5 years ago today, I cancelled...

Exactly 5 years ago, I was a sophomore at Biola University. I had spent the last 11 months single, and loving developing relationships with my friends. Many of these relationships are still important to me today. 5 years ago I had a planed trip to Disneyland with a fellow classmate/major friend (Major as in college degree not anything more than that, at least not yet..). I had a pass, and he had recently gotten one, and we talked about getting a group together and going one day...

The day was a friday (my no class day) and I was enjoying late lunch with some friends when we got a phone call that one of our floor mates was in the ER again, and really needed some support. We all ran back to our rooms, packed up a few waiting room essentials, and hoped in the car. As we were pulling off campus, I made a phone call and left a message for the friend I was supposed to meet, explaining that I was not going to make it because I needed to support a friend in the hospital and we could reschedule. It was less than 1/2 an hour before I was supposed to meet him. I felt horrible for canceling, I remember siting in the back of my roommates car having this, "I should go" feeling. Then as we were a few blocks from campus I we got a call saying she was going to be released in an hour and there was no reason to come over. We turned around, and I left another voicemail un-canceling the Disney trip w/ my friend.

That Disneyland trip is my most significant ever. The part was practically empty, we went on a ton of rides MULTIPLE times together. The first time we went on the matterhorn, the castmember forgot to ask "together or separate" (something that to this day, has never happened to me again), and placed us in the coster together. We talked, had fun, and somewhere along the way, it turned into flirting. I am in no way a flirt, but it felt so natural, so fun. It lead to lots of "lobby dwelling" with friends....

Which then 4 years ago today, lead to a Disney proposal in front of the castle right before the firework show. (I know its lame, but it was my total dream.)

Which finally after a ridiculously long engagement, 2.5 years later lead to our wedding,

and now a full fledged family.

I am so thankful I didn't cancel that Disney trip. I totally had placed Matt in the "friend only box", I am so thankful that that trip allowed me to let him out and see how perfect we were for each other. Because of the way it happened, I have always held true to the fact that our relationship is the result of the famous "Disney Magic". (OK, so I know that isn't REALLY true, but hey, it makes it a more fun story). With valentines day just a few short days way, I love that I can look back this time of year, and remember how we fell in love and the crazy wonderful journey we have started together. I can't wait to see where the next many years lead.

Date Night!

Matt and I had a great date night on Saturday. It was actually unintentional. On his way home from work, I suggested making pot roast for dinner, with some side dish, and he agreed. We attempted to go to the movies two weekends ago but it was a total flop, I was really sore from a dr.'s appointment and last weekend I full on fell asleep from about 2pm until 4 or so and woke up groggy and cranky. When Matt had come home and taken his shower (he works at a paintball field and gets SUPER dirty at work), he suggested we go to the movies with some movie passes we had. I agreed and we had enough time to get in there at the 4 something showing. We saw RED. SOOOOO good. I loved it. It was the perfect combination of action and comedy. The reason I normally am not the biggest fan of action is because its all shoot'em up gore type stuff, and the story is weak. However RED had some great wit and humor about it that made the movie really fun and enjoyable. After the movie it was almost 7, and the baby inside of me was screaming for food. We ended up at the Red Robin, and just had a really nice casual dinner. My hubby sucks at planning dates (this is something he will willingly admit), however just spending time together spontaneously was nice. My hubby is currently working a temp job for his uncle 2 hours away from me M-Th and then working at his regular job Sat and Sun. So the time with him is nice. I sure miss him when he is gone.

My birthday

Wednesday was my 24th Birthday. I wasn't expecting anything big. Matt and I are still low in the funds area, and I had to work 12 hours that day.

At 11 am my office all got together to sing to me and to eat cake (office tradition) its nice to be able to talk/hang out with our office in a not so work oriented way.

Then Matt picked me up and took me to lunch at Olive Garden. There happens to be one less than 5 minutes away from my office. I should have taken the picture before we ate all the food, but oh well, it was AMAZING and very yummy!

Then while I was working our evening program one of my friends/coworkers got me a little mermaid cake! I heart disney so it was awesome! It was a nice surprise while I was looking at working for another 3-4 hours. :)

After work I crashed knowing that the next night would be a birthday dinner with my parents, followed by hanging out with Matt's mom for my b-day on Saturday.

