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Christian~wife of 3 years~preschool teacher~dog mom~friend~smiler~and many other things!

Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011..

My 2011 consisted of 11 major things:

1) recovering from the most painful surgery I've ever had...just a tonsillectomy, but still! (I'll spare you the picture, it's not pretty...)
2) my first "big girl job" interviews

3) kicking into high gear with wedding plans (first time going to a bridal fair, first wedding shower, first time registering for gifts, etc..)


4) accepting my first teaching position!
5) experienced the happiest day of my life by stealing Kyle's last name!  May 21, 2011! 



ps-within a few months, all of my bridesmaids were blissfully married as well!

nothin like a family picture...lol

6) a honeymoon and my first cruise!
the Disney Dream!



7) moving into our first place together in Wichita
I actually took this as we were moving out of it because I forgot to take any when we moved in!

8) my 24th birthday! (and i forgot to take any pictures?! what?! haha)
9) the beginning of my first year of teaching
10) moving into our first house (those pics were just posted not long ago so I won't repeat them!)
11) our first holidays as a married couple (those were also posted a post or two ago..)

I know that there were more things that happened but those events stand out among the rest.  I could not have asked for a better year.  Getting married was something I've been waiting on for a long time and it happened in 2011!  The next step is getting ahead financially so that we can start planning on....BABIES!  But, unfortunately, that financial stability could still be a few years off so it might be a while!!

Enjoy your new year everyone!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

new.

I have a ton of stuff to blog about!

First, I want to ask for help from some of my blog expert friends.  How do you guys get the cute header designs?  I finally figured out how to get a new background through a design website but I'm not finding any header templates to use instead of my picture that I have.  Since I know so many bloggers have all the info on the creative designers and whatnot, I figured I should just ask!

We have moved into our new place and while it does have its little quirks, it is finally starting to feel like home.  I have pictures of the house from before we moved in but the proof that it's actually lived in will come later after I get it all decorated!  

I'm not proud of the exterior.  I think it looks ugly.  But the inside...

This is the living room!  Yep..hardwood floors!

The green kitchen!  It was an ugly color at first but it has grown on me quite a bit!

The spare bedroom.  Must have been a little boy's room previously!

The master bedroom!  I'm not a big fan of brown but I still like it!!

I also got my Christmas tree!


This was a new experience for both Kyle and me this year.  It was our first Christmas as a married couple!  We got to celebrate with both of our families and it was perfect!  
Christmas Eve at his mom's.


Our little family at my parents' house (minus Caya Ann!)

Hope your holiday was just as special as ours was!  Happy New Year to everyone!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

new residence!

My husband and I will be moving into our first house soon.  I say "our" but it's actually a rental.  But it's ours!  I'm not proud of the way the exterior looks.  I think my first words about the place were that it looked like "somewhere my grandma would live."  Kyle told me not to judge the place before we go inside and I doubted him.  He was right.  The inside is INCREDIBLE!  It's no dream house, but it's perfect for what we've been looking for!  It's in a good location, it's got great space for a married couple without kids, two bedrooms, a garage, and a huge yard for our puppies to romp and run in!  My biggest setback at the moment is the fact that we will be losing our U-VERSE.  We found out that it's not covered in the neighborhood.  I will have to find something else to do with my evenings I guess..


Maybe if we move quick enough, I can still get a Christmas tree?  Hmm...

Sunday, November 27, 2011

tis the season to be happy!

I am joyful today.  I am happy and mostly content with my life.  This morning in Bible class we discussed the difference between contentment and thankfulness.  A Christian should never feel content with where they stand with God.  Chances are, if you are feeling like things are perfect, then you could be doing something that could stand to change.  I am nowhere near perfect in my relationship with God, and that's something that I am working very hard to change.  But, I am happy with my life here in this world.  I have been given a wonderful husband and a roof over my head.  My car gets me from point A to point B and USUALLY doesn't give me any grief in between!  Kyle and I have both been blessed with great jobs that provide a paycheck that is just enough for what we need.  We aren't starving.  We aren't freezing.  We have an awesome church that we have intentions of placing membership with.  I am joyful today because of those things.  It's the season that reminds us to be thankful for the things we have in life.  While it is wonderful to have this reminder every year, we should be thankful for things such as these all year...every year!  Please don't forget to be happy with what you have already.  Things could always be worse.  Take it upon yourself to think of others this Christmas season.  You'll feel better about life!!!

