A Weekend Remembered

Last week if you remember, Whit and I went to a marriage conference together. It was so great! It was put on Family Life, who does hundreds of marriage conferences around the US all year long. We would definitely recommend it - no matter where you're at in your marriage. We actually won a prize for being the most newlywedded couple there! (3 months and 12 days.) I was surprised that only 2 other couples besides us had been married less than a year. The people who had been married the longest had been married for 54 years I think. There were also a bunch of couples who weren't married yet.

We didn't learn anything really revolutionary, but it was really good to hear objective truth from people who could also give personal experience. Everything we heard was a good reminder, and made a lot more sense now that Whit and I have actually been married (we learned a lot about marriage before getting married, so now it makes sense). It was also just good to hear from other people, not each other...it was much more stimulating to make us want to change. The best part wasn't the teaching, but the application to your own life. Each session (there were 10) had about 2 little questionnaires to apply the topic to your own life and your spouse's (ex. communication styles). They also had 3 breaks where you and your spouse to a project - answer questions about the lesson individually and then discuss. It was so great and helpful to apply it to our lives.

Saturday night they let us out early for a date night! Whit and I went to Abuelo's, a Mexican restaurant I had been craving. Then we got Starbucks (drive-through!) and drove up Mill Mountain to see the star and the view. It was so beautiful, but freezing (even with hot chocolates) so we got back in the car after like 5 minutes.

My absolute favorite part of the conference though was saying our vows again! Everyone in the room stood up and held their partner's hands and repeated their vows after the minister (soo not everyone - engaged couples excluded). It was so meaningful now that Whit and I have been married and know each other better. It was so sweet! ...I was so thankful that every other woman in the room was crying with me! Haha.

You should find one in a city near you (or take a getaway) and go if you've never been, or haven't been in awhile!

The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved

...is you! and me!

I picked up Beth Moore's devotional guide for the book of John today and I'm SO excited to read it! The main idea to take away from the book as you study it is that the most important thing to John was the fact that Jesus loved him. Whenever I would read John's description of himself in the Bible, I thought it was conceited - "Jesus loved ME the most." Now I understand that that isn't at all what he meant by calling himself the "beloved disciple." He referred to himself as that because it was the most defining quality about him - nothing else was as important to him as Jesus' love for him. I think this study will be so great for me as I learn to also treasure Jesus' love for me more than anything else. If I understand how much He loves me, my life will be so much better because I won't care what other people think or what happens to me! I can't wait for the adventure ahead of discovering Jesus' love for me - that I'm the disciple whom Jesus loved! :)

Rainy Day

I went to the dentist this morning to get a filling fixed that my dentist over the summer didn't do well enough which made my tooth really sensitive. I really like the dentist that I found here in Blacksburg - especially the dental hygenist I had, who did the plaque scraping so carefully that it never hurt my gums! Gold star. But today I had to get two shots of novocaine because the first didn't numb the spot enough. I wonder if he had waited longer if it would've worked...he seemed a little anxious to just give me another shot, but whatever. It didn't bother me but when I checked out I noticed that my whole left side of my face up to my eye was numb! Ugh. I checked with the nurse to make sure it was okay and then went shopping to alleviate the blehness of having half your face be numb. I was also kind of cold/nervous or something and when I got in the car I was shaking too. I was already planning on going shopping because I have a bunch of personal spending money left for the month, but going to the dentist before made it so much more meaningful. I felt like a jerk/freak in the stores though because I could only half-smile to say hello and looked weird talking so I tried not to that much. I liked a lot of things but only bought a couple things I really wanted. I want to buy all this chill stylish stuff from AE but I kind of need to buy nice stuff for work next year instead of just stuff to wear this summer. But we'll see. I am so ready to chill and watch like 10 episdoes of Friends haha. Well I'll probably get some more stuff done than that, but it will be nice to relax. I am also SO hungry but my mouth is not anywhere near being feelable again. I got the shots over 3 hours ago but my mouth still feels so big - it's getting to the point where it kind of hurts, just cause it's so annoying. At least the top of my face is un-numb now. It was really annoying my eye when I would close it hard because my face would be all tingly. That is the story of my rainy day. I am really hoping Whit will want to take me to El Mariachi later...I am craving it because I'm so hungry and it would make me feel better. :)

Edit: Whit did take me to El Mariachi's AND I made strawberry cupcakes! Great upward turn for my day! :)

Summer is Here!

...Summer Tour that is!!

If you don't know Whit and I, our favorite band by far is Phish. We love how good the music is - it's all about the quality of the music. Phish is a jam band, and they can create SUCH amazing music on the spot. We don't like pop songs on the radio that require absolutely no musical talent and their only quality that people like is that it's catchy. But another great thing about Phish is the experience (hmm, spoken like a true phan). It is SO fun to be part of a community who is all following the same thing and has the same passion - particularly when it's SO rare to find people like that in every day life! It definitely points me to the Christian community and how much greater it is to follow Jesus, but it for sure still fun to just be chill and hang out with other fun people who like to listen to good music.

