Eight

We made it through the seven-year-itch!!

But, on a more serious note, we have now been married for 8 years. It's crazy to think it's been that long, but it also feels weird to think of life before we were married.

I'm so thankful for Josh and for how we've grown in our relationships with God and with each other. It's been a wild and crazy ride, but it's one I wouldn't change for the world!

Happy anniversary, my love!

Dreams are Forever

Josh and I are quickly approaching our 8th wedding anniversary.

It really is hard to believe that we've been married that long, and that we are coming up on 11 years of being together. Our first trip together was a friends trip to Disneyland, so I think it's pretty fitting that we continue to make wonderful memories there together.

We celebrated a little early this year, as it worked better with our schedules and around holidays. It was such a fun trip and I'm so thankful we were able to celebrate another year of our love in our happy place.

 One of the fun photo spots they have set up for the 60th celebration. He's the size of a bug!

 We were there on the day California Adventure turned 15! They passed out these buttons to everyone as they entered the parks

 We got to go on the other side of the tracks! Since the train is out of commission right now due to the Star Wars Land construction, they have train engines parked at two of the train stations. The one in New Orleans Square had a ramp set up for people to explore the other side of the tracks

 We walked through the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, as neither of us had ever been in there. This tree was a fun place to take a picture

Our traditional picture!

Disneyland was having AP days the entire month of February for annual passholders. Each week had a different theme and different fun offerings. We were there for the end of week one and the start of week two, so we got to experience some stuff from both weeks! They passed out special recipe cards that were special to either Walt or to Disneyland, buttons with the theme for each week, free popcorn and water in certain locations, special meet and greets with rarely seen characters, as well as viewings of videos and TV shows. We were able to watch an episode of Walt's Disneyland TV show that highlighted certain areas of the park, and we got to meet Baloo and King Louie!

 At Main Street station, they have the Lilly Belle parked with the engine. You can't go in it, but you can take pictures through the windows! 

 We got to meet Kylo Ren...and I think we may have accidentally joined the First Order...

 We had our anniversary dinner at the Blue Bayou! We did the Paint the Night package this time, which came with a preferred viewing spot for the Paint the Night Parade. Our dinner came with dessert so we each tried something different. Josh got the chocolate cake and I had the lemon creme brulee. Both were delicious!

 We decided to do the Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps tour again, as it has changed since we did it three years ago. Instead of going into Walt's apartment, they are currently taking guests into the Dream Suite! We were so excited to finally see it. The only bummer was that we couldn't take pictures inside, other than this one that they took of us

 The River Belle Terrace, which used to be a quick service restaurant, recently changed their menu and to a table service restaurant, due to the Big Thunder Ranch BBQ Restaurant that closed permanently last month. They reopened our last night there, so we decided to make a reservation to check it out. The food was delicious! I got the pulled pork sandwich and Josh got the fried chicken sandwich. And then we split the butterscotch pudding parfait for dessert. So good! I highly recommend eating there

We also went to the Cove Bar for the first time and ordered the famous lobster nachos. I wish I would have taken a picture of the plate because it was piled so high! And they were so good. Not to mention their drinks were also delicious.

We also saw the extended preview for Zootopia, which looks like it's going to be really good!

We got stuck on two different rides and had to be evacuated both times, which neither of us had ever experienced before! The first was on Alice in Wonderland, which we were riding as part of our tour. We didn't even make it into the building before the ride stopped, but because of where it stopped, they had to call the fire department to come and rescue us. I realize it was a liability issue, but all they did when they got there was tell us where to step and where to keep walking. They didn't have to touch either of us. Pretty crazy but a fun story to tell. The second ride was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters and the ride stopped within the first minute of us being in the vehicle. The lights came on, guard rails popped up, and we had to wait for a cast member to come by and pry open our vehicle before we could get out. It was definitely something new to experience!

Oh and we saw Peyton Manning! He and his kids were in a little celebratory parade down Main Street after winning the SuperBowl. We got spots right along Main Street and were able to record part of the parade. It was really cool, as we were not expecting that to happen at all

Before our tour started, we were let into the park before it opened. It was so crazy to be in the park without lots of other people being around. I took this picture after our tour started, before they did rope drop to let people past the end of Main Street

All in all, it was a great trip filled with lots of fun memories. We ate way too much, walked at least 6.5 miles every day, waited in very short lines, and enjoyed doing some of our favorite things. I'm a little sad this was our last trip on our passes, but I'm glad we were able to get so much good use out of them this last year.