Now, I'm switching gears..  I forced Kyle to take a few pictures with me for our first Christmas card!  If you're on my Facebook, you've probably seen them already.  These aren't all of them but they're a few of my favorites.  Hope you like them!
my face is very pale in this one!

some mush...

my absolute favorite!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

earthquake!!!

I just experienced my first earthquake EVER!!  I live in Wichita, Kansas and I felt an earthquake.  According to Facebook, there was another one last night too that was felt across Oklahoma and around the Wichita area, but I felt nothing during that one.  I definitely felt this one!  The news said it was a 5.6 magnitude.  My first instinct was to pray to God for safety.  I had no idea what was going on.  Kyle was in the bath so I grabbed my phone and jumped up to run to the bathroom while calling my dad to see if he and my mom felt it.  They did.

Because I grew up in Kansas, I have not been taught how to react to an earthquake.  I had no idea that you're supposed to hide under something sturdy.  I just sat here on the couch...  Hopefully we never experience one big enough to need something sturdy over my head.  I will die.

P.S. I am thankful for the whole day of relaxation.  I did nothing but clean my cabinets and cook.  Life is good...  God bless!!

Friday, November 4, 2011

thankfulness.

For the last few days, I have been posting reasons why I am thankful on Facebook.  I have decided to take it to the next level and explain those reasons a little more in depth.  Some of them are pretty self-explanatory but maybe it would be good for me to look back on these during days when I'm feeling sorry for myself...haha!

Today I am thankful for my husband's love for math.  Because he loves math, he takes care of the bills and the checkbook.  I always told myself I would never be the wife that lets her husband control how she spends money, but it's just so much easier!!!  Before I buy something (groceries, lunch, stuff for teaching) I always text him or call to find out how much money we have and what bills we still have to pay.

If this task were left up to me, our credit scores would be terrible and my student loans that are taking most of my paychecks would tell me I'm delinquent! I'm not a money person.  I am good at spending but not so good at saving.

Anyway, Kyle does so much for me.  This is just one thing that I'm thankful for today!  I am one lucky wife...

God bless!!!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

the search for a church

Since moving to Wichita, my husband and I have been on a search for the perfect church for us to attend regularly.  It's hard to move from my small town churches to a city where there are several to choose from.  We belong to the Church of Christ.  I was raised in the church back home and even when I had the chance to go search for what fits me better, I found that I still belong there.  I believe the way they believe.  They believe in what the Bible teaches.  While I was in college, at Oklahoma Christian (a Church of Christ affiliated school), I realized how different some Churches of Christ were from others.  When you have a college like that, you have a very widespread group of people from different churches with different ideas and styles of beliefs.  I learned quickly that it was important to find one that was based on sound doctrine and strictly followed the Bible without adding or taking away from it.

Now that I'm away from my Church of Christ "community" where I was surrounded with a support system I knew I could always count on, it's very difficult to find the right place for us to worship.  We have been to several around the Wichita area and we have walked out of a couple of them saddened by another church we could never feel comfortable attending.  We have been looking for one that had a good group of young married couples because we have hopes of gaining some wonderful Christian friendships.  There has been only one that has that, but we didn't feel as if we "fit" with them....until today.  

Today we attended one that was a pretty lengthy drive from our apartment.  But it was fantastic!  We were greeted by many of the younger couples in the congregation (as well as the older members) and it felt like a good mix of newer songs with the old-school style that I'm used to.  We have already been invited to join in on some of their upcoming events and had a hard time pulling away from one couple we met after services were over.  We felt comfortable being there.  They showed us no reason that we shouldn't return.  I feel such relief to know that God may have answered a prayer that I've been asking to be answered for a long time!

Have a wonderful week!!  Let me know if I need to add anything to my prayers!!! 