Whit and I's favorite dates have been Phish shows. We were SO blessed to get to go to the reunion at Hampton Coliseum when Phish got back together after 4 years.
The next summer we went to Asheville and Knoxville together. My favorite part of Asheville was singing the lyrics to Golgi Apparatus, "I saw you with a ticket stub in your hand" after finally scalping a ticket 30 minutes before the doors opened.We went to Portsmouth, VA last year to kick off Summer Tour 10 with a bunch of our friends.10 minutes from my parents' house we experienced the best show of the year at Merriweather in Columbia, MD.We had fun road tripping across NC to see them in Raleigh and Charlotte (and then we went to the OBX to see Whit's family).
Looking forward to creating great memories together as we enjoy the experience of our favorite band/hobby this summer! Right now it looks like we will go to 5 shows - 3 in New Jersey and 2 in Columbia. What a bummer that the other 3 closest shows to us (that we got to go to last year) - Raleigh, Charlotte, and Portsmouth - all happen the week we go to Colorado! And Columbia is actually only 2 days before but we're going to try to make it! We are crossing our fingers that they will play 3-4 nights in Red Rocks, Colorado when we are out in Fort Collins this summer (but not the weekend of my brother's wedding!). Bring on Summer Tour 2011!!

A Weekend to Remember

In about an hour Whit and I are driving to Roanoke for a Family Life marriage conference called A Weekend to Remember! I am so excited about this opportunity to learn and be challenged to grow in our marriage! I LOVE reading books about relationships & marriage and talking to people about that kind of thing. I think it will be SO so fun to go to a marriage conference and talk about it all weekend! I have actually been wanting to go to a marriage conference for a few years but just haven't been married yet haha. I would love one day to get to give talks or just work for Family Life, but I think I need a little experience first. ;) Another thing that's exciting about this conference for us is that it's FREE! Since we work for Campus Crusade, we get the conference for free! You pay for the conference and hotel separately, which..it would have been nice to get to stay in the hotel for free, but it works out because Roanoke's only 40 minutes away so we can just stay at our house for free! LOVE free stuff! I'll definitely update after we get back and let you know what we learned! :) Hopefully it will really be a weekend to remember (hahah so cheesy but I have been wanting to write that all day)

The Groundhog Was Right

So they say that if the groundhog sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn't, then spring is near. It looks like good ol' Phil was right this year. The weather was beautiful today and has been, and is supposed to be great the rest of this week too. For our staff social we were supposed to play Laser Tag, but because Adventure World was overtaken by little kids, we were recommended playing mini golf at Cox's. It was the perfect day - in February! Whit won and got 2 holes in one, for which he got two coupons for free stuff. Yay! I didn't do as hot, which is frustrating because I'm really good but every time I miss by a milimeter and then the ball rolls three feet away. It's terrible. Anyways, the real question is - why is it that when the groundhog sees his shadow, it means that spring will be prolonged? I always thought it made logical sense that if the groundhog sees his shadow, that means that the sun is shining (to create the shadow) thus the warming of the sun means spring is near? Groundhog's Day, you are very illogical. But accurate nonetheless.

Canvases!

Although we didn't win a free canvas for Katelyn's Love Shots contest, we did get our canvases in the mail a few days ago! We ordered an engagement picture and a wedding picture that are the same size. It would have been fun to get a really huge one but it might get old after awhile, and I really like the size of these. It was so easy to hang these - they're really lightweight and you only need one nail! We hung them both in about 10 minutes.
This is our engagement picture above our bed. It's my favorite! I have wanted a canvas of this over our bed ever since we got our engagement shots done. LOVE IT!The awesome thing about canvases is that they wrap around! I think it's really fun that this creek looks like a waterfall flowing down onto our bed. Wedding picture! I wish I had a fireplace to hang this over! Oh well, one day!Look at how the lake wraps around! So fun!

Anniversary!

Happy Valentine's Day!
Whit and I celebrated 4 years of being together yesterday! We started dating on Valentine's Day my freshman year, in 2007. I can't believe we've been together 4 years already! And now we've been married for three months! A quarter of a year! ;) Seriously - time flies with Whit because we have so much fun together! I love being with him - he makes me so happy, feel so special, and is just really great to be around. To celebrate our love and relationship, I made him a book on Shutterfly with all the places we've been together over the years (well, a lot of places). It was really cool to see places we've been to multiple times together (like Sinkland farms and Dicken's Christmas).

For Valentine's Day, Whit took me to Sal's Italian restaurant only two minutes from our house. It sounds shady, but it's actually this really nice local restaurant decorated to look like Italy, at least, it is romantic...and I felt like it was authentic! Instead of waiting at the door, we sat the bar and ordered nice mixed drinks with top-shelf liquors (or middle shelf? I don't know) - Whit got a Jack and coke and I got mine with Maker's Mark. It was a fun splurge and we enjoyed the time sitting together. We ended up blowing a ton of money on the drinks (we thought they'd be like half the price they were), but it was okay because we had just gotten $20 from his grandparents! Don't tell them what we spent the money on... haha ;) After dinner we chilled at home with sparkling wine (I added a strawberry to mine!) and we watched our wedding video for the first time! It was such a romantic night and an excellent date with my loving husband! :)

Contest!!

