Handmade Mo

2012

2012-01-03T21:39:00.000-08:00

Ummm where did the time go?! I feel like just yesterday I was writing this post about 2011 and all of my resolutions for the year. Although I did not accomplish all of the things I set out to do, I was able to mark a few of the items off. While looking back over my posts from this past year, I realized I am no longer going to make resolutions. I realized I never keep them and always feel like I am accountable to them in an unhealthy way. I have always been a list person and to have a list determining whether or not I am successful from one year to the next is not the way I want to live.

So instead of resolutions I am going to look back at the low moments, high moments and the just too stinkin' hilarious moments to forget about.Take them, put them in my memory bank, learn from them, and grow to be a better person. Here are just a few of those things...

The biggest high of 2011 was allowing the Lord to take control of my life again instead of sitting in the drivers seat. I struggled with depression for almost a year and through love, tough conversations and facing a lot of truths the Lord brought me out of the darkest time of my life since becoming a Christian in 2001. This was also the source of so many lows throughout 2011 as well. I am so thankful for the friends and family that helped me through and especially my husband. I realized today as I was talking to a coworker about my experience with depression that I haven't truly celebrated that victory in my life. I have spent one day to the next stressed out (to the point of hives) about work, life, and so many other things. Thank you Lord for fellowship and for providing those people in my life that I can be 100% open and honest with knowing there is no judgement. Thank you for the healing that took place in my heart and soul today!

Another big one of 2011 that I haven't blogged about is Lilly and Leo! Jordan and I started a bath products company. It has been such an amazing journey so far and I am so thankful for the support of friends and family. I never dreamed I would do something like this in my life, but hey...what's life without risk and adventure :)

You can check it out at www.LillyandLeo.com - the site was designed by Amick Cutler - you should definitely hit him up if you have design needs- he is the one that designed my blog as well :)

Well hopefully I will blog again soon....no promises though
P.S. I am writing this while listening to the Passion 2012 Livestream - Hillsong United is rockin it right now! Definitely going to have to purchase the digital access of the entire conference. Amazing!

Addict of all things Fall

2011-10-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

I realized the other day that I have an addiction, not a serious one :). The title of this post give it all away.... I am addicted to Fall and more specifically all things pumpkin. Hence the item that is in the picture below.

Yes, that is my very own container of Torani Pumpkin Pie sauce for coffee and yes, I do have a pump on it. This was purchased for me by a friend who owns a coffee shop, therefore I only owed him $11 for this entire thing!! It has saved me so much money, since I don't have to go to Starbucks any more. Ohhh and this sauce is SOOO much better than the syrup they use. So, for all of you pumpkin spice coffee lovers out there, I highly recommend getting yourself one of these.

Happy Fall Y'all!!

A little indulgence...

2011-08-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

turned into a lot of indulgence and then things like this happened.....

And that is how I got fat. Ok not really...the picture was really funny and had to share... but I have put on some weight and by some I mean about 20 pounds since I got married three years ago.

That is all going to change. I have joined a swim team and plan on eating much healthier to try and drop some weight. We had a biggest loser competition at work and well vacation happened, horrible sickness, issues with my birth control and so on. I ended up weighing the exact same in our final weigh in which put my percentage of weight loss at 0. Hopefully, this will help keep me accountable by updating ~~the world~~ my 12 followers on how I am doing.

Here's to a skinner me in oh, lets say about four months :)

Life

2011-06-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

Life has just seemed to fly by in a whirlwind these past few months and I haven't taken the time to blog about all of it. So, I thought it would be fitting to do a picture update with little stories here and there about life over the past couple months.

March (yes I have to start here because that was my last post about life...sad I know)
Well it was my birthday

My coworker Hannah made me the most amazing chocolate peanut butter cake you will ever have in your life.

I went to Vancouver for a work event, it is such a beautiful city. I think I could live there, I loved all of the modern design mixed with the history of the city. It is also a huge filming location, so Jordan could get work. Some of my favorite shows are filmed there, Fringe and The Killing. I enjoyed the whole weekend because I was also without a phone, since the international rates were INSANE! It was like a break from the world. We took a trolley tour of the city, which I highly recommend if you ever go. We got to see so much in a short amount of time. We also had some of the most amazing food while we where there. We took the recommendation of our coworker Jonathan and ate at The Irish Heather, we loved it so much we went back a second time :) Below is my amazing pot pie and the bangers and mash that Mindy got. The sauce was some sort of Guinness BBQ/gravy sauce, I asked for it in a bottle, but they don't sell it :(

April

This beauty here to the right is a barn yard burger. We tried them with our friends David and Anna. And since we are all picky about our fast food eats, we got the chicken sandwich from McDonald's and the bacon cheese burger from Wendy's. It was good, but I will never ever do this again....I was sure that I was going to die in my sleep that night.

The picture above was a super sad day for me, it was the goodbye party for my coworker Justin. He is pretty much like a brother to me and became one of my best friends. He seriously is one of the funniest people I know. He now works for Toms, which has already benefited me :) so I guess it is OK that he left.

Insert stress...preparing for our fundraising event in Chicago. I was a mess for about 2 weeks. Oh, but the best part about the event was that Bobby Bowden was our key note speaker and I got to have my dear friends from college there as well.

I had Intelligentsia for the first time AMAZING coffee

Its never Chicago with out Garrett's popcorn...love is messy....AMEN!

Jordan's present from the trip.

Jordan and I at our new favorite thing to do...watch soccer!! We are both huge LA Galaxy fans...oh and Justin was there too :)

May

I had the opportunity right after the event in Chicago to go to Florida to see my family. It is amazing how grown up my siblings are and it is awesome to be apart of their growing families. My niece Isabella is so cute and already has an awesome personality. She is such a ham.

I was also so blessed to be there for my sister as she gave birth to her precious little girl Aspen. We thought I was going to have to fly back to meet her, but she came just in time for me to be there and spend a few short hours with her. This was our first picture together, sorry it was so blurry the room was dark and my old iPhone doesn't have the nifty flash.

Here she is just a few hours old.

While my sister was having her baby my dear friend Corrie was having her second girl too!! It was so fun to come home to meet the newest addition to the Sullivan family....Scarlett

I also got to squeeze in some good auntie time during the last month. Sienna and I built a tent in our living room.

And Jordan and I got to be the first non-grandma baby sitters for Jet. I just love him and his parents soooo much!!

Well I guess that is all and we are now caught up to June :)

Hello Again

2011-04-22T18:11:00.000-07:00

I realized today we are nearing the end of April...UMMMM when did that happen, heck when did April begin. I feel like it is supposed to be March 10th or something...not April 22nd. I have been in a whirl wind of work, travel for work, huge events for work, helping to plan a film festival, trying to keep my house clean, throw a baby shower, and all sorts of other things that life brings along the way. Needless to say I have done maybe two things on the list of DIY projects I mentioned in the previous posts. Hopefully I will be able to share all of them with you by...lets say December so I dont let anyone down....hahaha!

As I was cleaning out the second bedroom and putting away laundry trying to find hangers I had a thought that lead me to writing this post...and no I haven't finished the laundry at this point....don't judge. SO back to hangers, we were out. I stood there for a second and just started pulling things off the hangers that I haven't worn in over a year! It was so great! Although, what does it say about me that 90% of the items were pink or included pink...I guess its just not my color...or I just dont like it. Anyway the point of this post was the hangers. I dont know why people buy more hangers! (I mean unless you dont have any at all or only own like 10). Why buy more when we dont really need that much stuff to begin with. I think this is going to be my new goal. No more trying to fit into clothes from college (sad note I have been out of college for over 4 years now!!) and no more holding onto clothes in case I have a corporate job again. I mean who really needs 20 dress shirts!! I certainly dont.

Ok, I am off my soap box...now back to laundry :(

Baby Shower

2011-03-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago my sister had her baby shower and I was so fortunate that technology is amazing these days and I was able to skype in for the event. I promised pictures of the items I made so here you go....

Flannel Receiving Blankets

Crib Pocket (Also her first mini skirt :))

A little outfit that coordinates with her room

I will post more detailed photos under the Create Tab for you to take a look at.

It's Official

2011-03-11T18:17:00.000-08:00

I am in love with this store....

I know that many of you are probably thinking..."Morgan, in love with a monogram shop?....I don't believe it!". But something about the crisp colors and the modern designs I just love. Especially the pieces done with gray!

I have added this to my wish list.

The only thing that kept me from clicking add to cart was the $55 price tag.

My last expensive Etsy purchase was well worth it, but this is probably not the best financial decision right now....unless I get it for my birthday...I mean I really shouldn't buy it now. I will save up for it, along with the phone upgrade I will be doing later this summer. Oh I can't wait!!

Chili bust

2011-02-21T22:32:00.000-08:00

So today was a bust on our venture to find our own signature chili recipe. Jordan has been obsessed with making a pot of chili ever since we watched the national chili cook off on the Food Network. He had mentioned it last year when we watched the show and then it came up again this year. I think the conversation went something like this...

"Why didn't you let me make my own chili last year when we talked about it after the show" J
"Ummm because you never brought it up again" Me
"Why do you hate chili" J
"I never said that" M
"Well we should finally do it" J
"Ok, just tell me what you want to put in it"M

Almost a month later we finally bought ingredients to our first pot of the "Owen's Famous Chili". But unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be famous. It was good don't get me wrong, but it wasn't AMAZING, tell your friends they have to have it, slap yo momma its so good chili. HAHAHA can't believe I just said that, but it was too funny to backspace...Any way, we also learned that the spices are a lot harder to find than we thought. Jordan bought dried chilies and I thought...ooo I will just use my microplane grater and it will be great! Well the micro plane worked for the first couple passes and then it just shredded the chili and didn't want to grate. For next time we will get a coffee grinder (Dad's idea) to chop up the chilies.

I will have to keep you all updated as we seek to find our own favorite recipe. And I might possibly share it once we do....or maybe it will become a secret recipe :)

Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-14T19:15:00.000-08:00

Hope you all are having a great Valentine's Day this year. I actually had some time on my hands this past week to make Valentine's.

They were super cheap to make as well. A few months back in the $1 section at Target they had stacks of paper, stickers, and other Valentine's Day products on sale for $0.50 each. I had also snagged a TON of scrap booking supplies in the free section of our laundry room. I acquired six stamp pads in assorted colors, stickers 5 different themed stamp sets, decorative paper, and card stock. It was AMAZING!! I totally scored on that one. Anyway, here is the result...

This was one of my favorites from the bunch

The back side of some of them

Drum roll please...

2011-02-13T19:10:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentleman the sewing machine has been dusted off and taken out of its hibernation!!!!

I have finally had some time (and fast approaching deadlines) to get some started and completed! I think my machine was feeling sad and lonely, but now it is happy as a sunny day. :)

I will have to wait to post the pictures and the how to's on Saturday after my sister opens them at her Mad Hatter Baby Shower! It is going to be so cute.

I also have a few other projects that I will update you over the next few weeks as they all reach completion.

Here's what to expect.
1. New shelves and display in our living room (Jordan's idea)
2. Curtains for the bedroom
3. Curtains for the living room
4. Pillows for the living room
5. Jazzed up store bought shower curtain

I am also on the hunt for dining room chairs. I have completed our table and now I just need to find 4 chairs that I can fix up. Hopefully, I will be able to hit up Goodwill and a few flea markets to see what I can find for as cheap as possible.

Now off to clean for our guest we are having Tuesday night and to make dinner!

Film Festival

2011-02-07T18:15:00.000-08:00

A quick update as I get ready to head to a meeting for the Mosaic LA Film Festival, on June 3, 2011!! I wanted to share this with you all so you can see what Jordan and I are up to over the next couple months. We both are super excited and honored to be apart of this event that will honor film and those that work so hard to make it all happen.

Jordan will be writing a short film that is going to be shown at the event to kick off the festival. I cant give away any details because we want it to be a surprise, but if you are able to attend it is going to be AMAZING!!! We are also looking for tons of help so if you know of anyone that is interested in helping out, get them in touch with me!! Below is the flyer for the costuming side of stuff.

Also, check out the Mosaic LA Film Festival website for more details.

Sisters

2011-02-06T09:04:00.000-08:00

My older sister Meredith was in town last week, it was the first time she has been here since we had moved to LA almost 3 years ago. I was sooo excited!! She is in her third trimester of pregnancy so it was now or come visit with a baby and all the junk you have to bring along for that. It was so great to spend one on one time with her and to act like kids again.

My sister and I have had a rocky road to get to the relationship we have now. We are COMPLETE opposites and growing up that was a huge challenge. I can't even imagine all the stuff we put my parents through and the worries they had about us ever getting along. We used to let people think we were just friends because we look and act so differently. But we grew up and grew to be the closest of friends and sisters. I am so grateful for her and for what she brings to my life.