Saturday, October 8, 2011

boy meets world day!!!!

Since I am home alone all day while the husband goes to work, I have decided to watch the MANY recorded episodes of Boy Meets World. 

 
Our U-Verse started telling me that it was going to delete them because it was getting too full so it sounded like a good way to spend the day!  Of course, at some point, I'm going to have to be productive and do some work for school next week, but that's for later.  Have a wonderful weekend!!!!!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

tis the season!

I woke up this morning with a very low-grade fever.  I still went to work because I didn't feel the need to use my sick time just yet.  I knew that eventually all of the runny noses and sneezes in my classroom would get to me.  It usually does.  I am lucky to have made it this far without coming down with anything.  Anyway, I went to work with the help of Advil and willpower.  But by lunch, I was feeling aches in my muscles and chills again.  So I went home.  Luckily, Kyle was off work today and had some soup waiting for me when I got home.  What a wonderful husband I have!  Then I took some of my precious liquid Tylenol and fell asleep for four hours!  I may not be able to sleep later but it sure felt good to sleep that long uninterrupted!

But, now that I'm awake, I feel it's time to work on the vocab words I need to get done.  So, pray that I'm healthy enough to return to work tomorrow!!!  God bless...

Saturday, September 24, 2011

blog frustrations!

So I have been messing with my blog design all morning.  I am still not completely impressed with what I settled on.  Most of the blogs I read regularly have blogs that don't seem possible while using Blogger, yet that's what all of them use!  So if anyone can shed some light on how to make it more unique, I would love the input!!!!

I'm looking forward to having the whole day to be lazy and sit around in my pajamas!  It seems like forever since I've had the opportunity to do this.  With my job taking up the weekdays, Kyle and I can only go take care of out-of-town business on the weekends.  But, in the last week, he has taken a new job and won't always have weekends off.  So here I sit, on the couch, preparing to have the whole day to myself!  (Not that I don't love spending every spare moment with my husband; I just enjoy time alone sometimes!)

Next week, I am teaching my kiddos at school about Fall.  Today will also give me some time to catch up on some preparation for that!  I love coloring all of the leaves I felt would be a good idea to print off.  I believe the grand total was 50, but it definitely feels like hundreds by now after all of the cutting and coloring I've been doing!

So, I've made my waffles for breakfast, I've got my comfy pj's on, and I've got the remote sitting next to me.  Let's enjoy this day!!!!  :-)


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

better late than never

It's been forever since I've blogged.  Not sure where my motivation has gone to so here we go...

My preschoolers are back!  They came back yesterday and I would say their first day was better than I expected it to be!  We only had three criers (that word looks weird when you type it out) and only one of them cried later in the day.  They all struggled with the concept of rest time.  I have a room of 17 four and five-year-olds.  They were whiny, they were cranky, and they weren't havin it!  Today was a little more stressful.  They got....comfortable.  I had to stress how important it was that my friends absolutely CANNOT go outside without my saying so.  We were lining up to go enjoy the day outside and next thing I know, there goes three of my kids.  We had a nice little talk...  But, I am pleased to say that they seem to like me and we get along pretty well so far.  Does that sound like a jinx???

On another note, my husband has given me the news that he has to leave next summer for five weeks to go on a trip for school.  Those who are military wives will probably make fun of me or even call me stupid to complain, but I'm not cut out to be left alone for that long!  You can laugh, it sounds ridiculous, but yet it's true.  Five weeks is more than a month!!!  When he graduates and becomes a geologist (man, that word looks funny too) I might be okay with the fact that he had to go away for a while because I will then be able to stay home and not work.  But for now, I'm not okay with it!!!  What school doesn't consider their students' family lives?  Some of them have to work to support their families.  I will be receiving unemployment next summer and I don't think that will pay the bills.  We certainly do not have children but what if we did?!  We would not survive without another source of income for a month.  I just don't understand...   Anyway..  I won't whine about it on here anymore.  I'll wait until he gets home from work!  :-)

Okay, I hit a rut.  I have nothing else to say!  But, I hope you're having a wonderful evening and God bless!!!


