
can then embrace
and pass each other
as we must

—Maude Meehan

 

I love my mom. I cried a little when I wrote a card to her. She's such an influence in my life :) 

Happy Birthday to my older brother

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*from the 5K Rugged Maniac

Celebrate

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Tonight - we're celebrating as a family for my older brother's birthday. Also, my future in-laws are coming into to help us check out local hotels as well as try to find our rehearsal dinner location. Then Sunday is Mothers Day :) I'm really thankful for my mother nearly every day. It hit me today that it's been about six months since I moved home after my apartment lease was up and it's hard to remember living there now. My parents were gracious to let me move in (although me and my mom both knew I'd be getting engaged soon, hehe). I think it'll be cool to have a more extended family soon.

Make sparks fly

"The world's favorite season is the spring.
All things seem possible in May."

~ edwin may teale
  

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  things on my mind in the car this morning:

- my dad and i talked about the new jars of clay music that he's been listening to. as i listened to him talk about one song in particular, and what he liked about it, i thought about how cool it can be to see someone else's interests from their perspective. i've learned to appreciate so many things simply from have a friend really enjoy it. things seem so much more interesting when you're learning them through someone's passion. when i came out to my car to find a couple the e.p.s we had been talking about, i could help but smile with tears of emotion in my eyes.

- on the same line of thinking, i'm excited to study my fiance for life. he's just different enough from me that i'll always be able to learn from him, and just similar enough that we can enjoy being on the same page, laughing at the same things, and spend quality time. 

- i talked with my sister last night for a while about her job. i was definitely left with my mind thinking about how to show Christ's love in different situations. how to show grace without enabling, how to show acceptance without sacrificing holiness, how to love unconditionally, as well as how to forgive and not treat a person differently for their past behavior, how to put yourself aside and listen for the little voice of the Holy Spirit.

- when i focus on a prayer request list, it makes "continuous prayer" seem more possible. 

It's all for You

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What am I truly interested in, what should I occupy my time with? I feel the need to get refocused. I can so easily get distracted with accumulating and watching. I want to appreciate the things I'm steward of, take care of my body, and love in serving ways. Ultimately, I want God to be glorified through my days. 

I really enjoyed my daily devotion today, and wanted to share:

So when we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," we are, in effect, acknowledging that everything we have comes from God.

This is what we need to remember: God can take care of our needs. Do you believe that God can take care of you, even when the odds are against it? Maybe you work very hard. Maybe you save your money and invest wisely and have done well for yourself. And you say, "Well, I know it has come from God, but I played a part in it." No, it all came from God. The ability to think clearly came from God. The beat of your heart came from God. The blood coursing through your veins came from God. Everything you have is from the Lord, including the clothes you are wearing, the car you drive, the home you live in, and the spiritual gifts and talents you have. They are all from the Lord.

So when we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," we are acknowledging that everything we have has come from God. And we are also saying that everything we need in the future still will come from God.

If it matters to you, it matters to God. If it troubles you, it is a concern to God. So bring it to Him. He is interested in detail.