This time around I actually enjoyed playing tourist with her. Growing up we had come to LA several times as a family and did all of that touristy stuff while we were children. It was so fun to do it again as adults and to see LA for more than the Hollywood Blvd scene. I was able to take her to places off the tourist track and allow her to see why we love LA so much! We ate so much food while she was here and did a LOT of shopping. I also took her downtown with my friend Anna for her to experience the fabric district and the hustle and bustle of downtown LA. I also got to introduce her to my friends out here, which was so great to give her a face to the names of the people I share my life with here.

Unfortunately, I was so caught up in just enjoying the time with her I didn't take a single picture!! So here is an old one just for laughs...

A little pruning

2011-02-05T09:04:00.000-08:00

Recently life has been so up and down and seems to be traveling at the speed of light in about 5 directions. I have been sick off an on for the past two weeks, which has been such a pain. I hate being sick, except for the excuse to sit on the couch all day and the ability to watch shows like Oprah and Ellen. But the feeling, the lack of energy and everything that comes along with it is miserable.

So life in a billion directions, sickness, and just some hard realizations about myself has brought me to this post. It seems as though everyone I have talked to over the past two weeks is right in line with the Lord because they have all told me the same exact thing. Not knowing one another and not knowing that another person had said those things to me. It was such a surreal moment of realizing that the Lord was using the people around me to get a message through....Life is hard and we are not meant to be blissfully happy all the time because the work of the Gospel is a path filled with ups and downs.

A friend and I were talking about how I have felt depressed and not really engaged in life and she reminded me what is said in Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It was the first time I realized that this valley in my life is here to teach me something and for Jesus to make known that he will not leave me and that he is by my side forever.

Another reminder came while at work. Every Tuesday during staff meeting we have a time of devotions and this past week was on John 15.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunesso that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

The message kept repeating in my head since Tuesday. My coworker that was sharing made a point during his talk that the road with Christ is not easy and we all have different scenery along that road, but it is the same road for all that have given their life to Christ. We are meant to come along side one another and encourage each other on this road not matter what the scenery is on our own path. Life is not meant to be easy, I mean really who wants a life that seems to be neatly stitched together with no struggles, no victories, and not sense of accomplishment of truly surrendering. All of this brought me to the quote by John Piper "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him". All of these trials have shown me that life is hard, but if I am satisfied in Christ and my heart is fully in love with him, then the trials are still counted as joy. "You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" Psalm 16:11.

I also really enjoy The Message version of John 15:9-10

I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done—kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.

All of this has reminded me that I am not alone in this journey and that this is the path that the Lord has me on. I know that it is not going to be easy, but I know that Christ is with me and that I can choose joy even on the darkest days because Satan has been defeated. I just take one step at a time toward letting go and giving Christ control and on those really hard days I just sing to myself "....And the God of peace will soon crush Satan..yes God will crush him underneath your feet!!" You know you all remember the song :) it instantly lifts your mood!

Faces and Places

2011-01-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

I haven't been feeling to well today, but wanted to update you all with the latest video from CHF. The creative and marketing team put this together and I think it is amazing!! It is so cool to see what the Lord has done over the past year through CHF and all of the people we were able to serve.

Hope you all enjoy it as well.

http://www.chfus.org/component/content/article/499.html

Welcome

2011-01-12T18:36:00.000-08:00

So keeping to the new me theme...how do you like the new blog?!!

I am in love with it! I can't stop going to my home page to just look at the amazing work my friend Amick did!

Life in the past two weeks has been a whole lot of ups and downs so I will just keep this one brief and update you more as things progress.

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12

New Year, New Me...

2011-01-04T17:33:00.000-08:00

I have never been a person to make New Years Resolutions, but this year I thought that I would give it a try, with a twist. I have been struggling a lot spiritually and emotionally as I have shared before, so I thought that I would do a cleanup of my life and try to get back to a productive state. I am not being super strict with all of this, but I am giving it a huge effort. Lets face it none of us like being in a state of numbness, so I am going to do things that make me happy and things that make me feel super productive.

All of this came about on my super long flight from Jacksonville to Los Angeles while reading the latest Real Simple titled Be Happier this year. It made me think about how much the God of the Universe desires that for me as well and how doing practical things along with completely surrendering the spiritual and emotional stuff over to God could totally change my life. So with the help of the Ultimate To Do List on Page 102-103 with a few modifications shaped out how I am going to start living life in 2011.

The resolutions that make me happy and help me to feel super productive (not zombie like) ...
1. Reading scripture daily
2. Cook dinner at least 3 nights a week (hoping leftovers can cover the other nights)
3. One night a week reading and not turning on a TV or computer
4. Send a friend a real piece of mail each month. (I love receiving cards or notes from friends and I thought what better way to stay in touch or to bring a smile to a friends face)
5. Exercise regularly - actually do the physical therapy that the doctor keeps assigning me....oops
6. Take my vitamins daily (I can't have dairy products, so supplements are the best option)
7. Live on a budget
7a. Clothing shop only when needed or if I have extra spending money
7b. Use our extra money to pay off debt
8. Blog on a regular basis about life
9. Ride a bike to run errands that are near by (when it gets above 60 degrees...its way to cold right now)
10. Live each day to its fullest.

The last one is the one I am most excited about. I don't think I have really done that since college and it was some of the best times of my life. To not worry about what tomorrow holds and to just live for the moment. Actually enjoy the conversations I am having with friends instead of thinking about the bazillion things I can do while I am on the phone with them. Just be in that moment fully alive and attentive to who I am with or what I am doing.

I hope each one of you (all 2 of you that read this) are able to look at 2011 in a new light as well. To let go of all the things weighing you down and allow the Lord to really move in you and shape you into the person He desires for you to be. Who knows what mountains you will move together!!

I will keep you all posted on my list and how it actually unfolds in my daily life!

Oh and check out the super cute "I can do this" button from my super talented friend Amick. He made it for his wife Christy, you can check out her amazing journey on her blog Fearfully-Wonderfully.

Surrender

2010-12-03T21:53:00.000-08:00

Life over the past year has been rough but the past few months have been....well really hard. It is amazing how writing everything out in a blog just seems like you are talking to people who can relate or read what you write and its exactly what they needed just in that moment. For me it has become and outlet, there have been so many times that I have written a post and never published it, but today is different. I realized that life is about how you share it and how you live for God and how you step back and allow Him to steer your path.

Just the other night for the first time I realized that I have never really experienced surrendering my life to Christ except for the initial time that I became a Christian over nine years ago. I am a person that just continues to stuff emotions down deeper and deeper so that I don't have to go through the pain, but mostly it is because I would have to let go of the control that I try to hold on my life. The Lord has taken me through some really hard days. But what hurts the most is the days that are hard and I take them out on others or allow that pain to take over my life. I feel like I have hurt so many people lately by completely running from them so that they can't see my life for what it really is. Or I have out right been mean to others in my life with my words and actions. Tonight talking with a dear friend she helped me to realize the amazing people I have in my life and how much I need to just let all of you in instead of running away.

I have been so scared not knowing how to start, what step to take first to allow the Lord to start pulling down my walls and to allow Him to start healing me piece by piece. I want to give my life completely and to give my heart, mind, and soul over to the God that sent his Son to die for me on a cross. To a God that has been there the whole time waiting for me fall into his arms. To a God that desires for me to know him deeply. To a God that has forgiven me. To a God that has forgotten my failures. To a God that has saved me.

So....my prayer is that I am willing to allow the Lord into my life and that I would look to Psalm 139:23 and 24 to change me and mold me.

From NIV...
Search me, God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.

From The Message...
Investigate my life, O God,
      find out everything about me;
   Cross-examine and test me,
      get a clear picture of what I'm about;
   See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong—
      then guide me on the road to eternal life.

And my worship song is Keep my Heart Alive by Sanctus Real

I’m so tired of politics
And all this bad news
I’m so tired of chasing the moment
Instead of chasing you

I let the world wear me down
I’m desensitized
Jesus, keep my heart alive
Keep my heart alive
Only you can save me from a world that’s breaking right before my eyes
Keep my heart alive

Take these empty hallelujahs
Fill my lungs again
Cuz I wanna sing
And I wanna mean it
I wanna feel again

And let the world hear the sound of something about
Jesus, keep my heart alive
Keep my heart alive
Only You can save me when my world is breaking right before my eyes
Jesus, keep my heart alive
Keep my heart alive
Only You can save me when my hope is fading and I’m losing the fight

And when the world wears me down
You’re my life’s love
You keep my heart alive
Oh, yeah!!
Jesus, keep my heart alive
Keep my heart alive
Only You can save me when my world is breaking right before my eyes
Keep my heart alive
Oh, keep my heart alive
You’re my only hope when my world is fading before my eyes
Jesus, keep my heart alive
Keep my heart alive

I know that this is going to be the hardest journey I have taken in my life up until this point, but I am just so tired of not feeling. I know that this is not what God had intended for my life and I know that I can only trust in him to get out of this. I ask that you all be in prayer for me as well. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your friendship and support!!

Disneyland and California Adventure

2010-12-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

On Black Friday Jordan, David, Anna, and I set out to Disneyland and California Adventure. I was so excited for my first visit to Disneyland. I know you all probably think that is crazy, but when you live so close to Disney World, there is not reason to venture across the country to see Disneyland.

It was so much fun and I loved everything about it....well just about everything. I liked how Disneyland and California Adventure are so close together, you can literally walk out one gate and cross a courtyard to enter the other gate. I also loved how Disneyland is laid out and the way the park is so compact. Disney World at times seems so HUGE that you just won't be able to see it all unless you are there for a week. The only disappointment about Disneyland was the Sleeping Beauty's Castle. I know I know what you all are going to say..."It was the first one", "They didn't have the space like Disney World had" and so on...but SERIOUSLY! Walt Disney was a visionary, a man that thought way before his time, I thought that the castle would have been much more grandiose than it was.

waiting for our first ride...Space Mountain!

Best ferris wheel EVER... the cars swing back and forth!

The view from on top of the ferris wheel

California Screamin

Tower of Terror...second time

The Haunted Mansion was done as The Nightmare before Christmas...it was extraordinary

It's a Small World all done up for Christmas

The castle and Walt with Mickey

It snowed on Main Street, you can see it in Jordan's hair

All in all Disneyland was great, but I have to say at the end of the day I missed Disney World and can't wait till I get to go again.

Empire State of Mind

2010-12-01T19:21:00.000-08:00

So a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to NYC for the first time! I went with some of the most amazing women I have met here in LA and I am so thankful to call them my friends. We all have such crazy schedules but we made it work. We all flew in at different times and to different airports, so I was a little nervous about taking the Subway by myself for the first time ever. But, I did it! I had no issues at all, well minus the time I got my bag stuck in the turn style bars. HAHAHA it was really funny and thankfully no one was behind me.

We had the privilege of staying in this amazing apartment in Greenwich Village. It was the perfect location, we felt like we were staying in a 5 star hotel. We set out with ambitious plans to conquer as much as possible in NYC.

We started the trip by going to Bryant Park, NYC Library, Rockefeller Plaza, the biggest Anthropologie I have ever seen, Radio City Music Hall, Central Park, Serendipity, Dylan's Candy Bar, MoMA, and a few other stops along the way.

They delivered the tree that morning

Central Park

My favorite Jackson Pollock is on display at the MoMa

The next day we went to Brooklyn and enjoyed the morning with brunch and shopping and a good slice of Pizza. That night my friend Matt took us on a food tour of NYC. It was the most amazing experience to try some of the "must have" food in NYC. Below is a photo from our last stop in Chinatown to get Soup Dumplings.

Washington Square Park....this was just a few blocks from where we stayed.

We went down to the World Trade Center to spend some time honor those that lost their lives and those that are still fighting for our country. It was such a moving experience to see the site and how they are developing the memorial site and the new towers. I can't wait to go back when it has been completed.

There was a can art exhibit in the Financial building. This one was my favorite.

The last day I spent touring the Chelsea Market and Meatpacking district. It was so much fun to venture out on my own and see all of the amazing things the city has to offer. I went to the Flat Iron building, Chelsea Market where Food Network is located and some of the most amazing food I have ever smelled and tasted! I then walked through the Meatpacking district and saw Diane Von Furstenburg Studio, Alexander McQueen and a few other amazing retail stores. I also passed by the Ground Zero Memorial Studio, which is where a lot of the planning is taking place for the site.

Over all the trip was amazing and such a great time away with three awesome women!