Monday, August 8, 2011

the past vs. the present

After chatting with an old friend today who has found complete happiness, I have decided to post about some things that have been going through my head lately.  For those of you who know me well, my road to married life was not easy.  I had never wanted anything so much than to just find "the one" who I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with.  This quest consumed me and made me look like a fool many different times.  I was the girl who always thought she'd finally found "him."  That girl realized every time that she shouldn't put her heart out there so easily but couldn't help doing it over and over again.  That girl and I begged God for the next one to be our soulmate.  So, after praying constantly and reading a lot of Christian books that are supposed to help girls accept being single, I gave up.  The summer of 2010 was probably the most fun of my summers so far in life.  I wanted to have fun and started to actually date around.  This was something I had never been able to do and somehow finally managed to succeed, not without a few false hopes though.  Anyway, that summer was carefree and fun for me, and ended with the beginning of the rest of my life.  I met Kyle at the end and things kicked off so quickly and wonderfully.  He pursued me and fought for me.  You can imagine the shock when I started to question whether or not I was even ready to give up single life to let this beautiful thing run its course!  Obviously I gave in, and here I am a year later....MARRIED!!!  Never again will I ever have to worry about being a third wheel during a group date.  Never again will I ever have to worry about being the only one without a man to snuggle with while camping on a cold night.  Never again will I ever have to dwell on failed relationships and what I did wrong.

Never again will I ever have to question God's reasoning for making me wait so long...

Enjoy these pictures from the best day of my life...





Wednesday, August 3, 2011

blog depression

I think I've been in a sort of "blog-depression mode."  I have wanted to write but I just haven't felt like anything in my life was worth blogging about!  I have still been reading the ones I follow but I haven't had any motivation to write myself.  So let's make an attempt and see if I can pull myself out of this funk!

I went back to my "big girl job!"  That being said, I have been doing nothing but pre-service meetings since then.  I have decided I'm ready to apply for a lead teacher position.  It's killing me during this back-to-school season.  I haven't been able to shop with my students in mind.  I keep being haunted by the idea of having my own classroom and wanting to set one up that's MY OWN!  It's time...

Okay, got that off my chest!  So here are some wedding pictures!

Me walking down the LOOOONNNNG path to see Kyle for the first time!

I was starting to sweat.  That dress was not easy to carry!!

Almost!!!!

Stay tuned for the first glance!!!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

yesterday

My husband and I received some bad news yesterday.  He was hired on at Lowes at the beginning of the summer as a seasonal employee.  He's been looking for a replacement for over a month because he knew the end of his employment was coming soon.  On Monday, the Lowes HR department called him telling him they wanted to interview him for a permanent position.  So he went in yesterday hoping for the best but once he got there, he found out it wasn't even an interview at all.  They were simply letting him know that Thursday would be his last day because corporate told them that there couldn't be any seasonal employees left after that!  He called and told me and I lost it.  We have been struggling financially already!  I can't believe they're allowed to do that on such short notice.  Any employee would be expected to give a two-week notice and I think it's ridiculous that they are giving him two days...

So anyway, after going through the whole day thinking that we wouldn't be able to survive this, we did our daily Bible study.  We have been studying the Psalms.  Last night, we read Psalm 26 through 34.  I have been using my New King James Bible since I was a teenager.  It has been to many sessions at church camp and Bible classes with me.  It has been marked in and I'm beginning to think there are no pages without highlighter on them.  I found several verses that I'd marked in Psalms that would help with stress relief.  I even wrote the words "stress relief" next to a few of them.

Psalm 27:14 says, "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!"

Psalm 29:11 says "The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace."

Psalm 31:24 says "Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord."

Can you see why we feel sooooo much better now?!  After reading these awesome words, we started making plans that could help us survive our time of hardship.  He had an interview just last week for a job that would honestly be perfect for a man who is a full-time student and a husband.  The lady who interviewed him seemed to like him and told him he has a start date, as long as all his references check out.  I hope that Lowes can put in a good word for him.  I think it's the LEAST they could do after this..  Please pray for us during this time.  We will be praying constantly.

