The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday was our 23 monthiversary, and the return to real time, with its blessed extra hour of sleep. So yeah. It was pretty much our favorite day. EXCEPTIONAL sermon at church...one of our favorite at-home lunches, football, long nap, scrapbooking {that part was just me}, fresh guacamole at dinner, a movie with popcorn, and Nik Wallenda's latest tightrope adventure. These things comprised a lovely Sunday!

* Monday was a Colts game day, but I sort of dressed up for work, so I compromised by hiding Colts socks under my jeans with my dress shoes. Ryan felt a bit more of a cuffed jeans look was in order...lol!! I loved having some daylight in the sky on my way to work again. Really picks up a morning. And that night, Ryan and I went to the gym and had a good workout - before heading home for the Colts game, where we got to sit and watch the guys work out. LOL!!

* Tuesday was our going away party for our IT guy at the station. So sad to see him go...he and I hired in right around the same time! But it was a fun party - good to tell stories and of course, eat A Cheesecake Named Desire from Cold Stone Creamery. After work, I voted {another name change debacle!!!!} and scurried past Starbucks to get coffee for Ryan, who was helping his sister work on some house projects. Then I spent the rest of the evening enjoying a dinner out with two friends from high school - but I already told you about that!

* Wednesday, believe it or not, I started scheduling shows for JANUARY!!! What in THE world!?!?!? After work, Ryan and I ran around like CRAZY trying to get leaves raked up before it got dark. We got a LOT done! And later that night, we got a call from my friend Marie asking if we wanted to come to her impromptu birthday party! Well...sure! So we got to enjoy cake and fun all in the spur of the moment! A fun evening!!

* Thursday morning, I met up with Lynne and Cindy {from work} to have an impromptu surprise birthday coffee date with our Mid-Morning phones girl, Dana. It was a fun way to start a work morning! Then my parents came to the station to watch Mid-Morning. They hadn't been to visit since the station was remodeled, so they wanted to see my new digs! It was fun to have them visit! Ryan and I were EXHAUSTED by Thursday night, so we pretty much didn't leave the couch. I loved my view from in front of the fireplace...my two sleeping loves.

* Friday, Amy and I went to lunch with Marion {our IT guys} since he is our lunch buddy most days of the week. It was his birthday, so we all went out to eat. He tried a lime phosphate with his lunch. {I'm not sure I would ever try something that sounds like a chemistry experiment, but he's brave and did it.} It was not the most natural color in the world...kind of looked like he was drinking Christmas. Friday night, Ryan and I did our grocery shopping and some other fun shopping...where we found a very cool coffee maker. We were strong and didn't buy it!! :)

* Yesterday morning, Ryan and I volunteered to pack meals with Feed My Starving Children {more about this coming your way soon} and after we did that, we went out to eat with some of our friends in a project I liked to call Feed My Starving Bekah! And then we went to our nephew's first birthday party! Football theme and tons of food! Really enjoyed it! {Sorry no cute pictures of the cake smashing; he's blognonymous.}

The Saturday Six

One.

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Why didn't Ryan and I think to take THIS kind of honeymoon? Seven months. Fifty states. Boom.

Two.

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And Ryan should be SO GLAD we got married before I read this blog post. An Anne of Green Gables wedding?  Oh yes. I would have wanted to do this. For real. Swoon.

Three.

Now and then, I get questions about things I mention here on the blog, but I think the thing I've been questioned about the most was our rake that I talked about a few posts back. So many people asked, that I thought I would just tell everyone! :)   The rake is a True Temper, and we got ours last year at Lowe's. Here is the link to it on their site right now. What I love about it is...it's HUGE, so you can scoop up a lot of leaves in one swipe. Also, the construction of it is such that the leaves don't get stuck IN it. My old rake {which, granted, may have been an original prototype OF a rake, period} always got clogged, so I would swipe, flip, unclog....swipe, flip, unclog. You can imagine my joy. Anyway. We love this rake. If you're still looking for a good one, we give this one 4 thumbs up. {Two from each of us, in case you're scared.}

Four.

