I breathe You in

This past weekend the hubs and I got a chance to escape for a quick trip to the family cabin. Little did we know, it would be a refreshing two days where we got to sit and be in the presence of our Creator and our wonderful family. It was also a great reminder that our God is sovereign, and that when we don't understand the world around us, we can choose to put our hope in the One who is and ever shall be.

The presence of the living God

Satisfies the depths of my heart

All of me changed when you came,

I'm made free by Your glory and grace

I breathe You in God, cause You are thick all around me

You are Good God, for You are good to me

The brightness of Your loves pure light

Pierces through the darkest of nights

Everything is possible now

for God is here and God is good

When I don't understand I'll choose you

When I don't understand I will choose You God

When I don't understand I will choose to Love You God

{I Breathe You In, God - Bryan & Katie Torwalt}

iPhone dump

Word of the month: busy.

Action of the month: taking iPhone photos.

May your days be merry, bright & filled with Jesus-loving spirit! Merry Christmas y'all!

Full of Thanksgiving

There is something about getting a couple days off to spend time with family, eating good food, and relaxing that makes every Thanksgiving meaningful and enjoyable. Since we started dating, the hubs has been making the thanksgiving trek to Maryland to visit me. Now that we're married and living closer to his parents, we decided to swap holidays this year...and we were so happy we did!

Every Thanksgiving my father-in-law's side of the family gets together for a huge family reunion (I'm talking extended family huge, like I've-never-met-you-before-but-we're-related-somehow huge). We kick it off with an oyster roast. Then just when you think that's all there is to the meal, you get ushered into the house to feast on several turkeys, sides-galore, and just as many desserts.

Then we go to my mother-in-law's friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner. I think I finally got Thanksgiving right - portion control...and lots of veggies. I think I had two pieces of turkey all day long. The rest of my plate was filled with veggies -- first time having brussels sprouts and beets (Love the brussels sprouts, not so much the beets).

One thing I love most about Bluffton is that there are so many great memories there. Every time we visit, we leave feeling refreshed and renewed (and fat). This time in particular, my friend came into town to spend the holidays with us and that just made this weekend even more special!

Thanksgiving also marked our six-month wedding anniversary! Time really does fly when you're having fun. So thankful for this guy, I love him so!

Happy thanksgiving y'all, hope you found time to be thankful for all the big and little things in your life!

omgsry

omgsry4nvrupdating.

One: Went to a wedding, had fun as always. Danced my feet off to Gangnam Style and repped the Asian community.

Dos: Took the high schoolers on a mystery trip to Six Flags and rode rollercoasters until I felt like puking. Held my husband's hand when we rode Goliath and almost died laughing at his screams of excitement screams for help.

Trois: Did the expected thing this Halloween and dressed up like Psy.

4: Ran my second half marathon and barely survived. Thought I was going to die, but had a friend (and runner extraordinare) run and pace the last 5 miles with me. Best part of the race? The time I danced to Gangnam Style after several bystanders were poorly doing it right before I crossed the finish line. #represent

Seems to be a lot of Psy in my life...
I'm ok with that.

O-HI-O!

This past weekend the hubs and I went on a trip to Ohio to see his cousin get married. I slept through most of Ohio, but the parts I was awake for I loved!

We had lunch at Blue Ash, featured on an episode of Diners, Drive-In, and Dives

Goofy picture at the rehearsal dinner

On the wedding day, we attended the 30th annual County Applefest in Lebanon, Ohio. Never have I ever had better tasting apple-products. Those apple 'chips' up top? Best. Thing. Ever.

The wedding day came and we watched as cousin Josh married Courtney! The hubs had a hard time good time sharing his iPad to kill time before the wedding with one of the junior ushers and the ring bearer. They played a very intense game of virtual ping-pong.

Even though it was a rushed weekend, it was a lot of fun catching up with family and goofing off with the hubs, his family, and his brother. All this family time makes me super excited about Thanksgiving!