Super Creative Wedding

2010-11-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I helped my friend Anna with flowers and decorating the reception for a friend of her's wedding. I have to say the bride was definitely one of the most creative brides I have ever seen! She had so many wonderful ideas that made her wedding truly amazing.

I do not know the bride very well, but from the little I do she is a talented artist and has an amazing down to earth personality. I feel as though all of that came through every single detail of their wedding. The bride's instructions were for everything to be jewel toned and to be unique and fun. I loved the way it turned out! I have to say she was one of the most organized brides I have ever worked with.

This is where the Bride and Groom sat during the reception

Every table was completely different. The bride picked out one of a kind vases and mugs for every single table. The runner was craft paper so guests could doodle or play games. Each table also had two decks of playing cards.

Each place setting had birch cutlery, a unique colorful napkin, and crayons that held a note about love.

This was the main food table. The craft paper was used as table cloths. The bride did all of the signs by hand with paper doilies and twine.

Three different flavors of water! So good!

Amazing toppings for the hot drinks

Dessert table

The wedding cake. I loved the little felt bride and groom birds on the top of the cake.

Each guest was asked to leave their thumb print to make up the leaves on the tree.

The welcome sign into the reception

The dance floor.

Halloween Time

2010-11-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

October is one of my favorite times of year. I love how the weather starts to change, the leaves turn colors, and all of the delicious fall foods are available everywhere.
A few weekends back we had the chance to go out to Simi Valley and visit Underwood Farms for their fall festival. There were pumpkins everywhere, pig races, delicious fair food, a corn maze, wagon rides, and all sorts of other fun activities. We headed out there with our great friends David and Anna, Aaron and Corrie and their cute little 2 year old Sienna.

This was the view of the pumpkin field from the wagon

Sienna riding along

The view from on top of the hay in the corn maze

Jordan and I

The next day we had a pumpkin carving party with Dan, Lisa, Aaron, Corrie, and Sienna. This is the first year I have done a pumpkin free hand and not used one of those papers that you follow a pattern from. It was much more difficult than I thought it would be, but it was fun!

My "wood grain" pumpkin is on the left and Corrie's is on the right

It's Dora! Our friend Dan (who sculpts for a living, which is why it is amazing and yes he did just free hand carve this by just looking at a picture) carved this for Sienna, who is a BIG fan of Dora.

The Friday night before Halloween we celebrated at our friends Katie and Clayton's Annual Halloween party. It was a blast and there were some really great costumes! Below are our photo entries for the costume contest. Neither one of us won, but it sure was fun!

I am a Raven

Jordan went as Joaquin Phoenix

Hope you all had a great October as well!

Red Velvet Pancakes

2010-07-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

Many of you have asked me for the recipe that I used this past Saturday for Red Velvet Pancakes.

They were super delicious. We had our friends Aaron and Corrie and their daughter Sienna, my old co-worker Denise and Jaime from Dublin (visiting Aaron and Corrie) over for breakfast and to lounge around the pool for the day. We planned a great breakfast of pancakes, fruit, bacon, eggs, and OJ. I even made a mascarpone topping for the pancakes. Ahhh they were heavenly!

The blog that I got the recipe from was The Kitchy Kitchen. It is now up there in a tie with my favorite blog Smitten Kitchen. I love them both so much!! I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do!

After breakfast we then enjoyed the wonderful pool and sunshine outside. Oh and you can't forget the lemon and mint water to make the day feel even more like summer!

The next day we went to the beach just South of the Santa Monica Pier and enjoyed our time there as well.

This is Noah, who is also visiting from Dublin.We later decorated the top of the sand like a mermaid.

We had a great time in the sand.

Sienna in her cute lil swim suit!

30 Day Challenge

2010-07-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

So I have set a goal for myself to eat healthier and work out 5 times a week. All of this is in preparation for Insanity. I have been wanting to try the program (same company as P90X) to see if I could complete the 60 days of workouts. I shared this with my husband and good friend David Quinn and they both were concerned for my health. I guess you can really hurt yourself if you are not in shape and all sorts of other things. Normally, I would not have listened to them and gone ahead with my plan, but something made me think twice about it. Thankfully, I listened, hence the 30 days to prepare for Insanity. I watched just the fitness test for the program and got winded.

I am now on day nine and doing pretty well. I worked out almost every day the first week, but the eating habits still need a little help. My coworkers and I thought that it would be a good idea to try the Masters Cleanse this week at work. So yesterday I drank the water, lemon, and maple syrup mixture and had the worst headache all day. Around 3 Jordan called and said that he scored some amazing tickets to the Dodger game and asked if I wanted to go. I said YES!! Well the tickets included all you can eat food. GOOD FOOD! So, I ended the cleanse to eat and oh it was so good! Well today I feel horrible. Don't ever start a cleanse and just jump back into normal food, super bad idea. The game was so much fun, minus the Dodgers losing. The seats were second row on the 1st base line, which was so cool! We were so close you could smell the grass! (pictures soon, I promise!)

Needless to say, I am not going back on the cleanse. I am going to stick to my original plan of working out, eating healthier foods, and managing my portions. None of this crazy no eating nonsense. What was I thinking!!

Time Flies

2010-07-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

I realized today that I had not done an update since the beginning of the year! I am ~~not going to make a commitment to my blog or anything foolish like that~~ going to try and post more often.

We moved into a new apartment at the beginning of May. It is literally the apartment right next to the one we had. The living room walls are the same shared wall! We were offered the opportunity to move into this two bed two bath apartment, so we jumped on it!! The move was done in 3 hours, thanks to some amazing friends!! I am still decorating, but it definitely feels like home :).

We have been filing a lot of our spare time doing new and fun things around LA. My new obsession are Food Trucks!!! They have some of the best food I have ever eaten in LA. So Yummy!! This photo is from the Buttermilk truck. Corrie and Lisa are enjoying the Hawaiian bread french toast sticks. Yes you read correctly...they cut up Kings Hawaiian bread to make the sticks. We also had red velvet chocolate chip pancakes with this amazing cream cheese topping. Ahhhh I could go on forever about how delicious the food is!!

Jordan has been back to work for a little over a month now. So our crazy weeks of short films and visitors are over...for now :). Jordan and I are also working on a project together for the Mosaic Film Festival. He is writing and directing a short film for the event. It is going to combine fashion, music, and film. The concept seems awesome, but I can't completely share yet. I am going to be helping in the executive producer type sense, where I am not directly involved with all the the details, but I am going to put my two cents in. If anyone wants to attend the event just let me know, it will be held on November 13, 2010!! Stay tuned for more information!

Life has been quite crazy lately, I am still working full time and I am the new childrens ministry coordinator for Mosaic Westside!! Along with all the other fun stuff I mentioned above, but what is life if it isn't jam packed with things to do! ~~I am insane~~ I am so excited for the possibilities of how the Lord will use me and others to help mold the children in our church! Please be praying because it is a lot to take on.

Oh and to top all of that off I am officially an aunt! My niece was born on July 6th weighing 10 lbs and 22 1/2 inches long!! She is so adorable, I can't wait to see her when I fly to Florida in August!!
This is the best face I have seen her make thus far!!!

Ups and Downs

2010-01-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

This past week has just been one of those weeks. I feel as though many times I was being pushed to my limits emotionally, I really just didn't feel like I could take much more.

As many of you know from my last post my life has been consumed with the relief efforts in Haiti. There have been many days since that happened that I just wanted to call into work so that I didn't have to think about it. I guess I just thought that if I buried myself away in my apartment I would forget maybe for an hour that 150,000 Haitians were crushed in a powerful earthquake. I finally am in a place where I am seeing hope in Haiti. The pastors that we work with there are so amazing and so faithful! Many of them lost people in their churches, family members and friends, but they continue to carry on and help serve those who are without shelter or food. These men are the truest example of the Gospel I have ever seen! I have seen through their work that God is in control and that He will be glorified through all of this.

I also had a few days of really hard news just come one right after another. Have you ever had a friend that you were so close to that you felt as though what happened to them happened to you? I woke up Tuesday morning in the worst mood and just angry and I didn't know why. As I was driving to work two of my friends came into my mind and I just started praying for them and crying and pleading with the Lord to protect them and watch over them. That is when I got the first call...my friend's husband called me to tell me that she had a miscarriage. I was in shock and just started crying with him on the phone and as I was able to pull it together we finished up the call. I didn't understand! Why God? Why this friend? Hasn't she had enough? Haven't they done enough? I know that as the friend in this situation I can't even imagine what is was like. I was angry and just wanted to get on a plane as fast as a could to be there for her as she has been there for me so many times in my life!

Then about an hour later, I received a call from my Dad that my Mom had been cut from her position at work. She was given a new position that offered no medical benefits and one third the pay she was making previously. My parents were worried and wondered how they would afford to get medical insurance now. They were already struggling with the economy, like many others, but to then have this on top of everything else just didn't seem fair! After a tough conversation with my Dad about everything I was spiritually and emotionally drained.

I had nothing left to give...I just sat there at my desk and cried. I didn't know what to do or what to say....just cried. On one hand I just wanted to get on a plane to be there for my friend, and on the other hand I though, I can't just spend money like that when my parents are struggling. My heart and my mind just hurt. All I wanted was comfort and to offer that comfort to my friend and my parents. I felt so useless. But thankfully through my wonderful co-worker the Lord offered me just that. She leaned over and just read to me 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. I sat there and knew that God is good and that He will be glorified in all of this.

Even as I write this now I continue to repeat that passage in my head because the bad news hasn't stopped coming. Jordan and I's dear dear friend's mom is in the hospital fighting for her life from the cancer that has come in and out of her life for several years now. She is such an amazing woman and has meant so much to so many of us. She is a beautiful woman of Christ and a mother to anyone who comes through her door. As I sit here and think about her life and the children she has raised I can't help but pray that my life would reflect Christ so beautifully as hers has.

I know that the Lord will continue to send trials my way and that He will not give me more than I can handle, but man has it been a rough week. As I sit here crying with my heat wrap around my lower back (I threw my back out on Saturday), looking and feeling like a mess I know that the Lord loves his people. I am just so thankful to those friends in my life that keep me going and help me through the ups and downs, so that one day I can help them through it as well.

Haiti

2010-01-19T17:42:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to finish my update about my trip, but I lost my journal that I wrote everything down in and life has just been crazy. I have so much to say about everything that has happened in the last two weeks, but I will finish my trip update first since I finally deep cleaned the house on Saturday and found my journal!

The next day we set off for Santo Domingo to visit our partners headquarters there. We had the opportunity to meet the founder and the staff that works there. From there we headed out to another school/church to distribute vitamins and other products. This school was much smaller than the one in Haiti. We were able to play with all of the children and get to spend time with them and love on them. From there the Pastor walked us through the village that the church is located in. As we began the walk, I was taken back by the shanty houses that were just made out of pieces of tin. As we continued through the narrow maze of homes we were greeted by families who had so much joy in their eyes even though they had nothing. I think it was the first time I had seen a true picture of people who materially were poor, but not spiritually. It definitely brought my life and my complaints into focus. It was also amazing to see how everyone in the community knew who the Pastor was, they all loved on him and prayed over him as he walked through the village. It was remarkable to see how the Lord can use a man who humbly steps out of the way to let the Lord do His work through him.

Our next stop was in a small village named Lecherea. It was originally established for the families who were working in the sugar cane fields. Now the fields are no longer there and have left them with no where to work. As we were getting closer to the village our guide informed us that this community also had a lot of people who were infected with HIV/Aids. The first thought that ran through my mind was "Oh my gosh! Is this even SAFE?!" But, I was quickly reminded that it was Satan trying to poison my mind with things about these people. As soon as we stepped of the bus, we were surrounded by children. There was a girl who was 8 years old that caught my eye right away. She was shy at first, but as we continued to walk through the village she reached out to hold my hand! The people were so friendly as we passed by. As we continued, we then saw a woman cooking a huge pot of rice, later we found out it was the product that WE had shipped there just last week! Then another confirmation came as a gentleman walked by with a box of the rice casserole on his head! We were in shock! Then we turned and saw some boys with bags on their hands and feet boxing and ice skating with them. The bags were from the rice casserole that they had just eaten!!! As we continued to talk with them (well with the little Spanish I do know) and spend time in the village my heart was just overflowing with love for these people. My little friend had worked her way from holding my hand to riding on my back for the rest of the time. We stayed in the village as long as we could playing with the children and talking with the adults in the community. At the end of the walk back to the bus all of the children were playing tug of war with us to get us to stay with them, but eventually with tears in all of our eyes we had to get on the bus. My heart broke as we were driving away and they were chasing us and waving goodbye. About an hour later we arrived at our gorgeous hotel in the historical district of Santo Domingo. It is by far the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. They greeted us with warm towels to wipe our faces and all I could think about were the children we just left who were probably going to bed dirty or sleeping on the hard cold ground. I made my way to my room to find the house keepers there to turn down my bed the way I wanted it and to ask which side I wanted my slippers on for in the morning! As they left the room I sat on the bed and just cried. I just wept and sat there asking God how can this be fair. I just left the most impoverished community I have ever seen and now I am sitting on a down feather bed just a few miles away. My heart was aching and still is for those children. I wish I could do more, I wish I could rescue them, and them them more than just plastic bags to play with, but....The Lord gently reminded me that they were happy, they had hope, and that they were filled with HIS joy and all I would be offering is material wealth and that more than likely wouldn't honor our Savior as much as me praying for them and for the Pastor's that serve their community. They have changed me and helped me grow in my understanding of our Lord and His plan and that HE is the one in control and that HE is the one to be praised and glorified!

