New Year...New Habits

You can like new year resolutions or hate them...but I have to tell you I love the way a new year gives me the opportunity for a fresh mental start. Yes, I know it's all in my mind...that I could start new habits any day of the year...but I like the freshness of January 1.

This year is a different one for me. I not only take stock of my own life...my own heart...my own future...but I take stock of what my life needs to best serve the life of another. What my own heart needs to cultivate to not only give love to Ryan, but receive love from him. What my future might entail...that will in turn affect HIS future.

He and I have our hopes, of course. Hopes of finding a job for him that is closer to mine so we don't have to spend extra hours each day apart from the other. Hopes of selling both our homes and finding a new house that together we can transform into a home. But it might not happen that way. A year from now, we might still be sitting in this same house, working the same jobs. And if that's the case, it's okay. We'll just pray for extra commuting grace. :)

But here are some things I'm doing in hopes of making a busy-commuting-new-wife life the best it can be. Things that hopefully will cultivate my relationship with God and in turn help me be what Ryan needs.

1. USE the day planner. I bout this Planner Perfect planner partway through the year last year, and I really like it. There's a lot of freedom in it to use the pages how I want to use them...customize them for daily to-do lists, shopping lists, date-planning, and more.

So the goal is to use it to the max...not just to write appointments in the boxes of the monthly calendar, but to use it as its creator intended...to make life dreams and goals a reality on paper.

2. Read through the Bible. A few years ago, I read through the Bible in a year. It felt like a marathon...and we all know how I do with running. NOT WELL. I said I'd never do it again. But I stumbled upon this over at Melanie's blog a few days ago and thought I might give it a shot again this year. She's taken the daily reading plan and transformed it into a weekly reading plan. I like that concept. If I have a day that is packed and I don't get to read...it's okay. And if I have a day with 2 spare hours...(what is THAT!?!?!?) I can catch up...get ahead...whatever!

3. Read a daily devo again. This past year, I really floundered with daily devos. I didn't have one that I read consistently and as a result, my quality time with the Lord every day really suffered. That is not a good way to start a marriage. If I had one thing to do over about this past year...it would be that. I should not have slacked off with my God-time!! So, at my request, Ryan got me this devo book for Christmas:

The book is called Praying the Promises of God by Cheri Fuller and Jennifer Kenned Dean. Lynne told me they are both phenomenal prayer warriors so I'm excited about what the book holds.

4. Participate in Beth Moore's SSMT again. I did this two years ago (she only does it every other year) and it was great accountability for me in working on Scripture memory...which is something I'm TERRIBLE at doing. It urges women to memorize two verses a month - one at the beginning of the month and one halfway through. I'll give it my best shot!

5. Work out 3 times a week. UGH. After the 10K, I completely fell off the exercise bandwagon. Ryan and I got engaged less than a week after the race and the next two months were packed with urgent wedding planning and then there was...you know...Christmas. So I've just done NOTHING. And it shows. I feel disgusting. (Not a great way to start a marriage either...I'm just a slacker!!) So here we go again. Back to the routine. It's really important to Ryan and I want to make sure I stay faithful to that!

6. Date planning once a month. I love theme dates and have some already marinating in my mind. My goal is to plan a fun date for the two of us once a month. I'm excited about sharing them with you after they take place! (Can't tell you before then because Ryan reads the blog and that would ruin the surprise!

So those are some of my goals!!! Hoping for many successes! :)

It's the Weekly Recap!

The final weekly recap of 2012!

* Last Sunday evening, we had Christmas with Ryan's mom, stepdad, and siblings. It was my first family Christmas with someone else's family and it was much fun! I feel very welcomed and loved by them and I appreciate that so much!

* Monday was Christmas Eve, and I had the day off, while Ryan did not. I stayed home all day, madly cleaning and doing last minute chores. My friend Faith stopped by with her two daughters, and we had Christmas together...

