A Different Kind of Post.

I know that we normally use this blog to keep everyone updated on what's going on in our lives, but I wanted to Share something else with everyone...

I just read an entry on an old friends blog that really knocked the breath out of me. All too often we worry about what is going to happen in the future. For Sarah and me this means concern about deployment, where I will be stationed, what will happen after I get out of the Army, what kinds of careers we will go into, what kind of house we will have, where we will live, and all of the other things that go along with the uncertainty of being in the Army. I get so caught up in what might happen in the future that I sometimes forget to faithful to where God has me at this moment. I think that it's too easy to forget that God has a plan for me in my present situation. God has a plan for Sarah and me, and it involves where we are currently. Even if where we are is not our "dream" or "calling", we are where we are for some purpose.

I think our lives should be a blank slate for God to write on. We need to be okay with whatever he wishes, because our plans may not be his.

I always hated the story of Job. I always thought it was because God didn't act the way that I wanted him to. I felt like God gave Job the short end of the stick. I realize now that I didn't like the story because I didn't like the way that Job responded. I wanted Job to do something about his situation! I wanted him to either curse God and die, like his friends (or was it his wife?) suggested, or take some action to fix his situation. I didn't like (and still struggle with) the idea of honoring God in the times he allows us to suffer. Its hard to see past our problems and see that God has a purpose for our suffering, our happiness, our boredom, and all the other moments of our life. Job lived in the present. He accepted his suffering as part of God's will. Who am I to question God's sovereignty? It is our job to honor the situation we are in, and follow God's will the best we can.

So all of you who might read this, take a moment today to think about why God has you in your current situation. What you have to learn and how you can grow and be faithful to where you currently are. I sure am.

It's Not Raining Men, but...

Mud?

Really? It's raining mud? Apparently that's the story. Catherine and I just came out of a coffee shop in Olmos Park, and her white car was covered in reddish brown splatterings. It was raining, so we were confused. We got in the car, turned on the windshield wipers and examined the subsequent falling raindrops. They, too, contained the grainy red brown bits.

Confused, I called my mom, who informed me that dust from El Paso came through with this storm and so the forecast was calling for mud showers. How odd.

John Came to Texas!

John came to Texas this past weekend, which was incredible. It was so great to be able to see him and share some of the wedding planning with him while making lots of visits to family and friends. John arrived Thursday night, and we went directly to Alamo Cafe with all his family (minus Catherine, Louie and Victoria). On Friday, we got breakfast at Las Palapas, stopped by Churchill so John could say hi to an old teacher, shopped for shoes, stopped by the tux place to get info, saw Emma and told her about being a flower girl and had her try on her dress, went to our menu tasting for the reception at Sunset Station (which also included a meeting talking about how we want the whole reception to go), drove to Austin, walked around downtown and got gelatto and a beer (at Pachugo and Hickory Street, respectively), ate dinner at Trudy's, watched LOST, and went to John's SURPRISE PARTY! I'm so glad the surprise party stayed a surprise and so many people were able to come and spend time with John. It was great, because John was pretty upset that none of his friends were answering their phones prior to that. :o)

Needless to say, we were both exhausted after Friday, but Saturday was another whirlwind day. We got breakfast at Magnolia, went shopping for hostess gifts at Central Market, had lunch at Docs, drove back to San Antonio and went to the engagement party for us thrown by his parents. The engagement party was very tiring but was also a lot of fun. I think we had a small taste of what our wedding day will be like. It was crazy...everyone wanted to talk to us!

Sunday we went to breakfast at Jim's and then went and picked out the tuxes for the wedding. We had lunch at Panera Bread with John's mom, Marcus and Sarah and then headed back to Austin. We got in just in time for 5 PM church and then headed to Kristen and Shay's afterward. We hung out for a bit and then went to dinner at Chipotle.

On Monday, we only had time to pack up, stop by Taco C for some tacos for John and head back to San Antonio and go straight to the airport. John flew from SA to Dallas and Dallas to Frankfurt. His SA flight was on time, but his Dallas flight was 5 hours late!!! From what I understand, the first plane arrived an hour and a half late because they didn't have personnel to bring it over from the hanger and then after the boarded and got ready for take off, they realized they were having engine troubles, so everyone got off the plane and they had to wait for a new one. They finally took off after 7:30, when their flight had been scheduled for 2:35. What a pain!

John is back safe and sound at the barracks now, though. We both had a whirlwind weekend, and now he's trying to readjust to German time.

Now that I have caught everyone up on this weekend, I'll share what everyone really goes for - the photos.

Julia's 1st Birthday!

Sorry we have done such a poor job of updating this lately. Not much has changed, so I have not had much to say.

This past Saturday, my parents and I got to go to our reception venue and see it all set up for a wedding. It definitely gave me butterflies! I was really pleased with how the place looked all decked out for a wedding, and I know it will look wonderful on our day.

John will be here in two weeks for a few days, which will be very nice, but I know it will go by too fast. We have a lot to do including selecting a tux and choosing our menu/sampling the food (yum!).

Last weekend I went to San Antonio (as is the norm these days) for Julia's first birthday. I'll end with pictures from her birthday and her party. Enjoy!

Birthday Photos

Voila!

Birthday Time

With the help of family and friends, I had the best birthday I have had in a long time. Thanks, everyone!

