wedding bliss

This past weekend, Andrew and I traveled to Atlanta for JKing's wedding. Who is JKing you ask? That would be Jessica King. This post is dedicated to her.

In August of 2005, I was a sophomore at Carolina living with Martha in a dorm on campus. We were leading a bible study of freshmen girls that year and it just so happened that one of the girls that signed up, lived in the room beneath us. We went to introduce ourselves (read: beg her to come to our bible study) and hopefully make a new friend. This cute, little (and by little, I mean a good foot shorter than me) spunky girl opened the door and proceeded to rock my world for the next 3 years. That first encounter turned into a friendship that was full of complete trust and vulnerability and I LOVED IT. We met several times a week - sometimes to read the bible together over coffee, sometimes to talk about boys, sometimes to cry because she was homesick - but every time the Lord somehow grew our relationship a little more.

I could spend pages going on about how much I love this girl, but I assume you get the point by now. She just spreads sunshine in my life and I want to make sure that's clear. The amazing thing about JKing is that she was dating Ben when she came to Carolina. The day I met her, there were flowers on her desk that he had sent her from Clemson, where he was in school. And they stayed together, apart, for four years. With different lives, different friends and different memories, patiently waiting to spend their life together with the same life, the same friends and the same memories. I love them for that. To see them at their wedding, ridiculously giddy with excitement (I think she may have even done a little happy clap at some point during the ceremony) was a blessing.

All of this to say, Congratulations Ben and Jess. I love love love that you're Mr. and Mrs. Mann.

i want to be a doer

For some reason, that has hit me hard this week - in several different ways. A few years ago, a guest pastor at our church quoted an author who wrote:

I despaired at the thought that my life might pass me by without God moving greatly on my behalf.

Most days, that's exactly how I feel. But I tuck that thought away believing that I have to get to a certain point in life before I can live radically enough to let that happen. Lame, I know. But I'm just being honest.

So I was reminded of that quote this week when I found Donald Miller's new book at Barnes and Noble, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I haven't started reading it yet, but I'm sure it'll be fabulous, per usual. Basically, it's about how people set out with intentions of doing great things with their life, but then find that they've only done ordinary things. And what if we really did to what we intended?

So in light of the "do it" inspiration I've received this week, here's a list of what I want to do:

• Love Jesus so much that it makes me love everyone around me. Regardless of whether or not I like them.
• Be a healthy eater.
• Start a Christmas tradition of anonymously leaving dinner/presents for a family in the community.
• Be a completely selfless wife.
• Travel to places that make me aware of the world outside of my little one.
• Adopt a little girl from China and name her after my grandmother.
• Have a home that my kids' friends feel comfortable and loved in.
• Teach my kids to love Jesus so much that it makes them love everyone around them.
• Never stop learning.
• Experience things that are outside my comfort zone.
• Love on kids who aren't being loved on.
• Always be filled with joy.

Those are my musings for now. Do with them what you wish...

monday night blues

I like coffee shops. I like the coffee and the music and the big leather chairs. But I love coffee shops on cold, rainy nights - like tonight. Andrew was feeling majorly cooped up and I was feeling snuggly, so we grabbed a Caribou Coffee coupon and here we sit with our pumpkin spice/caramel apple lattes.

Andrew found out last week that he didn't make the cut for the October interview, so now we're hoping for the November 19th interview. And we wait. While it's only a month until the next potential interview date (and a few weeks until we know if he's made that date), we're both feeling a little rattled. We were talking about it at dinner and it's not necessarily impatience as much as it is frustration. This is such a gigantic waiting game and we're both so ready to get moving (that sounds like impatience, but I promise it's different). I think we're learning that timing is everything, the Lord didn't just stop watching over this situation, and fretting over the fact that the process isn't moving along as quickly as we'd like is going to accomplish a lot of nothing. And cause a lot of stress. So why not spend the time we have together - together? Not split apart by the what ifs/how longs/what abouts.

So we're working on that while we nurse our lattes. And I'm so thankful for coupons and rainy days and a sweet husband who's just wants to take care of his family. Silver lining, is that you?

life with the new addition

As for Navy news, we're still waiting to hear from the recruiter about the interview date.

So I'll update you on the pup instead :) Let's say this: we have laughed A LOT. He is maybe the cutest little dog in the world and we have thoroughly enjoyed him. The first week was rough - separation anxiety, a tummy virus, midnight bathroom trips and yelping for no reason just about put us over the edge. But we've worked through most of it and now he's the biggest joy.

Since I'm the queen of lists, here's one for our little guy:

1. He is a SNUGGLER. He will wiggle and scootch and fuss until he's positioned just under your arm with his cute little head in your lap.
2. He's smart. And we're excited about that.
3. He used to yelp any time he was left unattended, but we implemented a squirt bottle and within a few hours we had that under control. Now he cowers when he hears us shake the bottle.
4. He has a few toys, but the one he loves the most is one that my mom got him. A blue, terry cloth elephant, BoBo. He's had it for 4 days and he takes it everywhere. Pretty cute.
5. When he has a toy, we'll say "Get it Rudy" and he shakes it rapidly from side to side, growling. My little guard dog :)
6. We're not sure what he is, but we think he's got some hound in him. He'll track all kinds of stuff - frogs, bugs, rabbits. And when I say track, I mean stop in his tracks, stick his tail straight up and dig in the rocks until the creature crawls out and he can chase it. We tell him all the time that he's a hound doggg, like Copper.
7. Bojangles is like crack for that kid. He smelled ours this weekend, but we didn't give him any and he was still hyper for about 2 hours. He's a maniac.
8. We had the pleasure of spending $150 for a shot of Benadryl on Saturday when he had an allergic reaction to something that made his face swell up and his eye swell shut. That was fun.
9. Things he's learned today: he pawed on the door to go outside, he was left alone in the kitchen while we went to dinner for THREE HOURS and he didn't have an accident (and was asleep when we got back) and he learned how to go up/down the stairs. The down part was freaking hilarious when he was trying to learn.
10. He's awesome and completes our family perfectly.

Note: While I was proofreading this, he was a little jealous of my computer that was getting all of the attention. After trying to bat my hands away and a little bit of whining, he promptly sulked over to Andrew as if to say, "Fine, then. If you won't rub me, I bet Andrew will." Let me go give the little guy some love so he'll stop pouting...