...and then Ryan and I went to a family Christmas for his dad's side of the family...and then we went to our Christmas Eve candlelight service at church! It was a very busy day!

* Tuesday was our first Christmas together!! We started the day with our own Christmas at home:

Then we went to Christmas at my parents' house, followed by another of Ryan's family Christmas gatherings! It was such a beautiful day...our first Christmas together!

* Wednesday it SNOWED. I got up and drove to work in the morning, and it had just started snowing at my house (and was instantly horrible driving). As soon as I got to work, they turned around and sent me home with two days' worth of work, just in case! So while Ryan was at work, I hunkered down in the living room with a pot of coffee and a box of work and this became my office!

* Thursday I worked from home again, thankyouverymuch, snow!!! I was kind of stir crazy by the end of the day, actually! So excited, that night, to have a visit from my good friends, Tom and Olivia, who were home for the holidays! They came over to meet Ryan, drink coffee with us, and we exchanged gifts. And I have (gasp) no photos to show for it...as Olivia took all the pictures and took them with her! OOPSIE!!!

* Friday night I had a date with my husband! We went out to dinner at Applebees (thank you, gift card from our wedding coordinator!) and then went shopping to use up some Kohl's cash we had. One of our purchases was this mini food processor, which we named Choppy McChopperson. (Yes, we name the appliances.)

* Saturday we had our final Christmas celebration of the year. This one was with Ryan's mom's side of the family. There are a WHOLE BUNCH of them! They were so welcoming and I had a great time there. On the way home, it was very slick and snowy, and I noticed a car down a side road that had gotten stuck. So we turned around and went back. We arrived at the same time another car did, and two guys from that car and Ryan got out to help push the car. Ryan was wearing a vest coat and a short sleeved shirt and got SOAKED with snow and mud. (If you look, you can see it on his sleeves, all down the front of his coat, and all down his jeans. He also had it on his face and all down the back of his arm.)

 And that's it! 2012's last week all wrapped up! Thanks for hanging out here and reading through our weekly happenings all year...hope you'll come back again next year! :)



It's a Tuesday Kind of Honeymoon

Before I hit another honeymoon post...want to pause to wish my niece, Cassie, a very happy birthday!!! :)

Okay. Tuesday. We were VERY BUSY on the Tuesday of our honeymoon!!!

Started out by going to another local joint for breakfast. It was called Dutch Valley. You know. The place where they put the germ-x next to the ketchup:

 Hard to see me in this picture, but Ryan took it from inside the restaurant while I was standing out on the sidewalk talking on the phone to Lynne...on the air. Yep, I'm the one who called in to Mid-Morning from my honeymoon to talk about the wedding!!

 After breakfast, we got ready for a little adventure. Here were my thoughts as we were en route....

 Because I was about to get in one of THESE for the first time in my life.

 That's right. My sweet husband talked me into kayaking. It was on our bucket list. (We have a collective bucket list that we each contribute to. Guess who suggested this one??) I was most nervous about flipping the kayak and losing my camera.

The kayak place was so nice - gave us this nice map to get us around the little island.

 And off we went. He worked hard to row. (Do you row a kayak? Whatever.) I worked hard taking pictures. And I rocked it, I don't mind saying. (The picture taking. NOT the kayak.)

 Part of the way through our little tour, we stopped on a beach to see the coastline from another view.

 There he is! My handsome husband!!

 Trying out our new tripod. All that messed up sand in front of us was from our frantic climbing to get up the tiny dune before our 10 second timer went off!!

 Back in the kayak and we um...hit some shallow water. Yep. Pretty much got STUCK.

 I was freaking out but Ryan stayed perfectly calm, got out of the boat, and pushed us back into the water. He's a genius.

 The kayaking really was fun. We were out for a couple of hours and the day was really nice for it. Not windy, mostly sunny - and a great time together. And don't tell him I said so, but I really enjoyed doing something new that was out of my comfort zone.