In OTHER news of things you might be looking for to make your life richer and fuller...a heated mattress pad. When Ryan and I got married, he had one, and it was pretty much one of the best things I'd ever encountered. Not quite a year into our marriage, it quit working, so this year, we went in search of a new one. We got this one, which has dual controls, so if one of us is done being warm, the other one doesn't have to suffer. We put the new one on our bed last week, and last Saturday, I didn't even get OUT of bed until 2 p.m. because I was so stinkin' snuggly in there! Ours is a Sunbeam and I couldn't find the specific one we got, but here is the link to their site. {We found ours at Wal-Mart.}

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Loved this blog post by Katie Ganshert - a great reminder {in this season of much prayer for us} that sometimes God's YES is scarier than His no. Not that we should avoid embracing it, of course, but a reminder that just because it's yes doesn't mean it's easy!

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While I pray for Ryan's good health for years and years to come, I hope if he were ever ill, I could care for him with this kind of love.

The Delayed Rest of the Story

Last week I told you about the first writing I ever published. I wrote an article about living with my dad's severe bout of depression {which happened back in my high school days}, and I promised to tell you more about the experience of seeing my name in print for the first time! And then I got sidetracked by life...imagine that!

So I'm back today to tell you more about sixteen year old writer girl Bekah

Back in those days, I had just started journaling regularly, and my pages were filled with {admittedly pathetic} accounts of the various men I just loved with all my heart. Most had no idea I existed, so the love chronicles were dreadfully one-sided. But all that ridiculousness aside, I was just beginning to discover how much I loved to write. So in my spare time {read: time not consumed by homework or babysitting}, I wanted to write. Short stories. Articles. Journal entries. Anything. Just let me write.

Inside that little devotional magazine that I read with great discipline every day was the "Speak Out" column, and in tiny print at the bottom was an invitation to find out how to "speak out" by writing the editor for details. I don't actually recall following those directions, but maybe I did. I do remember writing the article and putting my finished copy inside a manila envelope. I remember Mom driving me to the post office to mail it, and I remember finding it odd that she didn't ask why I was mailing such a large envelope.

Weeks went by, and I somewhat forgot about it. The summer was winding down and the week arrived when I needed to register for classes for my sophomore year.

I don't remember where my dad was the day the phone rang, but I remember he wasn't home. Mom had been hired to help with textbook rental at the high school during registration week, so she had gone to work. I was home in my flowery pink bedroom, liberally applying hairspray to my big 90's hair, in yet another futile attempt to get my heavy bangs to POOF.

The phone rang {imagine the big clunky cordless phones with the foot long antennae that pulled out from the top} and I answered. It was before the days of caller ID, so every call was a mystery. A woman with a thick southern accent asked for me, and when I identified myself, she said she was calling from YouthWalk.

I'll never forget...her name was Millicent, and she told me they were going to publish my story. I worked on NOT screaming in her ear and began to pace rapidly back and forth across my narrow, crowded-with-junk bedroom while she explained very casually how it would work. She edited for a living. This was no big deal to her. This was a very big deal to me, and my throat grew tight as she talked. I wanted to laugh and cry and scream and call everyone I knew.

After Millicent and I hung up, I immediately called the school to ask for Mom. {Seriously, how DID we manage before cell phones?} It took forever, it seemed, for them to page her and for her to pick up. There was sort of an unwritten rule in those days that unless you saw blood or fire, you probably shouldn't call Mom at work during registration week, so she was a bit unnerved when she answered. She immediately blurted out "Are you okay?"

I'm guessing the fact that I was in full-on-meltdown didn't really help calm her as I tried to explain that I really was fine. And then I tumbled through a mostly incomprehensible story that had to start way back at the beginning since she didn't even know I'd submitted anything for publication. She began to make sense of my hiccupy story and then she began to cry.

In late November 1994, I rushed to the literature table at church and grabbed the fresh magazines that had been placed in the holder for December. I opened up the cover to the first page...and there was my name: Rebekah Freelan. There was my picture...captured in the photo kiosk sitting in the middle of  K-Mart.

I was a real author. My words had moved past the pathetic pages of my journal. 

We grabbed every copy in the church and called YouthWalk to order more. My Mom distributed them to the entire family at Thanksgiving and had me autograph them for every relative {probably whether they wanted that or not}. Mom, always the biggest champion of my writing, told every soul she knew and I think that moment was as big for her as it was for me.

So that was how it happened! I cherish that memory. Such a beautiful time. Thankful for the chance to not only share my experience with others, but to enjoy a smile of God.

Making Our Own Fun

I was talking to a friend of mine earlier this week, and she told me about a young couple she knew, and she said, "They actually remind me a lot of you and Ryan. They're in love and have a lot of fun together. Or at least that's what her pictures would seem to say."

It stuck with me.

