Christmas 2007

This Christmas will definitely be one to remember.....because I don't think I can make it through a whole post right now, here is the last page of the Christmas letter that will be sent out by my parents this year, written by my dad.

Well, this letter was actually on schedule to be delivered before Christmas, but things change. Ten days before Christmas, Ashley’s (son-in-law) father passed away, suddenly. The next day, Scott got word that the teenage daughter of one of his employees had been molested by her stepfather. The following Monday, a friend from church (35 years old) was in ICU after surgery found colon cancer. Add this to the normal rush of the season and the “Christmas Spirit” tends to disappear. It seems like every task becomes so much more complicated. On reflection, we have learned that the “Christmas Spirit”… Santa Claus, lights, etc., may have been hard to find but the Spirit of Christ has never been more evident. “He is the reason for the season” seems so very cliché but we do pray that you remember Him in all of your festivities. It is only through His peace and comfort that we are able to pick ourselves up, after much sorrow, and celebrate His birth; celebrate His life; celebrate His resurrection. Jesus is certainly the “reason for this season” but He is so much more. “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow”.

All this to say life is, well, life and with that comes hurt and pain in addition to the joy of God giving us each one more day.

2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Rainy Wednesday

Pretty nasty outside....so for a smile, here's the pups :)

The first is from the iPhone, but I still love it.

Baby sites

Ok so I know this is random, but I ran across these two baby websites in a photographer's blog I check on a daily basis. I thought the stuff was absolutely amazing, and will definitely keep the addresses for that time, a long ways down the road, when we will need them! I figured I would share the sites for the people who actually need them :)

Goodies number 1

Goodies number 2

Update on Co-Worker

So they have found that Sandi, my co-worker, passed away with Meningitis. They believe that she had an auto-immune disorder which meant her body could not fight sickness like the immune system is supposed to. They believe she contracted viral meningitis, which usually is fought like any other virus, and rarely results in death. As as result of the auto-immune disorder, her body could not fight this, which is why is spread so rapidly and ended ultimately in her death.

Her services are planned for Saturday morning in Plains, TX, right outside Lubbock. Unfortunately I will not be able to make it, but will continue to keep her family and friends in my prayers.

Thanks for your prayers as well.

Prayer Request

For the couple people that read this, one of my co-workers was found dead in her apartment last night so I ask for prayer requests for her family and co-workers during this hard time. We don't know any details at this point, but I will keep you updated.

Thanks.

The Christmas Spirit

So Starbucks officially put me in the holiday spirit this year. I tend to get mixed feelings about the holidays because at my house, they are never 100% enjoyable. I do love Christmas and this year I will do what I can to always find the positive. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away, which means Christmas isn't far behind. I have a lot of work ahead of me for all the gifts I have to get done, as well as Christmas cards. It's a good thing this craft stuff is an outlet for me :)

I was raised knowing that Christmas decorations didn't go up until the day after Thanksgiving, so we could truly focus on being thankful before jumping into the next holiday. This being said, I tend to shut out all of the Christmas decorations and goodies for sale that are already saturating every other part of my life. This was hard to do as I walked into Starbucks this morning. They FINALLY have my mucho-favorite Peppermint Mocha back on the menu (a drink, sadly, I have to do without the rest of the year, although that's another story), so it's hard to drive by every morning without stopping. I make it a point to go inside for my morning coffee, thanks to my husband for getting me out of my box, as it's fun to talk to the people--helps get me going in the morning. As I pulled into a parking spot this morning, I noticed all the Christmas decorations in the windows, and tried to ignore them, as usual. As soon as I walked in, I knew I could fight it no longer--the Christmas spirit was taking over. All the awesome goodies to buy, decked out in red and white, along with new breakfast goodies, I knew it was a losing battle. I felt like a kid in a candy store with all the fun things they have this year, and knowing I was going to enjoy my favorite drink helped a little too :) All this to say, Starbucks officially kicked off the holidays for me this year. They kicked my butt into gear--this weekend will be full of crafts--Christmas cards, gifts, decorations--whatever strikes my fancy. It was hard to not bust out the Christmas music, but I will hold off on that another 2 weeks. I can't wait to start putting up our decorations in our very own house. It's an exciting year, and thanks to my mom knowing exactly how I think, we even have a cheesy ornament that says "First Christmas Together 2007".

