He & She :: January 2011

So, recently I have become obsessed with Elise Joy's blog... she has some really creative and cute ideas, one of which is a monthly blog called She & He, which she also turns into a scrapbook.  I love scrapbooking, even if I don't have the time right now, and am going to borrow her idea for Richard and I... except I'm changing the name to He & She, because I'm trying this new idea where I follow Richard and try and let him lead... :)

he & she in january.

he started a new job and is loving it.

she still doesn't understand what he does at work.

she started her last semester of college and is not loving it, but is loving the fact that she is almost done.

they picked a wedding date and are beyond ready to get married.

they are also trying to remember that the Lord's timing is perfect, even if they think it is slow.

he decided to run a half marathon with her in april.

she is loving the accountability and is excited to run together, even though he doesn't like to talk when he runs.

they started cooking dinner together every friday night. recent dishes include chicken tortellini, candied yams, lasagna, green bean casserol, and apple crisp.

he will eat anything.

she is failing at taking pictures (but trying to get better) and didn't take one this month. 



MLK Day

Well, today was my last day of freedom before one more painful semester of school... and I mean that in all seriousness, school may or may not kill me this spring.  My academic advisor has had several conversations with me about how I should drop some classes and take a smaller work load, so it should be an interesting couple of months :) And Richard had the day off from work... so, he took me on a picnic downtown!  We ate lunch in Bienville Square and then we were walking around downtown and found the best bookstore ever!! I found a brand new copy of "The Purpose Driven Life" for two dollars!  I walked around the store for awhile; could have easily spend all day in there.  Then we went to check out the new ice cream place Chill.  I had strawberry ice cream with Oreos, Richard had cheesecake ice cream with all this gross fruit on top... like kiwi and melon and whatever... and the Andes mints.  What?!?!  I try to be encouraging, but that is just wierd.  Strange boy :)

We had a really relaxing and sweet day together.  Thank you Richard, I love you!

Also, I'm adding another New Years Resolution...
#4.  Be better at taking pictures! I suck at taking pictures, and I know I'll be sad one day that I don't have them.  No pictures from date day :(

Welcome to 2011 !!

Richard and I spent New Years Eve togther and it was extremely anti-climatic.  We put in Avatar at 11:00 and I fell asleep before midnight... he watched Avatar instead of any New Year's festivities.  He said he woke me up at midnight, but I don't remember.  Sad day :(

I did, however, make some New Years resolutions!  I feel like if I put them on here and people can actually see them, I'm more likely to keep them...

1. Read through the Bible--Richard and I are doing a chronological yearly plan to accomplish this one.
2. Read one book a month-- I'm starting with Crazy Love, by Francis Chan.
3. Run a marathon--I'm hoping to do the Buffalo Marathon with my parents at the end of May... we shall see about this one, it's kind of intimidating.

December Happenings...

Like I said in my last post, December was a craaazy month but I do want to post some pictures that I took.  Because classes haven't started yet and I don't much care about the National Championship game, I have a lot of free time on my hands tonight :)

Number One: Richard and I got a puppy!!   Our friend Catherine found this sweet puppy near her grandparents house and she decided she couldn't keep him, so she asked Richard and I if we wanted him.  Now, I have been begging Richard to get me a puppy forEVER, but he wasn't planning on it until next spring, right before we get married.  Not suprisingly, Richard's plans for our relationships have been trumped by God's plans since day one, especially when it comes to timing.  We named our baby boy Jack (aka Jack Daniels, Jackary, Jack Jack).  This dog is the sweetest thing ever... he is cuddly and quiet and just precious.  We love him!

Number Two: I got to spend the day with my favorite twins in the land... Ms. Gabbie and Ms. Jocelyn Black.  I'm mostly going to let these pictures speak for themselves, because these girls are so stinking precious.

Twin pic... make sure you hold your cup to the side so you can still see the Barbie Princess movie...

Look at that face!!

Baby girls :) I love these faces... the flash on my camera is really delayed, so we'd get great cheese faces, but by the time the picture actually took, they were a little faded :)

Funny story about the shirts they're wearing... since we were watching a princess movie, we were dancing around the living room like princesses.  When I told the girls they were both princesses, Gab looked at me and said "No Bin, I'm a bunny rabbit!"  You're right, Gab, you are a bunny rabbit :)

Arizona

Okay, I know I'm so far behind with blogging... December was a crazy month with final exams and projects, and then I meant to catch up over Christmas vacation but I forgot to bring my camera cable home to New York; major fail.  So, I'm gonna go back and start with Thanksgiving and catch up :)

Richard and I spent Thanksgiving in Arizona with his family and had a BLAST.  His parents live in Avondale, AZ, and his grandparents in Kearny, AZ--we visited both places.  It was so good to see his parents and spend time with them for the week; I think I speak for both of us when I say that I wished they still lived in Biloxi so we could visit more often.  The plus side of them moving to Arizona?  BEAUTIFUL scenery :)  The mountains out there are absolutely breathtaking.  I've never seen anything like it.  I also got to meet the majority of Richard's extended family, which, as you can imagine, was a tad overwhelming :) But everyone was really welcoming and sweet.  I enjoyed getting to know everyone, and Richard was thrilled to see his family, so that was special for me to see. 