Yesterday, I got home from work, and saw this super cute maternity dress that I'd been eyeing hanging on our coat rack. I started to question Matt about it, when all of the sudden my friend Alexa comes down the stairs in a nice dress, and tells me to put the dress on and we are going out. I am normally one to not be surprised. I normally am the one doing the surprising... so I was way taken off gaud. I quickly put on the dress (and shaved my legs) and we were off. We ended up a little over an hour away at Bj's (one of my favorite restaurants that isn't in our area), and two of my wonderful friends from the OC area joined us for dinner. It was so wonderful to just enjoy a dinner out with some of my girl friends! Here is a group shot of us after dinner.

So apparently my parents, and my husband was in on the whole thing, and we are having dinner with my parents tonight instead. It was a great time, and a wonderful reminder of how blessed I am to have great friends in my life.

The reason...

I have not been blogging a ton lately. As I have previously hinted, I have a very good reason. I have decided to tell my blog readers before the massive facebook announcement later today, or tomorrow. I'm pregnant. SURPRISE to us! Come November 13th (give or take a week or two) there will be a little baby as a new addition to our family.

After Matt and I got over our complete shock, as this is a completely unplanned/how did this happen feelings. We are both very excited to begin this new chapter in our lives, albeit a bit (ok at least a year-ish) sooner than we were planning on. I'm currently just over 9 weeks, and have been feeling pretty miserable. On top of not being able to feel ever completely awake and anything besides exhaustion, nausea and raging hormones, work has cranked up hours for me, not only in a physical event, but time spent in prepping for that event each week.

I do have to tell you the story of how we found out, but that will come later... (perhaps tomorrow)

We are so excited about this, I don't want my blog to completely turn into a "baby blog" but it is a personal blog, so it will show some baby related things. We are so excited and still trying to figure how everything (money, time, childcare, work, life, etc) will work out now, but it is a new adventure we are excited about!

This weekend was a blur. I mean a complete and utter blur...

Friday:

My day off, I got to sleep in a bit, and then was not feeling well at all. I mean, not well at all. So I laid down most of the morning, with a home that I was supposed to be cleaning and work at work that I should have been doing. I had to go to work at 3 for our two Good Friday services. We did those, I ate, and then went to bed.

Saturday:

Still not feeing great, I attempted to clean, rested and then headed to work to finnish preparing for Easter. Matt had a friend over, we hung out and then went to dinner, and then I went to bed as I had to be up at 5:30 to be at work at 6:30am

Sunday:

Easter is always a busy day for me. We had 2 services and 94 kids from birth through 5th grade. For some churches that isn't very many, for me, it was double the previous week. I'm just bummed that most of them were out of town guests. Anyways I worked nonstop from 6:45-1pm, I didn't even get to take more than 3 sips of my starbucks that I got on the way to work. Then it was off to my parents house for Easter lunch. Matt's family came as well and in total there were twelve of us. We were there until 10:30 (as per usual with family gatherings) and had tons of fun.

It was a crazy weekend and I am still feeling so exhausted from it. Yet, it was a totally blessed weekend with some really fun things happening too. More on that later, for now back to life that is moving hundreds of miles an hour.

Finally Friday

If you haven't heard me say it before, I LOVE FRIDAYS. They are my FAVORITE day of the week. Here are the top five reasons why I love Fridays:

1. It's my day off. Well mostly, about 2-3 time a month, I have an event in the evening, but its only 4 hours, and ALWAYS fun and never feels like work.

2. It's my day of sleeping in, or at least, laying in bed snuggling with my hubby longer than usual and enjoying our typical Friday breakfast of Cinnamon rolls.

3. It's my day to catch up. I get to bake, do laundry, clean the house, organize, prepare blog posts for the week and try and figure out what needs to happen for the next week.

4. Its my day of rest. I try and spend a good portion of Fridays doing nothing, or at least watching TV/veging/goofing off. This helps keep me sane the rest of the week

5. I can stay up as late as I want! Saturday nights I need to be in bed early, as I have work at 7am on Sunday mornings, but Friday night is a time when I can stay up late, that is, I would if I ever had a good reason too.

So there you have it, 5 reasons as to why I love Fridays!

The move day is tomorrow

Tomorrow, we are moving. We have friends coming over to help us tomorrow. However, we went by the new place last night, and it isn't ready for us! They gave us the keys and it wasn't ready. At first they told us that we could have a week to move our stuff, I thought that was fair, since they are loosing rent on our apartment, but the one we are moving into wasn't ready on the 1st. Well we found out yesterday that when we got the keys we need to be out by Monday morning. This would be ok, if I didn't have a wedding to go to out of town on Saturday, and I didn't work on Sunday...

