this weeks favorites

we're back in action friends!   here are some of my friday favorites for this week.  

[one]. fall decorations at our home. it's my favorite season and my first year trying to figure out what to do with our awkward small space! [two]. my wonderful biz cards came in the mail this week!!! LOVE them! [three]. my absolute favorite coffee place opened up a new chain in my city!!! oh how i've missed you.. [four]. a. bear naked granola b. giveaway win from a sweet gal - nail polish! c. new skinnys and scarf weather! and d. a halloween printable [free!]   AND the other fun thing i get to do.. tonight i am heading downtown in a near city to set off 5,000+ lanterns in the sky! yes. it's going to look something like this.. it's going to be gorgeous! i can't wait to take photos and share!! [as long as they turn out well.. even if they don't, i'll probably still post them]   hope you all have a fabulous weekend!! :)

one year anniversary!

yay!!! we made it to our one year anniversary!! what a crazy, awesome, refining, blessed first year of marriage we have had! of course, as in every marriage - there are the wonderful times and then there are the times of struggle. but we made it! :) we are SO grateful and soo excited to see what the Lord has in store for us for year number two!

if you're just joining us - welcome! i'm so happy you're here!

if you're interested in reading all about our love story - you can read [part one], [part two], [part three], [part four], [part five], [part six] and [part seven] to catch up on it all and reminise over our relationship and how we got to where we are today! :)

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so you might think i'm crazy for planning my entire wedding under budget and doing everything myself with the wonderful wonderful help of my family and friends.

it was definitely a lot of work - i wish i would have documented more of it.. i have some stuff and maybe i'll do some more in depth posts on that another time :)

our engagement was just shy of 6 months. 5 months and 21 days to be exact.

there was one month in there that i didn't have anything going on.. i had just graduated college.. and hadn't started my job yet. my momma encouraged me to get started and i thought.. nahh i've got plenty of time.

well, let me tell you.. 

she was right.

so right.

i wish i wouldn't have taken almost a month off from everything. [i seriously was probably the laziest person you've ever met and filled my time with naps, relaxing with friends, flipping through magazine pages and not a whole lot more.]

the rest of those months got so busy.

i was training and traveling for my job.

taking licensing exams. [that i ended up having to re-take both of them again because i failed them both the first time. talk about pride squasher].

planning and crafting our [my] dream wedding. you will be able to see a lot more hand crafted stuff in these photos :)

and trying to get our new yet temporary home painted, moved into and situated so we had a home to live in once we got back from our honeymoon.

what a ride it was!

but, we're here and we made it!

i wanted to share with you some [a lot.. get ready] of our wedding photos as well as some highlights from our first year of marriage :)

this was my dress before [on the left] and we took of the rhinestones and gave me some pearls instead [on the left!] :)

highlights and favorites from our first year.

- our wedding day

- our wedding night ;)

- flash mob [yes, it's true! we had a flash mob at our wedding. if you're lucky i'll hunt down the youtube video and share with you :)]

- our first holidays together and new traditions we're making

- movie nights

- figuring out how to live together :)

- growing in selflessness

- falling asleep and waking up next to each other [bad breath and all!]

- honeymoon in the bahamas

- sex [blunt, but oh so true!]

- cooking for mr. b

- outdoor adventures

- making our house our home and doing fun projects together

- watch so many different friend couples of our get engaged!

- road trips

- dance parties in our living room. alone. sometimes with no music. :)

- watching some of our friends get married!!

- pillow talk

- hosting friends and guests in our own home

- laughing together and making each other laugh 

- christmas vacation in mexico

- doing ministry with each other hand in hand 

this list could go on and on.. but i'll spare you cause there are still lots more photos to be seen!

especially this next one... ;) 

yes.. this is part of the flash mob. and yes, our flower girls and ring bear were definitely part of it!!!

reflecting on our wedding day gives me the butterflies.

it was such an amazing day.

it's been an amazing first year!

i can't thank and praise God enough for what he's done and what he's doing in us, our marriage and our futures!

thanks for reading along! you all are so sweet! :)

day six. part six.

ahh! we're almost there! this is the exact day [saturday] i walked down the aisle and married my handsome hunk! it's gone by so fast! :) here is [part one], [part two], [part three], and [part four] and [part five] of our love story

