SEPTEMBER

So I know the month is half over but there is so much to be excited for in September so I decided to share some of those things:

Summer weather turns to fall and hopefully it will cool down a bit here! This is crazy for the girl that love summer to admit but I am ready for some cooler weather!

Exciting changes for the us. I started a new job the first week in September. The first week was an adventure and so far we both like this new change!

Parties...its actually a wedding shower at the end of the month but I am excited to go to Cleveland for a weekend to celebrate Amanda's wedding and to hang out with my best friend.

Training. Chris and I are thinking of training for a half marathon. This is just in the thought process but I am getting excited about it. It would be fun to run but finding the time has been a challenge.

Expecting...not me but my wonderful brother and sister-in-law are expecting a little girl in October and we are all excited to meet her!

Mandy's Wedding Shower weekend. I am going to mention this twice because the count down is down to 15 days and I can't wait to see her. Its been way to long. Spending time with Mandy is such a blessing and blast for both of us!

Birthdays!! At the end of this month it is my birthday! I never was a big birthday person but this year I seem to be really excited about my birthday.

Exciting Church changes...we have really enjoyed being a part of Marriage Foundations. We have learned a lot for a base for our marriage and really appreciate Alan and Emilie and Spencer and Gracia. What a blessing that has been. But we have moved on to Adventures in Marriage. This is certainly an adventure but I can't imagine a better person to spend this adventure with. I love Chris!

Reconnecting after summer. this summer has been busy and has been fun to reconnect with people after the summer of lazy days, evenings at home playing tennis and basketball, working out and friends and family time!

I am going to try to do this every month...lets see how it goes!!

Ode to Amanda

In December, my best friend Amanda Lynn Cochran is getting married. She's marrying Stefan Schaefer and then moving to Detroit, Michigan. So this is an Ode to Amanda.

Mandy and I met freshmen year of college for me at Elon University. We met in our Statistics class. About two weeks into class I sat down next to her and we started talking. We had seen each other at IV or somehow she decided that I looked interesting...haha! After class we went to Acorn for lunch. After about an hour she had to go to class. She gave me a big hug and determined that we were friends and that we should hang out again. Little did I know that our friendship would blossom into what it is today.

My next memory of Mandy was a couple weeks later on my birthday. My birthday freshmen year fell on the same weekend as parent's weekend. The awful time when everyone's parents come to campus except for yours. My dad was in Ecuador and my roommate reminded me daily that her parents were coming. I was pretty miserable. Oh and I was homesick/cultural shocked and ready to go home. Mandy found out it was my birthday and decided to make me cookie cake and decorate it with chocolate balls. She picked me up from work and we went to celebrate with some other friends at her house. The chocolate balls did not end very well on top of the cake so we took them off, put them in a Ziploc bag and labeled them poopola. The bag then went on some guys front porch.

Over my freshmen year Mandy led a Bible study for me, Danielle, Heidi and Nancy! We had a grand time spending time together, digging into God's word, being introduced to some Burlington's must including Cook Out and La Fiesta and playing some amazing pranks. At the end of freshmen year we all went our ways for the summer but we all staying in touch. Sophomore year started and Danielle, Heidi and I lived together. We weren't able to keep Bible Study going but our friendship remained.

Throughout sophomore year Mandy and I grew closer. We went through frustrations, questions, long conversations, complaints about work and school, crazy professors, a couple pranks, and encouraging each other in our faith. Mandy helped me endure several broken relationships, bronchitis and finally getting to the end of the school year. That summer I lived in DC and she lived in Cleveland but we endured through long cell phone calls and a couple visits! We came back to Elon and lived together for Mandy's last semester at Elon. At this point Chris and I started dating. In January Mandy graduated and much to my dismay moved back to Cleveland. Which gave me the sudden need to go to the cold North several times in the next few months and years.

Our friendship continued as we talked for hours on the phone, emailed, planned my wedding after I got engaged in September of my senior year. Mandy came for a weekend and helped me find my wedding dress. We also both cried, laughed, vented and trusted God for long months as we dealt with frustrations with life, relationships, looking for jobs.....etc....etc AND of course the many joys from life, relationships, finding jobs....etc...etc.