We came back to our hotel and got cleaned up in time for sunset. We got some lawn chairs and coffee from the hotel office and headed to the beach to watch the sun go down.

 And do sand art. :)

 Not disappointed!!

 And since we were there...some beach weed pics.

 One of our wedding guests was my college roommate, and she lives right there near where we were married. She texted us some suggestions of places to visit, and one of them was this restaurant.

 The Old Salty Dog was featured on Man vs. Food and she said it was good! So we tried it out! It was dark out but such a lovely evening that we asked to eat outside again. Ryan wanted to try the same thing the guy on Man vs. Food ate: the foot long beer battered hot dog loaded with multiple kinds of cheese, mushrooms, onions, and many other things.

 I went for the "dog bites" version. Just beer battered hot dog. "JUST" - because that is lower in calories. LOL!!

 After dinner, we drove to St. Armands Circle and walked around looking at the shops and restaurants there.

 Funny story from there...as we tried to drive through the roundabout that makes the circle, we encountered a car parked in the road, and the driver was out talking to people parked in the angle-parking off the road. We were trying to squeeze through and the driver of the car in the road waved us on, saying we had "plenty of room." She went on to say, "Oh we're just exchanging toys." Once we got through, I said to Ryan, "Is this some rule of Florida roadways? It's okay to block a road if you're exchanging toys AND you explain that to those trying to get through?"

After we walked off dinner, we had dessert at Big Olaf's. We shared a waffle cup....

 Which was MOST yummy.

 We were STUFFED, so we left and went back to the resort, where we took this little photo-into-the-future.

And once done, we saw the sign that said to stay off the shuffleboard...

WOOPSIE!!!

Meet Chuck!

Last Saturday morning I got up at 5 in the morning.

What? Is that unusual or something?

HELLO people. I'm married now. And I find myself doing some crazy things for love. Like, for example, getting up before noon on a Saturday.

Ryan had to work that morning, so I got up and went with him (via the Starbucks drive-thru...his gift to me for getting up so early) to work! While he treated patients, I sat in the corner guzzling yet more coffee and working on combining our address books so we could send out Christmas cards. I hate to admit it - and DO NOT TELL HIM I SAID SO - but I was ridiculously productive during his work time. ICK.

For lunch, he introduced me to another of his favorite Kokomo places:

It reminded me so much of the Comet Cone...this little mom and pop place I went to all-the-time when I was growing up. I swear the fries were the same....

Ryan with his lunch. Isn't he so handsome??

And then we hopped in the car and headed out....

...to a Christmas tree farm! Dull's Christmas Tree Farm, to be exact!

I interviewed the owner of the Christmas Tree Farm in November and wanted to go see the place in person! By the time we were able to go, they were almost out of trees for the year - a bumper crop of customers - and a GREAT problem to have!! But we were undaunted. ONWARD!!

We had to choose a saw...

And we headed across the road for our tree!

They say when you know...you know.

 And we just KNEW when we saw him...

 Since, as you can see...there weren't many others around! We loved our little tree!!!! Ryan went to work cutting him down!!

 And he's ours. We have never been prouder.

 After we cut down the tree, we took him to the barn, where they tied him all up for the ride home. We visited the little gift barn to warm up.

 Hot chocolate and a little moment by the fire together. I LOVE THIS MAN!

 This was THE CUTEST cabin. I loved it. (It's a B&B in the off-season. I have a feeling we'll be back!)

 A handsome lad....

 On the way home, we named our tree Chuck, because we decided he was too full to be a Charlie Brown tree. We set him up in his new home in the dining room.

 And then we let his hair down. :)

 Our Chuck!!

We put colored lights on the tree...mostly because the store was out of white ones. :)

 Added a few decorations...

 Ryan added the "crazy hair" topper - again inspired by what was left at the store...

 And this is our boy...Chuck.

Our first ever live tree. And we made such great memories finding him that we want to go every year!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!