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during this season of dating, mr. b and i were living in different cities. not too far from each other, but far enough that we didn't see each other often. one weekend i was in town visiting him and was staying at his parents house. mr. b told me he had a 'day date' planned for us and i needed to be awake and ready at 9:30am.

on the morning of march 19, 2011 i woke up and got ready. while i was getting mr. b opened up the front door to his parents house and surprised me with a rose, a kiss and a cup of coffee from one of my favorite coffee shops.

the thought did cross my mind if he would propose but i didn't want to get my hopes up so i pushed it aside.

before i knew it we were off and on our way.

throughout our drive there were small surprises that he gave me.

at first i had no idea where we were driving to.

then the thought of chicago crossed my mind.. until we took an exit wayyy before chicago.

we ended up at a train station. this was on purpose to throw me off.. and it did!

we boarded the train and were off... to chicago!

we spent the day there and enjoyed each others company and he still continued to give me little gifts.

we hopped on the train back home that evening.

i was crushed. we went all the way to chicago and there was NO proposal! i couldn't believe it!

i thought to myself, and yes... even verbalized to him how perfect that would have been to propose because it was like our analogy for our relationship!

we got back to his parents house and shared about our day and started to sit down to watch a movie.

mr. b then called me over by him and asked me to come back outside to get something.

once we were out by his truck, he turned around and started to tell me how much he loves me. he shared with me how he knew the Lord was calling us to be together, to serve together, and to glorify God together. he told me i was the only woman in the world for him and that he would be so blessed and honored if i would make him the happiest man in the world and marry him.

i was shocked. totally shocked. so shocked that i didn't even cry. mr. b was shocked that i wasn't crying.. haha

i, of course, said yes! and couldn't wipe the smile off my face!

this was around 9:30pm - 12 hours after our day had started!

we walked back inside and shared with our friends and family.

 the moon was one of those moons that only comes around once every so many years.. i don't think it will happen again until 2030 or something? so my dad said we needed to get a photo with it! haha it's so small up there!

these photos were taken the night mr. b proposed. he was already changed out of his clothes and was relaxing when i realized we had no photos!

there are so many details to our proposal

- funny moments of how mr. b's dad walked out while right in the middle of mr. b's proposal

- or how my camera didn't work for the entire trip!

- all the small gifts and surprises

- details of how i yelled at mr. b the entire train ride home for not proposing in chicago

and so much more! to read our entire proposal go [here] where i posted it back when he proposed :)

and now we start wedding festivities!...

day four. part four.

hi friends! so as you can tell - i'm in the middle of a series that will last 1 week. here is [part one] and [part two] and [part three] 

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december 16, 2008, it was snowing and accumulating fast. mr. b asked me to go for a ride with him [we loved doing donuts in parking lots in the winter - so fun!]. while we were out, mr. b asked me some questions about relationships and what i thought about dating. i was honest and shared with him. then these are the words that came out of his mouth.

'i'm sorry if i've been leading you on. i wasn't trying to do it on purpose.'

ouch. talk about friend. box.

i was so crushed [again!]

but thankfully it doesn't stop there.

he shared that he was starting to have feelings for me and didn't know where i stood, but was willing to wait for me so he could start pursing me towards a relationship!

from there - we both decided to pray about when we should take the next step [although i was thinking.. how about we start..like.. 2 years ago!!!]

this photo is a picture of us the day after he told me he liked me :) we went skiing/snowboarding. it was so much fun!

a couple weeks later, he asked to take me out on our first date. he took me to logan's roadhouse. we spent the evening talking each others ears off and laughing. we even had one of mr. b's best friends and his now wife stop by and check in to see how things were going - they were all smiles because we were finally going out on a date. we were all smiles too :)

i knew i was already falling really hard for this amazing man.

on january 31st, 2009 mr. b asked me to be his girlfriend. how he asked was so cute!

we were hanging out at my apartment and my roommates left to go somewhere. we were in my living room both sitting on the floor and mr. b said 'jenn... i have a question to ask you.' i wasn't sure what he was going to ask.. but i had an idea and i started to get super nervous and so many thoughts went running through my head. 'is he going to ask me to be his girlfriend?' 'do i say yes?' '...i really really like him, am i ready for another relationship?' 'what about my season of singleness?'

