FIREWORKS!!!!

Yesterday I told you about our picnic for two on the 4th of July...and that was just the first half of the day. After we got up from our nap, we packed up the car and headed toward Indianapolis for the out-of-town portion of our date. :)

{Ryan had planned a couple of dates for us, and I was starting to feel like a slacker, so I did the planning for this day and had so much fun with it.}

One of our favorite places to eat is Red Robin, so we left home in time to eat dinner at Red Robin. It was the perfect day to go, because apparently everyone ELSE was doing their own cookout at home, so we got right in and served immediately. SWEET JIBLETS!

 {Do you like how the Statue of Liberty is right over my shoulder up there?}

After we ate dinner, we decided to walk around and shop in all the little stores in the shopping center. Great idea, right? Yeah, they all closed early on the 4th. We didn't want to begrudge them their time off, because after all, we sure were enjoying ours!! Butttttttttttt...we were sad to miss out on the chance to shop!!

So we went to Kohl's instead...because Kohl's is always open! :) I bought a swimsuit on clearance. Can I just give y'all a word of advice? Do NOT swimsuit shop after dinner at Red Robin. It's just a dumb, dumb, dumb idea.

But it's a cute suit.

Then we headed to Starbucks, where my mouth was already watering for a white chocolate raspberry latte.

And um, you know, Starbucks was closed.

I wasn't as gracious about that as I had been about the shopping.

McDonald's came through with a caramel mocha...but I sorely missed my raspberry.....

So anyway. We have a couple of towns right around us that have fireworks displays, but for our first 4th of July, I wanted to go out of town for something different, sooooooooo I did some online research and found that Cicero, a little town about 45 minutes from our house, has fireworks over a lake. Oh yes PLEASE.

So we packed our old fashioned, not-in-a-bag lawn chairs, crammed a bag with bug spray, blankets, activities, and jackets, and trekked through downtown Cicero {very tiny town, so it wasn't much of a trek} and scoped out a little spot on a bridge overlooking the lake.

 There had been a threat of rain, so we were SO grateful it held off and that the temps were fairly cool - but oh MAN - the humidity! And I'm sure sitting on top of a LAKE did not help that. My hair grew like a Chia pet throughout the night. My apologies.

We had a couple of hours to kill between staking out our spot and the start of the fireworks, so we worked on updating our bucket list while we sat there.

 And, in fact, crossed another thing OFF our bucket list...going to the fireworks!!!!

 Chi-chi-chi-chia!!!

 Right before the fireworks began, the sky became very pretty! {It had been one step away from rain most of the time we sat there.} All those boats out there on the water were there for the show.

 And then, Ryan entered fireworks heaven...this barge showed up. The barge from which the fireworks were launched. And yes, we had a front row seat to the thing.

 And the show began!!!

 So pretty. I bet I took over 100 photos of fireworks. I bet you're also glad I picked just a sampling for YOU!

 I sat there the entire night with a huge smile on my face...not just because of how redemptive the day was, but because you can't sit through something as grand as fireworks without being moved to smile!!

 Spectacular - for over 30 minutes!

 They even did some that rested on the water. THAT was cool.

 I loved the reflection of the fireworks in the water!

 Ryan loved the way it was exploding. {LOL!!!}

We made a great choice with these fireworks, and it was the perfect conclusion to our first 4th of July festivities! We put me and my hair in the car after it ended and headed home!!

4th of July Picnic for Two!

As you read in my post ON the 4th of July, this particular date was really pivotal to me, PLUS, I just really love the celebration of the 4th, so I tried to make our first 4th together special. Ryan had to work that morning, so I got up when he did and spent the morning being a housewife, which I adored. I got all kinds of chores done...and then I set out to put together a little picnic for two in our pirogi!!!

Ryan brought me these flowers earlier in the week, which was pretty perfect, because it meant I didn't have to go get any for our celebration! :) I did get the balloon star to add to it, and it made the perfect-sized centerpiece to add to our tiny patio table.

I bought a couple of plastic tablecloths just to dress the pirogi up a bit and cut them so I had enough for two tables. I carted one of our little square living room ottomans out to the pirogi, covered it with a layer of red and blue tablecloth, put our bed tray on top of it and made that the station for the condiments. I dressed it up with the printable from the living room.

For our main dish...cheeseburger kabobs! I happen to think they're kind of cute!! I just used meatballs for the meat {didn't make them from scratch...just took them out of the freezer bag and baked them} and layered them with cheese, grape tomatoes, pickles, and sections of hamburger bun on the end!! We LOVED them - and they were cute. You really can't top cute food.