Savannah, you hold my hand like its the first time

Have I told you how much I love this town?
Have I?

It is seriously so much fun to live here. Relient K hit the nail on the head when they wrote their song about this place. Little known fact: every time I drive back to Savannah after having been far away for awhile, I play this song as I'm driving over the bridge.

This weekend was just another reminder of how crazy blessed I am (we are) to be living here. My commute to work is a little over 10 minutes. Ten minutes! Back in Maryland it took me 10 minutes just to get out of my neighborhood (sarcasm, but sort of true). The beach is only 30 minutes away, and so is downtown.

First, I went out with two friends to a restaurant called Sage. One of us read a review of it in a magazine so we made reservations. Our respective husbands/fiance are off at said-fiance's bachelor party so it was ladies night -- and I had so much fun. The food was delicious, and so were the cupcakes we ate after!

Then today, two of us made an early morning trek to Forsyth Park to take part in a free Zumba session. Yeah, you read that right -- f-r-e-e free! Every other Saturday morning around 8:30AM a bunch of women in work-out clothes congregate and Zumba for an hour. Today I learned the wobble and how to dougie (aka I am now cooler than you...)

We were about to do wobble

After our awesome sweat-fest, we went to the Forsyth Farmers market...and we signed up as 'first-timers', and got $5 worth of tokens to shop for produce. We got a packet with information, like what vegetables are in season during which months, and recipes too! I picked up two green tomatoes and an eggplant for this week - yum!

The more I explore, the more I fall in love with this place. I'm glad I found a place to live that excites me so!

Labor (less) Day/Weekend

Labor Day weekend, oh how I loved you!

I literally spent the weekend doing nothing and everything at. the. same. time. Impossible, you ask? Not so! Just look at all the things I didn't not do this weekend:

Baxter was a little jealous

First of all, I ate a lot of really good breakfasts cooked by my awesome husband.

Then we went to the beach and the husband got sunburned.

Kale chips, buffalo chicken dip, guacamole

Then we watched college football, I made tasty snacks, and we had a surprise visit from a good friend.

Crabs, country captain, kabobs, and 3 different key lime pies (!)

Then we went home to Bluffton and had too much fun eating and hanging out. And jumping off docks.

...and my best friend farmer Cait came for the weekend...and we shopped non-stop at the outlet mall for 3 hours straight.

Cleaning our bounty of crab

...and I learned how to crab using a hand line.We were all muddy and I almost got stuck, so I have no photos of the crabbing experience. But it was sooooo awesome!

...and I woke up really early and went shrimping. We didn't catch anything, but I learned how to cast a net!

The most laborious thing I did this weekend were: dressing myself, eating crabs, trying on clothes, and resting so that my stomach could digest the feasts I consumed. Pretty sweet weekend, wouldn't you say?

Weekend Update

I don't know about you, but we've been kind of busy around here lately. Since when was it August?! And now it's almost September...

At the beginning of the month, I got a job! Praise the Lord (seriously). This job has been a daily reminder at how great God is and how much he cares for his children (ie you and me!). There is no way -- no way -- I would have gotten this job/opportunity had it been through my own works and efforts. Big Man upstairs really got my back!

Anyways, between the two of us working and coming home with just enough time to cook and go to bed, we haven't been doing much besides the 'usual'...until this past weekend!

Our weekend started off with Blend -- the annual lock-in at church for the high school youth ministry. We started in a few years back as a way to force introduce incoming 9th graders into the youth group. We're usually up to no good, and this year was no different. We blended things in a blender, we played broom ball in the parking lot, watched kids do Minute To Win It challenges, and watched Hunger Games. A couple hours of sweet slumber, and we were off again! To Forsyth Park we went, to do a really fun scavenger hunt using our nifty smartphones. Then it was time to feed them and send them home. Youth ministry is so much fun, but tiring too (can I get an "amen"?). Glad we can still keep up while we're young!