and then he asked... 'jennifer, will yo----b---g---lfriend.' it was so fast that is about how it came out. i don't even think he used complete words. he was so nervous - it was so so cute!

my response... 'yes.. but what did you say?' hahaha and then he asked me again 'jennifer, will you be my girlfriend?' and from there it was official! we were officially the 31st couple!! [which was also fun because there wasn't 31 days in each month to 'celebrate' - but we loved it!]

throughout our first eight months of dating, we had lots of fun. we were still getting used to dating and what that was like [more so for him since i was and am his first relationship, first kiss, first girlfriend, first everything].

right off the bat we were having a conversation one night and decided that we didn't want to do what everyone else was doing. we wanted to set our own pace for our relationship. mr. b LOVES cars - so the analogy we came up with was a road trip. we were on our way to chicago [i think we chose that city because we're not too far from it, and that is one of the bigger cities by us]. just because the speed limit is 70, we didn't want to necessarily go that speed [for holding hands, kissing, i love you, engagement, marriage....etc.] so we started out slow. and whenever we did the next thing, we had moved up speeds a little bit. once we arrived to 'chicago', that represented our engagement and marriage. [this plays along with his proposal - so stay tuned for that too!!!]

our first kiss was on august 16th, 2009. 7 and 1/2 months after we started dating. this was also adorable. we were up at my cottage and laying out on the dock watching the stars. it was a gorgeous night. mr. b looked at me and told me he wanted to kiss me but was nervous. remember he had never kissed anyone before, so he asked how to do it. my response.. i will never forget.. i told him to 'just go in for the kill!' how romantic, right? haha but so fun. he then laid back down and we continued to talk for a bit. then all of a sudden he sat up, looked into my eyes, leaned in and kissed me. shooting stars, my friends! we both headed back into the cottage with BIG grins on our faces. i crawled into bed next to my mom and woke her up to tell her! oh man, i don't think i slept a peep!

things were going so good - until the break up...

day three. part three.

happy wednesday! hope your week is going well! i am sharing my love story this week. feel free to start from the beginning by reading [part one] and [part two]!

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fall was just around the corner.. we had our big root beer kegger kick off [yes, this did get busted by the cops one year.. they didn't believe us when we told them it was root beer because we had so many people show up. it was awesome!]
we also had some awesome bonfires at mr. b's house. it was so much fun. unfortunately the photos from that specific night have been deleted from facebook.. so i don't have them anymore..
but these fires were huge.
i'm talking like 40-60 foot flames huge.
someone thought his house was on fire one time and called there house to make sure - why they didn't call the fire department? i don't know.. but that's besides the point.
even bigger than this one; which was also at his house.

that night was the night i knew i liked mr. b and it was the same night i went back home and told my roommates and mom that i he was the man i was going to marry. [most everyone thought i was silly... but i was serious!]

i spent the evening laughing, flirting and having so much fun with him. i even spent some of the night inside his house talking with his parents - i adored them! [and still do!!]

before school started mr. b and i were asked to co-lead a community group in one of the freshman dorms.

we got to know each other so much better during this time. i really got to see what an amazing man of the Lord he is and his heart and passion for ministry. it was so wonderful to watch him grow closer to God and lead younger men through the years.
during this season i also grew so much in my walk with the Lord.

mr. b and i continued to hang out and get to know each other. we also started going to church together. it was so wonderful to watch him worship the way he does. i continued to develop strong feelings for him. he still didn't like me. i was still believing he wouldn't ever notice me and i started to dabble in the idea of dating the same guy i dated before our summer project. [remember, the non-believing guy.. johnny] one night johnny asked me to come over to hang out because he missed me and wanted to start dating again and talk. there was a bunch of people over and one of my roommates was there so i decided to go. when i got there i noticed another girl that was being super flirtatious with him. i ignored it and then through a crazy series of events i found out they disappeared together and that johnny was not as interested in me as he was her after all.
i left his house angry, upset, hurt, disappointed, feeling foolish. once i got home i prayed. i prayed before i went over there for the Lord to speak to me about entering back into a relationship with him. well - God gave me an answer and for that i was so thankful. this was the night of october 3.

then.. on october 5, 2008 mr. b woke up in the middle of the night with me on his heart. i'll let him share what the Lord spoke to him... but remember - i didn't know about this until after we had already started dating.