The next day in Santo Domingo we visited a few churches that were also apart of the network and then headed out into the community to deliver more food. The first home I visited with my team was a single mother with a daughter who was three years old. Her home was literally six feet wide and about nine feet deep. It was smaller than my freshman dorm room at FSU!! She explained to us that her husband left her and she had no idea where he was anymore. We prayed with her and encouraged her and were so impacted by the way she spoke about her faith and that she knows that she is loved by God!

From there we headed to the next location near the main river that runs through the city. The poverty of the community hit you like an upper cut to the stomach as you walk into the village. We met family after family that had been devastated by the many floods that have happened there or by the crime that occurs daily. Side note- at times when it floods the water rises as high as the second story of buildings and homes. The stories that came from all of the groups home visits were almost unbelievable. One of the groups visited a home where the male head of the household just found out he was going to die in a few weeks due to congestive heart failure. Another home was a young woman who had multiple children with a man double her age who just sat there most days and didn't do anything to provide for his family. The hardest story to hear of them all came from a woman who had a daughter with down syndrome. She was explaining how she was unable to work because she needed to stay home with her daughter to protect her from the numerous teenage boys and men in their community that try to take advantage of her. She and her husband were both fighting for her innocence. The woman began to breakdown telling us that her husband had just passed away about a month ago and that was their only source of income. On top of that she has breast cancer and fears that her daughter will be left alone in this world. The food delivered to her that day was the hope she was looking for, a glimmer of relief in the war she had been fighting. I could go on with more stories of despair in this community, but the Pastor and church in this community were such a true picture of people coming together as one body to impact their community for Christ.

Many times you go on mission trips and wonder, what is going to happen to these people when we leave. Not even once did that cross my mind because of the leadership in place in both the DR and Haiti. Those people in their communities were loved and taken care of to the best of their ability. I had the privilege to meet these men and women and walk along side of them for a week.
I pray that those moments will help to define my life and that my view of my needs will be changed forever.

I write all of this flooded with the emotions of what has happened in Haiti. This past week has been an emotional roller coaster for me. Our office has been working so hard to help get the word out and organize product and donations in the midst of being heart broken for people we all love so dearly. The stories of tragedy fill your mind and you are just so sad and then you get snapped out of it by an amazing story of rescue or a huge product donation that came. Then you are back down again when you see an email from one of the Pastors who has lost family and members of his church. It has been truly amazing to sit and watch the way the Lord has organized His children into action. There are so many churches and organizations worldwide putting aside pride and theological differences to help the Haitians in need. I am humbled to be working at a place that the Lord has been using in the wake of this tragedy. It isn't about what such and such organization is doing or what we are doing, it is about how God's people are coming together to provide hope to the people of Haiti. So, please keep praying for our Haitian brothers and sisters and keep praying that the aid reaches their hands and that there are people there months from now still helping them put the pieces back together.

Haiti/Dominican Republic Trip - Day 1

2009-11-15T21:13:00.000-08:00

So, as many of you know I just spent a week visiting Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A few weeks ago my boss Paul and Dave the president asked me if I wanted to go on the trip. I was like YES!! They said you have about 10 minutes to call Jordan and see if he is OK with it. Well you all know that he said yes, because I did go :)

I was a little anxious about the trip because my spirit has felt like I was missing something and I was just grasping for the Lord. I was praying that my trial wouldn't distract me while I was on the trip. The Lord grabbed my heart the moment I boarded the flight in LAX and in that moment I knew He was drawing me into Him to have a life changing experience. I have been back for a few weeks and I felt as though I was still trying to process the trip emotionally. I have never truly been a big journal person, but for some reason I thought to take one with me on my trip to Chicago (4 days after I got back I went to Chicago for work). As we were flying over the Grand Canyon, the Lord just flooded my mind and heart with the understanding of what I just experienced. (Oh and along with an amazing soundtrack "His Name is Love" provided by The Aaron Pelsue Band. Check them out, they are amazing!!)

I will start from the beginning....
We arrived in the DR in the evening and were met in Santiago by beautiful smiles and signs saying Welcome CHF. Jordan (not my Jordan), Claire, and John Pierre, and Pedro were there to greet us. It was so wonderful to see them and to have friendly faces as we stepped off the plane. The next day we set out early to visit Haiti. Our schedule was jam packed to fit in everything we could while still making it back to the boarder before it closed, but of course the Lord had another plan. We reached the boarder and were greeted by hundreds of men, women, children, and bulls protesting against the government for lowering the prices of milk (or a riot as we all called it on the trip to make it sound more dramatic). All of this to say, the boarder was practically closed when we arrived. We sat in our bus waiting as John Pierre took all of our passports and paper work to try and get us through. An hour and a half later he came back and had gotten us through the DR side of the boarder even with a bus that had not been registered in advance to cross! The man was amazing, he just knew that the Lord was going to make it happen!

As we were sitting on the Haitian side of the boarder I just prayed that the Lord would help us to be a light in the darkness and to help the people we came in contact with to know that we were coming in the name of Jesus Christ. As I looked up from praying a beautiful girl in a bright blue dress was walking by and waved at me. As we met eyes I realized I knew her!! I was in Haiti, how was that even possible!! She was a girl that Wade (our graphic designer at work/photographer) had taken a photo of her when we was in Haiti a few months back. Every time I looked at the photo my heart was stirred with a desire to pray for her. I wanted to jump out of the window and squeeze her tightly and find out her name and tell her how much I had been praying for her and how much Jesus loved her and to hold strong in her mighty Savior as she will face challenges ahead in her life! But just as we started to lose eye sight our bus was off to our first stop.

We were hours late as we pulled up to the school in Terrier Rouge. The 600 plus children were patiently waiting to meet us even though school had already been let out. Our team walked into the courtyard and hundreds of children just came running for us. It was so overwhelming!! Their beautiful smiles were breathtaking. I just stood there and hugged child after child and shook every hand that was stretched out toward me, because they couldn't get close enough for a hug. I fought back tears as I knelt there to be engulfed by their joy and love! I just wanted to scoop them up by the armfuls and bring them home with me!

As we walked around and distributed clothing, toys, and a little bit of food we were told by the head pastor that none 0f the children lived there on site. I was amazed, but so encouraged. The families of the surrounding villages would take in the children that had been orphaned! They literally have women taking in as many children as they can, just so they have a roof over their heads and are given the opportunity to have an education.

As we rounded up our time in Haiti and only visiting one of the many places we had scheduled, I realized the Lord had His OWN plan for our day. If one thing had gone the way WE planned I would have never seen the girl in the blue dress or met the extraordinary mothers of the children in the school.

I am going to end the post here since I have so much more to say about the rest of the trip. Next time I will tell you about the rest of our trip.

If you want to see pictures....
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2749994&id=5223368&l=de1555f67f

So...

2009-09-08T18:15:00.001-07:00

It has been such a long time since I have blogged. I feel like there really isn't anything that important for me to blog about & I don't think anyone really reads this (minus Carrie because you are so awesome at commenting) so, it just hasn't been a priority.

I have been traveling quite a bit the past two weeks, which has been a lot of fun! Two weeks ago I was in Salt Lake City for a convention with my work. I was a little bummed that I didn't get to see a lot of the city, but my co-workers are always entertaining! Below is a picture of Denise and as road kill. We are laying on the carpet that was the main walk way for the convention & we just so happened to match it.

This past week I spent in Pensacola visiting Amanda & Christy. It was such an amazing week just getting to spend time with them! There were so many fun things that happened and so many great conversations. I miss them both so so much! If you wanna see pics you can go to my facebook profile because Christy has the best pictures of the weekend.

This weekend also helped me to realize why this blog has been pretty hard for me to write. I was talking to Christy about why I don't blog that often (mentioned above) and she helped me to realize that I should be using it for more than just letting everyone know about what is going on in my life. I mean lets be honest we all facebook stalk each other and see the pictures on there. So, I am going to make an effort to blog more about the spiritual things going on in my life or just share with you the things I hear, read, or see. I feel as though the Lord has grown me in so many ways since we have moved to Los Angeles, but I have not done anything to share or even praise Him for all of it. I guess I just see this as an outlet to be honest about the things going on. So many times in my life I keep things to myself and think that no one will be encouraged by it. Hopefully, this will become one way to share with you and to glorify the Lord of all the highs and lows going on.

So stay tuned....

So, I did it!!

2009-06-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

Many of you may have already seen the pictures on Facebook and know what I am talking about : )!

I finally cut my hair. I have been talking about doing it for over a month now and decided last week was the time to do it. My dear friend Anna cut it for me. (side note: Anna is my newest/dearest friend I have made out here in LA. Her husband David works with me & before they got married a few months ago he kept saying "I can't wait til you meet Anna, you two would really like each other". I was like sure, whatever I have heard that many times in my life. I also being the girl who has not had many close girl friends in my life. In time we finally met and I love her!! She has become such an amazing friend. The kind of friend that literally we have talked every day over the past 2 weeks, just because we have something funny happen to us or have a really good joke that no one will laugh at except each other. I have prayed for this since the day I headed out in my car and drove to California. I just thank the Lord for the amazing friend he has brought into my life. Side Note finished) I had only seen her cut one other person's hair, her husband, but I trusted her and she did such an amazing job!! The more and more that I do my hair each day I like it even more. It is like endless possibilities on how I can style it!! Although, the real challenge will come on Saturday when I have to do it for Meredith's wedding, but I am sure it will look cute! Fingers crossed!!

This one is from Diane's Wedding on Friday night

Two month update

2009-05-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

So many things have happened since I last blogged.

The month of April was pretty much consumed by the fundraising banquet we did at CHF. It was absolutely exhausting to put together!! But is was such a beautiful event!!

On top of working crazy hours, Jordan, 3 Owens, Lipko, and Kyle all decided to film a series the week before in our apartment. It was crazy and there was no where to go and get alone time. I was stressed to the max & had a couple breakdowns here and there :). I think my favorite day was when I walked in the apt to what looked like Rhett screwing something into the counter top, don't worry though, he was only drilling into the Redrock that was broken :(. So to finish that week off we drove them all to the airport on Saturday and I literally circled around and picked up my parents and Eddie. They came in town for the banquet and to visit. We had so much fun!! I felt so bad that I was not up for going all over the place since I was so tired, but none the less we had a blast!

Then on into May we have just been so busy with life and work. Over memorial day weekend Jordan and I helped out at Revolution 09. They had asked CHF to be there to help raise awareness of the issues of poverty to the middle to high school aged kids that attended. It was so amazing to see how almost all of the churches in the San Fernanado Valley came together to hold this amazing event for the youth in their church. It was a weekend to help them to see the importance of having a relationship with Jesus and to help them understand what compassion ministry is. It was so amazing to see the kids and hear the stories of the lives that were changed and given over to the Lord. We had so much fun getting to talk to high school kids who were so passionate about reaching out into the world to make a change! So encouraging to see the next generation get it and understand that the world not only needs humanitarian change but a spiritual change as well!!!

Today was my last day working with my supervisor Diane. It was really sad to see her go and to see her half of the cube empty (yes we shared a cube). I realized today just how much she has taught me and challenged me in my faith. I know that she is one of the reasons why this past year of transitions has been so easy! She is definitely one of the best bosses I have ever had! (It will be really hard to top Jayne-Linda :) )

Well I guess that is all for now, I will try to do better! I will leave you with a quote from Francis Chan's book Crazy Love (which is rocking my world right now)

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. There voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Psalm 19:1-4

"This is why we are called to worship Him. His art, His handiwork, and His creation all echo the truth that He is glorious. There is not other like Him. He is the King of Kings, the Beginning and the End, the One who was and is and is to come. I know you have heard this before, but I don't want you to miss it. I sometimes struggle with how to properly respond to God's magnitude in a world bent on ignoring or merely toleration Him. But know this: God will not be tolerated. He instructs us to worship and fear Him."