As you know...I love pictures. And I love documenting our life. As I thought about her words, I realized I always want our life-documented-in-photos to be accurate. Not just a show. But a testimony to who we really are on an everyday basis.

We're just a couple of crazy, overgrown kids who try to make our own version of fun wherever we go. We don't have unlimited vacation days. We don't have all kinds of money for extravagant vacations. We're deal-hunting bargain-lovers who try to find the fun in the mundane to make up for the fact that we don't have the time or money to buy unlimited amounts of fun.

We try to have fun while we do chores {since we do seem to do a LOT of those}. This photo shoot in the middle of raking leaves was actually all Ryan's idea!

I was busy swooning because he suggested a photo shoot, when this happened:

Oh yeah. I went into the leaves. And it was SO MUCH FUN!! Nothing like jumping into a big pile of leaves!!

This isn't a recent picture, but we had fun selling Ryan's old beater truck...I had a lot more fun with it than he did! {Oh that TRUCK!!!!!}

An afternoon of fun playing in the bouncy-house....

SOMEONE had some fun after my dental event. You remember the video, right?? Oh it really was fun. Even if it was at my expense.

Fun hanging out by the lake on a lazy weekend. Hours spent in this swing...just hanging out, talking. Dreams, prayers, stories...shared under this little lattice canopy. {Man, I miss this place.}

Fun watching Ryan's family doing some bee-keeping. Okay, so I was really having fun with the fact that Ryan fell asleep in the little gator thing out in the middle of the woods with bees all around...

Fun on the family vacation! We're so scandalous. {And also in the middle of a STORE.}

 Fun in a photo-opp booth. He loved this one way too much.

 Fun even when the trip to the beach turns into a hat/coat/gloves frigid affair instead of the warm and sunny day you had hoped.

 We love trips to the park - especially when there's a photo scavenger hunt involved!

 Can't go wrong sharing a DeBrand float!!

 And a day playing in the snow...freezing, yet fun!!

So you get the idea, right?

Fun happens everywhere - from church picnics to post-op videos to the middle of the woods on a Sunday afternoon to a snowstrm in a polar vortex!

We don't just seem happy for pictures. We really, reallyare happy, and we love taking a moment to laugh and have a great time wherever we are...in the most spontaneous of ways.

And I hope we never stop!!

Rare Gifts

I went to a public high school, but it was a fairly small school in comparison to many. Eighty people in my graduating class, actually. We were the smallest class in the school and had a dreadfully small population of girls.

But in the small group of girls in the small class in the small school, I had a handful of really great friends. We were all very different, but we stuck together...this random, eclectic group of us...some from story hour all the way through to senior year.

I was fairly invisible in high school {a detail which annoyed me immensely then, but I'm ridiculously grateful for now...I'm sure it kept me out of more trouble than I'll ever know} - but to this group, I was someone.

And then of course, we graduated, the girls in the duct tape silver robes and the guys in their classy black robes...and we all parted ways. We headed OUT of the tiny town INTO the great wide world to make our way.

Through the magic of Facebook, I've managed to keep tabs on most of that handful of my friends, but I've had the rare privilege of keeping in real-life touch with a few of them. Game nights with some, lunches out with others. And through it all, I've realized that this is probably not normal, yet I'm grateful for it.

Last night, Ryan went over to help his sister with some things at her new house, and I got together with two of my high school friends. The last time we got together for a meal was ten years ago. {We know this because one of the girls was pregnant with her first baby back then.} We all converged upon our old town and met up for dinner at Subway - and we sat in that restaurant for three hours.

It started out with all the obligatory talk, where we figured out where we all were in life, but in no time at all, we were reminiscing about the "old" days and declaring that they couldn't actually be the old days, because we're not old. We got crazy bold and told stories that ended with, "Did I just overshare?" And of course, the answer was no, because we're not three game-playing junior high girls anymore, but three grown-up girls foraging our way through a formulaless life, genuinely caring about each others' struggles.

In many ways, we have nothing in common. One of us is single. One of us is married with kids. And then there's me - the newlywed with no kids. But we found a way to weave our vastly different details in such a way that we found very similar matters of the heart underneath those details.

These were the girls who celebrated every birthday with me, who came to my house for a Friday night sleepover and then invited me over a few weeks later to return the favor. These were the ones I exchanged notes with in the hallway {remember the crazy folded notes of the 90's?}. These were the ones who knew all my embarrassing secrets and quirks and for reasons still unknown to me, loved me anyway.