So, as you've been reading, my wonderful wife had liked me for many months if not years before I could have even envisioned myself with her. I always respected her as a humble leader and Godly woman, but just never really "clicked" with her as far as having a lasting relationships with her...Or were there a series of lies and insecurities in my own life that prohibited me from seeing God's best for us both? Either way, as Jenn has mentioned, we were serving alongside each other in [cru.] ministry. One night (October 4) as I entered a certain "core group" meeting (late of course) there was a heavy ambiance amongst the ladies as they were in prayer. As I quietly passed by them (as the girls and guys would meet separately within the same house to discuss different avenues of the ministry), I had realized that there was something heavy on the heart of Jennifer. The meeting carried along, and at one point the men's group leader briefly mentioned the danger in dating unbelievers. It was at this point that I had connected the dots and realized why the meeting was so somber.

The men's leader humbly encouraged us men, when the time was right, to show our ladies what it looked like to pursue them in love, respect, honor and humility so that they would not have to "settle" for something less than Gods best for them. Ladies, if you're reading this and are single, thinking that no God-loving, Christ-honoring, Holy-Spirit-filled man (not "a boy who can shave") will ever pursue you and are tempted to "settle" for a non-believer that brings you flowers and chocolates, (for the record...these are good things :)) please hear my humble exhortation....DON'T DO IT! Be patient on the Lord's timing for you're Boaz to sweep you out of the gleaning fields and love you like Christ loves his church :)

So this night at our [cru.] core group really had me thinking. Previously in 2008 I had watched a dating sermon by a well-known pastor in Seattle, and one thing that resonated with me was a thought the pastor set forth. It was this; what guy/girl has God placed right in front of you that you've been able to see their ministry/leadership skills and perhaps overlooked? Was God preparing my heart to receive from him what had been in front of me the whole time? Could God be preparing my heart to pursue Jennifer as a future companion? Could all the fun times being goofy and flirting really have been building the foundation for our "best friend" relationship? Those thoughts came into my mind...and then I quickly suppressed them and reasoned that Jennifer must be for someone else.

That night, I believe with my whole heart, that God was going to transform my heart to receive from him what he had been preparing all along. About 3am the next morning I woke up. I didn't have to pee, forget to turn off the oven or hear someone break into our extremely worn and neglected college rental house. Jennifer. Jennifer was on my mind and heart and I could no longer ignore God. She was on my heart to pray for. This wasn't the moment that the lights came on and I realized she was going to be my spouse, but I did develop a prayer life for her as she worked through her messy relationship. Little did I know that my prayer life was God pouring "miracle grow" on a seed in my heart that finally would view Jennifer, no longer as a friend, but a girlfriend, best friend and eventually spouse. I'll hand the "mic" back to Jenn :)

awh - isn't he just so sweet, friends? :) i got a keeper for sure!! man i am SO thankful for our story and how the Lord prepared us for what we have now!! :) :) okay.. so back to the story..

over a month later... on november 23, 2008 we were at church and mr. b's mom pulled me aside and said jenn - do you like mr. b? i just smiled and said maybe... and then she replied 'you need to get on that!' and pointed at him. ohhh the memories. i told her 'i'm trying!'
but still.. no luck. [remember... i still didn't know about the Lord waking him up a month previous]

after church a group of us went ice skating at the college's indoor skate rink. once we got done... mr. b, his brother, a friend and me all went what is called.. crawling? [no... it's called urban wheelin', Jenn]
they like to crawl up things with their vehicles with big tires. this is mr. b's brothers truck. crazy huh?!

after we were done with those crazy tricks, we celebrated our [cru.] thanksgiving meal. [i am in the green and white sweatshirt and mr. b's brother is next to me in green.. mr. b is right below him :)]
once the meal was over we decided to watch a movie. i made sure to sit next to mr. b :) i was all up in butterflies. and if anyone knew me... they knew i fell asleep during every movie. it didn't matter what movie. i just always fall asleep. good thing i trained myself and i don't do it anymore :)
so.. of course, i fell asleep and i actually fell asleep on mr. b's shoulder! i didn't know that.. but he told me later. he also told me he liked it ;).

once we were done with the movie [it was like only 7 or 8pm at this point] i was hanging out with some girls and one of them mentioned she overheard mr. b talking to his roommate [her boyfriend and now husband] that he was developing feelings for me and was thinking about asking me on a date.