01.16

It's a new year and I'm gonna document it in a new way.

For the last year and a half, I have recapped each month (mostly for my own benefit as a way to remember things) of what our lives consisted of. While I loved being able to do that so I have those memories recorded somewhere (as I'm horrible at journaling these days), I also don't just want to be the type of person that only shows the good side of life for social media. I've been really convicted about that the past couple of months. I think too many of us only like to showcase the "picture worthy" moments, which makes people think that our lives are much more glamorous than they actually are.

So this year, I'm gonna highlight a few fun moments from each month, but also share some more real moments and maybe some things that aren't as fun to talk about. I got into blogging because I wanted to share my heart with others, as a way to be encouraging. And while using my blog as a journal is fine, I really want to get back to sharing things that matter a little more than the fun stuff I did last weekend.

So, we start with January!

I had a wonderful evening with two great friends L.B. and S.W. We shared pieces of our stories, our hearts, our frustrations and our hopes. It was seriously one of the most refreshing nights I've had in a long time. I can't wait to have more of those nights in the future.

I went out dancing with a few friends to celebrate R.J.'s birthday...but she surprised S.W. and I and had stuff planned for us as well! It's pretty fun that 3/4 of the dot35 wives all have January birthdays! We had such a great night that started with a really yummy dinner out.

S.W. and I had a combined Harry Potter themed birthday party! It was one of the best birthday parties I've ever had/been to! We did as much as we could to make the party as authentic as possible. We had quite a few of the candies, we had a platform 9 3/4 photo booth, we had a sorting ceremony, we played Quidditch pong, we made butterbeer and polyjuice potion, and we decorated with things like a line of spiders and Harry's Hogwarts letters. It was seriously so much fun!

 Sorting ceremony!

 Luna Lovegood and Sirius Black

 Birthday girls!

January was intense with my myofascial appointments. My therapist told me we are finally getting into some of the deeper restrictions, which has been a bit more painful, but good at the same time. I'm seeing and feeling more physical changes in my body. I'm having to re-learn how to do certain things, including breathing correctly. I had no idea I wasn't breathing normally, but I have so many restrictions in my body that I adapted to that. I apparently have been using secondary muscles as my primary breathing muscles for quite some time now. So it's been a crazy learning process, but I'm so thankful to be improving more and more each week.

I read The Nightingale with my BCBs. It was definitely one of my favorites that we've read so far and I highly recommend it. It's a story about WW2 and what life was like for two sisters who lived in France.

I spent some time playing with my niece one on one while we were at Josh's parents house for a family dinner and it made me realize just how much her life has changed in her almost four and a half years. It's hard to remember how tiny she was and how scary things were when she entered this world, for both her and her mom. I am so thankful for them both and for how they've shaped and changed my life. Life would be so much more boring without my niece.

I also had some really hard days this month. I overdid it with the Harry Potter party prep and spent most of the next day on the couch. I even had to miss church and helping my sister move because I was so sore. I don't often talk about the harder days, as they aren't fun to talk or read about, but I do still have them. Part of my healing process is having hard days to get to better ones. That was one of the first things my therapist told me when I started to see her: sometimes I will feel worse before I feel better. So I have to remember that when I'm feeling really sore and not get too discouraged.

I finished out the month by turning 31. That's such a weird number to type. It's still hard for me to believe that I'm out of my 20s. Life just continues to speed along. January was a busy month, but I'm thankful for all the good and the bad it brought.

Looking Forward

I've made it a little tradition the past couple of years to write about some hopes and dreams I have for the new year.

I posted about the results of my hopes for 2015 here, in case you missed it.

I think the reality of this being a new year hasn't completely set in yet for me. December was such a busy month that I felt like I barely had time to breathe or think, let alone do some reflection on my life and where I'd like to see it going in 2016.

While this last year was really fun and I have a lot of really great memories from different moments and conversations spent with loved ones, I questioned my purpose a lot. I feel like one of my biggest hopes for this year is to try and figure out what I should be doing with my life. When Josh and I first got married, I was planning to finish school to become a high school English teacher. After some things didn't work out initially for me to finish school, I started thinking that being a teacher might not be the best career path for me. Around that time, we also started doing the college group at our church and it took up a huge part of our lives for over three years. I loved being able to serve in that ministry for the time that we did, and I know God taught us a lot during that time.