P.S.  Don't ever forget that your troubles are in God's hands.  He will take care of you in a way that will work out for the best.  Have a wonderful day!!!!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

wedding costs and nightmares.

I just woke up from a rough night's sleep.  My husband hasn't heard about my dream yet because he's still in bed but as soon as he wakes up, I will be demanding a comforting hug!  My dream had to do with him telling me he couldn't tell me he loved me because he wasn't a liar.  There's a bunch more to it but man, that dream was horrible.  Anyway, it was JUST a dream and I'm pretty sure I get to spend the day with him because we're both off today!!!

Now, moving on.  I have been asking my mom to add up all of the expenses for the wedding so I could know if my wedding was as cheap and simple as it felt.  She gave me the grand total of......   $4,000!!!!!!  I had no idea that it had been that cheap!!  I've heard most brides say that their budget was $10,000 and had a hard time staying within the budget.  I am so happy but I'm wondering how in the world I did it!  I know my dress was less than $500 and in all actuality I'd purchased two of them...more about that later..haha.  My photographer was $2000 and that was definitely overpriced considering the end result!  Anyway, I just really wanted to share that because of how in shock I was when my mom told me that.

Here are some more wedding pictures!  These are of Kyle waiting to see me for the first time.  This moment was a big reason for our choosing this site!  I don't know if these pictures will even do the view justice but I could see him waiting for me out on the end of this cliff in front of the cross.  I wanted pictures of him looking out across the valley below and waiting for me.  That is exactly what I got!

This one is kind of dark.



This is the "aisle" from the ceremony too.  I had to walk a long ways to see him for the first time!  This is one of  my favorite pictures!!!!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

july 21

While I was looking at my planner and marking down bills and wedding dates and all sorts of other things, I realized that today my husband and I have been married for two months!  Wow...where did the summer go?  I go back to teaching in a little over a week and my summer will be done.  I haven't been in the water but maybe one time...even on our cruise I didn't really do any swimming or anything.  This feeling is a a little bittersweet.  My single summers were spent on boats and laying by the pool with my girlfriends.  Now that I'm married, I have to work more and have no time to take up invitations to be "fun."  But, I wouldn't trade my first married summer for anything in the world!  It kicked off with MY WEDDING, and I have gotten to watch two of my bridesmaids start their journeys as married women, and a third one coming up next month.  I had an awesome honeymoon on a Disney cruise and can't wait to go on another one for our anniversary next year!

Here are some pictures for ya!

This is my wonderful mother.  Yes, we look alike.


Now I'm off to work...  until next time!!!!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

new recipe success!!!

Today has been such an amazing day for my husband and me!  We started out with waffles and then our daily Bible study.  We finished the book of Job and started my favorite book:  Psalms!  I always love the reminders that each Psalm offers to me and I'm thrilled to be studying these great words with Kyle.  Anyway, back to my amazing day...   Next we managed to overcome a very strong obstacle in our relationship and we both feel so relieved!  It has taken a very large load off of our shoulders and we are ready to move forward.  We also went to see Harry Potter.  We left the theatre talking about how well-written the stories are and how awesome these movies have been.  I'm pretty impressed at how well all the sequels and prequels and other "quels" have been made.  You don't see that kind of movie in Twilight.  Next we came home and together we made an awesome, yet simple, chicken recipe.  I found it on a website called my fridge food.  This website has you select all these different items that you already have in your pantry or fridge and gives you recipes consisting of what you have.  I love it.  Anyway, here is the recipe:

Wild Butter Chicken (serves 4)

Ingredients:
2 beaten eggs
1 cup crushed butter round cracker crumbs
1/2 tsp garlic salt
ground black pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup butter, split into pieces

Preheat oven to 375º
Put the beaten eggs in one bowl, and mix crumbs with garlic salt and pepper in another
Dip chicken in eggs and then dredge in the crumb mixture
Arrange coated chicken in a 9x13 baking pan
Place pieces of butter around chicken
Bake 40 minutes or until no longer pink.

Now, I'm off to another movie date on the couch with my handsome hubby!!  Enjoy your night!!!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

sore muscles and pictures.