friends... i was beyond cloud nine at this point. i couldn't believe it! the guy i liked for almost 2 years that i didn't think i would ever have a chance with... liked me?!

but of course. i needed to keep my cool so they didn't know i knew and part of me wanted to make sure i didn't get my hopes up in case he changed his mind.

that night mr. b sent me a private message on good ol' facebook to comfort me because i had injured my neck and back at their house [trying to show off, of course]. from there.. the messages got longer and longer, and more frequent. i still have every single one of them. i love to still read through them all :)

almost another month later went by... we were still messaging each other and hanging out, but still no date.
i was starting to think it wouldn't happen.

and then one snowy evening we were hanging out and mr. b asked if we could go for a drive and talk...

day two. part two.

if you're just tuning in.. welcome :) i'm sharing our love story this week as we lead up to our first wedding anniversary! to catch yourself up - you can start [here] -
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now for part two.

so we met.

from then on i always had a secret crush on him. it was on and off because so often i would think how wonderful it would be to date him, but how it would probably never happen. i tried to minimize my feelings for him but they always somehow found their way back to the surface.

[mr. b is on the far left and i'm on the far right for both of these photos. i was also obsessed with the peace sign and duck lips]

we saw each other every week for the group meeting and had lots of fun adventures together.

each week we had an 'after the meeting hangout' and it was always loads of fun. i always tried to sit by him and talk with him to get to know him better.

i sound like a creeper don't i?

after the school year was over i moved back to my home town.

we still kept in touch over facebook and couldn't wait for fall to start to get back on campus and see each other again.

some of the things mr. b said to me made me think at times maybe he liked me.. but i learned very quickly he was a very big flirt! [no worries, we talked about this before we had started dating and i told him he was super flirtatious. he no longer is - except with me :)].

the following fall, we got back on campus and continued to run into each other every so often and make small talk. i still continued to have on again-off again feelings for him.

at one point i seriously thought nothing would ever come about so i started 'dating' other guys. some of my choices back in the day were less than the standard. i realized very quickly that i needed to raise my expectations when it came to guys and not settle for non-believers. [this also has part to do with the lies i was fed in my high school relationships. i didn't think i was worthy of a good quality man.]

that school year went by quickly. summer came and i decided to go on a 10 week summer project with [cru.]. there was quite a group of us from our university going, one of them happened to be mr. b.

at this time i was still dating this non-believer we'll call... johnny. he was nice to me while we were dating and he was even sometimes romantic. i didn't know if i wanted to be dating someone while i was away for 10 weeks. part of me wanted to go down there open to whatever the Lord had in store and how he wanted to grow me. but the other part of me didn't want to stop dating johnny. so we decided to stay together while i was in va beach [where the summer project was].

on our ride to va beach, i confessed to mr. b how i used [i think this was a time when my feelings were buried and i didn't think i still liked him] to like him throughout our first year and a half of college. and after all - it was safe to tell him because i was in a relationship with johnny and didn't care what mr. b thought [or so i thought...]

as most guys are.. mr. b was shocked.

he claimed to have no idea.

then he continued to go on and apologize because he didn't see me that way and we were just really good friends.

talk about heart crusher! good thing i didn't still have feelings for him, right? ;)

our summer was amazing. after being there for one week i realized how foolish it was of me to date a non-believer while being a Christian and trying to grow in my faith. i called up johnny and told him that it wasn't going to work between us and i humbly asked him to not wait or expect things to change when i got back.

i remember feeling so free and blessed by this as i was obedient to God's calling of saving myself for a Christian man to pursue me like Christ pursues his bride.

by the end of the summer mr. b even spilled his heart to me about another girl he thought he was developing feelings for - i encouraged it too! wow.. what was i thinking?

i was starting to spend time with another guy - this time a Christian. he was and still is super nice and Godly, he just was not the one for me. he's happily married now too - which is wonderful!

summer was over and we packed our cars up and made the 15 hour drive back to campus for the summer.