On June 6th, 2009 Mandy stood by me as Chris and I got married and I can't wait until 12/11/10 when I get to return the favor. Amanda is one of the most amazing, passionate, loving, fun people I know. She always gives her all into everything she does, whether its work or friendships, her relationship with Stefan or her relationship with God. She is creative and so very organized. There is always a splash of green, red or orange in life when Mandy is involved. She has to match her belt and shoes. She has a awesome sense of style and always is doing something fun with her clothes. And if you have ever met Mandy you know that she is drop dead gorgeous inside and out. She has a beautiful smile and a laugh that is contagious. I know that God has great plans for Stefan and Amanda as they move onto the next step in their relationship and to a new city. God Bless and lots of love from Costa Rica or the Blond Mexican!

Even more on God's Blessings

In my last post I mentioned God's blessings and it seems like he just is piling it on right now...which Chris and I love.

1. I GOT A JOB!!! A good friend of Chris and mine just started at SafGard/SRMax a couple weeks ago and he mentioned that they needed someone who speaks Spanish which brought me into the thought process. In the matter of a week I submitted my resume, had an interview and got a job. All the glory goes to God.
2. Chris' annual review went well at work and he got a raise. I think Chris deserves a lot of praise for the job he has done. He has worked long hours, giving up his weekend to work and working some really late nights. I am so proud of him for all his hard work!

3. We got to spend a great weekend with Peter, Betsy and Sam and ??? in Northern Virginia. We had a great time walking/running with Sam and Betsy Friday, talking for long hours with Peter and Betsy, helping in picking the name for our little niece that's coming in October and going to a baseball game. Sam absolutely loved watching the guys HIT IT and baseball game. It was such a great blessing to see them!

4. If hurricane Earl doesn't decide to ruin our labor day weekend we will be heading to the beach on Friday with Will, Laurie, Ben, Becca and Albert. So excited for this weekend and the beach!

Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.

God's Many Blessings

It seems like the last few days and weeks have been filled with God's many blessings. As I have looked for future opportunities for work, I have stated that I trust God but many times I want to control the outcome myself. A couple weeks ago I found out that yet again a door had been closed and I hit a rock wall...I knew nothing and knew I had to let go. Then came the blessings:
1. the first blessing was the following Sunday in the form of a sermon by Chris Lewis at Westover. It made me realize that God deserved all the glory and it wasn't about me among other things.
2. the following Sunday was blessing number two. When Don Miller preached on not hearing God's thunder or anything from God and wondering why our prayers weren't answered. I sat in two services in a row tears streaming down my face knowing that God was speaking to me. As Don asked the first question from king David God my God why have you forsaken me, I was fully aware that he was speaking to me. I heard a pastor quote my exact words to God from days earlier and to Chris so many days since then. If you don't go to Westover or even if you do I recommend listening to these two sermons. You can find them at http://www.westoverchurch.com/onlineresources/worshipservices. The sermon titles were: The Storm of Glory and Where is the Thunder Now.
3. This weekend was blessing number three. I have seen God take care of me and my family numerous times but never have I seen it so clearly as I did yesterday. I went to the gym in the morning with Chris, then to the bank, then to the store for weekly shopping, then back home to drop everything off, then to the farmers market with friends, then to Target and finally to Harris Teeter to get their salad bar for lunch. When I pulled into the parking lot and parked I heard and felt something drop below my car. I was hungry and thought it was my imagination. I got back in my car to go home and started to back up to the awful sound coming from underneath the car so I pulled forward and decided to look at it again. In the rain I walked around and found nothing. I called Chris but he was at the movies. I then called AAA and they sent a tow truck. I went and ate my salad and some Feeney's for some comfort and called my dear friend Kaitlin. She calmed me down and prayed for me. Nothing had me prepared for what my tow truck friend had to say. At the very moment when I parked the right front Axle on my car broke. As soon as I pulled the car forward onto the tow truck it collapsed. Had this happened on the road or interstate, I could have been killed or in serious trouble, my car would have been destroyed. He told me repeatedly that God took care of me and protected me today. I was in shock. He told me to sit in the truck and he would get it all hooked up to take it to get fixed. As I got in, I knew God was there, two Bible's lay on the front seat. Once we decided where to take the car, I talked with my new friend and found out he does a tow truck business as a ministry to help people and bless them. That was awesome. My car is now being fixed and I am safe and sound!!