It is amazing how this doesn't sink into our daily thinking of who God is!!!! Also, let me know if you want a copy of the book & I will get you one!!

March Madness

2009-03-31T16:52:00.000-07:00

This month has been filled with so many things!! It has been an absolute blast :)

The first fun day was my birthday, I had so much fun going out to lunch with two of the girls from work & Jordan treating me to a shopping adventure! He also sent me chocolate covered strawberries on my birthday while I was at work! He is so sweet. Birthdays have always been a big deal for me, probably because my parents went all out each year when we were kids. It is the one day when you feel comfortable in other people making a big deal out of you. I know that sounds self-centered, but its true...hardly anyone takes compliments well.

My Surprise from Jordan

Next up to the fun adventures, we had a fashion mixer and the wrap party for Jordan's job all in one evening. The fashion mixer was for a clothing company that designed a t-shirt to raise awareness of poverty among children (they give part of the proceeds to CHF, check them out ). So we show up at the party not knowing anyone, but the restaurant/lounge was really neat. It was downtown and had a pool/lounge area outside. It was really neat. I finally was able to meet the owners of the company face to face (super cool people btw) instead of via phone or emails. We then headed off to the wrap party for 90210 at another really neat club in Hollywood. I am kinda upset that we didn't take a picture on the red carpet, but at the time it felt really weird. The party was sponsored by Wii, which was cool because they had systems set up throughout the club. Oh and the food was amazing! It is always fun to hang out with the people Jordan works with & get to know them better. So we ended the evening with me losing my cell phone & searching all over the club for it & the security guard who found it called Carrie by accident at 1:15ish in the morning....sorry about that! But at least my phone was safe and sound.

We also celebrated our one year anniversary this month!! It was a really low key day filled with church, lunch at this really great panini cafe, and Crumbs cupcakes!! We didn't save our wedding cake, mainly because I didn't want to worry about it while we drove for 3 days to move here, so we got cupcakes & champagne to celebrate with. I will update you all in two weeks when we take our anniversary trip to San Fran (YAY!!)

Our amazing cupcakesMy fortune cookie from our Chinese anniversary dinner "The evening promises romantic interests" so funny!! (the picture is bad sorry)

The other exciting news is that both Jordan and I received promotions this week at work!! Jordan is in his last week of the season and they let him know that they were going to promote him next season to Production Coordinator!! I am so proud of him, he works so hard and definitely deserves it and the month and a half of time off between seasons! I also was promoted this week to Resource Development Coordinator, which was really exciting! I am pretty much going to be doing the same thing, with a little extra responsibility. It is just so neat to see how the Lord provides!!

This month has been crazy, but oh so wonderful at the same time! Filled with birthdays, babies, and many reasons to celebrate :)

Tough Questions

2009-03-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

In today's staff meeting at work we had a guest speaker, Francis Chan. It is always so amazing to have these devotional times or guest speakers who challenge us and speak truth into our work place.

Today's message was all about how so many times people lie to us, but more importantly is how often we lie to ourselves. He asked some pretty tough questions, that I am not sure how I myself feel about how I answered them. Anyway just thought I would share and allow you all to wrestle with some really great self-reflection.

Galatians 6:7-10 – God promises that when you sin, you will reap destruction

Do you have the willingness to get alone with the word of God?

Do I honestly want to know what God is wanting me to do that aligns with His will?

Just because we work at a christian organization does not mean we are doing a great job (or fill your job in or life in general)

Am I seeking the Lord in all that I do?

Am I serving in compassion?

Am I using my time and talents to the fullest potential?

Am I really as godly as people think I am? Or is it just the state of the world in which we live?

Am I doing good because no one else is noticing? Or for the glory in man’s eye?

Be careful not to listen to people/ourselves too much, but to be fully in the word of God.

Powerful stuff!! It really helped me to realize how much I listen and take scripture or theology right off of someones lips and not through a careful study of the Bible and time of reflection with the Lord.

Thats a Wrap!

2009-02-19T17:33:00.000-08:00

I have been super crazy busy at work and was so excited for my three day weekend coming up. Little did I know that Jordan and Rhett had my entire weekend filled with their short film project for the series Rhett's church in Indy is doing. Rhett came in Friday evening which was so exciting to have family come and stay with us.

Saturday was great!! The boys went out to the property we would be filming at, so I was able to sit at home and read, watch TV, relax, and get a few things done around the house.
Sunday was nice as well. I served in the 2-4's room at church, which was a blast. I had forgotten how much I loved to be around children as they are learning about God and singing and dancing! Oh it was wonderful! We made Valentine's for Jesus! One of the little boys who just naturally has ants in his pants was so precious when his dad came to pick him up. He ran up to his dad and shouted "We made Valentine's for Jesus to tell Him how much we LOVE him". I melted right there on the spot! After church we went to lunch (sushi = one happy Morgan) and then off to Starbucks & Ikea. There is not a much better way to spend a Sunday than sushi for lunch and browsing Ikea with a pumpkin spice latte. After that we went home and I took a nap while the boys worked on all of the material for the shoot on Monday. That evening we went to the airport to pick up Aaron Pelsue (Jesus for the film) and had In and Out for dinner. We took Aaron there to lessen the blow that we had to be up at 4:30 am, which means only 3 hours of sleep.

Monday came way to quickly. Around 4:30 we all got up to a rain storm and packed the gear and ourselves into the van. We made it to the property about 6:00 am just before sunrise and set up for the first shot. Oh and did I mention this property was in the desert, no bathrooms, and the nearest town was 20 minutes away! It was so cold!! We worked through rain, sleet, and at times snow flurries with crazy winds, but there were a few times throughout the day that the Lord blessed us with sunshine. I spent most of the day in the van except for when it was sunny and when they needed my help. I had so much fun getting to spend time with Rhett, Aaron, Jeff, and of course Jordan! It was great to spend the entire day with my husband while he was doing what he loves. Below are a few shots that I took during the scene when Jesus is walking to His death on the cross.

Check out the snow on the mountains!

I was pretty impressed with how they turned out considering I am horrible at taking pictures. We ended the weekend with an amazing dinner at Cheesecake Factory! I am still feeling the effects of the weekend in how tired I am and how my body is trying to fight off a cold. It was all worth it though, I just wish we would have had more time to spend with Rhett, Aaron, and Jeff (and wish that the rest of the Wise family was able to join :( ).

Honestly, Honest

2009-01-23T17:26:00.000-08:00

Thank you Carrie for this delightful little challenge.

I know that there are rules to this and I am suppose to pass this on, but I don't want 7 other people to be tortured by this as well....Did I mention I don't enjoy these things. Anyway, Carrie sent the challenge therefore I am complying.

I am not a fan of forwards and random surveys that people pass along. I have no ounce of guilt when they say you should pass it along because it is about Jesus. I think that Jesus would much rather us pick up the phone and pray for people rather than send them a ridiculous forward with horrible clip art pictures that twinkle.

1. People who claim to have an answer for everything really bother me. The most irritating thing in the world to me is when people give you advice because they think they are right and on top of that it is because they have not experienced anything else in life. I don't allow people to give their opinion about my life and how I live it, unless they are extremely close to me. I just have a problem when everyone thinks they have the right to give their two cents about something they know nothing about!

2. I have a hard time seeing the strengths that the Lord has given me. Which leads to the fact that I have no idea what I want to do in life.

3. I don't like to eat healthy. It is always nice to have a meal that someone else prepared that is amazing (like the Four Seasons Wellness Cooking Class I went to) and does not taste good for you. I enjoy eating fast food or baked goods. But, I force myself to eat well....ok well decently.

4. I love to organize things. I think that I am one of those crazy people who could go into other peoples homes and create organizational systems for people (if it was all my friends, digging through strangers things is a little weird). I think that this is why I could spend everyday in the Container Store.

5. I have a thing for shoes. To be exact tennis shoes or any type of comfy shoe. I could have an entire closet of shoes. My new favorite shoe is Toms Shoes, I could buy every design they have. AND they give a pair of shoes to a child for every pair you buy!!! Amazing!

6. When I am home alone, I love to sit with a cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate in random spots of the house. (Think "You've Got Mail" when she sits on the floor next to her bed) There is just something so cozy about curling up with something warm to drink and a good book.

7. I would like to think of myself as a loyal friend. I have a hard time letting go of people. I would defend any friend if it cost me my last breath or if it meant that I would have to be hurt physically or emotionally in the process. (I think it is also and issue with boundaries)

8. I struggle with slight depression/emotional roller coaster type feelings. I have never been the overly happy/bubbly type personality. It is hard because I try and internalize all of this or just deal with it when I am alone because I don't want other people to know.

9. I love children!! If I could adopt a child from every region of the world I would. There is just something so precious about the faces of children from all over the globe. Which is also why my heart aligns with all of the organizations trying to combat poverty, abuse, sweat shops, slavery (esp. sex slave trade), etc. It just makes my heart break and wonder why I can't adopt every child in the world that is hurting or in dangerous situations.

10. I have always wished that God would magically make me a singer. I dream that I can sing and hope that the next morning when I wake up, it actually came true. I sing all the time in my car or when no one is around to hear me. I am always so moved by music and wish that I was able to have that gift!

Ok that is 10! And I have to admit it took me quite a while to write this, so I hope you all enjoy.

Yay Christmas!

2009-01-07T17:16:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas break was so much fun I could ramble all of the details for hours!! So, here are my favorite moments....

1. Decorating our 1st Christmas tree together
2. Getting to spend Christmas with both our families :)
3. Playing Rock Band!!! (I stink at the drums btw)
4. Spending time with Christy, Amick, and Isaak
5. Meeting KP and seeing Justin and Jill (way to short :( of a visit)
6. Reminiscing about growing up with my siblings during our Christmas meal
7. The Christmas show that our church did (earlier in Dec. but well worth the mention!)
8. New Years Eve spending time with both our families...Rock Band, delicious food, fireworks, my Dad & Owen boys getting creative with fireworks and almost blowing off my face!!
9. Having lunch with my two most favorite ex-coworkers
10. Spending time with Marcia and Amanda
11. Dress shopping with Meredith for the big day!!!
12. Having dinner with David and Lauren and getting to see Jonathan and Allison all in the same night!!
13. Spending my first Christmas with my amazing husband!!

There are so many funny stories and lots of laughter filled with each one of those, but I won't bore you :)!

Oh and very sad my Internet or blogger did not want me to post pictures for all of the fun occasions so check out the link below!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2564840&l=533aa&id=5223368

OH Thanksgiving

2008-12-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

I totally forgot to update you all on Thanksgiving.

You can see pics in my previous post.

It turned out to be a wonderful day, especially since I didn't have to do all the cooking by myself. We combined Thanksgiving we some friends from church at Blair's apt. Which has the most amazing kitchen I have ever seen in an apartment....I mean it had a professional range and oven!! Anyway, there were 8 of us total and all of us girls divided up the cooking. It was a wonderful dinner filled with great new friends!!!

Oh and sorry Carrie, no turkey shot because I didn't end up cooking it. I was responsible for the sweet potato casserole, dressing, and sweet rolls.

Fun and Exhausting Weekend

2008-12-11T17:56:00.000-08:00

Work has been hectic the past couple weeks with all of the things surrounding the holidays. Not to mention the fact that a toy wrap was planned in less than a month, the keys to the warehouse were giving to us on Tuesday and we held the event for 1,100 volunteers on Saturday!!