Happy early Holidays.

The end of HP

That was me the day I got the final Harry Potter book in the mail. I just finished "The Deathly Hallows" a couple nights ago and as I was reading the last page, I found myself very sad--sad enough for tears--that this was the end. It has taken me a little while to get through the book as I have had tons of other things going on (finishing school, planning a shower, etc.) so I had to fit in reading when I could. I know this whole series has been very controversial, but I can say that it has brought me more enjoyment than any book has in a long time. People argue that it is "childish", but if you look deeper than the surface, you will see that it is so much more. I was lucky enough to convince my dad to start reading these books, and now he is just as hooked, if not more, as I am. It's been great to talk to him about this stuff going through the series...it's like our own book club. He read this book within the first month it was out and has since gone back and read the entire series, book 1 to book 7. If you are a Harry Potter fan, apparently this is the best idea ever. I can't wait to partake, however, I am going to wait until I get through the CPA. My dad gave me the idea of a birthday present to myself of starting the series over every year. It is definitely something I am going to do, but I am going to start next year on my birthday. This gives me a year to get the CPA done (since that's probably a little more important than Harry Potter) and have a great reward at the end. I truly am in awe of J.K. Rowling and the thought that was put into this series. It has rocked my world, and will continue to do so forever.

On another note, I got to enjoy my first trick-or-treaters at our house! Unfortunately, Ash was in class, but me and the dogs had fun with the kids. We decided next year, once Ash is out of school, we will be social and sit outside with the dogs to hand out candy. It was fun getting to see all the reactions to Stoney this year, from sheer terror to utter excitement. I can't wait to start pulling all of my Christmas decorations out (yes, I have some already)!

Ashley did get our mantle finished--he ended up building a complete new one, which turned out great. I will try and remember to get some pictures up soon.

It's hard to believe it's November already. The holidays are quickly approaching and it will be 2008 before we know it!

*Cheese Alert*

Just a quick blog to let the world know how amazing my husband is! He sent these to me at work today.....

The awesome part about this is that for my job, I am not sitting in the same office every day--I am at various different places all the time. I had told him which client I would be at today, and he took it upon himself to track down the address, have the gorgeous flowers sent to the client, AND include my favorite bagel with the delivery!

I love him more everyday, which I couldn't even fathom being possible 3 years ago. I truly am lucky to be his wife and have him to spend the rest of my life with.

I love you :)

My heart is heavy

So I heard some very sad news yesterday--my beloved Recollections is closing. This is the place where all my scrapbooking-card making-projects began. Over the past year, I have found that tapping back into my crafy side is the outlet I need in order to keep my sanity. I feel that when I am stressed, if I take 30 minutes to make a card for someone, it makes me feel so much better. This place has been my haven for all things crafty. There are many things that I will be able to find other places, but that's not the issue. I do my best brainstorming in that store. I can walk around and look at paper, brads, whatever the case may be, and come up with my next project. I have spent many hours at crop nights and needless to say my life will not be the same. Yes it may sound stupid, but when something is your passion, this kind of stuff hits you hard. My mom reminded me, when I called almost in tears, that nothing in the world--except for God's love--is permanent. It makes me very sad to see Recollections go and it just means my extra money will be spent there, and nowhere else, until the day it closes. I will go on a paper buying spree because they have paper that I have yet to see anywhere else that just gives me the warm fuzzies.