The best part of the trip had to be climbing Mt. Teapot the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It was simply amazing.  The climb up took about three hours, and then it took about two hours getting back down (mostly because we were falling and sliding most of the way).  Richard and I had lunch together with some of the other family members that climbed and it was stunningly beautiful.  Major props to Richard--he was such a huge help while we were climbing.  Granted, he had to help because he kept forgetting that I was a foot shorter than him and he was making huge climbs up big rocks that I had no hope of being able to reach.  But he helped me all the way up to the top and kept me calm when I thought I was going to die :)

The first time I had ever seen cacti...

Oh, just the mountain we're about to climb... yes, all the way to the top of that peak on the right.

No big deal, right?

View from the top...

Another view...  

Where Richard and I ate lunch on the top :)

We made it!

Richard and I, Richard's dad, and his brother and sister-in-law, Phillip and Darcy.

The whole family that climbed once we were all back down... pretty exhausted at this point.

Also, Richard gets not so major props for telling me to wear SHORTS.  As you can see, the rest of the family wore pants... Richard decided we were fine in shorts and I (for once) listened to him.  I learned my lesson.  Our legs were destroyed.  This wasn't like, grassy rolling hills mountain climbing.  This was cactus, rocks, and thorny bushes rock climbing.  My legs looked like I had been attacked by a mountain lion and they were bruised for weeks.  Never again.

Busy Weekend...

Quick update before crazy Thanksgiving week...

Richard and I finished painting the kitchen at the beginning of the week :) I am so happy with how it turned out; I think we did a pretty good job.  It was really good time spent with each other, too... we had a lot of fun.  Anyway, this is the color before...

And this is after we painted it... same idea, we just decided to lighten it up some.  We got the table from the lady I babysit for; she sold us the whole set for a wonderful price because she got married this summer and has furniture in their old house still... such a blessing :)

Next project is the master bedroom :) On Thursday night, Harry Potter premiered... needless to say, David, Richard, and I were there and it was awesome!!  I'm beyond obsessed with all things Harry Potter, and I'm going to be extremely upset in July when the last movie comes out... I can't even think about it.  On Friday night, Richard took me to the University of Mobile Christmas Spectacular and it was amazing.  We had such a good time and all the groups that performed were just unbelievable... and let's be real, dates are just fun in general :) On Saturday, Richard officially moved into the house, so there's boxes all over the living room right now.  Richard's brother and his wife came over for dinner on Saturday night and we really enjoyed spending time with them.  It was really encouraging and I'm really looking forward to spending more time with them over Thanksgiving.  We all head out to Arizona on Wednesday to spend a few days with the rest of Richard's family.  Richard is beyond excited... I'm excited (and slightly overwhelmed).  We're going hiking on Saturday... there will be many pictures to come :)

"Obedience is Better than Sacrifice"

I've been thinking a lot about obedience the past few days.  I'm doing a devotional by Kay Arthur ("Lord, I Want to Know You") that is a study of the names of God.  This week I studied Jehovah-nissi: the Lord is my Banner, which focused on the story of Saul and the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15...

In this chapter, the Lord tells Saul to "utterly destroy" the Amalekites.  He gives clear instructions that no one is to be left alive, not even the livestock.  Saul attacks the Amalekites and kills all the people except the king, and all the livestock except the very best.  He keeps the best livestock in order to make sacrifice to God, praising Him for the victory.  Samuel, who was the prophet at the time, goes to Saul and asks him why he did not obey God... because of Saul's disobedience, even though it was for "good" reason, God rejected him as king of Israel and said that He was "grieved" that he made Saul the king.

I was struck by how like Saul I am.  So often I pray that the Lord would make His will clear to me, that He would guide me.  I tell the Lord that I will do whatever He asks; that I will be His servant for whatever His purpose for me is.  I say that I am willing to sacrifice so much, yet so often I miss simple obedience.  And as with Saul, the Lord has made his instructions clear--He has given us not only His very words but the perfect example to follow in Christ Jesus.  He has given us a new heart and a new Spirit to keep His laws and His decrees (Ezekiel 36:26-27)--there is nothing more He can do to make it clear to us. 

I am not arguing that obedience is easy.  We still have to battle the flesh and as Christians, we are certainly attacked by Satan.  Even Paul says that what he wants to do he cannot do, because of his flesh (Romans 7:19-20).  We live in a culture that frowns upon obedience and submission and advocates self-rule.  But God calls us to not be conformed to the pattern of this world.  Even in Saul's story--it was common practice for a conquering army to keep the spoils that they found and divide them among the soldiers.  But God instructed Saul to be set apart from the cultural practices of his time just as much as God calls us to be set apart now.  And Saul even followed most of God's orders: but nominal obedience is not obedience at all.  Jesus did not go most of the way to the Cross; he obeyed unto death.  I believe that kind of radical obedience is what God is calling each of us to, and it's a way that we can live a radical, sold-out life to Christ exactly where we are now.