But let me start from the beginning of the weekend. Friday night I told myself I had to get some good sleep because it was going to be a long weekend. Jordan's friend Matt came in town from NY to visit. Of course not seeing each other for a while they were in the living room around 1 am or so being noisy and woke me up. I couldn't get frustrated because I knew they were having fun, but then my alarm goes off at 5:45 am. In typical fashion I turned it off without realizing and woke up 20 min. late. I was like "Oh my gosh I am late!" and what does Jordan do rolls over and puts his finger over his lips and shhs me!!! I was like you have GOT to be kidding!!! Anyway I made it to our Holiday Pak Day at 7:15 in tow of a trunk full of bagels (that my apt finally stopped smelling of those gross onion ones like 3 days later) and freezing cold because I am not use to the hills and valleys and the drastic temperature change that can occur. I was in charge of counting people into groups of 100 and getting them in the door. I felt like I was working at Disney, telling people to scrunch together and follow the path. It was truly an amazing day, we had 1,100 volunteers wrap roughly 38,000 Christmas gift for kids in the local LA area!!! We also were fed Chick-fil-A which I have missed so much, it was a little slice of heaven (all 2 sandwiches!)
Then I was off to the mall to meet up with Jordan and Matt. We went to Forever 21 for them to help me pick out an outfit for the places we had to go that night. I realized that I have conquered any self image problems by having 2 guys waiting outside the dressing room for me to have them help pick out which outfit was the best. After that we came home and got ready for dinner. Once again modeling the two outfits I bought to decide between. Finally, the outfit was chosen and we were off to Katsuya (amazing sushi place in Hollywood). We met up with two of Matt's friends who were so nice (minus the fact that she is a huge Gator fan). We saw a few TV stars there, which was kinda cool. From dinner we went two blocks down the road to Jordan's work Christmas party. It was fun getting to meet all the people he works with and get to have actual conversations with them. He works with some really great people who are super nice. From there we went to a birthday party of a friend of a friend in Santa Monica (at this point I was not sure what I was thinking since it was already close to 11), he had rented out a restaurant/bar. It was crazy, loud music, people drinking, smoking, me tired, and it starting to rain was a bad combo. So, Jordan took me to go find coffee, which none were open. We decided to drive around Santa Monica and look at all the decorations and cool little stores. We then parked the car and I proceeded to lay back the seat and fall asleep. Sometime close to 2 am we were finally on our way home!
Sunday, we were up and back at it again. We went to this amazing place called Hugo's with a guy Matt knows from the LA office of his company and the guys girlfriend. The restaurant was an earth friendly type place that had soy/gluten-free/vegetarian options. I had pumpkin pancakes with currents....amazing!!! OH and they had soy coffee creamer!!! It was wonderful!! The couple we ate with were super sweet and all around totally awesome people!! From bfast we went and did Sprinkles Cupcakes and walked Rodeo Drive. Since it was kinda chilly we then drove around the rest of Beverly Hills and then headed off to Santa Monica to hang out with some friends. There we walked down to the 3rd Street Promenade and the Santa Monica Pier. It was so nice and chilly and fun to see all of the stores decorated for Christmas. After all of our legs were jello from walking we decided to call it a night and head back to our neck of the woods. For dinner that night we had a mexican food tasting. Del Taco and Nachos (little place next to our apt). We came back and spread it all out on the living room floor, ate and watched Extreme Home Makeover. It was wonderful and Nachos is my new fav restaurant. It was a great way to end the weekend!

Pictures from Thanksgiving/Matt's Visit
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2548564&l=f8222&id=5223368

Now I am just counting down the days til we get to go to Jacksonville!!!

Random, but an update

2008-11-19T16:46:00.000-08:00

Life has just been moving right along and I feel as though nothing exciting has happened to be blog worthy, but here is an update for those of you who keep asking....

First off, yes we are fine and we are not on fire. Once again the fires got somewhat close to our house and we were mainly affected by the smoke. Saturday was pretty bad and the air quality was horrible. We even had ash on our car. It was so sad to hear about all of the homes that were lost and the lives that were completely changed. I could not imagine waking up to a bang on the door and a loud voice saying "GET OUT"!! They literally had minutes to flee their homes and grab what valuables they could as they were running for the door. I guess the neighborhood that lost 500 homes looks like a bomb was dropped and everything is just rubble on the ground.

Jordan and I are doing really well and are celebrating the fact that he got promoted again! I am so happy for him and just praising the Lord for the many blessings he continues to bring into our lives!

Speaking of blessings, Isaak Leland Cutler has finally joined this world, and I can barely contain my excitement for Amick and Christy! It is making the wait for Christmas that much more difficult. I can't wait to hold him and give him kisses and tell him how lucky he is to have such amazing parents. I just wish God could freeze him right now, so that I can see him still so tiny and new. It will be amazing to see how much he has grown in just a month!

As for myself I am working through some issues of who I am and what the Lord is calling me to do. Right now at church we are discussing living a life Wide Awake and pursuing the dream that God has called you to. The other weekend when Erwin asked us what we think our passions and dreams are, I couldn't think of a thing. To make matters more complicated he asked what are the things in life that drive you, that excite you, the thing that keeps you focused and feeling needed. The only thing that came to mind was "Taking care of Jordan". Not that taking care of him is bad, I know that as a wife I am called to support my husband, but I was left asking God Is That it? I feel like I am suppose to do something more!? Some of you may be thinking whatever you work for an amazing organization that helps thousands of children around the world! But that is still not enough, so I ask that you all would pray for me as I dive deeper into these questions with the Lord. I have never had a light bulb moment and not expecting that to happen now. I know that the Lord is going to probably grow this in me and ease me into the true calling he has for my life. So until then, I will be searching, praying, and listening for that thing that compels me to live a life wide awake for the Lord!!

Tagged

2008-10-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by my wonderful friend Carrie (her blog).In order to follow the rules of this "tag", I need to let you all know 7 things about me. I do not guarantee they will be intriguing or especially interesting. They will be what they will be.

1. I am borderline OCD, especially when it comes to my home. Those of you who have lived with me can agree.

2. I love to cook and bake and enjoy making food for other people!

3. My dream home is an old home that Jordan and I worked together to completely renovate and make it green.

4. I would love to have as many children as possible and adopt kids from all over the world.

5. My dream job is to have children and not have to work, but be able to volunteer somewhere (CHF) or help my husband with his production company

6. I have always wanted to learn how to fly a plane.

7. I LOVE college football....go NOLES!!

Owen Invasion!!!

2008-10-05T17:08:00.000-07:00

This past week was wonderful!! Jordan's family came to visit us for a week. We started out their visit by going to church at Mosaic and enjoying our Sunday afternoon in Beverly Hills just hanging out and spending time together to catch up and of course laugh (those boys are hysterical!) We had to stop at Johnny Cupcakes for Casey to get a shirt and then went to Sprinkles and Crumbs (which is so much better!) On our drive home we took Mulholland Drive to see all of the amazing views and ridiculous homes!
Monday we ventured down to San Diego to the S.D. Zoo. I haven't been there since I was like 10 years old, so it was great to see it again. We had a blast seeing all of the animals and the crazy things that they do. The Galapagos tortoises were making baby tortoises and the tiny baby monkey was so adorable!! Aaron, Emily, Jeff, and Lucy met us there. The panda's were my favorite and hearing Lucy say all the names of the animals!! That evening we celebrated Rhett's birthday at Jeff and Suzy's along with their two precious girls Lucy and Margaret. (it made me want to adopt a baby from Guatemala!)

Wednesday, was probably one of the best nights of the week. We went down to Hollywood and ate at UWink. It is this great restaurant in the Kodak Theater mall where you order all of your food off of a touch screen computer in the middle of your table. You can also play games while you wait for your food. We then headed down to Pantages Theater to see Wicked!! On our walk we saw them filming for the TV show Numbers outside of Beso. Rhett got us amazing tickets on the floor center stage about half way up!! It was an amazing first time theater experience. The show was great!! I loved the story (it was a lot cleaner than the book) and all of the songs!! They did such a great job. After the show we enjoyed the late night walk back to our cars, which is always interesting in Hollywood.

Thursday was visit our work day! Denise, Rhett, and Casey came to visit my work and get the grand tour of CHF. (Wooohooo Jags defense just scored!!! Sorry watching the game as well as updating) We then headed off to Jordan's work to see the office and the studios. We were walking down the stairs of the parking garage and I opened the door straight onto the set of CSI Miami...opps...it was totally their fault though, because there wasn't a sign on the door. We then walked then walked the halls of West Beverly High, which was crazy!! It is amazing what they can do with a set, you think the outdoor scenes are filmed outside, but they aren't (well most aren't). We toured his office and got to meet all of the people that I hear Jordan talk about all the time. The producer then told us to head back down to the set to watch them film!! So we sat in the Wilson's breakfast room with the Director, Exec. Producer, and the Producer to watch them film a scene that had Rob Estes and Shenae Grimes in it. We even got to witness a blooper by Rob Estes, which will definitely be on one of those blooper shows one day!! After they finished the scene they came in and introduced themselves and talked with us for a little bit. They were so unbelievably nice and welcoming it us!!

We finished off the week by going to The Getty Villa in Malibu. It was beautiful!! It is designed after famous places in Greece and Rome and it over looks the ocean. After the museum we stopped so Denise could stick her feet in the Pacific Ocean and then we made our way back home through the mountains. It was a wonderful finish to our great week. I can't wait for more friends and family to come and visit!!!

Check out more pictures from their visit...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2510645&l=74e90&id=5223368

Car Roller Coasters

2008-09-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in a while, but not much has been blog worthy. Except for this past weekend.

It started out on Friday night and going to the Dodgers game. It was their first Volunteer/Non-profit night, so a group of us from work went together. Diane, Sandy, David and myself all met at my apt and headed out on our adventure. First stop, Pumpkin Spice Lattes! We then made it really quickly to the stadium, so David said he would take us on the most fun hills in LA. We headed to Silver Lake area (which is where Jordan & I dream to live) to find the road. We finally arrived to Baxter Street and I had no idea what we had just gotten ourselves into!! We were heading up the hill and all I remember was David saying "punch it now"! We went flying up the hill and right over the top to see the drop on the other side! It was a serious car roller coaster, my stomach even did that crazy twist and turn! So I though it was all over and then...There was another hill and Diane went for it again! It was so much fun.

This is one side of the hill

We finally made it to the game and had a blast eating Dodger Dogs and Garlic fries (which I don't recommend unless you LOVE garlic or have a stomach of steel). They lost and the game itself was boring but we entertained ourselves and had a great time!

Saturday I got to hang out with Marcia (aka Stacey)!!!! Jayme, Marcia, and I had fun shopping and going to lunch in Burbank. It was so wonderful to get to see a friend from back home!! Her trip was way to short, so we only hung out for a couple of hours, but I loved every minute of it!!

Then it was back home to watch the FSU vs. WF game!!! I was so excited that we got it on TV out here...Jordan and I were stoked!!! Then the game started and that feeling of joy and happiness of watching the Noles at home and hearing the drum beating quickly vanished in a poor offense, penalties, and interceptions. It was sad to watch our Noles play that way, but we kept telling ourselves "They are freshman, imagine what Bobby Bowden and the rest of the coaching staff can do with them over the next few years". But then there are doubts like remember when we said that about Chris Rix who is now only a TV personality. We are keeping our hopes up and supporting our Noles no matter what!!!

Finally the weekend ended with the best part....Mosaic!! We love our church and I love going every Sunday. There was a time that it was a struggle for me to be excited and motivated to attend church, but I love Mosaic and the teaching, and music!

I am sure I will have another great post after this week, Jordan's family gets here today and we have a week packed with fun and exciting things to do!!

Cupcakes are heavenly

2008-09-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

Today Jordan and I went to the most amazing place on earth, Crumbs Bakery. It surpasses any dessert I have ever had in my life! We had both tried Sprinkles, which is supposedly the best place in L.A., but I was severely disappointed. So, we tried Crumbs. Their menu is unbelievable, there are so many choices! I stood there for a while trying to decide between cappuccino, s'mores, red velvet, Reese's, brownie, Boston cream pie, and the list goes on. Jordan and I finally left with brownie, cappuccino, and Boston cream pie. The whole car smelled so delicious I could have licked the steering wheel!! I highly recommend if you are ever in NYC or LA you have to go!!

Other than cupcakes there has not been much happening here. I was sick all of labor day weekend, so our only adventure out of the house was to church. We had a pasta party on the lawn of BHHS where we have church. It was really good. They had made to order stations set up for you to order what ever you wanted on your pasta. It was quite humorous when we were waiting in line talking to my friend Laura and a few of her friends (who didn't know Jordan) and he was telling them that he works on the new 90210. Then all of the sudden written in smoke in the sky was a message "90210 Tuesdays on the CW". It was hilarious!

We spent this weekend decorating our apartment for Halloween!! I love it!! All of our decorations look so good especially since our living room colors are white, black, and orange!! There will be pictures to come. Probably closer to Halloween when I get it all done.

Growing

2008-08-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

It just seems that not much has happened, but I am updating none the less.

Jordan and I have both been really focused with work, especially him. He has been putting in 60 hour work weeks lately, but at least it has been earlier in the day and not working throughout the night. Hopefully, 90210 will be good (oh and check Jordan out on IMDB at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3075138/) since they all are working so hard on it. Shameless plug: 90210 airs on Sept 2nd on the CW.

