AWKWARD AND AWESOME THURSDAY

AWKWARD

Sometimes you find really great movie selection in the church library.

So much rain, so much cold, and literally every county around us frozen over and we have yet to see one single flake of precious snow.

Vacation planning. I like to start planning on Jan 1 so I can look forward to a vacation all year. Here we are on Jan 30 with not a plan in sight? Unacceptable!

AWESOME

Home-made deodorant. An entire post on this to follow but, seriously go ahead and get pumped.

Mitt. I don't talk politics, but I did really enjoy this documentary.

Arizona. Next Wednesday we are gone to the land of burrito's and Mitchell Glenn Blatter. Hitting two temples and one natural wonder of the world in 3 days. Should be a blast.

SNIP SNIP

Guess what I did.....

MY LOVE LANGUAGE

Did you know the traditional gift of the second year anniversary is snails?

Oh wait it's not? Oh well I ate all the escargot and all the bread and mushrooms and garlic cloves anyway. Jared ate 2! How proud I am of him! Jacksonville peeps: go eat at Orsay!

I know Jared loves me when we came home to a surprise piece of French Pantry wedding cake with strawberry sauce.

I just looked it up and shockingly the traditional second anniversary gift is neither buttery gastropods or cream cheese frosting. Weird. It's cotton. I think our idea's were better.

YEAR TWO

Jared and I have
Been friends for 7 years.
A couple for 3.5.
Married for 2.

 Having someone who
strengthens me
uplifts me
does the laundry and the majority of grocery shopping
prays for me and with me
tells me I am beautiful
makes me laugh
and loves all of the same strange, beautiful, funny, weird things on this earth that I do.

That's something I prayed for my whole life and I hope I never forget it. Here's to 200 and infinity more years with the Bird.

A WHIRLING MIND

We all have distinctive little quirks we think are absolutely normal until we realize they are absolutely not. Or maybe you've never experienced that feelings and that's just another one of my quirks? 

When I become interested in something, it sparks in my brain. It takes a deep root and suddenly I am transformed into a researching machine. I want to have the best of that thing, I want to know EVERYTHING, I want to read all of it and then be able to make a completely informed decision with perfect confidence. I can become so engrossed that everything else falls to the wayside. When I was young it was greek mythology, calligraphy, dog breeds, Anne Shirley, Egyptology, Little House on the Prairie, Harry Potter...anything that grabbed hold of my brain would completely engulf me and I would be lost in it for a little while. Before I got married I obsessively read wedding blogs and boards. 

Of course I always try to cover my crazy little tracks. I don't keep extensive pinboards or share links obsessively, as much as I would like to. I know that my interests often begin and end with me. Only my closest friends are subject to "Did you know's" and the slow leak of my newest passion project into everyday conversation. 

Lately I've been overcome with a few new obsessions, so much so that my brain felt scattered and messy, like I wasn't able to stop thinking about it. I thought this was normal. I've always suspected that maybe I go a little overboard, but churning my way through 20 open tabs on a subject? That's got to be normal behaviour, right? Well apparently not.  Anyway, Jared was able to give me a blessing of peace and today I feel 100% better. 

Lately I've felt like I haven't had a whole lot to say on this blog, and I hope this post didn't scare you off. But anyway, do you ever feel like that? Am I the only one? Funnily enough, Jared experiences the same thing, just with boring stuff like golf and hockey sticks (insert devilish smirk here). 

THE YEAR AHEAD, THE YEAR BEHIND

2013 was a blast. I wrote a life list in 2012 and it feels amazing to actually achieve a little bit of what I know are mostly wild hares. It's fun to write it all out though, the crazy desires of my heart.

Jared and I celebrated one year of marriage at Cape Kennedy.

We rejoiced at 3 weddings, and mourned the loss of my Aunt Shelly to breast cancer.

We spent a month apart while Jared studied in Germany

Traveled to London, Paris, Cologne, Washington D.C., Savannah and California.


We visited to Disney World probably 10 times with our annual passes.


We watched the Avett Brothers serenade us in the rain.

I lost 20 pounds.

Gilligan turned one.



I do have resolutions for this year. I would like to continue being healthy and lose a few more pounds. I would like to better prioritize God in my life. I would like to stick to the cash budget Jared and I have placed ourselves on. I would also like to travel as much as I possibly can. I love being on the road. I have other goals, goals that I will keep inside of myself. I think we all need to have personal, private goals for ourselves that we can pray for and seek earnestly without the added pressure of others knowing what they may be.

2013 was one of the most richly blessed year of my life, I am excited for 2014. Onward, ever onward!