Our wedding photographer, Katelyn James, is having a Valentine's Day contest! The top three couples with the most votes for their "love shot" win a free canvas - worth $175!! Vote for us so we could win a beautiful, FREE canvas!! The contest ends Monday night so VOTE NOW! Thanks!!

http://www.katelynjamesblog.com/

That Was Easy

Wow! Have you ever gotten great customer service? It is really rare to come by! A couple of weeks ago I sent in a postcard for a free trial issue for a new travel magazine, Afar. Yesterday I got the bill in the mail for the first year's subscription! It made me angry because it was a scam - I had no idea I was signing up for one year, I thought I was just signing up for one issue. I was nervous about calling customer service because I was sure I would get the "oh well you didn't know, sorry, send us the bill promptly!" Instead, I was pleasantly surprised! Instead I got "ohh I'm sorry, you got the trial subscription. I will cancel that immediately. You'll get one issue free and then if you get any bills after that just disregard them." AWESOME! Thank you lady, for understanding that I just wanted something free without any consequences. :) (Also, I didn't have to "hold" at all!)

Decisions Decisions

With the arrival of Samoas Girl Scout cookie ice cream, I am faced with a challenge: discovering my true favorite flavor of ice cream. Whit gets annoyed when people (including me) say that a lot of different things are their favorite - you can only have ONE favorite. I have a lot of favorite ice cream flavors - but which one is truly the best? Here are the contenders:

Edy's Samoas Girl Scout cookie


Correction: Bev's Homemade Espresso Oreo (I don't know why I said Mocha Chip...I just couldn't remember and made something up that sounded close. Espresso Oreo is the best ever though - coffee cookies and cream!! perfection! and you can't get that anywhere else!)spre

Ben & Jerry's Coconut Seven Layer Bar

Any mint chocolate chip (but Turkey Hill in particular)




How will I ever know? A taste test must be the solution! ;)

What superbowl?

Last night felt so weird because I didn't have a major superbowl party to go to! Every since since 6th grade there's been some big thing - that's 11 years of superbowl parties! The Highfields decided not to host a big party for Cru, and the outreach team couldn't gather enough houses to do one either, so everyone was left to fend for themselves. I didn't know of any one big party, but Whit was invited to one with some guys he knew and their friends. I skipped the first half because I have never watched the game before anyway - it's all about the social scene, and since this year there wasn't really one, I just skipped it. Halfway through I decided I didn't want this to be the first year I missed the superbowl, so I went and hung out with Whit and the students. It was pretty fun and I ended up knowing a couple of people already, and everyone else was friendly. Anyways, the real reason I wanted to go was because for the first time in history, I had finally had a side to cheer for! Well, in this case, I was cheering AGAINST a side - the Steelers! Since Whit and I are moving to Philly next year, my new (well first and only) team is the Eagles! (Actually, my dad was born in Philadelphia so he has always been an Eagles fan and I kind of have been too, just never really cared that much either way.) So I cheered for the Packers so that Steelers would lose - and my wish came true! So I guess I'm one for one for my team (aka the one I'm currently cheering for) winning in the superbowl! Hooray!

Nerdy

Whit and I had a truly nerdy night last night. We went to the Breakzone in Squires and bowled one game (we did great - both got over 100!) and then played chess! They have this lounge with a bunch of tables and you can borrow chess, checkers, or backgammon pieces. I had only played once before so Whit taught me and it's my new favorite game! Hah! He said I surprised him with the number of his pieces I captured for it being my first time playing. We played another game and I got him into "check" twice! I think if I play a lot we could be a pretty equal match (or I could cream him) but for now his brain is much better at figuring out how to win. To be even cooler, we came home and played Set and a few rounds of Monopoly Deal, and then fell asleep on the couch watching Wild China. Maybe we are nerds, but I loved our night last night! :)

Promo

Twice I caved at the cereal deal at Kroger last month. I don't like always buying mass quantities of things, but Whit eats about 3 times as much cereal as I do so we go through boxes really fast. Because of the deal (buy 4 boxes of General Mills and get 1 box free of a new kind...) I discovered Cinnamon Burst Cheerios! They are delicious! You want to know why? Because they taste sooo much like BonBons!! So my secret motive in this is really finding out if anyone else remembers BonBons?? It was my absolute favorite cereal growing up! They were miniature cinnamon buns! Sooooo delicious! No wonder when they stopped selling it my favorite cereal quickly became Cinnamon Toast Crunch (or CTC as my family abbreviates it). So anyways if you used to love BonBons, or just really like cinnamon or cheerios, you should try the new cinnamon cheerios! They're great (but not frosted flakes ;))!

The other cereal I wanted to advertise is Fiber One. They have really good frosted wheat, but they also have Honey Clusters, which seem like any other standard healthy cereal, but taste delicious and - this is why they're so great - they have 51% of your daily fiber!! What the heck??

They are seriously so good for you and delicious at the same time! So if you're looking to add healthy variety to your breakfast needs, look no further. (Also, yes I am weird and just randomly wanted to promote these cereals, I'm not getting anything for it. I just think other people should know about them!)