While that was going on, we were also in the midst of really trying to get pregnant, only to realize that our plans and our wants obviously weren't what God had in mind for us at that moment in time. It was a really hard road to get to that point, but we are both much happier being on this side of the heartache. Even though we may never have our own children (biological or otherwise), we have gotten to a place where our little family of two is enough...whether that be forever or just for a few more years. So being a mom was what I thought my purpose was for awhile.

After doing the college group, we continued to be involved in other Bible studies and ministries at church. We were both involved in worship (me-singing, Josh-doing the tech side of it), and I was co-leading Bible studies with a few different women. Then leadership changes started happening in our church and we lost and gained pastors. In the midst of those changes and transitional periods, we both stopped being involved with worship, and Josh started to help out with youth again. I have more recently been involved in women's Bible studies again, but there was a period of time where I wasn't doing that either.

So when I say I need to figure out what I should be doing with my life, I mean in an area of service. It's hard for me to commit to something too major because of my body issues (the biggest reason I stopped being involved with worship was because being up on the stage for long periods of time with the stage lights was giving me migraines), but I know I need to be doing more than I'm doing right now. I just don't know what that all looks like yet, so I'm hoping to do some more praying and seeking to try and figure out where I can best serve.

I also still feel very strongly about encouraging women. I think it's something I've been good at (totally not trying to brag here at all, but I really do feel like it's something God has continuously led me to do in my life) and I really need to get into the practice of doing it more often. I've gone back and forth about different ways to make this happen on a more regular basis, so I'm hoping to get some clarity on what this could look like as a ministry or a way to best help others.

As for other things, I know I need to continue to work on balance and letting go of fears in my life. Both are going to take time, but I know it's important that I continue to figure out how best to accomplish both of those things in my life.

I feel like it's ok for this to be all that I'm striving for so far this year. I love the freshness of a new year and how it feels like a clean slate in some ways, but I also know that things change and happen at other times in the year as well. So if things do come up that I feel I need to be working on this year, I will add them to my list for 2016.

Here's to what lies ahead and hopefully learning and growing more!

Twenty Fifteen Part 12

I can't believe 2015 is over!

I have really enjoyed taking the time each month to recap what we did. If nothing else, it's a great way for me to look back on our year and remember the things we did, especially some of the things I may have forgotten about!

We started off the month of December with Josh being gone at a work conference. While he was gone, I kept busy with work and a couple of fun things. The first was a tradition with my friend S.S. We always go to a pottery painting place before Christmas each year. This year, I made a cute mug for Josh for Christmas! I couldn't wait to give it to him, so he got it in the middle of the month.
Later that evening, our church had a big tree lighting celebration. They erected a huge "tree" made out of a telephone poll and lots of pretty lights. It was a really fun night! Our friends K.W. and S.W. invited me to dinner beforehand and then we went together.

The mug I painted for Josh. I love that it has a cute tail!

The following day, I hung out in the evening with K.W. and S.W. at our church's cafe! Normally it's only open on Sunday mornings, but this year they decided to have it open each evening to raise money for a local shelter. So we spent the evening enjoying some yummy hot drinks.

The next day, Josh came home!

The following day, we went to a fun Christmas party at our friends D.W. and F.W.'s house. We ate a lot of great food, tried mulled wine for the first time, and took some fun pictures. It was a great night! We left a little early in the evening because we had to get up early the next morning...

For a trip to Disneyland! You can read all about that trip here.

After we got back, Josh and I met K.W. and S.W. at our church's cafe. Josh wanted to go and see the tree since he missed the lighting celebration.

The following day, L.B. and her girls came over to watch Elf with us! We had a fun night munching on popcorn and laughing a lot.

Later that weekend, we had a little reunion Christmas party with our former marrieds group. We had a fun evening with great food, fun games, and great conversation. It was really fun to get together again to celebrate Christmas!

The next evening, we went out to dinner with some friends and then went ice skating! I did not participate in the ice skating, as I am horrible at it, and I knew falling would probably not be the best plan for my body. But I had a lot of fun taking pictures and videos of everyone else skating!