I also made pasta salad from the Dashing Dish website...with a few alterations to change ingredients for ones we liked a little better.

So here was our little table. Not terribly fancy, but we enjoyed it!!

Ryan stopped on the way home and got Polar Pops for us because pop just sounded SO GOOD with this meal. I appreciate that their cup color scheme fit right in....

And take a good look at my hair because this is the smallest it was ALL DAY.

After lunch, we had dessert - which was a Pinterest find...little patriotic no-bake cheesecakes!! And, of course, coffee.

After lunch, we were both pooped - I mean, seriously, getting up at 5:00 a.m. on a HOLIDAY will do that to you!!! - so we curled up in the hammock and took a TWO HOUR nap. It was heavenly. After the scorcher year we had last year....this was a much more pleasant temperature holiday!!! {And by pleasant, I mean this year has bordered on downright COLD for a summer.}

So that was our patriotic picnic for two! We loved it!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, when we arrived at church, there was a blood bank bus in the parking lot. Have to admit that was a new one for me! So before we went home, Ryan gave blood. I was brave enough to go inside with him and sit this close...but not brave enough to have needles touch me. Baby steps.

Then that evening, we went to a cookout to see some friends of mine who are home, ever so briefly, from Hong Kong!

* Monday evening we cracked down and worked HARD on the house. All our recent projects had resulted in quite the mess around the house, so we worked on it. My favorite part? Our unearthing of the famous high school class mugs...so now we have something to match and show for all the years we were 100 feet away from each other and didn't even know it. LOL!

* Tuesday was our 7 month anniversary, and you already saw the recap of that, but another activity we did that night was...ripping up the carpet in our dining room! We ordered new carpet for the main living areas in our house. {Current carpet is probably about 30 years old - or older.}Anyway, so we ordered it and when we ripped up the existing carpet...we found the hardwood underneath was in MUCH better shape than we anticipated. {Minus, of course, a giant hole where a furnace used to be!!}

{By the way, that's printing on the underside of the carpet - not disturbing stains.}

* Wednesday I got off work at noon {woot woot!} and spent the afternoon running errands...but that night, I settled in with my laptop in the pirogi and worked on my baby shower gift for one of Olivia's baby showers...and Ryan worked on the yard. And by that, of course, I mean, he climbed this tree and cut dead branches out. And ripped out old landscaping. He's so motivated. :)

 * Thursday was the 4th of July, and Ryan had to work part of the day, so I got to try my hand at full time house wifery - and fell IN LOVE with it. I fixed us a picnic to eat in our pirogi for a late lunch, and then that afternoon, we headed out toward Indianapolis for dinner, shopping, and some fireworks over Morse Lake in Cicero!

* Friday felt like Monday, since I'd just been off work...so I was all confused! Add to it...that Lynne and I did our Thursday BLT show on Friday - good grief! I made hot chicken salad for dinner and Ryan and I canceled all our work-around-the-house plans to just take it easy. We went for a walk, watched a movie, and I finished up the craft projects for Olivia's baby showers. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!!

* And Saturday...was shower day!!! I attended two baby showers for Olivia...one with the church family we shared when we first met, and one with her friends from high school and college. {Oh BLESS her for including me in that bunch!} It's the first time I've seen her since she knew she was pregnant and she's absolutely GORGEOUS. I loved sharing this with her.

The Saturday Six

One.

Source

If you're from Fort Wayne, you know all about DeBrand chocolate. It's quite tasty. But I have to say, my favorite thing they make, that I haven't found anywhere else {quite like it, anyway} and is, in my opinion, worth the extra cost, is their berry marshmallow. I'm telling you. One of these + a chocolate bar square + a chocolate graham cracker = ruined for life on s'mores. Oh and P.S. They ship. Just sayin'.

Two.

A couple of weeks ago on BLT, I talked about a pin I found where you make a "dining passport" with your significant other. You make a list of 50 places you want to eat, and then when date night rolls around and neither of you has a clue where to go, you just open it up and choose one...and off you go. When Lynne came home from vacation, she brought this little souvenir for Ryan and me: the Dining Out Restaurant Journal. It's the same concept, but allows you to also keep track of why you went to that restaurant, who you ate with, what you had, and the highlights of the evening. SO CUTE!

Three.

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Read this article written by Jenny Simmons, who used to be the lead singer for Addison Road and is now out on her own. I met Jenny at WBCL's Daddy Daughter Date Night this past spring and LOVED her. Love her writing too, and think this is fitting for the week containing our nation's birthday.