My job has been wonderful, and a little tiresome since we are converting over to a new database system. Data cleanup was my life this past week :(

It has been getting pretty lonely out here the past two weeks. We had some friends in town last weekend, which was awesome, but way to short since they were here only for the day and it was for a concert, not to spend the entire day with us. I have really missed seeing my family and friends. You never really realize how much just going to lunch, coffee, or just sitting next to someone means so much to you until they are 3,000 miles away. It has been tough not getting to share in all of the big moments in their lives and only getting to see pictures or talk on the phone. It all started out when a really good friend had a miscarriage and all I wanted to do is go and hug her. I wish that I was there to just take care of her other kids and give her a chance to breath, cry, or do whatever she needed.
I thought that it was getting easier and then I found out that through my sister that my aunt has a large tumor on her lung and will probably not make it. It was so hard to keep it together while I was at work after I had found out. All I wanted to do was get on a plane and be with my family, but stupid plane tickets are so expensive!! I just pray that the Lord eases her pain and that she knows how much we all love her.

It is amazing how the Lord takes these times in your life to teach and mold you into the child he calls you to be. I had the tough realization that I was not growing in truth and wisdom in Christ. My life has been a battleground ever since I declared this a bible study, but I know that the Lord will continue his good work in me and not leave me to figure it out for myself. I just pray that I will live a life that has Jesus sticking out all over!!

Correction

2008-08-17T22:10:00.001-07:00

Hello to all who read my blog. I just wanted to post a correction about a previous post (Amick & Christy + 1).

So, I compared Christy to Kate from the TLC show. After catching up and watching the current season, I take it back. Christy is such a better person than the one that is portrayed by Kate. I have been a huge fan of the show and loved watching their kids, until just recently Jordan was watching with me and pointed out how rude Kate is to her husband. Most of the ways I compared them to do not paint Christy in a negative light, but if you don't know her and watch a show you would think that she is rude, controlling, and OCD. Not the amazing woman of God, who loves people whole heartedly, who loves her husband unconditionally, and will be an amazing mother that she is!

I know that it is TV and that you can't really tell how a person actually is in real life, but I just wanted to point out that the version portrayed on TLC is not Christy. I also read quite a few articles on the family that discuss their TLC contract and the help they receive in their home. Although, there are a few things that seemed similar in previous seasons, this season has changed my view.

Sorry for the comparison and I hope that you all will see the amazing woman that Christy is by checking out her blog(on my friends list).

Sharks and Earthquakes

2008-08-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

This has been one action packed week!! Jordan and went to The Aquarium of the Pacific on Sunday. It was so neat!! It is in Long Beach, so we decided to go after church, so the drive would not seem as far.
When we got there we went and ate at California Pizza Kitchen. Amazingly enough it was my first time eating in the restaurant. I love their frozen pizzas, but this time I got the real thing!! We then headed over to the aquarium which was super packed! It was wonderful though seeing all of God's creations that you might never have the opportunity to see since they live in our vast ocean. I felt like a kid and was so intrigued by so many of the exhibits. By far the coolest things were...

Seeing baby sharks still in their egg sack (or whatever it was called). They had them up against the glass so you could see the sharks moving around and breathing.

The large octopus that they have. They feed it with a Mr. Potato Head. The octopus pulls off its parts and then gets the food that they put inside it, so neat!!

Watching the sea otters and how much they mimic human movements. I think Jordan and I could have watched them for hours.

Seeing all the different kinds of jelly fish. I know they hurt like crazy, but they are just so beautiful!

Watching the seals and sea lions during their show and doing all of their tricks. They are just so cute!!

The sea horse exhibit. It was the neatest thing I have ever seen. The leafy and weedy sea dragons were spectacular, I mean it is amazing how God even thought to create something so intricate. Below is a link to a picture of one.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/enlarge/leafy-sea-dragon_image.html

Ok the absolute best part about the aquarium was petting sharks and stingrays!! They are so cool, I wanted to keep petting them. The stingrays were so soft and leathery feeling. They were in this shallow pool and would try and swim up the sides and they would get right in your face! The sharks were like sandpaper, I couldn't believe I got to pet a shark!! Some of the stingrays were huge and would just lie on the bottom and you could pet them forever.

After the aquarium we walked around Long Beach to see the Queen Mary and the lighthouse. It was such a beautiful day and the ocean breeze was wonderful!
On our drive home I convinced Jordan we had to take the Pacific Coast Highway because it is the most breathtaking drive I have ever experienced. Well, since I was a kid last time I had done the PCH I forgot that through LA it doesn't run along the coast until you hit Santa Monica...Oops! But, it all worked out because we drove by some of the places that Jordan's work films at and got to see some really awesome contemporary architecture. Finally, we hit Santa Monica and the drive was beautiful, we headed up through Malibu and then decided to head home. We took Malibu Canyon Road home which is where Pepperdine is located (By far the most beautiful college campus ever!) and we drove through the mountains and stopped to take a few pictures of the canyons below us. It was an amazing day topped off with good Chinese food (not Panda Express!).

So I am sure all of you are wondering or are oblivious to how my first earthquake went. All I can say is that it is the weirdest feeling. I was sitting at my desk in my lil cube and all the sudden my cube walls started to move. My first thought was that someone has slammed the front door and the wind caught it, but we are in the valley and their really isn't such a thing as strong winds. Carol (HR person whose office is right across from me) said earthquake so calmly. I was like WHAT!!! She said again so calmly "yeah, we are having an earthquake". No one was doing anything! In my head I was thinking OMG I need to duck under my desk or run to the nearest door frame!!! AHH!! Then it stopped. It was like being inside a bowl of jello. Everything just waved or rippled. It really wasn't a shaking or vibrating that I normally would associate. After it was over Carol then gave everyone directions in case we had an aftershock. I was like ok God one was enough we don't need an aftershock!!
The entire office was pretty much in the lunch room 15 minutes later all grilling me on how the Florida girl did with her first earthquake. I was amazed, they were all talking about how fun it was and that was the best earthquake ever because it lasted so long! I guess that comes with the territory out here, you have an earthquake and if it didn't split open the earth you just keep on going. As my dad's friend always said, Oh yeah we just had a quake, but the sun is shinning at we are out side with the BBQ! I guess with hurricanes you worry about so much leading up to it, but you never know when a quake is going to hit.

Jordan and I are both fine and had no damage to our apartment, so no need to worry about us!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2476539&l=ed0df&id=5223368

Amick and Christy + 1

2008-07-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this is the most random post ever, but I had to share with everyone my thoughts. Oh and Christy get ready cause this one is all about you!!

I have become obsessed with watching Jon & Kate + 8. It has nothing to do with watching their lives and being like a crazy stalker to a family I don't know. Kate reminds me so much of Christy that I watch it because it feels like I am watching her!! I know that sounds crazy, but let me explain.

Kate is a wonderful cook so is Christy
Kate and Jon banter back and forth all the time, so do Christy and Amick (if you have never seen this you are so missing out, because I think it is my fav part of being around them)
Kate needs to sleep and have time to herself, Christy in a nutshell

The list can go on and on, but if you know Christy really well or have lived with her you would see it in just watching one show!! Jon and Amick are more different, because Amick is just nuts and has the most random thoughts and ideas of anyone I know (wait I just lied I did marry and Owen).

I just love it because I know that Christy is going to be an amazing mom and I can't wait to see her with eight kids running around at her feet!! You have to watch the show and think of her, at least I do and it makes me feel like we are not 2,000 miles or 2 times zones apart.

Love you and miss you Christy and Amick!!

Just an update

2008-07-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

Not really much is new, Jordan and I have both been working and living life!

We had a nice and relaxing fourth of July. We went to Porter Ranch, which is right up the road from us, to see fireworks. They were just ok, definitely not the best ones we have ever seen. It was then followed up by a nice hour long traffic jam in the parking lot.

Jordan has been working really hard lately, and working long hours. I think we have seen each other 10-15 minutes each day over the past week, which has been hard. Thankfully he is suppose to have somewhat normal hours next week. It is fun watching E news or other gossip news and seeing them talk about the drama with the actors or seeing parts of the set. I am super excited to see the show and hopefully see Jordan's name pop up in the credits for a nano second, but at least I know it is there!!

Work has been great for me and I love my new biblestudy. All of the girls are so open and so sweet. I went to dinner with Jac and Amy this past Friday evening. It was my first time going out with just girl friends since we have been here. I had so much fun!! We also had some great entertainment sitting at the bar and listening to the bartender try and pick up this guy who lives in Las Vegas. It was insane!!! God has truly blessed Jordan and I and I am so thankful for everything He has placed in our lives and especially the women in my biblestudy.

It has still been hard being away from friends and family. It really hit me yesterday when I was out shopping for baby gifts for lil Kennedy Paige and Isaac Morgan (I think it sounds good!!) It was so much fun picking out all of the little outfits and thinking about how both of them are growing big and strong in their mommies bellies. Although, it did help me to realize as much as Jordan and I want to have kids, I am so not ready for that. I was in Gap talking on the phone to Christy and this little boy was screaming so loud I had to leave!! It is hard not being there to see all of those moments, but I know that God is still providing new friendships and keeping the ones who are now far away just as strong as ever. Now everyone just needs to come and visit, but I recommend after August, because it is really hot here!!

Well that is all for now, hopefully I will have more exciting news next time. Love you all and miss you terribly!!

Prayer Request

2008-06-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

Please pray for my friend Helen who is having troubles getting pregnant. She and her husband are dealing with a lot and are trying to work with an infertility specialist. I just hope that the Lord is glorified whatever the outcome may be.

Visiters/New Job

2008-06-21T11:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, two posts in one day, but I had to update you all to stop everyone from yelling at me!!

The last two weeks have been probably the best two weeks I have had out here in LA thus far. Last Wednesday I went into Children's Hunger Fund for my formal interview, which went really well. Two hours later they called me and offered me the position which was a huge answer to prayer!!

Last Thursday we had our first visitors!! Melissa and Rusty stopped in LA to spend the day with us before they headed out on their CA adventure for Rusty's friends wedding. We started out the day at Maison Richard for lunch in Beverly Hills. It was so yummy! We then went through all the shopping areas on Rodeo and Robertson and ended our BH adventure at Sprinkles. The cupcake was good, but not amazing as I hoped it would be. The line was nuts though and the shop is really tiny. I am not quite sure how people make it a hang out place. The day was also filled with a lady calling me three times to come and work as the front desk receptionist for the Cheesecake Factory's Headquarters...I said no and she wouldn't leave me alone! We then headed to Hollywood to see the star walk, Mann's Chinese Theater, and all the freaks. We parked at the Kodak theater and little did we know there was a red carpet event. We tried to do the star walk but mostly all of it was covered by the red carpet. We walked over the Mann's and then headed back to the red carpet because we believed someone who told us it was an awards show...they lied. We stood there for about two hours with all the crazy Asians and waited for the talent. Just so you know if you try to reach out and touch the talent you will be arrested!! After being attacked by an Asian woman, staring at Louis Vuitton across the hall, and seeing Jane Fonda stumble down the red carpet trashed we decided it was time to go. We then headed out and met Jordan at Westfield Mall in BH which had the nicest food court I have ever seen. They served your food on real dishes!! It was nuts!! We then said our goodbyes and they head out on the rest of their trip.

I accepted the position with Children's Hunger Fun and started work this past Monday. All I can say is that it is amazing!!! I am the administrative assistant for the resource development dept. I really didn't think I would ever work at a job that had such a great atmosphere, honors the Lord, has accountability, prayer and devotionals start out our meetings, have such amazing people, and get to feed hungry children all over the world!!! I have had the best week and I never thought that phrase would be used to describe my work life. On my first day they had a meet and greet meeting for me and at our staff meeting on Tuesday I was able to share my testimony. Everyday you feel so blessed to go to work and get to serve the Lord and the physical and spiritual needs of so many children. Just walking through the warehouse you are moved by the amount of food that people donate and the volunteers that give so much time to help fill all of the food paks sent out. It is just amazing to sit in meetings and brainstorm how you are going to help raise 1,000 backpacks for children in need of school supplies in LA and Chicago (which is our other mercy network in the US) and in the matter of 30 minutes they have an entire plan to be executed over the next two months. I could go on and on about all of the amazing stories that I have seen/heard this past week. I hope that this feeling of joy, excitement, and awe of what the Lord is doing never goes away and that I don't become complacent at my job!

I also went to my first SHE bible study through Mosaic on Tuesday night. It was so much fun!!
The women are so open and kind. I felt right at home my first week there. It is a great feeling to be connected to a church family and I am so happy that Mosaic has provided that for us. I feel like we have been here for much longer by the way I feel so at home with all the people the Lord has placed in our lives thus far!

Oh and another praise, Jordan was working last week as a fill in for an office PA on the new 90210. On Friday they offered his a full time position for the rest of the season!!! The Lord has provided so much for us since we have arrived here and we are so blessed!!