So now, NOTHING is packed, I mean I have NOTHING in packed, the only boxes that have things in them are the boxes that never got unpacked when we moved in. So tonight, instead of going to the Alice in Wonderland midnight showing, and all day tomorrow, I will be franticly packing and moving. Have you ever moved with out packing? My wonderful husband seems to think that because we are only moving 400 feet, we don't need to pack anything. *sigh palm face* My need to organize and do this in a orderly manor, with none of my dishes breaking. Is that too much to ask? I really love my hubby but we are so different in this whole prepared vs fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants thing, stuff like this makes it a challenge.

Silly Sheets

Last night I realized something, as a girl, when you get married, you lose your "cute sheets". Growing up I have ALWAYS had a cute bed set. When I was four, it was this really pretty flower/shell pattern (can any one say HELLO 80's?), then I became obsessed with Hawaii when I was about 6 and my parents got me a bright fish bed set, that I loved.

Then in middle school I got the daybed of my dreams, and got a very pretty daybed set (I wasn't

to fond of it, even though I liked it, it was just that I wanted leopard). After years of begging my mom, she FINALLY let me get a leopard bet set and I was in heaven!

Then before college she made me get a new bed set, insisting I couldn't take my leopard with me. That lasted less than a semester, I keep my leopard bed set until I got married. Then came the boring plain sheets. I LOVE my husband, but he has NO taste. He REFUSES to let me have any sort of flowers (which ok, I get), or "fancy" design on our bed. So we have solid and plaid sheets. BORING! I love being married and sleeping each night with my hubby, but please can a girl get some cute sheets instead of just solid or plaid???

Friday mornings are my favorite

My favorite morning of the week is Friday mornings, Cinnamon roll morning. You see Friday's are my only day to be lazy, it is what most of you would consider a Sunday morning. On Thursday nights, my wonderful husband and I have a date night. 90% of the time, that just means we eat dinner at home and watch the NBC comedy line up (we heart Community and The Office), which is totally find with me (I don't need a big "going out" date all the time). This typically leads to us staying up a bit later than usual, as I don't have to work on Friday's. We go to sleep and awaken into the magic that is Friday morning. We don't set an alarm, but I usually stir around 8, and just enjoy laying in bed, sometimes I play games on my iPhone, or check email or read. Eventually my bladder forces me out of bed, and before I come back, I turn on the oven. While the oven preheats, Matt and I cuddle, talk, giggle and just enjoy being married. We read books together, and by that I mean we read them out loud to each other. Right now for example we are reading Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It is out emotional bonding time. A way for us to linger in each other's presence before we start our day. At some point one of us puts in the cinnamon rolls and climbs back into bed for another glorious 25 minutes of togetherness. It gives us an hour of time together, uninterrupted, planned connecting time. I love it! It's my favorite.

Valentine's Day

Today is the day set aside to make sure that your special someone knows that you love them. To celebrate your love and to enjoy each other. This valentines day is special to me because it is the first one that I am celebrating as a MARRIED woman. I love my husband. I love calling him my husband. I love being able to spend tons of time with him, and showing him how much I love him. My husband is the person who keeps me level headed, the one who keeps me sane, the one whom I depend on in every season of my life. He is crazy and wacky, a nerd and a geek. He is funny and can drive me crazy, but I love him all the same. Thank you babe for loving me (even though you hate it when I get camera happy)!
I also like to remember the person who has always loved me and always will. The one who died for me. The one who sacrifice for me. The one who knows me better than I know myself. Jesus, thank you for loving me and for everything you do for me!

A dream come true...

If you know me, you probably know that I am a HUGE Disney fan. I grew up on Disney movies and TV (back when you had to pay extra for the cable channel), I had an anual pass to The Park (aka Disneyland) from 7th grad til after I graduated college and I even worked at Disneyland for a bit. Disney is my happy place, and on October 24th, 2009, a dream came true. I got to go here:

If you don't know what Club 33 is, let me enlighten you. Walt built it over looking New Orleans square as a place to bring executives and have meetings while you are in Disneyland. There is a dress code, and it is the ONLY place in Disneyland where you can be served alcohol. Apart from the extra Disney magic, a membership to this exclusive place will cost you more than a pretty penny. We are talking more than most people's car per year. Mostly big corporations buy memberships, and use it as a perk for the higher ups. Getting in is a BIG deal, at least to me. It is on my "bucket list" as some would say. On top of getting a great meal, you got a FREE ticket to Disneyland, even though the meal cost more than the ticket.