Four.

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You all know I love me some Beth Moore. And this blog post she wrote this week, praying for revival in our land - absolutely moved me to tears.  

Five.

Natasha...this one is for you!! My little flower pots in front of the garage are really growing big!! Love the way they're filling out and spilling over. :) Perhaps my first ever success!

Six.

Source

A thousand amens to this post by Anita Mathias. If you're a blogger, you gotta read this one. I'm such a rebel when it comes to all the prescribed ways to build an audience. My goal is to have the audience here that God brings here...and not spend all my time trying to lure and trick people into visiting...but she says that way better, so read her words.

Shopping Adventures

Wednesday I only worked half a day, but Ryan had to work the entire day. So...I decided to use my free afternoon running some errands and doing some shopping that he might not find all that enthralling. {Though to his credit, he's REALLY REALLY good about shopping with me - even at Cato and Hobby Lobby.}

So. Y'all know that Hobby Lobby is like my mother ship, right? Waves of calm sort of hit me the minute I walk in the door and I was SO excited to shop, knowing I could take as much time as I wanted...look at as many things as I wanted...and it didn't matter if I killed two hours straight. I bothered no one.

So I got my little cart and headed for the clearance aisle. Right now, they have a 90% off clearance aisle. I'm sorry, did you SEE that? I said they have a 90% off aisle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be still, my precious beating heart.

I entered this aisle of joy with my ready-to-peruse-every-last-item hat on and saw at the other end, a woman with four children who all appeared to be under the age of five. One was trapped in the cart. The other three were free-range. I didn't give them a second thought and began my shopping.

I found three treasures - just decorative "thingies" that could probably double as extra large chess pieces, each about a foot high - which were on sale for a collective $9.00. The red one stays red, the other two are about to get a coat of black spray paint {bless you, Emily Clark, for teaching my rule driven mind that it is okay to spray paint things} and they'll go in the newly color schemed dining room.

I was so excited about finding these things on such a deep sale that I scarcely noticed my cart was about to kiss the other lady's cart.

I should probably stop here to tell you about my shopping cart rules. In my mind, this is just logic and good sense, but I've learned that most people {including Ryan} didn't read the same shopping rule book I did. Aisles, to me, are like roads. You stay to the right, and no one gets hurt {like from a toe/cart collision}. So I was hugging the right {and my new treasures} and her cart was just right there. She was shopping on the left! So I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I might have gone around but I wanted to look at what she was looking at {on my right}...and I promise you, she had no clue I was there. NONE. I was wearing a lime green shirt and she had no idea I was in front of her.

She was also unaware that her three children were beginning some playground games in the clearance aisle. With great shrieking and delight, they made up some charming chasing games that really were sweet to watch...um, if they had NOT been in an aisle filled with glass and ceramic! I cringed - for their safety and my shopping - and waited for her to realize that recess had begun.

She finally did - when they actually climbed up on the shelf and started running the length of it. The stomping got her attention and she said "Stop that. Come here."

Everyone who thinks they did that....stand on your head.

This continued for about 15 minutes or so. They chased and shrieked and laughed and tattled on each other for inflicting injuries during the games...and every 8th offense or so, she'd say, "Stop that. Come here."

{I must add that my favorite part was when I managed to escape about 10 aisles away and as I shopped for scrapbook paper, two of the kids showed up at the end of my aisle, continuing their game. After a minute, they looked at me and one grabbed the hand of the other and said, "A stranger is here. Let's get out of here." I guess it's good that they were on their own lookout, because I am not sure they'd been missed in the posse yet.}

Despite the less-than-calm atmosphere, I also managed to unearth a 14x18 picture frame for $4.60. That was enough to make me forget the mayhem.

All in all, a good little day at the Hobby of the Lobby. I managed to escape with an $18.00 bill and not one single item rang in at full price. THANKYOUVERYMUCH.

And I may or may not have to take Ryan back to look at just a FEW more things.

Beautiful Endings

I know many of you out there who read this blog are hurting from lost love and waiting for new love. I speak especially to you today.

Three years ago today, I awakened to an email from my dear friend, Julie Crandall, who was one of many God-ordained friends who walked that dark desert journey with me. After answering {very well} some questions I'd asked, she closed with these words: Relax. The outcome of this situation is not on your shoulders. It is in God's hands. "The one who calls you is faithful and HE will do it." - 1 Thessalonians 5:24...Lifting you up...Julie

I opened the devotional book I clung to with great dependence that year, Streams in the Desert, and read these words: Habakkuk 2:3 - "The revelation awaits an appointed time. Though it linger, wait for it; it WILL certainly come and WILL NOT DELAY." The devo that followed said, He will use His refining fire to burn away our impurities and will then gloriously come to our rescue. Do not grieve Him by doubting His love. Instead, lift up your eyes, and begin praising Him RIGHT NOW for the deliverance that is on its way to you. Then you will be abundantly rewarded for the delay that has tried your faith.