Pictures will come soon of our adventures in Beverly Hills and Hollywood...in the mean time go check out www.childrenshungerfund.org to see what I get to do everyday!

Memorial Day

2008-06-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

I know this post is a little late, but I still need to share!!

I went home for Memorial Day weekend/Austin and Amanda's wedding. I have traveled dozens of times by myself, but let me tell you there is not anything scarier than LAX by yourself!! There are like 8 terminals and thousands of people everywhere. Plus it was like 7:00 in the morning and I just don't do well that early in the morning. After almost being mauled by some crazy fans of some dude that plays either tennis or soccer in another country we finally got on the plane. Flying out of LAX is so pretty though because you circle over the ocean and get to see the gorgeous coast.

Once I made it home and saw my parents it was all about Amanda Nickhah!! Friday was the bridal luncheon at Casa Marina which has the best lunch food at the beach and normally beautiful scenery, but it was overcast which was a total bummer! When I got home from lunch my favorite people were at my parents house, Davey, TiTi, and Stefanie!! It was so great getting to spend time with them since during the wedding Davey stayed home sick and there was not much time to just hang out.
Then it was off to the rehearsal which was wicked humid and the wedding was outside. We had a guest appearance by Tim Tebow because Katie thought he was a golf cart boy and asked him for directions on where to park. She then asked him to come inside to meet Kelly (huge Gator fan, at least she is cool minus the gator part). He took pictures with Kelly and Amanda, who should have been ashamed to do that, but at least she did the chop while taking it! The best part of the evening was when he went to leave after congratulating Austin and then ran into a table and almost knocked over the floral arrangement for the wedding that was taking place later that night!! Oh I had a great laugh! The dinner was at River City Brewing Co. and topped off with fireworks at the end of the evening on the river. Well they were for the opening of summer, but we all say they were for us!

The wedding day was crazy and so much fun!! I spent the morning wedding dress shopping with my sister, mom, stef, and titi. It is always fun trying on dresses with Stef and my sister and our moms get so upset that we are not more lady like..oh fun times. I then had to run back home to get my bridesmaid dress and was locked out of the house. Finally, my mommy rescued me and then I was off to pick up Loren, run to ABC for "The Southern Bride" drinks, pick up Jennifer, pick up the armadillo cake (just like Steal Magnolias), pick up Chick-fil-a since we don't have one in cali close by, and then get ready for the day!! Their wedding was gorgeous and none of us fell down the ridiculously steep stairs!! The weather was perfect and there were no major glitches, like the music not working when she went to walk down the isle (oh I still have to laugh about that one). It was so great getting to spend time with the people I love and miss so much. My little Abby was there which was wonderful since I didn't get to see her right before we moved. After a long night of dancing, laughing, and having so much fun I headed home. It was an amazing weekend filled with friends and family that I miss terribly!!

Congratulations to Austin and Amanda and thank you for letting me be apart of your beautiful day!

More pics from the day.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2440731&l=144a6&id=5223368

Apartment

2008-05-30T10:39:00.001-07:00

Here are the pictures of our apartment.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNmzJi2ZuGLtw

California

2008-05-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

So I am trying to get everyone caught up on our lives and everyone is so curious about California! Here is the brief version of the couple weeks we have been here.

We started out our drive and headed off on I-10 in separate cars with our walkie -talkies in tow. We stopped in Pensacola for lunch with Amick, Christy, and baby cutler. We had BBQ (which will probably be the last good BBQ we have for a while) it was so nice to get to spend a little bit of time with them before we had to head on. It seemed like we were making great time and passing through the states so quickly. I tried to take pictures of all the state signs, but it didn't turn out to well. We finally made it to our day 1 destination in Houston, TX at Uncle Lonnie and Aunt Paula's house. All of Jordan's extended family came over to hang out, which was so wonderful! We woke up the next morning to breakfast!! It was amazing and like we were at a buffet in a hotel, Paula is amazing.

We headed out and had decided our goal was to make it all the way through Texas. Well, Texas is a huge state and we made it as far as El Paso and I had to stop for the night. The next morning we ate at cracker barrel and drove the rest of the way to L.A. Once you get about an hour into CA there are wind field farms all along the highway. We saw some in Texas, but not like this! It was fascinating!! I really thought that I was going to die when we hit the outside of L.A. I was so tired and we started to hit traffic (at 8:30 PM which is slow for them, but like rush hour anywhere else). We finally made it to Ken and Jayme's home at around 9:30.

They were absolutely amazing the entire week we stayed at their apartment. Which by the way was so unfair because it is a huge 2 bedroom and they have amazing owners who hardly charge anything since they are all seminary students or faculty. You cannot find anything like it in LA unless you want to pay over $1900 a month! Anyway, they helped us out so much and let us borrow their GPS which you cannot get around without one here! Jayme would make dinner every night and they would give us areas of town to look in and even connected us with an apartment manager. I guess I make it sound like an amazing week, but it was really stressful looking for places all day long!! I had a few freak outs, but we made it through just fine.

We ended up settling at the apartment complex that Jayme's friend manages. It was such a blessing from the Lord, because she didn't charge us an application fee and gave us the seminary student discount!! We are kinda far north from LA, but we both are use to driving all over the place from living in Jacksonville!! We received our relo cube and with the help of our neighbor got it all unloaded in one day!! After about a week of sorting through boxes we were pretty much settled in. Now, all we have left to do is put stuff up on the walls.

It was pretty uneventful the first two weeks we were in our apartment. All we would do is sit and apply for jobs all day long!! I think we both have sent out our resumes at least 25-30 times each. I have an meeting tomorrow with a nanny agency and I have to make an appt. with another company for an interview, which is so exciting!! The Lord will provide! Jordan got a call back for an acting gig, so we will see how that goes. He is so excited about it because he got the call back based off of his head shot...he thinks he is a big deal now...whatever!

Now that we are in our third week of our apartment, it has been more crazy. We know where the local hospital is now. Jordan thought that he was having a heart attack or something crazy going on with his heart so, we spent all Friday night at the ER. Don't worry after they did an ECG they realized nothing was wrong with his heart. So, we sat there in the waiting room with all the crazies and the poor little babies that were sick and needed immediate help (that has to be so scary and I hope that I never have to do that!). Finally, after an hour he was put in a room and they did chest x-rays. They didn't find anything wrong with him. So, we spent almost 6 hours in the ER for them to guess that it is one of three things: a virus, a muscle problem, or a pinched nerve.

We also have found an amazing church. It is called Mosaic and Erwin McManus is the head pastor. We love it and it is so refreshing to see a body of believers who are passionate and alive in Christ. The entire ministry is focused on reaching the lost and being an environment that is open and just pouring out the love of Christ!! I am so excited every Sunday to go to church and hear the message, sing, and watch all the the theater, dance, and art going on all to worship the Lord. Ahh!! I just can't contain how alive I feel from just three weeks of going to a place that is 100% Holy Spirit, God fearing, and just on fire!! I am just waiting on all of the ways Jordan and I are going to grow in our walk with the Lord by being apart of the Mosaic community!

Well I guess that is pretty much all that has happened so far. I will put up pictures of our journey soon!!

Bahamas

2008-05-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

For our honeymoon we went to the Bahamas on a cruise with Carnival. I must say first off, we decided that we are not island cruise people. I think since Jordan lived in the Caribbean for almost a year, almost every island is the same...well the main shopping and downtown areas. We started off our honeymoon running late. I thought that boarding started at 3, but it actually closed at 3. Luckily we made it to the port at 2:45!! Plus, we had to take a little extra time because I had to use my birth certificate since for some reason I couldn't find my passport. (which ended up being in a pile of bank statements that needed to be shredded..oops)

Once we were on the boat we had to do all the drills and so forth and then we were on our way. We figured it was going to be an amazing trip because our first venture around the boat there was a beautiful rainbow out over the ocean. We loved all of the food and the shows. Our dinner table was awesome. Meaghan (our cruise planner) must have put down that we could only sit with great people. All of the couples were young and three out of the five couples including us were all married on March 29th! Our dinner conversations were always so much fun. Plus, we would order like 2 desserts each! The shows were great. One show was a tribute to 80's music. It was a blast! Most of the days we would sleep in, since we were in an interior room we never knew when it was light outside.

Our first stop was in Freeport, which there was not much to see. We spent a little bit of time out on the beach, but headed back to the boat after about 2 hours. The next stop was in Nassau, which was a lot more fun. We went to the shopping district for a while and then off to Paradise Island to see Atlantis. The hotel was absolutely amazing!! There was so much to see. We walked through all of the aquariums, casino, and the water park. It was so neat to walk through the tunnels that went through the tanks for the sharks. There was a shark that was sliding right along the glass and it was almost like you could reach through and touch it. Thank goodness you couldn't but it was the coolest experience. There would just be ponds that you could seriously just walk right into filled with nurse sharks, star fish, and smaller tiger sharks. I really wanted to pet them, but Jordan said NO!

The seas were a little rough a few different times and Jordan was pretty dizzy the entire trip. Our last night at dinner the boat was rocking pretty bad. Every once and awhile it would rock bad enough you could watch the water in your drink just sway back and forth. We decided about the second day into the trip, that you have to go on a cruise with your kids or with a lot of people. Most of the activities are geared toward kids or drinking. We probably won't cruise again unless it is with a group or an Alaskan or Mediterranean cruise.

It was a great start to our lives together, it helped us relax and catch up on some much needed sleep! Below is the the link for all the pictures.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNmzJi2ZuGLro

Wedding Pictures

2008-05-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

Finally, here they are!!

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNmzJi2ZuGLpg

Believe it or not this is not all of them, I tried to choose my favorites!

Honeymoon pics will be up soon, oh and all our Cali pics as well.

Our Wedding/Honeymoon

2008-04-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting around to updating the blog for all of you who keep asking.

Our wedding was the most magical and amazing day of my life...well so far. I had so much fun at the rehearsal/dinner. The rehearsal was a little chaotic, but what can you expect with all of those boys and us girls who just wanted to talk to each other and catch up the entire time. Mia the wedding coordinator was a little over the top and really took over the whole show. Jordan's family did such and amazing job with the dinner and of course the food was amazing!!

The next morning was so much fun at the salon. All of us girls and our Photographer (Sara Renee) had a blast getting our hair done, eating breakfast, and doing our makeup. Jamie did such an amazing job on my hair and is the best ever (Aura Salon in Jax if you need a place to go). Then we all headed back to the church to get ready. I seriously felt as though Sara Renee was just another friend in the room getting ready with us. She was absolutely amazing!!

I was so excited to be getting married and I was not nervous at all!! Finally, once it was time to get the ceremony started I couldn't stop smiling. The McKenna and Natalie our flower girls were so adorable and Jackson our ring bearer actually made it down the isle after he stopped and tried to talk to a few people. It was now my moment to walk down and they played the wrong song. So my dad and I waited for the tech person to fix it...and waited...and waited...finally Cam went up to the piano and just made up the music I walked down the isle to. It was beautiful. I could not take my eyes off of my handsome groom! The ceremony was wonderful and the entire time we said our vows I could not stop giggling. Aaron and Emily Pelsue sang for our unity candle and Cam Ray played the piano, which was amazing.

We were finally announced husband and wife and Jordan dipped me with a huge kiss!! It felt so wonderful walking up the isle with my HUSBAND!! FINALLY!!

The reception was almost a blur, there were so many people to talk to and so little time to do it in. Here are my highlights from the reception:

Dancing with Jordan and then my Dad
Cutting the cake...and yes Jordan did get some on my face
The toasts...I will never forget my sisters in a million years..talking about all sorts of crazy things.
Stefanie jumping like a basketball star to catch the bouquet
Leaving the church with everyone throwing as much birdseed at us as possible

The entire day was such an amazing day blessed by the Lord and I am so happy that I get to spend the rest of my life with such a wonderful man!

For our honeymoon we went to the Bahamas...to Freeport and Nassau. It was so beautiful there! We went to pretty much all the shows, which were great. Especially the night completely dedicated to 80's music. We had a really great group of people at dinner. Two other couples got married on the same day as us and the other two couples were dating. Everyone was pretty young so we all had a great time just talking at dinner.

Atlantis was probably the coolest hotel I have ever seen. We walked around for over two hours just looking at all the aquariums and the architecture of the hotel. The water was gorgeous and so blue!! I love the islands for that.

Jordan and I decided we are not really cruise people though. There was just not a whole lot that we were really interested in on the boat. Maybe one day we will take an Alaskan or Mediterranean cruise since you stop a lot more and there is more to see and do.

I will post all the pictures soon!!

Hello

2008-04-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hello all!! There will be more to come once I finally get a chance to sit down and actually fill you in on our lives.