I have until January to stock up on what I need as well as find some other places that can possibly fill the void. The company that owns Michael's and Aaron Brothers Frames also owned Recollections and they decided they want to focus on the other two stores. My response--I boycott Michael's and Aaron Brothers forever. Aaron Brothers is overpriced and I like Hobby Lobby and Joanns better anyways.

No, I'm not bitter.

It's a sad day in the scrapbooking world.

Please pray.

Home, as we know it.

So after we got our last box unpacked last weekend, and some remaining shelves hung during the week, I finally got around to taking some pictures! There's been some parts of the house that we haven't done anything with at this point, but I'll give you some shots of those too.


First up, the kicthen. This will be one of our biggest projects, which means we must deal with the pink counter tops and tile until we can save up some cash.

The master bath--also a big project being saved for sometime down the road.
The wet bar--as you can see the pink carries all around the house (AWE-some).
Living room--the part behind the fireplace. We decided not to paint the living room as you'll see some pretty bold colors throughout the rest of the house. We figured some neutrality couldn't hurt. Notice the Ashley-made desk in full use now.
Living room--the other side of the fireplace that you see when you first walk in.
Looking into the dining room--and yes, that's Hannah Montana on TV.
The dining room--we did re-paint this room, but I didn't have a good "before" picture to compare it with. It had horrible pink and blue wallpaper above the chair rail, and was painted white below, along with some rockin drapes to coordinate. Our fix is a little bright, but once we get a dining room table, it will tone it down a bit.
Now for the "renovations"...

The master bedroom (which was all white before, we only painted one wall):
The guest bedroom (disclaimer: it's not done, we have to find some cool white stuff for the walls, so if you have any ideas, let us know!):
Guest bathroom:
Scrapbooking room (!!!!):

And a shot of my craft table, that I love oh-so-dearly:
We have definitely made progress! We're still picking up little things all the time to help make it feel more like a home...but as I'm sure you know, it's a slow process. The guest bed has already been used twice and we are stoked to have more people around!

A peek...

One of the rooms that was painted this past weekend. Soak in the color--it's amazing.

He is all that is man.

So we all know how Ash works...completely spur of the moment ideas...yet somehow this works really well for him. He saw a table that was about the coolest thing ever, and decided he could build one himself....so he did! I was skeptical, but here it is....


This is going to be our desk, which will be sitting in our living room. We figured if he's spending all this time making such a cool desk, it doesn't need to be stashed away in a spare bedroom. (It helps, too, knowing that we will have our rockin Mac laptops sitting on top of it--just completes the look).

He is turning into quite the handyman!

Send him some good words about his masterpiece--he is VERY excited (and frankly, I couldn't be more thrilled!).

Ever-changing, ever-evolving.

So believe it or not, a lot a has changed since the last post. We have gotten a little more settled into the house...it's coming along slowly but surely. We have our master bedroom pretty much complete, and I will post pictures as soon as I take some of the finished product (soon, I promise!). Our guest room and my scrapbooking room will be painted this weekend which means we can get closer to getting those set up, and getting more junk unpacked. The tubs are slowly being sent to the garage, which is a good sign, but as always, I am learning lots of patience. All in all, we are absolutely loving our new home, and the face that it's ours!

Next up--job changes.

Ashley: A couple of his residents at The W approached him a couple weeks ago (out of the blue) to be the gallery director of an art studio they are opening. Check out http://www.joshualeestone.com for more info on this guy, Josh. These people are absolutely amazing people. He is a former youth minister, and she worked in marketing for a large corporation for about 10 years. Now they are fulfilling a dream and opening this studio and they asked Ashley to do all of the marketing and PR for the place, which is definitely up his alley. He was off to a great start before they even offered him a job. There is a high-end home-furnishings place next to The W (Haven, check it out!) where Ashley thought the artwork would be a great fit. So he talked to the owners, without ever going to Josh, to see if they wanted to house some of the work to try and sell it, and they were definitely game. It is something Ashley is definitely passionate about and I think he will be amazing. His last day at the dub is Sunday night (he's working all evenings this weekend, I told him they like to take advantage until the very end), then he will start with Josh and Melinda on Tuesday. For the first couple of months, his focus will be to help finish the studio, and start a mailing list--he's been told he's going to be paid basically to hang out--such a rough life :) We are very excited as we know these people are amazing and are going to take care of our new little family.