Then I sat with my journal and penned these words: I have to trust You for the amazing journey of crossing the river into the Promised Land. I have to trust You to speak to his heart...I have to trust You to calm his soul enough to know he is capable of love. Capable of leading. Capable of being desired and served. I want to wash his feet. I want to humble myself and bless him by washing his feet. Quiet my soul so I may wait for YOUR ending. Your beautiful ending that You've written just for me.Make this journey a beautiful picture of Your grace, Jesus.

You see, when Isaac came to me and said he needed to go away alone into a wilderness to work on his heart, I felt God leading me to believe that we would be healed and restored by the 4th of July. You have to understand. I'm not a girl who senses things like specific dates or specific ANYTHING when it comes to prayer. But that time, I did, and it was unmistakable. So from that night in April...all the way through May and June, I just ached for July 4th to roll around because I just KNEW that on that day, he would come back to me in a grand display that would surpass any fireworks show in the nation. 

I knew it. 

That last hour of July 4, 2010 was beyond excruciating. I sat by the front door, awaiting the sound of footsteps on the boards…awaiting the sound of the phone ringing with a call or text. I ached for God to bring about some movie-like ending. And I had no idea what would do if I went to bed and awakened the next morning...still alone.

And that's exactly what happened.

July 5th dawned bright and hot, and my phone lay silent beside me. He hadn't stepped onto the porch to ring the doorbell. He hadn't called. He hadn't texted. 

And that ending that I ached and prayed for never came.

Many of you read this blog right through that time and know how I struggled with the loss of that love and how deeply my faith was shaken in the way he did not come back as I felt certain God said he would.

But I say this to you today, July 4, 2013, three years later, after having just celebrated seven months of marriage to Ryan, 

God. Answered. Every. Word. Written. Above.

 The outcome of the situation was not on my shoulders. It was in God's Hands. And He brought to me a man named Ryan to claim what Isaac would not.

He will use His refining fire to burn away our impurities and will then gloriously come to our rescue. I am not the same woman I was in 2010. God used my dark, hot, lonely desert to burn away impurities on every side from my life and then gloriously came to my rescue by bringing me into a new career and making me ready to receive real, true, abundant love.

Then you will be abundantly rewarded for the delay that has tried your faith. You got that right.

I have to trust You to speak to his heart...I have to trust You to calm his soul enough to know he is capable of love. Capable of leading. Capable of being desired and served. I don't know what went on in Isaac's heart as I prayed these prayers, because he never told me. But I DO know that God spoke to Ryan's heart and calmed his soul to know that he was capable of loving, leading, being desired, and being served, and he lives that out every. single. day.

I want to wash his feet. I want to humble myself and bless him by washing his feet. Isaac never could accept that gift from me, but Ryan did - including the morning of our wedding, when we washed each other's feet on the same sand where later that day, we promised our lives to each other.

Quiet my soul so I may wait for YOUR ending. Your beautiful ending that You've written just for me.Make this journey a beautiful picture of Your grace, Jesus. It wasn't the ending I expected that day, but it was the ending He wrote...and what a picture of His grace it turned out to be. 

And so it was that on another day, in another year, I heard steps on the porch...and a man named Ryan said he was interested in me....and in a movie-like ending, he pursued me unmistakably, told a radio audience he wanted to claim me to be his for life, and in a sunset wedding, he offered me his forever and promised to care for me for the rest of my forever.

Today, I celebrate that. Today I embrace the joy that God took a date on the calendar that was so broken in my life...and He has healed and restored. Not in the way I expected.

In a way far better.

Seven Months!

It absolutely blows my mind that when I think back to one year ago, I had NO idea I'd be getting married {ever in my lifetime} and yesterday, Ryan and I celebrated seven months of marriage.

Shut the front door.

And praise the Lord.

Ryan started the day out right with this note on our message board...

 We both had to work, so we didn't get to spend much time together during the day, {and by much, I mean any}, but we had a great evening!

Ryan worked out, so that gave me JUST enough time to get home and whip up some Chicken Parmesan Muffins {except ours was a loaf} and asparagus for our dinner. I set it all up out in our pirogi. Thought about lighting a fire in the fire pit, BUT...well, first I'm no good at fires, and secondly, it was rainy.