God is so faithful and it is so true He proves himself over and over and over again.

It is National Ice Cream Day!

Today is national Ice Cream Day! I learned this driving home from work on Friday evening and Chris and I just went and purchased our Breyer's to enjoy some of our favorite frozen treat. Mad Martha's, the ice cream parlor I worked at for three summer and the place that makes the famous Oink, pictured above is definitely the place to go get ice cream. Maybe next summer we will be there for National Ice Cream Day.

July so far as been lots of fun! We started off with 4th of July. I happen to love this Holiday. Chris and I had a morning devotional and then went for a long walk around Chapel Ridge. After our walk we made a Flag cake. It was delicious.

We then had a cookout and pool party with friends from Chapel Hill. It was a great time to catch up and also enjoy some delicious food. The night ended with a trip to Kenan Stadium at UNC's campus to see fireworks....Happy Birthday USA!

Our latest adventure involves purchasing tennis rackets and attempting to play. The first day I had to learn not to just whack the ball with all my strength. By the time that lesson was learned, we were ready to head in. This week we have been blessed with rain to cool things off but that has impeded in our play time. Hopefully this next week we will get to the point when we can play a game. We aren't bound for the pros but it is definitely fun! Pictures to come.

This Summer So Far!

This summer so far has been wonderful! We kicked off the summer by heading down to Figure Eight with the Johnson's for the weekend. It was absolutely beautiful and warm but not too hot (unusual this summer).
We enjoyed sitting on the beach, hitting golf balls into the water, throwing the football and kicking the soccer ball, walking on the beach and so much more wonderful time outside. Chris went and played golf with his dad. It was a special time with all the Johnson's.
The following weekend was our anniversary and we celebrated with a delicious dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House....SO YUMMY!!
Then two weekends ago we went to Charleston, SC for the weekend to really celebrate. We enjoyed spending time with friends at Rob and Mary Catherine Arthur's wedding and then we did the tourist thing. We went to Patriot's Point to see the Aircraft Carrier and sub.
We enjoyed the hot outdoors in downtown Charleston and then went to lovely dinner outside overlooking the water. Then next morning we continued our sightseeing by going out to Magnolia Plantation. It was awesome to see what plantation life was like and beautiful!
We finished our visit to Charleston at Bubba Gumps...yummy!

Try Number Two at Blogging....!!

So last year at Christmas I thought that starting a blog would be a lot of fun. I could write about our adventures in marriage, vacations, trips, work and life in general. It was nice thought but after one post I got distracted and never came back to my blog. Then this week, I decided I would attempt at blogging again. We'll see how it goes. I decided to start over and rename the blog and get a new format and play with it a bit.

Now the question remains...what to write about first!

This past week we celebrated our one year anniversary. I cannot believe we got married a year ago. It has been a wonderful year. The first few days we spent in Hawaii


We got back and immediately tried settling into our apartment while Chris started at Orasi and headed for Atlanta for a meeting our first weekend back. After lots of prayer and searching I got a job at BB&T and started mid-August. The fall flew by as we got involved in Westover, made friends, went to Elon football games and traveled the east coast for friend's weddings.
The highlight of the fall was having Peter, Betsy, Sam, Karen and Micah all in our apartment for Thanksgiving. We cooked and spent some great times together.


A couple weeks later we had Christmas in Pittsboro with Chris' parents. Christmas day we drove to the Homestead in Virginia. We had a great time with the extended Johnson family. And I went skiing for the first time.

A week after that we headed for Costa Rica with the Rices for a week in the sun at the beach. We all enjoyed getting out of COLD North Carolina and Virginia and Illinois for some great times on the beach.

We got back to North Carolina in time for the worst snowy winter central North Carolina has seen in a while. Somehow in January and February every Friday it would start snowing and we would spend our weekend inside and then try to brave the ice rink that our parking lot had become. Monday things would clear up and we would head to work and this went on for way to long.
This spring flew by with a visit from Mandy, my best friend and spending time with friends here, going to the beach, going up to DC to see my siblings again and Chris' project at work and my work at BB&T. Somehow we are now in mid June. The rest of 2010 is full of surprises and adventures we are excited to experience. We have no idea what God has in store for us but we know it will be lots of fun and a great year.

I feel like this is a much better start...so maybe the blog will continue!