[these are all photos from va beach. it's so fun to see how we've changed and grown both physically and spiritually]

the following fall is where the fire started to kindle...

day one. part one.

this is my first series! i'm super excited to share it with you too! i have decided to share our love story with you! i thought this would be a great opportunity for some of you to get to know me better and mr. b :). shoot i might even let him chime in once in a while ;)

this is 'wedding week' for us! well.. except it happened this time last year! we are in the final week leading up to our one year anniversary! so crazy how fast this first year went by! though i think everyone says that..

so where do we start.. from the beginning of course ;)

part one.

mr. b and i met in college. we met the spring semester of our freshman year. february 2, 2007 to be exact.

i remember that night like it was yesterday. i had JUST been introduced to a college ministry called [cru.] formally known as campus crusade for christ. i was attending the weekly community group with some wonderful ladies in my dorm, but i was too nervous to go to the weekly gathering to meet the rest. the Lord placed this ministry into my lap and it was amazing. i share some of that experience [here].

there was a super bowl party that a bunch of people were going to attend and i was also invited. i was scared, but went anyways. we got there and everyone was hanging out watching the game, but more so all the commercials that are way over priced. why would you want to pay 2 million dollars for a 30 second commercial? although... the [m&m commerical] this year was pretty funny.. anyways. back to our love story..

so here we are, hanging out and i see this guy with a mop on his head doing crazy stuff over in the corner. i thought to myself, man - he's one attractive fella! but instantly thought, he would probably never see anything in me.. i'm not good enough. i also started to get more shy the older i got.. i used to be loud and super outgoing [who am i kidding.. i still am...] but only around people i know really well. so i minded my own business for the night. goofing off, rolling around on the ground having innocent fun.

 these are some of the photos from that night. pardon my craziness.. i was weird and probably still am.

i unfortunately don't have any photos of mr. b from the night we first met. those are only memories in our minds.

once i returned home from the party i shared with some friends that i needed to meet him. i even went home one weekend and talked about this really cute boy i saw...

a couple weeks later we were introduced...

month of september.

oh me oh my! i am SO excited for september.

not only is it one of my favorite months because fall is starting to kick in. the leaves are starting to change [and we have some beautiful trees here with gorgeous colors in the fall!!], warm apple cider starts coming out, i get to bring out the fall clothes, cooler temps [i love comfy sweatshirt weather].

here are the wonderful things i'm looking forward to this month.

- labor day vacation [i took yesterday off too, so i'm loving my 4 day weekend!]

- amazing awesome changes coming to the blog that i am SO excited about!

- a mini surprise vacation to celebrate our one year anniversary!

- our one year anniversary [that is photo of our entire party. what a wonderful day it was!]

- a week recap of our love story leading up to our one year on the blog!!

- celebrate mr. b's cousin's marriage to one of mr. b's college friend/roommate at their reception

- going on a road trip with these two friends and baby t to visit another wonderful friend and go to the country living fair

- some guest posts for some wonderful blog friends

- taking engagement photos for one of my besties [but not the official ones.. i'm not that good :)]

- going to a bridal show with miss riss and help with more wedding plans for her!

- taking one year photos of mr. b and me!!!

- another bestie is coming to stay the night with me and we're going to have a girls night!! woohoo! [sorry..gotta kick mr. b out ;)]

busy month huh? but it's going to be so fun!!! a lot of this falls on weekends.. so we will be so busy on the weekends, some of it falls during the week. we have a huge fair in the town i work in that is thrown into all this as well, which will make things even more crazy busy. but i'm so excited! can't wait to share all our fun adventures with you all too.

stay tuned for a fun-filled month!

insta-week recap.

it's friday! well.. not really.. but it is for me, i took tomorrow off! i'm so excited to have a four day weekend!

oh i can't wait! it's going to be so wonderful because we don't have any plans. so i hoping to get caught up on some fun things i'm working on and spend some quality time with mr. b before he starts school on tuesday.

so crazy how summer is almost over already.. even though it's really not summer for me as now i am a big girl, working a big girl job.

to sum up my week... i used the wonderful [picmonkey] again.