Tammy: One of Ashley's long-time friends, and a groomsman in our wedding, Brian, has been working for an accounting firm, TravisWolff, in Dallas for the past 5 years, and over the last 6 months has been steadily bugging me to come in and talk with them about a job. I wasn't out actively looking for jobs, but am nowhere near happy at the firm I'm currently working for, so I finally agreed. I went in last Monday to talk with them, and by Wednesday had an offer (FINALLY something where there was instant gratification)! I had to do a lot of thinking because on Tuesday I knew a job offer was coming from The Container Store, something that had been in the works since June (and also something that had kind of fallen in my lap). This job meant I would be getting out of accounting for the time being and I finally realized that was not the path I needed to pick. It was a very hard decision, and the phone call with the amazing GM of The Container Store was not a fun one, but it had to be done. I feel in my heart I am following where I'm being led, and you can't go wrong with that! My last day with PSK is next Friday, September 7, and then I start at TravisWolff on September 10. I am VERY excited to work with a firm that really seems to take care of their people. I have gotten a lot of good experience with PSK, but am really to a point where I feel as though if I'm going to progress anywhere in my career, I gotta get out.

So there you have it, married in May, new house in August, new jobs for both of us in September. It's crazy to think that 6 months ago life was COMPLETELY different, but we definitely see the blessings from God in our life. All the hard work we have put in is paying off on a daily basis. For me personally, there have been many tears and struggles along the way, but here I am, 22 years old with a Master's Degree, married, with a house, and continuing my career at a great place--I thank God everyday for all that I have been given and I look forward to what He has in store for us!

P.S. I did graduate FINALLY on August 11! Here are a couple of pictures from the VERY small festivities :)
Took so long...but I finally made it!My amazing parents that have helped me through everything I have accomplished!
My wonderful husband...he completes me :)I was studious at a very young age....

Finally moved in!

*This one is long, sorry*

So we spent our first night in the new house last night, and, as always, it was eventful. I got home from work yesterday and wanted to finish moving everything instead of having all of our stuff split between two houses. Ash wasn't too keen on the idea, but went along with it, knowing how crazy I get about staying as organized as possible. We loaded up his truck, the mini (which can handle a lot more junk than people would expect), and my dad's expedition for the last load to Sounder Dr. We got to the house, unloaded everything (with no actual organization I might add), and went to grab some grub. Once our bellies were full, we headed home (love that this is our home now!), to get ready for bed. I know I drive Ashley crazy because it was about 9:30 and I just wanted to start cleaning and taking stuff out of tubs. He had to talk me out of craz-o mode and remind me that I had to be up at 5:15 today, so it was ridiculous to start any of that last night. So we got ready for bed, (1st interesting part--our bed is a full-size air mattress until our furniture comes in next Thursday or Friday--nice), and I realized the dogs hadn't been out. So I go to let them out in the backyard, but neither of them would go without Ash--they didn't seem fond of the idea of going out into a new backyard at night, so we had to use some persuasion. We both walk outside, and I shut the door behind me so I don't let all the bugs in the house, and instantly realize we are locked out. All the doorknobs in this house turn from the inside, even if they're locked, so I had no idea it would be locked from the outside. All I could muster was "ummm....ummm" and it didn't take Ash long to realize what had happened.

*Sidenote--Ash had walked out in a t-shirt and boxers, because, after all, it was in our backyard, and I was in a tank-top and some tiny shorts that would never see another pair of eyes outside of mine and ashley's.

