bedroom makeover

Since this week was my spring break, Jamie and I used the opportunity to finally paint our bedroom. It wasn't in dire need of painting but we feel like it is "our" room now. Here are the before and after pics for you:

This is one shot of the room from when the previous owners lived there (yes there are llamas on the wall)

This is the room before we painted

The "after" picture

Don't mind Schroder, he thinks this is his bed

These pics are with painting only. We haven't hung any decorations on the walls yet. One thing that will definitely go up is this painting my friend Janine painted:

More pics to follow when the room is fully decorated! Happy Monday!

first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes....

Perhaps one of the biggest differences God has shown me between dating and marriage in the last seven months is that, while dating tends to bring out the best in us, marriage has the potential to bring out the worst. Don't get me wrong, this isn't always the case, but if you want to dredge up stuff you thought you had settled with God a long time ago, get married. I'm not talking about things that happened in the past, because I think Jamie and I talked exhaustively about those during our courtship and engagement (except maybe about the fact that I once interviewed to be the Mountaineer mascot, a fact that I only remembered about myself a couple weeks ago). Instead, these are things that when I lived on my own I was able to conceal from others and "control" for the most part. Things like: selfishness, a bad temper, stubborness...the list could go on I'm sure. To be honest, these things surface much more than I would like these days.

I don't want to paint marriage in a bad light (especially for all those who aren't married that I just scared off) because it is wonderful but I think the point is that God's purpose for marriage is very different from that of the world. I've heard it said a million times, but have found it to be true and so practical: "God's plan for marriage is holiness, not happiness." And as part of the work to make us holy, God uses the context of marriage to bring out our selfish desires and actions. He shows us that no matter how much we think we have it all figured out and no matter how good we look to those on the outside, we aren't as holy as we think we are. I am encouraged that as I work on these issues that come up in my marriage relationship, God is working to perfect the most important relationship I've ever had -- the one I have with Him. So here's to allowing marriage to make me more holy AND more happy. :)

lessons from the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

I just had to pay tribute to this book (one of my favs as a child) since I felt like I was living in it Monday (for more about that, see last post):

But I found that God has been teaching me a few things lately, partly through that day (and the preceding and subsequent crazy weeks), but also through just reflecting on my life lately. Just a little summary for you:

• First of all, I was able to share the story of my very unfortunate car week with the girls at Wired last night as an example of the way God is teaching me to trust Him especially when I don't understand what the heck He is doing. We were talking about how God knows what He's doing and that we can trust Him even when we can't see what that is and I thought this was a perfect example.
• God has really confronted me with my attachment to material possessions. I never considered this a big problem for me and I wasn't that upset about the fact that our cars got dented but I did realize that I was mourning the loss of the things we could buy with the money we will be spending on repairs. Turns out, I really like nice things. I like vacations, going out to dinner, buying things for the house, just picking up random things that I see at Target...and I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with those things. But God has been challenging me to check the importance I place on them in light of how much He has blessed me already and how unimportant they are in the eternal scheme of things.
• ""Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30...Pretty self explanatory but this was the verse presented by a speaker at CMDA (Christian Medical and Dental Association) yesterday. Besides being just the encouragement I needed, it make me realize that I complain too much. No matter how heavy my load, it is light if I let Jesus help me carry it...or better yet, give it to Him altogether.
• God has been showing me an inconsistency in my desires and how I actually live my life. As I was worshiping last night at Wired and singing "King of Majesty/I have one desire/Just to be with you my Lord," I really meant it, but then at home a couple hours later I was yelling at Jamie about something stupid. See, my desire is to follow Jesus and to live my life in a way that glorifies Him but often that's as far as I go....desire. I get lazy at the work that goes into maintaining a relationship with God that allows me to live my life in a way that glorifies Him.

As you can see, God is teaching me a lot...Just wish He didn't have to get my attention with terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days ;)

better off in bed

Have you ever had one of those days where you should have just stayed in bed? Yesterday was one of those days for me. It all started when, instead of the alarm on my phone going off, the phone froze at the time the alarm should have been going off and Jamie woke up a half-hour late for work. The day starting off on the wrong foot before we even woke up should have been my first clue not to get out of bed. But instead, I got up and went to class. To make a long story (and day) short, I ended up hitting a truck in the parking lot at the hospital on my way from class to meet a friend for lunch -- in Jamie's truck. Mind you, this is my second accident in a eight days, the first being a slide on black ice into a guardrail in my car. This after a lifetime of very little trouble in the way of cars. God must be teaching me something, although I'm not 100% sure what yet. Maybe a little clue from my Bible reading yesterday though:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

Prayers appreciated that the damage won't be too expensive and that I can find joy even in a Monday were I spent a significant portion of the day crying.

"normal people" weekend

This weekend was unique for Jamie and I: Because he had to go to inservice in Charleston for three days this week, Jamie actually worked dayshift all week and had the entire weekend off -- a "normal people" schedule! Despite the fact that I still had to study this weekend, we took advantage of his time off and had some fun.

Friday:
We went to Black Bear to see Chris Cendana (one of my friends from high school and an excellent musician) play. It is rare that Jamie gets to hang out with our group of friends since activities usually occur on evenings and weekends so it was nice to get some people together to eat good food, drink some margaritas and listen to some great music. Afterward, we went out on the town for a bit before settling in for the night.

Saturday:
We had a pretty chill day (which was nice after a night out -- man, we are getting old). We did "married people stuff" i.e. taxes and my FAFSA and Jamie watched some TV while I studied. We did venture out for Schroder's second trip to Petco (the first was on the first day we got him and I think he was a little traumatized). This time went much better. We got him a few toys and got a few new fish since our cannabalistic goldfish ate all the other ones we had. After our trip to Petco, we felt inspired to watch "It's Me or the Dog" to get some training trips for Schroder, especially since he has been pulling on his leash a lot lately. We thought a harness was the cure until Schroder figured out that he hated it and chewed through almost the whole thing while we were taking a nap. He may hate training, but at least he's smart.

Sunday:
Jamie and I slept in a bit, made waffles for breakfast, then enjoyed actually getting to go to church together. The rest of the day was spent running errands, relaxing (Jamie) and studying (me) before heading to dinner with our community group. Despite the misery of studying on a weekend that my husband actually had off, I did get caught up before starting the dreaded test week.

Overall, we spent a significant part of the weekend dreaming about what it would be like if I didn't have to study, Jamie worked a regular schedule and we had real, relaxing weekends all the time. Hopefully someday it will happen, but who knows. It definitely didn't help my desire to quit school, but did increase my desire for spring break in 2 weeks and my appreciation for the time that Jamie and I actually do get to spend together.