 I got Ryan a card...which I love to do. But when I purchased it, the cashier said to me, "I think you buy cards every time you come in here." Is it bad that I have that much of a relationship with the Meijer cashier??

 Even used some of my monogrammed napkins Ryan's mom gave me for Christmas. I've been hoarding them for special occasions {such as this}.

 Our dessert treat, was courtesy of MY mom. She's one of the world's best pie makers, and she'd made a coconut cream pie that she shared with us! Thanks, Mom! We had our pie and coffee out in the pirogi while all around us it considered raining. I swear Seattle has moved to Marion.

 No relaxing evening is complete without a few minutes in the hammock. And a selfie. Y'all, we have become SO AWFUL at selfies. Seriously! We've been doing these for just under a year now. How have we suddenly lost our talent? So we had to resort to goofy.

 And while I didn't do this FOR our anniversary, I am throwing it in here. I made a shadow box with a picture of us on Siesta Key Beach - we took it during our honeymoon. The shadow box is filled with sand from the beach!

Thankfulness: Taking a Poll

I thought I better add that "taking a poll" part to the title or you might settle in to read, thinking this post is going to be filled with warm and fuzzy Bekah-thankfulness.

Okay so here's the deal. When I was growing up, my mom taught me that if I received a gift, I should write a thank you note. In fact, after the family Christmas festivities each year, I usually spent Christmas night, sitting at the dining room table, scrawling out a thank you to each of the family members that gave me a gift that day.

I wrote thank you notes for Christmas and birthday gifts, notes to the church for funding half my summer camp trip, and notes to my grandparents for the souvenir they brought to me every single year when they went on vacation. I wrote notes for graduation gifts, bridal shower gifts, wedding gifts, going-away gifts, and gifts offered in sympathy for losses I experienced.

But I'm learning...people don't really write thank you notes like they used to. Which, in turn, makes me curious - do you write thank you notes? Like real, handwritten, mailed-with-a-stamp thank you notes? Do you say thanks at all when someone offers a gift? Facebook or email a thanks? What do you do?


I had a teacher in junior high that said you should never issue an assignment you're not willing to take, so I'll answer my own poll question.

When I write a thank you note, whether it's for a gift, or time someone spent with me helping me with something, or hospitality...I try really hard to go beyond the obvious thankfulness. I try to think about the person I'm writing to and how he or she has invested in my life in the bigger picture and offer thanks for that.

Writing thank you notes makes me more grateful for that person's presence and investment in me than it does for the actual gift or act. And I always hope, after I write a note, that the message translates that way from my heart to the giver's heart.

So....when you write thank you notes {that is, IF you write them} - do they make you think beyond the matter at hand and cause you to be more grateful for the giver? Or do you stick closely to the assigned task?

Now...tell me! I'm listening....

Food Trucks

I'm not a city girl. I'm not even remotely trendy that way - and I'm perfectly okay with that. But every now and then I like a good city experience...just to hold me over for the next, oh....year or three. :)

So I was pretty excited when Lynne suggested that we visit the food truck lunch in Fort Wayne last week!

I'm not really much of a researcher {off the clock} so I am not going to wow you with wisdom of when, where, and how the food truck came to be, but I am going to show you the cuteness of our lunch out!

We drove downtown...and there they all were! All lined up along the street! Hello lunch!

 They arrange this lunch by a grassy park-like area, which just so happened to have gorgeous hydrangeas there. I seriously love these flowers. If I'd had wedding flowers, these would have been strong contenders. {Not necessarily the ones in the park, but the flowers in general.}

 The food trucks are open every Thursday from 11:30 to 1:00 and there were quite a number of people out there taking advantage of the gorgeous day and the trendy food! There were moms with kids, bikers eating with helmets on, and business women in dressy clothes and walking shoes. That's what I love about stuff like this - everyone comes together.

 This was the truck Lynne and I elected to eat from. Lynne had a turkey salad pita. I was envisioning an actual salad...like with lettuce and such, but this was actual turkey salad - like chicken salad, only made with turkey. Once I heard it had dill in it, I rather wished I'd gotten it too. I'm a junkie for dill.

 Lynne and the food truck...{love that skirt.}

 Tables...live music...sunshine...slight breeze...what a DAY!

 Did I mention sunshine?

 Guess who got a meatball sub and forgot she has TMJ and can't eat subs like this?

Yeah I don't know who would do that either.

SUCH a fun lunch...and now I'm citi-fied for another 3-5 years or so!!