So it's 10:00 pm, we are locked out, can't get the garage open, there's no way in. Luckily we moved into a neighborhood where we know about 3 families. Well, neither of the first two families (those closest to our house) were home, so Ash had to walk to the 3rd, call my mom, and send her on the great locksmith search of 07. I am, in the meantime, sitting on our backporch, with the dogs who are looking at me like "why won't you let us back in the house crazy lady". Stone was less than thrilled with the whole situation, and that just added to my frustration with myself. We ended up sitting outside for about an hour and then dropped 100 bones to get back in the house. Apparently this is how I like to "break in" new homes--because I had something very similar happen to me the first night at my parent's new house 2 years ago. I told Ash he could rest assured it would NEVER happen again, as if it were any consolation.

My dogs now think I'm crazy and my husband knows that even though I have my Masters degree, doesn't mean I'm the brightest crayon in the box.


Picture as we walked in for the first time with our keys

Today....

is the day!

The hizzy

So we are *almost* calling this home....

More house drama

**********
UPDATE
So the other house we went to look at last night....the owner accepted an offer on it. I'm not sure how our stinking realtor didn't know there was an offer (maybe because the lady we were left with while our real realtor went on vaca is absolutely WORTHLESS)...anyways...back to square one. We are down to T minus about 20 days until we have to be out....keep the prayers coming
**********



So Thursday night we went and looked at a new house and we thought this house was perfect. Feel in love with it immediately and decided we were putting an offer on it. We ended up offering full asking price, with no other contingencies or anything so we thought we had it in the bad....oh no, someone with a cash offer came in and grabbed it out from underneath us. That same night we had looked at this house which is another fixer-upper, but in a different way than the other foreclosure we're looking at. This one looks as though everything is in ok condition, just not to our tastes so we would do some updating for that reason. Come to find out, this one is a foreclosure as well. It's listed a little out of our range, but we're going to see what we can make happen. It would put us in another good position with having instant equity and lots of room to grow (the house is about 2300 sq. feet). We're taking my parents to look at it tonight to see what their opinion is, because they've been dealing with this for a while, so we highly respect their opinion. If they think it's a good plan, we're going to get an offer together. It's been sitting for a while so I think if we can come up with an offer close to asking price, and assuming inspection and appraisal goes well, this one could be a legitimate possibility.
The reality is, we're running out of time until we have to start putting stuff in storage to move in with either my parents or ashley's mom, so we're just trying to be patient for the right house. We both know that God is teaching us major patience right now, both in jobs and this house. When we made the decision to get married in may and then take on house-hunting, we knew it wouldn't be easy, but honestly I didn't think it would be this much of an emotional roller-coaster. I am learning to let go (as always), and let the plan fall into place as it may...which is very hard for a control-freak like myself. It makes me sad that we may not be living with out precious puppies for a little while, but I know it's all for a reason and that will be apparent on God's time.

Thanks for your prayers.

House Update

So the house didn't go to the foreclosure block, we are back to waiting on multiple approvals and in the meantime, we have to be out of our house by August 6...which means the possibility of us moving in with Ashley's mom until this all gets settled is very great. It's not ideal, but until we find out what the deal is with the house, we can't commit to anything else at this point. So that's where we stand...say your prayers for us...patience is growing thin with each passing day.

Here's the front of the infamous house...


Needs a little work...but will be AMAZING after we take over :)

Stinking House

So as it stands now, unless we hear otherwise this morning, the house is a no go. Somehow, even though we have been going through all this mess for over a month now, it still managed to go to foreclosure and is now on the auction block.

