fabulousness!

Me and Seth are fabulous. October 8th was three months! It feels like 3 days and then again it feels like 3 years both at the same time. We got our wedding pictures back a couple of weeks ago. One of Seth’s best friend’s was our photographer and he did an amazingly perfect job! Just taking pictures by himself he had over 600 to filter through by the end of that incredible day. In the middle of all of this, we were getting our thank you post cards all ready to go and send out and right about the time we were ready to print and mail…Seth’s lap top crashed… He lost so many graphics and projects…along with our thank you post cards that we designed, and our address lists and so much more. So, if you have not received one, please know how grateful we are for EVERYTHING that we received. From the gifts, to the words of encouragement and prayers… every last bit has come in handy.

Of course October is a big birthday month too. My immune system decided to give me the flu for my birthday, so that was nice. I woke up on the 3rd sooooo sick. Seth still managed to make it a splendid day. We went to St’ Louis to go shopping, and despite my unbelievable passion when it comes to new clothes, I was ready for my bed after the first store. The thing that REALLY sucked about this is that I had the stomach flu on Seth’s birthday and that night we got half way to the restaurant and I had to get the people we were riding with to turn around and take me home. Apparently I have a very selfish immune system which likes to go on strike here and there. Despite my health, good old CVS came through and I took enough drugs to get me through the rest of the mall. I had some major shopping to do, and in all of my shopping years I have never had to focus so much on buying the right items. The weather up here is changing quickly and my wardrobe is still in “Texas” mode, so I’m being forced to make some major adjustments to my wardrobe… such as repulsive closed toe shoes instead of flip-flops and get this…. LONG sleeves. I’m still trying to figure out a way to make flip flops work in the snow. I’ll let you know how that works out. =) It was my first birthday without my parent’s and sisters around me, but all in all it turned out to be a pretty super day. Two days later, I called Courtney to tell her Happy Birthday and cried the whole time (sorry Court) …I refused to ruin my birthday by focusing on what I didn’t have around me… I just decided to ruin Court’s instead. =) We’ll blame it on the NyQuill for now, just don’t ask me what my excuse is next week.

One thing that I am LOVING about being married and having my own house is decorating! We're just about done with all of the rooms, but I've become addicted to buying pumpkins and mums and other fall flowers and candles that I promise capture the smell of fall! And then there's the cute little scarecrow that's in my garden now.... and I made a beautiful little fall wreath for our front door... and then... ok, see, I told you! We don't just have corn up here, there are orchards and pumpkin patches all over the place, so yesterday we drove out to one of the orchards near by. We picked out some MORE pumpkins, went through a hay maze that creeped me out just a little too much, and we got to drink some fresh homemade apple cider and eat frech homemade apple doughnuts. Trees are turning and leaves are falling and the weather is incredible. It's my first REAL fall.... living in rural America definitely has advantages.

I started a new diet plan recently and it’s working out quite nicely so far. I all of the sudden was infused with an insane amount of will power. I haven’t cheated once. I just don’t want to be the couple that gets married and comes home for the holidays as the newlyweds and have packed on a few extra lbs… or more! Haha…it’s my own little phobia. But on top of that Seth has now began training for a triathlon and he’s ridiculously dedicated and is blowing my mind with it all. He’s up and out of the house every morning at 5:45 am to train.

While life is constantly challenging me to grow up in so many ways, I decided to take one step on my own. I recently started waking up about 2 or 3 hours before I have to leave for work every morning. (Depending on which office I am at that day) On average, I wake up at 6:00 every morning. Just a side note here, I’ve never waken up early on purpose in my life! I love to sleep. Always have, probably always will. BUT after the first few days of waking up that early, I started to see the advantages to it. I can get so much done in the mornings, and not to mention by the time work rolls around, I’m wide awake and not dragging through each day. I usually make some coffee and spend the first hour of my day sitting on my porch reading and praying. It’s an enclosed porch so it’s especially nice and relaxing when it’s raining. As a part of my diet, I drink my coffee black now… so between that and my new routine, I’ve been pretty impressed with myself. Saturdays and Sundays are no different. Saturdays I wake up about 7:30 to hit up all of the garage sales. They’re HUGE around here and it’s pretty much become one of my “small town rituals.” Sunday I’m up at 5:30 no matter what… Singing in front of a thousand people every Sunday is good motivation to sacrifice some sleep for some beauty preparation.

As far as the church goes, the building process has began and has been moving along very quickly. We’re looking to be in the new satellite location in February. In January I’ll be going on full time for the church. I’ll be Leading Worship at the new campus, the administrative assistant, and I will be focusing on building a Fine Arts Ministry from scratch for the new campus as well. I’ll be more involved in the music and dance department, which will be a HUGE dream come true for me, but I’ll still work with the theater and drama department as well. God continues to bless me and Seth by opening so many doors and giving us favor in all the right areas.

I do get soooo terribly homesick, but at the same time Centralia feels like home more and more all the time. When it’s too much to handle I just remind myself that I’m living a dream… but not just any dream, my dream.

Weeeeeeee’ll be home for Christmas… you can count on uuuuuussss…. We WILL be home for the holidays, and by holidays I mean Christmas. We will be giving thanks up here in the land of Lincoln, but I am counting down the days till the 23rd! As soon as the house that Seth just sold closes we’ll be buying our tickets! We’ll spend most of our time in Austin but we will be in Beaumont some, so I’m going to start now trying to figure out how fit everything… and everyone in. =)

I miss you all and can’t WAIT until I get to hug you all for real… like in person… sometimes I hug my pillows and pretend like they are people…. Just kidding…. But I miss everyone so much that sometimes the thought crosses my mind! =)

A few pics...

This is our precious little house... (I've done a lot to the front since tihs picture was taken)

This is my precious little front porch... and there's all sorts of plants in there now too.

This is one of our Kittens, her name is "Seven" and she is the sweetheart of the two. They love playing on the front porch when we are home. I hate that stupid cactus that's in the back ground and finally got Seth to throw it out this week. It came with the house, I didn't want to complain, but really? A cactus? =)

And this is at the ground breaking ceremony for the new church... Me and Seth are there as well as the rest of the Pastoral team.