I have come to the realization that I'm not meant to work in retail any longer.  I loved my job at Charlotte Russe in my past life as a college student and the discount was AMAZING but now that I'm working at Deb, I hate it.  I have been there for all of three weeks and I'm pretty impressed that I haven't shopped in there once.  I haven't bought one single piece of merchandise while on the clock or as I'm coming in or out.  You can be proud of me; I am!  My husband is also very proud of me because our bank account has been very appreciative!  Anyhow, I worked an 8 hour shift yesterday and I've worked longer days but this was murder on my body.  I am walking around today feeling like a fever is coming on because of how my muscles feel.  When they ache like this, I am usually getting sick.  This time, I don't think that's the case.  I think I overdid it yesterday.  I don't even get soreness like this after working with 30 preschool kiddos all day long.  I am a VERY friendly person but after a shift at a store like that, I lose my motivation to talk to anybody and be nice.  I will welcome my teaching job back on August 1st.  It cannot come soon enough!


On a completely different note, I feel I should explain my pictures!  My dress originally had a white piece of fabric around the waist when I chose it.  But from day one, and I actually chose a different dress on day one, I have planned to have blue on my dress in some way.  Why blue?  Because I have blue eyes and I have blue sapphire stones in my ring!  I figured it would go well with my features and it would fit right in with my unique style!  I'm sure there are better pictures of my dress but I have a process of selecting which pictures I blog and I'm trying to go in order!  I am slightly strange like that.


Please come again soon for more pictures!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

ivory.

My dress was not pure white.  I didn't even realize this until I was searching for material to wear on my head.  I wanted pure white because I am very very VERY pale-skinned and did not want my wedding dress to be the same color as me.  However, I guess I got so carried away when I found the dress of my dreams that I didn't even think about the shade of white.  So once I came to grips with the ivory color of my dress, I began hunting for jewelry that would match.  I went with pearls.  In my personal opinion, I came out with a mixture of vintage and princess in my bridal look.

These are my mom's pearls.

This is a good shot of a few of my accessories.  Headscarf came from LOTS of material at Hobby Lobby.  The headband came from Claire's.  And I have no idea where the earrings came from :-)


Ignore the wedding ring on my finger..had it on for portraits..shh!!!

One of my favorite pictures.  It's the perfect color and you can see my long pearly/rhinestone necklace also!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

blogging..

I have been slacking in my posts lately.  I literally have nothing exciting to talk about anymore.  I've just been working part-time at the mall and sitting around while Kyle is at work all day.  I've never been more ready to go back to a job in my life.  My teaching job starts back up at the beginning of August and I'm still trying to find a way to let the store know that I won't be staying..

I do have some exciting news but it won't be nearly as exciting for anyone else as it is for me!  I have received my discs that hold all the THOUSANDS of pictures from our wedding.  Since they have been in my possession, I have uploaded them onto my computer and shrunk them down to normal computer size and did some heavy elimination of the ones that I didn't see a need for.  The amount of pictures that I posted on Facebook are still rather excessive but I wanted a CD so I could share them!  I'm trying to decide how I can start adding them to my blogs.  I guess I will just start going in order of my most favorites and post one every time with a short description?  Let's give it a shot!



I chose to wear a pair of Chucks under my dress.  Since high school, I have worn shoes like these.  My very first pair in 10th grade ended up being a work of art.  I colored on them with markers and went crazy.  I have kept that particular pair but no longer wear them due to their "ugliness."  Since then I have always had at least one pair and have never written on them again!  I had a hard time deciding between the Converse idea and boots.  I grew up country but in high school I took the punk rock direction and made it my own.  I actually wore my converse to prom under my big pink dress!  I have outgrown that phase and now I just wear them with everything as a fashion accessory.  That being said, thinking back to my prom days and the last few years, I decided the Converse were the shoes I should wear under my big white dress!

Hope you enjoyed my first photo post.  There will definitely be more to come!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

fourth of july weekend

My husband and I got to experience our first Fourth of July together this past weekend.  But before we were able to celebrate the independence of our wonderful country, we celebrated a wedding of two of my friends from college.  I have been searching high and low for a picture of their BEAUTIFUL wedding but nobody has posted any on Facebook yet and I have none because I was a bridesmaid.. I do have a picture of Kyle in our hotel though...