And last night, we bravely shared more secrets and quirks and we spoke words of love and encouragement - over diluted Pepsi and tea.

After we went our separate ways, we texted back and forth about what a fun night it had been...and I signed off by saying "I love that we can still be friends like we were back in the day. I consider that a rare gift."

And I do. To have two friends who have walked the most awkward phases of life with you...choose to walk intentionally back in almost twenty years later...and to be able to pick up with the same love and acceptance, is a beautiful gift.

We were seen. We were known. We were accepted. We belonged. A rare and magnificent gift.

23 Monthiversary

YOU GUYS!!!!!!!

We have less than a month left until the big two year mark. I cannot believe this. Truly cannot believe it. I look back at the pictures from our engagement season and can remember so clearly all the planning we did. At this time that year, I was preparing for two back-to-back bridal showers and a bachelorette party, and Ryan and I were assembling our wedding ceremony and trying to make sure everyone had all the details for the big day. And now that's two yearsbehind us. Crazy.

So this past Sunday was our 23 month anniversary, and it was a very lovely day. Truly lovely. Sunny and gorgeous, even if there was a solid frost happening when we woke up.

We started our day at church; it's been so great to finally begin to feel at home at our church. I'll be honest...when we started going there, we intended it to be our transition church. We had just left a small church where Ryan was heavily involved, and we both needed to start over somewhere where we could just get lost in the crowd for a while. We didn't mean to love it. We just meant to be there for a while and then find home. And somewhere along the way, it became home. We made friends and found a place. And so it was nice, on this day of celebration, that we begin with the people who have become our friends in the place that has come to really feed our hearts.

After church, we came home and cooked one of our favorite meals: spicy sausage pasta, and we threw in some Red Lobster cheese biscuits just for fun. :)

It was a lovely, low-key afternoon, filled with football, naps, and scrapbooking, and that evening, I made fresh guacamole and we ate while we watched Nik Wallenda do his latest tightrope act. {This was also the point in the day in which Ryan lost the circulation in his hand; I cut it off squeezing his hand while Nik walked.

Then we snuggled up and watched a movie and ate some popcorn.

It was a wonderful day - complete with an extra hour of SLEEP, thankyouverymuch. You know, I can't think of a better gift than an extra hour in the day to celebrate {by sleeping, of course}.

Twenty-three months and crazy in love with this guy. Can't wait for month 24!

A Date Night Snow-loween

Ryan and I have always been very committed to date night. Unless there's just something crazy going on, we make time for date night once a week. We both think it's really important to make that a priority, even though it's just the two of us, and we can be alone together most any night of the week. It's not about the alone time or the talking time. It's about stepping outside the crazy, house-selling, commuting life to have intentional fun.

But the crazy, house-selling, commuting life has gotten the best of us lately, and often by the weekend, we just want pizza, movies, and our jammies. And so for the past few weeks, that's been our life. And it's been lovely.

But I was excited that this past weekend, we made plans to go out.

Friday was Halloween, and the weather reports called for snow. Like actual, measurable snow.

In October.

Yuck.

These are the sorts of things that will cause me to be home-bound, but not Ryan! I texted him Friday morning to ask if he had any idea what we might do for date night, and he suggested dinner out in Indianapolis, followed by Christmas shopping.

Melt. He knows the way right into my heart!

So we arrived home Friday night, in the middle of sleety, rainy, snowy yuck and got ready as fast we possibly could so we could go on our DATE!

We made our way toward Ruby Tuesdays, which is one of our favorite places to eat. I called about a half hour ahead of time to see if we could put in our name, and the guy who answered said, "Wellllll, you can, but I'm pretty sure you won't need to." We learned that Halloween is the time for kidless couples to go out to eat, because couples WITH kids are taking them trick-or-treating! The restaurant was almost empty when we arrived!

 We ordered entrees, but filled up on the salad bar, so our food came home with us! Ryan took advantage of the chance to get fish, since I refuse to have anything to do with cooking or consuming fish.

 Chicken for me! Predictable, party of one. :)

We had a great time eating and talking.

We headed toward the mall to shop...and we got there to see the place filled to the brim with trick-or-treaters. The sleet-turned-full-fledged-snow had driven everyone to the warm mall to parade around in costumes and receive candy!

So.................plan B it was!

Furniture shopping! We didn't buy anything, but we definitely had a lot of fun looking around!