[i got lots of comments about it, if you don't know what it is.. or haven't checked it out yet - i encourage you to do so! i can't believe how much easier it is.. seriously. you will probably laugh if i tell you everything i went through to make a collage on photobucket.

if anyone else is still using photobucket for collages.. i urge you to stop and start using picmonkey! you won't regret it :)]

this week was a good week! the Lord is continuing to answer prayers, work in our lives and bless us beyond measure.

i didn't share about how the Lord used last weeks memory verse... but i will share a little here [not in depth]

'he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. by his wounds you have been healed.'

first peter two: twenty-four

this verse has done amazing things for me and my husband this week. it's a beauty to recognize that we have been healed by the wounds of Jesus.

it also brings up another verse...

romans 8:1 'there is therefore now no condemnation in those who are in Christ Jesus.'

continue to remember that condemnation is not from the Lord. this is an attack from the enemy wanting you to identify with what you've done instead of identifying with who you are in Christ!

this is powerful! we need to continue to remember these scriptures when lies creep in.

have a blessed thursday, friends!

thankful friday letters.

i am so thankful it's friday! there is so so so much i am thankful for. i decided to switch things up a little big and make my friday letters a one of pure thankfulness!

dear picmonkey - i feel so dumb.. but i am SO thankful for you! holy cow you've made photo collages an amazing thing! you help save me so much time. i can't believe i used to go through ridiculous loops to get a half-decent looking collage of photos. AND you have so many options! woohoo! i am so thankful for you!

dear mr. b - i am thankful that the swelling in your eye is going down. crazy allergic reactions.. but i'm thankful that you're okay :) and i'm thankful it wasn't any worse than that!

dear miss riss - i am so thankful for your friendship. i'm thankful that you came and surprised me this week at work with such encouraging words! i am so thankful for the ways the Lord is using you in my life and the lives of others. you're a wonderful, wonderful friend!

dear caffine - wow i am so thankful for you this week. pretty sure i've been drinking you all day long, every day. i don't think i could have made it through the week without you. for some reason i've been so tired and can't get myself awake. with you - i'm able :)

dear garden - i am so thankful for all the wonderful fresh veggies you're giving me lately! i got to enjoy you by yourself, and in meals. i even made guacamole with you [which is amazing!] AND mr. b made a compost so we're not just throwing rotten stuff out for no reason :) i love this 'going natural' stuff! thankful for you being able to provide meals for my family.

dear twitter - thanks so much for all the wonderful tweets people send out. it's awesome to hear other stuff people find or suggest so i could buy some kick booty cords!! [thanks ali @lifeonleroy!!!]

dear mia - thank you so much for listening to my [letter] to you last week! i'm so thankful that you also didn't dare go on the other side of the fence and be served as breakfast, lunch and dinner to the crazy neighbor dog. thankful you're alive and still just as crabby as always :)

dear mr. b - i am SO SO thankful for your help around the house, on projects, through struggles, and just having you in my life forever. you are the biggest blessing and i am so thankful for the man you are and how God is working in and through you!

dear Jesus - thank you for your word. thank you for your wisdom. thank you for answered prayers. thank you for dying for us on the cross. thank you for your new mercies each morning. thank you for your never-ending grace! you're amazing :)

xoxo.

f.r.i.d.a.y.

sometimes i feel like life is going by so fast and i am just on a carpet ride flying through and getting done what i can and miss the rest.

these beauties were delivered to our office at work and i have the joy of looking at them every day :)


we have fun stuff for the weekend though! family reunion tomorrow and dog sitting for my mom!

dear life - slow down. please oh please. i know there are times when i just want to be a little older, but right now.. things are good and i would like to pause you and enjoy this season of life. and i really mean this... although i talk about making babies like it's no one's business. i really do like where we're at. dear baby making - it's not happening. i apologize that you might think we're ready for kiddos. sometimes i just think having kids would fix other problems that arise. but i know that's wrong - so we're still playing it safe and you'll just have to hold off for a while longer :) dear mr. b - i love you. i always will. you have my whole heart for my whole life and no matter what comes our way we can and will fight together. i promise to never give up on fighting for you, myself, or our family. dear Jesus - i pray you manifest yourself to us. i pray for your strength to not give up or lose hope. i pray that you would dig deep to the root and start healing. it is only by your blood shed on the cross that we have victory and freedom and are able to overcome. for that i praise you, Lord. dear fresh flowers - you always know how to brighten any gals day. i love your smell and your beauty. but i do wish you were so expensive. i would love to place you in every room in our home.. but i'm pretty sure mr. b wouldn't approve no matter how good you smell. dear mia - please don't kill yourself while momma is out of town this weekend. i really don't know what i would do if she came back and you were no longer. i know you don't like to be away from home.. but please oh please just don't go under our fence into that other dog's yard. i promise you wont win...

xoxo.