*Some background for those that don't know: This house is in the neighborhood we've been looking at since January, it had a for-sale sign out front, then the sign was taken down but the listing still showed up online. You could tell it was vacant so we decided to find out what the deal was because as it was listed, it was out of our range, but if it was going into foreclosure, then it made it a possibility. We found out it was headed into foreclosure, so we made our offer. Found out about a week later that the 1st lien on the house was about 15K less than what our offer was, so we thought we had it in the bag. Later we find out, there's a 2nd lien involved, but that's all the info we could get. It has been about 3 weeks since all that came up, and since then, supposedly the 2 banks have been dealing with all of this and trying to decide who is getting what money, as there was some amount of loss they were going to take if they accepted our offer. Well we find out last week, the 2nd bank has signed off, only waiting on the first, but if it didn't happen by yesterday, it was headed to auction today, as the first Tuesday of every month is when all that stuff takes place with home foreclosures. Once a house goes to the auction block, it's cash offers only, so we are out of luck.

Moral of the story--we have no house now, and we think it's smart to just find a place to rent as we are so emotionally drained at this point from the roller-coaster this has been. I have a feeling if we kept looking at houses, we would just find a house to have a house, and it wouldn't be what we wanted. So we're looking around now for rentals, plan to do a year max, and then we'll try the house thing again. It's so frustrating as I know we both had these images of what this house was going to be like once we moved in and fixed it up, but apparently that's not the plan for us right now, which we are both ok with. Granted we aren't ecstatic, but it's a matter of figuring out what we needed to do since our current lease is up at the beginning of August. So now we have a plan of action, and we could be moving as soon as this weekend if we find something we would like. We are considering our loft idea in Dallas again because if we are going to rent something, we might as well rent something we really like in a cool area. I will keep you updated as anything changes....

Wedding Withdrawals

As sad as it is to say, I'm still very sad the wedding is over. Ash finds that hard to believe after witnessing all the stress and tears that went into it, but the more I look at wedding photography blogs or the pictures of bridal showers for newly-engaged couples, the more I miss the whole experience. We spent 9 long months making sure everything was "perfect" (which I can assure you, it was not) and then bam, it's all over. It's that one special day that you can get away with anything and everyone is there to celebrate with you. It's been so long since I've had all those people I love in one place, and I think I get so sad because I didn't get to hug even half of the necks of the people that were there, and there were so many things we didn't get to do that day because of pesky rain that made people run for the cars. It's hard to look through wedding pics from friends of mine (because yes, they are still getting married) and see everyone dancing, and the toasts from the MOH or the best man, or the rents...all the little details that make it a wedding day, and unfortunately that didn't happen so it makes me want to go do it all over again (with Ashley of course!). Don't get me wrong, it was an absolutely amazing day and yes, I know the end result is the same--Ashley and myself living in wedded bliss--but we all know I am a hopeless romantic at heart so those small things meant a lot. I know every bride has stuff they would go back and change about their wedding day, because it never goes as planned, so I hope I'm not crazy here. I do love many things about how the day turned out and regardless, I have Ashley, so I can't complain too much. If anyone has a cure for the wedding day withdrawals, please let me know so I can get over myself. Maybe all I need is a good scrapbooking night to start on all the wedding festivities--then I can REALLY appreciate how amazing our day was.

Busted Lake Trip

So for the first time this summer, Ashley and I were able to hit the lake. Friday night after he got off work we got a call to head out with two of our drivers from the wedding, Tom (REALLY tall blonde guy) and TJ (guy with crazy long curly hair and white sunglasses). Super cool guys to let us tag along...I was stoked to finally get out and wakeboard a little bit and just chill on the boat.

Ashley warming up...sorry if some of these are fuzzy....apparently I need a camera with a better zoom






















And this is where it all went wrong....



The last jump ended with a bad fall and a hole in Ashley's lip...





Yes, his knee hit his mouth, sending his tooth all the way through his lip. It was all I could do to not ralph while taking the picture above.





Ha this picture just makes me laugh...he thought he was so hardcore to just let the blood run down his face, while pondering the meaning of life at the same time.


It's my turn...fyi, you won't see any crazy jumps here...






Maybe the next go round will end a little better for Ash.