The aftermath of blending -- CD, banana, leftover wonton soup, golf ball...

Playing Ninja in the parking lot

After we recovered from Blend, we went out for dinner to celebrate my new job (and to reward ourselves for having just survived another youth lock-in). We went downtown and ate at one of our favorite Savannah restaurants. We just so happened to go when an awesome Gospel choir was beltin' out some Spirit-filled tunes across the street. The windows were open, the weather was beautiful, the choir was awesome, the company was great...can life get better? (I submit that it cannot!)

Then today after church, we went down to Bonna Bella for lunch with the in-laws and friends (as if this weekend wasn't already awesome). The weather once again was beyond amazing and the food was too good. It's so easy for me to forget how blessed my husband and I are and how much fun we have with his parents close by. It is always fun to get together and fellowship with one another...and celebrate milestones like anniversaries (!) where a certain father-in-law gifted his lovely bride new bling (!). They are too cute.

Check out your gorgeous bride, Rob!

Thank you, weekend, for being fantastic. If only life was made up of weekends and not weekdays!

Weekend Update

This weekend, the husband and I had date-day...twice. Pretty big deal considering that the last time the two of us spent quality, uninterrupted time together was when we were on our honeymoon.

We love Sid.

Free Chick-fil-a just for moo-ing!

Reason #235363421 why Americans are fat

Friday: hearty breakfast, lounging/reading, Ice Age: Continental Drift (with the rest of the 2-5 year old population in Savannah), mall exploring, Cow Appreciation Day, dinner date!

The two men/children in my life...

 

Thanks for the insipration/recipe farmer Cait!

Saturday: Forsyth Farmers Market, surprised at Baxter's ability to behave around people/dogs/anywhere that wasn't our house, making use of our market-bought kale and made chips!

So wonderful to spend time with my man!

Livin' for the weekend(s)

The past two weekends have been crazy busy but even crazier in levels of fun! Two weekends ago I had the privilege to spend the weekend in Charleston, SC helping my best friend/MOH in her farmer duties at the Marion Square Farmers Market! Cait got 'bit' by the farming bug a couple of years ago and has since re-located from our shared state of Maryland to South Carolina to work at Ambrose Family Farm! This friend of mine, in living out her mantra of doing anything and everything (especially at a moment's notice) managed to injure herself. That didn't stop this wonderwoman, however, as she insisted on being present at the farmers market. I did only what any sane person would do -- pretended to be a farmer for a day to help a friend out.

(Not only is Cait an awesome farmer, she is also a talented artist. Some of her photos have/are being displayed and sold (like at the indie-pendent in Atlanta!), or you can access her work on her blog, where she posts wonderful photos and even more wonderful thoughts! Check her out, she's one talented chickadee!)

This past weekend, I traveled 'home' to Bluffton, SC to attend our cousin's wedding (Congratulations Clermont & Al!!). The hubs has just started a new adventure in life and is off at school, learning a lot and meeting new friends; he left me to attend the wedding on our behalf & to spend Father's Day with his family. Loved every minute of it...even the time I learned how to play bocce ball and failed miserably. What I loved most about the wedding? The presence of a majestic kilt worn by the father-of-the-bride and a peppering of seersucker, bowties, and pastel-colored dress pants. Reminded me of the photos I see on Back Down South's blog & twitter! #SouthernSwag #inlovewiththesouth

This is my I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing pose

On Sunday, my father-in-law wanted to take us out on the boat. So went out on the river and went exploring. Love my family, love spending time with them, and love living and sharing life! I am one lucky lady :)

Sometimes it's so easy to forget how great simple things in life are; weddings, seeing friends, meeting new family members, laughing over silly things, exploring, watching dogs play fetch in the water...I'm so blessed to be able to be reminded of all His great provisions on a daily basis! May there be many more weekends like these to come!