After this weekend, I highly recommend using Priceline to get a good deal on a hotel stay!  We were told to try it by some friends and I will never use any other method to reserve a room.  We put in a bid for the date and the price we wanted to pay and it found a hotel with a rating you select and reserve your room.  We were given a reservation at the Fairfield Inn for $50.  It was perfect for what we needed.

We got home late late late Sunday night (actually Monday morning) and we both had to work yesterday for the Fourth.  But...we both got off at 6:00 and we were able to drive home to my parents' for our tradition of hot dogs and burgers with the extended family.  We played with homemade ice cream and a couple of firecrackers for the kiddos, then my parents, my brother, Kyle, and I drove the trucks out into our pasture on top of a hill to watch all of the distant firework displays for an hour or so.

I look ghostly white but my flash is insane lol..
Overall, I'm proud of the way our first Fourth of July went down.. I can't wait to spend many many more with my husband!!!!!!

Friday, July 1, 2011

from one poor wife to another...

While browsing around on The Nest a few minutes ago, I found an article that I think will prove itself very useful in my new married life!  The article is called "Easy Ways to Save $1000+"

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been living paycheck to paycheck lately.  (For me it's more like living from Kyle's paycheck to Kyle's paycheck..haha)  This next month will be our tightest financial month.  That's the downside to being a teacher for a school that's out all summer.  I don't start my job again until August and that's still a month away.  Kyle is at the risk of losing his position because he was only hired as a seasonal employee and has yet to get another one lined out.  He's had a couple of calls and we're praying that God's plan involves one of those places!  Hopefully we'll have your prayers too.  We wrote down the due dates for all of our bills last night and I'm hoping we didn't leave any out that will come back to bite us.

Anyway, that article is simply wonderful and I'm really glad that I read it because it will teach me to be frugal.  That word has never existed in my vocabulary.  Here I go..

-The Poor Wife

Thursday, June 30, 2011

frustrations..

I'm getting frustrated with the policies for this name-change process.  I go in to these places fully armed with marriage license, new driver's license, and new social security card, only to find out that I'm missing one thing...my husband.  Why in the world would he have to consent to my changing my name?  He signed the marriage license!!  Anyway, I guess my bank card will have to stay the same for a while.  I see this being an issue since I was forced to write "see ID" on the back of my debit card and my ID has a different name than the card.  That is all.  Stay tuned for happier posts..

-Frustrated Newlywed

Monday, June 27, 2011

100 day challenge

While playing around on StumbleUpon this morning, I found a page dedicated to improving your life in 100 days.  To view the page, click here.  While my life is not a terrible life at all,  I think this website will truly be very helpful in a lot of ways.  Enjoy!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

first married birthday!

I have been so caught up in one of my dearest friends' wedding weekend (which btw was BEAUTIFUL!) that I didn't realize how close my birthday really was getting.  Guess what!?  It's today!  My husband and I woke up and went to worship this morning really enjoyed the sermon.  It's always a great start to the week when I can come home from church saying, "Wow, I really feel like I got closer with God today."  I made an easy lunch when we got home.  You can laugh at my wifely nature if you want but we really love corn dogs with macaroni and cheese!  We ate and went out to the pool for a bit but didn't stay long due to all of the darling little boys splashing us.  We have rescheduled our movie date three times just throughout the day.  We are going to the cheap theatre in Wichita to watch a movie we've already seen but we feel a need to go.  We postponed it the first time because we went to the pool.  We postponed it the second time because we wanted a nap.  We postponed it a third time because we overslept.  We still have one more showtime left and we won't be missing that one!  Kyle has promised me that my gift is coming when we have a chance to go see the new Transformers movie once it comes out soon!  I can't wait!
Happy birthday to me!
While I am sad that I don't get to experience one of my mother's traditional birthday cakes this year, I would say that my first married birthday has been successful and there are still several hours left to this day! So until next time..

-The Happily Married Birthday Girl