Friday (my actual birthday), I decided to stay in Austin to celebrate with friends. We hosted an open house type party here at our apartment. I used the opportunity to try out several new recipes: a sweet fruit dip, Mexican 7-layer dip and some amazing chocolate-caramel-pecan cookies. Yum! I'm skipping ahead, though. My parents called right at midnight on Friday and sang "Happy Birthday" to me. John called when he got back from PT (around 1 am here) to wish me a happy birthday as well. For lunch, Andrew came and picked me up, and we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Hula Hut. Shortly after I got back, John had a box of Tiff's Treats sent to my apartment along with a birthday balloon. The cookies are SO tasty. They come warm! He sent two dozen cookies, 6 of each of these flavors: chocolate chip, oatmeal chocolate chip, sugar cookies and snickerdoodles. He also sent two HUGE chocolate chip brownies. Wow! We talked on the phone for our regular daily phone call, and he watched me open his other presents to me via webcam. He got me two books I have been wanting - one about music and the brain and the other is a National Geographic photos coffee table book. He also got me the BBC Planet Earth series...very exciting!!

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and cooking. My roommates helped out so much. They also made me a carrot cake! People started showing up to the party a little before 8. Way more people turned out than had RSVPed, so I was very surprised. The biggest surprise, however, was when my two friends who got married last July and live in Houston walked through our front door (!!!). I was incredibly surprised and so happy to see them. I can't believe they came all the way from Houston to see us. We had all been playing Catchphrase, but their arrival sent us all into a crazy welcome hugging frenzy, and we never got the Catchphrase going again. People hung out until well after midnight, and once I had settled down and gotten to bed, it was around 2:30 in the morning.

Andrew came over early the next morning (Saturday), and I made breakfast before we headed down to San Antonio for the rest of the weekend. I hung out with my family and opened a few surprise birthday gifts, which included two fabulous new cookbooks, one of the pitchers I registered for at Pottery Barn (love it!) and some cloth coasters. We met up with Jimmy, Molly, Will and Julia at Alamo Cafe for some dinner.

After dinner, we went to Bed Bath & Beyond, where I ended up deciding to change my registry at Dillard's over to BBB. I had no idea they had fine china, stemware and crystal at BBB! My mom, brother and I (my dad stayed in the car) spent the next 2 hours registering for china, cups, stemware, kitchenware and bath linens. I'm so glad to have that finished!

When we got home, I had a delicious half chocolate, half strawberry cake with my family, and then I went to Jim's (the diner) to meet my friend Morgan for coffee. She surprised me with two more gifts! She made a calendar using photos of John and me. She even wrote the days of our engagement party, rehearsal dinner, wedding day, honeymoon and our engagement anniversary on the calendar. She decorated May with a transparent overlay photo of the stained glass at the back of the church we're getting married in, which was an awesome touch as well. The other surprise was what she called a "wedding planner's survival kit." It includes 4 Dublin Dr. Peppers (the ones with Imperial Sugar), energizing jelly beans (they contain vitamins!), gum, Tums, ibuprofen, a rubber chicken (to be funny), Dr. Scholl's foot gels, a HUMONGOUS Hershey's chocolate bar, chewy oatmeal bars, a mini magic 8 ball "to make the hard decisions," a little notebook with a sweet personalized note, and a Relax wine bottle labeled "when all else fails." I LOVE it!

Again, thank you to everyone who made my birthday so special this year; it meant so much to me. (Oh and by the way, I'll post some birthday pictures soon!)

A Bit Behind in Blogging

Sorry we have really fallen behind in the blogging world. Since I have been back, I feel like I have had nothing to do except run to wedding-related appointments, keep up with schoolwork, and keep my apartment clean. It has been exhausting, but it helps pass the time until John comes for his very short visit in March.

I need to be getting to bed soon, so I have to keep this short. I just wanted to update everyone on what has been done for the wedding thus far. (The following is why I haven't had very much free time...this was all done in the past 3 weeks.)

* meet with the coordinator at our venue and sign the contract
* meet with the minister at our church and discuss the ceremony
* find a baker and decide on bride's and groom's cake designs and flavorings
* meet with the venue coordinator (again) to go over menu options and floor plan
* meet with florist for initial consult and planning
* make THREE trips to the place we're getting our invitations...trip 3: get invitations, wedding book, and thank yous
* go wedding dress shopping
* find wedding dress and place order (!)
* go to bridal fair
* find someone to be an extra set of legs on the day of the wedding to help coordinate things
* meet with DJ and start looking at music format
* select a hairdresser and someone to do my make-up
* pick up save the date cards, stuff envelopes, address then and send them out
* create various guest lists for wedding-related events
* start and finish registries at Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma... our registry at Dillard's is ALMOST done. I just need to register for some towels and a casserole dish or two
* meet with florist again to discuss floor plan and centerpieces and cement flower and color choices

Ok, I think that's it. I really think planning a wedding should qualify a person to be a CEO.

My birthday is coming up on Friday, and I haven't been able to throw anything together. I have concentrated everything on wedding planning - yikes! I am thinking I will just do an open house type thing here at the apartment and just enjoy seeing friends. I haven't had time (surprisingly, haha) to see many people since I got back fro Germany, so this would be a nice opportunity.

I hope everyone had a good Superbowl Sunday. Yay Giants!