Later that week, we met some friends for a quick dinner before seeing Star Wars on the night it premiered! I will not spoil it for anyone that has yet to see it...but I highly recommend seeing it if you like Star Wars!

The following evening, I had a Christmas party at my house with some of my girlfriends. I read about this party in a blog post that The Honey Pot wrote a few years ago, and I've been wanting to have this party since. The basic idea is that instead of doing a traditional or white elephant gift exchange, each person brings a gift that represents something God has been teaching her this year. As each woman arrived, I handed her a number. When it was time to open gifts, the first woman picked a gift to open. After she opened it and showed everyone, the woman who brought that gift explained why she brought it. It was a really incredible night and I was so blessed to hear the hearts of all the women that were there. I think it's going to have to become a yearly tradition for us, as I'm really excited to hear and see what God does in their lives this next year!

The next day, Josh and I attended a white elephant Christmas party that our friends C.Z. and L.Z. had at their house. I think this was their 5th year of having it. It was a great turnout and we had a lot of fun. We left a little early, because I had a wine night planned with L.B. to celebrate Christmas! We had a wonderful evening together.

The next day, we had planned to go to a spot up in the mountains to check out redwood trees with dot35, but it was storming really hard that weekend, so we figured it probably wasn't the best plan. Instead, we ended up grabbing lunch and then we headed to a cider reserve and got to try some yummy ciders. They also gave us a little tour of their facilities and let us taste some of the other liquids they are distilling, as well as some of the apples they use to make their cider. It was a really fun experience! After that, we came back over to our house and had pizza and watched Inside Out. It was a really great day.

The next day, I wrapped all my gifts while Josh and I watched the live action How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I then watched the Santa Clause 2 after Josh went to bed.

The following day, I had a get together in the evening with some dear friends. We enjoyed some wonderful homemade hot cider, some yummy snacks and treats, and had a great evening talking and sharing our hearts.

The next evening, we went out to dinner with a couple of friends and then checked out a local Christmas tree lane! I had been wanting to check out Christmas lights all month and we finally had a free night to do so.

The next night was Christmas Eve! Josh and I spent the day together and then headed to a Christmas Eve service at our church with my sister. After that, we went over to my grandma's house to celebrate Christmas with my mom's family. After that, we went over to Josh's brother's house to spend some time with some of his family.

The next morning, we went over to my parents house for our traditional Christmas breakfast together. The boys took their annual Christmas pictures after we opened presents and then we watched part of A Christmas Story on TV.

After that, we headed to Josh's parents' house to spend Christmas with all of his family. His oldest brother and his family were in town, and almost all of Josh's aunts and uncles and cousins were also there. It was a full house but it was fun to see everyone together.

After that, we had the dot35 crew over to play games. We ended up playing Just Dance and the boys played a sports challenge game as well. It was a great way to finish off the day.

The following day, S.S. had a girls day at her house. We played a really fun game called Jackbox and drank wine and ate yummy fudge made by S.S. and her family. Later that evening, Josh and some of his friends had MansMas (they watched Die Hard and did manly stuff, apparently), and I had a couple of girlfriends over to play games. It was a really fun day.

The next day, we went to see Star Wars (again) with my parents and my sister and her hubby. I unfortunately got a migraine right before it started so I spent most of the movie with my eyes closed. But I was glad they were all able to see the movie!

And finally, we ended the year with a little New Year's Eve get together with a few friends.

Things God has been teaching me this month:

I must say that I felt very honored and humbled to hear the ladies at my All About Jesus party share their hearts. Some of the things they shared really challenged me. One was about how we spend our time, as what we choose to spend our time on is what is important to us. Another was about how God made each of us with different personalities, like snowflakes, and we should give those that annoy or have different personalities than us grace. Some really awesome reminders for the new year!

Other things this month:

I'm pretty sure we were able to watch almost all of our favorite Christmas movies and we listened to a lot of Christmas music! And our tree lived for almost a month without completely dying! I'd say that was a win-win!

We also had some other random hang outs and such with friends. I had some really great conversations this month and I'm really excited to see how God continues to move in my life, as well as in the lives of those around me.

I still can't believe 2015 is over! Here's to 2016!

I had such a hard time picking pictures for this year's collage. I had over 300 to choose from, but I tried to pick some of the best ones from some of my favorite memories!