And when we finished with all our shopping, we had to go see our good friend:

With two raspberry white chocolate mochas in our cold little hands, we headed home:

We passed a slide-off on our way home. First snow of the year and someone already hit the ditch. Be careful out there, people!!

Date night, plan B = a success!

Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday morning, we enjoyed some quiet time before church, and then during Sunday School, I got to hold this CUTE little girl, who was born about a month ago. The whole class fights over her and it was my first time to hold her. :) We were invited to lunch at the home of our friends, John and Sandee, who made SO MUCH FOOD. It was so good! We had a great time with them and then rested {and watched the disastrous Colts debacle}.

* Monday night, we discovered our yard had been fully covered with leaves again. So much for our hard work over the weekend! We worked out - squeezed in yet one more outdoor run - and ate a great Dashing Dish recipe for dinner. I do love Katie's recipes! All in all, it was a blissfully boring day and night!

* Tuesday night, Ryan had to go help his sister with some furniture-building projects {WHY didn't she call me for my mad skills????}, so I took the evening to attend a Mary Kay night with some friends. Little pedicure party! I was so busy polishing toes, I forgot it was the Duggar wedding show!!! GASP! I scurried home and promptly sobbed ALL the way through the show. I'm such a SUCKER! That's how Ryan found me when he came home: sitting on the ottoman right in front of the TV, crying my fool eyes out.

* Wednesday I hosted Mid-Morning again...while Lynne worked at the Habitat for Humanity site. I invited Josh and Shelly Buck back for a part two session! We had a great time! And a bonus? There were donuts in the kitchen after the show! YAY!!! Ryan got to partake in a MASSIVE pizza delivered to his work - to celebrate PT month! {When is producer month!??} So all in all, we ate well.

* Thursday night, we went to the gym, but we might as well have stayed home and attacked the half-a-tree's-worth-of-leaves-fallen-to-the-ground. Sigh. Instead, we did work out and then came home to watch our Thursday night lineup, with Braeya perched on Ryan's lap, as always. I also did laundry, and I'm happy to report that after almost TWO YEARS of using this laundry drying rack, I finally figured out I could use the clothes lines AS LINES and not just as a lay-flat rack. I'm not always real bright.

* We haven't been out on a real date in a while. It seems like lately we've been pooped by Friday, and we just want pizza, movies, and jammies! But this week I really wanted to go out, so we trekked to Indianapolis for the evening. We ate at Ruby Tuesdays, which was completely empty. {Note to others who don't have kids: restaurants are empty on Halloween because parents are out trick-or-treating!} Dinner was great, and then we started to go to the mall, but that's where all the trick-or-treaters were, because no one wanted to run around OUTSIDE IN THE SNOW. Snow in October = not cool. So instead, we went to furniture stores for fun and then of course, COFFEE!

 * Ryan worked yesterday, so I stayed home - IN BED, because with our new heated mattress pad, it was the warmest place in the whole house. I finished our Holiday World scrapbook while snuggled under the covers, drinking coffee, and watching TV. When Ryan got home, he did some winterizing work around the house {since, you know, winter is apparently here} and we ate dinner, complete with some festive cupcakes Ryan brought home!

The Saturday Six

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Just a friendly reminder that the END of evil Daylight Savings Time hits TONIGHT! Ryan should be particularly happy because it means his no-longer-as-sleep-deprived-wife will be much happier when the alarm goes off in the morning. Fall back, baby!!!!

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This is actually a few posts into a little story Courtney has been telling on her blog - but I especially loved it because it's another great reminder to JUMP when God says JUMP. His dreams are so much bigger than ours!

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And speaking of stories I love - THIS ONE by KariAnne. It's just plain sweet. She took her oldest son  with her to one of her events - and he stole the show in the best possible way. This kind of story gives me hope in humanity. 

Four.

Balking {THANKFULLY} at no-shave November, the love of my life debuted this look for the first time in our entire marriage. He's back to a goatee now, actually, but for a few days, this was the look he rocked ever so handsomely!

Five.

Are you one of my single-and-waiting-for-love readers? Watch this video. It is 25 minutes long, but it's 1) adorable and 2) a message of hope at the end that there ARE still guys out there willing to fight for a God-honoring woman. Seriously...watch it.

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Kinda cool! Emily Clark's behind-the-scenes look at the time the crew showed up to photograph her home for a magazine. Who knew a couple of pages of pictures took SO. MUCH. WORK?