Since I now live 90 miles away from Disneyland, this day trip mean getting up early, and coffee when we got up their. I tried to document this trip the best I could but even though pictures are supposed to say 1,000 words, I don't think all the pictures combined could describe my feelings about that day.

We entered in the lobby, and it was better than I could imagine, we got to take an old "lift" up to the second floor. We then entered and got to enjoy lunch looking out over New Orleans square. Aside from the food being the BEST EVER, the desert bar was amazing as well

It was such and amazing experience, and a true dream come true. We even got a hat to remember the trip by, as well as being able to spend an afternoon in The Parks.

Below was my FAVORITE picture that I have ever seen of Walt. It is in Club 33 amongst the other Disney wonders there. It is a painting of Walt in 33 having breakfast looking over the park. Sorry for the glare, I tried really hard to get a good picture of it.

Yesterday, 4 crazy years

So yesterday marked the 4 year anniversary of something that changed my life. I went to disneyland with a classmate/friend. That magical trip to disneyland (of which of course I don't have any pictures because we were just friends hanging out), started something in me, that at that point in time I could not explain. It lead to a lot of hanging out in the lobby of my dorm with this guy whom all of the sudden I was totally falling for...

We spend the next several days, weeks months inseparable. In a few short months both of us knew that we were going to get married. Then 1 year later (3 years ago yesterday), it lead to him asking me to spend the rest of my life with him as husband and wife. He had the perfect set up for me, in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle, right before the fireworks. My dream. Obviously I said yes!

Which eventually (2.5 years later) led to this...

We are now happily married and enjoying life together. I can't imagine what would have happened if I didn't go to Disneyland that day. Few people know this, but I actually called to cancel that day because a friend of mine was in the ER and a bunch of us were going to see her. I was in the car, driving towards the hospital when we found out she was getting released. We turned around, and I had a feeling that I couldn't explain. I called back and re confirmed that I was going to Disneyland, and the rest is history.

Disney is still one of our favorite places, and we are sad that this year, we didn't get to celebrate the 10th their like we have for the last 3 years. All this to say, I love my husband, and am so thankful for that fateful trip to Disney 4 years ago.

One reason Matt is my love...

There are many reasons why I married the best man in the ENTIRE world. Tonight, I just want to share with you a small bit of my amazing man. You see my husband enjoys working with teenage students, but I'm the children's pastor. That means my oldest kid is 11. Yet, my amazing husband has selflessly offered his assistance to me at many events, church services and tomorrow, CAMP. To many going to camp brings back fond childhood memories, and if it was a winter camp perhaps a memory of ambushing the councilor or camp director. Well my wonderful amazing husband is braving three days and two nights with boys who range from 8-10. I am so excited for him to share coming to camp with me and being involved in my ministry is so huge for me. I LOVE it. Even though he may not. I know that in the end he will have fun, but this isn't his thing. He is doing it for me... because he loves me. He is my sanity when I am stressed, and it will be so nice to have him be supporting me this weekend as it is my first time being the person "in-charge" of my church group. So thank you babe, you are awesome! I promise to try and protect you from the snowball ambush that is inevitable.

So I think I'm back to stay

This is my new favorite picture in the world... Thanks to my amazing FMIL who is awesome with a camera!




I have decided that I need to document the next year of my life for many reasons.

1) I am horrible at keeping a journal, but I love going back and seeing what God has done in my life

2) I love pictures, and want to stay in contact with everyone now that I am not in college.

3) This is my last year as a single crazy girl

4) I need space to create and make my own...



Be patient with me as this is a work in progress...



For starters... my amazing night tonight.

We played pictionary and BANG. This is the original Monday night game crew. We had a reunion tonight, because Mike and Katherine were back for Christmas from Co. I forgot how much I missed game nights. They are a great time to relax and have lots of fun with friends. Plus you get amazing inside jokes like cheese broccoli pizza. :)

Christmas

And now Christmas was fun, my grandparents from Chicago were in... this is Matt and I with them in front of our tree...

Matt got me this amazing necklace, which I absolutely LOVE! :) Thanks Matt!